Category Archives: Journal
A jabberwocky made of meat and pain
My son recently convinced me to buy Bears vs. Babies, the new game from the creators of Exploding Kittens.
It wasn’t a hard sell.
The official description is it’s a card game where you build monstrous bears who eat horrible babies, which is more or less accurate.
I could tell you that you can build many different types of monsters, not just bears, who must do battle with various baby armies – land, sea, sky.
I could tell you that you win by defeating babies worth the most points – because just like life, not all babies are born equal.
I could tell you that you can mess with your fellow players by forcing them into fights against baby armies when their monsters are not ready, dismembering their carefully crafted monsters with devilish tools, or even switching their monster heads with your own. (In the game, not in real life. Although there don’t appear to be any rules preventing you using your real-life head.)
I could tell you that it’s a quick but ever-changing game, bound to appeal to people who like Munchkins and Cards Against Humanity.
But all I really need to tell you is that in my first game I created a jabberwocky made of meat and pain who sucks at dancing and I saw myself reflected in this game.
Buy it now, before the baby armies attack.
“A zany new romp through a multi-tiered Apocalypse”
I’ll go along with any review of my book that says “in the tradition of writers such as Neil Gaiman.” Thanks, Vancouver Sun!
It’s going to be a heroic weekend!
Nice end to a long week: Came home to find my contributor copy of The Best of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly waiting in the mail. Reading time!
Beautiful Books: Has the World Ended Yet?
My new book, Has the World Ended Yet?, is a damn fine work of design. Read how it got that way with this All Lit Up piece from Michel Vrana, the designer.
Peter Darbyshire’s short story collection Has the World Ended Yet? was my third cover for the Buckrider imprint. I was given a PDF of the manuscript, and my art direction from publisher Noelle Allen was “Paul had the idea of the cover being influenced by Weird Tales and having that fun, pulp feel.” (Paul being Senior Editor Paul Vermeersch).
With evocative story titles like “The Calling of Cthulhu,” “The Deity Salesmen Always Ring Twice,” and “You Shall Know Us by Our Vengeance,” as well as the eponymous “Has the World Ended Yet?,” I felt confident in putting together an appropriate apocalyptic pulpy cover.
“While there is hope, it is not for us”
“Manifestations of discarded, mythological histories that have risen up, unbidden and unwanted, to wreak havoc on characters already caught up in more everyday struggles.” – Quill & Quire review of my new book, Has the World Ended Yet?
(Photo is from the Paris Catacombs, when I was much younger and thinner.)
I’m a heart breaker!
“Darbyshire (The Warhol Gang) delights in mashing pop-culture genres together, exposing profound truths beneath classic tropes in ways at once hilarious, weird, and heart-breaking.”
I don’t mind this Publishers Weekly starred review of my new book, Has the World Ended Yet?, at all!
(Image via Pixabay)
Not writing but relaxing
Ok, I’m not writing but I am down the road from where Ian Fleming lived, so it’s kind of a literary holiday?
Pumpkin Spice Apocalypse is back!
Just in time for the dead to rise, I talk to Open Book about my new collection, Has the World Ended Yet?, and other festive topics.
The end of the world – now live!
I had a great time at the Vancouver Writers Festival this year – it’s always such a treat to meet smart, creative readers and talk writing and books with gifted people like Lydia Kwa and Sean Cranbury.
I was also lucky enough to do a Facebook Live with the festival about my new book, Has the World Ended Yet? Check out the video – it’s only about 10 minutes but I had a great time doing it.
I’m not sure what I’m saying in this screen grab – I think maybe: “The road to salvation is that way, not with this tawdry, earthly book down here.”
Upcoming appearances
A little reminder I’ve got a couple of upcoming appearances around the same time my new book, Has the World Ended Yet?, launches.
This is going to be otherworldly. I’ll be taking part in the Trips to the Other World event at the 2017 Vancouver Writers Festival along with Lydia Kwa. Hosted by the always ethereal Sean Cranbury. Here’s the pitch:
Vancouver journalist Peter Darbyshire is also a blogger and author. His collection of 19 linked short stories, Has the World Ended Yet?, starts with retired superheroes living in a soulless suburbia where everyone gets lost trying to get home. Then the angels start to fall from the sky. Darbyshire weaves together superheroes, ghosts, the undead, a hired hitman, the Cold War, the rapture and avenging angels in a Twilight Zone-style collection that is riveting and human. Vancouver psychologist and author Lydia Kwa transports us to seventh-century China, which teems with magic, fox spirits and demons. Singapore-born Kwa updates traditional Chinese mythology to include female empowerment and a wickedly modern sensibility. Fantasy with a modern twist will be on full display this afternoon.
Saturday, Oct. 21
5 pm
Studio 1398
1398 Cartwright St.,
3rd Floor
Be there or be in some alternate dimension.
Escapist Fiction to Escape the World
I’ll be appearing at VCON this year on the “Escapist Fiction to Escape the World” panel. Here are the details:
Sometimes, when you pick up a book, all you really want to do is fall into the fiction and get away from reality. So tell us, out of all your favourite novels and stories – the ones in the well thumbed softcovers and the hardcovers without dust-jackets that you always pull of the shelf, pull up in Kindle or sync up on Audible – which is the BEST Escapist Fiction to Escape the World.
Saturday, Oct. 28, 2:30 p.m.
Sheraton Vancouver Guildford Hotel, Surrey, BC
peter darbyshire 