Friday 21 July 2017

K.I.S.S - Keep It Simple Stupid

I was working on a bit in my zombie novel Dead Bastards where certain characters need to be in a specific place at a particular time.

I've spent weeks fretting over this, picking the brains of friends and family; it's given me sleepless nights and I’m at the stage where I feel like my brain is about to explode.


Then last night I realised one thing: I was over-thinking it. 

Readers don’t need you to tell them everything. When there are blanks they’ll fill them in and they’ll probably do it even better than you could have ever written it.

Don't over-think thinks like Malcolm In The Middle's Dewey

This realisation got me thinking of one of my favourite ever moments in one of my favourite shows. In Malcolm in the Middle, the youngest brother Dewey comes up with an elaborate ploy to convince idiot brother Reece that the aliens have arrived.

Dewey - "Malcolm, in school we learned the coolest thing: there were these people that did this broadcast to convince everyone that aliens were landing. So what we do is wait for Reese to fall asleep, then we flash some lights outside his window then we go to the TV, but we'll have already made a tape..."

Malcolm – "Dewey, you're totally over-thinking this. Reese, aliens landed down the street!"


And right enough, Reece comes running into the room wearing a mask and wielding a baseball bat and shouting "it’s every man for himself." 

Monday 10 July 2017

The Walking Dead gets real in Scotland - Dead Bastards is now 99c 99p

"Enough gore to satisfy the hungriest zombie fan."



To celebrate the return of Fear The Walking Dead, Dead Bastards is now just 0.99. That's just 99 cents or 99p. 

That's a whole lot of zombie action for less than the price of a cup of coffee. 




LINKS 
You can grab the book here - 

Here's what one reviewer said about Dead Bastards 


Tuesday 2 May 2017

Little Boy Lost - Scotland's Missing Persons Files - Sandy Davidson 


The 3-year-old has been missing for 10 years

There's so much talk about missing Madeline McCann who was 3-years-old when her parents inexplicably left her and her and her and 2-year-old twin siblings in a hotel room in Portugal to go to a tapas bar with friends.

The little girl's disappearance remains unsolved 10 years on. But although it may be one of the most reported missing person cases of all time, it's by far not one of the longest unsolved disappearances of a child from the UK.


Sandy Davidson went missing 41 years ago


Visit the Police Scotland site and there's a grainy black and white image of a wee boy that's almost too difficult to make out because it's so old.

Sandy Davidson has been missing since April 23rd, 1976. He was last seen when he was just 3-years-old.

Sandy was playing in the garden of his grandmother's home in Irvine with his little sister Donna who was 2 and the family dog. It's believed that the dog ran away and Sandy chased after the pooch. The little boy hasn't been seen since.

Despite a thorough search by police and members of the public, they found no trace of the wee boy.

But the authorities have never stopped searching for Sandy and nor has his little sister who was with him that day. Police even released a photo of how Sandy would look today.


How Sandy would look now



So, what could have happened to the little boy lost? 

Theories abound. Could he have been taken by a stranger, a neighbour even? Sandy's parents believe a lonely man who wanted a son took theirs. A man was seen near where Sandy was delivering leaflets.

Work on the new building estate nearby was halted to search for Sandy. Could he have had an accident and ended up being buried in the cement? A new primary school was also being constructed. The school was demolished in 2004, but reports claim authorities refused to search for the missing child's body in the rubble.

Or, could he have drowned in a river close to his grandparents' home whilst he was chasing his pet dog? If he did, why has his body never been found?


New development

Two years ago, a man claimed he was abducted and violently abused by a teenage girl from the same area around the same time Sandy disappeared. See story here

Sandy would be 44 today. He could have had a family. Been a father. A grandfather by now.

But, Sandy Davidson is a wee boy frozen in time. A child who will never age. It seems almost certain that he met with a sad end. Whether it was an accident or someone caused that premature end to a lovely child's life we may never know.


Do you now what happened to the 3-year-old?

Anyone with information can contact Police Scotland on 101. They have the case listed on their website

The family also set up a Facebook page to try and find out what happened to Sandy.




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