Let’s dive in to this weeks topics shall we!
Creator Chaos
Episode 2 is now online and ready for you all to listen to!
Follow the link to hear me and four other brilliant authors ramble on about our characters, you might even learn something about Brennan and Riz while you’re at it…
Harvey Duckman Presents….
If you’ve been paying attention you will have realized that this superbly entertaining anthology from the publisher of my Brennan and Riz stories, is out right now. Like right now right now. Click the link to get order your copy and read a whole host of short stories from fantastic authors, including the Brennan and Riz story that’s the subject of today’s story behind the story.
A Boy and A Rat Update
Work continues on this prequel, but I thought it would be nice to give you a little sneak peek at the story…
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It’s a good thing I’ve got a strong stomach, otherwise I would have been rushing backwards and forwards to the toilet. In front of me was the scene from an extreme horror movie. Blood dripped from a couple of bodies that were suspended from the ceiling, collecting into pots and pans from the kitchen.
Another two bodies were draped over the settee, their necks slashed open at just the right angle so the blood looked like wings on the opposite wall. The smell was horrendous, I didn’t know how Riz was able to keep it together, and Valarie, well she had obviously seen those police programs way too much, as she was taking pictures of everything important.
Perhaps I should explain, see I had a call from Valarie a little over an hour ago, saying that she herself had been contacted by the government to look into a case on their behalf of supernatural dealings. When she relayed that to me, I was expecting something different then what I ended up with. What she brought me to, was a mass murder.
A party of illegal squatters had all been killed in increasingly horrific ways. The ones who got their throats slit had it comparatively easy. Now, you may be asking yourself, what does this have to do with me? A guy with a talking Rat who investigates paranormal shenanigans, and when no jobs are around, more mundane matters. Well, the murderer’s masterpiece was in the hallway, and it was the first thing we saw.
The body had been stripped and tied with small chains to several floating candles, with the chain links going through his flesh. His stomach had been opened and emptied, and moved somewhere else. In the now empty cavity was a fairy statue, taken from the garden and lavishly painted. The floating candles was a bit of a giveaway here. To make matters worse, they were scented candles, apparently brought to the crime scene. I’ve now lost any sense of attachment to the smell of cinnamon.
The police who were first on the scene, saw that, and straight away reported it to their bosses, who reported it to their bosses, who in a long series of passing upwards, passed it to the Government department who dealt with this sort of thing. They are so secretive they don’t even have an official name or an acronym, though, I would suggest waste of space.
These people then do what all those in charge do best, and shift responsibility. Citing lack of manpower, they contracted the job out to someone in the area, that someone being Valarie. She in turn, hired us, not revealing till we walked through the door, the full details of what was going on. I can take one body, as gruesome as it was, but this many? With all those...pleasant smells, mixing together? I wished she had hired someone else.
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Remember though that this is still a work in progress so requires work still.
Vector Unit Orphan’s War
Just a reminder that this is still ongoing, and updated weekly with a new chapter. Chapter 5 deals with Drake’s induction to the Vanguard and his meeting with it’s commanding officer. Click the link to see how the story goes…
And now…your main presentation…
A Walk Through The Pleasure Gardens
The inspiration for this story came while I was walking my two dogs through a small green area five minutes away from where I live. It’s a nice place, situated on two levels with sloping pathways connecting them. It was first created early in the twentieth century as a nice green space for the little town (which became more well known a couple of decades later for playing home to a Royal Air Force Aerodrome).
As I was heading down the steps on the far right I noticed something odd about one of the large trees at the bottom. The base of the tree, where the trunk met the roots had grown open, with a small hollow, and in this space, someone had placed a small plant pot for some reason. Intrigued I looked around but couldn’t find anything else and no sign of what ever used to be in the plant pot. The tree itself took on the form of an arc around the opening, which, to my over active imagination, looked like a doorway.
When I got back home I made a note in my journal, wanting to get this story seed down before I lost it in the jumble of my mind. That was the genesis of this story.
After this, every time I walked through the Pleasure Gardens, I looked at the trees, and imagined them being gate ways, just like the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland, wondering what was on the other side, how I would describe it.
It was around this time that I started working with 6e Publishing and one of the first things they asked (aside from the first set of stories) was a short story of roughly two thousand words. To be featured in an anthology they were wanting to do. I was more than happy to oblige. Before I left their office, I knew what story I wanted to write, and later that evening I started it.
Two thousand word stories are hard to write and getting a story to fit the constraints is daunting. For contrast Girl in the Water (the first Brennan and Riz story, featured first as part of the Crossing the Tees 2017 Anthology) was three thousand words, and proved hard to edit. This is why the story is actually quite simple when you break it down. The pair show up poke around the tree and then suffer. They are the only speaking characters. I had wanted to use what limited words I had to give a good description of the “Other”, and so set out to think of the best way to get across the feeling that Brennan has when he’s cast there, and when he’s hearing the other being. Did I do well? Guess I’ll let the readers be the judge of that.
I gave the link up there already, but if you fancy reading this story then click here!
That’s all for this week, so take care and make sure you’re careful about where you stick your head…
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