Big wheel keeps on turnin' . . .

Not really a fair thing to post, but I just wanted to express how excited I am about the story I'm currently working on. Not only is it going swimmingly, but it's the most fun I've had writing in a long time. I don't know what the final product will be like, but I'm hoping for universal love. I'm certainly pouring that in, at any rate.

The last few weeks have been good. Not only because of my book's impending release, and my nomination for a BFA, and my selling a tale to STRANGE TALES III, but also because I finished said story, then went on to take a tale I'd half-written a year ago and finish that, too. And now I'm already a good way into another. All this, plus there are only two more Saturdays between today and ReaderCon. Things are really moving right now and I'm hoping I can keep the momentum up until September. If so, I might actually have earned the right to take a bit of time off to read again.

Read more...

Nominated for a British Fantasy Award

The news today just keeps on coming . . .

I'm quite excited by the news that my short story "Pinholes in Black Muslin" (available to read for free here) has been short-listed for a British Fantasy Award. The tale will be on the final ballot, so I suppose ought to remind anyone eligible to vote (that would be any member of the British Fantasy Society, or attendee of FantasyCon '08) that they ought to do so before August 1st ... even if it's not for my tale. For those curious, the award ceremony will be September 19th during FantasyCon '09.

For those of you who demand to read the story in print, more good news! Tartarus Press has announced the official date for the release of COLD TO THE TOUCH: July 29th, 2009. You can't preorder it yet, but keep an eye open here for more info.

Read more...

Strange Tales, Volume III

It's my pleasure to announce my short story, "Her Father's Daughter", will be published in STRANGE TALES, VOLUME III, due this Christmas from Tartarus Press.

The previous volume in the Strange Tales series, if you recall, was published at the end of 2007 and contained my tale, "The Other Village" — a tale which went on to appear in the following year's BEST NEW HORROR anthology. Let's hope lightning strikes twice!

Read more...

Review/Rant — "Primeval Wood" by Richard Gavin

Just finished PRIMEVAL WOOD (Burning Effigy Press, 2009) today. Marvellous. I don't know how familiar everyone is with Richard's work in the past, but he's been known (to me at least) as writing a style a bit more Baroque than most of his peers. A bit antiquated at times. This style is one I love reading, but I've always worried it was a bit of an acquired taste. I suspect Richard may have worried about this as well as this novella represents (I think) the first sojourn into a different style, a style similar on the surface to what many people are comfortable with, yet still retaining some of the striking prose, imagery, and themes of his previous work. It's not often I get jealous of my peers while reading their work but I feel jealous reading Richard's work. If I felt his fiction hasn't been given exposure enough before, I certainly feel double about it now. There is a Machenesque sense of mysticism in the work, but unlike that of others (like me, for instance) the mystical world operating in Richard's fiction seems wholly formed and complete, even if it's only hinted at. There is a strange beauty in what he writes, in the messages he conveys, that floors me. Richard's going to explode, I think, in the coming year, and this is the first sign of it. If you haven't, I urge you to buy PRIMEVAL WOOD now.

(I should take this opportunity to launch off on a blog post about changing styles, or rather the metamorphosis of a writer over time as he refines his craft, but I don't have the energy at the moment. Perhaps soon. Too bad, as it would have fit nicely with the above.)

Read more...