A pub full of alcoholic psychics, an apprentice witch who prefers vacuum cleaners to broomsticks and a ghostly black dog that houses the spirit of an eleventh century monk called Eilmer, who history states once built himself wings and flew from the roof of the Abbey, and who has been trying to recreate the feat … More The Flying Monk
I’m not one of those people who can blog every day, about their day, regardless of whether it’s interesting or not. I’m certainly not one of those people who is organised enough to blog about something interesting every day! I also can’t just dash off a quick blog over the first cup of tea in … More Getting back on the self-promotion horse
High up above Dundon Fort, one of Somerset’s many hill forts, are a collection of glorious woods that surround a small gorge, known as the ‘The Great Breach’. The little village of Compton Dundon sits on the road that winds through the edges of the Somerset Levels from Yeovil to Glastonbury and beyond; at the … More In search of the Great Breach Wood
The story of the witch that supposedly haunts Somerset’s Ham Hill is well known locally, but, as I have now discovered, everyone I’ve heard it from has got it completely wrong. But the real story is actually even more fascinating. Alastair Swinnerton is the author of ‘The Multiverse of Max Tovey’, a Young Adult novel set among the myths … More The real witch Of Hamdon Hill
You may think there’s been a lot of flooding in the last few years, but nothing comes close to the devastating Somerset floods in January 1607. Back in 2014, you could look out from Ham Hill, Somerset, the largest hill fort in the country, and see the flooded Somerset Levels in all their ‘glory’, but thankfully that’s been … More The Somerset Tsunami
It’s not been the best month. The death of anyone close to you is always a blow, but that of your oldest and best friend is more like being repeatedly hammered by Mohammed Ali. But life must eventually restart, and my book ‘The Multiverse of Max Tovey’ needs attention. The sequel needs starting of course, but before … More Getting back out there
I haven’t read fiction for many years, until now. I just couldn’t. My justification went like this – most of the time it was better than anything I could write, which just depressed me, or it was worse, which made me shout at it a lot, or the worst of the three, it was inspirational and sent … More Reading again – it’s a miracle. A book review.
The character of fourteen year old Time Traveller Max Tovey arrived one night, while idly watching something on TV that I wasn’t that interested in. My gaze wandered to the door next to the TV, wondering how many people had walked through that door in the life of the house, imagining the ghosts of occupants … More Teenage dyspraxia, anxiety and PTSD within ‘The Multiverse of Max Tovey’
I don’t normally do this kind of thing, but one of my new-found gang of fellow writers just posted about being suckered into doing some chain letter post thing called 7-7-7-7. The idea it seems is to post seven lines from seven lines down on the seventh page of one’s book, then get seven other … More Solidarity, of a kind
Originally posted on Today We Did:
The Multiverse of Max Tovey by Alastair Swinnerton, e-book, 220 pages, published by European Geeks Publishing in 2015. Fourteen year old Max Tovey has some issues. He has been experiencing a terrifying recurrent dream, hallucinations of the distant past, and now his parents are taking him to Ham Hill…
This might get a bit geeky and OCD, but bear with me! An advance reviewer of ‘The Multiverse of Max Tovey’ emailed me, concerned that I wasn’t putting enough commas in my dialogue. Yes really. So for instance, where I had written “Get out of here Max!”, he suggested that it should be “Get out of here, … More Dialogue and punctuation
Every writer remembers their first credit, or their first by-line, and they’re wonderful moments, but today the first copies of my debut novel arrived. I know, there are a million writers out there who have had that moment, but this is MINE, and in the words of ‘Almost Famous’, “Damn I’m going to enjoy this!” Something like three years … More The actual physical book
Hmmm. Tricky one. Which way do you go – machine, wormhole, spirit guide, something-plugged-into-the-brain…? So many choices, so many pitfalls. A few years ago I was watching a film on TV that my wife wanted to watch but about which I wasn’t that bothered, and my attention drifted lazily to the door into the kitchen … More So you want to write about Time Travel…?
Exciting news – my first novel, ‘The Multiverse of Max Tovey’, a children’s and Young Adult fantasy book, is to be published later in 2015 – more news to follow on all the usual social media outlets.
Alastair Swinnerton 