A Horror Reckoning, or how I learned to stop worrying and love opium?

I'm kidding

January 23, 2025

I have been hard at work on novel edits this month, but I'm approaching the final fifth of the manuscript, so there is hope now.

Granted, this section has a lot more notes than the previous fifth, but I'm pretty sure I will easily make the deadline. All in All, most of these notes have been clarifying things, tweaking some of the stuff that is no longer relevant because of the previous edits, and amping up a couple of scenes that the editor wants to be have more impact.I'm also ankle-deep in slush, so I'm reading that on my breaks, so my regular reading has gone a bit wonky at the moment.

I also found out that GODSKIN has also made the Nerds of a Feather recommended reading list, which also has two excellent novellas from Lorraine Wilson and Knicky L. Abbot among others. (I blurbed Tanglewood, it's beautiful, you should read it. But really you should read The Last to Drown too, because it's obviously gorgeous, the end.)

(And there's also this lovely interview with Lorraine Wilson where she talks about ghost cats and mythology and hedgewitchery and near future dystopias, and you should go read all her books. Ahem)

Short Fiction Reads

I do love me some despair and spaceworms and sadness, so I very much enjoyed The Worms That Ate the Universe by Megan Chee.

In other short story news...

New Magazine and a Call for Subs

Andy Cox and Richard Wagner, formerly of Black Static , have a new magazine focusing on horror. REMAINS is set to be a quartely magazine with colour illustrations and Issue 1 came out in January.

I've grabbed myself a copy to see what it's like, but I can already see that Neil Williamson is in the first issue, and he's an excellent writer.

Enviromental Justice speculative magazine Reckoning has a special open call at the moment:

War and conflict are the themes for this volume of Reckoning. Probe into the heart of extinction, genocide, and climate crisis. Expose the exploitation of the earth. Show us how the world could be on the other side. Send us your stories of environmental justice, of violence, imperialism, fascism, and resistance, of destruction, survival, and of triumph.

Due to the nature of the call, priority will be given to certain demographics:

As always, we’re seeking submissions from Black, Brown, Indigenous, queer, trans, disabled, neurodivergent, imprisoned, impoverished, and otherwise marginalized human beings from everywhere, but in particular for this issue, we will be prioritizing work by people with lived experience of war and conflict.

Tanith Lee and Me

Some of you probably know how much I love the work of Tanith Lee, and can see her influence on my own stories.

Which means it will come as no surprise that I was ecstatic when my story Makers made the cut for the Lee-inspired anthology Storytellers.

The ToC has now been announced, and it is such a privilege to be on a list with these writers, and to see my story right there at the top. (Also, a little terrifying.)

Storyteller is now up for PREORDER, so grab yourself a copy. Get copies for your friends and enemies alike!

And in closing

We'll end with a dose of fascination, and how a collector's journey led to an opium addiction.

And a picture of my cats because I love my blobsons