The other side of the riverThe other side of the riverMishaps, musings, more mishaps, writing, comedy sprinkled with a dash of opinion. Oh and free original fiction every Friday. Articles
Grand Slam: Wales
2008-03-15 19:57:00 We won, that’s five wins for five matches. That Ladies and Gents is a Grand Slam : Bloody brilliant. More About: News , Wales , Rugby
Friday Flash Fiction: Pockets
2008-03-14 14:00:00 On the back of today’s announcement I feel almost deflated posting this week’s entry. It didn’t quite live up to the expectations I had when the idea first occurred but with the final draft of The Woodsman well underway (we just met the Tream) this is all I’ve got. And of course wodwo is not something ... More About: Flash , Fiction , Fantasy , Friday
Breaking news: Illuminations
2008-03-14 12:41:00 Ok, so I promised news. And here it is. Odd Two Out Publishing has announced the imminent release of Illuminations, a new anthology of the weird and wonderful in very short fiction featuring, amongst others, me. From Odd Two Out: ILLUMINATIONS: The Friday Flash Fiction Anthology ISBN 978-0-9558662-0-3 ILLUMINATIONS is a new anthology from small press ... More About: News , Breaking News , Breaking
Review: Old Man?s War by John Scalzi
2008-03-11 14:36:00 In what seems like contradiction, free is very much the current marketing buzzword for people trying to increase sales. Since Tor - in return for your email address - decided to release a book a week for free via their website it seems like everyone?s been jumping on the bandwagon. In such a climate it?s ... More About: Books , Reading , Review , Thoughts , Science Fiction
Unblocked
2008-03-10 14:19:00 As has been alluded to a few times recently, I have been experiencing more than my fair share of writer’s block, that all pervading paralysing fear that the ideas will dry up and not a single interesting sentence will be transmitted to the page. This happens to me periodically and so I’ve built up a whole ... More About: Personal , Life , Fiction , Comment
A brief message from your host
2008-03-09 16:00:00 Boo. Bet you thought I’d run away to become a sheep farmer. No? Oh, that’s embarrassing. Forget the sheep. Anyway: The Woodsman, work and related sundry have prevented me from blogging as regularly as I would like. Some of my family have commented that I haven’t been as good lately at keeping this thing up to ... More About: Personal , Internet , Family , Blogging , Blog
Mackety Mac
2008-03-09 09:40:00 Recently - in a move wrapped in common sense and taste - a friend of mine purchased an Apple Mac. And so I sent her a list. A list of software I can’t do without on my own Mac. It occurred to me others might be interested so here’s my “couldn’t live without” software list for ...
Friday Flash Fiction: Elevator 2 - Tin Clouds
2008-03-07 19:31:00 Ok. I’ve been a bit pushed for time again and so we witness the somewhat dubious return of the Elevator or to be strictly accurate Elevator 2 - Tin Clouds . Err, hope you enjoy: Elevator 2 - Tin Clouds By Neil Beynon At the edge of the world where the rainbow’s end, there lies a Tinman who ... More About: Flash , Fiction , Fantasy , Friday
Beware of Dog
2008-03-04 22:01:00 Dear Chav, I trust this letter finds you in rather better health than I am at the moment as I sit here typing, a bag of frozen peas on my distressed knee, unable to move my neck through ten degrees. You probably don’t recognise me, having only glimpsed my face momentarily before I demonstrated just how fast ... More About: Beware
The Woodsman: Update 5
2008-03-04 08:38:00 Well, I just got done with the full rewrite of Chapter three. It’ll need to gestate for a few days before I go back and make sure I haven’t made a hash of it but it’s more or less done. And I think it may turn out to be chapters 3 and 4. We’ll see. Progress ... More About: Personal , Life , Reading , Update , The Woodsman
Review: Midnight?s Children
2008-03-02 11:00:00 So I finally finished reading it. In truth, I finished the book that launched Rushdie?s career proper (Grimus never really garnered the same attention) a few days ago. I needed to let it pretty much slosh around my head for a little while before I could distil the experience down to a few hundred words. Yes ... More About: Children , Books , Reading , Fiction , Fantasy
Friday Flash Fiction: Shard
2008-02-29 19:43:00 Not having the best of weeks this is a little late in the day, I hope you enjoy anyway. Shard By Neil Beynon The shard felt smooth like glass as he rested its not insignificant weight in his hand, he looked down at it; purple stone flashing in the grey mid afternoon sun. The wind ran its fingers ... More About: Flash , Fiction , Fantasy , Friday
Columbo Villain of The Week: Hiatus
2008-02-27 23:32:00 Sorry all. No villain this week. The Woodsman and some other projects (including the pesky day job) have soaked up rather more time than planned. I should get back to normal service next week. Kind of bummed out at the moment but this cheered me somewhat: I was bought The Hobbit by my father when I was very ... More About: Personal , Life , Fantasy , Week , Hiatus
The perils of chugging
2008-02-26 14:12:00 Another train story for your enjoyment. No, not the return of the infamous butt clencher, today’s man of the moment was of a different order completely. And it wasn’t just me but the whole carriage he freaked out. Now *coughs* I freely admit I’m no exercise junky but I am able to run for a train without ... More About: Personal , Humour
The Woodsman: Update 4
2008-02-24 20:32:00 It’s been a quiet weekend following last week’s frenetic pace, in between spending time with G, I’ve spent a fair bit of it working on The Woodsman. Chapter two has been tweaked and generally mucked about with until it resembles something a bit tighter than the second draft. I’ve also gone through Chapter three on ... More About: Personal , House , Life , Blogging , Blog
Amsterdam: Reflections
2008-02-23 21:07:00 1. It is impossible to find your way round without a map and, if you do get lost, the women in the windows aren’t interested in giving you directions. 2. You need to look up in Amsterdam , if you keep looking at ground level you’re missing the architecture. Also you’re probably a perv. 3. Good news: the ... More About: Reflections
Friday Flash Fiction: The Woodsman (Teaser)
2008-02-22 17:59:00 Somewhat predictably it’s been impossible this week to set aside time to write any Flash Fiction however I did, by chance, notice that the opening sequence of The Woodsman was exactly 1000 words long [due to a last minute edit it is now shorter]. Clearly it was a sign. And so here’s the opening of The ... More About: Teaser , Fantasy , Short Stories
Amsterdam
2008-02-22 16:49:00 Well, I’ve just gotten back from a short but intense business trip to Amsterdam , helped as ever by my own inability to use a map. Internet access and time were at a premium hence the lack of bloggage during the last couple of days. There’ll be more on Amsterdam once I’ve sorted out some free fiction ... More About: Thoughts
Columbo Villain of The Week: Arnold Schwarzenegger
2008-02-20 11:00:00 This week?s Columbo villain of the week is the governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger . Schwarzenegger has had several successful careers in his lifetime. Originally hailing from Austria he made the jump to the US when his bodybuilding career exploded at an exponential rate that saw him win the Mr Universe contest age twenty. Using his earnings ... More About: Humour , Week , Arnold Schwarzenegger
Interesting times
2008-02-19 14:08:00 In a bold and some might say foolish move Borders have partnered with lulu to open up in store distribution to self publishers. For $499 you can have your manuscript evaluated, interior page design and formatting, a free copy, your book can be ordered in store and your book “may” be eligible for in-store sales. I’m ... More About: Media , Interesting , Books , Times
The Woodsman: Update 3
2008-02-18 11:00:00 Last week did not go according to plan. Work was unexpectedly hectic with seemingly one minor drama after another until I was so tired I couldn’t sign my own name - I don’t know who that Nile guy is but his handwriting’s even worse than mine. As you’ll know the plan was to descend on York ... More About: Update , The Woodsman
Flotsam from the other side
2008-02-18 00:43:00 Some stuff that’s interesting. The Guardian is carrying a review of Stephen King ’s latest offering Duma Key, a very old but none the less fun interview with Terry Pratchett and New Scientist is reporting mind/computer interfacing may not be that far away. More About: News , Horror , Fantasy , Side
Friday Flash Fiction: Tinman
2008-02-15 19:19:00 Ok. Another experiment this week. I’m not sure it works but I thought I’d give a hyperlink story a go. Urm, let me know what you think: Tinman By Neil Beynon May 30th 2020 Tinman Day: Never forget Posted by Dr Yoshi Takado Well, it’s that time of the year again; it seems to have rolled around quicker this year. And ... More About: Flash , Fiction , Science Fiction , Friday
Remember I?m not alone
2008-02-15 18:00:00 Please do check out my fellow Friday Flash Fictioneers, they’re doing some really cool stuff: Greg O’Bryne Shaun C. Green Gareth D. Jones Martin McGrath Dan Pawley Justin Pickard Gareth Lyn Powell (Originator) Paul Raven My entry will be up soon.
Embarrassing myself in the cause of romance
2008-02-14 23:24:00 Err, I’ve steered clear of posting poetry because I don’t write it very often anymore and the majority of my stuff is from my teens, consequently embarrassing. However, today is Valentine’s Day, I’ve always quite liked this one and at one point - during university - it lived online anyway. So it’s 1997. I’m eighteen, G ... More About: Personal , Random , Romance
Apologies
2008-02-14 13:49:00 Sorry. Astute observers will have noted the absence of Columbo Villain of the Week yesterday, this was due to that pesky thing called life getting in the way. I had one half written and then things went a bit awry. There will be a Friday Flash Fiction tomorrow and Villain will return next week where it will ...
Flashing at The Eastercon
2008-02-12 21:48:00 No, not that kind - your eyes are safe. As has already been reported over at Gareth D. Jones’s and Martin McGrath’s respective blogs the Friday Flash Fictioneers will be holding a Flash Fiction workshop at Eastercon. Not withstanding any changes in the program the workshop will be held at 3pm on the Saturday in ... More About: News , Science Fiction , Flashing
On the train to Strangeville
2008-02-12 15:00:00 Commuting is a funny old game, as a writer it can be a great place to people watch. Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, sometimes interesting and sometimes downright odd there’s always something to keep you amused. And so I guess I kind of deserved what happened last night when I boarded the train home… After one stop ... More About: Train
The Woodsman: update 2
2008-02-11 14:56:00 Yesterday, I finally broke ground on the rewrite of Chapter One. Anya, my protaganist has run, literally, into the story and I can see my way through most of the work on this chapter. To be fair, because I often start the first draft with either the beginning or end of the story, this section ... More About: Personal , Fantasy , Update , Dark Fantasy , The Woodsman
Assorted
More articles from this author:2008-02-10 11:31:00 Not much writing getting done this weekend. Yesterday I spent most of the day searching London for an Asus EEE that wasn’t white, and I failed. I’ve had several recommendations that this is a great ultra-portable (with the caveat you change the OS) and given it’s by far the cheapest UP on the market I thought ... More About: Life , Gadgets , Interzone 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
 |
|
 |
