New Podcast! Let the Buyer Beware at Cast of Wonders

 

Ellie and Akyxgruxthragoth by Cast of Wonders artist Katherine Inskip

In the latest in an ongoing series of 'Things I never considered an audio narrator having to say out loud,' listen to the adventures of Ellie and Akyxgruxthragoth, her friendly neighbourhood Lovecraftian horror, at Cast of Wonders! 

'Let the Buyer Beware,' (first published at Kaleidotrope July 2021) narrated by Eve Upton for Cast of Wonders episode 487

 '...We're gonna need a bigger banishing kit...'

New story! What Doesn't Kill You at Tales to Terrify

 

New story out now: What Doesn't Kill You in episode 524 of Tales to Terrify! When Olivia meets a little girl managing to live, maybe even to thrive, in the contaminated Blight, she hopes to find a way for her unborn child, at least, to survive in this strange and terrifying new world.

Read by Georgia Cook: listen to the story here

Latest Story News!

OUT NOW:

To Haunt His Own Exhausted Heart (Supernatural) appeared in  The Stray Branch, Oct 21

We're All Friends Here (SF) appeared in Fusion Fragment Issue 9, Nov 21

The God of Blood and Bone (Horror) appeared in Dipping Into Blood (Ed. Dorothy Davies, Gravestone Press) Dec 2021

FORTHCOMING:

Congratulations on Your Apotheosis (Comic fantasy) will be reprinted in The Lorelei Signal, Apr 2022

What Doesn't Kill You (Horror) will be podcasted by Tales to Terrify, 2022

Let the Buyer Beware (Fantasy) will be podcasted by Cast of Wonders, 2022

Supply, Demand, and Armageddon (SF) will be published in Wyldblood Magazine, 2022

Reprint! The God of Blood and Bone in Dipping Into Blood

Dipping Into Blood, a new horror anthology out now from Gravestone Press! Includes my story 'The God of Blood and Bone;, which originally appeared in Liquid Imagination, Nov 2015. 

THE GOD OF BLOOD AND BONE

The phone rings at three o’clock in the morning. It’s on the coffee table, face down. Light leaks from underneath it. If I turn it over, it’ll be flashing Vince’s photo. At three o’clock in the morning, it’s always Vince. 

At least it didn’t wake me up; one of the upsides of insomnia. There aren’t many, so I’ve learned to take what I can get. 

I look at the phone and the familiar fear crawls out of my chest: does he know? 

We’re good friends, that fear and I. It gnaws on my ribs, sticks icy claws into my heart. It’ll freeze it before too long, kill it completely. But maybe that would be a kindness. No heart, no capacity to love. My family aren’t built for love. It goes bad.

Read the rest in Dipping Into Blood... 

Reprint: To Haunt His Own Exhausted Heart in The Stray Branch, Fall/Winter 2021

 

My ghost story 'To Haunt His Own Exhausted Heart', originally published in Scarlet Leaf Review (Feb 2016) is now available in the Fall/Winter issue of The Stray Branch 

Reprint! We're All Friends Here in Fusion Fragment

 

Fusion Fragment Issue 9, out now! Includes my 'film-making in the future' story We're All Friends Here, first published in The Sockdolager, Oct 2016

Download Fusion Fragment #9 for free or pay what you want! You’ll receive two PDFs in different colour schemes, plus an EPUB.

Latest Story News!

OUT NOW:

A Partial Inventory of Things I Have Loved (Fantasy) was podcasted by Manawaker Studio, Sep 21

Send in the Ninjas (Fantasy) appeared in Speculative North Issue 5, Sep 21

The Glorious Protection of Angels appeared in The Lost Librarian's Grave (Ed. Ann Wycoff, Redwood Press), Oct 21

The Bad Ones Are Always the Best (Horror) was reprinted in Previously Used (Ed. Dorothy Davies, Gravestone Press)

FORTHCOMING:

I Am Not Your Doppelganger (Urban Fantasy) will be reprinted in Flights of Fantasy (Iron Faerie Publishing) 

The God of Blood and Bone (Horror) will be reprinted in Lucky Dip (Gravestone Press) 

Reprint! The Bad Ones are Always the Best in Previously Used

IT'S SECOND TIME AROUND FOR THESE GREAT HORROR STORIES. Did you miss these great stories when they were first published? Here’s your chance to catch up with an overload of blood, gore, death and destruction, all in the name of entertainment… 

Includes my story 'The Bad Ones are Always the Best', originally published in Kzine, May 2020.

Previously Used (Ed. Dorothy Davies) out now in ebook and paperback from Gravestone Press!

New Story! 'The Glorious Protection of Angels' in The Lost Librarian's Grave

'Travel through blood-stained vistas set in forgotten pasts, along rolling centuries of iron and pain, into the strange apocalypses of our present day and several possible near futures. Enjoy this diverse collection of horror, occasionally mixed with other ingredients of speculative fiction and leavened with an osseous dusting of bizarre adventures, verse, and weird fiction, written by a loose cabal of thirty-nine authors from around the world. Unearth… The Lost Librarian’s Grave!'

The Lost Librarian’s Grave: Tales of Madness, Horror, and Adventure (Ed. Ann Wycoff, Redwood Press) is out now! 

New Reprint! Send in the Ninjas in Speculative North

First published by Podcastle in Feb 2016, Send in the Ninjas (Fantasy) is out now in Speculative North Issue 5, available in paperback and ebook format from Amazon UK / Amazon US / Amazon Canada 

It'll be available as a free download this weekend (4-5 Sep 21) so check it out!

New Podcast! A Partial Inventory of Things I Have Loved at Manawaker Studio

A Partial Inventory of Things I Have Loved (Fantasy, 1000 words)

First published in Flash Fiction Online and now podcasted by the wonderful Manawaker Studio! And it does, indeed, feature a keyring in the shape of a banana 😃🍌

Latest Story News!

OUT NOW:

Let the Buyer Beware (Comic Fantasy) was published in Kaleidotrope, June 2021

Best Friends Forever (SF) was reprinted in Orchid's Lantern Flash Showcase, July 2021

Not the Pizza Girl (Comic Fantasy) was podcasted at Manawaker Studios, July 2021

FORTHCOMING:

The Glorious Protection of Angels (Horror) will be published in The Lost Librarian's Grave from Redwood Press, 2021

New podcast! Not the Pizza Girl at Manawaker Studios

 

The wonderful Manawaker Studios have podcasted one of my favourite stories, the comic fantasy (and original story to Let the Buyer Beware, published in Kaleidotrope) Not the Pizza Girl. Give it a listen here 

Reprint: Best Friends Forever in Orchid's Lantern Flash Showcase

Is friendship rooted in feelings or actions? Suelita and her robot bestie examine the question in 'Best Friends Forever', first published in Daily Science Fiction and now featured on Orchid Lantern's inaugural Flash Showcase...

New story: Let the Buyer Beware in Kaleidotrope

Kaleidotrope Summer 2021

Don't try this at home, kids! A money-making scheme involving dodgy DIY spell kits leads to magical shenanigans, dislocated intradimensional apertures, and a day trip to the inside of HP Lovecraft's head in comic fantasy 'Let the Buyer Beware', out now in the summer issue of Kaleidotrope. 

And if anyone wants to read the origin story of Lisa and the Gidea Park Demon Disaster of 2013, you can find it at Every Day Fiction: Not the Pizza Girl or listen to the podcast by Manawaker Studios

Latest Story News!

OUT NOW:

When it's Time to Start Re-examining Your Life Choices (Fantasy) was published in the Crystal Lake patreon flash fiction challenge, Mar 21

Light Winds with a Chance of Velociraptors (Fantasy) was reprinted in Daikajuzine issue 5, Mar 21

The Fine Art of Fortune-Telling (Horror/Fantasy) was reprinted in The Fox Spirit Book of Love (Ed. C.A. Yates, Fox Spirit Books), Apr 21

Sale or Return (SF) was published in Scribes Micro Fiction Issue 4, Apr 21

WOO! (Fantasy) was published in Curiouser Magazine Issue 1, May 21

Dead Bodies Don't Scream (Horror) was podcasted by Tales to Terrify episode 485, May 21

FORTHCOMING:

We're All Friends Here (SF/Crime) will be reprinted by Fusion Fragment, Nov 2021

New podcast: Dead Bodies Don't Scream by Tales to Terrify

My story 'Dead Bodies Don't Scream' originally published in Tales from the Lake Vol 5 (Ed. Kenneth W Cain, Crystal Lake Publishing) has been podcasted by Michelle Kane for the wonderful Tales to Terrify. Check it out!

New story: WOO! in Curiouser Magazine

 

Hurrah for a new speculative lit magazine all the way from Australia! 

Curiouser Magazine is a bi-annual journal specialising in magical realism. Read my weird little multiverse story WOO! -- plus many other fine stories and poems -- in Issue 1, available now.

New Story: Sale or Return in Scribes Micro Fiction

My story 'Sale of Return' is featured in Issue 4 of Fairfield Scribes Micro Fiction (100 word stories), alongside an interview about the story - free to read now!

Reprint: The Fine Art of Fortune-Telling in The Fox Spirit Book of Love

 

These are probably not the love stories you are looking for….. …. but they should be.’ 

Love. That many-splendoured thing. It can move mountains and make fools of us all, but what is it? Does it come courtesy of a cherub’s bow? Is it a battlefield? Endless? Crazy? Only available on a Friday? Well, the answer might be between these covers. Inside you’ll find stories from fantastical worlds to fairy tales, from dark places to virtual reality, tales of transformation, hope, and despair. Above all else, each one is, at heart, about love.

The Book of Love, out now from Fox Spirit Books! Featuring my story 'The Fine Art of Fortune-Telling' 

Available in kindle from Amazon, or from the Fox Spirit website.