The Black Horse

I'm pleased to announce that my story The Black Horse is to appear in the forthcoming Third Flatiron anthology Strange Beasties, out later this month. The anthology is available for pre-order on Amazon.

I love writing about the legends of localities where I've lived or which I know well. This is a tale of the North Yorkshire Moors in the late eighteenth century.

All the village names of this part of the world still bring nostalgia for my university years when a group of us made regular trips to attempt The Lyke Wake Walk.

It's also a tale of horse racing and of course I've done a fair bit of that too, so I feel on safe ground here, which is more than can be said for the story's protagonist!

This is my second sale to Third Flatiron. Some readers may recall that the first, Time's Winged Chariot, subsequently did well in a reader poll, so we'll hope the new story will enjoy similar success.

Preditors & Editors Poll

Here's a nice piece of news, just received. My story Time's Winged Chariot was ranked equal fifth in The Steampunk section of  Preditors and Editors Readers Poll 2016.

Since this is the first time my work has featured in such a list I'm really very pleased. Thank you to all those who voted for my story and I'm so glad you enjoyed it.

It's Come to Our Attention

On 20th February the Third Flatiron anthology It's Come to our Attention will be published.

The Kindle version is currently available for download here. The anthology will also be available on Smashwords and print on demand.

I'm looking forward to seeing my story Time's Winged Chariot along with the work of Pauline J. Alama, James H. Zorn, Wendy Nikel, Hunter Liguore, Nyki Blatchley, James Dorr, Greg Beatty, Terri Bruce, Joel Richards, Marie DesJardin, Arthur M. Doweyko, E. M. Eastick, and Lisa Timpf.

This is only the second story of mine to be published after being workshopped in an online writers' group. (The first one was The Old Man on the Green.)

Workshops are private forums where emerging writers offer critiques of each other's work. I often think that other writers are the hardest critics in the world, but the vast majority mean well and you can always learn from criticism, even if you don't always agree with it.

I do hope that readers will appreciate the outcome in this case, since this story emerged from the workshop a very different manuscript from the one that went in.

I like it, but then of course I would say that, wouldn't I?