Hopeless Games by Golden Death Music

I'd like to write a review of the album Form and Truth Frequency by the ultra-talented Michael Ramey aka Golden Death Music once I've fully ingested it.  In the meantime, here for your enjoyment is my current favourite tune from the album: Hopeless Games.

Outliers of Speculative Fiction Vol.2

L.A. Little has put together a new volume of Outliers of Speculative Fiction for 2016 (my story No Other appeared in the 2015 edition).  L.A. is committed not only to finding quality speculative fiction to fill these books, but also to discovering new and exciting voices working within the field. So I'm especially thrilled to have had my own short The House on No Man's Land. included among what is sure to be a great line-up of stories.

The House on No Man's Land is a story about getting older and the compromises we all make along the way.  Some of those dreams and aspirations we clung to when we were young are never achieved, and maybe that's OK.  Right?

The book is available from Amazon UK and US.

I know I'm biased, but I'm sure it's well worth a look.

New short story available: The Broad Lands

My short story The Broad Lands appears in the new issue of Under The Bed magazine.  This story is special to me as it was the first in a new batch of stories I started writing at the end of last year when I got some time back after my oldest daughter started school.  It's an old fashioned ghost story about a man who buys his dream home only to find there is another presence vying for ownership.  It's also a small doff of the cap to one of my favourite writers: D.H. Lawrence.

The magazine is available here.

New discoveries in short fiction: Stephen O'Connor

As I've said in a previous post, reading short fiction is a great way to discover new writers, but it's not often that I find something that goes straight to my sweet spot.  Lately I've taken to reading back issues of Conjunctions magazine (if this publication actually defines itself as a 'magazine' as in reality it's a pretty hefty paperback book running to 400 odd pages).  The good folk at Conjunctions appear to favour a type of short fiction that greatly appeals to me (let's call it literary weirdness for want of a better title).  In one issue I came across a story about a boy with an over-sized head called 'The Man in the Moon' by Stephen O'Connor.  I enjoyed this story so much (just the right balance of pathos, humour and weirdness) I picked up O'Connor's collection, Here Comes Another Lesson, a book of stories populated by outsiders, the lonely and the lost.   I was also surprised and delighted to discover that this writer and I had shared a TOC in the book Ghosts: Revenge from JWK Publishing (atleast I'm assuming it's the same Stephen O'Connor).  Being published in a book alongside another writer you admire is a huge thrill for saddo's like me.

The story that really sealed the deal for me though - not found in O'Connor's collection - was 'Next To Nothing' (from Conjunctions #60).  'Next To Nothing' is the tale of two sisters whose intelligence and pragmatism makes them outsiders in their own community.  When a Hurricane approaches, this pragmatic attitude to life is put to the test.  Highly recommended.

If you like reading about outsiders and the ostracised, I recommend reading some of O'Connor's work. Next To Nothing' can be found on the author's website here.

Another Shore - a new collection of stories.

My new collection of short stories, Another Shore, is finally available to buy in paperback and for kindle.  This book brings together nine previously published short stories and eight that are original to this collection.  Included are two novelettes: The Wilds, which was chosen earlier this year for inclusion in the Dark Little Dreams book from Bad Dream Entertainment; and The Foundering, a kind of science fiction love story about a man looking to take a break from his life and actually finding a completely new way of looking at life.  There are also stories of vengeful ghosts, lonely changelings, baby-stealing fairies, apocalypse survivors, and magical rabbits.

That's right, magical rabbits.

Available from Amazon UK and US.
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Singular Irregularity Anthology

<500, the short story I wrote with Martin Greaves, gets a third outing this month in Singular Irregularity - an anthology of time travel gone terribly wrong edited by Kimber Grey.  Just look at that great cover from Thyc Graphics.

Turn to Ash now available for pre-order

Volume 1 of the Turn to Ash zine, which features my short story Collectable, is now available for pre-order.  The zine is officially due for release in September, but the first 50 people to pre-order will receive the additionally mini-zine Volume 0.

I'm in excellent company here, as the zine also features stories by Jason A. Wyckoff, Michael Kelly, Lucy A. Snyder, C.C. Adams and others.  Also included is some non-fiction from Jose Cruz and James Newman.

This looks like being an exciting publication so I would encourage any horror lovers to grab their copy now.  More info here.