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