Barbara Davies lives in the English Cotswolds. She is a freelance writer and also reviews the occasional DVD for VideoVista.

Just heard that 'Rebeccah and the Highwayman' is a finalist in the Historical Romance category in the Fifth Annual GCLS Literary Awards. Whee! :)

This month I've been writing a story for an anthology about female pirates. It's not specfic, so if they don't want it, Lord knows who will! (The historical fiction mag I had in mind for a good fallback market has folded.) Oh well. Fingers crossed, eh? Apart from that, nothing to report except yet more rejection slips.

'Orc for Hire' is now up in the Apr-Jun 2009 issue of The Lorelei Signal.

Tales of the Talisman have accepted my fantasy story, 'The Windseller's Gift', for their December 2009 issue. Yippee! :)

March has got off to an excellent start with another nice review of 'Rebeccah and the Highwayman', this time at Just About Write here. :)

More rejection slips this month - flattering ones, but still rejections. However, a nice review of 'Rebeccah and the Highwayman' has been posted in Rainbow Reviews here. :)

My publisher Bedazzled Ink is now offering eBook versions of my three published books. To celebrate, they are offering a 10% discount on said eBooks purchased upto and including 23rd Jan '09. (Just enter BBPWELCOME where it says "Redemption Code" on the checkout page.)
The eBook online bookshop can be found here.

Whee! An acceptance at long last. The Lorelei Signal have accepted 'Orc for Hire' for their Apr-Jun 2009 issue.

I've received notification from Alexandria Digital Literature that they are discontinuing their 'unprofitable conversion and distribution business' and terminating the contract for six of my short stories. Four of them ('Eye of the Beholder', The Horror Within', 'Morris and the Mermaid', and 'The Princess and the Barbarian') were posted only on Alex Lit's own site and had been unavailable for awhile, but this means that the remaining two, 'Option: Everest' and 'Time's Change', have been removed from Fictionwise. Bummer!

3rd November: This morning my mother died. God speed, Mum.

My mother's in hospital, at the moment. As I'm the kind of writer who can only be creative when she's not stressing about other things, my writing's come to a grinding halt, I'm afraid.

On the writing front, Fictionwise are now stocking an ebook version of 'A Goat Has Two Horns'. Scrybe Press, who published it in chapbook form, have arranged this without consulting me and I doubt very much if I will see a penny of any royalties, but I'm glad people will be able to get the chance to read it here anyway.

Nothing to report on the writing front this month (though I did give my mother a solar-powered frog fountain for her birthday, which she seemed to like. ;P). Not even rejection slips. Sometimes getting replies from editors is a loooong-winded process!

'Rebeccah and the Highwayman' is getting some nice reviews. There's one from a blogger here, and one in the latest Just About Write newsletter here. :)

Received my contracted copies of 'Rebeccah and the Highwayman' from my publisher this morning (19th). Whee! :)

'Rebeccah and the Highwayman' has now been published and is gradually creeping into the online bookstores. So far it has been listed on Amazon US and Barnes and Noble.
I have created a dedicated page for it. Go here.

The anthology, A TIME TO ... Volume 2 - The Best of The Lorelei Signal 2007 is now available from Lulu.

There's a nice review of it and of my story 'The Witch's Revenge' in this blog. :)

No acceptances to report this month, alas. In the meantime, I've been proofing 'The Witch's Revenge', which will be appearing in the anthology, A TIME TO ... Volume 2 - The Best of The Lorelei Signal 2007 in March. I've also approved the cover of 'Rebeccah and the Highwayman'.

A good start to the new year. The Ystrelan Ambassador is now up on the Khimairal Ink website, as part of their January issue.

'A Tinseltown Fairytale' is now up in the Jan-Mar 2008 issue of The Lorelei Signal.

'The Witch's Revenge' will be appearing in the anthology, A TIME TO ... Volume 2 - The Best of The Lorelei Signal 2007, scheduled for publication Spring 2008.

I've signed a contract with Bedazzled Ink to publish a POD paperback version of my historical novel 'Rebeccah and the Highwayman'. Like 'Christie and the Hellcat', also published by Bedazzled Ink, it started out as XWP fanfic.

Nothing to report except rejection slips. Boo hoo!

Nothing to report except rejection slips this month. Oh, and I've started writing the occasional review for the monthly VHS/DVD review website VideoVista.

'The Ystrelan Ambassador' has been accepted for the Jan 2008 issue of Khimairal Ink. :)

Hurray! 'A Tinseltown Fairytale' has been accepted for the Jan-Mar 2008 issue of The Lorelei Signal. :)

Nothing to report but rejection slips this month.

July has been a washout on all fronts: nothing but rejection slips, and though my house escaped being dunked by the floodwaters, they still knocked out my mains water supply for over a week. Urk! On the bright side, if one of my characters should ever need to collect their drinking water daily in a bucket, I now have first hand knowledge of the experience. :)

Tangent Online has reviewed the anthology Bash Down the Door and Slice Open the Badguy: Humorous Tales of Swords & Sorcery, and mentioned my story, 'In the Shit'. Another quote for my quotes page. :)

Bash Down the Door and Slice Open the Badguy: Humorous Tales of Swords & Sorcery will be available from Fantasist Enterprises from next week (14th May) and can be preordered at 5% off the cover price. It contains my story 'In the Shit'. Get a sneak peak at BASH including excerpts and a look at some of the art by Chris Chua here.

Not a lot to report this month. I'm writing some new short stories (publishing a collection has drastically depleted my inventory of available stories) and waiting to hear when the anthology Bash Down the Door and Slice Open the Bad Guy (see the entry for November last year) comes out.

Whoohoo! Tangent Online has given 'Into the Yellow and Other Stories' a favourable (on the whole) review. You can read the full review here. (You may have to register with the site first though.)

I've sent review copies of 'Into the Yellow and Other Stories' to the BSFA, the British Fantasy Society, and Infinity Plus. Fingers crossed that a) they'll review them and b) the reviews will be favourable.

My Christmas drabble was indeed published in Farthing 4.5 I've now received my contributor copies and payment. Yippee. :)

David Riley tells me that he has shelved his plans to revive Beyond: Fantasy and Science Fiction. So my werewolf story 'Lilka's Lullaby' will not after all be appearing in issue #4. I'll have to find a new home for it. Bummer.

Tangent Online has reviewed Forgotten Worlds 4 and my story 'Sculptor's Medium'. And reviewer Rich Horton has reviewed Farthing 2 and my story 'Bell, Book and ...?' More nice quotes for my reviews page. Goody!

Someone tells me that Farthing 4.5 used the Christmas drabble I sent them. First I've heard of it! I've emailed the editor to see if it is true. If so, they owe me a copy and a cheque. :)

'Christie and the Hellcat' has been nominated for a GCLS award.

'The Witch's Revenge' (my sequel to Hans Christian Andersen's 'The Tinder Box') is now up in the Jan-Mar 2007 issue of The Lorelei Signal.

My short story collection 'Into the Yellow and Other Stories' is now in print and available from the Mindancer Imprint of Bedazzled Ink. :)

The editing phase of my short story collection 'Into the Yellow and Other Stories' is finished and the cover approved. I have also given it its own page. The printed book will be available from the Mindancer Imprint of Bedazzled Ink very very soon. Watch this space. :)

I see from the Fantasist Enterprises website that the publication date for Bash Down the Door and Slice Open the Bad Guy, which contains my story 'In the Shit', has been postponed until April 2007. :( The cover looks nice though.

RAGE m a c h i n e Magazine 5, which contains my Elizabethan fantasy, 'Dee's Unicorn', is now available via Lulu. [Update. Alas, it is no longer available via Lulu. The editor has withdrawn all issues of RAGE M a c h i n e Magazine from Lulu due to lack of sales.]

I've signed a contract with Bedazzled Ink to publish my specfic short story collection 'Into the Yellow and Other Stories'. Now the hard work begins. :)

Forgotten Worlds 4 is now in print. It contains my story, 'Sculptor's Medium'. :)

'The Witch's Revenge' (my sequel to Hans Christian Andersen's 'The Tinder Box') has been accepted for the Jan-Mar 2007 issue of The Lorelei Signal.

RAGE m a c h i n e Magazine has accepted my Elizabethan superheroes tale 'Dee's Unicorn' (the sequel to 'Dee's Gentlemen', which was published in their first issue).

I am currently having discussions with Bedazzled Ink (who published 'Christie and the Hellcat') about publishing a print collection of fifteen of my short SF/Fantasy stories. A few would be reprints but the majority would be previously unpublished. Watch this space.

What is it with me and anthologies? Now David Bain's projects Modern Mages, Ancient Magic, Adventurous!, and F/SF II (all originally scheduled to be published with Cyber Pulp - need you ask?) have bitten the dust so my stories 'Demonsbane', 'Lone Wolf', and 'A Question of Gender' have all come bouncing back to me. :(

Yay, just had my first acceptance this year! The British print magazine Forgotten Worlds has accepted 'Sculptor's Medium'. :)

Bummer! Just heard from Doyle Eldon Wilmoth, Jr that due to problems finding a publisher the anthology he was editing, Trip the Light Fantastic, has been dropped. Which means my story, 'Caverns of the Heart', which I sold to Doyle in 2002, has come bouncing back to me. This whole mess started because Cyber Pulp reneged on publishing the anthologies they'd agreed to. (See Aug 05 entry.) Grrr!

June's been a bit of a washout. Nothing but rejection slips. There've been a couple of nice reviews of 'Christie and the Hellcat' in Just About Write and on Amazon this month though. I've put quotes from them on my Hellcat page.

The May issue of Khimairal Ink is now up. It contains a short excerpt from 'Christie and the Hellcat'. You can read it here.

I've now received my contributor copy of Farthing 2. Looks good. :)

Apparently Farthing 2 is now in print and was on sale at Eastercon in Glasgow. Haven't seen a copy of it, but it should contain my story 'Bell, Book, and ...?'

I've received my first quarterly statement from Bedazzled Ink. Looks like 'Christie and the Hellcat' is selling quite well. Phew! That's a relief. :)
(Postage rates in the UK increased this week, so I've had to increase the cost of my signed bookplate a few pence to reflect that. Bummer.)

I've approved the proof of 'Bell, Book and ...?' which should be appearing in Farthing any day now.

Received my author's copies of 'Christie and the Hellcat' this morning. They look great! I've dedicated a new page to the book here.

My western, 'Christie and the Hellcat', is now available from Bedazzled Ink's Nuance imprint and is percolating through to various online bookstores (such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Powell's) even as I type. Yippee!
As it's being printed in the USA, shipping times will be longer for those ordering from stores outside the US. Even so, you should be able to get hold of it within 2 weeks. Go here for links to participating bookstores, or try typing the title into your favourite book price comparison search engine.
I am going to create a new webpage for the book and offer readers a personalised bookplate. Watch this space. :)

Trip the Light Fantastic (the anthology containing 'Caverns of the Heart' that Cyber Pulp pulled the plug on last year) has found a new publisher. The editor, Doyle Wilmoth Jr., tells me he has placed it with Paladin Timeless Books.

The editor of Farthing, Wendy Bradley, tells me that issue #2 will contain 'Bell, Book and ... ?' and should be out around Easter.

The print proof of 'Christie and the Hellcat' is apparently in the post to my publisher as I type. They are going to take a pic of it for me when it arrives. :) Can't wait to see what it looks like!

'Changing the Blueprint' is now up on the Electric Spec website, as part of their very first issue.

Bedazzled Ink now have a webpage devoted to 'Christie and the Hellcat', which is scheduled for publication in March 2006. Go here.

A good start to the new year. 'The Krestyanova Genes' is now up on the Khimairal Ink website, as part of their January issue.