Did something just move? - Hello

It's time to do that first post, that corrupting moment where a pristine blog or page becomes sullied with the thoughts and ideas of the creator, imposing his will on the limp and dead form that is laid before him. That's a bit Frankenstein-esque but it seems a fitting way to start things.

I have only studied writing seriously for the last few years, but have always had a love of writing my own stories, even to the extent of asking our English teacher at school when we could write another story. Sadly, the answer back then was something along the lines of "That's about it I'm afraid."

I have been struggling with a chronic illness for the last decade or more, and this has led to me leading a very indoors life. When I am not resting and trying to feel slightly less than shit, I am quite limited in my choice of hobbies or activities to pass the time. Since being ill I have done a few correspondence courses, the last of which was a two year diploma in literature and creative writing, done with the good people at the Open University. While finding the course easy enough to understand, the effort required for me to write, with old-school pen and paper or even on a PC, was quite substantial, and left me more often than not feeling worse than ever. I did however rediscover my love of writing, and my course marks and tutors seemed to suggest that it was something that I could do, and do very well. So here I am.

I have an affinity for writing horror stories. I will turn my hand to other styles but I think horror will be my main focus for sometime to come. My biggest influences in the horror field being authors like HP Lovecraft, Brian Lumley and James Herbert. I do like the genres of fantasy and scifi also, so some of my work may feature elements of those. I greatly admire the humour and invention in Terry Pratchett's discworld novels, and also the epic scale of works like JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and Silmarillion books.

As a first post goes, I think that is enough for now. I am currently pondering and sifting through some of my finished short fiction that I feel is worthy of being posted, so hopefully something should be up in the next few days.

Thank you for reading,

Casey