Narrelle M. Harris's Blog, page 25

New short story: Earworm Armageddon

I don’t often write SF, but my recent foray into the genre, Earworm Armageddon (about an aurally led subjugation of the Earth, with deaf protagonists fighting the good fight) has been published in Jay Henge’s Wavelengths anthology.

Sometimes communication is not as straightforward as we might expect. From body language to Morse code, conveying messages comes in a wide variety of forms. How do we get our message across?

The stories and novellas in this anthology plumb the depths of the imagination, seeking to understand what might come to be if we were forced to communicate with those who no longer or never did understand us.

Buy Wavelengths

Wavelengths[image error] (Amazon US Kindle)
Wavelengths [image error](Amazon US paperback)
Wavelengths  (Amazon UK Kindle)
Wavelengths  (Amazon UK paperback)


Wavelengths (Amazon Australia Kindle)

Check out the Fantasy, Horror and SF Short Stories page for more buying options, which I’ll add as they become available.

New Release: A Dream to Build a Kiss On

A Dream to Build A Kiss On is my new contemporary-era HolmesWatson romance/adventure from Improbable Press!

The book contains 100 connected stories of only 221 words, the last word of each beginning with the letter B!

The stories are illustrated by Caroline Jennings, representing the sketches of John Watson, army doctor, war veteran, artist.

A Dream to Build A Kiss On  is available for pre-order from several sites and will be out on 8 June as an e-book, and 22 June in paperback.

*

Two lonely men. How much will change when they find each other?

John tries to drag his patient to safety.

A bullet breaks his shoulder open.

He spins.

Blood sprays.

He

falls.

“Trixie’s down!” Blue shouts.

Pain.

Pain.

Pain.

John gasps in the dirt. So alone, far from home.

He thinks of Hugh. Is sorry/not sorry.

He thinks of Alice. Weeps.

So alone.

*

Sherlock told his brother that the cocaine was about boredom. A half truth.

Does Mycroft know what Musgrave did? Said?

In the early days of this ritual, Sherlock would remember kissing Reggie. Being kissed. No more.

Love is useless. Deceptive. Damaging.

Art by Caroline Jennings

If you’re coming to Continuum in Melbourne this weekend (8-11 June 2018) I’ll have advance copies of the paperback for sale!

If you can’t make it there, here are the pre-order sites!

A Dream to Build a Kiss On (Improbable Press)
A Dream to Build a Kiss On (Common Language Bookshop)

A Dream to Build a Kiss On (Fishpond)


A Dream to Build a Kiss On (Booktopia)


A Dream to Build a Kiss On (Amazon US paperback/ebook)


A Dream to Build a Kiss On (Amazon UK paperback/ebook )


A Dream to Build a Kiss On (Amazon Australia)


A Dream to Build a Kiss On (Kobo)


A Dream to Build a Kiss On (Bookdepository)

 

The Lady Novelist is menaced by a cow on Dartmoor

I’m on my travels once more – back to the UK where I’ve been doing a spot of research at the British Library, visiting a friend up in Kendal and doing the Beatrix Potter/Windemere Lake thing and now spending time with my talented friend, Janet Anderton, as we throw ideas around for a potential book collaboration or six in the future.

As part of our brainstorming for creative collaboration, Janet and I went on a road trip to Dartmoor. I’m also working on a story which is partly set on the moor and I wanted especially to see a strange little wood I’d read about in the middle of the national park.

Wistman’s Wood has a reputation for wizardry and occult happenings. Lying just to the east of West Dart River, the wood is an area of twisted oaks, shadows and lichen-covered boulders. It’s unlike any other place on the moor and is associated with legends of druids, demonic hunts and, I expect, many twisted ankles.

My little guide book said the walk to Wistman’s Wood from Two Bridges and back via a couple of tors was ‘undemanding’ and would take about two and a half hours.

It mentioned that the walk shouldn’t be done in poor visibility. It mentioned the care that should be taken on some of the rougher, rock-strewn paths.

It did not mention cows.

As an Australian, I am used to certain activities while walking country paths. I have played the ‘is that a stick or a snake?’ game, and the ‘oh my god I’ve walked into a spider web, is there a spider in my hair?? oh god, oh god, get it off me, oh god‘ dance.

What I’m not used to is seeing three cows in the distance, standing in a solemn, unmoving row like they were about to ask Janet and I three riddles before we’d be allowed to climb the stile and enter the wood.  Three black cows that looked as big as Paul Bunyan’s blue ox but twice as mean, even from the opposite hill.

The weirdest thing was how they got smaller as we approached. In fact, by the time we got there, instead of the three of them towering over our heads and glaring judgementally at us, they were all about our shoulder height and two had lost interest. The third maintained an expression of sinister displeasure, but we tiptoed past, climbed the stile and made it without incident to Wistman’s Wood.

It was worth the clamber, the urgent need for a sneaky yet careful outdoor pee among the gorse bushes (reminiscent of that time in Canada with the bears) and the cow fright to sit on a boulder and look into that cool green light under the twisted oaks.  The intermittent call of a cuckoo and the chirps of songbirds punctated the hush. Down the hill, the West Dart burbled, and the complaints of querelous sheep filtered through to us.

The wood was eerie and compelling, but I was content to sit and watch rather than enter its rocky heart. I’m no mountain goat. Observation was enough to flesh out the story I currently have set in its interior.

In the shade of hill and oak, I also recorded a brief account of my response to Australia achieving marriage equality for the upcoming Irish of New York podcast. Afterwards, I shared and traded ideas with Janet (who among other things designed the IoNY logo) about how we might use the wood and it’s strange atmosphere to best effect for this book we hope to do together.

Rested from our travails, we decided to avoid the Scary Evil Eyed Cows by going to the top of the hill, skipping the tors and taking the grassy path back to the farmhouse at the start of our walk.

Hey, reader! Do you remember all those cartoons with big snorting bulls that puff steam from their nostrils and paw the earth with giant hoofs? Cos Janet and I sure do!

We were very forcefully reminded of all those animated characters tossed over fences by territorial bulls as we realised the big cow ahead of us wasn’t shrinking like the mysterious ones further down the hill. No.

THIS cow was enormous and getting larger.

THIS cow had a pair of balls that Janet described as ‘like two footballs in a pillow case’.

THIS cow was a big black bull, pawing at a dusty hollow in the hillside and tossing its horned head about in said hollow like it had personally affronted him.

He hadn’t even seen us yet.

Running was out of the question. I can’t. I’d be trampled to death and Janet, who is fleeter of foot than I, would have to sing epic songs of my heroic death so that my name lived on. She happily agreed that she would run like blazes and save herself if necessary.

Still, we thought. While people DO get killed by cows, we might be able to slide past this one if we played our cards right.

I immediately adopted the only strategy I knew, which was the one I was taught in Canada about Never Surprising A Bear. Janet opted for the Music Soothes the Savage Beast protocol. We didn’t want this bull – who was either enjoying a dust bath or rehearsing his badass Murder the Rambling Tourist moves – to be suprised. Nope nope nope nope.

Janet sang a little song which may have been ‘please don’t kill us, Mr Bull’. I softly called out in a wispy voice. “Hey cow. Hey cow. Vegetarian here. Good cow. Bull. Sir. Hey cow.”

We skirted well beyond its back legs. We walked slowly but steadily (do bulls chase running people the way dogs chase running cats? Who knew, but we were taking no chances).

The bull snorted into his dust bowl and ignored us.

We sang and hey-cowed and walked on until we couldn’t see the Bull of the Baskervilles any more.

The rest of our walk was without incident, but I did cast a backward glance from time to time, to ensure the Terrifying Cow hadn’t taken an interest.

That night, the lovely Jane from our delightful B&B, Dartfordleigh, cheerfully told us in her gorgeous Scots burr, “Oh yes, the cows can get quite touchy when they’re pregnant”. She may have mentioned a previous accidental death-by-cow but I may have been too busy hyperventilating to hear that bit.

But all’s well that ends in not being killed by a cow. Our afternoon on the moor had been filled with beauty, mystery, inspiration and adventure! Our hostess made everything sound charming with her accent, and our lodgings in the middle of Dartmoor were comfortable, picturesque and restful.

Janet and I had walked across a medieval clapper bridge and eaten a fine cream tea at the Two Bridges hotel. We’d delighted in English wildflowers and played pooh sticks at a stone bridge in a sweet little dell. We explored the House of Marbles in Bovey Tracey and met a kindred spirit at Pixie Corner (a story which I may share later).

We may not have committted to further rambles, but with Postbridge being in the centre of the national park, every drive to any spot was a visual feast. We had a marvellous time in Dartmoor and alarming bovines notwithstanding, 10/10, would go out on the wily, windy moors again.

And as a bonus, Janet has been producing some gorgeous sketches!

Cover Reveal: Scar Tissue and Other Stories

At the beginning of May, my Patreon reached its first goal of $100 a month! That means that, as soon as I’ve finished writing the last few stories, getting them edited and getting it all formatted, all my supporters will be getting a free short story collection from me! (The rest of the world will be able to buy it a week or so later.)

Once those final three stories are completed I’ll release a Table of Contents to whet your appetite. In the meantime… TA-DAAAA! This is the cover! Designed by me, using Canva.

Five questions for Karen J Carlisle

Today, Karen J Carlisle answers five questions about her latest book.

Karen J Carlisle

What’s the name of your latest book – and how hard was it to pick a title?

I’m currently writing Aunt Enid: Protector Extraordinaire. It is the first book in ‘The Aunt Enid Mysteries’ series. I’m told it’s a cosy parnormal mystery.

The ‘Aunt Enid’ was there from the beginning (based on my own great aunt Enid). The Subtitle was problematic; how to hint at what the story was about, without giving it all away?

Usually a title will pop in my head, giving me something to hang the story on. I have fun making up titles.

If you could choose anyone from any time period, who would you cast as the leads in your latest book?


Aunt Enid: Miriam Margoyles
Agnes Farrow: Helen Mirren
Alfred Knowles: Richard E Grant (aged up a bit.)  Those eyes…
Sally: someone in late 20s/early 30s. Perfect for a ‘newcomer’ This is flexible. Sally is the newcomer discovering everything – a substitute for the reader, so she can take on any likeness. She has a role and personality. She’s sometimes blonde, sometimes brunette but always Sally.


What five words best describe your story?

Cosy, supernatural mystery in Adelaide.

Who is your favourite fictional team/couple?

The Doctor (as in Who) and Donna. (Even they do the Agatha Christie thing!)

What song reflects a theme, character, relationship or scene in your book?

I had to think a lot about this. (Usually I can rattle the song off immediately: Doctor Jack – Behind Blue Eyes by The Who, my work-in-progress fantasy – Stay by Shakespears Sister.)

I didn’t really have one song for this book. It was mostly driven by childhood memories. I suppose I’d say: Curious World by Alice’s Night Circus, and the line: “Don’t be afraid of the dark.”

About Aunt Enid: Protector Extraordinaire

Daemons, fairies, magic: it’s all real! The Otherworld is bleeding through cracks into our world. And Adelaide is ground zero.

Something is coming. Something dark – trading souls for passage. And only one person stands between The Dark and the fate of the world.

Aunt Enid is just your average seventy-something year old. She loves to cook, is a regular at bingo and spends hours in her garden, talking to her army of garden gnomes and fussing over the colour of her hydrangeas…

When people start disappearing, her great niece, Sally, is drawn into a secret world and soon discovers her great aunt is a Protector Extaordinaire.

Aunt Enid: Protector Extraordinaire is the first book in ‘The Aunt Enid Mysteries’, the first series in ‘The Otherworlds Chronicles.’

About Karen J Carlisle

Karen J Carlisle is an imagineer and writer of steampunk, Victorian mysteries and fantasy.

She was short-listed in Australian Literature Review’s 2013 Murder/Mystery Short Story Competition and published her first novella, Doctor Jack & Other Tales, in 2015. Her short story, Hunted, featured in the Adelaide Fringe exhibition, ‘A Trail of Tales’.

Karen lives in Adelaide with her family and the ghost of her ancient Devon Rex cat. She’s always loved dark chocolate and rarely refuses a cup of tea.

Follow Karen:

Website: Karen J Carlisle
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Patreon

Buy Aunt Enid: Protector Extraordinaire

Smashwords offers a special 66% off Aunt Enid: Protector Extraordinaire from 21st May to 7th June. Visit Karen J Carlisle’s Aunt Enid for Smashwords and Amazon links.

Location: Hardware Lane

This post first appeared on my Patreon for my Fly By Nighters supporters on 6 April 2018

My first confession is that this image is not actually in Hardware Lane, which runs parallel to Elizabeth Street (between Queen and Elizabeth Streets) starting at Bourke Street and going through to Lonsdale. Between Lonsdale and Little Lonsdale, it becomes Hardware Street, even though it’s shorter than the Lane.

The paved Lane between Little Bourke  and Lonsdale Streets is closed to traffic, because it’s full of outdoor seating for cafes and restaurants. At one end, a  nightclub called Khokolat has operated out of a basement premises at #43 since at least 2005.

At the other end, The Golden Monkey – another downstairs bar, decorated 1920s Shanghai style and named for the a statuette in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom – is at the other. It opened in around 2007.

These days, Khokolat and a costume shop are opposite the most excellent Kirk’s Wine Bar, but in 2009 it was just one of several more generic cafes on the street.

It’s great for me that both those places were operating in 2009, when Number One Fan is set.

But that doesn’t explain the photo above.

That, my friends, is a promo photo (taken on Niagara Lane I think) for Hardware Lane Costumes, located on the first floor of 43 Hardware Lane. That puts it above Khokolat and, for my purposes, right next to an invented office where Frank and Milo have, in 2009, just set up a little space to manage business and answer fan mail.

How will I be using these locations in the story? I’m not entirely sure yet, but if I don’t get one of those boys into a princess costume at one point, I don’t even know myself.

In the meantime, with both Hardware Lane and Hardware Street postively lush with excellent cafes like Kirks, Hash, The Hardware Societe and La Petite Creperie, I’ll have somewhere pleasant to sit and plot to my heart’s content.

My Patreon supporters are helping to fund the writing and production of the Duo Ex Machina series. Number One Fan will be the third book in the series, and a brand new addition to it!

Another Scar Tissue Art sneak peek

Last month I shared a sneak peak of some photo art that will appear in Scar Tissue and Other Stories, which I’ll be releasing when my Patreon reaches $100 a month. (Only $20 a month to go, guys!)

I only have three more stories to write for that collection, too! One will be set in the Kitty and Cadaver universe, another in the Ravenfall universe, and the third will be a take on the Orpheus legend.

These images, however, belong to the flash fiction series Lost and Found, based on photographs of lost/found objects I’ve taken on my wanderings. I won’t give you titles this time, though I encourage you to post your guesses about where the photos come from.

Release day – Baker Street Irregulars: The Game Is Afoot

It’s finally here! The official release day of Baker Street Irregulars: The Game Is Afoot, the second volume of alternative universe stories reworking Sherlock Holmes and John Watson as everything from computer programs to mythical characters.

Some stories are fantasy, some historical, some SF, some contemporary. One or other (or both) may be alien, artificial, genderswapped or anthropomorphised.

The stories are a giddy selection of possibilities. My own story, The Problem of the Three Journals’ shifts them only slightly, to be a pair of contemporary Australian hipsters running a cafe in Melbourne and solving mysteries together.

You can see more at the publisher, Diversion Books or buy Baker Street Irregulars: The Game is Afoot at one of the following online stores.

Baker Street Irregulars: The Game is Afoot (Common Language Bookshop paperback)
Baker Street Irregulars: The Game is Afoot (Common Language Bookshop Kobo ebook)
Baker Street Irregulars: The Game is Afoot (Amazon.com)
Baker Street Irregulars: The Game is Afoot (Barnes and Noble)


Baker Street Irregulars: The Game is Afoot (iBooks)


Baker Street Irregulars: The Game is Afoot (Kobo)


Baker Street Irregulars: The Game is Afoot (Google Play)


Baker Street Irregulars: The Game is Afoot (Indie Bound)


Baker Street Irregulars: The Game is Afoot (Bookdepository)


Baker Street Irregulars: The Game is Afoot (Booktopia)


Baker Street Irregulars: The Game is Afoot (Angus and Robertson)


Baker Street Irregulars: The Game is Afoot (Kinokuniya)

Or add it to your Goodreads list for later! 

An audio book will be along eventually, too.

Audiobook coming for Baker Street Irregulars: The Game is Afoot

Baker Street Irregulars: The Game is Afoot is the second volume of an anthology series that places Sherlock Holmes (and often John Watson) in various alternative realities.

The first volume included versions where Holmes was a nun, a dog-like alien and even a parrot!

My story in this new volume, ‘The Problem of the Three Journals’, recasts Holmes and Watson as contemporary Australian hipsters! John’s a barista in the cafe they co-own and they still solve crimes together.

The book is due out on 24 April, which is not far away now – and the publisher has just announced that actors have been engaged to read the audiobook!

I’m absolutely thrilled to find that New-York-based Australian actor, , will be reading ‘The Problem of the Three Journals’, and thereby getting the accent right!

The other performers on the upcoming audiobook are , and

The full table of contents, and the actors who’ll be reading each story, are:

‘The Problem of the Three Journals’ by Narrelle M Harris –Jamie Jackson
‘Six Red Dragons’ by Keith RA De Candido– Korey Jackson
‘The Adventure of the Diode Detective’ by Jody Lynne Nye –Karen Chilton
‘Investigations Upon Taxonomy of Venomous Squamates’ by R Rozakis –Korey Jackson
‘Papyrus’ by Sarah Stegall –Jonathan Todd Ross
‘My Dear Wa’ats’ by Hildy Silverman – Karen Chilton
‘A Scandal in Chelm’ by Daniel M Kimmel –Jonathan Todd Ross
‘The Affair of the Green Crayon’ by Stephanie M McPherson –Jonathan Todd Ross
‘A Study in Space’ by Derek Beebe –Korey Jackson
‘Sin Eater and the Adventure of Ginger Mary’ by Gordon Linzner –Karen Chilton
‘The Adventure of the Double-Sized Final Issue’ by Mike Strauss –Jamie Jackson
‘A Very Important Nobody’ by Chuck Regan –Jamie Jackson
‘Ho Ho Holmes’ by Nat Gertler –Jonathan Todd Ross

I don’t know yet when the audiobook will be out, but in the meantime you can pre-order Baker Street Irregulars: The Game is Afoot from Amazon, ready for delivery on 24 April!

Baker Street Irregulars: The Game is Afoot

Five questions for Steven Paulsen

Today, Steven Paulsen answers five questions about his new book:

Steven Paulsen

1. What’s the name of your latest book – and how hard was it to pick a title?

My latest book is a short story collection called Shadows on the Wall. I played around with a bunch of titles but none of them seemed fit right. Then one day I remembered a discarded novelette I wrote many years ago that was called “Shadows on the Wall”, and I realised it was a great title for my collection. There are numerous shadows lurking in these stories. Some are overt, such as in “The Black Diamond of the Elephant God” where the protagonist is pursued by a shadow, and in “In the Light of the Lamp” where an ancient brass oil burner casts shadows on the wall.

But for me the title also spoke to the theme of the book as a whole. When Isobelle Carmody read the collection, she wrote that the stories are “shadows, shifting on the wall, barely seen, slipping into our minds to lie, light and cold over our hearts…” So I think the title works well.

2. If you could choose anyone from any time period, who would you cast as the leads in your latest book?

That’s a tough question because my book is a collection of short stories. But if I were to pick one story, there is a new novelette in the book called “The Black Diamond of the Elephant God”. The man character of this story is a 19th Century English Orientalist and Sanskrit scholar named Giles Freeman. To play him, I would choose Laurence Olivier in his mid-late thirties. He would have no doubt done the character proud.

3. What five words best describe your story?

Dark, weird, heart-wrenching, spooky and humorous.

4. Who is your favourite fictional team/couple?

My favourite fictional duo are Fritz Leiber’s sword-and-sorcery rogues, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Unlike so many wooden sword and sorcery characters, they feel alive, albeit larger than life. Fafhrd is a tall sword-wielding northern barbarian, prone to the occasional song, while the Mouser is a short thief and swordsman, with a little skill in magic. Together, they carouse, brawl and gamble their way through some rollicking, chaotic adventures.

5. What song reflects a theme, character, relationship or scene in your book?

Hmmm… The stories in this collection vary a lot on tone and style, plus they were written over a few decades so it’s difficult to pick just one song that represents the book.

I probably listened to David Bowie a lot when I wrote some of these stories, so it’s reasonable to say his music was an influence. I’ve been listening to his 2013 compilation album, Nothing Has Changed, which was the first album to showcase his entire career.

As for a song that reflects the theme, let’s go with John Lennon’s ‘Watching the Wheels’ from his Double Fantasy album. It’s a tenuous link, but people do say I’m crazy doing what I’m doing, and I like that he said he was doing fine watching Shadows on the Wall.

About Shadows on the Wall

Shadows on the Wall is a short story collection that contains the very best of Paulsen’s dark and weird tales…plus stunning new fiction written expressly for this volume.

Glimpse a future where population controls force families into terrible choices.
Visit Colonial British India and experience the awakening of an eldritch horror.
Walk the steaming jungles of Vietnam alongside the spirits of the forest.
Light an ancient oil lamp but beware, the shadows on the wall…

About Steven Paulsen

Steven Paulsen’s bestselling dark fantasy children’s book, The Stray Cat, illustrated by Hugo and Oscar Award winning artist Shaun Tan, has seen publication in several English and foreign language editions. His short stories, which Isobelle Carmody describes as beautifully written and subtle, have appeared in magazines and in anthologies around the world.

His short story collection, Shadows on the Wall (IFWG Publishing Australia, 2018) contains the best of Paulsen’s dark and weird tales plus new fiction written expressly for the book.

Follow Steven

StevenPaulsen.com
Goodreads
Amazon

Buy Shadows on the Wall

Shadows On the Wall: Dark and Weird Stories[image error] (Amazon US)


Shadows on the Wall (Angus and Robertson)


Shadows on the Wall (Book Depository)


Shadows on the Wall (iBooks)


Shadows on the Wall (Booktopia)


Shadows on the Wall (Kobo)