Thought for the Day

"The most beautiful and deepest experience a man can have is the sense of the mysterious."

~ Albert Einstein

Thought for the Day

"It is huge fun writing a synopsis for a book that doesn't yet exist. It's like the work of those early map-makers who, lacking any knowledge of a particular ocean, spent their time making up sea monsters."

~ Rod Duncan, author

Steampunk Thursday: Scarlet Traces - Out Now!

Scarlet Traces: An Anthology Based on H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds, edited by Ian Edginton, is available now!

It is the dawn of the twentieth century.

Following the Martians' failed invasion of Earth, the British Empire has seized their technology and unlocked its secrets for themselves. It is a Golden Age of discovery, adventure, culture, invention—and of domination, and rebellion.

Scarlet Traces reveals a world of ant-headed nightmares; vacuum salesmen; war machines; deadly secrets; clockwork marvels; and Sherlock Holmes, T. S. Eliot and Thomas Edison as you've never seen them before...

Including stories by Stephen Baxter, I. N. J. Culbard, Adam Roberts, Emma Beeby, James Lovegrove, Nathan Duck, Mark Morris, Dan Whitehead, Chris Roberson, Maura McHugh, Jonathan Green, and Andrew Lane.

Ian Edginton is a New York Times bestselling author and multiple Eisner Award nominee.

His recent titles include the green apocalypse saga The Hinterkind for DC/Vertigo; Steed and Mrs Peel for BOOM, the steam- and clock-punk series Stickleback, Ampney Crucis Investigates and Brass Sun for the legendary UK science fiction weekly, 2000 AD; game properties Dead Space: Liberation and The Evil Within for Titan Books, and the audio adventure Torchwood: Army of One for the BBC.

He has adapted the complete canon of Sherlock Holmes novels into a series of graphic novels for Self Made Hero, as well writing several volumes of Holmes apocrypha entitled The Victorian Undead. He has also adapted H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds as well as writing several highly acclaimed sequels, Scarlet Traces and Scarlet Traces: The Great Game.

He lives and works in England. He keeps a bee.


Also out today is Dr Janina Ramirez's brand new Ladybird Expert book about Beowulf. And yes, that is the same Dr Janina Ramirez off the telly who wrote a cover quote for Beowulf Beastslayer.

Thought for the Day

Thought for the Day

"I don't play monsters, I play men besieged by fate and out for revenge."

~ Vincent Price

Short Story Saturday: Scarlet Traces

When I returned from MantiCon, last weekend, I was delighted to find the hardback of the Scarlet Traces anthology waiting for me. Edited by Ian Edginton, contributing authors were simply given the brief of writing a story set somewhere within the timeline of the Scarlet Traces comics written by Ian, and illustrated by D'Israeli (a.k.a. Matt Brooker).

I first discovered Scarlet Traces when it appeared in the Judge Dredd Megazine, the series having originally been conceived as a partially animated serial, intended for the now-defunct website Cool Beans World.

The premise, for anyone who doesn't know, is that after the Martians' failed invasion of Earth, in H G Wells' The War of the Worlds, the British Empire retro-engineers the aliens' technology and uses it to expand even further. But the Martin menace is not done, and something is draining young women of blood whose bodies are being washed up on the banks of the Thames near Whitechapel...

There are now numerous graphic novels continuing the saga, and I had the original one signed years ago by D'Israeli. I took as the launching off point of my story something that is mentioned in passing in one panel in Book 2, The Great Game. Fans of the Pax Britannia series may find the writing style feels a little familiar and it features two of my ongoing interests, Ancient Egypt and Mars.

Scarlet Traces: A War of the Worlds Anthology is published by Abaddon Books on 5th September, and is the third anthology I have been published in this year.

Gamebook Friday: ACE Gamebooks at Fighting Fantasy Fest 3

ACE Gamebooks will be at Fighting Fantasy Fest 3 on Saturday 31st August, at the University of West London in Ealing. If you're coming along, do bring your copies of Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland, The Wicked Wizard of Oz, and NEVERLAND - Here Be Monsters! to be signed, or pick one up while you're there.