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The “Quiet Corners” Collection Has a New Home

I’ve been experimenting with video content for TikTok and Instagram’s Reels for the last few years. No, I’m not doing reaction videos to people cooking or lip-syncing to someone else’s song. I’ve mostly been building off my work with the “Old Haunts” series, aping off the short looping mise en scène style and trying some new stuff that is weird and occasionally creepy. I’ve been calling these experiments “Quiet Corners.”

They’ve been fun to make, and the verticle phone screen is an exciting format, but this work takes time to make. The algorithms tend to favor creators who take weeks or months between posting new content. So it always felt like I was throwing my work into a void. To solve that, I’ve launched a new Reader Resource page specifically for “Quiet Corners.” Check it out here.

From now on, any experimental videos I create will be added there. I don’t totally consider “Quiet Corners” canon the way I do with “Old Haunts,” but they’re all set in Lovat and the world of the Territories, so don’t be surprised if there are hints and details that expand the world a bit more and connect to other stories playing out.

Enjoy the videos, everyone!

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The Stories So Far

I have made a new video, well… videos, really. Headphones recommended. Check it out:

As many of you have noticed, I’ve started to experiment with more video content lately. Seeing what I can do by taking advantage of vertical formats found on TikTok and Instagram Reels. Along with these experiments, I’m also trying to be more mindful in promoting my books.

So, for fun, I assembled the four looping animations you can see in the videos above, and I’ve been sharing them on Instagram and TikTok for the last few days. Each is designed to fill a vertical smartphone screen and loop seamlessly. I’m pleased with the result.

With each book, I’ve had an undercurrent of thematic “elements,” and each of these videos is based upon those. These aren’t the traditional four elements but beats designed to help me focus on the sensory side of worldbuilding. The Stars Were Right had its darkness and shadow, Old Broken Road was fog or mist, Red Litten World had its icy cold, and Gleam Upon the Waves was obviously water and the sea and I have more planned for the two remaining books.

If you’re new to my series, the first book, The Stars Were Right is available on eBook for only $2.99. You can find out more over here, and expand your knowledge about the weird world of the Territories here.

Let me know what you think of the videos in the comments below. Feel free to share any of them with friends who you think would love the series. Leaving reviews/ratings and word of mouth is the best way you can help me promote my books.

Happy spooky season, everyone!

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Introducing “Quiet Corners” an “Old Haunts” Deviation

For the last year, I’ve introduced my readers to my “Old Haunts.” Looping vignettes and visions from the City of Lovat. Sometimes they’re relaxing. Sometimes they’re creepy. Often they ooze atmosphere, and yeah, I consider them all in canon, part of the Bell Forging Cycle, and tied into the ARG. (Those who have read the books will find loads of fun little details.)

Those longer and larger videos take time to make (I did a whole live stream on what goes into their construction), and while I enjoy that process, I want to explore less rigid forms that don’t take so damn long to build and embrace some of the new video platforms that have emerged. Enter “Quiet Corners”—clips made for TikTok and Instagram’s Reels.

These will often be shorter and less rigid, and while they tie into the world of the Territories at large, they might not always “work” the way I intend for “Old Haunts.” Think of “Quiet Corners” as experiments. Ways to explore whatever is in my head, glimpses of Lovat and the Territories, where strange things happen unbeknownst to heroes and the machinations of Founders. They’re fun, weird, occasionally creepy, and a nice place to stretch me creatively. I’ve already got a bunch up, and you can check them out via the links below. Enjoy.

Watch via:

TikTok

Watch via:

Instagram Reels

Quick Note: While “Quiet Corners” can be viewed on your laptop or PC, a smartphone is recommended as these videos are made specifically for the vertical 9:16 phone resolution.

There is a lot more to come in the future. Who knows what you’ll see. Be sure to follow me on either platform so you can stay attuned to Lovat’s “Quiet Corners.” I’ll see you among the tangles of the scrape and the span, roaders.

Dreamers of dreams
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Dreamers of Dreams

The late Gene Wilder quoted the first two lines of Arthur O’Shaughnessy’s poem Ode in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. Google happened to use that line in the audio for their Year In Search 2016 video (see below and bring a tissue.) Inspired, I decided to share the full poem. It’s fitting for the ending of a tumultuous year and anticipation that always builds with the beginning of the new.

✷ Ode ✷

We are the music-makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.

With wonderful deathless ditties
We build up the world’s great cities,
And out of a fabulous story
We fashion an empire’s glory:
One man with a dream, at pleasure,
Shall go forth and conquer a crown;
And three with a new song’s measure
Can trample an empire down.

We, in the ages lying
In the buried past of the earth,
Built Nineveh with our sighing,
And Babel itself with our mirth;
And o’erthrew them with prophesying
To the old of the new world’s worth;
For each age is a dream that is dying,
Or one that is coming to birth.

And as promised, the video…

So here we are, one year ends and another begins. Keep loving. Keep fighting. Keep dreaming. And above all keep creating. The world needs your voice.

Have a safe and happy New Year.

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The Meowing Crow

So, this Saturday I stepped out to empty some recycling. It was rainy and cold, and when I got to the street I heard a meowing sound. I emptied the recycling and noticed that the meowing persisted. My neighbor has a cat, the cat sometimes meows, I figure the cat had been locked outside and was upset. Makes sense right? So, I look around…there’s no cat and the meowing continued.

Eventually, I figured out that noise was coming from above me. When I looked up there was a crow perched on a power line…meowing. I stood stunned for a while shocked at how accurate a mimic the crow was. Finally I came to my senses and ran inside to grab my phone so I could record a video of him performing. The result is the video above. I wish it was longer—the crow flew off shortly after I shot this—but you can definitely hear the little guy mimicking a meow.

So, I submit to you this video as further evidence that crows are not only smart, but pretty much the best. I’m glad we can all be in agreement. If you want to learn more about the intelligence of the corvid family I highly recommend this video from NOVA, it goes into great detail and is well worth the watch.

(Oh, something book related, right: only 7 days until the Old Broken Road cover is revealed! Woohoo!)