Reprint! 'In the Fog, There's Nothing but Grey' in Silver Blade

'In the Fog, There's Nothing but Grey,' (dark fantasy, 1,500 words) originally published in the late, lamented Black Static, has been reprinted in Issue 58 of the wonderful Silver Blade Magazine. 

This is a pending-apocalypse story taking place during an epidemic of amnesia, and is about finding out who you are by watching what you do... 

Nobody’s gone in or out of the pub for a long time, so it makes us all jump when the door opens. I hadn’t even realised it was unlocked. 

‘Here comes trouble,’ Gil says.

 He says that about everything, from Chrissie coming back from the Ladies to pigeons landing on the roof, but this time I think he could be right — there’s something about this newcomer that sets my spidey-sense humming. I can’t put my finger on what, but sometimes that’s how it is: the eyes send a message straight to the hairs on the back of the neck, bypassing the brain completely. Which maybe isn’t such a bad thing, considering the brain’s not the be-all and end-all it used to be.

Read the full story here

Reprint! 'Light Winds with a Chance of Velociraptors' in Sages of Metaphorosis anthology

 

Light Winds with a Chance of Velociraptors (comic fantasy, 2,578 words), originally published by Metaphorosis Magazine in June 2017, has been reprinted in their latest anthology 'Sages,' a collection of 20 terrific stories by authors who were over 50 at the time of writing. Old farts unite! 

Find the anthology here 

New story: 'At the Bottom of the Rabbit Hole, Proceed to Checkout' in Paranoid Tree

 

'At the Bottom of the Rabbit Hole, Proceed to Checkout' is out now in issue 40 of Paranoid Tree, a terrific lit/art magazine that produce gorgeous print editions that open out into little posters. Check out the online and print versions! 

New Podcast! Not Recommended for Guests of a Philosophically Uncertain Disposition at Tall Tale TV

 

My whimsical fantasy story ‘Not Recommended for Guests of a Philosophically Uncertain Disposition’ has been podcasted by the talented Chris Herron of Tall Tale TV. He did a terrific job, and I absolutely love the artwork that went with the story. Give it a listen! 

New story! The Day My Mum Chucked a Bloke From the Government Through the Wormhole in Our Garden in Impossible Worlds

 

Out now! Impossible Worlds Issue IV, featuring my comic fantasy 'The Day My Mum Chucked a Bloke From the Government Through the Wormhole in Our Garden' 

Six stories of wonder, amazement, and just straight up oddities! From a cat obsessed with Duchovny to government interference in spatial anomalies, this 4th edition of Impossible Worlds is sure to please any SFF Fan. 

Find it here: Impossible Worlds Issue IV, Dec 2023

New story! The Restoration of Carrion Cottage in Dark Moments

My short horror The Restoration of Carrion Cottage is out now in the  Black Hare Press YEAR FIVE anthology: a culmination of all the nano-tales published in the Dark Moments online archive during 2023, and the PATREON stories. 

A perfect restoration project, the estate agent called the place. Well, the website did. Nobody actually bothered coming out there with us, just left the keys and directions at the office. I suppose didn’t see the point; there was little to vandalise and nothing to steal, and if someone had burned it down it would probably have done them a favour.

Available for download here 

Reprint! 'Supply, Demand, and Armageddon' in Androids & Dragons

 

My science-meets-capitalism comic SF story, 'Supply, Demand, and Armageddon,' first published by Wyldblood Magazine in April 2022, has been reprinted by new spec fic journal Androids and Dragons. 

 'Seriously? Have you never watched a single science fiction film in your entire life?' She shook her head. 'I've seen this story before, Remi, and it doesn't end well.' 

 Read it for free here

Reprint! We're All Friends Here in Dark Matter 16

 

Thrilled to announce that issue 16 of the wonderful Dark Matter is now available, featuring a reprint of my story 'We're All Friends Here' 

Aliens! Gangsters! Existential philosophical dilemmas! Check it out in Dark Matter 16 

We're All Friends Here - SF - 4,385 words 

In the old book our film's based on, Kip has a different reaction: he becomes more determined than ever to go out swinging, and the story ends with him getting killed during a huge shootout with the police in a third act packed with gunfire and explosions. Violent nihilism was popular in the twenty-first century.

New Podcast! You Pay Your Money and You Take Your Chance at Manawaker Studios

 

My SF story You Pay Your Money and You Take Your Chance, about gambling with the sands of time, is out in audio now at the Manawaker Studios Flash Fiction Podcast, ep 0823. Listen to it here!

Reprint! Dead Bodies Don't Scream in Dark Tales 4

 

Out now, including my story 'Dead Bodies Don't Scream' - Dark Tales 4 from Gravestone Press. This volume brings you another superb collection of evil thoughts, nasty people, blood guts and torment, in no particular order. Not For Late Night Reading.

Latest Story News!

OUT NOW

The Bad Ones are Always the Best (Horror) appeared in episode 468 of Drabblecast and the second issue of The Tentaculum

Nor Any Drop to Drink (Horror) appeared in The Flash of Fangs (Ed. Parth Sarathi Chakraborty, Wicked Shadow Press) 

FORTHCOMING

Dead Bodies Don't Scream (Horror) will appear in Dark Tales 4 from Gravestone Press

Not the Pizza Girl (Fantasy) will appear in Metastallar Year 2 anthology

Reprint! The Bad Ones are Always the Best in The Tentaculum

 

The second issue of The Tentaculum, the Drabblecast's quarterly magazine of weird fiction, has been released under a creative commons license. That means it's available for everyone to download and read for free! Features my story 'The Bad Ones are Always the Best'

Grab it here: 

Reprint! Where There's Magic in Dragon Gems Winter 2023

 

Out now from Water Dragon Press! Dragon Gems (Winter 2023): tales to warm your imagination during the cold winter months.

I'm thrilled to be included in this inaugural edition with a reprint of my dark fantasy story 'Where There's Magic,' (first published in Kaleidotrope April 2016), about warring twin sisters using the power of death magic in a cycle of murder and revenge.

The anthology also features stories by Christina Ardizzone, Matt Bliss, Gustavo Bondoni, Micah Castle, Nestor Delfino, C. M. Fields, Andrew Giffin, Emma Kathryn, Jason Lairamore, Eve Morton, Lena Ng, S. Park, Arlo Sharp, Mar Vincent, and Richard Zwicker. 

Dragon Gems (Winter 2023) is available now in hardcover, trade paperback, and digital editions from most online booksellers.

New drabble! 'Balloons' in Martian Magazine

Out now! Read my story 'Balloons' in Issue 7 of Martian Magazine!

Martian is a magazine of science fiction drabbles, stories told in exactly 100 words. Each quarter, we'll bring you twenty-six new, evocative science fiction micros from new and award-winning authors. Our seventh issue features stories from Rich Larson, Michelle Ann King, Liam Hogan, Marisca Pichette, Christopher Rowe, Adriana C. Grigore, James Van Pelt, Jason Burnham, Marc A. Criley, and many other writers from around the globe.

Available now

Reprint! 'Sale or Return' in Planetside

Out now! My SF drabble 'Sale or Return,' previously published at Scribes Micro Fiction (Apr 2021) has been reprinted in the wonderful collection 'Planetside' (Ed. Eric Fomley) from Shacklebound Books. 

Planetside is an anthology of drabbles, stories of exactly 100 words. Within these pages are micro science fiction stories from Liam Hogan, Marc Criley, Michelle Ann King, Marisca Pichette, Anna Madden, and many, many others!

Available for Kindle now

Out Now! What Doesn't Kill You in Dark Tales from Gravestone Press

 

The latest publication from Gravestone Press, Dark Tales Volume 1, brings you another superb collection of evil thoughts, nasty people, blood guts and torment...

In this volume we have:- Night In Our Veins (Paul Edwards) The Quiet Ones (Liam A. Spinage) Culprits (Olivia Arieti) Neon Fly (S J Townend) Judge's Decision (Rickey Rivers Jr.) Radium Cigarettes (Gary Budgen) The People of the Desert (Jason R. Frei) A Lonely Place (Dorothy Davies) Succulent (Brooke MacKenzie) Eve of Destruction (Liam A. Spinage) The Players' Requiem (Olivia Arieti) Loot Crate (Jason R. Frei) Dolls Don't Cry (Brooke MacKenzie) Maggots and Marriage (Rickey Rivers Jr.) Warm Hugs (S J Townend) Four Sided Bottle (Rickey Rivers Jr.) Deep Town (Dona Fox) What Doesn't Kill You (Michelle Ann King) Closer (Carrie Mills) Bequeathed (Paul Edwards)

Available now from Gravestone Press! 

Reprint! 'And in the End, They All Lived Happily Ever After' in Bards & Sages

Out now! The October 2022 issue of Bards & Sages Quarterly. 

Includes my mini fairy tale story 'And in the End, They All Lived Happily Ever After,' in which they very much didn't...

Get the issue at:

https://books2read.com/b/4D6jXD 

New stories in The Fifth Di...

 

My first double-header! Two of my stories, Never Meet Your Heroes (Comic Fantasy) and The Logistics of the End of the World (SF Horror) appear in the current issue of The Fifth Di... from Hiraeth Publishing, out now! 

New Story! On Blackened Wings in Keys to the Highway (Gravestone Press), Sep 22

The key is the empowerment, those who hold the key to the car has the keys to the highway... here are stories of haunted roads and strange vehicles, of wild driving and those driven by the need for revenge... follow the wheels, see where they take you - just beware which way you come back...

Keys to the Highway, Out now from Gravestone Press, including my apocalypse road trip story 'On Blackened Wings'

New story! The Voices of the Dead in Tales from the Moonlit Path

 A wee ghost story out now, in the summer edition of Tales from the Moonlit Path.

The Voices of the Dead (500 words)

It’s not uncommon, apparently, for the newly bereaved to hear the voices of their dead. All the counsellors said so...