First of all, and God protect and preserve me, but I am now on Twitter @aptshadow . Please boost my following if you're a fellow sufferer. I may occasionally say something amusing, or at least make snarky comments on things other people have said (1).

Secondly, and far more excitingly…

The Adrian Tchaikovsky Short Story Collection is coming!

Who knows, perhaps the first of many. Or at least several. Let's stay optimistic. This collection in the Newcon Press Imaginings series has a whole bundle of my short work, some of which has been seen elsewhere, some of which is just crawling into the light of day for the first time, blinking at the sun and wondering if this whole evolution lark is seriously worth it.

This collection includes:

Feast and Famine (published in Solaris Rising 2), Good Taste (Now I Lay Me Down to Reap), The Dissipation Club (Dead But Dreaming 2) along with the Shadows of the Apt story, The Sun of the Morning (Deathray magazine) and The Artificial Man (originally published in the long-defunct Xenos mag, and one of my first published pieces from years back). Plus, never before seen (though sometimes read) stories, Care (about looking after ageing parents in unusual circumstances), 2144 and All That (the unexpected sporting opportunities of time travel), Rapture (When Religion attacks), The God Shark (pretty much what it says on the tin) and one of my all time personal favourite pieces of writing, the Beagle-esque The Roar of the Crowd. Not to play the salesman too much, but as well as hopefully being just the thing for anyone who likes my writing, if you happen to have a friend who's interested, but is a little intimidated by a 10 book series, this seems like a grand starting point, doesn't it?

The volume will be available in a limited edition run of hardbacks, and also in e‑book form, and it will be available direct from Newcon (probably the most conscientious way to obtain it) and also on Amazon and the usual outlets. Current wisdom suggests it will be out mid-August, i.e. not quite in time for Nine Worlds, which is annoying.

I'll post a more targetted link to the Newcon site as soon as they bring up the book there. And while you're over there, you should check out some of their other books, all good stuff.

(1) In the ecosystem of the conversationalists I am, frankly, a scavenger. Or possibly a parasite.