Interview with Peter Coleborn & Jan Edwards

Q&A with Jenny Barber for Alchemy Press Book of Horrors #horror #fiction #alchemypress #anthology

Jenny Barber

Today it’s my pleasure to welcome Peter Coleborn and Jan Edwards to talk about their new anthology The Alchemy Press Book of Horrors, the joys of editing, horror and short fiction!

Today sees the launch of your latest anthology The Alchemy Press Book of Horrors – what inspired you to choose the theme and what horrors can we look forward to seeing in it?

Peter: Besides the very general theme ‘horror’ the book has no theme. I feel that stories in themed anthologies, especially tightly themed ones, can become too similar. I enjoy variety. I enjoy coming across something unexpected. In this I mirror the views expressed by Mark Morris, editor of the wonderful New Fears series.

I use the word ‘horror’ as a wide catch-all net. What you will find between the covers is 25 well-written yarns that will hopefully chill you, or at the least make you…

View original post 2,182 more words

o/t: Something Remains/Joel Lane

Something Remains

Noirish

The hugely talented writer Joel Lane, best known for his dark fantasy, died far too young in 2013. He left behind him scattered notes for a myriad of stories that he’d never gotten around to writing, and it occurred to Pauline Dungate that a suitable memorial to him might be a charity anthology in which other writers used Joel’s notes as the basis for new, preferably Joel-esque stories.

I was highly honored when The Alchemy Press’s Peter Coleborn asked me to be a contributor to the anthology, and even more so when my story was accepted.

The book is not a slender tome; the e-ARC I’ve seen weighs in at a hefty 374 pages, though of course that may not be the final printed tally. All profits go to the charity Diabetes UK.

Something Remains is going to be launched at this year’s Fantasycon (23-25 September 2016), in Scarborough…

View original post 335 more words

Tales From The Lake Vol 2

TALES FROM THE LAKE VOL.2 due out on 11th March with Crystal Lake Publishing – 380 pages of rattling good yarns, with an amazing cover by Ben Baldwin 

Cover Reveal : Winter Tales

Fox Spirit  reveal the cover for the upcoming anthology  Winter Tales edited by Margret Helgadottir. Cover art S.L. Johnson !

Contains my short story ‘Shaman Red’.

Source: Cover Reveal : Winter Tales

Terror Tales blog from Paul Finch

Paul Finch has blogged on his latest anthology (volume 9 in the Terror Tales series from Gray Friar Press), Terror Tales of the Ocean  (includes my short story ‘The Decks Below’)

CLICK HERE 

 

Wicked Women Anniversary Interview: Adrian Tchaikovsky

Wicked Women Anniversary Interview: Adrian Tchaikovsky talks to Jenny Barber

Jenny Barber

And today, my lovelies, we’re rolling into the holidays with the author of Wicked Women story ‘This Blessed Union’ – Adrian Tchaikovsky, take it away!

Tell us a little about yourself and what you like to write

I’m that guy who writes about spiders taking over, while rooting for the spiders. There’s more to it as well – my interests include biological sciences, historical combat and gaming of all kinds, but they’re going to put the spider thing on my tombstone. Or you can substitute various things for spiders – insects, aliens, robots, the next wave of human evolution, but I am consistently the champion of the other.

How long have you been writing and how did you get started?

I first started writing (terribly) around age 18 after reading the Dragonlance books and realising that here someone had taken a RPG campaign and turned it into a set of…

View original post 941 more words

Terror Tales of the Ocean out now!

Terror Tales of the Ocean  
Edited by the fabulous Paul Finch
Published by Gray Friar Press

available from Gray Friar  and Amazon

“The rolling blue ocean. Timeless, vast, ancient, mysterious. Where eerie voices call through the lightless deeps, monstrous shapes skim beneath the waves, and legends tell of sunken cities, fiendish fogs, ships steered only by dead men, and forgotten isles where abominations lurk …

The multi-limbed horror in the Ross Sea
The hideous curse of Palmyra Atoll
The murderous duo of the Messina Strait
The doomed crew of the Flying Dutchman
The devil fish of the South Pacific
The alien creatures in the English Channel
The giant predator of the Mariana Trench

And many more chilling tales by Peter James, Adam Nevill, Stephen Laws, Lynda E. Rucker, Conrad Williams, Robert Shearman and other award-winning masters and mistresses of the macabre.

(includes my story  ‘The Decks Below’ – full TOC to follow)

BOOK REVIEW: THE ALCHEMY PRESS BOOK OF URBAN MYTHIC

Urban Mythic

The Book Lover's Boudoir

GENERAL INFORMATION  

TITLE: THE ALCHEMY PRESS BOOK OF URBAN MYTHIC

AUTHOR: VARIOUS

PAGES: 270

PUBLISHER: THE ALCHEMY PRESS (http://alchemypress.wordpress.com)

YEAR: 2013

http://alchemypress.wordpress.com

A free copy of this anthology was provided by Peter Coleborn, the publisher and editor-in-chief. He asked me to review three upcoming collections. The Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic is the second. I uploaded the PDF he sent me to my kobo.

BLURB FROM THE COVER

There is magic out there on the street and the Mythic are alive and well and creating chaos in a city near you.

Fourteen fabulous authors bring you tales of wonder and horror, with ancient curses and modern charms, strange things in the Underground, murder and redemption, corporate cults and stalwart guardians, lost travellers and wandering gods, fortune tellers and urban wizards, dragons,  fae and unspeakable beasts.

With stories from:  James Brogden, Joyce Chng, Zen Cho, Graham…

View original post 618 more words

Urban Mythic 2 reviewed

Urban Mythic 2 reviewed!

The Alchemy Press

Ian Hunter has reviewed The Alchemy Press Book of urban Mythic 2  for the latest issue of Interzone(# 258). It’s a fantastic, complimentary review, one that ends with his asking for volume three. Can’t be bad.

Of Tanith Lee’s story: “…beautifully written and quite, quite shudderingly horrible.”

Of K T Davies’ story: “…opens with some of the best writing I’ve read in a long time.”

Of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s tale: “What is really enjoyable about this story is the voice…”

And of Sarah Ash’s story: “…so well written you hope both of them will get together…”

And more…

Urban Mythic 2, along with the first volume, is available via Amazon and other good online stores.

View original post

Guest Writer – Dean M Drinkel

This week’s writer is Dean M Drinkel –  poet, theatre writer, director and award winning filmmaker. Dean has recently published The Grimorium Verum: Volume 3 (Tres Librorum Prohibitorum) through Western Legends Press.

Salvo 8 Launch

SALVO 8 – containing my story ‘Green Tea’ – will be launched on  Saturday, 21st March, between 2.00 – 4.00 pm, in the upstairs meeting room at Hall Green Library.

‘Drawing Down The Moon’

Why is a witch of Thessaly running a greasy spoon cafe at Canvey Island out on the Essex coast?

Find out soon in my latest story  ‘Drawing  Down The Moon’,  coming out in January 2015 in The Grimorium Verum, edited by Dean Drinkel, published by Western Legends Press.

contents list coming soon!

Gary Budgen on Alchemy Press book of Pulp Heroes 3

A week in New Prague City. On Monday a man robbed a bank using a jet pack to escape. Tuesday a woman’s necklace was stolen by someone dressed as a rat. I hate masked crazies for personal reasons, so on Wednesday it was a relief to get something – if not routine – at least by a perp we were used to. Although Kid Kafka hadn’t pulled one of these for a while.

Gary Budgen’s contribution to Pulp Heroes 3 is masked adventurer story “Kid Kafka and Doctor Pulp.” Under torture, he agreed to answer the most probing and intimate questions.

Rima Devereaux in Kneeling in the Silver Light (Alchemy Press)

Rima Devereaux interviewed

Rima Devereaux’s ‘The Secret of Blackwater Island’ features in Kneeling in the Silver Light

What is the link between your story and the Great War?

My story is set at the time of the Great War and halfway through there’s a flashback to an earlier event in the same war. The wartime backdrop is essential to the story, since the central character is on a wartime government mission to a remote part of England.

Iain Grant – Alchemy Press Book of Pulp Heroes 3

No, you put another shot of whiskey in there, Joe. I’ll tell you when I’ve had enough. If you’re gonna start nagging me, I’ll find myself another gin mill, one where I’m not being served by my maiden aunt.

Iain Grant’s contribution to Pulp Heroes 3 is the hard-boiled “The Big Picture.” Here he kindly responds to our interrogator’s gentle probing.

 

Nancy Hayden interviewed for Kneeling in the Silver Light

Nancy Hayden is the author of “Unknown Soldier” which features in Kneeling in the Silver Light.

The Great War started a hundred years ago. What is the link between your story in Silver Light and that war?

I’ve been researching and writing about WWI for several years now. I’ve written other short stories set during WWI, have a WWI blog, and am currently working on a historical novel. I think it’s an incredibly interesting and important time period.

Chico Kidd on the Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic 2

Chico Kidd’s “Blood*uckers” features in The Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic 2.

What is at the root of your Urban Mythic story?

I’ve always had a soft spot for werewolves. About a year or so ago I started trying out a new voice, an NYPD detective who didn’t just happen to be a werewolf but had joined the police because she was one. “They say the real reason so many weres are drawn to law enforcement is we still want to run in a pack. Though if you ask me I think it’s just ’cause we like chasing stuff.” I spent quite a long time nailing Taz’s voice, and also working on her world (in short, the weres are cops and the vampires are the Mob) and how it all worked and fit together. This story came out of that— in effect, it’s backstory before I’ve even completed the present-day narrative!

Peter Mark May on Kneeling in the Silver Light

Peter Mark May’s “Fernackerpan” can be found in our anthology Kneeling in the Silver Light. Here he answers a few questions.

 

Sarah Ash interviewed for the Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic 2

“La Vouivre” by Sarah Ash features in  The Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic 2.

Tell us a little about yourself and your writing.

I love stories. When I was a child, I used to scribble after ‘lights out’ by the street lamp outside my window, filling little notebooks with barely legible scrawl in different coloured crayons. Growing up in Bath, I used to wonder about all the lives lived out from pre-Roman times till the present day and how what happened back then gradually became transmuted into local legend as it was told and re-told through the ages. Which is why what I like to explore in my own writing what would happen, for example, if a rational, enlightened eighteenth century soldier-prince encountered real, raw magic when waging war on the neighbouring country (The Tears of Artamon). I was trained as a musician and taught music for many years and my stories frequently feature musicians struggling with their craft. Kaito, the main protagonist of The Flood Dragon’s Sacrifice plays the flute – and an old song of his clan takes on a special significance as the story develops.

Amberle Husbands in Pulp Heroes 3

In the evenings, Eads City sparkled with hot rain. Seria brushed the heavy droplets from her eyes, trying to clear her vision. No matter how many times she blinked – or shook her head to try and dislodge the shadows in its corners – whenever she opened her eyes again she still found the world around her broken, battered, and distorted. Maybe she’d been hit in the head one too many times, she thought; they said that sometimes happened to kids, and left them all scrambled. Or maybe the world really had started to crack.

Amberle Husbands’ “The Going Rate” appeared in The Alchemy Press Book of Pulp Heroes. She returns to volume three with “Agent Midnight.” Below she responds to impertinent questions with admirable restraint.

Tony Richards interviewed

Around eleven in the morning, a flock of harpies landed on her roof.

As their claws alighted on the loose, jittery tiles, Rayven’s eyes snapped open. They had jet-black irises, the pupils indistinguishable from the surrounding pools of dark. She’d been up gone five, and had been fast asleep. But she still awoke like a steel trap springing into action.

Novelist Tony Richards supplied the action-adventure tale “Rayven Black in the City of Night” for The Alchemy Press Book of Pulp Heroes 3. Here he supplies intelligent answers to dumb question.

James Brogden interviewed for The Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic 2

‘How to Get Ahead in Avatising’ by James Brogdencan be found in The Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic 2 

Tell us a little about yourself and your writing.

I love writing stories because I’m basically a control freak and for a short time I get to be god of my own little fantasy world. I also teach English, and my students will probably tell you much the same thing. I’m a naturalised Brummie, born in the north and raised in Australia. I loathe all forms of competitive sport, which is why I was deported from Oz, though I do like to get out into the mountains whenever I can to lose my head in something vast. When I moved to the UK as a teenager I very quickly fell in love with the weight of history which is layered into the landscape of the British Isles, though I wonder how much of that comes from having made Tolkien and Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising sequence part of my own internal landscape as a child. My grandmother, who lived back in the UK, made sure to send me and my brothers books which she considered to be quintessentially English; so as well as reading Aussie kids’ classics like The Magic Pudding, I grew up with Billy Bunter, Just William, and Biggles. When I moved here, it all sort of clicked, and it’s kept on clicking ever since.

Marion Pitman on The Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic 2

Marion Pitman’s story “The Cupboard of Winds” appears in The Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic 2.

What is at the root of your Urban Mythic story?

There was a terrific writer called Paul Jennings, who had a column in The Observerfrom 1949 to the 1960s. The columns were collected into books, which is where I discovered them as a child. They are very clever, and very funny, but also often rather mystical. In one piece he writes about modern local deities, and mentions a cupboard from which draughts blow, and speculates that if you opened the door suddenly you’d see all the winds sitting inside. So I stole the idea and expanded it. I tried various ways of doing it until it finally came out like this.

K T Davies in Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic 2

“For the Memory of Jane” by K.T. Davies appears in Urban Mythic 2.

Iron is as old as us. We know iron and all its tricks, and samewise, it knows us.

Jay Eales on the Alchemy Press Book of Pulp Heroes 3

Jay Eales’ mystery man story, “The Revenant” appears in Pulp Heroes 3.
“How much you want for it?”
“Gotta be a dollar, for sure.”
“A dollar!” the boy protested, his voice higher and more quavering than he would have liked. “You know I ain’t got no dollar! What’ll you take for swaps?”
“Gee… I don’t know, Jackie. I’d have think about it. I don’t know if I could let it go.”
“Let me put it on again. Go on, I won’t bash it none!”
“Okay, but don’t get your paws all over the goggles again.”

Christine Morgan interviewed by Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic 2

Christine Morgan’s “High School Mythical: Asgard“ appears in The Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic 2. She answers a few questions here:

Tell us a little about yourself and your writing.

I’ve been a reader as long as I can remember. I love language. It’s like Play-Doh, a complete sensory experience that, with patience and practice, can make almost anything you imagine. Among my childhood friends, I was the storyteller who came up with ideas for let’s pretend, and constructed elaborate scenarios for my toys. As a teenager, I got into role-playing games as another outlet. Once I began attempting to write for real, I started with ‘traditional’ fantasy … but horror was my true calling. These days, it’s mostly historical horror and dark fantasy, with an emphasis on drawing from mythology, folklore, and various ancient cultures.

 

Kim Newman interviewed for Alchemy Press Book of Pulp Heroes 3

Kim Newman has provided a 19th century adventure, “Angels of Music” for The Alchemy Press Book of Pulp Heroes 3:

In the ’70s – that colourful, hectic decade of garish clothes, corrupt politics, personal excess and trivial music – three girls were sent to the Paris Opéra. They could dance a little, sing a little more, were comely when painted, and cut fine female figures in tights. Were the world just, they would have been stars in the ascendant, rewarded with fame, riches and advantageous marriages.

 

Lou Morgan : Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic 2

Tell us a little about yourself and your writing.

I’m a novelist and short story writer, and I bounce infuriatingly between any kind of genre that takes my fancy. So far, that’s urban fantasy and horror for both adult and teen readers, because at the end of the day, I just like telling stories.

My first novel, Blood and Feathers, was an urban fantasy involving hellmouths and sarcastic angels with drinking problems, handguns and secrets, and which was nominated for British Fantasy Awards in both the best newcomer and best fantasy novel categories. The sequel, Blood and Feathers: Rebellion, picks up the story, and has also been nominated in the best fantasy novel category for this year’s BFAs. I’ve also written short stories for people like PS Publishing, Jurassic, Fox Spirit and Solaris – and Alchemy Press, of course.

And I have two cats, because that’s the law if you write fantasy.

Alchemy Press Advance Copies (*strokes* my precious)

Advance copies of The Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic 2 and The Alchemy Press Book of Pulp Heroes 3  have just arrived at Coleborn Manor!
Looking gorgeous!

Much cover-stroking was involved during the unpacking process… my precioussssssssssssssssssss (es)

The Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic 2 (edited by Jan Edwards and Jenny Barber. Includes: Tanith Lee, Sarah Ash, Lou Morgan, Adrian Tchaikovsky,  James Brogden, Carl Barker, Andrew Coulthard, K T Davies, Pauline E Dungate, Chico Kidd, Christine Morgan and Marion Pitman. Fab cover by Edward Miller (Les Edwards).

The Alchemy Press Book of Pulp Heroes 3 (edited by Mike Chinn).
Includes: Kim Newman, Rod Rees, Tony Richards, Gary Budgen, Evan Dicken, Jay Eales, Iain Grant, Emma Hinge, Amberle L Husbands, Bracken MacLeod, Ralph Sevush, Paul Starkey. Another great cover by Bob Covington.

 

ToC for Wicked Women!

It is here at last.  After slaving over a hot slush pile for weeks and months we can announce the ToC  for Wicked Women : Edited by Jan Edwards and Jenny Barber.

ToC for The Alchemy Press anthology Kneeling in the Silver Light

An excellent ToC for The Alchemy Press anthology Kneeling in the Silver Light (ed. Dean M Drinkel) has been announced. To be launched  6th Sept at Fantasycon 2014

Joyce Chng interviewed for Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic

Joyce Chng‘s story can be read in the  Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic vol 1. 

 

Tell us a little about yourself and what you like to write.

I am Singaporean, married with two girls. I like to read, cook and garden. And I like to write. I tend to write science fiction and fantasy, a bit on the social aspect – as in looking at the relationships and nuances in society. I also write YA and urban fantasy.

Jonathan Oliver: Interviewed for Alchemy Press book of Urban Mythic

Read Jonathan Oliver in Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic

#anthology #fantasy #urbanfantasy #fiction #urbanmythic

Jan Edwards

In the run up to the publication of forthcoming titles  Alchemy Press books   will be posting short interviews with the various contributors of their autumn releases.

This week they are talking to Jonathan Oliver, soon to appear in The Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic, edited by Jan Edwards and Jenny Barber.

Tell us a little about yourself and what you like to write.
By day I’m the editor-in-chief of three imprints, by night I tinker with my own words. Well, that isn’t technically true. I’m not vastly prolific so I sort of fit writing in, in bits and pieces when I can. Mainly in lunch-breaks. I like to write whatever takes me, to be honest. I tend towards the darker end of the spectrum, but of late my stories have often been slightly more hopeful.

What was it that inspired “White Horse”?
The White Horse at Uffington is…

View original post 341 more words

#MyWritingProcess

Today I’m taking part in the #MyWritingProcess blog tour, where you follow a thread across the blogs of lots of different writers, who all answer the same questions about their writing.

That Obligatory Round-up…

Round-ups of the year are always tricky. We all receive those missives with Christmas cards from the perfect family who will tell you how they hiked nude to the South Pole, solved world debt. And then in February…

Well… maybe I exaggerate… but bearing  those in mind I take up my keyboard in some trepidation and begin to type.

Kindle Edition of the Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic

For all those people waiting with baited Kindles… It has arrived!

The Kindle Edition of the Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic!  

Alison Littlewood and Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic

Alison Littlewood answers questions on writing and Urban Mythic

 For those of you who were not at WFC, here’s a wee interview with Alison instead!

Tell us a little about yourself and what you like to write.

I’ve been around in the indie presses for some time writing horror and dark fantasy, with publications in magazines like Black Static, Dark Horizons and Shadows and Tall Trees. I had my first novel, A Cold Season, published with Jo Fletcher Books back in January 2012, and that got picked for the Richard and Judy Book Club, which was a terrific experience. Path of Needles, a twisted fairy tale meets crime novel, came out in June.

Anne Nicholls on the Alchemy Press Book of Pulp Heroes 2

Anne Nicholls’ “Dragon’s Breath” features inThe Alchemy Press Book of Pulp Heroes 2

What inspired your writing, when you began, and – if possible – of all of your published work could you tell me which your favourites are (and why)?
I first started making up stories at the age of four, largely because I didn’t think I could draw.  Other motives were trying to keep out of trouble – and the undeniable fact that a lion in the garden is much more exciting than a cat. I had my first story published following a New Year’s resolution not to keep hiding my work in a drawer. Of my work, my current favourites are By “Right of the Stars”, Mindsail, a piece of journalism that was later included in an A Level text-book, “Dragonsbridge”, “Dragon’s Breath”… you know, I love them all.  Although not when I’m banging my head on the keyboard because I can see where I should have done them better.

Adrian Tchaikovsky Q&A for the Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic

Adrian Tchaikovsky gives us the low down on Family Business!

Today, Adrian Tchaikovsky answers a few questions put to him by his Alchemy editors for his story in Urban Mythic.

Tell us a little about yourself and what you like to write.
I’m mostly an author of epic fantasy, as far as long form fiction goes. So far that’s manifested in the story of the Insect-kinden, the Shadows of the Apt series, the 9th and penultimate book of which has just come out as War Master’s Gate. The world of the kinden is some way from a traditional fantasy setting – the kinden themselves are humans who take their powers and natures from various types of insect, and the series charts their rise into a sort of 20th century of technology and realpolitik. I put a lot of work into my worlds, the variety and the originality, and it seems to be something that my readers really respond to.

Christine Morgan on Astrologica: Stories of the Zodiac – an Alchemy Press publication

Christine Morgan Interviewed

It’s Q&A time again, this time with Christine Morgan, author of “The White Bull Ranch” (for the sign of Taurus) in Astrologica: Stories of the Zodiac edited by Allen Ashley.

Give us a little bit of background on your writing career.
I’ve been a reader, writer and storyteller since before I can remember, according to family reports of my early years. High school introduced me to roleplaying games and the notion of wanting to be an author when I grew up. It also introduced me to getting some weird looks from my English teachers, because the stories I’d turn in … well, I’ve always been a horror fan too. My published and self-published works span a wide range of genres, pretty much everything but hard SF and gritty procedurals. So far. I’m not ruling anything out yet. I’ve edited amateur anthologies, run online ‘zines, done a lot of beta-reading and reviewing. I have over a dozen novels in print, half a dozen kids’ books, a couple of roleplaying game books, and almost fifty short stories sold (again, so far).