New to the Kindle and priced as low as they’ll let me, an e-book containing two pieces of my short fiction that appear in neither of my collections.
The Box is the story of a haunted aircrash simulator and of war heroes in peacetime retraining. Eels is… well, the title alone should give you some kind of idea.
The Box was written for a loosely-themed hardcover anthology titled Retro Pulp Tales, edited by Joe R Lansdale. In the year of its publication it won me an award, my second ever. It was for Outstanding Achievement in Horror and Dark Fantasy: Short Fiction and it was presented by the International Horror Guild at the World Fantasy Convention at Saratoga Springs.
Eels was written on request for a special edition of PS Publishing’s Postscripts magazine. Most of my short stories were written between bigger projects, as a way to decompress. It took me a while to raise the nerve to tackle the short form; it’s hard. It calls for steady-handed precision work, with no room for indulgence or error. A short story works, or it doesn’t. There’s no covering up with jokes, action, or atmosphere.
Out of his Mind, my first short fiction collection, is now available in a Kindle edition, along with some of my early backlist titles – Chimera, on which was based the ITV miniseries with John Lynch, Scandinavian supernatural suspenser Follower, nightmare chase thriller Oktober, and police revenge drama Down River. The Painted Bride is the story of Molly Gideon, ex-junkie, unlikely Guardian Angel to her dead sister’s children.
6 responses to “The Box”
71p in the UK seems like a bargain, until the somewhat unlikely 'shipping charge' of £3.99 appears. I am scratching my head at that one. I hope the publication flies, though. This is the sort of book and price (excluding that shipping rip off) that would entice me into considering getting a Kindle.
Shipping charge? Grrrr. Beyond my control, I'm afraid, but I can see how it would put you off. I wonder if it's the same in the US? My plan was to release THE BOX as a free download but Amazon have removed that option. I dithered for a while and then added a second story to make it more worthwhile… I'll check the settings in case something needs to be altered or unticked.
apropos of nothing I just received an email from Amazon US saying that as I had bought a book by you I would love Black Stump Ridge by John Manning
I'm still trying to find out what that 'shipping charge' is all about, as the product page clearly states that the price includes VAT and whispernet delivery. I've a query in with Amazon and I'll report whatever I hear.
I had the Black Stump Ridge reommendation too… apart from the fact that it's an iUniverse book, I know nothing about it.
I emailed Amazon and within a couple of hours they phoned me. Impressive!
They confirmed my understanding, which is that the 71p is the entire price you should have to pay. No shipping cost, nothing extra. The agent I spoke to followed up with an email:
Hi Stephen,
As per our earlier conversation, I would recommend the customer call us with the order number, so we can investigate this further.
We can be contacted by Freephone directly by clicking the Contact Us option in the right-hand column of our Kindle Support pages at:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/kindlesupport
When you visit our website and select Contact Us, click on the "Phone" tab, enter your number, and we’ll call you right back.
I have have tried their phone back and it is excellent. the moment you press OK your phone rings.
the hardest part with Amazon is getting past their FAQ pages to real contact information.