One Minute Workshop: Posture

 Hello and welcome to this little one-minute writing workshop.

It’s quite a short one this time as, quite frankly, the video says it all, but it could be the most important thing that you’re ever told about writing.

When we write, we can become so totally absorbed in our work that we lose track of ourselves. As our hero romps off to battle trolls or our antagonist sits plotting their Machiavellian schemes, we can gradually lose track of how we are sitting here in the real world.  And, quite frankly, this can be disastrous. If we’re not aware of our posture, our writing can take a huge toll on our body: our shoulders will ache, our spine will stiffen and even our leg muscles can seize up. As a result, writing can become physically laborious, tiring and downright painful. When this happens, we end up grumpy and out of sorts. We become over-critical of our work due to our bad temper and we see it as something that requires battling with, rather than enjoying. 

So, as your hero or heroine wanders off into the wide, blue yonder, make time to stop, stretch, get up and move around and give your body some love. Straighten yourself up, unkink those muscles and relax into this hobby or job that you love. With good posture comes great writing!

Don’t forget to visit my website www.aschambers.co.uk for more details about my books. 

You can subscribe to my newsletter here for up-to-date details regarding all my writing and appearances.

You can check out my Patreon Book Club for advanced screenings of my videos and free books.

Take care and keep looking out for what lurks in the shadows…

A.S.Chambers.

Short Story: Needs Must

 Hello and welcome to this month’s short story video.

This time around, it is the turn of Needs Must, a quirky little tale from 2015’s anthology All Things Dark and Dangerous.

Needs Must tells the story of Odd Bod, a solitary troll who lives down the bottom of a well and has a supply problem. He’s run out of food. Human food. Over the years, humans would come to the well to draw water and he would prey on those unsuspecting souls who did not know of his existence. However, the well has now dried up and Odd Bod needs to go and see what has become of his food source. Unfortunately for him, he encounters a small, red-headed girl.

This has been a firm fan favourite and always raises numerous chuckles when I read it at events and book signings. It remains to this day one of my own favourites, too. I feel I capture Odd Bod perfectly on his climb up the well and eventual… well, I’d better not give any more away right now.

I hope you enjoy it.

Don’t forget to visit my website www.aschambers.co.uk for more details about my books. 

You can subscribe to my newsletter here for up-to-date details regarding all my writing and appearances.

You can check out my Patreon Book Club for advanced screenings of my videos and free books.

Take care and keep looking out for what lurks in the shadows…

A.S.Chambers.

Spalluccipedia: Asherah's Origins

 Greetings and welcome to this monthly dive into characters, places and themes in the ever-expanding world of my paranormal investigator, Sam Spallucci.

This time around, I want to have a little chat about one of my favourite side characters, the fallen angel Asherah. Ash has cropped up, at the time of writing, three times in Sam’s books. We first hear the click of her killer heels in The Case of the Fastidious Phantom, she is the mysterious benefactor of sociopathic Malcolm Wallace in Ghosts From The Past and she is Sam’s love interest in Fury of the Fallen. Not only this but she and her partner in crime, Asmodeus, have appeared in numerous short stories as well as in the Bobby Normal stories, showing that they are still wreaking their own version of chaos long after Kanor has reduced humanity to a remnant.

I first used Ash in my as-yet-unpublished magnum opus, Fallen Angel. We see how she fell from grace and follow her route towards the events of the Divergence as her path entwines with the story's protagonist Abaddon. The keen-eyed readers out there will probably have noted how there are certain things referenced in the Sam books (especially Fury of the Fallen) which will be scenes from Fallen Angel. Indeed the two books are taking place at the same time, hence the cross-overs.

So, I hope you enjoy the video as I explain Asherah’s origins in my stories and how I pulled on the mythological version, expanding and fleshing out the fallen angel to produce the femme fatale of the Spallucciverse.

Don’t forget to visit my website www.aschambers.co.uk for more details about my books. 

You can subscribe to my newsletter here for up-to-date details regarding all my writing and appearances.

You can check out my Patreon Book Club for advance screenings of my videos and free books.

Take care and keep looking out for what lurks in the shadows…

A.S.Chambers.

A.S.Chambers - January Roundup

Greetings all and welcome to this monthly update!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and a very pleasant New Year. I spent most of December hibernating, wrapped up in numerous jumpers and blankets, somewhat resembling a human version of the Very Hungry Caterpillar, having consumed too many mince pies, a bucket-load of Christmas pud and a rather delicious Christmas cake.

Anyway, my bulbs are surprisingly already up in the garden so I guess that means I’d better get back at it, which means up at five a.m. sharp, armed with a strong pot of coffee and a lovely view of the birds feeding outside my study window. 

First up this year will be Out Of The Depths. This is my latest short story anthology and should see the light of day in late February, early March. It contains a number of stand-alones as well as a few tie-ins to the Spallucciverse which will support Sam’s eighth adventure, Lux Æterna (more on that in a bit). Look out for the Kickstarter announcements later this month. There will be some cracking rewards to entice readers old and new and all Seraph members of my Book Club will receive a signed copy as part of their membership as this is a new material book.

Second in line for publication is the second Macabre Collection. This will be a reprint omnibus of about twelve shorts from my fourth, fifth and sixth anthologies. 

Third will be the penultimate Bobby Normal book. Bobby Normal and the Fallen sees Bobby and Katy drawn even further into the world of intrigue and danger as they encounter not only the fallen angel Asherah but also a certain archangel now living as a hermit in the Divergent Lands. More on this later in the year…

Number four will be the second Sam Spallucci Omnibus. Like the first volume last year, it will be a large shiny hardback and will contain Dark Justice, Belligerent Bard, Troubled Souls and Bloodline. It will also be graced with a cover made from my own photography of Lancaster.

Number five will see something definitely for the fans! Child of Light is a novella centred around the mysterious lodger who lives with Sam Spallucci — the Twin called Alec. We will travel back a few months before the start of Casebook and journey through events in history as we unravel his relationship with the fallen seraph Lucifer. This novella will be published as a companion book to Sam Spallucci: Lux Æterna.

Talking of which…

Well, the big one of this year has to be Lux Æterna. Sam’s eighth adventure is currently on track for publication this Halloween. I am currently halfway through and absolutely loving it. There will be weird Wonderlands, zealous zombies, an argumentative archaeologist and a crying crucifix. I’m also contemplating developing a long-standing relationship with a certain little redhead, but we’ll have to wait and see on that one…

Phew! Well, it looks like I’ve got a lot to crack on with, so I’d better get to it.

Don’t forget to visit my website www.aschambers.co.uk for more details about my books. 

You can subscribe to my newsletter here for up-to-date details regarding all my writing and appearances.

You can check out my Patreon Book Club for advance screenings of my videos and free books.

Take care and keep looking out for what lurks in the shadows…

A.S.Chambers.