Beat to a Pulp(1)

Just received confirmation that editor David Cranmer has accepted my story for his online short fiction magazine Beat to a Pulp. It will appear sometime in June. The story is sci-fi noir, entitled Spend It Now, Pay Later, an extrapolation on the debt crisis.

Genre stories are required in any of these categories: hardboiled, noir, science fiction, western, action/adventure, detective, fantasy, horror, mystery, thriller/suspense. You may also get feedback from readers.

Nik

Reading Group

I was invited to visit the La Marina Reading Group this afternoon. They discussed The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory; some liked it, others didn’t. Dislike mainly centred on the fact the story was told from more than one perspective. Most thought it was enlightening and the readers came away with new facts and information about the period. I talked briefly about my two books, Pain Wears No Mask and The Prague Manuscript and widened the discussion to query if anyone had read a western or science fiction. Happily, one lady had just finished St Agnes’s Stand by Thomas Eidson – a marvellous book – and admitted that she had been pleasantly surprised to find she enjoyed a western. Many raved over The Time Traveler’s Wife and they preferred the classic SF of Wyndham and Wells. My message was, please don’t pigeonhole genres – try something new and you might be surprised. An interesting couple of hours. They took me up on my recommendation for their reading list - Poisoned Petals by Andy Crabb - 44 short stories set in Spain.
Nik

Auguries magazine

For the last few days I've been scanning images and building up text and finally have loaded a new blog dedicated to a science fiction, fantasy and horror magazine called Auguries which I edited and published between 1983 and 1994. I did it purely to encourage new writers and latterly artists; most issues were produced before the advent of the home computer, though Amstrad had an influence in the early 90s; it was in the days before the internet and publishing packages. Sadly it died due to the cost of printing and paper and the lack of that most precious commodity, time. Maybe the future for new magazines is POD via Lulu or similar.