MEMORIES – Dark Matters: Volume 4

PUBLISHED!

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it, and only the dead have seen the end of war. The last book in the series, Dark Matters: MEMORIES presents two stories in which the shadow of the First World War lies heavy upon those who endured it — and those who did not…

In The Palimpsest, a soldier-turned-artist has tried to put the horrors of the trenches behind him, only to discover that a horror still stalks him. But in The Foundation, a future persists in which not only was the Great War’s outcome very different, but the conflict itself has been… forgotten.

One is a ghost story in the classic vein, inspired by the writing of M. R. James; the other a piece of alternate history — or maybe alternate future. They stand against George Santayana’s wisdom, because here the end of war is seen, and the past returns to repeat itself, upon another victim…

These are stories that step out from the light, where only the dark matters…

Amazon: US | CA | MX | BR | AUS | IN | JP

Amazon Europe: UK | FR | DE | ES | IT | NL

Apple | Barnes&Noble | Smashwords | Goodreads

The cover art was created using Creative Commons-licensed images. My grateful thanks go to the State Library of South Australia for Men in the trenches, and to Tony Hisgett for Poppies Again 6.

Ecotones

…is Published!

ECOTONES is a pro-am anthology of speculative fiction featuring fourteen tales from best-sellers, award-winners and nominees, established talents and up-coming authors, the fourth annual anthology from SFFWorld.com.

Ecotones exist wherever different ecosystems make contact. Where forest meets field… where the land meets the sea… where swamp gives way to jungle… where the surface descends beneath the ground… these are borders across which different ways of life come into conflict, and sometimes cooperation.

But in speculative fiction we might envision other borders: where the mundane meets the fantastical. Where countries clash and cultures mix. Where technology is joined to flesh. Where the known meets the unknown. These are ecotones of the imagination — where anything could happen.

Featuring the work of Ken Liu, Lauren Beukes and Tobias S. Buckell, as well as eleven stories from members of SFFWorld.com’s writing community, ECOTONES is a collection like no other — a point of contact between fantasy and science fiction with a timely environmental theme.

Amazon: US | CA | MX | BR | AUS | IN | JP

Amazon Europe: UK | FR | DE | ES | IT | NL

Apple | Smashwords | Kobo | Barnes&Noble

Also, if the urge takes you we’d love to see reviews – you can find us on Goodreads!

Ps: Just in case you’re wondering how it’s going — just two days after release, Ecotones is ranked 66,635 on Amazon’s Kindle Store (that’s out of over four million ebooks!) and is already knocking on the top 100s for Scifi and Fantasy anthologies..:

FIVE STEPS FORWARD, THREE STEPS BACK

PUBLISHED!

5SF3SB - LARGE

Five Steps Forward, Three Steps Back is a collection of eight short science fiction and fantasy stories – seven of them first published in the small (but perfectly formed) spec-fic webzine Mythaxis, plus a bonus extra, just because I love you. That’s right: you.

5SF3SB (that’s the book’s cool and trendy social media label, naturally) is available at the filthy cheap price of just one dollar — but I don’t want your money, keep it, I want to give you this for free. So, from now on, everyone who joins my my mailing list will receive a copy as a thank you. And to everyone who’s already on it, the mail’s en route.

Before I leave you to the blurb, I’d like to thank two people. Firstly, Flickr user Georgie Pauwels: for licensing her photography via Creative Commons – just the most recent person whose generosity has made my cover art so much more than it might have been. And secondly, Mythaxis editor Gil Williamson: the first person to publish my work, and who was good enough to write a short foreword for this little collection.

If you read it, and review it, I’ll be thanking you as well…

Blurb

FIVE STEPS FORWARD, THREE STEPS BACK brings together eight stories by not-currently-best-selling author Andrew Leon Hudson – seven of them published in the small (but perfectly formed) spec-fic webzine “Mythaxis”, plus a bonus extra just because he loves you.

5SF3SB - LARGE Taking FIVE STEPS FORWARD, you’ll discover bizarre transformations, first of the mind, then of the body; see the terrible effect of denying ourselves grief, and witness a workers revolution where the machines do the breaking; but first of all, find that the future promises a whole new way to learn about the world – not through the voice of the media, but by the Word of God… sort of.

Taking THREE STEPS BACK, you’ll rediscover the seedy reality of 50s Suburbia; the true fate of history’s greatest romantic; and, finally, confront what awaits us all, be we human or beast.

Catch a glimpse of what lies ahead, and what lay behind…