try out a diet

Issue three of the electronic magazine Arkham Tales has been published, and it contains my short story “The Diet” – a tale in the Lovecraftian tradition.

It’s available for download in two formats: .pdf for web viewing or .pdf for printing.

I enjoyed writing “The Diet”, partly because I love this type of horror story, and because its characters are Irish, and it’s set in Dublin. I set stories all over the world (or invent worlds for them), but I’ve noticed that my stories which are most influenced by the work of Lovecraft are often set in Ireland.

I’ve another two stories in this style, both located in this country, gestating in my brain–one of them is a loose sequel to “Home”, which was published in Shroud Magazine last year.

I’m working my way through a number of incomplete projects at the moment: finishing them, and polishing them up for submission. I want to clear up this backlog before I start on another new story.

One story, which I began two years ago, finally got hammered into shape last week. It was the most fun I’ve had writing a story in ages. It’s also the longest story I’ve written. I try to keep everything under six thousand words if possible–it increases the chances for a sale because more markets take stories of that word count, plus I think it’s an ideal length for a short piece.

The story is King (or Queen), however. Sometimes you have to bow to the demands of the characters and the dictates of the world and allow them a looser rein.