When 49th Parallels was released back in October, various contributors took to social media to announce the fact that their copies had arrived. Living out in Newfoundland, I decided that simply saying it had made it all the way out to the east coast wasn't enough. I needed to prove it.

That's Cabot Tower on Signal Hill, on a sunny autumn day. At some point, it hit me: what if other contributors did the same thing? What if we had a chain of pictures from coast to coast, a series of book selfies to show 49th Parallels all over Canada?

On the left, Mile '0' in Victoria, courtesy of Krista Wallace. On the right, Mile Zero in St. John's, courtesy of Glen Cadigan.

The great thing about the idea was its practicality. With over twenty contributors across the country, all they needed to do was step outside and take a picture. Everybody has a cell phone, and cell phones come with cameras built in. What's more, coast to coast projects usually leave out Newfoundland, and this one was starting there. That's the hardest one done first.

You can check out the 49th Parallels Challenge over at Instagram. Others picked up the gauntlet, and more pictures are added all the time. In a perfect world, readers will join in and take selfies of the book (tagged @BundoranPress), but right now, it's just the authors participating. What started out as something to amuse ourselves has grown, and I recommend following the book on Instagram to see how far it grows!

October is now behind us, and with it, Halloween. As you might expect, it was the busy season for a short horror film, with Eldritch Code appearing at twelve festivals in seven countries during the thirty-one days. Its itenerary looks like the tour dates for a band:

Oct. 5 Monsters of Film Stockholm, Sweden

Oct. 7 Lund International Film Festival Lund, Sweden

Oct. 7 H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival and Cthulhucon Portland, Oregon

Oct. 8 Scare-A-Con Verona, New York

Oct. 20 Nightmares Film Festival Colombus, Ohio

Oct. 20 FKM Fantastic Film Festival Coruna, Spain

Oct. 21 Dracula Film Festival Brasov, Romania

Oct. 21 Terror in the Bay Film Festival Thunder Bay, Ontario

Oct. 22 Celluloid Screams: Sheffield Horror Film Festival Sheffield, England

Oct. 24 Weird Film Fest San Francisco, California

Oct. 28 Sin City Horror Fest Las Vegas, Nevada

Oct. 29 IFI (Irish Film Institute) Horrorthon Dublin, Ireland

November is also off to a good start, with festivals in Mexico (Nov. 1 / Sacalacalaca Horror & Sci-Fi Festival / Mexico City) and Italy (Nov. 3 / Trieste Science+Fiction Festival / Trieste) under its belt, plus a return to Spain (Nov. 9 / Terrorificamente Cortos Terror and Fantasy Festival / Palencia) and a visit to Iceland (Nov. 12 / Frostbiter: Icelandic Horror Film Festival / Akranes) on the horizon.

On October 14, 49th Parallels: Alternative Canadian Histories and Futures had its book launch at Can-Con in Ottawa. While I wasn't there, others were, and here's a picture to prove it!

That's Hayden Trenholm, the book's editor, at center stage. The volume features my story, "51-49," about an alternate Canada where Newfoundlanders voted 51-49 against Confederation. You can buy a physical copy here and eBooks are available here and here.

Summer is now officially over, and Eldritch Code, based on the short story "One of Those Days," that I wrote and Chee drew (originally published in Cthulhu Tales # 6), has been all over the world at film festivals everywhere. It continues its journey in the Fall, and here are some of the places it's been and awards it's won!

This is the cover of 49th Parallels, a Canadian anthology released to coincide with our country's 150th birthday. It contains 20 stories and 5 poems by 23 authors from coast to coast in Canada, along with a couple of Canadian sympathizers. I'm one of the authors, and it'll be available for purchase in about a month's time!

Here's the movie poster for Eldritch Code, based upon "One of Those Days," a short story written by myself and illustrated by Chee (it originally appeared in Cthulhu Tales # 6, published by Boom! Studios). It's directed by Ivan Radovic, who read it, liked it, and turned it into a short film. Soon to be at a film festival near you!