Saturday, 23 January 2010

Necrotic Tissue #9 Out to Buy

Since I can't come up with an interesting title, I've pretty much summed this post up already, but let's try and drag it out just a little longer, eh? Necrotic Tissue issue #9, featuring my story Caretaker in the Garden of Dreams as one of the 'editor's picks', is out to buy from the Necrotic Tissue website. If you squint, you can possibly make out my name there on the cover. I'm choosing to believe that this is the correct version of the cover, by the way, since the one in the shop spells my surname as Tellerman. Man, I hope I'm not going to have to get it changed by deadpoll...

Caretaker is a very weird, very nasty little tale that came to me in the same bout of half-awake delirium that produced the idea for my first novel, (which is extremely close to being finished by the way). I can't say too much without giving away the story, so instead I'll just mention what a pleasant experience it was working with the guys at Necrotic Tissue, who not only paid me more than I was expecting but did so before the issue came out, and even threw in a damnably stylish T-shirt.

Also, I now have my copy of the Zombonauts anthology, and I'm glad to say that it's a really nice looking book. I haven't actually read any of yet, (I'm still working my way through my copy of Theaker's Quarterly Fiction), but if you can't judge a book by its cover then what can you judge it by?

Sunday, 17 January 2010

First Sale of 2010

Before we start, a belated happy new year to anyone who stumbles over this post. And is it a new decade? Well, what the hell, a happy new decade to you as well.

First sale of 2010 goes to editor Seth Crossman at OG's Speculative Fiction, and my story Today the War Ended, Tonight the Sky Burned. What can I say? I was going through a phase of long titles. Today the War Ended is the closest I've come, (and probably the closest I ever will come), to writing a seasonal story. It's about war, of course, and what it does to lives, about sacrifice, and more than anything about love and its limitations. It's a small, sad story that I'm immensely fond of, and I'm glad to see it end up with Seth, who quietly goes about producing one of the most consistent small press magazines around.

This, by the way, will be my third appearance in OG's Speculative Fiction, after The Other Ten Thousand in issue #9 and The Ascension of DeepRED in issue #15. Here's hoping it won't be the last.