I almost swerved off my chair...

Don't know how this hasn't come to my attention before now, but stumbled upon this review of the Night Terrors collection at the mighty Fangoria Magazine earlier today and it's a cracker! They may not have enjoyed the whole book but my contribution was singled out, in a good way.

But what fresh nightmare is this? Not all is lost for NIGHT TERRORS. Harper Hull’s shocker “Amy Lou’s Ice Cream Parlor” is an absolute sucker punch to the gut. The tenderness of Hull’s text is a trap that catches the reader in a swift six pages. By beginning with the all-too-familiar, painting a portrait of a pleasant ice-cream shop, Hull drags us down into the spectral depths of his protagonist’s heartbreaking depravity—and never brings us back. Discovering this story at the tail end of the collection is just about enough to justify the entire purchase price.

Quickie freebie flash piece of happy, jolly 'apoco-romo' fiction up at Smashwords - Terminal Sunday

E-Harper & the arrival of Lark, Investigator of the Unusual

I've been wanting to release an e-book for a while now, mainly just to see how it flies and what the experience is like. This week I decided that my paranormal investigator story The Watcher on the Walls would be the ideal test. The genre, the length, the fact it's the first in a series - all seemed like good reasons to let it loose and see what happened.

Yesterday, after a night of formatting 13K words which wasn't anywhere near as awful as I'd imagined, it went live on Smashwords and will hit the big name marketplaces next week.

It costs a measly $1.75 (about a quid in Britain) and is available right here!

You can download it for Kindle, Nook, Stanza, Sony Reader, PC, Mac, Palm - pretty much every piece of hardware you can imagine.
If you don't have an e-reader and hate reading plain docs as much as I do, I highly recommend this free application from Amazon - Kindle for PC

I'm happy with the way it looks and now just need to promote the story itself - here's the short blurb from the website

England, 1975. Neville Lark, self-proclaimed 'investigator of the unusual,' is drawn into a brutal murder case in the city of Chester. All signs point to an horrific incident from the past when an entire Roman garrison was slaughtered by supernatural forces, but who is resurrecting the ancient evil and why?

If you enjoy paranormal mysteries, historical supernatural tales or monster horror I think you'd enjoy this. Witches, satanists, Roman ghosts, mysterious church soldiers, golems and a foppish, self-destructive protagonist with a house full of skeletons are all at play in here!

The fantastic photo of Chester's famous Eastgate Clock which forms the basis of the cover was taken by Traci, my much better half, last year. I need to mention that so she doesn't sue me for my pennies.

The Boys From the Spires

Nice little interview in my hometown newspaper today! Click for full image :)

Just what I need, a new obsession

Got back this evening from a brilliant week in the North Carolina mountains - it was just the two of us, way way up in the clouds in an enormous house that had 3 levels, 5 bedrooms and bathrooms, and a 'great room' that looked like the entrance to a church complete with stained glass windows from England and a dizzying ceiling height. We got to play Lord and Lady of the Manor and it was incredible. On our first morning there the clouds came in so heavy and thick that all around the house was nothing but white - a very strange feeling, and I couldn't help but think of 'The Mist' - especially when, as darkness fell, the biggest, strangest, most colourful moths and other assorted insects I have ever seen came swooping in to land on the windows, drawn by the outside lights. Entwine your thumbs, flap your hands and you get an idea of their size.

Anyway, this place had a big library/study, packed with books and films, and I saw the novel 'Cold Mountain' in there which is a book I've always wanted to read but never got around to. I demolished it over the next two days and being able to read it in the location where a lot of the events were set was quite the experience; it made everything sharper, clearer and more intense. Fantastic book, I loved it, and now I'm obsessed with reading stories in their actual settings, probably not something I'll get to indulge too often but I aim to try. I also now know that a peeper is a type of frog and a rabbit's butt is called a scut.

Superfantasticmeganewsupdate!!!!!!!

Lots of stuff to catch up on, sugarsnap, so let's dive right in!


NEWLY AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE:

Sick Things (Comet Press) at Amazon US and Amazon UK

Through the Eyes of the Undead (LOTLD) at Amazon US and Amazon UK

Frontlines (Northern Frights) at Amazon US and Amazon UK

Last of the Kjett (Penny Dreadful Co.) no later than Monday direct from here - I'll blog more extensively about this baby next week


NEW SALES AND ACCEPTANCES

Sci-fi short 'A Symphony of Drones' will be appearing in a German-based sf magazine!

Horror tale 'Daddy Long-Legs' is lined up for the Day Terrors collection from The Harrow Press. Good, challenging anthology this - the brief was to write a scary story that takes place in daylight under bright sunlight. No hiding away in dark attics or forests, stick it right out there for all to see and make it work. The editors (Kfir and Dru) are fantastic to work with and I'm very happy to have made the cut. This is another southern-based horror heavy on the psychological elements and with (hopefully) a quite terrifying 'monster' for people to enjoy.


AUTHOR PAGES!

Now up at both Limey Amazon and Yank Amazon - the bio/photo there now are pretty much holders until I get around to sprucing it up properly.


If you're American, enjoy your holiday weekend - everyone else, be safe, be well.

Positive words for Amy-Lou

Very nice review of Night Terrors here that made me happy for obvious reasons!