Tag Archives: anthology

Rave reviews for Nightscape!

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Today I wanted to share with you some of the reviews coming in for my short story anthology, “Nightscape”, published by Parallel Universe Publications. It’s been a long haul, but people are saying how much they enjoy this book.

Here is the most recent review:

“A great collection of short stories ranging from horror to science fiction, surely not to disappoint fans of any genre. Psychotic animals, mystic horrors and Hollywood vampires are just some of the creatures to stalk its pages, I highly recommend it.”

Other readers have compared it to “The Twilight Zone”, with its blend of sci-fi and horror stories.

“Sure to be one of the greats some day!”

“A horror anthology well worth your attention.”

“Mr. Steele will not fail to delight.”

Here is a sample of the stories to be found within:

“Black Annis” – a troubled married couple inherits a cottage once owned by a legendary witch.

“The Groaner in the Glen” – a Roman legion encounters a supernatural menace deep in ancient Scotland. 

“Indian Summer” – a young woman paralyzed in a car accident hires a gardener with magical “green” fingers. But is he all he appears?

“Charlie” – a beloved pet develops disturbing new appetites when the family’s controlling patriarch dies.

And more!

You can read a FREE sample of “Nightscape” here: http://a-fwd.com/asin-uk=0957453523

Thanks for looking!

“Shades of Santa” and “Snow Woman”!

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First of all, Happy New Year to you all. Whoever you are, whatever you’re doing, have a great 2018, because it won’t come again!

My first post of the year. Ah, smell the freshness! But whether you’re a die-hard Christmas fan (no pun intended) or it’s just a case of surviving the festive period for you, here’s something everyone will enjoy: a charity anthology of Christmas-themed horror stories!

SHADES OF SANTA is edited by Steve Dillon of Things In The well publications . Here’s the cover blurb:

“A Xmas- themed anthology of short, scary stories using six themes. All the profits will be donated to Charity: Water. The themes are: Sleigh Bells, All is Calm, The Naughty List, Is That Really an Elf? Carols Choirs and Vocal Chords, and Snow People. Authors were given just a couple of weeks to write a story for one of the themes, using a maximum 666 words for each story. ”

Sounds good? Well, even better, it has a story in it by yours truly! It’s a little tale called “SNOW WOMAN”. But be warned, Raymond Briggs it isn’t!

Shades of Santa is available from Amazon here as well as direct from Things In the Well’s homepage. 

So get your Christmas horror on and buy a copy. All profits go toward a worthy cause!

Buy a copy or read a FREE sample here: https://www.amazon.com/Shades-Santa-Tales-Bloody-North-ebook/dp/B078J7QNTT/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1515175964&sr=8-1&keywords=shades+of+santa

 

 

Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep Vol. 5

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Very pleased to announce that my short story “Hunter’s Moon” is now available in the above anthology of horror tales from Solstice Publishing… just in time for Halloween!

So if you like spooky stories, head on over to Amazon and grab yourself an e- copy. Though I’m not telling what my story might be about!

From the publishers:

Halloween is the time for trick or treating. A day when ghosts, goblins, witches, and other ghoulish creatures walk the streets looking for treats. It’s also the time for our scare you right out of your wits anthology, Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep Vol. 5

Chock full of stories guaranteed to make you shiver in fear and make sure the lights are on, you will enjoy these tales from a group of extremely talented authors.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B076ZSV13S

CONTENTS

“When the train comes, it all starts again.”

Sometimes bloody, habitually dark, always original.

On the Eve of All Hollows, anything is possible.

Live your life to the fullest

A devil’s playground

Something stalks the City of Angels.

Magic can take many forms.

Sometimes, the dead tell tales.

Demon meets sci-fi convention

After midnight, everything changes

Tales scary enough to have you watching your every move. Ten incredibly talented authors contributed to this feast of terror: Michael Gormley, David W. Thompson, Howard Gleichenhaus, A.A. Schenna, Jeffery Martin Botzenhart, Eric Ian Steele, Ken Newman, Jill Van Den Eng, Cyn Ley, and Jack Legg.

Along for the ride this year is Eerie Waters by K.C. Sprayberry, a tale that will have you shaking in your boots. Norse Gods, Hnicker, and a couple of teens are along for this supernatural ride that will add to your spooky holiday fun.

Author Interview with Cyn Ley

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Yours truly had a busy old time of it this week, what with Fantasycon 2017 in Peterborough, UK. More on that later, but for now, I’d like to share this interview with bestselling author Cyn Ley. Cyn has published books in the horror, paranormal and humour fields! So without further ado, here’s Cyn…

ES: Welcome to the blog, Cyn. First of all, can you tell our readers a little about yourself? 

CL: Yes.. I’m both a bestselling author and a top-ranked editor, and have been with Solstice Publishing since 2014. They gave me my start and I love working with them. I write short stories mainly, although I recently branched out into novellas. Short stories fascinate me because they have to be so carefully crafted. Always up for a challenge! It’s where I do my best writing, I think. I write rather eclectically—paranormal, social satire, humor, horror. Basically whatever pops into my head and turns itself into a story… There’s not much I’m not interested in.

ES: Paranormal and social satire! Sounds fascinating. What was your last book about?

CL: My last book was THE OSSUARY PLAYGROUND AND OTHER UNEXPECTED TALES. It is a collection of three paranormal stories plus one that’s a bit of a surprise. It’s received excellent reviews so far. My latest short story, “Plot Twist”, will be appearing in Solstice’s annual October fright fest anthology, NOW I LAY ME DOWN TO SLEEP (October 2017).

ES: Cool. So are your books standalone stories or are they part of a bigger overall plan?

CL: They’re standalone collections. I currently have two books on the market: THE OSSUARY PLAYGROUND, and ENCOUNTERS: TALES RECOUNTED AND REBORN. ENCOUNTERS is a collection of stories previously published between 2014 -2016. A number of these early tales have been revamped, but just as many stand in their original form

ES: As a writer myself, I’m always keen to know authors’ writing habits. What is your own approach to writing, and how many hours a day do you write?

CL: Tough question. I’m an intuitive writer, so most of the time stories just unfold for me. I’ll sketch out quick little notes and use them as touch point, but I’m not religious about it. What seems like a good idea initially may not be when you get to the actual writing. Some days I don’t write at all. Other days—or nights, I should say—the Muse wakes me up at 3am and orders me to write.

ES: Okay, now that we know about your writing and your working day, why don’t we dig a little deeper? What is your favourite book from your childhood, and why?

CL: The unabridged Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. It has everything—action, humor, thrills, romance, and is just plain fun.

ES: I love Dumas. His works appeal on so many levels. It’s interesting that you went for historical fiction, though. Do you undertake a lot of research for stories yourself?

CL:  I don’t start with the research, but I often research as I go. This can range from [finding out about] the environment (the settings of the story), to language (how people expressed themselves in different eras, subject-specific terminology, etc.). Let the story be your guide, and pay attention to the details. Would your character have cooked in a copper pan or cast iron one? The minutia can make all the difference.

ES: Very sound advice. In fact, I recently made the mistake of failing to research a certain aspect of police procedure in Los Angeles for one of my short stories. Fortunately, I have an editor with a very keen eye!  Okay, moving on to a more spiritual plane — and this is question I ask everyone — as a writer what would you choose to be your mascot or spirit animal? 

CL: I’m way too much of a critter person to pin that down! LOL My cat and dogs are lovely, of course, but so are the crows that like to hang out on the roof.

ES: So all of them! And if you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?

CL: Be brave!!!

ES: Excellent. Okay, we’re almost done. One last question: could you tell us what are you working on at the moment? 

CL: I have a couple of multi-genre things in the works right now, but it’s too early to talk about them. They’re sketches, mostly

ES: Well, all the best with them. I’m sure they’ll be very entertaining! Thanks for participating in this interview. It’s been great having you on the blog. 

CL: Thank you for having me! It’s been a pleasure!

Cyn Ley’s books are available on Amazon here  and from Solstice Publishing

Or you can get in touch with her here: 

Blog: https://authorcjl.wordpress.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CynthiaLey2@cynthialey2

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Cleyfiction4/

 

 

Project Nine Sci-fi anthology!

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Are you ready for journeys to all sorts of different worlds? Where experimentation runs amok, or invaders run afoul of humans determined to protect their homes? Can a pill give people intelligence? Can a single entity save the galaxy?

For those who know me, the title to this blog post may constitute an inside joke, but PROJECT 9 VOLUME 4  refers to the new science-fiction anthology from Solstice Publishing. You’ll find six sci-fi tales that cover the spectrum from speculation to far off worlds!

My own story, Time Warped, concerns a cosmic superhero named The Warp, known to his friends as Gerald Stone. The Warp possesses almost godlike power. Although the people of Earth regard their protector with awe, to him they are little more than ants. But when an anomaly sweeps through the universe toward Earth, destroying everything in its path, it’s up to The Warp to stop it. Trouble is, will he want to? Especially when the power behind the anomaly is revealed to be another survivor from the doomed planet that was once his home…

The collection is available from Amazon. Here’re more from the publisher’s blurb:

Can The Warp save Earth?

Darkness has a new name

Destinies link in the In-Between

Hairy science, hybrid secrets

There are tests and then there are tests

We are survivors!

Eric Ian Steele, Rob McLachlan, Tanya Reimer, Josie Montano, Palvi Sharma, and K.C. Sprayberry bring you stories that will send shivers up and down your spine while entertaining you.

https://bookgoodies.com/a/B075MNYK64

Well, what are you waiting for? Go check it out! 🙂

Nightscape reviews & Fantasycon 2017!

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Well, here is a nice surprise. A review of my horror short story collection NIGHTSCAPE, no less!

The reader calls several of the stories “gems” and “fabulously suspenseful”!

You can check out the reviews along with synopses of the stories here:

Or you can just go ahead and find the entire book here:

There will be more news coming soon. Not to mention a special post on Fantasycon 2017.

Fantasycon is the annual convention run by the British Fantasy Society. This year it’s in Peterborough, near Cambridge, England. It takes place from September 29th – 1st October. I’ll be speaking on panels and giving an author reading along with some uber-talented individuals, many of whom are very well known in the fields of horror and fantasy writing. Come along and join the fun!

More news about NIGHTSCAPE!

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My new short story collection, NIGHTSCAPE is now available in Paperback!

You can get a teaser of what’s in the book here

If you’re a fan of the Twilight Zone, or if you like a dash of Clive Barker, Richard Matheson, Ray Bradbury or Stephen King in your dark fiction. check out the short stories below. You can also buy the gorgeous hardback edition from Parallel Universe Press!

 

NIGHTSCAPE is available from the following retailers by clicking on the links below:

Amazon.com http://amzn.to/2u5RRNz

Amazon UK http://amzn.to/2tQEKo9

Barnes & Noble http://bit.ly/2hhnBhu

Parallel Universe Publications  http://bit.ly/2uR0pdf

 

Focus on the short story: Ray Bradbury’s “The Emissary”

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Today, I thought I would focus on a short story for a change.

What I really like about Ray Bradbury’s “Zen and the Art of Writing” is that he suggests that authors should only write when they feel a white-hot passion…. a burning idea that just has to be let out. For me, that has never been a problem. I have too many ideas and too little time. However, he also says that he started out writing by simply listing nouns…. writing down phrases like “The Skeleton” or “The Jar” and letting the story write itself. I was amazed to read this, as I did the same thing myself when I began writing in my teens. These days, however, I begin more often than not with an idea. But using this kind of word-association game can be a useful way to dodge writer’s block for those afflicted.

Which brings me to my favourite Ray Bradbury story, “The Emissary”.

 

 

Bradbury wrote tons of gold. You’ve probably heard of “The Martian Chronicles” or the film made from one of his short stories “The Beast from 20,000 fathoms”. He also wrote the screenplay for “Moby Dick”, a few “Twilight Zone” episodes, as well as the Rod Steiger classic “The Illustrated Man”, and the dark fantasy novel “Something Wicked This Way Comes”.

But for me it’s his collection “The October Country” that is my fave. The preface states it is about:

“… that country where it is always turning late in the year… whose people are autumn people thinking only autumn thoughts.”

It still sends shivers up my back. Rumour has it one story, “The Homecoming” was the seed for “The Addams’ Family”, especially as Charles Addams himself illustrated the early editions of the book.

“The October Country” contains some great stories like “The Jar” and “The Scythe”. But for me “The Emissary” is the best of the lot.

 
It’s a story about a boy who is sick in bed and whose dog is his only link to the outside world. Dog is an explorer, and he always comes back carrying the scents of everything he comes into contact with. One night, Dog goes missing. Then he comes back. But he’s not exactly alone…

 

The Emissary – from the Ray Bradbury Theatre TV show!

 

Here’s a sample:

“Martin knew it was autumn again, for Dog ran into the house bringing wind and frost and a smell of apples turned to cider under trees. In dark clock-springs of hair, Dog fetched goldenrod, dust of farewell-summer, acorn-husk, hair of squirrel, feather of departed robin, sawdust from fresh-cut cordwood, and leaves like charcoals shaken from a blaze of maple trees. Dog jumped. Showers of brittle fern, blackberry vine, marsh-grass sprang over the bed where Martin shouted. No doubt, no doubt of it at all, this incredible beast was October!”

The story combines childlike innocence and beautiful prose with an eerie dread. It’s the kind of story you grasp instantly, but you still get more out of it on repeat readings. The exquisite prose reminds me of the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins. It twists language to create new words out of old. But more, Bradbury captures the exuberance of sheer living. His exclamation mark at the end could be either the boy’s viewpoint or our own.

 

Martin makes sure anyone who finds his dog knows where to come looking for its owner…

 

For me, Bradbury evokes a kind of timeless, 1950’s era America of small towns that was about as foreign as you could get from inner-city Manchester where I grew up. His America is a place of wonder, mystery, nature and a million fabulous scents, smells and activities. A kind of Fourth of July of the mind. “The Emissary” conveys all this in one brisk paragraph. The rest of the story is even better. I encourage you to read it. And then to read everything else Bradbury ever wrote.

One of things writers sometimes forget about is that writing should be fun. It should move us, make us laugh or weep. We live out our fantasies and our nightmares in our writing. So be like Bradbury, who said : “You must stay drunk on writing so that reality cannot destroy you.”

Stay drunk!

The Horror Masterworks series!

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In this post, I thought it would be fun to create my own list of Horror Masterworks books containing the greatest horror novels and short stories of all time.

The idea struck me because a while ago Gollancz brought out a series of Science Fiction Masterworks. These contained seminal sci-fi novels considered some of the best sci-fi novels of all time, such as Arthur C Clarke’s Childhood’s End, Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War and Robert Silverberg’s The Book of Skulls as well as the obligatory PK Dick books. The series was an introduction to many authors readers might not be familiar with.

This was followed soon after by another series of Fantasy Masterworks with books such as Lord Dunsany’s The King of Elfland’s Daughter and George R R Martin’s Fevre Dream. However, due to less success this time around, plans for a Horror Masterworks series were apparently shelved. It might also have been due to the fact that some of the “fantasy” tiles were in fact horror, or even science-fiction as in Jack Finney’s Time and Again.

 

Another mislabelled "Science Fiction Masterwork".

Another mislabelled “Science Fiction Masterwork”.

 

There has been a huge reticence by major publishers and booksellers recently to acknowledge the horror field. Yet despite this, horror is booming. Horror films like The Conjuring and the Paranormal Activity series have accounted for some of the most profitable Hollywood films this century. Horror novels continue to appear regularly on Amazon’s Top Selling Books list.  The public, it seems, thirsts for horror, even if publishers don’t want to supply it.

In conclusion, it seems unfair that Sci-fi and Fantasy should get their own Masterworks series while Horror is left out. So without further ado, here are my recommendations for Gollancz’s non-existent  Horror Masterworks series!

 

THE HORROR MASTERWORKS COLLECTION THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN…

  1. H P Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu & Others
  2. Ray Bradbury, The October Country
  3. Richard Matheson, I Am Legend
  4. Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House
  5. Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
  6. Bram Stoker, Dracula
  7. Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde
  8. Peter Straub, Ghost Story
  9. James Herbert, The Rats
  10. Stephen King, The Shining
  11. Anne Rice, Interview with the Vampire
  12. Charles L Grant, The Hour of the Oxrun Dead
  13. Clive Barker, Cabal
  14. Ramsey Campbell, The Doll Who Ate His Mother
  15. Arthur Machen, The Great God Pan
  16. Robert Bloch, Psycho
  17. William Hope Hodgson, The House on the Borderland
  18. Sheridan Le Fanu, Through A Glass Darkly
  19. Roald Dahl, Kiss Kiss
  20. M R James, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
  21. Ira Levin, Rosemary’s Baby
  22. Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Grey
  23. Edgar Allen Poe, Tales of Mystery and Imagination
  24. Thomas Ligotti, Teatro Grottesco
  25. Laird Barron, Occultation
  26. Robert R McCammon, Boy’s Life
  27. Daphne Du Maurier, The Birds
  28. Brett Easton Ellis, American Psycho
  29. Henry James, The Turn of the Screw
  30. Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes
  31. William Peter Blatty, The Exorcist
  32. Algernon Blackwood, Ancient Sorceries & other Chilling Tales
  33. Charles Dickens, Ghost Stories
  34. Rudyard Kipling, The Mark of the Beast & Other Stories

As you can see, there is plenty for horror fans to sink their teeth into.

One word of warning: this is not a list of personal favourites (although many of them are) or a list of the most scariest books of all time. Instead, I’ve tried to balance true masters in the field with their most notable works, either because the book set a new bar in the genre, or because it is their most representative work. I’ve also tried to include some modern writers such as Thomas Ligotti and Laird Barron to show you that horror is not dead but is in fact alive and well and still growing, albeit a little more in the dark these days!

I hope you enjoy the list. Feel free to disagree, and be sure to let me know what you think about the list in the comments below!

Pleasant dreams!

 

 

Revolutions Anthology

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Publication looms for the superlative Manchester Speculative Fiction Group anthology “Revolutions”, as the proof copies are being checked for last minute spelling and punctuation as we speak!

This promises to be an awesome collection of stories, folks. The Manchester Speculative Fiction group has been going for some years now, but this is our first anthology. It showcases not only work by group members, but by many talented writers across the world. The only criterion was that all the stories had to be set in Manchester, England. Whether this is the Manchester we all know and love (it’s currently pouring with rain as I’m typing), or a future, past or alternative Manchester was left to the writers. So expect the unexpected!

This is an exciting time for myself and the other editors. More details will follow nearer the launch date.  I just couldn’t wait to share these pics with you all!

Until next time…