Coming soon...

Two Short Stories Published!

Two stories have just landed in the USA!  Oddly enough, on the same day.  Both are free to read.

Firstly, 'Esterhazy's Cadence' has been published by Perihelion SF (who also published 'Time out at the Cafe Metropole' last November).  A character from one of my older stories 'Gestating Elegy' makes a reappearance... I wrote the opening sequence to this many years ago at an Arvon course in Ted Hughes' old house.  The rest fell into place much later on.

Secondly, 'The Leather Bracelet' has been published in Encounters Magazine of SF, Fantasy and Horror.  This started off as an M.R. James style tribute, centring on a hotel I used to work in during Uni holidays.  And whilst I wanted to write a ghost story, the SF crept in and wouldn't let go.

More story news to follow soon...

NOVEL AND SHORT STORY UPDATES!

Eastercon - I drank with Milfordites, witnessed some great readings and then left to edit...

THE SCION
 

The copy edit of my novel 'The Scion' has now been returned to the publishers at Safkhet! I hurried back from Eastercon to sort this out - it pinged into my inbox almost as soon as I got there. So after catching up with the Milford SF crew and many other lovely SF people, I started slogging through the manuscript, working through the Copy Editor's comments. Then re-reading it twice, ironing out a few blips here and there. Two weeks later and I'm happy to report that it is all looking good. Late nights, lots of coffee, a few glasses of wine and a very supportive fiancée helped me get this done! The cat, Gordon, was indifferent to my efforts - he prefers Dreamies to SF.

Hands off the Penderyn, Gordon!

SHORT STORIES

As soon as 'The Scion' had once again disappeared into the machinations of the publishing industry, I had another short story accepted by Perihelion SF!  This is called 'Esterhazy's Cadence' and features a character that appeared a long time ago in a story called 'Gestating Elegy'.  Jathria Al Sestro of sect Threses appears once again to play her viotel.  It should be going live in May.

Other shorts to follow, some of which were mentioned in a previous post:

'The Leather Bracelet' - Encounters Magazine #14 (publication date May 2015)

'Approaching 43,000 Candles' - Shoreline of Infinity #1 (publication date June 2015) 

'Sounding Out The Undead' - Blackfriars Bestiary, Rotting Hill Gate issue (publication date tbc)

'The Machine Sequence (Reflected)' - Imaginalis #1 (publication date tbc)

Advert for upcoming Milfords - Guy T Martland assuming pensive, writerly pose...

Status Update: Incoming

Katrin Von Lindenberg's work-in-progress inspired by 'The Machine Sequence' stories.

Some news:


1) The Scion 

I am reliably informed by the owners of Safkhet publishing that The Scion is now with a copy editor.  So, things are moving towards publication.  Soon you will meet Septimus Esterhazy Esq. and travel with him around the colony planet of D and elsewhere...


2) Story Updates. 

Accepted, pending publication:

'The Leather Bracelet' - Encounters Magazine #14 (publication date May 2015)

'Approaching 43,000 Candles' - Shoreline of Infinity #1 (publication date June 2015)

'Sounding Out The Undead' - Blackfriars Bestiary, Rotting Hill Gate issue (publication date tbc) 


3) The Machine Sequence

Hopefully the rest of The Machine Sequence will come to Imaginalis soon.  Another 4 or so stories to go...


4) Machine Songs

Still working on this.  Second draft taking longer than I thought as I keep adding passages!


5) Other writings

There are about 10 short stories working their way through the Submissions Grinder... If you haven't been there, you must visit!


6) Dysprosium

I will be there.  Propping up the bar.

The Scion

A Safkhet, last week.  Photography © Guy T Martland

Early December.  Last year.  I was sitting at the back of a conference hall in faceless Heathrow hotel land.  Tired because of an early start and wired because too much coffee was inter-reacting with my sleep-deprived cerebral cortex.  My phone seemed to have entered a reception black hole.  Or maybe it was jammed because of the planes, I wondered, conspiracy theories blooming in my mind.  The hotel had wifi, I noticed during a particularly dull lecture.

I pressed the email icon on my generic smartphone.  A missive had arrived from a publisher.  I opened it, wondering if it could be another rejection.  Always the optimist.  I scanned the first few lines.  Then read it again.  And again.  My science-fiction novel 'The Scion' had landed a publisher!  They were called 'Safkhet Publishing' - I'd met some of their authors at Loncon earlier in the year.  The contract was for it to be published as an eBook in the first instance.

In a break I made some excited phone calls, dropped a few texts to friends who'd read it.  The conference passed in a blur.  Then there were some drinks in London, a gig (Son of Dave) with some old friends.  I may have had one too many.  And then then next day: home, happily hungover.

So, where are we now?  Well, shortly after the email, I signed a contract with Safkhet.  Then came my final edit, working through the book, obsessively making sure I hadn't missed any glaring plot holes.  I changed some formatting to Safkhet's liking.  A few Cure lyrics were removed - even though Robert Smith nicked stuff from everyone (Mervyn Peake, Penelope Farmer to name a few), I'd read that securing permissions on their lyrics was near impossible.  I did however obtain permission to use the title of an Autechre EP as a character (thank you Warp Records!).

And then it was off for their copy edit, sent late December.  I imagine it is now slowly working its way through the machinations of the publishing world.  Somebody somewhere might even be creating a cover... When I hear more there will be further blogs.  But in the meantime, some short stories have been accepted in various places.  And I'm writing, writing, writing - mostly working on a separate novel.  But I've also cranked out the first 10K words of a loose sequel to The Scion...

References: 

Wikipedia on Safkhets 

You can see some great examples of these in the British Museum, like I did last week.

Warp Records

Safkhet Publishing Homepage.

This Took Bloody Ages

TTBA is the Cambridge University Science Fiction Society (CUSFS) magazine.  The meaning of the TTBA acronym has changed for each issue of the magazine produced, its first issue 'Title To Be Announced' published in 1974.

I had a few stories 'Descent From Heaven' and 'The Colour Of Language' published in 1997 in 'This Took Bloody Ages'.

The CUSFS has got a brand new webpage and are adding compiling all the editions of TTBA as and when they find them.  Many have been lost in the mists of time...

You can read my offerings here: 'This Took Bloody Ages' Or you can go and read all the other available issues here: TTBA.

Bolted On Technology, Artificial Intelligence And Aliens

'Art, in its broadest sense, is the only thing that defines us as humans.' 

The new one in 'The Machine Sequence' in now up over on Imaginalis.  These are all prequel flash stories to my novel 'Machine Songs', which I'm still working on...

If you want to read them in order, I've created a new page for the site with details of all 'The Machine Sequence' stories in order... You should be able to find it in the menu at the head of the blog.