Thursday, December 31, 2015

New Anthology - Love Hurts by Meerkat Press

Nice Christmas present from Meerkat Press! A review on Amazon says my story Possibly Nefarious Purposes 'could adapt into a good X Files episode', which has just made my day. I could TOTALLY see Mulder going undercover to investigate my alien-sponsored beauty salon. You can just tell he loves a good pedicure.



Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Reprint at The Literary Hatchet - Black Thumb - Horror - 2,734 words

My domestic horror story 'Black Thumb' has been reprinted in Issue 13 of The Literary Hatchet -- available as a free pdf download, and also in print, from the website here



Black Thumb - Horror - 2,734 words

When I started this, I intended it to be as a sweet story about the friendship between a lonely woman and a cute alien, in the same kind of style as ET. It changed quite a lot in the writing, but I think you can still see that core idea. Especially if you think, as I do, that slugs are cute. Having a broad definition of the word sweet would probably help, too.

Curled around the cracked base of her abandoned flower pot is a huge slug, sleek and iridescent in the patchy afternoon sun. Once, she would have worried about how to get rid of it, but there’s no point now.

Read more in The Literary Hatchet

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

New Story at EDF - The Kind Hearts of Children and the Spirit of the Season

My nasty little Christmas horror story, The Kind Hearts of Children and the Spirit of the Season, is free to read at EDF today!

Every Day Fiction is a wonderful venue, and was the very first paying site to publish one of my stories, back in 2010. So when they decided to do a special invitational month in December, while working on a new submissions system, I was thrilled to be asked to take part.

I'm not sure what it says about me that I gave myself a prompt of 'Family Christmas Dinner' and this is what came out, but there you go :)

Happy Holidays!







Sunday, December 13, 2015

New story sale

Extremely pleased to announce the sale of my 2,600 word fantasy story 'Not Recommended for Guests of a Philosophically Uncertain Disposition' to Interzone (the longest-running British SF magazine), for publication next year. Interzone's one of those dream sales - can't wait to get hold of my very own contributor's copy!

Jem used to work in London, but lost her job at the start of the last financial crisis. How she'd ended up at The Fracture was a complicated story involving a diverted flight, a gangster's mother-in-law, and twelve hours locked in the trunk of a car. Somehow, she'd managed to make it seem like a logical sequence of events.

Read more at Interzone next Spring...

Saturday, December 12, 2015

Latest Story News

1. Meredith Said (Science fiction - 1,618 words) was reprinted in Spaceports & Spidersilk

2. Jeanette's Feast (Horror - 3,953 words) was reprinted at Infective Ink

3. The God of Blood and Bone (Horror - 4,315 words) was reprinted at Liquid Imagination

4. Possibly Nefarious Purposes (Science Fiction - 4,308 words) appeared in the anthology Love Hurts from Meerkat Press

5. Send in the Ninjas (Science Fiction - 3,282 words) will appear in Artemis Rising at Podcastle, Feb 2016

6. Always Room for More (Supernatural - 1,723 words) will appear at Unsung Stories, Feb 16

7. Never Leave Me (Dark fantasy - 1,281 words) will be podcasted at Far Fetched Fables

8. The Kind Hearts of Children and the Spirit of the Season (Horror - 954 words) will appear at Every Day Fiction, Dec 16