Announcement: Islands Of the Mind has been published

 

It's my great pleasure to announce that "Islands Of the Mind has recently appeared in Way of Worlds, a science fiction anthology from Underdog Press.

Rather than writing at length about my own piece (which is about terraformers on an alien world being remade for humans), let me just quote the blurb from the anthology's page and include the link:

Venture into the uncharted territories of imagination. Within these pages, you’ll encounter worlds both familiar and utterly alien, where the boundaries of reality blur and the human spirit is tested against extraordinary circumstances.

A master of disguise finds her mission twisted by unexpected alliances, uncovering secrets that could shatter the very foundations of her world...

In the desolate aftermath of a devastating war, a lone survivor confronts not only the ghosts of the past but also an enigmatic visitor from a long-vanished enemy...

And in a realm where technology and magic intertwine, a desperate search for a lost artifact leads to a confrontation with a power that could reshape the very fabric of reality...

Within these pages, find these tales and more: a journey through the fractured memories of a dying starship captain; a tense standoff between scavengers and the guardians of a forgotten city; and a poignant exploration of artificial intelligence grappling with the complexities of human emotion.

From the depths of space to the ruins of Earth, from the ethereal planes of magic to the intricate circuits of artificial minds, these stories explore the resilience of the human heart, the enduring power of hope, and the infinite possibilities that lie beyond the known. Prepare to be transported, challenged, and inspired by these tales of wonder and discovery.

Find the Way of Worlds here, at Underdog Press ... and thank you for reading!

Announcement: The Brandstatter Watch has been published

 

"The Brandstatter Watch" has appeared in Tales of Horror #3, for March 2025! 

This story is the second of two co-written works from Mike Adamson and myself (we're working on the third at this time -- a George Trevelyan story which will be a pine-tingler with that "can't put it down, am reading between my fingers" quality). 

The current story is a "tale of unease," in which the dead are ... well, restless. Set in a village "out west" of London, it pivots around a somewhat rare and precious pocket watch -- a watch with a history. 

It's a tremendous pleasure to report the publication of this piece, and I'm looking forward with great anticipation to working in cahoots with Mike again, especially since we'll be returning to the world of retired Detective Inspector Trevelyan, whose nose for trouble of the supernatural variety is infallible. 

Find Tales of Horror #3 here ... and thank you for reading! 

Announcement: The Brandstatter Watch will be published in Tales of Horror

 

It's a great pleasure to be able to make this announcement, because it marks a first: the first time Mike Adamson and I have published on a co-credit, after writing in partnership. It's been some time since I mentioned on this blog that we were working in concert, and I hope there will be many other co-credit, cowritten stories -- in fact, novels -- to come. I'll post again when the Tales of Horror collection is published. 

Mike has written a lot of horror, and in fact, we recently completed editing on an H.P. Lovecraft anthology to be issued very soon by Belanger Books, as well as the Crimson Blade anthology, which came out from Hiraeth late in 2024. There again, I served as editor and cover artist). 

Next on our co-writing schedule will (I believe) be a George Trevelyan novel, and I'm looking forward to this. George has been a favourite character for several years now, and I always enjoy returning to his world, which is actually the same space-time as Sherlock Holmes.

It's been an impossibly difficult year for me, personally. I'd only just grabbed the bit between my teeth and started to run with a major SF project, The Gift of Prometheus, when the world seemed to explode at the end of September, 2024. When your husband is calmly handed a terminal diagnosis and given a prognosis of two years that will be horrible before the so-called inevitable happens ... suffice it to say that everything jumps off the rails. I didn't write a word for months.

As of this moment, however, Dave is in remission. The two-year prognosis turns out to be very wrong; the research into this awful disorder is zooming, and we're working hard to keep him as strong and healthy as possible while we wait for science to catch up. We all believe that it can -- and in time. The future will be very different indeed from anything that had been imagined, but it doesn't have to be bad. 

My cover art for Mike's anthology

Mike and I will continue to work, and I'll post here when there's something to report. I'm enjoying the work of the editor very much. In fact, my next assignment there will be complete in a week or so -- the Middle Stars anthology, to be issued later in 2025 by Jay Henge, another opus of Mike's, which begins a trilogy of anthologies exploring a fascinating topic: human offworld colonization in the coming centuries.

After Tales of the Middle Stars, the next editing assignment will be Ravensgate, a return to Sherlock Holmes, which should be out from Belanger Books also in 2025. With this one, all the projects we promised to deliver for this year have been fulfilled, and we'll forge onward with new titles. 

Creatively, it's going to be an exciting year, and 2026 should be equally interesting.

On the personal front, we soldier on: Dave is almost done with work, and he has surgery in a few weeks' time, which should make life, and managing this condition, somewhat easier. I live strongly in the complete knowledge that science will catch up, and that his cure (perhaps a new gene therapy) is out there in the future, close enough for us to reach the date with time to spare ... after which, we'll drive forward into the rest of our lives with optimism, and look back on these months while wondering what the heck happened.