The Spoons That Are My Ears!

The final version of The Fanny Fables has been published at last! I couldn't stop adding to this miniature story cycle; new ideas just kept coming. The first version of the chapbook featured five tales; the second had six; this one has eight, a number I have absolutely no intention of increasing. Fanny is finished! As you can see, her adventures are being published together with Madonna Park and Plutonian Parodies under a single slipcase. The three chapbooks contain 17 tales and are collectively known as Tempus Fugit. I remember seeing these words written on a clock in the wooden hall of Cardiff's Old Coal Exchange and wondering if they were an example of obsolete Victorian cussing. I still wonder.

Having finished my Stringent Strange novel in extra fast time, I have lately been free to return to short stories, and I'm making the most of my time and energy in this regard. I have completed a tale for an anthology themed around 'Creativity in the Wilderness'; another for a proposed anti-Fascist anthology; and I'm currently working on a story about a man who steals the sky. When that one's done I'm going to launch into a Philip José Farmer tribute tale; then it will be time to add at least one piece each to my ongoing Albarracín, Happenstance and Chaud-Mellé cycles. After that I may even return to my abandoned Pilgrim's Regress novel and get it finished. We'll see.

This morning, prompted by a fellow named Brendan Connell, who happens to be a very talented writer, I created my own 10 Rules for Writing Fiction. They can be found here. Already I have been told off because of them...