2022 Roundup

Well, 2022 is almost done. In some ways, I suppose, it’s been a more hopeful year, though at the same time it’s managed to find new challenges to throw our way too. It feels at least like the world is moving again. Likewise, creatively, I feel like this has been a year of scraping off the rust and oiling the cogs, and the latter half of the year has felt especially productive.

In April, my second novel, Queen of Clouds was published. We had some excellent in-person launch events, people bought it, and some people even said some very nice things about it. I really owe a huge debt to NewCon Press and everyone who helped and encouraged along the way.

In less happy news my novella, The Packet, didn’t join Queen of Clouds on the bookshelves as planned. I don’t have a schedule for it right now, but I’m hopeful it’ll appear at some point.

I did have one short science fiction story published this year, however, with A Moment of Zugzwang appearing in issue 4 of the very excellent ParSec Magazine.

And there are few bits and pieces slated already for 2023 in the shape of two more of my strange bequests stories. An Antique Puzzle Chest of Unknown Provenance, a twisty revenge tale, will mark my first appearance in Undertow Publications’ brilliant Weird Horror Magazine, and I’m delighted about that. And I’m both super-proud and very sad indeed to be publishing The Salted Bones in the last ever issue of Black Static. Andy Cox and TTA Press have been amazingly supportive of my writing down the years, and it’s very sad to see them bow out, but what an issue to go out on! If you like horror, supernatural or just plain weird dark fiction, both of these magazines are worth investing in.

With the writing machine finally up to full speed and running white hot over the last month or two, there are now a bunch more stories, plus my horror novella, Charlie Says, currently being considered by publishers, so hopefully 2023 will be a bumper year for publication. Fingers crossed. The new novel is well underway too and ought to be finished over the coming months, so watch this space for that as well.

On the music side of things, February Album Writing Month came and went and delivered another Disappointed Skeptics Club album called Amaze Your Friends. The theme of the album this year was magic and I had a lot of fun playing with both instrumental and lyrical ideas in bringing these songs together.

2023 feels like a good one. Let’s go!