Sailing High

As a way of dipping their toes into electronic publishing, The Alchemy Press have released a Kindle edition of the Damian Paladin novella, Sailors of the Skies - originally published in the British Fantasy Society's magazine, DARK HORIZONS in 2009. The cover uses Arthur Wang's original artwork for DH, with design provided by yours truly (so no one else can take the blame).



Check out the link:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sailors-of-the-Skies-ebook/dp/B005M94AQE/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1316169893&sr=1-1

to download a copy. You know you want to...

Urban Horror

Morpheus Tales' Urban Horror Special is available to order or download (depending on preference). It has - of course - a story of mine: Cold Rain.



There's a review available here:

http://issuu.com/morpheustales/docs/uhspreview

And you can buy here:

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/morpheus-tales-urban-horror-special-issue/15830522

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/morpheus-tales-urban-horror-special-issue-digest-size/15835689

We're all doomed

Here we go - just like buses: two publications with stuff by me come along at the same time again. DOOMOLOGY, THE DAWNING OF DISASTERS from The Library of Science Fiction and Fantasy popped through my door (well, thunked would be closer - it's a big book) last week. My humble contribution is entitled Hell Freezes Over. The book's available from Amazon.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Doomology-Bill-Tucker/dp/1453731490/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1300872302&sr=1-1

And at the same time, I found out that the Spring issue of DARK VALENTINE is available for download, with my story Only the Lonely. Check it out:
http://darkvalentine.net/index.php/2011/03/rites-of-spring/

Back to It...

The anthology BACK TO THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE from Pill Hill Press was published a while back now, so I'm a little tardy in mentioning it. It's graced by a story from my good self - The Appalachian Collection - so they obviously weren't too bothered by a Limey having the effrontery to write something set in the Appalachian Mountains (in my defense, I have visited the area - or a part of it, anyway; the Appalachians does cover quite some square mileage under a variety of names, depending on the State). And I managed to avoid the inbred, banjo-playing hillbilly schtick. Just went with a vaguely Gothic, haunted hotel tale instead.


Also - forthcoming from the Library of Science Fiction and Fantasy - the anthology DOOMOLOGY: THE DAWNING OF DISASTERS has another of my stories, Hell Freezes Over. The cover has been released, so I guess it's just a matter of time. And from the same bunch - or at least the Library of Horror - the forthcoming MADE YOU FLINCH Vol.2 - has Cheechee's Out, a slightly tongue in cheek piece of bloody horror (my attempt to recreate those cheap'n'cheerful straight to video horror movies of the 1980s). So a good laugh all round.

Literary Bloat

There are times I could quite cheeerfully strangle my muse - or whatever it is keeps the words flowing from my fingers to the keys to the laptop screen. I've just finished the penultimate story in a new Damian Paladin collection. A tale of family curses and vampires - but not the moody, angst-ridden, cheekbones you could hang a coat off wasters that clog page and screen today. No - this is a smelly, digusting revenant that would never get some pre-teen girl going all fluttery (at least I hope not; but there are some odd kids out there...).

Thing is, I planned for a story less than ten thousand words - but the more I wrote, the further away the ending got. The damned story just wouldn't stop. By the time I nailed the sucker there were over 12,500 words, goddammit! Far too many for the plot.

But rest assured, come editing time, there's going to be blood on the carpet. There are at least two thousand words coming out - so help me!

Plan Now? To take a break from Paladin for a couple of weeks: try my hand at a superhero short. A proper short.

If that tricksy muse lets me...

Where do they go?

I'm convinced there's some sort of cutlery-specific Black Hole - or other kind of gulping void - located in my house. Things vanish. For no obvious reason.
Not so long ago we had three corkscrews: two in the kitchen, one in my suitcase (for emergencies - how may times have you gone on holiday, bought a bottle of wine and found you have no way of opening it?). One of the kitchen ones broke - fair enough - then the other one disappeared. Along with the one in my suitcase. How? I hadn't taken it out - neither had Caroline - and it was there the last time I'd unpacked.
And don't start me on teaspoons! They are definitely going, one by one. We used to have a full set of six squared-off spoons that are useful for eating yoghurt and the like. Now there are two. Sometimes. Occasionally one will take a holiday for a week. To where? Neither of us has taken it.
Then last night the potato peeler took a hike. It was there last week - I remember using it. To peel spuds.
WHERE DO THEY GO?

Anthologitis

You wait ages for an anthology to come along - then two come together. Both published on the cusp of 2009/10, THE BITTER END: TALES OF NAUTICAL TERROR (Pill Hill Press) and RAW TERROR (Read Raw Press), printed fiction of mine of very different styles.

Welcome to the Hotel Marianas in BITTER END was - initially - meant to be an homage to the Irwin Allen TV series VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA (this was reflected not only in the characters' names, but with a submarine having a see-through nose. And its name was an anagram of Seaview ... how sad...). But nothing ever turns out how you expect, and the finished tale owed more to Lovecraftian Mythos than cheesy 1960s television shows.

Kittens in RAW TERROR is quite different - an unpleasant horror tale set in Birmingham, UK (including a namecheck of a character from a story by Joel Lane).

I expect there'll be another long wait for the next anthology - so form an orderly queue, there...