Greetings my most excellent Badger Fans. Welcome to another fascinating look into my fictional universe (which henceforth shall be known as the SWBC - The Spooky World of Badgers Crossing) and some other snippets from my real life.
Let’s burrow straight in…
Back To School
On Thursday morning I’ll be talking to around 300 students about Creative Writing. Lodge Park Academy in Corby is my old secondary school and after my parents gave them a copy of Tales From Badgers Crossing last year, they got in touch to invite me to their World Book Day celebrations.
It’s a place that holds many great memories for me and it inspired the setting and characters for my ghost story Cloakroom Duty which features in TFBC. It was quite humbling to be invited and trusted to share my experiences and knowledge with the children.
Here’s my end-of-year photo, taken in the summer of 1991, just as I was about to sit my GCSEs. Can you find me?
Of course, I’m looking forward to it but I’m also a tad nervous. I’ve played the guitar and sung for much larger crowds before, but they weren’t ALL aged between 13 and 16!
Wish me luck!
And I’m sorry to disappoint you, but no, I won’t be dressing up as a giant badger!
Novella News
This year I’ll be publishing a few longer, novella-length tales set in the SWBC. The first, called Bait, has a provisional release period of ‘Spring 2023’. You may recognise the title - if you pre-booked TFBC from Greenteeth Press last year, you should have received a free eBook copy.
However, a newly expanded version of Bait will be available to buy from Amazon as both a Kindle eBook and paperback through my own publishing imprint, Broccton Press. Once I have a definite date, and pre-orders are open, you’ll be the first to know.
Bait is an old-fashioned adventure story with a paranormal edge. It’s inspired by a number of creepy television shows and comics from my 1970s and 80s childhood. Here’s a very brief synopsis:
Debbie Carter promised old Bert Smallwood that she would look after his badgers after he was gone. With the help of her friend Ty, she's going to do just that, no matter who - or what - lurks in the shadows of Penlock Forest.
Bait contains a bonus story called Eleanor Culpepper & The Crossroads Book. If you came to my charity folk horror storytelling night back in October you will have heard me read it aloud. Once again, this will be updated and expanded for the book.
The other novella will come out in the second half of the year. The Convergence is a mix of folk horror, found footage and police procedural drama inspired by the Hauntology scene. I’ll write more on that in a future Letter From Badgers Crossing but I will say that while writing it I listened to a lot of music by Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan and Concretism. It will also contain another bonus story, although I haven’t decided which yet.
Here’s a taster of what to expect:
Sergeant Lisa “Cally” Callaghan gets all the weird cases. The ones that nobody else at the station wants - or dares - to investigate. When a popular Urban Exploration vlogger is attacked during an illegal live stream from the now derelict transportation hub that was once the jewel in the crown of Badgers Crossing’s post-war regeneration programme, Cally and her protégé Constable Zainab Adhikari uncover a terrifying mystery that takes them back to the 1970s and beyond...
Cover Reveal!
Now here’s a treat for you.
I’ve been working on Bait’s cover artwork for a couple of weeks now, having dusted off my old drawing and painting skills for the first time in AGES and I’m very proud to reveal the finished artwork for Bait to you. Aside from a few friends who have helped me during the design process, you’re the first people to see it.
It was hand-drawn on paper with HB and 4H pencils and black fine-line graphic pens and then touched up and coloured in Photoshop. The drawing style is inspired by artist heroes of mine like Eric Bradbury, Phil Gascoine, Jesus Redondo and Jose Ortiz and is a homage to 70s/80s comics like Scream, Misty, 2000 AD and Jinty. The idea to draw it myself, rather than create a fully digital image, was influenced by horror writer and illustrator Gemma Amor, who often draws and paints her own covers.
I really hope you like it; I’ve put a lot of time and work into it and I’m very proud of what I’ve produced. However, there’s one last decision I need to make before uploading it to Bait’s page on Amazon and this is where you can help me.
Can you tell me which of the four images below you prefer?
This is the original image, with just the ink and colour as drawn and painted by me with no other effects:
For the second one, I’ve added a Halftone dot effect, to give it that old-school Golden Age comic-book look:
The third is the original image with a vintage newspaper filter applied to reflect the type of stock those old comics used to be printed on:
And the fourth combines my artwork, the Halftone effect AND the vintage paper filter:
For a closer look at the effects in the images, Right-Click on each one and choose “Open Image in New Tab” (or whatever is similar in your preferred browser).
Register your favourite here:
The poll will be open until the end of the day on Tuesday 28th February. I’ll reveal the full, finished cover to the wider world on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram on Wednesday 1st March.
Corby Steelworks Errata
One last thing before I finish.
When I visited my parents earlier this month my dad told me he’d enjoyed what I wrote about Corby steelworks in a previous Letter from Badgers Crossing. He said it brought back many memories of his time working there. However, he also pointed out that I had made a small factual error, so here is a correction:
I said that the local iron ore was used by a relatively small-scale steelmaking operation near the village of Corby and that “the Glaswegian steel firm Stewarts & Lloyds” came to Corby to take advantage of the vast deposits of the mineral.
That’s not quite right.
The mining in Corby was run by Lloyd & Lloyd Ltd of Birmingham. Stewart & Menzies Ltd were a Scottish firm of similar size until they started to buy up steel and iron firms across the UK. They became Stewarts & Lloyds in the late 1900s, although operations in Corby remained under the control of Samuel Lloyd and his son Samuel Janson with their Lloyds Ironworks Company.
It wasn’t until 1920 that S&L fully merged Lloyds Ironstone into the main company. It would be another 12 years before S&L decided to make Corby their base of operations and began expanding the site, which finally opened in 1935.
Thanks to my dad for pointing this out, and also telling me some fascinating stories from his days working on the site that sounded like a Health & Safety officer’s worst nightmare (complete with some gruesome injury details that would turn you white) and might very well inspire a future Badgers Crossing story!
That’s All For Now
Thanks to everyone who reads and subscribes to my Letters From Badgers Crossing - and a big “Hello” if you’re new!
The feedback I’ve received on these news updates so far has been very encouraging, and I really do appreciate it, so please do find me on Social Media or leave a comment below to let me know what you think.
Also, please feel free to ask me anything. When I have enough questions, I’ll answer them all in a future Letter.
Until next time, keep badgering on!
Paul