The author trail

It's like a nature trail, only better. You know how it works; you read a book by an author you never read before, get hooked and follow their trail forever after. It's a kind of literary stalking. We've all done it. There's no shame.

The author trail works in two distinct ways. First there's the backlist trail. This is where you discover a book, only to find the author's written a ton of stuff you never read before. Such trails can result in exhaustion, particularly when the list is long. I first experienced this when I discovered Isaac Asimov at some remote and tender age. Foundation led me to, well, the other Foundation books, and then to I, Robot and The Rest of the Robots and Earth is Room Enough and The End of Eternity and ... well, you get the picture. The same with Larry Niven. Ringworld begat Protector and thence to World of Ptavvs ... these lists can get biblical, can't they?

The second kind of trail is when you discover an author with their very first book. This happened to me with Pratchett's The Colour of Magic and Iain M Banks's Consider Phlebas and a host of others. This kind of trail is a game of patience, as you wait for the next delivery from your new favourite author.

There is, of course, a hybrid third kind of author trail. It's a combination of the first two. Here you discover someone with a backlist but who's also still writing. You devour the oldies and set about waiting for the newies. For me this is probably the biggest list of all. A few years ago I discovered Neal Stephenson through Cryptonomicon, read his earlier works and am now eagerly awaiting the moment I get far enough down my to-read pile to immerse myself in Anathem.

And it never ends. Stephen King's new novel Under the Dome is out today and I'm only just catching my breath from finishing Robert Holdstock's Avilion. And then there's a whole heap of talented new writers who simply have to be sampled. Check out the publishing schedule of outfits like Angry Robot Books if you don't believe me.

Some of you may be wondering where my own trail's headed. As I've mentioned here before, I'm currently tied up with a bunch of ghost-writing projects. They'll take me through into next spring. All good work but it means my own output drops accordingly. Like most writers, I do have unpublished novels in manuscript form, plus other irons in the fire in the form of proposals for novels I haven't yet written. And I'll be working on a new project over the next few weeks – something I'm really excited about but don't want to talk about just yet. But it's tough out there. So right now I'm doing what I do best: concentrating on the words and letting the deals come when they will. Following the trail, if you like. Like they say, it's all in the journey.

Green man reviews best horror

There's another great review for The Best Horror of the Year: Volume One, edited by Ellen Datlow, this time over at The Green Man Review. All the stories in the anthology get a mention. Here's mine:

"Graham Edwards's "Girl in Pieces" is a SF-myth-noir mash-up about a P.I. investigating the murder of a young woman after a golem claims he was framed for the murder. This is a delightfully witty and funny story and provides a much-welcome sense of B movie humor to the collection."

For more info on the story at me website, click here.

Yes, Avatar again

It's my duty to report that the new Avatar trailer is AWESOME.

Ghostly delivery

Yay - I've just delivered the second draft MS for the fantasy novel I've been ghost-writing for the past few months. Don't bother asking me what it's about or who it's for – what kind of ghost would I blabbed about stuff like that?

What struck me about this particular edit was how close I was able to get to the words. "What's he talking about?" I hear you ask. "He's a writer, isn't he? It's all words, isn't it?"

Well, yes. But on this occasion the structure and pacing of the novel were pretty much there after the first draft. That left me free on the second draft to roll up my sleeves, get right into the text and massage it to get the most out of every scene, without worrying too much about how those scenes fitted together. Good prose is all about finding exactly the right word, every step along the way. So that's what I've been doing.

Mind you, with around 80,000 words to consider, chances are I haven't nailed them all. As a famous writer once said (and most writers I know agree), you set out on every project wanting to write the best thing you ever wrote ... and end up just wanting to get the damn thing finished.

And finished it is, which leaves me free to tinker with a personal project before the outline for the third and final book of this ghostly trilogy arrives in my inbox. Who knows, maybe that one will be the best thing I ever wrote. When the damn thing's finished, I'll let you know.

Talisman and Dome

My appreciation of Stephen King started with the 1979 TV version of Salem's Lot, which had us all talking in the school playground about how we hadn't slept a wink after watching David Soul go up against Mr Barlow. After that initiation, my first reading experience wasn't that great. As a teenager I borrowed Pet Sematary from a friend and thought it was all a bit overblown up to the point where the resurrected kid gets hold of the scalpel. Then, at the age of eighteen, I read The Talisman ...

I read The Talisman at lightspeed, consuming the entire second half in a single sitting one wet Sunday afternoon. Jack Sawyer's adventures just blew me away. Years later I loved the sequel Black House nearly as much, for entirely different reasons. I'm not here to review these books, only to tell you to read them, and to say how great the new comic adaptation of The Talisman looks. (I have a particular interest in this as it's drawn by Tony Shasteen, who produced a couple of awesome illustrations for two short stories of mine.)

Since then I've visited Castle Rock and Derry on a regular basis. I've trekked through Mid-World with Roland and his buddies. I'm a true fan. When Mr King writes his introductions dedicated to his Constant Reader, I know he's talking to me. So am I excited about his new novel Under the Dome being published next month? You bet your boots!

Best Horror reviewed in Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly have posted an excellent starred review of Ellen Datlow's The Best Horror of the Year 1:

"After 22 years of pulling the horror content for the now-discontinued Year's Best Fantasy and Horror series, Datlow (Lovecraft Unbound) goes solo with this stellar start to a new “best of” annual. As in the past, her picks confirm that “horror” is a storytelling approach with endlessly inventive possibilities. In E. Michael Lewis's “Cargo,” a haunting Twilight Zone–type tale, an airplane picks up something otherworldly as part of its latest transport. Euan Harvey's creepy “Harry and the Monkey” turns an urban legend into reality. R.B. Russell's “Loup-garou” is a highly original shape-shifter story with a subtle psychological twist, and Daniel LeMoal's “Beach Head” a bracing conte cruel with a Lord of the Flies cast. In addition to the richly varied stories, Datlow provides her usual comprehensive coverage of the year in horror in an introduction that's indispensable reading for horror aficionados."

If you're wondering, of course I have a vested interest, since one of my stories is in there...

Names from the arena

I have a folder on my laptop called The Arena. It's where I put my ideas. Story fragments, outline notes, lists of names or places ... you name it, it's there. Once in The Arena, they scrap it out. Only the strongest survive.

There's something in The Arena right now that wants to be heard. The trouble is, I don't really want to talk about it. The Arena's a hostile place. Sometimes the things in there just wither and die before they even get a chance to take up their weapons. But this particular project already seems to have a life of its own. I've decided to acknowledge that by presenting to you the following list, without preamble or explanation. Just to let it know I'm paying attention.

Abalone
Tiquette
Pyx
Viscero
Ghan
Pyrean

and finally

The Tilt

That's all. Make of it what you will. If the project wins through against the other gladiators in the ring, you'll be the first to know.