Welcome !
18th July 2010
Monthly Update
Lots happening this month. Very busy getting The Soul Consortium manuscript finalised for Medallion Press - just finished that last night. But the thing I'm most excited about is the launch of my new site The Write Place. Now that I'm actually getting a novel published, a few people are asking questions about how something like that actually happens, so I'm blogging the entire process from start to finish. Go check it out. You can join the facebook paget too - here.
The other thing I'm excited about is the publication of my short story Star God. It's out now. You can purchase a copy the magazine over at This Mutant Life.
Something else of note is the release of Richard Thomas's novel Transubstantiate. I was privileged to see the first draft come together at Write Club and loved it, so I'm really looking forward to getting my copy in the post and enjoying the finished version. Find out more about that here. And go buy it here.
________________________________________________________
3rd June 2010
Monthly Update
Ok, so I missed the May update, but for a very good reason: I was waiting on some BIG NEWS. And what is that big news? Well, it seems I've taken my first step into the big wide world of published novelists. My latest novel, The Soul Consortium, has been snapped up by Medallion Press. Go check them out. You won't find any mention of me there yet, though. That's because the planned launch date is not until July 2012. It's a while away, I know, but it gives us plenty of time to prepare the ground and make sure the book's perfect.
________________________________________________________
10 Apr 2010
Monthly Update
Plenty to write about on here, but as usual, I've been updating my site a lot less than I should.
I completed the 10k run and thanks to a lot of generous people, managed to raise almost £360 for St Clare Hospice!
I've also updated my writing page - The Soul Consortium is now done and I have a few friends reading through the final draft while it's going through the submission process. I've written two more short stories (one of which has been accepted for publication at This Mutant Life in the July issue), and the other written for a friend. And I also completed a trailer for Richard Thomas's new novel Transubstantiate which is due for publication in July.
________________________________________________________
12 Mar 2010
St Clare Hospice 10k Run
I'll be running for this on Sunday March 28th. Please give generously by visiting my just giving site below.
________________________________________________________
23 Jan 2010
Eternal Night: A Vampire Anthology
My short story "Amiko" found its way on amazon this week as part of the Eternal Night anthology. Go buy it, there are plenty of great stories within those pages!
"Blood, fangs, darkness and terror...these are the calling cards of the vampire mythos. Inside this tome are stories that embrace vampire history but seek to introduce a new literary spin on this longstanding fictional monster. Follow a dark journey through cigarette-smoking creatures hunted by rogue angels, vampires that feed off of thoughts instead of blood, immortals presenting the fantastic in a local rock band, to a legendary monster on the far reaches of town. Forget what you know about vampires; this anthology will destroy historical mythos and embrace incredible new twists on this celebrated, fictional character. Welcome to a world of the undead, welcome to the world of Eternal Night. With stories from Axel Taiari, Chris Deal, Tony Schaab, Kelly M. Hudson, Simon West-Bulford, Jessy Marie Roberts, Christopher Dwyer, Anthony Giangregorio, Richard Thomas, Spencer Wendleton, Edward J. Rathke, David H. Donaghe, Caleb Ross, Nik Korpon, Rob X Roman, and G.R. Mosca"
_________________________________________________
01 Jan 2010
Happy New Year !
I found out today that my story Crimson Lakes was chosen as the feature story for the New Year edition of Dark Fire. I hope you're not squeamish. If you are, don't read it!
_________________________________________________
19 Dec 2009
Breach your comfort zone
This is a guest post from Caleb J Ross, author of the chapbook Charactered Pieces: stories, as part of his ridiculously named Blog Orgy Tour. Visit his website for a full list of blog stops. Charactered Pieces: stories is currently available from OW Press (or Amazon.com). Visit him at http://www.calebjross.com.
I’ve known Simon (virtual, internet-known, not physically or Bible-sense known) for a couple years, as part of the writing critique group, Write Club. When I first began communicating with him about his project back in 2007, which at that time I had not read, I felt deflated by the tone and subject matter. A novel about a boy who communicates with fantastical animals was a far cry from the brutal, visceral, Angry Young Man (AYM) literature that I was then practically swimming in. That novel, The Beasts of Upton Puddle, turned out to be quite amazing. Honestly, I have that novel to credit with much of the respect I now have for young adult fantasy fiction. What Simon did was force me outside of my comfort zone.
My brother-in-law, high school teacher and writer himself, enforced this idea of existing outside a comfort zone by giving me two initially confusing Christmas gifts a few years ago: The Best of the Best: 20 Years of the Year’s Best Science Fiction and The Best the of Best American Poetry 1988-1997. These books, two genres I read occasionally and have yet to develop a love for, were fantastic for breaking down what might have become a hindering support in coming years; I was reading (re: existing within) too much AYM stories of down-and-out narrators (Chuck Palahniuk, Craig Clevenger, for example). I needed to be shown that words can do more than make a character bleed. They can make a character fly (sci-fi). They can craft a self-reflective persona (poetry).
I’ve been writing seriously for about 10 years, so of course I was conscious of the flexibility of words. But I had yet to truly incorporate that flexibility into my own work. Why? Perhaps I was concentrating on small steps, mastering my preferred tone first. Perhaps I was already over-stimulated by the quality of AYM out that that I felt comfortable knowing that well would never dry. Or, I was lazy.
As a writer, it is important to not only know what is out there, but to experience what is out there. I know I am a better writer for having read Simon’s fiction. And I hope he would say that he is a better writer for having read mine.
Now, buy Charactered Pieces! It’s unlike anything you’ve read before (see how I did that)
________________________________________________________
01 Nov 2009
I'm pleased to see two more of my short stories published on-line this week. Both are quite new. You can read The Toad as my Witness over at Colored Chalk, and there's also The Bramble Man at the new magazine Rotten Leaves. Go check them out.
________________________________________________________
20 Oct 2009
Be sure to check out the sites of Caleb Ross and Richard Thomas. They've both got some great stuff going on at the moment - Caleb's chapbook Charactered Pieces is out in just under a month, and Richard has an updated blog site and a bunch of short stories just waiting for your reading pleasure. Check them out.
________________________________________________________
16 Oct 2009
My Sci-fi horror short story, The Box has been released over at The Absent Willow Review.
________________________________________________________
06 Sep 2009
Two bits of good news came my way today:
Firstly, my short story for children,'Footprints On The Water' has been published over at Spaceports and Spidersilk today. Go visit the site and check out the fiction section where you'll see a link to my story.
I've also been given permission by MOD to post one of my older short stories "Lethal Injection". Read it here. (Beware, it's a horror story and contains strong language).
________________________________________________________
26 Aug 2009
A revamp of my website was long overdue, but finally, it's here. Now that it's looking more presentable, and because I need to be more proactive about updates, I'll most likely spend a bit more time actually doing something here from now on rather than just staring at facebook. My old website is still around, but will gradually fade away into the electronic ether as I start dismantling it over time.
________________________________________________________