A Massive Kick(start) Up the Arse

So, my first solo collection, Dark Lightning: 50 Flashes of Fearsome Fiction, is well on its way to completion. The fifty stories have been written, and just need that final spit and polish before I send them off to my cadre of beta-readers for their notes and opinions; a cover artist has been commissioned to produce that all-important artwork, and I have a brace of reviewers who have offered to review the collection for their various sites and blogs.

It occurred to me, however, that all of this is meaningless unless people know that the book is out there and, in order to do that, I’m going to have to advertise. I’ve run the figures, got quotes from some of the major horror print magazines and websites, and I figure that £1000.00 should cover a decent  burst of initial publicity. I also want to produce a limited edition hardback version of the book, since it’s going to be the first release for which I am solely responsible, and that’s going to set me back another £750 or so. There’s so much that needs to be invested, but I refuse to do things by half measures.

That being said, I’m not made of money, either. I’m a husband and a father-of-two and, frankly, two grand just doesn’t pop up out of nowhere. So, I’ve decided to run a Kickstarter campaign to raise the advertising and hardback print funds. There are plenty of rewards for any potential backers, in the form of electronic, paperback and hardback copies of Dark Lightning, together with my heartfelt thanks.

If you choose to think of this as the cyber equivalent of a dirty of tramp with his hand out for money…that’s fine. If you’d prefer to think of it as a way of pre-ordering an extremely limited edition version of the debut release of a horror writer who could move on to great things…that would be better.

Either way – CLICK HERE TO VISIT MY KICKSTARTER PAGE – have a look around and see if you can afford to back me. Any donation, large or small, is greatly appreciated.

 

 

Book Review: ‘Hard Winter’ by Neil Davies

I finished reading Hard Winter about three weeks ago, but I’ve refrained from posting a review because I wasn’t sure what I made of it. I mean, I enjoyed the book, pretty much from the first page but, for the first time in ages, I felt that I couldn’t trust my own judgment any more. Part of it is down to the early sections of the book being set in Liverpool city centre, a location with which I am more than familiar. The novel is set during a big freeze, in which the great and the good have been evacuated from the cities and town, leaving only stragglers and survivors behind them. To see streets that I know well, and places that I pass all the time, have their destruction described in such loving detail is an oddly unsettling experience, and that I have no doubt helped to enhance my own enjoyment of the novel.

New Story: ‘Honey Bunny’ by Kevin G. Bufton

Much like I did at Christmas, this free story, is my Easter gift to you all. I know, I know, you’d rather have had an egg, but there you have it.

Anyway, thanks goes to Jonathan Ward, Angela Pritchett and Sonia Peacock, for allowing me to use their names for the characters in this bloody little tale. As far as I know, the similarities end there but maybe you want to keep an eye on them…just in case.

This is probably the bloodiest story I have ever written, which wasn’t my intention, but it seems oddly fitting when celebrating a holiday about some guy getting tortured and killed, before coming back from the dead with holes in his hands and feet.

With that light-hearted, if thoroughly blashphemous, thought out of the way, please enjoy your Easter Tale.

Book Review: ‘Family Values’ by Brandon Cracraft

This is my first book review in a little while. I’ve read more in the first three months of 2013 than I think I managed in the whole of 2012, largely thanks to my editing duties trickling down to almost nothing.

What do I do with free time? Stuff more books into it!

Anyway, in the interests of full disclosure, I should point out from the offset that I like Brandon Cracraft. I mean I really like him. He’s submitted stories to a couple of the anthologies that I have edited, and he always produces something different. Not for him the rehashing of horror standards, or another bloody zombie story (don’t worry, I’ve got a whole rant on them, still to come), his stories are unique in both content and style. I’m also friends with Brandon, inasmuch as anybody is in this technocentric age. We chat occasionally of Facebook, and exchange the odd e-mail. Certainly, Brandon was kind enough to send me a copy of this very novel so, you know, we’re tight.

Why am I telling you this? Well, I’m about to say a lot of very nice things about Mr Cracraft and his debut novel Family Values, and I wanted to admit upfront that I both know him and like him, lest somebody find that out at a later date and think that there are some shenanigans going on – there aren’t.

Anyway – on with the review…

James Herbert: My Tribute to a Legend

I don’t normally do stuff like this.

Usually, when I hear that someone in the public eye has passed away, I say “Oh, that’s a shame”, ask how old they were and, morbid bastard that I am, enquire as to how they passed on.

This time, it’s a little different.

NEW STORY: The Silent Treatment

I’ve been a bit busy of late, finishing off various publishing projects that need my attention, hence the lack of updates on the site.

However, in between the editing, the formatting and general despair, I managed to pen the following short tale for Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing.

Enjoy…

My Bucket List

Not too long ago, I posted my plans for 2013, which amounted to finishing off some existing work for Cruentus Libri Press, compiling a trilogy of solo collections, consisting of my existing short stories and flash fiction, and completing the first draft of my debut novel with my co-conspirtor, Roger Perry.

But what of the future? What happens when we enter 2014, and beyond? Surely, I should have an eye on something grander and more far-reaching than the end of this particular journey around the sun?

Oh I do, gentle reader, I do…

The concept of the bucket list has become very popular on the ol’ Internet, of late, and I can’t imagine the reason having much to do with the eponymous 2007 film, since watching that bordered on an exercise in masochism. For those unfamiliar with the term, it is a list of things that you hope to do before you die (or kick the bucket, as it were…hence the name). Of course, most of these lists tend to have a few things in common – visit the Grand Canyon, swim with dolphins, go skydiving – uplifting, vaguely spiritual and utterly preditable.

Well, fuck that – I’m a writer. When I think about the Grand Canyon, I want to write a book about the eldritch abomination that caused it in the first place and still lives in a dreamless sleep beneath it. When I think about dolphins, I want to write about an undead bottlenose, prowling the black oceans, forever hungry, devouring tourists. When I think about skydiving, I want to write about a man whose ‘chute fails to open and, as he plummets to a certain death, he is visited by an angel and a demon, and has but a few minutes to decide to which of them to entrust his soul.

Words, baby, that’s what my bucket list is all about.