Edmund Lester

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/

I just got word that issue 9 of Shroud Magazine will feature an article of mine called "I Laughed 'Til the Zombies Ate My Brains". It's a summary of comedy zombies movies other than Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland, with reviews etc. Issue 9 should be out sometime soon. You want to check Shroud out go to their website. I'm pleased to say most of their issues have featured something of mine. I missed issue 6 but I think I'm in all the others. I'll have to go get writing an article for submission to issue 10. Wish me luck Anyway their site is at http://www.shroudmagazine.com/ Go pay a visit, maybe buy an issue or two - or check out their books. I've read a couple of their release - been of a good standard.

Just received word that sf webzine New Myths will be featuring another two of my pieces - 1 book review of Beth Bernobich's Ars Memoriae and an article entitled "Charles Babbage and the Difference Engine" No idea which issue they will appear in but they should be live later this year. I think the article will even be available as an audio file - wow, eh? That'll be my second audio file - one of my sf stories got the similar treatment last year. Grin currently stretching from ear to ear

Website New Myths has bought a couple of pieces from me (huzzah!). First couple of sales I've had for a while. Ok, maybe a bit of this is because I have not written all that much of late. Still hope it will make me get back on with it. I need to get a number of book reviews sorted in the next week or so. But enough of that - the sales. First was a review of Patrick Moore's Legends of the Stars - a book describing the stories behind the constellations named by the ancient Greeks. Second was a hopefully humorous piece called "Ten Science Fiction Novels to Give your Father-in-Law" which details ten books that I felt could prove to my non-sf inclined father in law. It's a bit of a true article, this actually happened. My father-in-law is not a sf fan. He's never going to be one. But I did manage to persuade him to give he genre a try a while back and started selecting books for him. As for whether he liked them, well you'll have to read the article. I will pos...

The last week has seen three rejections - boo, hiss! New magazine Bastards and Whores has rejected my double-drabble (two connected 100 word stories) "Soup / Eat Up!". I don;t think I'm going to try that anywhere else. Crossed Genres has declined my article on Charles Babbage and the Difference Engine. And to round out the set, my run at House of Horror has come to an end. After accepting the first two stories I sent in to them they've rejected my third Jeff the Demon story "Let's Have Fun with Them". I had hoped they'd take this (obviously, you might say but for a reason). They published the previous Jeff the Demon tale "I Want to Stay" in the January issue of the zine and so they know the character. Selling it somewhere else might be tricky. Ah well at least I have a couple of new mags who want reviews. Not that it's a guarantee of acceptances but they will at least take them. Now all I have to do is write them.

New writing market Port Iris has rejected another two of my pieces - a review of Bryan Smith's book Depraved and an article on the history of The Malleus Maleficarum - a book on hunting witches. So it goes...

Dark Recesses Press have rejected by short story "A Day Like Any Other". I've sent it in to Futurismic figuring you never know. Shock Totem have rejected my article "The Maleus Maleficarum". I have no idea yet where this might be sent. It's its fourth rejection so maybe I should consider retiring it. We'll see.

My short biography of Issac Asimov is now live in the December 2009 edition of New Myths. The article can be found at http://www.newmyths.com/index.pacq?id=174&tier=2 There are a couple of my book reviews on this site also - for Richard Satterlie's Imola and Brian Keene's Urban Gothic Urban Gothic http://www.newmyths.com/index.pacq?id=172&tier=2 Imola http://www.newmyths.com/index.pacq?id=173&tier=2

A little while back I posted news of the first half of an article I'd written on the Marquis de Sade - origin of the word sadism. It appeared on the adult website Lucrezia. Since then they've published the second part of the piece - on Leopold Ritter von Sacher-Masoch, the man behind the word Masochism. Okay they posted it nearly two weeks ago I just forgot to update this site. Anyway, apologies for being late, here's the link in case you want to read it. As before I want to remind you that the site has a lot of sexual content if you choose to go exploring. If you do I hope you enjoy it, they've certainly got a fair amount of content. To do that you'll just need to remove all after the dot com in the address. The link I'm posting is stright to my article as a pdf. So no links back. http://www.lucreziamagazine.com/index.php/editorial/articles/542-the-original-sado-masochists-leopold-ritter-von-sacher-masoch.pdf

The first part of one of my articles has been posted to the Lucrezia ezine. The full piece is entitled "The Original Sado-Masochists" and is a double biography of the Marquis de Sade and Leopold Ritter von Sacher-Masoch, the two men that the words Sadism and Masochism were named after. The second part will be posted shortly. The site is a bit of adult one - okay it's dedicated to erotica I admit it. But it's the perfect home for the article. You can find my piece at http://lucreziamagazine.com/index.php/editorial/articles/536-the-original-sado-masochists-marquis-de-sade.html It's up to you whether you read any more of the site. To be honest it's up to you whether you choose to read my article as well. I'm certainly not going to insist upon it. It's the first article I've sold based on eponyms. I've always had a fascination with the stories behind words and when you can track it to a specific person I find it all the better.

Just got the contract for a non-fiction piece of mine called "The Original Sado-Masochists", a double biography of the Marquis de Sade and Leopold Ritter von Sacher-Masoch, the two men behind the eponyms "Sadism" and "Masochism". It;s a little bit more adult than most of the stuff I do in terms of subject matter and, although it does necessarily have some adult content having to describe their activities, I have not tried to be overly erotic or sensational about it. The piece is a straight (no pun intended) biography piece. I'll post more when it goes live and you can judge for yourselves - or choose to skip it entirely. I won't be offended.

I wrote an article on the Saw movie franchise some months ago and sent it off to Shroud Magazine. Well I had confirmation today that it will feature in issue 7 of the magazine - which is just about to go to the printers. It's a magazine I am particularly partial to, so I always like being featured.

I've sold another article - this time to Science Fiction / Fantasy / Mythology website New Myths The article is a brief biography of Isaac Asimov - pretty much my favourite author of all time. It's my fifth sale to this site, after four book reviews. You can find the site at http://www.newmyths.com/