Keith's July Newsletter

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Welcome Everyone

And a special welcome to those of you who signed up for this newsletter at The Town That Never Was. Surprise! Bet you'd forgot about it, eh.

I'm a day late with this month's newsletter, for reasons that will become apparent, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable (I hope).

Struck Down By The Dreaded Lurgy

I had great fun at The Town That Never Was this month. What was less fun was contracting covid at some point over the weekend. My first time, as far as I'm aware, it gave me a raging fever on the hottest days of the year, as well as a nasty cough that still lingers. Covid has been the worst I've ever felt without having to go into hospital, and I can only imagine how much worse it might have been if I hadn't had the vaccine.

On the mend now, but it did mean me having to shelve all projects for a while, which is why this newsletter is a day late. Hard to start on anything when all you need is a bit of R n' R.

News From The Steam Factory

The big news this month of course is me doing my first ever live event at The Town That Never Was. It was a mad scramble to get everything sorted out, but everything came together eventually... more or less. Check out the set-up I had for the weekend.

I had hoped to have a badge made of the airship to sell as well but they weren't done in time, so I had to settle for just the Dexter badges. Still, I managed to get some bookmarks made, so I at least had those available to give out to people.

It was a lovely sunny weekend, maybe a little too sunny in fact. The first day was okay, but the second day was boiling. Far too hot for wandering about outside, which is probably why there were less visitors on Sunday than there was Saturday.

Saying that though there was still a lot of people there, including many who got dressed up for the occasion. Honestly, it never ceases to amaze me the enthusiasm and inventiveness of the steampunk crowd. They really do deserve a bigger following than they have.

As well as selling books I was asked to do a reading each day, which made made a little nervous. Like everyone I have a fear of nobody showing up to my party. Thankfully there were half a dozen or so who showed up on Saturday, which was really nice. Unfortunately my view on the Sunday was this...

It's a rite of passage I'm told, nobody turning up to one of your readings, and if so let's hope it's the last time it happens.

Next time I'll be more prepared and will do my own planning. It wasn't really organised in any proper sense, so the fact that no one showed isn't entirely unexpected.

Anyway, it was a fun weekend and I learned a lot. I met some lovely people, and I got to spend more time in the gorgeous Iron Bridge Gorge, which is a beautiful part of the country. If you have a spare weekend and live within driving distance I thoroughly recommend popping by. There's dozens of museums, lots of nice little cafes and restaurants you can try, and a stonking chippy right next to the Iron Bridge itself, although get there early before they run out of curry sauce (unlike I did).

Oh, and a final note on the bizarre B&B I stayed at. It was like something out of an 80s time-warp fever dream. Wooden jockeys in the hallway, pictures of Sean Bean on the walls, and beds and bedding straight from grandma's house. The owner was lovely but boy was it an experience. They even had a motorbike in the living room!

The above are just a smattering of the pictures I took over the weekend. You can see a few more on my

Instagram

, although not as many as I would like. My SD card got corrupted, so until I can get the pictures off of that then these, what's on Insta, and a few on my

account will have to do for now.

When I'm Not Writing

What with covid and everything I haven't had the brain for much reading this month. I've mostly been playing

Horizon: Zero Dawn

and watching

Only Murders In The Building

on Disney+ and

The Umbrella Academy

on Netflix, all of which come highly recommended.

But there is one book I've managed to finished, and that's because it's just so darned good!

Legends & Lattes is just a great little book. I was drawn to the cover, obviously, but also the idea of "high fantasy... and low stakes". Too many books feel the need to be big, epic, (grim) stories, full of lore and destiny so dense it's like wading through mud. Legends & lattes on the other hand is just a simple story with lovable characters you start rooting for from the very beginning. It's easy to read, easy to enjoy, and if you don't come away from it wanting to open an orcish coffee shop by the end of it I'll be amazed.

If you like fantasy, you like fun characters, and you like a heartfelt emotions offered up with no apology and a great deal of love, then you'll like Legends & Lattes.

And there we have it. That's been my July. Some fun, but an awful lot of sitting around feeling grotty as well.

I'll sign off with a link for those of you who are new here, and possibly new to steampunk. There's a post on my website that, whilst it maybe doesn't explain everything, will give you a good grounding, and goes a long way in explaining in basic terms,

What Is Steampunk?

Thanks all for stopping by. Your support is much appreciated. Next month I hope to have news on book three, Attack Mars!!, as well as some airship badge images to share (finally).

Toodle-pip for now.

Keith