The Cthulhu Unbound Series Soon to Turn 3

In 2009 Permuted Press published the first two volumes in in their series of Cthulhu Mythos anthologies, Cthulhu Unbound 1 and Cthulhu Unbound 2, edited by Thomas Brannan and John Sunseri. The series featuerd noted authors such as C.J. Henderson, Willie Meikle, John Goodrich, Tim Curran. D.L. Snell and others. The second volume also featured a collaboration between myself and Brain M. Sammons. Both volumes have been best sellers on Amazon.com and have received praise from both the Cthulhu Mythos and horror community.

Further information on the first two Cthulhu Unbound anthologies, the collected stories and the contributors can be found here.

The series has done so well in fact that Brian M. Sammons and I have had the honour of teaming up again to edit Cthulhu Unbound 3.

This second collection will be a little different to the first two in that we didn't collect lots of short stories, but focused instead on four Cthulhu Mythos novellas penned by some of the better known indie press horror authors active today.

Cthulhu Unbound 3 was inspired by Ramsey Campbell’s classic anthology, New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, which featured Lovecraftian tales that did not use the traditional tropes or plotlines, and produced some spectacular results from David Drake, A.A. Attanasio, Stephen King, T.E.D. Klein, and Campbell himself.

Brian and I are collaborating on one of the tales in the anthology, a new Harrison Peel adventure (the hero from my Lovecraftian novel, The Spiraling Worm) concerning his visit to a rather unusual island mysteriously appearing in the middle of the South Pacific . . .

Right now Brian and I are editing the novellas which are nearing completion. As things develop, I'll post more on who our mysterious authors are (although a bit of googling will solve the mystery) and snippets on the novellas they have written.

Perilous Press Interviewed on Innsmouth Free Press

Adam Barnes and Cody Goodfellow of Perilous Press are interviewed at Innsmouth Free Press, where they talk about their planned publishing schedules, and most recent release, Copping Squid by Michael Shea. Check it out here.

Andromeda Spaceways 43

My first new story for the year "Emergency Rebuild" is out now, in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine Issue 43. This issue is edited by my good friend David Kernot, whom I'll be editing an issue (along with Jason Fischer) of Midnight Echo later this year.

"Emergency Rebuild" is a science fiction story set on Mars. It was a challenge to write this story, because it was a lot shorter than most tales I've attempted, 3,000 words compared to my usual 8,000 to 12,000 words. On the plus side it makes it easier it sell, which is was.

The stories appearing in this issue of Andromeda Spaceways are:

• "Thief of Tears" by Jason Crowe
• "Instructions for Lighting Candles" by Martin A Reed
• "From Little Things" by Felicity Dowker
• "Star" by Aimee Smith
• "Emergency Rebuild" by David Conyers
• "Relative to Elsa" by Martin A Reed
• "By the Banks of the Nabarra" by Daniel Russell
• "The Prize" by Carine Heidmann
• "The Painted City" by David Tallerman
• "Fairy Gothic", by Tracie McBride
• "Scars that Let the Light Shine Through" by Victorya

Poetry includes "My Naked Hand" by Helen Patrice and "Higg’s Boson" by Don Webb. The cover is by Greg Hughes, whom I think has done the best cover I've ever seen for this magazine.

Aeon Award 2010 Launched

Also from the Albedo 1 site:

Albedo One is proud to announce the launch of the Fifth International International Aeon Award Short Fiction Contest, 2010. The goals of the Aeon Award are to promote writers and the writing of speculative fiction, be it science fiction, fantasy, horror or anything unclassifiable or in-between. The contest is open to writers from all nationalities for stories of up to 8000 words long, that are previously unpublished in English. The Grand Prize is 1000 euro and publication in Albedo One. Second and third place prizes are 200 and 100 euro and publication in Albedo One.

The contest is open from January 1st 2010 to the end of November 2010, after which the winning stories are chosen by our Grand Judge, respected SF author, Ian Watson (see Ian's homepage here). Since 2004, the Aeon Award has helped promote exceptional work of authors in speculative fiction. Aside from winning the cash prizes and publication in Albedo One, winning and shortlisted stories have been given Honourable Mentions or been reprinted in prestigious volumes such as the Year's Best Science Fiction, edited by Gardner Dozois, and the Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, edited by Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link and Gavin Grant. Other winning stories have been translated and published in prestigious European magazines, like Galaxies SF, edited by Pierre M. Gevart. The Aeon Award is therefore a great opportunity to promote your work. A modest entry fee of 7 euro applies, which can be paid easily and securely online via PayPal on our contest guidelines page, here.

Aeon Award 2009 Winners

From the Albedo One site:

Albedo One is proud to announce the winners of the Aeon Award 2009 short fiction contest. This ran from January 1st 2009 to November 30th 2009. All stories shortlisted for the contest are listed below, with the names of each author now revealed.

Grand Judge Ian Watson chose the winners. First place went to "Frogs on My Doorstep" by Annette Reader. Watson described the story as "very intriguing and full of emotional impact. The alternate world concept is handled very convincingly, and is reminiscent of the recent work of Chris Beckett." Reader receives the €1000 Grand Prize and publication in Albedo One.

Second place goes to "Bridges" by Nick Wood. Watson said the story, featuring a future South Africa in which apartheid never ended, is "politically acute and powerful, with its heart in the right place… and is in many ways a 'textbook story', because it's so well done." Second prize is €200 and publication in Albedo One.

Third place goes to "Canis Lupus, Rosa Canina" by Judith Brown. Watson said "the story is nasty, but brilliantly written, with masterly descriptions of landscape and powerful imagery." Third prize is €100 and publication in Albedo One.

Thank you to all who entered and supported the contest in 2009!

• A Falcon Sharp and Passing - Donald Mead
• Canis Lupus, Rosa Canina - Judith Brown
• Frogs on my Doorstep - Annette Reader
• Something Other - David Heaton
• Bridges - Nick Wood
• Fenn, Brother of Francis - Susan McElheran
• He Who Picks the Bones - Frank W. Haubold (translated by Jason Roberts)
• Trimble Does Time - Gerard Farrell
• In the Boughs of his Blood Orange Tree a Vampire Sat to Dream of Love - Ian Wild
• Stars in the Skies - Jennifer Harwood-Smith
• Don't Go Playing with Naiads - Alice Godwin
• The Girl in the Blue Bikini - Peter Loftus
• Once, When the Sun Rose in the West - Susan Lanigan
• Deconstruction - Alexis Boddy
• Reflected Glory - Peter Loftus
• Conversion - Jennifer Harwood-Smith
• All the Beautiful Lights of Heaven - Russ Colson
• Star in a Glass - Vaughan Stanger
• Wailing Wheel - Joe Nazare
• Angele Dei - Chandler Kaiden
• Lost Things - Jennifer Harwood-Smith
• On the Feast of Stephen - Cyril Simsa
• The Art of the Intractable - Nathan Jones
• Gordon Street - Katharine Clayden
• Pirate Copies - Ian D. Martin

Remember, the Aeon Award 2010 is now open for entries to November 30th 2010. Details can be found here

Small Press Takes Time

I'm sure every author has encountered the problem of delayed publication schedules during their career, where a short story is accepted into an anthology, the project is then announced, and then everything grinds to a holt. Years can go by with nothing happening, and before the author knows it, they've forgotten they ever wrote their story in the first place. Well this seems to have happened to me a lot.

Small press publishers, because they have day jobs and normal life to contend with like the rest of us, often run into stumbling blocks, as we all do. So this is not an exercise in blame, rather an observation, because I know my input as a writer has dropped significantly in the last two years for various personal reasons, many of them being financial which are now on the mend. I think it is just the nature of small press publishing, it's a hobby that needs some sense of control, but is hard to apply that control in practice.

However, the horizon is looking food with some of those delayed stories about to resurface, as several anthologies that I've been accepted into many years ago are now back on track. Morrigan Books recently announced Scenes from the Second Storey which features my tale "Dream Machine". I wrote that story about two years ago, but looking back the turn around is pretty good when I look at some of the other tales I have out there, and some that have been in anthologies that after years of waiting in the wings, have now been cancelled.

I heard today that "Sister of the Sands" from Cthulhu's Dark Cults has just been re-scheculed by Chaosium for a June 2010 release. "The Hag of Zais" appearing Ancient Shadows from Elder Signs Press also is expected to be out in June. Recently I was contacted by an editor who had vanished for close to two years to tell me that a science fiction tale I wrote for him a long time ago will be out soon in an e-anthology in the US. All good stuff.

A few stories still, unfortunately, still linger, but we won't go into them.

So maybe 2010 will result in me being more prolific than I originally thought possible, through no effort on my behalf, at least not recently. That's kind of a nice thought, I think.