David Court's Blog

Go visit that patient
with your shit home-made mask
but just dare ask for better
and we'll take you to task

Go empty those bedpans
as you wander the wards
to the hollow applause
of the whole House of Lords

Go comfort the dying
by best at arm's reach
Last rites by iPad
to the scent of fresh bleach

And pray to your God
it's not COVID you catch
but in case you were worried,
we've got you a badge.

"I am the very model of a modern major malady,Thriving in your respiratory tract via nasal or oral cavityKnow that you should wash your hands, It’s proven immunologicalFrom pathogen from me to you, in order pathological."

The original pre-publisher prototype coverfor "Scenes of Mild Peril".  I'm rather fond of thisdesign, and might use it for another project.
Back in September of 2018, Scenes of Mild Peril was released. It was a culmination of several years of work, being a collection of thirty stories both new and reprinted from elsewhere (where the rights had reverted to me, at any rate).

As I've mentioned elsewhere, it was a bit of a disaster. I was incredibly proud of the book, but the publishers were trying a new distribution model and I ended up falling foul of being the guinea pig for this experiment. Ultimately, the formatting was shot - each page had non-existent inner margins, meaning that you couldn't physically open the book wide enough to read the stories.

As a result of this - and the laborious process of sorting it out - I became disheartened. Despite an amazing review in Issue #51 of Scream Magazine, and a lot of positive buzz, I couldn't summon up any enthusiasm for marketing it. Despite the fact that there was an electronic edition out there which read perfectly well, it didn't feel worthy of promotion until there was an actual readable physical copy that I could be proud of. Something I was proud to put my name to. I was having to warn my friends not to actually buy any physical copies of it, which wasn't exactly the kind of promotion I'd envisaged.

Version 1 of Scenes of Mild Peril - now with Ultrathin(tm) inner margins!Eventually the issues were sorted out - brilliantly, in fact - but it took a long, long time and by then it was too late. Any enthusiasm I'd had, had atrophied away. Reviews limped in - and really good reviews, at that - but it felt as though the time for Scenes of Mild Peril had come and gone.

This was devastating, as I feel as though this book contains some of the best stories I've ever written. The whole experience almost put me off writing for good, feeling that there little point in working on things that weren't being read.

But then, the rights reverted back to me. And with it under my total control again, I felt as though it was worth a final push. So, it's been re-released, is a good couple of quid cheaper, and is finally the book I wanted to release all along.

So, if you haven't picked up a copy yet, I'd love you to. I really want this out there and read, as it's something that I'm particularly proud of.

Like "The Shadow Cast by the World" and "Forever and Ever, Armageddon" before it, it's a collection of short science-fiction and horror stories, with a few poems thrown in for good measure. And it's thick - boy, is it thick. At around 338 pages, you could easily use it to disarm an assailant or to shield yourself from the explosion from a fragmentation grenade.

If you're after a copy, the new printing can be found here. Whatever your flavour of Amazon, it's the cheaper of the two paperback formats available. If you're after a signed copy, pop your £7.99 to my PayPal at davidjcourt at googlemail.com, and I'll happily get a copy sent to you.

And if you already own Scenes of Mild Peril and would like to help, spread the word by leaving a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or anywhere that readers visit. The most important part of how well a book does is how many positive reviews it has, and if you leave me one you are directly helping me continue on this journey as a writer.

With love and genuine thanks,
David


And if that's not enough to convince you to get a copy, how about a word from this handsome awkward brute?

I won’t be particularly sorry to see the back of 2019.

From a personal perspective, it hasn’t been a pleasant one. It has had its highlights – a lovely trip to Dublin in which I finally got to thank Michael Carroll of Judge Dredd fame in person for his lovely blurb for “Forever and Ever, Armageddon” and some lovely holidays (a stag do in Latvia that saw me firing AK-47’s in a terrifying underground bunker, and a considerably less weapon-based break in Budapest) – but my heart hasn’t been entirely in it.
Not the writer you want at your side in a Zombie Apocalypse - Here
author David Court struggles to hit a Latvian barn door at 10 pacesMy mental health has taken a bit of a blow again this year, with depression rearing its ugly head as well as a health scare with my blood pressure. I’m lucky enough to know the cause of both issues – my day job – but it’s felt at times like I’ve been about to snap. Work have been very understanding – even tolerating me handing in and rescinding handing in my notice - and my work has gotten considerably easier to cope with, but it’s been far from easy.
To this end, the last thing I’ve wanted to do after a day of sitting in front of a screen is coming home and sitting in front of another. My writing has suffered considerably, and it’s been one of the least productive years I’ve had since I started back in 2013.
The formatting of my last book – Scenes of Mild Peril – finally got sorted out by the publisher, but it was all a case of too little, too late. Despite a lovely Scream review last year, there’s been very little take-up of it - although the few reviews it received have been lovely and very favourable. The rights revert to me very imminently, so I’m possibly planning a relaunch if there is enough interest.
On a more positive note, March saw the release of “The Theory”, TPub’s sci-fi take on their successful “Twisted Dark” brand. It features two of my stories – the opening tale “Obsession”, and a giant mech story “Battlesuit”. I got to promote this in person at MCM Birmingham and MCM London, attending a panel at each.
MCM London - Look!  There's a big picture of my face behind me, and
everything!(Almost didn’t get into MCM London as they’d screwed up my speakers pass, but you’ll be glad to know that at no stage did I scream out “Do you know who I am?”)
There’s also been some good spin-off news from this, as Battlesuit is currently been filmed as an animated short by Hasraf Dulull, giving me my April saw the release of “A Town called Hell”; Burdizzo book’s ambitious shared universe horror anthology. I was a late invite to this, but contributed “And Heeeere’s your Host”, my story of a suicidal washed-out American Gameshow host. Burdizzo also released the first volume of their Burdizzo Bards books, and this included my poem “The Lantern”.
Also in April, Local Hero Press released the fifth volume of their “The Good Fight” superhero series, and this included my story “Blare the Bright Fanfares”. This is about a World War 2 Nazi supervillain who has a crisis of conscience, and features the return of the British super-hero “Sovereign” from my story “Sovereign’s Last Hurrah”
An amazing selection of short
stories, each inspired by
a particular song.“Maps”, a story I wrote whilst holidaying in Croatia in 2018, featured in the first volume of “Burdizzo Mix Tape”. It’s inspired by the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s song of the same name, and personally I think it’s one of the best things I’ve ever written. It’s a bit of a diversion for me, being a tale of romance and loss set against the backdrop of a failed multidimensional experiment.
The middle of the year saw the release of my second collection "Forever and Ever, Armageddon" as an audio-book. Kristina Fitzgerald did an amazing job of making my stuff sound good, with her wonderful lilting Irish tones, and I'm incredibly proud of how well this works. 
But, despite not writing much in 2019, I’ve turned my hand to a few articles which the esteemed Horror website Ginger Nuts of Horror have politely published. These have included a triptych of articles about horror in comics (concerning Swamp Thing, Zenith and Judge Death, respectively) as well as articles about Tales of the Unexpected, the new Creepshow reboot and horror-themed board games.  These seem to have gone down quite well, so I'll continue to write for GNoH for as long as Jim lets me.

I plan to be way more productive in 2020. My coming-of-age story set in Coventry in the eighties is currently out in the wild with a few publishers in the hope they'll bite, and I'm hoping to leap back into the industry all guns blazing. I'm not renewing my membership to the Horror Writers Association - it hasn't really been of any use to me, but I know that's a personal thing - but I'm not planning on giving up quite yet.

Here's to a wonderful 2020 for us all. Let the best of this year be the worst of the next, and I hope you'll continue to keep an interest in my writings. Thanks to those of you who've been there in some way for me this year - my fantastic wife, my partners in crime Lance Fling and MF Wahl, and my buddies at Burdizzo books - and a few select other people (you know who you are!).

So, fuck off, 2019.  Roll on 2020.

Fresh off the press is Burdizzo Book's new anthology collection, "Burdizzo Mix Tape Volume One". The brief for this was quite different - each author was given the choice of a song from a playlist, and the result is the Burdizzo Mix Tape. From The Stone Roses to Black Sabbath, Belle & Sebastian to Carole King, David Bowie to Tom Waits, it's an eclectic selection of both writers and themes, and is well worth checking out.

My own tale, "Maps", is inspired by the Yeah Yeah Yeah's song of the same name, and is a dimension-spanning tale of yearning and lost love.

Another bit of news is that, after a cavalcade of lengthy formatting issues, my last book "Scenes of Mild Peril" is now looking great. It's available in good old fashioned squirrel habitat format or Kindle, and can be found on both Amazon and a variety of other sites. Scream Magazine gave it four out of five skulls in a review that you can reads here.

I've written a triptych of Horror Comic articles for esteemed horror website Ginger Nuts of Horror; one on Swamp Thing, and ones about the 2000ad characters Zenith and Judge Death.

In other writing news, "The High Room", my coming-of-age tale set in Coventry in the eighties, is finished and trying to find a publisher, and my collection "Forever and Ever, Armageddon" is now available as an audiobook and as cheap as chips.

And I also did this, which may entertain those of you with kids and those bloody books... (click to embiggen)

"Forever and Ever, Armageddon" - my collection of short stories from 2014 - is now available as an audiobook from Amazon. Narrated by the wonderful Kristina Fitzgerald, it's a collection of 24 varied short stories; horror, science fiction and satire.
Lucky PennyGood DogThese Words Will Come to Haunt YouOnce A Pun a TimeKomRaidScapegoatForever and Ever, ArmageddonYou v2.0Adventurebots AssembleThe Bogey ManA Change of TacticsRed TideKeeping up with the JonesesBlasphemous TumoursBattleSuitQilUndercurrentRSVPAdlib to FadeTipping the ScalesDouble DareThree Divided by OneThe Muse at TenThe Everywhere SongFrom these stories, BattleSuit features in comic form in the graphic novel The Theory|, available from TPub. Blasphemous Tumours and Undercurrent can be found in the Stitched Smile books Unleashing the Voices Within and Hydrophobia, respectively.

Kristina has done a wonderful job of making my words sound awesome, and I can strongly recommend you give it a listen. If you're inclined to review it (and that would be awesome), drop me a line at davidjcourt at gmail.com and I'll pop you a promotional code.

To join Audible (or sign up for a 30 day free trial) and give this a listen, click here.  To order your copy from Amazon, click here.

So, that was 2018.

It’d be easy to write a clinical list of what I’ve done this year, but 2018 has been a little different. It’d be a little disingenuous of me not to mention the downs as well as the ups. You'll no doubt be inundated with a volley of success stories from other authors, but I'll be honest.

Writing can be shit. It can be unrewarding, thankless and make you wonder on occasions why you bother. Depression doesn't make it any easier, either.

2018 has been the year where I’m happy with my writing and output, but it's also the first year since I've started where I've given serious consideration to giving it up altogether.It’s been an odd one. There have been some successes, but some notable failures too. It’s been a year where I’ve submitted less in order to concentrate more on a new project, but even those relatively few submissions have resulted in some pretty hard-hitting rejections.

But, it's not all doom and gloom - some of it has been great.

The year started with the release of the first volume of the Stitched Smile magazine - this was a long time in the making, but ended up being a lovely piece of work. There's an original story of mine in it - "Our Elegant Decay", a tale of botany and revenge. It can be read here, if you're so inclined.

“Visions From The Void" was released in March from the lovely people at Burdizzo Books. An op-art themed anthology, it included “Buddy, can you spare a paradigm”, my everyday tale of a jazz-obsessed detective who can predict the future. It's been really well received, and it's a delight to see my work featured in such an eclectic anthology.August saw the debut of a new story (“ISOL-8") on the brilliant podcast Starshipsofa.  Wonderfully narrated by Nick Camm, it turned out better than I ever could have hoped. Give it a listen - it's terrific.

"Under the Weather" was released in August by Burdizzo; Another anthology, it's a wonderful collection of weather themed horror tales. My story "Red Sky at Night" features in it, and it's a tale I'm really pleased with.Scenes Of Mild Peril, my new collection, finally got released in September.  The publisher (Stitched Smile Publications) recently changed their business model to use Ingram Spark, and, despite the advantages this brings over CreateSpace, it’s been an exercise in frustration for all concerned.It’s a great piece of work (and wonderfully edited) but I’m finding it incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to summon up much interest in promoting it. For one, the process has taken so long that these feel like old stories to me now. Secondly, ongoing problems with Ingram Spark have seen a cavalcade of formatting issues with the paperback version – I still haven’t even got a decent physical copy of it myself.  Stitched Smile have been incredibly helpful and are clearly equally as frustrated by the issues, but I'd be lying if I said it hasn’t made what should have been an exciting time a bit of a damp squib.

Still, it's been well received and got a lovely review from Scream Magazine (attached below) which can be clicked to actually make it legible :)


Far better news is that my comic work with TPub, thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign, will be released next year. Two stories- “Obsession" from Scenes Of Mild Peril, and “Battlesuit" from my previous collection “Forever and Ever, Armageddon" – have been adapted by myself for TPub's upcoming “The Theory". The art has been provided by the stupidly talented Phil Buckenham, and it looks nothing short of incredible.

So, what else for 2019? I'm hoping to release the next collection of short stories (in a book with the working title "An Untruth of Summoners") and I'm currently tidying up a piece of work which is a bit of a diversion. Rather than write something genre-related, I've completed the first draft (the aforementioned "new project") of a coming-of-age tale set in Coventry during the 80's. It's called "The High Room" and I'm really pleased with it - it's a piece of work that's very personal to me, and writing it was quite a cathartic way of finally dealing with the loss of my mum back at the start of the decade.

So, here's to a prosperous and productive 2019 for us all. I hope it brings you that which you desire.

David x

Click image to embiggen

I've been absolutely rubbish at keeping this blog updated, so I'll make up for it now with some bumper news.Firstly, I'm incredibly pleased to be able to announce the release of "Scenes of Mild Peril", my new short story collection from Stitched Smile. It's the culmination of three years of hard work, and it's by far my best work to date. Thirty brand new stories and poems; horror, science fiction, satire. It'll shortly be available in good old-fashioned physical form for the squirrel-haters amongst you, but for the time being is available in a stupidly wide variety of electronic formats - just click here.  Buy it, support it, share the news, read it, review it – I'd love to hear what you think of it. I couldn't be happier with how this has turned out, and I hope you enjoy it too.Secondly, another of my stories - Red Sky at Night - has been publised in the newly released Under the Weather from Burdizzo Books. It's in some fine company in this 15 story weather themed anthology with tales by C.H. Baum, Paul M. Feeney, Peter Germany (my brother from another mother), Paul Hiscock, Dave Jeffery, James Jobling, Lex H. Jones, Kitty Kane, Christopher Law, Adam Millard, Dale Robertson, Nathan Robinson, Phil Sloman and Mark Woods. And finally, a brief plug for my fellow Burdizzo stablemate Jonathan Butcher and my wife - Jonathan's uncompromising horror novel What Good Girls Do is now available as an audiobook, narrated by Tara. It's available from Amazon, by clicking here.

June the 1st sees the release of "Visions From The Void", the new anthology from Burdizzo books. Available in both paperback and for the Kindle, it's an anthology of twelve tales, each inspired by an individual and unique piece of Op-art.
I was honoured to be asked to take part, especially amongst such esteemed company, and it promises to be a really interesting read.  Those involved were challenged to come up with something outside of their typical genre, and I'm genuinely intrigued to see what everybody else has come up with.
These are the authors and their slices of surrealism;
Kayleigh Marie Edwards – Shut Up and DanceAdam Millard – CheckmateEmma Dehaney – Ten-Minute WarningJohn McNee – Uncommon TimePaula D. Ashe – Exile in ExtremisKit Power – The PricklesJonathan Butcher – The JazziverseLydian Faust – Third-EyeDavid Court – Brother, Can You Spare a Paradigm?J. G. Clay – The Cruellest GiftDuncan P. Bradshaw – It Sucks When You’re All Seeds and No FeathersMatthew Cash – Grotto
The link to buy can be found here - you won't be disappointed!
ThIs Is NoT a NoRmAl AnThOlOgY…
If you are expecting a neat, predictable set of stories TURN BACK NOW
If you want horror but hate bizarro or getting “the feels” THEN STEP AWAY
This collection of tales is what happens when one man’s art meets 12 authors fiction, and when writers are free to ignore their genre of choice and typical story conventions.
12 eye-challenging op-art designs were used to inspire these 12 mind-bending stories, which contain everything from futuristic sci-fi to fantastical comedy, and heartfelt life musings to near-cosmic nihilism.
This is VISIONS FROM THE VOID