The Spoons That Are My Ears!

Seems that the pirate anthology Fast Ships, Black Sails has been picked up by Newton Compton, which means I'm going to be translated into Italian! This resonates strongly with me because of my love of Calvino. Italian is one of the languages I most want to be translated into. Even without the existence of Calvino I would still love Italy for many reasons. The extensive range of vegetarian options. The scenery. And music.

I also crave to be translated into Esperanto.

Issue #8 of Bust Down the Door and Eat all the Chickens has just been released, containing my story 'Castle Cesare' -- an absurdist gothic romp about a man trapped on a giant orrery. For no special reason the orrery is located in an Italian castle. The picture above shows an orrery. I once owned a small cardboard and plastic one but it didn't work.

I wrote the first version of 'Castle Cesare' when I was about 15 years old. That version was lost long ago and I rewrote it 25 years later. The rewrite is utterly different from the original. This often happens and is a typical working method of mine. Another recent example of this process is 'Nightmare Alley', published in a recent Humdrumming anthology.

My Mister Gum novel now looks set to be released next March. There's a small chance a limited edition chapbook might be issued to accompany the first 100 copies, but I'm not sure yet what the contents of that chapbook will be. Maybe my three Fanny fables (collected together as 'Fanny Cubed') or possibly something to do with prog rock or Cthulhu. Time will tell.

My set of 'Counter Earth' stories are turning into a novel entitled Ditto and Likewise. I should have finished the other novels I was working on before beginning a new one, but it's too late now. Ah well!