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The Curse of the Claw

4/26/2011

Giant Bear and Human - Size Comparison

My short story The Three Claws has been selected for inclusion in the Library of Horror's 'Made You Flinch 2' anthology.

Originally titled The Curse of the Claw, a pal in the writing circle recalled that one of Michael Palin's hilarious Ripping Yarns shared the same title - hence the last minute name change.

Not wishing to give away the plot, the story involves three 'cursed' fossilised claws, kept in a town museum, belonging to the extinct ursa giganticus - the Giant Bear.

As you can see from the illustration to the right, giant bears did exist, and were substantially larger than human beings.

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Medieval Hooliganism

4/19/2011

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Gravensteen Castle, Ghent

I've almost finished with The Haberdasher's Second Tale. It concerns an English troubadour (Bob), an unlikely fan of Middle Ages 'mob football', who takes on the seemingly impossible task of entertaining the King of Ghent and making him laugh.

As often happens, there was a query or two that needed clarifying, so I went to the 'Chaucer List' (a group of Chaucer scholars and fanatics) to learn how a codpiece was secured! Within minutes I had my answer - it was laced!

I'll be entering this story in the Global Short Story Competition once my writers' circle have had a butcher's, hoping that a narrative poem will be eligible.

Watch this space!

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Quote - Unquote

4/12/2011

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Dialogue and I

Quotation Marks

I belong to a few writers' forums, one of which involves reviewing (peer reviewing) other writers' work.

It never ceases to amaze me that many new to writing do not get to grips with writing dialogue. I remember at school, when I wrote 'O' level English, we were all a bit wary of using dialogue because of the punctuation.

The easiest way to get around these problems is to take a modern novel off the bookshelf and see how a bestselling pro goes about it. Study a page, read it aloud, see how dialogue is used to define character and take the plot forward. See how action can be incorporated. Then, get behind your own keyboard and do the same.

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DEAD BAIT 2

4/5/2011

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Dead Bait 2 - just when you thought it was safe to get back in the water!

A fairly busy week on the writing front, though I didn't actually do much writing.

1. Dead Bait 2 went to the printers The blurb's below:

We're gonna need a bigger boat! Following on from the abomination that was Dead Bait; Severed Press bring you more horror tales of the deep including a haunted Ice fishing trip, vicious Mer-monkeys, sickening shark attacks, deranged walruses and many more terrors from beneath the surface.

My story's the one with the Mer-monkeys!

http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Bait-2-Horror-Anthology/dp/0980606543/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1302062681&sr=1-1

2. Also this week I finally got down to work on The Haberdasher's Second Tale as part of my 'Lost' Canterbury Tales project. It's been a while since I've tackled one of these, so the going's a bit on the slow side.

3. A New Lease, a story I originally wrote for a well known writing competition was published in the Weekly News. Funnily enough, it came bottom in that particular round of the competition - but I kept the faith.

4. I've been editing stories from the archives to send out to various markets. Am I the only author who looks at stuff I wrote a while back and wonders where the ideas came from and if I'll ever be able to write like that again.
TTFN

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The Curse of the Claw

Medieval Hooliganism

Quote - Unquote

DEAD BAIT 2

Paul A. Freeman

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