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.

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

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!

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...

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

New Anthology out now!

This fabulous-looking antho from the fine folks at Fantasy Scroll -- which includes my dark fantasy 'The Fine Art of Fortune-Telling' -- is out now!

Dragons, Droids & Doom: Year One

There's a family & friends discount for purchases from their own site -- Dragons, Droids & Doom: Year One -- so hit me up for the code if you fancy one!

Also available from:

Trade Paperback: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Abe Books, Alibris
Ebook: Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Google, Smashwords, Scribd

November Ebook Sale!

Welcome to 99centnovember! All throughout this month, there are a whole load of great speculative books  from some brilliant authors on sale for just $0.99 / £0.99 -- including the omnibus edition of my short story collections:

Transient Tales Omnibus 1: forty-six funny, sad, and thrilling stories of science fiction, fantasy and horror — featuring dysfunctional (and sometimes demonic) families, a time-travelling reality TV show, a Halloween game with a chilling price, robot wolves, carnivorous plants, a call-centre at the end of the world, witches, doppelgangers, misanthropic psychics, immortal gang bosses, apocalyptic survivors, alien voyeurs, flesh-eating criminals, a cunningly-disguised space teleport device, zombies (some helpful, some not so much), and much, much more!

Available for just $0.99 / £0.99  from Amazon UK / Amazon US  / Smashwords  now!

Go here to check out all the other offers from Milo J Fowler, Daniel Ausema, James Garcia Jr., Anne E. Johnson, Simon Kewin, TB Markinson, Tyrean Martinson, Rhonda Parrish, and Loni Townsend. Grab a bargain!

New story at Daily Science Fiction - And in the End, They All Lived Happily Ever After

... or not, as the case may be.

And in the End, They All Lived Happily Ever After - Fantasy - 474 words

The coachman knows his place, so he stays outside, even though the music swirls in his head and tries to draw him into the ballroom, with all its vibrant colours and beautiful dancers — glamorous, graceful people whirling around the floor in complicated patterns, not needing to look where they're going because they fit so perfectly into the shape of this grand, wonderful design; people who belong, who follow their steps and play their roles and smile so gloriously because they know, they all know, that they are precisely where they are meant to be.

Read more at Daily Science Fiction

Anthology - Dragons, Droids and Doom

Dragons, Droids and Doom, the first-year anthology from Fantasy Scroll Magazine, is out now -- including my dark fantasy story 'The Fine Art of Fortune-Telling'

I’m glad to see the cards. Hope can read anything, and likes to prove it. I’ve watched her read palms, tea leaves, biscuit crumbs, a waste bin full of used tissues and the pattern of dandruff on the shoulders of a man’s jacket. My aunt, the Psychic Dandruff Reader. 

‘What’s your question?’ Hope asks Frizzy. 

‘I want to know when I’m going to meet my future husband,’ Frizzy says. 

Hope rolls her eyes, but hands over the deck. ‘Shuffle.’ 

Frizzy does as she’s told, handling the cards like an expert. She cuts the deck and gives it back to Hope, who turns over the top card. 

‘Nineteen years,’ she says. ‘Next question?’

Read more in Dragons, Droids and Doom: a collection SF, fantasy and horror stories from authors all around the world -- available here

New story at Kzine - Smash and Grab

My SF short story 'Smash and Grab,' which is set in the world of my novel-in-progress, is out now in Kzine Issue 13 -- available at Amazon UK or US

Smash and Grab - SF - 3,037 words

'Don't give it away like that,' he said. 'People won't know you've been in their heads if you don't react, and they won't realise there's anything different about you. Which is good. You don't want to be normal, but you do want to be able to pass for it. Got it?'

Read the rest, plus seven other great stories, in Kzine #13

Latest Story News

1. The omnibus of my short story collections is now available as an ebook: Transient Tales Omnibus 1 collects the first four volumes in the series: forty-six funny, sad, and thrilling stories of science fiction, fantasy and horror — featuring dysfunctional (and sometimes demonic) families, a time-travelling reality TV show, a Halloween game with a chilling price, robot wolves, carnivorous plants, a call-centre at the end of the world, witches, doppelgangers, misanthropic psychics, immortal gang bosses, apocalyptic survivors, alien voyeurs, flesh-eating criminals, a cunningly-disguised space teleport device, zombies (some helpful, some not so much), and much, much more!

Available from Amazon UK / Amazon US / Kobo / Smashwords / Barnes & Noble now! (Paperback version in production. Watch this space...)


2.  'You Pay Your Money and You Take Your Chance' (SF, 1,248 words) was published in Volume 7 of the annual Bards & Sages anthology, available in ebook and print.

3. 'Congratulations on Your Apotheosis' (Fantasy, 4,028 words) was recorded for audio at Podcastle.

4. 'Not the Pizza Girl' (Fantasy, 1,000 words) was reprinted at EGM Shorts.

5. 'The Portal to a Lost World' (SF, 957 words) was reprinted at Sirens Call Magazine

6. 'One Free Go' (Horror, 2, 105 words) will be reprinted in Beyond Imagination magazine in September 2015

7. Smash and Grab (SF, 3,037 words) will be published in Kzine issue 13, available on 18th September.

8. 'Possibly Nefarious Purposes' (SF, 4,314 words) will be published in the Love Hurts anthology from Meerkat Press, October 2015

9. 'And in the End, They All Lived Happily Ever After' (Fantasy, 474 words) will be published at Daily Science Fiction, TBA

10. 'Getting Shot in the Face Still Stings' (Horror, 3,800 words) will be reprinted in the Idle Hands anthology from Horrifed Press, TBA

11. 'An Object Lesson in Misanthropy' (SF, 912 words) will be reprinted at EGM Shorts, TBA

12. 'The God of Blood and Bone' (Horror, 4,284) will be published at Liquid Imagination, TBA

Reprint News

Available now:

Garden of Fog and Monsters (SF, 2,088 words) in the May 2015 issue of Beyond Science Fiction

Coming Soon: 

Congratulations on Your Apotheosis (Comic fantasy, 4,028 words) in audio at Podcastle

Not the Pizza Girl (Comic Fantasy, 1,000 words) at EGM Shorts

The Fine Art of Fortune Telling (Dark fantasy, 3,966 words) in Eldritch Embraces from Dragon's Roost Press

New story at SQ Magazine - The Visitors

My SF flash 'The Visitors' is out now in the January issue of the wonderful SQ Magazine!


The Visitors - SF - 760 words

Nothing was normal, not any more. The word was redundant, obsolete, anachronistic. Normal had taken one look at the visitors and given up.

Read the rest, plus more stories and reviews, at SQ Magazine issue 18

New story at Daily Science Fiction - Wrong Word

My SF flash 'Wrong Word' is free to read at one of my favourite venues, Daily Science Fiction. This piece was inspired by a part of Richard Adams' Watership Down that creeped me out when I first read it over forty years ago (eep!) and has stayed with me ever since. That book is SO not a kids' story.

And it's also just occurred to me that this could be read as a sequel to my earlier DSF story Jump and I'll Catch You  even though it was actually written first. The subconscious is a wonderful thing.

Wrong Word - SF - 818 words

Alliance, that was what you were supposed to call it. Not invasion. Alliance. We're all friends here.

Read the story at Daily Science Fiction.