One of the shortest stories included in my upcoming anthology was written for an Edgar Allan Poe competition in 2021, in which my work came Runner-Up, and is titled The Clockmaker . Edgar Allan Poe is most famous for his works of Gothic Horror, but it is easy to forget that he also dabbled in Science Fiction, as did many of his Gothic contemporaries. Indeed, a quick Google search has informed me that there are anthologies which solely contain his Science Fiction. The Clockmaker was designed to marry these Horror and SciFi elements to create the sort of story which Poe himself might have written. I won’t deny it: I was pleased with the outcome. At only 500 words, it tells the story of a man who pays a visit to an old schoolfriend (you will realise, if you read much of my Gothic Horror, that old school/university friends play vital roles!) who is an inventor, and spends some time admiring a clock which he has made. I won’t spoil by telling you the ending, but I will say that he does...
For more than a decade, Derek Philpott and his son, Dave, have been writing to pop stars from the 1960s to the 90s to take issue with the lyrics of some of their best-known songs. But then, to their great surprise, the pop stars started writing back... Dear Mr Pop Star contains 100 of Derek and Dave's greatest hits, including correspondence with Katrina and the Waves, Tears for Fears, Squeeze, The Housemartins, Suzi Quatro, Devo, Deep Purple, Nik Kershaw, T Pau, Human League, Eurythmics, Wang Chung, EMF, Mott the Hoople, Heaven 17, Jesus Jones, Johnny Hates Jazz, Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine, Chesney Hawkes and many, many more. When I agreed to review this book and be part of the blog tour for the launch, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. This book's subject and way of writing is most unusual...but it works! What a great hobby to write to celebrities, and greater still that some of them would reply, often matching the cheek and wit that was init...