Author: H.G. Bells

H.G. Bells writes around the intersections of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror. She has several short stories in print, and is repped by Beth Campbell for her novel Sleep Over, coming soon from Skyhorse Publishing.
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I Have An Agent

I am extremely pleased to announce that I have signed on with Beth Campbell over at BookEnds.  She will be representing my novel Sleep Over.

It has finally happened.  I have an agent.

I have been waiting to say those words for a long, long time.

Beth has just switched over to helming the representation of scifi and fantasy over at BookEnds.  She wants an author who isn’t just a flash in the pan.  She loves my manuscript, and my head is still swilling from all the gorgeous things she is saying about my writing.

And the writer’s head grew three sizes that day hahaha.

I won’t be able to share too much about the process of finding a publisher as it’s happening (super secret stuff), but you can bet your butt you’ll hear it loud and clear when I have signed with a publisher for Sleep Over.  My only hope is that it takes a bit of time, as that’s a good sign that more than one really, really wants it.

Meanwhile, I will keep on posting for you, my dear, dear readers.  I am so glad you could be here with me when I was finally able to give this good news!  Your support has meant so much to me over the years as I continue on this wonderful journey to authordom.

I will continue to share a great many and varied things with you. Including, if you’re interested in the details, How I Got a Literary Agent.

In addition to my fantastic announcement, here are some more things just! for! yooou!!!

Episode 7 AND episode 8 of my Oddcast, Forgotten, are up! Episode 8 took the longest of all of them and had so many outtakes.  I’m really pushing the form to the limit, and “the voices” really had a tough time of getting this one to work.  It’s getting better as it goes along, and I’m really happy with where it’s heading!

We’ve also got more videos from my husband’s Wild Gears Creations channel.  Are you ready to see something wild? This one is crazy!

And are you ready for parallel lines?

 

Something else fun: the tale of my Message in a Bottle which was answered by The X-Files (4 images in album- clicky).

Also, here’s a little comic I made about how I make coffee.

That’s all for now, dear readers.

I think we’ve entered into a new and exciting phase of my career here. I am one step closer to having a major work published, and hopefully soon I can share that with you too.

Cheers.

Heidi out.

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Forgotten Episode 6: Waiting, Cat Pics, WAITING

Well dear readers, I have ultra mega exciting news, but I am waiting until it’s “official” before I broadcast it.  So for now I will try and hold my tongue (but seriously though I am having a tough time doing it).

In the mean time, here are some things for you!

Episode 6 of Forgotten is up!  “Waiting” presented even more of a challenge as far as asynchonicity goes; there are a few passages which diverge for quite some length before meeting up again.  This one took a few takes to get right.  😉  Hope you enjoy!

Aaaand, some more kitty pictures!

The cat shelves I built continue to be a huge success.  Lemon took to them right away, but Echo was a little hesitant; after only three instances of me ‘helping’ her up there though, she’s really taken a liking to them.

And I canned peaches yesterday! But there was something a little strange about one of them at the top of the box… I began gathering clues as to what could have possibly happened to it. A mystery was afoot!


Hmmm…

Haha I think it was the most adorable way to have a bruised peach.

Oh an check out this one last thing; all these egg yolks went into making ice cream for Aaron’s birthday (way back in July- just getting around to uploading tons of photos now haha).  They were from two different cartons of eggs, if you’re wondering about the difference in colour (free run -vs- not).


Made for some delicious vanilla ice cream!

So that’s all for now folks.  I’m expecting my copies of Zombies Galore in the mail, and am looking forward to reading some good ol’ fashioned zombie short stories!  (That’s the one where you can look inside and read my piece “Monday Matinee Madness”!)

Next post is best post.

Thanks for reading.

Heidi out.

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What to Do in Vancouver: September

I love seeing the sights around Vancouver.  I had a lot of fun putting together my previous post about Tourism in Vancouver, so I thought I’d do another.  As the seasons change, so too do the activities around this beautiful city.

So where to begin!  How about Gastown: there’s walking tours, and if you can catch a break in the weather, it seems like the perfect time to be doing them!

You can go on ‘official tours’ like this one with a gothic feel, and this one, or, if you’d prefer something self guided (AKA free!), have a look at this- it’s architecture centric, but has a blurb about each stop, and takes you through the whole of Gastown in about two hours.

Here’s another guide (free) which will take you on a more standard walk around Gastown (to all the touristy places).

Once you’ve seen gastown, why not take a trip over to the North Shore?  The seabus is a lovely little ride across Burrard Inlet, and you’ll be let out at Lonsdale Quay (pronounced LONs-dale KEY) which has a bustling (though somewhat overpriced) market.

I can never resist the call of the fudge there though, one of the few temptations I allow myself to succumb to while there).

Now, moving on from Lonsdale Quay, you have many options.

You can go up Lonsdale itself and see what shops it has to offer.  You can catch a bus over to Deep Cove (about a 45 minute ride with one transfer) and see another side of Vancouver.

Or you can catch the 236 Grouse MNT bus up to the Capilano Suspension Bridge!

Another option from Lonsdale Quay is to catch that same 236 bus and stay on it until you reach the base of good ol’ Grouse Mountain, where I lived until I was 9 years old.  It’s beautiful there, and you can catch the famous gondola up the mountain for a view you will never forget!

(I bet Mulder never forgot it…)

There are many beautiful sights to see in North Vancouver.  If you have use of a car, a drive up to the top of Mount Seymour can yield spectacular views of downtown Vancouver, the Georgia Straight, and the whole of the Fraser Valley.

For some specific events to check out closer to downtown Vancouver, let’s see what we’ve got.

If you’re into the music of Tom Petty, than you’ll want to put September 18th on your calendar!

There’s poetry slams, improve, and open mic nights every week (on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday respectively) over at Cafe Deux Soleils. These get pretty busy!

And the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra is opening their season at the end of September, with this fabulous concert, featuring an epic piece of music I guarantee you will recognize.

“Rising-star pianist Inon Barnatan, recently appointed as the New York Philharmonic’s first Artist-in-Association, performs the colossal Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 in his VSO debut. The season-opening concert also featuresRichard Strauss’s famous Also Sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spake Zarathustra), an epic tone poem presented as a celebration of the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth.”

Thus Spake Zarathustra is code for “the theme from 2001 A Space Odyssey” by the way!

The OMNIMAX theatre at Science World is always an option.  The world’s largest domed screen?  5 stories of amazing, entertaining, and educational films?  A Projectionist who dancing when she thinks no one is watching her thread up?  This month, check out “Rocky Mountain Express” (about building Canada’s Railroad), “Journey to the South Pacific” (about life and love in the islands of Papua), and “Rescue” (a film about rescuing people and rebuilding after the major earth quake in Haiti).

I haven’t seen Journey to the South Pacific yet, but I have the other two.  It depends on what you like; Rescue kind of gave me a propaganda-y vibe, but had some pretty neat things in it none-the-less.  Rocky Mountain Express was a little methodical, but had beautiful footage and was very informative.

Oh and I almost forgot, there’s this up-and-coming musician playing here on September 13th.  Elton something?  John Elton?  🙂

So there you have some things to do in September around Vancouver.  I hope you enjoy!

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Zombies Galore, Oddly Satisfying, and Episode 5 of Forgotten

Well dear readers, today I have much to share with you!

Zombies Galore is live, and my piece “Monday Matinee Madness” opens and sets the tone for the collection.  You can actually read my contribution in its entirety for free!  Just “Look Inside”, and because mine is the opening story, you can check it out, which I’m quite pleased about.  🙂

Now onto the latest from my Mathematical Husband, who is persisting on creating these mesmerizing and oddly satisfying pieces of art with his laser cut Wild Gears.  This video shows him using a gear-in-a-gear-*in-a-gear*.  Pretty impressive.

And now for another thing you can check out.  Forgotten is my strange little audo project which I’m going to keep calling an Oddcast.  I’ve just put up episode 5 for you, and it’s called “Choices”.  We’re getting better at this.

I’ll leave it at that.  Thanks for stopping by.

Heidi out.

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Basically a Giraffe-Cat: the Banded Linsang

Pretty cute, eh?  Ooooh gurl and dat neck!

The rarest of the civets, it’s sometimes known as the tiger-civet.  It eats squirrels, rats, birds, lizards- if it can catch it, it will eat it.

Here’s where it lives (Borneo, Sumatra, Java…):

There’s not a ton in the wikipedia article, but here you go!  More extensive is the entry on Civets.

Thought you might like to know that this crazy awesome looking animal exists.  That’s all for now folks!

Thanks for stopping by.

Heidi out.

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Announcing: Forgotten (my oddcast)

Well folks, this is that “audio project” I’ve been mentioning.  I have created several episodes of a little project called “Forgotten” and I’m going to share them with you here.

I don’t quite know how to describe it… I’m calling the genre “oddcast”.   They are all short, between 1 and 3 minutes.   I hope you enjoy them.

(Please note: if you use Ghostery, it might interfere with the embedding.  If so, you can also listen to Forgotten on soundcloud, at https://soundcloud.com/hgbleackley/tracks)

Forgotten: 1. Forest Dream

Forgotten: 2. Inbetween

Forgotten: 3. Pain

Forgotten: 4. Colours

The page I’ll be archiving them is here: http://hgbleackley.com/forgotten/

I will post new episodes to my main page in my blog.  I hope to release one a week!

 

Credits:

Forgotten is written by H.G. Bleackley

The Voices: Aaron Bleackley, Heidi Bleackley

Music: Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

All rights reserved.

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Good News Everyone! Zombies Galore- Featuring “Monday Matinee Madness” by Yours Truly!

Hello wonderful readers!

It has been a lovely summer.  Still waiting on queries to trickle back to me.  I sent out a few snail mail queries to some really stellar agents.  I imagine the volume of queries an agent receives is far less if they ONLY accept snail mail queries.  Maybe I will be one of dozens instead of one of hundreds!

On to GOOD NEWS EVERYONE!

I have a story appearing in a zombie anthology- Zombies Galore will feature my story, “Monday Matinee Madness” as well as many others which are sure to add up to one horrific anthology of the undead!

The cover art, by Stephen Cooney.

It is edited by T.M. McLean, and some of the other stories to look forward to are:

There are some others as well!  I am so glad that this anthology finally is going to print- it’s been quite a process.  A big thanks to Theresa Derwin for getting it back off the ground!

In other news, that audio-project I mentioned earlier is starting to take shape.  Several episodes are recorded, and now I’m working on mixing them.  Soon my pretties, soon.  I can’t wait to share them with you (you’ll see them here first of course, my dear, dear readers).

As always, thanks for reading.

Heidi out.

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Best Rejection Ever, and Grab Bag Extravaganza II

Hello friends and compatriots!

No news yet.  Still waiting on the Agent Train for my stop.

Although, I did receive what is to date, the best rejection letter of my life.

An agent I was really into requested my full manuscript.  That in it of itself warrants a !!!!  But the next email I received from them went something like this:

I cannot represent you.  Because I cannot finish reading your manuscript.  …Because it is giving me nightmares.

!!!!!!!! Holy smokes man.  I could not have asked for a better endorsement.  People who have problems sleeping are going to have a hard time reading about the near extinction of the human race due to mass insomnia… So I guess that goes for agents as well!

I’m going to look at horror agents now, because this manuscript is far more horrifying that I originally gave it credit for.  >:)

I’m also working on a new project which I will soon be able to share with you.  It will be presented in audio format, and has been great fun to work on so far.

Also, I added a link my in “Craft” links- this one to a blurb I wrote on reddit, about my planning process!  It has tons of links to various entries in this blog to elaborate.

SO meanwhile, because I really like that you stopped by, you beautiful resilient caribou, you astonishing display of peacock feathers, you stack of waffles, you, dear reader, I will add some fluff here.  Because I like sharing.  And laughing.

Want to get lost in Youtube watching cake-spinning videos with me?  Because they are *singsong voice* amazing!

My fav:

When I wrote this draft I was mega hungry, so a lot of this first bit is food related.  NOW though, I am stuffed FULL of waffles and have a Magnificent Sandwich (band name called it patent pending HG Bleackley 2014) waiting for me for lunch.  Chicken.  Brie.  Pear.  Hoooo man I am going to have to wait a while on that though… waffles are my world right now.

How about some pictures instead?

Nooooooooo

Something else!  Not cake!  Not food!

Wait for it…

.

.

.

WHOMMP

NOOOOOOOO ok how about- this is how dogs drink!

Ah yes, the rare 9-legged Plover.

And then sometimes, you’re like, no freakin’ way.

Banana!

That’s all for now folks!

Back to agent hunting.  And when I have this audio-project ready, you’ll be the first to know.

Cheers.

Heidi out.

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For when bets get serious: Supreme Poker Plaques

My husband’s latest Kickstarter just went live, and I wanted to share it with you.  He had great success with his first project, Wild Gears, and now he’s delving into the world of poker.

He plays in a regular game with some friends, and as the game goes on, they cut low value chips out of the pool, and are left with only the large chips.

But he found that sliding huge stacks to bet was cumbersome and inelegant.  He searched around and found that the thing he was looking for already existed; you have seen them too, in Casino Royale.  Like, how cool are these?!

But the only ones he could find were not nearly so cool as that.  They were light and made of cheap plastic.  So, my husband being my husband, the only logical thing to do was to design and make his own.

He spent a long time designing graphics to put on them, using the four card suits as inspiration, and came up with some pretty slick designs.

The plaques will be stamped metal, like a coin, with the designs in enamel on them.

Each one will weigh about 50 grams; that is a heavy plaque.

He got a render done that shows what he’s going for, though I imaging that the real product will be far cooler, due to the weight and the feel of them being made of frickin’ metal.

And naturally, if he was bumping up against this problem, other dedicated poker players must also have had these ideas too.  So he has made a Kickstarter, and if anyone else is tired of lame piddly chips, and want to instead make serious bets like a pro, they can get in on it too.

If you are so inclined, the Kickstarter is here: Supreme Poker Plaques.

I’ll be sure to post photos when we get prototypes; these are going to be sweet.

Here are a few of the designs up close:


So there’s that!  If we see something that should exist but doesn’t, we can’t really help ourselves but try and get it made.  😉

Cheers dear readers.

Heidi out.

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Checking In While Waiting for Good News

Just wanted to say Hey.

Whatcha thinking bout.

Me?  Oh not much.  I haven’t written anything for a few weeks.  A strange feeling.  I’ve trained myself so well that it feels really odd to not be writing.  Like petting a cat the wrong way.  But I needed a break.  And it’s good.

My manuscript is out with several agents now.  It’s a wonderful feeling.  “Waiting while hopeful” is a different sort of anticipation than the previous bouts of waiting.  Not that I wasn’t hopeful those other times, it’s just… several full manuscript requests.  From amazing agents.  I just… it feels like I’m really close here.  I hope I catch one of them by the heartstrings enough to go to bat for it.

There’s a few funny things below, and after, some Original Content of my trip to the Vancouver Aquarium!

Tales From IT, part one and part two.  A good and terrifying read.

Someone has been waiting literally 20 years for me to get this joke:

And a good ol’ knee slapper:

Also, last night I went to a preview performance of The Tempest with my friends. It was great! The Tempest holds a special place in my heart, because it was the first Shakespeare that I studied. I was worried my opinion of it would be tainted by nostalgia, but this latest viewing of it proved that it stands the test of time. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and would recommend it. Bard on the Beach never ceases to amaze.

The portrayal of the sisters Stephana and Trincula absolutely slayed me. I was in stitches. You ladies nailed it!

And now, some pictures from my recent trip to the Vancouver Aquarium!

The Octopus came out to say hello!

It’s MEGA big. Like, I got Deep One vibes off of him.

Coelacanth!  I made a post in /r/Dinosaurs about this specimen, with more pictures.  

And, one more of the Octopus.  He was the highlight of the trip!  More photos of the octopus can be found in this album, right here.  

Aaand, a kitten picture.  Lemon sleeps with her leg splayed out weirdly sometimes.  

That’s all for now folks!  While I play the waiting game, I’m playing Minecraft again, the Apocalypse Server of course.  I’ve only been senselessly killed half a dozen times so far!  My little farms are going well, and I’m digging a *huge* inverted pyramid, which I will name something like “Monument to Waiting”.

Just didn’t want you to think I’d forgotten about you.  Hopefully good news soon.  😉

Thanks for sticking around.

Heidi out.