Updates from Greyhart Press

Greyhart Press is the ebook/print publisher run by our own Tim C Taylor. Some new books due out shortly are of particular interest to the group.

First up, we have "The Cookie Tin" from Nigel Edwards:

The Cookie Tin Collection will be published later this month in paperback and eBook editions. Copies will be available at FantasyCon later this month.


Next up is a new collection from Paul Melhuish called "Unauthorized Contact"

2 novelettes and 3 short stories by Paul Melhuish and set in the same Skyfire universe as his debut novel, Terminus. All stories are original to this collection.

This superb little timeline is a great addition!

What Gets Left Behind, by Mark West

Information about What Gets Left Behind, the forthcoming chapbook from Spectral Press (due in September, but long since sold out), by Mark West.

This was critiqued by the group, in its third draft.

More information can be found here, including the book trailer

Hauntings, from NewCon Press

(a personal opinion piece from Mark West)

Saturday was the Small Press Expo, organised by Danie Ware and held at the flagship Forbidden Planet store on Shaftesbury Avenue in London. I was there, chuffed as could be, as part of the NewCon Press contingent (thanks to “Fog On The Old Coast Road”, which appears in the Hauntings anthology).

Ian Whates mans the NewCon Press table
I to the book department of FP for 12.30 as specified. I met Danie (we’re Facebook and Twitter friends, but this was the first time we’d properly met), saw Ian Whates and his partner Helen, got my name-badge (superbly designed by Sarah Anne Langton, another FB/Twitter friend I was meeting for the first time) and then we were off. The area we were in was packed with writers and visitors, I chatted with Donna Scott, Andy West and Paul Melhuish from my writing group, met Theresa Derwin and her sister, signed 30 or so books and had an absolutely fantastic time. I mean, how could I not? I was in Forbidden Planet, in London, doing a book signing! How cool is that?

Afterwards, the merry NewCon band retired to the Spice Of Life pub, where I had a great conversation with Greg James and Ben Baldwin before heading home.

Donna Scott, me and Andy West, all members of the Northampton SF Writers Group
The whole Hauntings experience has been great fun, from the live readings (see post here) to seeing the finished product but the signing was the icing on the cake. It was a great day, superbly well organised and it was a real thrill to be surrounded by some great writers and some vibrant small presses. Good stuff. And thanks, once again, to Ian and Adele Wearing who organised the anthology and asked me to get involved - I really appreciate it.

This is the wraparound cover, created by Ben Baldwin and I think you’ll agree, it’s a thing of beauty.

The limited signed hardack (I signed the plates one night at an NSFWG meeting) will be launched at FantasyCon later this month in Brighton.

Purchase from the NewCon site here, in both hardback and paperback editions

Interview with Ian Watson, our chairman

From the good folk at Ultra Adventure Mag

http://ultadventuremag.wordpress.com/2012/07/29/an-interview-with-ian-watson/

Update from Andy West

The Outcast And The Little One

Cover art by Sophia McDougall

In a distant future, human form has diversified into several races that are very different from the Elten – the original humans. On a largely tamed Venus, two such races struggle for survival and supremacy. The robotic, pacifist Aumons find themselves ever more suppressed by the exuberant, vital and exotic Clonir. But Arkhend, a new arrival at the Aumon’s Southern Arc, has first-hand experience of their enemy and is determined that the Brotherhood should not sink quietly into extinction but rather rouse themselves in defiance of the Clonir before it’s too late…

One of science fictions most exciting new voices, Andy West was runner up (along with Nina Allan) in the BSFA’s short story competition a couple of years ago. He has gone on to have short fiction published in a number of webzines and anthologies, including NewCon Press’ disLOCATIONS (2007) and Fables from the Fountain (2011), and we are now proud to present this, his debut novel.

The Outcast and the Little One is available as a special signed hardback edition, limited to just 50 copies, and as an A5 paperback.

Launched April 6th, 2012. 256 pages.

Signed Limited Edition Hardback: £19.99
Paperback: £9.99

Digital version available at Amazon (kindle) and Smashwords (various formats) for £2 / $3

www.newconpress.co.uk

Update from Donna Scott

Donna Scott is one of several writers who have contributed to a collaborative novel, Vicious Circle, to be published later this month. The book is the result of the Writing Futures project run by Northamptonshire Libraries looking into how social media and libraries can be utilized by writers in collaboration, taking suggestions on content from the public. The challenge was to write the "48-hour book" - not literally a book written in 48 hours, but an attempt to see what progress could be made in a short space of time to begin the workings of a novel. Ten writers took part in the project, including social information coach, Ben Elijah, Judith Allnatt (The Poet's Wife) and children's author Sue Bentley.

Vicious Circle is a story of a disparate group of Northampton people, whose lives become interconnected by one tragic event on the day the fair comes to town.

29th July 12 - Writing: launch of Vicious Circle, The Carnegie, Hall, Northampton Central Library.

12 noon - Bucks Fizz and canapés arrival
12:15pm - Introduction by Grace Kempster.

12:25pm - How the book was developed: Ben Elijah and Judith Allnatt

12:45pm - Book signing.

1pm - Walk down to Bardic Picnic, Delapre Abbey, South Lawn

1:30pm - Readings on main stage.

2pm - Book signing in the Creative Writing Marquee

2:30pm - Picnic lunch while watching the Bardic competition.

If you would like to attend the launch at the library, please contact rgasson@northamptonshire.gov.uk or ring 07968 654510

As former Bard of Northampton, Donna Scott is also working with Northamptonshire Libraries to judge the Children's Jubilee Poetry Competition, the results of which will be announced in September 2012.

New Venue

Following the unfortunate closure of the RAFA club in Northampton, the group now meets in the Old Swan at Earls Barton, every third Wednesday of the month.