It’s probably a bit late now to wish everyone a happy new year, so all I’ll say is, welcome to 2022, let’s hope it doesn’t suck as much as its immediate predecessors.
It’s started off on a good note for me at least, as I’ve just received my author’s copy of Vital Signals, a brand new collection of sci-fi short stories from the Future Fictions stable. I do feel privileged to be in august company on this one, with sci-fi authors like Ken MacLeod, Simon Ings, Geoff Ryman and Tim Maughan on the roster, and this contains a slightly remixed version of Trial By Combat, which I first performed at Future Fictions Vol 6, the Future of Conflict.
It’s always fascinating to see different people’s visions of the future, and their treatment of the subject and with a host of approaches and its one of those ones I’m looking forward as much to the reading as the writing of. Fascinating stuff and the blurb below should certainly whet your appetite for the collection, which is available direct from Newcon Press or Amazon in both print and ebook formats.
Vital Signals
A volume of short sharp stories that present alternative or unconsidered versions of the future; stories that draw attention to the potential impact of cutting-edge science and technology on society and humanity.
Elsewhere, I’ve just finished a short story for the excellent Corridors collection coming soon from Innsmouth Gold, which has the fascinating Hastur, the King in Yellow, so beloved of my good friend David J Rodger, as its subject. My contribution is called Farm and was a fascinating one to write just before Christmas, a strange mix of YA, Lovecraft, and the ancient TTRPG Paranoia, for those who remember such things.
I’ve also completed the first draft of the first third of Keeper of the Hidden Flame, the next Mon Dieu Cthulhu! novel. I was originally going to release this as one big volume, but it already weighs in at 55K plus and will most likely finish up in the 100-150k region, so I’m thinking of releasing it in 2-3 parts. Otherwise it’ll be 2023 before its sees the light of day.
Perhaps it says something about modern audience’s limited attention spans, preference for shorter form content *cough cough* but better to get it out there I think, as it sets up the grand themes and schemes of the whole Mon Dieu Cthulhu universe.
Plenty to ponder there then, hope your 2022 is shaping up equally nicely! I wonder strange stories this year will have me tell?
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It would be great if you’d consider signing up and then you can have me delivered straight to your inbox, which is a lot less rude than it sounds.
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