Genre fiction
MicroHorror, run by the most esteemed Nathan Rosen, writer, musician and editor, publishes flash horror fiction no more than 666 words long.
My recent piece Heading for Boise appeared on the site on October 6th. This has some of my favourite (perhaps over-used) elements – fragmented narrative, shifting viewpoints, flashbacks, a car wreck and a bit of a haunting. I was pleased with the results but still I hope it’s still readable and makes sense to readers other than me.
My quirky sci-fi flash “The Path to Centauri” is in the October issue of KC Ball’s quarterly flash fiction magazine. 10Flash publish ten flash fiction pieces in each issue, all around a common theme. October’s theme is “stop me if you’ve heard this one” – as it implies, the issue is filled with some pretty humourous stories.
I seem to have a lot of publication announcements at the moment – one of those convergence things. I have a couple more to announce next week too, but then I should be back to my usual self of ranting about politicians and global warming.
Part four of my novel serialization is up now at the Infinite Windows site. More intrigue, a home invasion, a flashback, and a stop for burgers. Coming next month a car chase. There is also a host of new short fiction and poetry by some talented writers at the site worth checking out.
As the name suggests, 365Tomorrows publish a new science fiction piece every day.
My flash story Sunset Photographer has just been published.
“Tony Willits scrambled up the scree slope looking for the Leica on hands and knees. The sun, tapping the horizon, glistened through airborne particles. Deimos in the sky and some heavy terraforming dust-devils lurched along the far canyon edge. He’d taken some great photos, but this was too extraordinary to miss…”
A calamity, a tough choice and a gorgeous sunset, all set in the fabulous hills of Mars. 365T publish only flash fiction and their limit is 600 words, so this is pretty tight.
With a fabulous cover illustration by Lee Kurugangti
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The October issue of Static Movement is out, with a cool range of poems and stories, including my odd little piece The Bureau of Lost and Found Souls. What if lost souls could be found, but there were a few forms to fill out before you could claim them?
Lori Titus and Bob Eccles, the editors of the wonderful Flashes in the Dark online magazine, took my very dark story “The Newly Oiled Gate”.
I’m not sure what commentary to offer on this one – some familiar tropes, I suppose: damaged people, damaged bodies and a possibly ambiguous end. An exercise in voice, as much as anything else, I guess. Enjoy.
Just finished reading this wonderful dark gothic book. Despite being very different from much of what I’ve been reading lately – thrillers and young adult fiction – I didn’t feel I had to change gears to read my way through this. The book is fabulously compelling and actually, it was all I could do to have a break from reading it.
Set soon after World War I, on a nearly abandoned sub-antarctic island, with strange monsters and dangerous times, the book has a growing urgency. As a character study within a horror setting, this is brilliant, as a gothic thriller, it’s fabulous.
Perhaps it most closely reminded me of Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast trilogy (which I’ve now returned to, and am enjoying, though in a different way), but with more concise and economical language.
Madness of the Mind is another anthology from the growing Static Movement imprint. I guess the title says it all really. Two of my stories are included – “The Tuatara Terrarium” and “The Wasps’ Nest” – both dark, gothic stories, and interrelated with characters and settings appearing in both stories.
These stories are two of my favourites in part because they’re so different from much of my work. They’re most likely influenced by Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast trilogy, populated with odd characters in a very gothic setting.
The anthology is available now from Amazon, and also from the
No news today – I’m flat out catching up with things after driving a couple of hours north to collect my parents when their car became undriveable from being hit by a landslide. They’re fine, but shaken, and the car might even be repairable.
Landslide:
The landslide shoved the car right across the road to around about where the photo is taken from. Please excuse the cellphone-ness of the picture quality.
Car (actually, normally blue):
I’ll carry on as normal on Monday …
Sounds The Songs of Seabirds is the moniker used by Bob Singley, a prolific ambient/improvisational folk artist from the Pacific Northwest. With numerous releases available through Bandcamp there’s a huge array of music available.
Moss Wall is a series of releases – seven long albums in a variety of low key styles. Bob allowed me to curate a collection of tracks for Zenapolae as a kind of overview of the series. Nine tracks, at least one from each release:
1. one rain drop
2. freezing rain
3. green leaves hanging on a limb
4. spores
5. as the high winds carry the birds
6. love (four)
7. frozen fog
8. marmot
9. purple nettle at trail 8
You can stream or download the compilation from Zenapolae here.
Triple V Publishing 