Heide and Iain's Writing Newsletter September 2018
Published: Fri, 09/14/18
Here's an update on Clovenhoof Books.
NEWS
New Release - Holymoly
A new Clovenhoof book!
“Stephen and his friends spent their teenage years immersed in the fantasy gaming worlds of wizards and warriors, undertaking quests to fight evil occultists, vanquish terrible monsters and rescue damsels in distress.
Now, twenty-something years later, there is a real-life quest. Life as a monk has hardly prepared Brother Stephen for the mission ahead. Demon Rutspud is definitely not a damsel, but he is in distress. The evil occultists are real and if Stephen doesn’t rescue Rutspud from a fate worse than death, no one will…
Sword-wielding Satanists, stir crazy demons, super-smart squirrels, magical garbage and a suitcase that cannot be stopped run riot in a story about the bonds of friendship and dark deeds in suburban cellars.”
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Holymoly-Clovenhoof-Book-Heide-Goody-ebook/dp/B07DHWP4J2
US: https://www.amazon.com/Holymoly-Clovenhoof-Book-Heide-Goody-ebook/dp/B07DHWP4J2
New Release – Baby short stories
Heide and Iain are trying out some short stories to see how people like the characters and the world of Baby.
Baby is a real-world creepy doll that Heide is much too attached to, but in the stories, Baby is the adopted sidekick in a modern-day tribute to Wodehouse.
The first collection “Right you are, Baby”
How do you help a lonely unicorn? What happens when you replace a faithful manservant with a malevolent baby doll? What’s the worst thing that could happen at a penguin parade? The answers to these questions and more can be found in this pair of short stories, which introduce Baby, the tiny villain that causes the biggest problems.
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Right-you-Baby-Heide-Goody-ebook/dp/B07GNV2VY7
US: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GNV2VY7/
The second collection “Thank you, Baby”
What kind of exercise regime involves Battenberg cake? How much damage can you do with a pickle fork? What part do doughnuts play in the Christmas story? The answers to these questions and more can be found in these short stories, featuring Baby, the tiny villain that causes the biggest problems.
Contains:
Baby and the Doppelganger
Baby and the Old People’s Home
A Christmas Baby
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thank-you-Baby-collection-Book-ebook/dp/B07GNMNN2Y
US: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GNMNN2Y/
New Release – Last Christmas
This is a short story from the Oddjobs world.
“Over the rooftops of the city at Christmas, Krampus is stealing children, but has he got the correct paperwork?
Rod and Nina from the secret government organisation responsible for managing incomprehensible horrors are called from the office party to intervene.
A short story in the Oddjobs universe that tries to answer the age-old question: what Christmas present do you get for the demon who has everything?”
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Christmas-Oddjobs-short-story-ebook/dp/B07H1XWNCX
US: https://www.amazon.com/Last-Christmas-Oddjobs-short-story-ebook/dp/B07H1XWNCX
All of the short stories are on sale for less than a pound / less than a dollar.
We’d love to know if readers think that this is good value for money.
Do get in touch and tell us what you think
UPCOMING SCHEDULE
Plot and story structure workshop (Derby) (SOLD OUT)
22nd September 2018
The Quad
Derby
Explore the conventions of storytelling and plot structure and discover how they are present in all stories. Whether you are thinking about writing, working on something or would simply like to get a broader perspective on how stories function, this workshop will provide you with valuable new tools.
Fantasycon
19th - 21st October 2018
The Queen Hotel
Chester
Heide and Iain will be on several panels, will perform readings and will be running a workshop.
Sledge-lit
24th November 2018
The Quad
Derby
Self-publishing: from finished draft to first 20 reviews (Birmingham)
2nd February 2019
Birmingham and Midland Institute
Birmingham
This one day course will answer your high-level questions about self-publishing and help you to determine whether it’s for you. You will leave with a clear idea of what things you need to do and how to go about doing them.
Hosted by Writing West Midlands, link will be available shortly.
WHAT HEIDE AND IAIN HAVE BEEN ENJOYING
We thought you might like to hear a little bit about what we’ve been reading and thinking about.
Heide:
I recently read Anna Stephens’ Godblind. Anna’s a friend and a brilliant, Birmingham-based writer.
When she announced the launch for the second book in her trilogy I realised how slow I’d been to read Godblind, which is the first. Anna has such an amazing talent for fight scenes.
If you like your fantasy bloodthirsty and action-packed then you will love Godblind.
I had heard such good things about Becky Chambers’ books that I wanted to take a look at her work.
I just finished A Closed and Common Orbit which asks some really fascinating questions about what it is to be human in the story about an AI illegally installed in a human form. There’s a parallel story about a child who’s rescued and raised by the AI in a wrecked space ship, which has some fun echoes of the resourceful character at the heart of Andy Weir’s The Martian.
I just finished a non-fiction book by Dave Barry called Best State Ever, which is a whimsical tour around Florida.
Iain and I have a hankering to write a novel that is the British equivalent of the “Florida Whackjob” style of novel.
If you’ve read the work of Carl Hiaasen, Tim Dorsey, or perhaps the Dexter novels then you’ll know what we mean.
We’re thinking of using Skegness as a substitute for Florida. What do you think?
Iain:
I recently finished reading Double Whammy by Carl Hiaasen on Heide’s recommendation.
Hiaasen builds up his comedy, not through gags and witty dialogue but through strange characters and increasingly bizarre but just about plausible situations. He specialises in tormenting his bad guys (one idiot hitman in this booked ends up with the severed head of an attack dog permanently attached to his arm because, even in death, it just won’t let go).
I was actually in Skegness while reading the book – Skegness is near to where I grew up – and I wondered if the locals could be as mad, bad and off-the-wall as the characters from a “Florida Whackjob” novel.
Fear of reprisals prevents me from giving an honest answer here!
I’m now reading two other books. I’ve just started White Nights, the second of Ann Cleves’ Shetland crime novels.
I’m also re-reading the collected graphic novel of Lucifer, based on the Neil Gaiman character but now written solely by Mike Carey. It’s interesting to think that both of these have been adapted into TV shows.
Both adaptations have changed their source material. Shetland (BBC) is broadly the same but the main character Jimmy Perez is definitely not the dark-haired and olive-skinned Mediterranean of the book series (maybe they couldn’t find an Italian with a Scottish accent). Lucifer the TV series (Amazon Prime) is NOTHING like the book, apart from the fact that it’s about Satan, living in LA and running his own nightclub. I like both the TV series and the comics but if you think the TV show is just too silly and trite then I’d seriously recommend the comics (which are neither).
What do you think about the latest film/TV adaptations of your favourite books?
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Many thanks for reading
Heide and Iain
heide.goody@gmail.com
iainmarcgrant@hotmail.com
www.pigeonparkpress.com