Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from April, 2018

#HistFicThursday - Gothic Horror - The Clockmaker

One of the shortest stories included in my upcoming anthology was written for an Edgar Allan Poe competition in 2021, in which my work came Runner-Up, and is titled The Clockmaker . Edgar Allan Poe is most famous for his works of Gothic Horror, but it is easy to forget that he also dabbled in Science Fiction, as did many of his Gothic contemporaries. Indeed, a quick Google search has informed me that there are anthologies which solely contain his Science Fiction. The Clockmaker was designed to marry these Horror and SciFi elements to create the sort of story which Poe himself might have written. I won’t deny it: I was pleased with the outcome.  At only 500 words, it tells the story of a man who pays a visit to an old schoolfriend (you will realise, if you read much of my Gothic Horror, that old school/university friends play vital roles!) who is an inventor, and spends some time admiring a clock which he has made. I won’t spoil by telling you the ending, but I will say that he does...

John o' Groats Book Festival

What a weekend it has been! The 1st John o' Groats Book Festival has been in the pipeline for a long time, and it certainly lived up to expectations. It started with a bang on Friday. A cartographer was launching her new set of Northern Scotland maps. Sadly, I was at work during this event but I've heard great things about it from people who were there. The cartographer's name is Val Fry and the publisher is Nicolson. The first event I could attend was on the Friday evening when the authors were introduced, including 8 fabulous local authors who each had a 10 minute slot. It was great to see one of the organisers, Ian Leith , start the evening by showing his books. The next author was Virginia Crow, published by Crowvus, who started her talk by showing the Day's Dying Glory book trailer which had people sitting on the edge of their seats. Virginia Crow, author of Day's Dying Glory It was super to hear so many local authors talk about their books, an...

"Living with Depression" Book Review

Living with Depression by Nick Weatherhogg Blurb from Goodreads : " It has been estimated that almost one in ten adults and teenagers in the United Kingdom are affected by some form of depressive illness. This is a ten-fold increase in the last seventy years. If this growth were to continue unchecked, then about 95 percent of the population would have depression by the year 2100. It is further believed that depression will be the number 1 health problem worldwide by the year 2030. And yet for every three sufferers, less than 5 is spent each year on research. At least a half of all sufferers never seek any form of medical or psychiatric intervention. The origin of depression can be situational or biochemical or a combination of many different factors. People do not choose to become depressed, but they do choose how they are going to deal with it and what they will do. A range of treatments are available as standard, ranging from medication to talking therapies, but vari...