These statistics, from the Dawn of Man to the end of the 21st century, are gathered from a number of sources and show the increase in Earth’s human population. I compiled these figures because I couldn’t find a single source which was anywhere near so complete. The population crisis is a big problem that isn’t […]
The beginning is a good place to go wrong, some say, but there’s a certain deity who omnipotently disagrees. Forget all you thought you knew about the first moments of existence, and prepare to have your beliefs played with, tickled, spanked, stretched across spacetime and shattered into so many irrelevant motes of stardust. Travel back […]
This is me being interviewed by Fiona McVie on her WordPress blog, Author Interviews. Talking about my book, The Blighted City, its recent Italian edition release, and various other things. via Here is my interview with Scott Kaelen
Just a basic sketch of Indy I did in 2014.
I’m pleased to share with you the Italian edition of The Blighted City, La Città di Sventura, published with Traduzione Libri (TekTime), translated by Aurora Torchia, and available in ebook and paperback formats. La Città di Sventura is out now and can be purchased via the following links: Amazon TekTime *More marketplaces will be available […]
The Lingering Remains He stared up through the tops of elms, their leaves heavy from a recent downpour. Beyond the canopy hung a bruised and blistered sky. He turned his gaze to the ground beside his head, and a leaf-strewn, rain-damp trail came into focus. What is this place? He climbed unsteadily to his […]
Moses Garrett Moses Garrett sat on a rusted pipe, watching the sun dip below the jagged horizon of the town’s rooftops. Off to the south, cylindrical monsters of glass and chrome loomed and tilted into the reddened sky, their shadows stretching before them like shackled dogs, lacking the will for a final pull to an […]
This is the German version of my short story, Bleak ’93. Translation by Linda Vogel. Callum Fishers Leben mit seinen Eltern bedeutete Überleben, von einem trostlosen Jahr zum nächsten, und das muss sich ändern. Ein bestimmter Tag im Jahr 1993 scheint wie jeder Tag in Callums elendem Leben, aber bald wird er feststellen, dass die […]
I did this one back in 2014. For those who don’t know about The Video Dead, it was a 1987 American B-movie zomcom which scared the living dead out of me when I watched it at the age of 9 but I appreciated the originality of some of the zombies and I loved the cover […]
Happy book birthday! It’s The Blighted City’s 1st birthday today. Aww. It has been a tough year for the novel, with a very slow start, understandable for a self-published no-name author’s debut. But things did begin to improve in the last half of 2018 when I entered The Blighted City into SPFBO4. The contest kicked […]
I originally intended for this poem to be the first of three parts which would come under the umbrella title of “Dissident’s Crossing” (with this first part being titled “Infidel’s Ire”). The chance of the second and third parts being completed is unlikely now that my focus is almost entirely on writing my epic fantasy. […]
In the Twilight Before Tomorrow When I hear you whisper your visions, promising a million vivid memories in a finally-unfettered future, I feel a completeness, a release as of the dawn peering between mountains, while behind us the gulls cry their morning songs of freedom. I don’t remember ever saying hello, but I know I […]
This poem comes with an EXTREME TRIGGER WARNING. Trust your instincts from the title alone and DON’T read the poem if you think the warning may apply to you. For anyone “testing the water” with the first stanza, I can assure you that things escalate from there on. You have been warned. This 590-word poem […]
Along with the poems Black Horizon, Do You Remember Those Words?, Hollow, and You Don’t Know I’m Leaving, this poem was written in May 2015. The significance of the frogs is personal and is the last psychological scar of that time which I still feel slightly, but which, I’m sure, will eventually fade to nothing. […]
via SPFBO Interview with Scott Kaelen
The Darkest Tower Small things creep, unsettling dust as they crawl along threads on this web of the lost. A captive, I listen, shackled and bound in desolate despair, silently praying I’ll soon be found, bitten and stung and finally devoured, freed from the pain of my darkest hour. Skeletons embrace here in tragic repose, […]
“Fans of Joe Abercrombie and George R.R. Martin will find a lot to love here, as will anyone who enjoys character-driven fantasy.” – Review by Josh Mauthe at the Library Police Podcast To celebrate going on vacation tomorrow for a blissful four weeks in my favourite country, Canada, I’m sharing the love by making The […]
The first of these two sketches is of the seven dogs which lived at my family home from 1992 to now. The black cocker spaniel in the background turned aggressive when there was only her and the black and white cocker left, so the black had to be rehomed where she would live with no […]
Paragon Of Pointless Poetry I’m fully aware with these first words as I prepare to pen this tasteless trash, that, just like a waterfall of turds, this poem will close with a calamitous crash. While pointlessly penning each new component of this clearly nonsensical mountain of sludge, collected in verse with no hope of atonement, […]
A Nymph At Midnight A soft sound rouses me from sleep and my heart trips with a secret smile. I turn to see your silhouette melt into the room, your bare feet silent. The moon licks vermilion trails, casting your curves in a fae light. A fire flashes in your eyes; a playful nymph drifting, […]
Hollow I had a life before you, of course, but let’s not pretend it had meaning, nor suggest it possessed purpose. Decades marred by sin and shame, empty achievements, ambitious failures; these are the tools that carve the hearts out of hopeful youth, and forge the mold from which hollow men are made. Long […]
Capturing the Fairy You of weather-washed beauty, I see those dimples whisper under your dreaming gaze, the tip of your tongue nestled in the crook of a pensive smile. A ragged, fae creature, sun-streaked and dusted among crumbled pillars, your breast with moistness darkened. You pause, glance side-long to waters beyond the harbour’s glistening haze, […]
Sacrifice Do you need me to carve out my heart at the altar? Will you lead me to the cliff with your secret hymns? Would you ask me to crawl through a broken land, weeping? And do you want me to cast my beliefs to the winds? Well now, I might just give it a […]
I Am The Fire I am the fire, the glow in your eyes, an illusion of outlandish lust, a stranger before you with silken sighs, a whisper of flames as I’m tasting your trust. I am the fire that smoulders your heart, the nexus of all you desire, this hollow-toothed incubus cleaves you apart with […]
This is the second sketch I did of my character Jalis Falconet from the Fractured Tapestry series. You can see the first sketch here. This one is almost identical to the first, but this time with Jalis facing towards us. I would place both sketches chronologically just before the start of the “Under A Pale […]
