Lamia’s Bane Released

A belated Happy New Year to you all! The latest Kormak story is now available. Here’s the blurb: A deadly lamia has returned to  the ancient city she ruled until driven out by the Order of the Dawn two centuries ago. Now Kormak must brave the haunted ruins and find out why she has come back. He is not alone — a Shadow sorceress and a necromancer’s army of the walking dead also hunt the undead temptress for their own sinister purposes. This ten thousand word short story is available at all the usual e-tailers priced at $2.99 or whatever Read more…

A False Start

I am on holiday in the very lovely Cesky Raj and I am looking for an easy subject for a blog post. Fortunately one is close at hand. Last week I announced the release of the second Kormak short story, A Cold and Lonely Place, and this provoked some interesting discussions in the comments and emails I received. Among the things that came up was my habit of writing first scenes of short stories that I don’t or can’t finish. The reasons for this are alluded to in the comments of the last post. What I thought I would do Read more…

Lawrence Block on the Renaissance of the Short Story

Over on his blog the great Lawrence Block is talking about short stories. He thinks that ebooks might be the salvation of the form. If you’re interested in the short story I urge you to go ahead and read what he has to say. Block is, in my opinion, one of the greatest living writers and the very definition of what it means to be a professional. What he has to say is always worth hearing. I’ll still be here when you get back. When I was starting out a quarter of a century ago, I wrote a lot of Read more…