One Minute Workshop: Routine

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

When it comes to writing productively, one thing which can quite often be overlooked is a good routine. As writers and creatives, we often feel that we should start putting pen to paper when the Muses move us. We feel that we really need to be in the zone in order to generate worthwhile material that we will be proud of. 

However, this can lead to us lurching from one project to another with no consistency and a distinct lack of progress. Yes, we need to be mindful of when inspiration strikes, but that should be used as a time for note-taking and research, for the jotting down of ideas and playing with topics in our head. As far as the writing process is concerned, it is far more beneficial to have a set time of day to pursue this. For some, this could be first thing in the morning (personally, I’m up at 5 o’clock and writing at half past for a few hours before the day kicks in), some are night owls and some might split it into two blocks of a few hours each. It is important that we find what works for us and that we stick to it. This way we will be able to compare our progress from day to day and set attainable targets with regard to how we want our work to progress.

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: the Scratchcard Man

 Hello and welcome to this entry about a short story I wrote some years ago.

The Scratchcard Man made its publication debut back in 2013’s Oh Taste And See. It tells the story of an individual going from door-to-door apparently selling lottery scratchcards. However, the story turns incredibly dark at the end, leading to brutal bloodshed.

This wasn’t actually the first incarnation of the story. I originally wrote it as The Ticket Man many, many years ago when I was a teenager making a bit of extra pocket money going, as the titular character does, from door-to-door selling scratchcards for a local charity. Every time the door was answered, the resident would call back into the house, “The Ticket Man’s here!” I was just starting to get into this whole writing lark and, being an avid reader of Stephen King, I sort of took what I was doing and “Kingified” it. I still have the original version kicking around in a folder somewhere, typed up on some lined paper that I probably purloined from school. Who knows, one of these days I might make a recording of it just for fun…

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: Constructs

      Greetings one and all and welcome to this monthly dive into the shadowy world of my fictional paranormal investigator, the one and only Sam Spallucci.

This month I want to have a quick chat about those clay-based, shapeshifting golems of the Spallucciverse, constructs. We first come across a construct in The Case of the Vexed Vampire when Dave Nichols instinctively despatches one without realising what it actually is. This story establishes that they were sent back in time by Kanor to infiltrate humanity and thin the herd, so to speak, of vampires. Sam next encounters them in Dark Justice, both in their human form and their natural monstrous form. They have cropped up again in Troubled Souls and will also feature in Fury of the Fallen and To Dare The Dragon, to name but two outings. 

Sam, however, is not the only one of my characters to go head-to-head with the mindless denizens of Kanor. In the Children of Cain shorts we’ve seen all the vampires take them on in one form or another. Not only this, but as the Bobby Normal books are set post-Divergence, there are literally constructs on every street corner. In fact, the first encounters for both Sam and Bobby with a construct in its natural form were actually written within a day of each other. If you compare the passages in Dark Justice and Eternal Talisman, you can see real similarities. 

As I say in the above video, the original design for the constructs was based on a comic strip from the old, short-lived Starlord comic. The image of these faceless golems haunted me as a kid and I knew I had to use it as the basis for these foot soldiers of Kanor. I’ve attached this image for you. Unfortunately, it's not very good quality, so I apologise. 

That's all for now. Don't forget that Sam Spallucci: Fury of the Fallen launches this month and I will be signing at Carlisle Comic Con as well as at First Age Comics in Lancaster. You can find details of these and more on my website. 

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.

A.S.Chambers - October Roundup

      Good morning all on a bright, crisp October afternoon from Lancaster!

So, September definitely proved to be a month of two halves here as mid-month I was struck with a devil of some sort of viral cold which has really knocked me for six. This meant that I was unable to get to Sheffield Comic Con and CovCon, which is absolutely gutting as I love getting out and meeting friendly and new faces. 

However, this doesn’t mean that I’ve just been sitting curled up under a blanket binge-watching Professor T (although that may have taken up some of my time…). I’ve been cracking on with the first case in next year’s Sam Spallucci: Lux Æterna. This opener sees Sam transported into a bizarre universe populated with familiar characters from his adventures dressed up as individuals from Alice In Wonderland. 

I’ve also been putting the finishing touches to my next anthology Out of the Depths which should be out next February and will contain a number of tie-in shorts to the Spallucciverse. Alongside this, I’m on the polishing edit for Alec’s story Child of Light.

But, the big news is that Sam Spallucci: Fury of the Fallen is now published, with the official launch date coming on the 15th of October. I have, in fact, just ordered copies for all my Patreon Book Club members and all those who ordered copies through my Kickstarter.

If you’re in the Lancaster area on the 29th October, please feel free to pop along to First Age Comics where I’ll be having a public signing of Fury. It would be nice to see some familiar faces.

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.

That’s all for now. I can hear my blanket and a warm cup of tea calling.

Take care,

ASC

Short Story: Teeth

 Greetings one and all and welcome to this month’s short story, Teeth.

Originally published in my Oh Taste And See anthology and then in my Macabre Collection: Volume One, this tale of dentures, nightmares and childhood terror was one of the first non-Spallucciverse stories that I wrote. At the time, there were a plethora of adverts on the radio for teeth implants, encouraging people to do away with the awkwardness and discomfort of dentures. Promises were being made of a nice new smile which was easier to maintain and didn’t need soaking overnight in a glass tumbler.

Now, I have an overactive imagination at the best of times, and upon listening to these tales of wonderful dentistry, I couldn’t help but wonder: What would the old dentures feel about being thrown away? So, it didn’t take me long to sit down and take a piece I had written in my late teens and bring it bang up to date, complete with the disturbing dream sequences regarding the marionette (Because let’s face it, marionettes are seriously creepy…)

So, the next time you think about trading up for the next latest and greatest, just bear a quick thought for that thing which you’re getting rid of. They might not like being consigned to the drawer, wastebasket or recycle bin…

Don’t forget that I have Patreon Book Club where you can access all these videos long before they reach this blog. Also, Seraph tier members get free books for joining as well as free signed copies of every new material book that I publish. You can find out more details here.

You can also 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.

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

A.S.Chambers.

Spalluccipedia: Alec The Twin

 Greetings one and all and welcome to this monthly dive into the shadowy world of my fictional paranormal investigator, the one and only Sam Spallucci.

This month I want to have a quick chat about one of the major side characters in the ever-expanding Spallucciverse: Alec. We first come across the boy who is described as being in his late teens right at the beginning of Sam’s journey in The Case of the Satanic Suburban Sitcom. Sam first spots him outside the White Cross industrial estate before he enters John O’Gaunt Media, then, later on, it is apparent that Alec saves our hero from being sacrificed.

It’s during Ghosts From The Past that Sam gets to know Alec better and, in fact, lets him move into his attic room. However, when I say, “Gets to know Alec better,” it’s always apparent that the boy is hiding things of importance from Sam, especially what seems to be a very older personality hiding within him. He lets things slip from time to time such as his angelic parentage, but on the whole, the boy plays his cards close to his chest, normally infuriating Sam.

I actually came up with the idea for Alec before I started writing Sam’s adventures. When I was eighteen, I started a “novel” about a teenage boy who kills his abusive parents and then runs away from home. I didn’t get very far, but I do recall he was going to hitch up with a sexy older woman and there would be gypsies. Please remember, I was just eighteen… Now, the sexy older woman and the travelling companions may have long since been ditched, but as I write this I’m actually working on Alec’s origins novella, Child of Light, and let’s just say that things won’t pan out very well for his parents, or should that be, those who are posing as his parents. 

As the stories continue, Alec and his sister Amanda will become more and more integral to the expanding universe and, as the Divergence approaches, you will start to see just how important the Twins are and why the vampires are supposed to protect them.

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 - September Roundup

 Greetings everyone and welcome to this September update.

August was an insanely busy month for me as I was out and about at three conventions (Wigan, Lancaster and York). As a result, I decided to take the month off from writing to give myself time to concentrate on the minutiae of organisational tasks that conventions and signings require. 

Well… when I say, “Take the month off,” that might not be entirely true as I started playing with the first case in next year’s Sam Spallucci: Lux AEterna. It’s going to be a belter of an adventure for Sam and will see him travel through a somewhat trippy Alice in Wonderland experience, escorted by a rather familiar and well-loved guide, meeting his all-time television hero whilst getting dragged off on a quest to find Excalibur in the most unlikely of places and going head to head with none other than Lucifer himself. Sam 8 will take place directly after the events of Fury of the Fallen.

Talking of which…

Next week will see me putting the final touches to this year’s outing for Sam. All that’s needed now is for me to enter the two side-cases that my Kickstarter backers chose for Sam and the name of the poor family that meet their demise at the hands of Asmodeus. Once that is done, I’m on to formatting and then publication. All being well, I’m hoping to have things ready to publish in late September with books and rewards going out in early October, a month ahead of what I had originally planned. Once the book has been published, I shall start uploading the Easter Egg videos to my YouTube channel (You can find that here. Why not have a peek at some older videos?) which will contain the shoutouts for my Patrons and the Kickstarter backers that chose those as rewards. All being well the first one (The Case of the Ghostly Guide) should see the light of day in October, with the other three following in consecutive months. The links for the videos will be posted in the Patreon Book Club and in updates on the Kickstarter project as well as in my monthly newsletter, so make sure you have notifications turned on, if necessary and, if you’ve not already subscribed to my newsletter, you can do so here. 

That’s more or less it for now. If you live in the Sheffield area, pop along and see me at Sheffield Comic Con on the 25th of September. It’s always nice to see familiar and friendly faces.

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.