I got my first look today at the cover to Psycho-Mania!, edited by Stephen Jones, which will contain my short story “The Trembling Living Wire.” The anthology will be published by Constable & Robinson on October 17th.

If you plan to be at the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton … I hear rumors (or should that be rumours?) there’ll be a launch party!

I’ll be there. Will you?

I had a dream last night in which I was at a World Horror Convention. I couldn’t tell whether it was meant to be a WHC past or future, so I was outside of time. I wandered the spacious lobby of whatever hotel I was in, which had many comfortable leather couches inhabited by my friends. As I walked through the scrum, I saw Steve Jones, who I’ve seen in real life at many WHCs.

He told me that a book I’d inherited from my father, a huge tome I was lugging under one arm through the lobby, wasn’t any ordinary ancient edition of that title. Steve had his own copy of the book, and from examining it learned that my copy had entries and pages that no other edition of the book had or was meant to have. It had been used in mystic rites at some time in the past.

Steve gave me metal armatures that were meant to attach around my arms and torso like an antique Iron Man suit. They were also meant to have dozens of candles inserted into holders arrayed upon them to adorn my body while I read aloud from the book, for what eldritch purpose I did not know.

I paged through the book, admiring its yellowed pages, and then closed its cover. I would figure it all out later. Meanwhile, it was time to hang with my friends. I walked the perimeter of the lobby, where I saw Steve on a couch sitting with Amanda Foubister and Sharyn November. Sharyn got up and took off for a panel, which left a spot for me to sit with Steve and Amanda, which I did … and then woke up.