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Crooked Houses

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And so the portal opens upon a myriad of strange dwellings, manses painted in many hues of murmuring shades. Out now from Egaeus Press comes what promises to be an extraordinary anthology entitled Crooked Houses, edited by Mark Beech.  Crooked Houses presents 17 new tales of spectral dwellings by many fine authors: Rebecca Kuder Richard Gavin, Colin Insole, Helen Grant, Albert Power, Steve Duffy, Reggie Oliver, David Surface, Lynda E. Rucker, Mark Valentine, Carly Holmes, James Doig, Rebecca Lloyd, Katherine Haynes, Jane Jakeman and Timothy Granville. My own contribution is entitled  The House of the Mere  and a great deal of the atmosphere was garnered during a wet and misty holiday to the English Lakes last October.   As with all Egaeus Press books it is an utterly beautiful production.  The keys to these twisted mansions can be purchased Here .

And so into the Aureate West...

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Crawl Wood at Sunset, Lower Dinchope, Shropshire 30th October 2011. © John Gale   Just a quick appearance to let you know that Saraband of Sable is now out of print from the publisher, Egaeus Press. I would like to thank everyone who took the trouble to purchase a copy or utter appreciative things about the book. Many, many thanks indeed to you all.

The Book of Flowering

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 A Fairy Tale by Arthur Wardle (1864-1949) [Source: Victorianweb.org ] But the most pleasing of the things at the Queen’s palace is the Queen’s garden: be-walled it is and reached by three hundred onyx steps, with admittance via a locked and fragrant gate of carven cedar, with the wood dyed to the hue of jasper: but jasper dark and mournful. A rather late announcement, but available now from the ever-beautiful Egaeus Press is The Book of Flowering edited by Mark Beech. As with all the books published by this press, it is a wonderfully crafted production and I strongly urge anyone interested to swiftly acquire this sumptuous volume before it goes out of print, as I'm sure it will do. My contribution is entitled 'A Garden of Sorrow and Sorcery' and it is a strange and empurpled Faerie Tale. Originally it was to form the centre piece of a different story - and still does, as a synopsis - and act as the key to that story, but unfortunately the tale grew an

Saraband and Damask

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I write almost exclusively to satisfy myself - unless I'm invited to contribute work to an anthology - so it is always extremely pleasing when I discover that something I have written finds a connection with someone out there in the wide and wondrous world. I would be the first to admit that my tales are not everyone's favourite tipple. So seeing my work in print is always, and I hope will always remain so, one of my ultimate thrills. So I was delighted a few week's ago to come across a very generous mention of Saraband of Sable and A Damask of the Dead  on a blog entitled oddly weird fiction . Many thanks Nancy O. Also, for those interested, Des Lewis has always been very kind to my work. His real-time reviews are always highly enjoyable. They can be read here and  here .

New Collection: Saraband of Sable

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Saraband of Sable is now up for pre-order from the publisher, Egaeus Press . The volume is a highly pleasing production in their Keynote Series: the format is pocket-sized, a delightful elegance in a mournful black and gold that you can journey anywhere with and be the envy of everyone you meet. Of the eight titles that go to make up the contents of Saraband of Sable , two have never been published before. One of them, 'Protector of Thieves' , is a Clark Ashton Smith pastiche set in his Hyperborea series. This piece was originally written several years ago for a collection of new Hyperborean tales, but it wasn't used. On reflection, I'm quite pleased it was never accepted for its proposed destination because the stories used in the anthology were, barring the odd one or two, generally uninspiring fare. The second unpublished tale,  'In the Palace of the Lost Winter Stars', grew out of two phrases that I suddenly thought of  - "the rose-opal twilight

Saraband of Sable

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I would like to announce a new collection of my work due soon from the superb Egaeus Press . This will be in their Keynotes series: a small format volume in black cloth with a panel in gold for the title and author. A beautiful and elegant design and I am extremely pleased to be a part of this occasional series from an excellent small press. The title of the new book is Saraband of Sable and it will consist of a number of uncollected, unpublished and hard to find tales. I am very happy indeed with this collection and  I look forward eagerly to its publication. Currently Saraband of Sable is due for publication sometime during July 2018, When I have any further news I will of course announce it here. Pan Paramount, Laurence Housman http://www.victorianweb.org/art/illustration////housman/28.html

The Scarlet Soul: Stories For Dorian Gray

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Due soon from Brian Shower's excellent Swan River Press is an anthology of ten new stories edited by Mark Valentine, tales that respond in many differing ways to the themes of Oscar Wilde's  The Picture of Dorian Gray . The line up of authors is as follows: Reggie Oliver, Caitriona Lally, Lynda E. Rucker, John Howard, D.P. Watt, Rosanne Rabinowitz, Avalon Brantley, Timothy J. Jarvis, John Gale and Derek John. My contribution is entitled 'A Labyrinth of Graves', the title taken from a poem by John Warren, Lord de Tabley. I was working on the story when Mark asked me if I would be interested in writing for the anthology. Obviously, I said yes. Fortuitously the main themes of the tale in progress seemed to fit perfectly. The story has quite a long history, because I originally had the idea for the tale at the end of the 1990s. I only wrote around a hundred words at the time, and under a different title, 'The Ship Forever-Seeking', before I set it aside. I wen