My first published story – PRETZEL FISH

I’ve not had the chance to post here recently but before I blab about what’s going on I have to let folks know that my short story was published by the wonderful folks at THE MOUSTACHE FACTOR.

Pretzel Fish is my first published tale and you can read it here for FREE!

Other news – I read a story called ‘Summer’ in public at the recent Terror Scribes reunion organised by John B. Ford in Chesterfield last month – my first official public reading, not counting a couple of small extracts I read at the Renegade Writers meetings last year. This seemed to go down quite well despite being quite different from the norm, and I have now submitted it for future publication – so fingers crossed!

We caught up with Paul, Marie, Mark, Ramsey and whole bunch of friends at the recent Hellraiser event at Waterstones -  Liverpool One and Helen also managed to finally drag me to an Iron Maiden concert too.

I wore a bespoke t-shirt with the artwork from Sam Pink’s excellent debut novel PINK, which you should all grab immediately!

Its all about the jazz…

I had reasons to visit Manchester, England this past weekend, reasons that did not involve browsing an adult only bookshop with pockets full of loose change, or researching for a zoological degree I’m not studying for. This  journey was interrupted in order to fill our cakehole’s full of tasty treats, an irrelevant yet important factor.

Jolly tasty nom noms.

Having purged this unexpected hunger, the escape route from this retail park allowed us to bear witness to the existence of Jazz Taxi.

When my brain pointed out to my eyes that they were broadcasting a retinal recording of a taxi driver (no DeNiro) whiling away the slacktime between marks, by leaning on the side of his car, tootling away on his saxophone.

The backdrop… another soulless business park in the district of Hulme (iThink).

Sadly our exit, the escape route lead directly out on to the main road and one reason why I failed to back this tale up with photographic evidence.

The other… we were too lazy to slingshot on a roundabout and make a series of left turns.

The third option is that maybe, I’m just a lying sack of shit.

One other thing I recall from this trip. I finished reading Brian Stableford’s The Womb of Time published by Perilous Press.

A brilliant novella that fused the Call of Cthulhu, with the biological sciences by way of pre-WW2 espionage with DeQuincey scholars, and Arthurian myth.

Mr. Machen also gets namechecked in this superior Lovecraftian tribute.

I have copies available for the UK only from a recent event held in London.

If you believe in Jazz Taxi and don’t think I’m a lying sack of shit,  maybe just maybe, you’d like to order a copy today.