No Pain No Gain

Behold the hallowed pages of this years' Hallowscream, a comic book bursting with the very worst that human imagination has to offer.

Page 9 has a jolly little tale by myself and artist Ciaran Duke entitled 'No Pain, No Gain.'

It is the story of what happens when you run back from work in the dark and have both an unhealthy obsession with Strava and an overactive imagination

Hallowscream 2021 is FREE and can be downloaded for FREE here.

A Gentle Return

I've had a script accepted. Hurrah!

A simple idea for a story came to me at work one day which quickly turned into a one pager for Hallowscream, a publication I've been involved with before and who've recently opened their submissions for this year's collection of strange / horror stories.

No artist commissioned as yet, but the comic is set to be published Halloween 2021.

Choices

So it seems that picking up from where I left of is not as easy as I'd thought.

Although technically I now have more 'free' time, most of it is filled by the greatest driver in my life - running, swimming and biking. Couple that with a backlog of about 10 years worth of DIY and I seemingly have to make a choice - triathlon or writing. Not a choice at all really .

I've looked back through some of my 'pending' stories and scripts, but most need to be completely reworked, so it really would be starting again from scratch. But perhaps my biggest hurdle is actually motivation, let me explain.

For the staggering amount of time and effort it takes to create, write, rewrite and constantly edit one of my stories, (case in point my novella), there is little to no actual reward... very few people ever read them. Now contrast that with every single time I go out on my bike, take part in a race, or beat a record, I am as happy as I can be. Like I say, not a choice at all really.

Time will tell if I can perhaps start small and build up to being a worthy 'hobby' writer again, but for now, I'm much happier dedicating my time to being a better Ironman Triathlete and Ultra Marathon runner.

So What's Been Happening?

In 2016 when the demands of life became too much, something had to give and unfortunately that something was my writing.

Although I only ever saw myself as a 'hobby' writer, it was certainly something that I enjoyed and stopping so suddenly left a gap... one I filled by becoming an Ironman Triathlon... but that's another story.

So why return to writing now?

As I mentioned in my 'Four Years Later' post, I found myself reminiscing some of my old stories and that, in combination with a recent new job (less stressful), moving to shift work (less busy) and the kids being older (less maintenance) all added up to the possibility of writing again.

During this recent sabbatical from writing, I did have a couple of stories see publication (ones that were written beforehand):

One Hell of A Night - Something Wicked 2018

Fax-Man and Robbing - Futurequake 2019

Area 101 - Best of 100% Biodegradable #1

Atomic Control - Best of 100% Biodegradable #2

So, it's pretty much a fresh start. Now where to begin...!?

Four Years Later...

 ...and our hero returns.

Yes, it is exactly four years since my last post and I'm attempting to remember how Blogger works.

All of this started earlier today, when I decided to 'google' my old website (aatwatchtower.com) after hearing Jimi's greatest track playing on Planet Rock (for the history behind it, see my very first post here.)

HTTP 404 Webpage Not Found.

Hmmm... it transpires that due to an unpaid subscription, that website had been delisted and cannot seemingly be resurrected again anytime soon. However, the good news is that all of my original information and posts still reside in Blogger... phew.

Fast forward to a bit of serious reminiscing through old posts and wait... what was that... a glimmer of  inspiration perhaps...?

Time will tell (and hopefully not in another four years.)

One Last Post

This website was conceived as a diary of my successes (and failures) as a ‘hobby’ writer. Despite being published 47 times in various books, anthologies, magazines and comics over the last 3 years, my new job and a hectic family life have unfortunately conspired to put a temporary, but likely lasting stop to my writing output.

All of the posts on this website (all 148 of them!) will remain active for now and a full list of my published works can still be found at the top of this page.

COLT-45 and the other books in which my stories appear are all available via Amazon and links to them can be found on this website.

Thank you for your support.

TIME

Time is precious.

I remember being ‘bored’ as a kid and now find it strange that I honestly can’t remember the last time I felt that way. If only…

In early 2015, I was promoted into a managerial job which quickly took away a lot of my ‘spare’ time and inevitably, my writing output began to suffer. That precious hour or so in an evening (without the kids!) is simply not enough time to continuously and seamlessly work on either a comic script or book and as a result, my writing has effectively stopped.

Over the last eighteen months or so, those stories that I’ve had published were mostly already complete and so were either looking for a home, or sitting on some editor’s desk awaiting final publication.

I currently have a couple of scripts still awaiting an artist (one story for Something Wicked has been waiting for over two years now) and so any hope of them seeing publication soon is slim. When they do, I will of course update my ‘published work’ page.

It’s therefore somewhat fitting, that as I now find myself without the time to actively pursue a career as a ‘hobby’ writer, I look back at some of the highs and lows of the last few years. Indeed, this website was originally conceived as a diary of my success/failures, something for me to hopefully look back on with a degree of pride.

Lows

-           -     That the comic book version of COLT-45 never became a reality. Despite a successful Kickstarter campaign, the artist unfortunately failed to deliver.

-            -     I spent more time on my ‘Next of Kin’ project than anything else (bar my book) and it was a little disappointing for the artist to give up when we couldn’t secure a publisher. More so as I would have found a way to fund the project myself.

-            -     Fast forward to the present day. My current job and a busy family life have effectively conspired to put a hold on my writing and with it, any hope of writing a second book.

Highs

-            =   Publication of my first book, the novella ‘COLT-45’. Despite few people (but my kids) actually reading it, I’m still immensely proud of something which took me about 1000 hours and over two years to complete.

-           -      Since the publication of my very first story back in 2013, I’ve managed to get a grand total of 47 stories published in 3 years!! The challenge I first set myself was to get a comic script published and I’m pleased to say I’ve somewhat exceeded that.

-          -      I’ve been lucky enough to work with some incredibly talented artists and I’m especially grateful to Trystan Mitchell, Dan Cornwell, Edward Whatley and Jake Lynch.

Overall, I’ve enjoyed being a part of so many writing projects and I certainly don’t regret the time I’ve spent doing them. Going forward, there are perhaps a couple of old scripts I might brush off and I dare say I might even have a go at a short story completion or two, but it’s fair to say that this website will be a quieter place from here on in….

Time is indeed precious and it seems that as far as writing is concerned, it’s no longer on my side.