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My story in Ruins Terra features an Underground Druidic Order.

Two days ago, i found out that the story, After the Stonehenge bombing was rejected as a reprint for an SF magazine. The editor wrote and said that the idea of an Underground Druidic Order was not convincing.

But yesterday, I met with my former high school teacher from out of town. She said when her elderly father died she was contacted by a Druidic Order she had never heard of (nor did she know her father, a Scotsman, was a Druid). They offered to pay for her father’s funeral, and hundreds of them attended the ceremony, and then disappeared just as mysteriously.

I conceived the underground druidic order as a tongue-in-cheek idea, but it looks like it could be more true than I realised!

Long live the underground druidic order.

And of course, I couldn’t help sharing the above anecdote with the editor of the SF magazine.

My story in Volume 1 of the Ruins Anthology (Ruins Terra) is After the Stonehenge Bombing.

It was inspired by the bombing of the Bamiyan Buddha and also my first visit to London - where I stopped by Baker Steet (I’m a big fan of Sherlock Holmes).

In this story you can expect to find, in no particular order: druids and an ArchDruid, the Sherlock Holmes statue at Baker Street Station, a silver clam-shell phone, a glass sculpture, CCTV on Legs!, monocles, academic envy, the UN, a potted fern, and more…

The speculative fiction anthology Ruins Terra (edited by Eric T. Reynolds) is now available for sale in Amazon.com and Fishpond.com.au .

Check it out - it contains my first sci-fi story After the Stonehenge Bombing , as well as other wonderful stories like Jenny Blackford’s Python , and NZ Vogel Award winner Douglas A. Van Belle’s Clonehenge.

The companion anthology Ruins Extraterrestial is also on sale at the above online bookstores. This volume contains “Beyond the Wall” by Justin Stanchfield, recently nominated for a Nebula Award. Read in entirety here: PDF and HTML.

I have received author copies of Ruins Terra but it is not available for sale yet on amazon.com, amazon.co.uk - Barnes & Noble online does have an entry on it -though it states it is not available yet.

This is a sneak preview of an Australian promotional material:-

Ruins Terra
Edited by Eric T. Reynolds

2007, Hadley Rille Books, ISBN 978-0-9785148-5-3, 242 pages

Ruins Terra is a speculative fiction anthology built around the theme of ruins, with 26 stories and a poem from authors all over the world.

Antipodean writers are well represented. It include stories by Melbourne writers Jenny Blackford and Ivan Sun, plus New Zealanders Lyn McConchie and Doub Van Belle.

Ruins Terra is available now from amazon.com for USD$13.95.

Ruins Terra is the first of a series of Ruins-themed anthologies from Hadley Rille books; it deals with ruins on Earth. The second, Ruins Extraterrestrial, will be out soon, and Ruins Metropolis has been announced as the third in the series.

Hadley Rille Books is a US-based publisher of speculative fiction anthologies. Previous books include Golden Age SF: Tales of a Bygone Future and Visual Journeys. Two stories from the Golden Age SF were selected for inclusion in US “best of” anthologies. See www.hadleyrillebooks.com for more information.

For further information please contact Jenny Blackford on jennyblackford(AT)bigpond.com, or Ivan Sun on ivan(AT)ivansun.com

One of the fun thing about being part of an anthology is checking out the other writers and artists involved in the project. Today I would like to suggest you check out Bob Eggleton, the artist behind the Ruins Terra coverart, which has a wonderful, atmospheric Constable-feel. He also has an art-a-day blog called bobsartdujour . Highly recommended, particularly if you are into Monsters! He is also a multiple winner of the Hugo Awards, and was a consultant for the 1998 movie Godzilla. I believe his nick is Zillabob…

I was also pleasantly surprised to read about his previous trip to Melbourne.

I have also touched base with some of the other Oz/NZ writers from the anthology: Lyn McConchie, Jenny Blackford, Doug Van Belle… and hope to write a short post introducing the works of each of them in future posts.

Thanks to all who wished me well in a previous post about my efforts to get into an anthology.

I’m over the moon, and all its craters, to announce that the editor accepted the story this morning…

My story, After the Stonehenge Bombing, will be published by Hadley Rille books in the Ruins anthology, coming out this summer 2007 (which I think means very soon…)