Yesterday I recorded a guest spot on The Constant Reader podcast with host Richard Sheppard, tackling the cancerous old curiosity shop that is Stephen King’s Needful Things. As always it was a pleasure to drop by and discuss books, horror, bargaining with the Devil and other such homely stuff. The episode should air around ChristmasContinue reading “Everything Must Go!”
Author Archives: dgjones81
Essex Father Of Two Cures IT Meltdown With This One Weird Trick
I had a major IT hardware malfunction last week; the backlight on my Macbook Pro suddenly failed, with no options for repair. This was exacerbated by the sinking feeling I got when I realised that the most recent 40,000 words of my manuscript for the The Green Man had not synced properly with my onlineContinue reading “Essex Father Of Two Cures IT Meltdown With This One Weird Trick”
New Short Story: Filthy Shades Of Grey
I’ve just uploaded a new story to the site, Filthy Shades Of Grey, a 2016 short story ostensibly about alien first contact, but from the perspective of a protagonist suffering from the strange and debilitating mental illness Schizoid Personality Disorder. It’s a different type of story, then, but one that I hope still is enjoyable,Continue reading “New Short Story: Filthy Shades Of Grey”
Culture War: It’s not Past vs Present, it’s rescuing your father!
The supposed “culture wars” get a lot of airtime these days. The most infuriating part of it is that, once again, everything (and I’m looking at you, Social Media) is engineered to force people into camps that are binary in their delineation, and must by definition be diametrically opposed. This reduces complex areas into zeroContinue reading “Culture War: It’s not Past vs Present, it’s rescuing your father!”
Confirmation Bias: The Green Man Problem
I’ve made some very encouraging headway in completing the first draft of my third novel, The Green Man, a speculative historical fiction set in 14th century England. As such it’s quite a dramatic departure from Man O’War and The Hole In The Sky. The differences are in one sense quite plain with respect to theContinue reading “Confirmation Bias: The Green Man Problem”
Book Review: Needful Things by Stephen King
“If we take responsibility for the things that cause us pain, we can inoculate ourselves against the temptation towards malevolence.” After eating Christine’s dirt in the last episode of The Constant reader podcast, I’ve been invited back by host Richard Sheppard to do an episode on Needful Things, which I’ve just finished. I’m looking forwardContinue reading “Book Review: Needful Things by Stephen King”
The Constant Reader Podcast: Christine
This past month I was the guest contributor for the Stephen King podcast The Constant Reader, which takes a comprehensive, deep-dive into all things in the King universe. It’s hosted by Richard Sheppard, horror aficionado and King-enthusiast extraordinaire.
Book Review: The Gulag Archipelago by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn
“His scream is a vivisectionist’s scalpel, and the bloated, poisonous trunk of the Soviet state is his living subject.“ The magnitude of the part played by The Gulag Archipelago in the unfolding of twentieth century is already well known, and I cannot add to the sense of that greatness here. It is well acknowledged asContinue reading “Book Review: The Gulag Archipelago by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn”
YAWB: Evolution Of A Synopsis in Four Stages
The SFF Publisher Angry Robot has opened up its 2020 open submissions window, and I’ll be submitting The Hole In The Sky. As part of the submission package they have requested a one-page synopsis of the plot. Synopses are nasty, brutish things to write, because they force you to kill your darlings; unless your storyContinue reading “YAWB: Evolution Of A Synopsis in Four Stages”
Man O’War – Evolution Of A Cover Story
Trawling through my inbox the other day I found the draft covers that Snowbooks designed for Man O’War, before we settled on the final cover. The first one was interesting if a little sketchy, and I really liked the next two – they really captured the sense of the sea juxtaposed against something looming andContinue reading “Man O’War – Evolution Of A Cover Story”
