Edmund Lester

After yesterday receiving news of a short story sale, reality has returned. Three rejections (one science article, one book reviews column and one short story) all from Basement Stories. Ouch! I think they're trying to tell me something. Still two of them are back out there with other potential homes. Now if I could just find a market for science articles...

I've been watching a few movies of late and it's about time I posted a few comments about them. I'll start with the more commercial stuff. Alice in Wonderland - yeah, Tim Burton. Well, it looks good. Nice and dark, twisted in just the right Tim Burton way. The acting's pretty good, and the plot paced well - decent and quick. Only problem is the plot content. It feels like a sequel. Guess it was always going to as, in many ways, it is. The story isn't a straightforward telling of the Alice books. It features a grown up Alice (nineteen years old I think) who's dismissed her previous visits to Wonderland as the rich imaginings of a child. So all through she's refinding all the characters and places of Wonderland. Johnny Depp is good, although a little overbearing - his role has been beefed up a little too far, kicking the film out of balance. It's okay - but I wanted it to be so much more. Daybreakers is a cool, near future sf-flavoured vampire movie. It ha...

Daily ezine Everyday Weirdness has bought my sf short story New Start. It's a bit dark - somehow everything I seem to write has a dark edge to it - unless it's silly. Anyway, they will be posting it to their site tomorrow. So go check it out http://everydayweirdness.com/

When I was a kid, somewhere about 9 years old, I heard music. I mean really heard. I know music must have been around me before then but I can't remember it making much of an impression. At nine though that changed. I heard The Who. Something about it excited me. Well I bought a Who album. Then having listened to that for a while I bought another. And not long after started wondering what else there was and a schoolfriends older brother played me (and him I guess) some Rolling Stones tracks. Band number two in my life. So I bought a Stones album. Maybe I didn't pick the best one (Got Live If You Want It) but I liked it enough. So much that I bought a second - Rolled Gold. That was the better choice. And it ended up with me and my music tastes having developed to what they are now - Dream Theater, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Rush, Tom Waits, Nick Cave. I could go on and on. But my purchase of Rolled Gold was way, way back in the days of vinyl. And since selling all my vinyl records ...

About a month ago I sent in a review to Plutonian Times - and they rejected it. Guess the run couldn't go on and on unbroken. Still, I hope to find that review a home somewhere, the paperback has yet to be released in the USA so it's still current.

I'm rather happy to be able to let you know that Murky Depths have posted another two of my reviews on their website - for the new Sherlock Holmes film and for Ramsey Campbell's Creatures of the Pool. As always you can find their site at http://www.murkydepths.com/ That brings my total on their site to nine - three movie reviews and six book reviews. Not to mention the four reviews (three books, one movie) that I've had in the magazine itself. Just having a happy moment

Guess I should have waited another day (following last night's post about a sale to the Murky Depths print mag). today found out they have accepted two more film reviews and a book review for the Snack Reviews on their website. Films are Valhalla Rising and Mutants, book is Eoin Colfer's And Another Thing. If you want to read them, pop over to their site (URL below) and click the link top left. http://www.murkydepths.com/

UK sf/horror mag Murky Depths (becoming my most regular home for writing) has accepted another of my reviews - of the recent DVD release Stag Night. The review will appear in the next issue of their magazine - not on the website. I still have another couple of reviews with them so maybe I'll be able to let you know some more news soon.

Today's rejection came from online sf zine New Myths. Because they have previous accepted a number of my reviews and articles I thought I would try them with a short story call The Screen. Didn't maintain my non-ficiton hit rate though. Bounced back today, rejected.

About a week ago I sent a story of mine (What Do I Do Now?) to a new sf market called Daily Science Fiction. Well today I got it back - rejected! Still it's quite a high paying market so I pretty much expected that. Time to find it somewhere new to go...

Much as I have been a lifelong sf fan and the majority of my past reading being sf I have always had a soft spot for decent horror. And of late with the fact most of my writing seems aimed at horror zines I've read more horror than not (unless you can call a history of English cricket horror in which case it's been exclusively horror). And I have to say I've been thoroughly enjoying doing so. I've read a number of damn fine novels of late and just wanted to let you know some thoughts on them and on just how many sf themes are running through these stories (okay if you read any of my reviews some of this might be familair but hey... Nate Kenyon's Sparrow Rock is the first I'll mention. At it's core it has a classic 1950s sf theme - nuclear war - and the action takes place in or around a nuclear bunker. Okay a lot of the actual action and detail is horror flavoured but the concept of an atomic explosion leading to mutated creatures is pure old school sf. But f...

The fourth of my reviews to appear on the Murky Depths website has just been posted - for Nate Kenyon's latest novel Sparrow Rock. If you want to read it pop over to their website (URL below) and click the link top right. You'll find the review of this book in the list... http://www.murkydepths.com/

My article "Ten Science Fiction Books to Give Your Father-in-Law" has been posted on sf website New Myths as part of their issue 11. Just click on the link below if you want to give it a read. http://www.newmyths.com/

Three more of my reviews are now live at Murky Depths website - in a new reviews section. You can find reviews of Stephen King's Under the Dome, Christopher Moore's Fool and Graham Masterton's Blind Panic by visiting their website (URL below) and clicking the link top left of the screen. http://www.murkydepths.com/ While you are there it might be worth checking out the magazine. It's a great publication.