Reasons to be Afraid of Superheroes

I mentioned this when I first posted about the sale of my story Wunderkind to Bards and Sages Quarterly, but it bears repeating: if superheroes actually existed then they would be really scary.  I don't just mean the ones that are supposed to be scary either.  Superman?  Scary.  Sure, he means well, but he happens to get his x-ray vision and his heat vision mixed up when he's trying to read your T-shirt size and you're going to end up a twiglet.

So as a small step towards redressing all the pro-superhero propaganda out there, Wunderkind appears in the April issue of Bards and Sages, available in print from Amazon.com and CreateSpace, and electronically from DriveThruFantasy.  For once, I've actually seen a copy, and it's an extremely nicely put together 'zine.  One thing that really struck me is that the decision to offer plenty of very short stories is a good idea, a few times I've bought a magazine only to find that half the issue was taken up with a single tale that I didn't get on with.  Also, it's another truly beautiful cover, amongst my favourites of the magazines I've had work in.

While I'm plugging, the latest issue of Andromeda Spaceways, with my bizarre sci-fi mini-epic The Painted City within, is now available from their website, although oddly with an entirely black cover.  How much more black can you get than that?  Why, none more black, of course.

Funland: Week Six

Wow, is it really week six?  According to the original plan, the revised plan and the revised revised plan, that means I should be past the half way point.  And I am!  Things have gone considerably better than expected at the end of last week, and early yesterday afternoon I broke 55'000 words.  Considering that I lost a couple of days to my interview, (now rescheduled for tomorrow), that puts me about where I should be.  Plus, I have most of part five - though oddly, not part four - planned out.  And I've written some stuff that I don't want to take out back and shoot.  In short, things are reasonably back on track.  If I can hit 60'000 and get part four planned for the end of next week then I'll be a happy bunny.

If I hadn't managed to get things rolling on my own, I think discovering Justin Lee Musk's fanastic blog might well have done it. Justin offers a few timely reminders of why temporarily giving up the day job to write may not have been the stupidest, craziest thing I've ever done, however much it may feel like it on the tough days - and also plenty of much-needed practical advice.

Funland: Week Five

You know last week when I said that I thought things were set to go downhill?  Boy, was I on the money.  Most of this week has been spent wrestling disaster from the grip of success.  It all finally came apart on Wednesday, when I realised that although I was on target, I was so unhappy with what I was doing and where I was going that I was running the risk of derailing the whole project.  It was literally getting to a point where just adding to the mess was making me miserable, and it was clear something drastic was needed.  So I spent Thursday cutting back some of the wastage of the last three days, and Friday doing not a whole lot of anything.

In retrospect, the problem was two-fold.  Part one was just bad planning: I expected that by the two fifths point I'd have a pretty good idea of where things were going and that proved not to be the case.  Worse than that, it was clear that some of the waypoints I had in mind weren't going to work, and some of my initial ideas were starting to look like bad calls.  Although those things looked catastrophic and insurmountable at the start of the week, I'm already starting to see ways round them.

Part two is a little more tricky.  It's been increasingly hard to concentrate with a major interview hanging over me, and until I know which way that goes I have no idea how much time I have left for Funland.  Clearly, if I'm going to be back in work in a couple of weeks then there's no point trying to get it finished, and I'd be better aiming for a point that will be easy to pick up from when the dust has settled.

Am I beating myself up about falling behind schedule?  A little, but not too much.  I'm a lousy planner, so perhaps I did well to get this far; plus, if I'd had a rigid plan I suspect I'd have had to chuck it out by now anyway.  I'm nearly at the half way mark and, thanks to Thursday's cutting, I'm reasonably happy with everything I've got down.  All in all, things could be worse.  So the revised targets are these: by the end of next week, I hope to be at the 50'000 word point, which is where I should have been by tonight.  More importantly, I want to have a clear idea and thorough notes of where the rest of the novel is heading.  Shouldn't be too difficult, right?

We shall see...

Gug-Shabeth Even Uglier in Colour

In a dramatic break from tradition, I'm showing off a cover to a magazine that I'm not actually in.  The reason?  That weird guy on the cover is Gug-Shabeth, monstrous hero and titular lackey of my tale Caretaker in the Garden of Dreams.  I know this because the illustration appeared in smaller, black and white form to accompany Caretaker in the previous issue.

It's fantastic to see the artwork done full justice like this, and also I can't help thinking that it's nice for poor Gug-Shabeth, who definitely gets the less savoury end of the stick as protagonists go.  Much thanks to the artist, whoever they may be (I can't seem to find a credit anywhere.)

Both the current issue, #10, and issue #9 with my story as editor's choice and a wealth of other disturbing goodness, can be purchased from Amazon and the Necrotic Tissue website.

Funland: Week Four

I think this past week has been the one I've enjoyed most, and also the one I've worked hardest in.  I was determined to get the weekend off and I had a friend visiting on the Friday afternoon, so in the end I just got my head down and plowed on through.  I finished Friday at just under 2400 words in about five and a half hours, a personal record by quite a considerable margin.

I seem to be dealing better with the problems that have been tripping me up for the first couple of weeks, where I couldn't get my head around how a scene began or where it was going and ended up noodling about on Wikipedia instead of forcing myself to think it through.  Now I just go work on something else and let my hindbrain mull it over - even if I don't know how that goes either it still seems to help.  That said, by Thursday I had so many scenes on the go that I had to get it all mapped out on paper just to make sure I didn't leave anything unfinished!

Sad to say, week four may have been the peak of the project.  I've written all the stuff that I had well planned out, I have an interview scheduled for the week after next and generally need to start thinking seriously about getting back into regular work ...  all in all, I suspect reality is going to start intruding more and more into this odd little interlude.

Anyway, this time next week I should be just past the half way point, which is pretty awesome considering that it feels like I've barely started...

Feeler Returns in Shelter of Daylight

My story Feeler, which appeared late last year in the final issue of Ballista magazine, is reprinted this month in issue three of small press powerhouse Sam Dot Publishing's newest magazine / anthology title Shelter of Daylight.

Since I haven't seen a copy, and since I've already plugged Feeler, there's not a lot I can add to that.  It's certainly another fantastic cover, something that I always seem to get lucky on. 

One thing I've found myself wondering about, though: how on earth does she fit into those trousers?  At first I thought there was some sort of intergalactic flirtation going on, but now I'm convinced that he's actually supporting her because she's cut off the circulation to her ankles.  Of course, since it's the future it's perfectly possible that they're spray-on or perhaps some kind of symbiotic lifeform.  Or maybe she's an alien and those are actually her legs.  The possibilities are virtually endless.

The Living Dead ... the Movie!

I just discovered that the The Living Dead anthology I was in back in 2008 has a trailer.  It's extremely cool - especially the zombie schoolkids. Click here to watch on YouTube.

I also discovered I have a couple more stories out, but since neither is 'officially' out I'll hold off posting the details for a little while.

Now, I really should stop playing on the internet and get back to writing Funland.  36'699 words and counting...