Sunday 26 June 2016

Captivated - Flash Flood Journal Entry



Here I am again with my 4th entry into the yearly Flash Flood Journal. It's an international flash-fiction journal created by writers and edited by a team of volunteer editors on behalf, and in aid of National Flash Fiction Day, which took place on the 25th of June.

Every 10 minutes a new piece of Flash is put on the Flash Flood Journal for the full 24 hours of Flash Fiction day.

My entry 'Captivated' went up in the evening.

This piece of writing was inspired by the iron statues on Crosby Beach, outside Liverpool. I had written a few pieces for them, but this one was my favourite.

http://www.antonygormley.com/projects/item-view/id/230
Sculptures and photo by Antony Gormley 1997
 

There are some awesome piece in a variety of genres, some worth checking out are:

Bart van Goethem - The Discovery
Calum Kerr - Z
Fiona J Mackintosh - Water like a Stone
 


Wednesday 22 June 2016

Human 76 has arrived!

Front cover of Human 76

“Quiet, you fool! You’re safe now!” Rough hands gripped Ghabrie. A kestrel swooped but Ghabrie could not hear its call. She could hear only Nahria’s shriek. Ghabrie strained to glimpse her little sister through the mass of rebellion warriors and Prometheans. The two sides were withdrawing, both claiming their spoils and retreating. Ghabrie thrashed: kicking, biting, struggling against strong arms that restrained her. “Nahria, I’ll come for you!” The butt of a rifle thumped the side of her head as her words still echoed across the barren landscape. Ghabrie slipped into an oblivion brought by the hands of her liberators.

'Fragments of a fractured world: a post-apocalyptic anthology from a group of writers inspired by a picture and a world...'



This incredible anthology was first conceived by Lisa Shambrook and her family, along with her daughter Bekah, who created this wonderful cover (and stars on it).

The origins of how it came about can be found on Lisa's blog. Suffice to say that a skeleton of a tale was created and offered to a group of writers who were inspired by photos Lisa shared of her family in post apocalyptic cosplay. From this Ghabrie was born, as was a collaboration of authors.

Michael Wombat came on board and helped Lisa pull it together, not only in providing a couple of fabulous tales, but by doing incredible work on the formatting of the ebook and print version - and creating a map of the world all the tales are set in - and identifying where each tale takes place.

Being a writer who either writes really short stories (flash fiction) or really long stories (novels), I couldn't come up with anything to match the specification and instead offered my services as an editor, not only getting a chance to read all the stories before everyone else, but also the opportunity to work with some wonderful writers and help them hone their tales. I particularly enjoyed the interaction in our own little private group, where we encouraged and supported one another, as well as discussed how further to interlink the tales - a special feature of this anthology, one which makes it very unique.

I was also privileged to be part of a promotional interview over on Christina Pryor's blog, which goes more in-depth about how it came about, and my role as an editor.

The books itself is available in ebook format (free for an introductory period) and in a glorious print format which is a thing of beauty. The proceeds from which will be going to a charity Water is Life, which the group thought rather appropriate with the story being set post apocalyptic and non toxic water being scarce!

If you want to read more about the book and read some snippets from the tales, here are a few links to the authors sites:









Thursday 16 June 2016

Book Spine Poetry

A friend of mine shared a Book Spine Poetry picture on Facebook and I was hooked on the idea. I then also saw there was a stream of them under the same hashtag: #BookSpinePoetry and had to create my own.

Mine reflect the quantities of Horror I have on my shelves, and went very dark: 

Once, The Thief of Always, Haunted, The Lost, Just After Sunset

Full Dark, No stars, The eyes of the Dragon, Blaze, Misery, From a Buick 8

Nightmares & Dreamscapes, Haunted, The Bad Place, Fear Nothing, Seize The Night