Novel update

Well I'm on the home straight with the first draft of my latest novel, Fangtooth. I'm excited about this story, and I hope publishers will like it just as much. Hopefully I'll have the first draft finished by the end of this month. Then I'm going to set it aside while I rewrite a novel that I wrote about 10 years ago, tentatively titled Sacrifice. I liked the original idea for Sacrifice, but it needs rewriting to make the most of it. Basically it's a story about love, revenge and monsters - a winning combination.

I've got plans for further novels filed away, so the only thing I'm short on is time and luck, and I truly believe that luck plays an important part in this thing called life, so I've got fingers, legs and everything else crossed that this is my lucky year.

Latest News

Just a couple of quick snippets of news. First, a new short story of mine entitled The Sin Box has been published in Entertainment Wickedly, a Fanzine specialising in alternative cinema. It's available in pdf format and is free to download. Next up, I've sold a short mystery story to Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine. I hope the rest of the year now continues in the same way.

Scrapbook snippet

I hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year. I've not posted much lately as I've been busy working on Fangtooth, the first draft of which I expect to finish this month all being well.

Anyway, here's another of those snippets that makes for bizarre reading.

A housewife in Funtua town of Katsina State woke from a night’s sleep to find a mysterious 6-inch nail driven into her head.

The incident was made more bizarre by the fact that she did not know when or how it happened to her.

Mrs. Adama Shuaibu was hale and hearty when she left for her room on Wednesday night, but apparently, while she slept, some cruel person crept into her room and drove the nail into her skull.

A nurse at Funtua General Hospital said the case was horrible and puzzling.
“I don’t know how to explain her situation. The lady could eat but could not talk and her behaviour was abnormal. We cannot rule out the possibility that she was under the influence of a strong charm for her to have been ignorant of a nail being driven into her head”, the nurse said.

Merry Christmas

Well, I've been busy working on my new novel Fangtooth, but now it's time for a couple of days break. Merry Christmas everyone.

Bleach

Shooting of the film, Bleach will begin in January on the UK’s Isle of Wight, with writer/director Jason Bradbury heading up a filmmaking team that is almost entirely in their late teens.

BLEACH is set at an abandoned factory where a group of youths decide to hold an illegal rave—little knowing that the building serves as home to a deformed maniac (Matthew Fuller) who is obsessed with cleanliness and hates anything dirty—including sex.

To show your support for independent films, or if just interested as it does look cool, check it out at: http://www.bleachthemovie.com

AA Independent Press Guide

For anyone in need of markets for illustrations, short stories or poetry to send their work to, then check out the awesome AA Independent Press Guide. A free online guide to 2000+ lit mags and publishers.

Dark Tales

On the news front, my story The Flibbertigibbet is now available to read in Dark Tales, a free to download online anthology available in PDF format from SpecFicWorld. My story originally appeared in the limited print run Hellbound Books anthology, Deathgrip: Legacy of Terror in 2003, so I'm glad to see it now available for a wider audience.

Dark Tales features fiction by James S Dorr, Angeline Hawkes-Craig, Karen Sandler, Rebecca M. Senese, James R. Cain, Mark Justice, Rob Hunter, K.G. McAbee, Shaun Jeffrey, and Carol Hightshoe.

Follow this link to download a copy:

Dark Tales

Christmas Prize Draw

As the first flurries of snow drift upon the shores of this country, it puts me in the Christmas spirit, which is of course a time for giving. Therefore, to celebrate, I will be posting a simple question through my newsletter, and everyone who answers correctly will be entered into a draw to win a signed copy of my novel, Evilution. The question will be emailed on Thursday, December 1st, and the draw will take place on Sunday, December 11th. There will be two copies available, so if you want the chance to win one of them, and you aren’t already signed up, do it now, and good luck.

Click here

Tasty snacks

At first sight, this picture looks like a macabre slaughterhouse; mangled body parts strewn about a room; arms, legs and heads resting on shelves and dangling from meat hooks - but it might surprise you to know that it's actually bread sculptures made by Kittiwat Unarrom, a 28-year-old art student.

Using anatomy books and his vivid memories from visits to forensics museums help him to create this edible art.

He says, “When people see the bread, they don’t want to eat it. But when they taste it, it’s just normal bread. The lesson is ‘don’t judge just by outer appearances.’”

Flash Mind Reader

The flash mind reader seems to have been puzzling a lot of people. Anyone who wants to know how it works, click the reply to this message and I'll tell you. But like many tricks, sometimes you're better of just not knowing so the magic never dies.

Scrapbook snippet

Here's one for the scrapbook: A four-year-old girl was stopped from taking her teeth home from hospital for the tooth fairy because doctors classed them as "body parts". Kimberley Cumming's mother Lorraine was told the teeth had to be disposed of by Raigmore Hospital in Inverness.

Mrs Cumming had explained the tooth fairy story to make her daughter less anxious about the procedure, during which four teeth were taken out.

Kimberley had made a special box and was upset about not getting her teeth.

The girl, from Inverness, had gone in to have one tooth out but the dental surgeon removed three others to stop the rot from spreading.

But doctors said the teeth were now classed as body parts and had to be disposed of by the hospital.

Website redesigned and a FREE serialised novel

To celebrate the launch of my redesigned website, and to showcase my work, I'm offering a FREE serialised copy my novel Dark Seduction to anyone who signs up to the newsletter. The first chapter will be emailed out on Halloween, and the other chapters will follow around every one to two weeks. Previous chapters will be available in the archives for those who sign up later. Go on, I know you want to. ;-)Feel free to post any comments about the story here on my blog.

Website redesign underway

I'm just starting to redesign my website, and hopefully when it's up and running, I'll have some freebies to give away to celebrate its launch. Watch this space.

2 for 1 offer

Just a quick mention that until Xmas, whenever someone orders an Invisible College Press book via the ICP site, they'll receive a 2nd ICP book of the publisher's choice thrown in for free. So fill up them sacks, because Santa's sled won't deliver after Christmas. And remember, postage in the US and Canada is free for books ordered from the site.

Update

I've just received word from Darren Smith, the editor of Tales from the Transdimensional Horror Express, a magazine for which I am helping write the back story. The magazine was initially a dual language magazine, printed in German and English, but now it's going to be all in English. I am currently plotting the back story out, and it should be an interesting development. On the novel front, I'm still typing away on Fangtooth. When that's finished, I'm not short of ideas. I've got a novel to rewrite that I wrote a few years ago, another idea partially mapped out that I'm really excited about (not that I'm not excited about all my ideas, but some spark the imagination more than others), and another story that needs developing. All I need now is for my agent to secure a publisher.

I'll be away at the coast for the next week, so hopefully I'll have even more ideas upon my return.

Latest news

I've been a bit slack posting lately as I've been busy working on my new novel, Fangtooth (and you all thought I'd abandoned it;-)). It's going great at the moment. I got a little sidetracked with work and suchlike, but things are now back on track. In other news, I've been interviewed for Gold Dust Magazine, which will appear in print at some point in the not too distant future.

The Echo

I was emailed by Chuck Gutierrez, webmaster for the new film, The Echo (Sigaw), and in the wake of the other Asian films, thought it sounded interesting enough to mention it here. This is a Filipino ghost movie directed by Yam Laranas. It’s about a haunted apartment building that exists both in the present and the past.

To escape his overbearing mother, Marvin (Richard Gutierrez), moves into a cheap apartment building, and is helped in decorating it by his girlfriend, Pinky. Initially, the unit Marvin has moved into appears like any ordinary apartment building -- there are occasional spats between a couple, Anna and Bert (Jomari Yllano), down the hallway -- but paying them no heed, his life continues. Then things start getting worse, and he moves back home for a few days until he can figure out his next plan of action.

In his absence, Pinky visits his unit unaware that he is no longer there. She falls victim to the abusive element within the building and Marvin can take no more. He goes back in for one final battle with the evil memories that have taken hold of the house.

Autograph_Collectors

Inspired by all the autograph requests I've been receiving, I've written a quick, quirky short story in the form of message posts, which I've put on my website for anyone who wants to read it. Autograph_Collectors

For the right price, you can be a character in a King novel.

Some people might be interested to know that there is an auction on Ebay involving Stephen King: If you’ve ever wanted to be a character in a Stephen King novel, here’s your chance! From September 1-25, 2005, Auction Cause will be conducting an auction through eBay Giving Works in which 17 authors are auctioning the opportunity to be a character in an upcoming novel, with the proceeds being donated to the First Amendment Project, a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to protecting and promoting freedom of information, expression, and petition. The auction for the Stephen King character will be from September 8th-18th.

The latest bid stands at: US $11,100.00, so it's only for those with a large wallet or purse.

Sin-Jin Smyth

For anyone who remembers The Cult, it's been announced that BILLY DUFFY will contribute original guitar work to the Score of Sin-Jin Smyth. To show my age, I remember when The Cult were Southern Death Cult, one of my favourite bands of the time along with Theatre of Hate (which Duffy also played in) and Bauhaus. Those were the days ...

The film (Written and Directed by Ethan Dettenmaier)--- follows two federal marshals who man an isolated Federal Outpost in the American Midwest. One night they receive an emergency message (over Halloween weekend) to blitz across the border into the Kansas Badlands (moments after a tornado warning) for the midnight prisoner transfer of a man with no identity (and set against a Kansas legend about a Midnight appearance of the Devil every Halloween in a quiet, local cemetery).