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I have an interest in this kickstarter project as I have a 8000 word sword and sorcery yarn in Anthology of the Damned - Necromoirrium called The Demon from Another World.

I have been struck by the sheer enthusuasm and energy of those behind this project and wish them well.

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It looks like I'll have three of my stories reprinted in October.

These are:

The Storyteller of Koss, which originally appeared in Summer of SciFi & Fantasy in 2022 edited by Dustin Bilyk. This will now be in the October issue of Schlock! Webzine edited by Gavin Chappell.Ìý

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An Oddity, which was only published for the first time this year in , January issue, edited by Gavin Chappell, will now be in Strange Aeon 2024 edited by M. Keaton in the States.Ìý

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A very old story of mine, Terror on the Moors, will be in . This will be a facsimile of issues 4, 5 and 6 of the 1970s magazine, World of Horror, which is now being reprinted in hardcover by Confessions Press. My story was in issue 6, illustrated by Jim Pitts.

Although the title might change by the time I send this story out for consideration by potential markets I have now completed another new fantasy tale. This one stands at 4,600 words and is called Ossani's Apprentice. It's a sequel to a couple of other stories, Emerging from Their Twilit Realms and The Moneylender of Oriaska, neither of which has so far been published. Ìý

My Medusa-themed story An Oddity, which appeared in the January issue of Schlock! Webzine, is now scheduled to be reprinted in an American anthology, Strange Aeon 2024. I was emailed the final proofs today, which had just a couple of minor edits, all to the good. I am looking forward to this story being published again later this year, probably next month.

An Oddity was first published in Schlock! Webzine in January 2024. I was especially pleased with the cover illustration of a particular painting by the brilliant Sixteenth Century Italian artist Caravaggio as my story is about a Gorgon's head.

Five days after my last story, I've finished the first draft of a new sword and sorcery tale: The Ghoul-Catcher.

8,800 words long, though it may end up a little shorter by the time I've finished editing it. On the other hand it might not.

Just finished a new fantasy story called Emerging from Their Twilit Realms at 4000 words, another instalment in my ongoing saga about Welgar the Cursed, a character who, I must admit, I treat very badly. Now I need to psyche up to start another, knowing that from next month I won't be able to get any writing of my own done while I'm reading submissions for Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 9.

It now appears that two of my oldest stories are set to be reprinted next year in a brand new anthology. I can't say anything more about the project yet as the publisher has still to announce it in public, but I hope to be able to give further details soon.

I don't know what anyone else's experience has been with submissions sent off a long time ago into seeming oblivion, only to resurface unexpectedly with an acceptance years later, but I had one this week. ÌýI submitted a very short humorous science fiction story called Visit Fungosia in October 2019. Never hearing back about it I eventually wrote it off as rejected - till this week, when I learned the editor wished to include it in the next issue of his magazine if it was still available. ÌýTo be honest, I put this story to one side and had more or less forgotten all about it, so, yes, it is still available. ÌýI still find it hard to believe that after nearly five years it was still in the slush pile and has finally made it.ÌýMore details later when I've exchanged contracts, etc.ÌýÌý
(This also marks my tenth story acceptance this year so far.)

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My science fiction tale Floating Free is in the September issue of Schlock! Webzine.Ìý

I spent some time yesterday doing a last minute proofread of my sword and sorcery tale The Demon from Another World which will appear soon in Anthology of the Damned: Necromoirrium from Tree Shaker Books.ÌýI would add that this is not a collection of S&S stories but dark horror. It just happens, I suppose, my yarn is particularly graphic, inspired as it is by John Carpenter's The Thing.ÌýHere are its opening lines:ÌýIt crashed through the clouds in the dead of night, lighting up the sky as if it were day. The high-pitched scream that accompanied it was as if a thousand dragons (if such creatures even existed, which most people doubted) were being slaughtered in agony. Down it hurtled, cleaving the clouds and leaving behind a searingly bright trail that gradually dispersed an untold distance behind it.When it crashed the earth shook far and wide, and those who were awakened by its reverberations thanked whatever gods they had it was nowhere near where they lived, before trying to return to sleep again. For most it was a fitful night.ÌýIt landed in the endless wastes of the Great Desert, instantly turning a wide circle of sand scores of miles across into rough, filmy, strange-looking glass beneath whose brittle surface lay treacherous chasms.ÌýGradually, whatever was buried at its core began to cool.ÌýIt cooled for years.ÌýÌýÌý ÌýÌýÌý ÌýÌýÌý ÌýÌýÌý ÌýÌýÌý ÌýÌýÌý ÌýÌýÌý ÌýÌýÌý ÌýÌýÌý ÌýÌýÌý ÌýÌýÌý ÌýÌýÌý ÌýÌýÌý ÌýÌýÌý ÌýÌýÌý ÌýÌýÌý ÌýÌýÌý ÌýÌýÌý ÌýÌýÌýÌý *ÌýThey were a scurrilous bunch of mercenaries, broken by defeat, penniless, most of them covered in wounds, some of which festered and would lead to death in the next few days, and what supplies they had were almost gone. Worse still, they were being hunted.ÌýAfter weeks of riding their dromedaries across dunes that stretched for as far as they could see still their shaman warned them when he used his powers of divination the squadron of Hessurian riders was still on their trail, only days behind them now...