Monthly Archive: June 2020

Reviews

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Epeolatry Book Review: Varieties of the Weird Tale by S. T. Joshi

Disclosure:

Our reviews may contain affiliate links. If you purchase something through the links in this article we may receive a small commission or referral fee. This happens without any additional cost to you.

Title: Varieties of the Weird Tale
Author: S. T. Joshi
Genre: Horror
Publisher: Hippocampus Press
Release Date: 1st May 2017

Synopsis: In his forty-year career as a critic and editor of weird fiction, S. T. Joshi has had occasion to study many of the leading writers of fantasy and horror fiction, and this book embodies some of his most provocative discussions on weird writers over the past century or more.

The “golden age” of weird fiction ranged from about 1880 to 1940, and Joshi studies such leading writers as Ambrose Bierce and Bram Stoker, as well as little-known but fascinating figures such as Edna W. Underwood and Gertrude Atherton. Bierce’s pungent political satires, rarely discussed by critics, are analyzed in detail, and we learn of both the lives and the writings of such pioneering writers of ghostly fiction as Mary E. Wilkins Freeman and E. Nesbit.

The early decades of the 20th century saw the emergence of such titans as Lord Dunsany and M. R. James, and Joshi provides penetrating glimpses into their variegated work. This was also an era of lesser-known figures, and Joshi shows how the work of Sax Rohmer, Irvin S. Cobb, and Maurice Level contributed to the development of weird fiction. Contemporary writers ranging from Ramsey Campbell, Thomas Ligotti, and Caitlín R. Kiernan are also studied in detail.

All told, this volume provides illuminating glimpses of many of the leading writers of the weird tale over the past century and a half, and also adds to S. T. Joshi’s stature as the leading critic of weird fiction today.

In Varieties of the Weird Tale from Hippocampus Press, S T Joshi expands upon his earlier work of essays on the weird tale. The first volume (The Weird Tale) analysed the writing and appeal of traditional practitioners of this horror subgenre, such as Arthur Machen, Lord Dunsany, Algernon Blackwood, MR James, Ambrose Bierce and, of course, HP Lovecraft. 

Joshi extends the time period under consideration. It stretches all the way from the golden age of weird fiction (beginning with Bierce) through the era of Lovecraft, to the contemporary scene. The most recent writer to appear is Caitlin R Kiernan.

Joshi is a well-known expert on Lovecraft and weird fiction, having edited and written histories of supernatural fiction, weird fiction, Cthulhu Mythos, and more. For budding authors hoping to learn more about weird fiction, the pertinence of his analysis and the thoroughness of his historically based presentation makes this book an excellent starting point. 

Some of the analysis is quite thematic, which I always appreciate. There are essays on ‘Christianity and Paganism in Two Dunsany Novels’, and ‘Science and Superstition: Fritz Leiber’s Modernisation of Gothic’.

The old masters are all present this time around, with more analysis of MR James and Ambrose Bierce. There’s also a wider range of established leading names such as Donald Wandrei and Sax Rohmer. One of the most notable elements of The Weird Tale was that there were no female authors. Thankfully that isn’t the case in this follow-up volume. Excellent writers, such as Gertrude Atherton and Mary E Wilkins Freeman, are treated in detail.

Every writer has their drawbacks. With Joshi, it’s the decided way in which he expresses himself. The introduction to this volume singles out the poor reading taste of the mass public in general, and (related to this) the success of writers such as Anne Rice and Stephen King (whose works I rather enjoy as it happens) for particular attack. There’s not much room for differing views. It’s easy for an academic to fall into that trap as the sole author of a work of criticism, but I recently reviewed Rhetorics of Fantasy by Farah Mendelsohn, and was struck by how successfully this pitfall was avoided. Likewise, there is an advantage to having multiple contributors, as the willingness to explore varied viewpoints showcased in, The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature.

I’m never a fan of critics complaining about the popularity of mass-market books. There’s simply no need to be snobby about reading material we all enjoy. In regard to authors who are much loved in the horror genre, it seems almost foolhardy to alienate their readership. The weird tale doesn’t lessen the achievements of Lovecraft and his fellows in any way. Vastly popular writers such as Stephen King, Dean Koontz or Clive Barker may be onto something, too.

Notwithstanding my thoughts above, Joshi has much to teach writers developing within the ambit of the weird tale, or within the horror genre. And you don’t need to agree with a critic on every point in order to learn a great deal from them. Joshi’s strength lies in his encyclopedic knowledge of his subject matter, and this provides a firm foundation for his worldview of genre fiction.

Enjoy!

4/5 stars

Available from Hippocampus Press and Amazon.

Anthology / Events / Flat Amount

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Taking Submissions: Infernal Clock: Dante’s Inferno

Deadline: August 15th, 2020
Payment: £10
Theme: Open to: LGBTQIA and POC
Note:

Payment: £10 and ebook

Theme: Dante’s Inferno

Closing Date: 15th August 2020

Open to: LGBTQIA and POC

Length: 3-5k

The Infernal Clock is the side-project of Stephanie Ellis and David Shakes. After a year’s break, they are bringing it back with the Inferno edition. Stories have been by invite but we are opening up 9 spaces to members of the LGBTQIA and POC communities only in order to be more representative.

The theme is Dante’s Inferno and each story will be set in one of the circles or the passages to/between circles. 

Whilst there are nine circles, there are a number of rings – or pouches – within each circle so there is a lot of scope. How you interpret your chosen circle/ring is up to you, eg it could be set below in the Inferno itself, it could focus on a particular sin, or you could recreate this hell actually on earth. 

We are particularly interested in stories set in the Second and Eighth Circles as we do not have any of these yet, although you are welcome to write in the other circles as well.

Stories need to be dark (but with the usual boundaries against extremes and gratuity) and 3-5k with flexibility, although we would prefer 4k.

Stories must be submitted in standard manuscript format as .doc or .docx to [email protected].

No multiple or simultaneous submissions.

No reprints.

Payment will be by paypal on publication.

If you have any queries please contact us at the above email address.

Articles

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StokerCon UK Is Switching Dates

In the Age of COVID, we all know nothing is sacred when it comes to book and author conventions. Due to safety, most have been canceled though some have been rescheduled. For fans of StokerCon in the UK, it appears that the next one is still going to be happening! It is going to be a bit delayed (IGNORE THE DATES IN THE IMAGE ABOVE! It’s all I had to share, I’m sorry!) but you can find the details below:

First of all, we hope that you are all keeping well out there and are following your governments’ guidelines regarding hand-washing, travel restrictions, social distancing and self-isolation. These are all incredibly important tools in curtailing the spread of the Coronavirus (Covid-19).

Secondly, we are grateful to the majority of you who, since our previous announcement, have allowed us to get on with trying to save the convention—or at least a version of it—by rescheduling it.

To that end, we are pleased to let you know that, at the moment, we have agreed tentative dates for the event with the two convention hotels of 28-31 January 2021. With events and advice changing so quickly, the hotels have agreed to follow UK Government advice and are prepared to reassess or postpone the event once again nearer the time, depending on the spread and hopeful containment of the virus.

If the revised information holds, then all existing memberships and hotel bookings will be carried forward to the new dates, and you will be contacted in due course to see whether you wish to do that. As we’ve said previously, the convention had already paid over the majority of fees to its various third-party suppliers. We have been hard at work trying to minimise the financial damage and get as much of that money refunded as possible or, at the very least, carried over to the new dates. We have already refunded coach tours, banquets and memberships (less a 5% administrative fee) received so far.

However, when it comes to the cost of hotel rooms, that is a different matter. If you booked a hotel room outside the convention block, then you will have to contact the hotel, or whomever you booked it through, to apply for a refund. Failing that, you can contact the credit card you used to pay for it or seek advice from your travel insurance provider.

At the moment, we now have an agreement with the hotels that all room bookings will be carried forward to the proposed new dates (or beyond that, if the convention has to be postponed yet again). We are currently in discussions with the hotels concerning accommodation refunds and will advise more on that in due course. The hotels are currently closed, and – although they’re hoping to be able to re-open in the near future – definite government information on how this is to be managed has not yet been announced at time of writing.

For those who have booked flights to the UK, you should contact your airline, your insurance provider or your credit card supplier for a refund. For those travelling by train who have already bought tickets, please contact the site you purchased your tickets from to find out their refund policy.

At this time we are in discussions as to what the revised convention will look like, but we will endeavour to do our best to ensure that it is just as exciting and dynamic as the original event in April promised to be. Obviously, there will be some changes to our previously announced programming and one of these is that, as the new dates are so close to Stokercon 2021, we will be renaming the convention so as to avoid confusion between the two events. StokerCon UK, as it’s currently known (more details on the new name very soon), remains an HWA event, and is fully supported by and in association with the Horror Writers Association, the change is in name only.

STATEMENT FROM HWA PRESIDENT, JOHN PALISANO

“The HWA remains committed to this convention in the U.K. with all of our proper support and resources intact. This has not been an easy road for the organisers, and we stand alongside them fully. Although there will be some unavoidable changes to programming, these events are really about the people. I look very much forward to meeting and spending time with so many of my fellow creators early next year.”

In the meantime, the advice remains as per the Public Health England website: Try to avoid close contact with people who are unwell and avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth if your hands are not clean. Wash hands frequently and use a hand-sanitiser or antiseptic hand-wipes and observe basic hygiene by coughing or sneezing into a tissue and then throwing it away and washing your hands. If you have a fever or a new and persistent cough, then self-isolate for at least 14 days and if your condition persists or gets worse, then call 111 in the UK or your local health emergency numbers in other countries. Together we can reduce the spread.

The safety and well-being of all our attendees, guests and staff continues to be our primary concern at all times, and your patience is very much appreciated while we deal with this unprecedented and unforeseeable situation. Until the convention is back on track again, our policy will revert to crediting memberships and hotel rooms forward (as opposed to refunds) while we sort out the amended convention. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause, and we will continue to send out updates as the situation becomes clearer. Please be assured that we’ll do our best to sort things out as quickly as possible. Thank you for your understanding, and please stay safe.

For more information, visit the StokerConUK website.

Contact: [email protected]
or follow us on Facebook @StokerCon UK, Twitter: @StokerConU, and Instagram: @Media7727

Via: HWA.

Trembling With Fear

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Serial Killers: On the Origin of the Species (Part 3) by Avital Malenky

  1. Serial Killers: On the Origin of the Species (Part 1) by Avital Malenky
  2. Serial Killers: On the Origin of the Species (Part 2) by Avital Malenky
  3. Serial Killers: On the Origin of the Species (Part 3) by Avital Malenky
  4. Serial Killers: On the Origin of the Species (Part 4) by Avital Malenky

Serial Killers are part of our Trembling With Fear line and are serialized stories which we’ll be publishing on an ongoing basis.

The search party walked the makeshift streets heading towards the river. The air was almost mute in Hannah’s ears as she walked with the rest of the searchers. She was out on the alien planet, looking for its monsters. The vines absorbed the sounds as the vegetation completely took over the surface. Within a few short steps, the small party left their budding civilization and its loud white noises far behind.  

They followed the river. The only paths carved through the greenery were made by the force of water as there were no animals to create animal tracks, or so they thought. The humans didn’t know yet where the creatures lived or moved so they started with searching places they could access.

Dryad had 48 moons which reflected its sun constantly, effectively keeping daylight constant above the canopy. The many clouds and endless rain were blocking some of the sunlight but could hardly control the jungle.

Deep under the canopy where the humans lived the sun was mostly blocked, seeing the sky was a great surprise for Hannah and a long-awaited delight. How she missed the sun. The constant darkness she lived in darkened her mind and she hadn’t noticed, not until she came into the light, looking for her daughter’s monsters.

Walking the bright green edges of the forest, the water whispering around her feet, Hannah felt in a trance. The sounds of the planet were clear and carried pure in the air, free of any vocal growls, they rang precise in her mind. Vines of all widths and colors had made an impenetrable wall to her left and right and she ravished the sights of the bright green ravine coming to life in the sharp yellow sunlight.

The bottom layers of the vines along the banks had been rotting away into compost for eons it seems, how many of them Hannah had no idea. A year here – that is, the time it takes Dryad to circle once around its star is 90 earth days thereabout. The years were short because Dryad was a big planet and its Sun a small one.

The dead plants at the base of the living walls lost their spectrum of green colors and took on a rainbow of dead earthly tones. Browns and greys, purples and mustards. Beneath the green canopy the planet was so much more colorful than Hannah ever imagined. The walls of vegetation stretched for meters above her, as far as she could see, swallowing all sunlight in its hungry pigments, leaving only a slither of  direct light Hannah saw crisscrossing across the water. Everything was so different and alien, how could they ever hope to find anything in this mass?

These animals, these taloned monsters, stayed away for years. Their attack was a complete surprise and everyone in the colony hoped it would not repeat itself again. Hannah, as well, hoped to find a weak enemy if they had to find an enemy at all.

Far better would be to find nothing despite all the searches. That would mean the two species could be separated completely, each of them ignoring the other, it was a big world. Slowly, the other species will be forgotten. Out of sight out of mind.

Hannah knew the people were angry and hurt. The attack on her daughter felt like a personal attack on each of them and they all took it to heart. They felt that after all these years thinking Dryad was the perfect planet, everything crumbled to dust the night her little Edith was attacked. Hannah knew this and the fact that if push comes to shove, humanity will do whatever it can to survive. All the aliens will have to die. If this beautiful world will have to be wiped clean, so be it. It was life above all for the humans.

The planet was full of sound even though it was almost devoid of life, Hannah was wrong thinking it was silent. The vines strained against each other and were making a moaning haunting sound as the wind picked up. The rippling gurgling of the water gushed in the gorge and bounced off of the living walls with every step she took along the shallow banks. The life of Dryad all around her made the air vibrate with a non-stop hypnotic melody. How precious was this universe, how terrifying and unforgiving to us.    

The vines when rotted looked like old bones even though Hannah knew it was just the exposed inner layers of their alien cellular structure. The sight still made her think of her own death, how one day she will die, and so will her daughter, and so will everyone else walking beside her.

The sides of the river suddenly looked like a grave, bones upon bones lay on top of each other, the colors of decay adding to the effect, receding down ever browning cliffs of doom. She must be mad, Hannah thought, walking a strange planet instead of nursing her own daughter back to health after a vicious alien attack.

Everyone in the colony was very sorry for the little girl being attacked but children were fragile and the first to suffer from any conflict or disease, unfortunately, they were usually the first to go. Many lost children and pregnancies on the voyage over and during the first few hard years of building the colony. You try your best but you can never really fully protect the children, every mother knows that.

Still, the common feeling in the community was that of hope. Most of the settlers thought that if Hannah’s daughter would survive, it would prove that life on Dryad was possible after all.

The searches continued all the while Hannah nursed little Edith back to health, but nothing new was ever found. Weeks and then months passed while Dryad kept its secrets safe.

As the days after the attack lengthened and no other encounters were reported, the settlers settled into the assumption that the whole thing was a one-time-only incident. It seemed a fragile coexistence was not impossible, as the aliens were clearly unable or just disinterested in hurting the humans any further.

Edith eventually was well enough to be released from the infirmary even though Hannah knew deep inside that she wasn’t. She wasn’t better. Edith was infected by that animal somehow and was changing right before her mother’s grieving eyes. Hannah watched in horror as her child was growing a bit more alien every day.

Avital Malenky

I grew up in an ultra-orthodox community in Israel but left that life very young. Having traveled all over the world after my Military service in Army Intelligence, I settled with my husband and son in England. I battle PTSD daily and am caring for my son, recently diagnosed with autism.

Articles / Other / Reviews

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Reviewing Tools: Plot Factory

Disclaimer:  The reviewer was provided a membership of Plot Factory for an honest review. Features we talk about may or may not be available at lower tiers and could represent retired or removed elements.  Please check the site to ensure the features that interest you are available, and at which tier.

Disclaimer:  Our reviews may contain affiliate links. If you purchase something through the links in this article we may receive a small commission or referral fee. This happens without any additional cost to you.

When it comes to writing tools, I’m often looking for the next new thing, the next *big* thing.
I’m on various writing sites, so when I was given the option to review Plot Factory and explore, I was delighted.  Mostly because they have a narration feature, and I’ve been exploring my editing with narration from either my text to speech on my Kindle, or in Word, so other options are always welcome.

But that’s not the only thing there is on the site. I’ll be talking more about canon and organising universes later, but there are tools in Plot Factory that are far more advanced than some other sites that let you do this – in fact, I had to design a Wiki to do it in the past.

The basics of Plot Factory

Plot Factory has a word processor, some basic formatting within it, and is pretty easy to use.  If you’re used to Blogger or WordPress, you’ll be unphased by it.  As it should be for a writing site. And as soon as you join, you’re directed to their very active Discord server.  I’ll touch on that later, but as much as I love all of the other features, honestly, the Discord server is quite incredible.
I can also confirm that as suggested on their front page, it’s completely mobile friendly.  I went through several devices while on the go over the last two weeks, and it’s all smooth and loads.  It’s still new, so I can forgive having to occasionally reload pages or faults that I’ve seen.
(and as an aside, all reported faults show up in chat on the Discord server and are almost immediately fixed, for the few I saw.  As it’s still in active development, the fact that the developer is available to answer on Discord and fix things is actually a very good thing).

Bells and whistles abound in Plot Factory

I’m sure that I could explore for weeks and find new things, but each of the tabs on this screen leads to more options.  But the easiest way to look at all of the options and branches are different ways to access things.  Each screen can, I think, pull other things in that have been created elsewhere, and if you’re building a series of books, with characters that repeat, or places, or rules, or other items you really need to keep track of, Plot Factory has you covered.  Organising is easy!
Stuck?  There are questionnaires to shake your thoughts free, and at the time of writing this piece, they are running a weekly writing prompt on the Discord server.

Narration from Plot Factory

One of the unusual things that I found on the site was the narration.  You can put your novel through its paces and see how it flows.  To give you an idea of how this sounds, I pasted the Horror Tree’s ‘About us’, and had ‘Matthew’ read it.  There are four options.  Matthew, Joanna, and Brian and Amy (British voices).  All four sound lovely – Amy (British) in fact, sounds like a narrator I recognise, which is quite neat.
Take a listen! (This is Matthew)

 

Pros and cons of Plot Factory

I wish I had some clear cut pros and cons to offer with the site – I’m still enamoured and exploring, and everything I’ve got issue with are things that are more to do with the fact that I code and write sites rather than actually issues with what the site does.  It could be too much if you write stand-alone and no-repeat universe books, but even then, organisation, backup, access no matter what platform, Epub export and narration (depending on your level of membership), could be worthwhile.  But, if you’re looking for no distractions, no fluff and filler, then the site may be a bit much for you.

Finally, the best bit

I’ll be honest, the bit that I’ve spent the most time with has been their community.  They are friendly, talkative, helpful, receptive and a joy to discuss things with.  Their server is quite highly trafficked, and there appear to be sprints, voice chat, and more going on, as well as the aforesaid writer’s prompts.  As far as I’m aware, the Plot Factory Discord is free to join, on their free plan.  There are people from all over the world available on the server, but do be aware that you might get distracted.  So far, I’ve talked about everything from language construction to study, to publishing, to cats.  LOTS of cats. 🙂

In summary

I think there’s a solid site in place with Plot Factory.  The narration is by far and away the most interesting thing on there for me, but I like everything from goals and accountability, to the writing challenges, the writing interface (which isn’t too simple, but isn’t hugely complicated – like I said – if you’re used to posting on sites, you’ll find it familiar), and backup.  I love that I’ve connected up to Dropbox and it just copies it over for me – something I don’t have on my other writing sites for now.   But, if you write standalone books, some of the features might not be necessary for your needs.  If like me, you write a lot of stuff that’s based in universes that you need to keep track of or are stuck on filling out your character details, then you’re going to LOVE Plot Factory… and most of all, it’s community.

If you’re interested in learning more, be sure to check out Plot Factory today!

Articles / Blog Tour / Guest Post

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The Wounded Ones Blog Tour: Brain Bad, Words Hard by: G.D. Penman

I don’t know about you, but my concentration is shot to shit. The quarantine/lockdown has had a very detrimental effect on my concentration that goes beyond the wailing children that run past the back of my head every 3 to 5 minutes.

Brain Bad

My colleague in the word mines, Tade Thompson outlined it beautifully on Twitter not so long ago, explaining the very complicated biological and psychological factors in layman’s terms that even a buffoon without a doctorate like me could understand, but I’ll abbreviate it even further; lockdown make brain bad.

Which is all well and good if you have nothing to do for several months except play Animal Crossing and learn to bake bread, but when your industry is still ticking over throughout the global pandemic and you are still expected to produce the words, it becomes a problem. When the one – slightly gelatinous – tool that is required to do your job is broken, how do you keep going?

Have no fear. I’m here to help.

While all of you were out living your lives, I was going through the very specific training that was required to keep writing when everything has gone to hell; which is to say, I’ve had clinical depression for my entire adult life. My brain has always been broken, so I’ve always had to deal with the crap that is only now kneecapping all you healthy-brain weirdos.

Think Small

When your ability to concentrate is limited to mere minutes instead of the hours that you are used to, you need to work on things that will fit into those minutes. Break your work down into bite-sized chunks. Write a scene instead of a chapter. Write a short story instead of a novel. Whatever it takes to keep on working, you do it.

I’ve only had the concentration to read short stories for the past few months, but I’ve been reading them, and they teach you more about the craft of writing in a few pages than most doorstoppers manage in 500 pages.

The other advantage of writing short-form pieces is that you get the buzz. The little happy feeling that comes with finishing a piece of work. Slam your hand on the dopamine release button over and over. That is self-care, right?

Don’t Work

An awful lot of the writing that writers do isn’t the writing that they need to be doing. Emails. Social media. Guest posts about writing to help promote your new book (Buy THE WOUNDED ONES.) All of these little administrative tasks still need to be done, but they don’t need to be done when you are feeling good about things and raring to bang out the pivotal chapter of your novel.

When your brain feels fuzzy and you keep glancing down at the wordcount only to realise it hasn’t gone up since the last time you checked, that is a clear sign that you need to stop doing the work that matters and go do some of the busy work that could be eating up your productive time. And wouldn’t you know, when you aren’t having to be creative the words start flowing. 

And when the words start flowing, and you got your dopamine hit for finishing something, you are going to find it a lot easier to switch back over to your important work and get it done.

In Conclusion

Your brain isn’t your friend anymore, it is working against you, yet if you take a grapefruit spoon to it, somehow you both lose. Therefore; it is time to outsmart the smartest part of your body. Trick your brain into doing what you want. And buy The Wounded Ones, because that will almost certainly cure all that ails you. (Disclaimer: may not actually cure anything.)

ABOUT: THE WOUNDED ONES by G.D. Penman

Book 2 in the WITCH OF EMPIRE series

RELEASE DATE: 6/23/20

GENRE: Urban Fantasy / LGBTQ / Detective

BOOK PAGE:  https://www.meerkatpress.com/books/the-wounded-ones/

SUMMARY:

Demons and serial killers are Iona “Sully” Sullivan’s bread and butter, but nothing could have prepared her to face off against the full weight of the British Empire at the height of its power. With the War for American Independence in full swing, she finds even her prodigious talents pushed beyond their limits when citizens of the American Colonies begin vanishing amidst rumors of crop circles, hydra sightings and worse. Through a wild and lethal adventure that will see her clashing with the Empire around the world and beyond, the only constants in Sully’s life are an undead girlfriend, a giant demon crow that has taken a shine to her, regular assassination attempts by enemies on all sides, and the cold certainty that nothing and nobody is going to make it out of the war in one piece.

BUY LINKS: Meerkat Press | Amazon | Indiebound | Book Depository | Barnes & Noble

GIVEAWAY: $50 Book Shopping Spree!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Wounded Ones EXCERPT:

 Sully stubbed out her cigar like the ashtray was her mother’s face. The last coils of smoke twisted in the air to join the geometric patterns that drifted in a blue cloud around her. There were three assassins this time, and three weren’t nearly enough. Sully set her glass down on the bar and let the mouthful of gin clear her sinuses. After an hour of quietly sipping liquor in the stuffy walnut paneled comfort of the train’s bar, Sully’s patience had run thin. The young men in three-piece suits might have blended in perfectly back in jolly old England, but here in the Americas, their blandness made them stick out.

Sully swiveled on her stool to take in the lay of the room. “Are we doing this or not? Because I’ve got a thirsty vampire waiting for me back in my cabin and that sounds like a lot more fun than this bullshit.”

The men had been studiously avoiding eye contact with Sully and with each other for the whole trip, but now they all looked up, as if they needed to confirm that their cover was blown before acting. Amateurs. Sully set off the concussion spell that she had been tracing in gin on the bar-top for the last ten minutes, spellfire racing over the liquor. The whole carriage rocked on its rails, and bottles and glasses flew through the air, a maelstrom of chaos that Sully’s contingency shield turned into a whirling dervish of shattered glass around her. All three assassins were moving now, leaping up from their tables and casting their own spells, but they were two moves behind her.

Her next spell seared the broken glass around her, sending molten droplets across the red carpet on their way to scorch half of one assassin’s face off. The other men switched to casting shields and that delay gave her enough time to cast a more complex incantation. The next lance looked like white fire, and while the blond killer managed to get a shield up, the white flames used that dense structured magic as fuel, expanding out to consume him, leaving nothing behind but a heap of ash.

The last one got an attack off before Sully could give him her undivided attention. A ray of moonlight was launched from his fingertip, refracting through the spinning glass to pepper the whole room with patches of frost.

Sully let out a bark of laughter. “You’re trying to take me alive? They really didn’t give you fair warning when you took this job.”

A new spell exploded in a corona around him, a nova of silvery blades that shredded what was left of the upholstery as they flew at Sully. Apparently, this one wanted to live more than he wanted big cash prizes. Sully dove into a booth as the blades and glass collided in a deafening, stinging explosion all around her. He didn’t let up. A roiling wave of green fire swept through the cabin, stripping the walls to bare metal, annihilating the furnishings and reducing the cowering bartender to a stripped skeleton. Sully did her best to ignore the strange absence of heat as the fire rolled over her shields and concentrated on the task at hand.

She rose to her feet on the bare metal of the hollowed-out cabin. The assassin wasn’t smiling despite his change in fortune. Maybe he was a professional after all. She launched another white lance at him and he didn’t bother with a shield. His duelist instincts took over and he cast a traveling spell to jerk him out of the missile’s path. It didn’t work. The white fire hit him square in the chest. He vanished in a flash of light as his own magic consumed him from the inside out.

Sully staggered to her feet and let her protective spells drop. She took a deep breath of the fresh air that was pouring in through the new ventilation that her would-be killers had provided to the cabin. If portals and traveling spells hadn’t been blocked by the Magi of Manhattan, then why would she have been on a train to begin with? The British really needed to hire smarter help. The last few assassination attempts had been almost insultingly lackluster.

G.D. Penman is the author of the Strata Online and Witch of Empire series, the ghostwriter of more than 50 books, and a freelance game designer. A firm believer in the axiom that any story is made better with the addition of dragons, he is fulfilling his destiny as an overweight bearded white man by pursuing a career as a fantasy author. In “real life” he lives in Scotland with his partner, children, dog and cats. Just . . . so many cats.

AUTHOR LINKS: Website | Twitter

Trembling With Fear

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Trembling With Fear 06/21/20

This bit is going to stay here until the pandemic is over. Thank you to all keyworkers who continue to keep us going during the pandemic. As the UK and Europe moves out of lockdown, I really hope that eventually we can get some sort of normal going around the world.

As for me, I’m done. Not in a bad way, but a good way. By end of Monday, the novels I’d been working on in recent times and some earlier ones, were out on their way to publishers to see if perhaps they have some merit. Four in total. I always meant to do something with them but just never really got round to it. Those earlier ones I’d sent out once or twice, got positive rejections but then I moved on to writing the next and never sent them out again. I’m terrible that way, even with shorts. There are some I will send out but a number of others will sit on my spreadsheet, unloved, and waiting for me to do something with them. I tell others to send things out again if rejected but I’m awful at taking my own advice.

What am I going to do with all this ‘free time’? Not much 😊: a poetry collection, a poetry/flash collaboration, an Infernal Clock anthology, another collaboration with 3 other horror writers and all the other things gone by the board as I focussed on the novels. Amongst that there will also be edits for The Five Turns of the Wheel coming out in October from Silver Shamrock. It is going to feel surreal when I get to add that to the Pandemic Book Launch roundup further down the line! And I’ll make sure to put the TWF anthologies up there as well at some point. These are in progress and I don’t think are far off publication ready. Stuart can confirm status but I did a bit of formatting this week for the More Tales and Serial Killers and they were pretty much there.

If you’re running out of new reading material by the way, remember to check out the roundup on Fridays and see what’s coming out. I’ve been waiting for a certain Devil’s Creek by Todd Keisling which is finally out but hasn’t been delivered yet – it gives me time to finish Neal Stephenson’s Fall or, Dodge in Hell which is a mere 883 pages! Do you get the idea I like ‘giant’ books. Reducing my TBR pile is another ‘to do’, although with Waterstones reopening, I should really go and offer my support …

This week’s Trembling With Fear starts with Let’s Twist Your Head by Kristen Reid and takes a situation many of us have suffered and turned it into something to dread. Nightmares, sleep paralysis, night terrors, whatever version you consider, we’ve all suffered one or other of them at some point. That makes it personal to the reader because you take a commonly shared experience and ratchet it up a level in terms of horror. I’ve woken up in the middle of the night on more than one occasion and seen a ‘shape’ sat at the end of the bed, although they didn’t turn round and go for me! Having that experience however, brings the story closer to home. A useful technique when engaging the reader.

Believe by Janine Pipe questions your belief in yourself, do you trust your intuition and risk looking a fool or do you deny it and pay the consequences. The question of faith is something which has challenged humans for centuries.

Humanity 2020 by Zoey Xolton is a reflection on recent events. Remember those early days, the sheer selfishness of so many? Writing is a useful tool to hold a mirror up to ourselves. Trouble is, we might not like what we see.

Sick Boy by Patrick Winters combines the horror of loss and the horror of haunting. A sad and also chilling tale.

Take care

Steph

 

Stephanie Ellis

Editor, Trembling With Fear

As mentioned last week, our site wasn’t showing authors on the front page – that has been corrected! (Nothing of my doing outside of the fact that the theme released an update that included it!)

For ‘Trembling With Fear’ news, we’ve made a lot of progress on the anthologies this last week (a little from me, a LOT from Steph!) We might finally be on track to getting these out the door and into the world! We’ll see soon. Also, thanks for the new drabbles which have come in. We’re always looking for more drabble, serials, and Unholy Trinity so please keep up the great fiction 🙂

In case you missed it last week, we’ve recently added a new shirt and new tote to our store. These both feature the new site logo. We’ll likely be adding a hoodie and potentially a few other items down the line as well.

I haven’t thanked our Patreons here as of late so wanted to give a quick shout out to help the site continue running. It is directly your support which keeps our doors open!

Stuart Conover

Editor, Horror Tree

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Reviews

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Epeolatry Book Review: The Oppenheimer Alternative

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Title: The Oppenheimer Alternative
Author: Robert J. Sawyer
Genre: Alternate History
Publisher: SFWRITER.COM Inc.
Release Date: 2nd June, 2020

Synopsis: While J. Robert Oppenheimer and his Manhattan Project team struggle to develop the A-bomb, Edward Teller wants something even more devastating: a weapon based on nuclear fusion — the mechanism that powers the sun. But Teller’s research leads to a terrifying discovery: by the year 2030, the sun will eject its outermost layer, destroying the entire inner solar system — including Earth.

After the war ends, Oppenheimer’s physicists combine forces with Albert Einstein, computing pioneer John von Neumann, and rocket designer Wernher von Braun — the greatest scientific geniuses from the last century racing against time to save our future.

Meticulously researched and replete with real-life characters and events, The Oppenheimer Alternative is a breathtaking adventure through both real and alternate history.

The greatest minds of science gather together to save the Earth in the new book The Oppenheimer Alternative (377 pgs.) written by Robert J. Sawyer. The Manhattan Project scientist, think with the completion of the A-bomb, their work is done; when they then discover the sun is going to explode in the next hundred years and they are the only ones who can stop it. The book becomes a race to see if these talented men and women can pull off the impossible and save humanity. 

As Sawyer states, every character in the book is a famous historical person; Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman, Enrico Fermi and J. Robert Oppenheimer, are just a few of the familiar names. Sawyer does a great job at bringing out each of their personalities. Because the characters were real people the book has a familiar feeling as you read about them. You know these names from documentaries about the atomic bomb, and the space program. I loved that Sawyer starts each chapter with a quote or excerpt from one of these scientist that I found perfect for enriching the story. When possible he used known dialogue. The bibliography is hefty with research. 

Sawyer structures his book, using a sequential timeline that touches on the major events of history: the dropping of the 2 atomic bombs; the space program; JFK’s assassination; the McCarthy hearings. This structure keeps the book moving. The reader has a better connection to the history that is unfolding in these pages.

Sawyer also does a wonderful job of explaining the science. It is easy to understand and compelling. Fusion, fission, black holes, physics and many of the Einstein’s principals get trotted out and brilliantly explained for us laypeople.

This book is a timely read, with the 75th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bombs in 2020. Sawyer makes the reader understand the guilt, some of the scientists felt, at creating these weapons

Sawyer, is one of only eight writers to win all three of the world’s top awards for best science-fiction novel of the year: the Hugo, the Nebula, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. He has also won the Robert A. Heinlein Award, the Edward E. Smith Memorial Award, and the Hal Clement Memorial Award; the top SF awards in China, Japan, France, and Spain; and a record-setting sixteen Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Awards (“Auroras”). Sawyer is a member in the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.

Sawyer lives just outside Toronto. His website and blog are at sfwriter.com, and he is on Facebook and Twitter. 

The Oppenheimer Alternative is for people who love historical science fiction. I love when a book entertains and educates me. I give this book 5 out of 5. Enjoy.

5 stars

Available from Bookshop and Amazon,