Ginger Nuts...

Here's an article I wrote for The Ginger Nuts of Horror website.

Altered Images - 9

I'm please with the way this turned out.

Playlist for 2013 - part six

June's tracks:

152      Kinks - Lola

153      Oasis - Champagne Supernova

154      Thunderclap Newman - Something in the Air

155      Boo Radleys - Lazarus

156      Moby - Extreme Ways

157      Good, the Bad & the Queen - Good, the Bad & the Queen

158      Clash - Jimmy Jazz

159      Iggy Pop - Lust for Life

160      Bonzo Dog Band - Can Blue Men Sing the Whites

161      Julian Cope - Safesurfer

162      Big Star - Thirteen

163      Traffic - Pearly Queen

164      Chicago - I'm a Man

165      Otway & Barrett - Louisa on a Horse

166      Mothers of Invention - Flower Punk

167      Alt-J - Breezeblocks

168      Skids - Into the Valley

169      Boomtown Rats - Rat Trap

170      Slits - Heard It Through the Grapevine

171      Tripping Daisy - Piranha

172      Veruca Salt - 25

173      Ian Hunter - Bastard

174      Lulu - Shout

175      Electric Prunes - I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night

176      Michael Moorcock - A Song for Marlene

177      Fats Domino - Blueberry Hill

178      Vanilla Fudge - You Keep Me Hanging On

179      Flaming Lips - Waiting for a Superman

180      Bow Wow Wow - Go Wild in the Country

181      Art - What's That Sound?

Altered Images - 8

One of those updated Daleks that look more like the new Mini, if you ask me.

Photography update

On the photography front, I have a spread of photos in the 2013 World Fantasy Convention Souvenir Book, images taken at a previous WFC. And I shall be exhibiting some photographs in the art show, too.

Activity at the Alchemy Press

It’s about time I added another post to this blog. Trouble is, even though I am officially retired I seem to be busier than ever. That’s a good thing though, isn’t it? After all, it should help keep the mental processes ticking over nicely. Anyway, I should mention some of the Alchemy Press stuff I’ve been up to of late. In no particular order...

This autumn (or fall, if you prefer) The Alchemy Press is launching three anthologies at The World Fantasy Convention, held in Brighton over the Halloween weekend. These are:

Astrologica: Storiesof the Zodiac edited by Allen Ashley

The Alchemy Press Bookof Pulp Heroes 2 edited by Mike Chinn (a follow up to last year’s volume)

The Alchemy Press Bookof Urban Mythic edited by Jan Edwards and Jenny Barber (a ‘sort of’ follow up to 2012’s Ancient Wonders)

The editors have now selected their stories – for details check out the links.

The Alchemy Press has published another e-novella: “In the Broken Birdcage of Kathleen Fair” by Cate Gardner. As soon as I read this novella I knew we had to publish it. If, like me, you prefer your fiction to touch on the weird, the strange, this should be right up your street. Available for the Kindle and other e-readers.

And we’ve announced a new anthology to be published in July 2014: Kneeling in the Silver Light – Stories of the Great War. This book will commemorate the outbreak of the First World War; editor Dean M. Drinkle will open the submission window later this year.

There are a few more items in the pipeline. I don’t believe in jinxes and the like but ... well, I rather not say too much right now.

Playlist for 2013 -- Part 5

May's tracks:

121      Cat Power – Salty Dog

122      Who – My Generation

123      Loudon Wainwright III – Glad to See You've Got Religion

124      Forest – A Glade Somewhere

125      Walkabouts – The Light Will Stay On

126      Pixies – Monkey Gone to Heaven

127      Kirsty MacColl – There's a Guy Works Down the Fishshop...

128      Vapours – Turning Japenese

129      Pink Floyd – Astonony Domine

130      Thin Lizzy – Roisin Dubh (Black Rose)

131      Fisher Z – Pretty Paracetamol

132      Motorhead – Ace of Spades (acoustic)

133      Girls – Vomit

134      Creedence Clearwater Revival – Ramble Tamble

135      Beatles – Strawberry Fields Forever

136      SAHB – Gambling Bar Room Blues

137      Cream – White Room

138      Joni Mitchell – Big Yellow Taxi

139      Supergrass – Caught by the Fuzz

140      Kaiser Chiefs – I Predict a Riot

141      Doors – People Are Strange

142      Sparks – Amateur Hour

143      Joy Division – Transmission

144      dEUS – For the Roses

145      Fall – How I Wrote Elastic Man

146      Dr Feelgood – Roxette

147      Faces – That's All You Need

148      Loving Spoonful – Younger Generation

149      Arlo Guthrie – Alice's Restaurant

150      Seeds – Can't Seem to Make You Mine

151      Ralph McTell – Streets of London

The World Fantasy Awards

It feels only like yesterday – okay, a few months ago – when I was one of the judges for the World Fantasy Award. In fact, it was in 2008, five years ago. When I agreed to do this I expected to receive a pile of books to read ... but what a pile! In the end, I reckon we (the judges) did a good job. The awards were presented at the World Fantasy Convention held, that year, in Calgary. Alas, I was unable to attend. My fellow judges were Robert Hoge, Dennis L. McKiernan, Mark Morris, and Steve Pasechnick

Here are the winners:

Life Achievement: Leo & Diane Dillon and Patricia McKillip

Novel: Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay (Viking Canada/Penguin Roc)

Novella: Illyria by Elizabeth Hand (PS Publishing)

Short Story: "Singing of Mount Abora" by Theodora Goss (Logorrhea, Bantam Spectra)

Anthology: New Tales of Terror and the Supernatural edited by Ellen Datlow (Tor)

Collection: Tiny Deaths by Robert Shearman (Comma Press)

Artist: Edward Miller

Special Award – Professional: Peter Crowther for PS Publishing

Special Award – Non-professional: Midori Snyder and Terri Windling for Endicott Studios Website

The runners-up can be found on the WFA website.

Blue Horses

Lizzie Prendergast of the Blue Horses

Photo taken at The Robin 2 in Bilston, in the West Midlands

Small presses

I run the small press The Alchemy Press. It’s a small “small press”: we only publish a few titles per year. This is because of time constraints and, importantly, trying to keep the costs to a manageable level. Last year we published two anthologies, The Alchemy Press Book of Ancient Wonders and The Alchemy Press Book of Pulp Heroes. This year we will be publishing three anthologies:

Astrologica: Storiesof the Zodiac edited by Allen Ashley

The Alchemy Press Book of Pulp Heroes 2 edited by Mike Chinn

The Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic edited by Jan Edwards & Jenny Barber

The line up for these three books is amazing ... and doubly so, because we – The Alchemy Press – only pay a nominal fee. But we do pay something. We also supply a copy of the book (print and ebook editions) to all contributors.

It surprises me when I see other small presses that take stories without offering payment and, worse, without offering contributors’ copies. The small press I've seen – I won’t mention its name here – looks to be, in fact, much bigger than The Alchemy Press. (Apparently there are no royalties, either).

I just checked on Amazon. One of their paperback books will cost you and me and the contributors over £10 to buy. I have to ask: Who gets to keep all the profit? No wonder they are bigger if they have hardly any expenses.

I accept that there are many markets for short stories that do not offer payment in terms of £ or $, but at the very least they provide contributors’ copies. By not offering money or copies I feel that they let down the small presses that attempt to do it properly.

In the Broken Birdcage...

As you may know, I wear the publisher’s / editor-in-chief’s hat for The Alchemy Press. And if you didn’t know before, you do now.

The Alchemy Press began in the late 1990s, was active for a few years, and then went into hibernation. We started publishing again in 2011 with Rumours of the Marvellous by Peter Atkins. 2013 saw two anthologies and a novel. Our first item for 2013 is a brand new novella, initially only available as an ebook. Once we’ve published a number of these we’ll collate them into a print anthology.

In the Broken Birdcage of Kathleen Fair by Cate Gardner

When the mirror released Kathleen into the unknown, for the briefest of moments she giggled and realised that she’d never laughed before. She had been a blank canvas, sitting and waiting in a room and occasionally bouncing from wall to wall desperate for freedom - and now she was out. White walls no longer surrounded her. In this new place, a thousand mirrors spun reflecting worlds.

Available in Kindle format via Amazon. Only £1.35

For the ePub version contact The Alchemy Press

alchemypress [at] gmail.com

Altered Images - 7

Here's another Photoshop-enhanced photo. The dragon was made by Sue Burns out of bits of copper and other scraps. Very fine piece, it was.

If people are interested in acquiring hi-res versions of these pictures please get in touch.

Playlist for 2013 -- part 4

Here are my selected tracks for April:

91        Who - Won't Get Fooled Again

92        Donovan - Universal Soldier

93        Tindersticks - Drunk Tank

94        Radiohead - Creep

95        Barry McGuire - Eve of Destruction

96        Buzzcocks - Ever Fallen in Love

97        Luxuria - Redneck

98        Love Sculpture - Sabre Dance

99        Camper Van Beethoven - Take the Skinheads Bowling

100      Decemberists - The Mariner's Revenge

101      Undertones - Teenage Kicks

102      VCs - Residual Energy of the Broken Hearted

103      Locomotive - Mr Armageddon

104      Ten Benson - The Claw

105      Specials - Gangsters

106      Members - Flying Again

107      Robert Wyatt - Ship Building

108      Drugstore - The Funereal

109      Hawkwind - Silver Machine

110      Free - Mr Big

111      Family - Weaver's Answer

112      Comsat Angels - Total War

113      Richie Havens - Here Comes the Sun

114      Leyton Buzzards - Saturday Night under the Plastic Palm Trees

115      Hazel O'Connor - Will You?

116      Procol Harum - A Salty Dog

117      Simon Dupree & the Big Sound - Kites

118      T Rex - Elemental Child

119      Echo & The Bunnymen - All My Colours (Zimbo)

120      Cure - Primary

Altered Images - 6

Just to show, it's not all fantasy and horror round here.

Altered Image 5

Another illustration by yours truly.

Basil Copper RIP

Sad news. I've just learned that another member of the Fantasy Family has died. Basil Copper died in hospital yesterday. He was 89. Although we were not close friends I always found him the perfect gentleman. He also seemed to possess a sense of the mischievousness, as evidenced by the photo I took of him in 2008 at one of the BFS's Open Nights.

[Photo (c) Peter Coleborn]

Playlist for 2013 -- part 3

Here are the tracks selected for March.

60        Thalia Zedek – Dance Me to the End of Love

61        Moriaty – Jimmy

62        Magazine – Shot by Both Sides

63        Band – Long Black Veil

64        David Bowie – Five Years

65        Smashing Pumpkins – Disarm

66        New York Dolls – Personality Crisis

67        Can – Yoo Doo Right

68        Rich Kids – Ghosts of Princes in Towers

69        Television – Marquee Moon

70        John Lennon – Gimme Some Truth

71        Ministry – Jesus Built My Hotrod

72        Steeleye Span – Rave On

73        Cranberries – Zombie

74        Easybeast – Friday on My Mind

75        David McWilliams – Days of Pearly Spencer

76        Ice T – The Tower

77        Nirvana – Penny Royal Tea

78        Placebo – Pure Morning

79        Robyn Hitchcock – Trash

80        Jimi Hendrix – Voodoo Chile

81        Roxy Music – Mother of Pearl

82        Crocodiles – Jet Boy, Jet Girl

83        Gang of Four – At Home He's a Tourist

84        Byrds – Ballard of Easyrider

85        Pretty Things – Good Mr Square/She Was Tall

86        Sonic Youth – Sugar Kane

87        Cracker – Big Dipper

88        Libertines – The Man Who Would be King

89        Rasputina – Bad Moon Rising

90        Yardbirds – Shapes of Things

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I'm rather pleased with this image.

Networking

Last Saturday I was on the panel at a Writers’ Networking meeting, run by Writing West Midlands. I was accompanied by Kate Long (The Bad Mother’s Handbook) and Jan Edwards (The Alchemy Press Book of Ancient Wonders).

Kate talked about her writing career – how she became a successful published author. It was an interesting tale, one that involved all the usual: perseverance, thick skin, talent, and luck, etc. I then discussed the small press – focussing on The Alchemy Press, obviously – and mainly in the SF, fantasy and horror field. Jan then had to finish off and made a lot of valuable points about submitting one’s work to an anthology (most important of which was ‘read the guidelines’). Judging by the feedback after the formal part of the meeting, our words were well received.

I was glad to see that several members of our writers’ group – Renegade Writers – turned up. Fortunately they didn’t heckle, as they had promised to do so. Thanks, guys.

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Here's another of my Altered Images.

Playlist for 2013 - Part 2

In an earlier post I listed the first 31 tracks on my 2013 playlist. Here are numbers 32 to 59 – in other words, February’s five–star songs.

32    Rheostatics – Legal Age Life at the Variety Store

33    Special Needs – Francesca

34    Theatre of Hate – Do You Believe in the Westworld?

35    Quatermass – Black Sheep of the Family

36    Belle & Sebastian – The Boy with the Arab Strap

37    Ultravox – Vienna

38    Two Gallant – Las Cruces Jail

39    Hapshash and the Coloured Coat – The Wall

40    Python Lee Jackson – In a Broken Dream

41    Small Faces – Lazy Sunday

42    Mumford & Sons – Little Lion Man

43    Saints – This Perfect Day

44    Tim Rose – Morning Dew

45    Neil Young – Like a Hurricane

46    Juicy Lucy – Who Do You Love?

47    Panama Ltd Jug Band – Round and Round

48    Groundhogs – Garden

49    Patti Smith – Because the Night

50    Janis Jopin – Cry Baby

51    Rolling Stones – Let it Bleed

52    Kevin Ayers – The Oyster and the Flying Fish

53    Adverts – Gary Gilmore's Eyes

54    Clint Eastwood & General Saint – I Can't Face Another World War

55    Strawbs – New World

56    TV on the Radio – Poppy

57    Johnny Cash – The Man Comes Around

58    Bob Dylan – Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts

59    Remy Zero – Save Me

Altered Images - 2

The original photo was taken at one of the Tolkien weekends, a few years ago. Edited to remove the background kids eating ice cream cones.

Altered Images - 1

I've had another go at drawing, using charcoal pencils and oil pastels. Then I scanned them into Photoshop and had a little play with them.

Then I had a go at drawing a monster -- you'll probably guess the inspiration for this beast. I did the Photoshop jig on this picture, too. But I'm not sure it quite works.

Easy Reads?

Did you know that DC Thompson & Co publishes a series of slim books under the Bridges & Knight imprint? Every month they publish four short novels, two crime and two romance, at £1.99 each. The one I bought was 140 pages – so that’s pretty good value for money. I came across the range quite by chance on the magazine rack in a local supermarket – and that should’ve been a clue. I bought Stolen Sister by Maria (or Marie) Maher from the Crime: Suspense line. Well, you have to give these things a go, don’t you. Here are the first few lines:

‘“No, no, you will not convince me, Adora!” said Mrs Fleetwood forcefully. “There is something not right with Angelika, I know it! […] I had such a horrid nightmare last night. Angelika was trapped in a tiny room just like a cell! […] Please, go down to Barcelona and look for her, or I won’t rest […] your sister is in trouble. I can feel it – here!”’

I won’t inflict further on you. All I’ll say is that the narrative doesn’t improve from there. Or at least it didn’t by the time I gave up reading it. I did glance at the last page and the final few lines made me groan – with relief that I didn’t persevere.  

DC Thompson missed a great trick. These slim volumes should’ve opened up the market for many for our more-talented friends and thus provide readers with well-written *suspense* stories. Instead, this particular one is weak and feels as if it was written by someone who predominantly writes romantic tales – and hence Stolen Sister didn’t engage with this reader. And – oh dear – I’ve just noticed that on an inside page these books are called “easy reads”: that says it all.

Maybe the line has ended: the DC Thompson website doesn’t seem to mention Bridges & Knight. It does remind me, though, that I forgot to buy the last ever print issue of The Dandy.

Playlist for 2013 - Part 1

It seems that entertainment programs (such as Spotify, the last time I looked) and hardware (MP3 players) all include the facility to create playlists of your favourite music. Usually, I can’t be bothered; I just take pot luck at whatever turns up next. However, what if I had to form a favourites list … what would I include? So I’ve decided to create my own playlist for 2013, choosing one track per day, everyday. That means, by the end of the year I will have picked 365 songs. I am posting these daily on my Facebook page with links to YouTube videos. The tracks are in no particular order – just as the fancy takes me.

I decided to follow a few simple rules:

[a] All must be music I can listen to over and over again without becoming bored with it. In other words, all would be five-star tracks.

[b] I may pick only one track per band or performer. This ‘rule’ will be relatively easy to obey for the first few months. But if it becomes more difficult to select five-star songs I may relent and re-use favourite performers.

Anyway, for the record, here are the first 31 tracks, selected during January.

1          Fleetwood Mac – Oh Well

2          Black Sabbath – Paranoid

3          Capt Beefheart – Autumn's Child

4          Jethro Tull – A Song for Jeffrey

5          Inspiral Carpets – Beast Inside

6          Melanie – Leftover Wine

7          Animals – When I was Young

8          Finbar & Eddie Furey – Her Father Didn't Like Me, Anyway

9          Jefferson Airplane – Lather

10        Nirvana – Rainbow Chaser

11        Jake Bugg – Lightning Bolt

12        Velvet Underground – Venus in Furs

13        Lightning Hopkins – You're Gonna Miss Me...

14        Only Ones – Another Girl, Another Planet

15        Ronnie Lane – How Come

16        Psychedelic Furs – Flowers

17        Ed Banger – Kinnel Tommy

18        Snow Patrol – Run

19        Tom Lewis – Fairwinds

20        Gallon Drunk – In the Long Still Night

21        Wedding Present – Brassneck

22        Cerys Matthews – Oxygen

23        Manfred Mann – I Got My Mojo Working

24        Canned Heat – On the Road Again

25        Grant Lee Buffalo – Teardrop and Jupiter

26        Siouxsie & The Banshees – Helter Skelter

27        Ike & Tina Turner – River Deep, Mountain High

28        Sparklehorse – Beautiful Widow

29        Kristin Hersh – Listerine

30        Joe Cocker and the Grease Band – With a Little Help From my Friends

31        Richard & Linda Thompson – Shoot out the Lights

Repeats

Don’t you just love local newspapers, the way their reporters write their pieces and then have them edited – or not? Here are a couple of sentences from last week’s paper about a proposed market upgrade in the town:

… the owner of the High Street site … said the current market would carry on as normal at the present site.

And in the very next sentence:

He said: “We will be carrying on as normal…”

One thing’s for sure: we know that the current market will carry on as normal. But why is this fact repeated, especially in the following line? Do they (the reporters and editors) really think that the readers are dumb and need things explained twice? This is something I see time and time again in the local press.

While on the topic of smart writing, I posted a few lines about using common courtesy when writing to an editor of an anthology to which you hope to contribute. You can read them on The AlchemyPress website.

New Year resolutions?

No, I am not going to promise anything that I will all too easily break. Therefore I will not resolve to post a regular daily/ weekly/ monthly blog. But I will try to be here more often -- here and on the sister blogs, The Alchemy Press and Piper at the Gates of Fantasy. In the meantime, I wish you all a very successful and happy 2013. Heaven knows, we need a good year.