My 2018 writing round up

It’s been an up and down year on the writing front. Mostly up.

On the negative side, my hopes for my Sigils and Totems mythos have died a slow death with both the longer works, Songs of Dreaming Gods and The Boathouse failing to make much of an impression on either readers or sales. I’ve recently sold a couple of short stories utilizing the framework, and I think that’s where the idea will find its home in the future.

On a brighter note my Victoriana collection, The Ghost Club, came out just before Christmas last year, got me some of the best reviews of my career, and sold steadily in the first half of the year. It failed to live up to my hopes of maybe making a mark in the Years’ Best anthos but as that’s a hope I have every year that has never yet come to fruition, it’s nothing new 🙂 Ellen Datlow mentioned it in dispatches as ‘entertaining’ in her Years Best summing up, so that’s something.

The second half of the year saw my novel The Green and the Black come out and while it hasn’t set the world on fire, sales are at least steady, and reviews positive.

But by far the highlight of the year has been the wee sweary Scottish squaddies of the S-Squad. People have taken them to their heart, and the whole series is selling steadily, especially in ebook. I wrote 2 at the back end of 2017, and 4 this year, and I have so much fun with them I’ll be doing more in 2019 if Severed Press will have them. #6, Operation: Syria, has been delivered to Severed Press along with some possible ideas for more, so fingers crossed.

Of the other stuff in the pipe, I have a fourth Carnacki collection, The Keys to the Door, coming up from Dark Regions Press, and several stories in anthologies with big name writers coming up. I’ve got a historical fantasy trilogy done with a co-writer, of which more news anon, the possibility of more German language editions of my work to come, and several more audiobooks coming down the line.

Having turned 60 in January I thought I might slow down. That might still happen. But not yet. 2018 proved to be my best year financially of the last 5. Here’s to 2019 bringing more of the same.

Onward.

Publications in 2018

Longer works

• Operation: Loch Ness / Severed Press
• Operation: Amazon / Severed Press
• Operation: Siberia/ Severed Press
• Operation: Antarctica / Severed Press
• The Green and The Black / Crossroad Press
• The Boathouse / Crossroad Press

Audiobooks

• The Dunfield Terror / Crossroad Press
• Eldren: The Book of the Dark / Gryphonwood Press

Anthology appearances

• Tumshie / Halloween Haunts / Dark Regions Press
• Nocturnes and Lacunae / Transmissions From Punktown / Dark Regions Press
• Carnacki: The Keys to the Door / Nightland Quarterly / Nightland (in Japanese)
• The Root of All Things / By the Light of Camelot / EDGE Publishing
• Carnacki: Bats in the Belfry / Tails of Terror / Golden Goblin Press
• The Midnight Eye: Farside / Occult Detective Quarterly Presents / Ulthar Press
• Leader of the Pack / In Dog We Trust / Black Shuck Books

 

Advertisements

November Newsletter

A bargain book today, general writing news in the newsletter this month.

AMAZON

My book of late Victorian ghost and science fiction tales as written by the greats is only 99c on AMAZON for a few days as part of the Crystal Lake Publishing Halloween promotion, so get in quick if you want a read in the old-fashioned style.

If you feel like giving me a hand, please retweet –> this Tweet and make an old man very happy.

‘The Ghost Club is a massively ambitious anthology of stories ‘by’ classic authors as imagined by the extremely talented William Meikle. Massively entertaining, too.’ – Simon Clark, author of the award winning The Night of the Triffids

There are a number of solid reasons to add The Ghost Club to your reading list. For example, you love a good ghost story, or maybe you’ve read and enjoyed Meikle’s Carnacki tales, or perhaps you’re a fan of Victorian terror, or maybe you just enjoy a good read. Whatever your reason, happy reading. – CEMETERY DANCE

 

---

In other news, I signed a contract with Dark Regions Press for my 4th CARNACKI collection, THE KEYS TO THE DOOR and Other Stories

I’ve delivered OPERATION: LOCH NESS, #5 in my S-Squad series. to SEVERED PRESS and signed a contract for #6, which will be OPERATION: SYRIA. Deserted ancient cities and temples, an ongoing war zone…and spiders. Big Spiders.

I got interviewed for the local paper here about horror, writing, and horror writing if you’re interested.

 

---

 

I have a large back catalog of 30 novels, 12 novellas and 9 story collections still in print and/or ebook and 16 audiobooks with more coming, so I hope you’d find something to take your fancy. Every month from now on, I’ll pick one and feature it here as a teaser.

FEATURED BOOK OF THE MONTH

Click on the image for details

 

 

---

---

Onward and Upward – Captain’s Log

With OPERATION: LOCH NESS finished and delivered to Severed Press, and OPERATION: SYRIA set up as my winter project, I’ll have written six of these S-Squad books in two years.

And I’m still having fun. After the disappointments of DarkFuse and Dark Renaissance going under, and the fact that my Sigils and Totems idea hasn’t grabbed many of you the way it grabbed me, fun is exactly what was needed.

I was in a funk for a bit, a combination of life circumstances, turning 60, the afore mentioned publishers closing, and having a few hits to my confidence at once, but I’m slowly coming out of it, thanks in the main to the S-Squad lads, and the fact that THE GREEN AND THE BLACK is being well received, as was THE GHOST CLUB earlier in the year.

A look at what’s in the pipe also cheered me up.

Coming up I have:

• Operation: Loch Ness – Severed Press
• Operation: Syria – Severed Press
• Carnacki: The Keys to the Door collection – Dark Regions Press

On the shorter work, there’s a bunch of anthology appearances (I just need one of these to take me over 100 in the ‘wall’ )

• Operation Severn / Prehistoric / Severed Press
• Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation / Tales from Arkham Asylum/ Dark Regions Press
• Blacktop / I Am The Abyss / Dark Regions Press
• Tumshie / Halloween Haunts / Dark Regions Press
• Nocturnes and Lacunae / Transmissions From Punktown / Dark Regions Press
• Something for the Weekend? / Voices in the Darkness / Ulthar Press
• Into the Light / Their Coats All Red / 18th Wall Productions
• The Color From The Deep / Summer of Lovecraft / TBA
• Carnacki: Bats in the Belfry / Tails of Terror / Golden Goblin Press

Before Operation: Syria, I’ve got a couple of stories to write for anthology invitations, and a nice new invite just came in this morning.

Plus there’s a historical fantasy trilogy I’ve been working on with another (much more famous than me) writer, my first full-length collaboration, and it’s getting near to be done. More on that as and when I can.

So although I was thinking things aren’t that great, counting my blessings, and writing this down, has done the trick.

Onward and upward!

October Newsletter

New book release today and general writing news in the newsletter this month.

AMAZON AMAZON UK SAMPLESMASHWORDS

My latest book, THE GREEN AND THE BLACK launches today. Before I go on, I’d like to ask a favor. If you could spare a moment, head on over to my Twitter and retweet the pinned tweet at the top, please? The link will take you directly there –> HERE IT IS

The more eyes on my announcement of the book, the better it will be for me, and Twitter gets me the best bang for no bucks. And you’ll make a pal for life. I’m loyal, like a labrador puppy.

THE GREEN AND THE BLACK is a Newfoundland based novel in paperback and ebook from Crossroad Press.

A small group of industrial archaeologists head into the center of Newfoundland, investigating a rumor of a lost prospecting team of Irish miners in the late Nineteenth century.

In this one you’ll meet some Irishmen, some archaeologists, a fair bit of booze, some mannequins, a song, two mineshafts, hospitals, the wee folk, cigarettes, a lot of foliage and more booze.

You could call this folk horror, dark fiction, weird fiction, or dark fantasy. But at its heart it’s a horror story and it deals with some of my own fears, particularly that of dark, enclosed, spaces, and the perils of drinking too much.

Here’s some links with more background on where THE GREEN AND THE BLACK came from.

• The Things We Leave Behind (Ginger Nuts Of Horror)
• On Drinking (William Meikle Blog)
• Where I got the idea (Ink Heist)
• Newfoundland and Me (William Meikle website)
• Old Stories, New Words (William Meikle Blog)

As ever, if you buy it and read it, a wee review anywhere of your choosing is always appreciated, on this, or any of my books.

---

In other news, I recently sold my 4th CARNACKI collection, THE KEYS TO THE DOOR and Other Stories, to Dark Regions Press for publication in paperback and ebook. This means that I have now written 50 of my CARNACKI tales, 48 collected in four volumes, and the two CHALLENGER / CARNACKI crossovers in the Challenger collection. 50 seems like a good point to stop for a breath. Ten years ago I hadn’t even written one of the old lad’s stories, and I think both of us need a rest for a few months at least.

I’m currently working on OPERATION: LOCH NESS, #5 in my S-Squad series. The first 4 are selling well for me, and there is an audiobook of INFESTATION coming soon. SEVERED PRESS seem happy for me to keep on keeping on with the Scottish squaddies adventures, and I’m happy to oblige for a while.

My anthology appearances page at my website currently as of writing shows I’ve had 99 short stories in anthologies. #100 should be along some time very soon. I might need to have a centennial party.

---

On drinking

I like a drink.

I’ve liked a drink for about 45 years now. People keep telling me it’ll kill me, but at this stage, if it’s drink that gets me now, I’ll consider it a win.

It started back in late ’73 and my first foray at 15 going on 16 to one of the local discos. Beer was 8p a pint, spirits 10p a shot and a packet of ten Embassy Regal 12p. I took to the beer first, fags later, and spirits a wee bit later after that, but by the time I went to University in late 1975 the taste for beer in particular was well developed.

While in Glasgow I discovered hand-pumped real ale, and that became a love that’s stayed with me though University, then 10 years in London, then eventually back to Scotland and a growing small brewery / real ale pub culture that kept me happy for years before I came to Newfoundland, where the search for decent ale in a small fishing town is a bit more challenging.

There’s an old saying, I only drink to be social. Not quite true, but it’s hard to beat banter with old pals around a table in an old bar with decent beer and food on offer.

Alongside the beer during University days I also discovered single malt Scotch. I’m not an aficionado, but I know what I like, and I like it a lot. I took to it eagerly.

By the time I was around 30, back in the mid to late ’80s in London I was mostly working and mostly drunk, a heady combination of good beer, good whisky, Camel filters, curries and Chinese takeaways.

Sue rescued me from incipient alcoholism back then and nowadays I still like a drink, but it’s under control and even diminishing as I get older and try to avoid hangovers.

All of that has come out in several of my books and stories, Derek Adams, The Midnight Eye in particular being a bit of a Mary-Sue character for my love of booze, Chandler and Glasgow.

And it came out again in my newest work, THE GREEN AND THE BLACK, where you’ll meet a lad who doesn’t know that he likes a drink until he has one that transports him, and a man who knows he likes cigarettes a bit too much, but can’t quit the smoke without a push.

In THE GREEN AND THE BLACK you’ll also find Newfoundland and a lot of Irishmen, many of whom, like the Scots, enjoy a few pints, a wee dram, and a song. There’s also archaeologists, cabins in the woods, derelict mineshafts, singing, and drinking in dark places, where the green meets the black.

New Book Day – RAMSKULL

RAMSKULL is new today.

In this one you’ll find a remote Scottish island, some baffled cops, bloody mayhem, a bar, an ancient Ram’s skull, dank caves, some whisky, another bar, Oban, some mad monks, a lighthouse, and more whisky.

It’s a return home for me after a few years writing Newfoundland based stories, and it’s a back-to-my-roots thing that runs in my head like a Hammer Horror, with blood so red it almost glows, screams so high they tear the top of your head off, and stoic rural workers doing what needs to be done against a terrible peril rearing up out of the past.

Another one I think should be a movie. But then I would, wouldn’t I?

 

http://www.williammeikle.com/aboutramsskull.html

2017 – My Writing Year

It’s been quite a year.

It started with DarkFuse publishing my novel FUNGOID to great reviews, only for the publisher to fold just as sales were starting to take off, leaving the book, and all my other DarkFuse titles in limbo. I’ve since managed to place all the works at Crossroad Press who are doing a sterling job of getting old and new books into ebook, print and audiobook. They’ve already brought out the new novel SONGS OF DREAMING GODS and the reprint of THE HOLE, as well as the three Sigils and Totems novellas. Next up from them is RAMSKULL, a Scottish Hammer horror tribute with Satanism and bloody mayhem on a small Scottish island, so look out for that.

DarkFuse weren’t the only publisher to disappear. Dark Renaissance finally ended their on-again, off-again dance, leaving me with another couple of books to home. My Sherlock Holmes novel, THE DREAMING MAN, found a home and was published in the spring by the ever reliable Gryphonwood Press, and my third Carnacki collection, THE EDINBURGH TOWNHOUSE was published in the Fall by The Lovecraft Ezine imprint to some very satisfying reviews.

On the personal front, my wife fell very ill, and a lot of the late Spring and early Summer for me was spent in worry that has thankfully abated a bit with her recovery. It left me with some catching up to do on the writing front that I’ve just about managed to handle.

I’ve been involved in the ROWAN CASEY / VEIL KNIGHTS series cooperative venture with some great fantasy writers, and that’s been fun, playing out of my usual comfort zones.

And towards the end of the year I’ve seen the publication of my big-bug creature feature INFESTATION at Severed Press, and, most recently, and the current focus of much of my activity, my Victorian supernatural short story collection, THE GHOST CLUB from Crystal Lake Publishing. It’s picking up great reviews. Which is nice.

2017 also saw me making some inroads into the German language market, with THE AMULET and SHERLOCK HOLMES: REVENANT being published by Blitz Verlag in ebook and very nice mass-market format paperbacks. I have THE INVASION coming from them soon, and have also sold a handful of novels to Voodoo Press for publication in German, so watch this space.

With all of that, my short stories in anthologies and magazines have taken a bit of a back seat this year, but I’ve had some great appearances, including one alongside the likes of Joyce Carol Oates and Joe Lansdale among others, and I’ve repeated my success with sales to Night Land Quarterly in Japan, had my sixth sale to NATURE FUTURES, and some nice appearances in Dark Regions Press anthologies. I also took great delight in providing a James Bond novella to April Moon Books’ BOND UNKNOWN. (Contrary to S. T. Joshi’s well publicised belief, I am not actually trying to make a career out of Carnacki pastiches.)

I hope to get more time next year to hit some short story markets, but it’s already looking to be a busy one.

Coming up I have…

• The Boathouse (novel) / Crossroad Press
• Ramskull (novel) / Crossroad Press
• The Green and The Black (novel) / Crossroad Press
• Operation: Antarctica (novel) / Severed Press
• Fungoid (novel) / New Edition coming soon from Crossroad Press
• The Dunfield Terror (novel) / New Edition coming soon from Crossroad Press
• The Exiled (novel) / New Edition coming soon from Crossroad Press
• Night of the Wendigo (novel) / New Edition coming soon from Crossroad Press
• Tormentor (novella) / New Edition coming soon from Crossroad Press
• Clockwork Dolls (novella) / New Edition coming soon from Crossroad Press

There’s also the novella, BLACKTOP coming in Dark Regions Press’ huge I AM THE ABYSS anthology that I’m really looking forward to, and work in another handful of anthologies waiting to be published, including a story in Jeffrey Thomas’ PUNKTOWN setting that I think is close to the best thing I’ve ever written.

As for the writing schedule, I’ve got another novel, OPERATION: SIBERIA to write for Severed Press, I’ve got book 3 of a fantasy trilogy I’m working on with Steve Savile to complete, and I’ve had a tickle of interest from a publisher interested in a set of Victorian ghost stories.

I’ve got my 60th birthday in January. I always thought I’d be dead or at least stopped writing by now, but it seems I still have stories to tell.

Busy, busy, busy.

Onward.

The Ghost Club Launch Tour – Stop 7

GHOST CLUB LAUNCH TOUR STOP 7

The Weird Tales Radio show is now available to download as a @PodBean #podcast top stories include an interview with me about THE GHOST CLUB stories

https://paranormalukradio.podbean.com/e/urban-fantasist-120717/

The Ghost Club Launches

My new book, THE GHOST CLUB is now live on Amazon and available in both ebook and paperback, and I’m hoping at least some of you will be interested enough to give it a try. It would help me out enormously if you could tell your friends today, and spread the news. Hell, tell your enemies.

GET IT HERE

I’m right in the middle of a twenty-stop blog, podcast and interview tour in support of the launch so come on over and say hi if you want to know what makes me tick. If you’ve missed the earlier stops along the way, I’ve got them all linked on the front page of my website at Williammeikle.com

‘The Ghost Club is a massively ambitious anthology of stories ‘by’ classic authors as imagined by the extremely talented William Meikle. Massively entertaining, too.’ – Simon Clark, author of the award winning The Night of the Triffids

‘In the past, we’ve had the Diogenes Club, the ‘Club of the Damned’, and even Peter Straub’s ‘Chowder Society.’ Now we have THE GHOST CLUB by William Meikle. And it is, quite simply, a delight. Not only has the author displayed his knowledge of and love for the writers of yesteryear, but in creating ‘The Ghost Club’ our host has produced his own collection of unknown and previously unpublished short stories ‘by’ Robert Louis Stevenson, Rudyard Kipling, Leo Tolstoy, Bram Stoker, Mark Twain, H. G.Wells, Margaret Oliphant, Oscar Wilde, H. Rider Haggard, Helena P Blavatsky, Henry James, Anton Chekhov, Jules Verne and Arthur Conan Doyle. I say ‘unknown’, when I mean – of course – that all the stories are written by Mr Meikle in the style of the aforementioned authors; and the entire experience of reading this collection is like sitting with him in an old fashioned study, with a roaring fire, guttering shadows and a snifter or two of brandy as he unfolds his ‘Ghost Club’ tales. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.’ – Stephen Laws, author of GHOST TRAIN

‘William Meikle is an audacious writer! In The Ghost Club he takes on the personalities of literary icons Bram Stoker, Arthur Conan Doyle, Jules Verne and the like and creates stories they might have told, mimicking their voices and writing styles. And he makes that work! I have too many favorites to name but as I read from start to finish, the stories just got better and better and I found myself as absorbed as if I were reading spooky tales told by these master storytellers. Kudos to Meikle! Lovers of traditional and quirky ghost stories need The Ghost Club in their library!’ – Nancy Kilpatrick. author of REVENGE OF THE VAMPYR KING

‘Masters of literature spin classic spooky tales in this chilling collection.’ – Scott Nicholson, author of THE RED CHURCH

In Victorian London, a select group of writers, led by Arthur Conan Doyle, Bram Stoker and Henry James held an informal dining club, the price of entry to which was the telling of a story by each invited guest.

These are their stories, containing tales of revenant loved ones, lost cities, weird science, spectral appearances and mysteries in the fog of the old city, all told by some of the foremost writers of the day. In here you’ll find Verne and Wells, Tolstoy and Checkov, Stevenson and Oliphant, Kipling, Twain, Haggard, Wilde and Blavatsky alongside their hosts.

Come, join us for dinner and a story.