Exiles nears completion

The excitement is building: the Exiles anthology, due out very soon from Blackwitch Press, now has a running order. There are a lot of extremely good writers on this list, not least the late Colin Graham, who I believe the book will be dedicated to since he very sadly passed away during production.

Here’s who else is in it, not forgetting yours truly:

INTRODUCTION: HEATH LOWRANCE
REFLECTIONS ON A DECADE IN THE WILD EAST – COLIN GRAHAM
EATING THE DREAM – K A LAITY
MIDNIGHT TRAIN TO DELHI – CHRIS RHATIGAN
BOXING DAY IN MUROS – STEVEN PORTER
WE ARE ALL SPECIAL CASES – PATTI ABBOTT
NEVER A VESSELL LARGE ENOUGH – RYAN SALES
THE SOLOMON SEA – GARETH SPARK
AGENT RAMIEL GETS THE CALL – PAMILA PAYNE
THE WEATHER PROPHET – PAUL D. BRAZILL
THE RAIN KING – JASON MICHEL
DULLCREEK – CARRIE CLEVENGER
IN AMERICA – DAVID MALCOLM
THE PLACE OF THE DEAD – NICK SWEENEY
DISAPPEARING ACT – SONIA KILVINGTON
WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR – ROB BRUNET
PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY – JAMES A. NEWMAN
DEAD MAN WALKING – TESS MAKOVESKY
SHUT OUT THE LIGHT – CHRIS LEEK
FLYING IN AMSTERDAM – MCDROLL
THE TRIBE – RENATO BRATKOVIC
WETWORK – WALTER CONLEY
DIGGER DAVIES – MARRIETTA MILES
TAKING OUT THE TRASH – AIDAN THORN
MISSING AN EAR – BENJAMIN SOBIECK
THE TENDER TRAP – GRAHAM WYND
FALLING THROUGH THE HOURGLASS – RICHARD GODWIN

Watch out for further details very, very soon!

Rabbitting on

Well, that was unexpected – I’ve won a book.

A copy of Kate Laity’s new crime novel ‘White Rabbit’, to be precise, which I won by telling the best (hmm, probably more like worst) rabbit joke on the contest she ran on her webpage.

The book sounds fascinating and I’m really looking forward to getting my sticky paws on it and having a good wallow.

I rarely win anything in contests, but perhaps I should enter a few more from now on. Especially if they’re about rabbits.

Oh, and that joke? Well, here it is, and I make no apologies for its awfulness:

Why did the rabbit cross the road? To get to the other side.
Why did the pervert cross the road? He was stuck in the back of the rabbit.

Killing one’s darlings

Or, in this case, character names. As mentioned in my previous post, I’d been using a couple in my latest work-in-progress that were a tad silly. The characters are brother and sister, and I’d called the guy Morgan, and the woman main character Melinda, shortened to Mindy, which she herself preferred/used. The only trouble is, Morgan and Mindy sound a whole heap too much like the old seventies sit-com Mork and Mindy, and when I mentioned it at the event on Friday night, everybody laughed. Which isn’t necessarily the effect I’m after.

After much head-scratching and sucking of pens, I was having problems coming up with anything I like better. And then inspiration struck. I’ve kept Morgan as Morgan. But Mindy has now transformed back to Melinda. Only her mother calls her Mindy, and I’ve made a deliberate reference to how much Melinda herself hates that, not least because it makes her and her brother sound like a couple of tv characters.

Hopefully, problem solved, without too much in the way of hard work or outright slaughter. Phew!

Second helpings

Friday found me travelling north to Gretna Green again, for the first follow-up session to the great ‘Crime & Publishment’ writing course I attended there a few weeks ago.

It was held at the very same hotel, the Mill Forge, and six of us managed to juggle commitments and journey times to get there. And a fantastic time we had too. Drinks at the bar, dinner, then back to the bar, and all the time we talked several hind legs off several donkeys on everything from character names to the Harrogate festival and back again.

It’s a fair way to go for an evening so I stopped over at the hotel (hardly a hardship…) and was delighted I’d made the effort as it was brilliant catching up with folk again. Chatting to other writers, especially ones on such a similar wavelength, always seems very inspirational (even if it does mean having to change some rather silly character names in my latest work-in-progress!) and I’m hoping to make the next session, some time in the summer, as well.

What a drag…

Or not, since I had another short story accepted over the Easter weekend. This time it’s the turn of ‘Wheel Man’ in the forthcoming Drag Noir anthology, edited by Kate Laity, from Fox Spirit.

Set against a backdrop of car theft, recently described by Stephen Fry on quiz show QI as the last bastion of sexism in British crime, ‘Wheel Man’ is a bleak tale describing the lengths one woman is prepared to go to in order to keep the job – and the man – she loves.

I don’t yet have full details (cover art, release date, other contributors) but as soon as I do, I’ll pass them on.

Digging up the dirt

Yet another amusing little snippet from the West Midlands, where the Canal and Rivers Trust are about to start work on dredging some of the vast network of old canals. You might remember some of my previous posts about Birmingham having more miles of canal than Venice, so obviously they’ve got their work cut out. And I’m sure it will all be much pleasanter and better for the environment and the local wildlife as a result.

The crime writer in me can’t help thinking, though, that there are scores of criminals across the region having serious panic attacks at the thought of what those dredgers might bring up out of the depths. Drugs stashes, stolen money, loot, dead bodies… The results could help with half the unsolved crimes in the Midlands!

‘Badge of Honour’

My latest short story, ‘Badge of Honour’, has hit the streets over at Pulp Metal Magazine today.

This is a savage, even grisly tale of a young man coming of age amongst the gangs and grime of a modern estate, which has been likened to Mike Leigh’s work. It’s very much not for the faint-hearted, but if your stomach is feeling suitably strong then head on over to Pulp Metal to read it and weep.

Wot, no ladders?

A fun little story from the brand new, all-singing all-dancing library in Birmingham city centre, which opened in a blaze of lights and glory a few short months ago.

Apparently, staff can’t reach some of the books because they’re on shelves so far above the ground that they can’t reach without special ladders. And, um, nobody thought to order the ladders.

Luckily, the books are “low-use, academic titles” that aren’t taken out very often. Just as well, really, that it isn’t Dan Brown or Fifty Shades, or the staff might have to resort to hot air balloons…