Steven Mace

My sister is a budding amateur photographer, she has taken some very nice pictures which can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dee_dee_marie/

It's time to lay my cards upon the table. I blame Anne Rice. It was she who inspired a lesser band of pale imitators, all of whom ignored the subtleties of her work and went straight for reproducing the angst-ridden supernatural melodrama. Due to Ms Rice, vampiric southern gothic is back with a vengeance. And all because Brad and Tom simpered with their handsome, pale faces in 'Interview with the Vampire' and Buffy kicked vampiric ass while falling in love with a 'nice' vampire called Angel. One of the best examples of the modern form of the genre is 'True Blood'. I started watching this series with high expectations. Unfortunately, I was left disappointed. 'True Blood' tries too hard. It's too self-consciously cool. It's more about sex, religion and the American South than it is about the vampire genre. The vampiric trope simply acts as a symbol for themes about relationships, alienation, family, persecution and evil. In the right setting

I have an announcement to make- I have published my second novel 'The Pirate Princess'. It is available here to buy The Pirate Princess It is a rip-roaring adventure story. When their kingdom is invaded by imperial soldiers, Princess Ayesha and her brother escape to the sea to begin a new life upon the ocean waves. However, when they discover a secret treasure and are kidnapped by smugglers, they get more than they bargained for...particularly as pirates sail the high seas!

My attention was drawn to this recently: Stephen King- Dark Tower: film and tv adaptation I was stunned to read that TV and film producers are considering filming Stephen King's Dark Tower series in its entirety, by making 3 films and screening the rest as a tv series. I thoroughly enjoyed the books, although the Dark Tower is a very bloated, ambitious epic tale. Also, unlike many, I thought that King's ending was appropriate although after wading through seven novels I can understand people who felt that it was an anti-climax. However, I cannot even begin to imagine how they will film it, and how they will separate the different books into 3 films and a TV series and make it work. It's hard to even imagine people who are fans of King and these particular books managing to sustain their interest when the story is so splintered in this way.

I recently published a short story collection, comprising 14 original stories and entitled 'Beyond Twilight'. At the end of the book, I wrote an Afterword detailing how I came to be inspired to write many of the stories. I reproduce it here for those that are interested: Death Head I wanted to write an opening story for this collection that was a bit tongue-in-cheek from my point of view but I also created a sense of atmosphere for the stories that would follow. This is the companion piece for the ‘Verity Jamieson’ story’. I just thought of the concept for the story after reading about rock musicians like Marilyn Manson and Norwegian death metal bands that were into Satanism and alternative cultures. I did online research about bands I liked when I was an undergraduate and postgraduate student. I like rock music, but I don’t like Marilyn Manson or death metal. Epiphany The idea for Epiphany came from a dream that I had. The dream was simply that of a man and a woman in