One Hundred Billion Dollars Out Now

The July issue of Bards & Sages Quarterly is out now, available in print or electronic formats. It includes my tale One Hundred Billion Dollars.

Mercurial Nights at Raygun Revival

My golden-age style story Mercurial Nights is on line today at Raygun Revival. Go and enjoy a bit of old-fahioned escapism.

Steampunk Anthology Update

The updated list of contributors for The Immersion Book of Steampunk is now on the Immersion Press website. Launch is now scheduled for FantasyCon in September. There are some fabulous stories for you to look forward to.

A Whole Lot of Editing to do

In the past couple of weeks I finished the second edit of Gap Years, the first drafts of a new screenplay and a new 4000 word short story and the supporting proposal to go with the screenplay. Now, I’m faced with lots of editing, reviewing and critiquing, both of my own work and of short stories I’m critiquing for others. After a first edit of the screenplay and story they will go off to be critiqued, then come back for further editing. Gap Years is now with a Reader, after which I shall work on The Final Edit.

Somewhere among all this, which will keep me busy for several weeks, a new short story is beginning to take shape and hoping to make it onto paper…

Palindromic Story Sale

My 26 word palindromic story Time Did Emit has been accepted for publication in The Palindromist magazine, the next issue of which is due out in the next month.

This will be my shortest story in print, though if you read it forward and then backwards it's double the length.

Magazine Review: Murky Depths #16

Issue 16 of Murky Depths may well be the darkest yet, with death and depravity forming an atmospheric backdrop to many of the stories. As usual the quality of the magazine shines through in terms of glossiness, paper and artwork; it just feels like a great product. What though of the contents?

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Book Review: The Coincidence Engine by Sam Leith

The coincidence engine of the title is a machine, or a device, or maybe just an idea, that affects probability to create the most extraordinary coincidences and accidents. At the centre of a string of such bizarre occurrences is Alex Smart, driving across America to meet his girlfriend. He has no idea what’s going on. In pursuit are two mercenaries working for a global arms manufacturer, and two agents working for the Directorate of the Extremely Improbable. At least, they think that’s who they work for. It’s a wonderfully convoluted and confusing trip, full of outrageous coincidences delivered with a dry humour and incidents narrated as ironic commentary on American culture.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Constructing a Short Story

My short stories tend to hang around in my head for months or even years waiting to be written. They bubble to the surface occasionally, get turned over, and sink back into the depths to cook a bit longer. There are five of them there now. The reason for this is that stories rarely come fully-formed.

My stories start life as one of several things:

• A concept – maybe a location or piece of technology
• A character – perhaps an alien or someone with an unusual trait
• A plot – but without any detail
• A title – something that sounds good but has nothing to go with it
• A snippet of prose – normally an introduction or a conclusion

Over time, hopefully these seeds will accrete the other parts necessary to make a whole tale. It’s not until I have a plot, with an interesting concept behind it, at least one definite character, a title, an introduction and fairly-well defined conclusion, that I start writing. That way I can write from beginning to end, normally in several sittings, and get a complete draft. The plot in the middle may change along the way, the character, concept or location may transform into something else and the title may change, but at least I don’t waste the limited writing time I have available.

It’s the cooking that counts. Excuse me while I go and stir a few ideas again.

Story Sale to Ray Gun Revival

My short story Mercurial Nights has been accepted by semi-pro magazine Ray Gun Revival, which specialises in Golden-Age style space opera and pulp stories. It's nice to find a magazine that seems to suit a story perfectly and for it to be accepted.

Mercurial Nights should be on-line in the next couple of months.

Second Edit Complete

I've finished the second edit of Gap Years, in which various critiquers point out spelling, grammar and other problems. Most of the 9 parts of the novel have been looked at by a selection of different people, and I've taken the comments I thought useful and made changes accordingly.

The next stage is a complete read-through by my First Reader. Okay, technically he's not the first, but he'll be the first to read the complete novel.