Website and Mailing List

On the off-chance that anyone has some sorta automated doohickey still keeping an eye out for posts on this blog that's become rather tumbleweed-strewn, to put it mildly, since I was seduced by the convention bar model of social media that is Twitter, I figured I'd drop one wee post here to give you a heads-up that you're waaaaaay better off these days either following me on Twitter or subscribing to my mailing list. I've started revamping my website at www.halduncan.com so there's a chance I'll set up some blog page integrated with that and port a lot of the old material over, to get it in an interface that's a bit less antiquated-looking, but with all the craft and theory posts... it's the kinda material I might wanna retool into... something more. It seems like there might be a Big Project in there, in thrashing that writing into shape for a How To. So we'll see. It's safe to say now though that I'm prooooooobably not going to be diving back into feverishly battering out ten thousand word blog posts on here anytime soon.

So instead, with the mailing list, you'll get an early heads-up on any new publications and projects, but I'm lazy enough about this stuff that it shouldn't be too spammy. More likely, it'll be "Lookit the cover I made for a Scruffians chapbook!" or "I'll be in Poland on Wednesday!" once every now and then, maybe even the odd freebie or bargain. Anyway, sign up and you get a free mini-ebook, New Sodom Tales, containing two stories that have been published but not collected ("And a Pinch of Salt" and "Ascending") and one brand new that's never seen print before and is being made available exclusively to subscribers: "The Ones Who Have Come Home to Isinglass". Available in ePub, Mobi or PDF, New Sodom Tales is being provided via BookFunnel so it should just be a zero-hassle matter of entering your email and clicking the links.

Anyway, there's at least one other freebie planned for down the line--one that most anybody keen enough to be reading this will have already, to be sure, but well, since I sat in on David Gaughran's workshop on self-publishing at the weekend there, I'm trying to get my shit together, get those Scruffians and whatnot read by more than the few dozen faithful.

So yeah, watch that space, I guess you could say.

Primer and Feastiary

Pre-orders are now open over at my Bandcamp Merch page for A Scruffian Primer and A Scruffian Feastiary, which should start shipping from the 1st of December for the limited editions and from the 2nd of December for the trade paperbacks. You can order them individually or in matching sets--I'll be adjusting the numbers available for the limited editions as required, allocating more of the individual copies to the sets if need be, so if by some accident of timing, the set temporarily sells out, do feel free to give me a prod to make the adjustment.

Errata Audiobook

The print edition and ebook of Errata have been out for yonks, but now, by the wonders of Bandcamp, you can get the full audiobook too as digital downloads, for a bargain price of £3.50. Read by yours truly, it clocks in at about three and a half hours, and ye'd be hard pushed to get a pint for that price these days, so that seems pretty fair to me.

And if you haven't picked up the actual text already, in binary bits or dead tree, you can also buy a package at whatever level suits ye: the ebook and audiobook for a mere £5; or the signed paperback and ebook and audiobook for a quite reasonable (I'd say) £8 plus P&P.

So, aye, if ye fancy it, go ye and order. It's a damn sight better way to support me than buying via Amazon.

Worldcon Schedule

European Myths and History in Science Fiction and Fantasy

Thursday 17:00 - 18:00, 206 (Messukeskus)

Europeans come often from very different backgrounds when it comes to writing. The history, major historical conflicts folklore and even misconceptions of Europe have had their impact how authors feel about their native countries. The panelists discuss how their background as Europeans has impacted their writing.

Karolina Fedyk, Hal Duncan, Teodor Reljic, Mari Ness, Saara Henriksson (M)

Signing: Hal Duncan

Friday 15:00 - 16:00, Signing area (Messukeskus)

Rise of Weird Fiction

Friday 17:00 - 18:00, 205 (Messukeskus)
Weird Fiction is alive and well and, perhaps, weirder than ever! Fans and authors discuss the genre, its popularity and legacy.
Helen Marshall (M), Hal Duncan, Shivaun Hoad, Pete Sutton, Siobhan Carroll

Cover blurbs!

So I got a couple of fricking awesome blurbs in for the Survival Guide:

“The post- post- modern Victorian fables that comprise Hal Duncan’s The Scruffian Survival Guide inhabit a unique dark fantasy world – a feral dream. The language is mad genius.” -- Jeffrey Ford

"Hal Duncan's cheeky and charming Scruffian stories hide a steely shiv of inspection that digs uncompromisingly into the ribs of  the establishment. This latest volume, populated as always with wonderful characters old and new, deepens that exploration and brings it bang up to date. I loved every word of it." -- Neil Williamson

And with that we now have the absolute final covers for the hardback and trade paperback:

There's still copies of the hardback going, and of course the paperback too, with both now printing right now and hopefully arriving in time for the August shipping date.

I have to say I'm pretty fuckin chuffed at how these have turned out--inside as well as out--enough so that I couldn't resist a look at the stories of the mythos to date. I was thinking initially of just re-issuing Fabbles:1 with a new matching cover and a bit of spruce on the interior design, mainly just so's to have a nice matching pair for meself. But with "How a Scruffian Sleeps Sound" only available in the deluxe Scruffians!, and the stories in Fabbles:1 now in The Boy Who Loved Death... except for The Taking of the Stamp, it didn't really strike me as still sensible, the original reason for that chapbook being to collect what wasn't in the first short story collection. They're all kinda scattered across the two collections now with that one story only in one edition and the novella a stand-alone ebook, so... aye...

Anyway, needless to say I got sucked into my collagist mindset and started trying to work out how all the fabbles might fit together as components in the bigger narrative arc and in yer more abstract compositional sense--rhythm, form, dynamics, thematics--if I was thinking chapbook(s).

Long story short, yes, I now have two more of these fuckers in the pipeline, A Scruffian Primer and A Scruffian Feastiary, rearranging and (in minor ways) tweaking the stories, and with a few wee illos and such inside just to give it the same finish. I'll do hardbacks, but mainly so's I can stick a set on me own shelf. Mostly it's for paperbacks to try and flog at events, for folk reticent about jumping into an ongoing series. And kinda because now I'm seeing the planned stories falling into a couple of chapbooks like this to complete that big narrative arc. Both clock in at the same length as the Survival Guide, and both--if I say so meself--have the same kinda unity as works in and of themselves. I think all three, and the others to come, are gonna work really fucking nicely together.

So, yeah. I'm reckoning on a Christmas release for those two, so I can take a break from hustling and maybe even get some review copies out in a timely manner. And in the meantime, Imma get back to Scruffianising new crib mates and scribbling new fiction. Watch this space, as they say.

Pre-Orders Open for A Scruffian Survival Guide

As the title says, pre-orders are now open over at my Bandcamp merch stall for the fancy dan lettered first edition hardback and the signed trade paperback edition of the new chapbook... A Scruffian Survival Guide.

Urchins scrobbled down the centuries from yer poor and persecuted. Foundlings Fixed in imperishable waifhood by the Stamp and sold to rich groanhuffs as child labour. Hellions with spirits as resilient as their flesh, less like to cower from a kick than nick yer boot, hamstring yer and fuckin leg it. That's what it is to be a Scruffian, mate, and there ain't a rhyme sung or tale told in a Scruffian squat that ain't, at the end of the day, out to learn yer how to survive. So cosy in, scamps, quit yer fidgeting, and hark to the fabbler of this here crib...

Aimed at readers old and new, as latest instalment or stand-alone introduction, A Scruffian Survival Guide is a ~116 page illustrated chapbook collecting four new works of dark queer fantasy in the "Scruffian" series. Wielding whimsy in the service of satire, with a wink to Peter Pan, a sly nod to The Borribles, and a cheery salute to Sweeney Todd, this is punk fiction for yer inner feral child.

"Hal Duncan's cheeky and charming Scruffian stories hide a steely shiv of inspection that digs uncompromisingly into the ribs of  the establishment. This latest volume, populated as always with wonderful characters old and new, deepens that exploration and brings it bang up to date. I loved every word of it." -- Neil Williamson, author of BFA-nominated The Moon King

A Scruffian Survival Guide: Scruffianisation

Orphans, foundlings, latchkey kids. Urchins, changelings, live-by-wits. Rascals, scallywags, ruffians, scamps. Scoundrels, hellions, Scruffians STAMP!

With the last word the girl or boy playing hopscotch would come down hard with both feet, and the rest would all stamp a foot. Made it all like some... war-dance. Weird. And some of them was a bit old for hopscotch surely.

Orphans, foundlings, latchkey kids. Urchins, changelings, live-by-wits.

They all had such sharp looks on their thin faces too.

Rascals, scallywags, ruffians, scamps. Scoundrels, hellions, Scruffians STAMP!

And they was all looking at him on that last word.

A Scruffian Gallery

A little gallery, that is, of Scruffianisations, to give yer an idea of what exactly that means. In order, we has Vermintrude Toerag, Tolliver Whistler, Upsadaisy Fagspuffer, Nuffinmuch O'Anyfink, Squirlet Nicely, and yours truly, Gobfabbler Halyard-Dunkling, Esquire. If yer fancies taking the Stamp and joining me crib, as comes with yer purchasing of one of them fancy dan lettered first edition hardbacks of A Scruffian Survival Guide, what yer gets is magically transmogrificated (by the power of various apps and a fair bit of filtery finagling and whatnot by Slickspit Hamshankery) into a Scruffianised JPG. Just like one of em above! How does it work? yer asks...

Your Scruffianised Selfie

Just place yer order and I'll pop yer a wee email to ask for a selection of selfies to work with. Slick'll do his jiggery pokery, see what works best, and I'll send yer back a JPG as brings out yer inner scamp, scrag, scallywag or scofflaw. Whether's it looks like an olde timey photograph, a 1970s polaroid, a painting or whatever... well, we'll just has to see. That's kinda a product of the process, says Slick. Yer has to discover it in the pic, he says. Whatevers. Yer free to use this JPG as yer will, of course, as avatar or whatever. But it'll be just between the two of us far as I'm concerned, unless yer explicitly says, Bollocks to that! I wants to be on Twitter! in the next chapbook! I'd be chuffed! It's your image, the original, so yer has yer rights, and privacy's top of the list.

Selfie Quality

Now, them apps can be a bit sticky over recognising faces now and then, I has to say, so if yer sporting a big bushy beard and sunglasses, yer might well stymie one of em. If the pic's fuzzy as fuck or right close up or too far away or crazy askew, that might throw a spanner in the works too, so three or four is best to choose from, Slick says. There oughts to be summat usable in an half dozen if they's different enough, if yer goes that far, but if there ain't nuffink working... well, I'll know soon enough, and ask yer for a few more to try, so don't fret. Tell yer what! Here's some befores and afters, so's yer has an idea of what works best.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

As yer can see, we can deals with some facial hair. So if yer does have a beard or muttonchops or whatnot, we'll give it a go. If yer has a pic without the face fuzz though, it might be an idea to rummage it out as backup, just in case. Whatevers. We'll do our best to sort yer out, and yer should end up with a JPG as captures yer Sekrit Scruffian Self--just like Slick's managed to magic them pics of that writer bloke into portraits of Foxtrot and himself. (Why, if I didn't know better, going by this, I might think both of em scruffs was just confabblationisings invented by that Hal Duncan bloke out of thin air! But as if!)

Anyways, then all's we need do is find yer a monicker.

Scruffian Monicker

If yer's read "How a Scruffian Gets Their Name" then yer knows Teh Roolz, how a fresh-Fixed scruff sits round with their cribmates playing "Eeny Meeny Miny Mo" and coming up with suggestions for that scruff to say, Pffft! Nah! or, Banged to rights! And though it ain't but the two of us, that's how's it'll work here. I might thinks I recognise yer straight off the bat, as I done with Vermintrude, Squirlet and Nuff above--Blow me, if ain't the very spit of Squirlet Nicely! So then it'd be: eeny meeny miny mo, catch a nipper by the toe, if they squeals, let em go, eeny meeny miny mo, you are not... Squirlet Nicely? Could be a scallywag what's famous in the fabbles. Could be a scamp what ain't even been heard a peep of... yet. Like as not, if it's the latter, yer might well notice that scamp piping up in the background of some fabble down the line, innit. (Again, I won't use yer pic unless yer says explicitly it'd tickle yer to be in some future chapbook, so pipe up if that sounds cool, else I'll assume it ain't.)

But I mights be wrong. If yer all, Nah, that ain't me, why, then it's your turn. If yer knows yer own name fine well, thanks... that's just dandy, eh. Sorted! Or, chuck yer vague notion in the hat--Summat McRaggedy?--and I'll see if I can't suggest summat to replace the Summat, like, savvy? Mights end up at Fusspot Pickybrat if we's had three turns each and yer still swithering, but I'll do me best to get yer satisfied. It's your name, innit? Yer has to be happy with it.

Dedicative Decorationising

Well, once we has yer fizzog and monicker sorted, we can put it in yer copy, in that there "This here book belongs to:" page. I'll get me crayons out, or coloured pencils, or pens, maybe's some glitter, though that were right messy the last time so... well, we'll see. I ain't guaranteeing any great artistry, but I can do yer enthusiasm. And then ye'll has a picture of yerself and yer monicker in there so's if any fucker filches it, yer can be all, Oi! That's mine, ya bastard tea-leaf! Give it back!

(This here placeholder pic is of the paperback, which ye'll has to dedicatively decorate yerself--sorry, mate--though no doubt that Hal Duncan bloke'll sign it for yer if yer buys it direct.)

Shipping

We gots August as the release date, and if pre-orders ain't open already they should be up soon, and if all goes to plan, we should has the first batch printed for the middle of July. With the last two weeks or so in July then, we should be OK to get yer copy done and out to yer on schedule. I'll be straight-up though, and say now that yer might have to wait a few weeks if, like, every single copy is snapped up but like every single buyer don't get round to sending me their pics till July 34th or summat daft like that. I mean, I ain't a bleeding miracle worker. But with only 26 copies in this first edition, with enough folk as pre-orders it sending pics in sharpish... well, I reckons shipping a fortnight after orders officially open is doable with the head start. The personalisation does make it a bit less predictable though, so I'll begs yer understanding and patience if it turns out more time-consuming than I'm hoping.

So...

Hopefully that's all clear. Any questions, just pop em in the comments. I'm posting this in advance for reference from the order page on Bandcamp, which will be opening soon for pre-orders if it ain't already open. If yer reading this cause yer follows the blog, or seen it linked on Twitter or Patreon, and pre-orders ain't open yet, feel free to pop me an email at hal@halduncan.com to ask for notice pronto when pre-orders do open.

Cheers,

Gob
xoxox