Over 5 years later, finally cut the cord...

Blog Consolidation has begun

After getting some great advise from the folks at the Newbie Blogger Initiative, I have decided to stick with Blogger and consolidate everything to one blog under the banner Knifesedge.net along with my new logo.

This new site will contain everything from my gaming blog, my Indie Horror blog and my gardening blog. The three original sites will continue to be updated so if you only have interest in one of the topics you can continue to follow there or subscribe to the new feed and get everything.

Free Books from Crystal Lake!

Our friends at Crystal Lake would you all to take advantage of two free downloads on offer this weekend (5 day Amazon give-away.)

Fear the Reaper horror anthology, and Horror 101: The Way Forward.

If you already have copies of these books, please download them again or share the giveaway with your friends and colleagues. Enough giveaways will give these two books some well-deserved attention through Amazon’s popularity lists.

Fear the Reaper, for example, has an amazing story by the late Rick Hautala. And believe it or not, a vampire story by Joe McKinney!

So download your FREE copy of Fear the Reaper here: http://myBook.to/fearthereaper and Horror 101: The Way Forward here: http://mybook.to/Horror101Amazon

For those who love anthologies, they also have a Two for the Price of One sale on Tales from The Lake Vol.1 and For the Night is Dark:http://www.crystallakepub.com/promos-and-specials.php

December Sale at Crystal Lake Publishing

Our friends at Crystal Lake Publishing are having their biggest SALE ever, and it will last till end of December. Be sure to pick your Christmas books now. Paperbacks will range between $6.99 and $11.99, and eBooks between 99c and $2.99.

And if you share your purchase on Facebook (remember to tag Crystal Lake Publishing or Joe Mynhardt) and you get to ask the author of one of our Single Author collections/novellas a question related to their book (characters, plot, motivation, etc.).
Plus, whoever invites the most people to our Facebook event (based on accepting the invite) will receive a Crystal Lake Publishing paperback of their choosing. Free eBooks to runners up who gave it a serious go.

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/559318504170222/

Website: www.crystallakepub.com/books

Crystal Lake open for pitch submissions

This just in from Crystal Lake Publishing....

Crystal Lake Publishing will be open for pitch submissions between the 15th of November and the
15th of December, 2014.


We’re looking for DARK FICTION, be it horror, suspense thrillers, fantasy, action adventure, sci-fi (no space operas, please), supernatural, or noir. We’re interested in reading your novels, novellas, short story collections, non-fiction books linked to dark fiction topics, and poetry collections. All books should be above 60,000 words (novellas need to be at least 40,000 or accompanied by one or two extra short stories - otherwise it'll be eBook only), preferably below 110,000.

That’s a pretty wide spectrum, so here are some of the authors and books we enjoy (that does not however mean that we want you to rewrite their work or copy them. Be original. Be yourself):
Richard Matheson, Robert Bloch, Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Jack Ketchum, Elizabeth Massie, Joe Hill, Ramsey Campbell, Jonathan Maberry, Richard Laymon, Robert McCammon, Adam Nevill, Ray Bradbury, J.R.R. Tolkien, Bram Stoker, F. Paul Wilson, Charles L. Grant, Mary Shelley, John Connolly, Peter Straub, Shirley Jackson, Ambrose Bierce, H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allen Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, Algernon Blackwood, Dean Koontz, M.R. James, Joe R. Lansdale, Jules Verne, Cormac McCarthy, William Peter Blatty, Thomas Harris, Alexandre Dumas and Roald Dahl.

We are not looking for reprints (out of print books will be considered – please inform of when you submit), previously published or self-published books, although up to 50% of your collections can be reprinted stories or poems. Novellas that form part of a collection may be reprints, as long as the majority of the collection are original stories. Please make sure the rights to all reprints have returned to you.

Simultaneous submissions are okay, but please withdraw your story immediately if it is accepted elsewhere.

Your book does not have to be finished at the time of your pitch, as long as it’s at least 70% complete and you can provide the opening chapter plus any other two chapters when asked.

Compensation:
You will be entitled to lifetime royalties on sales, or until a mutual agreement to withdraw the book is reached.
Advance:    $400 against royalties
                 $200 for anything other than a novel
Royalties:   40% of net profits on all online sales (Amazon etc.)
                 25% of net profits on all bookstore sales

Your book will be available to bookstores for a period of two years, after which it will be available via online retailers indefinitely.
Novels will also receive a $400 marketing budget you can spend as you please, as well as a lot of online publicity from us. Anything else receives a $200 marketing budget and the same treatment from us.
You will also receive 5 contributor’s copies before the book is launched.

Submitting your pitch (not before November 15th, please):
We are not looking for sample chapters or your entire book just yet. If you have more than 1 book to pitch, please send them separately.
Send us an email (to crystallakepub@gmail.com) with a polite introduction, and attach an author photo if you so please, along with one Word document containing the following information:
1.   Your 2 page max pitch (genre, projected length, why only you could write this book, biography; 1 or 2 sentence logline, portray your voice and style of writing, similar books – but what makes yours unique. You should also go into detail about your marketing or promotional plans.
2.   Your 1 page synopsis (a step by step summary or walk-through of your book, including all subplots, twists and reveals, or in the case of a short story or poetry collection, a paragraph on each story or poem).

Formatting guidelines:
This single attached Word document should be in 12 point Times New Roman, single spaced. Do not change text color or add graphics to your pitch. We will acknowledge the receipt of your pitch within three days at the most, but please allow up to 12 weeks for a response on said pitch. Please query if you haven’t heard from us in 12 weeks. Please make sure your pitch and synopsis are properly edited.

Staff (some prefer to remain anonymous):
Submission readers: Joe Mynhardt and Emma Audsley
Initial chapter and manuscript readers: Joe Mynhardt, Emma Audsley, Ben Eads, Ben Jones, Dave-Brendan de Burgh, and LelaniViljoen.
Once the submissions period is over, we will evaluate all of the submissions, and invite the very best of the bunch to submit the opening chapter and two chapters of your choosing (or stories and poems in the case of collections).
Feel free to email any questions you may have
to crystallakepub@gmail.com.

Professionalism:
Please remember we are a small press and can only handle a set number of projects a year. So a rejection will not also comment on your writing prowess or talent. There are a lot of factors that go into accepting a project, including personal taste, marketability, timing, professionalism and collaboration of the author etc. I will try to give helpful rejection letters where possible, but please leave your hate mail for the politicians.

Anne Rice Interview

Although not strictly Indie Horror, I couldn't pass up on reporting that Anne Rice, Author of 'Interview with a Vampire' and 'The Vampire Lestat' as well as a slew of other novels, is releasing a new chapter of the Vampire Chronicles, entitled 'Prince Lestat'

"The vampire world is in crisis – their kind has been proliferating out of control and, thanks to technologies undreamed of in previous centuries, they can communicate as never before. Roused from their earth-bound slumber, ancient ones are in thrall to the Voice: which commands that they burn fledgling vampires in cities from Paris to Mumbai, Hong Kong to Kyoto and San Francisco. Immolations, huge massacres, have commenced all over the world. Who – or what – is the Voice? What does it desire, and why? 

There is only one vampire, only one blood drinker, truly known to the entire world of the Undead. Will the dazzling hero-wanderer, the dangerous rebel-outlaw Lestat heed the call to unite the Children of Darkness as they face this new twilight? "

"Anne Rice’s epic, luxuriant, fiercely ambitious new novel brings together all the worlds and beings of the legendary Vampire Chronicles, from present-day New York and Ancient Egypt to fourth-century Carthage and Renaissance Venice; from Louis de Pointe du Lac; Armand the eternally young; Mekare and Maharet; to Pandora and Flavius; David Talbot, vampire and ultimate fixer from the Secret Talamasca; and Marius, the true child of the Millennia. It also introduces many other seductive supernatural creatures, and heralds significant new blood."

Ms. Rice was kind enough to answer a few questions for us...

Did you anticipate the phenomenon the Vampire Chronicles series would become?

I did not anticipate the Vampire Chronicles at all on any level when I wrote the first novel.Eight years passed before I attempted a sequel, The Vampire Lestat, and even then I did not know how many novels might follow. I took it one book at a time, exploring, developing the cosmology of vampires, getting deeper and deeper into the characters.

What inspired you to return to Lestat after more than a decade?

New ideas.New visions.New possibilities.At the time I retired from the Chronicles (2003) I really had no more to say with Lestat.I associated the Chronicles with some of the most painful parts of my life.But as the years passed, I kept thinking of Lestat, wondering what he would think about this or that cultural development, what he might have to say about this or that new film or book.He was alive for me, out there, in exile.Finally I went back and reread all of the books, and he was talking to me again, coming out of exile, out of his ‘depression’, wanting to live again.It was glorious.

Why do you think vampires continue to be such a popular phenomenon? What has changed in the genre while you’ve been writing?

I'm not surprised at all at the popularity of the vampire.The concept is so rich – the vampire is a metaphor for the outsider, the outcast, the artist, the addict, the alienated one. So of course writers would come along and do new and interesting things with such a rich concept.The vampire craze today is author driven.But the movement amongst some very popular authors is towards domesticating the vampire – the very opposite of my approach.We're seeing the vampire as the boy next door, the guy next to you in biology class in high school, or the handsome man you meet at the nearby tavern or bar.It's quite interesting.My vampires are mythic, tragic, larger than life.I'm kind of delighted by all the variations.

Prince Lestat hits a bookshop near you on 30th October, 2014.

British Fantasy Award Nominations 2014

The shortlist for the British Fantasy Awards 2014 have been announced.

The four nominees in each category were decided by the votes of BFS members and the attendees of FantasyCon 2012 and FantasyCon 2014. The exception is the Best Short Story category, in which two stories drawing for fourth place could not be separated and both were put through to the shortlist.

Up to two further nominees in each category were added by the juries as “egregious omissions” under the rules.

Best Fantasy Novel (the Robert Holdstock Award)
Between Two Thorns, Emma Newman (Angry Robot)
Blood and Feathers: Rebellion, Lou Morgan (Solaris)
The Glass Republic, Tom Pollock (Jo Fletcher Books)
The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman (Headline)
A Stranger in Olondria, Sofia Samatar (Small Beer Press)

Best Horror Novel (the August Derleth Award)
House of Small Shadows, Adam Nevill (Pan)
Mayhem, Sarah Pinborough (Jo Fletcher Books)
NOS4R2, Joe Hill (Gollancz)
Path of Needles, Alison Littlewood (Jo Fletcher Books)
The Shining Girls, Lauren Beukes (HarperCollins)
The Year of the Ladybird, Graham Joyce (Gollancz)

Best Novella
Beauty, Sarah Pinborough (Gollancz)
Dogs With Their Eyes Shut, Paul Meloy (PS Publishing)
Spin, Nina Allan (TTA Press)
Vivian Guppy and the Brighton Belle, Nina Allan (Rustblind and Silverbright)
Whitstable, Stephen Volk (Spectral Press)

Best Short Story
Chalk, Pat Cadigan (This Is Horror)
Death Walks En Pointe, Thana Niveau (The Burning Circus)
Family Business, Adrian Tchaikovsky (The Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic)
The Fox, Conrad Williams (This Is Horror)
Golden Apple, Sophia McDougall (The Lowest Heaven)
Moonstruck, Karin Tidbeck (Shadows & Tall Trees #5)
Signs of the Times, Carole Johnstone (Black Static #33)

Best Collection
For Those Who Dream Monsters, Anna Taborska (Mortbury Press)
Holes for Faces, Ramsey Campbell (Dark Regions Press)
Monsters in the Heart, Stephen Volk (Gray Friar Press)
North American Lake Monsters, Nathan Ballingrud (Small Beer Press)

Best Anthology
End of the Road, Jonathan Oliver (ed.) (Solaris)
Fearie Tales, Stephen Jones (ed.) (Jo Fletcher Books)
Rustblind and Silverbright, David Rix (ed.) (Eibonvale Press)
Tales of Eve, Mhairi Simpson (ed.) (Fox Spirit Books)
The Tenth Black Book of Horror, Charles Black (ed.) (Mortbury Press)

Best Small Press
The Alchemy Press (Peter Coleborn)
Fox Spirit Books (Adele Wearing)
NewCon Press (Ian Whates)
Spectral Press (Simon Marshall-Jones)

Best Non-Fiction
Gestalt Real-Time Reviews, D.F. Lewis
Doors to Elsewhere, Mike Barrett (The Alchemy Press)
Fantasy Faction, Marc Aplin (ed.)
Speculative Fiction 2012, Justin Landon and Jared Shurin (eds) (Jurassic London)
“We Have Always Fought”: Challenging the “Women, Cattle and Slaves” Narrative, Kameron Hurley (A Dribble of Ink)

Best Magazine/Periodical
Black Static, Andy Cox (ed.) (TTA Press)
Clarkesworld, Neil Clarke and Sean Wallace (ed.) (Wyrm Publishing)
Interzone, Andy Cox (ed.) (TTA Press)
Shadows & Tall Trees, Michael Kelly (ed.) (Undertow Books)

Best Comic/Graphic Novel
Demeter, Becky Cloonan (Becky Cloonan)
Jennifer Wilde, Maura McHugh, Karen Mahoney and Stephen Downey (Atomic Diner Comics)
Porcelain, Benjamin Read and Chris Wildgoose (Improper Books)
Rachel Rising, Terry Moore (Abstract Studio)
Saga, Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (Image Comics)
The Unwritten, Mike Carey and Peter Gross (Vertigo)

Best Artist
Adam Oehlers
Ben Baldwin
Daniele Serra
Joey Hi-Fi
Tula Lotay
Vincent Chong

Best Film/Television Episode
Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor, Steven Moffat (BBC)
Game of Thrones: The Rains of Castamere, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss (HBO)
Gravity, Alfonso Cuarón and Jonás Cuarón (Warner Bros)
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro (Warner Bros)
Iron Man 3, Drew Pearce and Shane Black (Marvel Studios)

Best Newcomer (the Sydney J. Bounds Award)
Ann Leckie, for Ancillary Justice (Orbit)
Emma Newman, for Between Two Thorns (Angry Robot)
Francis Knight, for Fade to Black (Orbit)
Laura Lam, for Pantomime (Strange Chemistry)
Libby McGugan, for The Eidolon (Solaris)
Samantha Shannon, for The Bone Season (Bloomsbury)

The winners of these awards will now be decided by a juries, while the British Fantasy Society committee will decide the winner of the Karl Edward Wagner Award. The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony at FantasyCon 2014 in York on 6 or 7 September 2014, depending on the convention’s scheduling.

http://www.britishfantasysociety.org/