Screaming Dreams

An enigmatic publisher I like a lot (and I don’t have one of my books with them) has exciting and thought-stimulating books for sale here. http://www.screamingdreams.com/books.html
Paul Kane’s The Gemini Factor; John Grant’s Dragons in Manhattan; and Allyson Bird’s brilliantly-titled Bull Running for Girls antho are all there. Screaming Dreams is run by Steve Upham in South Wales. He’s a gifted artist and small craftsman too. Want cover art for your new book, or an unusual craft gift? Then get on to his contact link on the Screaming Dreams website and get in touch.

Fancy that at FantasyCon

FantasyCon is a bit like a writers’ club, one that specialises in fantasy and science fiction. In spite of writing about things that hit the back of readers’ minds, scaring the hell out of them and stirring the ordinary into the extraordinary often with ghouls and black moments, those writers are wonderfully warm and friendly. Take Sam Stone, who writes about nothing but vampires, who want to rip out our necks or create the undead from the innocent: she is an effervescent blonde (this time with intriguing purple edges). Her fiction is edgy and sometimes eye-watering yet her hugs and welcoming eyes are so inviting. I couldn’t help noticing her hand stroking a thigh while she talked to me yesterday – pity that thigh belonged to her husband! Hah. Then she told me that her latest novel, Demon Dance, had my name on the back cover blurb. Yeay! I rarely offer to read pre-published books on the computer: I much prefer a printed version since my eyes spend too much time already scrolling and rolling on the small screen.  I made an exception for Sam and her publisher, Terry Martin – again a friendly soul and publisher of Murky Depths that won an award this year – congrats! So my few words of favour won a place on the back of her book. To order Demon Dance here.

At FantasyCon 2010 – held in Nottingham where fortuitously my granddaughter, Amy, lives with son Rob and daughter-in-law, Tracey and her so cute daughter, Liddie Ann – I met up with good friends Steve Upham of Screaming Dreams; Ian Whates, who is a man of so many writing talents (including having a story in our Escape Velocity issue #4), organiser of NewCon5 in October in Northampton, and publisher of NewCon press - and who owes me £20 !; David Tallerman - extraordinary writer who will go far; Nick Wood – psychologist (yeay I spelt it right first time for the first time) and award-winning short story writer; Pauline Morgan, Andrew Hook and many other good ‘horrific’ people.

At FantasyCon is a table groaning under the weight of second-hand science fiction / fantasy paperbacks. I looked for a particular author, Christopher Priest, because Graham Weaver, the new member of the Chester Library SF book group is a fan of Priest and I felt ignorant. That is I am sure I have read his work in the past but couldn’t remember. So I asked the second-hand book owner for a Chris Priest book. He found one then told me how the author’s first wife, Lisa Tuttle, was standing in the room behind me! Coincidences? I have to believe in them. The SF / F writing world is a small world even with so much varied talent.

Steve Upham organised the art show this year. Andy Bigwood is an artist I have admired in the past and would pay good money to have his blend of photo-realism and creative painting (digital and paintbrush) grace the covers of my books. Chatting to him he wondered if I would be part of a project in which writers would add a 300-word-story to one of his paintings. I readily agreed. I recall doing something similar for Ultraverse. I wrote a story in which time changed velocity with height. Here it is. Ah, that reminds me, I must sketch out a draft for Andy. His website is here.

I only stayed at FantasyCon for a few hours on Saturday – so much packed in. Brilliant.

Patent Non-Science

I tinkered with an alternative history short story in which someone very much with Albert Einstein’s bio discovers un-relativity. Steve Upham is the publisher of Screaming Dreams and his SF ezine is released today with a Christmas special.

My Patent Non-Science story is at http://www.screamingdreams.com/ezine/Christmas2009.pdf

Steve says:

The Christmas issue eZine has finally made it online – just in time. Feel free to spread the word and Merry Christmas
everyone.

PDF version :
http://www.screamingdreams.com/ezine/Christmas2009.pdf

Flip Book version :
http://issuu.com/ScreamingDreams/docs/christmas2009?mode=embed&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Fdark%2Flayout.xml&showFlipBtn=true

Two stories accepted this week

A short soft horror story, In Absentia, has been accepted by The Horrorzine published by Jeani Rector. In Absentia is in the point of view of a man who thought he had amnesia but realises with horror that he is the imaginary friend of a little girl. There are twists – of course.

Steve Upham at Screaming Dreams is putting together a Christmas edition of horror stories. He has accepted Patent NonScience in which a young Einstein discovers unRelativity during his time in the Patent Office in Geneva.

Both stories have been critiqued at Cafe Doom and in the Orbiters crit group of the British Science Fiction Association.