International Sherlock Holmes Day

As well as being World Goth Day, and International Biodiversity Day, today is International Sherlock Holmes Day.

It must be clear to anyone who has read my Pax Britannia novels that Sherlock Holmes, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's works, have played their part in influencing the adventures of Ulysses Quicksilver. But it may surprise you to learn that, for all my work for other people's IPs, I have never written a Sherlock Holmes story. That is, until now.

Further Associates of Sherlock Holmes is the latest anthology of new Sherlock Holmes stories put together by George Mann for Titan Books. As well as my own, small contribution, the book includes stories by m'colleagues James Lovegrove, Sam Stone, and Andrew Lane.

The conceit that connects them all, is that they are all tales told by characters from the Sherlock Holmes canon, such as Inspector Lestrade, Mrs Hudson, and Professor Moriarty. Or, in my case, Sir Henry Baskerville...

World Goth Day

According to the nice young man on the wireless - I believe the colloquial term is 'Disc Jockey' - today is World Goth Day. And they really couldn't have hoped for a nicer day for it, what with the weather here in London being what could only be described as Raj-like - and I'm not talking about the monsoon season either. Time to crack out the Factor 50, my pale and interesting friends.

Anyway, the DJ - who repeatedly pronounced 'Goth' as 'Goff' (it really was most irksome) - mentioned 'Steampunk' in the same sentence as 'Goth', and I know that those of a retro-futuristic persuasion have, on occasion, been referred to as 'Goths in Brown', so, I thought, what better time to plug my very own science romance novels - more commonly known as the Pax Britannia series - and the brand new Ulysses Quicksilver story that will be seeing the light of day - and let's hope it is a day as lovely as this one - before the end of the month.

Two years after the super short story Tempus Fugit saw print as part of Abaddon Books' 10th anniversary chapbook in 2015, and five long years since Time's Arrow was published, Worthless Remains will be appearing on the roster of stories that make up Clockwork Cairo - an anthology of Egyptian-themed steampunk stories that will be Twopenny Books' inaugural release.

You can find out more about the book here. And you can watch Goths dancing to Thomas the Tank Engine here.