Today I'm happy to introduce horror writer,script writer (comics & graphic novels) and children's novelist Jasper Bark, who stopped by on his blog tour to share a few words. Jasper began his career as a performance poet then moved onto to writing plays, one of which was debuted at the Edinburgh Festival where it was nominated for a Fringe First award - despite some councillors calling for its ban . "The most unsettling thing was watching a bunch of the actors getting arrested for handing out leaflets for the show on the Royal Mile," said Jasper. "This is something you expect to see happening to dissidents handing out seditious literature in the former Soviet union. Not actors handing out flyers for a comedy at one of the world’s foremost international arts festivals. Some people really don’t have a sense of humour I guess." You also write books for children and is well known in the world of graphic novels. When did all this start and how do you ...

Stapledon Woods used to be known as Thor's Wood, before Olaf Stapledon bought it and bequeathed it to the people of West Kirby.  It's also one of the locations I use for the Artisan-Sorcerer series.  This video shows a collection of photographs by Richard and me - so you get to see the old trees, a few remaining ruins of long-gone buildings, the faerie pond, some ancient rock art and the panoramic view from summit of Caldy Hill, which the wood covers. Enjoy!

Richard on top of the rock, to give an idea of its size.  This strange carving can be found on the Caldy side of Stapledon Woods, facing farm fields which are separated from the wood by a low sandstone wall with a castellated top.  In summer, the rock face is hidden from casual view by trees covering the slope which leads up to it from the path running alongside the sandstone wall. Has anyone got any information about this carving - what it is, its age and purpose?  I've been given several theories; one that it was made for shelter, (which seems dubious as it wouldn't work very well); or that it was somekind of ancient relinquary relating to pre-Xtian religious beliefs.  Any further ideas or documented evidence would be most welcome.

Above and below:  Calder Stones, Neolithic tomb stones, Liverpool. Believed to have once formed part of a Neolithic chambered tomb erected some 4,000 years ago, the Calder Stones have been protected inside a large greenhouse since 1954.  The circle's current arrangement is based only on 19th century guess-work about how a stone circle should look, following an assumption that druids had created the tomb - which actually predates druidry in Britain by a considerable margin. The tomb itself was destroyed some time during the 18th century.  The six remaining sandstone pieces were then sited near the main entrance to Calderstones Park in Allerton, Liverpool.  The disturbance revealed pottery urns containing human dust and bones. None of these were preserved as (or so I was told by park staff) the groundsmen who removed them smashed them all for 'fun'.  These photos were taken by me back in the spring o...

Discover the Artisan-Sorcerer series for 50% less than the usual price!  For one week only, many of my ebooks are reduced in price on Smashwords, not just the Artisan-Sorcerer series but others too. Smashwords describes the event like this:  " Read an Ebook Week is an international celebration of ebooks in which thousands of authors, publishers and retailers feature free and discounted ebooks to help promote the joys of e-reading to the world's readers. Each year, Smashwords authors are the most active participants, and our store features the largest selection of participating titles. It's a fun promotion, because the more the participating authors promote their involvement, the more readers then go on to discover new Smashwords authors. It's writers-helping-writers at its finest." Use the special Read an E-Book Week code found on each book's regular page on Smashwords . Make the most of this week-long promotion while it lasts!

Welcome to this series of writing tips. If you would like to pen a guest post for this series, email me at ACBwrites@aol.com . How many times have you read advice which encourages you to write 1,000 words a day, every day?  The purpose of this seems logical enough - if you produce a steady flow of words bit by bit your novel or short story collection will be finished. This standard gem of advice works fine if you have the time to write 1,000 words a day.  Perhaps you sprint past this word-count regularly.  If so, good for you.  However, if you aim for the golden number of 1,000 words but find yourself regularly falling short, this post is for you. Writing 1,000 words a day might be fine for people who are at home for much of the day.  It might be fine for people who work but whose partners are happy to carry the load while the writer's evenings and weekends are focused solely on writing.  But if you have kids who need takin...

Adele in The Blue Moon Cafe, Chester.  Yesterday I celebrated my 50th birthday.  First I took our dogs for a walk round Gilroy Nature Park which is already showing signs of spring.  Buds are swelling on the trees and birds were singing their fluting songs - I saw a robin, green finches, reed buntings and a mistle thrush as well as the usual mob of mallards, coots and Canada geese.   There was a woman feeding some of the horses in the adjacent field and I commented to her about their poor condition;  "Well, it's winter," she said, "so they roll in mud."  I know little about horses but they looked to be in a shabby state to me. Their coats are matted, mud-caked and damp.  While the higher half of the field looks less muddy than by the barbed wire fence, there is no truly dry area for them to stand on.  Some of the horses are wearing coats but these are filthy and damp-looking also.  There is no shelter in the field an...