We’re on the BBC

Posted on September 3, 2012 by Tim C. Taylor

Been quiet on the site posts while I’ve been on vacation. Got back last night to learn we’ve been featured on the BBC with our next novel, The Last Sunset, which will be out very shortly. You can read the article here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-19360948

We’re getting everything ready for FantasyCon later in the month. This is a literary convention of about 500 delegates (‘delegate’ is a polite term for fantasy & horror nutters) meeting in Brighton, England. There should be something in the delegate bags from Greyhart Press.

I’ve been working on the logistics of getting books there for people to see and buy. All going well, we should have copies of new books: The Last Sunset, VampCon, Unauthorized Contact, Badger’s Waddle. Plus…  On the Edge, The Legends of Light, The Mill, and Terminus.

Unauthorized Contact is a collection of short stories and novelettes in the same universe as the novel Terminus, so I’m sure we’ll do some kind of bundled deal for those two.

Not sure if the paperback version of the Reality War novels will be ready in time for FantasyCon, but the eBook has just come out on Apple iTunes.  The first novel is free on iTunes, so if two or more of the following terms interest you, then why not give the iBooks version a go? Time travel, alternate realities, Stephen Baxter, Bedfordshire, Hard SF, famous old pubs in Beverley – Yorkshire, John Bunyan.

Click for free iTunes novel

Click for the 2nd Reality War novel on iTunes

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September Book Launches: The Last Sunset

Posted on August 23, 2012 by Tim C. Taylor

September will be a busy month for us with four book launches. First up will be The Last Sunset, a timeslip Romantic adventure novel set in the Scottish Highlands.

Nuclear Armageddon blasts through time itself, dragging people from different eras into a turning point in history.

The year… 1746.

Around Fort William, the Scottish Highlanders are in revolt and the Redcoats are coming…

But this time they will face more than flintlocks and claymores.

Can history be changed, or is the future doomed to witness…
The Last Sunset?

Here are the author’s comments about his story:

The Last Sunset was conceived amongst the empty glens and ruined townships of Lochaber. The events of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries still scar this land, and indeed continue to scar the psyche of many of the older inhabitants.

There are glens within ten miles of Fort William where you can walk all day without seeing another living soul. Once heavily populated, these places have long been left to the wind and heather.

The past hangs heavy here, and occasionally – just occasionally – you can sense moments from those days. A brief scent of peat smoke in a ruined settlement. The tang of manure amidst the green swathes of a shieling that haven’t seen cattle in two hundred years.

Indeed, Sam’s tale from Gettysburg is closely based on the story told to me by a rational, well-educated woman who watched the spectres of two ragged clansmen materialise around her campfire by the shores of a remote loch some years ago.

The world is dotted with places around which the wheel of history briefly turned: Stalingrad. Waterloo. Gettysburg. The skies above England in 1940. Likewise for a few months in 1745/46, the Highlands occupied one of those crossroads of history.

Who knows what kind of world we would inhabit had events transpired differently here?

 And on some other shore perhaps lies Tir Nan Og

The land of the Gael.

Where Highland hills no longer mourn their brood

Of empty ruined glens.

Where bleating sheep no longer rule where Highland hearts

Have tried and failed.

And where at last Culloden’s graves

Are empty of their Highland dead.

 

— Bob Atkinson, Fort William, May 2012

The Last Sunset will be published mid-September in the following formats:

Paperback (US and UK)

Kindle eBook (US, UK, EU, and India)

ePUB eBook (Smashwords, to be followed by iTunes, Barnes & Noble, Sony Store, and Kobo)

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VampCon beta and Unauthorized Contact progress

Posted on August 10, 2012 by Tim C. Taylor

Just a couple of updates. I’ll be organizing the VampCon beta team over the weekend. Thank you to everyone who volunteered.

 

Artwork has come in for Unauthorized Contact, the collection of novelettes and short stories by Paul Melhuish, set in the Skyfire universe, that we’re launching at FantasyCon 2012 (along with Badger’s Waddle)

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Updates! Updates! Updates!

Posted on August 3, 2012 by Tim C. Taylor

It’s all go here. Been quiet on Twitter and social media these past couple of weeks because we’ve been so busy readying for our next few waves of releases.

Here’s a few things to whet your appetite:

VampCon final edits are complete and so is the artwork. The print layout isn’t ready yet, so I’ve put back the announcement of the beta team until August 10th. If you would like to be considered for a place in the beta reader team, then leave a comment or get in touch. [sorry, this is now closed, but there will be other books for which you could be a part of the beta reader team.] Participants will not only have the pleasure of reading Armand Inezian’s excellent story before it’s released, but will receive a complimentary copy of the finished edition with their name in the acknowledgements.

click for a larger image!

Editing had been actively underway on five other novels this week, artwork on three. While Jon Banchick has been finishing the VampCon cover, Dean Harkness has been starting on  Badger’s Waddle. I first came across Dean when he and I (in a rather loose and virtual sense) collaborated on an anthology produced as a tribute to Arthur C. Clarke and a fundraiser for the Arthur C. Clarke Award (a major science fiction literary award; by major I also mean it needs funds). Dean produced a highly detailed painting with a lot of subtle jokes and references to the works of Arthur C. Clarke, a style perfectly suited to the book we’re launching at FantasyCon 2012 called Badger’s Waddle.

To give you a taste, here’s the cover from the book Dean worked on, Fables From the Fountain.

Highly recommended if you enjoy tall tales and good beer

Very soon, you will be able to bid for free eBook copies of The Last Sunset, Badger’s Waddle, and VampCon on Librarything through their early reviewers program. Unfortunately, VampCon and Badger’s Waddle have temporary cover artwork in the early reviewer entry. Rest assured, full artwork will be in the published books.

Well, there’s a lot more to tell about, but it’s deep into the early hours in my timezone and you’ll have to wait until another day. I’ll leave you with a short quote from VampCon. Ever wondered what it would be like to fall in love with a vampire? For Jake, it was like this:

Half a dozen questions buzzed around in Jake’s head, but he finally settled on, “What are those you’re taking?”

“Caffeine pills. Otherwise I’ll pass out.”

“What is this place?”

“That’s too complicated to get into right now. The more important thing is for you to understand who I am. My name is Abby Sampson of House McRory. I’m a vampire. And I need your help.”

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What’s coming up over the next week…

Posted on July 21, 2012 by Tim C. Taylor

… it will be a quiet week on the website. While artists, editors, and authors are busy working at bringing you the thrills of the future (to paraphrase 2000AD comic), I shall be relaxing on vacation next week with my family, in a tent (and quite possibly in a puddle as river levels are high where we’re going).

A stopgap cover

Beta invites for the Badger’s Waddle beta reader team went out last night, and the first orders for beta copies went to the printers today. It’s a shame but the artwork, which is being painted by Dean Harkness, isn’t ready, so I’ve had to step in and make a stop-gap.

When I come back from vacation, one of my first tasks will be to organize the next beta reader team, which will be for Armand Inezian’s VampCon.

If you’ve not come across the Greyhart Press beta reader teams, the idea is that we give you an edited version of the book and you take a good look and tell us if you think there are any errors. To say thank you, we will send you the finished book with your name credited in the list of beta readers. If you want to be involved in the beta program, just leave a comment on the website.

Not a stopgap cover

In the second half of September, we will launch Badger’s Waddle, VampCon, The Last Sunset, and Unauthorized Contact (the second Skyfire book set in the same universe as Terminus), and some more poetry by Elaine Stirling (although we might squeeze that into August). We’re working hard on other titles too, and I expect to have several books moving  into beta during September and October. In fact, we have so many titles that there will be a website redesign.

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‘System ahead, Coordinator Terminus.’

Posted on July 20, 2012 by Tim C. Taylor

We’ll finish off our Terminus slightly-longer-than-a-week with the first glimpse of the deadly Thanaton System.

‘System ahead, Coordinator Terminus.’ Terminus wished Dich would stop calling him that. ‘It’s the Thanatos system.’

Terminus joined the boy at his station.

‘Hey, you can see it in the real-view.’ Sank pointed to his display where darker shapes against the dark background were illuminated by a glowing gleam. The system comprised of thirteen worlds that hung like a necklace around a dark-green glowing sphere. Impossibly, the crew realized that this orb acted as a sun for these worlds. The planets were aligned exactly to form an oval pattern around this stellar mother. Planets in most systems held random patterns in the ecliptic plane around their star, but not this one.

The planets looked to Terminus as if they had been placed into orbit. And what vulleying technology could possibly do that? There weren’t even any other stars nearby, as if its neighbors were shunning this dark Thanatos system…

I hope you’ve enjoyed these Terminus snippets. You can find all of them by clicking this link. And congratulations to the winners of the Terminus competition over on Goodreads. That competition is now closed.

Paul has an extensive vision of the universe that Terminus inhabits, with prequels, sequels and companion pieces to come in what we’re calling the Skyfire Chronicles. The next book, a collection of short stories and novelettes as set in  the Skyfire universe will be launched at Fantasycon 2012, entitled Unauthorised Contact. Paul will be doing signings. If you buy him some snakki, he’ll probably do his Davros impression too…

Click here for more information  on Terminus, including the author’s introductions to space-monsters and space-swearing.

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Terminus gets in trouble again…

Posted on July 17, 2012 by Tim C. Taylor

Terminus can’t help it, he keeps getting in trouble, and somehow just about stumbling out again. He reminds me of Tucker Jenkins, a character I used to watch many years ago in a BBC show called Grange Hill.

He’s persuaded his crew to take in the sights of the pleasure planet of Babel. But the pleasures of this planet are only for those who can pay…

‘Listen, I made a massive drent-up. It wasn’t the others’ fault, it was mine. If you’re gonna punish anyone, do it to me.’ He put his hand down. ‘However, if you wish to pursue this line of action I’d better warn you that we’re on a diplomatic mission, and if anything interferes with that you might just find three hundred Skyfirean Sundogs blasting this city to drent.’

She continued to stare, unmoved. That hadn’t worked, then.

‘Are you gonna stare at me all night or put a spike up my digest-spreader?’

‘Interesting.’ She spoke at last. Her thin lips almost smiled. ‘I sense that your destiny-line is strong. However, your life-line is short. Very short.’

‘What?’

She stood, a fluid movement, and passed through the desk. Terminus had to look again. This woman had just walked through a solid object. Her butt now rested against the desk, choosing to allow the ochre stone to bear the weight of her now solid buttocks. Terminus found himself staring at her legs: white, smooth, perfect and long.

‘Why should I kill you? You’re practically already dead. I’ve no need to waste my time.’

Terminus

Click here for more information  on Terminus, including the author’s introductions to space-monsters and space-swearing. Click here to enter the Goodreads competition to win a paperback copy.

The second book of the Skyfire Chronicles, Unauthorized Contact, will be launched at Fantasycon 2012

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Ferryman reviewed at Future Fire

Posted on July 17, 2012 by Tim C. Taylor

One of the first short stories we published was Ferryman by Nigel Edwards. It’s a disturbing and controversial story, which is told in a distanced way as the main character shields his true self… except at the end where a crack opens and you peer inside to glimpse the full horror of this man. It’s just been reviewed over at Future Fire, and for another view, it was reviewed a while ago at Book Brouhaha.

Nigel’s next book will be the surreal fantasy, Badger’s Waddle, a vastly different story from Ferryman. You can read the first chapter of Badger’s Waddle (which was originally meant as a self-contained story) at our website here.

 

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Terminus week: Skyfire!

Posted on July 16, 2012 by Tim C. Taylor

Terminus doesn’t just have great characters, but memorable settings too. Here’s our first introduction to Terminus’ adopted planet of Skyfire.

Wealth was denoted in Alpha Gropolis by how much space citizens had around them. On cramped Level Ten the destitute scraped together an existence for themselves in the slums. Overcrowded and disease-ridden, not only did Level Ten’s sprawl suffer the full brunt of the sun (as there were no levels above to protect it) but it also had the least amount of living space per citizen. Another factor to its poverty was the lack of drinking water, power, and waste disposal. The main trunk served all the levels, taking processed water from the sea to all the levels via pipes running up its body. Level Ten was the last to receive any water and its pipes received the least maintenance. Children from the top level often scurried through the pipes to the lower levels to beg. Levels Nine and Eight were also poverty-stricken but the increased standards of living were noticeable, especially in the rimward districts. From Level Seven downwards, civilization came into its own in a high-tech urban environment possessing transport systems and recreation zones. Travel between levels was a frequent occurrence between these civilized levels, using elaborate lift systems between floors. However, few citizens from the upper levels spent very long in the closely guarded, elitist level at the mega-city’s spacious ground level. Level One was where the elite of Skyfire flourished in luxury; the scilitos, the politicos and the filthy rich.

The harsh light of the Skyfirean sun, the scourge of the unshielded upper levels, was collected by the sunlight utility corporations and beamed through mirrors to the lowest levels where it was purchased and consumed by the rich.

When Terminus had first seen it from a distance, the gropolis had reminded him of a huge child’s toy, the levels bolted together to make this curious cone out of flat pieces of metal.

Terminus

Click here for more information  on Terminus, including the author’s introductions to space-monsters and space-swearing. Click here to enter the Goodreads competition to win a paperback copy.

The second book of the Skyfire Chronicles, Unauthorized Contact, will be launched at Fantasycon 2012

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Space opera horror: The Terror of Falling in Love…

Posted on July 14, 2012 by Tim C. Taylor

In Terminus, author Paul Melhuish introduces us to monstrous beasts, grotesque parodies of nature. The anti-hero of the book’s title has to confront many of these terrifying creatures, but I think the one being who terrifies him most is a human woman, called Naomi. He doesn’t fear that she will suck his blood out or paralyse him and lay her eggs inside his living flesh. No, there’s something about her that scares him more than that…

Here’s an extract from the novel…

Without thinking he took her hand and they dashed down the slope toward the building, a small grass-house used by mammal farmers for grass storage. The storm roared above and Terminus felt every strand on his head become inflamed with power as a huge crackle of lightning bounced across the underside of the clouds. The rain began to fall. Heavy drops of warm water lashed them, soaking them in moments.

They burst through the wooden door of the grass-house, and threw themselves into the dry interior. Naomi started laughing, Terminus frowned but then saw how soaked she was and he started laughing too. They were still both laughing as they tried to wring their robes out. It was futile. Still laughing, she faced him and ran her fingers through his wet hair playfully.

‘In the Creator’s name, you’re soaked!’

‘Well, so are you. Your strands are wringing!’ He ran his fingers through her wet hair, and then realized that she was standing very close. As he continued to wring her long hair, her hand moved down to his face. She wasn’t laughing now; she was scanning his gaze. Terminus knew what this meant. He’d been in moments like this before, but never with a girl who had occupied his mind so much. She moved closer to him. Outside the lightning cracked again. Simultaneously their lips touched and for a few brief seconds Terminus was lost in her kiss, his mind silenced.

 

Click here for more information  on Terminus, including the author’s introductions to space-monsters and space-swearing. Click here to enter the Goodreads competition to win a paperback copy.

The second book of the Skyfire Chronicles, Unauthorized Contact, will be launched at Fantasycon 2012

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