Miss Dynamite

Our very first review of Brendan Connell’s Miss Homicide Plays The Flute is in, and Adam Groves of The Fright Site seems to have been knocked sideways by it. Adam writes:

“Here’s how Eibonvale Press categorizes this typically atypical novel by Brendan Connell: “Fiction, Mystery/Thriller, Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror.” Content-wise it’s sold as “A relentless symphony of pleasantries and things unpleasant sketched with the inimitable style of a master’s hand.” I couldn’t have put it better myself!

…The insanity of the story is complimented by the author’s miscellany, if miscellany is even the correct term for the odd dreams, lengthy “recipes” of murderous methodology, brief glimpses of Hell (“…and the sinners suffering therein–them being fried in great pans, chopped into little bits with huge hatchets”), lengthy descriptions of the artwork the heroine admires and overall obsession with ancient Greece (evident in passages like a description of a nightclub that devolves into a highly eccentric dissertation on Greek dance). Such things may qualify as deviations from the main narrative, or perhaps it’s the other way around. Either way this is a fascinating oddity that resembles nothing so much as itself.”

Thanks, Adam!

Rustblinder…

Nick Jackson (author of The Secret Life Of The Panda) has given Rustblind and Silverbright are rattling good thumbs-up, writing over at the reviews section of the most excellent Sein Und Werden magazine. Nick writes:

“Taking its title from a story by Wolfgang Borchert, this anthology is a shrine to the railway in all its manifestations and draws as much on the iconic status of these iron behemoths as on the collective psyche of railway buffs that worship them. There’s not a train spotter in sight and there are no pieces about the Orient Express, the Trans-Siberian railway or any of the world’s other great train lines but to my mind the anthology is all the better for it, looking beyond these clichéd images of railways at what makes them such lasting objects of fascination. Railways feature as subjects of obsession or in the form of a developing fanaticism into which the characters are slowly, sometimes unwillingly, drawn…

…I found this a hugely enjoyable collection and whatever their individual merits, there’s a synchronicity which makes the stories ping off each other in a very satisfying way. David Rix has brought together a bunch of stylistically disparate stories and, though I have my favourites, I think the weaker are improved by their placement in the anthology. The stylistic excesses of several gave an astringent edge to the deadpan delivery of others.”

Please do read the review in full, because Nick seems to have taken the time review almost every single story in a decent amount of detail, which is quite a feat. Cheers, dude.

Cover Reveal: Caledonia Dreamin’

Our next book to be released is Caledonia Dreamin’, an anthology based on the glorious and unique words of the Scottish.  Glaikit, mockit, droukit, drouthy, couthy, scunner, thrawn – the Scots language is rich with words too gallus not to glory in, dialect terms that deserve better than to be boxed away as precious oddities. Here we’ve collected some of the strangest writers of Scottish descent to bring these terms to life – that’s Scottish by heritage or residence, adoption or initiation…

And here is the cover!  – hopefully finished aside from any 11th hour polishing and tweaks that arise (they usually do the moment I publish the damn thing!). This is one of Eibonvale’s odder attempts I think – with a full dictionary on the jacket and more text than art. Bit of a mind-fuck really if anyone starts to seriously try and elucidate the illustrations!  Or so i hope!   Anyway, here it is. November 1st is the official release date and I am really hoping to have some copies for WorldCon 2013!