Remember this? Well Trouble the Waters now has an official publication date (January 2022), and is available for pre-order from Third Man Books directly, Bookshop.org, and Amazon. See the announcement here. For the time being, continue to feast your eyes upon the updated cover design and Stacey Robinson’s astonishing cover art. Roll on 2022…
The Clarkesworld Year Twelve anthologies, Volumes One and Two, are now out in various formats (including print) from various vendors. As well as containing many great (and award-winning) stories, Volume Two also has a reprint of my story “The Veilonaut’s Dream” from Clarkesworld issue #143. Here is the complete table of contents:
So… in the end, a quiet year on the published story front, with two new stories out in the first half.
Still, I’m happy with what’s out there, and happy in the progress I think I’m making in writing at a more consistent level. Happy, really, to be still writing at all, considering the many other much more talented people I’ve known who’ve stumbled upon the rock-strewn way. Happy to be able to pick my own slow path to my own destination, with whoever is willing to come along.
Despite the barren-looking fields, be assured that deep in the earth, there are roots still frantically growing.
Great to have physical contributor copies of Best of British Science Fiction 2019 finally in my hands. The artwork by Les Edwards in the front bookend is absolutely stunning.
You too can get a copy if you head on over to the NewCon Press site, toute de suite.
Delighted to announce my story “Witch of the Weave” has been selected to appear in Best of British Science Fiction 2019, edited by Donna Scott, and published by NewCon Press, alongside this stellar line-up:
Contents
You can pre-order from the NewCon website here!
…maybe not so much taste. But, with apologies to XTC, my senses have been working overtime this month.
Not much new since the last entry on the writing front, at least not that I can announce yet, but I have got my grubby hands on physical copies of the magazines I was published in the last couple of months. As usual it boggles my mind to think my stories can appear in real material objects in the physical world, with an existence independent of my imagination. The DreamForge issue in particular — large format, every page illustrated in full glossy colour — is a delight to look at, touch, and even smell! Clarkesworld, although primarily known as an online zine, is available in a wide variety of formats, including print. And after various technical delays the podcast of “Angel Pattern”, read by the ever-awesome Kate Baker, the true voice of Skink, is now available too. So; welcome to the future of publishing — it’s definitely all multi-media and hybrid!
The third Skink and Percher story is out now at Clarkesworld #163. Just to recap, all three stories are listed below, although each story can be enjoyed in isolation. (And — unless your job or circumstances absolutely require otherwise — you are in isolation at the moment, aren’t you?)
This marks my 3rd sale to Clarkesworld and my 30th story sale overall… a situation that never ceases to amaze me, considering I still think I’m only just starting to get to grips with the craft of writing.
I hope you enjoy “Angel Pattern”, and the overall arc of the stories with these characters. I’m currently considering what other perilous situations I can put them into…
Now that their Kickstarter has funded, time to officially announce my story “Climbing the Motherman” will be published in DreamForge magazine Issue #5, around the middle of this month, available in both print and via the DreamForge web portal.
As mentioned previously, this is the prequel to my story “Witch of the Weave” that appeared in Clarkesworld #159 in December last year. In actual fact, they were written sequentially, with quite some gap between. Once I’d finished “Motherman“, though, I knew I needed to write a sequel involving the characters Percher and Skink. I find those are the best stories, don’t you? Where you wonder what happens next?
If you enjoy “Climbing the Motherman“, you can find out what happens next in “Witch of the Weave“. And if, instead, you’ve read “Witch” first, soon you’ll be able to find out how Skink and Percher first met in “Motherman“.
(A third Skink and Percher story, “Angel Pattern”, a novelette, is due to appear in a future edition of Clarkesworld.)
The original inspiration for “Motherman” is the Willow Man sculpture by Serena de la Hey that stands beside the northbound M5 near Bridgwater in Somerset. We often pass it when travelling to or returning from family holidays in the West Country. One night I dreamt that, rather than birds, humans nested within the sculpture… and the rest, as they say, is history…
Below is a photo taken by yours truly as we passed by, inexpertly processed to remove the huge Morrisson’s supermarket depot and housing estate now built around the original sculpture.
The opening paragraph of “Motherman” starts with one of the longest sentences I’ve ever had published, and many thanks to Scot Noel at DreamForge for allowing it to remain intact. It’s unusual for editors (and perhaps readers, too) to tolerate an opening scene that’s not immediately “in media res”, but I hope the relatively languid start here enables the story to breathe and develop resonance later. If there are any more Skink and Percher stories in the future, they’ll all be based upon fulfilling the promise made to the reader in that first sentence.
As a young climbling, I would sit on the edge of wind-torn openings in the Motherman’s chest and stare out at the other giants who stood motionless upon the horizon: the Hunter, huge net flung from outstretched hands, forever seeking his mysterious and elusive prey; the Maiden, slender arms held aloft as if to beseech the callous gods, withy tresses trailing like a stubborn nimbus; and the Hunchback, also known as the Beast, more distant but larger than the rest, leaning forward so that it crouched upon its knuckles and its ridged spine notched the sky. All of them, and others, an entire earthly zodiac, frozen in a landscape blanketed by the ever-swirling mist.
As mentioned previously my Clarkesworld story “The Veilonaut’s Dream” was translated and published in China’s premier SF magazine Science Fiction World last year. I’ve just received my physical contributor’s copies this weekend and what I didn’t know previously is that the editors had commissioned interior artwork for the story. Not only is this a first for me, the artwork is really great and accurate to the spirit of “Dream”. The artist is YAO Kai (摇开), contracted by Science Fiction World Publishing Co. Ltd, and with the kind permission of the editors here it is in all its glory: Maddy, Zhang, and Su breach the Discontinuity.
Not the greatest of years in terms of new stories published, with only two out:
Still, I’m happy with both, and there were also a couple of reprints last year, including my first ever appearance in a “Best Of” anything with 2018’s “The Veilonaut’s Dream”, and also my first ever Chinese translation with the same story. So no complaints really, even though most of the year was spent writing a 15K novelette I poured a lot into, but at that length it’s really very difficult to find a market.
So what will 2020 bring? At least one more new story, the prequel to “Witch of the Weave”, “Climbing the Motherman”, should be out early 2020 in issue #5 of DreamForge Magazine, and I’m close to completing the sequel too, although of course there is no guarantee it will ever get accepted anywhere. Also this year, my story “Against the Venom Tide” should be reprinted in the Rosarium Press “Trouble the Waters” anthology (touch wood).
Any other stories coming out this year? As always: who knows? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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