Work, the curse of the drinking classes

I think all the real-life stuff has finally settled down. My birthday is up next but that’s not a real event. The best part of birthdays at my age is the knowledge that there aren’t that many left to endure.

So the book work is back on the cards. I won’t be blogging much the next week or so, I am finishing up on Lee Bidgood’s book and starting on the anthology. The weather is still shit but that’s a good thing – I won’t be tempted into any gardening. It’s far too cold anyway. Even the grass has barely started to grow and daffodils are only just beginning to open.

My original plan was to get all anthology author payments out before the 5th so they are in this tax year – but most authors prefer to be paid in books. Those who prefer cash can expect it by the 5th anyway but obviously I won’t have books by then! I’ll be contacting the authors tomorrow, to see which they prefer.

The anthologies have, I think, finally settled into a format. Christmas and Halloween themed ones already had, of course, but the third one was to fill the gap between Christmas and Halloween. The first of the interim ones (Tales the Hollow Bunnies Tell) was Easter themed – but Easter is a difficult call. It’s hard to come up with many stories about Easter without them starting to sound forced.

Therefore, the Spring anthology will always be non-themed. I think I will attach it to Beltain rather than Oestre. That will give me a regular 1st April story deadline and the book has to be available before the 30th. No need to hunt down Beltain themes though, it’ll stay non-specific. Still, if you have an idea, go for it.

Three anthologies a year –

Beltain, non-themed, closing April 1st, out in time for April 30th.

Halloween, scary story themed, closing October 1st, out in time for October 31st.

Yule, Christmas-themed, closing around November 15th to allow time for the book to be out and ready to order among the Christmas post rush in December.

As always, any genre, any style. I’ll be looking for shorts around the 2000 word mark, above or below that is fine but if they come in very short we’ll have to negotiate on price 😉

And novels or short story collections are always welcome.

Right. Better get back to work…