Inspiration - Fruiting Bodies

Back in April 2007 I wrote my first Ulysses Quicksilver novella, entitled Fruiting Bodies. As anyone who has already read it will be able to tell you, the climax of the story takes place at Kew Gardens in London.

The inspiration for the story came from several stories, not least of all eco-disaster TV dramas from the 70s and 80s - namely the BBC's adaptation of The Day of the Triffids and the classic Doctor Who adventure The Seeds of Doom.

I recently discovered that the writer of The Seeds of Doom, Robert Banks Stewart, as well as being inspired in part by John Wyndham's tale of vegetable vengeance, lived with his family close to Kew Gardens which directly inspired billionaire Harrison Chase's estate. Banks Stewart is even supposed to be descended from Joseph Banks, the botanist who took part in Captain Cook's first great voyage and was almost single-handedly responsible for stocking Kew Gardens in the first place.

I think, subconsciously at least, another of the inspirations for my story Fruiting Bodies was this illustration by Martin McKenna of a plant golem, that appears in the Fighting Fantasy gamebook Legend of Zagor.

As any fan of the Fourth Doctor's adventures will be able to tell you, McKenna himself was inspired by the humanoid form of the Krynoid, the alien intra-galactic weed that threatens Earth in - you guessed it - The Seeds of Doom.

(You can pick up Fruiting Bodies now as part of The Ulysses Quicksilver Short Story Collection for the Kindle, or your preferred eReader of chocie, here.)

JG and Pax Britannia on SFX.co.uk

If you check out the front page of SFX.co.uk right now (as in Sunday night) you'll see that top of the latest articles list (above one about detestable Doctor Who companion Melanie Bush) is an interview with me about The Ulysses Short Story Collection.

Dave Bradley (editor of SFX magazine) conducted the interview with me earlier this week via email and you can read the results here. I don't only talk about writing short stories during the course of the interview; there's also stuff about steampunk, novel writing and eBooks.

I'm very proud of the three stories in the collection - Fruiting Bodies, Vanishing Point and White Rabbit - which were all especially selected by myself, and it would appear that other people are discovering they like them as much as I do. And for 69p you can't really go wrong, can you?

The Ulysses Quicksilver Short Story Collection - available now!

All you eBook readers out there might like to know that The Ulysses Quicksilver Short Story Collection is available to download now for your Kindle. Here's the blurb from the back:

Dandy, detective and adventurer Ulysses Quicksilver tackles the enemies of the crown in this thrilling collection of three complete short stories drawn from the steampunk Pax Britannia Ulysses Quicksilver novels.

In 'Fruiting Bodies' a gruesome death leads Ulysses and his manservant Nimrod to the glasshouses of Kew, bringing them face to face with the horrors lurking within. A Hallowe'en séance leads our intrepid duo into a close encounter with the world beyond in 'Vanishing Point', whilst in 'White Rabbit' Ulysses journeys into a world of madness and murder, meeting some sinisterly familiar characters along the way.

This collection is the perfect starting point for readers new to the exciting world of Pax Britannia! 'Fruiting Bodies' was first published in the novel 'El Sombra', 'Vanishing Point' was first published in the novel 'Leviathan Rising' and 'White Rabbit' was first published in the novel 'Blood Royal'.

I'm very excited about the release of this Kindle-only collection and am looking into releasing some more of my work via Kindle in the not-too-distant future. My only problem now is that I need to buy myself a Kindle to see how the book's turned out in digital format.

And just in case you need persuading that you really should get hold of The Ulysses Quicksilver Short Story Collection for yourself, watch the following video:

Fruiting Bodies

And if you liked the novella Fruiting Bodies that appeared in the back of Al Ewing's El Sombra, then you'll probably appreciate these too...

Cometh the Conqueror Worm

So, I made a start on Conqueror Worm today, the exclusive novella that will accompany my fourth Pax Britannia novel, Evolution Expects. It’s a little different from the other stories that have appeared in the back of the PB novels to date (Fruiting Bodies in Al Ewing’s wonderful El Sombra, Vanishing Point in Leviathan Rising and Christmas Past in Human Nature), so here’s something to give you some small idea of what it’s about.

John Lambton went a-fishing once, a-fishing in the Wear,
He caught a fish upon his hook he thought looked mighty queer,
Now what the kind of fish it was John Lambton couldn't tell,
But he didn't like the look of it, so he threw it down a well.

Now the worm got fat and growed, and growed an awful size,
With great big teeth and a great big mouth and great big goggle eyes,
And when at night it crawled about all looking for some booze,
If it fell dry upon the road, it milked a dozen cows.

This fearful worm would often feed on cows and lamb and sheep,
And swallow little babes alive when they lay down to sleep,
So John set out and got the beast and cut it into halves,
And that soon stopped it eating babes and sheep and lambs and calves.

So now you know how all the folks on both sides of the Wear,
Lost lots of sheep and lots of sleep and lived in mortal fear,
So drink the health of brave Sir John, who kept the babes from harm,
Saved cows and calves by making halves of that famous Lambton Worm!

(Traditional)