I’ve been writing short stories lately while working on the revisions of the new novel. A few of them have already found homes with publications and will be out shortly. I’m thrilled to announce I’ll have a short story in the Aug. 25 issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies, one of the top speculative fiction magazines. It’s also one of my favourite magazines, because it’s “dedicated to publishing the best in literary adventure fantasy,” with an emphasis on the literary. And let’s face it, spec fiction isn’t always known for being literary, which frustrates the hell out of me, if no one else. I grew up on writers like Roger Zelazny and Steven Brust, who care as much about the craft of writing as the plot and characters, and that’s the approach I take with my own fiction. So I’m really honoured to be published in BCS, and I’m just glad there’s a place like that for anachronisms like me.

Oh yes, the story is called “The Angel Azrael Rode into the Town of Burnt Church on a Dead Horse.” It’s a weird western featuring fallen angels, risen demons, vampires, zombies, and an assortment of other oddities. Think High Plains Drifter meets Mike Mignola and you’ll have an idea of what it’s about.

More on the other stories to come.

A random shot I took at the beach this weekend:

I don’t have a bank account or credit card with HSBC and I never will. Here’s why:

A little more than a year ago, I moved into my new house. For some reason, the previous owner didn’t set up mail forwarding, so I continued to receive her mail. I wrote “Moved” on each piece of her mail and dropped it into the mailbox, and gradually I stopped receiving her mail.

Except for her mail from HSBC.

I’ve returned a year’s worth of bank statements, credit card pre-approvals and who knows what else to HSBC, each envelope with a “Moved” message on it. I’ve even ripped open the little plastic windows to write “Moved” on the statements themselves, because maybe the staff at HSBC aren’t looking at the envelopes. But the mail from HSBC keeps coming.

I’ve never opened any of the envelopes to see what they contain, but it’s obvious that they hold this woman’s financial information. And HSBC doesn’t seem to have any system in place to stop sending their clients’ financial information out to wrong addresses, even when alerted to the fact they’re sharing sensitive data with whoever wants it.

Which makes me wonder what level of banking and credit card fraud they have. And what level of security they have on their online sites, as security clearly isn’t a priority for their physical mail.

There’s no way I’d trust HSBC with my money. If you’ve got an account with them, I’d strongly suggest taking your funds out of it, before a stranger beats you to it.

Some interesting thoughts about how agents are adapting to the ebook world by Mike Shatzkin.

First there were fake Apple stores. Now there’s a fake Ikea.