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Showing posts from January, 2009

Bull Running for Girls by Allyson Bird

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Just finished reading: Believe everything you may have heard about Allyson Bird’s debut collection Bull Running for Girls (Screaming Dreams Press, 2008), folks: this collection of adventure-horror tales is a stunning, absorbing read. The stories blend together seamlessly to create a unique travelogue style, mixing in supernatural horror and suspense, terror and tragedy. The twenty-one stories take in such locations as Pamplona (for the title story), Madison County, U.S., Hong Kong, the Silk Road in China, Bordeaux, Pompeii and more. So hard to pick a favourite story (they are all equally enchanting), but the highlights for me were ‘The Conical Witch’, ‘The Sly Boy Bar and Eatery’, ‘In a Pig’s Ear’, ‘Blood in Madness Ran’ and the longest story, ‘Silence is Golden’, all of which left me with the most amazing images in my mind long after having finished reading them. The book is dedicated to Ally’s mother and her sister who both passed away recently, and it’s a wonderful tribute to them

Jupiter SF #23 Out Now!

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From the website: " Issue 23 of Jupiter: Kalyke is out now! This issue features 5 stories. The Weight of Shadows by Lee Moan, The Darken Loop by Huw Langridge (this is a follow on from Huws story The Ceres Configuration which was featured way back in issue 4), Thicker Than Water by Ian Sales, The Rule of Law by Elaine Graham-Leigh (a prequel to her story The Blue Man's Burden from issue 18), Notes from the Apocalypse by Michael Pepper and finally a short The Bridge of the Compass Rose by John Rogers." The cover is by yours truly. If you wish to purchase a copy of this issue, or any of the back issues of Jupiter SF, go here: http://www.jupitersf.co.uk/index.htm Jupiter SF costs £2.75 for a single issue.

The Hotel Galileo to be published in 2009

Well, I'm still stunned, excited, delirious. After a polite query to Carol Hightshoe at Wolfsinger Press asking about the status of my short novel submission, 'The Hotel Galileo', I received a reply offering me a contract for publication! I was so excited about this I couldn't sleep Sunday night. Woke up for work this morning completely knackered and wondering if I'd imagined it! But no, it's true. Carol said the book was scheduled to be released "sometime in 2009" as a paperback edition as well as an eBook version for Kindle etc. The paperback will be available to buy through Amazon.com. This is the culmination of two, maybe three years' work. The Hotel Galileo is, so far, one of the most enjoyable writing expereinces I've had so far. I really did have a ball writing it, and it was one of the first times I finished a project and was able to read it back over and feel really proud of it. (I've written several other novels prior to this whic