Check out the cover design for the North American edition of The Stone Thrower from ECW Press. What d'you reckon? I'm thrilled with it. This was my favourite of the three proposed versions they sent over, so I'm glad it ended up as this one. At its core, the collection is about the fragility and vulnerability of children, and the fragile and … [Read more...]
My first ever story collection (aged 7)
To celebrate the official launch day of my new short story collection, The Stone Thrower, I thought I'd post the first book of short stories I ever wrote, when I was 7. I've typed up the stories beneath the pics in case you're reading this on your phone. I hope you enjoy my stories. The Devil Witch: The Devil Witch is nasty. She lives in … [Read more...]
Do you remember Zembla?
I was tidying up bookshelves in my attic yesterday and discovered a few old issues of Zembla magazine. It only ran for eight issues between 2003 and 2005, but it was a unique and wonderful literary mag - big and glossy with sexy cover stars – closer to GQ and Vanity Fair than most of the dry literary journals I was aware of at the … [Read more...]
Cover design – The Stone Thrower
The moment just before you see the cover design of your book for the first time is a tense one. After years of working on all the stuff that goes on the inside (four in this case), here is its face, the thing that everyone will look at first. The thing that people will judge it on. It has a hell of a responsibility, this cover art. So many … [Read more...]
Guest editing the Afterword
All this week, I have been guest editor on the Canadian National Post's book blog, The Afterword. I wrote four posts for them about writing, reading, and the inspiration behind a few of the stories in Instruction Manual For Swallowing. Here are the links: How Paul McCartney taught me to stop worrying and love zombies: on killing zombies with … [Read more...]
Look what the postie brought me all the way from Toronto…
...the advance reading copy of the North American edition of Instruction Manual For Swallowing. I'm loving the little robot wasp on the cover. It comes out from ECW Press next April, and will be part of their BackLit series, which features bonus material - in this edition of IMFS there will be two new short stories and an interview (with me, I … [Read more...]