As the cat is now unofficially out of the bag from Parallel Universe Publications via social media, I can now reveal that the title of my forthcoming 2017 story collection will be Parlour Tricks.
Everything’s currently still proceeding on schedule, with just the cover left to complete, so I should hopefully have release dates and other news to share with you all fairly soon…
BIG NEWS on the acceptance front this month, with the confirmation that my debut short story collection will be published by Parallel Universe Publications at some point in early 2017.
Other than a vague hint given by the title of this post, I’m not going to give you any further clues as to the book’s title for now, but suffice to say its contents are drawn from the last few years of my work and will also contain a number of new pieces as well.
The final edit is being worked on at the moment, after which there’s the possiblity of a cover being created by an award-winning artist too, so as you can imagine I’m currently pretty stoked.
More details to follow as we progress further through the preparation, but for now, here’s to a potentially fun start to next year 🙂
Those spooky folks over at HauntJaunts.net do love a good competition, and for the entertainment portion of their Halloween 2016 festivities this year, they’re treating you to a reading from their anthology, Shadow People and Cursed Objects: 13 Tales of Terror Based on True Stories…or are they?
Entrants are asked to pick which one of the thirteen stories they’d like to hear read over Facebook Live on October 31st, and will automatically be entered into a draw to win the below prize pack:-
The competition is open until October 30, 2016 11:59 p.m. Central (US), and you find all the details here.
UPDATE:
Well the votes are all in and looks like Murder For Dummies won the Pick a Chapter contest over at HauntJaunts Halloween Party last night with a sizeable margin.
Big thanks to all of you who voted.
For those interested, and to find out if you win the prize draw (for those who voted), tune into Haunt Jaunts Facebook live feed this evening (Monday 31st October) at 7pm GMT to hear the winning stories being read out, followed by the prize draw.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!
It’s been a wee while, what with one thing and another, but received some exciting publication news through this week. 
My SF piece ‘Broken Machines‘ has been accepted by Indie Authors Press for inclusion in their upcoming 2017 anthology, ‘Issues of Tomorrow‘.
The anthology centres on the question of what issues/things will change our society in the future, for better or worse, and looks set to be a real “what if” style collection.
Science-fiction is something I don’t dabble in too often, and as this will be only my second foray into the genre as an outright theme, I’m looking forward to seeing how it turns out.
Publication is currently slated for 2017 and as always, I’ll update you all once I get further details nearer the time.
Terror Tales of the Scottish Highlands gets a decent write-up in the latest issue of Black Static (#53), and you can find the relevant review excerpt concerning my contribution via the Reviews tab above.
To read the full review (along with a whole host of excellent stories as well), subscriptions can be obtained from the TTA shop.
Well this is a bit embarrassing…
It seems that when I last changed my email address, I neglected to update the ‘Contact Me’ forms tab on this website, meaning that any messages sent via that page since then have been going to a no longer functioning inbox.
More importantly, it means that any competition entries submitted since 20th March have also not been received.
Thankfully, the address is now updated, and I’m extending the competition deadline to Saturday 30th April, to give time for anyone who previously tried to submit to do so again.
Apologies for this cock-up. My fault entirely.
Normal service has now been resumed.
Following on from last month’s free paperback/kindle giveaway with every newsletter sign-up on the Haunt Jaunts website, I’ve got 5 copies of the Shadow People & Cursed Objects anthology up for grabs as part of a competition this month.
To be in with a chance of getting your hands on the paperback version of the anthology, simply email me via the ‘Contact Me‘ tab (found at the top right hand side of this webpage) with the word COMPETITION at the beginning of your message, along with your answer to the following question:-
“Michael Redgrave played an unbalanced ventriloquist who believes his dummy is really alive in which classic 1945 British anthology horror film?”
Please remember to include both your name and email, so that you can be contacted, should you win.
The competition closes at midnight on the night of Sunday 10th April, and winners will be notified the following day, after I draw 5 names from a perfectly ordinary, uncursed hat.
UPDATE: Deadline extended to Saturday 30th April due to total administrative cock-up. See related post.
Just a quick one to let you know that Shadow People & Cursed Objects is now available for download over at Amazon via the links below. Full pricing details are listed on the publication tab as usual. Will update with the links to the paperback once I have them. Enjoy.
Download @ Amazon.co.uk
Download @ Amazon.com
Update (2016/02/21): The paperback version of the anthology is now available via the following links:-
Buy now @ Amazon.co.uk
Buy now @ Amazon.com
For anyone wanting to find out a little more about how the anthology came into being, check out Courtney’s press release here.
Have just received the final details from HauntJaunts for the Shadow People & Cursed Objects anthology:-
In the meantime, Ken Teutsch, one of the authors in the anthology, has put together this funky little trailer to whet your appetites for the book’s imminent arrival:-
The website for the recently formed UK chapter of the Horror Writers Association is now up and running, link for which can be found here, as well as in the links list on the LHS of this page. Authors Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane will be taking on the roles of co-chairs for the new chapter, and a meeting is planned for some point in the New Year.
In the meantime, there’s a News page set up on the new site, to keep everyone up to date with all things horror, including new releases from members.
