March 28, 2023
=== This post is taken from Legion Bulletin #151 == The End… Greetings from Bedfordshire, where the spring warmth is here. And just as well because the bloomin’ boiler’s packed up. As you know, I’ve had some brain problems over the past year and that’s caused mayhem with my writing schedule. The medics are still puzzling over me. It’s probably an alien brain parasite chewing through my neurons before seizing control of my mind, in the mistaken belief that if it can control me then it can control anything remotely important. (Unless you count my modest selection of vehicles in World of Tanks). However, I’m fighting it off and my writing mojo has returned sufficiently that I typed “The End” […]
November 1, 2022
Welcome to a story of deception and daring, inspired by in equal parts by the Goodwood Revival car racing festival and Strontium Dog, the bounty hunter from 1970s 2000 A.D. [more on the inspiration at the end]* This is “Contract Fulfilled” my first 4HU (Four Horsemen Universe) story, which ended up in the excellent anthology For a Few Credits More back in 2017. I only intended to write the one story, but I enjoyed the other stories in For a Few Credits More so much that I thought there might be something to this 4HU thing and I wanted a part of it. After “Contract Fulfilled”, I took the characters I had developed within the 4HU setting and went on […]
October 16, 2022
You might remember Frakkers!, a story I wrote earlier in the year about a mutant bounty hunter (Karnage Zax) and his cyborg sidekick, (Itka Jowiszka) . Came out in a bounty hunter anthology called We Dare: Wanted Dead or Alive. I enjoyed the story so much that I wrote a follow-up that swapped things around, so the cyborg takes the lead and the mutant is her sidekick. You’re Frakked! is in a cyborg-themed anthology called Deadly Enchantments that was published yesterday. This is my first cyberpunk story, and look at the cover it’s in! I think it’s magnificent. Here’s the buy link: https://geni.us/DeadlyEnhancements You’re Frakked! in the new anthology follows on directly from FRAkkers! in the ‘We Dare’ anthology. For […]
October 16, 2022
This post was originally published in Legion Bulletin #128. Join the Legion to receive the Bulletin. The power of story Stories have power. Don’t underestimate that power. Because compelling stories have motivated people to tear down empires, endure hideous torture and death, and to reshape the world. Whether the stories being told have much truth to them matters not a jot. In recent months, I’ve seen this truism up close in real life. It’s also a theme I’ve used throughout the Chimera Company series. I’ve found the similarities uncanny. I’ve written about the oppression of the so-called mutants, egged on by the likes of Kadeja Independent News on the planet of Kryzabik (Book4: Smuggler Queen). Then there’s the utopian-dystopian world […]
July 15, 2022
I’ve just posted some fun and not quite so fun news over on my personal blog. I don’t wish to be overly dramatic about this, but in light of my increasing neurological problems, I’m no longer confident about how much time I have left to write novels at the level I know I can deliver. It could be many years, I hasten to point out. But it might be a lot less. Consequently, I have reprioritized my writing projects. If I have to stop writing novels, I don’t want to leave any book series unfinished. I’ve just completed a good draft of Time Dogz#2. I had intended to get that to a trilogy before attempting to interest publishers. Instead, I’m […]
May 11, 2022
You know how it is. You go for weeks and then two anthologies turn up at once! We Dare: Wanted Dead or Alive came out last week and is themed on bounty hunters and the hunted. My story, FRAkkers, features a mutant bounty hunter and his cyborg sidekick. The name comes from the Felon Recovery Agency, which regards their ‘Baleview’ bounty hunters to be just as bad as the felons they hunt. When I was a kid, I enjoyed the Strontium Dog strip in 2000AD comic. I remember someone at the Search/Destroy Agency who hated his mutant bounty hunters so much that he hoped some of them would be killed bringing in a particular bounty. That might be a false […]
May 3, 2022
Here’s the lowdown on three new releases. This Friday (May 6th) sees “FRAkkers”, my mutant bounty hunter anti-hero story in We Dare: Wanted, Dead or Alive out Friday. His cyborg sidekick will hopefully get her own story released in another anthology later this year. What can I say? Strontium Dog meets Gill “the ARM” Hamilton with aliens like you’ve never seen before. Standing Fast on Foreign shores (May 10th) is post-apoc royal intrigue and action set in The Last Brigade Universe. The action moves across post-Collapse England from Birmingham to Bristol to Colchester. As these things do. And if you ever wondered what happens in Scotland after the Apocalypse, author David Appleby’s got that covered. And talking of new book […]
March 28, 2022
I posted the following on my personal blog last Friday (timctaylor.com). Although my new book is non-fiction, it occurs to me that readers of my stories might be interested in what I wrote in Titan’s Rising about my biography and my predictions for where publishing is going. If you’re in Kindle Unlimited, you can currently get the title for free and skip to the bits that interest you. Which probably means straight to Kevin J. Anderson. LOL. Anyway, here’s the post… My latest book, out today, has its genesis in books by other writers published 52 years apart (or perhaps 73, as we shall see). One is a personal improvement book written in 1937 that has sold 15 million copies […]
January 29, 2022
It’s anthologies week at Legion HQ. Three paperbacks arrived this week and I’m hugely proud that my name is on the cover of all three. You Pay; We Slay is the brand new one that was launched on Friday. This is set in the Hit World universe, which is similar to our own except that licensed assassination is legal. And there are aliens and magical creatures and much that is weird. In my effort for this anthology, Being Cassidy Dupuis, I deliberately avoided any science fiction and fantasy angles. Just human beings, albeit extreme ones. If you like it, let me know and maybe I’ll write some more Hit World. You can find more info on amazon.com here. As a […]
January 23, 2022
Just a quick update to let you know that my latest release isn’t You Pay; We Slay as I had thought. Instead, it’s the audiobook edition of In The Wings. That’s how it often works: the audiobook editions pop up at a random date a while after the eBook and paperback. For my story in this anthology, I bought a collection of Robert E. Howard Conan the Barbarian stories and read the lot. I wanted my alien space monster to play the role of Conan, you see. To be honest, I don’t think anyone will listen to the result and see any connection, but I don’t mind because I’m proud of my story and had a wonderful time doing my […]