Tuesday 15 October 2013

Urgent: Charity Video in Stroud needs Extras!

Urgent: Charity Video in Stroud needs Extras!

Filming begins tomorrow for Dave Ireland's Big Issue Foundation Charity Christmas Single video. We need willing extras to join in the fun on Wednesday October 16th. Anyone who would like to be in the video can meet Matt Bradley in the Brunel Car Park at 15.00hrs (or at the site - the arches opposite Waitrose on the other side of the by-pass on Doctor Newton's Way)

Filming will take a couple of hours - payment is that warm glowing feeling you get from giving a helping hand (plus a credit if there's room at the end of the film...)

We'd love to see you there - let us know if you can make it.


Tuesday 8 October 2013

Casimir Greenfield : Mr G is asked 10 Questions...

Casimir Greenfield : Mr G is asked 10 Questions...: I was recently been asked to take part in a new 'Blog Hop' thing by fellow author Glenn Muller...so here's how I answered the 1...

Wednesday 12 June 2013

The Killing Of Casimir Greenfield

I'm thinking of killing Casimir Greenfield...

Cas is my alter ego, a good friend and confidant, the guy who lives inside my soul. But...I'm working on a number of projects under my given name and I'm beginning to feel that Mister Greenfield might serve me better if he took on my other worldly persona.

Yes. This is a biggie! I might just have to kill the guy off!

There was a time when I felt that the division of labour as the best route to pursue, but somehow, at this point in my career, it feels that consolidation might just be the better path.

I haven't decided the method of Mr G's demise, but I can assure you all that should it go ahead, it will be an interesting death.

(I'm not ruling out cryogenics either)

So, there is a battle royale looming. And, who knows, Cas might well emerge the victor.

Watch this space...


Friday 7 June 2013

Pressure Drop

I've decided to embrace Vegan-ism. No, this isn't a Star Trek thing - I'm not headed in a sci-fi direction - although the thought of an army of Vegans peacefully ruling the planets has some appeal. This is all about personal body politics.

Back to Earth, Greenfield!

I bought a speaking blood pressure device this week. When you've passed 35 (or 45, 55, 60...) these things are as essential as an i-pod!

The darn thing told me in perfect German that I was suffering from mild hypertension. The English version told me no different.

My diet has been almost exclusively vegetarian for the past year. Add to that the oily fish and making sure that our source ingredients are organic has been good for the old Greenfield body.

But...I can't resist a bit of tangy cheese, the odd packet of potato crisps, the occasional bag of chips.

Mrs G and I have been food concious for most of our lives. Heck, we were Macrobiotic caterers for one full year in the early 1970s - providing meals for weekend sensitivity training groups at a castle in the country. (More about that when Red House is published!).

This means that whatever we eat, nothing is consumed without at least some forethought and subsequent enjoyment. But the blood pressure machine speaking in its many tongues (I have yet to explore the Spanish version...) has given me all the warning I need to re-adjust the Greenfield diet once more.

Time to explore a non-dairy direction. I had already considered returning to the Macrobiotic regime, but I need to journey a little further I think. Cutting out eggs and cheese and milk is not the hardship it might appear. I already drink my coffee black, have to steel myself to eat an egg and the cheese...well, the cheese could be a problem. But, the weight has to come off, the cholesterol levels need to fall and that blood pressure is due to drop.

Now that I've committed some of my thoughts to the page, I'll let you know how things develop (in between the writing and the rest) over the next few months.

I'm not going to evangelise. Each to their own. But lifestyle changes at any age are an exciting challenge.

Wish me luck!

Wednesday 10 April 2013

Life's Mystery - We Need Not To Know...

The blog title is a re-working of a John Cage poem. Known better as a composer, famously of the four minute plus opus of silence, the late composer chose his words carefully.

Someone reviewed my book, Slow Poison recently and I learned a little more about what I do from their perspective.

'I think you handle the unpeeling process brilliantly. It is an unpleasant story -- definitely not one for the squeamish -- but engrossing throughout, not least because it exposes the processes of evil without being in any way judgemental.' Alex Kuhnberg


I have always written intuitively, but indeed, without giving the game away too soon (if at all).

April sees me taking down both of my books from Amazon and the rest. I have decided to un-publish them as e-books for the time being. I feel that, if they have worth, then a conventional publisher will recognise that and put a bit of clout behind them. It's easy to self-publish, but there is a lot of writing out there that might not be ready.


To that end, I am actively seeking an agent. I keep getting close to finding one, but with my uncompromising writing style it will take someone who can see the full and future potential and have just enough faith to take me to the right places. 


This is not a plea of any kind, just an ongoing report on the workings of yet one more writers doings.


But, if you know someone who knows someone...get in touch!


Now - back to Mister Cage's Silence...


Read Slow Poison Here...















Friday 18 January 2013

Slow Poison & Bloodstones - Read 50 Pages Free


Slow Poison is all about snow...and sex and murder and revenge!

Slow Poison is the debut novel of UK author Casimir Greenfield. Set in both Amsterdam and The Cotswolds, Slow Poison is a hard hitting, uncompromising look at the seedier side of life. Set in the mid 1980s, Slow Poison moves through several decades and draws in life on a Cotswold housing estate, Amsterdam and the holocaust together in an unprecedented way.

A reader comments; 'This is a good play on mistaken identity - the imprisonment of a youth for a shocking murder in Amsterdam when, it eventually transpires, the real murderer is another person who has an agenda of death to meet on others in vengeance for the mayhem he once experienced on a seedy Gloucestershire estate.
I was first attracted to this book because of the contrast between the beautiful Cotswolds, which I know quite well, and the brutality which, I had thought, irreconcilable with such a place.
Perhaps more interesting though, is that the killer is incited to commit his trail of murders by coming under the influence of a diary written about the WWII death camps and I do sometimes wonder whether, even today, society somewhere, in some country, might still be so fragile as to have failed to recognise when evil can creep back again.' Martin C (UK)

Slow Poison in a nutshell: Slow Poison opens in Amsterdam in the days around the feast of Saint Nicholas in December in the mid 1980’s.

The brutal slaying of a British tourist and the subsequent arrest and imprisonment of a young football supporter sparks off an orgy of violence. But the killing is no random act. The boy is innocent. The real killer returns to England to begin the final chapter of an obsessive campaign of revenge spanning several decades.

The twisted acts of violence and vengeance are punctuated by the pages of a stolen diary written in the dark days of the second world war. The killer identifies with the unspeakable horrors of the death camp as he coldly wreaks revenge for a series of traumatic events that took place in the mid 1950s on a Gloucestershire council estate.

The story culminates with an abduction and a bloody siege high in the snowbound Cotswold hills.

And nothing and no one is quite what they seem...

(This book contains very strong language and scenes of a sexual nature. )

Slow Poison is the first of three books set in and around The Cotswolds that we can expect from Greenfield. Red House will  be released in 2013. For now, Slow Poison is set to become one of those chilling stories that, although not to everyone's taste, once read will not be forgotten.

Bloodstones is now available on Amazon.

Product Details

Thursday 17 January 2013

The English and snow...


Mrs G and I like to do our weekly shopping on a Thursday. We visit a local market town, and once loaded up take a drive into the country, a coffee at a little arts centre, then a walk with Coco The Wonder Dog on Uley Berrow.

But town was unusually busy. We did our normal shop, but everyone else was loading up their carriages like the end of the world was coming.

Snow. Yes, it really is the end of the world.

The six o'clock news told us that everywhere folk were buying up all the milk, bread and petrol for miles around. The snow that was threatened is obviously going to cut off all supplies of everything...

We always have a good larder full of basics, so we should be okay. If we get caught without something, I'll tweet!

On our way to the walk, the trees were dusted with the most beautiful icing. The sun was low and tinted the ice with gold. There is a Gibbous moon on the way. And the snow will be lovely.

I'm off to finish some short story songs I was working on. I may be sometime.

There's snow business like...well, you get the picture...



ps: The garden is looking lovely this morning and Coco (tWD) is having a ball. Time for oats and a shot of caffeine - then I'm all set for the day.


Friday 11 January 2013

The Yo-Yo Dog

The short break after the seasonal celebrations saw me inventing a new toy; The Yo-Yo Dog. We're planning to go global in the summer of 2013 with this innovative new beach game. Ably assisted by Mrs G and Coco The Wonder Dog, our eco-friendly game is all set to out-strip Gangham Style as the new phenomenon.

Check out the beach trial images below. A sure winner. Fame and fortune awaits. 

Now...back to the writing...





images copyright 2013 The Sand Partnership

Sunday 6 January 2013

Mr G is asked 10 Questions...


I was recently been asked to take part in a new 'Blog Hop' thing by fellow author Glenn Muller...so here's how I answered the 10 questions put to me about my book 'Slow Poison'. Feel free to ask me anything else you'd like to know... (Glenn's link is at the foot of this blog)

So - here goes with the ten!

1) What is the working title of your book?

SLOW POISON - this has been the working title for a year or so. The original title was 'A Quiet Vengeance', but I think the current title has more menace.

2) Who or what inspired you to write the book?

I lived in Amsterdam for a quarter of a century but I was born and raised in The Cotswolds - a heady combination. Encountering a horde of football hooligans in the 80s, finding myself caught up with a near riot in the city,  a chance meeting (in Amsterdam) with an old school comrade plus my furtive imagination unleashed the book.

3) Where did the idea come from for your book?

I can add nothing more to the answer to 2.

4) How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

The first draft was completed in around two months, the tweaking and heavy edits over the past couple of years. Are we there yet?

5) What genre does your book fall under?

Thriller, with some pretentions to literary fiction.

6) What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

'From murder and mayhem on the streets of Amsterdam to quiet vengeance in the pastoral English countryside, Slow Poison is the silent assassin.'

7) What other books would you compare this story to?

Mrs. G. (who has read almost every book around...) thinks that it has echoes of Larsson and Nesbo. I've read neither, but I know the book is very dark and visceral.

8) Which actors would you choose to play in your movie rendition?

Unfamilar names and faces. A famous lead would give the game away too soon.

9) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I took the plunge and self-published at the end of 2012. Amazon for Kindle for now. An agent and a publisher would be a good move, though...

10) What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Nothing and no-one in the book are quite what they might seem. The plot does keep you guessing and there is a twist in the last few pages. A little King-like frisson that changes the story in one fell swoop.

Slow Poison on Amazon

Slow Poison cover by www.rubenireland.co.uk

Glenn Muller's Blog

and why no try this great blog site too...http://deadlyeverafter.com/

Thursday 3 January 2013

Mister Greenfield's New Year


The sky was crystal clear close to midnight, with Orion pin-sharp above our heads in the unpolluted dark. The only light we could see were buoys bobbing far out in the Atlantic Ocean and the soft garden lights around the hot tub.

A new year, heralded in a new way for us. We bounced 'Mastermind' questions back and forth from an ancient boxed game from before 1986, pleased with the obscure answers we mustered from somewhere. Around a ninety percent score with the balance
tipping toward Mrs G. Then it was a question of donning bath robes (well, she wore mine...) as we headed out to the midnight garden clutching the bottle of Bolly we had been given on our ruby anniversary a couple of years ago. Not being enthusiastic drinkers meant we had kept this one in store for a special occasion. This was it. I forgot the sparklers though. I had bought the last packet in a little shop in Cardigan. A nice thought.!

The hot tub was heaven. we turned down the bubbles and opened the bubbly. Unlike us, we had opted for the plastic beakers, thinking all too sensibly about the consequences of tipsily broken glass...

Midnight came with the roaring off fireworks a few villages away at Saundersfoot. We heard more than we saw, but every few minutes a beautiful dandelion head would rise above the winter planting around the hot tub to shimmer in rainbow colours before fading into memory. The last of the seed heads appeared around ten minutes into the new year accompanied by a distant roar of an unseen crowd. Magnificent. Moments later explosions from closer harbours filled the air.

When silence overcame the night we hurried back to the cottage together. I returned to close the tub and extinguish the garden lights. I retrieved the half bottle of Bolly and sealed the top for the next night. There was tar on my fingers. I don't know where that
came from. I dreamed of the missing 1930s bow-tie that should have come with our Cardigan find. But the night was not yet over. How could it be?

And, for once, realistic resolutions and goals form in my mind. I'll re-structure 'Slow Poison', re-write 'Bloodstones'. Finish 'Red House' and turn 'Ruby Noone' back into a novel from the extensive screenplay it had become. On the musical side, there are two
albums scheduled for January recording plus a tour to organise.

Oh, and I've given up meat for good...but that happened in March really...but now it's official!

Happy New Year!