I've recently appeared in "The Eldritch Force" A Cthulhu Mythos Round Robin with Peter Rawlik, Glynn Owen Barrass, Brian M. Sammons, Bruce L. Priddy, Robert M. Price, Rick Lai and myself. This one features superheros in a Post World War Two setting.
This is my second publication with Lovecraft eZine, and I'm proud to have teamed up with such a talented bunch of authors.
Read the story here.
Wednesday, 19 March 2014
World War Cthulhu "The Bullet and the Flesh" Promo Video
I’ve recently been involved in a Indiegogo sponsorship campaign for a new anthology I’m appearing in:
World War Cthulhu
A Collection of Lovecraftian War Stories to the forefront with 19 war stories rooted deep in the mythos of H.P. Lovecraft. Wars and battlefields written by top names in the industry like John Shirley, Tim Curran, W.H. Pugmire, William Meikle, Cody Goodfellow, Jeffrey Thomas, David Kernot, Konstantine Paradias, C.J. Henderson, Peter Rawlik and many more featuring original illustrations by artist M. Wayne Miller, front cover artwork by award-winning artist Vincent Chong and edited by Brian M. Sammons and Glynn Owen Barrass.
“The Bullet and the Flesh” by David Conyers and David Kernot
My contribution is modern day tale of horrors perpetrated by man against man. The use of child soldiers in Zimbabwe are not the worst things to be encountered as lives are given less worth than shiny baubles from the earth. Evil men mess with things unpredictable, and brave men such as Major Harrison Peel (from Cthulhu Unbound 3) are forced to fight for justice and balance.
Here is my promo video, to learn more:
Support the World War Cthulhu campaign by following this link.
World War Cthulhu
A Collection of Lovecraftian War Stories to the forefront with 19 war stories rooted deep in the mythos of H.P. Lovecraft. Wars and battlefields written by top names in the industry like John Shirley, Tim Curran, W.H. Pugmire, William Meikle, Cody Goodfellow, Jeffrey Thomas, David Kernot, Konstantine Paradias, C.J. Henderson, Peter Rawlik and many more featuring original illustrations by artist M. Wayne Miller, front cover artwork by award-winning artist Vincent Chong and edited by Brian M. Sammons and Glynn Owen Barrass.
“The Bullet and the Flesh” by David Conyers and David Kernot
My contribution is modern day tale of horrors perpetrated by man against man. The use of child soldiers in Zimbabwe are not the worst things to be encountered as lives are given less worth than shiny baubles from the earth. Evil men mess with things unpredictable, and brave men such as Major Harrison Peel (from Cthulhu Unbound 3) are forced to fight for justice and balance.
Here is my promo video, to learn more:
Support the World War Cthulhu campaign by following this link.
Sunday, 9 March 2014
Extreme Planets is Out
Extreme Planets is now out, and available from Amazon. Gardner Dozois says of the book in Locus, "The anthology does contain a lot of solid, entertaining, core SF"
Here is an extract from David Kernot and my contribution to the anthology, "Petrochemical Skies" set on a carbon planet.
David Conyers and David Kernot
Jenna Seno rechecked her astrogation calculations for the fifteenth time. The numbers came out the same and still she didn’t like them. She rolled her shoulders to relieve the tension in her back. It would be a long shift.
Despite her lack of practical experience, Jenna knew the info-courier, Banshee Stalker, could make the next hyperspacial jump but only if she used the gravitation field from the Iyangura class star system properly. From twelve light-years out, slingshotting them thirty-two light-years across the void to Hadrian Secondus was a risky move and a stark contrast to the slow three light-year-per-day pace through ‘safer’ space routes.
“Well, Seno?” Crandon ‘Towers’ Kerman, the Banshee’s captain, cracked his knuckles like he didn't have a care.
Jenna swallowed to free her tight throat. She didn’t know what he wanted her to say.
“Are you ready? Or do I need to baby-step you through your calculations again?”
Like her, Towers was strapped into an acceleration couch on the ship’s bridge, ready for any unexpected forces the jump might generate when they transitioned space-time points. He didn't seem bothered by the risky slingshot trajectory.
He wasn't being fair, but she pushed her inexperience aside. “Captain, if I make a mistake we’ll end up in the heart of the system’s star.”
He sneered. “Would you rather we took the long route, through deep space?”
“No, captain.”
“Want to lose six days and an expensive amount of energy generating our own slingshots? Our competitors will beat us to our client.”
Jenna closed her eyes. She wanted to scream. She hated that he was having fun with her.
One nagging thought compelled her not to agree with Towers; they could all die. She gathered courage and voiced her concern, “Captain, it _is_ safer to open a wormhole in a near absolute vacuum, deep into the void.”
He laughed. “Even near stars, Seno, there’s a vacuum.”
“I guess… I suppose——”
“Make the jump.”
She couldn’t be sure of her calculations, not yet, she only needed another minute. “What if we collided with any planets in Iyangura 281A?" A collision would be fatal. She wanted to mention the radial velocities if they came out of hyperspace too close to a planet.
“The Stalker’s hyperdrive automatically compensates for that.”
“But——”
“I said jump!”
Without waiting, Towers punched his authority codes into the bridge’s console, transferred her coordinates to the ship’s semi-AI via his biometrics.
Towers! Damn him! The man was a reckless fool.
They lurched.
Invisible forces pinned Jenna into her acceleration couch.
Anti-matter engines burned a point into the vacuum the size of an atom, until a massive gravitation singularity expanded from space-time and formed a wormhole. The _Banshee Stalker_ slipped into it and shifted: everything moved, like a bug swimming in a jug of water poured into a bigger jug, and then into an even bigger jug…
They fell, and Jenna tensed every muscle, closed her eyes from the vertigo. They accelerated away under high-g maneuvers toward who knew where. A vacuum hopefully but close enough to Iyangura 281A to appease Towers.
The wormhole opened on the opposite mouth and pulled the _Stalker_ through before it collapsed.
The other side greeted with a noise like hail on a roof. Ship sensors highlighted the hull bombardment exceeded ten thousands rock pellets. Their craft decelerated rapidly, and Jenna opened her eyes. On the bridge, virtual skin schematics lit the outside scene. They weren’t in a vacuum but conversely they didn’t fall into the million-degree heart of a sun. Visuals displayed a planet.
Debris shot skyward, a mix of giant boulders and fine dust flung outwards. Smaller rocks peppered them like machinegun fire. The visual displays showed the wormhole opening had pulverized a mountain-sized mass on the surface.
The Stalker spiraled downwards into the kilometer-wide crater, which sparkled like a diamond. Jenna closed her eyes again and contained another scream, hoped their disintegration would be instantaneous and painless.
Here is an extract from David Kernot and my contribution to the anthology, "Petrochemical Skies" set on a carbon planet.
Petrochemical Skies
David Conyers and David Kernot
Jenna Seno rechecked her astrogation calculations for the fifteenth time. The numbers came out the same and still she didn’t like them. She rolled her shoulders to relieve the tension in her back. It would be a long shift.
Despite her lack of practical experience, Jenna knew the info-courier, Banshee Stalker, could make the next hyperspacial jump but only if she used the gravitation field from the Iyangura class star system properly. From twelve light-years out, slingshotting them thirty-two light-years across the void to Hadrian Secondus was a risky move and a stark contrast to the slow three light-year-per-day pace through ‘safer’ space routes.
“Well, Seno?” Crandon ‘Towers’ Kerman, the Banshee’s captain, cracked his knuckles like he didn't have a care.
Jenna swallowed to free her tight throat. She didn’t know what he wanted her to say.
“Are you ready? Or do I need to baby-step you through your calculations again?”
Like her, Towers was strapped into an acceleration couch on the ship’s bridge, ready for any unexpected forces the jump might generate when they transitioned space-time points. He didn't seem bothered by the risky slingshot trajectory.
He wasn't being fair, but she pushed her inexperience aside. “Captain, if I make a mistake we’ll end up in the heart of the system’s star.”
He sneered. “Would you rather we took the long route, through deep space?”
“No, captain.”
“Want to lose six days and an expensive amount of energy generating our own slingshots? Our competitors will beat us to our client.”
Jenna closed her eyes. She wanted to scream. She hated that he was having fun with her.
One nagging thought compelled her not to agree with Towers; they could all die. She gathered courage and voiced her concern, “Captain, it _is_ safer to open a wormhole in a near absolute vacuum, deep into the void.”
He laughed. “Even near stars, Seno, there’s a vacuum.”
“I guess… I suppose——”
“Make the jump.”
She couldn’t be sure of her calculations, not yet, she only needed another minute. “What if we collided with any planets in Iyangura 281A?" A collision would be fatal. She wanted to mention the radial velocities if they came out of hyperspace too close to a planet.
“The Stalker’s hyperdrive automatically compensates for that.”
“But——”
“I said jump!”
Without waiting, Towers punched his authority codes into the bridge’s console, transferred her coordinates to the ship’s semi-AI via his biometrics.
Towers! Damn him! The man was a reckless fool.
They lurched.
Invisible forces pinned Jenna into her acceleration couch.
Anti-matter engines burned a point into the vacuum the size of an atom, until a massive gravitation singularity expanded from space-time and formed a wormhole. The _Banshee Stalker_ slipped into it and shifted: everything moved, like a bug swimming in a jug of water poured into a bigger jug, and then into an even bigger jug…
They fell, and Jenna tensed every muscle, closed her eyes from the vertigo. They accelerated away under high-g maneuvers toward who knew where. A vacuum hopefully but close enough to Iyangura 281A to appease Towers.
The wormhole opened on the opposite mouth and pulled the _Stalker_ through before it collapsed.
The other side greeted with a noise like hail on a roof. Ship sensors highlighted the hull bombardment exceeded ten thousands rock pellets. Their craft decelerated rapidly, and Jenna opened her eyes. On the bridge, virtual skin schematics lit the outside scene. They weren’t in a vacuum but conversely they didn’t fall into the million-degree heart of a sun. Visuals displayed a planet.
Debris shot skyward, a mix of giant boulders and fine dust flung outwards. Smaller rocks peppered them like machinegun fire. The visual displays showed the wormhole opening had pulverized a mountain-sized mass on the surface.
The Stalker spiraled downwards into the kilometer-wide crater, which sparkled like a diamond. Jenna closed her eyes again and contained another scream, hoped their disintegration would be instantaneous and painless.
Saturday, 28 December 2013
The 2013 Scorecard
2013 was an interesting year for me on the writing front, mostly because I followed the lead of Shane Jiraiya Cummings and Hugh Howey, and tried self-publishing through Amazon and Smashwords with far greater success than I could have imagined when I first set out.
Despite the naysayers of the established pros and the fear self-publishing is generating in the world today, I think it is a great opportunity for writers, offering more than one path to success in the industry. I've been able to release collections of my science fiction, weird fiction and reboot my Harrison Peel spies versus the Cthulhu Mythos series, as well as working with various authors to develop sampler books of our works. I've also been able to work with Albedo One to get their magazine out in Kindle and ePub versions too. The reach to my audience has dramatically improved and I'm getting more positive reviews than I've ever had.
If you are sitting on the fence with self-publishing, I'd suggest the worst that will happen if you do is that no one will read your book or review it, and that's no worse of than where you are right now. Even if you only get bad reviews they help, because readers disagree with reviewers and buy it anyway. Reviewers, if you don't want a book to sell, say nothing.
The other fantastic news this year was that I was asked to become Art Editor with Albedo One magazine, and was able to help the team now led by Robert Neilson and Frank Ludlow to produce issue 44, with some very excellent tales included within. Robert, Frank and the rest of the team have been very supportive of my writing over the years, and it is an honour to join the team in a more senior capacity, after years as a reviewer.
Okay, here are the publications. The following ebooks were released this year:
Best Tales of the Apocalypse edited by D.L. Snell and Bobbie Metevier, which makes this the third time the story has appeared in a "Best of" collection. The other was "The Masked Messenger" with John Goodrich appearing in issue 22 of Lovecraft eZine.
As I said before, I contributed to launching the Australian Horror Writers Sampler 2013 and the Cthulhu Mythos Writers Sampler 2013, both of which have been a great success in promoting all the authors involved. I was also Art Editor for Albedo One #44. I also wrote "The Jermyn Horror" and with Peter Gilham "The Crystal of Chaos" appearing in the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game book, The House of R'lyeh.
2014 will see my short stories in the anthology Extreme Planets, and the magazines Albedo One and Lovecraft eZine, and a chapter in the forthcoming reprint of the classic role-playing game, Horror on the Orient Express. I will also be releasing more Harrison Peel collections starting with Book 3: The Elder Codex.
Thanks to everyone who has supported my writing this year, especially to reviewers who go a long way in making a writer become noticed. Special thanks to David Kernot, who as always has been a great sounding board on my writing.
Despite the naysayers of the established pros and the fear self-publishing is generating in the world today, I think it is a great opportunity for writers, offering more than one path to success in the industry. I've been able to release collections of my science fiction, weird fiction and reboot my Harrison Peel spies versus the Cthulhu Mythos series, as well as working with various authors to develop sampler books of our works. I've also been able to work with Albedo One to get their magazine out in Kindle and ePub versions too. The reach to my audience has dramatically improved and I'm getting more positive reviews than I've ever had.
If you are sitting on the fence with self-publishing, I'd suggest the worst that will happen if you do is that no one will read your book or review it, and that's no worse of than where you are right now. Even if you only get bad reviews they help, because readers disagree with reviewers and buy it anyway. Reviewers, if you don't want a book to sell, say nothing.
The other fantastic news this year was that I was asked to become Art Editor with Albedo One magazine, and was able to help the team now led by Robert Neilson and Frank Ludlow to produce issue 44, with some very excellent tales included within. Robert, Frank and the rest of the team have been very supportive of my writing over the years, and it is an honour to join the team in a more senior capacity, after years as a reviewer.
Okay, here are the publications. The following ebooks were released this year:
- The Entropy Conflict (SF)
- The Uncertainty Bridge (SF)
- The Nightmare Dimension (Horror and Weird Fiction)
- The Impossible Object: The Harrison Peel Files Book 1 (Cthulhu Mythos)
- The Weaponized Puzzle: The Harrison Peel Files Book 2 (Cthulhu Mythos)
- "Driven Underground" in The Impossible Object (Amazon Direct Publishing)
- "The Weaponized Puzzle" in The Weaponized Puzzle (Amazon Direct Publishing)
- "The Entropy Conflict" in The Entropy Conflict (Amazon Direct Publishing)
- "The Road to Afghanistan" in What Scares the Boogeyman? anthology
- "Playgrounds of Angolaland" in Eldritch Chrome edited by Brian M Sammons and Glynn Barrass (Chaosium)
- "Romero 2.0" in Undead & Unbound with Brian M Sammons
- "The Dream Quest of a Thousand Cats" in The Nightmare Dimension (Amazon Direct Publishing)
- Undead & Unbound with Brian M. Sammons and published by Chaosium
- Extreme Planets with David Kernot and Jeff Harris is at the printers but won't be out until 2014, so it doesn't yet make the list.
Best Tales of the Apocalypse edited by D.L. Snell and Bobbie Metevier, which makes this the third time the story has appeared in a "Best of" collection. The other was "The Masked Messenger" with John Goodrich appearing in issue 22 of Lovecraft eZine.
As I said before, I contributed to launching the Australian Horror Writers Sampler 2013 and the Cthulhu Mythos Writers Sampler 2013, both of which have been a great success in promoting all the authors involved. I was also Art Editor for Albedo One #44. I also wrote "The Jermyn Horror" and with Peter Gilham "The Crystal of Chaos" appearing in the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game book, The House of R'lyeh.
Thanks to everyone who has supported my writing this year, especially to reviewers who go a long way in making a writer become noticed. Special thanks to David Kernot, who as always has been a great sounding board on my writing.
Cthulhu Mythos Writers Sampler 2013
A late post but this year I appeared in the Cthulhu Mythos Writers Sampler 2013, available for 99c from Amazon, which I assisted in pulling together.
The book has proved to be rather successful considering the number of downloads and positive reviews. My contribution included a sample from my Harrison Peel series. Here is the blurb:
Inside this book you’ll find a taste of some of today’s top Cthulhu Mythos and Lovecraftian writers.
“The Great White Bed” – A senile old man makes a deal with a strange being for a new lease on life. What happens when a book reads you?
“The Cellar Gods” – In the 1940s, a young medical student protects a beautiful Asian woman from prejudiced townsfolk, only to discover she is connected to mysterious entities from an unholy dimension.
“The Locked Door” – The visions of a psychic threatens the existence of a secret order.
“In the Gyre” – A research vessel investigating a growing pollution problem in the ocean finds that something else has discovered a use for our waste material—something designed for building, and growing, and multiplying.
“The Gate and the Way” – Poking around the local spook house for redeemable cans and bottles, two brothers stumble upon cosmic horrors from beyond space and time.
“I Cannot Begin To Tell You” – A desperate father kidnaps his infant son and flees to a remote cabin to wait out an apocalypse only he can perceive. Is the man psychotic? Or is the boy a conduit for an ancient malevolence from the depths of Time?
“Cutter” – A man and boy are trapped in an abandoned house by plague of bizarre monsters.
“Graveyard Orbit” – In the future, the deep space exploration vessel Wellington encounters the unthinkable orbiting the uncharted planet Osiris II. Amid the debris of a trillion alien corpses, the Wellington’s Captain Walker will stumble upon an unlikely ally—and potentially, the secrets of the universe.
“The Weaponized Puzzle” – A Russian spy steals an alien artifact from the Australian Government which soon transforms into a prison, and Australian spy Harrison Peel must solve its various puzzles and confront its captive horrors to escape again.
Fiction by Don Webb, Jeffrey Thomas, Brian M, Sammons, Peter Rawlik, William Meikle, Kevin Lucia, David Kernot, Scott R. Jones, C.J. Henderson, Cody Goodfellow, David Dunwoody, Shane Jiraiya Cummings and David Conyers. Cover illustration by Paul Mudie.
This sampler collection provides links to the various author’s works, personal interviews, and further information on their e-books.
Step inside, and discover the newest horror releases lurking in the nightmare lands of Lovecraft…
Saturday, 16 November 2013
Albedo One (Issue 44) Released on Kindle
Out now on Amazon Kindle.
A race with hounds across Europe to seek true love, a dying world plagued by invading jelly, a soulful train journey through the wastelands of purgatory, and an angry father who might have saved the wrong daughter.
Issue 44 of Ireland’s longest running science fiction, fantasy and horror magazine, Albedo One, features new fiction from Ian Wild, James Carney, Steve Billings, Alexandra Fleetwood, Dave Siddall and Eric M. Witchey; an in-depth review with Philip K. Dick award winning author Simon Morden; cover art from Charlie Terrell; and reviews from Juliet E. McKenna, John Kenny, Peter Loftus and David Conyers.
Print and ebup copies not far away. I was Art Editor on this one, so very proud of the outcome. Check out Albedo One for more news on this issue.
A race with hounds across Europe to seek true love, a dying world plagued by invading jelly, a soulful train journey through the wastelands of purgatory, and an angry father who might have saved the wrong daughter.
Issue 44 of Ireland’s longest running science fiction, fantasy and horror magazine, Albedo One, features new fiction from Ian Wild, James Carney, Steve Billings, Alexandra Fleetwood, Dave Siddall and Eric M. Witchey; an in-depth review with Philip K. Dick award winning author Simon Morden; cover art from Charlie Terrell; and reviews from Juliet E. McKenna, John Kenny, Peter Loftus and David Conyers.
Print and ebup copies not far away. I was Art Editor on this one, so very proud of the outcome. Check out Albedo One for more news on this issue.
Sunday, 10 November 2013
Australian Horror Writers Sampler 2013
A group of Aussie authors got together and produced this sampler, featuring seven authors and one Australian artist. I'm one of them, and here is the blurb:
Inside this book you’ll find a taste of some of Australia’s top horror writers.
“The Grief School” by Matthew Tait – as a man of chance, Myles Lacey understood all too well the whims of the universe, and that meant death was a constant in life.
“Harry's Dead Poodle” by David Kernot – tells us there is more to people than what you see on the outside, like ex-butcher Harry Mills, who is good with a knife.
“Hear No Evil” by Shane Jiraiya Cummings – Blaine wakes in hospital after an accident. Although deaf, only he can hear a distant, desperate scream. What evil will he face when he answers the call?
“The Nightmare Dimension” by David Conyers – modern day mage Gordon McColley might not have sold his soul to the demons of hell, but they still have work for him to do, and he can’t refuse.
“The End of Ever” by Troy Barnes – In a world where nightmares reign, an unlikely group of friends must face the unknown and travel through the sinister heart of Ever in search of a way home. Friendships will be torn apart. Lives will be lost. Will anyone live happy after Ever?
This sampler collection provides links to the various author’s works, personal interviews, and further information on their e-books.
Step inside, and discover the horror lurking in the Land of Oz…
Here is the Amazon.com review of my story:
"The Nightmare Dimension is another rollicking good novella from David Conyers. Take a pinch of Clive Barker, a drop of Hellblazer, a good glug of quality writing, a handful of magic and demonology and shake vigorously and you have this heady brew of a story. Conyers never fails to impress with the sheer fun that he conveys through his writing."
Download it here from Amazon.com for only 99c.
Inside this book you’ll find a taste of some of Australia’s top horror writers.
“The Grief School” by Matthew Tait – as a man of chance, Myles Lacey understood all too well the whims of the universe, and that meant death was a constant in life.
“Harry's Dead Poodle” by David Kernot – tells us there is more to people than what you see on the outside, like ex-butcher Harry Mills, who is good with a knife.
“Hear No Evil” by Shane Jiraiya Cummings – Blaine wakes in hospital after an accident. Although deaf, only he can hear a distant, desperate scream. What evil will he face when he answers the call?
“The Nightmare Dimension” by David Conyers – modern day mage Gordon McColley might not have sold his soul to the demons of hell, but they still have work for him to do, and he can’t refuse.
“The End of Ever” by Troy Barnes – In a world where nightmares reign, an unlikely group of friends must face the unknown and travel through the sinister heart of Ever in search of a way home. Friendships will be torn apart. Lives will be lost. Will anyone live happy after Ever?
This sampler collection provides links to the various author’s works, personal interviews, and further information on their e-books.
Step inside, and discover the horror lurking in the Land of Oz…
Here is the Amazon.com review of my story:
"The Nightmare Dimension is another rollicking good novella from David Conyers. Take a pinch of Clive Barker, a drop of Hellblazer, a good glug of quality writing, a handful of magic and demonology and shake vigorously and you have this heady brew of a story. Conyers never fails to impress with the sheer fun that he conveys through his writing."
Download it here from Amazon.com for only 99c.
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