News & Upcoming Events

Currently available from: Apocalypse Ink Productions | Amazon | DriveThruFiction
Note: The hardback signed limited edition of this book is only available on the AIP website.

AND NOW WE ARE DONE

Four years ago, I wrote a web-serial for a small magazine. Two years ago, I started working on that story in novella form, rebuilding it brick by brick, dragging in all the lessons I learned from writing the serial. Today, I hit the end of the journey: The Flotsam Omnibus officially exists as a thing, compiling all three novellas in the series plus another two stories set in the same universe.

There are demons, there are hit men, and there are things from behind space and time.

And, because I could not help myself, there’s a spot of pro-wrestling in one of the stories.

I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that there’s a limited edition hard-cover of this thing (only available directly from the publisher) in addition to the usual trade paperback and ebook versions. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I wrote a trilogy, which wasn’t entirely intentional, but seems to have worked out okay.

I do not have to wrap my head around the awesomness of Mark Ferrari’s cover, because I have been using it as a home screen for the last six months and it just keeps being awesome.

The limited edition Flotsam Omnibus hardcovers are officially a thing that exists in the world. Apocalypse Ink posted an image of them on the twitters, complete with bonus cat:

The limited edition hardback of THE FLOTSAM Trilogy by @Petermball has arrived and it’s gorgeous! pic.twitter.com/9qHDTyYDf0

— Apocalypse Ink (@ApocalypseInk) November 11, 2015

Release date is November 18, which is so tantalizingly close, people.

If you need me, I’ll be over here, wiping the drool off my chin. And feeling the sting of shame that comes from finally posting cat pics to my blog in a blatant attempt to pander to the internet…

Two quick addendum’s to yesterday’s post.

ONE: NEW STORY AT DAILY SF

My latest story, The Place Beyond the Brambles, deals with bees and mysteries and missing love, and it just went live over on the Daily Science Fiction website.

When last I saw you, my sweet, my love, you were shrunk to the size of Grandma’s thimble and plucked from the porch by the bees of the forest. We heard your cries, your wild shrieks of delight, as they carried you to the place beyond the southern brambles. Listened, after, to the silence that followed, to the empty fields and the dark shadows beneath the trees where no bee remained to hum its evening song.

You’ve been gone now a five-month, and grandma does not remember you, nor does Jordy or Cousin Ferdinand or our dear, sweet Claudette. Whatever magic was used to shrink you, to make your final exit possible, has stolen your memories from those you once deemed close as family.

I don’t write many short stories as I once did, so if you’ve been hanging out for a new, bite-sized piece of fiction from yours truly, get yourself over to the Daily SF.

TWO: BEST OF APEX MAGAZINE, VOLUME 1

Apex have just announced the table of contents for the first volume of the Best of Apex Magazine, collecting the best stories from the first 79 issues of the magazine. It’s a pretty phenomenal listing, all things considered, with one last story due to be included based on a vote by the Apex readers.

In the words of Rocket Red: hokey-smokeys, this thing looks good. The current list of stories is as follows:

• Jackalope Wives by Ursula Vernon (Issue 56)
• If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love by Rachel Swirsky (Issue 46)
• The Green Book by Amal El-Mohtar (Issue 18)
• Candy Girl by Chikodili Emelumadu (Issue 66)
• Falling Leaves by Liz Argall (Issue 60)
• A Matter of Shapespace by Brian Trent (Issue 51)
• Blood from Stone by Alethea Kontis (Issue 43)
• Sexagesimal by Katharine E.K. Duckett (Issue 40)
• Keep Talking by Marie Vibbert (Issue 67)
• Going Endo by Rich Larson (Issue 74)
• Remembery Day by Sarah Pinsker (Issue 72)
• Pocosin by Ursula Vernon (Issue 68)
• She Gave Her Heart, He Took Her Marrow by Sam Fleming (Issue 79)
• L’esprit de L’escalier by Peter M. Ball (Issue 16)
• The Performance Artist by Lettie Prell (Issue 44)
• Advertising at the End of the World by Keffy R.M. Kehrli (Issue 3)
• Armless Maidens of the American West by Genevieve Valentine (Issue 39)
• Blood on Beacon Hill by Russell Nichols (Issue 78)
• Build-A-Dolly by Ken Liu (Issue 47)
• Still Life (A Sexagesimal Fairy Tale) by Ian Tregillis (Issue 17)

Pre-orders open in a week and more details are available on the Apex website.