NEW BLOG!!

Spring Lamb excitement

Thu, 5 Jun 2008 21:32:17 -0700

Just a quickie to say I am crawling my way up the learning curve and am planning on launching a new blog by the end of next week.

Oh, and I got the ‘Vlad: The Last Confession’ proofs yesterday. First time I’ve seen it as a book. Ok, its my ninth... but is the buzz at all diminished? It looks great - I will get the image and post soon. All black with ‘VLAD’ signed with a quill in red... blood? ‘The Last Confession’ and my name in white script. Its lovely! I keep clutching it, stroking, patting, riffling. My wife prises it from my hands before sleep.

Next week, oh ye faithful. With lots of bells and whistles, promise!

Lethargy

Thu, 29 May 2008 13:43:10 -0700

I hope my readers aren’t feeling neglected - I am neglecting most things at the moment. I realised the other day part of the reason for my being out of sorts. I was watching ‘The Messenger - Joan of Arc’ and there was a bloodily realistic castle storming going on and I thought: I miss Vlad. Not just him. The other characters. The setting. Living in that world, however dark. There’s always a post coital sadness to finishing a novel. Its almost like its not mine anymore.

But the realisation that I have to get on with life has reminded me - there is so much I need to do! And one of those things is to blog more. I know! I’ve said it before! This time though, I have decided that what will bring me back to it regularly is focus. Concentrate on the writing life - all of it, those good times and bad. I may only blog once a week. But it will be focused stuff.

So watch this space. I have a plan. And I will return soon - with brighter colours and more ideas.

The Dragon Returns

Wed, 21 May 2008 10:50:44 -0700

On a recent visit to the UK, we went to Shropshire, where so much of the Runestone Saga is set. And at the wonderfully preserved fortified medieval manor house of Stokesay Castle, near Church Stretton, I espied this Dragon. Living with Vlad for as long as I have, it kinda caught my eye.

I have just returned from a week in Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, where I was Writer in Residence at a secondary school, Dover Bay. ‘Writer?’ Huh! They worked me like a slave. I helped choreograph the fights for Romeo and Juliet, I gave talks on the Runestone Saga, I discussed film acting with film students, Shakespeare acting with the English class... and, yes, taught creative writing too with the Grade 12 Writing group. Despite the chains... I loved it! It was great to engage with such bright, enthused students and to discover that they still love to read. And to tell stories in all sorts of ways. Also great was their teacher Linda McDonald. One of those you wanted to have in high school becuase her enthusiasm for the creative process transfers and she gets her students doing all sorts of stuff in every form of word and image. Her old students come back to chat. Others just drop by.

So, I am beginning to think about my next projects in more detail. Down the library, looking for books. Sitting and staring. Lots of dreams right now - always a good sign.

But, as the British author Martin Amis says about the process: “Just because I am lying on a sofa watching a football match, don’t think I am not writing.” Well, I am off to do a bit of writing now in front of the Champions League Final. Come on you, Blues!

Fellow Swashbuckler

Mon, 5 May 2008 16:36:35 -0700

Was contacted by another swashbuckle aficiando - the wonderful photographer and interviewer Alex Waterhouse-Hayward. An article came out in Vancouver Lifestyles Magazine today. Read it under ‘Interviews’ (See above) on this site. Or many others of his fascinating blog:
http://alexwaterhousehayward.com/blog/

Saint George’s Day!

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 16:19:53 -0700

I know you have seen this photo before - me, at Poenari, Dracula’s ruined castle. But I repeat it because I was there a year ago today. Spent five hours almost alone there, then descended to the house where I was staying at the village of Arefu. And because it was St George’s Day, and because my host’s name was ‘Gheorge’, a celebration was held for his saint’s day. Bigger than birthdays there. Various themes on the pig - steak, minced, sausage, pickled were munched and washed down with home made plum brandy - tuica.

Great fun! And different fun awaits me tonight. I am going to my favourite bar in Vancouver - The Cascade Room at 10th and Main, where I have been asked to be the resident Englishman and celebrate all things English. I shall stand on the bar and recite Coward and Churchill. I shall deliver the St Crispian’s Day speech from Henry 5th. I may even sing ‘Jerusalem’ depending on how much Fullers ESB I drink.

Slightly different from a year ago today. Anyone in Vancouver? Come along!

‘Cry God for Harry, England and St George!’