My lady has abandoned me for a week of dayjobbery in a slightly different country. A fine opportunity, but it leaves me with responsibilities such as 'make sure Eva actually gets to school and back' and 'don't inadvertently set fire to stuff'. I tell you, I'm feeling the pressure.

To counter my glum, this review of Wildthyme in Purple was pointed out to me by Obverse Books. The penultimate paragraph made me particularly happy, for entirely obvious reasons. As of now, in my writer's psyche, one reader has enjoyed 'The Many Lives of Zorro' in exactly the way I hoped. You can all slag it off now, if you want, because somebody  got out of it what I attempted to put in. That's all it really takes to make a writer happy to carry on to the next thing.

There’s still no sign of the book here in India, but I shouldn’t feign surprise. There are many, many drinking holes between Delhi and Edinburgh (where Obverse Books are based), and Iris has a track record of becoming distracted by such amenities. She’ll get here eventually, small Panda in tow, and on the basis of this review I’m looking forward to it even more than I already was.

Fans of Iris, or people who think they might want to find out if they're fans, should rush immediately to the Obverse Books website, and check out the Lady Stardust competition. That's the title of the 2012 Iris title Obverse are preparing - a paperback, as part of their terrific Obverse Quarterly subscription (four genre titles, of wildly different flavours, delivered to you across the year). Lady Stardust is David Bowie inspired, and there's already a fantastic cover by Paul Hanley (who did the equally fabulous cover for last year's Iris: Abroad, which I was in, and which I hope to soon have a small poster of hanging on my wall). The image is absolutely loaded with Bowie references, both overt and tenuous. Your job is to list as many as you can in an email to the publisher. Whoever gets the most hits wins a copy of the book, and if you pre-order the book anyway, or subscribe to the whole year's Quarterly, but win the competition, you'll pick up a refund for the price of the book. Go and play, especially if you're a Bowie fan (and, frankly, who isn't?). It's much fun.

That was the weekend’s good news. The bad news was discovering that Cuckoo has started to appear on various illegal download sites. I suppose it was inevitable, but that doesn’t make it less annoying. There are people who are probably cleverer than me claiming that ebook piracy actually helps an author's career, creating a broader base of readers who might buy my work in future (though, having successfully stolen a copy entirely without consequence, I struggle to understand why they'd bother). There are other very clever people who think this is the end of authors actually being able to derive a living from their work, for exactly that reason.

I’m not sure how to respond to this. Whatever the market-based arguments, I still have difficulty accepting the core principle behind the act of illegally downloading a copy of a book. It's just... well... theft, isn't it? Somebody stealing something from me. How do I convince people who prefer to steal things from me that, actually, I’d rather they didn’t. Why do I even need to make that case?

I’m fairly certain that 99% of people downloading from sites like these would not usually consider themselves to be thieves, and would generally be able to understand what theft actually is. When it comes to digital piracy though, that awareness seems to fly right out of the window. I hope I’m preaching to the converted. I hope you agree that if you have the entirely worthy urge to read a book, it’s not an unspeakable suggestion that you should probably buy one instead of nicking one. If you’d like a digital copy of Cuckoo, you can get one pretty much everywhere that sells ebooks, for less than you’d pay for a meal at McDonalds, and with a far smaller risk of ensuing obesity.

If you'd rather steal a copy, it's now very easy to do so. Google is your friend, but I won't necessarily be.

Well, despite the midwinter fog here in Delhi, 2012 is settling into visible shape. Eva's back at school tomorrow, dayjobbery is already back to business-as-usual, and my writing schedule is back on track. My opinion of 2011 was less than glowing, but there's hope for the coming months.

I can't remember whether I posted here about the review of Cuckoo over at the Monster Librarian website late last year (a quick search suggests not), although I definitely mentioned it on my Facebook page. It's fair to say that the reviewer found it to be exactly his cup of tea, which is always a wonderful thing to hear. Well, further to that, I've just found out that, of the three hundred or more books reviewed there that year, Cuckoo is one of the handful they've highlighted as the picks of 2011. Thanks to the team over there for choosing to review it, and letting people know what you thought.

If you're in the USA, there's good news if you're looking for a copy of Wildthyme in Purple. It's now in stock at Who North America, a site that specialises in Doctor Who stuff, and associated spin-offs. Save yourself some overseas shipping, and grab yourself a copy there. You won't regret it.

More new stuff in the coming months. I have a short story due in an upcoming edition of Shroud Magazine. it's called 'Prey', and may or may not feature a character some of you will have met before. My story 'Twitchers' will turn up in the World's Collider anthology, once I've knocked it into shape (and I very nearly seem to have). Later in the year, there will be a new novel, but it's a little early to talk about that, and there are a couple more announcements that aren't quite ready to go just yet, but will be soon.

I'm feeling good about 2012. It's only just beginning, but already it looks like a busy and exciting year. I hope you'll stick around as it unfurls.

Nothing warms a bleak midwinter more than new Iris Wildthyme stories, and so I'm pleased to hear that the brand new Wildthyme in Purple has been received by at least some of you wise enough to pre-order. I haven't seen a copy myself yet (the problem with being in India is the extra shipping time on such things), but I'm looking forward to it enormously. My story, 'The Many Lives of Zorro', is one which I'm particularly happy with, and I'm looking forward to seeing if anybody agrees. I like its cavalier spirit, and I hope you might too.

As you know, I was lucky enough to have a story featured in the previous tome documenting Iris's unfortunate tamperings in time. To be honest, I thought that was probably the end of my dalliance with the lady for a while, as there is a long list of fine authors jostling for the same opportunity. While I pitched a tale for this volume in good faith, I didn't really think I'd be making an appearance between its covers. That I was wrong is a bit of a privilege.

If you're a lover of physical books, Obverse deliver genuinely beautiful editions, that will make you happy to hold. If you're an ebook convert, they also sell electronic editions direct from their website (and I've just noticed, they have an ebook edition of the last volume Iris: Abroad too). All the links are over here.

You may be under the misapprehension that the adventures of a gin soaked time traveller and her talking Panda companion (in the case of my own yarn, with additional swashbuckling) would not be your cup of tea, but you're entirely wrong. I recognise though that you may not wish to commit until you're certain it passes the ultimate test of quality.

I am therefore pleased to confirm that Wildthyme In Purple is, in every conceivable way, BETTER THAN A TOWEL.

It's not quite the end of the year. You've time to treat yourself once more before 2012 arrives. Go to it.

Okay. Things. And stuff. When this Malaysian chef heard the news I have for you today, his insane glee was so infectious that my daughter had to capture it on film. No lie.

***

I've been ginger nutted, in the first instance. Didn't hurt at all - in fact, it was a very pleasant experience.

I should explain. To be 'ginger nutted' is an author euphemism for being interviewed by Jim over at the Ginger Nuts of Horror blog. He was kind enough to ask me over for a spell, make me comfortable, and pummel me with a whole range of questions. The interview covers a lot of ground. My first short stories, through Hiram Grange, Doctor Who and Iris Wildthyme, and ultimately Cuckoo (if I were to die today, Cuckoo would be my beginning and my end). Do go and have a read. Thank Jim on my behalf while you're there. He's a passionate devourer of horror, and an informed and interested interviewer - makes all the difference to how chatty an interviewee is going to be.

Oh, there's also an exclusive coupon there, that will snag you an ebook copy of Cuckoo for whatever platform you like (including your PC) for the grand price of 99 cents, wherever you are in the world, for another week or so. That's the cheapest the book's ever been, or I suspect ever will be.

***

In other news, you can now pre-order the new Iris Wildthyme anthology Wildthyme in Purple. The book won't be available for a couple of months, but you may as well place your order now. I can't think of anything more Christmassy than a new Iris book. It's somehow the perfect time of year for her. The loose theme of this collection, as exemplified by the cover below, is purple prose and pulp fiction. My entry brings back one of the forebears of modern pulp fiction, Zorro hisownself. Where Iris and Panda were forefront of my last story for Obverse Books (the still very beautiful and sluttishly available Iris: Abroad), this time I couldn't resist letting Zorro step right up. I mean, it's Zorro for chrissakes. What boy doesn't love Zorro?

Rest assured, there are swashes in this tale, and I buckle as many of them as I possibly can. There's tequila as well, because that always livens up a party (and Iris is nothing without a party). It's also the first story I've ever written that might just make you cheer at the end. Who could ask for more? Go and pre-order her at the bottom of this page.

***

Cuckoo is now available as an ebook... well... almost everywhere. You can get it for the Nook, the Kindle, Apple iBooks (buggered if I can work how to link to it there though - just search "cuckoo wright" on iTunes), Smashwords, and many more (and remember, the Ginger Nuts interview has a coupon code so you can get it cheaper than anywhere else). Every one of these sites has a one click option to download a few chapters, for free. It's the digital equivalent of flicking through a book in a book shop. Give it a whirl.

The paperback is available on Amazon, and cheaper (under ten bucks, in fact) at Barnes & Noble. It's listed in the Amazon UK store as well, but bizarrely (given that I've used Amazon's print on demand technology to publish it) it's 'currently unavailable'. Hopefully that will change soon.

So - go and buy a copy. If you did that already, read it. If you did that already, then post a quick review somewhere. Good, bad, or indifferent, customer reviews affect how a book sells, so if you've got to the last page, do me a favour and let people know.

***

Finally, a reminder that you can now buy the charity anthology Kizuna in paperback and for the Kindle. Seventy-five stories, all genres, and all proceeds to Tsunami orphans in Japan. Here's contributor Elizabeth Black talking about it at the Huffington Post. Orphans, people. Put your money where their mouths are, and check out my story 'Sharan Gali' while you're there.

***

No, really, we're done. The 'finally' was a contextual clue. You can move along now. Have a good weekend and such, preferably curled up with one of the aforementioned good books.

With all the time I've been sinking into re-releasing Cuckoo, I almost let this slip by unmentioned. Bad Richard.

I'm pleased to say that the second issue of the Shroud Digital Edition is now available online, for free. It's packed with Shroud goodness, with a cover and interior design by the amazing Danny Evarts, but there are two things of particular note if you've been following my antics in fiction.

First up, the edition contains the second chapter of my novel Craven Place. It's been a while in coming, but fortunately the first edition of the magazine is also free to read here, and contains the first chapter if you need a refresher (the first chapter can also be found as a bonus at the end of Hiram Grange and the Nymphs of Krakow). This time round, after the flight from the farmhouse known as Craven Place, Tanith meets a curious hobo, who might be more than he seems...

Speaking of Hiram, this issue also features Hiram Grange and the Ghosts of Marrakesh, a brand new Hiram short story, exclusive to this issue, by Robert Davies. Rob wrote the third novella in the Hiram novella series (Hiram Grange and the Digital Eucharist), and here goes out on a limb to prove that his obsession with all things simian is not one he's going to give up lightly. I'm just back from reading it, and Hiram's in fine form. If you enjoyed his print adventures, go and catch up with the despicable old rogue. If you haven't got round to them yet, note that you can get all five at a reduced rate direct from the publisher, as soon as the story's convinced you that you must.

As they say, the first hit's free...

And don't forget to check out yesterday's post, in which I attempt to sell you a trade paperback of Dark Faith for the price of a single tweet...

And the bird has flown. After a lot of work, I'm delighted to say that Cuckoo is officially back in print. If you're a Kindle owner, you can buy it at Amazon right now (if you're not, grab the free Kindle reading software for your phone of PC, and then read the book on that), and have it on your Kindle within a minute or so (I love the Interweb). If you prefer a different ebook format, hop along to the Smashwords link below, and buy it in whatever format you prefer. If you can't countenance purchasing a book without ensuring the death of a small tree, the paperback will be along in September.

To celebrate, a sort-of-competition. The prize is a trade paperback copy of the anthology Dark Faith (it's got my story Sandboys in it, as well as many more tales from some of the best writers of dark fiction around) from Apex Books, along with a bunch of Apex extras that I'll leave as a surprise for the lucky winner to unwrap when the time comes.

To throw your name into the hat, you need to take a few seconds to share this post on Twitter. Use this shortlink - http://tinyurl.com/3v6j6c6 - and make sure you end the tweet with the hashtag #cuckoo (so that I can find it). Anybody who retweets your tweet also gets their name in the hat.

If you're reading this on Facebook, you could also share this post. Make sure you tag me when you do so, otherwise I might not notice.

I've noted a few tweets and shared posts already, unprompted by material gain - thanks! Your names go in the hat too.

Go forth, spread the word, help me make sure that people who might enjoy the book know it's out there, and grab some cool stuff into the bargain. At some point on Friday, I'll gather names, draw one out of the hat, and let you know who needs to be checking the post...

Buy now from the following stores:

Kindle UK

Kindle USA

Kindle Germany

Smashwords (all ebook formats, DRM free)

Coming soon to all ebook stores and formats, and in paperback.

Some of you may have noticed a new anthology pop on my website yesterday, Kizuna: Fiction for Japan.

It exists because the editor, Brent Mills, decided that he wanted to do something to help the people in Japan who were most hurt by the massive category 9.0 earthquake that hit earlier this year, and the devastating tsunami that followed in its wake. Thirty thousand people died, and many, many more had their lives torn apart. Brent lives in Japan, so saw it a lot closer than I did.

Brent's response to what he saw was to start seeking submissions for an anthology of fiction, covering a huge range of genres, from as many authors as he could. An awful lot proved willing to help. In fact, Kizuna contains a massive table of contents, seventy-five stories in length. Every single author, from headliners like Michael Moorcock and John Shirley right down to the likes of me, has given their work for free, and most of it is original. Mine is a tale of asylum, gods, and New Delhi called Sharan Gali.

The best thing is the word count - with only a couple of exceptions, the authors each aimed for a word count of about a thousand words (about three pages of a paperback). That makes this the ultimate sampler volume. No story will take more than a few minutes to read, and you'll find authors and styles you've never experienced before. Don't like something? The next tale is just a few minutes away.

Of course, the most important thing is where the money goes. Smile Kids Japan is a charity helping the orphanages of some of the worst hit areas in Japan (Fukushima, Miyagi, and Iwate). They're trying to concentrate on immediate needs just now, with an eye on long term programs that will help to support and integrate them. The world's media has moved on from Japan's crisis, but by picking up this book, you don't have to.

At the moment, it's available on the Kindle only. A dead tree edition will be along in good time. If you use a Kindle, or the various Kindle apps available for other devices, please go and buy the book. It's been a terrible week of world news, often the result of people being dreadful to each other. It would be nice to balance the scales of human behaviour a little.

Pick it up at your local Amazon, right now. Links to the US and UK stores are below. You're thirty seconds away from helping somebody who needs it.

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

Pssst! Wanna know a secret? In the next few weeks, I'll be re-releasing my novel Cuckoo (out of print for the last eight years) in a revised edition for the Kindle, iPad, Nook, Sony Reader, and more. A few weeks after, there will be a dead tree edition in paperback.

Don't tell anyone. It's just between you and me, right now. It won't look like the above. I've a fantastic cover designer for the project, who's giving the look of the book a whole new edge (I'll show you, when the final proof is ready).

To help make sure that interested parties know about it, I recently tweeted a couple of calls for help. It's tricky, being a one man band with this sort of thing, and I'm grateful to the handful of people who have already responded. I hope you'll do so too.

Book reviewers: Cuckoo  never received a bad review, and it got a lot of great  ones in its time. That was then, though. If you have a book review site, or freelance for a publication, drop me a line, and I'll make sure you get an electronic copy formatted per your preference (.mobi, .epub, .pdf, etc).

Bloggers: I'll be blog touring in September, to let people know the book's out there. I'd love to swing by your gaffe. I can hijack it for the day, we can Q&A, or if you have something more adventurous you want to try, just let me know. It'll be fun, and I'm happy to return the favour anytime you like.

Readers: I'll give a free electronic copy to anybody who comments on this post in the next 24 hours (the original post on my website, not the Facebook or Goodreads version). The trade off is you have to post a reader review somewhere like Amazon, Goodreads, B&N, your blog, or somewhere else it'll be read. I don't mind whether you love or loathe it, and it doesn't have to be the War and Peace of literary criticism. Just your opinion, in a few lines.  Anyone up for it?

It's been a lot of work, bringing this book back (and we're not there yet), but it's been bloody satisfying reacquainting myself with it. Like catching up with an old friend, I suppose. More on the whys and wherefores as we near launch day (exact date to be confirmed, but I like the last Friday of the month for it right now...). It all started though, with this post a few months back...

In other news, without trying to be flippant about anybody's death or injuries,  it strikes me as rather disproportionate to kill a polar bear for attacking a few people (with horrific results for those involved), when at the same time we're choosing to do this sort of thing to each other. Polar bears attacking things, I can basically get my head around. They're massive, aggressive predators. It's what they do. The London riots? Well, maybe that is what we're built for. It's not a nice thought. Hard to imagine a small group of polar bears getting it into their heads to go mental,  hurt and injure as many other polar bears as they can, and generally destroy as much of their own habitat as they're able to.

I hope you're all right, normal people of London, and that you can pull the place back together in the aftermath.

Speaking of blasts from the past*, in 1996 I didn't write a play. It's called Polonius. Fortunately for the play, while I was busy not writing it, Romanian playwright Victor Cilinca was.

In 1999, a lecturer called Petru Iamandi translated the text into English. In order to put a final, native speaker's polish on the translation, I got involved to help with the final draft. Not much happened to it after that, and eleven years on I'd more or less forgotten all about it (in fact, Petru contacted me a while back to prod me into putting it in my website biblipography, because it had completely slipped my mind). A couple of days ago, he got in touch again, but this time to tell me that that the translated play will be published later this year by Wildside Press in the USA (the above is not the cover, as far as I know, but it's the only image relevant to the original play that Google can find for me).

It just goes to show that nothing you put on the page can ever be considered entirely dead.

I'm delighted this particular piece has pushed its way back up though the metaphorical topsoil. This isn't so much because of my input (while Petru credits me as a joint translator, I tend to think of myself more as a last stage copy-editor), but because Cilinca's play has real merit. It's a political farce, a black comedy set during the events of Hamlet, in a world of servitude where Polonius himself is king. As far as I know, it's never been performed in English. I'd like to think that its publication might bring that a step closer to happening.

More as it happens, and when it's published I'll point you in the right direction. I know there are several theatre types who drop by here every now and again. I hope you might check it out, with half an eye on how it might live and breathe in an English-speaking premiere somewhere in the world...

* I know, we weren't, but it saves me inventing a pithy opener...

Kizuna: Fiction for Japan

Unless you've been living under a rock (or, based on some quite sensationalist media reporting, spent the last couple of months in a hastily contrived nuclear bunker), you'll know all about the earthquake and tsunami that contrived to hurl parts of Japan into chaos. If you've forgotten, have a look at this video (about halfway down the page). It's about five minutes of your time, and starts in a small town next to river which is flooding due to the tsunami in questions. The video lasts about five minutes, and is a slow, hypnotic affair. Only by the end do you really realise that during your five minutes of downtime, during which you could perhaps have boiled a kettle for a cup of tea, you've just watched a whole town being wiped from the face of the earth, in real time. Five minutes. It's terrifying. Anyway, as victims of other catastrophes worldwide know, when the media lose interest and leave, and the eyes of the world are directed elsewhere, the support that was immediately apparent during the aftermath can dry up. Because these things take time to fix (devastated lives and livelihoods not being the sort of thing you can stick a plaster on), the agencies helping can be stretched to breaking point for months and years afterwards.

This book is a genuine attempt to help them. I can't announce the finished list of contributors yet, because it's still being compiled (but yes, there are enough big names to go around) but this book is a special something from which all all profits will go to the Japanese Red Cross, who are doing a hell of a job, with diminishing resources. We think we can lend a hand with the latter, by asking you to pay for something that will give you genuine pleasure. More soon, but my contribution to this anthology is called 'Sharan Gali'. It's set in India, and is about old gods fallen on hard times, and auto-rickshaw drivers. There are dozens of reasons to buy this book, and I'll keep you informed. You have early notice, because while all we authors can 'tap our fanbases', I'd rather you didn't buy it in dribs and drabs. If you do so within a day or so of each other, we could see a big, helpful spike of sales on the likes of Amazon, which will make people who've never heard of the book look twice at it, and might help to make a lot of money for people who need it. You have been warned.

Wildthyme in Purple

As Obverse Books have gone live with the list of contributors for this forthcoming anthology on various forums, I can happily alert you to the fact that I'm in it. I had a ball playing with Iris Wildthyme and Panda when I wrote 'The Story Eater' for Iris: Abroad last year, and I feel very privileged to be allowed a second shot at extending her adventures. Where exotic locales were the theme of the last volume, this one is inspired by pulp fiction (purple prose - geddit?). I'll keep the title of my tale to myself just now, if for no other reason than it may change as I write the story, but it's set in America, lets me revisit a childhood televisual joy, and is very close indeed to the heart of pulp fiction. If you've yet to step onto Iris's big, red, time-travelling double decker bus, pop by the Obverse website for one of the previous collections, or check out her mass market novel Enter Wildthyme, penned by her creator Paul Magrs. In particular, if you're my mother, or a friend who finds my horror scribblings too much for your palate, my Wildthyme efforts, like my sole entry in the Doctor Who canon, might be right up your street. Now... to write the actual story.

World Horror Convention Schedule

Actually, as I'm not launching anything, I don't have a schedule as such. However, if you're going and want to hook up for a beer, there are some events I'll definitely being trying to get to. On Thursday, I'll be enjoying the opening ceremonies, so look out for me there. I'll very likely be at Gary McMahon's reading for the launch Swallowed by the Cracks by Dark Arts Books from 1pm on the Friday. I'm also likely to be found on the crowd at Gene O'Neill's Bad Moon Books launch for Not Fade Away. I will also definitely be at the Cutting Block Press party, being held in honour of the launch of Tattered Souls 2. As one of the contributors to the numerically inferior Tattered Souls a couple of years back, I'm looking forward to getting a look at the second volume. Other than those, I'll be playing things by ear, but grab me if you see me. I'll be packing up today, and heading out late tomorrow, so things will be quiet(er) here in the interim.