Ice Vermin Accepted for Ill-Considered Expeditions, Contents Revealed
The call from April Moon Books was out last October: ���We want stories in the grand style of Burroughs, Doyle, and Verne.�� Spiffing adventures that plummet our heroes into disagreeable environments to face the wrath of unfriendly natives and questionable beasts.�� Your story can be set in the past, present, or future, it can be earthbound or take place among the stars, the tale can unfold at the summit of a mountain, deep in the jungle, or beneath the waves.����� The book would be titled ILL-CONSIDER
ED EXPEDITIONS and, taking a detail from Shackelton���s own to the South Pole, it happened I had written a story, ���Ice Vermin,��� in edited journal form of a heretofore unknown, pre-World War I exploration of eastern Siberia.
The story in fact had been published in CD-ROM form in 2003 in Lone Wolf Publications���s EXTREMES 5 as well as in print in my Dark Regions Press DARKER LOVES collection in 2007.�� And now it will rear its ice-rimed head again — the first story sale for 2015! — in, according to this afternoon’s email from April Moon,�� (reasonably enough) April if all goes on schedule.
The acceptance went on to say ���I am currently in the throes of formatting two other books, so don’t be surprised if it all goes quiet for a month or so.�� However, I will be in touch again with contracts and possible revisions for your approval at the beginning of March.����� And as a sort of preview added, ���You are in good company — here is the complete ToC (in no particular order), and I will be announcing this on social media shortly — feel free to crow about it :-) ���
And so I will.
ILL-CONSIDERED EXPEDITIONS
Pete Mesling – In the Chillest Land
Matthew Barron – Hell Island
James Dorr – Ice Vermin
John McCormack – Mother’s Grasp
Steve Foreman – The Strange Affair of Bunny Fosdyke
Ahmed A. Khan – The Pulsar and the Planet
Gerry Griffiths – Jonathon Stone’s Swansong
Nicholas Nicario – Povo de Ossos
Rick Leider – The Secret of Bumare-Moto
Jess Landry – The Root
Franklin Marsh – The Wood
Josh Reynolds – An Incident at the Plateau of Tsang
DJ Tyrer – The White Goddess
Stanley Webb – Captain Baxter’s Journal
Patrick Loveland – Ghosts of the Spires
Paul M. Feeney – The Room at the Top of the House
