Alan Baxter's Blog, page 108
May 21, 2010
Pushed Too Far on Dark Shorts
My duel winning story from House Of Horror has been added to the Dark Shorts page. Use the button on the left or this is a direct link to the story.
It's a little under 1,500 words and Friday Flash stuff is supposed to be 1,000 words or less, but I thought I'd mention this in Friday Flash circles anyway, for those of you interested to have a read. I hope you enjoy it.
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May 20, 2010
It's a funny old world
I might be a bit quiet on the interwebz front over the next few days due to a bit of family drama. Nothing that won't be sorted out before long, but it's going to take my attention for a while.
However, in a "funny old world" sort of moment, I've also had a slew of good news on the writing front. Last week a short story of mine called Mirrorwalk was accepted for publication in Murky Depths, a great UK based spec fic magazine.
Then I won the horror writers duel over at House Of Horror (which I a
May 17, 2010
Dark Pages anthology now available
As many of you know, while I'm first and foremost a writer, I also run a small publishing company called Blade Red Press. We've been working hard to put together our first short story anthology of dark speculative fiction, called Dark Pages. I'm very pleased to say that it's available now.
The stories included are:
The Stain of the Psychopomp King by Lucien E G Spelman
Heart Of Ice by Martin Livings
Neptune's Garden by Lisa A Koosis
Dust by Naomi Bell
To Die For by S D Matley
The Franchise by Joe L ...
May 14, 2010
May 13, 2010
Kate Forsyth & Belinda Murrell blog book tour
You may remember a little while ago that I hosted a day of Kate Forsyth's blog book tour for The Puzzle Ring. Well, Kate is far from the only talented writer in the family. Her sister, Belinda Murrell, is also a talented and prolific writer in her own right. Seriously, these two are enough to give any writer insignificance syndrome – Kate is working on her 25th book and Belinda on her 10th!
Both Kate and Belinda have a new book to promote – The Wildkin's Curse by Kate and The Ruby Talisman
May 12, 2010
Neil Gaiman and the $45,000 appearance fee
My friend Michael made me aware of this news over at Boing Boing. It's since caused a fair stir, with opinions all over the interwebz. So I thought, what kind of writer or blogger am I if I don't weigh in too? Basically there's been outrage that Neil Gaiman would charge $45,000 for an appearance fee. In the Boing Boing article they cite Gaiman's FAQ which offers this explanation:
Q. How can I get Neil Gaiman to make an appearance at my school/convention/event?
A. Contact Lisa Bransdorf at the...
May 11, 2010
House Of Horror short story duel now up
You may remember a few days ago I blogged about suddenly having a deadline to write a 1,500 word story for a writer duel over at House Of Horror.
The theme was "something written on a tombstone". I put together my story, my opponent has written his and now they're both up for the voting public to read and decide which is best. It looks like you need to leave an email address and a comment as your vote, presumably something along the lines of "I like Pushed Too Far by Alan Baxter best!"...
May 10, 2010
Make A Wish Electron Boy saves the day
If you took an ice cube, dipped it in liquid nitrogen and then buried it at the north pole, it still wouldn't be as cool as this. Stories like this make me love humanity so much I could cry. For all the arseholes out there and all the shit that is contantly going down, once in a while something like this comes along and helps to reaffirm your faith in people generally.
Hat tip to Michael, where I originally found this story. The story comes from The Seattle Times. I've copied the whole thing b...
Ghost Of The Black novella now on Kindle
A Kindle edition of my novella Ghost Of The Black: A 'Verse Full Of Scum is now available at Amazon. It's US$0.99, but they add a couple of bucks for international Kindle users. It'll show here as costing $2.99. Good old Amazon.
So, if you're keen to get the ebook version, it really is 99c at Smashwords and you can get the Kindle friendly .mobi format. Or you can be a purist and buy from Amazon. Or you can buy a print edition from Amazon. Or you can just read the whole thing here at The Word
