Avast Me Fiction, Mateys!

It's a good time for me as a writer. How good? Really good.

I'm working on two stories for two separate anthologies, one about ghosts, the other about zombies. And in July, the next Blue Kingdoms anthology comes out featuring a new story by yours truly: "Keva's Six." It's a mixture of fantasy pirate action and classic heist tale starring the lovely Keva the Freemariner, the character who originally debuted in the original Blue Kingdoms anthology, and her crew as they attempt to break into an unbreakable vault and take treasure from a pirate who won't appreciate being the target of such rank amateurs.

Are you going to Wizard World Chicago this weekend? If so, Fearless Editor (and fellow Alliterate) Stephen D. Sullivan will be there at Booth 5910 selling copies of Buxom Buccaneers and other Blue Kingdoms things. The book will also be available on Amazon.com soon (I'll post a link when it is.)

Get yer copy me hardies, or I shove ye off the plank! Arr!

Gone Silent

I realize it's been pretty quiet around here lately, mostly because I haven't had a hell of a lot of time to update things. Part of that is how busy I've been at work lately; another part is because GTA4 came out and I've been playing it a lot. A third part is that when I get home from work I just don't care to sit down at a computer and type more stuff. It's also gotten a lot nicer in London lately and I've been outside a lot more.

Last night I finished a new short story that is bound for the next Blue Kingdoms anthology. A Yankee In London has its new banner art. It's a bank holiday today and I'm planning to get out and doing something even if I haven't decided what that something is yet.

17 and Counting

Remember that post I made about suicides in Wales?

They're up to 17 victims now.

That's fucked up.

Sometimes These Things Just Write Themselves

For my next short story: hot news in the UK right now, where a 14th young person has committed suicide in the same small Welsh village using the same method.

I realize this is a very real tragedy and I don't mean to poke fun, but this is exceptionally odd and it's got the imagination going. Some kind of ritual sacrifice? Aliens? The King in Yellow? Perhaps the stars are just right?

Good story fodder either way.

Buy My Stuff: A Zombie Story

So I finally sat down and forced myself to use Lulu.com's e-distribution tools to try them out. The result is that a short story I wrote a couple of years ago, Some Side Effects May Occur, is now available to purchase as an e-book for the low, low price of $1.30. It's a 6400 word story, so it's a steal at $0.0002 a word! I dare you to find a better deal for zombie fiction / social commentary anywhere. If you do, I'll promote it here!

Warning (for my mother and any other family members reading this) - this story is pretty gory and is intended to be disturbing.

Oh yeah, and I'm not crazy about the cover image but I didn't have any pictures to use so I went with one of Lulu's stock images.

Here's a nice button where you can buy my story too:

Writing Things

Is what I've been doing this weekend. The creative juices were flowing (and the deadline was approaching) so I cranked out a short story for the next Blue Kingdoms anthology. The first draft is done, but I think it's going to need a little more work to get it to where I want it to be. Sometimes it can be hard to do genre-writing without being ironic or even sarcastic, but I think I walked the line pretty well in this story.

While I'm on the subject of writing, Lifehacker posted a link to an awesome online writer's resource - a massive collection of links to various online tools. It's like that "writer's toolkit" software I used to have back in high school and college, except online and free. Worth bookmarking for sure.