Still Making Monsters

Today I stumbled upon another review of my short story collection How to Make Monsters:

Review

The book is still available in either print or ebook editions (click on the book title above), and I also have some signed copies if anyone's interested (email me using the address on the About the Author page).

And There's More...

Hot on the heels of one "Best-of" anthology appearance comes news of another...my story Dead to the World (originally published in the excellent The Dead That Walk; editor Stephen Jones) has been selected for reprint in The Recent Dead (editor Paula Guran; published in October by Prime).

Other authors already on board include Neil Gaiman, Joe Lansdale, David Schow, Brian Keene, Tim Lebbon, so this should be a pretyy special book...

Birth of a Novel: Part 5

THE STICKY BIT

I haven't posted a thing about my ongoing struggle to write Dead Bad Things for a few weeks now, mostly because I've been stuck. Yes, that's right, things have got a bit sticky. The words just wouldn't come. The story was all there - in my head - but I couldn't seem to get it down on the page. Well, most of the story was there...at least the main parts.

So this week I tried an old trick.

I re-read, from a hard copy, the fifty-odd thousand words I'd already written and red-lined them with a few first-pass edits. Then, feeling pretty good about what I'd just read, I went through and amended the file to include those edits.

Thankfully the trick worked and I kept on after those edits were done, finishing another couple of chapters on momentum alone. A few things I wasn't sure about in the plot resolved themselves, and I discovered the identity of an important character in the story. This last thing was terrifying me without me really being aware of the fact: it was a major plot point and I had no idea who this person was. Luckily, the character stepped forward and revealed that it was they who I was looking for.

I'm feeling a lot more positive now, with two months to go before my deadline. The main thing is that I liked what I read - I liked it a lot. I believe that my narrative risks have paid off and my characters have taken on a life of their own. And thank fuck for that.

Word count: 60,000 words

The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror

I heard from the editor last night that my story STRANGE SCENES FROM AN UNFINISHED FILM (originally published in Nemonymous 9, Cern Zoo) will be reprinted in The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2010. This will be publshed by Prime in October, edited by the legendary Paula Guran.

Yet Another Great Review of THE HARM

This time on Bookgeeks.co.uk:

The Harm Review

Angry Robot

I'm sure everyone now knows the exciting news about Angry Robot now being a part of Osprey Publishing. So, without further ado, here's the revised publishing schedule for my two Angry Robot books:

Pretty Little Dead Things - UK: November 2010/US: January 2011

Dead Bad Things - UK: September 2011/US tbc but probably Oct 2011

For further details check out the Angry Robot website.

The End of the Line

Coming from Solaris Books November 15th (UK and US) is the anthology THE END OF THE LINE, which features, among others, my story Diving Deep.

I'm very excited about this pro anthology - the line-up of authors I've seen so far is pretty amazing.

Another Cracking Review of THE HARM - This Time on Amazon.co.uk

This review blew me away: The Harm

Once again I'm delighted that this story is pushing people's buttons.

THE HARM - Reviewed Again

Another very favourable review of The Harm has just gone online:

The Harm (review)

I'm delighted that this story seems to be pressing the right buttons with so many people - despite the emotive and rather grim subject matter, I'm getting some amazing feedback.