Callum McSorley's Blog, page 12

Switchblade Magazine / Pulp Modern

[image error]This year, Switchblade Magazine, home of hardboiled, is publishing a special cyberpunk-themed edition called Tech Noir which will feature a short story by yours truly, called Baby on Board.

Set in a future Scotland where haggis and battered ramen have become popular street foods, and the formerly independent cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh have grown together to form ‘Belt City’, ex-cop Oink becomes embroiled in a kidnapping scheme, mostly against his will.

Still hardboiled crime at its core...

Read Secret Ingredients in Shoreline of Infinity 15

 

Around this time last year, I started working on a short story after reading about the death of Anthony Bourdain. His nonfiction book on the chef life, Kitchen Confidential, is a no-holds-barred look behind the scenes of fine dining written in an almost gonzo style, featuring larger than life characters, most of whom are debauched, drugged up, and opportunistically criminal. If you’re a fan of his tv series Parts Unknown (available on Netflix) then you’ve got to check it out!

I wanted t...

Pre-order Shoreline of Infinity 15

 

I’ve been sitting on this news for a good while now and I’m finally allowed to yell about it! (And I shall be doing so a lot.)

My short story Secret Ingredients will be in Shoreline of Infinity Issue 15! Released to coincide with Cymera Festival this weekend (7th – 9th June), it’s now available to pre-order.

I’ve been a huge fan of Shoreline since I first started reading it a couple of years ago, so it is a pleasure and privilege to finally see a story of mine in its pages. (Big thanks to...

Pre-order Exquisite Aberrations

Pre-orders for the new FunDead anthology, featuring my story The Lunatic Song, are now live!

Exquisite Aberrations is a collection of novelette-length Gothic horror stories, traditional tales with a modern twist:

[image error]“A familiar chill runs down your spine. You’ve been here before: the abandoned house on the hill, the dark hallway with the creaking floorboards, the ancient cemetery veiled in mist, the rutted pathway to a lonely place. You know these stories, or do you? These are the tales not told...

Reading Round up April/May 2019

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With regards to both my reading and writing, it’s been a couple of months of sci-fi, horror, and sci-fi-horror. And with Cymera Festival coming up next month, that seems unlikely to change soon!

[image error]Thin Air by Michelle Paver (2016)

Told in the style of a classic ghost story, Michelle Paver’s Thin Air takes us up to the peak of the world’s third highest mountain, Kangchenjunga, with a group of posh stiff-upper-lip Brits in 1935. However, it’s not just the sub-zero temperatures, hypoxia, and aval...

Cymera Festival Open Mic

[image error]I’m stoked to say I’ll be heading back to Edinburgh next month because I’ve been given a slot at Cymera Festival’s open mic!

Scotland’s first ever literary festival dedicated to sci-fi, fantasy, and horror writing is taking place at The Pleasence in Edinburgh from 7th-9th June.

As well as readings and talks from some of the world’s top genre writers — among them Gareth L. Powell, Richard K. Morgan, and Adrian (no middle initial) Tchaikovsky —  there will be (deep breath) writing workshops, bo...

Infinite Space, Infinite Terror… and a raffle

Last Thursday I boarded the train to Edinburgh to take part in Shoreline of Infinity’s Event Horizon. And sure, every time I say the words ‘Event Horizon’ it conjures a horrifying image of eyeless Sam Neill from the nineties film of the same name (“Where we’re going… we don’t need eyes to see!”) but I had a blast nonetheless.

Usually a night of sci-fi storytelling and poetry, May’s Event Horizon was fantasy themed, having been taken over by Shoreline’s fellow Edinburgh zine, Aether & Ichor.

P...

Event Horizon

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It’s almost here: Event Horizon – not the film with Sam Neill (still terrifying) but the monthly reading night in Edinburgh hosted by Shoreline of Infinity.

Usually sci-fi based, tomorrow’s event will be taken over by fantasy webzine Aether/Ichor. I’ll be reading there myself along with some fantastic authors recently published by A/I: Ely Percy, Simon K Brown, Sandra Whitnell and Leigh Harlen (all the way from the US).

The night will open and close with a set by Mixed Signals – expect dark,...

And the winner is…

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Last week I launched a competition to give away four paperback copies of the latest Hardboiled anthology by Dead Guns Press, which happens to open with my short story Sherry Sherry.

And… We have our winners! Congratulations to Richard, Ross, Fran, and Jamie, your copies of Hardboiled will be winging their way to you next week.

If you’re still keen to read it but were unlucky this time, you can get your hands on a copy by ordering here, it’ll cost you cash-money is all (though it is an absolu...

Indie April

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It hath been declared that April shalt be the month to celebrate indie publishers, and in that spirit, here are a few words on some of my favourite Scotland-based indies, all doing incredible, interesting stuff right now.

Gutter Magazine – Going it alone after the collapse of its former publisher, Gutter has never been stronger or better. Issue 18, along with a special supplement, The Freedom Papers, became the bestselling title of the Edinburgh International Book Festival last year. A celeb...