Nick Stead's Blog

Excited howls summoned me back to the land of the living, a desire to meet up with my fellow werewolves Stacey Mewse and Lauren Womack battling the early morning grogginess and driving me from my bed, and the screams of potential victims calling to me from beyond my Yorkshire territory. After months of planning and preparing for our first joint venture, the time had finally come. Birmingham Horror Con was upon us.

Traders had to be set up and ready for the early bird customers arriving at 9am on the day of the con, which meant travelling the day before and spending two nights in Birmingham. I rarely see before 10am these days, let alone 9am, so it was something of a relief that the organisers were letting us set up the night before. It meant we didn’t have to be there too early on the Sat and we only had to worry about getting there in good time for the first of the early birds coming in, rather than having a mad rush to display everything on our shared table. So the plan was to meet at the hotel mid-afternoon and then head to the venue and prepare for the con the next day, then have a nice pack meal somewhere before retreating back to our room and getting an earlyish night. Of course, we all know what they say about the best laid plans.

To be fair, nothing went massively wrong. But I was very late setting off and with it being the biggest event I’ve done so far as a trader, I had no idea what to expect for sales and thought it’d be better to take way too many books than not enough, so I was weighed down with 14 copies each of Hybrid and Hunted – literally as much as I could carry. And since I would be spending the con in ‘wolf form’ as part of a charity fundraiser we’d decided to do for World Cancer Day, it meant I had a hell of a lot of luggage to manage on public transport. I was already feeling the strain as I headed for the nearest bus stop, but being the stereotypical tight Yorkshireman, there was no way I was forking out for a taxi. So I struggled on.

Luckily the journey there was fairly smooth and the bus and then two trains weren’t too overcrowded for once. As I neared Birmingham, Stacey messaged on Facebook to say she’d checked in to the Ibis Budget hotel but when she went downstairs for coffee (yeah, it was so budget that we had no coffee making facilities in our room) the power went, which meant she and a load of other guests were stuck in the lobby as the door to the stairs was operated by keycards. It seems the staff could sense the werewolf in their midst, since they offered everyone else free prosecco but stayed clear of her!

I arrived in Birmingham 4:30ish and looked up the hotel on my phone, then began walking. Of course the GPS started playing up when I was struggling along with my suitcase, carrier bag full of books and backpack weighted down by yet more books, so I soon worked up a sweat trying to navigate the city streets. Fortunately Lauren had also arrived and got sorted at the hotel, so she offered to pick me up and take us across to the con to set up, then go back to the hotel to dump my overnight stuff before we went to find somewhere to eat. She really saved the day, though it was still something of a performance trying to find a place where she could pick me up. I tried following signs in New Street Station for the short stay car park and pick up point, thinking that would be easiest, but after traipsing all through the building and trying different exits, I was forced to admit defeat and we made other arrangements. Needless to say I was well and truly knackered by this point so it was a relief when they pulled up on the street outside. There are days when I wish I could drive, and Friday was most definitely one of them.

At least setting up was fairly quick and easy, and we met the organiser, Victor Wright, who gave us some good advice. We didn’t see much of him the next day but he came across as a really nice guy and a few of his books are now on my ever growing to read list.

Finding a place to eat was something of a challenge since Lauren’s not a fan of Chinese and we seemed to be in the Chinese quarter, but eventually we found a pub that looked like it might have something for everyone. We ventured in to find a big rainbow on the wall and there came the realisation we were in a gay bar, so we joked we might get kicked out for being straight. But our fears were unfounded and we were soon sat back enjoying drinks and banter, and some good food after waiting what seemed like an age. Then it was back to the hotel for the night.

Being two struggling writers and a struggling artist, we’d decided to share a room to cut down on costs. The she wolves took the double bed and I had the bunk bed, which I didn’t realise needed making till we were ready to crash. True to its budget name, the room is possibly the most basic I’ve ever stayed in. The best way I can describe the toilet is probably a claustrophobic experience, as it was just a tiny box room with the toilet in and nothing else. Getting changed into our pyjamas in there was fun!

The sink was in the main room, just opposite the double bed, and the shower was just set into the wall at the side of the bed which looked a bit dubious, though it turned out the glass allowed for more privacy than it first seemed. Lauren braved the shower first, and with a yelp found out that not only had there been the power cut earlier, now the hot water was off! Stacey had intended to shower before bed as well but even though they assured us the hot water would be back on within an hour or so when we went down to ask about it, it was still running cold as we drew closer to midnight. In the end she gave it up as a bad job and showered the next morning.

I don’t think any of us slept particularly well. I was still awake when the alarm went off, sounding out its most annoying alarm tone. Stacey had talked about setting one on her phone to go off slightly earlier than mine so we’d both have time to shower, and she’d said it was set to the theme tune of Penny Dreadful. I vaguely wondered why it wasn’t the music from Penny Dreadful as I laid there expecting her to turn it off, only to find out that it was my phone making that annoying racket! Somehow I’d managed to set the alarm with the default tone instead of Alice Cooper’s Welcome to my Nightmare like it was supposed to be. And I’d only had the one beer Friday night.

The shower ran mercifully warm that morning and an hour or so later we were in the taxi, heading to our first con as traders. I began the transformation to wolf form, pausing it only to munch on a bit of breakfast. Then it was time to go for a quick prowl and size up the queue of humans forming outside, charity collection tub clenched between my jaws.

After picking out a few potential victims, I stalked back into the stadium and returned to our werewolf stall. There wasn’t much room between the tables for me to get in and out so I lurked to the edge of our pitch, growling and snapping at any humans foolish enough to get too close, and enjoying the odd skirmish with the zombies shambling through the crowds.

We were raising money for the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, offering the gift of lycanthropy in exchange for donations. I’m happy to report this was a huge success, with us raising £104.55! A big thank you to everyone who donated and congrats to the winner of the raffle for werewolf art donated by the very talented Wolfskulljack. I had a lot of fun biting and turning all our new recruits, and there were some great pictures taken. One brave family even volunteered for me to bite all three of them! And we’re still raising money through our online fundraiser on Just Giving, which will be running for a couple more months yet.

I also met plenty of awesome people and had a great time chatting to other werewolf and horror fans, whilst partially transformed back to human, as well as enjoying hanging out with my fellow werewolves on our stall. It was a really fun day, despite melting in the fur when the room temperature turned from nicely mild to scorching hot! There was one moment where I felt like I was in danger of passing out from overheating, lack of food and lack of sleep, but I’m lucky to have had a pack taking care of me. I don’t think I realised how badly I needed food and an energy drink till I was handed some snacks to keep me going.

 

It was especially great to catch up with Prowler and Steve Bosworth of Hobby FX (check out his awesome fangs!). After the con, Prowler joined us for dinner and helped ferry everything back across to the hotel. There was another fun moment when we tried all three of our keycards to get into the room and none were working, despite the fact they’d worked fine for the lift moments before. It turned out they needed renewing after a day, something they neglected to tell us the day before when we’d checked in! But at least it was sorted pretty quickly and we were soon sat in the room, discussing where to go for food. We decided to eat at Jimmy Spices, thinking a ‘world buffet’ would have something to please everyone, though I was really disappointed to find the selection wasn’t as great as the Solihull one we’d eaten in before. True to my wolfish nature, I just wanted some meat, but it was all in sauce or spices, which isn’t for me, so I had to make do with fried rice and pizza. The others enjoyed it at least, which is probably as well after the sat nav took us to the restaurant, only to find there was nowhere to park, so Prowler reversed to turn around, not realising there were two fairly deep stairs behind us. Like a beached whale, the car refused to budge, even with our lycanthropic strength attempting to lift it. Only with the help of a big group of humans did we get it back on the road, hopefully without too much damage. Prowler was surprisingly calm through this particular ordeal, maybe because it was only a half moon.

The rest of the night was filled with booze and werewolf chat, and then came the sad moment when our pack had to part ways again and head to our different areas of the country, a moment which came far too soon. The weekend really flew by and I just wish it could’ve lasted longer, especially as I’m back to the boring paid proofreading work for the school now.

For a first con as traders I think the day went pretty successfully, but I think all three of us learned a lot about what we can do better in future. I’m starting to see the value in the big banners other authors have at cons for display by their table, and I definitely need to invest in some proper display stands for any future events I do, to make my books more noticeable. Still, this is only the fifth stall I think I’ve done in total and the others have all been fairly small, local events, so I don’t think my table display attempt was too bad. I’m definitely going to look at doing more cons as a trader and I’m sure I’ll keep on improving my stall with each one I do.

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I don’t know if a book launch is supposed to be chaotic, but I’ve found both of mine to be pretty hectic so far. With Hunted nearing publication now, there’s been lots to do in preparation for it; though it hasn’t been quite as bad this time round as it was for Hybrid. It helps that I already have my websites in place and it’s just a case of updating them for Hunted rather than having to sort the design and the build from scratch, and arranging the book trailer went a lot smoother this time.

 
A book trailer isn’t mandatory of course, though in this technical age a good website is a must. But I hoped if I could come up with a really cool werewolf promo video for Hybrid it would help reach more fans who might come across it on YouTube or my other social media. Unfortunately that hasn’t really been the case as the Hybrid trailer hasn’t had many views, so this time I really wanted to up my game and see about doing something live action, in the hopes it will have much wider appeal than the still images and quotes style of the Hybrid one. And since I treated myself to an awesome new costume commission from the very talented Francine Woodward, it seemed like the perfect time to attempt to create some cool werewolf promo footage for use as a trailer.
 
The filming went really well and I’m excited to see the final video, once it’s all been edited together. I also had to think about the cover for Hunted to provide suggestions to Wild Wolf for their designer to work with, as well as suggestions for the blurb, dedications and any updates to my author bio. Now I’ve got all that off to Wild Wolf things should happen pretty quickly, and as soon as the cover’s done we can finalise the trailer.


 
My first book trailer was a nightmare to sort as people kept letting me down, despite the fact I was paying for it. I tried to get the ball rolling well in advance of the release of Hybrid, but due to being let down it ended up being made last minute, within days of the launch. My websites were also done fairly last minute, though that was my own fault for not thinking about the design sooner. There was also the added pressure of the launch happening during the last few weeks of the paid proofreading work I do for the school, which resulted in a few all-nighters to meet both the school’s deadlines and get everything sorted in time for my book launch.
 
For my second book launch I really wanted to avoid that kind of last minute rush and all the stress and pressure it placed me under. Arranging the live action trailer proved much easier than the first, though there was a bit of stressing on the day when my friends who volunteered to help and I were running late to meet my camera man and editor for this project, Russell J. Hall. I was conscious of keeping him waiting and it didn’t help when the sat nav failed us for finding Holme Moss Transmitter, which we’d arranged to meet at. Fortunately we found him and his wife while the light was still good enough for filming and everything went great after that, so fingers crossed the editing goes well now, when the cover is done and I can get over to Sheffield to look at it with Russell.
 
I’ve also spoken with the web designer who built my site to make sure the updates aren’t made last minute. Now it’s just a case of waiting to hear back from Wild Wolf about the cover and the blurb they’ve used, so we can make the updates.
 
Things have calmed down again while I’m waiting to hear from Wild Wolf, but it certainly felt chaotic despite being much more on top of things this time. I also had a few events to attend which added to the feeling of chaos, and I’m still trying to make my first book tour happen before the end of the year, plus I’ve started on book 3 already. There’s never a dull moment anymore but it’s all been so rewarding in my first year as a published author, and I look forward to many more years to come!

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I’ve heard it said that the second book is always the hardest, and I’ve certainly found that with writing book 2 of the Hybrid series, which I’m calling Hunted. I started a very early draft back in my college days before I’d even done the first major redraft of Hybrid, but it’s taken me nearly a decade to finish a first draft, after years of struggling to find what direction the book needed to take. I had plenty of ideas of roughly where the story was going, but it took three re-writes of the first half of the book before I finally felt it was right, and that was before I even had the ideas to fill the second half! Other than the ending which came to me fairly early on, I had no idea what happened after the midway point I kept getting stuck at. And if it weren’t for all you amazing fans who’ve given me the motivation I needed to really bully my brain into working out what the story needed to be and then getting it written, I would probably still be struggling with the second half even now!

One thing I am seeming to find when it comes to novels is I have a tendency to start in the wrong place. The first three chapters of Hybrid were determined all those years ago when my cousin, ‘the real Lady Sarah’, helped me brainstorm them and then left me to write the rest of the story, but originally events that happen around the midway point were in much earlier chapters. It was only after getting so far with the very first working draft that I realised it didn’t work and the tone just became too depressing too quickly, with nothing to balance it out. There was no sense of who Nick was before becoming a werewolf, no sense of who his friends and family were, and without that vital connection between reader and characters there was no impact when anything happened to them. A similar thing happened with Hunted – originally I was going to start a few months down the line after the events of the first book, but in the end it seemed to work much better to start almost immediately after where the first left off and deal with the psychological state Nick’s left in at the end of the first one, and the new challenges for him to adjust to as a result of the way the first one ends.

I also seem to end up adding another major character in before I can finish a draft. Vince didn’t exist in the original working draft of Hybrid – it was only when I got so far that I felt there was a need for a second vampire character before I could finish the book. And with Hunted, there’s a new character who also got added in after getting so far with the working draft before realising there was a need for her, and adding her in allowed me to add in some missing pieces between the work I’d already done and the ending I had in mind, and helped shape the second half of the book. I’m finding a similar thing is now happening with the dark fantasy I want to write as well, which is only in the very early stages – I have about five rough chapters that need a lot of work still, but a new character has already come into being during some workshop meetings at Huddersfield Author’s Circle and now I feel he has a major part to play in the story. And I also feel like I need to add in events that take place before the original opening I had in mind.

Perhaps this is one of the drawbacks of not sitting down and planning out a story before working on it, but I’ve just never been able to work like that. I get a rough idea and I just run with it and see where it takes me, and eventually a story takes shape and all the random ideas and scenes I’ve made notes of fit into that story, and the missing pieces become apparent and slot in, like a jigsaw. But it’s only when I get so far with an idea that I can see what the story needs to be as a whole. Until then it’s like I have pieces of the jigsaw but I’m working without the full image as a reference of where each piece goes, and it’s only when I have so many pieces that I can see what that full image should be and what the right pieces are, and where they need to be.

And in addition to the challenge of putting all those story pieces together to make a whole, I have felt that writing a sequel has been a much greater challenge than if my second book had been a standalone book. I’ve been very aware that I’m no longer writing just for myself, but for fans of the first Hybrid now as well, and I’ve felt some pressure to do the first one justice and make sure the next instalment is every bit as enjoyable for all of you who’ve loved the first so much, and that it’s a satisfactory addition to the story of my fictional self’s struggles as a werewolf. It’s with a certain level of nerves and anxiety I’ve sent the manuscript to my four beta readers (all fans of the first Hybrid themselves), but the feedback so far has been really good so I hope the rest of you will love Hunted just as much.

The paid work is almost done for another year, then I will work on finalising Hunted to send to Wild Wolf asap, and get straight on with book 3 of the series. Thanks for your patience guys and I hope Hunted will prove worth the wait!

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Since my Facebook competition winner, Seyma, picked this story for her handwritten prize, I thought I’d share the inspiration behind ‘Game Over’ next. I do intend to do a ‘story behind’ post for each of my short stories over the coming weeks, as I said in the first of these posts which covered ‘Invoking Hell’, but I’ll blog about other things in between to mix it up a bit.

This was the first short story I’d written since school and, having become so used to working on novels by that point, once again I have to admit to being a bit daunted by the 2200 word limit. I was doubtful whether I could get a decent plot worthy enough to be entered into a competition in what seemed like so few words. Unfortunately this piece didn’t make the shortlist, but according to the website they had around 60 entries, most of which were high quality and required several re-readings by the judges to reach a decision. There was no theme to the competition but I did get the feeling the judges weren’t really into the sort of thing I write, so I wasn’t really expecting to make the top three for this one. But with a £500 cash prize for first place I had to give it a shot!

Some of my fans will know already that I have two cats, one of which is very timid. And just like Monster in the story, often she asks to be let out only to freeze at the open door, acting like there’s something out there in the darkness. I’d been thinking for a while there was a story there somewhere, and I thought maybe I could develop a short story around that idea for the competition.

This was one of the rare occasions when the plot built itself up around the initial idea before any of the narrative came to me. The hardest part was deciding exactly what could creep through the door while the main character held it wide open, without her detecting it. When I decided to make it a demon and had figured out the twist at the end, I then had to decide what the main character had inadvertently given up her soul for, and I wanted it to be something fairly trivial, something that most people would never dream of intentionally trading something so precious for.

Once I’d decided to make her a gamer, the opening came to me and I started to write. Due to the word count and the fact this piece was so plot driven it needed to be fast paced to get from A to B in the number of words I had. I realise the title is somewhat clichéd, but I find titles to be the hardest part of writing so as usual I couldn’t think of anything clever that didn’t give too much away. So as the deadline for submissions drew nearer, I just went with ‘Game Over’.

All in all I was pleased with the way this piece turned out, even if it didn’t win me that £500!

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Much like on the Thursday, I awoke Saturday feeling more tired than hungover. Though with the amount of alcohol I got through over the course of the three days, I’m sure there were some withdrawl symptoms on top of the sleep deprivation.

As tempting as it was to switch off my alarm and fall back into my dreams, troubled though they’d been, memories of the previous night came rushing back and I remembered agreeing to meet Jillian at 9:20, spurring me to action. I was worried I hadn’t given myself enough time to get ready for the day since I also had to checkout, but I made it to the atrium in good time, though I missed breakfast for the third day running. I’d found Karen’s conference pack in my room that morning which I can only assume I’d picked up by mistake at some point during the drunken antics of Thursday night. So I took the opportunity to hand it over to Kaja Franck before the third and final day officially kicked off, as the pack had Karen’s paper in she’d presented on the Thursday which I thought she might need. We had a quick chat about werewolf literature but it wasn’t long before Kaja had to rush off to organise something else, and I was left scanning the crowd for any sign of Jillian. I began to panic I’d missed her, but it turned out she’d also been busy chatting, and we were heading to the panel she was chairing minutes later.

We entered the room to find people already in there, and Jillian had a quick word with the two Matts who were presenting papers, setting our cunning plan in motion. All that was left was for me to sit back and try to relax through the talks, until my moment came.

First Matt Beresford took us back in time to look at classical accounts of the werewolf myth, including the story of King Lycaon, which is one fans of Hybrid might recognise from the backstory of the origins of my werewolves. There were some really interesting historical accounts, including one or two I’d not come across before, although I was struggling to control my rising nerves so I can’t remember the morning as clearly as I otherwise might have done.

Next up Matt Crofts gave a talk on becoming a werewolf as a ‘power up’, and his paper featured one of my favourite video games from my childhood – Altered Beast! I spent so many hours playing the game over and over that I grew to know it like the back of my hand. Next time I can afford to take a night off from writing and marketing Hybrid, I have plans to dig out Altered Beast for old time’s sake, and it’s also been way too long since I massacred any villages as a werewolf on Skyrim. Ah my poor neglected consoles, I’ll try and make time for you soon.

And then it was my turn. My nervousness intensified as I made my way to the front, but it was too late to back out now and besides, this was the moment I’d been hoping for since I’d first learnt about the conference. For mine and Jillian’s plan was a simple one – most panels had three speakers but this one she was chairing only had two, so with Dr Sam George’s blessing I would fill the third slot, using it to read one of my short stories. I’d wanted to read something in the hopes it would help further get my name out there as a writer and also to help me reach new fans, and besides, I know I need to continue practising my reading so I can do my stories justice for future audiences. At a werewolf conference it had to be one of my short werewolf stories of course, and I’d decided on Beasts of Bedburg as the best fit for the event. It did work really well with the theme of the panel as it turned out, or at least I thought so, and I think everyone who heard it was impressed. Though Catherine did advise me afterwards to try and slow down when reading, as it seems my nerves had got the best of me once again, forcing the words out in a rush, despite my efforts to work on reading slower at HAC meetings and in front of the camera for my YouTube videos. It’s something I’ll continue to work on and hopefully perfect over time, but I was just happy to have read a piece for fellow werewolf fans and to receive some good feedback afterwards.

Back in the atrium, it was time for more Little Red Riding Hood and wolf biscuits, as well as werewolf cupcakes. I loved the image placed on top of the icing, which looked to be the werewolf from Doctor Who.

The next few hours focussed on wild children, including ‘Peter the Wild Boy’ whose grave we went to visit that afternoon. There was a talk from fellow author Marcus Sedgwick also themed on wild children, and later in the day he did a book signing – something I hope to be doing someday! Again the talks were really interesting and the trip to the graveyard was fun, although the coach apparently took a weird route which was very much the long way round. Not that I would have noticed if Jillian, Beverley Dear and a couple of others hadn’t pointed it out, typical Yorkshire werewolf as I am – I don’t venture out of Yorkshire often enough to know my way around any other parts of the country!

There was a final talk by Sir Christopher Frayling who had known Angela Carter, author of the story ‘The Company of Wolves’ which the film is based on, and which the werewolf conference was named after. Interesting as this talk was, I was so tired by that point from the lack of sleep over the last three nights that I was struggling to keep my eyes open! Sir Christopher Frayling also did a book signing afterwards, before the conference came to an official close at 6:30. I’d booked my train for 7:30, meaning there would be no time to eat till I made it back to Huddersfield that night, so I stocked up on shortbread biscuits for the journey back and said my goodbyes to all the new friends and acquaintances I’d made over the course of the event.

And so ended my adventures in the company of wolves. I was soon on the train back to Yorkshire, a lone wolf once more. Despite my earlier drowsiness I felt quite awake again, and was kind of sad it had all gone so quickly, feeling like I could have managed another night of beer and more werewolf talk if we hadn’t all been heading home. But all good things must come to an end and so I just want to thank everyone once again for a truly enjoyable and unforgettable experience. This write up would have grown far too long to mention everyone by name, but thanks to all the people who made it so awesome! The next Open Graves Open Minds conference might not be about werewolves (there was talk of a possible zombies, ghosts and revenants theme), but I hope I’ll be back for more adventures and I hope to see everyone again at the next one. Cheers guys!

Part One
Part Two (final part)

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Friday dawned too bright for my pounding head, my alarm sounding way too soon. This was the day of the trip to the UK Wolf Conservation Trust and the coach was leaving at 8:30, which meant getting up at 7:30 to make sure I had plenty of time to catch it. The long coach trip saved me, giving me the chance to nod off for another hour or so, and I was just about able to function once we reached the wolf centre.

We were given a talk on wolves and wolf behaviour which was enjoyable, even though there wasn’t really anything new for me as I’ve researched them so much over the years. Then we were able to see the wolves being fed which was surprisingly by hand through the mesh of the enclosures – I was expecting a carcass to be taken in for the wolves to feed on.

We were also able to hear one of the alpha females (there was more than one pack) howling which was really cool. I forget the name of the lady who gave us the talk and showed us round the enclosures, but I enjoyed chatting with her as we watched the wolves. She told us the story of a wolf with no teeth, and how the rest of the pack chewed his food for him so he didn’t starve, and as the wolves grew playful while we talked I had to wonder just how they ever came to be so feared and hated. Of course there has been conflict between man and wolf, particularly with farmers, but the same could be said of big cats and other large predators, and yet none have gained such a negative reputation as the wolf, a reputation that I feel is really undeserved. But more on that in a bit. Suffice to say the awe at being around real wolves, which is something I’ve not experienced often as most of the zoos I’ve been to didn’t have any wolf packs, renewed my love for them and my passion for animal rights, a theme which creeps into Hybrid in places.

We had a packed lunch on the coach on the way back which I thought would be sandwiches again, but turned out to be a boxed chicken salad. My inner wolf was not overly happy with salad and I could have really done with sandwiches and crisps for my hangover, as I was starting to get that empty feeling that too much beer often gives, but it was nice nevertheless. And once we were back at the uni there were more biscuits waiting for us which helped to keep me going till the conference dinner later. I think it was at this point I got chatting to Catherine Pugh and Jillian Wingfield, initially about dogs but this somehow evolved into one of the most entertaining chats of the week about flying sheep and canine wellies for transformed werewolves during the full moon. Again we really hit it off, as I did with everyone I spoke to at the event, and if flying sheep make an appearance in one of my works, this is where it came from!

Prof. Garry Marvin then gave a talk on wolves, including the problems they face when it comes to re-introduction into areas they’ve been wiped out of. I was quite shocked by the level of worldwide hatred for this misunderstood animal, having never realised quite how deep the hatred runs among some people. It was also upsetting to see images of wolves shot and worse by ranchers, and wolves about to face brutal deaths of the kind I might write in my stories. One poor wolf was tethered by ropes and surrounded by men on horses, each holding one of the ropes, and Prof. Marvin informed us they were about to ride off in different directions, ripping the wolf apart. Such a horrific death for an animal guilty of nothing more than existing, it seemed. The picture Prof. Marvin painted was of a hatred that went beyond the clashes between wolves and farmers whose livestock they’d sometimes preyed upon over the centuries, or at least that was the impression I got. It seemed they’d been persecuted simply because those historical clashes had identified them as the enemy, as opposed to any current problems with livestock deaths. There were even images of recent propaganda suggesting kids would be next on the menu, despite the fact wolf attacks on humans are rare. My hackles were raised in response to this talk and it gave me more inspiration to write than anything else covered in the conference.

Afterwards it was time for two more parallel sessions, one of which included Jillian’s talk on the novel ‘Fat White Vampire Blues’. I felt the papers gave a really good range of werewolf themes, from historical tales to modern fiction, to media representations, as well as werewolves and other shapeshifters in different cultures, but this book was perhaps the most obscure of those covered during the event. There were some great quotes about the main character’s intimate moment with a certain stray female dog (he was in wolf form for this), which gave rise to vampire-wolf-dog hybrids, or something along those lines. Jillian’s presentation finished with what she felt was stunned silence, but I thought her talk was really entertaining given that the subject matter was so comedic, though I can’t speak for the other delegates of course.

Friday evening we also had the magic lantern show which was cool. I had no idea what it was, simply paying for it along with the rest of the booking on the principal that if I was going to do the event, I might as well do everything. So I had no idea what to expect, but it turned out ‘magic lanterns’ were an early type of image projector, using techniques to make the images on the slides seem to move, which terrified audiences who braved ‘Phantasmagoria’ in the 18th century. We were treated to a story with a werewolf theme which was told through use of the slides and narration, and gave a different type of storytelling experience to what we’re used to in this modern era of movies and other technology.

Dinner was served not long after. My only complaint was the lack of red meat on the menu – at a werewolf conference I would have expected steak! – but the chicken was really nice and the catering staff were kind enough to do mine without the sauce. I’ve never been fond of sauces, preferring the taste of a good chunk of meat without anything to disguise it. In fact the only sauce I will eat is bolognaise!

There was also free wine on offer but I actually took it easy on the Friday night, believe it or not! I didn’t even feel tipsy by the end of the evening and I actually got to bed at a reasonable hour, though I think that’s more because everyone else did, rather than any kind of sensible thinking on my part.

The dinner was another fun, social experience, and I chatted with Jillian some more. It wasn’t long before we ended up plotting, and despite getting to bed earlier and being so sleep deprived already, it was a restless night once again. My mind was buzzing with the prospect of what the morning would bring, and what little sleep I did have was troubled as I fell into the kind of vivid dream that leaves you convinced it was real when you first wake up. But I was too determined to back out, so I tried to calm my nerves as best I could while I tossed and turned into the early hours, until my alarm summoned me back to reality the next day.

And here ends part 2!

The post Company of Wolves (Part 2) appeared first on Nick Stead.

One thing I’m learning when it comes to marketing is this: never underestimate the power of networking. Whilst most of my online efforts have been met with limited success, by far the most sales I’ve had to date have been through meeting people in the real world. I mentioned before I’ve been getting involved with Huddersfield Literature Festival, which was my first networking experience and an enjoyable one so far, and I’ve been on the lookout for other opportunities since. So when a friend linked this article on ‘the UK’s only werewolf conference’ on Facebook, I knew it was too good an opportunity to miss. I was originally going to do a write up of this all in one blog post, but it’s proving far too much to cover so I’m now going to split it into three, as the title of this post suggests.

The Company of Wolves conference ran from Thursday 3rd to Saturday 5th September, but it was a three hour train journey from Huddersfield so I travelled down on the Wednesday. The day was already off to a great start when I was approached by another passenger on the way to Wakefield, who’d overheard me talking about the conference on the phone. He took a business card and promised to have a look at my short stories, and we’ve since connected on Twitter. I was on a high, having just met a potential new fan, and growing ever more hyped as I blasted out the likes of Powerwolf, Rob Zombie, and Metallica through my earphones. Neither the long train journey nor the forty minute trek from Hatfield station to Hertfordshire University (which I was crazy enough to make on foot!) could diminish my good spirits, though I was ready for a cold pint by the time I found the residential office and was able to check in to my room. Of course the sensible thing would have been to then take a taxi or a bus to The Red Lion pub where the meet and greet was planned that night, but no, I was determined to walk again to save myself a few quid. So I was well and truly knackered by the time I made it to the pub!

Once inside, I was greeted by a waitress who didn’t seem to know anything about the werewolf conference, and I had no idea who I was looking for, other than Dr Sam George whose picture I’d seen on Twitter, and who didn’t make it to the pub for the meet and greet in the end. It was with some relief that I heard the word ‘werewolf’ from a nearby table and I replied with something along the lines of “Yes, werewolves! I’ve found you!”, probably marking myself out as the mad Yorkshire werewolf right from the start. A truly enjoyable evening followed, filled with talk of werewolf literature, beer, steak, general horror/gothic talk and more beer. The staff behind the bar didn’t seem to know about the werewolf conference and when I mentioned it one of them said “Oh so that is a real thing then? I thought one of the other guys was just making it up!” I handed out two more business cards but must remember not to try and explain what Hybrid is about after several pints, as I’m pretty sure eyes were starting to glaze over in response to my drunken rambling. The conference for me was a very boozy one, and so began what would lead to my three day hangover.

Actually Thursday morning I was more tired than hungover, after being laid awake most of the night. Despite not being able to do much more than slip in and out of consciousness, I laid there as long as possible before dragging myself out of bed for registration that morning, which meant I missed breakfast. I did make it in plenty of time for things officially kicking off though, and when I introduced myself to Sam and a couple of other university staff they were very supportive of my marketing efforts. They let me leave a stack of my business cards on the table with the conference packs given out to all delegates, which was awesome and I was really grateful for. If only I’d been up earlier they would have slipped a business card into each pack for me! I also spied a couple of reporters and made it my mission to try and get an interview with one of them to plug Hybrid, which I succeeded with later that morning as you can see from the BBC article I was featured in. The picture is a little dodgy, but I guess it could’ve been worse after so little sleep.

There were several parallel sessions run over the course of the conference, which meant that we had to choose between the talks running at the same time. All the talks I attended were really interesting, and my only regret is that I couldn’t borrow a time turner from Hogwarts to sit in on them all! I even enjoyed Bill Hughes’ talk on paranormal romance, despite it being a genre I have no interest in reading myself, and by far the most entertaining slide in his presentation was the cover art for ‘Mounted by a Merman’, which had us all in stitches.

Throughout the event we were kept well fed, with Little Red Riding Hood and wolf shortbread biscuits appearing each time we had a break. There was also a really nice spread for lunch on the Thursday, and I gorged myself on chicken and BLT sandwiches, and two chocolate covered buns. The Little Red Wine Reception was also a highlight of the day as it was a chance to do more mingling, hand out more business cards, and drink free beer! I was happy to see bottles of Bud on offer and I enjoyed the social side to the event as much as the talks, having met some really great people who I hope to keep in touch with on Facebook. It was during the reception I was approached by fellow werewolf fanatic Lauren, who’d noticed my Spiral werewolf shirt, and we quickly hit it off. Then it was on to Prezzo for dinner. There were so many of us that we couldn’t all fit on the big table we’d booked, so Matt Beresford had the great idea of grabbing a booth. Mother and daughter Christine and Natasha joined us, making it the northern booth except for Lauren who was our token southerner, until she had to leave to make the drive home. Most people on the big table were sensible and left the restaurant at a reasonable time, but not the four of us in our booth. We joined the other stragglers at the big table and drank until the restaurant staff kicked us out, but the night was young and we felt the call of more beer! Now, my memory of events was that we decided to be sensible adults and walk one of the ladies, Karen, back to the Travelodge where she was staying, rather than leaving her to go on her own whilst we headed back to the uni. And of course this meant more beer as the Travelodge bar was bound to be open. But according to Natasha, it was her suggestion we walk Karen back and me and Matt were all “Chivalry?! What is this?!” and it was only the realisation that the bar would be open that swayed us. I like my version of events better haha.

Suddenly it was 2am and I’d gone from nicely tipsy to feeling very drunk and in need of passing out, which I was finally able to do once back in my room at around 2:30. But at least I slept solidly for the few hours I had in bed that night, before the early start the next day. And here I’ll conclude the first part of my Company of Wolves write up. I’ll try and get the rest posted over the weekend, to make up for the lack of blog posts whilst I’ve been away on all these adventures (anyone who follows me on Twitter and/or Facebook will know I was away at LARP the weekend before Company of Wolves, with just one day to recover before heading off for the conference!). So, part 2 coming soon!

The post The Company of Wolves (Part 1) appeared first on Nick Stead.

One of the most common questions I get asked as a writer is where I get my inspiration from. The answer to this isn’t a simple one, and the inspiration behind each of my stories to date has come from different places. This subject ties in with another one I want to cover, namely that of dealing with writer’s block. But I also thought it might be of interest to some fans to read what sparked the idea for each of my short stories, so today I want to talk about how I came to write Invoking Hell. I thought I’d start with this piece as it was the first one I chose for my YouTube channel, but I will do a post on each eventually.

‘Invoking Hell’ was my first attempt at flash fiction, so I was quite happy it won first place in Huddersfield Author’s Circle (HAC) annual President’s Competition in 2013. The competition usually runs amidst the chaos of the proofreading work I do for the school which I’ve mentioned previously, so my entries tend to be done last minute. And as flash fiction is by its very nature so short, I was quite daunted by such a tight word count (250 words max, +10%). I had no idea how I was going to get a story in so few words as most of my pieces tend to be very plot driven, and how much plot can you fit into less than 300 words?! Yet I wanted to challenge myself, so I was determined to have a go.

The theme of the competition was letters, notes and lists, but beyond that we were free to write what we wanted. However, I think ‘Invoking Hell’ really came about as a result of a workshop we’d had a few weeks previously at HAC. The theme being our ideas of Heaven or Hell, either in the biblical sense or in the sense of a character’s personal Heaven or Hell. During the workshop I tried to write something a bit different as Hell tends to be a recurrent theme in so much of my work, and that would actually become The Restless months later when I went back to it. But there was much I could have done with that workshop, and it was a couple of weeks afterwards when ‘Invoking Hell’ came to me, late one night.

As I was laid in bed my mind wandered back to the meeting and the various themes I could have explored, such as the personal Hell the victim of a nasty accident might go through, and it was then that the first line came to me. The ‘I’ sounded in my head so strongly that I just knew this would be a piece of raw power and shock value, rather than particularly plot driven, and knew then that it would be my flash fiction piece. Usually when a story idea comes to me I have a sense of how long it needs to be, and I knew this piece would be roughly the right length to fit the word count, and perfectly suited for the flash fiction category.

I feel the fact that it started writing itself in first person and present tense added to the power, so I began scribbling it down on a piece of paper. I let the words continue to flow till it was done, ready to be typed up in the morning and edited accordingly.

When it came to ‘performing’ it for the YouTube video, I wanted to try and get that raw power into my delivery of the piece. I really wanted to read the opening sentence as it first came to me that night, as if the guy in the story is really proud and egotistical, thinking he can mess with demonic forces, and ultimately it’s that pride that’s his undoing. I’m quite happy with the way the video turned out and I enjoyed making it. Hopefully I can do my other pieces justice as I make more videos!

And that’s pretty much it for the story behind ‘Invoking Hell’. I hope you guys enjoyed it, and I’ll talk about my other pieces in the weeks to come.

The post The Story Behind Invoking Hell appeared first on Nick Stead.

In my marketing post I mentioned social media is a must. It was something I never really got into in my personal life, but as a published author that all changed. I’ve had to embrace it as part of my daily routine in an ongoing bid to reach new fans and engage existing ones, and it remains a staple part of my marketing campaign as time goes on.

My first port of call was Facebook. I created my author page, intending to use it mostly to post any news around my writing career. Unfortunately, things have gone slower than hoped and there’s been little in the way of news to post, leaving me constantly racking my brains for new ways to engage my fans. My attempts to post something with the potential to go viral have so far been unsuccessful, but I keep trying new things in an attempt to get more likes and shares. Visual posts seem to work best: images with quotes stuck on are often popular, or caption pictures, particularly of animals. Though neither have worked for me so far; most of my fans just don’t seem to be inclined to share these things!

I’m also starting to get the hang of Twitter, at last. At first I found it daunting after all the Twitter etiquette I looked at and advice, but I keep gaining followers and some of them have been kind enough to Retweet and favourite my Tweets. There’s already plenty of great articles out there about marketing through Twitter and it could easily be a blog post in itself, so I’m not going to go into too much detail here. I did find this post by Rayne Hall really helpful when I was first starting out though – http://writeforkids.org/2014/07/ten-tips-for-promoting-your-book-on-twitter/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss

Amazon Author Central is also a must for writers, but frustratingly you can’t just sign up on your own country’s site and see the information across the different countries that do it. If you want an author page on Author Central then you have to sign up for each country individually and copy and paste your information across each time. I did find it a bit of a ball ache to set up but once it’s there you don’t actually have to do anything with it, unless there’s any need to update anything, so it’s worth doing. Amazon US lets you sync your blog if you have one so new blog posts automatically appear on your author page, though this doesn’t seem to be a feature on any of the other Author Central sites, and they all pull your tweets through which gives fans something to follow. But there’s no need to constantly publish new content like with Twitter and Facebook, so it’s a fairly low maintenance option for reaching out to fans.

Goodreads is a must since it’s a site specifically for readers. You have to request an author account but once they grant you that you get access to a few useful marketing tools, and again you can sync your blog. I’ve still to explore Goodreads but so far I’ve been trying to catch up on some reading so I can write some reviews, and then I intend to try approaching some relevant groups on there. The advice when joining groups is to do so as a reader initially, and only mention your own book(s) when people start to get to know you. So I figured it would be worth doing some more reading before getting into that to give me more to talk about with potential fans of my work.

There’s also Pinterest which I’m actually quite enjoying. The thing I like about Pinterest is, there’s not really much thought required once you come up with a theme for a board. You just search for relevant content and pin anything you like, meaning I can blast out my music while I add to my boards because I don’t really have to concentrate too hard on what I’m doing. I don’t have many followers yet but I still have work to do to build up most of my boards, as there’s a few with only a handful of pins so far. I’m hopeful that I can attract fellow werewolf fans, readers and general horror fans as time goes on, who will then hopefully see my Hybrid related pins and check it out (and hopefully buy a copy!).

And finally, I started my own YouTube channel this week. I was considering doing a vlog of sorts, but it took me a lot longer than anticipated to make my first video. So, for the time being, I think I will just put up videos of me ‘performing’ my short stories and see if it generates much interest. Again, I’m hopeful to reach some new fans this way, particularly as many people aren’t big readers these days. My hope is that people who haven’t really engaged with the written versions of my short stories might be more inclined to watch the videos and share them with their friends.

I’m still learning as I continually try new things, but I do feel like I’m starting to get the hang of the various social media I’m on now. There’s no denying the power of these sites for reaching new fans, but it seems like there’s still lots of experimenting to be done to find the content that gets good engagement and those all important shares.

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What’s the best tool a writer can have — besides the obvious imagination and creativity needed for fiction, and a good enough way with words to make your story readable? I believe it’s determination.

As a writer you’re going to get used to hearing the word ‘no’. Or worse, you’ll grow used to that soul-destroying silence in the days, weeks and months spent hoping and praying for a response that never comes. Whether it be from agencies or publishers for those seeking publication through the ‘traditional’ route, or from the media you’re contacting in search of publicity, you need to be prepared to deal with rejection. And I’ve found the best way to deal with the word no — or no response at all — is to let it fuel your drive and determination, and simply keep going.

I feel adopting a positive attitude is a must. Often it simply takes finding the right person at the right time to find that yes you’re looking for. That also translates into sales. I read something on marketing recently which advised taking it one sale at a time. So for every person that visits my sites and doesn’t go on to buy a copy of Hybrid, I remain optimistic that eventually someone new will stumble on my sites and check out the content, resulting in a sale and a new fan being born. It’s the same approach I took whilst trying to get published, remaining determined to get Hybrid out there one way or another even if I had to self-publish. It’s the mindset I’ve retained despite the new challenges I face as a currently unknown debut author. Regardless of how many places I contact in the hopes of getting an interview or a book review and how many of these places say no — if they bother to respond at all — I’ll just keep on pushing until eventually I find somewhere that says yes.

Maybe this post says more about my personality than anything else because I think I am a pretty positive and optimistic kind of guy for the most part, but I do think it’s important nevertheless. If you take each rejection to heart and eventually just give up you’re never going to get anywhere. You have to cling to the belief that your story is good enough to exist as a published work for the enjoyment of your target audience; and if you’re not confident in that belief perhaps that’s a sign your novel still needs more work before you send on to anyone else. Or if the rejection you’re dealing with is in terms of marketing like me, maybe it’s time to review your approach and try something new. For each marketing idea I have that doesn’t seem to do me any favours, I reassess my approach and put my effort into trying something else, and I remain confident that eventually I’ll find something that helps me reach the masses.

Don’t let rejection get you down: use it to fuel your determination to succeed instead!

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