27/12/2022 When in Abbotsbury...So yesterday we went for our first walk for over a month and a half! Obviously, we went back to Abbotsbury, the location of my much-delayed third novel, The Right Place. It is still my favourite place on Earth... We checked out progress on the new art and craft hub @abbeyfarmabbotsbury - we had enquired about the price of having a unit there but predictably, it was way, way over our budget... Which is a shame as you can't wish for a more beautiful working environment... Still, we can't wait to come and visit when everything is open! Inside St Catherine's Chapel, which plays a central role in my third novel: I'm sad to report that progress on draft 1 of The Right Place, my third novel set in Abbotsbury, has been quasi non-existent over the past 12 months and I have now delayed the publication date to late 2024. I hope to be able to pick up the first draft around Spring time... Unfortunately, it's a sad fact of life that I have to prioritise money-earning activities at the moment - and writing is not one of them. It is frustrating and sometimes upsetting - and I really, really want to see this book published then get started in earnest on my Rural Noir detective novel Hell Lane: A Barton Stacey Mystery .
I have loads of plans for 2023, including the opening of the Arcane online bookshop, and I hope to do more markets/fairs than last year with my lovely stock of pre-loved, vintage and rare books (and my first two novels, of course!)! Watch this space and keep an eye on updates on the ARCANE INSTA PAGE! 16/12/2022 Winter Intermission!WINTER INTERMISSION!
I will be hibernating early until 2023. I thought I'd be able to post about the progress of Arcane's future plans and winter walks in the beautiful Dorset countryside but Covid's reared its ugly head (after 3 years of managing to avoid it!) and has thrown our plans into disarray... Not a great end of the year with a lot of work and Covid. See you in 2023 and hopefully there will be more upbeat news about manuscripts, events and the online shop! We had a great time at Exeter Library yesterday! Have a quick read at the Arcane blog about it HERE.
No event for Arcane publishing before Spring 2023, but we are working on getting the online bookshop up and running by Spring/Summer 2023... Watch this space! I am still to complete the first draft of The Right Place, but we are still on track for a 2024 pub date. Go to the Arcane instagram page for up-to-date news! I am thrilled to announce that Arcane Publishing will have a stall at Exeter Library 's Christmas Library Bazaar on Saturday 3rd December, 10am to 4pm.
I will have a carefully hand-picked stock of beautiful pre-loved books: Cinema, music, fashion and art! Also, a small stock of lovely vintage books! I have been posting about the stock on the Arcane INSTAGRAM PAGE. Of course, I will also have copies of my two novels published on the Arcane Publishing imprint, I Am a Muse and The Book of Thoth. You will be able to buy the books individually or as a bundle! " [...] I never wanted a full-time job.” This became clear to him after a visit to the careers office at the University of Sussex, when he was presented with a chart of civil service salary scales from 22 to retirement: “Just looking at that, I knew I could never do anything like that. Ever.” Ian McEwan in The Guardian, 03/04/2022
I might still be (slowly) writing my third novel, The Right Place, but I am also increasingly thinking about my fourth novel, the Dorset-based Hell Lane: A Barton Stacey Mystery - a 1940s Rural Noir mystery novel, and a tribute to Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie. A bit of Classic Hollywood Glamour mixed with Folk Horror...
I'm going to enjoy writing this one immensely! Watch this space for an event announcement in December! Go to the Arcane Publishing Instagram page for stock, updates and more! 29/10/2022 Back in Dorset! A day in Swanage...Home Sweet Home! I can't day I am sorry to be back in Dorset after ten days in the middle of France without access to the sea! And before going to France, I was stuck inside for almost two months... After just one day in Swanage, I remember why I moved to the Dorset coast... We always like to make a day of it: market and shops in the morning, and a walk in the stunning countryside - yesterday, we went back to Durlston Park and the lighthouse at Anvil Point via the coast path... When in Swanage, I always pop to Swanage Bookshop and yesterday, as usual, I didn't come out empty-handed.
To join my private collection (my excuse is that I could use it as research for forthcoming novels, for example my fourth novel Hell Lane...), here's Stella Margetson's 1974 The Long Party - High Society in the twenties and thirties). 27/10/2022 Ten days in France...This could so easily have been a massive disaster!
It was the first time we were going to France with the car, and we travelled in the midst of a massive petrol shortage. As it happens, everything went smoothly and therefore, we'll do it again soon! :-) Obviously, I have managed to find some inspiration and some new stock whilst there! 11/10/2022 Now reading... Uncle Silas by J.S LeFanuI am back to the world of books from a two-month long work assignment, during which I haven't had time to do anything like walking in the countryside or even reading a nice book. Don't get me started on actually WRITING my book... It hasn't been happening at all. My publishing schedule has now gone down the drain. I am supposed to go on holiday very soon and I'll take with me this lovely 1966 American edition of J.S LeFanu's Victorian Gothic Novel Uncle Silas. I have never read this book before and already, a few pages in, I've found some striking similarities with my own attempt at a Gothic novel: The Book of Thoth. This is good news as I have been a student of the Gothic genre for many years and had planned on following the Gothic novels conventions whilst writing The Book of Thoth. Both books open with a young person stuck inside a big (haunted) country house listening to the storm outside, "with great gusts rattling the windows, and wailing and thundering among our tall trees and ivied chimneys..." (Uncle Silas); "He was studying the screaming, cataclysmic rage of the sky with a mixture of apprehension and excitement; he had always marvelled at the power of Nature." (The Book of Thoth) The casts of characters feature tragic individuals, grotesque figures and comic ones, and everything in between. The introduction to my American edition of Uncle Silas was written by Frederick Shroyer of "California State College at Los Angeles". In it, he describes what makes us love Gothic novels, what makes a Gothic novel and why Uncle Silas is one of the finest examples of the Victorian Gothic novel. The Book of Thoth is in excellent company... The Gothic novel of which LeFanu made major contributions, has had a long and deserved popularity. There is something about the romance, terror and menace which such tales evoke that has a perennial appeal for the reader, especially the modern one who, often living in a routine, drab IBM world, seeks to escape into calendarless, clockless places where it always is midnight and winter, and where frightened girls tiptoe fearfully down haunted corridors of lightless, decaying, moor-surrounded castles and mansions"[...] "During the nineteenth century, especially in England, the Gothic romance took many forms and loosed itself from the bonds of its origins... In time the rationalised Gothic gave birth to the detective story" [...] "The reader will perhaps remember, as an example of a relatively modern rationalised Gothic, Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles [...] "...Then, too, Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca comes quickly to mind, carrying as it does a Gothic strain directly traceable to the works of the Brontës" 13/9/2022 Intermission...I haven't been online much (well, actually, I have been online for hours on end every day but not on my websites or social media). I've had to pause the progress of The Right Place (it was going well, what a shame!) as I have taken on two long-term freelance projects which take all my time, including weekends! Sadly, being a writer and indie publisher and bookseller doesn't pay the bills...
It might be that the pub date for The Right Place needs to shift significantly into 2024... Not ideal as we have plans for that year that would involve not spending time on the novel... So I write and work on manuscripts but they are not mine and it's not for books... Only time will tell whether I'll be able to find a little bit of time to work on my third novel towards the end of the year... |
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March 2024
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