tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61343162024-02-20T01:43:41.083+00:00Peculiar Times<a href="http://www.infinitarian.com/">Philip Purser-Hallard</a>'s weblog, for random musings on writing, life and such other matters as arise. <br>
All material © Philip Purser-Hallard unless otherwise stated.Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.comBlogger698125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-80556012146519297692024-02-04T16:06:00.003+00:002024-02-04T16:06:24.965+00:00New website This blog is no longer updated. Please see https://purserhallard.com/ for all your Philip Purser-Hallard news needs.Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-22632086662166864192022-12-20T14:27:00.000+00:002022-12-20T14:27:35.735+00:00 THE ADVENTURE OF THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT
by Philip Purser-Hallard
‘You don’t seem overjoyed by the
company of our new room-mate,’ I admonished my friend cheerfully, as I hung
another bauble upon the stout Douglas fir that stood in the corner of our
sitting-room at 221B Baker Street.
‘I merely remarked, Watson,’ said
Sherlock Holmes, with a placid puff upon his pipe, ‘that if the Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-80374429121794333552021-12-14T20:17:00.000+00:002021-12-14T20:17:40.172+00:00Exmasdays in the Povertime EXMASDAYS IN THE POVERTIME
by Philip Purser-Hallard
What
was it like when you were
little, G’G’G’Gran?
What was what like, my angel?
Exmasday!
What were the Exmasdays like when you were young like me?
Ooh, now that was a long, long time
ago, my flower. I’m not altogether sure I can remember…
Yes,
you can, don’t tease! Please can you tell me, please?
Well, perhaps if I shut Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-61146864552459356282020-12-17T17:18:00.004+00:002020-12-17T17:18:33.359+00:00 WIGHT CHRISTMAS
by Philip Purser-Hallard
‘Can you help Jason in the Magical
Grotto, Barry?’ Tracy the admin’s waiting to pounce as I trudge through the mud
in front of her Portakabin. ‘The walls are leaking again with all this rain,
and he’s having to move the bran tubs.’
‘Sorry, Trace,’ I say, waggling the pickaxe in my left hand
at the shovel in my right. ‘The chemical loos Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-42582335417635097502019-12-19T16:01:00.000+00:002019-12-19T16:05:31.044+00:00Stable Genius
STABLE GENIUS
By Philip Purser-Hallard
Wiseman
stares at the scrap of paper. It’s been pulled out of what looks like a
reference book, flimsy paper close-printed in a font he doesn’t recognise. It’s
barely half a page, and the bottom half at that. Its lower and right edges are
still crisp and well-defined, the left and upper ones ragged.
He
takes a deep breath, and reads.
‘…data losses Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-56669396202221392632018-12-22T09:11:00.000+00:002018-12-22T09:11:07.831+00:00Dendrotheology
DENDROTHEOLOGY
By Philip
Purser-Hallard
I
‘Do you have any religious
affiliation?’ the customs officer asks, in a tone too bored to display any
remnant of embarrassment.
‘Religious
affiliation? Oh no, nothing like that,’ replies the Reverend Monsignora Dr Imogen
Tantry, S.J., the fingers in the left-hand pocket of her slacks devoutly
crossed.
‘Are
you carrying religious artefacts or Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-6769542486517744232017-12-21T14:30:00.000+00:002017-12-21T14:30:42.608+00:00The Fourth Age of Christmas
THE FOURTH AGE OF CHRISTMAS
by Philip Purser-Hallard
‘You sure you’ve got the dosh, pal?’
asks the barman, smirking at me. ‘I though you might be a bit short.’
‘Nah mate, I’m fine.’ I grit my teeth
and hand it over.
‘All tenners, is it?’ he says, grinning
now. ‘Just making sure. I wouldn’t want to short change you.’
Time was I’d have hacked his feet out from
under him and stomped on Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-39728854645086848092016-12-23T09:41:00.000+00:002016-12-23T09:41:22.685+00:00The X-Mass (1955)
THE X-MASS (1955)
‘IT CAME FROM THE SKIES – TO SAVE OUR
WORLD!’
It starts
with a voiceover – male, of course, American, a voice precision-honed by decades
of whisky and cigarettes. Solemn, faintly awestruck, its speaks over a still
image of a star.
‘Imagine, if you will, a chance encounter. A
meeting between a so-called “cosmic ray”, originating from some far-distant
star, and a cell of Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-63617981598007093272016-01-24T14:21:00.000+00:002016-02-01T11:10:52.703+00:00End of Days
It's taken me a while to get my thoughts about the announcement of the new Doctor Who
showrunner in order. (NB: This is just what I reckon, yeah? If you're an
old-school internet pedant, you may want to imagine this prefaced by a gigantic 48-point
flashing ‘IMHO’.)
I can quite see why the BBC have appointed Chris Chibnall to take
over from Steven Moffat. He’s an experienced showrunner, with Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-34825033942232967762015-12-19T15:41:00.000+00:002015-12-19T16:09:18.529+00:00Mummers and Poppers: A Devices Story for Christmas
Another imminent Christmas means another Christmas story, and another all-too-rare update to this all-but-abandoned blog. Except that what I sent out with my Christmas cards last year was a tie-in story to my Devices Trilogy novels, and has already been published on the Snowbooks website. Still, I don't have another one for you, sorry.
This story is set between The Pendragon Protocol and Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-40023846177655423902015-11-08T18:38:00.000+00:002015-12-18T17:54:32.714+00:00Announcing The Black ArchiveLaunching in March 2016 from Obverse Books, The Black Archive is a series of book-length looks at single Doctor Who stories from 1963 to the present day.
The series will publish six titles each year, in simultaneous digital and print editions. Each title is a twenty to forty thousand word study of a single televised Doctor Who story, drawing on all eras of the series’ history.
Authors Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-10363036269279615352015-07-24T11:42:00.000+01:002015-07-24T11:58:37.929+01:00Furthest Tales of the CityYou (Yes, you over there! Pay attention!) will be pleased to learn that the fourth anthology of City of the Saved short stories, Furthest Tales of the City, is due for release some time in late 2015.
The blurb goes like this:
Even
the secular afterlife created for humanity by the Secret Architects has its
limits – and there will always be those Citizens who chafe against those
Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-28855890397562875342015-02-16T09:42:00.003+00:002015-02-16T12:51:27.978+00:00Meet the Martians
In the event, only one reader entered the competition to identify the types of fictional Martian mentioned in my short story "Green Mars Blues", and that was in fact another of the contributors to Iris Wildthyme of Mars.
I said that I thought there were nineteen types of Martian in the story. I have to admit it depends heavily on how you count.
From the beginning...
1. The Green Man (first Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-82323742553271526832015-02-05T16:22:00.000+00:002015-02-05T16:22:42.895+00:00Here's the thingToday I was sent a link to a forum post where someone speaks enthusiastically about how much they've enjoyed some books of mine (among a number of others), and offers to share the ebook versions with other forum users for free.
I don't know how certain people so consistently fail to understand this, but here it is. Books (including ebooks) are as good as they are, and cost the amounts they do, Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-37924049823314630682015-01-17T11:03:00.003+00:002015-01-17T11:04:14.719+00:00Competition TimeRight. I have a signed copy of my urban fantasy thriller The Pendragon Protocol to give away, to someone who can demonstrate their close reading abilities and knowledge of obscure science fiction.
To win this you'll need to find a copy of the anthology Iris Wildthyme of Mars. This may sound like a large investment, but a) the ebook version is currently only £5.99 in the Obverse sale, b) ThePhiliphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-91635697728296115072014-12-19T13:59:00.000+00:002014-12-19T14:00:53.204+00:00TableauxA Merry Christmas to all those of you reading this.
Every year I send out a story in my Christmas cards, and every year I put the previous year's online. The past ones are all archived on this blog, but 2013's was a touch experimental, being 720 words of prose supplied on seven cards that could be rearranged in different combinations to create 720 different narratives[1].
That isn't something IPhiliphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-21106559321324504032014-10-17T16:22:00.001+01:002014-10-17T16:24:54.728+01:00EncycledI’m delighted and slightly stunned to discover that, with the publication of The Pendragon Protocol, I now merit my own entry in the science fiction readers’ Bible, John Clute et al’s The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. I owned the first edition from the age of twelve or thereabouts; I still have the 21-year-old second edition (see right) and its sister volume, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy,Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-60248842128863949312014-09-19T19:29:00.001+01:002014-09-19T19:37:11.387+01:00Iris and Sherlock (at last, but not together)It's rather later than expected, I know, but it's now possible to pre-order the two anthologies I've edited this year, Iris Wildthyme of Mars and Tales of the Great Detectives, from Obverse Books. If you're not of a mind to wait for another couple of weeks, or would rather not pay for the print versions (hardback and paperback respectively), it's also possible to buy and download the Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-87515663399308286542014-06-20T11:25:00.000+01:002014-06-20T11:46:58.032+01:00Duck and CoverDid I mention that the cover design for Iris Wildthyme of Mars (created by Cody Quijano-Schell around Paul Hanley's outstanding artwork) has now been finalised?
No? Well, it has.
I'm amused that, of the three covers of books which are out this year with my name on them...
...two have union jacks on them, two have city skylines, and the other pair have something more unusual in commonPhiliphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-21332097524197764522014-06-17T11:42:00.002+01:002014-06-18T09:03:38.093+01:00Oh, What a Giveaway
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.goodreadsGiveawayWidget a { padding: 0 !important; margin: 0; Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-37596352422627491902014-06-02T21:17:00.000+01:002014-06-02T21:21:34.351+01:00Detective ArtThe cover has now been finalised for Tales of the Great Detectives, the third City of the Saved collection due out from Obverse Books in the next month or two.
The artwork is by the polytalented Blair Bidmead, with cover design by Cody Quijano-Schell, and it's a bit of a departure from the previous Tales volumes (click for full-sized versions):
I'm really pleased with how thisPhiliphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-32966202322087001782014-05-17T19:48:00.001+01:002014-05-17T19:48:13.553+01:00Sorry, SiteIt's been a source of increasing bother to me that my website, conforming as it does to the design I cobbled together in about an hour and a half in 2004, now looks distinctly dated, as if designed by characters from Neuromancer. Given that I have the first volume of a smart professional new trilogy due out soon, this issue needed resolution... but with over 200 pages at www.infinitarian.com, Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-1547882801503376242014-05-04T15:04:00.000+01:002014-05-04T15:25:27.075+01:00Enter the Pendragon
It's a year to the day since I submitted my urban-fantasy thriller The Pendragon Protocol to Snowbooks. Today we finalised the cover design:
The image was created by the outrageously talented Emma Barnes, and I love it to pieces. The way it balances thriller and fantasy, modernity and antiquity is wonderful, and the endorsement from Simon Morden is the icing on the cake. &Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-48366039833800154902014-04-19T12:20:00.000+01:002014-04-19T12:33:53.308+01:00Mars (Your Enjoyment)I imagine you've all been on tenterhooks (which look like this, apparently) for months now, waiting for the announcement of the author and title lineup for the utterly fabulous forthcoming anthology Iris Wildthyme of Mars.
Please now unhook yourselves from whichever tenter you've been occupying, because the time has now arrived when such an announcement can be made, and it looks like this:
Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134316.post-52024174174307753032014-02-03T23:00:00.000+00:002014-05-04T14:57:01.463+01:00Four for 2014Where have we got to, you may well ask, with the various writing and editing projects of mine which are due out this year?
Here's a rundown.
Further Encounters of Sherlock Holmes, the anthology of new Holmes stories edited by George Mann which opens with my "The Adventure of the Professor's Bequest", is out now from Titan Books, and has received at least one review (although it doesn't Philiphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870980082684845846noreply@blogger.com0