In December I visited the new Sherlock Holmes exhibition at the Museum of London and they had a first edition of 'A Study in Scarlet' on display- there are only 11 known editions in the world and the last one sold for £150,000 at Christie's!
It was first published in a subscription magazine called 'Beeton's Christmas Annual' (see left) which is roughly A5 and about half a centimetre thick. Whilst I was looking at it I thought it would be a good idea to design a copy of it as a story cover for 'A Study in Blood'.






















I downloaded a picture of the cover from Google, removed some of the text and the oil lantern on Photoshop and printed it. Then I hand drew new text and a crucifix over the top and scanned my edited version back into the computer. I cleaned it up a bit on Photoshop and voila (see left)!
Next step will be to print some copies of my story out with this cover in an A5 format (pretty easy) and get them bound (not so easy). Then I might distribute them to anyone who has an interest...














B. A. Jones 31/12/2014

Best Left Forgotten

Best Left Forgotten (11,100 words)

This week's story is another of my series of 'Universal Monsters' style stories re-imagined in my own way although this one is a bit of a departure from the concept- it's set in the late 1940's and about witches (there isn't a Universal witch movie). 

I got the idea before American Horror Story (promise!) but watching it definitely helped- I love the idea of an immortal being buried somewhere where they can't move, a fitting way of dealing with someone you can't kill. They used the idea in one of the Highlander sequels and it always hit me as a good concept. The setting came out of nowhere, I just picked it randomly and then all the ideas filled in from there.

There's a strong religious theme stemming from the fact that the main character is a vicar (all be it one who's lost his faith). I wouldn't normally go in that direction since I'm a die-hard atheist and the temptation was to push the loss of faith angle but I knew that wouldn't work for the story and would seem obvious that it was me so I thought I would try to be a bit grown up, and test my ability to see things from the 'other side' so-to-speak. I actually enjoyed it, I had to do quite a bit of research which was very interesting.

Because I have a new job and I've been trying to put as much work into my novel as possible I kept this one as a backburner, something to plod away at if I had a free thirty minutes or so. As a result, the plot isn't very well thought out unfortunately. It has a slow and fragmented build up that lasts almost the entire story then ends in only four pages! I tried very hard after it was finished to rework it but couldn't seem to find a way that I was happy with. Since I'm not that precious about it I decided to just leave it as it is for now, I'm not sure I'll even count it in my shared universe...

Tell me what you think if you want.

B. A. Jones 30/12/2014

P.S. I couldn't decide between two different covers for this one so I've posted them both this week- which is better?

The Collector Presents

Over the last few months I've been working on a separate project as well as my writing which was the launching of a YouTube channel where I review books and 'showcase' my collections of things. Most of the videos I've uploaded so far haven't got many views but I intentionally didn't tell people I knew about them to see if I could gain an audience just off their own backs... for the most part I haven't but things have finally started moving so I thought it was time to share it here and let people I know take a look if they're interested.

The vids are categorised into two types: 'Presents' in which I go through a collection, and 'Reviews' where I just sit and talk about one book.

See what you think of them and give me a like if you feel inclined!



B A Jones 10/08/2014 

B A Jones 10/08/2014 

The Forest Dweller

The Forest Dweller (10,250 words)

This week's story is essentially a continuation of what I was talking about in my previous post about a 'shared universe' of short stories involving my interpretations of classic Universal monsters.
The idea was a little bit stolen, I'm afraid to say... I was thinking about different Universal movies and had several ideas cooking (including Uprising and The Wolf of Whitechapel) when I read a short story by August Derleth called The Dweller in Darkness. August Derleth was an American pulp writer from the early 20th century who is most famous for introducing the world to H P Lovecraft. Lovecraft only ever published his stories in pulp magazines in his lifetime and only got paid for one of them. If anyone ever wanted to read his stories they had to go out and find back issues of all these different magazines. Derleth created his own publishing company called Arkham House specifically to publish collected volumes of his dead best friend's works. Once the collected versions hit bookshops word spread and Lovecraft became an American horror icon. Derleth wrote his own stories set in the Cthulhu mythos and published them as well and The Dweller in Darkness was one of these. Unfortunately, for all the great things Derleth did for Lovecraft he wasn't a great writer. The story really isn't that good- it's set in woodland in America where a pan-dimensional being haunts local residents, makes a flute sound and has two smaller familiars with it (which reminded me of My Neighbour Totoro!).
I thought, maybe a bit arrogantly, that I could do better.
It also hit me that I could make this my version of The Creature From The Black Lagoon. Creature was one of the classic Universal movies I'd pretty much written off for me since I don't really like writing straight-up fantasy, I prefer making things realistic and believable. But then this story gave me an idea that I really thought could work.
For me this one was easily the hardest of this series and unlike any story I've written before- it's Victorian and a bit actiony and yes, I've done that plenty of times but it was the format that was the challenge- a diary. The difficulty with a diary is that you have to constantly take into account when the diary is being written, the change between past and present tense is really hard to maintain (I still think I messed it up a few times but I can't figure out how to fix it so I've left it as is...) and I don't think I'd want to do it again. The other huge challenge for me was writing horror and the supernatural- I couldn't help either not finding it scary or thinking the supernatural elements were a joke. A rough challenge, lots of potential, did I meet them? I don't think so but I got something down- it begins, has a middle and then ends so ultimately it's not all that bad.

One last note- I don't like the title. I've gone with it because I literally can't think of anything better but it's too close to Derleth's title. If anyone has a suggestion that would be great!

See what you think and message me if you want, I'm always after feedback...

B A Jones 02/08/2014

Uprising

This week's story is called: Uprising (10,116 words)

Around the time that I was coming up with the idea for The Wolf of Whitechapel (my version of a werewolf) I also had an idea for how I would re-interpret the idea of the Egyptian Mummy.
As I said in my previous post, of all the Universal monster movies that have now become Victorian Gothic horror staples The Wolf Man (1941) and The Mummy (1932) are the only two not based on any existing Victorian novel. John L Balderston wrote the screenplay for The Mummy based on an idea about Cagliostro being resurrected and his own experience as a journalist covering the opening of the tomb of Tutankhamen and the subsequent media frenzy relating to the 'curse'. So again, like the werewolf, there's a vacancy for a good Victorian Mummy story...
It had to be set in the middle-east and I knew that Dr. Watson served in the Second Afghan War (Yes, I'm a confirmed Sherlock Holmes nerd) so I had a potential setting and I liked the idea of it being set during a conflict. I immediately thought of a scene from Ben Hur where he visits his mother and sister in a leper colony in Israel and it hit me that lepers were a lot like mummies- wrapped in bandages, slow and shambling, skin distorted with wounds. To make it more socially conscious it made sense to have lepers being mistreated and maybe a soldier (the narrator) leading an uprising against the colony- I pictured the lepers trudging towards the guards in waves like a zombie apocalypse- perfect! But why would the soldier be there? I thought of a POW camp and then decided to combine the two- a leper colony being used temporarily to house POW's. After a bit of wiki-research I discovered a conflict in Egypt in 1882 where British troops lost so that would fit nicely as my framing. I decided pretty early on owing to the subject matter that I would make it serious, not sensational- it's hard to maintain that in a story when really you can write whatever you want so why should you care? It's about not alienating your audience I guess, but it is a challenge...
It made sense to make the story the same length as The Wolf of Whitechapel. Once I'd started writing, I came up with a vampire concept, a Frankenstein one and two other 'Universal' ones. If I have time they're all next on my list (I'm writing one of them now) and the final goal would be to bring them all together, Avengers style, in one much longer story (a novel?)! So this is kind-of my own 'Marvel Cinematic Universe'!
I hope you enjoy and are convinced by this one, don't be afraid to give feedback so I can learn for my future writing...

B A Jones 20/07/2014

Patience

This week's story is called: Patience (2015 words)

This is the fourth in my Death series (conversations between the Grim Reaper and a person about to die), following on from Higher Ground, A Moment's Peace & In Convalescence. 

Again it's short, just a character study really. I found this one quite difficult- I had the idea that firstly not everyone is going to be going to heaven, some people will be bad people, and also that some people might not appreciate Death analyzing them no matter how familiar he appears. I decided to go with a gangster type but then found it hard to make it sound realistic, or believable.

I initially wanted to go with an American gangster but knew I would struggle to pull it off and worried that it would sound too pulpy. Having said that, even after I started I realised I was writing him like he was American and had to go back through and change the dialogue. I took Brighton Rock as my main influence, mixed with a bit of Kray lore (courtesy of Wikipedia of course!) and knocked it out in a couple of days.

As I was writing it I realised there were similarities between this and The Wolf Of Whitechapel which is unintentional- I think i'm just getting a bit creatively drained...

Give it a read if you've got any free time and drop me a line about what you think!

B A Jones 29/06/2014 

In Convalescence

This week's story is: In Convalescence (2005 words)

This is the third part of my series of stories featuring conversations with Death. I thought it would be interesting to look at situations where it would be hard for Death to visit because the person either remains alone or is only ever visited by people they know.

Eve thought I should write a female character which I didn't want to do because I don't like writing anything I can't identify with but I thought the challenge would be good for me so this ones got two!

As with the last two, I wrote this in an afternoon during down time from the novel, its only short so give it a try and see what you think!

B A Jones 23/06/2014

A Moment's Peace

Today's story is called: A Moment's Peace (2008 words)

This is a continuation of the project I started and sent out last week, hence the 'two' on the cover.

The concept, which I'm confident enough to reveal now, is about the Grim Reaper. 

I'll freely admit I got the idea watching American Horror Story (I won't say how in case it's a spoiler!) but I thought it might be interesting if Death were to visit everyone shortly before they died to 'evaluate' them. I imagined he/she to be sort-of a psychiatrist who makes evaluations that are then forwarded to the next stage for consideration- be that Jesus, St. Michael, Budda or whoever. So the 'judge' makes the final decision as to heaven, hell or purgatory but they use Deaths evaluation as a recommendation.

So what would those conversations be like? He would need to get a good picture of their morality, regrets, fears, etc. He couldn't pass judgement or make recommendations to the person, and if it were a suicide he'd have to be careful not to talk them out of it. He'd need to gain their trust quickly so I thought it would make sense that he would always appear as a familiar face of a similar age- If Death is always a middle-aged woman not everyone is going to be comfortable talking about their feelings with her! 

For myself as the writer I decided to set some rules- it could only be 2000ish words, that way I could get more work done as I would be writing to a plan, but also it would be a challenge to have someone give a picture of their psychological make up in so short a piece. I also wanted to remain quite ambiguous regarding the judgement- present unusual or conflicted characters and leave it to the reader to judge whether they're blessed or cursed.

The interesting part for me was the choice of story- Death can come to anyone from any age, I didn't want to get bogged down with the Santa Clause paradox (he needs to be everywhere at once) but I thought it might be hard for him to visit certain people who either don't meet anyone new or are in difficult situations that don't lend themselves to meaningful chats-

This weeks one concerns a Private during the Normandy landings, a very tough time for Death to get a chance to talk.

Hope you enjoy, the next few weeks stories will be more of these cases and now you know the real concept it might change the way you read them, help you understand the stakes for the subject!

B A Jones 16/06/2014

Higher Ground

Today's story is called: Higher Ground [2010 words]

So I'm going to be a bit cagey about this one, depending on how things pan out I might come back and re-edit this post and give more detail but for now I'm just going to keep the details pretty basic (it's not my novel by the way, nothing like it!).

I wrote this in a day, on Saturday, and came up with the idea only two days before. I was just going to sleep and it hit me so I got up and scribbled it down in my notebook. The idea was about a series (the 'One' on the image should clue you in) but this specific story I didn't really think about until I was actually sat at my laptop yesterday bashing it out. It's not a plot I'm generally comfortable with (no action) but when I'm in the right mood I quite like having a platform for more philosophical musings- as long as they aren't meaningless! 

It's got a certain anti-corporate element that I'll admit is personal but I guess that kind of thing is inevitable- and maybe helps my writing if it's something that I have strong feelings for anyway...

See what you think and give me some feedback,

B A Jones 10/06/2014

The Wolf of Whitechapel

This weeks story is called: The Wolf of Whitechapel (10,887 words)                                        

I began writing this story about three weeks ago.
The werewolf is an interesting gothic character because, although strongly associated with the genre, there is no real definitive werewolf story from the nineteenth century. Universal's 1941 monster movie The Wolf Man made a huge impact on popular culture, so much so that people came to strongly identify Larry Talbot as being as iconic a character as Vlad Dracula and Victor Frankenstein. But the story (much like Universal's 1932 The Mummy) was written by Hollywood screenwriter Curt Siodmak purely from his own imagination. Even the famous 'legend',

"Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright." 

was a fabrication of Siodmak's. So there's room for a great Victorian werewolf story...
For my sins I bought the much derided 2010 remake of The Wolfman (on Blu-Ray as well!) and I'll be honest with you- it's not as bad as I remembered. The sets are incredible and the plot works well enough, it's just the look of the wolves that's a problem but if you know its coming you can ignore it and appreciate everything else. Anyway, I was watching it whilst writing A Study in Blood and I started coming up with my own Victorian werewolf idea- Eve and I used to know this guy who went through these, essentially bipolar, cycles of temperament, from warm, open friendliness that lasted a week at most to unbearably aggressive dislike and distrust that would last upwards of three months! I thought that would make an interesting alternative take on the idea of transformation- what if a man slowly became more aggressive and wild in appearance, unshaven, unwashed, long hair and nails etc. but then after a psychological break would clean himself up (shave, wash, buy new clothes). if you were to meet this man the day he was 'wild' and then the morning after when he had cleaned himself up you would think he'd completely transformed- like a werewolf!
I decided to write it from the point of view of a doctor's case study to make it sound more authentic, since I was going for a realistic approach.

I'll be honest- I'm not too happy with this one. I had a lot of high hopes and conceptual ideas but couldn't reconcile them to a short story- it would work better two or three times longer (and it's already too long for a short story) and I made it end too abruptly to compensate for this. I could see it being a series, either stretching out the werewolf case or featuring other clients by the same doctor, but as a stand alone it's just not good enough for the subject matter. I also think I was too tame about the supernatural element- wouldn't it have been great if he was a real werewolf? I threw in a vague allusion to a Gypsy curse at the last minute to try to add a bit more of a supernatural flavour...
Maybe one day I'll rewrite it or recycle the idea into something much more important, but for now here it is- hope you enjoy!

B A Jones 30/05/2014

The Vigilance Committee

My story this week is called: The Vigilance Committee [15047 words]

This one is pretty epic (for a short story). I wrote it throughout the week this week, about 2000 - 4000 words a day, and finished it up on Saturday.
The idea wasn't too old, I think it came to me whilst I was researching A Study in Blood. I was looking up Victorian London and remembered the story of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee (I'm a bit of an amateur Ripperologist which, by the way, is an actual profession that more than one person has!). The committee was basically a group of local shop owners and businessmen from the Whitechapel district who were fed up with the police not being able to catch Jack The Ripper (or 'Leather Apron' as he was known during the killings) and decided to take matters into their own hands so they took to the streets in groups (mobs) every night and patrolled.  It was to the head of the committee, George Lusk, that the 'From Hell' letter was sent, along with half a human kidney... anyway, I'm getting off the point here.
I loved the idea that these men were real life vigilantes, taking the security of their London borough into their own hands, and I thought about what that might be like today. I think one of the most fascinating things about London is the closeness of different classes- Chelsea is one of the richest and most expensive places to live in England whilst Brixton is one of the poorest and worst, and they're literally two miles from each other. That's one of the main reasons I would never live in London- no matter how great your neighbourhood is you're not safe and the riots proved that. I couldn't believe those rich socialites on MIC hadn't ever got in trouble, especially since they seem like pretty good targets to me, but then when I thought about it... they go to the gym every day and they're all toned and stuff, they only eat expensive healthy food, they have masses of free time and they're rich- they're the perfect vigilantes!
I immediately knew I had to write it in such a way as to distance myself from it being comedic- this isn't MIC meets Batman. I put it off for a while, playing with ways of writing it (A diary? a newspaper article?) then it just came to me as a memoir. once I got going the rest flowed pretty nicely. I worried about it coming across as classist, since I don't personally have much of a tolerance for 'youf', but it wasn't until near the end that I got the idea of having the 'hero' realise his failings and therefore clear my conscience as the writer.

I put a lot of modern reference in this one (Facebook, BBM, Google Maps, etc.) which is always a gamble since it dates it, but I liked how it made it sound more realistic, which was the whole point. I took the cover image from Google Maps (cheers Google!) since it fitted with the story and I like how it puts you, the reader, in that slightly uncomfortable (but also hard to resist) place of 'observer'.

Thanks for visiting and, as always, any feedback is welcome!

B A Jones 04/05/2014

A Single Rifle Shot

This weeks story is called: A Single Rifle Shot [4003 words]

Please be warned, there are spoilers ahead!

I wrote this story in one day- last Monday to be exact! The idea though, began several months ago. I watched Looper on DVD and afterwards thought that I'd love to write a time travel story that was extremely complicated. 

Now there are two types of time travel- divergent and 'accounted for'. Divergent travel is based on the theory that every decision we make creates a parallel dimension where our lives continue on as if we had made the different decision. A great example of this is the Biff Tannen future from Back To The Future II. I've never really been a fan of either this theory or it's use in Sci-Fi. 'Accounted for' travel is where you meet a time traveller from the future, and then in the future someone travels back through time... a good example of this (but also a creepy one) would be The Time Traveler's Wife. Much more complicated but more satisfying I think! So I started ruminating on possible plots and I came up with something different after also watching Skyfall (and complicated), and I came up with this- a story in a forest.

I sat on it for a while. I couldn't decide on a setting (either time or place) and felt I really shouldn't start until I was entirely confident with it. I had a moment in December where I almost started when I hit on the idea of setting it in the old west (I've wanted to write a western for years now...) but never got round to it because I became so focused on writing A Study in Blood. And then only last week I realised that I could write it in such a way as to not need a time or setting- keep it oblique and open to interpretation. I think this really lends it a strength and I'm very glad I did it now.

One note about the title- I originally decided to call it Loop. I had that name since I first came up with the idea and even made a cover with that title first. Eve thought it gave away the twist (and therefore the whole point) so I started fishing around for something else. My dad suggested Recoil which I liked a lot but then only today I thought of the title I've gone with- A Single Rifle Shot, I think it's more my kind of title, and it works in a twisty way as well- there is only one shot fired in the story, since the second shot is the same one from a different angle. So sorry Dad, but that's how it sometimes goes with writers.

As always; please feel free to feedback.

B A Jones 28/04/2014

A Coping Mechanism

This week's story is: A Coping Mechanism. [2261 words]

This story is very unusual- I wrote it, again, way back when I was first starting to write and it was one of the last ones I did for my first collection- the one with all the rules. I wanted to be more meta-fictional (I've always wanted to do that) and have unusual styles of writing where the writer is a character as well. I've found since that often this can be distracting and hard to maintain for anything more than a short story (unless the 'character' is basically yourself) and don't generally do it but this was an attempt at the height of my interest in that style.

I was quite depressed at the time of writing it and had done several other 'stories' about being alone and  frustrated in love. When I read this back in Feb I immediately started disliking it for being another mopey angst-fest but I think it's saved by it's ending. I gave the whole thing a bit of an overhaul, freshened up the style and made it sound less like the real me and changed the title (you do not want to know what it was originally called...) and now I'm really proud of it. I see it as being a writer's story, a demonstration of why writing can be so good for someone. It's about that whole idea (which I firmly subscribe to) that I don't write for any other audience but myself primarily.

I'd say my weakest style is anything contemporary or hip. This is the best I think I can get in that direction, my work now is always vaguely (or sometimes specifically) set in the past. I hope you like it!

B A Jones 21/04/2014

Final Resting Place

My story this week is called Final Resting Place. [3335 words]

This is another of my original collection of stories where I put a rule on the writing process. The rule with this one was to write all in the immediate first-person ('I'm doing this, I'm doing that...') which, surprisingly, is the easiest method of writing I've ever encountered. The method calls for you to work by instinct, to write what comes to mind in the instant and the more honest you are the better it sounds.
The story, obviously, has an american flavour to it. I think, if you didn't personally know me it would work better and be more believable but that's up to the reader to judge, it picks up and takes you through it. beyond that I can't recall to much about the origin or inspiration for this story, it just came to me as I sat writing...

Feedback please!

B A Jones 14/04/2014

White Sheets

This week's story is called White Sheets. [7012 words]

I wrote this one sometime in 2005. I had moved to Bath but, unfortunately my shitty windows 95 PC had broken and I only had my novel on disk so I couldn't carry on with it... I had a typewriter so I figured to keep things moving I'd try to write something on it, and this is what I got! Writing on a typewriter is VERY difficult- no editing (unless you want to re-write the whole page (which happened several times...))! And I personally don't really rate the story, I think its a bit simple. 

I originally called it 'Greedy Fly' which, if you're not familiar with late nineties post-grunge is the title to a Bush song (Bush were my favourite band when I was a teenager) and I had the title in a big list of story titles I often refer to. I had a vague idea of grungy hospitals (from the music video) so the story came out of that.

One other thing I'd like to say about this one- I forgot all about it, completely! when I was going through all my work in January I found it and read it and honestly forgot the twist, which was good! It meant I could see it like an outsider and see what was good and bad about it. I changed it accordingly and this is the best I think it could be. I also changed the title to be more appropriate to the story so here it is.

Anyway, feedback please as always!

B A Jones 07/04/2014