Alan Baxter's Blog, page 21

HIDDEN CITY cover reveal and excerpt

Check out that amazing cover! Done by the insanely talented Christian Bentulan at Covers by Christian. Click on the cover for a higher resolution version and see it in all its horror noirish glory. The book should be up for pre-order soon, so watch here or sign up to my newsletter so you don’t miss that. There’s a page all about the book here, and that will be updated with links as soon as they’re available. HIDDEN CITY is officially released on February 20th, so not long to wait now. Exciting times! Meanwhile, HIDDEN CITY pre-order for Kindle is live! Price is only US$2.99, but that will go up on release day, so get in early.

US – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078YH5G4F/

UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B078YH5G4F/

AU – https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B078YH5G4F/

Alternatively, this link will take you directly to the Kindle store for your country.

http://hyperurl.co/hiddencity

Some early comments are coming in about the book too, and they’re seriously encouraging:

“A grim and gritty fantasy noir with razor-sharp humor. I loved it!” – Tim Waggoner, author of TEETH OF THE SEA.

“Hidden City is a delicious supernatural noir, the song of a city of the lost with both Chandleresque and Lovecraftian undernotes and distant echoes of Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden. But it is very much its own thing, razor sharp, dark, compelling, cosmic and strangely touching all at once. Highly recommended.” – William Meikle, author of The Ghost Club.

“Poisonous fungi? Check. Murderous transformations? Check. Deep-down, bad-to-the bone evil? Check. Good old-fashioned horror? Check. Enter Hidden City at your peril.” – Angela Slatter, World Fantasy award-winning author of The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings.

When the city is sick, everyone suffers.

Steven Hines listened to the city and the city spoke. Cleveport told him she was sick. With his unnatural connection to her, that meant Hines was sick too. But when his friend, Detective Abby Jones, comes to him for help investigating a series of deaths with no discernible cause, Hines can’t say no. Then strange fungal growths begin to appear in the streets, affecting anyone who gets too close, turning them into violent lunatics. As the mayhem escalates and officials start to seal Cleveport off from the rest of the world, Hines knows the trouble has only just begun.

 

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New deals and a new book in February!

First of all, Merry Christmas! However you do or don’t celebrate, I hope this time of year finds you well. And if you do get presents, I hope lots of them were books! A couple of things to chat about here – a new novel coming early next year, and special deals on the Alex Caine Series, which is finally available everywhere in the world.

Let’s start with Alex Caine. Here are some links for the individual books in the trilogy, but look to the end for a special deal on a boxed set of all three ebooks.

BOUND

US Kindle

UK Kindle

AUS Kindle

OBSIDIAN

US Kindle

UK Kindle

AUS Kindle

ABDUCTION

US Kindle

UK Kindle

AUS Kindle

And of course, if your preference is another store or a paperback, they’re all available in all the usual places. You can start your search here and give me a shout if there’s anything you can’t track down (that goes for all my books, of course.) If you want a signed set of the trilogy in paperback, drop me a line and we can organise that too.

ALEX CAINE TRILOGY BOXED SET

Now this is currently only available in ebook and not available in Australia or NZ (sorry about that – different publisher), but everywhere else in the world can get all three Alex Caine books in a single omnibus Kindle volume for only US$8.99 (or £6.69 in the UK). Bargain!

You can get that here in the US and here in the UK.

Search your local stores if I haven’t included the link here.

And if you’ve enjoyed these books, your honest review at Amazon and Goodreads would be hugely appreciated.

New Book – HIDDEN CITY

And now news of my next novel. Gryphonwood Press will be releasing Hidden City some time around the middle of February 2018. Cover art is being done right now, but meanwhile, here’s the blurb:

When the city is sick, everyone suffers.

Steven Hines listened to the city and the city spoke. Cleveport told him she was sick. With his unnatural connection to her, that meant Hines was sick too. But when his friend, Detective Abby Jones, comes to him for help investigating a series of deaths with no discernible cause, Hines can’t say no. Then strange fungal growths begin to appear in the streets, affecting anyone who gets too close, turning them into violent lunatics. As the mayhem escalates and officials start to seal Cleveport off from the rest of the world, Hines knows the trouble has only just begun.

I can’t wait for this books to hit the shelves. It’s a standalone novel, mixing up urban horror, neo-noir, and dark urban fantasy tropes. Early reviews have been incredibly encouraging, which only makes me more excited. Watch my social media feeds for more news and pre-order links which should go up soon.

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News, of old books and new!

You may or may not be aware that I’ve had nightmares with publishers lately. Ragnarok Publications, publishers of my Alex Caine books in the US and UK, and Cohesion Press, publisher of Primordial, both ran into trouble. Well, I’m happy to announce that Primordial is back up in ebook and audiobook, with print to come any day now, thanks to Adrenaline Press. And the Alex Caine trilogy has been picked up by the good folks at Gryphonwood Press and all three books should be back up in ebook and print at all the usual vendors with a week or two. And there’s more good news! Gryphonwood Press are also publishing my new standalone novel, HIDDEN CITY, early next year. Best described as urban horror/supernatural noir, I can’t wait for it to be out in the world. Here’s the blurb:

When the city is sick, everyone suffers.

Steven Hines listened to the city and the city spoke. Cleveport told him she was sick. With his unnatural connection to her, that meant Hines was sick too. But when his friend, Detective Abby Jones, comes to him for help investigating a series of deaths with no discernible cause, Hines can’t say no. Then strange fungal growths begin to appear in the streets, affecting anyone who gets too close, turning them into violent lunatics. As the mayhem escalates and officials start to seal Cleveport off from the rest of the world, Hines knows the trouble has only just begun.

So after months of spinning my wheels trying to fix problems, it finally feels like things are moving forward again. Watch this space for updates!

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Awards eligibility post 2017

It’ll be no surprise to regular readers that I’m a big fan of authors reminding everyone of what work they’ve produced in any given year. When it comes to awards season and editors considering work for their Year’s Best anthologies and so on, it’s very easy with the overwhelming quantity of work out there to forget things. So it’s good, I think, for authors to make a post to remind people. It’s also a valuable reminder for the us of what we’ve achieved in any given year. So here’s my awards eligibility post for 2017. As it happens, I’ve had an incredibly lean year in terms of short fiction publications, but I’m very proud of the stories and books I have had published. Here they are:

Novel: Primordial, from Cohesion Press. (Currently under re-release with Adrenaline Press.) Click here for details of this book.

Novella: The Book Club, from PS Publishing. Click here for details of this book.

Short stories:

“They All Come Through London In The End”, published in Between The Tracks anthology (ed. Steve Dillon, Ozhorrorcon, April 2017). Horror short story.

“Once Was Lost”, published in Aurealis Magazine #99, ed. Michael Pryor, June 2017. Science-fiction short story.

And that’s it for me this year. If you thought any of these stories were award-worthy and you’re inclined to nominate them anywhere, I can’t thank you enough.

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“Bodies of Evidence” up at Starship Sofa

Another of my stories has been narrated as a podcast. This time it’s “Bodies of Evidence” from the In Your Face anthology published last year by Fablecroft. It’s one of my rarer forays into science-fiction, this one a cyberpunk exploration of disability and body modification. Grab the whole anthology if you can, meanwhile you can listen to the podcast of my story here:

http://www.starshipsofa.com/blog/2017/11/22/starshipsofa-no-513-alan-baxter/

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Seven B&W photos of my life.

I don’t often join in with the memes and stuff that fly around social media, but this one caught my eye, so I decided to have a go. The premise was elegant and simple:

Seven days. Seven B&W photos of my life.

No people.

No explanation.

Challenge someone new each day.

I was challenged by my pal, Cat Sparks. I thought I might drop my seven photos here now the week is done, just for posterity’s sake. It was surprisingly challenging. I tried not to think too hard about it, but to capture things that were the major influences and focuses of my life. So the pictures are below in the same order I posted them. I tried to play around with photo dimensions a bit (but most are square as I did the posting via Instagram), and different types of B&W. But in keeping with the meme, I’ll say no more about it. (Click each one to see a bigger version.)

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Bonus shot. I realised my seven photos lacked a very important aspect of my life, so this is a bonus 8th photo.

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Ten Commandments for Writers

This is something I wrote mainly for myself, as a kind of credo to keep me sane. Then I thought that maybe others would like it, so I made it into an image and shared it through my social media accounts. Now I’m putting it here for safe-keeping. The original “commandments” are below, or you can click on the image for a bigger version of that. Feel free to share this post if it moves you, or you’ll find the image on my Twitter and Facebook pages too.

Ten Commandments for Writers

Thou shalt not covet or decry the success of others.

Thou shalt support and boost other writers as they are allies, not enemies or competition.

Thou shalt always remember that rejection is the default.

Thou shalt always strive to improve thy craft.

Thou shalt not be a precious buttercup about editorial advice.

Thou shalt not deny the role of luck in all publishing.

Thou shalt never respond to reviews.

Thou shalt not spam all thy channels (or other people’s) with BUY MY BOOK! posts.

Thou shalt always remember that no writer ever pleases everyone.

Thou shalt do the fucking work.

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An Audience with Datlow and Dann

This last weekend I went down to the Mayday Hills Lunatic Asylum in Beechworth. I could just leave it there, I know, but I went for a special reason. Asylum Ghost Tour owners and Asylum folk, Geoff and Dawn Brown, had organised an audience with Ellen Datlow and Jack Dann, hosted by Kaaron Warren. A chance to listen to the expertise of Ellen Datlow? A chance to hang out with good pals like Kaaron and Jack, and listen to the their expertise? A chance to hang out with whoever else was there? I was there like a shot. I drove down with Grimdark Magazine editor and all-around great guy Adrian Collins. We had an absolute blast, and did the ghost tour afterwards as well. I also got to meet my AHWA mentee, Silvia Brown, and pals like Gerry Huntman, Steve Paulsen, Matt Summers and others, and of course, to catch up with Geoff and Dawn again. It really was a tremendous time and one of those things that just reinvigorates the urge to write. So I’m off to do just that!

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Oz Comic Con Sydney was super real

I had an absolute blast at Oz Comic Con in Sydney, the first time I’ve been a guest at that particular event. Huge thanks to Carissa and Rand, and all the best for their future. Big thanks to Kylie Chan, Maria Lewis, Isobell Carmody, Marianne de Pierres, and Queenie Chan for authorly companionship, to all the helpers and staff, and especially to Courtney Laura and Paige Bellfield for giving up their time to help my stand all day each. Such great people. And, of course, to everyone who came by for a chat and bought books.

Until next time!

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Sydney Oz Comic Con September 30th.

I’m very excited to be a guest at Oz Comic Con in Sydney from September 30th to October 1st. It’s be my first Oz Comic Con as a guest and I can’t wait. I’ll have heaps of the Alex Caine Series for sale, and I’ll be able to offer the 3 for 2 deal again. That means you can get the entire trilogy, signed and dedicated, for $50. Bargain! I’ll also have a bunch of Crow Shine, Primordial and a few other bits and pieces with me too, but get in quick as I only have a few of some things.

All the details here: http://www.ozcomiccon.com/guests/alan-baxter/

Hope to see you there!

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