Happy Blog Day Everyone!
This week is a special week, as another brand new Brennan and Riz short story has hit the shelves/kindle! This tale appears in the superb Harvey Duckman Presents Volume 13 and you can be sure that I'll be talking about it in a moment...but first!
The Comic Tales of Brennan and Riz
The title here refers to both Riz’s gift to himself and when Brennan knows that the little git has spent money on the credit card. The art didn't quite come out as I wanted but it is what it is. I knew I had to get Riz’s statue fetish in here some where and it probably won't be the last time it crops up. Maybe even next week in some fashion...
Update
Before I dive into the story behind the story in Harvey Duckman Presents Volume 13, I thought I'd give a little update on what's going on with me.
So following on from last week, one short story has been accepted and is about to go through the dreaded editing phase (by others in the project...don't trust myself!), my submission for Harvey Duckman Presents Volume 14 is done...till I got cold feet about it and started a new one. I have got till July to do it but will it be any good...I also learned that I mucked up the HDP schedule so I have to rearrange my plans a lot. I better do more research on steampunk...Though I will say from what I've got planned, a certain character appears in the steampunk story who is in the story about to be edited...that's set in 1980s London...How could that be? Maybe wait and see...
I was hoping to talk about another new venture but I've had no time to start that, so hopefully next week...
Now then, let's talk Harvey.
The Cursed Teddy bear!
So it may have escaped your attention but a new Harvey Duckman is out:
You can get your copy here
The theme for this edition is (of course) cursed Teddy bears, and I first learned of it the same time I was told of the plumbers special (Harvey Duckman Presents Volume 9 for those keeping track, it has Rat in the Drain in it) and my teddy bear story was written just after that one (I submitted it and forgot all about it).
It should have been easy really, a cursed toy? How can Brennan and Riz not get involved in that? There's been a lot of stories around cursed items, from stolen scarfs given as gifts, to cursed chairs that belonged to outlaws. Even things like James Deans car! Cursed toys slot so well into it like the original story of the Annabell doll (popularised by the conjuring spin off movies). Problem was that it felt...predictable that I pitted the pair against an evil presence infesting a kids toy (oh look, the Chucky films did that as well!) Given the right spin it could be fun, really play ul the hamminess of it. However, I wasn't feeling it. For this story I wanted another way of looking at it, just as I did when I wrote Girl in the Water.
After much thought, I started the story, playing up many haunted aspects, pitting the pair against fun tropes like killer cutlery. The bears play a massive part in proceedings but I hope I made their motivations equal parts logical and mysterious, only the readers will decide if I succeeded or not.
I probably could have made it easier for myself by going the easier route but I've kept that open for future stories if I want. The ending was very hard to write as it was exceedingly difficult to get the tone right to what I wanted it to be.
Odds are, if I had to rewrite it now, I'd probably go a third way from my plot dilemma maybe take a little inspiration from the Bleach anime which was a favourite of mine back in the day...Trying not to think about the fact that I first saw that back in 2008...
Anyway, I hope you read it and like it.
Next week, I hope to bring news of another story submitted, let's see if it happens.
Till then,
Keep on writing!
Quick Links
The Strange Tales of Brennan and Riz Volume 1
The Strange Tales of Brennan and Riz Book 1: A Boy and A Rat
The Strange Tales of Brennan and Riz Volume 2
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