Published in the Deck the Halls anthology

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I'm rather pleased to announce that I have a story in yet another anthology! In addition to my story, A Girl's Best Friend, in Best of Friday Flash: Volume Two, and Anonymous in the Penny Dreadfuls Halloween Special, I now have Apprentices to Time in Deck the Halls: Festive Tales of Fear and Cheer.

The story appeared online in its original form a couple of years ago in answer to a prompt - Emergent Publishing were putting together a collection of stories, each of which took a line from Deck the Halls as a story prompt. My line was 'Fast away the old year passes' and I chose to write a story about New Year. It was also the first time I introduced my female Death character, who you might remember from some of my Friday Flashes (particularly New Year's Dance, about my Captain Scarlight character). She's become a bit of a favourite of mine, and it's rather awesome to be able to share her story again, albeit revised and updated!

The blurb on the Emergent website runs thus;

DECK THE HALLS traverses the joy and jeopardy of the festive season, from Yule to Mōdraniht, Summer Solstice to Years’ End. The stories journey through consternations and celebrations, past, present and future, which might be or never were.

Along the way you’ll meet troll hunters, consumer dissidents, corset-bound adventurers, a joint-toking spirit, big-hearted gangbangers, an outcast hybrid spaceship, petrol-toting politicians, mythical swingers and a boy who unwittingly controls the weather.

Heart-warming and horrifying, the collection is a merry measure of cross-genre, short fiction subverting traditional notions of the holiday season.

It's available from the Emergent Store as a PDF, mobi or epub file, and you can order a good old-fashioned paperback too. Go on, get yourself an early Christmas present...

More free e-books!

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A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about FREE e-books, notably the Yin and Yang Book by eMergent Publishing. Well they're at it again, and this time you can pick up the Eighty Nine anthology, which features my own story, Thirty Years In The Bathroom. Based on the song title of the same name by The Wonderstuff, released in 1989, I went for a Hollywood twist on the Dorian Grey story, set against the backdrop of the Batman premiere.

Eighty Nine is free from Amazon US and Amazon UK until 8:59am on Friday (UK time) and 11.59pm on Thursday (US Pacific time).

Some Background
The third literary mix tape EIGHTY NINE, based on a playlist of 26 songs from the year 1989, went on sale in October 2011. Editor Jodi Cleghorn randomly assigned a song per author and asked them to create a story around the song that reimagined the events of 1989 through a speculative fiction lens. The 26 authors from the Nothing But Flowers anthology chose the songs for the playlist. Blake Byrnes, a final year fine arts student, turned an accidental promo photograph into the ‘eighties grunge’ cover, based on the character “Amiga” from Dale Challener Roe’s story Shrödinger’s Cat. Byrnes’ artwork provided the visual template for the character of “Amiga” in Devin Watson’s live action book trailer.

Blurb
1989: a cusp between decades. The year the Berlin Wall came down and Voyager went up. Ted Bundy and Emperor Hirohito died. The birth of the first Bush administration and computer virus. In San Francisco and Newcastle the ground shook, in Chernobyl it melted. Tiananmen Square rocked the world and Tank Man imprinted on the international consciousness. Communism and Thatcherism began their decline, Islamic fundamentalism its rise. It was the year Batman burst onto the big screen, we went back to the future (again), Indiana Jones made it a trifecta at the box office and Michael Damian told us to rock on. Based on a play list of 26 songs released in 1989, Eighty Nine re-imagines the social, political, cultural and personal experiences at the end of the decade which gave the world mullets, crimped hair, neon-coloured clothing, acid-wash denim, keytars, the walkman, Live Aid, the first compact disc and MTV.

More books!

Tweet Not only will I have a short story appearing in the upcoming anthology by Pulp Press and For Book's Sake, I also have stories in TWO anthologies put together by Emergent Publishing!

I wrote my story for the Chinese Whisperings anthology, The Yin Book, which I blogged about here, back in October 2010. The Strangest Comfort comes from somewhat personal experience and it's wonderful to finally see it in print. The book is already available in Kindle format from Amazon, but as you can see by the photo, it'll also be out in paperback format! It's a wonderful collection of interrelated stories, all located in an airport at the moment when an airline collapses. It's quite a bold fictional experiment, and pulls together work by a diverse group of upandcoming writers. I also owe Emergent somewhat, since it was on the Chinese Whisperings project that I met Rob Diaz, who has gone on to become a trusted friend and beta reader! It's also nice to see the Yin and Yang books collected alongside each other - there are plenty of interesting characters to get to know here!

As well as The Yin & Yang Book, I also have a story in the forthcoming Literary Mix Tape collection, Eighty Nine. All of the stories were inspired by songs released in 1989, my own being 30 Years in the Bathroom by The Wonder Stuff. Some of the stories are testament to the social and political upheaval that characterised the end of the Eighties, while other stories (mine included) pay homage to the rich pop culture of the era. Thirty Years in the Bathroom stars an ageing actress who'll do anything to maintain her youth, in a bit of a twist on the Dorian Gray idea.

Both books will be available for purchase very very soon, and I'll post more details once they're on sale!

A present for Valentine's Day

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That over-hyped and tacky day dedicated to commercialism and guilt is almost upon us, but don't fret if you're one of the single people forced to watch others spend lavish amounts of money on horrendous presents for their witless other halves - you can have a present too, and it's actually one you might want!

Jodi Cleghorn, MD of Emergent Publishing, has put together the second literary mixtape, Nothing But Flowers. Twenty four tales of love in a post apocalyptic setting, each story will be posted every hour of Valentine's Day, starting at 9am Australian Eastern Standard Time. You'll be able to read them all for free for two days, after which time they will be available to buy. Not much of a present? Well the proceeds are going to the Grantham Flood support fund so you can read some fantastic stories and help a good cause. Nothing like a spot of altruism to start the day!

In addition, if you "like" the Facebook page, the story links will appear in your newsfeed, while a 'yes' RSVP to the virtual launch party enters you into a competition to win one of four eBooks and a signed paperback. You can also swing by and leave a comment for the wonderful cover illustration, done by my creative partner, Jimmy Misanthrope.

My own story, This Was Paradise, goes live at 3pm Australian Eastern Standard Time (which should be 5am GMT, if my maths is correct). It's based on a true story, set during the 1665 outbreak of plague in England. I spent a lot of time on it, and a lot of time getting the historical details as accurate as I can, so I hope you enjoy it. If you use the player below, you can hear me read the first section.

Chinese Whisperings - The Launch

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After months of hard work and elbow grease, The Yin and Yang Books are finally here! My own story, The Strangest Comfort, is in the Yin Book, along with stories by these wonderfully talented women writers; Emma Newman, Carrie Clevenger, Tina Hunter, Claudia Osmond, Laura Eno, Jasmine Gallant, Jen Brubacher, Annie Evett, and Lily Mulholland.

Taken from the Chinese Whisperings website;
The Yin Book
In the international terminal of a large European airport, Monday morning is about to get a whole lot worse. At 7.35am Pangaean Airlines, one of Europe’s major carriers, is put into receivership grounding all flights, stranding thousands of passengers and impounding tonnes of luggage. But all is not as appears on the surface and the sliding-doors moment of one woman deciding to abandon her suitcase will ricochet through the lives around her.

But wait! There's more!

The Yang Book features the literary stylings of a fantastic cast of men writers, too. Paul Servini, Chris Chartrand, Tony Noland, Dan Powell, Dale Challener Roe, J.M. Strother, Rob Diaz II, Richard Jay Parker, Jason Coggins and Benjamin Solah have all contributed tales.

Taken from the Chinese Whisperings website;
The Yang Book
In the international terminal of a large European airport, Monday morning is about to get a whole lot worse. At 7.35am Pangaean Airlines, one of Europe’s major carriers, is put into receivership grounding all flights, stranding thousands of passengers and impounding tonnes of luggage. But all is not as appears on the surface and the sliding-doors moment of one woman deciding to retrieve her suitcase will ricochet through the lives around her.

Both books feature a prologue and an epilogue written by our fearless leaders, Jodi Cleghorn and Paul Anderson respectively. It's been an educational experience, and I feel privileged to have been part of such a fantastic project. It wasn't all plain sailing but then even Rome wasn't built in a day, and the end product is just simply awesome. A special mention also goes to Lucas Clevenger for his amazing work on the cover!

Carrie Clevenger, Tony Noland, Annie Evett and Jen Brubacher have already blogged about this, but I thought I'd had my thoughts to the melee too! If all of this has whetted your appetite, click here to buy the books!