Writing News

Recent news on the writing front has been good. More acceptances than rejections has to be positive news, does it not? It's doubly good because for one reason and another I've been through a longish period of not submitting. To pick up the baton again and start where I left off is very encouraging.

First up, my story "The Women Who Point at Men's Hearts" is now available in Sien und Werden's "The Ironic Fantastic" issue. Released in two volumes, my story is in volume two.

Sien und Werden

I also submitted a story "The Bedroom Ceiling" to Australian magazine Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine and received a super-quick acceptance back which will see me appear in issue fifty eight. This will be my third outing in ASIM, which suggests I'm doing something right as far as they're concerned.

Last but not least, I received email confirmation today my story "Not All Trains Crash" will appear in the forthcoming Eibonvale Press anthology Rustblind and Silverbright.

All in all, a decent haul.

It's all downhill from here

A less than glowing review of Burying Brian has surfaced here:

Burying Brian

Still, you win some, you lose some!

There be pirates, there be...

Ooh-Arrrgh, me 'earties, I've been pirated. I've found a Spanish website that's offering Burying Brian download as a free PDF file.

And I don't know whether to laugh that someone actually thinks my writing worth stealing, or to cry that someone is illegally giving away a book that took five years of my life to create.

The website is completely in Spanish, and as far as I can see there's not even a method to contact them and complain (I'm sure I could whip up a half-decent bemoan at them using Google Translate).

Take that! There are penguins in Spain, aren't there?

On the legitimate publishing front, my story, The Women Who Point at Men's Hearts, has been taken for the winter edition of Sein und Werden. This was originally written for one of the Shock Totem flash competitions as The Man Who Pointed at the Sun, and didn't poll a single vote (oh how genius so often goes unnoticed, eh? :-)

Also, The Perils of War and Death According to the Common People of Hansom Street is now published in Black Static issue 31, which I understand is imminently available to the unwashed masses.

A jolly trip...

I'm just back from six days in Poland. I love Poland at this time of year—it's cold, but it's a dry cold, a different cold from that of soggy Britain, which grips the lungs and tubes unmercifully.

We sat outside drinking cold beer under heated parasols, draped in thoughtfully provided blankets for the legs. It could easily have been summer except the skies were winter-dark and star filled. The chat was good, and being 'close season' there weren't too many tourists to bustle with, which made for a nice, relaxing break. Just the job, really.

The Web is a little smaller, today...

I've lost my website. Those terrible terrors at British Telecom have pulled the plug. The web hosting came free with my original contract. I think the word free probably worried BT--they're a huge corporate conglomerate, so such a word is likely to stick in their craw, poor lambs. And clearly they'd decided enough is enough and if I want web space I shall jolly well have to pay for it like everyone else.

Hmff, the indignity of it all.

And now I'm not sure what to do. I mean, do I really need a website? It wasn't exactly buzzing with eager visitors anyway. Is a blog enough to post the odd promotional stuff? Can one turn a blog like this into a virtual website (technically, I mean)?  Or should I look to proper web hosting elsewhere?

I shall have to have a think.

Splutter!

I have this odd cold. It's all on my throat, with just the occasional sneeze and nasal drippage. I hold the cold virus as ultimate proof there is no God. Or, if there is a God, he has a very strange sense of humour.

And I blame my lack of tonsils. I am of an age from when tonsils were whipped out on a whim—the boy has a limp; out with his tonsils. And now we know tonsils are a vital part of one's immune system. I'd sue someone, if I could do anything but croak out half-words.

I have tickets for the football match; and I have to go, because I have tickets and I'm a boy, don't I? I shall have to "wrap up well". It's one of my mum's old sayings, and one I will quite possibly heed today.

For you, short story, the war is over

It’s nice to report that top UK dark fiction Magazine Black Static has accepted a short story of mine for publication. This will mark my third appearance in Black Static, although as yet I don’t know what issue will carry the story.

The story, War and Death According to the Common People of Hansom Street, is one of the most subtle pieces of writing I’ve ever produced. I wanted to explore warfare on the smallest, most personal level, to suggest war itself is mostly made up of little individual wars that may take many forms—both internal and external.

What resulted was a story with no real protagonist, no real plot and instead consists of a number of linked, real-time vignettes set over a very short period of time. It’s filled with ordinary people, none of whom want to be heroes but rather just want to live out their lives. I also added an ethereal character (loosely based on Death itself) whose appearances are often fleeting and deliberately vague, and whose induced confusion is an extended metaphor for how I imagine living in grave situations during warfare must feel to such ordinary people.

I’ll be interested to read any comments on this when published. I imagine opinion will be somewhat polarised—people will either ‘get it’ or not, will probably like it or loathe it. Because of this I feared I might struggle to place this story, and so I’m doubly pleased that Black Static saw its worth and decided to take a chance on it.