Help fund the first all-women Lovecraftian anthology, edited by editors extraordinaire Silvia Morena-Garcia and Paula Stiles. Why a woman Lovecraft tome? Silvia explains:

Why did you decide to do this?

Do girls just not like to play with squids? That’s the question an editor asked on Facebook, wondering about the lack of female writers in his TOC. What followed was a long discussion on Lovecraftian fiction and women, and the need for an answer.

At first I threw the idea of collaborating on a book of Lovecraftian fiction by women on Facebook and it seemed like it could be a small project between friends. But somehow the word spread and suddenly I was getting dozens of messages and e-mails from women asking if they could contribute to the project. I realized that there were a lot of women who were suddenly very interested in getting together. These responses prompted me to crowdfund an anthology.

I’ve been trying to catch up on my reading lately. Between writing and trying to parent a three-year-old boy (note the “trying”), I’ve had little time to read. I think I may have to schedule an hour each day, like they used to do in elementary school back in the day. My mind is feeling malnourished, as if I have some form of literary scurvy.

I did recently manage to finish one of the strangest books I’ve ever read though: Tony Burgess’s The n-Body Problem. I posted a little review of it over at The Province. If you like crazy, insane zombie stories, then this is the book for you!

Also, is it a coincidence that I developed the man flu the day after I posted the review?

The age of antibiotics is over.

I discuss Edward Riche’s Easy to Like over at The Province. Spoiler: I like it.

I just finished Craig Davidson’s Rust and Bone, after reading his Sarah Court a little while ago. I don’t have much more to say than my Amazon review — “Davidson writes like a madman possessed by a drunken saint” — other than to mention that if you liked Please, you’ll love Rust and Bone. There are many moments in Davidson’s book that I wish I’d thought of for Please, but he plucked them out of the ether and laid them on the page first. He’s a rare breed: a writer’s writer that regular readers will enjoy too.

At first read, Felix Renn is a familiar character: a wisecracking private investigator who has a troubled relationship with the authorities and who’s caught up in supernatural shenanigans in a noirish world. He’s a character that’s walked the pages of many other tales. But throughout Ian Rogers’ three chapbooks — Temporary Monsters, The Ash Angels and Black-Eyed Kids — Renn establishes himself as different from your usual, run-of-the-page private dick. For instance, he likes to name drop David Mamet and Blade Runner. And his taste in scotch is Canadian — you probably didn’t even know there is Canadian scotch, did you?

Rogers’ tales are different too. Very different. They’re mysteries where nothing is quite as it seems, and they’ll keep you wondering what’s going on until the last word. They’re also eerie enough to make even the most jaded reader get up and check the locks once or twice while reading them. They feature Renn trying to solve various mysteries involving The Black Lands, a parallel dimension that intersects ours and is home to all sorts of nasty creatures. There’s a touch of Lovecraft here, as Renn encounters situations and weird entities he can’t really beat by force, and he must use his wits not only to solve the case but also to survive.

Rogers has a nice style – hitting just enough notes with Renn to give him his own voice without going over the top into caricature, as too many other writers do. And Rogers is a hell of a plotter – good luck trying to figure out these stories before you reach their surprising endings.

Rogers has created an intriguing world in a relatively small body of work so far, and he’s continuing to flesh it out with each instalment – offering plenty of surprises along the way. I could go into more detail here, but really, you should just buy the whole series, pour yourself a scotch — Glen Breton — and sit down for a good read by the fire. Just remember to lock the doors.

Also, congrats to Burning Effigy for putting out some damned fine looking books. This is definitely a press to watch and support.

Just finished Zsuzsi Gartner’s Better Living Through Plastic Explosives. One of the best books I’ve ever read. It’s the apocalypse I’ve been dreaming about my entire life.