Hospital anthology now available

One of the Static Movement anthologies I’ve been editing is now complete and available from Amazon. This is a collection of (mostly) horror stories from a group of talented writers – some new and some familiar to readers of Static Movement anthologies. From danger in space, to crazed physicians, to abandoned wards and standup comedians, the anthology covers a lot of territory. Hospitals seem to provide a fertile ground for writers – after all these institutions are where were often at our most vulnerable and also have to be at our most trusting. There was a little space at the end there, so I managed to sneak one of my one stories in – “Finding Keys” is a flash fiction story originally published in MicroHorror in 2010 – click on the link if you want a little taste of the anthology.

Buy the anthology from Amazon! It’s $14.99, plus shipping (it seems there are some “used” copies already available for $48.00 plus shipping, which seems pretty odd to me… it’s a P.O.D., just released: how could there possibly be any time for it to become used? And why buy it for $48.00? The world just gets stranger).

I still have two anthologies open for submissions at Static Movement: Dieselpunk, and A Butterfly in China – self-explanatory titles, I hope. If you’ve got a story that might fit in those, send it along (guidelines are at the links. These are for-the-love anthologies).

Two stories in Jake’s Monthly…


Static Movement regular Jake Johnson has put together the first edition of a serial online anthology – Jake’s Monthly: Science Fiction. It’s got two of my stories in – “Where There’s Water”, and a story under the byline Michael Shone – “Katie Stumbled” (previously published in the Static Movement Anthology Bounty Hunter).

Quite a roster of stories in the anthology – , Congregation by Dorothy Davies, Nova by Joe Jablonski, Anomaly by Jay Faulkner, Reality TV by T. Fox Dunham, The Memorial by Ron Koppelberger, Firstfather by Tom Wells, Hylo by Tom Wells, Lemon Pi by John H. Dromey, The Third Crime’s a Charm by John H. Dromey, The Last Singularity by Ran Cartwright, THE POLY UNSATURATED, QUICK DISSOLVING, FAST ACTING, PLEASANT TASTING GREEN AND PURPLE ADVENTURES OF WOMYNGRRL AND boyman by David Perlmutter, The David Effect by Mike Jansen, Eye of the Beholder by Danica Green. Hmm, lots of Static Movement regulars in there. I think that’s around 200 pages? Well, 60,000 odd words. It’s a .99c eBook at Smashwords. That’s gotta be good value – I’d buy a single short story for .99c there.

Two New Anthologies I’m editing

As well as Dieselpunk, I’m editing two more anthologies for Static Movement.

Hospital is an anthology about scary hospitals. Think crazed doctors, abandoned asylums, body parts coming to life and so on. This is meant as a horror anthology, but I will look at other speculative genres (and even a literary story or two)

A Butterfly in China: stories of the butterfly effect. This is an anthology about where a tiny change can have a huge impact on an outcome – think about the time you missed that bus by just a moment, went to a diner to wait for the next bus, spilled your coffee and met the love of your life… or something like that. Or, perhaps, how some incremental shift causes disaster. This is a speculative fiction anthology – horror, sci-fi, fantasy and so on. Time travel is popular for this concept, and that’s fine, but I’m keen to see stories that go in other directions too.

As with other Static Movement anthologies, these are non-paying. Click on the titles for full submission details.

Dieselpunk – print anthology – call for submissions

I’m editing an anthology of Dieselpunk for Static Movement. See the Dieselpunk thread on the Static Movement boards for full submission guidelines. Steampunk’s bastard cousin, Dieselpunk looks for speculative fiction filled with rugged, chunky engines but no sign of electronics. What would the would be like if we still had those huge 1950s aircraft, locos and cars, but no computers?

This is a non-paying anthology – for the love only.

Unplugged – anthology of science fiction and fantasy

Unplugged is a cool idea: a print collection of science fiction and fantasy stories that originally appeared online. As with any anthology, there are stories that appeal and stories which don’t, but overall the standard is pretty high. My personal favourite is “Snatch Me Another” by Mercurio D. Rivera – great pacey writing, a cool idea (a neat twist on the idea of alternate universes. There are some known writers here – Cory Doctorow, Nancy Kress, etc. – and also some less established names. There’s a handy list at the back of the volume with the original websites – some no longer functioning, but an intriguing resource. A cool description on the back cover too “unplugged surfs the web so you don’t have to” – that’s good, ‘cos I’m thinking lots of us (ie me) could do with a little less web time and a little more A.R.

Missed the boat on Howl

The soon to be published Lame Goat Press anthology Howl looks to be a stunner. I had an idea for a story, but had so much else on that I put it aside – life is a series of choices about what not to do. Part of the reason for wanting to submit to the anthology was the fabulous cover, but it’s growing and growing. There’s now a fantastic book trailer for the volume, which is also on YouTube, one of the stories has been podcasted on archive.org, and the contributing writer’s list includes lots of my faves (Jodi, Angel, Mark Anthony Crittenden, to mention a few). I’m green. Still, it’s cool to be associated with Lame Goat Press and great to see it going from strength to strength.

(whoops – my bad, and see the comments, Laura’s not in this anthology, but she is in a couple of others – Diamonds in the Rough, and Flash! out soon. Sorry Laura).

The Next Time: Alternate Reality/Time Travel

My story “Berg” is out now in the print anthology The Next Time: Alternate Reality/Time Travel, again from Lame Goat Press*. “Berg” is a more light-hearted piece than many of my stories, and plays with the idea of time-travel paradox.

This is my first publication of the year, yay. With another four already accepted and more out in slush piles it’s shaping up to be another good year. Well, another year of hard work, at least.

*Lame Goat Press has published the volume through Create Space and if you buy through there then the publisher makes a little more money than through Amazon.

Horror Through the Ages anthology out now

The first anthology from Lame Goat Press, Horror Through the Ages is available now. This has a great list of contributors – Jodi MacArthur, Robert C Eccles, Kevin Wallis and so on – 27 contributors in all. Edited by Christopher Jacobsmeyer. The collection includes my story “The Stone Goddess”. It’s available now from CreateSpace for $15.95 (US) plus shipping. It’ll be on Amazon soon, so you can bundle it up with other Christmas gifts.