Meet the new blog - same as the old blog

This version of my blog is now closed. I've migrated everything over to my new combined blog and website. You can go there by clicking here. What are you waiting for?

Official Graham Edwards blog and website

Close Enemies - new novel published

Yes, I've got a new novel out on the streets. It's called Close Enemies, and it's the sequel to my earlier crime thriller Runaway Minister. Like the first book, I wrote it in collaboration with Working Partners Two, under the pseudonym Nick Curtis.

There's a bit of a saga behind the publication of Close Enemies. It was originally due to be published by Black Star Crime, like its predecessor. Unfortunately, the Black Star Crime imprint folded after just a few editions, so that was that. Luckily for fans of Charlie Paddon and Alex Chappell, Dales Large Print have just picked up the next book in the series.

You can buy Close Enemies online - a quick search should turn it up - but be aware it's in large print, so it may take up a little more space on your bookshelf! For more information, and a synopsis, visit the page I've set up on my official website here.

The Case for Detecstasy

Just published - the Summer 2010 edition of Mystery Readers Journal. This special Paranormal Mysteries edition includes an essay by yours truly all about writing fantasy detective fiction. The essay's called The Case for Detecstasy and you can read it right now: just click here to visit the MRJ site and download the PDF.

More Best Horror

You can't keep a good anthology down. David Marshall's posted a fine review of The Best Horror of the Year Volume 1 on his blog. Best of all (for me at least), he's got this to say about my story Girl in Pieces featured in the collection:

"Then comes my favourite. “Girl in Pieces” by Graham Edwards tramples over every genre boundary it can think of, then makes up another and tramples that down as well. It’s a mesmerising piece of writing in which a PI in a multidimensional physical world can do deals with deities for their magic while following through on a golem client wrongly accused of murder."

Beneath the Loch video

Some years ago I worked for a company that created theme park rides and visitor attractions. While there, I wrote a multimedia "history and myth" show called Beneath the Loch, aimed at families and children. The show used triptych video, surround-sound and animatronics to tell the story of a young otter who embarks on a quest into the depths of Loch Lomond to find the lost village of Camstradden. On the way, the otter plunges through a whirlpool of history and myth, finally discovering the Guardian of the Loch, who collects "all the stories that run down the glens and into the loch".

I've just put a page about the show on my website here. I've included links to some of the many people who contributed to the project, which was led by Nick Farmer. If you were part of the project and I've missed you out, feel free to comment on this post and I'll remedy the situation!

Meanwhile, you can watch a complete video of the show on YouTube here!

Awards

... and Ellen Datlow's The Best Horror of the Year Volume One has popped up on two awards lists here and here. Yowsa.

Locus reviews Best Horror

Congratulations to Ellen Datlow on another positive review of The Best Horror of the Year Volume One, this time in the December issue of Locus. According to the review, "The 19 horror stories and two poems Datlow has selected as her top picks for 2008 are as eclectic a mix as the contents she has pulled for any previous year. Most are by writers whose names will be instantly recognized by the majority of horror readers, but some of the contributors are relative unknowns whose presence suggests new and emerging talents that are crucial for keeping any type of fiction fresh."

And, in the spirit of shameless self-promotion (one of the remits of this blog) I'm pleased to report that Locus thinks my short story Girl in Pieces is "a magnificent urban fantasy giddy with hardcore horror imagery".

Get your free comic strip here!

I thought I'd kick off the New Year with a free gift.

Digging around in my bookshelves over Christmas, I turned up a copy of Colossus, a science fiction comic strip magazine I self-published with my friend Andy Wicks way back in 1985. After leafing through it in teary-eyed nostalgia, I thought it might be fun to scan one of the stories and make it available online.

I've posted some background on the story on my website here, but if you want to cut straight to the chase and read the damn thing, just click on the link right here (PDF file).

All I ask is that you're gentle with it. After all, I was only a student ...

Best Horror on best list

Ellen Datlow's Best Horror of the Year Volume One has made it on to the Best of 2009 list over at fear.net - check out my website for the lowdown on my story Girl in Pieces, which is featured in this great anthology.

Blowing own trumpet in silence

I wish I could share with you some nice reviews of a book I wrote earlier this year, but there are a couple of stumbling blocks. First, it was a ghosting project, so I remain resolutely anonymous about the whole thing. Second, first publication was in a language other than English, so I'm forced to run the reviews through a translator before I can get to grips with them. You'll just have to to believe me when I say the star ratings were pretty healthy and the readers seemed to be hungry for more. Which is good because there are two more in the pipeline!

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.

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...

Best Horror review

The first review of The Best Horror of the Year Volume One, edited by Ellen Datlow and containing my short story Girl in Pieces, has arrived over at Charles Tan's excellent review blog. Click here to read the review.

Short and undead

For another of my occasional pieces of flash fiction, check out my latest zombie blink-and-you-miss-it story at Six Word Stories.

Proof of horror

Just had the pleasure of checking a PDF proof for The Best Horror of the Year Volume One – well, my own small part of it at least. Great to see my story Girl in Pieces back in print again, and also to see I've been positioned cheek by jowl with the great Joe Lansdale. Publication date for the anthology is October 2009, so get your order in now!

Addicted to six

More Edwards microfiction hits the web at Six Word Stories. I could stop if I wanted. Really I could. (Note to self: get on with the damn novel!)

Best Horror TOC

Nightshade Books have just announced the complete table of contents for The Best Horror of the Year, Volume One, edited by Ellen Datlow. It's great to have my story Girl in Pieces in such a meaty anthology, and especially to be in such esteemed company. While I'm on the subject, all hail Tony Shasteen who created this awesome illustration for the story's first appearance in Realms of Fantasy.

Here's the TOC:

Cargo — E. Michael Lewis
If Angels Fight — Richard Bowes
The Clay Party — Steve Duffy
Penguins of the Apocalypse — William Browning Spencer
Esmeralda — Glen Hirshberg
The Hodag — Trent Hergenrader
Very Low-Flying Aircraft — Nicholas Royle
When the Gentlemen Go — Margaret Ronald
The Lagerstatte — Laird Barron
Harry and the Monkey — Euan Harvey
Dress Circle — Miranda Siemienowicz
The Rising River — Daniel Kaysen
Sweeney Among the Straight Razors — JoSelle Vanderhooft
Loup-garou — R.B. Russell
Girl in Pieces — Graham Edwards
It Washed Up — Joe R. Lansdale
The Thirteenth Hell — Mike Allen
The Goosle — Margo Lanagan
Beach Head — Daniel LeMoal
The Man From the Peak — Adam Golaski
The Narrows — Simon Bestwick

Three out of three of six

I'm on a roll over at Six Word Stories! The third of my recent three microfiction efforts made it through the net and on to the site here. This one's the best, in my humble and arguably skewed opinion.

Short short

Six more of my words have hit the big time over at Six Word Stories. For narrative pared to the bone, go check out my latest short story here. And I really do mean short.

Short and ...

... I'll let you decide if it's sweet. Read my latest microtext at Six Word Stories.