August 24, 2026

Film

Haunted House Hotel @ Realtime International FILM Festival

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The Haunted House Hotel will be shown at the Realtime International FILM Festival 2026.

The film will be shown during the festival, which takes place from October 23 to 25. It’s in Worcester. Tickets are available now.

It’s always fun when a new audience gets to watch The Haunted House Hotel, and I hope everybody at Realtime International enjoys it. You could also see lead actor Bojidar Nikolov as the main image on the announcement of the Realtime selections for a while.

I have a real soft spot for this film, and loved making it. To celebrate its release to YouTube, I revisited the characters for a sequel, set in the modern day.

Film

The Cost of the Crown at Amenno at The Hub

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The Cost of the Crown had its latest screening. It was shown at Amenno at The Hub, in St Albans.

The team behind the festival do a great job – certainly always leaving Crown director Moe Acharki impressed. I’ve got a program from when they screened The Eyes in the Box. They do an excellent work on the presentation, which is so important.

I couldn’t go, so I’ll quote Moe’s report of the evening:

He said: “I’m incredibly proud of how well the film is doing, and I’d like to thank the folks at The Amenno Project for selecting it to be screened at their latest event. I always say this, but I love what the Amenno team are doing for independent and local cinema.

“A huge thank you as well to everyone who came along to support both my film and the event. Your support is truly appreciated.”

News, Short Stories

A Brief Encounter Published at 101 Words

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A Brief Encounter, my latest flash short, has been published at 101 words.

The piece, which you can read here, was originally the first paragraph of a novella I was writing. I’m hoping to one day go back to it!

After a rough year, I’m back on the submission train – Nepo Baby and all the shorts have been sent out to agents and literary outlets. I’m hoping there’s more good news in the coming weeks.

And that’s without mentioning The Caretaker, which is going to be published next year.

101 Words has a great rule. Each of their published stories must be exactly 101 words long. Writing to that length means being as tight as possible – getting character, moment, atmosphere, location into just a few short pars. If you’re a writer or you want to see some excellent examples of craft, take a look at their website.

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