philwhiteland's blog

Just before I got married, 35 years ago, I was at my bride-to-be's house, pre-Christmas, in a rather nice village between Burton upon Trent (my hometown) and Lichfield. Some Christmas Cards were pushed through the door and I went to collect them. A few minutes later, there was an insistent ringing of the doorbell and I found a rather grand lady standing on the doorstep. "Mea culpa!" She said, in a dramatic tone, one hand pressed against her...

Or any other brand of Kindle you may own! After the launch of the 'Dead Reckoning' paperback, I'm pleased to say that the Kindle version is available to pre-order NOW at the special introductory price of just £1.99. Pre-order now and have your copy delivered to your device on Friday, 20th June https://mybook.to/DRKindle

My apologies, I'm going to be a day late in publishing this week's 'Further Chronicles...' episode, for two reasons: 1. I've got in a muddle with the days this week! That's Easter for you 2. I've been doing this. Collating, editing and getting Josiah and Archibald's 'Dead Reckoning' series to the proof copy stage. All being well, it should be published in paperback on 26th May (Spring Bank Holiday) This is the cover design, what do you think?

If i haven't been quite on top of replying to comments etc. in the last couple of weeks, this is why

This has been the first week for a long time in which I haven't had an episode of one serial or another to write and publish, and I miss it! The latest Josiah and Archibald story, 'Dead Reckoning', finally reached its conclusion last week and I've been struggling to think of what to do next. Then it occurred to me that, when we last heard from them, Aefelthrith (sometimes known as Ethel) and Gwladys (who used to be her maid) were in a stolen...

You may have noticed, over the past 50 weeks, that a story (of sorts) has been rolling out on these august pages. It's been quite a journey, not least for me! Starting with the notion that Josiah might meet up with an old flame, we suddenly found ourselves plunged into the psychotic world of Precious and her lethal approach to Happy Families. En route, Josiah and Archibald faced death by drowning, which revealed Archibald's heroic side, along...

Firstly, Happy New Year to you all, I hope you have the sort of year that you would wish for yourself. Secondly, my apologies for the appalling pun in the title. In my pre-Christmas blog post ' Christmas Stuffing' I set out a plan to write and publish (on here) three seasonal stories. I did this because I knew it would force me not to be as bone-idle as I am by nature and actually do something in the run-up to Christmas and New Year. In my...

Being about stuff I'm planning to do for Christmas, of course! For the last couple of years, I've tried to come up with some Christmas-themed stories in addition to whatever is going on in Josiah and Archibald's rather odd world (which is also Christmas-themed at the moment, by happy coincidence!). This year, I've made a start with Christmas Pan-to , which considered the likely conversation between some of the items in a hardware shop window at...

This is the 2024 version, which is remarkably similar to the 2023 version etc. A couple of years ago, having finished dressing the Christmas Tree, in a bout of whimsy I wrote a story about the supposed conversation between some of the perennial characters on the tree. I rather enjoyed this process but the story itself, although it appeared here on ABCtales, rather slipped under the radar, possibly because it was one of three that I uploaded at...

I was reminded today that, this time last year saw the podcast debut of Josiah and Archibald! It was really interesting, from my point of view, because this was the first time that they had been brought to life and interpreted by anyone other than me. I thought it worked out pretty well, but have a listen and see what you think Yorick Radio - A Dubious Undertaking