2021: The year of the four emperors

 Merry Christmas, one and all!

I hope this December sees you fine and healthy after yet another year of pestilence and incompetently corrupt government. It's that time of year where people recap their writing successes and I jump on the bandwagon with my meagre offerings and a bit of free fiction.

But this year I have a surprising amount to shout about for I had four, count 'em, four, stories published this year. A phenomenal amount for me and I can't ever say thank you enough to those wonderful editors who picked my little stories.

First of all was Sacrificial Gasoline, published in New Maps in April. A story about incompetent and corrupt government, oddly enough, and it's interaction with climate change. It can be found here

The second appeared in the anthology A Quiet Afternoon 2 and is called Rab the Giant and the Problem Neighbour. It's a quieter piece about being a good neighbour and not jumping to conclusions and can be bought here

Third was Gentrification and the Dream House, published in KZine in June and available here

This one is my attempt at a proper portal fantasy, somewhat let down by the characters being in their forties and not their childhood.

Finally last month brought us Titanic Terrstructures, a fairly titanic book in it's own right and an anthology of stories set around ginormous SF structures. Mine also has Aunts and they can be found here

I am extremely happy about all of these and not a little shocked to see them all together like this. Sadly I'll not see this many in one go for a long while to come, if nothing else because my writing this year has been very bitty and inconsequential. I will blame it on a second year of pandemic based brain fog but abject laziness does have a part to play as well. Here's hoping that next year I can write more as I have a TV studio set thing I've been working on for ages I'd love to get out there and a thing about post-apocalyptic tablet that keeps gnawing at the back of my brain.

One thing I did mange to write was flash fiction in October, following the Glasgow Writer Circle prompts. The output from that can be found here if you didn't see it at the time here or on Twitter.

And now to the traditional Christmas gift of free fiction. This year I bring you Why did you leave your last employer? This was a story that got picked up for publishing last year, in 2020, but, due to the editor's politics not agreeing with mine, shall we say, I never pimped it. Unfortunate but I didn't feel happy directing people towards the magazine after some of the things the editor said.

Anyhoo, I now produce it here so you can see what it was. Hope you like it.

Life in the big House

 

I've got a new story out, yay! This one is in an anthology, Titanic Terastructures that can be found here, that is a set of stories all in some way related to ginormous SF thingumies of a Ringworld stylee. I am very much looking forward to reading this and seeing what huge and wondrous ideas people have written of.

As for my story, it is set in a place called The House which is a planet wide residence that has seen better days and is a 'living in the ruins' type of story. There may be quite a lot of dust but I hope you like it.

By way of a wee taster, I've put up a piece of flash fiction that I wrote a few years back that was my first visit to The House. Ever since then the setting has stuck in my head and keeps nagging me to write things about it. I've had a few goes at short stories and this is the most successful. Saying that, the idea keeps nagging me so there might be more.

The flash piece that created it all can be found here: The Oculus at the Edge of the Universe

***

As Amazon is not great at showing all authors, here is a TOC for the book:

Honeysuckle for Ashes / Christopher R. Muscato

You Too Shall Pass / Russell Nichols

Jack, the Medbot and the Giant in the Sky / Laurel Beckley

Bang / Craig Russell

Fundamentals of Search and Rescue / Jennifer R. Donohue

Mothership / M.R. Parsons

Broken Circle / Manda Benson

Memento Mori / Johannes Toivo Svensson

Ashes to Ashes Dust to Stardust / Wendy Nikel

Under the Graying Sea / Jonathan Sherwood

Tharsis Dilemma / Matthew Ross

The Moment / Dan Piponi

The Big House / Bunny McFadden

The Sensation of Drowning / Dennis Mombauer

The Long Road Home / Andrew Gudgel

A Singular Event in the Fourth Dimension / Andrea M. Pawley

And the House Did Watch Over All / Brian M. Milton

The Long Sleep to Tera Terra / Mark Kirkbride

The What-The Tree / Liam Hogan

Haunting House / Mike Morgan

Heavenstair / Al Onia

Antimatter Dreams / David Wright

Distraction / Regina Clarke

Podfall / Barend Nieuwstraten III

The Kamacite Cage / Richard de Silva

Land of Opportunity / Gustavo Bondoni

Recurring dreams and dusty attics

Proving that story publications are like busses, I've another new one for your perusal. This time it is a story of old childhood memories and how market forces affects them. Or something.

Anywho, you can find it in Kzine issue 30 and it is called Gentrification and the Dream House.

This one had an odd gestation in that it is based on a recurring dream I've had all my life. Child, student, adult, the same basic scenario cropped up of my travelling through narrow passages in old houses and, a couple of years back, it came to me again. Only this time the dream was an angry rant about modern consumerism ruining old stuff.  As I'm sure happens in your dreams all the time too.

Other than being a sign that I'm getting old this inspired me to try to write down the feelings I was getting from the dream and, eventually, it evolved into the published story. Initially there was a lot more of the dream, i.e. passages and  non-sequitur weirdness but thanks to the lovely and clever people at the Glasgow Science Fiction Writer's Circle that was (sadly) cut to let the story that it morphed into appear.

Also inspirational was the Old Fruitmarket in Glasgow which I went to while initially writing this and got distracted from the band looking at the ironwork. 

Now, while I have you here, not only is this out today, but, as previously mentioned, you can also find a story of mine in A Quiet Afternoon 2 which you can find here on pre-order, although the pdfs go out in only a few days time. 

And, since I've been having that sort of year which I promise this it the last of, a further reminder that back in April I also had a story out in New Maps which you can find here

I hope you enjoy and that the next time you're down the shops you consider the alternatives on offer and if you can get to them by a door half way up a wall.

Low risk reading for the win!

I have a new story coming out soon in a wee Canadian anthology called A Quiet Afternoon 2 and they've just opened their site for pre-orders. You can find it here

The anthology is a collection of relaxed stories ideal for a restful afternoon, something we could all do with these days. Apparently they had volume 1 out last year as a response to the pandemic and you can still find it on their website should you be in need of additional emergency sitting down.

My story is a partner to one I had published in Fireside back in December 2017 in that it features Rab the Giant again, this time having to deal with some problematic neighbours and his prejudices and assumptions. 

I like this one a lot and am very glad it's found a home, especially in something quite so suited to my interests of having a nice sit down and not getting wound up. Especially nice is that the publishers will make a donation to a local Canadian charity out of the proceeds so go on, look it up.

I hope you like it.

Special Glaswegian Offer: Due to the relaxed and Canadian nature of the anthology they asked me to tone down the language from it's Glaswegian default but if anyone wants to know how the original sounded I'm perfectly happy to come round your house and shout the obscenity at you from the street.

Sacrificial Gasoline

 

It's a new story! 

I'm very pleased to report that my story, Sacrificial Gasoline, has appeared in this wonderful publication, New Maps. You can find them here

New Maps showcases 'de-industrial' fiction and if you want more information on what that is, they have a great editorial all about it in the issue. Basically it's stories of the near future where humanity is struggling with the end of out current profligate pillaging of the planet and turning to a different way of living, whatever that may be. But not with some magic Start Trek clean energy gixmo. In my case, it's a tale told by an old granny of her childhood which is a generation or two from now.

I first wrote this quite a few years back and it has gone through a number of evolutions before finding it's home but probably the thing that distresses me the most about it is that its politics (and the politician in it) are only more relevant than they were then.

And finally a wee note on the inspiration for this story. It's often hard to know what, exactly, triggered an idea but in this case I can point to the album Songs From The Floodplain by Jon Boden. It's a (very good) album set in a similar de-industrial world and got my brain working great style. I highly recommend it and it's follow up Afterglow if you like the ideas in this magazine and/or English folk. 

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the story, for all its grim settings.

2020: The year of the pestilence

 Hello all. I hope this strangest of years has been not too bad for you and that this finds you well. It's been weird, tragic and befuddling for all so well done on getting through it best you can and fingers crossed for an improvement next year.

It's been odd for us all but for me one of the oddest things is that it's mostly been good for me. Being stuck in meant I had to find alternative exercise and have taken up running. Not seeing people in pubs meant I have drunk less. I am probably healthier due to the pandemic than I would have been on a normal year. 

Not that I'd wish this again, ever, of course.

I do say mostly as I fear I've become too used to not talking to real people in the flesh and, come the glorious day when we're vaccinated and can meet up again, I'll have some sort of Lovecraft-style screaming fit about too many eyes watching me. Hopefully I'll keep it internalised. 😉 

As for my writing, I've managed to keep up a basic level of it. Working in fits and starts I've finished off a couple of new things  and have been diligently working in the background to push them out to markets and not let them languish too long after a rejection. This has led to a significantly higher number of submissions this year, over 70, and an acceptance to come out next year, which is lovely.

As for publishings, it was a good year, if slightly odd.

Firstly I had a story out in Shoreline of Infinity, Issue 17, in January. A tale of space-faring starfish and rubbish collection, I'm very happy to have seen it in a local (well, Edinburgh) magazine and alongside some top notch other stuff.

Secondly was my contribution to the Glasgow Science Fiction Writer's Circle anthology, Flotation Device. This is a charity anthology produced by the circle and donates its funds to several charities helping out those struggling during this strangest of years. If you've not, please consider buying, it's for a good cause and the stories are well worth reading too. Even if mine is deeply silly and has to come with a translation.

I did have a third story come out this year, in August. A tale of science gone wrong and less than careful bee husbandry that I really like. I was deeply happy about it until the editor, just before publication, made some political comments that I couldn't support. As such, the story came out, I didn't promote it and, sadly, I'll just leave it there. A salutary lesson in being careful who you submit too.

And so we come to the standard Christmas 'present' of an old story posted up. This year it is Maukit. 

This one was published in 2013 and was my first anthology publication. It appeared in Caledonia Dreamin', a set of stories based on Scots words and is the darkest thing I've had published. The anthology is still available here and is well worth it. 

Anyhoo, thanks for reading and fingers crossed for a better year to come. It's going to be a roller-coaster in its own right, what with the politics ongoing. but I hope it finds you better.

Self-isolating for charity

WASH YOUR HANDS!!

Hello, I hope you're all well in these difficult and frankly bizarre times.

It is difficult to know how the next few months are going to pan out but it does look like it will be difficult for many people through illness or their employer's being selfish bastards. To try to help in what small way we can the Glasgow Science Fiction Writer's Circle has produced an anthology e-book which they are selling for charity.

As edited by E.M. Faulds and featuring the greats of the circle (and me) it is 20 stories for a small fee of £5.99. Sold directly to try to maximise the money going to charities including The Trussell Trust,
Medecins Sans Frontieres and Simon Community Scotland.

If you can, please buy one. It's for a great cause and my story is very short and mostly tentacle filled so you can avoid it easily.

You can find out more here at http://flotationdevicebook.co.uk/

BUY IT!

IT'S FOR CHARITY!

WASH YOUR HANDS AGAIN!!

STAY INDOORS!!!

Delinquent, intergalactic starfish

A new story for a new decade

I've a new story out but a slight delay on my blogging about this as, in a fit of anger over having my European citizenship removed at the end of this month, I went to Rome at the weekend instead. Where my wife was photographed crocheting inside the Coliseum by a passing tourist, if you want to know what interests your modern traveller more; ancient, gigantic ruins or some nice crafting.

Anyhoo, it was lovely, very glad to have been, blimey some of that stuff is old. Now, to this story of mine.

Tentacles!

Yes, the very lovely (if you ignore some of their terrible jokes) people at Shoreline Of Infinity in Edinburgh have published a story of mine in their latest issue, 17. The one with this glorious cover:

It is a wee SF story about how aliens deal with their disaffected youth and their rubbish. It may be a touch silly.

For those interested in where ideas come from, this was inspired by a tweet I saw by the editor of Shoreline. Just them indicating the sort of thing they like which triggered my brain. Off I went to write up the idea and, to my great surprise, on submitting it through their standard process, they liked it and picked up. 

So, following markets on social media is well worth your time. All part of finding out what they want.

 You can find it here to purchase in both electronic and gloriously tactile physical format which looks like this:

Also, while I'm here, before Christmas a friend of mine who works for the NHS down in Englandshire told me of a Hospital Radio show that was looking for stories to be read out. So I recorded a version of Unexpected Visitors, sent it over and I'm pleased to say they played it. How nifty.

A face for radio

This writing thing has led to many odd things but, in what is probably the strangest, today I find myself on a podcast. Speculative Spaces Podcast.

Local great person, Beth Faulds, has started doing a podcast where she chats to writers (local at present but she'd love to branch out so if you know anyone you think would be good for her to talk to, do let her know) about some aspect of writing before wandering off on to multiple digressions and then playing silly games.

It was great fun to record, although possibly a touch drunken towards the end, and I went on at length about my enjoyment of Doctor Who. Cause it's me. I also read a version of my story The Lodger. I babble a bit while doing so, sorry about that, but I hope you get the gist.

There is also some bonus material (if you chip in) in which I go on about the greatness of Nigel Kneale amongst other stuff.

I hope you like it and I highly recommend the other episodes, great writers and quality chat.

2018: The Year of Distractions

Hello all and welcome to what was supposed to be an annual blog post, rounding up the year but, as it turns out, I've not posted anything since this time last year.

Oops, I've been distracted. So, what have I been doing?

First and foremost, I've had the joy of two stories being published.

Just out today on their website is Cleaning Up, from Fireside. It is a tale of those who protect our world and get no thanks for it.

Back in the summer I also had The Advantages of Unofficial Consultation published in the Magical CSI anthology by Otter Libris. This features, oddly enough, a couple of characters from Cleaning Up and their further adventures in getting ignored for the important job they do.

I'm deeply happy to see both of these stories out in the wild. It's a coincidence they feature some common characters, although it does tickle me.
I hope you like them too.

Other writing news has been less good. I've had many distractions this year that have stopped me getting stuck into a job lot of novel edits I have and the short stories I have written have not quite soared yet and I've struggled to get some consistent time on them.
My resolution, as much as you can make one, for next year is to mandate writing time and stop making excuses.

Of course, some of this year's excuses were brilliant. I got married in the summer, for instance, so I'm not going to lament that lost writing time too much.

Actually, getting married nearly derailed the publication of Cleaning Up. The lovely people at Fireside sent me edits on my wedding day and I had to do them while jetlagged in a Toronto hotel at three in the morning. Hopefully not so as you'd notice.

All in, a bit of quiet year, writing wise, coasting on the work I put in last year. Hopefully I'll put more effort in during the upcoming solar rotation.

2017: The Year of the Step Up

Hello all and Happy Holidays.

Firstly, I have a new story out. Yay! Normally at this time of year I do a review of the year and post up an old story for you. But today I happen to have a new story out from the wonderful people at Fireside Fiction. It's called Rab the Giant and Witch of the Waterfall and it is available to read for free here  right now. It's a wee story about the monsters of yore and how they get on in the modern world. It features cake.

Go, enjoy, I'll see you later if you feel the urge to come back for more of my drivel.

...

Oh, hello, thanks for coming back. Hope you liked it. If you did, please do consider chipping some money towards Fireside to help cover their costs. It all helps towards them providing more and better stories.

I've been attending story telling events of late and a lot of their stories are traditional fairy tale type stories. They all start wth 'Once upon a time' and have a moral and this was my attempt to do something similar. With luck and some insightful critiques from the Glasgow Science Fiction Writers Circle I'm feel I've got a fair way towards that.

Also, did you see the illustration they gave my story? How flipping wonderous is that? By Marianne Khalil and I'm not sure I can quite express how awed and overjoyed I am to look upon it.

Anyway, now that I've calmed down from my great excitement let's turn to my more normal end of year review thingy.

Until quite recently it was looking like a quiet year. I had a story out in KZine way back in January but there has been a wee flurry recently. Obviously there is this new story out but I've also been told another three have been accepted for publication. A flash piece on the dangers of ancient technology, a bit of far future action with musings on memory and a second story to Fireside featuring a university library janitor and his talking cat.
Expect to get spammed by me when those appear, hopefully next year.

Another thing of note is that back in October I celebrated five years since my first publication. That was The Greatest Rocketman, published by Sein und Werden and you can read it here as a previous year's Christmas present story. As such I thought I'd do a wee roundup of how those five years have gone, with a graph (ooo).

Mostly what this graph shows is that I hate Microsoft's Excel and can't get it to do what I want, but it does also show that, after my best year for number of publications in 2013, I only just got away without a complete Granny in 2014.
This being a good reminder to myself that one good year does not mean that the next will be similar. Those laurels must remain un-rested-upon.

Which, obviously, means I need to get my finger out and write more to hawk around next year.

Still, if, five years ago, you'd told me I'd have seen this much success with my wee writing hobby I'd have laughed right in your face. If you suggest I might even do similar in the next five years I will still laugh in your face.

Any roads, thanks to everyone who has helped me by reading or critiquing or publishing my nonsense. You're all lovely people.

It's always colder in your memory

Hello dear people. In this time of strife and upheaval let me ignore all that for a moment and tell you of an incident that happened to me when I was but a wee child and growing up in Ayrshire, the land of Burns, cows and decayed towns. But not here, oh no.

Rather, why not pop along to KZine where, in their latest issue, I have a new story all about said incident. There is mystery, weather and half a dozen rolls. Can you spot the point where I may have slightly embellished the story from its real life origins?

KZine is a Kindle based magazine but I see that they have started on-demand physical copies, if that's your thing. May have to get one for my brag shelf.

Also, while you are there and if you have not already,  you could pick up issue 15 where I previously had a story about the apocalypse.
Sorry if it comes over as a bit too topical at present.

Anyhoo, hope you enjoy these. I now have the rest of the year stretching out before me as a blank canvas with no future publishings planned, so I'd better get my finger out and write more.

Ta-ra for now.

Thirty Years of Glaswegian Story Building

UPDATE: Now available from here; Lulu shop page and Amazon print edition and Kindle edition

Did you know that the Glasgow Science Fiction Writers Circle was started thirty years ago? Well now you do.
Off the back of a writing course run by Duncan Lunan a small group began to meet regularly to critique each other's work and encourage one and all to better and bolder things.
Also to go the pub, but that was a minor part.

Well, not the main part.

Well, not the only part.

OK, so mostly there was a lot of sitting in pubs talking about the state of  genre fiction, but also occasionally writing was worked on and eventually people got published. Very good people.

People such as Gary Gibson, Hal Duncan, Neil Williamson, William King, Michael Cobley amongst many others.

I first popped along in the mid-Nineties and spent a lot of time feeling hugely inadequeate, before running away to Englandshire and letting all that sort of thing lapse. But, on my return to Glasgow I took up the pen again and eventually returend to the circle, who have been nothing but encouraging as I show them my scribblings. Without their help I would never have had any of my stories published

To celebrate their milestone the Circle are bringing out an anthology with thirty stories by people who have been at the circle over the years. It's called Thirty Years of Rain (it is Glasgow based after all) and the glorious cover graces the top of the page.

I'll post links to it as they appear but there is a launch on the Saturday of Fantasycon in Scarborough this year (three o'clock on Saturday with Newcon if I remember rightly) and on the 30th of September at the Sauchiehall Street Waterstones in our own rainy Glasgow.

Details are here

Do please come along, meet some of the brilliant people who are in the book and maybe even buy a copy. We'll probably go to the pub afterwards.

And yes, I am in it, with a wee short about refugees that, if you ever think my mind has slipped its moorings, this will only add to the evidence. It's silly.

By way of getting your imagination off on completely the wrong foot here is a Pulp-O-Mizer cover that is totally misleading about the story.

Two posts in a year? By jingo!

No, I'm as surprised as you that I have something to say more than once in a year.

Anyhoo, first things first. Come the 28th of May, point your Kindles and other electronic reading doohickeys at Kzine where you will find me getting a story published in their Issue 15. I am deeply pleased that they have chosen to publish my story about the apocalypse, the food chain and Scottish West Coast holidays. It's called More Certainty In Your Shopping and sits alongside some fine other stories. I hope you enjoy.

In other excitable news, I've just had my story accepted for the Glasgow Science Fiction Writers Circle Anniversary Anthology. The circle, who have to read early drafts of all my nonsense, are thirty years old this year and to celebrate are bringing out an anthology of stories by authors who have, at some point, been members. It will feature stories from the likes of Neil Williamson, Bill King, Hal Duncan, Gary Gibson and Louise Welsh, which does make me wonder how I got in.
Very excited to be in this and fear not, I'll be going on about it for long and weary when it comes out in the autumn.

I think we can safely say I like May. The sun is out, the flowers are blooming, the barbeque is on and I can pretend I am a real writer for a while.

UPDATE: Bus-like, more news appears. If you will be at Satellite 5 this weekend, why not come along to the reading at 8 on Saturday night. Lots of excellent stuff will be read and it very much like like I'll be joining in. Hope to see you there.

The Past Does Not Watch Over Us

It is with great delight that I can point to my latest published short story, now available in e-book format in The Speculative Book

It's a story on education, black holes and fighting your parents. It also mentions pakora and features REAL SCIENCE. (I know, I must be mad) as I originally wrote it to celebrate 100 years of General Relativity.

I hope you enjoy it. The rest of the book looks fascinating.

Agnes, a Fairy

I've just spoted that Hysterical Realms, the latest Alternate Hilarities anthology containing my story, is available for buying on the internets here

If you chipped in to the Kickstarter for this then thank you very much but if not and you fancy giving it a look then it is available in both Kindle and the infinitely more signable Paperback formats.

Suppose I better get my finger out and sell another story now so I can have ths excitement again.

The Modern World of Book Selling

It's been eighteen months but I now get to say I have a new story coming out. Hurrah!
Called "Agnes, A Fairy" it is a story of gods, management and dodgy art. On the Grim Whim scale this is firmly on the Whim end. It sprang from a conversation following a Glasgow Science Fiction Writers Circle meeting and is not the only story to come out of that night. You should check out Cameron Johnston (@CamJohnston) for his interpretation of the same seed.

The new thing for me about this story is that it is part of an anthology available through a Kickstarter campaign. This means that I have no idea how much I might, or might not, get paid for my wee story until the bids are in and will lead to me obsessively  refreshing the campaign page for the next month to see if anything is happening.

The campaign is available here and runs until the 15th of March which, coincidentally, is my birthday. If you want to wish me a happy birthday, why not buy a book.

If you do buy, hope you enjoy it.

Happiness personified

Me with my copies of Caledonia Dreamin' and Oomph. Mostly posting this so I can look back, remind myself that publication is a joyous thing and then get on with some tedious editing.

They're dead good books though, you should buy them.

Dreamin'

UPDATE: Now listed on Eibonvale's website here.

Now that I am almost recovered from the World Fantasy Hangover let me talk to you of cabbages and kings. Or possibly the single greatest thing that occurred to me there.

The release of Caledonia Dreamin'.

Caledonia Dreamin' is an anthology of Strange Fiction based on Scots words and I am immensely proud to be in it. I knew that what they were looking for was not my natural style and it was going to take some work but, with the help of many, it got there and sits rather shamefacedly alongside some excellent authors with some wonderful tales.

It was going to be touch and go whither it would be available for WFC and so the discovery of it in the Dealer's Room made me very happy. Then to find out it was in hardback as well, well I did get a bit over-excitable.

Anyhoos, I acquired a copy and spent large parts of my time at the convention hunting down the other authors in it and getting signatures. Not something I normally do, but for this first anthology I have ever been in, it seemed like the right thing to do.

The publishers have not yet updated their website to show it available, but it is showing on Amazon here and I will no doubt add other links once they make themselves available.

It looks lovely, it could be used to batter someone and, having read it over the weekend, it is really rather good.

What is less good is that I had to sign a few other copies,  where I completely failed and spelled my own name wrong. Blame the con bar and me being over-excited.

The Writing Is On The Wall

Oomph, the anthology from Crossed Genres is released today. Available in both eBook and real, physical, smells funny and gathers dust, paper formats.

You can find it here and I look forward to reading some excellent stuff on the lower end of the super hero spectrum.

Also, by way of a small plugette for the other things I have had published in the last glorious year, do please be looking to the right for them.

Cheers m'dears.