The Haslet Technique

After ten years of rotting in a tatty file under my bed, The Haslet Technique (the third story I ever wrote) is now online and available for the world to hear. Written back when I was riding dustcarts and mowing the road verges of Brighton, Burgess Hill and Hayward's Heath. It's a document of its - and my time, though precisely of what in that time, I cannot say: I'm not there any more. However, I release it as I originally wrote it, with only the necessary edits. Bon appetit.

As I say on the podcast, I'm off to Spain again for a couple of weeks, so if i don't respond to email, forgive me - I'm not around.

Return of the Zazzle panel

I had some trouble with my Zazzle products. I published a typo 'One Among the Sleepeless' that I didn't notice. Then when I did notice I screamed, Homer Simpson-like, and quickly took the panel offline to prevent anyone buying anything (as the typo was pretty hard to see coz your eye is caught up in the design and doesn't expect to see errors, etc).
Anyway, errors are now fixed and One Among the Sleepless merchandise is back online - the ideal gift for the one you REALLY love... yourself, you suave devil. Now, with you wearing this fiendishly attractive gear, all the ladies - or the lads - will run to your house for some funky cold medina. Or some tea and biscuits ... if you're out of medina.

The Grave: Part Two

Find out just what 'wrong boy' Dave did next, in the conclusion of 'The Grave', online now.

No other news. Went out today with a friend and his son to Eddie Rockets, a Dublin 'American Diner' chain and had burgers and fries and thick shakes. Lovely to indulge occasionally. The young fellow's 15. Eats like a horse, doesn't bat an eyelid. He's growing so fast you can almost see it happening as the food goes into him.

As for my own physique, I see it happening alright - in all the wrong places. I Felt fat as a Zeppelin leaving, but going out with youngsters gives you the perfect excuse. Er,... I think.

MB interviewed in strange other-worldly circumstances

I was interviewed recently by the fantasy author, Jennifer Rahn. Now, you'd think that one interview is pretty much like another, wouldn't you? Well, think again, ladies and gentlemen. Strange stuff was going on all around me that I, being the Earthbound clod that I am, couldn't even begin to perceive. Intrigued? Go here to read it for yourself:
Jennifer Rahn Interview
Fans of the fantasy genre may be interested to know that Jen's book, The Longevity Thesis is published by Dragon Moon Press in just 4 days.

Sick

I came down with a fever on Friday night and on Saturday managed to control it by exceeding the safe amount of paracetemol you're supposed to take in a day. However, yesterday, having got my episode up, I allowed myself to succumb to the unpleasantness this mystery virus. It feels like flu, but without the sore-throat, coughing and nose-blowing. I limited myself to safe amounts of the heavy duty pain killers prescribed by the surgeon and just sat around being hot-cold-hot-cold all day before eventualy throwing in the towel and going to bed at 5pm. I slept through till about 5 this morning and now I'm up and about again, dosed up on pills and feeling - I'm happy to say - a bit better.

The Grave

The stories in the Hall of Mirrors were all written about nine or ten years ago. At that time I was doing various temp jobs in and around the Brighton area: dustman, hotel porter, gardener etc. At one stage I was mowing the grass in cemeteries, and occasionally I'd help out digging graves. No one I worked with bore any resemblance to Jack though... thank heavens.

Ma! Look what that they done to ya beautiful boy!

Look, I'm out, and this is my stomach this afternoon. As you can see, they drew an arrow on me just to make sure they went to work on the right bit. And there's a bit of blood on that little wound covering thingy there, that'll be all the struggling out of bed and trying to go pee. I couldn't pee properly for ages, apparently a common problem when you get the full knockout anasthesia, which I did. Another symptom is that you puke, which I nearly did, but didn't because I got an injection in the butt cheek to stop me. Then I had to get pills for the pain, not in my guts but in my butt. Owwww!
How do I feel today? Like I've been shot, that's how. I read this dumb web site that said I could be out on the same day as the op and ride home on a bike. Ha! Don't believe it people. If you're getting this done, your ass is in overnight (and it'll smart too). On the bright side, it's done and dusted and they've given me a ticket to a week off work to lie on my back and think up sick tales.
Which is nice.

Hospital

I go into hospital tomorrow for that hernia op. They were supposed to send me a date for a pre-op consultation, but that hasn't happened. I checked if things were still on and they are, so I guess it wasn't too important (famous last words). Anyway, I'm not too worried, everyone tells me it's pretty routine and I've got nothing to worry about. They're going to keep me in overnight, so I can't do any work on the podcast for 24 hours or so. However, I'll be back in the saddle on Friday afternoon.

Like Trolls, The Grave (Hall of Mirrors episodes 3 and 4) is a two-parter. But this time I'm going to try to get them up back-to-back, so both parts will go online at the same time. This way you can listen to the first bit on the commute in to work (or whatever) and the second bit on the commute home again. Or, of course, you can just do the whole thing at the same time.

It's not a horror thing, but it has its horrible moments (how could it not?).

Hall of Mirrors - Trolls Part 2

Phew! That was a close one. Just when I thought I was all set to upload, I listened through to make sure there were no mistakes... and there was one - and it almost slipped through. At one stage Martin was talking to Janice and Janice answered a question... that Martin hadn't asked!! I checked the manuscript and there it was - Martin's question. Somehow I'd managed to edit it out, so I had to go and record it and drop it in and re-tag and everything else all over again. So, hopefully now all answers have questions and all questions have answers.
It took a long time to make it, but I think the end result was worth it. I hope you'll agree.