New Skin for the Old Ceremony in Hub

My third and last story out this month is New Skin for the Old Ceremony, in issue #17 of weekly online magazine Hub - simply follow the link and go to the downloads section. New Skin came out of wondering about that age-old question: if we're really visited by extra-terrestrials then what the hell do they want? The answer I came up with was, hopefully, a fairly original one and also - to me at least - fairly plausible. But the story is also to some extent a meditation on ideas of justice and retribution, and there's even a sneaky 'green' agenda lurking in the background if you want to look for it.

Mainly though, it's a creepy story about a guy and a possibly-dead alien.

I couldn't think of a good title, so in the end I stole one from Leonard Cohen. In retrospect, 'Old Skin for the New Ceremony' would have made more sense and got around the whole plagiarism thing. Ah well, you live and learn.

Finally, if you haven't subscribed to Hub then I can heartily recommend it, since it's free and (all bias aside) they publish some good stories.

King Gob's Warcry in From the Asylum

Another new story up, this one being King Gob's Warcry at From the Asylum. It's a very short piece, that came out of noticing a strange and deeply sinister garden ornament at a friend's house. Strangely, this story provoked the most vociferous reply from an editor I've ever had - how dare I suggest, they asked, that gnomes were anything other that sweet and friendly creatures? Didn't I know that their name is an acronym for Guarding Nobly Over Mother Earth? There are some strange people out there.

Stockholm Syndrome up at Pseudopod

My story Stockholm Syndrome, a gruesome tale of one man coming to terms with his son's death in a town overrun by the living dead, is now up at Pseudopod. I couldn't be more pleased with the job they've done, Cheyenne Wright's reading unnerved the hell out of me and I wrote it. Thankfully, others seem to be enjoying it as well - the comments so far have been very positive, and at time of writing it's been downloaded 7669 times!