The Book Is The Life...

Silas Sets Forth

2011-12-21T19:07:00.000Z

Signed with anInspired Quill

For a man who makes a living out of words, it's quitedisconcerting to find myself suddenly speechless: still that's the effect abook deal can have on an author.

Yes, that's right – a book deal.

I am greatly pleased to say that my novel Silas Morlockhas been taken on by up-and-coming publisher Inspired Quill (IQ) and isscheduled for release towards the Autumn of 2012.

That's quite a wait, I hear you cry. Trust me – it'll beworth it.

Silas Morlock is a dark urban fantasy with a strongsuffusion of horror: a story about redemption and the struggle between good andevil.

All that stands against the smothering darkness are thosefew besieged souls who push the most powerful drug known to Man. Persecuted andfew in number theirs is a perilous existence. If they fall, everything is lost.

This is their story, the story of their last stand, and inparticular, of the young man from the streets who inherits the terrifying task– to take the light of humanity's spirit into the heart of darkness.

The stakes are the very highest – humanity's Soul.

So be prepared: light yourself a candle, be wary of theshadows, and watch this space as Silas Morlock sets forth. The dark isgathering.

"If you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazesalso into you."

Friedrich Nietzsche

Mark Cantrell,

Stoke-on-Trent,

21 December 2011

Category: NEWS

Author Chats

2011-12-03T17:33:00.001Z

Interviewed on Indies Unlimited

Author Mark Cantrell has been told his writing demonstrates a certain dry humor, a cynical wit, and a tendency towards the darker view of life.

While he is at ease with all that, he also feels his work embodies an underlying optimism, a qualified celebration of the human spirit and its strengths, but a refusal to separate them out neatly into good and bad. “Life is never that neat and I try to reflect that in my fiction.”

To read the rest of this interview, check out INDIES UNLIMITED to read interview with Mark Cantrell, the author of Citizen Zero. And once you've finished that, you might care to stick around and discover a wealth of indie authoring talent...

Read the rest at Indies Unlimited...

Category: INTERVIEWS

About Citizen Zero

2011-12-02T21:23:00.001Z

A dystopian glimpse at a future born in an age of austerity and political uncertainty, CITIZEN ZERO is a gripping social satire that exposes our deepest fears and poses a grave warning to any society that abandons the pursuit of social justice...

CITIZEN ZERO

The hard-hitting novel that presents a grim future of a Britain broken by austerity

JobNet was supposed to usherin a better life for unemployed David Mills; instead it plunges him into abitter struggle for survival when he is caught in the midst of a politicalconspiracy that pushes Britain to the brink of civil war…

David lives on society’smargins, forever on the verge of sinking into an excluded underclass known as‘zeros’, until the JobNet scheme offers him the tantalising prospect of abetter life.

The Government programmeuses the latest artificial reality technology to create a paradise world wherethe unemployed gain all the help they need. He’s heard the hype before, butthis time it actually begins to fulfil the promise: he finds love withChristine, the prospect of a job beckons, and he dares to dream of a worthwhilefuture beyond the dole.

Then a deadly virus strikesthe system and his sweetest dream instantly becomes a living nightmare. He isforced to embark on a perilous journey to be re-united with the woman he loves,in the hope they can escape together into reality – but things are littlebetter there...

The conspiracy has ignited apower struggle between two ruthless and powerful men. Once, they were comradesplotting to shape Britain into the dictatorship it has become: now they arefoes whose animosity has plunged the country into violent mayhem.

The first, a renegadesecurity operative turned terrorist, plucked David from the dole to deliver thevirus; the second, a tyrannical Prime Minister ruthless in the preservation ofhis rule, he wants David dead – and fast – before the virus he carries canescape JobNet and overwhelm the wider network.

If David is to stand anychance of surviving, then he must take down both men, but the odds areimpossible – he’s just a ‘zero’, after all, and trapped in a broken reality. Itseems hopeless – until he stumbles across a dark secret hidden in the heart ofJobNet.

It’s a cruel revelation thatwill change everything…

Citizen Zero blends the stark social commentary of ‘The Boys From The Blackstuff’, the millennial techno-chic of ‘The Matrix’, and the uncompromising force of ‘V for Vendetta’ into one devastating portrayal of tomorrow’s Britain…

Citizen Zero is available from the following retail outlets:

Barnes & Noble | Diesel eBook Store | Lulu

Amazon UK | Amazon US

Smashwords | Sony eBook Store | Apple iTunes

Fiction Extracted

2011-08-26T12:53:00.000+01:00

The situation can't possibly get any worse once you're languishing in Death Row, waiting to be burned for the crime of 'heresy', right? Wrong, as the subject of this short story from the anthology ISOLATION SPACE is set to find out

Sinners In Streaming Video

"DON'T worry," he says, wiping the incessant perspiration from his face. He stands by the door, framed in the pale light filtering in through the window high above my head. His beady eyes stare out of his pudgy face with a doll's sincerity. Almost it hides his embarrassment.

"Axel, they're going to burn me!"

"It won't come to that."

"No?"

"It's just for show. That's all – a pure formality."

"Exactly!"

He looks away sharply and glances at the walls. I can see his disgust at the mildew. That's nothing, compared to the banging of the pipes in the middle of the night – the ones intended to keep the dungeon damp and unpleasant. I'd tell him that, but he looks troubled enough.

"I'm sorry," he suddenly says.

"What?"

"I'm sorry I pointed the finger. They didn't leave me any choice. You know –"

"It's all right, Axel. I know what they're like."

"I may be a rich man, but it carries no weight with them."

"No."

"But I do have some clout. I'll take care of things. I promise."

I have to confess, Axel is starting to annoy me, but I bite my tongue. Here I am facing death, and I don't want to make him feel worse. I just ask, "What things?"

Yet another furtive look at the walls. Is he worried about bugs – in this damp? He showed no such reticence before. "Trust me," he quietly says.

A extract of Sinners In Streaming Video from the anthology ISOLATION SPACE. The full anthology is available from the following outlets:

Diesel eBooks | Lulu | Smashwords | Sony eBooks

CATEGORY: ISOLATION SPACE

Well Flash

2011-08-14T15:11:00.000+01:00

What happens when a mixed bunch of writers get together to share tips and generally natter on Facebook about life, the universe, and everything creative? Sooner or later, some bright spark throws down the challenge to write a complete story in 100 words or less. The result is a Flash of Inspiration

Short, sweet, and totally inspired...

A Flash of Inspiration

A collection of incredibly short stories

Edited by Helmy Kusuma

Smashwords (Kindle, Sony, Nook and Apple devices)

IT started as a bit of fun but then it got serious as plenty more people gathered to join the fray. Soon, everyone was crowding round to hurl words across the screen – but not just any old words.

You might call them bonsai – stories instead of trees – because the challenge was simple enough in itself: write a story in 100 words or less. This is so-called flash fiction and like any story, it has a narrative arc, a beginning middle and end, but to compress it all into so few words is easier said than done.

The writers of the Book Junkies group on Facebook took up the challenge with gusto until the screen was awash with diminutive but well-formed micro-stories. And I, for my humble sins, was one of them.

In hindsight, it was inevitable that someone would suggest collecting these short shorts into an anthology, and so A Flash Of Inspiration was born.

The anthology contains the works of 20 authors who put two of their flash fiction pieces forward. Edited by group member Helmy Kusuma, it was duly published on Smashwords. The stories range from the sublime to the macabre, the amusing to the deadly serious.

So why not give it a shot and gain a very short introduction to some skilled and highly engaging indie authors?

Find the anthology A Flash of Inspiration on Smashwords.

Category: CHAPBOOK

Review: Citizen Zero

2011-06-02T20:55:00.000+01:00

Read the review on Inspired Quill

“Ever since George Orwell penned 1984, since Aldous Huxley gave us Brave New World, dystopian future sci-fi has been a staple in the English-speaking world. But how do you follow up such literary classics without resulting in a hashed up mishmash of the two? Surely it would take a feat of unparalleled genius to put something new on the plate.” READ THE REVIEW

As well as the PDF edition (reviewed), CITIZEN ZERO is available for a host of eReaders from the following sources:

Barnes & Noble | Diesel eBook Store | Lulu

Amazon UK | Amazon US

Smashwords | Sony eBook Store | Apple iTunes

Category: CITIZEN ZERO, REVIEWS

Author Interview

2011-05-31T13:26:00.000+01:00

The man behind the mayhem

CITIZEN Zero author Mark Cantrell has featured on the ‘Woulds & Shoulds’ Editing & Design website in its Self Publishing Success series of interviews with indie authors and publishers.

Published earlier this month, Mark was interviewed about his hard-hitting science fiction thriller, but also his wider thoughts on life as a novelist.

He talks about books, writing, the complexities of being an author in this day and age, and how the hard work really begins long after a novel is finished.

Catch the interview here.

Category: INTERVIEW

On Literature Kindle

2011-05-07T21:04:00.000+01:00

On Literature is a collection of feature articles and essays dedicated to the world of the creative writer, culled from the writers previous works and published free for a range of popular ebook devices...

Inspiration set free to kindle the mind...

On Literature,

Selected Journalism of Mark Cantrell, Volume 1

By Mark Cantrell

FREE chapbook

Available from Smashwords

Formats: Kindle (.mobi), Sony Reader (.lrf), Open Industry Srandard (.epub), Palm devices (.pbd) and others

FIRST published as a stapled printed chapbook in 2004, Mark Cantrell has now re-issued his collection of essays and articles in digital format through the publisher and distributor Smashwords.

On Literature brings together a fascinating collection of work rooted in the creative writing scene of his native Bradford, as well as his musings on the wider realms of creative writing.

From poets waxing lyrical to poets getting down-right political, a startling ensemble of creative exploits is explored in this small publication. Released FREE under a Creative Commons license, it is available for the Kindle, Sony Reader, and other devices exclusively from Smashwords, while an earlier PDF release remains available on Scribd.

So, feel free to download On Literature and be inspired: there’s more to literary living than you might at first think.

Smashwords | Scribd

Category: CHAPBOOKS

Buy Deus Ex Insomnia

2011-04-25T01:34:00.000+01:00

Amazing poetry available to buy from the following retail outlets:

Barnes & Noble | Diesel eBooks | Kobo Books

Sony eBook Store | Lulu | Smashwords

Amazon (UK) | Amazon (US) | Apple Store

Buy Isolation Space

2011-04-25T01:26:00.000+01:00

This thrilling collection of science fiction, fantasy, horror and thought-provoking satire is available in paperback and digital editions from the following retail outlets:

Barnes & Noble | Diesel eBooks | Lulu

Amazon (UK) | Amazon (US)

Smashwords | Apple| Sony eBooks

Buy Citizen Zero

2011-04-18T20:12:00.001+01:00

Citizen Zero, the hard-hitting science fiction thriller, is available from the following retail outlets:

Barnes & Noble | Diesel eBook Store | Lulu

Amazon UK | Amazon US

Smashwords | Sony eBook Store

Isolation Space Reviewed

2011-03-29T21:30:00.000+01:00

What Hungur has to say about Isolation Space

Review by Terrie Leigh Relf, editor, Hungur Magazine

Mark Cantrell’s Isolation Space: A Melange of Short Fiction, is, as its title and content reveals, a medley of twenty short stories that will challenge, disturb, fascinate, provoke, sicken, and otherwise engross readers. They may even incite you to foment change!

If you love tales of horror and the supernatural, fantasy and the fantastic, speculative and science fiction, then this book belongs on your shelf. There are monsters of various persuasions. . .those that suck blood as well as those who consume a person’s soul. Since I could not possibly do justice to this mind-expanding tome in such a short space, here are a few of my favorites.

First of all, there are flash pieces such as “Window Gazers”, which opens the collection with a disturbing shiver: an exhausted writer sitting at his desk who believes he’s being watched by creatures outside his window. Then there’s “Affordable Housing”, a cautionary tale where we meet two men who are about to lose their “estate”—to a demolition crew. Next time you are faced with taking a stand on fair housing, I suggest you rise to the occasion. Another one of my favorite flash pieces is “Brain Drain”; just imagine a violent sneeze, your brain landing in your pint. . .

In the oxymoronic longer short story category, my favorites include “Sinners In Streaming Video”, “Shopping For Katie”, and “An Englishman’s Home Is A. . .”. All three of these stories catapult this reader into an imagined, but chillingly possible future—and ironically, that future is NOW.

In “Sinners In Streaming Video”, Earth has been re-terraformed, and a new religion has emerged—or is it a return to olden days where the Fisher King was sacrificed for the weal of the land? This time, the sacrifice will be broadcast throughout the galaxy. . .but will there be a resurrection? If you are fascinated by the nuances of betrayal, you won’t be disappointed.

In “Shopping For Katie”, another “cautionary” tale (and yes, there are quite a few of these), we visit a future where designer babies are a reality for childless couples—and if you sign up with Wonder Child, you’ll have your very own “client advisor” who doubles as an honorary uncle. This story gives new meaning to the cliché, “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”—and with agonizing results.

Cantrell’s experience as a journalist, combined with his social conscience and political savvy, is quite evident in “An Englishman’s Home Is A. . .”. This tale is an all-too-real visit to a 1984-esque “future” in the 21^st century, where The Archipelago Project’s Containment Facility 1.01 is nearing completion. Meet Tony Lubyanka, Chief Executive for Drezhinsky Square Housing Trust and his assorted colleagues as they wrestle with the proverbial “problem of the poor”.

There are fourteen more tales in this fine collection, and this reader is looking forward to his next one.

February 2010

The paperback edition, available from Lulu, was the subject of the above review, however the anthology has since been released in e-book format for the Amazon Kindle, the Sony Reader and other popular devices. Check out the following links to get hold of your copy:

Amazon Kindle Store (UK)

Amazon Kindle Store (US & Worldwide)

Smashwords (for Sony Reader and other devices)

Buy The Paperback From Lulu

Read a review from Writers' Muse

Category: REVIEWS

The Future Is Rising

2011-01-08T06:14:00.000Z

A dystopian glimpse at a future born in an age of austerity and political uncertainty, Citizen Zero is a gripping social satire that exposes our deepest fears, posing a grave warning to any society that abandons the pursuit of social justice...

After austerity came prosperity and stability, but it was bought at a terrible price...

In a surveillance society blind where it matters most, a deadly conspiracy is ready to strike...

A dictatorial Prime Minister, confident of his grip on power, is about to discover the limits of his strength...

A security operative turned terrorist is all set to bring down the man he once helped to steal power...

Welcome to Britain, a nation bitterly divided between rich and poor, as it teeters on the edge of chaos...

And David Mills is caught in the middle, torn from the woman he loves and thrown in to a terrible struggle to survive…

He’s a ‘zero’, one of the destitute millions, a nobody, but he’s also the one man who might salvage some kind of freedom out of the ruins of the future...

No wonder the Prime Minister wants him dead...

CITIZEN ZERO
The hard-hitting new novel by Mark Cantrell presents a grim future of a Britain broken by austerity...

Available in a range of popular ebook formats from the following sources:

Amazon Kindle Store (UK)

Amazon Kindle Store (US & Worldwide)

Smashwords (for Sony Reader and other devices)

Lulu (390 page A5 PDF)

Amazon ASIN: B004HD65HS. More information about Citizen Zero is available from www.zerocitizen.blogspot.com or Facebook www.facebook.com/CitizenZER0

Category: CITIZEN ZERO

Digital Editions For 2011

2011-01-07T21:53:00.000Z

Shedding its paper chrysalis, amazing fiction spreads its digital wings

Isolation Space anthology now available for the Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader and a host of e-reading devices

Horror fiction, science fiction, fantasy, and thought-provoking examples of satirical writing don't just lurk between the covers any more -- they also lurk a few mouse-clicks away in the deeps of cyberspace.

The anthology Isolation Space has been re-issued in a series of digital editions suitable for many of today's popular e-reading devices, such as the Amazon Kindle (ASIN: B004I1L05G) and the Sony Reader. For the paper purists, however, the paperback edition can still be purchased from the publisher, LULU, while the digital editions can be found at the following sources:

Amazon Kindle Store (UK)

Amazon Kindle Store (US & Worldwide)

Smashwords (for Sony Reader and other devices)

Category:ISOLATION SPACE

Poetry Gone Digital

2011-01-07T18:56:00.000Z

Deus Ex Insomnia, the collection of poetry and prose by Mark Cantrell is now available as an ebook for the Amazon Kindle and a host of other digital reading devices

Poetry so good it'll wake the dead

The collection, first published as a paperback edition by Lulu, presents 80 poems, as well as a small selection of prose essays exploring the creative memes of the authorial craft.

Ranging from the dark and macabre, to the dryly humorous, through the outrageously silly to the provocative and thoughtful, Deus Ex Insomnia is a witty and engaging presentation of poetry and prose.

Digital copies can be bought from Amazon's Kindle Store (ASIN: B00439GJKY) or from Smashwords. Between them, they cover a wide range of popular e-reading devices, such as the Kindle, the Sony Reader, Palm and other devices. Check out the following links to find out how to get hold of a copy suitable for your device:

Amazon Kindle Store (UK)

Amazon Kindle Store (US & Worldwide)

Smashwords (for Sony Reader & other devices)

The paperback edition (ISBN: 978-1-84753-507-8) was first published in 2007 and is still available to buy from AMAZON, or from the publisher LULU. See the historical posts below for more information.

Category: POETRY

Wot, No Kindle?

2011-01-06T19:29:00.000Z

Free apps make a Kindle of a phone or PC

You don't need a Kindle device to read a Kindle ebook, provided you install one of a range of applications that can be downloaded from Amazon free of charge.

The online retailer has created a range of apps that will enable devices to read ebooks formatted for the Kindle. These include: Apple's iPhone, Windows PCs, Apple Macs, iPad, and Android OS phones. Its latest app release Kindle-enables the Windows Phone 7.

Each version of the app is available to download from AMAZON.

Category: NEWS

Free Downloads

2010-12-05T21:09:00.001Z

Sensational poetry and thrilling fiction

The following chapbooks and fiction samples are now available to download free from the file-sharing site, Mediafire. So, click on the titles below to download your copy of these free PDF ebooks

In The Words Of Chairman Me (poetry chapbook)
By Mark Cantrell

First published in 2004

A somewhat tongue-in-cheek presentation of Mark’s poetry and prose writing, it nevertheless contained some serious material alongside works of a more frivolous and fun nature. This was the last of his efforts in chapbooks, before he moved on to pastures new – in work, living, and literary activities.

Confessions Of A Poetry Virgin (début poetry collection)
By Mark Cantrell

First published in 2001

Relatively new to the poetry scene when it was first published, hence the title, Mark presented a small collection of his poetry to mark his début as a poet. This wasn’t only in the written form, but as a performance poet standing up to be counted at the microphone before an audience of his peers. Indeed, it was the influence of open mic poets that first inspired him to capture his poetic thoughts on paper and present them aloud. To this day, his poetic works remains influence by that and are written to be read aloud – if you dare.

On Literature (essays and articles about creative writing)
By Mark Cantrell

First published in 2004

Borrowing the chapbook form for a small collection of his journalistic writing, Mark published On Literature to take a look at the world of the creative writer. The features look at some quirky exploits in the wide-world of literature, as well as some of the exploits of his fellow scribes in Bradford and elsewhere during the early Noughties. Alongside these explorations of the real-world creative writing scene, he presents a number of essays taking a more creative and prosaic look at literary life.

One For The Road
A short vampire story: extracted sample from the paperback anthology Isolation Space, available from Lulu.

By Mark Cantrell

Sarah can run but she can't hide, not from herself, not from what she is, not from the man who picks her up on the side of the road. This is a journey neither one of them has bargained for, but by the time they reach the end of the road, they'll both understand the true extent of their lethal nature...

These works and more are also available at Scribd where they are available to download FREE in PDF format.

Category: DOWNLOADS

Horror Is Not Just For Halloween

2010-11-30T20:46:00.000Z

Presenting a collection of spine-tingling tales, this anthology from NoTreeBooks features 16 stories from 13 artists of the macabre, including Mark Cantrell's tale of vampire revenge, Baron Blood.

Vampires, Zombies & Ghosts, Oh My!

(And other creatures of the night stories)

Edited by Eve Paludan, the anthology is available exclusively in digital format, covering a host of popular file formats and e-reading devices, and can be obtained from the following sites:

Amazon, for the Kindle:
http://www.amazon.com/VAMPIRES-Zombies-Creatures-Anthology-ebook/dp/B00492COIG/

Smashwords.com for other file formats (pdf, epub, and more):

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/27972

The anthology features an introduction by the editor, Eve Paludan, and presents the following stories:

1. “All the Delicate Things” by Heidi Mannan, author of the upcoming novel, Turning Red, many short stories, and magazine articles. “All the Delicate Things” is an offbeat vampire tale whose fearless heroine, Rachael, collects the kinds of exotic creatures that would make other people shudder.

2. “Baron Blood” by Mark Cantrell, journalist and author of the novel, Citizen Zero, many short stories, and poems. In “Baron Blood,” the truth is a bitter pill to swallow, as a group of vampires learn when they go in search of their origins and discover the shocking facts. The awful truth of their underlying nature may not ease their bloody curse, but it offers them an opportunity for revenge.

3. “The Curse of Nilofer” by Rekha Ambardar, who has published more than ninety stories and articles in print and electronic magazines. She is also the author of two novels, His Harbor Girl and Maid to Order. “The Curse of Nilofer” offers an archaeology tale of an Egyptian queen whose mummy and tomb hieroglyphics hold the key to an ancient mystery and wield a power that extends beyond the grave.

4. “Teeth” by A.J. Kirby, prize-winning novelist of Bully, a supernatural tale of revenge from beyond the grave, The Magpie Trap: A High Octane Crime Thriller with Teeth, When Elephants walk through the Gorbals, Call of the Sea (a novella), and more than forty prize-winning short stories featured in a number of publications including anthologies. In “Teeth,” a slick marketing man’s finest physical attribute is cursed by a local drunken councillor, with shocking results that are worthy of a bow to that familiar human nightmare.

5. “The Twins” by TW Brown, author of the Zomblog series and the Dead series and publisher, MayDecemberPublications.com. In “The Twins,” Bill Ryan, who worked at an airfield, should not have taken his kids with him on the day that “weird things” were reported in the region by the media who held back the worst details.

6. “The Bone Flute Maker” by Carol J. La Valley, award-winning journalist and real-life storyteller, and Tales of a Lifetime biographer. “The Bone Flute Maker” is a futuristic tale of a blind musical instrument maker with electronic eyes who rescues a wounded seraph from her former cult.

7. “Palliative” by Chantal Boudreau, an accountant/author/illustrator who lives by the ocean in beautiful Nova Scotia, Canada with her husband and two children. In addition to being a CMA-MBA, she has a BA from Dalhousie University. She writes and illustrates predominantly horror, dark fantasy and fantasy and has several short stories and multiple novels in the works. “Palliative” is a chilling story of conscientious caregivers, an escape artist, and a palliative patient with no pulse and sharp teeth.

8. “Late Night Shopping” by Michael O'Connor, editor, essayist, poet, book reviewer, and short story author in many publications. "Late Night Shopping" unveils a seemingly ordinary shopping trip to the local Cheap Choice Freezermart. But strange things are afoot in the meat department.

9. “Vengeance Was His” by Rekha Ambardar, who has published more than ninety stories and articles in print and electronic magazines. She is also the author of two books. “Vengeance Was His” is a twisted tale of terror in which Count Cesare Vincenti surprises his younger wife, Lucretia. He survives a shipwreck, returns to old Palermo and catches her tramping around on him. The Count banishes her to the dungeon and calls upon a vampire hag with a serious quest to “find Andrea Bellini.”

10. “The Bride of Frankenstein Dances with Celebrity” by Chris Hugh, a lawyer and former high school teacher and the author of a growing list of short stories. Her cat, Twitch, was in the book, How to Take Over Teh Wurld: A LOLcat Guide 2 Winning. It made the New York Times bestseller list (September 2009, paperback advice). This parody takes a funny stab at pop-culture icons and the frustrations of being a modern-day “assembled” monster.

11. “That Whole Being-Dead Thing” by Allison Ridley, senior at Northern Arizona University. She loves to read Young Adult Literature, she spent a semester abroad in Mexico, and her favourite pastime is following authors on Twitter and YouTube. "That Whole Being-Dead Thing,” features a ghost named Millie who haunts David, her ex-boyfriend from the tenth grade, and criticizes his line-up of potential girlfriend material.

12. “DeathHouse Mansion, Inc.” by Chris Hugh, a lawyer and former high school teacher and the author of a growing list of short stories. Her cat, Twitch, was in the book, How to Take Over Teh Wurld: A LOLcat Guide 2 Winning. It made the New York Times bestseller list (September 2009, paperback advice). The author weaves together the past and the present in the unfolding of a thousand-dollar bet in “DeathHouse Mansion Inc.” a fast-paced haunted house thriller of disappearances.

13. “Third Degree” by A.J. Kirby, author of Bully, a supernatural tale of revenge from beyond the grave, The Magpie Trap: A High Octane Crime Thriller with Teeth, and more than forty short stories. In “Third Degree” a sun worshiper goes way too far with his bronze ambition.

14. “Love’s Transformation” by Donna Collins, an author from Upstate New York. The author unveils more than one surprise to the reader in “Love’s Transformation,” a paranormal story about a misfit romance.

15. “Pandora’s Boxes” by Eve Paludan, who was twice a #1 Writer’s Digest Book Club national bestselling author of The Romance Writer’s Pink Pages, a three-book series published by Prima. Paludan is also an editor of scholarly work, as well the editor/publisher of this fiction anthology. In “Pandora’s Boxes,” a young widow who is just beginning to date again is haunted by a sexy ghost who mistakes her for someone else.

16. “The Night Knows Me Well” by J.R. Rain, #1 Kindle bestselling vampire author of Vampire Moon and Moon Dance, more than a dozen other novels, screenplays, and many short stories. “The Night Knows Me Well” is unforgettable and stunning. His story is last here, because Rain is a master of the grand finale.

Afterword by Ron Paludan, 3D modeler, programmer of North American Railroad software, train photographer, and clever pop culture analyst. Ron adds his usual cleverness in a very short Afterword.

Category: ANTHOLOGIES

Halloween Is Coming

2010-10-27T20:16:00.001+01:00

New anthology promises shivers and thrills this Halloween

A vampire tale with an unexpected twist, Baron Blood by Mark Cantrell, finds itself keeping excellent company in the latest offering from ebook publisher NoTreeBooks.

The ebook, which is available on Amazon's Kindle as well as a host of other popular formats and devices, pulls together 16 startling tales by 13 authors.

Horror awaits to thrill and chill in Vampires, Zombies and Ghosts, Oh My! (And Other Creatures of the Night Stories), edited by Eve Paludan.

Don't be disapointed -- dip inside and send a shiver down your spine.

Available from Amazon's Kindle Store

Alternatively purchase the anthology in a range of popular ebook formats from Smashwords

Category: ANTHOLOGY

News From The Frontline

2010-10-17T21:51:00.000+01:00

The British Prime Minister is about to ‘meet his maker’

Austerity sets the scene for a disturbing vision of the future

THE Coalition Government’s austerity programme of spending cuts and welfare reform is inadvertently setting the scene to a hard-hitting political thriller available in a range of popular ebook formats.

Citizen Zero, by author and journalist Mark Cantrell, is a dystopian social satire set in a Britain left broken by an era of economic collapse and political instability.

On the surface, the country appears to have recovered to become once again a prosperous and stable consumer society. Behind the façade, however, it is a country bitterly divided between rich and poor. Blighted by severe deprivation, with an excluded underclass known as ‘zeros’ numbering millions, it’s a society balanced precariously on the edge of chaos.

The social divide is policed, and order maintained, by the intrusive hi-tech security apparatus of a dictatorial regime: civil liberties and social justice have been abandoned for the sake of a perceived public safety, but this surveillance society proves blind where it matters most.

“The society depicted in the novel had its origins in a time very much like our own,” said author Mark Cantrell. “The banking crisis, the recession, the country’s massive budget deficit, and the Coalition’s policies intended to tackle the crisis, could all form a part of the initial circumstances that created the ‘back story’ to Citizen Zero.”

In the run up to the novel, however, the situation worsened and as the nation’s social fabric unravelled under the pressures of economic hardship and mass unemployment, the country exploded into violent civil unrest. Add to this an unpopular Government crippled by corruption and division, and it proved a gift for an ambitious politician on the make.

Alexander Carlisle, the fictional Prime Minister, exploited that era of crisis and unrest to seize power and established his hard-line regime. However, Carlisle is set to ‘meet his maker’ with the return of the man who helped him to seize power. Clute, a former security operative turned terrorist, knows the PM’s security apparatus from the inside out. After all, he helped to build it. Now he intends to break it so that he can ‘set the zeros free’ to tip the country back into chaos. Carlisle’s rule was born in civil disorder and by civil disorder is it intended to fall.

“Carlisle is about to reap what he sowed,” Mark added. “He used the instability created by social inequality to forge his regime, and in the end that instability and social inequality is turned against him. From the outset, the novel is intended as a stark warning about the potential consequences for any society that abandons the pursuit of social justice.”

The story focuses on long-term unemployed David Mills, who becomes an unwilling pawn in Clute’s deadly conspiracy, but his struggle to survive has profound and far-reaching consequences for everyone.

He lives on society’s margins, forever on the verge of sinking into the ranks of the ‘zeros’ until he is forced to take part in the government JobNet initiative. This uses the latest artificial reality technology to give the unemployed all the help they need. David has heard it all before, but this time it actually lives up to the hype: he finds love, the prospect of a job beckons and he dares to dream of a worthwhile future beyond the dole.

Unfortunately for him, Clute regards JobNet as the chink in Carlisle’s armour and it places David in the wrong place at the wrong time. When his up-link is infected with a deadly virus intended to infiltrate and destroy the PM’s surveillance state, David’s nightmare is only just beginning. However, it leads him to discover a dark secret hidden at the heart of JobNet that will transform him from a pawn to a player in this catastrophic power struggle. It’s a cruel revelation that will change everything.

Citizen Zero is published on Lulu as an A5 formatted PDF ebook (390 pages) as well as in a range of formats for many of today's popular e-reading formats from the following sources:

Amazon Kindle Store (UK)

Amazon Kindle Store (US & Worldwide)

Smashwords (for Sony Reader and other devices)

From Lulu (390 page A5 PDF edition)

A substantial but incomplete free sample of the ebook is also available to download from SCRIBD. Alternatively, the free PDF sample can be downloaded from the file-sharing site MEDIAFIRE.

Citizen Zero combines the stark social commentary of ‘The Boys From The Blackstuff’, the millennial anarcho-chic of ‘The Matrix’, and the uncompromising force of ‘V for Vendetta’ into one devastating portrayal of tomorrow’s Britain. It’s a grim climax to an ordeal that has its roots in our own age of austerity.

More information about Citizen Zero is available from www.zerocitizen.blogspot.com or Facebook www.facebook.com/CitizenZER0

Category: CITIZEN ZERO

Out on Lulu

2010-07-25T19:10:00.000+01:00

JobNet was supposed to usher in a better life for unemployed David Mills; instead it plunges him into a bitter struggle for survival when he is caught in the midst of a political conspiracy that pushes Britain to the brink of civil war…

The future is what you make it

CITIZEN ZERO

A hard-hitting political thriller by Mark Cantrell, available now from Lulu

PDF | A5 | 390 pages

David lived on society’s margins, forever on the verge of sinking into an excluded underclass known as ‘zeros’, until the JobNet scheme offered him the tantalising prospect of a better life.

The Government programme uses the latest artificial reality technology to create a paradise world where the unemployed gain all the help they need. He’s heard the hype before, but this time it actually begins to fulfil the promise: he finds love with Christine, the prospect of a job beckons, and he dares to dream of a worthwhile future beyond the dole.

Then a deadly virus strikes the system and his sweetest dream instantly becomes a living nightmare. He is forced to embark on a perilous journey to be re-united with the woman he loves, in the hope they can escape together into reality – but things are little better there...

The conspiracy has ignited a power struggle between two ruthless and powerful men. Once, they were comrades plotting to shape Britain into the dictatorship it has become: now they are foes whose animosity has plunged the country into violent mayhem.

The first, a renegade security operative turned terrorist, plucked David from the dole to deliver the virus; the second, a tyrannical Prime Minister ruthless in the preservation of his rule, he wants David dead – and fast – before the virus he carries can escape JobNet and overwhelm the wider network.

If David is to stand any chance of surviving, then he must take down both men, but the odds are impossible – he’s just a ‘zero’, after all, and he's trapped inside a broken reality. It seems hopeless – until he stumbles across a dark secret hidden in the heart of JobNet. It’s a cruel revelation that will change everything…

Scroll down to download a substantial sample of the novel, or buy the complete e-book from Lulu.

www.lulu.com/content/e-book/citizen-zero/9045083

Download A Free Sample

2010-07-25T19:03:00.000+01:00

The future is what you make it...

A substantial FREE sample of the hard-hitting novel Citizen Zero

A gunship rose sluggishly. Its engines whined with the struggle to overcome the burden of clinging bodies. Guns barked. Zeros fell, only to be replaced by more. Finally the gunship toppled over. Blades shattered as they struck the ground. The fuselage crumpled. The fuel tank ruptured.

The explosion thumped into his chest like an invisible fist. The mechanical carcass burned with a stinging heat, even from that distance. He began to tremble. The zeros swarmed towards him. The last gunship took off and hovered to provide support.

“They can’t do this,” he said in shock. “They’re zeros... they can’t do this to us...”

Nobody paid any attention. Chief cradled the PM in his arms; his face screwed up with genuine anguish. The PM moaned, isolated from the world around him.

A dystopian glimpse at a future born in an age of austerity and political uncertainty, CITIZEN ZERO is a gripping social satire that exposes our deepest fears, and presents a grave warning to any society that abandons the pursuit of social justice. The novel presents a grim future of a society broken by austerity. It blends the stark social commentary of ‘The Boys From The Blackstuff’, the millennial anarcho-chic of ‘The Matrix’, and the uncompromising force of ‘V for Vendetta’ into one devastating portrayal of tomorrow’s Britain…

Citizen Zero Sample

First published in PDF back in July 2010 with Lulu, CITIZEN ZERO is now available for the Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader and other popular e-reading devices from the following sources:

Amazon Kindle Store (UK)

Amazon Kindle Store (US & Worldwide)

Smashwords (for Sony Reader and other devices)

Lulu (for the original A5 PDF edition)

For more information visit www.zerocitizen.blogspot.com

Category: CITIZEN ZERO

CITIZEN ZERO: Sample Chapter

2010-07-25T18:55:00.000+01:00

CHAPTER 1:
Beggars Can’t Be Choosers

HE was being watched again. As soon as he arrived at the bus stop the camera turned to stare.

Mills sighed despondently and tried not to think about it. Such thoughts only made him nervous. He wanted to go back to bed and shut out the world until he felt able to deal with it. Say in twenty years. But he couldn’t ignore the Summons; it wasn’t worth the hassle. He sighed again.

The bus grumbled to a halt, thankfully blocking the eye’s mindless stare. He might have felt relieved but he knew they didn’t need to see him to track his movements. The doors slid open with a snake-hiss of hydraulics and he clambered aboard. It was an old vehicle, converted to auto-pilot because the company was too tight to invest in new ones. The driver’s seat remained empty. Human drivers were no more than an old man’s reminiscence.

The other passengers glared impatiently while Mills fumbled for his card. At last he found it and swiped through the transaction. His account would be debited by the company until the system no longer registered his presence. The Agency, meanwhile, would take a small surcharge for the use of the facility.

“Customers please be advised,” the on-board computer said, “the current boarder is a Class ‘D’ security risk. Please take care of all personal belongings. CCTV monitoring is in operation for your protection.”

The passengers shifted in their seats. Some held tight onto handbags and briefcases and nobody looked directly at him. Except, that is, for the security guard who sat up straight and slowly folded his arms.

The bus gathered speed and unbalanced Mills so that he slumped heavily into a vacant seat next to an old man in a black overcoat. The man stiffened and suddenly became very interested in the view through the window.

“It’s disgraceful. People like that shouldn’t be allowed to travel with decent people.”

For a surreptitious whisper, it carried. So did the collective murmur of agreement. Such jibes should have long ago lost their power to hurt. He turned around anyway and stared at the two old ladies with stakeholder badges pinned prominently to their lapels. Once he gained their full attention he treated them to a lazy grin. Both women looked away and he turned back to follow the old man’s gaze. As he did so his face slumped into its usual dour expression. A grim mask reflected from dirty glass; a way to hide the pain at the stigma he carried and the punishment he bore.

The stigma chose that moment to beep. A reminder that he was going to be late for his Summons. He pulled it from his pocket and turned it over and over between his fingers.

“Nexus 40,” the legend read. Beneath, printed on the scratched plastic:

UK Benefits & Welfare Plc
– A Ministry for Human Resources Company –

working for you, so you can too

It really was a hateful piece of plastic. Even now the chip signalled his location to the JobMart’s city computer. Depending on traffic down the net, some operator could be reading the data this very moment. Everywhere he went it left a digital scent for the authorities to follow, until it felt like another disapproving eye. He thrust the card angrily into his pocket; out of sight but not out of mind.

He sighed, not quite in despair but almost, and thought of the Summons. Maybe things were about to change? He pulled out the Nexus again and pressed the display micro-switch. Text scrolled across the strip and he read it for the umpteenth time. Could they really be serious?

“Artificial reality job-hunting? Hey, maybe I’ll get an artificial job!”

The man next to him shifted in his seat and glanced sidelong as though he
thought Mills were crazy. Sod you, Mills thought.

+++ MILLS D + S + PLEASED TO INFORM YOU THAT YOU ARE SELECTED FOR NEW IMPROVED JOBNET SCHEME + INTENDED FOR RELENTLESSLY UNEMPLOYED + UTILISES LATEST IN ARTIFICIAL REALITY TECHNOLOGY TO HELP YOU BACK TO WORK + ATTEND 0915 HOURS TUESDAY 10 APRIL + ENDS +++

Terse and to the point, like all their messages. We command. You obey. And these schemes became stranger with each passing year. How many have there been so far? Too many, but perhaps this one would be different. Perhaps this would result in that ever-elusive beast: a job.

“There’s always hope,” he said to the suit. The man only smiled weakly and looked away. Mills allowed himself a cynical smile and signalled the auto-pilot for his stop.

THE JobMart’s tinted windows seemed to frown at him. They were like the shades worn by the stereotypical spy: sinister, watchful and totally inscrutable. Yet the building itself seemed so shabby and dreary it gave him the urge to shiver. Even on a bright day like this the building appeared overcast.

Desperate as he was to find meaningful work, he pitied those who worked inside. Each day of their lives they came face to face with the unemployed. The tentative nature of work was paraded before them in a reminder of their own tenuous grip on society.

With a heavy heart he passed inside. People jostled him. A long counter separated the employed from the jobless. It made for a wall dividing two worlds, where the ragged queues of blank-faced people waited to sign their names for another infusion of grinding poverty. Behind the wall, more blank faced people processed the deserving poor. Workers on a human production line, they churned out ready-made rejects.

He joined the queue and found himself surrounded by the dead-eyed faces of the hopeless and the broken. Minds that could no longer understand the concept of work, every trait they needed to find it had been sucked out of them, as though by a vampire. And now these zombies shuffled mindlessly in search of instruction. A shudder ran down his spine. Truly, this was the Realm of the Damned.

SLOWLY the queue wormed its way up to the main desk. Mills idly looked around. Beyond the queues, the vacancy screens listed jobs in a multitude of languages. Invariably, they were low-paid and short-term dead-ends. Nearby, people in headphones sat at a bank of machines: the blind and the illiterate force-fed with ‘opportunities’ by soothing machine voices. On the far wall, in large print, a poster declared: BEGGARS CANNOT BE CHOOSERS.

Bored-looking people occupied the rows of seats by the rear wall, watching the information videos endlessly playing from a bank of monitors suspended from the ceiling. On one, yet another expensively-dressed politician spitefully slandered the poor.

It was all too much and he felt his mind wander.

BACK through time to the steel works, where he had his first and only job. The blast furnaces glowed in the darkness like pockets of Hell. Twenty-four hours a day those furnaces produced high-quality steel to be shipped out all over the world.

Life was hard, but he felt useful. And in those days he had friends. People thought him worth knowing. Pete, Jeff and Rob, his shift-mates. Where were they now?

Pete was the joker of the bunch and a wizard with the controls. Mills knew he was every bit as competent, but somehow he felt overawed by that tiny control room. It seemed strange that he and his three friends should control so much industrial output.

From the air-conditioned box they smelted and poured millions of tonnes of metal. Once thousands were required to do the job by hand, back in the traditional steel cities. They had been thrown aside by the automated systems he operated. And then he, too, was thrown away.

In some distant office his job was deleted by some corporatchik, doubtless in connivance with some government functionary. They probably made a fat profit. And doubtless the odd killing too.

“YES?” The woman at the reception desk looked tired. It was only ten o’clock in the morning but how many people had she processed already?

He didn’t feel like talking much. What was there to say? So he produced the Nexus and handed it over. The woman slotted the card into her terminal and tapped a few keys. Then she went over to a filing cabinet and rooted through a drawer. No matter how computerised they became, he noted, they couldn’t bring themselves to ditch the paperwork.

“Name?”

He rolled his eyes. It was printed on the card in her hand. “Mills,” he said.

“Initials?”

“Dee. Ess.”

At last she produced a folder stamped with his name and social security number. With a bored manner she dumped it on the desk and entered some details into the computer, then, without another word, she returned his card and disappeared into the hidden recesses of the building. Mills felt his mind wander once more.

THREE years after it closed, he went back for a nostalgia trip with Rob and Pete. Somebody had beaten them to it. The foundries were still there, much to their surprise. Now they formed an attraction in an industrial theme park: “The Workshop of the World”.

Some multi-national had bought the place. They presented the site as part of Britain’s industrial heritage, which in a way it was. It was still strange because it had only been in operation for five years before he started there. The real heritage was long gone, buried beneath the foundations of shopping malls and monuments to commerce. He didn’t even know where the steel industry was originally based. They never taught him that in history, only what a great and glorious country he had the good fortune to be born into – a haven for freedom and democracy where the cameras never blinked.

In that theme park, his foundries glowed again. But they glowed with a cold light, the tinted glow of electric lamps, and the metal they poured was nothing more than back-lit paste.

The workers were the best. Big, muscular men, with oiled and bronzed skin, toiled at the foundries manually. Funny that, because they were never designed for manual operation. Except in an emergency. But how many of the paying public would know that?

The fall of the Industrialists’ Empire. The Workshop of the World – just a play-park for kids. The irony wasn’t lost on him. The world was a workshop – one where men, women and even children toiled all day for next to nothing. Yet here, in the country that coined the phrase, actors performed fake work for the paying crowd.

“MR Mills?” A pleasant voice shattered the images of the past. “Would you like to come this way?”

He turned around to find a woman smiling brightly. It came as something of a surprise to encounter such an amiable approach. The badge on her chest identified her as Jane. No surname. She indicated a door and walked towards it. Beyond it was just another office: a cheap desk, phone, assorted pens, and a filing cabinet in one corner. A fan gently stirred the air.

All very ordinary, except for the sign on the door: “JobNet”.

Copyright (C) 2001/2010. All Rights Reserved.

Category: CITIZEN ZERO

Anthology's Golden Praise

2010-02-20T10:23:00.000Z

BOOK REVIEW: Isolation Space
Writers’ Muse #50 August 2009

ISOLATION SPACE,
A Melange of Short Fiction
By Mark Cantrell

Published By Lulu: ISBN: 978-1-4092-7030-0

Jim Palmer, Editor of Writers' Muse Magazine, presents his verdict of the anthology Isolation Space by Mark Cantrell. The review first appeared in #50 (August 2009) of the magazine

A couple of short stories in this excellent volume have been published previously in the Muse (The Rise & Fall of Sisyphus in issue 39, and An Englishman’s Home Is A... [published as Coming Home To Roost] in issue 45).

I’ve done quite a few reviews in my time but I must admit that this one was hard to write. Isolation Space not only contains many of my favourite fictional genres, many are, in my opinion, written in the style of the ‘Golden Age’, as I mentioned last issue. So – forgive me for being biased and indulging myself!

As well as the horror and science fiction pieces, there are some wonderfully observed satirical stories. It’s hard to write satire that leaves the writer helpless with mirth, rage and realisation of the truth behind the story, but Mark achieves it brilliantly. His pace when writing these types if pieces is inestimable.

It’s hard to pick any favourites from this collection but for sheer creeping me out, the award must be shared between One Way Trip and Window Gazers; the former because ir reminds me so much of the first time I watched the film, Alien, and the latter because even though it was slightly less than two pages long, it made me tuck the covers in and make sure the doors were locked (so much for reading in bed to relax!)

Like many of the best science fiction and horror stories, there are twists in the tail of many of these pieces, and, also like many of the best in those genres, then end, when it hits you, is not at all expected. I pride myself in being able to take a pretty shrewd guess at what happens next, and even the endings, in stories – it’s an element of being an editor (nothing special, just experience I guess).

Only one of the twenty short stories in this collection was solved by yours truly before the end! I know these things are subjective, but that says a lot about a writer in my humble opinion.

Other pieces I feel I have to mention are, Shopping For Katie, involving a form of cloning for childless couples on the face of it. Apart from being more than scientifically possible, the story leaves a nasty taste in the mouth abut that possibility being used for commercial purposes, with the result (in this tale) being poignantly probable. At Death’s Door is another one that creeped me. It’s surreal (I hope) journey into what Poe called the hypnagogic state of mind when you’re unsure of reality and fantasy and the boundaries between become distorted and (as in this piece) break down! Finally, A Walk In The Woods – a seemingly simple tale that has hidden depth and is both prophetic and contemporary in its message, given the problems our planet is facing and with us as passengers on it!

If you love being thrilled, frightened, intrigued, fascinated and engrossed, you can do no better than get hold of this book.

Isolation Space is published by Lulu and can be ordered online from its website.

Jim Palmer – Editor

Category: REVIEWS

Check Out The Chapbooks

2010-01-31T11:41:00.000Z

Re-issued chapbooks take a fresh look at poetry

Chapbooks are common among poetic circles, where they are often traded around like business cards. The form of self-publishing has a long history and is a tried and tested means for showcasing and sharing work, but by their nature are somewhat limited in reach.

Like so many of his peers, writer Mark Cantrell took to the form, not only for poetry, but also for his articles and the occasional short story. As is typical of the form, the photocopied, staple-bound A5 chapbooks sold in small numbers, but they were all a part of the social and literary scene.

Years later, he has chosen to re-issue three of his old chapbooks in electronic form, presenting them as PDF e-books. This time round, there is no charge for these rare works – after all there’s no reproduction costs in PDF – so the following chapbooks can now be downloaded for free via this site.

On Literature
Some Selected Journalism
By Mark Cantrell

First published in 2004

Borrowing the chapbook form for a small collection of his journalistic writing, Mark published On Literature to take a look at the world of the creative writer. The features look at some quirky exploits in the wide-world of literature, as well as some of the exploits of his fellow scribes in Bradford and elsewhere during the early Noughties. Alongside these explorations of the real-world creative writing scene, he presents a number of essays taking a more creative and prosaic look at literary life.

Confessions of a Poetry Virgin
By Mark Cantrell

First published in 2001

Relatively new to the poetry scene when it was first published, hence the title, Mark presented a small collection of his poetry to mark his début as a poet. This wasn’t only in the written form, but as a performance poet standing up to be counted at the microphone before an audience of his peers. Indeed, it was the influence of open mic poets that first inspired him to capture his poetic thoughts on paper and present them aloud. To this day, his poetic works remains influence by that and are written to be read aloud – if you dare.

In The Words of Chairman Me
By Mark Cantrell

First published in 2004

A somewhat tongue-in-cheek presentation of Mark’s poetry and prose writing, it nevertheless contained some serious material alongside works of a more frivolous and fun nature. This was the last of his efforts in chapbooks, before he moved on to pastures new – in work, living, and literary activities.

Find these works and more at Scribd where they are available to download FREE in PDF format. Either visit Scribd direct, or check out the entries below to take a taste of the chapbooks.

www.scribd.com/WordZero

Category: CHAPBOOK

A Sample Of Isolation

2009-10-16T13:38:00.000+01:00

Try a taste of blood

A free sample of Isolation Space, featuring the story One For The Road, is available to download or read online at SCRIBD, adding a new blood-curdling twist to vampire fiction

The full paperback anthology features 20 short stories by UK author Mark Cantrell. The full collection presents a thrilling mix of science fiction, horror, fantasy and satire, including a number tales that take new blood to the vampiric theme.

Jim Palmer, editor of the literary magazine Writers’ Muse, said: “[I]f you’re a science fiction fanatic and hanker for the ‘Golden Age’, then you can do no better than to get hold of a copy of this book. The pieces I read took me back to the wonder I felt when I first discovered science fiction and horror. And I loved it!”

Isolation Space (ISBN: 978-1-4092-7030-0) is available from LULU. Read the sample at SCRIBD, or visit LULU to order a copy of the complete anthology. Digital editions are also available from AMAZON (ASIN: B004I1L05G) and SMASHWORDS for a host of e-reading devices.

The free PDF sample can also be downloaded from file-sharing site MEDIAFIRE.

Category:ISOLATION SPACE

Isolation Space Reviewed

2009-08-23T20:27:00.000+01:00

Muse gives golden praise

Writers’ Muse editor Jim Palmer gave his verdict on Isolation Space in the 50th edition of the literary journal (August 2009), with a resounding thumbs up for the science fiction and horror stories bound together in the anthology.

Many of them reminded him of the ‘Golden Age’ of those genres, he said, describing it an “excellent” collection. The full review can be read in the current issue, see www.writersmuseonline.com for more information, meanwhile read on for some extracts of the review:

“As well as the horror and science fiction pieces, there are some wonderfully observed satirical stories,” Jim Palmer wrote in Writer’s Muse #50, August 2009. “It’s hard to write satire that leaves the writer helpless with mirth, rage and realisation of the truth behind the story, but Mark achieves it brilliantly. His pace when writing these types of pieces is inestimable...

“Like many of the best science fiction and horror stories, there are twists in the tail of many of these pieces, and, also like many of the best in those genres, then end, when it hits you, is not at all expected...

“If you love being thrilled, frightened, intrigued, fascinated and engrossed, you can do no better than get hold of this book.”

Category: REVIEWS

Review Extracts

2009-06-23T21:03:00.000+01:00

First impressions matter

THERE are some warm words of praise for the anthology Isolation Space in the latest issue of literary journal the Writers’ Muse (#49)

Published by Lulu, the book is Mark Cantrell’s first paperback fiction collection. It presents a challenging and thought-provoking array of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, together with some more literary works, and has earned itself a quick thumbs up from the Muse.

Jim Palmer, editor, said: “Isolation Space will be reviewed fully next issue but what I can say is that if you’re a science fiction fanatic and hanker for the ‘Golden Age’, then you can do no better than to get hold of a copy of this book. The pieces I read took me back to the wonder I felt when I first discovered science fiction and horror. And I loved it!”

The Muse is a quarterly literary journal that publishes short fiction, articles, topical reviews, and short plays. To find out more about the magazine, visit www.writersmuseonline.com.

Category: NEWS

Buy Isolation Space

2009-04-11T14:12:00.001+01:00

Dining out will never be the same again, after you’ve read Isolation Space by Mark Cantrell

Putting the bite back into vampires

Meet the man who eats ‘em for breakfast

Published By Lulu | £9.99 | Paperback | ISBN: 978-1-4092-7030-0

THERE’S a macabre twist in store for vampire lovers in Mark Cantrell’s first paperback anthology of short fiction, but some people might feel he’s rather made a meal of it.

Nevertheless, it’s not for those with a weak stomach when he introduces the gruesome world of a vampire slayer who boasts he ‘eats vampires for breakfast’. Join him on the hunt – if you dare – and you’ll find he isn’t joking.

Welcome to the grisly – not to mention ghoulish – world of wealthy gourmets with a taste for the most exotic, the most dangerous of culinary experiences.

As if that’s not enough to whet the appetite, Mark introduces a few further dark twists and turns to the vampire mythos that will put the bite back into the genre and turn the tables on the age-old predators stalking human fears.

Vampires may be an acquired taste – but once bitten you’ll never be the same again.

There’s plenty more to Isolation Space than meets the eye. It’s not all vampiric, the anthology combines 20 short stories to paint a tapestry of the macabre and the horrific, the chilling and the heart-shocking, with some thought provoking works of a more satirical nature.

The result is a powerful amalgam of horror, science fiction and fantasy that provides plenty for the imagination to chew on.

Isolation Space is published by Lulu and can be ordered online from its website, or soon from leading online retailer Amazon, as well as ordered from good bookshops.

Order From Lulu

JANUARY 2011: Now available in a range of digital editions for the Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader and other devices, from the following sources:

Amazon Kindle Store (UK)

Amazon Kindle Store (US & Worldwide)

Smashwords (for Sony Reader and other devices)

Category: ISOLATION SPACE

Out Now In Paperback

2009-04-11T14:03:00.000+01:00

Isolation Space

An Anthology Of Short Fiction

By Mark Cantrell

Published By Lulu

£9.99 | Paperback | ISBN: 978-1-4092-7030-0

STEP outside the Hive and see the world from a new perspective. Be warned – it can be an unsettling experience, but that’s only to be expected in the Isolation Space.

Beyond the portals of the Isolation Space are found those Souls that seethe against the common flow of consciousness. Mark Cantrell has merged with the flow, listened to the echoes, and returned to tell the tales that crave life in the human mind.

Here, twenty of those stories are bound into one thrilling collection of science fiction, fantasy and horror, with a few literary twists and turns that will fertilise the mind. There is something for everyone in the Isolation Space, if you dare to open the covers, breach the event horizon, and step forth into the worlds that lie within.

Beware, you might emerge from the Isolation Space unscathed – but never untouched.

Blood will out, it is said; when a group of vampires go looking for their origins, they discover far more than they can stomach…
We all have our ups and downs, but when it came to being stuck in a rut, this old Greek legend really had it made – or so he thought…
These days it takes real dedication and commitment for modern authors to get themselves noticed. Reality television is all very well, but isn’t a live execution for heresy a little extreme? Still, think of the Royalties…
She was the one afraid of the dark, that’s why the other vamps in her gang laughingly called her Shade, but she’s still breathing – and she’s stalking the man who slaughtered them. So, he’s just another vampire-slayer, right? Think again. Shade is in for one Hell of a surprise…
First contact is a delicate and harrowing business, so when the aliens do drop in for lunch, be careful where you take them. The fate of the world rests on the menu…

Isolation Space is available from Lulu

Category: ISOLATION SPACE

Preview The Isolation

2009-03-18T19:27:00.000Z

ISOLATION Space is the first paperback anthology presenting 20 of Mark Cantrell’s short stories in one singular volume.

Most of the stories have appeared in small press magazines, while others have gained an airing on the author’s literary blog 'A Penny's Worth Of Dread' (now defunct), but this is the first time they have appeared together in one bound edition.

Isolation Space

An Anthology Of Short Fiction By Mark Cantrell
Copyright © March 2009

The stories presented within the covers of Isolation Space combine to make an eclectic collection of science fiction, fantasy, horror and some more esoteric works of a more literary nature. One thing is certain – you won’t be disappointed.

The 284-page paperback, perfect-bound edition is published by Lulu and is set to follow in a range of digital format editions. Meanwhile, read a preview of the tales to come...

Isolation Space, Published By Lulu, is now available from LULU. ISBN: 978-1-4092-7030-0.

Content Preview: The Full Melange

Window Gazers
There’s something fiendish outside, so are you sure you’re sitting comfortably? Then let us begin…

Affordable Housing
An Englishman’s home is his castle, until they want the land for regeneration…

Brain Drain
Alcohol and brains don’t tend to mix well, unless you’re feeling peckish that is…

Time Changeth The Man
Step outside the Hive and see the world from a new perspective. Be warned – it can be an unsettling experience. How can any creature possibly live like this? Find out inside…

The Rise & Fall Of Sisyphus
We all have our ups and downs in life, but when it comes to being stuck in a rut, this old Greek legend really had it made – or so he thought…

A Walk In The Woods
When the most beautiful woman in the world begs a humble woodcutter for her life, there’s only one way for him to fulfil her wish – he must wield the axe…

To Heal The World
Only Man was able to save the world. Well naturally, since He was the one killing it – but He saved the Old Girl in the end. Pity He wasn’t around to enjoy it…

Of Unicorns & Vampyres
Blood will out, it is said; when a group of vampires go looking for their origins, what they discover is more than they can stomach…

Sinners In Streaming Video
These days it takes real dedication and commitment for a modern author to get themselves noticed, but maybe the publicity stunts can be taken too far. Reality television is all very well, after all, but isn’t a live execution for heresy a little extreme? Still, think of the Royalties…

At Death’s Door
There’s a door in the mind that keeps the ghosts of the past firmly locked at bay, but that door can be forced open – and when it does…

Ghost Of Sarajevo
Another time, another war, but either this correspondent is going nuts or the city is haunted…

There Is No Sanctuary Here
Pity the strangers among us, for there is little mercy in the world we made for them – but is it possible their presence hints that some ember of hope still smoulders in our hearts? Hear their call…

One For The Road
The perils of hitch-hiking pale against experience when Sarah finds herself picked up by a vampire with the hots for her. She can run but she can’t hide – especially from her true self…

Shopping For Katie
For the modern consumer planning that perfect baby, it pays to shop around – and read the small print in the warranty too…

One Way Trip
When a salvage crew scavenging the outer rings of Saturn turns up the long-lost hulk of a generation ship, it seems like an easy fortune – but deep inside ancient evil thirsts. In space nobody can hear the children of the night howl…

Nathan’s Friend
Tonight’s the night – that Nathan cuts loose a close and personal friend. They’ve been a team since adolescence, but enough is enough, he’s got Nathan into trouble once too often – so it’s time for some blood and retribution…

Deadly Night Shade
She was the one who was afraid of the dark, that’s why the other vamps in her gang laughingly called her Shade, but she’s the one still breathing – and she’s stalking the man who slaughtered them. So, he’s just another vampire-slayer – right? Think again. Shade is in for one hell of a surprise…

Joe’s Last Meal
First contact is a delicate and harrowing business, so when the aliens do drop in for lunch, be careful where you take them. The fate of the world rests on the menu…

An Englishman’s Home Is A…
Can’t afford to buy or rent a home – then this is the ideal solution to solve the housing crisis…

Taste Of The Night Life
A night on the town is all very well, but maybe a date with the city’s pre-eminent vampire slayer isn’t exactly a long-term prospect. It’s not what you think – and he sure as hell ain’t Buffy…

Copyright © March 2009. All Rights Reserved.

Category: ISOLATION SPACE

Download A Free Sampler

2008-09-16T21:03:00.000+01:00

Taste The Shade

A free leaflet that presents an example of the poetry contained in Mark Cantrell's collection, Deus Ex Insomnia can be downloaded for free. The sampler is designed to be printed on two sides of A4 and then folded to make a convenient triple-paned introduction to the delights contained in the full publication. To download the sample click [HERE].

Category: DOWNLOADS

Wading Through The Slush

2008-09-14T14:13:00.000+01:00

Cantrell goes ‘Authonomous’

The publisher HarperCollins recently launched its ‘peer review’ site Authonomy to provide authors with a means of side-stepping the ‘slushpile’ and maybe scoop that ever-elusive publishing deal.

Author Mark Cantrell decided to give this new authors’ tool a shot, and so he has uploaded the first 17,000 words of his latest novel “In Workers’ Paradise” on to the site to see just how the ‘peer review’ site works in practice.

“The Internet can be a great medium for authors to present their writing to a potentially global audience. Of course with millions of pages out there, and so many sites and writers vying for attention, it can sometimes seem like a crowded auditorium, packed to the rafters with people shouting their wares at the top of their lungs and not listening to anyone around them,” Mark said.

“So, anything that helps them to gain attention, however small, has got to be an important consideration for any author trying to raise their head above the parapet. If it gets you noticed, then that’s all well and good, if not, then you haven’t lost anything. The only real way for an author to lose is if they don’t try. So, Authonomy was well worth a shot.”

“In Workers’ Paradise” presents a fantasy memoir with an overtly political flavour that seeks to explore the nature of idealism and ambition, the author explained. “Whenever progressive movements arise to challenge the restrictions of their society, are they inevitably doomed to be corrupted by the ambitions of wilful and self-determined men – or do the ideals corrupt ambition to create the hearts and minds of men they require? What is left unsaid is often the most eloquent evasion of truth,” he added.

Now that the book has been finished, Mark is intending to tout it round to try and find a publisher. Authonomy plays a part in that lengthy, and difficult process of taking a book to its potential audience.

Meanwhile, his second and third novels – Citizen Zero (2001) and Silas Morlock (2006) are both awaiting the delivery of a new publisher called Writers of World. When that publisher finally goes live, it will present both books to the reading public. So, expect more news of these three books as events progress.

The sample of "In Workers' Paradise" can be read at Authonomy [HERE].

Poetry Published

2008-06-04T18:04:00.000+01:00

Deus Ex Insomnia

Buy it online, or order it from leading retailers, this poetry collection is available in paperback and a wide range of digital format editions...

THE doctors didn’t believe me; they only believe in their pharmacopoeia – a lot of addicts do – but I made them believe in the end. I had to. The others left me no choice.

Too many sleepless nights had ripped a gash in perception. Out there on the far side, through the fog of delirium, I sensed the presence. I wasn't alone. I saw them hinted and outlined by the weak light that leaked from the waking world: sculptures of silhouette utter dark against the shadows of endless time.

I knew, they'd been waiting, they'd been calling. Now they had me, and they forced me to sit and write. This is what they told me to say...

Walk into the shadows of a sleepless night, of a mind teetering towards the abyss of deprivation, when revelation intrudes through the event horizon that separates the lightness of being from the depths of hidden meaning. Out there, in the beyond it's not all morbid raptures, there is laughter too, hidden in the drug of words.

Deus Ex Insomnia (ISBN: 978-1-84753-507-8) is the début poetry collection by journalist and novelist Mark Cantrell. The perfect bound paper back edition pulls together 80 examples of his writing, with the added sweetener of prosaic essays pondering the mysteries of the written word. He has a reputation for darkness in his writings, so taste his night-life for yourself – and discover it's not all shadows in Mark's world. There's time for fun and humour too.

Deus Ex Insomnia,
Poetry & and prose by Mark Cantrell
Published by Lulu
ISBN: 978-1-84753-507-8
Price: £5.95 (p+p extra)

STOP PRESS: Deus Ex Insomnia is now available for the Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, Palm, and a host of other e-reading devices. To find out more and order your copy then check out the following locations:

Amazon Kindle Store (UK)

Amazon Kindle Store (US & Worldwide)

Smashwords (for Sony Reader and other devices)

The paperback edition (ISBN: 978-1-84753-507-8) is still available from LULU or from AMAZON (or order it from good bookshops).

Category: DEUS EX INSOMNIA

Ink Stain On The World

2008-05-24T09:57:00.000+01:00

Coming Live From Mars...

Attack of the 50-foot Verbose Mutant Killer Fountain Pens From Mars

The Anthology that breezed through human consciousness like a neutrino through a planetary crust can be downloaded under a Creative Commons license.

Short fiction and prose presenting a serious compendium of some of Mark Cantrell’s varied works; wrapped in a sweet and sour wrapping the better to enhance the nutritious tang of the verbal bite. You can also pick up a copy in a variety of different formats from Many Books.net
Read the introduction, then download the anthology:

From Way Outa Here To Somewhere Over There

THINGS were getting serious.

I was fresh out of fags.

The coffee had congealed. And the beer was definitely off.

Yes. Out it went, through the door, slithering along like an oversized amber slug.

Always sensible in any crisis, a pint, but I was in no state to follow course and sup the bitter dregs of retreat. So, in the thick of all this chaos, I went for the less-than-heroic option and made like The Scream.

They were coming in thick and fast all around. Porting in through the hollow points in the quantum-foam-wash of real space like, well, like hollowed out bullets bludgeoning through flesh.

The doors of perception were being well and truly gate-crashed. What was to be a rather gentile soiree of a literary persuasion, was turned into a cyber-boot-stomping montage of fearsome verbiage. There were words everywhere. They merged into one writhing, putrescent orgasm of frenzied composition. The cascading babble deafened right down to the bowels. The walls and windows were drenched in spilled ink, the floor was awash in black and bubbled with more words emerging like ectoplasm ghouls to eat the flesh of literary taste.

It was horrible.

It was

The Attack of the 50-foot Verbose Mutant Killer Fountain Pens From Mars.

And try saying that in a bookshop without getting funny looks.

It was all my fault too. I just wasn’t capable of controlling my pen. I let it prod and probe where pens were not meant to ponder, and cracked open a splurging orifice of psycho-babble into an unprepared universe.

With those words flooding into this doomed world, and me out of chemical inducements, I figured there was only one thing left to do. Make like a writer and delete the scene, but the only part of me capable of running was my bowel.

Fortunately there was a deafening flash of inspiration and the ink-blinded windows imploded. Black-clad figures, straight out of an action flick, chased the cascading shards like a punctuation expletive. I managed to duck as they abseiled into the narrative flow with the [full-]stopping power of a full-metal-colon.

The Editors were here to save the paragraph.

Red pens flashed like maser-death. They scythed through the invaders. Dismembered clauses floundered on the ink floor bubbling a death rattle tattoo as the editors hacked and butchered these babies. Streams of high velocity tippex wiped their asses clean off the face of the Earth. I just ducked under a table and admired the sheer choreography of this high-power revision.

Even so, it looked tight to the deadline. These editors were tough S.O.B.s, but the words were giving a tempestuous backchat. We were far from clear of the verbiage yet. Truth is, those editors were in serious danger of becoming overwhelmed by the sheer deluge of noisome composition. I was definitely destined for somebody’s bad books…

That’s when the Critics smashed through the doors. You should have been there to see it for yourself. Some piece of work. The action didn’t last long after that.

They destroyed them. Drowned them in scorn. The Fountains Pens From Mars just withered and died under the Critics’ combined vitriol aplomb and heat-beam stares.

With the last bubbling decomposition writhing its last on the ink-swilled floor, I crawled out from under the table. I had to thank these guys for saving my arse from the verbiage swamp. I went up to the nearest editor, grinning like a classic hippy with a bowel full of good shit.

He saw me. This Heraclean Hero of the Delete Key watched me sidle nonchalantly his way. He turned and holstered his Red Pen. Adopting a casual stance, he rested one gauntleted hand on his hip while the other reached up to peel off his respirator hood.

I stopped then, and stuttered a few grateful incoherences.
The Hero’s mouth curled in disdain.

“Goddam passive voices,” he said, “more trouble than worth.”

I grinned a little weak.

He must have mistaken me for some other scribe...

Mark Cantrell,
Bolton, 16 November 2004

Copyright (C) November 2004. Some Rights Reserved. Released Under A Creative Commons License.

Download Fountain Pens From Mars From Many Books.net

Category: FOUNTAIN PENS FROM MARS

Earliest Novel

2008-04-23T22:34:00.000+01:00

Relic of a fiery idealism

What it lacks in the novelist's craft it surely makes up for in terms of its youthful enthusiasm and idealism, but URANIUM FIST was my first attempt at writing a novel.

I trust my worth and work as a writer won't be judged on the basis of this work, I have moved on and developed in the craft since then, but even at the risk of casting aspersions on my capabilities, I chose to self-publish the novel as a free PDF back in 2006.

Publish and be damned, it was, in part, another a kind of -- potentially -- perverse pride in my work. For all its faults, I remain intensely proud of this work. It was after all my first piece of long fiction writing. So, I decided to make it available, as a historic example of my earliest writing efforts, and, perhaps, something of a literary curio.

The novel is unashamedly left-wing and political. In that, it reflected the political leanings and zeal of my youth, and something of the studies I was undertaking at university (where I wrote it). I was also consciously attempting to mimic some of the early 20th century writings on the Russian Revolution, attempting to capture the tone (simplistic, rather black and white, and tending towards the heroic or villainous in its archetypes). Even though it was something of a science fiction (space operatic?) tale, set on a distant Earth colony, I wanted it to have a certain retro feel. And so that's what I did.

At times, the political simplicity makes me cringe, as does my execution of the narrative, but I remain proud of it as my first attempt. We all have to start somewhere -- and I can think of worse places.

Uranium Fist is available to download free from Many Books, where it is offered in a wide variety of ebook formats.

Category: URANIUM FIST

Smashing Summer Deals

2005-01-06T21:55:00.000Z

Sizzling deals in Smashwords’ Summer Sale

THERE’S a smashing cut-price deal on my fiction titles throughout July in the Smashwords Summer/Winter Sale 2011 – and as an added bonus my poetry collection is available for free.

The hard-hitting science fiction thriller CITIZEN ZERO is on sale at 75 per cent of its standard retail price with coupon code SSW75.

In a terrifying journey into a Britain torn apart by inequality and political intrigue, the novel charts David Mills’ terrifying struggle to survive in a world that’s gone insane. Part of a desperate and despised underclass, he is an unlikely source of salvation, but the only hope for the future lurks within his mind – if he can stay one step ahead of sinister forces that want him dead.

JobNet was supposed to usher in a better life for unemployed David Mills; instead it plunges him into a bitter struggle to survive when he becomes a pawn in a political conspiracy that pushes Britain to the brink of civil war.

Buy the novel at the reduced price of $1.54 – less than the price of a cup of coffee – at the publisher Smashwords and while you are there why not check out the other deals in the Summer/Winter Sale?

There’s also 75 per cent off the price of ISOLATION SPACE, presenting a breath-taking collection of 20 short stories. The anthology combines a feast of fiction, from science fiction, fantasy and horror to the satirical, thought-provoking and the amusing. There’s aliens and vampires, psycho-killers and legends, lost souls, and wanderers, all the way through to ordinary folk lost in the by-ways of the macabre.

Again use coupon code SSW75, and get 75 per cent off ISOLATION SPACE.

If poetry is more your thing, or if you want a little chaser for your fiction, then the collection DEUS EX INSOMNIA is on offer for the rock-bottom price of ZERO with coupon code SSWSF.

All titles are available for a range of popular machine formats, including the Kindle, Sony Reader, Nook, and Apple devices. The offer is exclusive to the publisher, Smashwords, so head on over and make the most of the Summer/Winter Sale throughout July.

Smashwords Summer/Winter Sale

Runs 1 to 31 July 2011

75% off CITIZEN ZERO (Code: SSW75)

75% off ISOLATION SPACE (Code: SSW75)

100% off DEUS EX INSOMNIA (Code: SSWSF)

Find out more about CITIZEN ZERO at its dedicated website www.zerocitizen.blogspot.com. You can also find it on Facebook, so why not drop by and give it a like.

Originally Published: 3-7-2011 | Archived: 28-10-2011

May Day Special

2005-01-05T21:01:00.000Z

Something for the weekend

Special May Day weekend offer on Citizen Zero

Mark Cantrell's hard-hitting science fiction thriller and political satire, Citizen Zero, is available at the subversively low-price of $0.99 (around 60 pence) for the Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, iPad, Nook and other popular devices only from Smashwords.

"On the security monitors, he watched the city burn. The imagined scent of smoke and ash mingled with the electric odour of conditioned air. Occasionally the screen flared white as the cameras struggled to cope with the unfamiliar brightness. A solitary monitor scanned the corridor and displayed the armed security police hammering against the doors..."

A desperate tale of survival amidst social and political upheaval in a post-austerity Britain, for those who like their dystopias served with a chilling twist...

Get your copy now from Smashwords using coupon code EW24Z at the checkout.

SMASHWORDS OFFER

Offer ends on 3 May 2011

Category: NEWS

Originally Published: 30-4-2011 | Archived: 28-10-2011

Free Verse To Try

2005-01-04T11:01:00.000Z

Free verse on Scribd sample

A selection of poems from the collection Deus Ex Insomnia was posted on the document exchange site SCRIBD to provide a revealing foretaste of the full collection.

The sampler, presented on-screen in PDF format, and available to download free-of-charge, can be found at http://www.scribd.com/doc/18202184/Deus-Ex-Insomnia-Sample.

The full collection is available to buy in paperback or a wide range of digital format editions.

Category: NEWS

Originally Published: 15-8-2009 | Archived: 28-10-2011

New Source For Mutant Mars

2005-01-03T14:25:00.000Z

In Scribd We Find The Mutant Pens

You can download Attack of the 50-Foot Verbose Mutant Killer Fountain Pens from Mars from Scribd.com.

The anthology presents an eclectic and downright eccentric collection of short fiction, journalism, essays and prose written by Mark Cantrell. The PDF e-book was self-published FREE under a Creative Commons licence

Since then, the publication has been made available on Many Books and subsequently sk.im. Now, Mark Cantrell has made the book additionally available on Scribd.

The e-anthology is FREE to download, and pass around, provided it is done so free, the anthology is not changed in anyway, and the author is attributed. Copyright is retained on individual stories within the collection, so they cannot be shared, published, or otherwise made use of other than in the context of this anthology.

Mark Cantrell's first paperback anthology of fiction, presenting updated and revised versions of some of the stories in Fountain Pens, along with a diverse selection of his other fiction work is also published on Lulu. Isolation Space is priced £9.99.

Deus Ex Insomnia, his first paperback collection is also available to buy from Lulu or from Amazon. Visit www.lulu.com/tyke21 for more information. Or visit Amazon. More information on all these titles can be found at Book Marks www.mark-books.blogspot.com

To date, he has written three further novels, for which he is currently seeking a publisher. Details about his second novel, Citizen Zero, can be found at www.zerocitizen.blogspot.com

MC

Category: ANTHOLOGY

Originally Published: 6-6-2009 | Archived: 28-10-2011

Coming In 2009

2005-01-02T21:00:00.000Z

Harvesting the thoughts of previous occurrences
Anthology of short fiction planned for the coming year...

Isolation Space
'A Melange Of Short Fiction'

NEXT year, Mark Cantrell is planning to publish an anthology of his short fiction in a paperback anthology pulling together many of his past stories in to one easy to access volume.

Isolation Space will be published by Lulu and follows up the publication of the author's first poetry collection Deus Ex Insomnia (2007).

Many of the stories that will appear within the pages of Isolation Space were originally published in a variety of small press magazines, such as Sci-Fright, Alternaties, The Velvet Vampire, Doppelgänger Broadsheet, The Asphalt Jungle, Writers' Muse and more. In 2009, these stories will be bound together in one volume for the first time.

The collection represents an eclectic and intriguing variety of works that fit broadly into the speculative, SF/F and horror genres.

Category: NEWS

Originally Published: 12-12-2008 | Archived: 28-10-2011

And So It Goes

2005-01-01T20:09:00.000Z

Zero motion for novel citizen

SADLY, it has to be announced that the forthcoming publication of my second novel, Citizen Zero, has gone from 'coming soon' to 'don't hold your breath'.

The book had been accepted on to the launch list of a new UK publisher called Writers of Worlds (WoW). This company was in the process of building towards its début, even as its founders were working with a number of author's to get the company's first titles ready for action.

Citizen Zero has already gone through this process, and greatly benefited as a result, but now it languishes in limbo along with WoW and the fellow authorial débutantes. The situation is similar with my third novel, Silas Morlock, which has yet to undergo the usual editorial feedback and revision process, but which was set to appear on the company's follow up list.

Now, after enquiring about the lengthy process of starting up, I have been told not to 'hold my breath' but also 'not to give up on them'. For an author, this is a frustrating response -- neither a yay or a nay -- regarding WoW's fate, or indeed the likely fate of the book.

Still, that's publishing. I knew from day one that there was always a chance it may all come to nothing. Start ups always face an uphill struggle, especially given the nature of publishing. And given today's turbulent times the odds stack only higher.

Even so, it was an exciting opportunity to pursue, and hopefully still is. For now, my books languish in limbo with the company, but I hope that sometime in the near to mid-term furture, the situation will change. Until then, I will be pursuing the publication of my fourth novel, "In Workers' Paradise".

So, watch this space.

Meantime, to read a bit more about Citizen Zero, visit its dedicated website www.zerocitizen.blogspot.com

Category: CITIZEN ZERO

Originally Published: 9-11-2008 | Archived: 28-10-2011