Taboo Special Issue

I’m delighted to announce that my story “The Tape” has been published in the Morpheus Tales Taboo Special issue, edited by the multi-talented Sheri White.

To give you some idea of the content of that very special issue, my story about a young Hitler and his mother was rejected. “The Tape” is a more subtle tale about a couple of teenage boys finding a VHS tape in one of their parent’s bedrooms. I bet you can imagine what’s on that secret tape… You perves! 😉

Nope, that’s not it. It’s something much more disturbing…

The free preview of the magazine is available here:

Try not to be too disappointed but there’s no preview of my story as it’s pretty short and it would give too much away. You’ll have to buy a copy to get your hands on my bit…

 

The ebook in various formats is available here:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/648109?ref=morpheustales

The ebook is available on amazon for the kindle.

The printed digest size edition is available here:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/stanley-riiks-and-ken-goldman-and-adrian-ludens-and-sheri-white/taboo-special-issue/paperback/product-22778122.html

The printed perfect-bound edition is available here:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/stanley-riiks-and-ken-goldman-and-adrian-ludens-and-sheri-white/taboo-special-issue-perfect-bound-edition/paperback/product-22778129.html

Morpheus Tales #19 Supplement Out Now!

Hope you had a nice Christmas and New Year! I’m still recovering!

If you’re still in the mood for some Christmas Spirit (the snow’s in London is certainly helping me!) go read the Morpheus Tales Christmas Horror Special:

http://issuu.com/morpheustales/docs/christmashorrorspecial

It’s free, and it’s bloody good, and it’s got one of my stories in it!

BTW, have you got it yet? The Morpheus Tales #19 Supplement is out now, filled with reviews, interviews, articles and loads more!  It also includes a massive preview of Ripped Genes: The Biopunk Special Issue!

You can view and download is here:

http://issuu.com/morpheustales/docs/mt19reviews

Or get the pdf version from the Morpheus Tales website: www.morpheustales.com/reviews.htm

More reviews coming soon, just as soon as I

Ripped Genes: The Biopunk Special Issue – Reviewed

I really wanted to hate this issue. For completely selfish and nasty reasons, I wanted to hate this magazine. I wanted to submit to it, I had some amazing ideas. Ideas that never made the transition from brain to page. For whatever reason (that thing some people call writers’ block and I call life) got in the way of my making the deadline, although I had determined months before that I’d write something. In the end I wrote nothing, and because of that I didn’t want to like this issue.

And you know what? Now I feel even worse. Because this is not just a good special issue, this is the kind of magazine that excites me (ok, not in that way you perve!). It inspires me, it makes me want to write, it wakes up my brain!

Filled with ideas, and bursting with sparkles of brilliance, the editor Samuel Diamond has delivered a treat. This is SF as it should be!

There are far too few SF magazines out there. Morpheus Tales delivers a good share of horror, but the SF is sadly lacking. The small press for SF seems to have mostly dried up (forgive me if I’m wrong, but I’ve looked and I can’t find much).

Which is why it is magazines like Ripped Genes: The Biopunk Special issue are so important. It doesn’t just deliver, it delivers by the bucket load.

There is not a bad story in this diverse bunch, but highlights for me were “Fishing the Life in Notochords” By Matt Leyshon, a writer who never fails to amaze me; “Baby Boom” By Alan Spencer, another writer I’m familiar with who shows time and time again that he’s more than just a blood and guts horror writer (although he does it so well); “Screaming Monkeys” By Dev Jarrett, a remarkable story; and “Legacy” By Richard Farren Barber who gets better with every story.

Picking four out of the thirteen stories on offer had me tearing my hair out, it’s so difficult to pick out just a handful of these exceptional stories. The creators of these stories are all on top form.

I hate that I’m not a part of this magazine. I’m gutted. I wish I had a time machine, then I’d go back six month and sit down and write. Of course, I’d probably steal some of the brilliant ideas contained in this magazine if I did. Ripped Genes is an SF magazine that demands you read it. Check out the free preview and then go buy yourself a copy. You will not regret it.

Cutting edge SF at it’s very best! Devilishly good stuff!

Free preview:

http://issuu.com/morpheustales/docs/rippedgenes

Buy the printed magazine:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/samuel-diamond/ripped-genes-the-biopunk-special-issue/paperback/product-20364897.html

Buy an ebook:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/224661?ref=morpheustales

Morpheus Tales Apocalypse Special Issue – Open to Submissions!

Ok, so I didn’t manage to submit anything to the Ripped Genes: Biopunk Special Issue, which closed to submissions yesterday. I hear it’s going to be pretty damn good though. Fortunately there’s another Special Issue from the people at Morpheus Tales, now this one really floats my boat…

Morpheus Tales Apocalypse Special Issue – Open to Submissions!

It’s 2012 – the year our world is supposed to end. Supposedly, on December 21st, we will cease to exist. But how is it going to happen? Fire? Flood? Earthquakes? Or something manmade, such as an unstoppable virus or a nuclear explosion?

You tell us. Morpheus Tales is looking for short stories of how the human race is going to die out. Use your imagination – it can be as realistic (fire, for instance) or as far-fetched (maybe zombies?) as you’d like. Is it quick and painless or slow and excruciating? Make us a little nervous that maybe, just maybe, your scenario is imminent.

We know zombies are the in thing right now – but we don’t want to dig through tons of zombie stories. Try to come up with something unique, something that will stand out in the crowd. We want to be freaked out and blown away by the methods you choose to wipe out the Earth.

What we DON’T want – vampires, werewolves, aliens, fantasy, sword and sorcery, biopunk. Otherwise, regular Morpheus Tales guidelines apply – no simultaneous submissions, standard manuscript format, only high quality character- or plot-driven stories of no more than 3,000 words. 

Please put Apocalypse  Special Issue Submission in the subject of your email and send to: morpheustales@blueyonder.co.uk

The Apocalypse Special Issue will be available as an ebook and via print-on-demand services. Contributor copies will be in ebook format.

Deadline 31st of December!

Morpheus Tales Biopunk Special Issue – 31st July Deadline for Submissions

Oh bugger me! Doesn’t time fly when you’re having fu… well, when you’re busy. It also flies when you have a deadline approaching, it seems much more quickly than when there’s no deadline. I really wanted to submit to this Biopunk Special.

With just a week to go until the issue closes I’m not sure if I have enough time to get something written, edited and submitted. I’ve been fortunate enough to have been published (fiction-wise) by Morpheus Tales a couple of times, by different editors.

When the issue was first announced earlier this year I was flooded with ideas, now, a week before the deadline, and having written no fiction yet this year, I am bereft. No idea, no time, no story.

Three thousand words can seem like a daunting challenge, but with the right story and the imaginative flow going, it’s difficulty to contain it within that amount of words.  But staring at a blank screen, nothing is coming to me.

One week. That’s all I have left. Will I even manage to submit something? I know the issue is almost complete, I’ve even had a sneaky peak, but didn’t get a chance to read any of the stories. It’s being edited by proof-reader extraordinaire Samuel Diamond, who is one of those responsible for polishing the Morpheus Tales Supplement until it shines.

Ok, enough with this procrastination. I haven’t got time for it. One week. To write a story, edit and submit. I can do it. Or can I? Well, I should at least try. Otherwise I’ve already failed, haven’t I. Bring it on!

Guidelines can be found here:

http://www.morpheustales.com/guidelines.htm

Morpheus Tales Christmas Horror Special Issue

The Morpheus Tales Christmas Horror Special Issue is out now!

Featuring some great Christmas themed fiction:

Merry Christmas By Wayne C. Rogers

Christmas Rising By James Gabriel

Santa’s Tenure By Alan Spencer

On Christmas Eve By Iain Paton

Shop ‘Til You Drop By A.D. Barker

Christmas Mourning By Greg Chapman

Last Of The True Believers By Mark Zirbel

Christmas Yet to Come By Jeff Suess

Ye Merry Gentlemen By John S. Barker

All of the Other Reindeer By Peter Rawlik

Happy Christmas By Stanley Riiks (That’s me!)

Mary’s Boy-Child By Wayne Simmons

Morpheus Tales Magazine is published quarterly in January, April, July and October. Because of the publishing schedule seasonal material is rarely used, but the first story in the collection inspired editor Adam Bradley (my brother from another mother) to publish this completely FREE magazine. Work started on the issue in December last year, opening to submissions shortly after until 1st of September.

The cover, by artist Gareth Partington (whose work has been featured on Morpheus Tales covers before), was originally a Christmas card.

I wrote four stories with the Christmas theme over the summer, finding it difficult to think of snow, fat men with beards, gingerbread biscuits, and presents, with the sun shining, the windows open and the heat wafting in along with the smells of barbecues. Christmas has always been a happy time in my family, despite the stresses and strains of the year, we come together to celebrate and spend time together until we get sick of each other (normally boxing day, 26th December!), so it was just as difficult to think of a nasty situation to pair up with Christmas. Horror comes in many forms, and the Christmas theme certain brought out a good range, including murder, zombies and lots more.

The magazine is completely free of charge to view, download and distribute. Send it to a fiend for Christmas!

You can read and view the Issuu version of the magazine or download it here:

http://issuu.com/morpheustales/docs/christmashorrorspecial

You can download a pdf copy here:

Click to access christmashorrorspecialissue.pdf

Enjoy, and Merry Christmas to all!

Urban Horror Special Out Now!

Writing is sometimes a thankless task. Endlessly hunched over a typewriter/piece of paper/keyboard, pouring out your heart, trying desperately to put into words the perfect visions in your head.  Sending it to editors in the hope that one of them will see some spark of brilliance, and feeling the harsh, wounding, agony of every rejection. Why do we do it? The answer is acceptance. The thrill of realising someone else gets what you are trying to say. The feeling that people will be reading your words, that the vision in your head is being transferred, possibly around the world.

My story “Shoot Out” appears in the Morpheus Tales Urban Horror Special Issue, go get a copy now feel and transfer my vision to your head. You’ll enjoy it, I know you will!

The Morpheus Tales Urban Horror Special Issue Edited by Tommy B. Smith is not now!

The 19 page preview is available here:

http://issuu.com/morpheustales/docs/uhspreview

The printed format magazine will be available in two different sizes, the A4 Large Format Edition, and the A5 Compact Edition. Both have the same contents and are available from lulu.com:

Large Format A4 Collector’s Edition

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/morpheus-tales-urban-horror-special-issue/15830522

Compact A5 Collector’s Edition

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/morpheus-tales-urban-horror-special-issue-digest-size/15835689

Our full range of Morpheus Tales Magazines is available from lulu here:

http://stores.lulu.com/morpheustales

Story Acceptance – Morpheus Tales Urban Horror Special Issue

Another story accepted! Morpheus Tales Magazine does a number of special issues throughout the year, this year they’ve already published the Scream Queens Special Issue and the Dark Sorcery Special issue (which I shoulda been in!).

The editor of the Dark Sorcery Special, Tommy B. Smith,  is now busy at work on the Urban Horror Special Issue, and my story, “Shoot Out”, has been accepted. I shouted with joy when I found out.

The story’s original title was “Explosive” and it’s action packed, but that’s as much detail as I can give you. No doubt there will be a preview of the issue available before publication, and I’ll post the link.

Morpheus Tales will be accepting submissions until 1st of March for the issue, so check out the writers guidelines on their website:

www.morpheustales.com

More news on the issue’s progress as I get it.

Morpheus Tales Dark Sorcery Special Issue – Writers Wanted!

Morpheus Tales Dark Sorcery Special Issue

Dark fiction featuring sorcery in all forms, whether of this world, or another. Black magic, mystical rites, wizardry conjured from your nightmares and entities summoned from the netherworld of your imagination: the sky (or the abyss) is the limit.

Up to 3,000 words in length, and one submission at a time. Attach submissions as a Word or RTF file, and include “Dark Sorcery Submission” in the title of the email.

Please send submissions to: morpheustales@blueyonder.co.uk

We are looking for first world serial rights and first world online rights.

The Morpheus Tales Dark Sorcery Special Issue is being edited by Tommy B. Smith, whose work has appeared in the hallowed pages of Morpheus Tales previously, including in MT#4 alongside fiction by Michael Laimo.

The Morpheus Tales Dark Sorcery Special Issue will be published via print-on-demand services, and be available for download.

Happy Halloween! Free Morpheus Tales Flash Fiction Horror Special!

The Morpheus Tales horror flash fiction special issue is here!

The Morpheus Tales Flash Fiction Special is out now! The Special issue is FREE!!

View your copy:

http://www.morpheustales.com/special_issues.htm

Download your copy:

http://www.morpheustales.com/morpheustalesflashfictionspecial.pdf

The issuu copy:

http://issuu.com/morpheustales/docs/mtflashfictionhorrorspecial?viewMode=magazine&mode=embed

This magazine is free to read and distribute. That’s right, you can download it and send it to friends, print it off, send the link to family, do whatever you like with it (as long as you do not amend/change or remove anything, the magazine must be kept whole).

A limited edition print version of this magazine is only exclusively through lulu.com:

http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/morpheus-tales-flash-fiction-horror-special/7843286