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~ Ilan Lerman: Dark Fiction

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Tag Archives: Georgina Bruce

Black Static 34: Out Now!

08 Wednesday May 2013

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Aliette de Bodard, Andrew Hook, Artwork, Ben Baldwin, Black Static, Fantasy, Georgina Bruce, Horror, Interzone, Jess Hyslop, Joel Lane, Lavie Tidhar, Lynda E Rucker, Nigel Brown, Nina Allan, Priya Sharma, Sci-fi, Sean Logan, Shannon Fay, Short Stories, speculative fiction, Stephen Volk, Steven J Dines, The King Of Love My Shepherd Is, TTA Press, Writing

Black Static 34 CoverOut now to order or subscribe, from TTA Press, is issue 34 of Black Static, which contains stories by Nina Allan, Joel Lane, Andrew Hook, Sean Logan and (in case you hadn’t already heard all of my shouting and bawling about it) one from me. Includes the usual column by Stephen Volk and a new column by Lynda E. Rucker.

king of love

The artwork this issue is simply brilliant, with gorgeously unsettling black and white illustrations for each story, and Ben Baldwin’s delicious and nightmare-inducing colour art for the front and back cover.

IZ 246And this month’s Interzone looks to be a fabulous issue as well – with stories by my buddies Priya Sharma and Georgina Bruce (whose TTA debut, Cat World, makes its appearance here – and a wonderful story it is) alongside tales by Steven J. Dines, Jess Hyslop, Nigel Brown, Aliette de Bodard, Lavie Tidhar and Shannon Fay.

Advice soup

18 Friday Nov 2011

Posted by Ilan Lerman in Uncategorized

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Chuck Wendig, Georgina Bruce, Inspiration, Joe Lansdale, Short Stories, speculative fiction, Writing, Writing advice

Been a while, blog, my old neglected friend. At least one of my friends has been putting me to shame with their blogging activity. Once a day is probably out of the question for me at the moment as I need to expend more energy on writing fiction to keep the momentum going. I’ve always blogged as and when the fancy took me, and I tend to do it in waves, but I would like to do it more. It has a way of sharpening my focus sometimes, and it’s also a good way to hash out ideas.

But this is not what I’m here to talk about. I swear there is more advice for writers out there than there is actual writing. I admit to reading some of it, and Twitter in particular has introduced me to the thick soup of bloggers and writers and random people giving advice, tips, helpful quotes etc. So much that it becomes a bit wearing. Most of it is just repeating the same stuff over and over again. Some of it is supremely entertaining and helpful, but I can see how the new writer – eager to learn and soaking up the professional advice on offer – could become utterly bogged down and not know which way to turn. Knowing which advice to heed and which not to is the hard part. Some say take what works best for you, which is probably good advice, but it’s too easy to become blind to what you really need, or to what your writing really needs. Heck, there is even advice out there about how you should choose what advice to heed. (I’m tempted to write some advice about which advice-heeding advice you should listen to).

For example, I thought for a long time I could get by without planning out stories too much, and then once they were written giving them a couple of drafts and a polish then sending them on their merry way. I realise now that that I can’t get away with that (well not every time, sometimes it works, but for the most part… no). Planning helps me immensely – even on short stories. Striking a balance between planning and winging it is tough. At some point you have to stop with the notes and just write it. The momentum that comes with the act of writing seems to open up ideas as you go.

Writer, Joe Lansdale has recently been passing on his wisdom about the craft on his facebook page. I liked what he said about routine, in terms of always trying to write at the same time, almost as a way of conditioning your mind and body to be in the mood for writing at that time every day. I know some people who write when they can, due to work and life pressures, and I’m kind of one of them, although I do appear to have developed my own routine without consciously attempting to. It generally involves a couple of hours of prevarication, eating, making cups of tea, watching another episode of How I Met Your Mother or The Big Bang Theory, and then just when it’s time that I should really be going to bed if I feasibly want to be awake and functional the next day, my brain decides it’s time to write. It’s a routine. An inappropriate routine, but a routine nonetheless. If I had my whole day to myself, I’d like to think a new routine would develop, but my brain has always been at it’s most creative in those hours when it should be switching off and going to sleep. Perhaps that experience of being on the edge of unconsciousness induces a waking dream state where I can access my subconscious as easily as dipping my fingers into an unending bowl of popcorn… or… maybe its just panic that I haven’t written anything yet and I really ought to.

I should go and find a blog giving me some advice on this matter…

Aside

Georgina’s Shiny New Website

27 Saturday Aug 2011

Posted by Ilan Lerman in Uncategorized

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Tags

Georgina Bruce, speculative fiction, Writing

Everyone check out Georgina Bruce’s amazing new website. Beautifully off-kilter design. captures the mood of her writing. Check it out here – http://www.georginabruce.com/

Plug for an old friend (or five)

25 Monday Jul 2011

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Candra Hope, Dark Tales, Fantasy, Fiction markets, Georgina Bruce, Horror, Paul Johnson-Jovanovic, Richard Smith, Sci-fi, Short Stories, Writing

After an incredibly long time (A year and a half almost to the day…), Volume 15 of Dark Tales is out. It doesn’t contain any of my stories this time, but does have four by friends of mine – Georgina Bruce, Iain Paton, Paul Johnson-Jovanovic and Richard Smith, and again the gorgeous artwork is by Candra Hope.

Dark Tales gave me a huge boost by publishing two of my stories in the past, and in my opinion would be one of the great independent UK SF/F/Horror print zines if it could stick to a regular publishing schedule. Understandably, though, it is all the work of one man, Sean Jeffery, and as I know well, there is only so much you can accomplish on your own with the pressures of normal life to take care of at the same time.

I’ve often thought about trying to get involved with a zine, online or print, in a slush-reading capacity to begin with perhaps, but I already know that I struggle enough to focus my time and energy on simply writing every day, so that sort of extra-curricular activity (no matter how educational) has to wait.

Anyway, go, support the small press and buy a copy of Dark Tales Volume 15!

Back-slapping

29 Friday Apr 2011

Posted by Ilan Lerman in Uncategorized

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Erin Stocks, Fiction markets, Georgina Bruce, Gio Clairval, Sci-fi, Self Forging Fragments, Short Stories, speculative fiction, Writing

Another brief test post (see last post, and the one before) , partially, but also a moment to remind myself to celebrate my friend’s writing achievements on here more often – so firstly:

Georgina Bruce, who has a story in the new issue (13) of Shimmer magazine. A story I was lucky enough to see an early incarnation of and it’s a wonderful piece.

Gio Clairval, of my writing group, together with Daniel Pasetti, has a story on the new anthology from Gus Ginsburg, ‘Bride of the Golem’, and again I’m lucky enough to have seen several incarnations of this story, and it’s a funny and fiercely intelligent piece.

And Erin Stocks, another writing group compatriot, whose story, Lisse, is in the Anywhere But Earth anthology from Couer de Lion publishing. Another story I also saw, and it’s both moving and creepy.

Congratulations to all!

Dark Tales Volume 14

20 Wednesday Jan 2010

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Dark Tales, Edinburgh, Existential Horror, Fiction markets, Georgina Bruce, Horror, Short Stories, speculative fiction, Writing, Writing competitions

Out today, officially, is the new volume of Dark Tales. Been looking forward to this one for a long time. Within is my story, ‘Divination‘, which, if I had to put a tag onto would call it ‘existential horror’.

Many other great stories in there I’m sure (not got my copy yet, of course, seeing as it was only out today), and the cover story is ‘Touch, Typing‘ by the superb Georgina Bruce.

You can purchase this shiny volume of nightmares from the Dark Tales shop – – http://www.darktalesbooks.com/ for a mere £3.99, which will barely even buy you a pint in Edinburgh these days.

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