Cemetery Dance, Ebooks and Film. It's all going on.

The latest issue of Cemetery Dance (#64) was announced the other day. It’s a Bentley Little special issue, and features fiction by the following:

"The Wheel" by Bentley Little
"We" by Bentley Little
"An Excerpt from Blockade Billy" by Stephen King
"The Innocents at the Museum of Antiquities: Part Three" by Douglas Clegg
"Out of Touch" by Simon Strantzas
"The Long Black Coat" by Benjamin Percy
"An Excerpt from The Painted Darkness" by Brian James Freeman
"In Darkness" by Shaun Jeffrey
"Deathbed" by Brian Knight

I feel honoured to be in such esteemed company and can’t wait to receive my copy.

I have been reading reports lately of some 'name' authors shunning publishers and releasing (or planning to release) their work as Ebooks or POD books. This is fine for authors who have a following, as their fans will buy the books regardless. But I feel this will give many unpublished authors and beginners the wrong idea, making them think they can do the same thing and take the easy route to publication (certainly it's easy to publish the book, the difficulty lies in promoting it and getting people to part with their cash). Now anyone who’s had a novel professionally edited knows how much the edits improve the book. I think it’s pretty hard for someone to edit their own work with an unbiased eye. My last two novels, The Kult and Deadfall went through extensive changes with the help of editors. The weak aspects of the story were addressed, and main plot points were changed to make them better. Characters were rewritten, whole scenes changed. My latest novel, Fangtooth is going through the same process. I think I would find it hard to do this on my own, as I am not subjective enough.

Now I’m certainly not against people publishing their own work, but the one thing most of them will require is a good edit. That, I feel, in part (assuming the story is good of course) is what will make the difference between the winners and the losers in this new era of publishing.

Finally, there have been a few posts made lately about The Kult film from the people involved:

"The Kult" will begin principal photography on September 27th, 2010 in San Diego and Riverside Counties, under the direction of Kip Shelton.

The screenplay, adapted from the novel by U.K. author Shaun Jeffrey, went into negotiations in the middle of November 2009 between Gharial Productions and Leucrota Press, and emerged with a solid contract offer and acceptance.

With the principal cast announced and a final script in the actors' hands, the production team is wrapping up pre-production and preparing to begin principal photography. While most of the film will be shot on location in San Diego and Riverside Counties, certain scenes require the use of a soundstage, and they will be shot in Arizona.

"I'm really looking forward to working on this film. Everyone involved has, so far, made this one of the smoothest productions I've ever worked on," says Director Kip Shelton. "I also think the cast is amazing and they're going to turn a few heads."

The screenplay is an adaptation of UK author Shaun Jeffrey's novel The Kult. The plot follows Detective Prosper Snow as hunts down a sadistic serial killer. Prosper acts out of misguided loyalty to his friends and is goaded into helping them perform a copycat killing. But when the real killer comes after him, it's not only his life on the line, but his family's too. If he goes to his colleagues for help, he risks being arrested for murder. If he doesn't, he risks being killed.

Both the cast and crew are eager for filming to begin. According to them, "September can't come soon enough."

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