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
Does my head look big in this?
2008-01-12 16:31:00 So I had my haircut. It takes me a long time to work my way up to getting sheared, ever longer as I get older. I have an appallingly record with hairdressers. But it was getting to the stage where it was haircut or hairband and really, if I’d left it any longer, my legs are ... More About: Personal , Life , Random , Head
Friday Flash Fiction: Eyes
2008-01-11 11:00:00 Eyes By Neil Beynon She broke my heart. No not like that. I?m not completely naive, it?s just you pay for a service and you expect it to be done properly, to standard. You pay the kind of money I did, you expect gold standard. Not this squalid indignity. My recovery beacon?s been going for hours now. It?s only ... More About: Flash , Eyes , Fiction , Science Fiction , Friday
Mining Jupiter
2008-01-11 10:00:00 Constant readers of the blog, the happy few, will recall I placed a story, The Mine, with Jupiter SF magazine. It was intended to be included in Issue 19 but I have just heard that unfortunately it’s been moved to Issue 20 (April). Needless to say I’ll let you know when it does eventually go into ... More About: Mining
Columbo Villain of the Week: Tony Blair
2008-01-09 22:16:00 This week?s Columbo Villain of the week is our former Prime Minster Tony Blair and current envoy of the quartet on the Middle East. So don?t worry about that whole everyone bombing the shit out of each other thing, he?ll have it fixed in a jiffy. After all he?s Tony Blair. Tony Blair shot to the ... More About: Week
Rush hour innit
2008-01-07 14:24:00 NB - How come both ticket machines aren?t working? SER* - Rush hour innit. 600 stations all trying to access the system at the same time. Stands to reason: system overload. NB - So you?re saying that the system can?t handle ticket purchases during rush hour in a city where the only feasible way of getting around ... More About: Hour
Review: The History Boys
2008-01-06 21:29:00 Having spent the morning in a field following G round as she took pictures and taking one of my own (see below), I decided to spend a chunk of the afternoon watching one of my Christmas presents: The History Boys. Directed by Nicholas Hytner, starring the ever charming Richard Griffiths, the eccentric Frances de la Tour ... More About: Movies , Entertainment , Film , Review
Tree on crutches
2008-01-06 14:54:00 What does a tree on crutches look like? You ask. A lot like this: More About: Personal , Life , Photography , Random , Tree
Review: Two Caravans
2008-01-05 21:07:00 I’ve kind of shied away from book reviews on the grounds that I purchased a domain a while back with the idea of keeping the book reviews all in one place. Alas the reality is that between my job, writing and having a life I’m never going to have time to manage the technical aspects ... More About: Entertainment , Books , Reading , Fiction , Review
Friday Flash Fiction: The edge of the world
2008-01-04 11:06:00 Blah. Not quite what I was hoping for: The edge of the world By Neil Beynon They say reality is thin here on the edge of the world, on the frontier of the empire. Perhaps that?s what?s happening. Or maybe I?m just finally losing my mind. She stands, feet casting faint patterns in the sand, staring out to sea ... More About: Flash , World , Fiction , The Edge , Friday
Columbo Villain of the Week: Kerry Katona
2008-01-02 22:24:00 This weeks CVTW is the face of Iceland and former Atomic Kitten: Kerr y Katona. After leaving school at age 16 Kerry toured Europe as part of a dance troupe. Bored of taking her clothes off for money she decided to do it for a lot of money and joined the pop band Atomic Kitten. It made ... More About: Week , Kerry Katona , Columbo
New Year, New Challenges, Same Dodgy Haircut
2008-01-01 15:44:00 Well it’s now 2008. 2007 was a funny year. I got to travel to new places (Paris, Washington, Hong Kong, Hamburg). I got to be embarrassing in front of one of my favourite writers…several times. I spent the first year in my own house (kind of - I think technically I only own the door at ... More About: Personal , Family , House , Life , New Year
Happy New Year
2008-01-01 01:24:00 Happy New Year to one and all. Have a good one. Now where did I put my champagne? More About: Personal , Life , Random , Thoughts
2007 Top Five Books
2007-12-31 18:18:00 The problem with top fives is that, rather like celebrations, it can be hard to stop and so today we have my Top Five Books What I Read in 2007. The year started off well with a good haul of Neal Stephenson books including The Baroque Cycle, I went through those at a fair old pace. ... More About: Personal , Horror , Fiction , Science Fiction
More Top Fives: Short Stories
2007-12-30 14:42:00 I’m back in London. I spent most of yesterday driving, we took the opportunity to call in with some friends on the way back and we were not helped by proper Welsh rain. Now I’m quite enjoying flumping on my own sofa and not doing anything. Ergo there are no hilarious hijinks to report. I’d better ... More About: Personal , Stories , Fiction , Fantasy , Short Stories
Friday Flash Fiction: Clockwork Songs
2007-12-28 15:26:00 Another experiment, apologies if it’s too obvious or trite: Clockwork Songs By Neil Beynon I went down to the glass river to sit on the lost walls and watch the swollen star melt night?s blanket from the ground. As I looked on a clockwork sparrow spun me a yarn from the song of the world. Sparrows sing the ... More About: Flash , Fiction , Fantasy , Friday
Friday Flash Fiction: 2007 Top Five
2007-12-28 13:33:00 There will be a new Friday Flash Fiction (called Clockwork Songs) in the next few hours, probably around 2pm. So stay tuned. I was looking at my Friday Flash Fiction page today, thumbing through old stories and I realised I’d written over 25 of the buggers. That’s one a week for pretty much half the year. ...
The Power of Three
2007-12-27 20:57:00 Boxing Day has its many traditions from passing presents to watching the football. For many years ours has been to see my mother’s side of the family. Each year, on rotation, we all decamp to whomever has been tagged as host for the year. Aunt J was this year’s hostess and so the Beynon clan descended ... More About: Personal , Fun , Family , Life , Power
Columbo Villian of the Week: Simon Cowell
2007-12-26 15:30:00 This week?s CVTW is the godfather of TV talent shows, Simon Cowell . Cowell made his bones as an A & R man in the notoriously unpleasant music industry, first at EMI and then later in a strong of his own labels of varying degrees of success. In the nineties he made some serious cash by successfully ... More About: Humour , Dannii Minogue , Random , Week
Merry Christmas
2007-12-25 13:08:00 It’s Christmas morning here in the UK. At least for the next twenty minutes or so. I’ve already had a glass of champagne and, by way of warm up for eating my own body weight in turkey, smoked salmon and scrambled egg on toast. Oh yes, we do Christmas in style here. My presents have gone down ... More About: Personal , Family , Life , Books
Christmas Trees Cost Lives
2007-12-24 18:50:00 This video made me smile. I got sent this courtesy of my alumni mailing list. The animator, Ed Hartwell, graduated the year after me, that’s all I really know about him - you can check his site out here. Enjoy: More About: Christmas , Fun , Humour , Entertainment , Film
The right side of the river
2007-12-23 15:31:00 I?m back in Wales, back at home, and after four months - four difficult months - it really does feel great to breathe air that doesn?t leave you with snot the colour of slate. To be able to look up at the night sky and see actual stars instead of enough neon to power a ... More About: Personal , Family , Life , Mountains , Random
Friday Flash Fiction
2007-12-21 09:20:00 An experiment this week: Centre Point By Neil Beynon The city of light glows black in the afternoon sun. Coiled snakes run through its passageways and thoroughfares, snip snapping at any strays, grinding over the unseen, the passed out, the forgotten. Confused, bleeding and lost in the maze, Will wanders. He is clutching paper on which monkey glyphs are ... More About: Flash , Fiction , Friday
Merry Madness
2007-12-20 09:58:00 Ah, the first day of my holiday. The sun is shining, the sky is blue and minus three outside. All I really, really want to do is curl up on the sofa with a good book and a bucket of tea. What I’m actually going to do is go to Bluewater to finish my Christmas shopping, ... More About: Personal , Life , London , Thoughts , Madness
Columbo Villian of the Week
2007-12-19 16:56:00 Yes folks, that?s right. This week?s Columbo Villian of the Week is good old George W . Bush , the leader of the free world, lord help us. George W, or that Texan halfwit as I prefer to refer to him, rose to power as President in a strange quirk of the world?s largest democracy where you can ... More About: Politics , Humour , Geraldo
MirrorMask
2007-12-16 23:14:00 My sister, S, was visiting this weekend. And very kindly brought her copy of MirrorMask up for me to watch. The plan had been to watch it on Saturday evening after an afternoon spent with a collection of my old school friends. Plans went a bit awry after I sampled one of my friend?s home brew ... More About: Movies , Entertainment , Film , Review , Neil Gaiman
Beowulf 3D
2007-12-15 12:42:00 Ok, now I get it. Constant readers will recall that I saw Beowulf a few weeks ago and that I was not all that impressed. I thumped my animation bible, cursing motion capture as the work of the devil. Which makes this kind of embarrassing because last night I saw Beowulf in 3D at the IMAX in ... More About: Movies , Entertainment , Film , Review , Neil Gaiman
Friday Flash Fiction
2007-12-14 14:50:00 Last week I went up to the wire, if you missed it then you can read it here, and this week is not much better. I’m not sure about it, feedback is always welcome, but here it is, enjoy: Paths By Neil Beynon ?You haven?t said anything?? he said nervously. His lean figure rested with one arm on ... More About: Flash , Fiction , Friday
Love to hate
2007-12-13 13:30:00 London. It’s a funny place. I work in the West End, just on the edge of where Soho meets Oxford Street, and at this time of year I usually think twice about venturing too far from the office due to the mass of Christmas shoppers. There’s something about Christmas shoppers, particularly London ones. They fall into two ... More About: Love , Hate
It?s a cruel world after all
2007-12-12 18:33:00 Terry Pratchett has announced he is suffering from early onset Alzheimers: http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/article s/0,,2226306,00.html This is one of the cruellest of illnesses for anyone. For someone who relies on and takes so much enjoyment from the use of their brain as a writer it is - well it’s one of my worst nightmares. Terry seems to be taking it with ... More About: News , World , Cruel
Columbo Villian of the Week
More articles from this author:2007-12-12 12:00:00 The temptation proved too much. By popular demand this week’s CVTW is the mistress of excess: Amy Winehouse. Amy Winehouse is the tormented and talented R & B singer from North London. Winehouse is blessed arguably the most unique female vocal in the business, whilst, at the same time, being cursed with one of the most ... More About: Week , Columbo 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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