Tomorrow's Cthulhu: Stories at the Dawn of Posthumanity

My story 'Between Angels And Insects' will appear in Tomorrow's Cthulhu, a new anthology from Broken Eye Books. Edited by Scott Gable and C. Dombrowski.

Super science. Madness. Transhumanism.

This is the dawn of posthumanity. Some things can’t be unlearned. 

Gleaming labs whir with the hum of servers as scientists unravel the secrets of the universe. But as we peel away mysteries, the universe glances back at us. Even now, terrors rise from the Mariana Trench and drift down from the stars. Scientists are disappearing—or worse. Experiments take on minds of their own. Some fight back against the unknown, some give in, some are destroyed, and still others are becoming… more.

The human and inhuman are harder and harder to distinguish. Mankind is changing, whether it wants to or not, with brand new ways of thinking. What havoc is wreaked by those humans trying to harness and control their discoveries? As big science progresses and the very fundamentals of this universe are understood, what stories are being hushed up?

Of course, the Old Ones laugh at our laws, scientific and otherwise. 

These are transhumanist near-future science fiction tales of the Cthulhu Mythos. These are tales of more than merely cosmic dread. They exist in our world of the next couple years. This is the era of big science and—what is that? We’ll be right back. ​​

 

Contributors: Desirina Boskovich, Lynda Rucker, Samantha Henderson, Daria Patrie, Kaaron Warren, Richard Byers, Damien Angelica Walters, Spencer Leary, Joshua L. Hood, Jeff C. Carter, Simon Bestwick, Matt Maxwell, Shannon Fay, Adam Heine, Mike Allen, Darrell Schweitzer, Cody Goodfellow, Bruce R. Cordell, Pete Rawlik, A.C. Wise, Robert Brockway, Nate Southard, Molly Tanzer, Joshua Alan Doetsch, Thomas M. Reid, Clinton J. Boomer, L.A. Knight, Lizz-Ayn Shaarawi, J.M. Rozanski.

 

The ebook of Tomorrow's Cthulhu is available from 21st December 2015 (next week!) The hardcover and paperback are out on 21st January 2016. You can pre-order the book here.

The Lowdown with... Mercedes M. Yardley

Mercedes M. Yardley is a dark fantasist who wears red lipstick and poisonous flowers in her hair. She is the author of Beautiful Sorrows, Apocalyptic Montessa and Nuclear Lulu: A Tale of Atomic Love, and Pretty Little Dead Girls: A Novel of Murder and Whimsy. Mercedes lives and works in Sin City, and you can reach her here.

1. Tell us three things about yourself.

Three things. Let’s see. We have a new puppy. He was a stray who ended up in our back yard, bony and afraid. We searched for owners for a month, but he didn’t have any identification on him and nobody stepped forward, so he’s ours now. His name is Window Cobblepot, Prince of Barkness, and he’s a glorious thing. I love my puppy. That’s the first thing.

The second is that I’m absolutely in love with dark fantasy. I grew up on a steady diet of

Cobblepot, Prince of Barkness.

books and movies that were both sweet and frightening. Take something innocent and add a knife to it. Have a terrifying monster but let him fall in love. That’s what I like.

The third thing is that I took a deep breath and shaved my head a few months ago. It was a wonderful, empowering experience, and I’m so glad I did it! It changed the way some people treated me. It opened my eye as to how much women really are judged by appearance. But I loved it. Now it’s in a weird growing-out stage, as you can see by my picture. But I’m enjoying every aspect of it.

2. What was the first thing you had published?

My first published piece was a flash fiction story titled Show Your Bones. It’s about a young woman who grows up in the public eye, and she chooses to starve herself. Instead of helping her, society calls her beautiful and puts her picture on magazines. It was very much a statement.

I sold it to THE VESTAL REVIEW for twelve dollars, and it was the best check I ever received. I was so proud! It was such a hallmark.

3. Which piece of writing are you proudest of?

My favorite piece is a novel titled Pretty Little Dead Girls: A Novel of Murder and Whimsy. It’s a fairytale with a high body count, about a girl who is destined to be murdered. Despite the dark premise, it’s a very cheerful tale that tends to leave the reader feeling good at the end. It’s about love and standing together against obstacles. And the serial killer in the book is just a dear.

I left my publishing company last year, so PLDG was pulled from print. But it will be re-released in February with Crystal Lake Publishing, and I’m so excited about that! I can’t wait to have it out in the world again.

4. …and which makes you cringe?

Ai yi yi. I had a few very amateur pieces put out in an anthology very early on. The work was shoddy, they were written under duress, and they were unoriginal. The editor shouldn’t have accepted them. Then again, the editor put some typos in that weren’t there originally, and misspelled my name in two different ways. I don’t think the book is in print anymore, and that’s fine with me. Yikes!

5. What’s a normal writing day like?

Every day is a writing day. Each morning starts by getting the three kids up and the older two out the door to school. Then it’s time for errands and some house work, with the littlest child by my side. I leave the computer up all day and write 15 minutes here and 15 minutes there. I quite literally have my daughter on my lap while I type. I do this all day long, and finally shut everything down at about 10 pm. I have some major deadlines within the next few months, so I’ll be doing concentrated writing after the kiddos go to bed. Usually that’s when my husband and I kick back and relax with a movie, but I’ll have to forgo that until I get things finished.

6. Which piece of writing should someone who’s never read you before pick up first?

Great question! I’d say if that if the person wants something dark and snarky, they should pick up Nameless: The Darkness Comes. [OUT NOW!] It’s an urban fantasy about a girl who sees demons, and there’s a lot of humor in it. It’s the first book in a trilogy. But if they want to really see my style and can stomach it, I’d suggest my novella Apocalyptic Montessa and Nuclear Lulu: A Tale of Atomic Love. It’s a love story between two very special, broken people. Think Romeo and Juliet meets Stephen King’s Firestarter, and you’ve got it. This book will also be re-released in February, and I’m so glad. It’s one of my favorites.

7. What are you working on now?

Oh, wow. Right now I’m in a bit of a crunch. I’m currently working on six short stories, a novella, and two novels. Nameless: The Darkness Comes will be republished in December 2015. The following two sequels will come out shortly after in 2016. They’re my main priority right now. After that, I have a dream novel I’ve been dying to write. I plan to start her after I clean my plate now. So it’s a busy year, and I like that. Writing makes me feel alive.

The End of the Blog Tour

So today mark's the end of the Hell's Ditch blog tour - the hardback and ebook are still available at discounted rates from the Snowbooks website, by the way. Thank you so much to all the lovely people who've helped spread the word.

I've done another vlog (I'm starting to enjoy them!) by way of a more personalised thank you to you all:

Get your own valid XHTML YouTube embed code

The Lowdown with... Reggie Oliver

Reggie Oliver was educated at Eton and University College, Oxford, and has been a professional playwright, actor, and theatre director since 1975. He has worked in radio, television, films, and theatre, both in the West End and outside London. His "strange stories" (which often evoke life on and behind the stage) are very much in the great tradition of the British ghostly tale, the lineage of M.R. James, Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, Walter de la Mare, and Robert Aickman.

 

1. Tell us three things about yourself.

I have been a professional actor for over forty years and I once played Rudolph Valentino on The Little and Large Show, my oddest but not my proudest moment in the profession.

I was born and lived in London for nearly the first forty years of my life; for the last twenty or so I have lived mainly in Suffolk and have always felt much more at home there.

For most of my adult life I have kept a diary which has come in useful in all sorts of strange ways but mainly because, in the words of Shakespeare, I am “one that, above all strifes, contended especially to know himself.” (Measure for Measure Act III, Scene 2)

                                                                                                   

2. What was the first thing you had published?

Apart from odd things (very odd things) in college magazines etc. my first major publication was a play Imaginary Lines (Samuel French 1987). It had been produced and directed by the great Alan Ayckbourn in Scarborough in 1985 and is still occasionally put on by amateur companies.

3. Which piece of writing are you proudest of?

The biography of my Aunt, the writer Stella Gibbons called Out of the Woodshed (Bloomsbury 1998). Stella was a great influence on my life, a good friend and wonderfully funny and witty. I feel that the biography, though not in any way reverential or hagiographic, is a small act of gratitude and a tribute to one of the most remarkable, and one of the kindest people I have ever known.  

4. …and which makes you cringe?

Oh, dear! I used to write comedy sketches for a theatre called the Overground in Kingston. Many of the jokes were truly awful. For example: “Did you know that Sophocles wrote a play about a dog who ate cats? Yes, it was called ‘Eat-a-puss Rex’!” And believe me, that is not the worst of them.

5. What’s a normal writing day like?

I am not a great creature of routine, but I like to be writing (or drawing) by about nine thirty and work through till lunchtime after which I go for a walk. On return I may briefly rest and have a cup of tea and listen to music before doing more work till six or seven. I usually do some writing late at night too, even if is only making a brief entry in my diary.

6. Which piece of writing should someone who’s never read you before pick up first?

I suppose any of my collections of stories published by Tartarus. Perhaps the second, entitled, The Complete Symphonies of Adolf Hitler.

7. What are you working on now? 

I am just finishing the last of the ninety odd drawings for a sort of children’s book entitled: THE HAUNTINGS AT TANKERTON PARK And how they got rid of them, a tale in verse to be published by Zagava. The words I wrote some time ago but the drawings have taken ages. I say “sort of” children’s book because I wrote and drew it really to amuse myself and though it’s just the sort of book that I would have loved as a child, I was a peculiar sort of child (still am) and it might be too macabre for some. It is about a Victorian haunted house, quite mad and part of it is a rhyming alphabet. Here for example is:

Z was a zombie and clearly insane.