This Is Hanging Rock

Still alive...

2011-07-01T19:14:00.000-07:00

...just working on longer-term schtuff :)

And melting. Seriously summer, we're over. I warned you last year, but no...

Twenty-Eleven and all that

2011-01-01T22:43:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

As with every January 1st I spent tonight a little drunk and thinking I was on the verge of some great realization that would change my life forever. As with every January 1st it didn't happen and I'm left with a short list of resolutions that will do well to make it to Valentines Day and all of the bad habits I had 24 hours ago. At least they are lesser in number than they were 365 days ago.

2010 did have some powerful personal moments - both myself and Mrs-me kicked the cigarettes and exist purely on robotic vaping sticks. On top of turning away from the evil vices Traci also got to grips with her newly-discovered gluten allergy and reinvented her diet, which is huge. Having tasted the gluten-free versions of pizza crust, pancakes and chocolate chip cookies I can honestly say I wouldn't have known the difference if someone hadn't told me - I'm happy to get on board and eat the same brands she has to. Thank God coffee is immune from the gluten thing. That might be pushing it.

Traci is probably my person of 2010. There's a few others up on the pedestal with her, though. My mum - the happiest person I know, whatever occurs, and finally finding some clear blue skies after years of turbulence. My sister - coming out of something horrible into something we all hope is very, very good. My brother - extending the family name for at least one more generation and shooting above his designated target! :) I have yet to meet my first ever (EVER!) niece (or nephew) and I cannot, cannot wait to look into the eyes of Zara Lily and be an uncle. My three uncles were/are all very important people in my life and I hope I can live up to that, even from a distance. I can list times where they all did something huge for me - first ever football match, help with an enormous school project, numerous pints in North Wales pubs - and I want to be on Zara's list when she looks back.

So here's to you all - may this year exceed your last year - whether you want to move, stay, rise or step to the side - and if I can help in any way, just ask.

The Man Who Killed a Whale

2010-12-22T10:28:00.000-08:00

The wonderful Fix It Broken have put up an interview they conducted with me last week
Thanks to Greg for the cool questions and general good times!

The short story Red Ice (formerly Last of the Kjett) now has a home on Smashwords after the awful experience earlier this year with a certain crooked publisher. Back to it's original title and available for less than a dollar! (#onlyjustmind)

I think all outstanding matters are now resolved, onwards into new waters!

A big and very sincere thank-you to anyone who has read any of my stories this year - that should be me done on here until 2011 :)

December is for Lovers

2010-12-13T07:59:00.000-08:00

Hey all - Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, whatever you do and wherever you are I hope you are with loved ones this festive season
Been a while but a few updates to post!
First - check out this new literary blog, follow it and enjoy the daily updates from creator Abe -

aobibliosphere

He was kind enough to review my very short story Terminal Sunday and followed this up with a very fun interview last week - thanks Abe!

Next up - another new site you should bookmark and pay attention to - an online literary magazine named Fix It Broken
Issue 1 just went up yesterday and showcases 10 diverse and wonderful pieces of fiction. Every issue FIB is doing something very cool and different - picking one story to be turned into a t-shirt which is then sold in a limited quantity from the site. I was delighted to find out my story 'The Comfort of Dead Whales' was the winner for issue 1 and is now a wearable piece of fashionable fiction !
Thanks to all the cool cats at FIB for making me extremely giddy with that, and such a sweet idea, I look forward to future issues!

The newest edition of 52 Stitches has been released - flash horror stories, originally published online at a weekly rate throughout 2010 - and I have one in there. All proceeds go to the Jamie Eyberg fund - you may remember, writer Jamie and his wife were killed in a horrible freak accident earlier this year leaving behind 2 young children. Jamie actually has a piece in this book, one of the last things he wrote.

Finally, a link to one of the best collections I've read in a while - Terminal Earth! - stories from the end of the world. A lot of my favourite new writers are present in this one and it really is a great read from start to finish - recommended very highly!

The Concrete Dead and Other Myths

2010-10-01T06:23:00.000-07:00

The October release of legendary quarterly magazine Bards & Sages is now available and includes my story about strange goings on in post-WW2 East Berlin called The Concrete Dead. Check out the Queen inspired cover too! (#ref for oldies)

No more Penny Dreadful

2010-09-27T17:10:00.000-07:00

Angry and sad about this - I'm not going to go into great detail or make personal attacks, but I will be removing all traces of the 'Last of the Kjett' chapbook from my websites and bio. All I will say is that I suffered the same fate that, apparently, many writers' who get involved with Penny Dreadful/Ghostwriter Publications have suffered and continue to suffer. I can fight my own battles just fine but when paying members of the public get shafted supporting me, that's it.
If you were one of the unfortunate, please contact me immediately.

Non-genre Goodness

2010-09-18T20:10:00.001-07:00

I've had a couple of literary shorts (literary in the broadest sense of the world, you understand!) accepted into the debut issues of 2 new and potentially exciting American magazines.

The first, titled Fragility, will be appearing in .insidious. mag in the near future.

The second, snappily titled The Comfort of Dead Whales, will make an appearance in Fix It Broken magazine

I love writing straight fiction and hope to do more in the future along with the best genre pieces I can think up and express.

I almost swerved off my chair...

2010-09-15T20:17:00.000-07:00

Don't know how this hasn't come to my attention before now, but stumbled upon this review of the Night Terrors collection at the mighty Fangoria Magazine earlier today and it's a cracker! They may not have enjoyed the whole book but my contribution was singled out, in a good way.

But what fresh nightmare is this? Not all is lost for NIGHT TERRORS. Harper Hull’s shocker “Amy Lou’s Ice Cream Parlor” is an absolute sucker punch to the gut. The tenderness of Hull’s text is a trap that catches the reader in a swift six pages. By beginning with the all-too-familiar, painting a portrait of a pleasant ice-cream shop, Hull drags us down into the spectral depths of his protagonist’s heartbreaking depravity—and never brings us back. Discovering this story at the tail end of the collection is just about enough to justify the entire purchase price.

2010-09-02T11:52:00.000-07:00

Quickie freebie flash piece of happy, jolly 'apoco-romo' fiction up at Smashwords - Terminal Sunday

E-Harper & the arrival of Lark, Investigator of the Unusual

2010-08-24T20:25:00.002-07:00

I've been wanting to release an e-book for a while now, mainly just to see how it flies and what the experience is like. This week I decided that my paranormal investigator story The Watcher on the Walls would be the ideal test. The genre, the length, the fact it's the first in a series - all seemed like good reasons to let it loose and see what happened.

Yesterday, after a night of formatting 13K words which wasn't anywhere near as awful as I'd imagined, it went live on Smashwords and will hit the big name marketplaces next week.

It costs a measly $1.75 (about a quid in Britain) and is available right here!

You can download it for Kindle, Nook, Stanza, Sony Reader, PC, Mac, Palm - pretty much every piece of hardware you can imagine.
If you don't have an e-reader and hate reading plain docs as much as I do, I highly recommend this free application from Amazon - Kindle for PC

I'm happy with the way it looks and now just need to promote the story itself - here's the short blurb from the website

England, 1975. Neville Lark, self-proclaimed 'investigator of the unusual,' is drawn into a brutal murder case in the city of Chester. All signs point to an horrific incident from the past when an entire Roman garrison was slaughtered by supernatural forces, but who is resurrecting the ancient evil and why?

If you enjoy paranormal mysteries, historical supernatural tales or monster horror I think you'd enjoy this. Witches, satanists, Roman ghosts, mysterious church soldiers, golems and a foppish, self-destructive protagonist with a house full of skeletons are all at play in here!

The fantastic photo of Chester's famous Eastgate Clock which forms the basis of the cover was taken by Traci, my much better half, last year. I need to mention that so she doesn't sue me for my pennies.

The Boys From the Spires

2010-08-05T10:46:00.000-07:00

Nice little interview in my hometown newspaper today! Click for full image :)

Just what I need, a new obsession

2010-07-17T21:44:00.000-07:00

Got back this evening from a brilliant week in the North Carolina mountains - it was just the two of us, way way up in the clouds in an enormous house that had 3 levels, 5 bedrooms and bathrooms, and a 'great room' that looked like the entrance to a church complete with stained glass windows from England and a dizzying ceiling height. We got to play Lord and Lady of the Manor and it was incredible. On our first morning there the clouds came in so heavy and thick that all around the house was nothing but white - a very strange feeling, and I couldn't help but think of 'The Mist' - especially when, as darkness fell, the biggest, strangest, most colourful moths and other assorted insects I have ever seen came swooping in to land on the windows, drawn by the outside lights. Entwine your thumbs, flap your hands and you get an idea of their size.

Anyway, this place had a big library/study, packed with books and films, and I saw the novel 'Cold Mountain' in there which is a book I've always wanted to read but never got around to. I demolished it over the next two days and being able to read it in the location where a lot of the events were set was quite the experience; it made everything sharper, clearer and more intense. Fantastic book, I loved it, and now I'm obsessed with reading stories in their actual settings, probably not something I'll get to indulge too often but I aim to try. I also now know that a peeper is a type of frog and a rabbit's butt is called a scut.

Superfantasticmeganewsupdate!!!!!!!

2010-07-03T20:17:00.000-07:00

Lots of stuff to catch up on, sugarsnap, so let's dive right in!

NEWLY AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE:

Sick Things (Comet Press) at Amazon US and Amazon UK

Through the Eyes of the Undead (LOTLD) at Amazon US and Amazon UK

Frontlines (Northern Frights) at Amazon US and Amazon UK

Last of the Kjett (Penny Dreadful Co.) no later than Monday direct from here - I'll blog more extensively about this baby next week

NEW SALES AND ACCEPTANCES

Sci-fi short 'A Symphony of Drones' will be appearing in a German-based sf magazine!

Horror tale 'Daddy Long-Legs' is lined up for the Day Terrors collection from The Harrow Press. Good, challenging anthology this - the brief was to write a scary story that takes place in daylight under bright sunlight. No hiding away in dark attics or forests, stick it right out there for all to see and make it work. The editors (Kfir and Dru) are fantastic to work with and I'm very happy to have made the cut. This is another southern-based horror heavy on the psychological elements and with (hopefully) a quite terrifying 'monster' for people to enjoy.

AUTHOR PAGES!

Now up at both Limey Amazon and Yank Amazon - the bio/photo there now are pretty much holders until I get around to sprucing it up properly.

If you're American, enjoy your holiday weekend - everyone else, be safe, be well.

Positive words for Amy-Lou

2010-06-25T17:55:00.001-07:00

Very nice review of Night Terrors here that made me happy for obvious reasons!

Almost...

2010-06-02T21:42:00.000-07:00

Cover for SICK THINGS revealed!

2010-06-01T16:06:00.001-07:00

Frontlines - now live!

2010-05-23T20:14:00.000-07:00

War of the Worlds:Frontlines is now available from the awesome Northern Frights Publishing.

'No one would have believed that in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched...

These words marked the beginning of H.G. Well's classic science fiction novel The War of the Worlds...and marked the end of man's child-like belief that we are alone in the universe. Published in 1898, The War of the Worlds is one of the greatest works of science fiction ever written, and it cemented H.G. Wells' legacy as a founding father of science fiction.

A 1938 radio play by Orson Welles caused mass panic when it hit the airwaves, and frankly we haven't been able to trust aliens ever since.

Here now, are bold new visions of Alien and Human conflicts on many different fronts.'

Contents:

1. After Welles by Michael Scott Bricker

2. Weird Fruits by Camille Alexa

3. Killers by Vincent L. Scarsella

4. The Dodo Dragon by Sheila Crosby

5. The Virus of Memory by Gerard Daniel Houarner

6. What Makes You Tick by David Steffen

7. The Broken Hand Mirror of Venus by Mark Onspaugh

8. Common Time by Bruce Golden

9. Steve's Really Cool Movie Blog by RJ Sevin

10. Moth Tamuth Robotica by Kristen Lee Knapp

11. Empire of the Moon by Harper Hull

12. The Spacer and the Cabbages by Auston Habershaw

13. John's List by Brent Knowles

14. Tequila Sunset by Michele Garber

15. Another End of the World by Michael Penkas

16. A Sweetheart Deal by JW Schnarr and John Sunseri

17. The Rainmaker by Mike Barretta

18. News on the March by Edward Morris

19. My Beautiful Boy by Jodi Lee

20. To Love a Monster by Victorya

21. The Candle Room by James S. Dorr

22. Usher by Davin Ireland

Comet Press - TOC/Author page now live

2010-05-21T21:55:00.000-07:00

The lovely Comet Press have released the TOC for Sick Things here

There's also an author page with bios and photos here

What a line-up, I'm quite in awe of being a part of this one!

The release date is June 15th

'Transcendence' by Lance Red

2010-05-17T15:05:00.001-07:00

Gorgeous artwork for the cover of While The Morning Stars Sing due for release in July

The Bullets That Point

2010-05-16T12:47:00.001-07:00

* Re-organised the website for ease of use and to make it less of a fustercluck

* Two of my favourite unplaced shorts getting worked up - one a rewrite for a very cool editor, the other a snipping of 600 words to be submissible to a collection I really like the sound of

* The Surprise anthology is now on Amazon in paperback and Kindle editions!

* Coming to the end of the first draft of a new story set in Hanging Rock

* Congratulations to last night's Nebula winners, the ladies really owned the awards this year!

Bovine Intervention and Available Terrors

2010-05-05T04:52:00.000-07:00

Great news this morning! My story An Unfortunate Incident at the Slaughterhouse has been picked up by the wonderful Comet Press for their summer-release Sick Things anthology. The theme of the book is 'extreme creatures' and mine, as the title kinda sorta gives away, is about cows in England turning the tables on their human slayers. Bad Beef, Brazen Brisket, Sick Steak, all could have been working names for this one but it was actually written under the awful title of Bovine Intervention.
A June release looks likely, and I'm extra-excited about this one as the previous collection from Comet, Vile Things, included big-hitters Ramsey Campbell and Graham Masterton so I can't wait to see the line-up for Sick Things!

In other news, the Night Terrors collection from Blood Bound Books is now live on Amazon

Quickie Updates Corner

2010-04-22T23:27:00.000-07:00

The Elements of Horror book has gone to print and will be available very soon! Been looking forward to reading this one.

The Pill Hill Press collaborative novel Undead, Kansas is nearing completion, down to the last few contributor's chapters now! I've deliberately stopped reading it since my final chapter so I can enjoy the ending when it comes out.

The first of two HG Wells tribute sci-fi anthos from Northern Frights Publishing - Frontlines - has gone to the printers and is very close to release. This should be a brilliant collection, and word from the publisher is that it looks amazing in proof form.

A new sale - my story A New England will be appearing in a future issue of Encounters magazine. This one is a supernatural piece inspired by the real-life killer fog that appeared in London in the 1950's.

Couple of working covers

2010-03-20T11:01:00.000-07:00

Amy-Lou Finds a Home

2010-03-18T21:12:00.000-07:00

The first real horror story I ever started writing - and one of the most recent I actually finished - will be appearing in the Night Terrors collection from Blood Bound Books. It's called Amy-Lou's Ice-Cream Parlor and is inspired by a store in the town I now live. I'm glad it found a good home :)

What can you say in six sentences?

2010-03-15T05:25:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my friend Rob L. for pointing me towards this video update for the 6SV3 collection.
I sent two pieces in for this so not sure which one made it - they were polar opposites so be interesting to find out - but my name is in the video (as is Rob's) so something made it!
Release date of April 2010, very cool.

The Great Library in the Sky

2010-02-25T05:11:00.000-08:00

Sometime last year I was reading the life stories of a number of my favourite writers and poets throughout history. It was amazing how nearly all of them had faced a life-and-death situation at some point and survived it. This led to an idea that became a short story titled God's Librarian. I'm very pleased that this piece will be making an appearance in the newest antho from Residential Aliens called While The Morning Stars Sing. ResAliens are making quite the name for themselves releasing spiritually-infused spec fiction and as well as the anthologies put out their own magazine. My story takes place in early 20th century Cardiff at the railway station, which should give you a clue who it's about.

Stat's the way (uh huh uh huh) I like it

2010-02-22T12:43:00.000-08:00

Sorry.
Stat update as of today -

Pieces out in the scary town of Submissionville - 15
Shortlisted - 6
In progress - 1 novel, 1 novella, 3 shorts

Lots going on - it's clobberin' time!

Frontlines TOC announced

2010-02-19T21:18:00.000-08:00

JW over at Northern Frights just released the TOC for War of the Worlds: Frontlines
Some fine writing types in here! If I was you I'd order a copy.

1. After Welles by Michael Scott Bricker

2. Weird Fruits by Camille Alexa

3. Killers by Vincent L. Scarsella

4. The Dodo Dragon by Sheila Crosby

5. The Virus of Memory by Gerard Daniel Houarner

6. What Makes You Tick by David Steffen

7. The Broken Hand Mirror of Venus by Mark Onspaugh

8. Common Time by Bruce Golden

9. Steve's Really Cool Movie Blog by RJ Sevin

10. Moth Tamuth Robotica by Kristen Lee Knapp

11. Empire of the Moon by Harper Hull

12. The Spacer and the Cabbages by Auston Habershaw

13. John's List by Brent Knowles

14. Tequila Sunset by Michele Garber

15. Another End of the World by Michael Penkas

16. A Sweetheart Deal by JW Schnarr and John Sunseri

17. The Rainmaker by Mike Barretta

18. News on the March by Edward Morris

19. My Beautiful Boy by Jodi Lee

20. To Love a Monster by Victorya

21. The Candle Room by James S. Dorr

22. Usher by Davin Ireland

Northern Frights

Ghosts of German Dead

2010-02-09T09:31:00.000-08:00

A short politico super natural story I wrote called The Concrete Dead will be making an appearance in the October issue of Bards & Sages Quarterly.
It's set in post-war East Berlin during the construction of the wall.

A Lark in the Morning

2010-02-08T06:49:00.000-08:00

Pushed everything to one side to start working on a new idea yesterday - a possible serial character named Neville Lark. It's 1975 and Lark is a north-west historian/investigator of the strange who lives in the magnificent City of Chester. In fact, he lives right by the famous Eastgate Clock for a very specific reason - in this photo the door on the left is his office-cum-flat. Why Chester? You look at the history of Chester and you get a microcosm of the history of England. It's also one of the most unique and unusual towns in the country, as well as where I grew up. Manchester, Liverpool, North Wales, all within spitting distance and filled with their own weird, bizarre tales and legends. I'll see where Nev takes me; for now his debut story is concerned with why Chester really has a wall built all the way around it.
And no, I won't really be using Alan Partridge-like titles :)
Fire up the Sunbeam Alpine and slam the Quo tape in! Weirdness is afoot!

Love Kills now on Amazon (US/UK) & Barnes and Noble

2010-01-25T19:39:00.000-08:00

The paperback version of Love Kills now available on Amazon US here

Hardback version at Amazon US here

Paperback version at Amazon UK here

Paperback at Barnes & Noble US here

Kindle version from Amazon here

E-book version now available here

20 stories, 242 pages, take a punt!

Night Chills Issue 1 Now Available

2010-01-22T04:19:00.000-08:00

Up on Amazon here !

Preview and worldwide ordering locations here!

Penny Dreadfuls, Then and Now

2010-01-21T19:20:00.001-08:00

Great term huh? Penny Dreadfuls were pulpy, outlandishly-covered mass-market publications in Britain in the 19th century, often serialized stories, sometimes rewrites of famous novels. Some famous characters emerged from these publications on their own terms, including Sweeney Todd and Varney the Vampire. They cost a penny and contained often horrific and outrageous stories, hence the name.

There is a press based in England called The Penny Dreadful Company, founded and run by Neil Jackson, that releases 21st century chapbook versions of these publications. Some fantastic writers have put out stories with them, including David Niall Wilson and Willie Meikle, take a look at their catalogue here - Penny Dreadful Company

Neil does wonderful work and I am delighted that a story of mine will be appearing under the Penny Dreadul Co. umbrella later this year. More news closer to the time!

I'm gonna get inside you

2010-01-15T15:55:00.001-08:00

My brutal little story All Your Pretty Things has been accepted for the Love Kills:My Bloody Valentine anthology from Pill Hill Press. This should be out for Valentine's Day and would make a perfect gift for all your ex's! Even the cover is mean, look at that! Awesome.

Never Stop Moving

2010-01-15T05:53:00.000-08:00

Wow, couldn't be happier today - the sister anthology to Frontlines, named Timelines and inspired by HG Wells' The Time Machine, will include my story Perpetual Motion Blues! Completely different in style and substance to Empire, it was an absolute monster to write and get just so, and one I'm very proud of. Check out Northern Frights Publishing for more details, and also pick up their Wizard of Oz inspired collection Shadows of the Emerald City for a fantastic read. And how good are these covers? :O

Lunar Joy!

2010-01-13T17:07:00.000-08:00

One of the stories I was really, really hoping for good news on was accepted this evening! The title of the anthology is War of the Worlds:Frontlines from the brilliant new Canadian press Northern Frights Publishing

I was writing furiously as soon as this one was announced - stories inspired by the legendary H.G. Wells, what more could you ask for? My story is called Empire of the Moon and starts off in Scotland. Loved writing it, it was an immersive experience, and I hope its as fun to read. I officially consider 2010 begun now!

Ground broken on untitled sci-fi thing

2010-01-10T19:00:00.000-08:00

The first 1000 words of a sci-fi novel I've been planning for a while are down. I am excited and need to hit a good work-rate on this one. Working title is The Culture Thieves but this will definitely change.

The entire thing was inspired by a short story I recently subbed to a particular anthology - no definite word back yet on it, 'tis on hold - and which I enjoyed writing way too much, falling in love with the characters and their world. Anyway, we'll see how this one goes...

Hold Me!

2010-01-08T04:34:00.000-08:00

No updates in a while - hoping for a wintery flurry of them soon though. 5 stories are currently shortlisted for the various publications they were sent to, and another 10 or so are making their way through the process right now.

Good day yesterday for What If?

2009-12-29T20:55:00.000-08:00

This collection (see below!) made it into the top 100 scifi anthology list yesterday(12-29-09) which is pretty cool considering it has had no real official promotion and, as far as I can tell, no reviews as of yet. It's a cracking little collection, very diverse, and I'm glad it's holding its own out there in the scary world.

What If? sci-fi anthology now available!

2009-12-09T19:03:00.001-08:00

It's here! Readme Publishing's What If? anthology of science fiction shorts went live today!
Here's the link to it on Amazon

High on a hill was a lonely Welsh girl...

2009-11-28T22:22:00.000-08:00

A good acceptance today - the Elements of Horror anthology, edited by the very gentlemanly Clive Martyn. All the stories rotate around one of the four elements - fire, earth, wind and water. My story is water, called Coal Dust. Very happy to be in this one, doubly so because my writing confidante and fellow Englander Neil Coghlan is also in there, with a fantastic fire story. The book is due out in April of 2010!

2 Holds, 1 Acceptance - Saddle Up!

2009-11-24T06:47:00.001-08:00

Alright, two stories are on hold with two very different collections I really hope to be included in, and one story is accepted today with an anthology I also wanted to get in, being a huge Western movie fan.

The acceptance is for The Zombist: Undead Tales from the Old West which is going to be a brilliant collection of Western genre chaos and already has a few writers in it whose work I enjoy with more to come! Mine is called The Undead Cattle Company. Thanks to the mighty Dr. P and his ever growing empire over at LOTLDP

The two holds, well, hopefully I get to update those with good news down the line - fingers crossed!

French love and American death

2009-11-20T21:32:00.000-08:00

A couple of new acceptances this week to make me very happy indeed.

First, and I'm not going to go into how this came to be, an adult tale I wrote called Filthy New Romantics has been accepted by a fantastic-sounding erotica anthology titled Surprise (see my main website for more details!)

Secondly, an old-fashioned horror story I did - That Maternal Instinct - has been accepted by a new horror magazine called Night Chills.

Black Matrix

Very pleased with both of these, for different reasons!

Also, I now have an online bio/credits webpage set up

Harper 1.0

Links etc

2009-10-11T10:03:00.000-07:00

Just a note - as these various books are published I will certainly be linking to them.

The Telescopes plus End of the World

2009-10-11T09:55:00.000-07:00

News of another acceptance arrived just now - this for the Robert Essig edited antho called Through The Eyes of the Undead, stories told from the zombie POV. A lot harder to write than you might think! Mine is the sad tale of a woman called To Kill A Dead Girl Walking. The title is a riff on a song by The Telescopes, from the unbelievably great Taste album.

More print!

2009-10-06T22:06:00.000-07:00

Another acceptance - this one a comedic piece for a book taking the piss out of all those zombie survival guides, kind of a Carry On Zombies if you like - called The Morons Guide To The Inevitable Zombocalypse from the Library of the Living Dead Press. Compiled and edited by Timothy Long.

My effort is called Zombiebowl and is about entertainment during the apocalypse. Happy to be a part of this, its a great idea!

If only this film poster was real...

Accepted!

2009-09-27T09:51:00.000-07:00

Victory dance time!
A Splash of Orange was a winner and one of fourteen stories chosen for the ReadMe Publishing sci-fi anthology What If?
The book is scheduled to go to print in October and will be available on Amazon and the usual places thereafter. I'm very, very happy this particular story made it!

Here's the full list of futuristic tales chosen for the collection -

1 Extra Good Care – By Valerie Hodge

2 Not Your Ordinary Little Green Men – By Kelli Wilkins

3 Danger, Maybe – By Marian Powell

4 The Rocket Ship – By Ian Lamberto

5 The House That Doomsday Built – By Justin Woolley

6 Journey to the Surface – By Dixie Sorensen

7 The Last Soldier – By John J. Rust

8 What if Rose Was Right – By Grace Gannon Rudolph

9 Herd Mentality – By Paul A. Freeman

10 Precipitation and Devotion – By Stevie Poppe

11 A Splash of Orange – By Harper Hull

12 Austin 2009 – By Derek Rutherford

13 We Don't Do Windshields – By Don Magin

14 Teleporter – By Jennifer Caddell

ReadMe Publishing

Newsfest/50 Grand

2009-09-15T08:21:00.001-07:00

Lots of writing and subs going on, as usual

Good news

A Splash of Orange made it to the final round of a sci-fi story contest, so fingers crossed there.

Also, one of the writing groups I am part of is sending out manuscripts for a 50-story collection with several stories by each of us. It is codenamed Fifty Grand and is a very strong anthology covering all sorts of genres. I have 4 stories involved. And with a bunch of us behind it, it will get a good push until it reaches the right hands. Excited about this! Starting with UK based publishers as most of the collective are based in England, and I think all of us are actually British by birth.

Undead Yay!

2009-06-11T03:27:00.000-07:00

Two pieces accepted for a zombie poetry anthology - seriously!

Ten Little Zombies - a childlike, nursery-rhyme death spree in 10 stanzas.

The Undead Shall Have No Dominion - hardcore serious time! Inspired by the Dylan Thomas poem with a similar name only, er, about zombies.

The shuffling ghouls are being good to me at the moment.

In other news -

A Splash Of Orange was returned to me with a very, very nice long letter of mainly praise but, as I sort of feared, the ending was too 'out there' for them. Which is fair enough, I suspected the grand finale may be a little too much. Into the rewrite folder!

New stuff - a short story called Judas at The Gates of Hell which has nothing to do with Iscariot or Hell. It actually ended up being a steampunk piece that reads like the beginning of some mammoth trilogy in the manner of The Dark Tower. It was far too fun to write so must be crap! I'd like to see where the main protagonist goes though.

Worst Month Ever

2009-05-01T22:39:00.000-07:00

Long time, I know.

I finally went ahead and seriously tried to quit smoking, 3 years later than I intended but a year sooner than I expected :)
It has been (and still is) awful. I'm on day 22 without a smoke, symptoms du jour included throwing up, migraines and possibly blacking out for 2 hours. Still not sure about that one.

I felt a hundred times better when I was lighting up. I know it will be worth it, but the journey to get there is horrible.

Anyway, writing stuff. I can barely read a book right now, let alone write anything. I have been keeping up with the little 1000 worder contests that a writers forum I frequent run every week. I've come up with little pieces including one about a psychic on the Titanic, (A Great & Terrible Gesture) one about a loving couple's last morning on Earth (Terminal Sunday) and my favourite, God's Librarian, a tale of how higher powers look after the world's great and classic authors until they can write their master work.

Summary: Yes, I am alive and hope to be back up to speed really soon.

Rough Terrain

2009-03-10T23:48:00.000-07:00

A Splash Of Orange is submitted.
It took me pretty much a full 2 days and nights of editing 3000 words but I really, really like it.
I don't want to see it again for a long time but I really, really like it :)
It has been sent to an excellent old-school Sci-Fi magazine called Ray Gun Revival. Fingers crossed.

Next, finish up the Chester ghost story.
I also have an idea based on a ridiculous thing I said once about building a town especially for midgets. We'll see where that goes....

And Home Again...

2009-03-06T11:18:00.000-08:00

OK, A Splash Of Orange is done, it's now 'in the drawer' for a bit before I go back and edit it heavily. Oh, these plastic toys pretty much represent how I picture the cosmonauts in these stories, very old school, retro-heavy futuristic chic.
Fishbowl helmets, clunky boots and comic book lazer guns.
Looking through some open markets now and seeing who would be best to send a surreal, psychological sci-fi to, with the intent of there being more in the future.

Yesterday I banged out a new story in a new setting. I think it's going to be titled On Royal Land but I'm not convinced. I have a new character, a just-teenage schoolboy living in one of England's most haunted little towns. I think he'll show up again, and live through the ghost stories I grew up surrounded by and hearing. Autobiographical mythology, yes, but the character himself is based on various friends and family, not on myself.

Bang!

2009-03-03T12:10:00.000-08:00

Sign Language - accepted!

I just did a little dance

A Splash Of Orange/Waiting

2009-02-27T06:12:00.000-08:00

The worst thing about having actually submitted something is trying to forget about it, get on with new stuff. Publishers will display their deadlines when requesting stuff, and most of the time it's quite a way down the line. Months. So, send something off, let it go, move on.

Not as easy as it sounds, I'm still checking twice a day to see if a decision has been made. Of course, it hasn't.

Yesterday I added a new element to the 'in progress' pile. I've always had these strange little tales rattling around my head set in a sci-fi setting. Think minimal tech-talk sci-fi, very 50's/60's feeling, old-school rocketships and form-fitted spacesuits in bright colours with go-faster stripes. Ray guns, not plasma rifles.

Anyway, I started the first story in this set, A Splash Of Orange, it all revolves around colonizing Venus. I like it, and it's a hell of a lot of fun to write out. There won't be huge fleets of starships or massive battles with aliens, these are personal little tales that just happen to be set in this particular scenario. Obviously I intend for there to be some kind of Venusian life form, but they won't be six-eyed lizard people or massive bugs. They'll be like us, only different. Simpler yet more advanced. And they'll really, really mess with the orange spacesuit wearing Earthlings trying to move onto their turf. Rocket by rocket. Cosmonaut by cosmonaut.

Press Start

2009-02-25T14:41:00.000-08:00

After years and years of talking about it (mainly to myself) I've decided to start taking my writing seriously and attempt to get my work out there. So many pieces in progress, fragmented foundations of possibly wonderful stories, laying around getting dusty - no more. Plus, I am brimming over with ideas at the moment and need to start making these imagined people and places breathe and grow. Sometimes die and fall, too. This is a statement of intent to myself, mainly.

Most of the things I love writing down seem to crawl from the dark side of my imagination, so I'm going to look around and try to find smaller, less well known publishing companies with similar mindsets to share with you. Hopefully point you in the way of some damn good storytelling.

Today I actually crossed the line of (hopefully) no return and submitted 2 pieces I have been working on and finally finished.

Serenadin - an Appalachian ghost story set at Christmas time. Subbed to Woodland Press who are working on an anthology called Appalachian Holiday Hauntings. I'm really happy with this, it's intended for a PG book aimed at public school systems and I tried to keep it as classic and timeless as possible. Even to the point where, during editing, I removed a character's GPS system and gave him a raggedy map instead. My only doffed cap to modern marvels is a stainless steel coffee maker.

Sign Language - this is a rush of adrenaline one-shot one-kill piece of flash fiction, subbed to a Zombie ff anthology named The Quick And The Undead published by Library Of The Living Dead Press. Fun, and hopefully different enough to make the grade in a genre that has been beaten to within an inch of it's life, again.

I'm also in progress on a longer zombie story called The Undead Preservation Society and a short tale from the Hanging Rock canon (more on that later) called, for now, Trinkets And Charms