Author: Eric Nash

Horror writer and top bloke

Best Horror of the Year

· Leave a comment ·

I’ve just realised that I never posted this lovely news when it happened, so here it is better late than never.

My story, Saving the World, was included in Ellen Datlow’s Best Horror of the Year Recommendations vol. 16. The story was published in Horror Library vol. 8 by Dark Moon Books, edited by Eric J. Guignard. Including my story, Horror Library 8 picked up a whopping ten mentions on Elen Datlow’s list.

Corpse Road Blues – ebook available now

· 2 Comments ·

My first collection of short stories published by the amazing team at Demain Publishing is now available as an e-book. The paperback edition complete with a wraparound cover is due out in April.

Corpse Road Blues features fifteen original and previously published stories that explore what it means to be haunted; fifteen spectres, wraiths and shades lost on the old corpse road; fifteen chances to find peace. It highlights social issues including homelessness, domestic abuse, hate crime, and the rise of Nationalism, philosophical viewpoints such as free thought, while discussing themes of grief and loss.

Take the Corpse Road to find someone’s daughter lost in a puddle; a young artist struggling with their inability to feel pain; a niece resorting to an unusual form of exorcism; and a Christmas tree helping the dead with terrifying results for the living.

The damn creepy cover? Illustration is by the man, Mutartis Boswell, cover design by Adrian Baldwin, kind words courtesy of the wonderful Rosemary Thorne.

It’s time to join the Corpse Road.

Saving the World in Horror Library, Volume 8

· Leave a comment ·

Saving the World started off about a man who digs holes to relieve stress. It became so much more. The initial idea came to me a few years back, after a chat with my builder. He said that whenever he had a problem, or life got a little too much, he’d pop out to his back garden with a spade and dig and dig and dig. His yard ended up a treacherous place!

I was reminded of this again last night, when watching a German TV series called Schlafende Hunde (Sleeping Dog). The main character was supposed to be preparing soil to plant tomatoes, but he was also working out a specific problem in his head. He found the answers he wanted after he had dug a six-foot hole.

Saving the World has become a story about a family who feeds their captive devil the sorrows of neighbours, and I’m honoured that editor, Eric J. Guignard, has included it in volume 8 of his series, the Horror Library. This volume is packed with a wealth of fantastic stories from talented authors.

Here’s a little more about the book published by Dark Moon Books:

Since 2006, the +Horror Library+ series of anthologies has been internationally praised as a groundbreaking source of contemporary horror short fiction stories—relevant to the moment and stunning in impact—from leading authors of the macabre and darkly imaginative.
 
Filled with Fears and Fantasy. Death and Dark Dreams. Monsters and Mayhem. Literary Vision and Wonder. Each volume of the +Horror Library+ series is packed with heart-pounding thrills and creepy contemplations as to what truly lurks among the shadows of the world(s) we live in.

Containing 31 all-original stories, read Volume 8 in this ongoing anthology series, and then continue with the other volumes.

Shamble no longer through the banal humdrum of normalcy, but ENTER THE HORROR LIBRARY!

Included within Volume 8:

•   In “Saving the World,” a family feeds their captive devil the sorrows of neighbors.

•   In “We Can’t Let Go,” a welfare check by a child services worker proves that not all in life is as expected.

•   In “Only the Stones Will Hear You Scream,” a man meets his nightmares while caving through narrow underground passages.

•   . . . and more!

**Also including a special guest-artist’s gallery of Jana Heidersdorf!

Preorder now via Dark Moon Books where you’ll find all their books and links to popular shopping outlets, or here at Amazon UK.

Magic

· Leave a comment ·

Magic is Book 23 of Demain Publishing’s Short Sharp Shocks! series. The latest edition of the chapbook, Magic, features two folk horror stories. The first, Magic, sees old magic coming to town as ex-con Grange races against the shape-shifting terrors of the Wild Hunt for one last chance to see his daughter.

Having children allows you to glimpse the magic of childhood. We tell our kids stories of wonder where our world is inhabited by tooth fairies and elves, princesses and trolls, bunnies that deliver eggs, a grandfather that gives presents to all the world’s children in one single night, and for a short time they believe. This ability, this innocence, has long fascinated me, and Magic was a way of recording this. Of course, as I explored the subject, I entered the folklore forest and discovered the dark origins of some of western societies’ well-loved beliefs, and one of these has made its way into the story.

The second tale, The Woodwose and His May Queen (first published in Terror Tract magazine), is a tragic story of possession and obssession, a breathless pursuit through ancient woods, and a twisted take on old traditions.

Available at Amazon and Scifier. Listed on Goodreads and StoryGraph.

Fiction

· 2 Comments ·

Books

Magic (pub. by Demain Publishing 2022). Chapbook featuring two folk horror stories: Magic (first pub. Demain Publishing 2019), and The Woodwose and his May Queen (first pub. Terror Tract 2020).

Magazines and Online Journals

The Memory of Hannah Babinski – Coffin Bell: Journal of Dark Literature, Vol 5 Issue 1, (2022)

Wounds are Lips Waiting to be Kissed – Ghostlight, the Magazine of Terror, (2021)

The Woodwose and his May Queen – Terror Tract, (April 2020)

Jake – Horla Horror: home of intelligent horror, (2019)

Holding Hands – Mythic: a quarterly science fiction and fantasy magazine, Issue 3, (2017)

Anthologies

The Christmas Tree published in Kitchen Sink Gothic 2, ed: David & Linden Riley, pub: Parallel Universe Publications (2022)

Rewilding published in Call of the Wyld, ed: Mark Bilsborough, pub: Wyldblood Press (2021)

April Showers published in Aggregate: stories at the intersection between science fiction and horror, ed: Scott Grant, pub: Writerfield (2020)

The Red Spot Murders published in Ghosts, Spirits, Specters Vol 1, ed: Xtina Marie, pub: HellBound Books (2019)

Hypnos published in Monsters Among Us, ed: Claire Fitzpatrick, pub: Oscillate Wildly Press (2017)

The Banshee’s Gift published in Speculative Valentine Drabbles, ed: Roy C. Booth & Jorge Salgado-Reyes (2015) pub: Indie Author Press

Poseidon’s Standing Stones published in From the Corner of Your Eye, ed: David F. Kramer, pub: Great Old Ones Publishing (2015)

What You Wish For published in Trysts of Fate, ed: Lee Ann Story Sikora, pub Alban Lake (August 2015)

Pigeon published in Wrapped in Black: Thirteen Tales of Witches and the Occult, ed: Jennifer L. Greene, pub: Sehkmet Press (2014)

The Handwritten Journal published in The Serial Killers Quattuor, ed: James Ward Kirk, pub: JWK Fiction (2014)

Felicity Cinch published in The Rogues Gallery: The Illustrated Police News, ed: Alex Scully pub: Firbolg Publishing (2014)

Bruce, Wayne and Mike published in Changes, ed: Dorothy Davies, pub: Horrified Press (2014)

A Persuasive Argument… published in 22 More Quick Shivers ed: pub: Cosmonomic Multimedia (2014)