Story "Troubling UnderCurrents" to appear in Superhero Monster-Hunter anthology!

New fictional anthology appearance! My short story Troubling UnderCurrents is appearing in the upcoming collection The Good Fight from Emby Press, a fun new publisher amazingly devoted to stories about monsterhunting.

The theme of this particular book is superhero monsterhunting, as you might guess from the cover off to the right. And let's all just take a moment to look at that cover, because I love it.

Okay, enough slack-jaw for now. Here's a summary:

Troubling UnderCurrents is about a poor man who grows a second personality called UnderCurrent after an accident. They share a body, they squabble, sometimes UnderCurrent takes over and goes for a joyride. But the host persuades him to channel his constant aggression into punching criminals, as it's better than any alternatives they come up with.

Still, violently stalking people on the street isn't ideal. What these guys need is a punching bag. Some kind of big, straight-up evil... monster.

Publication apparently scheduled for autumn 2014, which is exciting. Rest assured I'll talk about it more nearer the time as I enjoyed writing this one - it's a good meaty piece too, over seven thousand words. Hell, I might even bring UnderCurrent back some day, he's got a certain something.

(Me and my constantly squabbling duos, I know. At least these two share a single body for added efficiency.)

So, that's the big announcement for now. You can see the full list of included stories over on the Emby Press site, and if you'll excuse me, I'm off to do some kind of gleeful dance at the prospect of finally getting to write a superhero. Feel free to gaze at the cover again, god knows I will.

Black Panther by Christopher Priest - A Homage

I recently subscribed to Marvel Unlimited, a Netflix-esque system that gives me all-I-can-eat Marvel comics for a fairly low price. Not bang-up-to-date ones, but I've not read half the comics I wanted to over the last decade due to financial concerns, so I can keep trawling for a while.

However, as well as striking out for new material, I've also re-read some old favourites, and I'd like to talk about one of those now: Black Panther by Christopher Priest and various artists, a series that ran from 1998 to 2003. The Black Panther character has existed since 1966, King of a fictional African nation called Wakanda, and mostly associated with standing in the backdrop of Avengers groupshots in the later decades of the twentieth century.

Attentive readers may note Priest also wrote Quantum & Woody, a series even closer to my heart than Black Panther. I started reading Panther due to following Priest over from Q&W, barely knowing who the character was, and Priest made me love it in approximately one issue. If you want a gushing tribute to Q&W, here's one I wrote in September 2012.

But anyway. Black Panther. What was that about?