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...

Short Story Saturday: The Book of the Dead

The Book of the Dead is the next anthology to come from Pandemonium Fiction, due to be published this October. Amongst its TOC is a short story by Yours Truly, with one of the weirdest titles I've ever given to a tale...

Egyptian death and the afterlife: mummies (Rooms 62-3)

But don't let the title put you offer. After all, here's what my editor Jared Shurin had to say about it: "This is a lovely story." Yes, you read that right. Lovely.

I'm not known for my 'lovely' stories, so maybe you should check out my tale of a mummy, eternal love and the curse of immortality.

And while we're on the subject of Mummies and their curses, check out the mystery of the moving Egyptian statuette.

No, not this Mummy.

Short Story Saturday: 1853

Pandemonium: 1853 has been out for a couple of months now and recently received this rather lovely review on Amazon.com:


This collection of short stories is great! Each story adds a new facet to the alternate history of 1853 with glimmers of the supernatural and glimpses into the darkness. When I finished reading the book I was left wanting more!


You can pick up your copy of Pandemonium: 1853 here.

Happy World Book Day!

I was fortunate enough to celebrate World Book Day a day early yesterday, with a visit to my alma mater, King Edward's Junior School in Bath, as one of their Book Week guest authors. I spent the morning talking to Years 5 and 6 about Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, and in the afternoon I spoke to Years 3 and 4 about how a book is made and also about characterisation, using Moshi Monsters as an example. I even had the privilege of speaking to the whole school during assembly.

I was made to feel very welcome by both the children and the staff, one of whom, Mr Orchard, inspired me with his history lessons when I was a pupil at the school! All I can say is that he must have only just qualified as a teacher when he taught me back in the 1980s. Lunch was spent in the very pleasant company of Head Boy Ben and Head Girl Grace.

Thank you to Mrs Macfarlan, who arranged my visit, and Mr Mac for allowing me to take over his drama room for the day. I had a great time, and I hope the children did too.

The room ready for the first session. 

 Year 6 being inspired by Fighting Fantasy monsters.

Year 5's turn to be inspired by the possibilities offered by adventure gamebooks.

If you're celebrating World Book Day today, why not treat yourself to a free download? 1853, from Pandemonium Fiction, is free to owners of Kobo eReaders (and less that £1/$1 for other eReaders) and features three, short, slightly alternate histories - all set in the same fateful year..

Marc Aplin sends a gunslinger to China and poses him an impossible question, Laura Graham writes of an Edinburgh overshadowed by more than factory smoke, while I raise an ancient and hungry evil in Mexico City. Enjoy!

Available for download now!

Short Story Saturday: 1853

1853 is the chapbook accompanying Pandemonium Fiction's A Town Called Pandemonium and it features stories by Laura Graham, Marc Aplin and Yours Truly. And it's coming soon...

Another author who has had been published by Pandemonium Fiction is Den Patrick, who has just had his debut trilogy signed by Gollancz in a significant six figure deal. So congrats to Den, who talks about how it all began here.

Short Story Saturday: 1853

The news is out... I've got a story in the 1853 chapbook that's accompanying the new Pandemonium Fiction short story collection A Town Called Pandemonium.

I can't tell you any more about my story at the moment - including the title - but I had great fun with the idea, and you haven't got that long to wait. 1853 is out this November.

JG at the Small Press Expo at Forbidden Planet

On Saturday I spent a very couple of hours at Forbidden Planet as part of the Small Press Expo. Although I was there as a guest of Pandemonium Fiction/Jurassic London, it was great to meet the guys behind the other micro publishing houses that were represented, including Newcon Press, Snowbooks and Myrmidon Books.

Books were signed, books were sold, contacts were made, and cakes were eaten. And then we all went to the pub!

So thanks to FP's Danie Ware for organising the event, and Jared Shurin and Anne Perry of Jurassic Park/Pandemonium Fiction/Pornokitsch for inviting me. And next time there's a Small Press Expo at Forbidden Planet, why not drop by yourself?

 Anne Perry and Jared Shurin of Pandemonium Fiction/Jurassic London

 Yours Truly earning his keep (or rather cakes and name badge) signing the hardback edition of Stories of the Smoke

 Marie O'Regan, Paul Kane and David Moore - editors and authors all

 Ian Whates signing, and Greg James browsing

 A very pleasing selection of Pax Britannia novels on sale at Forbidden Planet London

 Unleash the dinosaurs!

 Newcon Press and Snowbooks at the Small Press Expo

Short Story Saturday: Small Press Expo at Forbidden Planet

Today I shall be a guest of the Small Press Expo taking place at the Forbidden Planet Megastore on Shaftesbury Avenue in central London.

Authors and editors from Newcon Press, Pandemonium Fiction (a.k.a. Jurassic London), Myrmidon Books and Snowbooks, will be present, including Nina Allan, Christopher Priest, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Pat Cadigan, Sophia McDougall, Lavie Tidhar, Rod Rees, Gareth L Powell, Kim Lakin-Smith, Una McCormack, Ian Whates, Paul Kane, Marie O'Regan, Andy West, Mark West, Rebecca J Payne, Theresa Derwin, Ben Baldwin, Adele Wearing, Esther Saxey, David Thomas Moore, Russell Whitfield, Glen Mehn, Thomas Emson, Alan Baker, Danny Acacio, Sarah Anne Langton and Yours Truly.


You will be able to pick up the last of the hardback limited edition copies of Pandemonium Fiction's Stories of the Smoke on the day - which features my short story Necropolis. Also launching on the day are Newcon Press’s fabulous Hauntings anthology.

The event runs from 1.00 - 2.30 so if you're in London today, why not stop by and say hello?

Also taking place today are the Love Charing Cross Road (in which Foyles and Blackwells on Charing Cross Road are joining together with other local businesses to hold a day-long festival, at the start of Independent Booksellers Week and National Reading Group Day) and the COMICS BIG-TOP OF AWESOME at King's Cross.

Short Story Saturday: Free Fiction

Exciting news from Pandemonium Fiction:

142 years ago today, Charles Dickens passed away. However, his legacy lives on... often in unexpected ways.

Fire collects three short pieces of the Dickensian Weird. Tom Loock's "A Tale of Cities Two" sheds new light on the preface to a classic story, Harry Markov's "The Tracks That Tower Over Valleys" is a parable (and adventure) of burning needs and social conscience and Oz Vance does... something quite odd... with "Sketches by Zob".

Three new voices in three original stories – and completely free for this weekend only!

Stories of the Smoke, collecting seventeen new tales of London and Dickens (including my tale Necropolis), is also available for the Kindle now. The limited edition hardback can now be purchased through Forbidden Planet.

Short Story Saturday: Small Press Saturday?

I seem to be writing more and more short stories for Small Press publications this year. (And this after I decided not to task myself with writing twelve shorts in 2012!)

Yes, I still write short stories set within the worlds of Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000 and Pax Britannia on a semi-regular basis but my horror portfolio and weird fiction library are growing thanks to the wonders of the Small Presses. These are the publications where I get to try out new ideas, new ways of writing, which I believe is making me a better writer, with some of the techniques learned slowly starting to slip through into my more 'mainstream' work - if any of it could ever really be called mainstream!

So with that in mind, today I'm going to update you on a couple of Small Press things I've got going on.


Saturday 30 June - the Forbidden Planet London Megastore will be hosting an event with a difference – welcoming a host of authors and editors from four small press publishers into a mini convention in our very own store! This will include Pandemonium Fiction and I will be among those signing copies of Stories of the Smoke.

Saturday 30 June - is also the scheduled release date for Resurrection Engines, edited by Scott Harrison and published by Snowbooks.

July 2012 - will see the publication of World's Collider, the shared world anthology I've been involved in. In fact my story is the first in the collection and kicks everything off. Edits when back this week so everything appears to be on schedule. Fifty million people died in the Collision. They were the lucky ones…



More news on  Resurrection Engines and  World's Collider when I have it. Until then...

Short Story Saturday: Stories of the Smoke

Since it's release in April, Stories of the Smoke has garnered a great deal of interest and some great reviews.

Disinformed chose my story Necropolis as one of their favourites saying this about the story: "A captivating and somewhat disturbing story."


Dreampunk.Me also liked the story, along with the rest of the anthology: "Stories of the Smoke truly is a literary feast–a fantastic sampler of cutting-edge storytelling, yes, but also a solid work that is both a unified vision of London and a swirling, kaleidoscopic voyage through and across a multiverse of Londons. Fans of Dickens, science-fiction and fantasy, London and/or all of the above might be the target audience, but even people who only fit into one or none of these categories might find themselves equally impressed by the scope and breadth of what brilliant modern-day fantasy such as this can say not only about one specific city or time in the past or present but about us, today and tomorrow."


Interestingly, Anne Perry (one of the editors of Stories of the Smoke) wrote about some of the most memorably Dickensian locations to be found in London today. Her list included Covent Garden and Seven Dials, which feature prominently in Necropolis.

G is for Gary Northfield - a.k.a. the Stories of the Smoke book launch

I first met Gary Northfield after The Kitschies Steampunk Evening back in December. Only a matter of months later I found myself in an anthology featuring illustrations by him.

Gary is probably best known for his Derek the Sheep strip from the Beano and his work for the DFC/Phoenix Comic, but he has also illustrated Horrible Histories and other titles, including Pandemonium Fiction's Stories of the Smoke.

Stories of the Smoke was launched at an event last Wednesday, held at the Betsey Trotwood pub in Farringdon, London. Once everyone was suitably lubricated (with alcohol) Jared Shurin welcomed everyone and introduced the guest speaker for the evening from English PEN. A number of us penmonkeys who had contributed to the 17 stories in the collection then read samples from our stories.

My good friend Rebecca Levene went before me and got lots of laughs (but then her story is very funny) and I went last, and didn't get any laughs at all* - which was good because my story isn't funny. At all.

What followed then was an evening of diverting conversation with friends, the defacing people's beautiful hardback editions of the book, and the drinking of beers with evocative names like Dragonfire. There was also a silent auction of Gary's art, in support of English PEN, which raised £300!

A great evening has had by all (check out the blog post here about pro-celebrity author walrus-wrestling) and a great book was made even better thanks to Gary's skilled penmanship.

The Unkindness of Ravens

The Collection

Martin Citywit

You can find Gary's website here. Gary is also part of The Fleece Station collective, who can be found online here.

(You can see some photos from the Stories of the Smoke launch here.)

* Not including the impromptu one about steampunks. ;-)

Stories of the Smoke - the launch!

Pandemonium: Stories of the Smoke brings you London as you've never seen it before - science fiction and fantasy in the great tradition of Charles Dickens.

Charles Dickens lived and breathed London in a way few authors ever have, so much so, in fact, that his name has become synonymous with a certain image of London. A London of terrible social inequality and matchless belief in the human potential; a London filled with the comic and the repulsive, the industrious and the feckless, the faithful and the faithless, the selfish and the selfless. This London is at once an historical artifact and a living, breathing creature: the steaming, heaving, weeping, stinking, everlasting Smoke.

And you could be at the launch of Pandemonium: Stories of the Smoke, which is taking place at the Betsey Trotwood pub (56 Farringdon Road, EC1) from 6.30 pm on Wednesday, 4 April.

I will be reading an extract from my story Necropolis during the course of the evening, as will several of the other authors. You can find the full table of contents here.

There is a limited amount of space so, although the tickets are free, you'll need to have one - and you can pick up your ticket here.

The Kitschies' Gothic Evening - The Morning After

If you were reading this blog yesterday, you'll know that last night Blackwell's Charing Cross Road hosted the Kitschies' Gothic Evening. It followed a similar format to the Steampunk Evening that took place back in December only this time focusing on Gothic in art and literature. John Courtenay Grimwood read an extract from his new book and Christopher Fowler and Marcus Hearn then chatted about Hammer Horror's legacy and recent revival (or should that be resurrection?) of the gothic genre on celluloid.

There were also sorts of writers and creators there - including artist-author John Kaiine and photographer Joel Meadows - and the usual friends, enthusiasts and literary literati. I wasn't there as a guest this time but that didn't stop Den Patrick making sure I earned my Kraken Rum for the night!

Den's Pen was put to good use on the night.

Amongst those in a attendance (and who I spent all too little time talking to) were Tom Pollock, Will Hill, Jenni Hill (no relation), Sarah Pinborough (who I actually managed to say more than two words to), Philip Reeve (who I failed to speak to at all), Jon Oliver, David Moore, Bex Levene, James Wallis, Magnus Anderson, Lou Morgan, Scott Andrews, James Long, Emily Banyard, Celeste Sharp, Tom Hunter, Sophia McDougall and a whole host of others... apologies to anyone I've left off the list.

I was excited to meet author Tanith Lee. (Can you tell?)

Once the bookshop shut, proceedings moved across the road to the pub where Lavie Tidhar very sweetly tried to be my agent, brightly coloured drinks were drunk and generous offers of free editing expertise were made. Not to me, but a friend of mine. (I can't think why.)

Esther getting better acquainted with Abaddon Dave.

Thanks of course, must go to Jared and Anne of Pornokitsch who (along with Den) organised the evening, and Kraken Rum for keeping the conversations well oiled. Jared flattered me by saying that the twist ending of the story I have in the forthcoming Stories of the Smoke surprised even him - and that's saying something!

Anne in suitably Gothic bat earrings.

Should grown-up drinks really be this colour?

The Usual Suspects.