MASSIVE NEWS UPDATE ALL UP IN YOUR FACE

Here I am! Things have been a bit mental for a while, but now I've got the chance, allow me to PIMP THE HOLY WHATSIT OUT OF LOADS OF THINGS.

First things first: METAHORDE by John McCuaig and Sean T. Page.

This is the latest in the Ministry of Zombies series of zombie books from Australian publishers Severed Press. Whereas the previous books have taken the form of 'historical texts' this is an actual novel, and is pretty darn good. The initial set-up is a bit 'been there, done that' as we're introduced to a world in ruins, with survivors of a zombie apocalypse living in fortified settlements. However, we are also introduced, straight off the bat, to this novel's not-so-secret weapon: the idea of the metahorde itself. Basically, zombies have started to show signs of a 'hive mind' - in other words, once enough of them are together, they share a collective "intelligence". It is an intriguing and original concept that I certainly haven't seen utilized in zombie fiction before.

Enter a plucky band of survivors, including a boffin, his two assistants, and a gung-ho squad of soldiers. The boffin (Carter) has figured out that the zombies are massing, and sweeping across the world, obliterating all in their wake. So far, a few settlements have been wiped out, with his (an ancient fort in France) next on the menu. Together, our ragtag bunch set off for a power plant on the predicted route of the zombie horde, with the aim to blow it up as they pass, (hopefully) stopping them.

What I like most about this book is the sheer speed at which events unfold. Dilemmas and apparent answers are brought up and revealed in quick succession, making you wonder how on earth the story's going to progress. Thankfully, rather than running out of steam, METAHORDE continues to pick it up with surprise after surprise. I don't want to spoil any, other than mention the very unexpected introduction of a particularly suicidal cult of religious extremists (again, something I haven't seen done before in a zombie book).

METAHORDE is perhaps more action than horror, but that's not a bad thing. There were a few typos and some slightly odd formatting (line breaks when they didn't need to be any) that occasionally took me out of the story, but other than that it's a fast-paced read with humorous dialogue and well-written locations - I could easily envisage all the places that the characters find themselves in, which is worth more than you might think.

If you'd like to get a copy (which, obviously, I recommend you do) you can find it on Amazon.
You can find out more about Sean T. Page HERE!
You can find out more about John McCuaig HERE!

NEXT! The long-awaited/oft-delayed NO MORE HEROES by myself and Bill Tucker!

I can't even tell you how long it's taken for this book to see the light of day. Basically, it ended up being dropped by the original publisher due to financial reasons. Thankfully, Matt Nord (who appears in it, and whom I've shared book-space with before) stepped up to the plate and has released it. Everyone involved helped fuel my passion for this by exercising extreme patience and support, for which I can't thank them enough.

But what's it all about, Wayne? Shut up and I'll tell you!

On November 20th, 2009, a catastrophic event dubbed The Cataclysm wiped the world's greatest heroes and villains off the face of the planet and created a death toll stretching into the millions.

Though most of the world survived, it is now in the grip of the super villains who avoided The Cataclysm. It may not have been quite the victory they expected, but it is the outcome they wanted: all the heroes are dead and the world is theirs...

Or so they believe...

It's a shared world anthology, in which characters - both good and evil - crop up in other stories, to build up a central narrative. The world is in the grip of supervillains, but one-by-one, heroes are making themselves known...Bill and I created a roster of characters for people to use, and they've done so admirably! The stories in here run the gamut from comedy to tragedy, with plenty of action and some extremely cool use of powers. Of course I'm going to gush about it, but I'm supremely proud of this anthology. I honestly believe there's nothing (or very little) like it out there at the moment. If you really do believe in supporting 'the little guy', then please, for the love of all that's holy, get a copy :) THANKS!

Get it HERE and HERE! More info on this book can be found via the No More Heroes blog! --> http://nomoreheroesanthology.blogspot.co.uk/

PENULTIMATE NEWS! The art collective I run with my friend has applied for funding for a film festival. As you can imagine, this has taken a lot of my time up, what with writing funding bids and attending meetings like a proper businessman/adult, but it's all very exciting. The main thing we hope to do is run filmmaking workshops (as that's my background). You can find out more about this HERE!

FINAL NEWS! My band, Handsome Bastards, are back off our self-imposed hiatus and are working on new material, with the aim to do an album/tour next year. The most exciting news is that we were played on BBC radio last night! Not only that, but they'd like us to go in and do a live session!!! You can hear the radio show HERE (we're on from a bit after the 1hr 30 min mark) and keep up-to-date with our handsome shenanigans HERE. 

And that's HOW for NOW!

I can't get enough of this group at the moment. Plus this video's cool!

BAD NEWS. GOOD NEWS. DEAD BOOKS.

BAD NEWS: Glitch in the Continuum is CANCELLED. Attack of the Fifty Foot Book is CANCELLED. Through the Wormhole is CANCELLED.

GOOD NEWS: No More Heroes is being published.

I want to find other publishers for the three 'dead' books, so if anyone has any suggestions/can help in this regard, it'd be much appreciated.

WAYNE GOODCHILD IN SERIOUS NEWS SHOCKER! AGAIN!

Twice in one day! Some people might call me a 'serious news' stud for that hit rate. But down to business:

Due to economic reasons, Twisted Library Press are putting a hold on all their anthologies for at least six months, and some will even be getting dropped. This is awful, terrible news, but not unavoidable nor unrealistic, really. You can read Doc Pus's announcement HERE.

I've currently got four anthologies with TLP waiting to see the light of day, so there's probably a good chance I'll be waving goodbye to some of my babies. Yes, I just called them 'babies'. Shut up! I feel like I'm on one side of a divorce and I'm waiting to see who gets the children.

I don't know which anthos are getting the ol' heave-ho yet, but as soon as I do I'll let all the relevant writers know. I've got a few stories waiting to see the light of day, but I'm more bothered about the anthos I've done because of the amount of people and effort involved with them (the art alone for Through The Wormhole is AMAZING and deserves to be seen on a book cover). But, I think a lot of people who've been following or involved with TLP (formerly Library of the Living Dead) knew, deep down, this day would come. Doc's pockets aren't bottomless pits, after all, and the sheer number of upcoming anthologies meant that critical mass would have to be reached sooner rather than later. It's sad, and gutting, but would be grotesquely unfair to start pointing fingers and bitching about it, as it's no one's fault save THE GOVERNMENT! Cue bad satire: oh wait, I can't be bothered.

If any of my anthos get the chop, I'd like to think I'd be able to 'shop' them around with other publishers, but I don't know if this is bad form or not, as it's all new to me. I'd publish them myself if I had the money, but I can't even afford to pay my latest electricity bill, nevermind churn out a run of books the size of bricks. Maybe if I won the lottery...maybe if I started playing the lottery first...

Anyway, any and all updates will appear on here, as well as my Facebook and Twitter feeds, but you're best off keeping an eye on the TLP forum.

I'm not crying, I've just got some rain on my face.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO...ALL THE HEROES?

They exploded, that's what.

THE NO MORE HEROES COVER IS DONE! Here it is:

Front art by JASON STRUTZ

Back art by ME!

Go HERE to see a bigger version of the back if you'd like to read it.

I'm chuffed to bits with this. Hopefully it sells enough to warrant a sequel! Just polishing off the formatting of the actual book itself, and waiting for one more contract to come back and then it's all done.

-----------

I'm not quite sure what's up with me at the moment because I'm struggling to stay focused on writing. I know what I want to do with the story I'm working on, and I've come out with some nice phrases, but it's just not grabbing me. I think it might be because it's not a conventional story, and I've got a load of it to do all at once, so it feels like a bit of a slog. Never a good sign. I also haven't worked on anything else for a while, so I'm starting to feel a bit like opportunities are slipping from my grasp...

Mind you, my next Jonny Cave story appears online next month, so that's pretty cool, and Pill Hill's BLOODY CARNIVAL is due out any time now, so that's also a bonus!

ALL ABOARD! FUN SPEED AHEAD! POOP POOP!

The artwork for NO MORE HEROES is (99%) FINISHED!

The formatting is well on its way!

I'm going to start reading subs for the Glitch antho later! Hopefully!

I'm involved with two collaborative zombie stories that I seem to have completely forgotten to plug, so I'll do that now!

One is called, funnily enough, COLLABORATION OF THE DEAD. Something like 19 authors taking it in turns to write a chapter, until we have 38ish, and a full book! Here's a forum about it: A forum about that thing I've just mentioned.

The other one is called DEAD ON EARTH. 15 authors for this one, and it takes the form of diary/journal entries told from the point of view of the character created by whichever author. Mine's a preacher who enjoys doing God's work a little bit too much...Admittedly I've fallen behind on this one a bit so I'm using today as my catch-up time. Here's a Facebook page about it: A Facebook page about it.

And last but by no means least, here's the cover to a book I've definitely mentioned before:



My story's called 'S is for Stymphalian Birds'. And in the spirit of friendship, networking and all-round schmoozing, here're some websites for fellow writers who're in the book! -->

BEC ZUGOR
JONATHAN PINNOCK
GEOFF NELDER

The book itself is being sorted by JOHN PRESCOTT.

And as always, you can check out some of my devoted followers over there somewhere --> since they're pretty much all writers, too! And because I'm a nice guy, despite what my neighbour claims, hit me up with a link to your site and I'll post it. Easy peasy. All in the spirit of friendship and love and mutual dry-humping.

Now get outta here ya damn punk kids! And don't say I never give you anything!

BUSY BUSY BUSY!

Yes, I am very busy at the moment. I haven't even had time to play Guild Wars! hahahah

Went to the cinema to watch Scott Pilgrim recently - enjoyed it immensely - I haven't seen anything in a while that managed to put a great big grin on my face for the majority of it's running time. It was a little too long though, and everyone seems surprised to discover that Scott's really hard yet they never comment on it, which is a little weird (I know that's the "world" they live in but I'm sure if your mate suddenly kicked the crap out of someone you'd go "I had no idea you were such a tough bastard, even though our reality allows sound effects to appear as physical manifestations and for people to explode into coins when they die"). Minor niggles though. And surely ********* would have the REVERSE likes/dislikes to *****, meaning they would be enemies, not sharing ******. But anyway.

I'm hungry and hungover. The artwork for No More Heroes is pretty much done, just need Bill to give it the thumbs-up. This week I'm also going to start (properly) reading submissions for A Glitch in the Continuum. Also haven't done any proper writing, myself, for almost two weeks, for one reason or another, so I think I'll crack back on with some of THAT. Got my zombie/mutant novel still bubbling away in the background, so I think I'll continue work on that later today, if I have time. I'm supposed to be making a song out of a Zoidberg quote too, so I'll knock something up for that this afternoon, if I have time. I should also give my SOUNDCLOUD account a spring clean.

If I have time.

BUSY BUSY BUSY

To some degree anywayz.

Finishing off initial edits of some Doomology submissions; should have that sorted by tomorrow night easy peasy.

Going to sort out the No More Heroes accepted submissions later this week too, get that done.

Couldn't finish the 4000 word story the other day - it would never have made that limit without being pumped full of more crap than a supermarket own-brand chicken fillet.

Trying to finish off a fairly simple story set in the Dust Bowl, in 1936. Plenty of cool history to work with, largely thanks to this incredible documentary: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/dustbowl/

You can probably guess what elements I'm making horrific use of :D

Also received a rejection recently, but a personal one so that's a nice change. Story starts off well, apparently, but then turns too 'comic-booky', apparently to the detriment of the story. Oh well.

Speaking of comic books, I've been playing the free 14 day trial of City of Heroes/Villains, which, considering I have all this editing to do, may not have been the wisest thing to sink time into at the moment haha. I used to subscribe to/play it when it first came out, a few years ago, but then ran out of money (or rather, moved house and didn't give the internet provider my new address so they couldn't bill me, sneaky sneaky!) so it's been pretty cool making goofy characters and sending them jumping off tall buildings.

The only trouble is, when I play a game like this, or watch something like Smallville, it really makes me want to write a superhero story. Nothing stopping me of course, but the challenge is less of what to make it about (apart from having superpeople fighting) but where to put it. There doesn't seem to be much of a superhero fiction niche out there, but I might be wrong. At least I've got No More Heroes to do, which Bill and I have further plans for if sales warrant a (or any) sequels.

Now if you'll excuse me I have to go punch crime in the face. Goodchild - AWAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY!!!

NO MORE HEROES ANY MORE

The Table of Contents has just been revealed! Hurray!

http://nomoreheroesanthology.blogspot.com/2010/06/table-of-contents.html

I'm super excited about working on this. It is going to ROCK.

YEAH, YOU'D LIKE THAT WOULDN'T YOU?

Whoops been a bit lax lately, but for good reason!

I'm now helping my chum Bill Tucker edit DOOMOLOGY for Library of Science Fiction and Fantasy - I've got loads and loads of stories to read through to find the best examples of apocalyptic fiction for the finished book. And I heart apocalyptic fiction so it's not like hard work at all!

Also still taking submissions for NO MORE HEROES!!!! http://nomoreheroesanthology.blogspot.com/

Currently working on a few stories to sub, primarily for Dead Bait 2 by Severed Press, and Clockwork Chaos by Library of Science Fiction and Fantasy.

Dead Bait 1 received a lot of good reviews and had some ace writers in it, so I'm hoping my story is decent enough for the second one - it's influenced by Lovecraft's Colour out of Space, in that it deals with a family on a farm who start to sucumb to something 'alien', which in turn may or may not be unstoppable in its spread...ooooo! The Clockwork Chaos story is my first proper stab at 'steam-punk', and follows a group of "criminals" as they uncover a diabolical plot that stretches all the way to...the monarchy! It also features steam-punk versions of things I haven't really seen in setam-punk stories so I hope that helps it stand out.

I also recently watched SEX DRIVE, a surprisingly amusing teen sex comedy. I don't know what's wrong with me but I'm starting to really enjoy these sort of films. However, I did also rewatch Robocop and the simply incredible b-movie INFESTATION. I don't think I've reviewed this, so I'll do so soooooooooooon!

And to finish: here's the artwork to two books I'm in that will be available to buy sooooooooooooooon!



TA TA!

DUHRN DUHRN DUHRN...DUHRN DUHRN DUHRN...

Panoramic view of an island.

DUHRN DUHRN DUHRN

Storm clouds coalesce in the sky.

DUHRN DUHRN DUHRN

2 cops on a boat approach a small dock.

DUHRN DUHRN DUHRN

Welcome to SHUTTER ISLAND.

The strident, vaguely discordant strings compel and urge events along as a detective, Teddy, and his partner, I Can't Remember His Name, investigate the disappearance of a woman from a locked cell. Was she a prisoner? Yes and no: she's a mental patient in the loony bin on the island.

SHUTTER ISLAND is brilliant, and a 10/10 film if ever there was one. It is also a very deliberate pulp fiction piece, with a supernatural hint to proceedings (in the same way that John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 feels like a zombie film) that demands your attention. Who's telling the truth? What are some people hiding? Where did that broad go? Teddy suffers from vivid dreams and nightmares about his beloved wife who died in an apartment fire - what does her murderer, a deformed arsonist, have to do with the main case? The film asks a lot of questions, but satisifyingly, you get answers to all of them.

PLINK...PLONK PLONK...PLINK

The score is equally wonderful, with snatches of wonky piano punctuating moments of eerie calm, and classical music soundtracking other flashbacks to World War 2, all of which helps heighten the tension and suspense.

The word 'run' gets wet and in a lovely visual pun streaks down the paper it's written on.

Water flows down a red door in an unnerving trick-of-the-light that resembles blood.

The dungeons in the mental hospital hide dangerous men, but are they as dangerous as those on the other side of the bars?

I can't recommend this film enough. I love it!

------------------------------------------------

In other news: I'm helping my chum Bill Tucker edit another anthology. Here're the details:

The Library of Science Fiction & Fantasy Press presents -
Doomology : The Dawning Of Disasters

The submission period is now open and will close as the book fills. An advanced deadline date will be announced here when established. DEADLINE IS APRIL 30th

Seeking original stories about disasters/apocalyptic events. Stories can be from a global scale to a small localized event. They can be about the beginning, middle, end/aftermath or all three aspects of an event.

The types of disasters could be man-made events/accidents, natural events, biological (plague/viral, animal attacks), scientific (nuclear, technological, computers/AI), or other creative scenarios. Think of a combination of disaster films and apocalyptic fiction. Could be anything from surviving a sinking ship, attack of mutated bugs, giant killer rabbits, nuclear threats, computers turning off world wide, or erupting volcanoes.

Not seeking zombie stories in any form.

Please use standard manuscript formatRTF AttachmentCourier font size 12
No page numbers/headersUse italics – do not underline
Word Count is a strict 6k min. to 10k. (if longer please pm me). Seeking detailed fleshed out stories. Please include your name, address, phone, number and email on the title page with the word count.

Send submissions to DoomAntho@gmail.com

Payment is 1 cent per word and 1 contributor copy.

And don't forget we're still after subs for No More Heroes!

Further details/discussion of these anthos can be found here: http://libraryofthelivingdead.lefora.com/forum/category/library-of-science-fiction-fantasy/