A box of books

Advance paperback copies of The Dead Men Stood Together arrived a couple of weeks ago. As I have said many times before, the excitement of opening the box of new books - even new editions, as in this case - never fades. Nor should it.

I can still remember the excitement I felt receiving my advance copies of my very first book Dog Magic! as though it was yesterday. I've only ever had one book published solely as an ebook - Christmas Tales of Terror - and there was a definite feeling of anti-climax. I need something to hold in my hand or it seems like it doesn't really count.

Christmas creeps

I should remind you that Christmas Tales of Terror is now out.  A lot of people have been asking me whether it is going to be available as a 'real' book, rather than as an ebook.

The short answer is that there are no plans for that at the moment, but it is certainly a possibility at a future date.  It would need some additional material because at the moment it differs from the other Tales of Terror books in being a collection of stand alone stories without a linking story or a narrator.

Christmas Tales of Terror is a collection of seven seasonal chillers, featuring lots of jolly Christmas themes - snowmen, holly and ivy, carol singing, stockings by the chimney and presents under the tree - but all with all with a festive sprinkling of creepiness.

Christmas tales of terror

My new Christmas Tales of Terror ebook is out this November.  It does not follow the same structure as the other Tales of Terror books, in that it does not have a narrator and wraparound story.  It is - for the moment anyway - simply a collection of unconnected stories.

Writing these stories really has proved to be one of those fork in the road moments for me.  I have been encouraged - for perfectly understandable and sensible reasons - to write novels and I will certainly continue to do that (I have lots of ideas for which a novel is the only vehicle), but I want to write short stories too.

Short stories have been a problem for publishers - particularly of children's books - and we have taken care to give the Tales of Terror books a structure that gives them a narrative flow like a novel.  But I wonder whether they will be seen as such an issue in the age of the digital download.

As for the Christmas Tales of Terror, I will write a few more and also write a narrative to go round them as I have with all the other books.  I already know what I want to do and hopefully this might mean the book will have another life in the printed world.  We'll see.

More about these stories later...

Short stories

Speaking of Ray Bradbury - in one of the many pieces written in celebration of his life and work - it may have been the one by Margaret Atwood in the Guardian - I read that Bradbury used to write a short story every week.  I intend to do the same.

I have recently returned to the short story form.  I am writing some Christmas Tales of Terror, and writing them to a slightly crazy deadline.  They are to be published as an ebook for this coming Christmas.

I am thoroughly enjoying writing them and returning to a form I suspect is my default setting.  That isn't to say I find novels unenjoyable, its just that ideas come to me in short stories rather than novels.  I have to work at novels.  Short stories seem to come naturally.

This may be considered a weakness in my writing ability.  Maybe it is.  But I think in any creative process it is better to embrace your strengths and not fight against them.  So I intend to write a lot more short stories, even if I am the only person who ever reads them.  One a week seems a good target.

It didn't seem to do Ray Bradbury any harm.