LINGERING THOUGHTS OF PRAGUE... The Seeds are blooming.

Last weekend was lost walking the streets of Prague, soaking in the culture and sights of one of the most beautiful cities in Europe.
Winding streets that spiral up hills and snake off into secret burrows and avenues - a new revelation or eye-opening artifact around every street corner.
Smiling, carefree citizens wandering around the cobbled roads and paths almost oblivious to the beauty surrounding them.
Statues on every rooftop staring down like secret, silent sentinels - watching and observing everyone - like Angels above, baring quiet judgement on the city and denizens below.

It really is a beautiful, awe inspiring city.

I returned to the UK to warm weather and clear skies, an occasional thunderstorm burst, and further blue skies and sunshine - the air clean, but still holding on the charge of the lightning that accompanied the rain and thunder.
Summer is fast approaching and I realise that i am 18 months behind schedule on the plan I set myself in September of 2015 when I promised to release a book a year for 5 years.
Sudden realisation that there is no-one to blame for this except my own damn self.

Prague, however, has lit a fire in my otherwise tired and sleeping belly.
My heart and mind have been so distracted that I have sat down to write countless times and struggled with stringing together even the simplest of sentences.
Work has been hard and long, and so much has happened in my own private life, that i have barely had time to sit down and reflect on what is happening and where I am.

But Prague, that Gothic, enchanting metropolis, has woken something inside of me that regardless of where i was, what I was doing - I saw and heard stories in every step.
A whistle heard on the stairs in the apartment complex we rented...
The dogs that wander off leash by owners sides everywhere you go...
Rabbi Lowe and his Golem, and the history of alchemy that still permeates the air in the Jewish quarter...
The sudden anxiety that comes with ordering in a restaurant when you do not speak the language...

There are stories all over, and more often than not, they find you - whether you want to be found or not.

I returned home with the note's on my phone burgeoning with new seeds, semi-planted and already taking root and shoot.
Stories inside my head tumbling around like a noisy wet pair of shoes in a drier.
My tongue is sparkling with the flavour of ideas, dancing tantalisingly on the palate...
There are stories in me that are knocking and charging the doors, shaking foundation and the core of me to wake up and get typing.
So, I have,
I have started.

My second short story collection is coming along. 11 stories so far, with a handful more to write - mostly dedications for people who have helped and patiently waited since ONE MAN... and some new ideas rooted in last weekend.
Titles are all i have so far, other than some research notes and some scribbled semi coherent passages... But, there is a start, and soon there will be a new short story collection that will be ready and available on Amazon exclusively and POD.

The name I have is tentatively - CARVINGS OF NOWHERE & OTHER TALES.

I am hard at work trying to have it finished to go to print this Summer. As well as working on Novel No. 2, Hybrid Mackenzie... Which is still proving to be a slippery, elusive beast, but which is still moving along slowly.
40,000 words in, I can see it is going to be a beast and a burden, but i have to have it completed and released as I need you all to read this story that has been in my head for nearly 20 years since my friend Matt Bell panicked and blagged his way out of an assessment at drama school... More of which will be in the novel itself.

For now, my mind is dwelling on that wonderful city and its thousand spires, its winding streets and cobbled paving, its oh so clean air and its its beautiful, beautiful architecture. A city that has stolen my brain and mind, set seedlings into my heart and woken my imagination in wonderful and dizzying ways.
I will have stories for you soon...
I promise. They need a small amount of water, and a tad more time, but they are blooming already and they look beautiful.
Believe me.
See you all soon.

AJC.