the best of unsung stories

For a while now Unsung Stories have been publishing, quietly and without any fuss, some really great short stories and books. Their fiction titles are available to buy here and they run a really neat free-subscription service with a new, usually terrific, short story delivered to your inbox every other week. You can sign up for free - not that I'm going to labour that point, honest - by clicking through to here.

If that isn't enough to encourage you to sign up - for free, I remind you - to their subscription list, then being kindly and generous people they have now collected some of the tales that have appeared on their site (and in your inbox if you have already signed up) in a DRM-free ebook, for you to enjoy on your e-reader or device of choice. They're calling it the Best of Unsung Shorts So Far . . .

And you know what? They're giving that away free of charge too.

As they themselves say, "Unsung Stories publish speculative fiction. This means science fiction, fantasy and horror, but especially the fuzzy bits between these genres: hard and soft sci-fi, high and low fantasy, slipstream, alternative history, steampunk, cyberpunk, weird fiction and anything else that defies expectation."

If you like, they're offering the unexpected, something a little bit different. So I hear you ask, If it's unexpected, Mark, what can I expect to find in the book?

Here's the answer.

'Heroics' by Ilana Masad
'Stabbed in the Neck by Dot Cotton' by Daniel Carpenter
'From the Neck Up' by Aliya Whiteley
'What the Light Washed Away' by Joshua Sczykutowicz
'Book Boy' by Zack Graham
'Ouroboros' by Cassandra Khaw
'Charmed and Strange' by Maggie Secara
'Build a Cat' by Peter Haynes
'Quert' by Matt Thompson
'Fashioning Trees' by Mark Patrick Lynch*

Sounds good to me. 

If you fancy a free copy, in either mobi or epub format, just click here.

Did I mention it's free?

Oh, I did.

Okay.

But, you know, just in case you missed that bit -- it's FREE!


* That last one's me. So this is my declaration of an interest. And while we're at it, a big hello to Jason Isaacs.

dark little dreams

Just released in paperback and ebook format is the anthology Dark Little Dreams. The book is published by Bad Dream Entertainment and edited by Brett Reistroffer. Brett’s put together an interesting and varied collection of stories, and has been nice enough to include one of my pieces too, a tale called Dr Aljimati: Professor of the Forlorn Sky. 

Read a little more about the contents here.

And Publishers’ Weekly review the book here.

If you fancy a  copy and are in the UK, you can buy an ebook version for your Kindle by clicking here. Or you can get a paperback by clicking here.

If you’re in the United States, then click here to get an ebook for your Kindle, and here for the paperback.

The collection is also available on Kobo, and is included in many of the discount promotions Kobo runs. Use any discount coupon to get money off the collection in DRM-free e-pub form by clicking here. Kobo also runs a price guarantee programme, so if you see the collection cheaper elsewhere, do get in touch with them for a refund to the difference.

It really is a nice collection and I heartily recommend it. The paperback is especially lovely, nicely produced and very tactile. Sometimes real books triumph. But the stories stand up for themselves, and if the ebook is your thing – as it has been mine for a while now – then do give it a go.

prof fox

Somewhat appropriately, given the UK Tory government's attempts to effectively repeal the ban on hunting foxes with dogs - hashtag bloodsports, folks - I have a new story out . . . and it concerns foxes. Sort of. It's a piece called "Prof Fox" and it is available to read in the Australian anthology Roar 6, edited by Mary E Lowd, and published by Bad Dog Books. 

Here're the opening paragraphs, kindly reproduced with Mary's permission.

“The fox went out on a chilly night,

he prayed for the moon to give him light.”

Trad. folk song.

When people saw the “Prof” on Danny Foxx’s business card, they nearly always leaped to an assumption he did nothing to discourage and thought it was an abbreviation of “Professor”.

Clothes made the man, and his tweed suit played to people’s assumptions, reinforcing what they thought they already knew. As they fastened on the inscribed “Prof” Danny would study their expressions. They’d be thinking: here stood some horrible bore they needed to extract themselves from – and quickly, before he indulged himself in the finer points of one of his inscrutable Big Thought papers. Some way to spend a party that would be, they’d worry.

“Prof” – short for “Professor.” Well, what else could it be?

If you want to continue reading this one, you can order a copy here.

Here's the cover.

  

point and stick

I have a new story, "Point and Stick" in DF Lewis's anthology Horror Without Victims. It's a handsome publication, and features stories by, amongst others, Gary McMahon, Mark Valentine, Aliya Whiteley and a story and cover art by Tony Lovell.

Here're the opening lines from my tale:

It was coming up on Christmastime and my old sleeping bag was past threadbare. Nicholas, the guy who owned this place, told me there'd be a mattress included with the room. “But a bed-frame, that's something you'll have to sort out for yourself.”

        Procuring a bed-frame sounded ambitious to me, so I just nodded and said it sounded like a good deal I'd be happy to accept. I shook his hand, losing my paw in his, and counted out the last of my notes. He didn't give me a receipt. He sank the money in a pocket and poked a finger at me. “Remember, you provide the bed-frame. A mattress comes with the room.”

If you're in the UK, you can purchase a copy from Amazon here.

If you're in the US, you can buy a copy from Amazon here.

And if you fancy a copy signed by Des himself, jump over to the Horror Without Victims blog, and contact him directly. He'll be happy to scribble his name in the book and mail a copy out to you, for such a nice bloke is he.