Cate Gardner's Blog, page 52

A Bowler Hat full of Awesomeness

I've known about this for some time, but I'm ecstastic to announce that Nathaniel Lambert (author of Sideshow PI: The Devil's Garden, It's Okay to be a Zombie, and the forthcoming The Horribles) has written the introduction for Strange Men in Pinstripe Suits.

It is awesome.

He is also awesome - though most of you possibly already know that.

In other news, I'm struggling with my mailbox man story. It's weaving delightful images in my head but they're not transferring into a workable, non blah pl...

Beware: 70s Disco Dancing Likely

I originally posted this picture on my twitter account, but evil twitpic went all screwy on me. Thus, I am reposting it here. Plus I need an excuse to blog something pretty.

The fabulous David A Riley, of the British Fantasy Society, included a blurb about 'Strange Men' in the members news section of the lastest issue of Prism (British Fantasy Society Newsletter).

Cue, happy dance.

The Etiquette of Social Networking

Continuing in the vein of this marvellous year - okay, in comparison to other events it rather pales :D - I woke this morning to find an email from Twunfollow telling me someone I considered a friend had unfollowed me on Twitter. It threw me and of course my immediate reaction was, 'What have I done?' Stupid reaction, I know.

I'm used to getting unfollow messages - usually Twunfollow tells me folk who have been following me for a day or a week have stopped following (because I didn't follow t...

Sparkling Contests

Some pretty contests for you today.

First off a Strange Men  contest. Sorry Gef, but sometimes you have to put yourself first (even if your contest is cooler than mine).

Prize: Triangulation: End of the Rainbow anthology, which features my story The Meaning of Yellow, along with stories by Aaron Polson, Eugie Foster, Marshall Payne, Jamie Lee Moyer, Cat Rambo, Brenta Blevins, Mark Onspaugh and others.


Pretty Picture of Prize
Rules: send an email to me at catephoenix(at)gmail(dot)com (subject line:...

The Brain Drain

This was the week that was... Brain draining.

Oh my goodness, work expected me to actually work this week. I swear I can still hear the phone's buzzing in my ear. Seriously, not a second to process a single thought. And worse, I developed the let's call it the 'don't want to diet and am determined to eat chocolate because I deserve it' attitude and pretty much decided early on each day that I shouldn't force myself to write that night because I was soooooooo tired. Hope next week perks up... M...

Escapade into Madness

Time to hold myself accountable.

Procrastinating by reading blog posts from a year ago, I realised how much I wrote during 2009 (and I know in 2008) and how much of a lazy ass I've been this year, so I decided, it's time to go back to end of month posts where I list what I've done the previous month. I already have my #10bythen friends over on Twitter, so competing alongside them should hopefully keep me on the straight and narrow.

I currently stand at one new sub out for September, three stor...

Apologies One and Two

Apology No. 1

To all who received a spam email from me yesterday... My google mail was hacked. Sorry. 'Tis all fixed now (she hopes) and I have new industrial strength passwords. It was so scary to wake up and find my blog supposedly 'deleted' and not able to access my gmail. Thankfully my mobile was charged (which is unusual as I never use the darn thing) and I was able to provide google with the phone number so they could send me a verification code and all (fingers crossed) is well.


Apology ...

The Red Penny Papers

The debut issue of The Red Penny Papers is live. Here's the gorgeous TOC:

The John by Corinne Duyvis
Pluvial by NK Kingston
Shaper of Dreams by John Cash
Postcard Wings above Blackpool Sands by Cate Gardner

and part one of Aaron Polson's novella, Black Medicine Thunder and the Sons of Chaos. Part two follows next Wednesday.

And of course, it's all brought together by our esteemed editor, KV Taylor. She's done a fantastic job so go send her a hearty congrats. And from me, thanks for allowing me to ...

A Tale of Woe

I have my melodramatic head on. It demands I write something angsty and wanted nothing whatsoever to do with the man who climbed out of a mailbox (thus I wasn't allowed to plot his short tale today, although I'm desperate to know why he's so interested in the store catalogue) and it discouraged any work on my next long piece (a dollop of the 1920s, plus a side slice of the dystopian and a footstep into the far future, known as the mad escapade into losing my marbles or achieving world dominat...

Dead Man Rotting

I'm writing...

I'm writing about zombies...

I'm writing about a zombie named Pastor Best...

Somebody please make me change his name for it's far too silly and making me snicker every time I type it.


*This post possibly only makes sense to me... Move along now.