Carl Barker's Blog, page 5

Facts behind the fiction

The genesis for the idea of The West Dulwich Horror originally came from a piece of street art I spotted whilst visiting a friend in London a couple of years back. Upon returning home, I tried to locate some online information on the piece and that’s when I happened upon the Baroque The Streets Art festival which takes place in Dulwich annually and forms one of the central themes of my story.

For anyone who’s read the story and wants to know more, you might be interested to discover that many...

…but is it Art?

My latest published story is The West Dulwich Horror – a nightmarish fusion of classical masters, living street graffiti and ancient unnamable horrors arisen from the murky depths of machiavellian publishing – which you can now get hold of as part of The Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic 2 (available from all the usual online retailers).

Launched at this year’s FantasyCon, along with several other great releases from Alchemy Press, the anthology contains twelve tales of myth, magic and legend...

Con Man

So I’ll shortly be heading down to York for start of FantasyCon today and am really looking forward to it as it’s my first one. Will be great to catch up with some old friends and put a few faces to names of editors I’ve worked with over the last few years, not to mention all the great panels and readings on offer over the 3 days.

On Saturdayat 2pm, I’ll be at the Alchemy Press launch party for Urban Mythic 2 and will be on hand to deface copies with my errant signature should anyone ask.

If yo...

End of the ride?

My review of The Ace of Skulls – the fourth book in Chris Wooding‘s Ketty Jay series – is now available over at the BFS website.

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Mythic proportions

Alchemy Press have just revealed the following rather stylish prelim version of the cover for Urban Mythic 2:-

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Love Your Craft

Am pleased to announce that my story ‘The West Dulwich Horror‘ will be included in ‘The Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic 2‘, due out later this year.

As you’ve probably guessed from the title, this one’s somewhat of a love letter to one of the greats of the genre and I had a huge amount of fun writing it. Hopefully you’ll have just as much fun reading it.

The book is scheduled for launch at this year’s FantasyCon, being held in York in September and all being well, I’ll be attending as well.

I...

I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.

It would appear that due to a total administrative cock-up on the part of my service provider, my longstanding email address has been irrevocably deactivated as of today!

Please can anyone needing to contact me either hang on a few days or get hold of me via my Facebook or Twitter accounts instead.

I’ll update all the relevant editors/contacts with my new email address once it’s set-up.

Apologies.

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Twilight Twosome

My reviews of the last two volumes in Tom Lloyd’s rather enjoyable Twilight Reign saga are now posted over at the BFS website. Those looking for a fun new fantasy read should check them out here and here.

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My Friend of Misery

My latest story ‘Kicks‘ is included in the newly released second anthology from Forgotten Tomb Press, featuring 48 horror tales from some of the genre’s brightest stars and up and coming names.

Miseria’s Choralegathers together award winners, bestsellers, veterans and exciting new stars in one mammoth anthology that represents a broad definition of horror, taking readers on a journey to unspeakable realms and nightmarish self-discovery.

At 535 pages, it’s another whopping great tome and makes a...

Miseria loves company

The contents list for Forgotten Tomb Press‘ imminent anthology ‘Miseria Chorale Vol. 1‘ has been finalised and now features more than forty authors, the book set to weigh in at a whopping great 600+ pages:-

Christopher Nadeau, Patrick Lacey, Christian A. Larsen, Bear Weiter, Pete Aldin, Nick Kimbro, Todd Keisling, Cameron Suey, Carmen Tudor, Patrick Tumblety, Alexandre Mandarino, Jon Michael Kelley, Adam Millard, James S. Dorr, Sergio Palumbo, Aurelio Rico Lopez III, Meghan Arcuri, Richard God...