Cate Gardner's Blog, page 55

Books, Beautiful Books

Thanks to a decluttering experiment...Well, less experiment more painful extraction of things I never used but wanted to keep, I've moved my wobbling to read tower to the shelves behind my desk. Back me up guys, there are too many empty spaces and I should buy more books, right? In fact my YA and MG piles look particularly lacking.

I'm a Tree

True story.

When someone told me the driving test laws were changing and that, from September, anyone taking the test would be required to take a 10 minute run, I said...

"Well I'm stuffed. I can just about run for the bus."

Doh!


And in unrelated 'I'm a tree' news. The website for my short story collection, Strange Men in Pinstripe Suits, went live yesterday and there's a contest and freebies. Problem is, for the first 6 hours or so I had the wrong email address up on the site, so if you entered...

Strange Men in Pinstripe Suits - The Cover Art

First there was the artwork for The Sour Aftertaste of Olive Lemon which made feel incredibly fortunate to have such a pretty little chapbook. I thought, second time around (assuming there would ever be a second time), I wouldn't be as fortunate. A nobody doesn't get to have two kick-ass covers. Guess, I was wrong. How beautiful is this...

Aaron Polson (publisher and cover designer) is now officially upgraded to demigod.

WIP Wednesday: Fred

The plotting of something old and rather nasty is done. I have lots of colour coded character index cards filled out and I've scrabbled the evil doings of scary monsters on them.

However, the dear old thing needs a new title. The other one feels all blah now and soooo yesterday. But, we're struggling. I have a list of a gazillion titles - some hideous, some okay, some not too bad - alas, I am searching for brilliance. Thus, in the meantime, I shall be referring to said book as FRED.

Fred's Wor...

Weird Fiction

I'm working on something. I should be working on something else or on another something else, but I'm not. I'm working on this something. And that's what I'll be doing today and tomorrow and, I guess, we'll see. You could say I've resurrected something--although it's more to do with feet than brains.

Talking of resurrected things. The wonderful Arkham Tales--the magazine that refused to die--has just released issue seven. It features fiction from Aaron Polson, Leah Clarke and Robert Masterson...

WIP Wednesday: It's the 1920s in my Head

Thanks to a thunderstorm - I swear, I haven't seen rain like that all year - I've just finished the first draft of a Fantastical Fifty story - And the bride wore ashes. I'm going to start another draft later this evening and when that's done, I'll let it stew for a few weeks. Looks like my fifty first sentences experiment is a win--even if I only end up with two stories from it. But of course, I want more. *Stomps feet* (Finished first story at the weekend - Kodak Dragons and had to send it o...

Pretty Little Totem

The second issue of Shock Totem is now on sale (insert several woots! here) and contains my story Pretty Little Ghouls.

You can purchase the magazine at the Shock Totem site or on Amazon.

It also contains delights from Kurt Newton, Vincent Pendergast, John Boden and Mercedes M Yardley amongst others.

Souvenir Shops, Polaroids and Other Things

Beware, the following link may take you on a surreal journey...

The Scenic Path of Human Artefacts is today's story over at 52 Stitches.

...You have been warned.

Hallucinogenic Bubbles

One of my Fantastical Fifty stories has broken free of the pack - result.

When the delightful Mercedes posted on the Shock Totem forum about the anthology 2020 Visions opening to happy stories - okay a positive outlook on the very near future - I dug into my little sentence/paragraph file and pulled out the most appropriate. It began...

Hallucinogenic bubbles filled the air.

It has a more blah first sentence at the moment - Distracted, searching for the charger for her iPen, Ivy pulled a used ...

Welcome to the Fantastical Fifty

Welcome to the Fantastical Fifty* (you could also make other use of the FF and rename its slave the Faffing Fool (that would be me).

Sometime last month I read this interview with Kelly Link and in it she suggested the following story generating idea (via Stephen Dobyns). In an hour (or more - I took about two) write down 50 first sentences, the first things that come out of that delightful noggin of yours (I have a book of keywords and weaved one around the first 50 words I stumbled across)....