Download or read book The Birdcage Heart Other Strange Tales written by Peter M. Ball and published by Brain Jar Press. This book was released on 2017-11-30 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 12 short stories those who love strange, heartbreaking, and unforgettable fantasy. What if kaiju decimated your hometown, but only half the population could see them? What if mermaids unleashed their wrath against Copenhagen using mechanoid war-machines? What if the man you loved wanted nothing more than running away to live with the faeries, but you were the one they wanted to take with them? The Birdcage Heart & Other Strange Tales gathers together twelve wild and genre-bending fantasy tales from the pen of Peter M Ball, the Ditmar and Aurealis Award-winning author of the cult hit Horn and the Keith Murphy urban fantasy thrillers. These scintillating tales draw inspiration from myth, pop-culture, magic realism and Lovecraftian horrors, showcasing Peter M. Ball’s talent for blurring the line between genres and finding the sublime in both the everyday and the extraordinary. Come meet a man with a birdcage where his heart should be, the resident of Isla Tortuga’s most dangerous bordello, clockwork goats and smokestack magi, dragonkeepers, vengeful musicians, and frustrated public servants. Walk paths through briar-choked cities, deceptively ordinary towns, and an endless stairwell populated by tourists. Prepare yourself for the wickedly inventive magic and startlingly human moments. Whether you’re already a fan of Peter M. Ball, or you’re just about to become one, The Birdcage Heart & Other Strange Tales is a debut collection that shouldn’t be missed. PRAISE FOR PETER M. BALL "Only Peter M. Ball's fiction makes falling down the rabbit hole feel like flying. Funny and surprising, with moments of extraordinary grace." Angela Slatter, Author of the World Fantasy Award-winning The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings TABLE OF CONTENTS - The Last, Great House of Isla Tortuga - On the Destruction of Copenhagen By the War-Machines of the Merfolk - The Seventeen Executions of Signore Don Vashta - It’s Not A Bad Job, Really - The Dragonkeeper’s Wife - On the Finding Of Photographs Of My Former Loves - The Clockwork Goat & The Smokestack Magus - The Birdcage Heart - On the Cliffs, By The Sea - Briar Day - L’esprit de L’escalier - On the Arrival of the Paddle-Steamer on the Docks of V—

Download or read book The Birdcage Heart and Other Strange Tales written by Peter M. Ball and published by . This book was released on 2019-06-30 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this collection a man named Rat descends a staircase that never ends, following the rules laid out by his guidebook. Copenhagen is invaded by angry merfolk who pilot war-machines crafted from old shipwrecks. A musician with a grudge upsets the delicate balance of a very unusual seaside town.The Birdcage Heart & Other Strange Tales collects twelve weird and unusual fantasy stories from Peter M Ball. Come walk beside an executioner tasked with killing a man who cannot be killed, a young man with a birdcage where his heart should be, and a frustrated public servant trying to deal with an unruly wizard determined to prove his powers. Watch a relationship unravel as former lovers are revealed to be creatures of myth, reminisce with the residents of a city overrun with giant thorns, and visit Isla Tortuga¿s last, great house of ill repute where no-one is exactly what they seem on the surface. Some of the stories contained within have happy endings, and some end in sorrow, but the journey always takes an unexpected route through moments of wonder and unexpected pleasure. "Only Peter M. Ball's fiction makes falling down the rabbit hole feel like flying. Funny and surprising, with moments of extraordinary grace." Angela Slatter, Author of the World Fantasy Award-winning The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings

Download or read book The Birdcage Heart written by Peter Ball and published by . This book was released on 2018-11-26 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If you love your fiction weird, heartbreaking, and unforgettable, take this opportunity to introduce yourself to the short stories of Peter M. Ball. This debut collection of fantasy tales will take you on strange and wonderful journeys that contrast the sublime and the everyday, introducing you to unforgettable characters and unexpected landscapes. Walk beside an executioner tasked with killing a criminal who cannot be killed, a young man learning to love while there's a birdcage where his heart should be, and a frustrated public servant trying to deal with unruly wizard determined to prove magic exists. Watch a relationship unravel as former lovers are revealed to be creatures of myth, reminisce with the residents of a city overrun with giant thorns, and visit Isla Tortuga's last, great house of ill repute where no-one is exactly what they seem on the surface. Follow a man named rate down a staircase that never ends, watch as Copenhagen is invaded by the war machines of angry merfolk, and despair as a musician with a grudge upsets the delicate balance of a very unusual seaside town. You may never be sure if these tales are leading you down a path towards joy or sorrow, but the route will always be touched with moments of wonder and unexpected pleasure. The Birdcage Heart & Other Strange Tales collects twelve weird and unusual fantasy stories from award-winning Australian fantasist Peter M Ball."Only Peter M. Ball's fiction makes falling down the rabbit hole feel like flying. Funny and surprising, with moments of extraordinary grace." Angela Slatter, Author of the World Fantasy Award-winning The Bitterwood Bible and Other RecountingsTABLE OF CONTENTS- The Last, Great House of Isla Tortuga- On the Destruction of Copenhagen By the War-Machines of the Merfolk- The Seventeen Executions of Signore Don Vashta- It's Not A Bad Job, Really- The Dragonkeeper's Wife- On the Finding Of Photographs Of My Former Loves- The Clockwork Goat & The Smokestack Magus- The Birdcage Heart- On the Cliffs, By The Sea- Briar Day- L'esprit de L'escalier- On the Arrival of the Paddle-Steamer on the Docks of V--

Download or read book These Strange Magic Things Short Stories written by Peter M. Ball and published by Brain Jar Press. This book was released on with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For fans of the weird and enchanting, Peter M Ball returns with a third collection of speculative fiction stories that dance along the borders between horror, fantasy, and science fiction. These Strange and Magic Things collects fifteen tales showcasing why he’s among the finest writers of the strange and fantastic working in Australia right now. A zombie survival kit started as a private joke takes on new meaning in a failing marriage. A trip to the moon goes wrong when dinosaurs attack the anti-grav train in transit. The difficulties of high school prove much worse when Mike learns he’s a werewolf. A drunken party trick goes wrong when a boy with bats in his head decides to show everyone he can catch a bullet with is bare hands. Hit man to the supernatural, Keith Murphy, comes up against a demon who draws power from the wrestling ring. He’s too tough to gun down and impervious to magic, which means Keith’s only got one option - step up, play by the rules of the ring, and accept the possibility he might just be the local hero the Gold Coast needs. In These Strange and Magic Things Ball spins magic, horror, and pop culture together into an unforgettable collection of tales featuring rogue jinn, uncanny rock bands, magic bees, flying crocodiles, laundromat ghosts, haunted coins, cyberpunk gangs, and lost loves.

Download or read book Hornets Attack Your Best Friend Victor Other Things We Called The Band written by Peter M. Ball and published by Brain Jar Press. This book was released on with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Their final gig ended with two hundred people dead. Patrick’s only regret is that he wasn’t there to be a part of it. There were three things everyone knew about the band: they played like demons, sang like angels, and there was definitely something magic about the way they glowed onstage. Patrick’s still hanging onto that, 15 years after their final gig. All those people may be dead, but they were part of something special and he chickened out before the end. Now he’s back on the Gold Coast for the first time in years, walking the streets where he used to see the posters, going past clubs that have been turned into Korean restaurant instead of a home for punk gigs. He can remember everything about those years when he was a fan, and he’s loaded with regrets about the gigs he missed. The band were called many things in their day: Hornet’s Attack Your Best Friend Victor; Whisky-Whisky-111; All that Glitters and We Will Always Have the Lighthouse My Melancholy Bride. None of those names stuck. None of them felt real. And Patrick isn’t sure he cares what the band was called—he just wants to touch that feeling he lost, no matter what it might cost him.

Download or read book Crusade written by Peter M. Ball and published by Brain Jar Press. This book was released on 2015-07-15 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Keith followed orders. He came back home. He freed his soul and laid claim to a magic sword. But Keith Murphy doesn’t have time to rest, because his sorcerous partner Danny Roark is out of commission and the end of the world is thundering towards humanity like a freight train on steroids. As the elder entities from the depths of the Gloom break through the veil of reality with increasing regularity, Keith is forced to assemble a rag-tag army of demons, seers, and reluctant allies to stop Ragnarök from occurring.

Download or read book Unauthorized Live Recording written by Peter M. Ball and published by Brain Jar Press. This book was released on with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Their music could be fatal, but their legacy lives on. Mia Dermott documents the stories of surviving in the back room of a record store, seeking a connection to the father she never got a chance to know. Her latest interviewee recounts a story of the band’s first gig, and the surprisingly legacy that her father left behind: the sole bootleg of the four-piece’s gigs that actually registered their music. It’s a tape Mia needs to find if she ever wants to understand why her father chose to die. And a tape the obsessed fans would kill to hear, if only they knew where to find it. Issue 2 in The Kaleidoscope’s Children, a mosaic series of uncanny tales set in the world of Hornets Attack Your Best Friend Victor & Other Things We Called The Band.

Download or read book One Saturday Night With Angel written by Peter M. Ball and published by Brain Jar Press. This book was released on 2020-07-16 with total page 17 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Read the first short story in Peter M. Ball’s Seraphim Plague series, One Saturday Night, With Angel (also available in the short story collection Not Quite The End Of The World Just Yet). There’s an angel perched on the Nite Owl roof when Mike shows up for the graveyard shift. He thinks it’s the same angel whose been following him for a week. Everybody thinks Mike’s going to be purged before morning, Elvis and all the other regulars are telling him so. But Mike figures he’s lasted six days without pissing the angel off. With luck, he can make it seven and they’ll find some other victim…

Download or read book Deadbeats A Helix City Short Story written by Peter M. Ball and published by Eclectic Projects. This book was released on 2021-01-31 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cody Jones owes the corp a lot of money. Decanted from a cryotube with a mountain of debt and very few options, she works corporate black ops in Downside—home to the gene-freaks, gangs, and dispossessed who don’t have a place in the gleaming towers of Helix City. Cody’s latest job is simple: recover a fresh cache of cryogenically frozen citizens from a local gang before they’re bartered to the highest bidder. Deliver them to Bellamy and knock a little more off her debt. Pity the gangs have their own ideas about how this deal needs to go. What should be a simple recovery gig sees Cody and her partner caught in a conflict between the hulking kaiju-gangers and drug-addled zealots, and both sides have plans for the sleepers just might change Cody’s world foreve

Download or read book Eclectic Projects 003 written by Peter M. Ball and published by Brain Jar Press. This book was released on with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The third issue of Eclectic Projects features four original short stories and more from Aurealis and Ditmar award-winning author Peter M. Ball. Dive into this issue to find: A glimpse into the secrets held by six cats who gather around a magical campfire in Six Cats Go Camping; A dedicated cosplayer who finds new purpose when alien's invade in The Chap Who Wanted To Be Captain Flagg; A mad scientist with dangerous ideas and the cowboy sent to stop him in One Last Job, Then Sleep; The existential crisis felt by those at the heart of the zomie apocalypse in Our Survival and Other Mysteries. In addition, professional thief Tallulah Wyndham-Pryce looks for answers in a den of inequity in part three of The Shackleton Job serial, Showdown At The Black Cherry. Issue 3 also features advice on managing writing the complex web of obligations that plague aspiring or part-time writers (equally useful if you're a non-writer with too much on) in Working Around the Ampersands: Tips for Managing Complex and Conflicting Priorities. Long regarded as one of Australia’s weirder speculative fiction authors, Peter M. Ball now brings you original fiction each month in his own magazine, Eclectic Projects. Peter is also the author of the novellas Horn, Bleed, Exile, Frost, and Crusade, and his prior short fiction has been collected in The Birdcage Heart & Other Strange Tales, Not Quite The End Of The World Just Yet, and These Strange & Magic Things. He’s the brain in charge at Brain Jar Press and lives in Brisbane with his spouse and a very demanding cat.

Download or read book Eclectic Projects 001 written by Peter M. Ball and published by Eclectic Projects. This book was released on 2023-01-24 with total page 77 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This first issue of Eclectic Projects features four original short stories, the launch of an ongoing serial, and one feature essay from Aurealis and Ditmar award-winning author Peter M. Ball Featuring a blend of fantasy, science fiction, and horror, this issue includes: ● Two ex-lovers with a bloody, magical secret who reunite in On Meeting An Ex-Girlfriend For Drinks At The Bar Of The Hotel Trio. ● Young hooligans in trouble with the law get sent to faerie to lie low in Four Mohocks, Sent Abroad. ● Two travellers trapped in a deadly quarantine in Sweltering Fruit. ● A reluctant photographer who shoots the subject's soul, instead of their face, in Box Brownie Blues. This issue also sees the debut of The Shackleton Job, an ongoing serial about the professional thief Tallulah Wyndham-Pryce and the otherworldly entities who contract her services, and the original writing essay On Heinlein’s Habits & The Rise Of The New Pulp Era. Long regarded as one of Australia’s weirder speculative fiction authors, Peter M. Ball now brings you original fiction each month in his own magazine, Eclectic Projects. Peter is also the author of the novellas Horn, Bleed, Exile, Frost, and Crusade, and his short stories are collected in The Birdcage Heart & Other Strange Tales, Not Quite The End Of The World Just Yet, and These Strange & Magic Things. He’s the brain in charge at Brain Jar Press and lives in Brisbane with his spouse and a very demanding cat. You can follow his writing life at www.PeterMBall.com.

Download or read book Winged With Sharp Teeth written by Peter M. Ball and published by Eclectic Projects. This book was released on 2023-08-08 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fiction writers are taught to show, not tell. In each Short Fiction Lab, award-winning short fiction writer Peter M. Ball presents an original story and an accompanying essay showcasing a particular aspect of the craft or business of writing inspired by the creative work. The Story: Winged, With Sharp Teeth There have always been lands not mapped out in an atlas, and those lands have always needed heroes. Once, Steve had that chance to visit another world, but he stayed and grow older, finding contentment in his friends and his job as council librarian. In Winged, With Sharp Teeth, Steve learns his new boyfriend had a similar opportunity… and the winged crocodile determined to tempt Duke into becoming a hero hasn’t abandoned the quest just because Duke’s an adult. The Essay: Two Hundred Copies or Bust In Two Hundred Copies or Bust, Peter M. Ball asks what success really looks like for a writer, whether they’re traditionally published, self-published, or just starting out. From the expectations of other people to the secret ambitions that drive the writer, Ball explores the tensions that wear on a writer’s ambitions and shift our perceptions of whether a story is good, great, or disastrous.

Download or read book The Early Experiments written by Peter M. Ball and published by Eclectic Projects. This book was released on 2023-07-11 with total page 47 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fiction writers are taught to show, not tell. In each Short Fiction Lab, award winning short fiction writer Peter M. Ball takes one of his own stories and explores an aspect of the writing craft in the accompanying essay. In this introductory primer to the Short Fiction Lab series, Ball presents four short tales for lovers of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Upon Discovering of A Ghost in the Five Star: There’s a ghost in the Five Star Laundromat. The worst thing you can do is accept her balloon when she tries to give it to you. Nick’s interest in the dead girl is causing problems with his boyfriend… but he isn’t sure he’s ready to give her up just yet. Counting Down: Phil thinks he can catch a bullet as a party trick, but he needs someone to pull the trigger. Mattie isn’t sure he’s got what it takes to fire the antique Luger at his friend, but he’s also caught a glimpse of the bats living inside Phil’s skull and knows what it means if they get out. The Place Beyond the Brambles: The women who emerge from the land beyond the brambles are always strange and always beautiful. They’re also prone to returning home, long before the men who marry them hope they will depart. Ethan’s wife has done exactly that, leaving behind a daughter and memories that only Ethan can recall. The Things You Do When The War Breaks Out: Henry and his dad are going to the moon for a holiday. The dinosaurs who occupy the dark side of the moon are no longer content to share it with humanity. When war breaks out and the moon is evacuated, Henry’s father sees an opportunity to resolve some old grudges. In the accompanying essay, Here Comes The Boom, Peter M. Ball takes on the question all writers seem to shirk: where do you get your ideas from? He takes readers through the inspiration behind each of these short tales and breaks down why a great idea is often the least important tool in the writer’s arsenal.

Download or read book Briar Day written by Peter M. Ball and published by Eclectic Projects. This book was released on 2022-01-04 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Published here as a stand-alone chapbook, Briar Day is a short, slipstream story about masculinity, fairy tales, and the narratives we tell ourselves. Also available in the collection The Birdcage Heart & Other Strange Tales. Everyone remembers where they were when the briars first choked the city. Everyone celebrates the anniversary of their rescue from the rampaging dragon and the mysterious curse that afflicted Brisbane. But not everybody is in the mood to celebrate the anniversary of Briar Day, and for two old friends with terrible memories of the day, the annual celebrations are nothing but a source of heartbreak.

Download or read book Clockwork Patchwork Raven written by Peter M. Ball and published by Eclectic Projects. This book was released on 2022-11-01 with total page 33 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Randal finds an injured girl, cruelly beaten and cut apart by the genetically modified crow boys, he dreams of rising above his status as a clockwork man and becoming a hero. With the help of his adopted father, Jackson, Randal patches the girl together and nurses her back to health using the same clockwork cybernetics that brought Randal back from death. But grim streets of Downside are no place for fairy tales, and gangs do not let people walk away without paying a price. As the crow boys gather, demanding Randal turn over their injured prey, the clockwork man will find out the hero’s path can be deadly. Winner of the 2009 Aurealis Awards for best Science Fiction Short Story, and also available as part of the collection Not Quite The End Of The World Just Yet.

Download or read book Deeper Cuts written by Peter M. Ball and published by Eclectic Projects. This book was released on 2022-03-08 with total page 29 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Peter M. Ball made his debut as a speculative fiction writer in 2007, but he’d already been writing for over a decade before turning his attention to science fiction and fantasy. This chapbook brings two early, formative short stories back into print, featuring the discontinuous, post-modern grunge-lit of Night, Morning, Story and the crude horror of Impact. The chapbook also includes a short author’s note, positioning these early works in the landscape of Ball’s later career and his first steps away from writing poetry. Ideal for fans who enjoy not just the deep cuts of an author’s back catalogue, but delving all the way back to see early influences and techniques in their nascent form.

Download or read book Out Past The Fence written by Peter M. Ball and published by GenrePunk Books. This book was released on with total page 22 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the zombies rose, Val and Janice retreated to small farmhouse in the mountains, putting up fences and joining forces with the local militia to keep their community safe. "At least we have each other," they thought, "everything will be just fine." It turns out long nights hunting the dead and long days wondering if something has gone wrong will take its toll on every marriage. Trouble is brewing out past the fence, and Janice fears it will soon find its way inside. Out Past The Fence by Peter M. Ball is part of the Red Rain Collection, a fiercely weird series of short stories which blends the dirty realism of Raymond Carver with the absurdity of the zombie apocalypse. Snack on these delicious morsels of fiction between longer reads or devour the entire series in a single sitting.