Sleaze Fiend Magazine Issue 3.5

The latest issue of Sleaze Fiend Magazine is here! This time around it's a combination of new material (100 pages worth) and a selection of the best bits from the now sold out 1^st and 2^nd issues. You can pick up a copy of SFM 3.5 as well as Issue #3 by visiting Weird World Publishing's online store HERE.

New bonus material for this issue includes: “XXX Drive-In: From The First To The Last”, an examination of the curious oddity that were open air drive-in movie theatres that specialised in showing adult movies (even curiouser is that there are still two that are operational, both in Texas)! There is also a look into G&A Books, a notorious adult book store that was a fixture of the 42^nd Street of old, a review of Hard Ticket To Hawaii by yours truly, and “Archie's Satanic A Go-Go”, which is an article about a bizarre sideline in Archie comics between 1972 and 1975 that featured stories filled with gore, horror, and Satanism...

Click “READ MORE” below to continue...

Feedback for FWOAN...

"For Want Of A Nail" has been doing very well on the festival circuit and with that comes some feedback, so here's a selection of the kind words we've been receiving.

Loved it! Wonderful! I don’t have OCD, but I’m always trying to look for context and examples, to help me understand how my daughter is processing things and how OCD might be disrupting/interfering in her brain. The various visual treatments of Marty’s thoughts, in the multitude of ways that you showed them, did a fabulous job to help me. Thank you for that! It’s really hard, perhaps impossible, for those with OCD to shut off the thoughts. That’s so clear in the film. Well done.

Chris Baler, Producer of 2017 Documentary Short "Unstuck: An OCD Kids Movie"

For Want of a Nail is a great short film. The Writing is awesome and the directing brought it together quite nicely. The Acting was very natural and I could feel the emotions in the characters. The Cinematography was very well done. The Editing was smooth and true to the genre. The Sound Design / Score was perfect for the genre as well. The Visual FX were very well done throughout. I loved it!

Mindfield Film Festival, Alburquerque

WOWOWOW!  I am so impressed with the final product! It's excellent in every way! Bravo and THANK YOU for making it!

OCD Help For All

Absolutely spot on. Well done for this , very informative.

Ash Curry, Advocate for OCD Action and NHS Speaker

I have a friend who has bad OCD. Now I have a better understanding of how his obsessions affect him. Really good informative film. Very informative.

Keith, Mental Health News Hub

We loved your film and are extremely honoured to have such high quality work as part of our festival.

Changing Face International Film Festival

You can also read a review of the film by The Independent Critic HERE.

FWOAN - Interview with actor Clark Alexander...

Following on from interviews with Thomasin Lockwood (Mindi) and Lisa Opara (Sally), we've now got an interview with our lead actor Clark Alexander, who plays Marty in For Want Of A Nail.

What appeals to you about the character of Marty?
I really like the challenge of being able to play a character with OCD. I like how much Marty jokes and makes light of his OCD, yet the film has some dark and heavy themes so it's nice to find the light within that.

What has your most challenging role been so far?

Marty looks to be my most challenging role thus far, which is really exciting. But before this, it would have to be Trigorin in The Seagull by Anton Chekhov.

Skip on over to the official FWOAN website to read the full interview by clicking HERE.

FWOAN - Interview with actress Lisa Opara...

Following on from yesterday's interview with Thomasin Lockwood (Mindi), you can now check out an interview with Lisa Opara - who plays Marty's girlfriend Sally in For Want Of A Nail.

What appeals to you about the character of Sally?

I felt a lot of empathy for Sally. She clearly has a huge heart and genuinely loves Marty but she's just had enough. She seems like a very strong character so I'm excited to explore her strength, but even more excited to explore her vulnerability. The internal war between holding on for the sake of love, and letting go for the sake of, well almost for the sake of her sanity is something that drew me to her.

Read the full interview at the official FWOAN website HERE.

Snuffles: The Screenplay...

A while back I accidentally wrote a novella called "How Mr Snuffles III and Others Met Their Maker". I say accidentally because it had started out as a short story which then grew into a novella on-the-fly. I found myself hopping back and forth inserting new passages and ideas and it was one of the most 'free-wheeling' instances of writing that I have experienced thus far.

It is a black comedy about an orphaned pet therapist/serial killer aficionado who teams up with a gifted taxidermist to explore the limits of love, death, and psychopathy ... so yeah, the jettest of jet black comedies.

A nearly complete version of the layout/guide.

There's nothing quite like a good old corkboard with actual, physical index cards and pins.

Anyway, a while after writing the novella I had the idea of converting it into a script, but various other things I wanted to write slid in first until now, a couple of years down the line. I've returned to it for a little bit of creative writing fun to kick off 2018. With a fair bit of groundwork already done in writing the novella, I figured this would be a project I could hammer out efficiently...

Click "READ MORE" below to continue and also see a little sample...

Return to "Vengeance"...

The last time I worked on "A Sideline In Vengeance" (a conspiracy thriller screenplay) was over a year ago. Naturally, in that time I've been doing a lot of writing - what with For Want Of A Nail (currently in the editing stage - and I've seen the rough cut), as well as Murder at the Grindhouse (out of which I've also crafted a 'TV pilot' screenplay in the last few weeks).

When you come back to something you wrote a while back you invariably find new changes to make. When I last set eyes on the script I had no further ideas on how to work it - I'd gone as far as I could at that point in time. Now, though, it's a different story. I've got a list of tweaks I want to make - but first: the red pen comes out!

Where once was cleanly printed pages, now lies a wash of red ink (sometimes it's nice to be able to refer back to to editing process in this 'analogue' way, something which you lose when editing a document ... this way you get to see your mental process around your writing). I'm picking my way through the script line-by-line making initial changes and generally hacking out dialogue that I thought was necessary at the time, but now no longer need. It'll be interesting to see what happens to the page count when I apply all of these initial 'red pen on the paper' changes and cuts. More on this as-and-when...

For Want Of A Nail

I've alluded to a project called "For Want Of A Nail" for a while now on this blog, and finally I can say a bit more about it.

A year-and-a-bit ago I wrote a short screenplay (adapted from my short story), entered a competition, got short-listed, and ultimately my script was picked to be the one that was to be made into a short film by Oakhill Productions (one of their past projects is the award-winning short film All's Well, which most recently won the audience choice award at the Veteran's Film Festival for its portrayal of PTSD)...

Click "READ MORE" below to continue...

So begins the editing process...

After leaving "Murder at the Grindhouse" to 'age in the drawer' for a couple of months I've gone back to it in the last couple of weeks to start the first round of tweaking. Rather than going straight to the computer I've opted to go a bit old school - pen on the page...

Naturally, the majority of the pages now look like an explosion of colour (far more than the above) with new passages written long hand in an accompanying notebook. It's nice to actually apply the changes with a good old fashioned pen, and you get to give your edits their own tweaking - if that makes sense. If you just slap the changes on the document straight away it might be a bit too rushed and you could miss further opportunities to make improvements. Anyway, next up is actually applying those changes to the document itself!

Flavours of the Month: December 2016...

Next-Gen gaming, high definition bustin', keyboard tappity-tapping, Fight Club 2, and all things festive: some of what's been setting the tone of my December 2016...

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The writing has begun...

Writing on my new book has begun. The title of it is: Murder at the Grindhouse. It's a coming-of-age murder mystery with a darkly comic tone set during the 1980s on New York's 42nd Street - aka "The Deuce" - between 7th and 8th Avenues (and the surrounding environs). This was movie paradise for cinema goers at the time who wanted unusual, outlandish fare to go along with their mainstream silver screen delights. It was a fascinating time and place to learn about as a movie fan and so I felt it was a great place to set a story.

Thus far I'm up to about 15,600 18,500 words deep* - no idea how long it'll all end up being as there's quite a way to go yet - but I'm off to a good start. It always takes a bit of getting going when you kick off a new writing project before you start feeling the groove, and this is quite a detailed project in many ways - detail oriented - hence the sheer volume of research and story prep that's gone into it.

This is going to be a fun little project...

*Updated on the 23rd.

Flavours of the Month: November 2016...

Deliciously dark techno-satire, an outback villain, and a fair bit of preparation - it's some of what's been setting the tone of my November 2016...

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Flavours of the Month: October 2016...

Sci-fi chuckles, murky grey areas, gruesome goings on, and jet black humour - just some of the things that have been setting the tone of my October 2016.

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"A Sideline In Vengeance" update #6...

Quick update on "A Sideline In Vengeance", my conspiracy thriller screenplay: just the other day it made it through to the Quarter Finals (feature category) of the Shore Scripts 2016 competition ... which is nice (to use a random quote from The Fast Show).

The Quarter Finals represents the Top 6% of entries, and this year has seen the largest number of entries in the competition's history.

You can see the list here:
http://www.shorescripts.com/2016s-quarter-finalists/

Flavours of the Month: June 2016...

Silent comedy, bumbling Private Eyes, vexed Vice Presidents, mouthy Mercs, and flippin' fast cars - just some of what's been setting the tone of my June 2016...

Click "READ MORE" below to see this month's looks, sounds, vibes & flavours...

"For Want of a Nail" - a bit of news...

Just a quick post to say that "For Want of a Nail" - which started out as a short story, but which I then adapted into a short screenplay - has made the shortlist for a script competition. Lovely stuff!

For more information on the story itself go HERE and scroll down.

"A Sideline In Vengeance" update #5...

So, here we are, the best part of two months since the last update post on "A Sideline In Vengeance" - and the script is complete! It clocks in at 100 pages (ooh, what a lovely round number).

These last few weeks I have been going back and forth, skimming around the script tweaking specific scenes or characters, or elements of the plotting and overall story, as well as going through it from the first to last page seeking out little changes and improvements to make...

Click "READ MORE" below to continue reading...

Flavours of the Month: April 2016...

Giallo gems, cliffhangers, alcoholic spies, horror rock, assassination, and - of course - a fair bit of writing (including a word or two on O.C.D. and Intrusive Thoughts), are just some of the things that have been setting the tone for my April 2016...

Click "READ MORE" below for this month's looks, sounds, vibes & flavours...

"A Sideline In Vengeance" - update #4...

It's been a while since the last update (which was at the arse end of January), but here we are: another draft was completed towards the end of February, and now I'm cracking on with the next draft.

Just a few changes ... *ahem* ...

At this point it's all about small tweaks, nitty gritty details, and generally an awful lot of fettling and fiddling about. I love this point in the journey of writing - you've got a solid script a few drafts in and finally you can focus on all the small details that add extra layers and provide little details that flesh out the story, characters, and scenes even further...

Click "READ MORE" below to see the rest of this post...

Flavours of the Month: January 2016...

Hobbits, exploitation flicks, and a brand new screenplay - just a couple of this month's flavours...

Click "READ MORE" below for January 2016's looks, sounds, vibes & flavours...

"A Sideline In Vengeance" - update #3...

A quick update: Today I reached the end of Act II - on page 72. It's currently at a 'Draft 1.5' stage, as I made a few ad hoc tweaks along the way as-and-when they popped into my head or I stumbled upon something in my notes I had forgotten about.

Next up I shall go through all of Act II and make some changes. It's also a good way to get several days worth of writing straightened out in your head within a much more compressed time frame in advance of starting work on the following act.

I'm happy to say that it's coming together nicely!