Something big to shout about

At last year’s NewCon5 in Northampton I met a gifted artist, Andy Bigwood. He was looking for writers to be inspired by his art, and create flash stories to be in his forthcoming book, The Sixty. It has a launch date with Ian Whates’ anthology ‘Further Conflicts’ at 6pm on 22nd April at EasterCON, National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham UK. This won’t be the first time I have written fiction inspired and accompanied by art. One of my favourites where I had time changing with altitude was What Kept You? published in Ultraverse here. The Sixty is something special in that my fiction is not only in a wonderful book of art, but alongside favourite writers such as Bec Zugor, who was with me in M is for Monster, and in Escape Velocity. Also the creative genius, Liz Williams, who has my Exit, Pursued by a Bee on sale in her witchcraft shop in Glastonbury.

Of course all the authors involved cannot grace the cover so I am one of ‘the many more’ , of which I am proud. For in that many more are superb writers I am honoured to be with. Jon Pinnock and Bec included.

Andy Bigwood’s art can be found in his online gallery here.

An Indefinite Article

My first attempt at a literary science fiction story, An Indefinite Article, was sold to Sounds of the Night print magazine. It is published by Sam’s Dot Publishing. Sometimes, when I am on my own on a long walk along a beach, or even on an ancient footpath up in the Snowdonia hills, I play a game. I pretend I’m an ancient Roman suddenly catapulted into this future. What artefacts would I see to give me clues that I wasn’t now back in Roman times? How puzzled would I be to see a cola can, or a plastic carrier bag – the litter of today? Hence the title of my story. Not that it is an ancient Roman but the inverse – a near future man, who crashlands on a planet, maybe this one, but finds no clues, no artefacts as to era and place. I hope I wrote it with mystique and with sufficient dreamlike Show to imbue a literary feel yet maintain the conflict and tension we like to have in our science fiction. A listing of the writers in Sounds of the Night are here.

The story was critiqued in the UKAuthors a group when we stayed a week in Carmarthenshire. It was also hacked around in the BSFA Orbiters critique group – thanks to all those writers who helped hone the story.

Escape Velocity: the Anthology

It’s coming soon. I’ve been kept busy reading hundreds of excellent science fiction short stories for months and at the eleventh hour this weekend came more. Writers have spurned family outings to hone their tales of wonder and hidden dimensions to slip them under my nose. Just in the last few days I’ve had my imagination spun by Jon Pinnock, Catherine Edmunds, Mark Iles and Roy Gray. All the stories and one cartoon and a poem are now in. There are 40 pieces from over 30 contributors – it is a hell of a starry brilliant read. Watch this space.

Illustration is from the first issue of Escape Velocity – probably we’ll use the same image for the anthology. Olympus Mons on Mars.

Also hoping to make a million – all right, a few bob – from the ebook of my Escaping Reality humorous thriller. Less than 2 dollars at Smashwords here.  I’ve seen blogs and articles about how Amanda Hocking has sold hundreds of thousands of her bloody fantasy books. “They are no where near as fun to read as Nelder’s Escaping Reality.” Quote from a drunken friend – yes, I bought her the drinks.

Back to my little world of writing – must get the third book of my Left Luggage trilogy done. I can’t wait to see how it ends.

These Trespasses – book review

These Trespasses by Kenneth W. Cain 

 Paperback: 206 pages

Publisher: Post Mortem Press (February 10, 2011)

ISBN-13: 978-0615444147

Kindle: ASIN B004MDLTYC

Reviewed by Geoff Nelder

 This novel is a cross-genre science fiction / horror though leaning more to the latter. Unlike most dystopian apocalyptic stories in which the whole planet suffers, the action here is limited to a rural area of Illinois. We are, thankfully, not bombarded with presidential speeches, and global infodumps, but experience a strange phenomenon through the eyes of a handful of people, who could be your neighbours. In fact those people feel so real, the reader can forgive aspects of the plot that would otherwise stretch credulity to breaking point.

 Although, Martin, the lead character, has doubts about why the army lay waste the towns in his State, and is troubled to the point of trauma over the transmogrification of his brother, he is extraordinarily solid. He’s the kind of man people are drawn to in a crisis, and they are. Even though he had to shoot his own brother, and witness toe-curling horrors caused by both alien-changed-human creatures, and the army, he has an instinct to make the right decisions for his little group of survivors. All the more puzzling then why he leaves a paper trail: a kind of diary and instructions, on their escape route. Yes, other survivors, such as Sheila, who yearns to be Martin’s woman – love at first sight, though desperation to be loved is the attractive force – needed to find directional clues. But then so could the soldiers and I don’t buy the explanation that none of them read anything.* There are other plot puzzles, but I don’t mind. They are not too inconsistent with the bizarre situation the characters are in, and even normal life is rather baffling, at least to me.

 My favourite character is an ornery brute of a man, Ike. Many readers find themselves being attracted to an evil character, but those ogres are usually intelligent (think of Hannibal Lecter, and Lex Luthor); antagonists whose wit matches even out-performs the protagonist. Not Ike. He is dumber than an Illinois hog; his specialities being cussing, lewdness and misunderstanding. Yet every time a chapter came along told through Ike’s point of view, my pleasure zone buzzed. It’s rare to be so entertained while reading a horror story. Following poor Ike’s intellectually-challenged interpretations of the bizarre happenings first hand is a treat. His sections are well-written too:

‘Ike felt the smile… then he was able to find enough air in his lungs to get out the next words. “Fuck you and yer Goddamned hive.” … Ike smiled and it sent a surge of pain into his head. He let the smile subside, but it was too late. Everything began to swim in pain. His world spun out of control and Ike began to feel a pull to the darkness. With that feeling Ike passed out.’

Hive? Yes, the aliens have built at least one and their human captives occupy it. Weird and yet it works, mainly because of what I said at the beginning. I would go so far as to say that in spite of several typos, and head-hopping point-of-view flips, These Trespasses is a master class in characterization.  An easy read, horror readers of all types will find scenes to salivate over in this page turner.

* Footnote. US combatants are issued with memory sticks containing novels. I only knew this after my publisher’s inbox bulged with emails from US soldiers in the Middle East asking for the sequel to his book, The Ardly Effect that had been made freely available.

buy Kindle  paperback

Escape Velocity: The Anthology

The anthology of best and new stories submitted to Adventure Books of Seattle’s Escape Velocity magazine is nearing fruition. Last night I finished proofreading 35 stories for the anthology. Not all will be used in it because some are now rather dated and we want the publication to excite readers with its brilliance. Names you might know that are in it are in random order:

Rebecca Latyntseva, Ian Whates, Rosie Oliver, Robert Harkess, William C McCall, Clyde Andrews, Gayle Applegate, David Tallerman, Brian Koscienski and Chris Pisano, Mark Lewis, Gareth D Jones, Joshua Blanc, Gavin J Carr, David Wallace Fleming, Karl Bunker, Sheila Crosby, Ben Bamber, Branden Johnson, Barbara Krasnoff, Ian Smith, Tina M Crone, Bec Zugor, Barry Pomeroy, Lawrence Buentello, Richard Jay Goldstein, Paul Freeman, Adam Colston, Kaolin Fire, Derek Rutherford, and a couple of stories from me and Robert Blevins. Hopefully, we can squeeze in a cartoon by Roberta Gregory too.

We have March 17th as a release date. That may be optimistic but best to have goals. The stories range from edgy noir near future, to struggling on a space rock, weird stuff in future in-ear audio devices to how can a child-bride save herself, both from a violent husband and the psychiatrist. I am exuberant over this anthology. It’s taken a lot of time and work – the nearest an editor gets to giving birth – in a literary sense!