Sam Knight

From a rising star New Yorker staff writer, the incredible and gripping true story of John Barker, a psychiatrist who investigated the power of premonitions--and came to believe he himself was destined for an early death On the morning of October 21, 1966, Kathleen Middleton, a music teacher in suburban London, awoke choking and gasping, convinced disaster was about to strike. An hour later, a mountain of rubble containing waste from a coal mine collapsed above the village of Aberfan, swamping buildings and killing 144 people, many of them children. Among the doctors and emergency workers who arrived on the scene was John Barker, a psychiatrist from Shelton Hospital, in Shrewsbury. At Aberfan, Barker became convinced there had been supernatural warning signs of the disaster, and decided to establish a "premonitions bureau," in conjunction with the Evening Standard newspaper, to collect dreams and forebodings from the British public, in the hope of preventing future calamities. One of the first people to share her premonition was Middleton, who like many other seemingly normal people, would contribute hundreds of visions to Barker's research in the years to come, some of them unnervingly accurate. As Barker's work plunged him deeper and deeper into the world of the occult and supernatural, his reputation with his colleagues suffered badly. But, in the face of professional humiliation, Barker only became more and more certain that premonitions were real and important, ultimately realizing with terrible certainty that catastrophe had been prophesied in his own life. In Knight's crystalline telling, this astonishing story, with its transfixing conclusion, comes to encompass the secrets of the world. Of course, we all know premonitions are impossible--and yet they come true all the time. You think of your mother, a moment later she calls. Our lives are full of collisions and coincidence: the question is how we interpret the fall of chance and make meaningful stories about the progress of our lives. As Knight writes, "How we distinguish the chances that signify and the ones that do not, and the decisions that we make in our lives as a result, is the kind of question that turns in on itself and might be impossible for us, as individuals, to answer. We cannot stand outside our own lives. We would not want to." John Barker found that he could not leave chance alone.

A True Account of Death Foretold

The Premonitions Bureau

Premonitions Bureau

Straight Outta Tombstone

From a rising star New Yorker staff writer, the incredible and gripping true story of John Barker, a psychiatrist who investigated the power of premonitions—and came to believe he himself was destined for an early death On the morning of October 21, 1966, Kathleen Middleton, a music teacher in suburban London, awoke choking and gasping, convinced disaster was about to strike. An hour later, a mountain of rubble containing waste from a coal mine collapsed above the village of Aberfan, swamping buildings and killing 144 people, many of them children. Among the doctors and emergency workers who arrived on the scene was John Barker, a psychiatrist from Shelton Hospital, in Shrewsbury. At Aberfan, Barker became convinced there had been supernatural warning signs of the disaster, and decided to establish a “premonitions bureau,” in conjunction with the Evening Standard newspaper, to collect dreams and forebodings from the British public, in the hope of preventing future calamities. Middleton was one of hundreds of seemingly normal people, who would contribute their visions to Barker’s research in the years to come, some of them unnervingly accurate. As Barker’s work plunged him deeper and deeper into the world of the occult and the supernatural, his reputation with his colleagues suffered badly. But, in the face of professional humiliation, Barker only became more and more certain that premonitions were real and important, ultimately realizing with terrible certainty that catastrophe had been prophesied in his own life. In Sam Knight’s crystalline telling, this astonishing story with its transfixing conclusion comes to encompass the secrets of the world. Of course, we all know premonitions are impossible—and yet they come true all the time. You think of your mother, a moment later she calls. Our lives are full of collisions and coincidence: the question is how we interpret the fall of chance and make meaningful stories about the progress of our lives. As Knight writes, “How we distinguish the chances that signify and the ones that do not, and the decisions that we make in our lives as a result, is the kind of question that turns in on itself and might be impossible for us, as individuals, to answer. We cannot stand outside our own lives. We would not want to.” John Barker found that he could not leave chance alone.

The story of a strange experiment - a journey into the oddest corners of 60s Britain and the outer edges of science and reason.

Jackson Kuhl

David Summers

Lyn McConchie

David Riley

C. Killmer

J. Campbell

R. Conine

Henrik Ramsager

In our action-packed eleventh issue, mankind has defeated the Martians yet what the invaders brought with them proves more tenacious. A Sioux warrior discovers passages not just between two worlds but between millions, while a rancher's widow plagued by rustlers receives some help from a colder past. Meantime, folks always think they know how to handle alien technology -- but they never do. Featuring seven hard-riding stories by Sam Knight, C. J. Killmer, J. A. Campbell, Lyn McConchie, Henrik Ramsager, R. A. Conine, and Jackson Kuhl with an article by David Lee Summers. Plus, join contributors David Boop, Joel Jenkins, John Howard, and others in our first Wild West Writing Challenge showcasing some amazing and really short gunfights.

Where Science Fiction Meets the Wild West

Science Fiction Trails 11

Three Time Travel Short Stories by Sam Knight Visit Luna Base, where the Ghosts of Time roam through the corridors, searching for something they've lost... When the inventor of time travel sends himself a note back through time, he knows he will be Just in Time for a Celebration. Or will he? Steampunk era adventure follows an unlikely trio as they use their time machine to try to stay On the Heels of Spring Heeled Jack. Or is he following them?

Three Short Stories by Sam Knight

Time Travel Trio

Susan Adams

Sarena Ulibarri

Jessica Lauren Gabarron

Holly Roberds

Benjamin Jacobson

Stephanie Parriott

Patrick Smythe

Rod Spurgeon

Sheila Hartney

Carolyn Kay

Jodi M. Franklin

Aaron Spriggs

Kenneth Ray Hager

D. M. Daniel

Jess Roth

Sidekicks are used to being hidden from the spotlight shining on the hero they support. They work behind the scenes, doing their best to support their more famous companion. There are times when the sidekick becomes the hero, when they have to step up and save not only their hero, but sometimes the entire world. This anthology is about sidekicks who humbly take those chances. Not just the usual sidekicks normally associated with Superheros -- "any" kind of sidekick in a science fiction or fantasy setting. This anthology evolved from a panel at MileHiCon in Denver, Colorado, titled "So You Want To Be in an Anthology?" The stories contained within were contributed by attendees of that panel. All net proceeds are donated to support MileHiCon. Make sure you attend MileHiCon and go to the panel to be invited to the 2016 anthology.

A Speculative Fiction Anthology Supporting MileHiCon

Sidekicks

Sometimes there are little things you didn't know about that can change everything, and that's why I decided to write this guide. It is a compilation of things that have taken me sixteen years to learn, and I am going to give you the chance to learn it all in sixty minutes! Yay! Talk about a return in time investment! Hmmm... That's a great tag line. I think I'm going to put it on the back cover. The insights collected throughout this book are all things I wish I could have had in a book, in my hand, the day I decided I was finally going to put my butt in the chair and write a novel. Having this would have moved my learning curve up by years. Literally. So many of these were mistakes I made over and over again until some kind soul finally pointed it out, or until I had seen it (and hated it) in enough other authors' stories to finally recognize it in my own. Before you pay an editor to bleed red all over your manuscript with their pen, grab hold of as many of these rules as you can and squeeze them until the metaphorical blood drips from your imaginary fist. Use it to fill your own red pen and then go bleed red on your story first. You will get more benefit, and learn more, from an editor who doesn't have to correct these kinds of mistakes for you. And it will cost you less in the long run. You will never find anyone else in the writing world whose blood is less precious or expensive than your own.

A Practical Guide on Self-Editing and Common Mistakes for Beginning Authors Who Intend to Survive to Publication.

Blood from Your Own Pen

Sam Knight

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