One thing that is, to a certain extent, unavoidable, is that telling a story through individual stories results in compromise, and The Chains of Helleron isn't quite as self-contained and satisfactory as I'd like, for there is a certain proportion of it that only makes sense as a segment of a sequence — notably characters that are introduced but do not get much of the action. In the end I've settled for this, on the basis that there should be a third story along eventually that will help everything along. Working on the later books of the actual Shadows of the Apt series, I've discovered something similar in macrocosm. As the series grows, I am put to greater foreshadowing of future events in order to maintain the series structure. Each book will have its own story arc, its beginning and its end, but a certain amount of material will be unable to resolve, pending developments in later books.

You can find The Sun of the Morning here and, if you've not read it, do get it under your belt before attempting the new one.

After that, you can find The Chains of Helleron here.

(1) Yes, I know Black Company predates Band of Brothers (the book and the miniseries, albeit not the wartime experiences on which they are based).

Enjoy!

For those that didn't, and that do want a signed copy, watch this place. I have plans afoot.

It's been a while since the last new story went up, partly because of, you know, writing books'n'all, but also because of being unable for some reason to upload to the site, which is being looked into. I actually have two stories waiting to be popped on, so look forward to some more shortly.

So: go here for "The Price of Salt" which, in a blatant display of false advertising, isn't a sequel at all, but is arguably one of a series, for the first time, following up on the adventures of the four reprobates we met in "An Old Man in a Harsh Season". More on the content of Price in a moment. However…

One of the FAQs I get concerns the longevity and future of the series, so I thought I'd better set something out here to satisfy those people who want to know but haven't already read the yadda in an interview, and haven't asked themselves. Obviously, book 4 of the series has come out. A great many people seem to have been surprised by this, such surprise manifesting itself round about the middle of book 3 when it was clear thata any conclusion fo the "trilogy" would have to be horribly rushed.

There is nothing magic about trilogies. Ok, not entirely true. The basic story structure of beginning-middle-end obviously lends itself to a trilogy, which may be why many trilogies flag in the middle. However the fantasy genre got hooked on trilogies after Tolkien, and Mr T didn't intend to write one, instead producing a long book in six parts. I think the publishers decided to chop it into three, and so unleashed the trope that is still stalking about the place making a nuisance of itself. The two most prominent fantasy authors who were Tolkien's contemporaries — Lewis and Peake, neither of them had trilogies in mind (although the tragedy of Mervyn Peake's medical condition meant that Gormenghast ended up as a trilogy with a very odd last book (which I love(1)) he intended to write more. This is one of the great losses to literature as a whole, and to fantasy in particular.)

These days you get three book series, and you get series that aren't. Notably, the two biggest names in epic fantasy are looking far further — Erikson and Martin are both going for broke, with Erikson's 10th book due to round off the Malazon Book of the Dead, but still unlikely to close the pages of the world that he and Esselmont write in. So: Shadows of the Apt — also a 10 book series, if all goes according to plan(3). However there are plot arcs and plot arcs. Whilst the overshadowing plot will run from 1 to 10, the series itself will be subdivided into three segments (think not of trilogies, but of insects, after all). Salute the Dark brings the first segment to an end, and the next three books (and I'm getting beyond my brief here, because we're still in negotiations, but hey) will be a second plot arc, but slightly more stand-alone. If fortune favours me, books 8–10 will then be the final arc that will conclude matters. Will the world remain open for further writing(4)? You betcha.

Next topic then: Vampires.

Yeah, well, not exactly. Vampires have had a stranglehold (6) on the genre recently, or at least a sub-sub-sub-genre of vampire/supernatural romance seems to have been lording it around the place. Yes, yes, yes, the Mosquito-kinden are vampires, or rather magically-powerful blood-drinkers, as they're not undead in any way. However Uctebri surely owes Nosferatu for a few pointers, possibly through a filger of Shadow of the Vampire. If he's a vampire, he's old-school bald and creepy, yo (7).

However something's coming to hamstring the vampires and overtake them, I think, and it looks like it's werewolves, ever the cybermen to the vampire's dalek (8). At the SFX Weekender I ran into Steve Feasey, whose Changeling series is a young-adult take on the werewolf myth, and sounded pretty damn good from his reading — and sex, lots of sex (9). Vampires and werewolves are both still going strong, for one reason at least, because they have that undercurrent of sex, taboo, sweaty emotions, all that jazz.

Anyway, obviously no werewolves in Shadows of the Apt. No wolves, after all. Absolutely no way that I could do my own take on the lycanthrope legends in insect form…

So go read The Price of Salt and check the phase of the moon…

(1) An acting friend of mine one held up Richard E Grant's portrayal of Withnail as The Place That Actors Do Not Want To End Up (2). There is a similar cautionary tale for writers, and the character lives within the pages of Titus Alone, in the Under-River, surrounded by stacks and stacks of unsold copies of his book.

(2) Not the portrayal, which is masterful, but the despairing, wretched, battered and hopeless pride of poor damned Withnail on his terminal decline.

(3) There have been writers who have ended up with more books than their numbering knows what to do with, owing to unusually high page count — George RR Martin and Tad Williams, for two. I'm sure there are also authors whose publishers have slapped them and told them to stop it.

(4) Both mine and other peoples', I hope, as shown by some of the third-party stories on this site. Everything on the site is Shadows of the Apt Canon(5)

(5) Or leadshotter, at least.

(6) When it come to vampires I'll mix whatever damn metaphors I want.

(7) As I think one phrases it.

(8) Geekspasm

(9) Not explicit Janine Ashbless Black Lace sex, but from the bit he read, the series is very much aware of just how sexually-charged the whole werewolf thing is.

However, a new story detailing the murkier side of Collegium academia, because whilst the books are full of academics spying, fighting and dabbling in politics, I should at least show one token scholar who's actually doing something scholarly.

Herewith, then, The Naturalist.

(1) It'll need to grow to at least two shenanigans before that's viable.

There is a somewhat peculiar genesis for this particular story that centres on a live role-playing group that I and some friends created, and for which I wrote an extensive backstory at the time. As I quite liked what I'd written, but couldn't exactly publish it more widely in its original form, I've taken some of the plot points and adapted them for this story, and its (hopeful) sequels. We'll see how it works out.

Anyway, on that point, I should probably give a nod of thanks towards, particularly, Dave Young, Jamie Jones, Kieran Walker, Andy Hodgson and Dave Huxter, and of course the inimitable Andy Connell.

The story is here, and please enjoy.

Grahame writes, of himself:

"

Well, what can I say about me? Just the usual sort of fluff. In 1792 I was washed up on the shore of southern Sumatra in a coffin-like box made of fused manatee bones. With no memory of my former life I was brought up by a family of  humanoid lizard haruspices and introduced in my teens to the discrete yet complimentary worlds of high fashion, the reading of entrails and gurning. Needless to say, I excelled at all.

On my 118^th birthday* I was sent out into the world to make my fortune, and when that didn’t particularly happen I turned to the written word as both solace and muse. I both wrote and appeared in several films by no-budget Internet shysters Shock! Horror! Probe! (Bikini Zombies From The Moon, for which I will probably be apologising for the rest of my days, and Shine Dog, in which you may see the exalted Shadows of the Apt author stretching his acting chops), and last year I was a top-10 runner up in SFX magazine’s annual short story competition Pulp Idol, with my fanciful tale “Mickey and the Nixies”. My first time in a book. I liked it. Roomy.

Since that exalted day I have, due to recurrent existential crises (AKA laziness) fallen back onto my twin vices of self-abuse and cooking sherry. Despite my Web presence, which embarrassingly remains to this day, I hold no truck with your Internets. I have no “web-sight” and I neither “twitter” nor “blog” though in the future this may change as my mayfly interest flits hither and yon, in the manner of a fist in search of a face.

Today my time is spent recumbent in a leatherette chaise-longue stuffed with the armpit fur of 10,000 ocelots, plugged into the collected works of Kajagoogoo, thinking fondly of days past. It is a simple life, but it suffices.

Enjoy the story, a fanciful tale which came to me in the manner of a dream. Though a dream with less to wipe up afterwards.

“Too shy-shy, hush hush…” Ah, poetry.

*My long life I ascribe to the vast consumption of Shipham’s Bloater fish paste and

the total avoidance of the sex act. By salubrious happenstance, the first leads naturally to the second."

Adam writes:

"I’m Adam. I write.

I suppose I’m a kind of Caliban in this brave new world; I don’t write a blog. I’ve never really learnt the knack. I do a little bit for Yog-Sothoth (the Bookshelf, on Yog Radio – look for it in the audio downloads at Yog-Sothoth.com if you’re feeling keen) but it’s not the same thing.

Now, I’m fondest of history, horror and crime, in that order. Exceptionally cunning readers might notice at least one of my sources. You probably won’t notice the other, which springs from an amateur’s interest in cypher. In this instance the cypher is based on telegraph code, which grew out of a desire to transmit as much information as possible as cheaply as possible. Since the charge was per word, the end result was that one small word could do extra duty, as per:

Enrique streamlet solstice turtle worthily

The ship Enrique is stranded but not seriously damaged, through the fault of the pilot. Tugs are assisting; more details to follow.

[see also ABC Telegraphic Code]

For those of you who want to know what else I’ve written , most of my published work is RPG based. I’ve written two articles for Pagan’s Unspeakable Oath (it can’t be dead if it eternal lies) and an article for Chaosium about Prohibition. For those more interested in history I can recommend my work on the 21 Club in New York, which can be found on their website 21club.com. I also heartily recommend the 21; it’s a friendly place, and one of my favorites.

Watch this space.

Curtain’s up! Enjoy the show."

Anyway, the story is here.

(1) in the sense of recondite

"Keris McDonald is an established genre writer with 5 books to her name … Just not in this genre. And not her real-life name either, actually. She was delighted to be asked by Adrian to contribute to the world of the Insect Kinden. You can find her author blog at www.janineashbless.blogspot.com   Adults only please! — and the occasional picture does make it NSFW."

The link to the story is here.