1000 Maniacs

There must be 1000 maniacs out there.  1000 at the very least.  Yesterday, Dirty Old Town (and other stories) sold it's 1000th copy as an e-book. 

Just imagine.

Not only that, there have been some 200 free downloads, another 50 or so sent out for review and to friends and then there's the tree book as produced by Kuboa and Pablo D'Stair.

I'm so thrilled I don't have the words to explain.  500 was my dream target, so I'm on Cloud 9 (between Cloud 8 and Cloud 10).

For those with work that's in an early stage of release, this should offer hope that you can make it.

The secret?  There isn't one, but there may be lots. 

There's the work itself - I hope that's played it's part.  There's the effort and persistence in the face of bleakness as well as sunshine.  There's the generosity of friends and colleagues.  There have been the reviewers and bloggers and Tweeters and Facebook-posters and those who've passed on word and probably Amazon deserves a fair share, too.

I need to (and want to) thank all the people who have helped this along in any way.  You may or may not know, but my mood is ridiculously impacted upon by the way my stories are selling (and I know that is really unhealthy and sad), so thanks to all for blowing hard when the grey clouds have massed above my head.

Other good news is that Into Thin Air popped back into the Waterstones Top Ten short stories chart, so my smile hardly fits on my face.

The Yang to the Yin is that Smoke is sinking like a stone and With Love And Squalor has been sluggish out of the blocks.  Hey, that's life, and my smile stays huge.

Drawing a line under the ME comments for a while, there's plenty of other good news to share on this Thanksgiving week.

Paul D Brazill, a class act, has a new collection out entitled 13 Shots Of Noir.  It's out by Untreed Reads who have done a really good job with their titles, and the cover is dynamite.  I've not read it yet, but with Paul's talent, I have no doubt that it's amazingly good.

The Devil All The Time came through my letter-box this week.  I've not opened it, yet, but I've stroked the cover a lot to get the full value from the excellent cover and I'm saving it for Christmas reading to make sure I have a fab holiday.  I can't wait.  I wondered about getting the Kindle copy, but some books need to be on your shelf - this is definitely one of them.

Another star out their, rising in Venus and with all the character of Mars, is Ian Ayris.  His novel will be published in Spring next year by Caffeine Nights.  Follow the link and you'll be able to download the opening chapter as a taster.  I'm not going to do that - it will make me far too desperate to read on, so I'm just buying on release.  If you saw his mind-blower in Pulp Ink (and have any cells left), you'll know just what I'm talking about.

And Ron Brown has re-released Mayhem.  I was honoured to be asked to write an intro and hope that I did him justice. 

If you saw Benoit here yesterday (go do if you didn't), you'll have seen some healthy plugs for great collections.  He highlighted Beat To A Pulp and Lost Children among other things.

The people behind those deserve a mention, so:

Cash Laramie etc is essential reading.

Kick It Again should be checked out.

the story, 'Candle' over at Grift is one of my top 5 this year.

Also needing a hug (she may not need one, but I'd like to give it), Absolutely Kate over At The Bijou who has devoted November to noir (and did a tremendous job of it too).

And a word for the guys at Snubnose for doing such a great job.

Happy weekend to you all and big thanks to all you maniacs and heathens out there.

xox