Joshua Reynolds's Blog, page 84

STEAMFUNK! Cover Sneak-Peek

Milton Davis and Balogun Ojetade, editors of the forthcoming Steamfunk! anthology, which includes my story “The Lion-Hunters”, of which I have spoken before, have posted a look at the cover-art. 

Pretty funky, right? To pre-order the book, head over to the MVmedia site and secure yourself a copy today!

New GOTREK & FELIX: ROAD OF SKULLS Review

Gotrek & Felix: Road of Skulls has received its first review courtesy of the fine folks over at the Falcata Times site. 

Here’s a bit of it:

It’s got high octane action, some solid twists and to be honest a lot of this for me was very reminiscent of David Gemmell’s Legend. The prose works extremely well and when you add to the mix characters that really shape the world that they inhabit you know damn well that it’s going to be anything but a walk in the park.

To read the full review, head over to the Falcata Times site. To read an excerpt from the book, click here. And if you like what you see, why not give Road of Skulls a try for yourself?

New Royal Occultist Story Available–”Owd Hob” at Monster Corral

The newest St. Cyprian and Gallowglass story, “Owd Hob”, which sees the duo matching wits with a vicious boggart in Suffolk in 1924, is now available to read for free at the Monster Corral site! 

Here’s a brief excerpt:

“He won’t have any arms at all when I’m done with him,” Gallowglass snapped. More crockery flew, and shards spattered over them as the boggart began to empty the cupboard with Maxim gun like regularity.

“I think he heard you,” St. Cyprian said, covering his head with his hands.

“I should bloody well hope so!” Gallowglass said. She tilted her head back and yelled, “You’re going to run out of crockery soon enough you little monster, and when you do it’s two in the noggin and a swift burial at the crossroads!”

“Please don’t threaten the whatever-it-is. He’s still got a cupboard full of tinned vegetables to throw,” St. Cyprian said.

“You just said it was a boggart!”

“It’s possible that it could be a brownie or a tommyknocker,” St. Cyprian snapped. “This isn’t an exact science, you know! It’s not like there’s a field-guide to fairies flittering about.”

And, if you enjoyed the story, be sure to check out the Monster Corral Facebook page, as well as the Royal Occultist Facebook page for more information about both. And, if you’d like to learn more about the Royal Occultist in particular, why not check out the free ROYAL OCCULTIST PRIMER?

GOTREK & FELIX OMNIBUS Now Available

The new editions of the Gotrek & Felix omnibuses are now available from Black Library. I mention this because I happen to have stories in two of them.

My stories, “Blood Sport” and “The Cask of Wynters” are included in the first omnibus and the second, respectively, as well as a number of other short stories by Jordan Ellinger, CL Werner and David Guymer, as well as the requisite and all-important Bill King originals.

“Blood Sport”, which was released last year as an e-short, sees Gotrek and Felix visit a trading post where the locals use a captive hippogryph in vicious pit fights. The Slayer seizes a chance to find his doom and challenges the beast.

“The Cask of Wynters”, which was released last year as a part of Gotrek & Felix: The Anthology, sees Snorri Nosebiter, Slayer and all-purpose loon, join a bevy of drunken knights on a sortie to rescue a dwarfen brewery from orcs.

New Review-”Berthold’s Beard”

The folks over at Falcata Times reviewed my latest Gotrek-and-Felix-centric Digital Monday offering, “Berthold’s Beard”. To see what they had to say about it, why not visit their site and take a look? And, if you want to see what all the fuss and bother is about, why not download a copy of “Berthold’s Beard” for yourself? Or, if you want to go the extra mile, why not grab a copy of my novel, Gotrek & Felix: Road of Skulls?

‘He Heard the Buttons on Jim Clay’s Funeral Shirt Clicking Across the Floor…’

The first issue of Black Treacle is now available! It includes my story, “Rattlesnake Eyes”, which sees cantankerous ghost-breaker John Bass in the Appalachians once again, this time to tangle with a stubborn corpse and unquiet spirits. I talk a bit more about the story HERE and the character of Bass HERE. 

Here’s a brief excerpt:

At the windows, the curtains twitched and Bass was reminded of the undulation of a rattlesnake as it shook its tail-tip.

He hadn’t known Jim Clay, but the stories spread far. He had been an old fashioned sumbitch, hog-mean and quick on the fly. He’d worked for the Baldwin-Felts for a bit and some change, and some folks said his momma had seen the Eden serpent in a dream the day he was born.

Bass turned as Harold dropped the bucket of water on the steps and backed away quickly. Iron, in the form of a bag of nails, and a sack of salt, were next. Their deliverers backed off just as quickly as Harold had. Clay watched from the yard.

“God bless, John Bass,” he said.

Bass didn’t reply. Instead, he scooped up the bucket, stuffed the nails into his pocket, grabbed the sack of salt and sidled towards the door. It opened at only the slightest touch. A stink like spoiled meat and rotting eggs swept out, curling around him like fingers. Holding a handkerchief pressed to his mouth and nose, he stepped inside, kicking the door closed behind him…

The issue is available to read on the BT site or to download for free via Smashwords.

‘You Don’t Want to Be the Next Name I Write in My Book…’

I wrote some words as part of reviewer Abhinav Jain’s  series of authorial confabs. It’s mostly just me talking about how I come up with the names–well, some of the names–I use in my diverse and varied ficciones. 

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To read the full post and find out what a shovel, a notebook and a church have to do with character names, .  And be sure to check out as well!

‘A Belated Silence…’

Normally, I’m on the ball with these types of things. Normally. But it’s been a busy few months and it entirely slipped my mind that my story, “Mr. Brass and the Last Sudden Silence”, has been reprinted in the first issue of The Black Cross, from Black Cross Productions. But, better late than never, right?

Right.

“Mr. Brass and the Last Sudden Silence”, which was first published in issue 11 of A Thousand Faces, finds Mr. Brass–the so-called ‘American Automaton’–descending into the Paris Catacombs in pursuit of a phantasmal kidnapper and his brutish assistant. You can find out where to nab the first issue of The Black Cross HERE.

I’ve talked a bit about the Mr. Brass stories before. As with John Bass, I have a lot of affection for Brass. While he started out as a steampunk pastiche of RoboCop by way of ‘The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’, he’s evolved into something a bit more interesting. At least I like to think so. Then, I might be biased.

If you’d like to check out some other Brass stories, why not nab copies of Kung-Fu Factory and How the West Was Weird 2, featuring, respectively, “Mr. Brass and the 7 Plagues of the Devil”, which sees Brass and Abraham Van Helsing battle 7 ancient Chinese vampires on behalf of the Devil Doctor in the aftermath of the San Francisco Earthquake, and “Mr. Brass and the Devil’s Teeth”, which sees Brass and Frank James battle renegade Confederista werewolves on the Mexican border.

BLACK TREACLE TOC Announced

The table of contents for the forthcoming first issue of Black Treacle, which includes my story, “Rattlesnake Eyes”, has been announced. 

From the Black Treacle site:

“Rattlesnake Eyes” by Josh Reynolds

“Amy” by K.T. Bryski

“A Little Piece of Heaven” by Rik Hoskin

“Ascending” by F.J. Bergmann

“Rain Gods” by Jeff Barr

“Rattlesnake Eyes” sees cantankerous ghost-breaker John Bass in the Appalachians once again, this time to tangle with a stubborn corpse and unquiet spirits. I talk a bit more about the story HERE and the character of Bass HERE.

‘He’ll Take to Burying, Now…’

I’m pleased to say that “Rattlesnake Eyes”, the latest story featuring the curmudgeonly old South Carolina ghost-breaker, John Bass, will be appearing in a forthcoming issue of Black Treacle. 

“Rattlesnake Eyes” sees Bass in the Appalachians once again, this time to tangle with a stubborn corpse and unquiet spirits.  It’s the tenth story to feature the cantankerous Bass to see the light of day, and I’m hoping it won’t be the last for this year.

Bass, a veteran of WWI, came home from the Continent with a French wife and a plan to be a farmer in his home county of Jackapo, South Carolina. Unfortunately, his land turned sour and his wife died of the influenza and that left Bass a hard and bitter old man whose only skills were in the laying and breaking of spirits, curses and hexes.

He’s a different sort of character to Charles St. Cyprian…less amusing, and, in some ways, much more effective. He works alone, facing the forces of darkness with only a bit of pragmatic hoodoo and a soul full of bitterness, and his opponents can’t generally be defeated by a revolver or silver sword-cane. For Bass, confronting the restless dead isn’t a duty, but a job, and a fairly wretched one at that.

Needless to say, I’ve got a lot of affection for the old bastard, whether he’s seeing off a demon-haunted tree, hunting hidden treasure, or reuniting a woman and her dead kin for one last family meal.