Switch off hiatus

My computer, may she rest in peace, is back at the shop. Her third visit. I am on a borrowed vessel here, a machine with exponentially more power than my own sweet baby. But it is not mine. I cannot keep it. My darling will return, I hope, soon, perhaps a little changed, but still close to how she was.

Perhaps this is timely – I am about to switch off and disconnect for twenty-four days and three hours (and some minutes, I’m sure, and seconds). No blog, no twitter, facebook or flickr. No email (not even a single one of the four email addresses who are my galley slaves: they can fish for all I care). No net. No phone, no work. Just eyes open to the world, siphoning in all she has to offer. I will write and travel, photograph and make field recordings of the birds and grasses and the sea slamming at crumbling shores. I will look around my home and garden, perhaps with a new appreciation, perhaps with despair at all that remains undone.

I will be back: I will not be able to stay so real for long, I’m sure. The moment that this cluster of journeys and returns is over I will matrix myself back aboard, let those digits stream down the glass as if hurled by some green raincloud and demolish these remaining years in the continued ranting about the collapse of civilisation, the environment, the economy and bad ice cream.

Year One – table of contents

Fifty-one stories here – and definitely with Angel Zapata this time!

The New Flesh – Year One

Contents
The Lump by William Pauley III
The Woman Without the Red Dress by Michael A. Kechula
The Girl Who Followed Bees by Christie Isler
The Wooden Door by Michael A. Kechula
Grub by Angel Zapata
Heartless by Donna Jean Lyons
Kids in a Candy Store by Spencer Wendleton
Fun and Games by Brian Barnett
Penelope’s Good Day by Suzie Bradshaw
Aloisius Cottonbottom’s Surefire Image Reconstructive Services by Steve Lowe
Submissions by Sean Monaghan
Illusion by Michael A. Kechula
Figure Ate by Stephanie Barnett
The Man Who Held Hands by Brian Barnett
Rigged by Jodi MacArthur
Midnight Stroll by Joshua Day
Evolution by Angel Zapata
Demons and Acid Don’t Mix by Laura Eno
Distractions by Suzie Bradshaw
The Penguins Revolt! By Brian Barnett
The Car Park by Dan Powell
Foul-Mouthed Teenage Zombies by Suzie Bradshaw
Superstition by Robert C. Eccles
Oh My God by Chad Case
Two’s Company by Graeme Reynolds
Melissa in a Jug by A.J. Brown
Forbidden Desire in a Cave by Annemarie Bogart
Hunting J.K. by Kevin Shamel
What Comes Next by Andrew Kaspereen
Cheeto Monkey by Chris Bowsman
The Pull Out Method by Dustin Reade
Bloodline by Sheldon Lee Compton
Mangeni’s Lullaby by Eugene Gramelis
The Neuron Thieves by Sean Monaghan
Adventures of My Little Carnivorous Pony
by Jodi MacArthur
Accused by Chris Reed
Anything More Than Two by Lee Hughes
Guide Number 3 by Sean Monaghan
Fears of a Clown by Graeme Reynolds
Searching for Storms by Tania Luna
Teeth by Chris Bowsman
Feeding Time by Richard Godwin
Jared’s Gift by Mark Anthony Crittenden
The Grump by John Harrower
Septic Infusion by Bryan Lindenberger
In Case of Armageddon by Magen Toole
Mr. Fantastic by Garrett Ashley
Cleveland Cassidy’s Dick by Nathaniel Tower
Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One by Jimmy Callaway
Blink by William Pauley III

A wonderful range of stuff here – just look at those names. And it’s free – what a great thing for your Kindo or Kable or whatever those ebook reader things are 😉

Plus – keep reading The New Flesh for more stories – a new piece of weird flash almost every day.

New Flesh Magazine Year One – free ebook

New Flesh Magazine editors William Pauley III and Brian Barnett (with a nod to Suzie Bradshaw too, I’m sure) have compiled an ebook of their favourite stories from New Flesh’s first year – including some of my pieces.

The New Flesh is an online flash fiction publication, filled with misfit, bizarre and weird stories, so this ebook will be pretty unusual. You can download the ebook for free through the New Flesh Magazine website. Happy reading.

Flash, from Static Movement

This book has been around for a few weeks, but my copy just arrived yesterday and it looks sharp, and is filled with dozens of flash-fiction stories. Editor Chris Bartholemew of Static Movement has done an awesome job of putting this out amongst the range of other anthologies she’s taking on. Neatly led out by “Tea Time With Warthog” by Jodi MacArthur, the roster includes lots of names I’m familiar with – Angel Zapata,, Laura Eno, Robert Essig, Bob Eccles, A.J. French, Jim Bronyaur … more than eighty stories in all, and yes, including one by me – “Man with Shark’s Teeth Walks into Jake’s Diner”.

A wonderful collection, and a great introduction to flash fiction.

Addendum – after a little more checking (see comments below) it seems Angel is not in the anthology – my apologies (a glaring error, perhaps), but Laura is, with her stories “Hunter” and “Two heads are better than one”. Well, that’s from my quick web-check … I will leaf through the book shortly and re-double-confirm that I’ve got that right. Anyway, I’m leaving my link to Angel’s blog there anyhow – awesome writer and you should check out his work.

Deleted Scenes – experimental story at The New Flesh

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My odd little piece (including “screen shots”) Deleted Scenes has been published in The New Flesh Magazine. Perhaps one of my oddest with, I hope, a good mix of humour and horror, but most hopefully something of a story in there. My thanks to the editors William Pauley III and Suzie Bradshaw (both of whom make appearances in the story – can you spot their roles?) for publishing this one. In all the craziness and bizarre at The New Flesh, it seems like the story has found a good home.

Chapbook now available

My chapbook of short stories – The Vampire Gustav at the End of the Universe – published by Lame Goat Press is now available from CreateSpace. 52 pages, $6.95 (US), plus postage. I think it will be available through Amazon soon.

Table of contents:

Airpocket
The Neuron Thieves
Automated Service
The Cottage Garden
Equilibrium
Zemogorgon
Submissions
Missoula Night Hikes
Join the Band
The Servants of Darkness go for Pizza
Let Go Samuel
The Vampire Gustav at the End of the Universe

Most of these stories have been published in zines or magazines, but it’s nice to bring them together – kind of like a balanced “best of” collection, a mix of humour, sci fi, crime and horror and a little blending.

Lie Beside Mary – horror story now at Flashes in the Dark

This one jumps around a little with tense changes and location changes, perhaps too confusing, I don’t know, but I hope you enjoy Lie Beside Mary, just a little story about a couple going out for dinner. A quick read and I see I’ve screwed up one of the tense changes (it made sense when I was working on it). Proofreading never ends.

My thanks to editor Lori Titus for taking this story on. There’s lots of other great fiction at Flashes in the Dark, including Lori’s own Maradith Ryder series.