The Book of the Dead - One-Day Giveaway

Did you know that Amelia Edwards (author, suffragette, Victorian ghost story maven, archaeologist and founder of the Egypt Exploration Fund) is getting her very own Blue Plaque, which is being unveiled today, Thursday 19th March 2015?

In honour of the occasion, and a very remarkable lady, Jurassic London is making its Egyptologically-inspired anthology of short stories The Book of the Dead, available for free for 24 hours on Amazon.

The collection contains my own catchily-titled Egyptian death and the afterlife: mummies (Rooms 62-3), which, unusually for me, is a love story.

Short Story Saturday: STORIES OF THE КУРИТЬ [SMOKE]

Almost a year ago now, in August 2013, Jared Shurin of Jurassic London, the publishers of Stories of the Smoke, got in touch to say that my short story Necropolis, along with several others, had been sold overseas - to Russia! This was exciting news indeed, as I had never had anything of mine appear in Russian before.

It turned out that SNOB magazine and the British Council had run a big feature on Dickens that inspired some new Dickensian short stories from Russian authors. SNOB, in partnership with the British Council, were interested in publishing a volume with a similar theme - which would also include new work from contemporary Russian authors. The British Council, who were instrumental in the creation of Smoke, connected everyone, and it all worked out neatly from there.

The stories selected were:

"Uncle Smoke" - Archie Black

"The Hound of Henry Hortinger" - Michelle Goldsmith

"Necropolis" - Jonathan Green

"Bullseye" - Sarah Anne Langton

"Cuckoo" - David Thomas Moore

"An Unburdening of the Soul" - David Thomas Moore

"The Collection" - Esther Saxey

"The Pickwick Syndrome" - Kaaron Warren

Most excitingly is that right now, copies of the book are being sent from Russia via diplomatic courier to the British Council, and from there they will be distribute to the others. As soon as I have some photos of the books (and my first story published in Russian), I'll post them up here.

Until next time...

Short Story Saturday: DIABOLOS MMXIV

Breaking news from Luzifer-Verlag (the German publishers of Pax Britannia: Unnatural History)...

The horror anthology DIABOLOS MMXIV is scheduled for release on 24 April 2014 and is available for pre-order now. To paraphrase the publisher, "whether subtle or brutal, the stories in the anthology are always horrible, creepy and frightening! This is DIABOLOS, a collection of stories that are not suitable for the faint-hearted."

The anthology features stories by the likes of Simon Clark, Adam Nevill, Christopher Fowler, Mark Hodder, George Mann, and - you've guessed it - Yours Truly!

You can find out more by clicking this link.

In other news, Necropolis my story from Jurassic London's Stories of the Smoke has been sold internationally and will be appearing in translation later this year. Watch this space for more news on that one!

Short Story Saturday: The Book of the Dead

Ever seen a mummified book before?

Well here's my bandaged edition of Jurassic London's The Book of the Dead (which contains my very own Egyptian death and the afterlife: mummies (Rooms 62-3)*) alongside my very own Garen Ewing signing sheet.

The limited mummified edition has already sold out, but you can pick up your own conventional softback copy here.


* I know - catchy title, isn't it? ;-)

Short Story Saturday: The Book of the Dead

To help promote Jurassic London's The Book of the Dead - which features my story Egyptian death and the afterlife: mummies (Rooms 62-3) - I wrote a piece on the enduring appeal of Mummies for the The Speculative Scotsman, which you can read here.

You can pick up The Book of the Dead (edited by Jared Shurin) here.

The Book of the Dead - released today!

That's right, The Book of the Dead is out now!

This first ever volume of original mummy stories, published by Jurassic London in partnership with the Egypt Exploration Society, The Book of the Dead contains 19 new tales of mummies, mayhem, revenge, romance, pharaohs, cats and candy!

"Ramesses on the Frontier" by Paul Cornell
"Escape from the Mummy's Tomb" by Jesse Bullington
"Old Souls" by David Thomas Moore
"Her Heartbeat, An Echo" by Lou Morgan
"Mysterium Tremendum" by Molly Tanzer
"Tollund" by Adam Roberts
"The Curious Case of the Werewolf that Wasn't, The Mummy that Was and the Cat in the Jar" by Gail Carriger
"The Cats of Beni Hasan" by Jenni Hill
"Cerulean Memories" by Maurice Broaddus
"Inner Goddess" by Michael West
"The Roof of the World" by Sarah Newton
"Henry" by Glen Mehn
"The Dedication of Sweetheart Abbey" by David Bryher
"All is Dust" by Den Patrick
"Bit-U-Men" by Maria Dahvana Headley
"Egyptian death and the afterlife: mummies (Rooms 62-3)" by Jonathan Green 
"Akhenaten Goes to Paris" by Louis Greenberg
"The Thing of Wrath" by Roger Luckhurst
"Three Memories of Death" by Will Hill

The anthology is illustrated by Garen Ewing and introduced by John J. Johnston, Vice Chair of the Egypt Exploration Society, and you can pick up your copy here.

The official launch of The Book of the Dead is taking place this evening (Tuesday 29 October) at the Phoenix Artist Club (off Tottenham Court Road, on Phoenix Street), so maybe I'll see you there...