World Oceans Day 2015

Today is World Oceans Day. And do you know what lives in the ocean? That's right - sharks!

Some of the stories in SHARKPUNK have a particularly oceanic feel, including Sharkbait by Richard Salter, and Rise of the Übershark by Robert Spalding.

So why not mark World Oceans Day by picking up a copy of SHARKPUNK today?

And now for a video of a woman called Ocean swimming with a Great White. Yes, really.

The Sharkpunk Interview - Richard Salter

Richard Salter describes himself as a 'Writer of sorts...' and he is an editor as well as an author.


Sharkpunk: What, do you think, is the reason for people's enduring fascination with sharks? 
Richard Salter: I reckon it's that iconic image of the dorsal fin moving through the water, like a preview of what's to come, a warning flag letting you know it's time to get the hell out of the water. You can draw two sides of a triangle with a wavy line at the bottom, and everyone will know what it is. Also teeth. Lots of teeth.

SP: What was the inspiration behind your story Sharkbait? 
RS: Nothing specific. The idea I pitched was mostly the structure the story ended up with, though my helpful editor helped me define the nature of the titular little girl. I'm not sure where it all came from, other than a feeling of panic that I wouldn't be able to write a story without ANY fantastical elements. So I came up with the idea of the girl who can "charm" sharks, and I knew I wanted her to be called Sharkbait. Everything else came from there.

SP: What challenges, or surprises, did you encounter in writing your story? 
RS: Anything that requires me to do any level of research is a challenge for me. It feels too much like work so I tend to hurl oodles of unreal stuff into my fiction, be it time travel or ghosts or magic, to avoid having to actually know anything. I can get straight down to the fun part, the writing! It was a struggle to ground my fiction in a more "realistic" setting. There are supernatural elements to the story, but they're not overt and most of the narrative concerns a diamond heist that goes wrong and the consequences thereafter.

SP: If you had to pick a favourite shark, which would it be? 
RS: I think Mr Wonderful himself, Kevin O'Leary. Never a dull moment in the Shark Tank (the US equivalent to Dragon's Den) with Mr Wonderful around!

SP: Do you have a favourite fictional shark (in books, comics, films, or video games)? 
RS: I'm tempted to go with the plastic one from the 1966 Batman movie. It terrified me as a six year old! My slightly more serious answer would be the sharks in Open Water. That film terrified me as an adult! The sharks are treated realistically (as far as I can tell) and the tension as they circle nearer and nearer to the stranded couple is masterfully handled. In fact now I feel the urge to dig that one out and watch it again.

SP: Apart from your story in Sharkpunk, what's coming next from Richard Salter? 
RS: I am working on a super-secret project for a fairly big series that's tremendously exciting but also very hard work. It has consumed all my writing time for months, so for now there's nothing new that I can talk about. I did recently have my first novel released. It's called The Patchwork House and it's a haunted house story with a time travel twist. Reviewers are saying it's very scary, which is very nice to hear. I'm also busy promoting Fantasy For Good, which is an anthology of fantasy fiction I co-edited featuring the likes of Neil Gaiman, George R. R. Martin, Piers Anthony, Kelley Armstrong, Michael Moorcock, Carrie Vaughn and a ton of other talented folks. All proceeds go to the Colon Cancer Alliance, so please do check it out.

Thanks, Richard!

Richard Salter is a British writer and editor living in Toronto, Canada. His debut novel, The Patchwork House, is a ghost story with a time travel twist. He co-edited Fantasy For Good, a charity anthology featuring huge names in the genre such as Piers Anthony, Neil Gaiman, George R.R. Martin and Michael Moorcock, which benefits the Colon Cancer Alliance. He has written short fiction for Doctor Who and Warhammer, and has a story in This Is How You Die, the sequel to the popular Machine of Death. Find out more at http://www.richardsalter.com

Short Story Saturday: The #1 Horror Anthology of 2012

That's what this reviewer calls World's Collider, the mosaic novel/short story collection brainchild of editor Richard Salter, and who am I to argue?

"The stories themselves will both terrify and thrill horror fans, describing mankind's struggle to survive the onslaught of demonic entities spilling into our world from the rift."
 
You can pick up a copy of World's Collider (if you haven't done so already) here.

Short Story Saturday: World's Collider

Another brace of glowing reviews of World's Collider, edited by Richard Salter.

First up there's this...

Fascinating book. I was hooked from the start, each story carried the narrative along, and I was desperate to find out how it all ended, highly recommended!

And then there's this!

World's Collider was not only the best anthology that I read in 2012, but it's the most remarkable story collection that I've ever read to date.

Remember, you can pick up your copy here.

World's Collider - An Apocalyptic Shared-World Anthology - FREE NOW!

Got a Kindle (or other eReader)? Like free stuff? Like stories about the end of the world? Like stuff written by me?

Then World's Collider is for you! And best of all, it's free for the next two days! Follow this link to grab what is quite literally a bargain today!

And while we're on the subject of World's Collider there are some more great reviews of the book to be found here.

Short Story Saturday: Wraith Lights

Yet another glowing review has appeared online for Richard Salter's World's Collider, this time on Goodreads.

For some reason I particularly liked this bit:

"The first of the twenty one stories in the anthology takes the reader right to the start of the incident in the near future when the scientists notice a strange light and weird gravitational readings emanating from the collider. Wraith Lights by Jonathan Green gets the book off to a suitably creepy start."

You can pick up your own copy of World's Collider here.

Short Story Saturday: Download World's Collider FOR FREE all weekend!

FREE today and all weekend...

Something very different to read on your Kindle. Featuring 18 short stories that combine into one novel-like narrative. You can read it from start to finish just like a regular book, but experience fresh perspectives on the shared apocalyptic world with each new chapter.

Featuring original stories by Steven Savile, Trent Zelazny, Jonathan Green, Jordan Ellinger, Kelly Hale, Aaron Rosenberg, James Moran, Simon Kurt Unsworth, Dave Hutchinson, Richard Wright, and many more.

Did I mention it's FREE? Please help spread the word!

You can download World's Collider from Amazon.co.uk here, and from Amazon.com here.

Short Story Saturday: World's Collider

It's here! Having winged* its way all the way from the U S of A, my contributor's copy of World's Collider is here at last.

And here's my story Wright Lights, that kicks off the whole shebang**.

Don't delay - buy your copy today!


* Or should that be 'wung'?

** Or should that be 'kit and caboodle'?

Short Story Saturday: World's Collider

The shared-world anthology World's Collider (that reads like a novel) continues to garner praise from all quarters. Here's an extract from the latest 5 star review:

I came to this from a recommendation of a friend of mine and I was a little cautious about buying it as I don't often find myself reading anthologies. I only finished it today and am glad I did purchase it...

'World's Collider' brings an impressive array of authors together and the result is a series of stories which constantly surprise you in the range from Gothic horror to urban survivalist episodes to even fashion labels. It would be unfair of me to single out or rank the better stories as I think all work well together to immerse a reader into a single horrifying reality.

This novel builds up like a mosaic or a palimpsest and its sheer size and breadth really impressed me. If you are at all interested in horror or apocalyptic literature, then do yourself a favour and buy this. If nothing else it will introduce you to several authors to watch out for in the future!

So what are you waiting for? Pick up your copy today!

Short Story Saturday: World's Collider - feeling the love!

World's Collider (edited by Richard Salter) has been a bold experiment. (To find out more about the background to the project, follow this link.)

But it would appear that World's Collider has also been a successful experiment. The book's been on sale for a while now and the reviews have started to come in... and on the whole they've been overwhelmingly positive!

Here are a few choice comments from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com.

Through an amazing act of collaboration, these many and varied writers have combined their skills and created a cohesive whole out of all the parts... It's seamless and yet you can hear each individual writer's voice as they tell their part.


I have never before read an anthology that is structured like a novel. I must say, the idea is brilliant. All of the different writing styles merged together to produce a truly enjoyable reading experience. I would recommend this to anyone that enjoys apocalyptic style stories.


What a GREAT read! I picked this up yesterday and read it all last night until my eyes couldn't stay open, and then finished it this morning. It was so good I simply couldn't wait to post a review!


The author's different writing styles and ideas were powerful and drew you in. Though the pieces were all so different it was never jarring or inconsistent. Instead the short stories were weaved together in a very clever way that highlighted each author's talent with words.


This book is filled with great stories I've thoroughly enjoyed, but what truly sets it apart from other anthologies is the "shared world" idea. In any anthology, I usually just pick and choose a few stories to read, but this one works more like a novel and invites you to discover its entire world. Each short story sucks you in a bit further in as you follow the breadcrumbs, each intriguing in its own merit as well as making the anthology's world more intriguing.

There is also a detailed review of the book by Michael R. Collings that you can read here.

You can pick up your copy of World's Collider here.

World's Collider - shared-world anthology released today!

Today sees the long-awaited release of World's Collider, something of a small press experiment. It feels like the team started work on this ages ago, under editor Richard Salter's guidance, developing a shared-world anthology in which everyone wrote just one part. And my part is the opening story, Wraith Lights.

The Collision is the worst disaster in human history. So far… 

In the near future, an experiment at the Large Hadron Collider causes an enormous explosion, known as the Collision. The blast flattens a huge chunk of central Europe and punches a massive hole in the Earth’s surface. Over the next decade, unspeakable horrors pour from the rift: vicious creatures with a taste for human flesh, a terrible scream that drives all who hear it insane, a phantom entity that feeds on fear and paranoia, and a nightmare train from the pits of hell, to name but a few. This onslaught of terror causes the collapse of civilization and threatens to wipe humanity from the planet. 

World’s Collider is a unique concept in short fiction, where all eighteen original stories are part of a common narrative, recounting the disaster and its aftermath. A true novel by many voices, including Steven Savile, James Moran, Aaron Rosenberg, Trent Zelazny, Jonathan Green, Simon Kurt Unsworth, Kelly Hale, Richard Wright and a host of new talent.

Fifty million people died in the Collision. They were the lucky ones…

World's Collider is published by Nightscape Press and can order your copy here.

World's Collider - A Shared-World Anthology

You don't have long to wait now, for World's Collider (something of a small press experiment) is going to be released on 10 July. This shared-world anthology kicks off with my own contribution, a short story called Wraith Lights.

The Collision is the worst disaster in human history. So far… 

In the near future, an experiment at the Large Hadron Collider causes an enormous explosion, known as the Collision. The blast flattens a huge chunk of central Europe and punches a massive hole in the Earth’s surface. Over the next decade, unspeakable horrors pour from the rift: vicious creatures with a taste for human flesh, a terrible scream that drives all who hear it insane, a phantom entity that feeds on fear and paranoia, and a nightmare train from the pits of hell, to name but a few. This onslaught of terror causes the collapse of civilization and threatens to wipe humanity from the planet. 

Fifty million people died in the Collision. They were the lucky ones…

World's Collider is published by Nightscape Press and can pre-order your copy here.

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...

World's Collider - A Shared-World Anthology

Coming soon from Nightscape Press...

The Collision is the worst disaster in human history. So far…

In the near future, an experiment at the Large Hadron Collider causes an enormous explosion, known as the Collision. The blast flattens a huge chunk of central Europe and punches a massive hole in the Earth’s surface. Over the next decade, unspeakable horrors pour from the rift: vicious creatures with a taste for human flesh, a terrible scream that drives all who hear it insane, a phantom entity that feeds on fear and paranoia, and a nightmare train from the pits of hell, to name but a few. This onslaught of terror causes the collapse of civilization and threatens to wipe humanity from the planet.

World’s Collider is a unique concept in short fiction, where all eighteen original stories are part of a common narrative, recounting the disaster and its aftermath. A true novel by many voices, including Steven Savile, James Moran, Aaron Rosenberg, Trent Zelazny, Jonathan Green, Simon Kurt Unsworth, Kelly Hale, Richard Wright, and a host of new talent.

Fifty million people died in the Collision. They were the lucky ones…

As you can see from the above, I've contributed a story to the anthology. It's actually the first one and so the first to die in the disaster are dead by my pen, as it were.

More info on this as and when but in the meantime you can find out more at editor Richard Salter's website here.