The Tyranny of Thangrind the Cruel is now out in

13 September 2008

Gathering together the best zombie literature of the last three decades from many of today’s most renowned authors of fantasy, speculative fiction, and horror, including Stephen King, Harlan Ellison^®, Robert Silverberg, George R. R. Martin, Clive Barker, Poppy Z. Brite, Neil Gaiman, Joe Hill, Laurell K. Hamilton, and Joe R. Lansdale, The Living Dead, covers the broad spectrum of zombie fiction, ranging from Romero-style zombies to reanimated corpses to voodoo zombies and beyond."

After the flurry of publications last month and based on the evidence of last year I was expecting this month to be deadly quiet, so it's particularly pleasing to announce another acceptance: Stephen Theaker, current guest editor of the British Fantasy Society's magazine Dark Horizons, has taken my The Tyranny of Thangrind the Cruel.  It's deeply silly, and will hopefully drag forth the odd smile when it appears - in either next month's issue or the one after, depending on scheduling and the phases of the Martian moons.  Current BFS members will get it for free, everyone else will have to join (which if you're British and into genre literature, you should probably do anyway) or miss out.

In the meantime, I'm keeping myself occupied with my copy of the Barren Worlds antho, which - based on the first five or so stories, at least - is proving a very strong collection.  It reminds me of the kinds of anthologies that I grew up reading, and since those are the books that got me into sci-fi in the first place, that's high praise indeed.  All biase aside, I sincerely hope it proves a success for Eric and Hadley Rille.

Lastly, I found the following review / summary of Exodus, as published in July's issue of Hub.  Anyone who hasn't read the story may not want to read this since it gives away quite a lot of the ending, but I thought it was worth reproducing because it's an interesting interpretation, totally different from the one I intended but no less right for that:

"Adele, the hopeful widow in David Tallerman’s “Exodus” (Hub #57), has been selected to evacuate a dying Earth. The technology which will save her and hundreds of other people is incomprehensible to her. More than once, she calls it a miracle. And, indeed, it might as well be. In a variation of Clarke’s Third Law, Tallerman’s story asks whether any miracle of transport, sufficiently advanced, is distinguishable from death. The gateway is a blinding white rectangle; prerecorded messages from an overhead speaker urge the evacuees to “go into the light.” Individuals vanish, one after the next. Who wouldn’t be apprehensive?"

A lot to update since the last entry, but hey, I did just move house...

In order of appearance then: my first poetry acceptance is up at Chiaroscuro.  It's a creepy little exploration of the doppelganger myth, imaginatively titled Doppelganger. 

Next, the Barren Worlds anthology, containing my Allotment, came out a couple of days ago.  Honestly, I haven't had a chance to read a copy all the way through yet, but it comes from Hadley Rille, who are one of the finest publishers in the sci-fi small press, and have been putting out consistently exciting books since their conception three years ago.  Also, frankly, my story's pretty good, and built around one of the neater ideas I've had.  If you'd like a copy (and you would) they can be found at Amazon UK, Amazon US and Barnes and Noble online.

Lastly, though not leastly, Exodus is out in Hub #57.  It's possibly the bleakest sci-fi story I've written, and I've written some bleak sci-fi stories.  But please don't let that put you off, because it's also one of the best - and, as I'll never tire of mentioning, Hub is both great and free.

02 July 2008

27 June 2008

Following from my last bit of news, another repeat sale: Hub who published New Skin for the Old Ceremony last year, have accepted another science-fiction piece, this one named Exodus.  If there's anyone out there who isn't already subscribed to Hub then I'd highly recommend it - it's weekly, it's free, and in only a few months it's become one of the strongest voices in the UK fantasy / sci-fi scene. 

While I'm plugging, my review of Gary A Braunbeck's horror novel Coffin County appeared in issue #56, which can be downloaded here.

Also ... I just discovered that The Living Dead is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com, at a bargain price of $10.85!

Finally, I stumbled across a review of the January and March editions of The Willows that contains the following:

"The most enjoyable story I read in the two issues was “The Facts in the Case of Algernon Whisper’s Karma” by David Tallerman. It is a macabre extravaganza about a man who makes a science of reincarnation merely in order to come back as a meerkat. What ensues from Whisper’s miscalculation in this project is a fine joke, gravely told."

Thanks to The Southern Literary Messenger for the kind words.

20 June 2008

Flash Fiction Online, who published my The Desert Cold earlier in the year, have accepted another story.  It's one of my rare excursions into non-genre writing, a brief study of the end of a broken relationship and the beginning of healing called "Strive to be Happy."  It should be out in the next couple of months.

06 June 2008

A couple of bits of news: firstly, I've sold a poem, titled "Doppelganger", to professional web magazine Chiaroscuro.

03 June 2008

Following on from last month's news: Futurequake Press have just accepted my second script, "The Unleashing of the Ineffectual", for their horror imprint Something Wicked.  No details regarding publication date or who'll be on art duties yet, but I'll post as soon as I know more.

22 May 2008

Futurequake # 10, featuring mine and the very

talented Adrian Bamforth's strip "Fleshworld", is

now out to buy. 

For those who don't know, Futurequake is a

small press British comic aimed to fill in some of the

gaps left by 2000AD's shift away from using 'futureshock'

style short stories and introducing new talent.  It's cheap,

consistently strong, and puts out a kind of stories that

almost no one is doing these days - all good reasons to

have a look.

There’s some lovely descriptions in the piece, which really help bring out the scenery. Since we can’t get to know our leading man, we must instead know our leading land. They say that Mother Nature is a bitch, and if that is so then the desert is her quietly creepy nephew lying in wait to steal some poor fool’s life. Not surprising, it’s a bleak tale, and does not shy away from the unhappy ending. I’d have liked for more though, and even though the protagonist admits that he is no philosopher it would’ve been nice for a bit more introspection on the why and how of his chilly findings."

Rating: 8 out of 10

Comments on the rest of the issue can be found here.

Also, the final list of contents for the Barren Worlds anthology is up on editor Eric T. Reynold's Live Journal.  

Lots of news for the month, so I thought I'd better get it out while there's still
a little January left.

Most exciting from my point of view, I've made my first pro-rate sale, to
Flash Fiction Online.  Despite being relatively new on the scene they're putting
out a superb webzine, and I heartily recommend the January issue, which -
since it's flash - takes all of about ten minutes to read!   My story,
"The Desert Cold", should be appearing in the March issue if all goes well.

Next, and nearly as exciting, I have two more
stories out in print this month.  Firstly, making
it by a nose, the January issue of
The Willows featuring my "The Facts in the
Case of Algernon Whisper's Karma" came out
yesterday; secondly (and perhaps a slight cheat),
issue 9 of

26th September 2007

I found the following review of My Friend Fishfinger, which appeared in last month's issue of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine.  It's not the first I've seen, but it's the first by someone who appears to have actually read the story (and to have got the Lovecraft references):

"Tallerman creates a new take on the Dagon mythos of a family searching for new sacrifices told through the eyes of the victim, a seven year old girl. A flash fiction piece, its strength comes from the underlying darkness and the innocence of the naïve protagonist. Sure we know what’s coming, but that’s half the fun."

Thanks to Mark Smith-Briggs of Horrorscope for the kind words - follow the link for the complete article, including some extremely positive comments about issue #30 as a whole.

17th September 2007

   The Gate in the Jungle - a homage to
    the works of Mr Howard Phillips
    Lovecraft, and to wierd tales in
    general - appears as one of the cover
    stories in this month's issue of
    The Willows magazine.

24th August 2007

A little late, but Issue 30 of Andromeda Spacways Inflight Magazine is out, and contains my story My Friend Fishfinger, by Daisy, Aged 7.  I'll hold off commenting until I've seen a copy, but here's the press release:

The Editor-in-Chief and his trusty sidekick have done it again!
Andromeda Spaceways proudly brings you ISSUE 30!

Edited by Robbie Matthews and Stu Barrow, this issue gives you:
* Really cool cover art!
* Bucketloads of fiction, including work by perennial favourites Dirk
Flinthart, Kevin Maclean, Aliette de Bodard and many others!
* Poetry! Rayguns! Time Travellers! Recipes!
* What more could you want?! (My beloved leader tells me I've now
used up my year's supply of exclamation marks. Wait – one more!)

For more information, and to get your copy, visit
http://www.andromedaspaceways.com

Full Contents:

Fiction

My Friend Fishfinger, by Daisy, Age 7 . . David Tallerman
Autumn's Country . . Aliette de Bodard
The Fairytale Cookbook . . Amanda Sichter
Fendraaken . . Kevin G. Maclean
Finding Each Other Again . . Kieran Morgan
Hare Redux . . Simon Petrie
Thyme Machine . . Darren Goossens
Collecting Whispers . . Bren MacDibble
Truckers . . Dirk Flinthart

Poetry

The Reluctant Orc-Maid to her Swain . . Marcie Tentchoff

Special Features

State of the Art: Rayguns! . . Dirk Flinthart
Devoted Husband, Intrepid Time-Traveller . . Stuart Barrow
Seriatem, Seriatum, Omnia Seriatem . . Ian Nichols

24th August 2007

A couple of reviews have come out for New Skin for the Old Ceremony (published in issue #17 of Hub).  Firstly, by Yael Artom, from Tangent Online:

"In “New Skin for the Old Ceremony” by David Tallerman, Mark is a sheriff who has just finished his shift. He thought he could have a quiet evening, but the local drunk reports seeing weird lights in the woods. As tired as Mark is, he's a good cop and goes to check, even though he's also a skeptic. And something is in the woods, and it's not human.

“New Skin for the Old Ceremony” takes a mundane situation and makes it increasingly weird with the plot taking an interesting twist in the middle. Tallerman makes the reader examine familiar elements of reality by making them unfamiliar. The effect is powerful: a mixture of eeriness, sarcasm, and anxiety to make you read the last two pages holding your breath."

Secondly, from Shaun Green's review of issues 12 to 18, on his blog:

"For Hub #17 David Tallerman offers us another story with a title more intriguing than itself. It’s a pleasing enough tale of small-town Americana meets alien visitation, with enough inversions and twists to keep the reader amused. It’s slight, but it never pretends to be more than it is, which is a story that is more about human beings than about aliens. The protagonist’s reactions to his discoveries are quite understandable."

Thanks to both Shaun and Yael for their thoughtful and mostly positive comments.  Although I should point out that if, like me, you're not a terribly fast reader, it might not be a good idea to read the last two pages while holding your breath as Yael suggests.  It's important to support short fiction - but it's important to breath sensibly too.

24th August 2007

Just to say thanks to whoever recommended my story Stockholm Syndrome for John Joseph Adams' forthcoming zombie story anthology.  Much appreciated!

29th July 2007

My third and last story out this month is New Skin for the Old Ceremony, in issue #17 of weekly online magazine Hub - simply follow the link and go to the downloads section.   New Skin came out of wondering about that age-old question: if we're really visited by extra-terrestrials then what the hell do they want?  The answer I came up with was, hopefully, a fairly original one and also - to me at least - fairly plausible.   But the story is also to some extent a meditation on ideas of justice and retribution, and there's even a sneaky 'green' agenda lurking in the background if you want to look for it.  

Mainly though, it's a creepy story about a guy and a possibly-dead alien.  

I couldn't think of a good title, so in the end I stole one from Leonard Cohen.   In retrospect, 'Old Skin for the New Ceremony' would have made more sense and got around the whole plagiarism thing.  Ah well, you live and learn.

Finally, if you haven't subscribed to Hub then I can heartily recommend it, since it's free and (all bias aside) they publish some good stories.

14th July 2007

Another new story up, this one being King Gob's Warcry at From the Asylum.   It's a very short piece, that came out of noticing a strange and deeply sinister garden ornament at a friend's house.   Strangely, this story provoked the most vociferous reply from an editor I've ever had - how dare I suggest, they asked, that gnomes were anything other that sweet and friendly creatures?   Didn't I know that their name is an acronym for Guarding Nobly Over Mother Earth?   There are some strange people out there.

2nd July 2007

My story Stockholm Syndrome, a gruesome tale of one man coming to terms with his son's death in a town overrun by the living dead, is now up at Pseudopod.   I couldn't be more pleased with the job they've done, Cheyenne Wright's reading unnerved the hell out of me and I wrote it.   Thankfully, others seem to be enjoying it as well - the comments so far have been very positive, and at time of writing it's been downloaded 7669 times!