philwhiteland's blog

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

I've been going back over some of the stories I've written from the point of view of the dogs at my daughter's care farm. I think the approach of Christmas has made me a bit sentimental! This is a bit of a sad one.This story is from the Christmas after one of the dogs (Packham) had sadly passed away, leaving India on her own and before the arrival of Rohan, the puppy. I always hoped this would get more attention than it actually did: https://www...

Every Friday, I try to publish another episode in my 'Dead Reckoning' series about my two Undertakers, Josiah and Archibald. There are always weeks when I'm not in the right frame of mind or events overtake me and make it difficult. And then, there's this week... I hope there will be a new episode, tomorrow, but right now, I'm not so sure.

Given the date, I thought it would be appropriate to revive this short story: https://www.abctales.com/story/philwhiteland/trick-or-treat