Joshua Reynolds's Blog, page 55
March 1, 2016
O’ Tiger’s Heart
Editor Jonathan Green has posted a partial table of contents for the forthcoming anthology, Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu, which includes my story, “A Tiger’s Heart, A Player’s Hide”, as well as stories by James Lovegrove and Graham McNeill, among others.
The title for my story comes in a roundabout way from Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Part III, a play about a kingdom in upheaval and changing times. Fitting, given that my story is about one of the earliest performances of said play by Lord Strange’s Men, in 1592–a performance that is illicitly hijacked by eldritch forces, seeking to topple the natural order and replace it with something more savage…
February 29, 2016
Monday Ripper
A lonely train winds its way towards an isolated Cornish village. Six people share a compartment. One pulls out a deck of cards, and proposes a wager. Somewhere, a wolf howls and the dead gather. What terrible secret will be revealed by the cards? Can the Royal Occultist thwart THE FATES OF DR. FELL?
From the April Moon Books site:
Continuing our tradition of anthologies that celebrate everything that is fun, lurid and sexy about horror, we are delighted to announce the imminent release of Spawn of the Ripper – our love letter to the films of Hammer Horror and Amicus.
This sumptious book contains fourteen stunning tales that could have been ripped from the screen, full of mad scientists, evil monsters, bright red blood and heaving bosoms.
Featuring all new stories from Josh Reynolds, Christine Morgan, Aaron Smith, Pete Mesling, R. Allen Leider, Patrick Loveland, Amy Braun, John McCallum Swain, Coy Hall, DJ Tyrer, Ben Stewart, Jonathan Cromack, John Hunt, Glynn Owen Barrass and Martha Bacon – these authors have embraced the technicolor theme and created startling new visions, all with severed tongues planted firmly in cheeks.
Each story is accompanied by a full-color title page and we are sure you will be delighted to add this anthology to your collection…
I’ve mentioned this story before, I believe. “The Fates of Dr. Fell” is an homage to the old portmanteau films of Amicus and Hammer, filtered through an occult detective lens and featuring werewolves, zombies and plenty of Satanic pandemonium. It was a lot of fun to write, and hopefully it’ll be a lot of fun to read.
Spawn of the Ripper is available from April Moon Books as well as Amazon.com in its various international flavors, in both trade and digital formats. Grab your copy today! And if you enjoy Spawn of the Ripper, why not check out the anthologies, The Dark Rites of Cthulhu and Ill-Considered Expeditions, also from April Moon Books, and also containing stories by me.
February 26, 2016
Free Fiction Friday: “Alternate 7816JS”
Another Friday, another serving of free fiction. This time it’s one of my earliest attempts at writing science-fiction, featuring a character I may very well try and revive one day: a nasty customer called the Censor…
“Alternate 7816JS” was published by the flash fiction site 365tomorrows in 2006 and is available to read here. So…a decade ago? Eesh. Needless to say, there’s a certain…roughness to the style. It’s not as crisp as it could. Not as polished. Then, the stuff I’m writing now will probably seem somewhat crude next to something published in, say 2026.
You know…if I’m still getting stories published a decade from now, and not dead or pumping gas for a living.
Anyway, the Censor. What a horrid creature. A time travelling bureaucrat. A chronal auditor. A man (well, clone) who erases divergent realities with a smile and a wink. He does so love his job, after all. I don’t really recall what inspired this one, other than wanting to write something short and science-fictional, with dinosaurs in it. The Censor went on to appear in a few more stories, and his personality got a bit more developed in each one, though we never really find out much more about who he works for or what their purpose is.
Every couple of years I consider trying to revive the Censor, possibly in a longer story. I haven’t managed it yet, but I imagine I will, when the right idea comes along.
February 24, 2016
WIP Wednesday #8: Time Flies
Eight weeks in. We’re closing in on March already. How the time do fly.
The Novel-With-No-Name has reached 58,000 words (of 80,000). If you’re good with numbers, that means that I’m 22,000 words from being done with the first draft. So roughly another week and a half to two weeks of work, if all continues on apace and without delay. Which is not bad, all things considered. Six to eight weeks to complete an 80k novel is fairly respectable, I think (I hope). There are authors who work faster, but, eh…they ain’t me and I ain’t them, so I’m content with my humdrum pace.
Progress on the Short-Story-With-No-Name has been a bit slower. I’m only about 6k (0f 10k) words in, rather than, y’know, finished. Irksome, but not unexpected. The delay is mostly due to me trying to figure out what sort of story it is…is it a done-in-one, a connective vignette, a glorified prologue? A horror story? A heist movie? Both, neither, something entirely different? That said, I think I’m going to let the characters do the talking on this one. Rather than trying to force it into some sort of predetermined shape, I’m just going to let it be what it is. Characters doing characterful things at one another in (hopefully) thematic contrast.
I also managed to get “Scholar’s Fire” submission-ready this weekend, managing to cap it off at about 3,500 words–short and to the point. It doesn’t spend a lot of time bringing the reader up to speed, which is a bit of a risk. But hey, it’s got a lizard made of fire in it–that tells you all you need to know, really. Besides that, I revised a pitch for a novella I’ll be writing later this year, and made notes for a few potential short stories.
Next week I’m hoping to get back to The Sea-Leopard. I’d like to have the draft finished by April, but then, back in January, I was hoping to have it finished in February. At this point, it’ll be finished when I’ve got the spare time.
So that’s what I’ve been working on. What about you?
February 22, 2016
Zibaldone #7: Dig the Dead
“The church of St. Mawgan, in Kerrier, was formerly at Carminowe, at the end of the parish. It was removed thence to its present site on account of the ghoulish propensities of the giants, who used to dig up the dead from their graves. The in-habitants tried in vain to destroy them by making deep pits, and covering them over with “sprouse” (light hay or grass) so that the unwary giants, walking over them as on firm ground, might fall into them and be killed. As this project failed, they were reluctantly compelled to remove the church to its present place, beyond the reach of their troublesome neighbours.”
— Rev. S. Rundle, Penzance Natural History Society, 1885-1886.
Just a neat little thing from my commonplace book. I ganked it from Cornish Feasts and Folklore (1890), by Margaret Ann Courtney, a book I found in a charity shop for 50p, along with the 1885 edition of The Ingoldsby Legends–also 50p. If you’d like to read Cornish Feasts, you can check out and/or download a scanned copy thanks to the Internet Archive.
February 18, 2016
Super-Sounds Redux
Another of my Jim Anthony, Super-Detective stories is now available for your listening pleasure, via Audible. “Proof of Supremacy” sees the Super-Detective join forces with ace G-Man, Dan Fowler, in order to capture a deadly gang of bank robbers before they kill again.
The other available works include my 2012 novel, The Mark of Terror, my two recent novellas, The Death’s Head Cloud and Red Shambhala, and two short stories, “Death in Yellow” and “The Black Bat at Bay!”, the latter of which finds the Super-Detective on the hunt for the eponymous vigilante.
“Proof of Supremacy” is the second of the two crossover stories I wrote for Airship 27. Dan Fowler, like the Black Bat, makes for an interesting contrast to Jim Anthony. Too, the villains for this one were fun to write. Frankly, I’d like to write a few more Super-Detective crossovers…it’d be cool to see Anthony team-up with the likes of Ravenwood, the Domino Lady or Ki-Gor.
Anyway, the new audio, narrated by Mark Finfrock, is available from Audible. Why not give the sample a listen and see if you dig it? And if you do, why not leave a review?
February 17, 2016
WIP Wednesday #7: No Return
Seven weeks. Who’s ready for Halloween?
I’ve reached the halfway point on the Novel-With-No-Name. AKA the point of no return. It now exists in that nebulous state between completion and ‘God, why isn’t this done?’. It’s a good place to be, really. Three to four more weeks and the first draft will be completed. Then it’s off to the editors for a walloping with the red pen o’ doom.
This week I also started working on a short story to accompany the novel. It features some (but not all) of the characters (of whom there are many) doing plot-referential things. For obvious reasons, I can’t talk about this one either, beyond stating I’m about 4ooo words in. Which means this entry of WIP Wednesday is a short one, I’m afraid.
So that’s what I’m working on. How about you?
February 16, 2016
A Detective, An Escapist and A Ghost Walk Into A Bar
Sounds like the set-up for a great joke, doesn’t it? But there’s nothing funny about the eldritch doom hanging over the head of the Great Houdini–a doom which may yet claim the magician’s soul unless Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the Royal Occultist, Charles St. Cyprian, can uncover the secret of “The Door of Eternal Night”.
In the heady days of the Jazz Age, Sherlock Holmes has retired to his bees. But other, stranger detectives watch London in his absence.
Chief among them is Charles St. Cyprian, the current Royal Occultist and heir to a tradition reaching back to Elizabethan England. He, along his his apprentice Ebe Gallowglass, protect the Empire from That Which Man Was Not Meant to Know—including vampires, ghosts, werewolves, ogres, fairies, boggarts and the occasional worm of unusual size.
Tonight, St. Cyprian’s night out has been interrupted by two very important men, Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The escapist and spook-buster has a problem–a spook haunting his hotel room, a spook he can’t quite bust. And it seems this particularly ghost has a bearing on a case Sherlock Holmes failed to solve, and may solve yet, if St. Cyprian doesn’t untangle the mystery first…
This one was fun to write for a lot of reasons. It ties together a number of off-hand references and loose ends from the Royal Occultist stories, and features not one, but three historical personages. I crammed a lot into those twenty thousand or so words (Magic! Suspense! Cleopatra’s Needle!), and I hope folks enjoy it. And if you do, be sure to leave a review and let 18thWall (and me) know.
The novella is available to download from the publisher’s website as well as Amazon.com and its affiliates.
February 15, 2016
Zibaldone #6: Haint Blue
When I was growing up, I saw a lot of houses like this, down around where we lived. There was even one that was all blue–roof, walls, porch, chimney. All bright, vibrant blue. Even had blue posts, sunk into the ground at the edges of the property, with silver dollars nailed to the tops.
I always wondered what they were afraid of. Must have been nasty, whatever it was.
Anyway, ghosts don’t like blue. It’s a fact. Everybody says so.
February 13, 2016
Merry Ghost Hunter Interview
Tim Prasil, author and occult detective historian, kindly interviewed me about the Royal Occultist series, as part of his new 4-Question Interview series over at his new site, The Merry Ghost Hunter. I talk a bit about fictional worlds, future books and forthcoming stories. Head over to The Merry Ghost Hunter and check it out. And be sure to check out the previous interview with author and artist Bob Freeman as well.
