Funny Bone: Flashing for Comic Relief is out today (23/3/17). Flash fictions are stories under 1,000 words, and are sometimes called short shorts. A fantastic line up of authors including Roddy Doyle, Bernard McLaverty and Lydia Davis, and all for a good cause.

The Doorstep Child is Annie Murray’s 21st Birmingham book and a sequel to War Babies and Now the War is Over. Out April 6th.

Annie has also started to write under another name – Abi Oliver, and Abi’s first book is also out in April. A New Map of Love is set over the hot summer of 1964. Country antique dealer George Baxter is newly widowed and looking for love.

‘A collection of dark, urban tales: the pros and cons of stealing a pensioner, a mothers prison visit, incipient love and roller skating, the guilt of a brothers death, and a past love burnt out by rioting. Stories that deal with loss, longing and hope.

Garrie Fletcher writes about the gaps between lives, the pauses between stations and the static hiss of the city. The moments he captures are fleeting and easily missed, but resonate like a steel string plucked above a pickup, distorted and electric.’

Launch in Leicester March 11th   Order it here.

Alan Beard has had two flashes recently published – ‘November’ in Spelk Fiction, and ‘The Room Peels’ in Postcard Fiction.

Cathy has had two stories published in ‘Elevator Fiction: Micro Narratives Under 500 words.’ Out now on Kindle.

Marg Roberts’ novel ‘A Time for Peace’ comes out in October from  Cinnamon Press.

She says:

There are 2 events in connection with the publication of my novel. One is a talk at the Lord Leycester Hospital in Warwick as part of the Warwick Words History Festival. It’s on Wednesday, 5th October between 4-5 (3.30 for a cup of tea!). Tickets are £6.00 and can be bought from the festival website: www.warwickwords.co.uk or the Box Office: 01926 33 44 18.

The launch is on Tuesday, 18th October at 6.30pm at Waterstones, Leamington. Cinnamon Press is the publisher. 

The novel is set in Serbia during the first 2 years of the 1st World War and the talk with consist of readings and some historical background to the novel.  

I will give a shorter reading at the launch.

More information on the book, plus a blog, some poetry and short stories: www.margroberts.co.uk

A TWIST IN THE EYE by Charles Wilkinson is now available to pre-order from the Egaeus Press website.   In the words of Mark Samuels who provides the introduction:

“ A Twist in the Eye is the most exciting collection of weird fiction (or strange fiction, if you will) that I have read for many years. Moreover, I am confident that after the reader has gone through the tales he or she will be as amazed as I am that Charles Wilkinson is not far better known and appreciated in the field…”

Throughout the sixteen stories collected in this remarkable book Charles Wilkinson explores themes of place, ritual, identity, death and transmutation with a rare, if not utterly unique, confidence. They are enigmatic but never vague, dreamlike but never illogical, horrifying but only occasionally visceral. Few writers can write ‘weird’ with so convincing a voice.

The book is a lithographically printed, 256 page sewn hardback with printed endpapers (by a follower of Bosch), limited to 260 copies. ISBN 978-0-993527821.

It can be pre-ordered now for £32.00 inclusive of postage.                                                                         

Stories accepted: Alan Beard has a story ‘November’ forthcoming in Spelk – in November. Sooner than that, Charles Wilkinson has a story coming out in the next issue of Black Static:

Other news: Good night at Waterstones, Birmingham for four TSFG writers, who discussed and read from their work with a lively audience:

l-r: Mick Scully, Alan Beard, Anthony Ferner and Gaynor Arnold.

Another reading was held recently as part of ‘City Voices’ in Coalbrookdale, Shropshire. Natalie White read her story from ‘The Sea in Birmingham’. She said  it went well and people loved the story and the book.

Advance notices – Garrie Fletcher has a book of stories coming out from Mantle Lane Press. here’s a link to his blog post about it:

https://fletchski.com/2016/07/04/night-swimming-2/

More information nearer the date of launch.

Marg Roberts has a novel ‘A Time for Peace’ coming out in October from  Cinnamon Press. More info including launch details will be released nearer the time. Here’s the cover:

Her website has more information on the book, plus a blog, some poetry and short stories: www.margroberts.co.uk

Following events in London and Leamington, Kit’s wonderfully reviewed book gets a Birmingham launch at Waterstones, 5th July 2016 at 7pm. 2016.

more details:

https://www.waterstones.com/events/an-evening-with-kit-de-waal/birmingham