24 Things That Happened to Andy This Year - Part 1

January

I got involved in a minor religious controversy

Some of you may know that way back at the start of the year I was still working at Cornerstone, a Christian cafe and bookshop in my home town of St Neots. What you may not know is that I also wrote some things for the blog, mainly just copying things that were given to me by Paul Shinners, the owner. An example is below:

In that particular post, I describe Paul being invited to the Uganda National Day of Prayer over New Year. I posted it, didn't really look into it very much (as in, I had no idea for instance that David Kiganda is not exactly LGBT friendly).

I went off on my merry way, had a nice Christmas and New Year, and then on January 2nd all hell broke loose. Suddenly, stuff I myself had written and posted was being used to 'show' Paul Shinners and Cornerstone were rabidly homophobic by a selection of fairly militant atheist bloggers. The story kind of petered out in the end (you can excavate it online), with a generalized protest in St Neots Town Square, and obviously I ended up not really working there any more.

Oops.

I moved to Essex

Harlow, to be exact. Or Sculpture Town. I live with this awesome person.

Also, everything you ever suspected about Essex was true. They have a Santa in the Harvey Centre at the moment, and he has a spray tan.

February

Hammer Horror

I finished writing an insane, slightly sexist, rambly voyage through a Hammer Horror box set I bought from Amazon, mainly because I couldn't find a decent summary of what was in the box before I bought it. It only took me three months. As far as I know, it's the only thing of it's kind. It certainly was when I started it.

Click on me to read Part 1!

There's nothing more to add to this entry really, other than you should really, really watch Quatermass and the Pit.

Valentine's Day

Andy Ashdown

14 February

What I got Lilly Greenough for Valentines Day - 5 hours of Shark Week DVDs

What she got me - A handbook from the Horror Writers Association

Suck it, schmaltz.

Offered without Comment.

I went to the Hunterian Collection

A museum that walks a fine line between being interesting and being mind-bendingly horrifying.

These are real, by the by.

March

I became a published horror writer

Of all of the insane things that have happened, this is my favorite. My short story The Hum came fifth in Spinetinglers monthly competition and I got actually paid actual money for a story I had written. You can read it here:

http://carcharias-criticalmass.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/the-hum-short-story.html

Aaand here:

http://spinetinglers.co.uk/ReadStory3839.aspx

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