July 12th, 2010
Just heard back from Edwin Rydberg, who accepted my short story Watch over a year ago now for inclusion in his proposed Great Britain anthology which had been put on hold.
The latest is that although he’s decided to cancel that particular anthology he is pressing ahead with another anthology Farspace 2 (the follow up to the first one of the same name) and wants to include Watch in that so it looks as if the story will see the light of day after all.
At the moment Farspace 2 is set for a September 2010 publication date but I’ll be sure to keep you all updated if that changes. If the book does come out it’ll be the first short story from me in quite a while – and without really any more on the horizon due to my focus on longer projects if you are a fan of my short stories you should probably grab it whilst you can!
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July 12th, 2010
One thought which regularly occurs to me whilst listening to various topics relating to the skeptical movement is if you don’t consider yourself skeptical then what does that make you?
I don’t mean that in a bad way but, to me, being skeptical doesn’t mean not believing in something just for the sake of it (that would be cynicism) but merely not believing in something until there is sufficient evidence to do so. The question is, if you don’t do that, or don’t consider that you do that, then does that mean you just believe everything that you are told?
Someone says “if I stick a needle in here then all the pains will go away” and you say “okay”? Someone says “actually don’t even stick a needle there, I’ll just wave my hands over it for a bit and you say “okay”? Someone says that purple aliens landed in their garden and replaced them with a robot replica of themselves and you say “okay”?
Surely it’s not about whether you are a skeptic/skeptical or not but how skeptical you are? Everyone, surely, when told something, will analyse it somehow and then come out with a conclusion to either believe it or not believe it. And if you’re not going on evidence then what are you basing your decisions on? Faith? Trust? Opinion? All of those, to me, are scarily subjective and subject to massive margins of error.
If a whacko comes up to you in the street and tells you that you should never again wear a green t-shirt because they can only get into your head when you wear green do you not assess the likelihood of this being verifiable true? Does the guy seem mentally stable? Does his statement seem likely to be true? Is there any precedent you are aware of for them (whoever they might be) being able to use the colour of a piece of clothing to interfere with your mind? Surely these sorts of questions, looking at empirical truths which can be queried in order to lead you to your conclusion, are all the scientific, skeptical method at work?
Surely we’re all skeptics – it’s just a case of how skeptical.
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July 12th, 2010
Just ran a chunk of Guerra through the “I Write Like” tool provided by Coding Robots who created the BlogJet software I use to maintain my blog and got the following result >
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July 9th, 2010
Thanks to Nick Kaufmann for spotting a bunch of ChiZine books in Barnes and Noble on 5th Avenue and 46th Street in Manhattan!
As you’ll see it’s alongside Nick’s own book Chasing The Dragon and David Nickle’s Monstrous Affections so a decent amount of shelfspace handed over to ChiZine 
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June 4th, 2010
I’ve had my iPhone for a few months now (and had an iPod touch prior to that) and for most of that time have used the rather spiffy Notebooks app from developer Alfons Schmid to keep notes which are synced from my laptop, however although I love Alfons’ app I’ve been using the Notepad ++ program on my laptop which is just plain text. For the most part, that’s fine, however I often want to use bullet-point lists, bold and italics which obviously isn’t possible in plain text.
Prior to switching to Notepad++ in order to be able to sync up with Notebooks I’d use Microsoft OneNote, a pretty underrated program in my opinion, since not only did it allow me to use more formatting (bold, bullet lists etc) but also it was pretty good for keeping the notes organised. Each project could have its own Notebook, each notebook separated into Plot&Ideas, Characters&Settings etc, then various notes in there. It was much better for me organising them and ever since then I’ve been eager to move back to OneNote if and when an iPhone app capable of syncing properly with it came out.
I grabbed Mobile Noter earlier this year which allowed for syncing but only with one notebook and without any formatting. It was okay but the developers had roadmapped the ability to edit existing notebooks and notes, including images, linked files and more. i was pleased to hear, therefore, that they’ve just released version 2.0 of their app which has editing (albeit limited) capabilities with existing notes.
So I can now go back to using OneNote and use it well enough for now until the more feature-rich formatting capabilities come in in a future version, hopefully fairly soon.
Of course if Literature and Latte’s Scrivener is ever ported across to the PC and gets its own iPhone app then OneNote will probably be thrown out my window … 
So what about the rest of you iPhone user writers out there? Which apps do you use in your writing? Any recommendations?
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May 25th, 2010
Got news from Brett over at ChiZine Publications that the latest issue of Fangoria has a great full-page write up on them, including mentions of Katja From The Punk Band and the various other Spring 2010 books.
Check out the write up here (512kb JPG)
Congrats to Brett, Gemma, Phillip and everyone else!
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May 17th, 2010
SF Site have just released a featured review of Katja From The Punk Band by Martin Lewis and it’s a pretty sweet one and you can check it out here:
http://www.sfsite.com/05b/ka320.htm
Overall the review is positive and obvioulsy the reviewer has considered the book carefully rather than just saying “yeah it’s great” or “man this is shit”, even down to quoting particular sentences which he liked. I do think the whole thing was summed up by the reviewer’s comment that …
“… whilst I am learning to love Logan, I want more than three chords…”
Also he takes the time to highlight the quality of ChiZine’s production of the book which is great, I think, because those guys put so much time and effort into it that it deserves it wholesale.
“Katja from the Punk Band is a simply beautiful artefact and the same is true of their other titles. Chizine Publications represent something which is common in the music industry but sadly rarer within the publishing industry, that a clever independent can run rings round the majors in terms of style and content. “
So congrats to Brett, Sandra, Erik and everyone else at ChiZine for making the most of my book.
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April 15th, 2010
Today marks the official launch of the trade paperback edition of KATJA FROM THE PUNK BAND so to all of you who pre-ordered it, your copies will be with you very shortly if they aren’t already there.
For those of you who haven’t gotten your copy, or for whom the fancy-schmancy limited edition hardcover was too expensive, then this also fantastic edition should do you nicely. It’s got a beautful matte finish and embossing on both the front and spine, I’m so pleased with what Brett and everyone at ChiZine have produced here, so you should all be really happy with the book itself even if you don’t like the story … 
Not only is the TPB out but there’s also an electronic version of it for those of you with E-Readers, Kindles and the like which you can get from Horror Mall who also did the hardcover at the stunning price of only $5.95! So keep yourselves company on the daily commute by stuffing your head full of the punky, anarchic and downright grimy delights of Katja From The Punk Band …
Posted in Katja FTPB, Publishing News | 2 Comments »
March 22nd, 2010
It is with reluctance that I’m having to announce that I will NOT be attending the World Horror Convention this year as previously announced and therefore won’t be at the launch party which ChiZine Publications are throwing for their books.
I’m really bummed about not being able to go but it just wasn’t working out for us financially and time-wise to make it (awkward enough figuring out babysitting for three days but figure into that dog and cat-sitting too and it just wasn’t happening). We tried various ways and means to see what could be done but when socket A went into plug B socket C would pop out and so we’ve had to call it off.
With that said there will still be a bunch of other authors there for the launch party so it’s still well worth anyone’s attendance and it sounds like it will be a good one.
So good luck to the other ChiZine authors (Philip Nutman, Tim Lebbon, Douglas Smith, Gemma Files, David Nickle and Claude Lalumiere) who will be there and good luck to Sandra and Brett too.
Maybe next time.
Posted in Katja FTPB, Publishing News | No Comments »
February 12th, 2010
Check out below the Gelaskin I’ve just created and ordered for my iPhone via the Gelaskin website:
That little beauty is about to wing its way to me to make sure I’m fully pimped out for WHC 2010!
Tags: gelaskins, katja from the punk band
Posted in Katja FTPB | No Comments »
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