One of my favourite pages from Raymond Chandler’s notebooks, where he plans out a list of similes and descriptions that will later find their way into books. There’s similar lists scattered through the notebooks where he describes outfits, makes a note of potential titles, or golden comebacks for his dialogue. Once used, he’d go back […]
Putting on my editor hat for a moment: The latest release at Brain Jar Press is Matthew R. Davis’ Bites Eyes, a deliciously disturbing assemblage of thirteen flash fictions and short horror vignettes. Available now through the Brain Jar Press store or all good bookshops. Editing short story collections is one of my favourite things […]
An off-hand comment from my beloved wife and a weekly vegetable box delivery has sent me down a rabbit hole of experimenting with my method of cooking roast potatoes, looking for techniques I can use to level up my roasties. Yesterday, I experimented with par-boiling the potatoes in slightly acidic water before roasting, then brushing […]
OUT TODAY: ECLECTIC PROJECTS 002 The second issue of Eclectic Projects is out today, featuring four original short stories, one serial entry, and one long essay about the worst job I’ve ever worked, digital publishing technology, and the evolution of publishing scams in the age of the internet. Available from all good bookstores, via a […]
Extraordinary number of fraulent orders hit the Brain Jar Press store over the weekend, transforming our usual trickle of notifications into a mighty torrent as I was notified by payment failure after payment failure. On the plus side, our filters caught all the bogus orders as they were sent through and didn’t process them, which […]
Every Saturday, I post a new fantasy, science fiction, or horror story to Patreon. These are usually in ARC form—early iterations of the stories that will eventually find their way into the Eclectic Projects magazine series—although the changes between the Patreon version and the published version are minimal outside a few notable exceptions. I’ve just […]
There’s a work philosophy in Dan Charnas’ Work Clean which boils down to “slow down in order to speed up.” The mistakes you make by trying to get things done fast often end up costing you time in the long run, because things will end up needing to be redone or you’ll have to double-handle […]
My dad wore a tie to work almost every day of his adult life, and still had a vast collection when he passed away in 2019. My mum asked if I’d be interested in them, but a) I wear a tie for job interviews approximately once every three or four years, and b) I don’t […]
In March, I’m going to be a gust on the Pratchat: The Terry Pratchett Bookclub Podcast hosted by Ben McKenzie and Elizabeth Flux. Here’s some details from their recent announcement: For our March episode, we’re going where Pratchat has never gone before: into Pratchett’s nonfiction! Author, publisher and roleplayer Peter M. Ball joins us for a collection of Pratchett’s […]
My dad passed away in 2019. Today would have been his birthday. The stretch from Feb 21 to March 19, the anniversary of his death, is one of the rocky parts of my year. Started writing a new short story yesterday, tackling an idea I’ve wanted to write for nearly a decade now. ON THE […]
We’re one week out from the release of Matthew R. Davis Bites Eyes over at Brain Jar Press, ergo this week is going to be a little more promo focused than others. There’s a bunch of Brain Jar projects in the hopper at the moment, slowly advancing as I figure out how to balance the […]
I didn’t feel sick for much of the last week, but my contact time with the keyboard dropped from 40+ hours a week to a little under 10. The week consisted of doing what needed to be done — getting my spouse to work, meeting with mentees who’d booked meetings — then collapsing in a […]
