Ramblings of an Accidental Editor (Publisher)
I used to like Sunday nights, Sunday nights were once easy, sit down kids in bed and knock off a few more pages of whatever story or book I was writing.
No so now, I mean it was bad enough when I decided to write two novels at once A Young Adult adventure and a zombie novel set in Tucson, both ideas, I may add came from very vivid dreams while on two different holidays, years apart. Must be the lumpy pillows and sea air and having a mind free of the boring day job.
I digress; so of course this Sunday night I’m writing this blogger thing for Steve Lockley, because he wants to post in a mere 4 days time. Last Sunday I was going over edits for my first ever Novella release Dark Waters, which is getting near to squeaky bum time as the final edits hasn’t been done and the eBook is out in 3 days.
[Slight pause there as my door handle broke and I was locked in my study for 10 minutes, finally freeing myself by undoing screws with the tip of my Ghurkha knife]
The Sunday before that I was editing a short story, for something secret in the anthology line, which I’m dead chuffed about.
The Sunday before that I was putting the Alt-Dead anthology together, which I’m editing and also publishing in the Autumn of this year, an anthology that contains Mr Lockley himself no less, well half-less as he’s collaborating with a certain Steven Savile. So Sunday night write time has been a bit unproductive on the novels’ side.
So to the title of this piece, yes Alt-Dead was born sometime after FantasyCon 2010, as an idea I had for a little 4-5 author eBook. I approached a few people who were interested, but then something wonderfully unexpected happened. News caught on and other contacts and friends and author mates wanted in and my little book swelled to 16 authors all told.
Got to release it as a print version book now I was told by all, so Hersham Horror Books was born over November/Xmas time and now I have a manuscript full to the brim with wonderful tales and the best bit is I get to read them first, before you lot. Now I’m heading into strange mystic territory of trims, bleeds and working out if all the stories writer names, titles and then tales have the same gaps between them. I nearly put a ruler on my PC monitor: you never know it might still come to that.
Plus all the authors have been generous with help and time and covers and editing, fine people they all are, who would have know from their Facebook profile pictures.
So what shall I finish this blog with? A bit of weird trivia, to spur all you writers on, because some days you will want to jack it all in, then you get a praising email, or comment on Facebook, or a yes to some project you sent off in hope months before.
So some weirdly odd things that make you persevere with your writing all of them true.
Once because I posted a book to someone in New Zealand who worked on a farm, they named a cow (bull) named after me.
Last year James Herbert asked to buy one of my books at the World Horror Convention I gave it freely, babbled a bit, but I have pics to prove it.
I have a character named after me in Tim Lebbon’s Echo City novel, a feat soon to be added to by a lady American period crime writing novelist in the near future.
Or when an American fan of mine (I have about 7 I think at last count) badgered F.Paul Wilson into getting a copy of my first book from me.
Or the lovely French young lady who liked my stuff and emailed me about an interesting dream she had, which she and I were..... well..I’ll never look at oranges in the same way again.
So live for those days and the beers and the smell of your own freshly printed new books.
I hope I have babbled on enough.
I’m hoping on next Sunday for sure to add to the book wordage.
Peter Mark May was born in Walton on Thames Surrey England way back in 1968 and still lives nearby in a place you’ve never heard of called Hersham. He has had three novels Demon (2008), Kumiho (2010) and Inheritance (2010) published under the name P.M.May by Eternal Press: as well as short stories published in genre Canadian & US magazines and in a UK anthology of horror and an upcoming (2011) US anthology of horror. Plus a novella called Dark Waters to be published by Damnation Books in 2011.
In 2011 Hersham Horror Books was born from his head like a Greek god and Alt-Dead is his first offering.
He also co-founded the Novelblog.com with his American friend Dan Boucher and Canadian Chief Reviewer Rachelle Gagne.
Official Website http://darkside6869.webs.com/
Other sites Thenovelblog.com
HershamHorror Books http://hershamhorrorbooks.webs.com/
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