Angela perpetrates mischief

Angela Still, Mercury Retrograde Goddess of Slush, has a humorous piece up on StarLit. And she didn’t even tell anybody!

This is hilarious.

New Death, Inc. up

Merry Christmas! We’re slipping one last thing under the tree: the next installment of Death, Inc. by Edward Morris. This is the best one yet.

“Hopefully they stop,” was her final word on the matter, mostly. “It’s been, what, a good couple of months now and no more have come in? Maybe your Storyteller got tired. Maybe this whole thing is just your brain trying to make some sense out of an insane situation, which is, Schiya Myelnik–” She only ever said my whole name when she was trying to get me to listen. “A sane response.“

Catch it here.

All hail Angela, Goddess of Slush!

As anybody who has something cooling its heels in our submission process knows, we’ve been behind on reading submissions, both of the unsolicited and requested varieties. I am delighted to report that we now have a partial solution: Intern Angela Still has taken on the daunting task of reading slush and routing it appropriately. You can read more about her, and join us in feeling like a total slacker once you do, on the website.

As for the requested submissions, our failure to perform in that area is entirely my fault. I am hopeful of making more headway in that area, now that we have gone into a quieter period, what with the holidays and all. In partial compensation for taking so blessed long, I am planning to do a series of blog posts about the manuscripts I’m reading, because I know that sort of thing is helpful to writers who are trying to read editorial tea leaves.

If your manuscript is languishing on my desk, fear not! I shall not out anyone with quotes or other telling details. But hearing a bit about my process and the things that push my buttons will, it seems, be useful.

Thanks to everyone who has been and remains patient with me as I try to clear this log jam. In the mean time, I am celebrating the fact that slush is moving again, thanks to the tender offices of Angela.

Death, Inc. is taking the week off

After a week of polling, Edward Morris has a fantastic denouement in store for Death, Inc. But we aren’t quite ready to publish the next installment.

Check back with us next week for Canvas Seven.

Trust us: it’ll be worth the wait.

Interstitial art exhibit: call for artists

We’re still pretty early in the planning stages of the launch for Leona Wisoker’s Secrets of the Sands. But here’s one component that is beginning to flesh out: in conjunction with the Peninsula Fine Arts Center in Newport News, Virginia, we’ll be hosting an exhibit of interstitial art at the event. The exhibit is planned, naturally, to tie in with Leona’s novel, and it strikes us as a great opportunity for visual artists who enjoy really high-quality fantasy to play in the interstitial space. You can find more details, and the call for artists, here.

The deadline for submissions has been extended to the 31st of this month. We will be making reviewer copies of the book available to artists who participate in the show. Check out this excerpt from the book, and start getting your ideas together.

Free fiction from Leona Wisoker on AlienSkin

One of the lines in Leona’s bio notes that her work is “fuelled equally by coffee and conviction”. Mind Games, up on AlienSkin this week, is definitely over-caffeinated and more than a little creepy. But don’t take my word for it.

Go read.

HorrorWeb profiles Edward Morris

HorrorWeb has a very cool profile of Edward Morris up on their blog this week. They did a great job of capturing the essence of Ed and his overclocked mind.

…this might just be his year. People are beginning to take note of this multi-genre writer. This is because Edward Morris is pretty damn brilliant.

We think so, too, of course.

Better late than never…

Installment 6 of Death, Inc.: Book Zero of There Was a Crooked Man is live.

Don’t forget to vote on the polls, if you haven’t already! This is your chance to set the course of the story.

Poll #1

Poll #2

Poll #3

Find us on YouTube

We finally set up our Very Own YouTube Channel. So far it’s just links to some Mercury Retrograde author interviews, but stay tuned…

Death, Inc. Poll #3

Today we continue rolling the bones on Edward Morris’s Death, Inc.: There Was a Crooked Man, Book Zero. Ed put together a few questions for readers last week and, in the great tradition of Harlan Ellison in the bookstore window, has vowed to finish the story in response to what the readers think. The first two questions were posted Tuesday and Wednesday; you can still click through and vote on those. We’re going to wait until the end of the week to close voting and post the final tallies.

Today’s question is a follow-up to yesterday’s, mostly for the people who voted No:

If you voted Yes on yesterday’s question, we don’t mind if you weigh in.

Thanks for playing! Tomorrow the next installment goes live.