Writer of science fiction and fantasy and other stuff
Excitement rising Chez Barnham as we look forward to the official UK launch of Fifty-One this coming Friday 22nd June.
Thanks to the generosity of the Blackheath Bookshop – who are hosting – we’ll be launching the book right where a lot of the story is set, in Blackheath Village.
The fun starts at 6pm, with drinks and nibbles. If you’re in the area (and in a book-buying mood) come along.
The address is 34 Tranquil Vale, Blackheath, London SE3 0AX.
The latest issue of online speculative fiction magazine Electric Spec is out now. And I’m pleased to say it features one of my ‘Way’ stories: Sigmund Seventeen.
I wrote about the ‘Way’ story sequence last month (see May 9th), and there’s more about the background to this and its sister story ‘Once There Was A Way’ in the blog that accompanies Electric Spec. If you’re interested, you can read that here. Also completely free.
Look out for more ‘Way’ tales before long.
[Featured image – from the latest Electric Spec cover – is copyright Brian Malachy Quinn.]
It’s turning out to be a good week. First a story comes out on Starship Sofa’s podcast, then a sale to Intergalactic Medicine Show…and now another of my ‘Way’ story cycle has found a home.
‘Sigmund Seventeen’ should be out at the end of this month, in the online speculative fiction magazine, Electric Spec.
‘Sigmund’ is the second in a linked series of tales in which the stories play out against alternate versions of reality, reached by walking a mysterious path known as ‘The Way.’ Only some people can see and use the Way, and it’s hard to travel it with another person. These awkwardnesses fuel much of the narrative.
Another ‘Way’ story, ‘Hard Times in Nuovo Genova’ is due out with Intergalactic Medicine Show in August. (See 8th May.)
A third ‘Way’ story, ‘Once There Was a Way’, looks like it has also found a home (more on that soon). It’s in many ways a mirror image of ‘Sigmund’, and I’ll be interested in readers’ thoughts if they read them both.
A couple more ‘Way’ stories and I’ll have a book!
I had a story in Electric Spec a year or so ago. That was ‘Lenin’s Nurse’, a historical horror story, in issue Volume 11, Issue 4, at the end of 2016. You can still read it for free online (click the link!)
It’s always lovely to be able to let you know that another story has found a home. And this time I’m really thrilled that I will have a story in Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show probably in August.
The story is called ‘Hard Times In Nuovo Genova or How I Lost My Way’ (sadly, titles aren’t part of the word count!). It’s one of a series of what I think of as my ‘Way’ stories. I’ll write about the series soon, when I’ve got a bit of time, because a couple of other stories from it are also coming out this year.
The story takes place in one of a number of different versions of Chicago, in this case one where North America was largely settled by Italians (Columbus having got funding from his native Genoa instead of Spain). It’s a simple enough tale: guy meets girl, guy loses girl, but with multiple universes.
As I say, it’s due in August, so plenty of time to brag yet!
My story, “When I Close My Eyes” (see July 17th 2017) is the gift that keeps on giving. It earned me my debut in the rather wonderful Interzone magazine last year. Then it landed a berth in the recent (and also wonderful) ‘Best of British Science Fiction 2017’, edited by Donna Scott.
And now the story has popped up in a podcast – it features in episode 534 of Starship Sofa.
I confess, I was unsure how it would be, hearing my story read by someone else. But narrator Gareth Stack has done a bang-up job. I really enjoyed it, and I knew what happened! I heard little details in his narration that I didn’t even realise I’d put in the story.
Check it out, and subscribe to Starship Sofa while you’re at it. They’ve got a huge back catalogue of great stories, and it’s really worthy of your time.
The podcast is part of the District of Wonders stable, which also produces Tales to Terrify (if horror is your bag) and Far Fetched Fables (if you like fantasy)
Fifty-One is of course available through various channels – Google Play, Amazon Kindle, and so on.
But I’ve found that I’m embarrassingly old-school: it’s only when I see the actual, physical book – preferably in an actual, physical bookstore, among other lovely books – that I admit to myself the book properly exists.
So I’m really pleased that the book is now properly available in paperback in UK bookshops.
A reminder of what the book’s about:
Jacob Wesson is a timecop from 2040, sent back to 2nd World War London to stop the assassination of Winston Churchill. The assignment plays out with apparent ease, but the jump home goes wrong, stranding Jake in war-ravaged 1944. Jake’s team, including his long-time girlfriend, is desperate to trace him before something else goes wrong.
Stuck in the past, Jake must pull from his training and blend in. He clings to the one familiar face he can find, Amy Jenkins, a war widow whose life he saved during the assignment. Drawn to each other by their loneliness and thrown together amid the terror of war, Jake and Amy look to a future together.
But Jake’s future cannot let him go. And when his bosses finally find him in 1944, Jake faces a terrible choice: risk unraveling the modern world, or let Amy die.
To celebrate this moment when Fifty-One becomes fully available in the non-digital realm in the UK, I thought I’d bring together in one place all the ways you can now get it, should you choose to do so. Take your pick below:
Amazon UK (Kindle or paperback)
Amazon US (Kindle or paperback)
Google Play (ebook)
Waterstones (paperback)
(And, if you’re in the USA, consider doing independent publishing a favour, and ordering from … Filles Vertes Publishing ebook and paperback)
For me, there’s no substitute for finding books in bookstores, so I’ll be giving a plug on here to any stores where I spot it on sale. And look out for a launch event, coming soon, appropriately in a place that features in the story.