Rainbow's End

So excited about this one...

Triangulation: End of the Rainbow is now available for purchase over at Amazon. It contains my story, The Meaning of Yellow, along with stories from Aaron Polson, Marshall Payne, Cat Rambo, Amanda C Davis, Peter S Beagle, Brenta Blevins, Eugie Foster and others.

Here's the beginning of The Meaning of Yellow:

Sound rushed from the cinema, dragging with it several dwarves and a basketful of poisoned apples. Crouched behind the seats in row F, Maxine pressed her grey hand to her lips and hoped her breath didn't steam. Someone had left the emergency exit door propped open and frame by frame, the colours were being sucked from the move and disappearing into the night. When the screen faded to its usual black, she stood and watched the final trail of colour weave its way along the alley. The Ministry for the Abolition of Bright Things would have her head.

Story inspiration: A rather long day with my then four-year-old niece watching Disney's Snow White over and over and over and... You get the picture.

Theatre of Published Books

Drumroll please... (I ask for a lot of these but this time it's appropriate)

Theatre of Curious Acts is to be published by Hadley Rille Books as a novella in 2011.

I am sooooooooo excited.

Theatre is my NaNoWriMo novel from 2008. Originally it sat at just over 50,000 words, but after a recent rejection from a publisher (that story expands a little) I edited it down to 42,000 words.

Last week the original publisher (who shall remain unnamed but I will say, they're an awesome company) contacted me to ask if Theatre was still available, and that if it was they'd like to publish it. I went into a panic. Then I calmed down. Then I contacted Hadley Rille, explained the situation and they offered to read Theatre right away and the rest as they say, is history. Quite literally...

Nineteen-year-old Daniel Cole returns home from the Great War wanting the world to end. His brother and parents are in their graves. Nothing is the same. During a performance at the Theatre of Curious Acts, Daniel and his old friends, fellow soldiers, are lured into a surreal otherworld. Travelling through this strange land they come upon  the four horsewomen of the apocalypse, dragons, the steam trains of the Anabiosis station and their ghostly passengers, ancient warriors and a pirate ship waiting to ferry them to the end of the world.


Now Daniel must fight to save a world he wants no part of, and worse, he is about to fall in love with Death.

Many, many thanks to Eric T Reynolds and Rob Darnell.

Now I shall have cake.

Books, Beautiful Books

Thanks to a decluttering experiment...Well, less experiment more painful extraction of things I never used but wanted to keep, I've moved my wobbling to read tower to the shelves behind my desk. Back me up guys, there are too many empty spaces and I should buy more books, right? In fact my YA and MG piles look particularly lacking.

I'm a Tree

True story.

When someone told me the driving test laws were changing and that, from September, anyone taking the test would be required to take a 10 minute run, I said...

"Well I'm stuffed. I can just about run for the bus."

Doh!


And in unrelated 'I'm a tree' news. The website for my short story collection, Strange Men in Pinstripe Suits, went live yesterday and there's a contest and freebies. Problem is, for the first 6 hours or so I had the wrong email address up on the site, so if you entered the competition or ordered any bookmarks and didn't send the entry to catephoenix(at)gmail(dot)com, then I never received it. You may throw rotten tomatoes at me now.

Clipart from Clipartheaven.com

Strange Men in Pinstripe Suits - The Cover Art

First there was the artwork for The Sour Aftertaste of Olive Lemon which made feel incredibly fortunate to have such a pretty little chapbook. I thought, second time around (assuming there would ever be a second time), I wouldn't be as fortunate. A nobody doesn't get to have two kick-ass covers. Guess, I was wrong. How beautiful is this...

Aaron Polson (publisher and cover designer) is now officially upgraded to demigod.

WIP Wednesday: Fred

The plotting of something old and rather nasty is done. I have lots of colour coded character index cards filled out and I've scrabbled the evil doings of scary monsters on them.

However, the dear old thing needs a new title. The other one feels all blah now and soooo yesterday. But, we're struggling. I have a list of a gazillion titles - some hideous, some okay, some not too bad - alas, I am searching for brilliance. Thus, in the meantime, I shall be referring to said book as FRED.

Fred's Word Count: 92 words (Hey Fred, off the hammock now you lazy...)

Weird Fiction

I'm working on something. I should be working on something else or on another something else, but I'm not. I'm working on this something. And that's what I'll be doing today and tomorrow and, I guess, we'll see. You could say I've resurrected something--although it's more to do with feet than brains.

Talking of resurrected things. The wonderful Arkham Tales--the magazine that refused to die--has just released issue seven. It features fiction from Aaron Polson, Leah Clarke and Robert Masterson, amongst others. And it's only $1.99.

WIP Wednesday: It's the 1920s in my Head

Thanks to a thunderstorm - I swear, I haven't seen rain like that all year - I've just finished the first draft of a Fantastical Fifty story - And the bride wore ashes. I'm going to start another draft later this evening and when that's done, I'll let it stew for a few weeks. Looks like my fifty first sentences experiment is a win--even if I only end up with two stories from it. But of course, I want more. *Stomps feet* (Finished first story at the weekend - Kodak Dragons and had to send it out after only a little sleep because a deadline was looming -  looks over shoulder and hopes editor isn't reading).

Fantastical Fifty first line: Maud pulled a snow globe out of the dead man’s suitcase and shook it.
Acutal (first draft) first line: The snow globe offered a flurry of ashes.
Resemblance to original idea: 10%*

Current Word Count: 2,374 words
Things Found Here: Empty graves, a wedding dress made of moths, a Buster Keaton lookalike groom and a church made of ice lolly sticks.

I'm also compiling ideas etc for my next book. I have my title - and I love, love, love it - but I'm not revealing it yet because its brilliance will blind you...

*Percentage figures are not acurate, get over it.

Pretty Little Totem

The second issue of Shock Totem is now on sale (insert several woots! here) and contains my story Pretty Little Ghouls.

You can purchase the magazine at the Shock Totem site or on Amazon.

It also contains delights from Kurt Newton, Vincent Pendergast, John Boden and Mercedes M Yardley amongst others.

Souvenir Shops, Polaroids and Other Things

Beware, the following link may take you on a surreal journey...

The Scenic Path of Human Artefacts is today's story over at 52 Stitches.

...You have been warned.

Hallucinogenic Bubbles

One of my Fantastical Fifty stories has broken free of the pack - result.

When the delightful Mercedes posted on the Shock Totem forum about the anthology 2020 Visions opening to happy stories - okay a positive outlook on the very near future - I dug into my little sentence/paragraph file and pulled out the most appropriate. It began...

Hallucinogenic bubbles filled the air.

It has a more blah first sentence at the moment - Distracted, searching for the charger for her iPen, Ivy pulled a used bingo card out of her bag and placed it on the desk. - as the original is now located a third of the way through. Shall have to jazz it up and make sure I'm not starting the story in the wrong place.

Dear Time Lords (especially if you look like David Tennant), please visit and stretch this weekend for me.
The deadline is July 17th.

Welcome to the Fantastical Fifty

Welcome to the Fantastical Fifty* (you could also make other use of the FF and rename its slave the Faffing Fool (that would be me).

Sometime last month I read this interview with Kelly Link and in it she suggested the following story generating idea (via Stephen Dobyns). In an hour (or more - I took about two) write down 50 first sentences, the first things that come out of that delightful noggin of yours (I have a book of keywords and weaved my sentences around the first 50 words I stumbled across). Then pick 25 of those sentences and write 25 first paragraphs, and out of those you should be able to conjure up half a dozen short stories.

Now, I'm a greedy gal and I'm currently trying to weave 50 stories out of 50 first sentences (because they are all undeniably...partway to...almost...well I thought they were wonderful for at least 50 minutes). I do expect the number to drop by at least half before the year is out, but at the moment I'm having fun and it feels like a weird mix of procrastinating and writing at the same time.

*This is what happens when you realise you have almost no stories 'out there'.

Triangulation: End of the Rainbow

Jamie Lackey has announced the TOC for the forthcoming anthology, Triangulation: End of the Rainbow. (Thanks to Marshall Payne for the info). I'm super excited about this one, not least because Aaron Polson's previously published, The World in Rubber, Soft and Malleable, is in it. One of my favourite stories of 2009.

The Rainbow Vendor by David Sklar
Tourist Trap by Mark Onspaugh
Making Friends by Kylie Bullivant
A Test of Spirit by Brenta Blevins
David is Six by Amanda C. Davis
The Stickball Witch by Peter S. Beagle
Messiah by M. Z. Hoosen
The House at the End of the Rainbow by Amy Treadwell
A Womb of my Own by Tinatsu Wallace
The Meaning of Yellow by Cate Gardner
Talking Blues by Matthew Johnson
Spirit House by Ron Sering
A Patch of Jewels in the Sky by Eugie Foster
Haole by D.K. Thompson
The World in Rubber, Soft and Malleable by Aaron Polson
Commander Perry's Mystic Wonders Show by Jaime Lee Moyer
The New Elementals by Marshall Payne
In Lixus, Close to Waking by Erin Hoffman
In Order to Conserve by Cat Rambo

Dear Time Traveller

I think my time travel short story might be done... Shush! We don't want to disturb it. I'm going to let it stew for another day and have a final read before submitting.

On the subject of time travel, if a hole opened up in the sky above me right about now, I'd instruct it to hoover me back to 1974 so that I could buy 'Rowntrees Tiger Tots', I have a curious craving for them and they disappeared from stores in the late 1970s. Not magically disappeared at least I don't think they did... Ooh, I wonder if future-me went back and emptied the stores.

For the unintiated, Tiger Tots were like Dolly Mixtures (see picture above) mixed with Liquorice Allsorts without the coconut.

A note to the people of the future: (and no I don't mean 'you' next Sunday)

If you ever invent time travel and happen to stumble upon my little blog (I'm assuming it's archived in a Hall of Fame because in your world my books are more popular than JK Rowling's - I know, who's she???) could you please head back to 1974, get me some Tiger Tots, and drop them at my desk (you should have my address - there'll be a blue plaque on it) Friday 2nd July at 3:30 pm. Much appreciated