100 Years and a Tobacco-Stained Sky, or something of the sort

Well, July has thus far been an entertaining month, full of definite highs and the odd vague low within just 5 days.

I got a cracker of a futurist/sci-fi/noir story from fellow Melburnian Liam José yesterday, to round out the submissions for our anthology The Tobacco-Stained Sky (see previous entry here); Liam is one of those cool cats behind the Crime Factory crew. Today I got the finished artwork for my comic collaboration with Argentinian artist Marcos Vergara.

Here’s a snippet (above).

On July 1st a new anthology was put out by the Solarcide crew, featuring writers like Caleb J. Ross, Richard Thomas, Nathan Pettigrew, Phil Jourdan, Jay Slayton-Joslin, Martin Garrity, Paul D. Brazill, and a whole wad of other talented bods. I stuck in a story about an octopus that headbutts Jules Verne, Moby-Dick and Victor Hugo’s Toilers of the Sea.

Anyway, the anthology is titled Nova Parade and is a FREE download PDF you can grab just by clicking on the title (Nova Parade, in case you’ve already forgotten – I know my waffling does induce these symptoms in the unsuspecting).

On July 13 I have a short story (very short, about 700 words) that will be published online at Shotgun Honey, and sees the return of Floyd and Laurel, my principles from Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat, and around the same time I’m chuffed to be included in the Pulp Ink 2 anthology put together by Nigel Bird and Chris Rhatigan.

Then there will be the Crime Factory anthology of Australian-made noir; my contribution there is another brush with Floyd and Laurel, this time more extensive and a prequel of sorts to the action (and their relationship) in TSMG.

Now for something offbeat, trivial, and irritating. Yep, I’m going to whine a bit, then disclaim that by getting all positive and cheerful straight after, I promise.

My as-yet-unpublished novel One Hundred Years of Vicissitude (which comes out on 26 October) was added into someone’s “Shit List” by a cranky anonymous blogger on Goodreads. Funnily enough, when I contacted this person to ascertain how she’d read something not yet published or provided to her, she admitted she hasn’t actually read the book – but stuck it in this Shit List because someone else on Goodreads recommended it to her, and she was “annoyed” by that person. Right. Bravo, mate.

But this pales into insignificance, as the old cliché would have it, when you see the review of One Hundred Years of Vicissitude from a Scottish writer I very much respect, Fiona Johnson (a.k.a. McDroll) – who was provided with a copy and has actually read it.

She knocked me out with her assessment; thank god it was in a good way. This particular line pretty much staggered me: “The exquisite writing and structure… is alone an excellent reason to read this book, but the developing relationship between the two main characters is incredibly touching and devastating in its beauty by the end.”

It’s this kind of feedback and encouragement that goes miles – I could go out and build a new land-rail to Osaka with this appraisal. You can read more of the review, and McDroll’s other articles, here.