Apologies for the recent dearth of information on my writing. I’ve not posted anything other than film reviews on this blog for a couple of months, as I’ve been extremely busy – both working on novels (expect an update on those soon) and working on Medium articles. Regarding the latter, here are just ten highlights from the past two or three months.
Those of you who aren’t Medium subscribers get three free reads per month. However, if you decide to subscribe to Medium to read all my work (and the work of many others), please do so via this link, as it means I financially benefit from your subscription. Thank you for supporting my writing endeavours, and I hope you enjoy the following.
First, my apologies for the lack of Medium update in April. I have been exceptionally busy elsewhere, mostly writing short stories. However, here’s a selection of my more notable Medium pieces over the past couple of months.
Those of you who aren’t Medium subscribers get three free reads per month. However, if you decide to subscribe to Medium to read all my work (and the work of many others), please do so via this link, as it means I financially benefit from your subscription. Thank you for supporting my writing endeavours, and I hope you enjoy the following.
I’ve had a highly unusual year in 2021. For one thing, I’ve made the awkward transition to full-time writer. Much remains uncertain. However, I don’t intend to bore you with the cycle of fear and self-doubt that are the inevitable concomitant of any writer who takes such steps. Instead, I’ll dive right in with what I’ve been up to over the past twelve months.
Perhaps most excitingly, this collection of scary shorts was released. Infestation: A Horror Anthology included a six-chapter science fiction horror novella – the eponymous Infestation – along with five other short stories: Once in a Lifetime, Spinner, Regression, Influencer, and White Horse. The latter two are exclusive to this volume, and White Horse is a standalone prequel to my gothic mystery novel The Irresistible Summons.
Infestation is set in the near future, at a time when mysterious giant spider nests have appeared. No one knows where these nests came from, but nations are adjusting to the challenge of living alongside dangerous oversized arachnids. A mercenary desperate for money to purchase medical treatments that can save his wife is hired by an influential businessman. His objective: Infiltrate a spider nest on a mission of vengeance.
For information about the plots in the other stories, simply click on their respective links, and it will take you to articles about each of them. I’ve had some very positive response to this story, and to the collection in general, which is encouraging. At 77,000 words, I feel this anthology represents a good value selection of my shorter horror pieces.
Gothic Mystery New Covers
Some of my gothic mystery horror thriller novels were reissued with new covers. Check them out below.
Work in Progress: Sequel to The Faerie Gate
The Northern Lights feature in The Faerie Gate. Photo by Vincent Guth on Unsplash
Yes, I know I’ve not yet released my very dark and scary children’s 2015 novel The Faerie Gate, despite talking about it a great deal on this blog. However, in early 2021 I started writing not one but three sequels. It is a hugely ambitious project that in some ways is The Lord of the Rings to The Faerie Gate’s The Hobbit. I’m very pleased with it so far, though I halted once I completed the first of the three sequels. I have a very clear plan for the remaining novels, but there are other projects I wish to complete first. Since I am acutely aware of the dangers of “doing a George RR Martin”, I’m going to hang on to the three sequels until all have been fully written. However, The Faerie Gate I may well release before that, since it stands entirely alone.
Medium
Yours truly, in a rare smiling photo (as seen in the interview mentioned below).
As part of my expansion into full-time writing, I am building an audience on Medium (currently 1.6 thousand followers and climbing). I’ve proud of the many articles I have on that site, often placed in prestigious publications. If you have a Medium subscription, please consider following me. In addition to articles on film, music, literature, television, and the odd rant, I have published a number of novellas and short stories there, and will continue to do so.
Here are a few Medium pieces from the past year of which I am particularly proud.
Leave – One of several short stories written and published this year. Life takes an unexpected turn for a young wife desperately missing her royal marine husband during the recent Afghanistan War.
The principles for penning a passionate, sinister, satisfying page-turner. (Apologies for the use of American English; The Writing Cooperative publication insists on it.)
I shudder to think of anyone discovering these for the first time on the small screen.
And just because I can’t resist including it, here’s my interview with The Writing Cooperative: Write Now with Simon Dillon
The Guardian
I also managed to get an article published in The Guardian this year, which makes a nice addition to my writing CV. It’s a short, slightly tongue-in-cheek piece exploring why so many of my childhood films are having their BBFC ratings upgraded from PG to 12A in the UK. You can read it here.
The Tangent Tree
Finally, for those of you wondering what has happened to film podcast The Tangent Tree (which I co-host with Samantha Stephen), I hope this will be resurrected in 2022. Various spanners in the works this year prevented the creation of new episodes.
To finish, I want say a big thank you to all of you, for your ongoing readership and support. Thank you so much for reading my novels and short stories. I hope you enjoyed them. Also, thank you for leaving reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, and elsewhere. For those of you who follow me on Medium, thank you for reading and supporting me there too. It has been a tumultuous year, but there are exciting things ahead. I will revealing my plans for 2022 on New Year’s Day, so watch this space.
I’ve been very active on Medium over the last month. I’ve even started my own publication entitled Simon Dillon Cinema for the film reviews you see on this blog, to get them to a wider readership. Obviously they will continue to be available for free here.
To the matter at hand, here are some articles that you might have missed, in various Medium publications. Check them out by following the links below. Please “clap” generously by clicking your mouse on the “clap” icon, as that is a huge help to me, trying to get the Algorithmic Overlords to distribute my work further. Thank you.
Difficult to craft but brilliant when well-written.
DISCLAIMER: The Writing Cooperative submission guidelines require I use “US English”. I know this will upset my fellow Queens-English Brits, hence the “trigger warning” (if you’ll forgive my use of an obscenity).
Simon Dillon Books 
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