The Mute Swan

I am delighted to announce that my story The Mute Swan set in my lovely town of Wallasey and New Brighton will appear in Paul Finch's Terror Tales series, Terror Tales of Northwest England.

The anthology (available to pre-order from Amazon) due out on October 1st features stories by Simon Bestwick, Stephen Gallagher, Ramsey Campbell, Paul Finch, Anna Taborska, Simon Kurt Unsworth and John Travis, amongst others.

Here is an extract from my story:

Carys screamed.

Feathers rained from the costume, carpeting the floor with swan. Carys tore at the dress, at the bodice too tight for her expanding frame. The tips of the feathers pricked her arms, as if inking a message on skin, transforming it. Scream hitched against her throat. She coughed blood onto the bones of the dress. If she snapped the bodice, it would cover her front, her burgeoning chest, but little else. She stretched her neck. The scream would not stop.

Into The Woods with Hersham Horror

I am delighted to announce that my story, The Iron Curve of Thorns, will be appearing in The Woods, an anthology from Hersham Horror. The anthology also includes stories by James Everington, Mark West, Penny Jones and Phil Sloman (who is also the editor of this awesome little book) and is volume 6 in the PentAnth series.


The paperback anthology will be released at Edge-Lit in Derby on 13th July 2019. The kindle edition is already available from Amazon.

The Travelling Theatrical Tour: Things That Never Will Be Again

And so the blog tour continues and this time I'm visiting Tony Rapino's blog with a post titled, The Travelling Theatrical Tour: Things That Never Will Be Again, in which I talk about all the madcap things that once inhabited my novella, Theatre of Curious Acts. If you've ever participated in NaNoWriMo you'll understand how madness can creep into a first draft (and possibly stay around longer than it should).

Tony's first novel 'Soundtrack to the End of the World' is released this year by Bad Moon Books. Really can't wait to read it. I mean, seriously, seriously, looking forward to it. In the meantime, Tony is releasing a collection of short fiction titled 'Welcome to Moon Hill'.


And today, there is also an interview with me by Michael Wilson over at the wonderful This is Horror site.


Other stops on the blog tour:

Dreaming the Impossible at Aaron Polson's blog
Interview by Mary Rajotte
From a Single Thing at Jim McLeod's blog
That November Spell at Ray Cluley's blog
Interview by Simon Kewin
Twitter Rules at Bloody Bookish
Freedom at TTA Press
Inspiration at Deborah Walker's blog

A Season in Carcosa

First story acceptance of the year.

"Yellow Bird Strings" will appear in Joseph S. Pulver's A Season in Carcosa an anthology of The King in Yellow tales to be published by Miskatonic River Press this summer.

Other folk in the anthology include Gary McMahon, Simon Strantzas, Michael Kelly, Ally Bird, Joel Lane, Joe Pulver, Richard Gavin, Don Webb and many others.

And of course, the stunning cover art is by Danielle Serra.

Ashes

My story 'And, the Bride Wore Ashes' is now available to read at Phantasmacore.

It's a tale of a jilted Buster Keatonesque groom, a wedding dress made of moths and a snow globe.

I hope you like it and I also hope you'll comment over at the site if you do (or don't). It's my first story available to read online since last September. I need to pull my socks up.

Acrophobia

Submitted Opheliac to its intended market and filed it away. It's the least confident I've been about a story in some time which of course means it is probably a work of brilliance - isn't that how it goes? The ones we love grow stale and unwanted until they end their days hiding in a dusty corner, while those we're not sure of find love at the first kiss.

Whatever, I've moved on to story number two for 2010. So far we have a premise (which I'm kind of excited about), a beautiful title, 91 words and a tartan blanket. I need to practice kneeling and doing the whole 'not worthy' thing because it's intended market is shiny and on the top shelf. Perhaps I should cease with the bowing and find a ladder to climb.

Fish Eyes

On the only day in a fortnight when it didn't rain (well at least until I was snug and warm at home), I had a day's holiday from work. Bliss. As they say, The sun shines on the righteous... So someone really good must have had today off work as well.

I finished Fairy Tale Reality, scrubbed out its title and called it 'The Meaning of Yellow', and sent it spinning along to Clockwork Phoenix with only a few days to spare (closing date is November 15th - gasp) and I have spent most of today procrasticating in the most delicious way and planning on building a literary fort to keep me writing, writing, writing during 2010 - I can convince my lazy brain of anything.

Oh, and today, I feel a little like this...



f f by `gnato on deviantART

Scars
Smeared Lipstick
Demon's Brain
Locomotion
Mop Head
Tightrope
Alias
Squeamish
Fish Eyes

The Not Too Serious Post

I have a posh new swear word (not that I swear on my blog - PG rating and all that) for when the world is getting you down or for when you've dropped a paint tin and spattered the cupboard floor with paint - Fouquette. Feel free to use it.

The above may only make sense when spoken with my Scouse accent. Who knows. Maybe you're saying it out loud in your native accent and thinking, 'Golly, that girl has a very strange take on a perfectly normal surname'.

As you can tell, I am achieving alot today. Have spent most of my time listening to this...




...for a story that is turning out a little maudlin. I wonder why? And when I say turning out, I mean in a planning way as I haven't written anything except the title, which I've already gone off - Silhouette of a Fedora - blah! There's no pleasing some writers. Ah... Fouquette. :)

Silly quote of the day: A writer is only as insane as the last MC she wrote about.