Ruins in Seattle

If anyone reading this lives near enough to the Seattle area there are going to be a number of book signing/reading events for the Ruins series of books from Hadley Rille Books – That’s Ruins Terra, Ruins Extraterrestrial and Ruins Metropolis – two of which (Ruins Terra and Ruins Metropolis) contain stories of mine.

Details here

Unfortunately it’s on the wrong side of the pond for me but Eric tells me he is trying to get something organised over here and if he does I’ll let you know.

And in other news my contributor’s copy of Escape Velocity Magazine dropped through the letterbox at the weekend - and there - nestling among the fascinating articles and fabulous fiction is my story ‘Cone Key’.

If you haven’t already ordered yourself a copy I strongly suggest you do! You really won’t regret it.

I’d post a picture of it since it looks so lovely – if only I can find out where my hubby has hidden the charger for my camera!

Rosemary Lane Reviewed

There’s a nice review of February’s Pseudopod stories up at The Fix. Here. This is what they have to say about Rosemary Lane.

"Rosemary Lane" by Kate Kelly (read by Alasdair Stuart), a Pseudopod Flash, is a first-person ghost story, spanning the years between one murder and another. Creepy cogitation in the undergrowth, as a lonely child sees the ghost, and is then unsurprisingly disbelieved by the taunting group of which she is not really a part. Atmospheric, concise, and well read by Alasdair Stuart.

Incidentally, Rosemary Lane is a real place. I used to play there as a child – a disused road that only the village kids knew about! I never saw any ghosts there mind – but it wouldn’t surprise me at all!!

Another Story Published

It's Out!
Escape Velocity # 4 is out and looking fabulous! What a superb cover! This magazine contains a mixture of fiction and articles and looks like it’s going to be a superb read. There is a story in it by Sonny Whitelaw – author of Stargate! Cool – can’t wait to read that one!

It also contains a story by yours truly here – called “The Cone Key”

So head over to their website and order yourself a copy. You won’t be disappointed. And I do hope you enjoy my story.

And they have a very friendly little yahoo group so stop by and say ‘hello’.

Voices Across the Pond

Anyone who is looking to sell their short fiction, particularly if, like me you are writing in the SF/horror genres, will sooner or later start to submit to markets based in the States. In fact, although there are some excellent small UK based magazines, over in the States the short fiction scene in these genres is positively flourishing, so really you’d be daft not to.

Now as a UK based writer who writes in UK English, I used to spend many a long hour painstakingly converting all my UK spellings to US ones to have a version of my story to send across the pond, but after a time I stopped doing it.

The main reason behind my rationale is that UK and US English seem to differ in more than just spelling. There are all sorts of words and phrases that exist over here but not over there, and I’m sure – in fact I know that I use a lot of these in my writing, without even being aware.

So out they go in UK English and you know, I don’t think it makes any difference. I’ve sold a number of stories now to markets in the States.

It is interesting though, some of the words and phrases that differ. Okay, we all know the obvious ones such as ‘flashlight’ for ‘torch’ or ‘sidewalk’ for ‘pavement’, but a new one on me, which Eric over at Hadley Rille Books pulled me up on in the edits of my ‘Footprints’ story, was the phrase ‘as of old’. (Which for any American reading this blog means ‘as in the past’.)

It had never occurred to me that this might be a very English turn of phrase. I wonder what other phrases and words I use that leave our American cousins scratching their heads in confusion.

Competition Time

I am contemplating whether to enter any writing competitions this year.

I think I’ll probably have a go at the Yeovil Prize again. I like to support this one, partly since it is my local prize, and partly because I’ve done well in it in previous years, culminating last year in me winning the Western Gazette award for a local author as I was shortlisted in two categories, with my novel, Myth Making being highly commended.

Competitions with a category for novels are few and far between, but this year, I’m not sure my WIP is far enough along to enter. Perhaps I’ll save it for next year, or maybe, by the time the deadline approaches (31st May) I’ll feel differently.

But I will definitely be having a go at the short story category. It’s written, just needs a bit of a spit and polish and I’ll send it in.