Meet The Clockwork Cowboy - now in print in Hideous Progeny, from Writerpunk Press

She looked up at its oddly-shaped head, which despite its larger figure was similar to that of a large man's in size. It appeared to be made of brass, but with circular glass protrusions held in place by an x-shape of brass struts that reminded her of a drawing of a diving helmet from one of her father's books. 

The rest of the apparent face was smooth and implacable. Within the creature, she could hear the echoing of many ticks, the noises of gears and cogs in motion that she had heard from outside. 

The Clockwork Cowboy is my newest short story in print - and it's a delight to be included in the latest anthology from Writerpunk Press. 

Regular readers of the blog will have heard of Writerpunk Press before - they published the fantastic Edgar Allan Poe goes punk collection of short stories that I gave five stars to and rated as one of my books of the year, so it's a real honour to feature in one of their publications. 

This collection sees classic horror stories given the punk treatment - there are takes on stories by HP Lovecraft and Sheridan Le Fanu, of Oscar Wilde and Franz Kafka, of Bram Stoker and... well, then there's Frankenstein, which inspired my story. 

I love Shelley's tale, and the thought of reimagining this manufactured man was irresistible. So in I plunge to a Wild West world with Tesla tech and whirring cogs. The rest? Well, you'll have to see. There's more to come from this world from me too - look for further stories in this same setting, starting here on this blog soon. 

A special word of praise for artist and author Enesha Bennett, who created this image of the Clockwork Cowboy himself. Many thanks for creating a vision of the character, helping to bring him lurching to life! You can find out more about her work on her website, here, or follow her on Twitter, @ejbennett123.

I hope you'll join me and the Clockwork Cowboy in our world - and the other writers in the anthology. Funds raised from the sale of the anthology are to be donated to PAWS Lynwood, an animal shelter and wildlife rescue facility located in the Pacific Northwest. 

Here's a preview trailer - and at the bottom is a link to buy the book. Happy reading! 

Link below not working? Click here instead.

And looking for some music to get in the mood? Check out the Clockwork Cowboy playlist on Spotify. 

BOOK REVIEW: What We've Unlearned, by Writerpunk Press; No-One Is Neutral, by C H Clepitt; and The Quarry Bank Runaways, by G J Griffiths

The Quarry Bank Runaways, by G J Griffiths

The year is 1806 - and two young boys are on the run.
G J Griffiths' The Quarry Bank Runaways is an intriguing book on many levels. It follows two boys, Thomas Priestley and Joseph Sefton, and retraces their flight from Quarry Bank Mill in Cheshire all the way to London in 1806.
It's a fictionalised version of a true story - and that long, arduous journey is brought to life well be Griffiths, full of encounters that might well have played out in real life, from a bear baiter to the future founder of the police, John Peel.
In truth, a couple of these encounters prove slightly distracting to the reader, as Griffiths takes a leap forward in time to tell us what future events would affect these other individuals, when as a story we might be better staying off in the present moment of the youngsters' travels and misadventures.
In that way, the book almost is better not as a standalone, but as a companion piece for anyone studying life in Britain in those early Napoleonic-era times - when work meant signing your life away to masters, or risking being packed off to the military or prison.
To read as a story alone, it is a little hard to completely immerse yourself in the boys' tale, but as an insight into the world they lived in, it's a great addition to your study list and worthy of an extra star to my overall score.

AI Rating: 3/5

No One Is Neutral, by C H Clepitt

This is the latest in the Crew Chronicles from C H Clepitt - the fourth, all told, and I've thoroughly enjoyed each one. I've said before, think of it as the sci-fi show Firefly with added fairies and magic and you've got the idea.
It's not all rainbows and happiness with fairies around - far from it - and this episode in the series sees the crew locked in deadly battle, with no guarantee anyone is making it out alive.
Throwing our cast into pitched battle means that you'll probably be better reading earlier installments first - it is, after all, a series - so that you get the full impact of this episode. That's no bad thing, it's just that it hits the ground running so fast that if you haven't gotten your head around who's who, you might be a little bamboozled.
For those familiar with the cast, though, this is a major event in their lives - and the momentous decisions by several of those in conflict will have ramifications for future episodes.
There may be fairies here - but there's no clapping your hands three times to make everything better, and there's no happy ever after.

AI Rating: 4/5

What We've Unlearned: English Class Goes Punk

If you're not familiar with the Writerpunk books, then you're frankly missing a treat.
This latest installment from Writerpunk Press follows up on anthologies that give punk takes on Shakespeare and Edgar Allan Poe. Punk takes, I hear you say? Well, that means steampunk, or cyberpunk, or any other kind of punk that captures the attitude and style of one of the various subgenres.
Here, that sees a cyberpunk take on A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, with a rigger trying to fathom what is real and what is simulation. It sees a steampunk Kipling palling around with zeppelin-flying smugglers in Nils Nisse Visser's grand fantasy. It sees a Beowulf with Vikings recast as tanks under their fiery commander Bea Wolf. Tom Sawyer is reborn as an automaton, and Huck Finn and Anne of Green Gables soar into steampunk action.
There's more - far more, but the sheer invention across the anthology captures the imagination.
I truly loved the Edgar Allan Poe collection from Writerpunk - and this is a more than worthy successor.

AI Rating: 5/5

BOOK REVIEW: Merely This and Nothing More - Edgar Allan Poe Goes Punk

Merely This And Nothing More - Edgar Allan Poe Goes Punk, by various authors

If the sheer style of this idea - a punk take on Edgar Allan Poe - doesn't seduce you, I'm not sure what will, but I'm game to give it a go. 

The punk in the title is all things writerpunk - be it steampunk, cyberpunk... alas no unicornpunk*, but one can't have everything!

The collection features a number of writers, all contributing their take on the works of Poe. Bookended by very different takes on the Fall of the House of Usher, we stop off at variations on The Raven, The Masque of the Red Death, The Facts In The Case of M. Valdemar, The Telltale Heart and more. 

Stories are given a new spin with clear love and affection from the writers - just take a read of Carol Gyzander's Clockwork Raven to see the careful attention to detail in the updated tale. The opener, by Jenny Blenk, is also a fine example. A cyberpunk vision of the Fall of the House of Usher, where nanomachines and failed software integration is undermining the home of the Ushers and, as the story unfolds, it appears the Ushers themselves. Splendidly done and with a real urgency to the tale that gives a freshness to the familiar. 

Andrea Hintz's take on the Telltale Heart, Ticker, also gives a vibrant update to an old tale, with the tick-tock urgency of the would-be cyber-modder clearly locked in the grip of madness. 

Elsewhere we have the therapy sessions of M.Valdemar, brought to life by David Stegora, or the jaunty Search for Eldorado, by Rie Sheridan Rose, a short but sweet piece of poetry that deserves to be turned into a steampunk convention drinking song! Also short, but making me wish it was longer, was Jeffrey Cook's Red Sky At Morning. Splendid writing, but feels like it all came to an end a bit too quickly, just as I was getting settled into the tale. 

There is the gruesome - such as Anthony Stark's 32 Ways To De-Objectify Your Lover or Voss Foster's Ivory - and the darkly, quirkily fun, such as Virginia Carraway Stark's delightful and mischievous King Pest. Tabula Rasa, by Jayelle King, also deserves a nod for its neat exploration of someone trying to pry open their past after a memory wipe. 

I can't pick a single favourite from the collection, but I adored the richness of two stories. In Nils Nisse Visser's The Oval Sky Room, a girl born to poverty finds the possibility of salvation in posing as a model for a rich artist in his skyborne airship home... but dangers lie ahead. This tale was so neatly written that the pain of the finale cuts deep - beautifully done. 

The other standout tale for me was Holly Gonzalez's The Envy of Angels, who goes beyond a simple update of a Poe tale to create a whole cyber-influenced world in which one young man's singing voice first comes to offer hope... and then poses a threat to the foundations of the world as so-called angels stalk the Earth once more, with devastating consequences. 

If you love Poe and you love punk, then buying this is a no-brainer, it's a great read. 

Plug in your neural jack and download this, you will regret it... nevermore. 

AI Rating: 5/5

*Unicornpunk may not actually be a thing. 

Merely This And Nothing More is available on Amazon here.