I’ve finally decided to go indie. Or at least, add indie publishing to my authorial bow (or quiver or whatever). I’ve been toying with the idea for quite a while, at least since this time last year, but I can remember very clearly the point at which I switched from hmmm maybe I should try this indie publishing thing to yes, I’m going to publish something. I was driving to work (along Terminal Avenue, specifically), rolling the idea of self-publishing something around in my head. I don’t know the exact date but it was in February. I know that because my wife was in the UK and the Winter Olympics was on. I was trying to come up with a way to dip my toe into the indie world without investing a ridiculous amount of time into editing, covers etc. I didn’t want to publish a full novel but I knew short stories had limited success. Then it hit me. I had an unpublished zombie story, The First Zombie Hunter, that was around 5,000 words long and had the potential to be expanded into a novella. It was perfect. It was something new to write but I had a good … Read More
Out Now – The Bone Boy (JWK Best of Horror)
The Bone Boy was originally published last year in James Ward Kirk’s Bones anthology. It’s one of my favourite stories so I was particularly pleased and proud to hear it had been selected as part of the James Ward Kirk Fiction Best of Horror 2013 Collection which is available now from Amazon in both ebook and print. And it’s got a cracking cover: A huge thank you to James Ward Kirk for choosing to include The Bone Boy, I’m chuffed to bits as some might say. [Out Now – The Bone Boy (JWK Best of Horror) by Philip Harris first appeared on Solitary Mindset on 14th August 2014]
Out Now – Artificial Wife
I’m very pleased to announce I have a new story out. This one’s another science fiction flash piece called Artificial Wife and you can read it for free on the Story Shack Magazine website. Unbelievably, this is my twentieth publication so I’m especially happy that it also has a cool illustration by Michael Ilkiw. As usual, I won’t spoil the plot but here’s the opening. Most of the time I can almost believe she’s real. She’s not, she’s a Mark IV Remote Surrogate – a “mote”. My real wife, Annabel, is back on Earth but the mote’s a perfect copy, identical in every way; despite the fact that my wife encouraged me to mix things up a bit and “enhance” a couple of key attributes. If you do read it (it’s not long so it’s not a big investment), drop me a comment either here or on Story Shack to let me know what you thought. [Out Now – Artificial Wife by Philip Harris first appeared on Solitary Mindset on 17th July 2014]
Out Now – CAvE
I’m pleased to announce that my science fiction story, CAvE is now available in Nebula Rift Volume 2 Number 5. CAvE is a flash piece, about 980 words long. I won’t spoil the story by trying to tease the plot but here’s the opening couple of lines. My name is Daniel Jones and tomorrow I start my journey into the future. That is, unless my reprieve comes through which seems unlikely given that my court appointed defence lawyer is an imbecile fresh out of school and I’m guilty as hell. At some point it should be up on Amazon but you can already buy it direct from here. [Out Now – CAvE by Philip Harris first appeared on Solitary Mindset on 10th July 2014]
Out Now – The Bone Boy
Well, it’s been a hectic few weeks with the marathon, the Vancouver Writers Festival, trips to see John Cleese and Craig Ferguson plus lots of day job work all crammed into a 3 week period. That’s the excuse I’m going to use for not realising that a) The Bones Anthology from James Ward Kirk Fiction was release and b) My story, The Bone Boy, won an Editors Choice award. I was very happy with The Bone Boy so it’s great to see it in print. You can pick up a copy of both the ebook and the print version from Amazon and at the moment the ebook is free. Not sure how long that will last. [Out Now – The Bone Boy by Philip Harris first appeared on Solitary Mindset on 2nd November 2013]
Out Now – Origami Man
My new fantasy story , Origami Man, is up at Hogglepot. This one started with the image of a man made out of newspaper talking to a newspaper boy. Initially it was going to be fairly lighthearted but it didn’t really turn out that way in the end. Despite the fact that I’m not running at the moment (that starts back up tomorrow morning), this week has been surprisingly busy – mostly with work. I did manage to scrape together a couple of writing sessions to finish off a new story – CAvE – and add just under two thousand words to The Ghost Smuggler. I’m now reaching the point where I’m doing more and more actual writing rather than just reworking content from the earlier drafts. I’ll still be bringing some stuff over but from here on it’s mostly new content hanging on the bones of the early draft. That means I need to be a lot more disciplined about sitting down and writing. My goal is to get the first draft of the rewrite complete by the end of August so that I can be ready to pitch it at the Surrey International Writers’ Conference in October. That’s the goal anyway. It’s a … Read More
Out Now – Happin3ss101.com
I have a new story out called Happin3ss101.com. You can find it in the May issue of eHorror – available in all the popular ebook formats. That issue is currently on sale for $1.99 but I’m not sure how much longer that will last so grab it now while you can. [The article Out Now – Happin3ss101.com by Philip Harris originally appeared on Solitary Mindset on May 12th, 2013]
Out Now – Aftermath
I’m somewhat late (long story) but my drabble, Aftermath, is up at The Were-Traveler. A drabble, for those who haven’t come across them before, is a story that is exactly 100 words long – not 101, not 99…100. From Wikipedia: The concept is said to have originated in UK science fiction fandom in the 1980s; the 100-word format was established by the Birmingham University SF Society, taking a term from Monty Python‘s 1971 Big Red Book. In the book, “Drabble” was described as a word game where the first participant to write a novel was the winner. In order to make the game possible in the real world, it was agreed that 100 words would suffice. The Were-Traveler has a whole issue of drabbles, well worth a look. [The article Out Now – Aftermath by Philip Harris originally appeared on Solitary Mindset on May 3rd, 2013]
Out Now – Only Friends
I’m very pleased to announce that I’m appearing alongside a whole host of fantastic writers in the latest Anthology of European SF. This one was a bit of a surprise. The anthology was released as part of EuroCon 2013 in Kiev and I wasn’t sure whether my story, Only Friends, would be included until a couple of days before the anthology was released. There’s lots of great authors in the collection – here’s the full table of contents: “The Dead Orchards” by Ian R. MacLeod (England) “Transcendent Express” by Jetse de Vries (Netherlands) “Memory Recall” by Regina Catarina (Portugal) “Digits are Cold, Numbers are Warm” by Liviu Radu (Romania) “Repeat Performances” by Car Rafala (Italy) “Bing Bing Larissa” by Cristian Mihail Teodorescu (Romania) “Rebellion” by Diana Pinguicha (Portugal) “The Server and the Dragon” by Hannu Rajaniemi (Finland) “The Royal Library” by Vladimir Arenev (Ukraine) “Only Friends” by Philip Harris (England) “Starsong” by Aliette de Bodard (France) “News from a Dwarf Universe” by Danut Ungureanu (Romania) You can download the anthology for free from here but only until May 10th. I’m not sure if it will be available after that time so if you want some great fiction from some great authors (and me), … Read More
Out Now – Night Man is Waiting
My horror story, Night Man is Waiting is up at Ibexian Magazine. The opening to the story is actually a real event. I was sitting in a cab, watching the terminal that the driver uses to communicate with their office when a message came up: Night man is waiting And thus a story was born.