Tim Major's Blog, page 4

Announcement – Echec!

I’m very pleased I can now announce this… The excellent Salò Press will publish my story ‘Echec!’ as a chapbook next month. It’s one of my Great Robots of History stories, about the chess-playing automaton known as the Mechanical Turk. It’s a bit of a departure for me, being a comedy (sort of) and presented as a play script.

I’ll show the people a true spectacle.

For years, Schlumberger has operated the chess-playing automaton known as the Mechanical Turk… and it’s killing him. T...

Open submission calls for writers: February 2024

Here’s this month’s list of the most interesting open submissions calls for writers I’ve found!
Sign up for my email newsletter if you want advance notice of open calls like these.

Once Upon a Future Time
This is the fourth volume in this anthology series that specialises in fairy tales retold in science-fiction contexts.
Word count: 250–15,000 words
Payment: 5 cents per word
Deadline: 29 February 2024
Find out more

Laughs in Space
New publisher Slab Press and editor of the Best of British SF...

Open submission calls for writers: January 2024

Celebrate the new year with this bumper list of the most interesting open submissions calls for writers I’ve found recently!

And a reminder: sign up for my email newsletter if you want advance notice of open calls like these.

CatsCast
Who knew that the excellent audio fiction company Escape Artists has a cat-themed podcast? Pretty savvy, given how much the internet loves cats. Personally, I’m a dog person, if anything.
Word count: Up to 6000 words
Payment: 8 cents per word
Deadline: Open 1...

New short story: Wesley Not-There

From this month onwards, Interzone has become a monthly publication again, in ebook form. And I’ve got a story in this issue!

‘Wesley Not-There’ is a tender little tale about a diner waitress and an invisible person. I’m really fond of it, and I hope it gets read.

You can read more about the issue on the Interzone website.

Cover reveal – Jekyll & Hyde: Consulting Detectives

I’m so delighted with this beautiful cover for my upcoming novel JEKYLL & HYDE: CONSULTING DETECTIVES!

Dr Jekyll and his monstrous alter-ego join forces with his ex-fiancée to solve a series of disappearances across Victorian London in this thrilling mystery.

“Relentlessly engaging, entertaining, and terrific fun” – Tom Mead

Published 3 Sept 2024 by Titan Books
Cover design by Natasha MacKenzie
Edited by Daniel Carpenter

Click here for more info and pre-order links.

My writing year 2023

Here’s what I wrote this year:

80,000 words of a murder mystery novelThe second half of a commissioned horror novel begun last yearStructural revisions of Jekyll & Hyde: Consulting DetectivesTen short stories intended to be published as a collection, Great Robots of HistoryThree short stories for specific themes or commissionsAn article for an upcoming non-fiction book

All in all, I wrote 175,000 words and spent 243 hours writing.

I had the following work published...

Favourite books of 2023

Of those published this year, the novel that perfectly matched my tastes was Biography of X by Catherine Lacey. It’s a fictitious biography of an artist skilled in creating diverse stage (and off-stage) personas, and as it’s written by her wife it’s a conceit that allows for insights into both characters whilst struggling to remain objective. Beyond that, it mixes Pale Fire-esque metafiction and alternate history politics reminiscent of The Handmaid’s Tale.

Two other recent novels covered...

Favourite films, TV and videogames of 2023

Films

Other than family films, I saw only two films in the cinema this year, and one of them was a fifty-year-old classic. But all the same, my film of the year is the rereleased Don’t Look Now (Nicholas Roeg, 1973). For superstitious reasons I’d avoided watching it until now since becoming a parent, but in my current phase of life and on the big screen it had an even greater impact on me than ever before.

My favourite film released recently was Aftersun (Charlotte Wells, 2022), which ...

Favourite albums of 2023

I already posted my favourite albums that I heard in the first and second quarters of 2023, which makes for a pretty long list in itself. So instead of going bigger, I’ve tried to refine my list to my absolute favourite albums of the year.

Actual songs

False Lankum by Lankum is an incredible folk album immersed in tradition, yet somehow it seems more progressive and strange than almost anything else released this year. The folk horror vibes are strong throughout and the drones are inte...

Open submission calls for writers: November 2023

It’s that time again! Here are the most interesting open submissions calls for writers I’ve found recently.

And a reminder: sign up for my email newsletter if you want advance notice of open submission calls like these.

The Map of Lost Places
This sounds brilliant. Apex editors Sheree Renée Thomas and Lesley Conner are putting together an anthology of stories relating to ‘places where weird things happen’, which could relate to folk tales or old wives tales, or invented places and situat...