Michael Kelly's Blog, page 23
November 30, 2014
New Simon Strantzas – “These Last Embers”
I’m very happy to present “These Last Embers,” a stand-alone story in chapbook form, from acclaimed weird fiction author Simon Strantzas, with wraparound art by renowned artist Drazen Kozjan.
Strictly limited to 200 numbered copies, and signed by both Simon and Drazen, this is truly a one-of-a-kind collectable. There will not be an eBook edition.
“These Last Embers” will be released in February 2015. It’s a terrific new story from Simon Strantzas, not available anywhere else. We are now taking pre-orders. The books will undoubtedly sell quickly. Act now to secure an early number.
“A beautifully strange little piece. “These Last Embers” is the kind of story that worms its way quietly beneath your skin and only begins to burn once it’s too late for you to claw it out.”
– Brian Evenson, Author of ‘Windeye’.
“With a dash of Arthur Machen and a sprinkling of Rod Serling, Simon Strantzas continues to fuse the influences of his forebears into something uniquely his own. He never forgets the humanity at the heart of every story, and in “These Last Embers” it is on terrible, aching display.”
– Nathan Ballingrud, Author of ‘North American Lake Monsters’.
These Last Embers (Feb. 2015, Undertow Publications)
16 pages, plus full cover wraparound
Strictly limited to 200 signed and numbered copies
Signed by Simon Strantzas AND Drazen Kozjan
ISBN: 978-0-9938951-7-3
Price, including shipping: $10 to North America, $14 to Rest of World
To pre-order, visit
http://www.undertowbooks.com/embers/
or send payment to:
undertowbooks@gmail.com
Best,
-Michael
November 29, 2014
Reading for Year’s Best Weird Fiction, Vol. 2
Friends, we are still reading for Year’s Best Weird Fiction, Vol. 2. Make sure you or your publisher gets me your stories. But, please, ensure that they are ‘weird’ fiction and not just another rehashed tale of a middle-class family suffering some angsty suburban ennui.
Guidelines are here. Please read them. I’m still getting a lot of submissions that aren’t reprints, or were published before 2014.
November 24, 2014
Free eBooks
Want 2 free eBooks? For a limited time I am offering a free eBook of both Year’s Best Weird Fiction AND Shadows & Tall Trees 2014 when you buy a copy of the trade-paperback version of Year’s Best Weird Fiction from your favourite retailer, online or otherwise. Simply e-mail me Proof of Purchase and I will send along both eBooks.
November 2, 2014
World Fantasy Convention
I’ll be at the World Fantasy Convention this Thursday through til the Sunday. Hope to see some of you there. Stop by and say ‘hello.’ I’m not on any programming so you’ll likely find me at the ChiZine table in the Dealer’s Room, and, perhaps, at the bar.
October 31, 2014
Halloween eBook Sale
Halloween eBook Special! Today only! Year’s Best Weird Fiction eBook is just $2.99, and Shadows & Tall Trees 6 eBook is only $1.99, direct from me.
October 19, 2014
Great review of Year’s Best Weird Fiction
Esteemed writer Nathan Ballingrud has posted a review of Year’s Best Weird Fiction on Amazon.com.
“Well, it’s a triumph. A really well-assembled collection, which succeeds in distinguishing itself from the best horror and best fantasy anthologies with an eclectic table of contents and a good opening essay by guest editor Laird Barron, in which he deftly uses Algernon Blackwood’s “The Willows” as a case study in describing his particular take on what makes a story “weird.” I love most of the stories in this book, and some are downright incandescent – from Paul Tremblay’s bleak “Swim Wants to Know If It’s As Bad As Swim Thinks” to the nightmare logic of Kristi DeMeester’s “Like Feather, Like Bone,” to the volcanic vision of Jeff VanderMeer’s “No Breather in the World But Thee”. I’m genuinely excited about where this is going. Barron did a knockout job, and series editor Michael Kelly deserves applause for getting this off the ground. The best part of the whole project? Rotating editors, keeping the perspective fresh, and the definition of the “weird” fluid. I’m already excited to see what Kathe Koja brings to the table next year.”
October 13, 2014
Aickman’s Heirs
Coming Spring of 2015, Aickman’s Heirs, edited by Simon Strantzas, an anthology of strange, weird tales by modern masters of weird fiction, in the milieu of Robert Aickman, the master of strange and ambiguous stories. Editor and author Strantzas, an important figure in Weird fiction, has been hailed as the heir to Aickman’s oeuvre, and is ideally suited to edit this exciting volume. Cover art by Yaroslav Gerzhedovich. Cover design by Vince Haig.
October 7, 2014
Review of Year’s Best Weird Fiction
A very nice review of the Year’s Best Weird Fiction appears at Tor.com. Thanks to Theresa DeLucci.
September 24, 2014
Shadows & Tall Trees review
A cracking review of Shadows & Tall Trees from Goodreads.
A nice, diverse selection of spooky/weird stories. The writing is solid all around, and the subjects move well beyond the basic fare of scratches at the window and thumps under the bed. My favorites were Robert Shearman’s deeply weird “It Flows From the Mouth,” “Summerside” by Alison Moore, and Michael Wehunt’s “Onanon” which was without question the strangest and most gleefully surreal piece in the collection. The scariest,, however, was a good-old-fashioned haunted-house story by V.H. Leslie called “The Quiet Room”; the fact that it made me jumpy was a pretty impressive feat, as I was reading it outside in the middle of the day.
One thing did strike me, though—and I would call this more of an observation than a criticism—which was that the likable characters seemed few and far between in the anthology. It’s possible that that is just the nature of these types of tales; dark things happen, and somehow it seems fitting that they happen to dark people; that is how we make sense of the world. In other cases, the characters are not so much offensive as they are painfully limited—isolated or abandoned types who finally step outside their private shelter only to find the world to be stranger, harsher and more dangerous than they had imagined. Maybe the latter is a reflection of writers’ own bookish personalities, or maybe it’s just easier to send your characters to their doom if they’re a bit obstinate and aren’t texting with a collection of upbeat and levelheaded friends who advise them to please, just go to a regular amusement park and not the abandoned one on the outskirts of town where all those children disappeared.
I mention all that not to suggest that there’s anything wrong with the anthology—because I do think it is very good—but maybe just as a reminder to myself and other writers that jerks and introverts make it easy to manufacture drama but they’re not really the most fun people to hang around.
-Joe Gola
September 16, 2014
Second review of Year’s Best Weird Fiction
The second review of the Year’s Best Weird Fiction, Vol. 1, has appeared, and it’s another good one. http://weirdfictionreview.com/2014/09...
