Tag: short story

Corpse Road Blues countdown: 2, King of the Hill

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King of the Hill, the next story in my collection, Corpse Road Blues, is a tale of past lives and things lost and found.

One Spring a few years back, I rode over to West Kennet Long Barrow, which is a ceremonial construction dating back to the Early Neolithic era that had often been used as a tomb. For me, this place has an ancient vibe of magic and reverence that almost hums through the earth, the stones, and the air around the site, providing a deeply calming effect. As it’s not far from where I live, I managed an early morning trip in the hope of avoiding other visitors. It paid off. And I was treated to a good hour sitting on top of the burial chamber overlooking a low-level mist shrouding Wiltshire’s rolling landscape, letting the atmosphere seep into my bones, before taking a peek inside the barrow.

When my internal mystic fuel tank was topped up, I followed the long track back to the road. It was here that I passed a group of around ten to fifteen people, some of whom were dressed in robes, with two black dogs padding along beside them. I raced to the assumption that they were a local coven. Who knows? Did they make it into the story? You’ll have to read King of the Hill to find out.

If you’d like to read the story, please pre-order Corpse Road Blues here.

Corpse Road Blues countdown: 3, Her Saving Grace

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Welcome back! And if you’re new to my origin story posts, thank you for joining us.

Her Saving Grace is for anyone who has a little voice whispering doubts inside their head. You know the one. You’re trying to convince yourself that you have a handle on things, sure, but the quiet mutterings are tiny sharp teeth gnawing at your nerves. They coat that frayed network with acidic spit, and dissolve your self-esteem, your fragile confidence, what little self-worth you have left. The terrible voice is there 24/7, taking everything and giving nothing, not even the briefest respite from its unhurried consumption of you.

Probably like yourself, that voice stays with me. So this story is a little bit of a ‘fuck you’ to anxiety.

For those still out there in the dark, Corpse Road Blues is my short fiction collection, due for release on 28th February from Demain Publishing. The fifteen stories in the book look at what it means to be haunted; what drives an apparition to cling to this earth, to those still living; is there a way to be rid of a tortured soul, and is that what we really wish for?

If you’d like to read Her Saving Grace, you can pre-order Corpse Road Blues here.

Corpse Road Blues countdown: 4, Addressing the Heart

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Thanks for coming back. And if you’ve just joined us, welcome. Okay, day 14, and it’s the turn of Addressing the Heart, the second story in my collection, Corpse Road Blues, due for publication on the 28th February from Demain Publishing.

The spark that gave Addressing the Heart life was a conversation with a friend. We got to talking about mobile phones over at their place one evening. At the time, I was one of the few who hadn’t caught up with the technology, sticking with an old Nokia that was only good for texting and calling—just what I needed it for. My friend and his partner were trying to convince me otherwise by raving about the latest model from a popular brand. With some excitement, they mentioned that they were able to track each other on their new phones. The idea that both wanted to track their partners, and were indeed happy to be tracked, disturbed me enough to scratch black ink onto paper.

Of course, Addressing the Heart became much larger than a story about phone tracking. Over the years, I’ve flirted with the idea of possession, demonic or otherwise, in my work, and I saw that this story – through the process of drafting – lent itself to that topic. Here, I’ve hopefully approached spirit possession from a less used angle.

Addressing the Heart is a tale about letting go, love, and humanity, and a definite favourite with my beta readers.

If you’d like to read the story, you can pre-order Corpse Road Blues here.

Corpse Road Blues countdown: 5, When the Sun Shines

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Corpse Road Blues is my short fiction collection that’s due for publication on the 28th of February from Demain Publishing. The fifteen stories in the book look at what it means to be haunted; what drives an apparition to cling to this earth, to those still living; is there a way to be rid of a tortured soul, and is that what we really wish for?

Leading up to the release of Corpse Road Blues and beyond, I’ll be posting a series of blog posts revealing the inspiration behind each story. Welcome to the countdown, it’s a pleasure to have your company.

When the Sun Shines is the first story in the collection, and remains one of my personal favorites.

The first story I ever published was an epistolary piece about a disappearance. The magazine that published it was the product of one woman working all the hours to put together a bunch of weird stories, every month (I think), for readers of speculative fiction. I was nineteen at the time, and I don’t have my contributor’s copy anymore, nor do I remember the title of that magazine or the story, but I do know that the work was about a portal in a pond. I always wanted to explore this idea further. I just didn’t realise it would take another thirty years.

There’s something about finding the peculiar and the horror in the ordinary that appeals to me, and a lot of my fiction deals with this. The portal I imagined for When the Sun Shines took the shape of that transient body of water: the puddle. I love how puddles appear in liminal places like pavements and roads and abandoned sites, the middle of fields after a heavy storm. They are often gloomy, but can be uplifting, too. They invite the child in everyone to splish and splash in their shallow bodies. I’m also delighted by the word itself, pud-dle. Puddle. It sounds like a resigned, self-effacing state of mind, or a humorous mess. Certainly not murderous.

That had me thinking. Soon I picked a particular puddle, then added a chunk of reality that has hopefully transformed the story into a gut-wrenching tale of grief, sibling rivalry, and ultimately, acceptance.

If you’d like to read When the Sun Shines, you can pre-order Corpse Road Blues here.

Best Horror of the Year

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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.

Saving the World in Horror Library, Volume 8

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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

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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.