Bear Faced Bloggery

  I don't have any exciting writing news to impart, I'm afraid... things seem to have gone a little quiet on that front, though I am still putting fingers to keyboard, even if somewhat intermittently. Those of you who follow this blog will be only too aware that my ability to write is directly bound up with the ebb and flow of my grief following the death of my wife, the first year of which I documented in my memoir 'Precious Dreams and Living Nightmares' (still available on Amazon or direct from me if you'd like to read it... link here ). I have just passed through the third anniversary of her death, and was prompted to listen again to a piece I had  recorded on my phone a year ago, immediately after the second anniversary. Those who have read the aforementioned memoir will know that it takes the form of recordings I made during that first year (effectively a journal) annotated with my reflections on those recordings from the position of hindsight. I had initially ...

  In my last blog I promised to give my impressions of World Fantasycon, which I am more than happy to do. I've not attended a major convention in many years, falling as they do at times when more often than not I am working, but thanks to an extremely generous gesture from a very dear friend I was able to turn down work and head off to Brighton over the Halloween weekend. And what a wonderful, invigorating time it turned out to be! Brighton was alive with marauding packs of young people in spooky/horror garb whooping and hollering as they moved from pub to club in the perennial search for a good time. I am happy to report that I felt neither unsafe nor intimidated as I navigated my way between them on my way back to my hotel late at night - for believe it or not, I too was once a young, intoxicated and staggering student. It is for many a rite of passage, after all. The convention was excellent, well organised, extremely informative on a wide range of subjects concerning Fantasy a...