Seven Books

A few weeks back, my good friend Ian Whates tagged me to take part in the Facebook Book Challenge, which involved posting seven covers, over seven days, with no explanation.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and thought it might be worth sharing here on the blog (with added explanations).

The Secret Of Skeleton Island, by Robert Arthur

I first discovered The Three Investigators in 1978, when I was nine.  As I recall, it was a rainy day and at breaktime, we were sent to one of the classrooms in an older part of the school.  As other kids settled down to read comics or swap football cards, I had a look at the bookshelves and one hardback spine in particular caught my eye.  Already intrigued by the fantastic title, the cover - three boys in a cave, with a skull in the foreground - made me want to read it and so began a lifelong love affair with a series that started in 1964.

I wrote an indepth post about the series here and have reviewed individual books, which you can find on this link.

The Restless Bones, by Peter Haining

This was a chance purchase from The Bookworm Club, which we had at Rothwell Junior school (I assume it was a nationwide organisation because I vaguely remember a catalogue), where a stall was set up in the hall and you went in and bought any books that took your fancy.  How any mystery loving kid could pass this cover up is beyond me and I’m so glad I took the chance.  Collected by Peter Haining and published in 1978, it contained ten supposedly true stories - The Restless Bones, The Winged Monster of the Desert, The Terror Of The Dragon, The Mystery of the Loup-Garou, Old Roger’s Vengeance, The Witch’s Familiars, The Call of Darke’s Drum, The Trail of the Devil’s Fooprints, The Thing From Outer Space and The Voice In The Graveyard - with the latter quickly becoming my favourite.  Set in 1964, it features Richard, a teenager from Wisconsin, who accepts a challenge to spend the night in a graveyard, all on his own but doesn’t expect to hear a whispering voice plead, “…help us…”

“I have drawn on the large file of material I have collected over the years about events and experiences which are fantastic - but factual” wrote Haining in his introduction and I’m willing to take him at his word.
I wrote an indepth post about the book here.

The Adventures Of The Black Hand Gang, by H. J. Press

Another great purchase from the Bookworm Club, my edition is the 1978 Methuen reprint, translated from the German by Barbara Littlewood, having originally been published there in 1965.  Written by Hans Jürgen Press (1926–2002), it concerns a gang of child sleuths who make their headquarters at 49 Canal Street - the leader, Frank, plays the trumpet and is ably supported by the quick-witted Angela, Ralph and Keith W.S. (whose inseparable companion is a squirrel, W.S. stands for With Squirrel).  The book contains four decent little mysteries that work perfectly with the format Press devised where the left hand side of each spread is a page of text, carrying the story and dropping clues whilst the picture on the right shows the reader what the gang can see, therefore inviting them into the action.  The answer is given on the next page.  The beautifully crafted illustrations invite repeated viewings and are still satisfying to me now, forty years on.

I wrote an indepth post about the book here

The Galactic Warlord, by Douglas Hill

By 1979 (when this came out in hardback), I was already a big fan of Star Wars and when I found this, in Rothwell Library, it seemed like the perfect book for me (plus I used to read a comic called Warlord).

Canadian writer Douglas Hill eventually wrote a quartet of tales about Keill (I could never work out if you pronounced it Keel or Kyle) Randor, the Last Legionary, with the first book in the series (a prequel) being published last - Young Legionary (1982), Galactic Warlord (1979), Deathwing Over Veynaa (1980), Day of the Starwind (1980) and Planet of the Warlord (1981).

Salem’s Lot, by Stephen King

I was aware of the TV mini-series long before the book (it was all anyone talked about at school for days).  I first discovered Stephen King the writer in the early 80s when my Dad took me into a second-hand bookshop in Wellingborough and, recognising the title, I picked up a copy of Salem’s Lot.  Reading it, as a fledgling horror fan who was seeking to branch out into adult fare, was a revelation and led me ever further into that wonderful genre.  The novel might not be my favourite of King’s output - and it’s been years since I read it - but it’ll always hold a special place for me.

Matthew Craig wrote a review (which you can read here) of the novel for the King For A Year project I curated in 2015.

Danse Macabre, by Stephen King

Following Salem’s Lot, I decided to see what else Stephen King had to offer (and bearing in mind this was the early 80s, so I already had a lot to choose from) and found this, a non-fiction exploration of the genre.  You have to remember this was in 1983 or so, long before the Internet and even though I was adept at using reference guides to discover things (and was a big fan of Denis Gifford’s A Pictorial History of Horror Movies), finding similar about books was harder, especially more modern writers.  Danse Macabre, then, was superb - just the right book at the just the right time for me.  I read it again and again, using the text and ‘reading lists’ at the back as my guides to discovering more of the genre, scouring all the bookshops (especially second-hand ones) I could find.  Over the years, I read a lot of the titles King suggested and my knowledge and appreciation - of both the genre and his book - grew.
I wrote about it, for Jim Mcleod’s Ginger Nuts Of Horror site here.

The Books Of Blood volume 3, by Clive Barker

Another tip from Stephen King (I can't remember now where I read his quote - "I have seen the future of horror, and its name is Clive Barker" - but it certainly struck a chord with me) and I found a couple of the slim paperbacks in good old Rothwell Library.  Published by Sphere in 1984 and 1985, they were a revelation - if King showed me that horror could be written about today, Barker showed me it could be in a world I recognised, a London whose streets I could walk on my own.  Each volume is superb but I chose volume 3 as it includes the excellent Son of Celluloid (which inspired the fantastic cover), Confessions Of A (Pornographer's) Shroud and the wonderfully pulp Rawhead Rex, as well as Scape-Goats and Human Remains.  I eventually drifted away from Barker (I loved The Damnation Game, The Hellbound Heart and Cabal but his fantasy works left me cold) but I've never forgotten the Books Of Blood.
"Every body is a book of blood, wherever we're opened, we're red." - Clive Barker

Me and David at The Barbican, July 2017 (as I wrote about here)

One of the people I tagged was David Roberts, a fine friend of long-standing who's long been a collaborator of mine, bouncing around ideas for stories and novellas and co-plotting the thriller novel I wrote last year and the one I'm just about to start.  We meet weekly for long walks with his dog Pippa and when I told him about this blog, we talked through the reasons for our choices which were fascinating (half the fun of the meme was what you found out about the person by what they'd picked).  Once we finished, I asked if I could use his choices here and he agreed.


Truckers, by Terry Pratchett

For me, one of Terry's books had to be first as they have entertained me over many years.  Truckers is one I read to my daughter, and much to my regret we never did write to Mr Pratchett as we intended, asking what happened to Miskilin after the final book of the trilogy.  His early books are well worth a visit, his writing became more polished as time went on but the ideas and concepts are all there in the beginning.

The Hobbit, by J. R. R. Tolkien

I developed a love of fantasy through Lord of the Rings, but my battered copy is not photogenic and although I read The Hobbit second it still represents the universe of Middle Earth. I found the best place for reading these books was on the balcony of a hotel in Andora with snow falling, very atmospheric. From these books I moved onto the BBC Radio Drama of Lord of the Rings which I still feel is one of the best dramatisations.
(Mark's note - I read The Hobbit at school but never really got into Lord Of The Rings.  When the Peter Jackson film was released, David & I went to see it and then went back again and again, year after year, watching the whole series).

My Dad's Got An Alligator, by Jeremy Strong

Well, its wacky and fun.  In fact, just what you want to read to your children to enable them to grow into the rounded, fun filled people who are able to accept the weird and wonderful and perhaps use this to look at the world differently. Why be normal?

Polly, by Mark West

my walking and other creative collaborator, Pippa

Not only a good read but this copy was a prize - the Stormblade Productions launch included a prize for the best ‘French’ selfie, and not being that photogenic, I sent one in of Pippa and she won!  And as she can't read, I got the book!

Pippa also helps in idea formation and discussion on long walks with Mark. Keeping the route and the plot on course.

Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury

Representing the genre of more serious science fiction, and what else to put into a book cover meme than one that encourages you to ‘Burn and Destroy!’. Dark and atmospheric it questions motivations and understanding of the world. Perhaps at times closer to the truth than we would want it to be. Scary...

The Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams

The book which got me really hooked on science fiction, read before I heard the original radio series or saw the TV show. I remember being fascinated by the way each retelling of the story was subtly (or not so subtly) different right up to the recent live stage show. Arthur Dent is a Hoopy Frood (even if I am the only one who thinks so) and my fashion sense in dressing gowns came from him.  Sad really...

Day 7

Day 7 proved difficult. My books are all in bags as we are building in the house and all of the ‘new’ books I have read have been on e-reader.  Love it or hate it, you can carry your books easily, you can read in the dark, you can borrow library books over the wireless...  It is here to stay and while the joy of finding a book in a charity shop diminishes, the ease of reading improves and libraries suddenly come into their own again for me, with a world of e-books out there. But no pages to turn...

So you've seen mine and David's choices, what would your seven books be...?

My Creative Year 2017

Continuing a tradition (now in its fifth year), here's my annual look back at 2017 from a creative standpoint.

During the year, I wrote a lot of essays for this blog but no short stories at all, focussing instead on my psychological thriller novel.  I started it in early May and finished, 140,000 words later, at the end of October.  It's been an exciting project and I'm now working on the second draft, with the intention of shopping it around to agents in the new year - wish me luck!

* * *
I had one short story published, A World Outside Your Window, in 12 Dark Days: One Hell Of A Christmas, edited by Dean M. Drinkel from Nocturnicorn Books.  The anthology appeared, in print and digital editions, in December.

My collection, Things We Leave Behind, was published on 15th July by Dark Minds Press and launched at Edge-Lit 6, alongside Laura Mauro's excellent novella Naming The Bones.

At the launch, Laura read an extract from What We Do Sometimes, Without Thinking whilst I read the first few pages from her novella

My novella, Polly, was published on 30th November by Stormblade Productions, with an online Facebook launch that evening (you can see a transcript of the fun here).


* * *
Things We Leave Behind featured in Chad Clark's Top Reads for 2017, which was very pleasing.

James Everington included What We Do Sometimes, Without Thinking (from Things We Leave Behind) in his annual Favourite Short Stories round-up.

What Gets Left Behind featured in Tom Johnstone's 2017 Review Of The Year.

* * *
The Crusty Exterior managed another gathering, meeting at Astley Book Farm in Bedworth before heading off for a curry to help celebrate Steve Harris' 50th birthday in May.  Loads of friends, thousands of books, we had a great time.  And at Sledge-Lit, plans were hatched to meet up again next year...

Just after an enjoyable curry with, from left, James Everington, John Travis, Steve 'birthday boy' Harris, me, Phil Sloman and Steve Bacon

In June, Earls Barton held its first Literary Festival.  My friend Sue Moorcroft appeared on Saturday 10th, with her "route to number one" and I (in my first Lit Fest experience) had a slot on Sunday afternoon (which I wrote about here).  My talk was called "How can you write what you know when you write horror?" and centred around my novella The Mill.  I had a decent audience who listened attentively, laughed at the funny bits (I think the Grand Hotel in Scarborough gets more gothic every time I describe it) and asked some good questions. A terrific experience and it instantly made me want to do it again.

picture by Sue Moorcroft

On October 11th, I was part of a "Meet The Authors" panel with Sue and Louise Jensen (both of whom are best sellers) held at Kettering Library, moderated by John Griff of BBC Radio Northampton.  It was a terrific evening (Dad came along with me and proved to be a hit himself) with a good-sized and engaged audience, John kept the questions coming, the panel acquitted themselves well, we all had a laugh and books were sold.  I had a really good time.

Me, Sue, John and Louise 

I'm pointing at Dad, who finally got to ask his question, much to Sue and Louise's amusement

As a favour for Dad, I did a reading & writing session for the Rothwell Beavers Group in early December.  To them, he's Badger, the group leader and they were all surprised when I revealed he was my dad, the only person who used to read my stories when I began writing at their age (he stopped reading them when I - doubtless much to his relief - started writing horror, a genre he's not particularly fond of).  I wrote them a little Christmas tale and had great fun doing it - two elves help Santa but then he gets accidentally knocked out so they need to get some help - and left the ending open for the kids to finish.  I didn't really know what to expect but the response was superb and every single one of those Beavers either wrote or drew a conclusion to the story with some fantastic flights of imagination.  As much I enjoyed the evening itself, the next day was even better when I saw this feedback from one parent.


* * *
I attended three great Cons in year.  The first was Edge-Lit 6, held at The Quad in Derby on 15th July (see my report here), followed by FantasyCon, held at The Bull Hotel, Peterborough from 29th September to 1st October (see my report here) and I rounded out the year with the excellent Sledge-Lit 3, held at The Quad in Derby on 25th November (see my report here).

At Edge-Lit 6 with, from left, Peter Mark May, Richard Farren Barber, me, James Everington

On a panel at FantasyCon - from left, Ramsey Campbell, Phil Sloman, me, Helen Armfield, Nina Allan and James Everington

Priya Sharma, Steve Harris, me, Simon Bestwick (front) and Peter Mark May

At Sledge-Lit with, from left, Becky Moore, me, Tracy Fahey, Steve Bacon, Lisa Childs, John Travis and James Everington

Interviewing Alison Littlewood - pic by James Everington

* * *
I'm feeling confident for 2018 too, as I plan to crack on with the novel and plot out more, plus I have a few things due to be published and a couple of novellas to write.  I'll keep you updated as how things go.

As always, thank you so much, dear readers of this blog, for all your support in 2017, especially those who bought, read and liked my work - I really do appreciate it.

Polly, a novella

I'm pleased to announce that my new novella Polly will be published on 30th November by Stormblade Productions, with an online Facebook launch party to be hosted that day by Carrie Buchanan between 8pm and 10pm.  You can find the launch here.

Leaving her cheating husband and hollow marriage behind, Polly goes to Paris to visit a city she’s always wanted to see and open the next chapter in her life.  The City Of Love is everything she wanted it to be and even more - the grandeur of the architecture, the Seine, the people, the atmosphere.  This could be the start of something special, something new.

But why did she keep running into the strange man she met on the plane, the one she christened Mr Creepy because his smile made her skin crawl?  Perhaps it was just her imagination, perhaps it was paranoia but still…

Quickly making new friends - an American called Katrina and a waiter called Francois - she hoped to start again in a city that didn’t know her and never mind their melodramatic stories of a ‘necktie murderer’ stalking the backstreets of Paris.

What could possibly go wrong?

This all began with a Facebook message, in August 2015, from Neil Buchanan at Stormblade Productions asking if I’d like to write something for him.  Since I’d never had an audio book of my work done before, I readily agreed and the first idea came to me in late August, as I was driving and the INXS song New Sensation came on the stereo.  I’d already decided I was going to have a female protagonist (Carrie Buchanan narrates the Stormblade audio and it made sense to utilise a terrific female voice actor as much as possible) and my mind made the link that a new sensation could be a bloke or a destination.

I originally thought it’d be horror (since that’s my default genre) but the tone shifted as I worked on the notes (and my novella Drive, a dark thriller, began attracting attention).  I had most of the story in my head to pitch it to Neil and Carrie at FantasyCon that October and, buoyed by the fact they liked it, began writing in November.

I had trouble with the original ending (which was a lot darker than it is now) and talked it through with my friend Sue Moorcroft at one of our regular Trading Post meet-ups but otherwise it flowed well, with the first draft written in little over a month.  After taking a fortnight off, I wrote the second draft, sent it to my pre-readers (Kim Talbot Hoelzli, David Roberts and Sue) and using their notes, wrote the third draft in January 2016.

The bulk of the story takes place in the Latin Quarter of Paris, somewhere I’d wanted to visit since my teens (like Polly).  I was lucky enough to travel there several times on business, where the local manager of our company delighted in showing me around his wonderful city, pointing out places of interest and feeding us in fine restaurants.  On one occasion, I got to walk alongside the Seine to Notre Dame, taking lots of pictures. listening to the people and music around me and realised the Left Bank was everything I had always hoped it would be.

A few years later, in May 2012, I was in Paris with my colleague Rosie for a business meeting we managed to wrap up by lunchtime.  After a meal, we took the Metro to Notre Dame, had a drink at the Hotel Notre Dame St Michel and as it was a gloriously sunny May afternoon, we walked alongside the river to the Louvre, taking in the Bouquinistes and the Love-Locks on the Pont Des Artes bridge.  Polly does exactly the same walk.

Finally, I was able to work my love for The 400 Blows into the story.  Polly stays in L’Hotel Truffaut (named for Francois, the director) and all the names come from either the actors or the characters in the film. The one exception is the disco where Polly meets Manu – another favourite film of mine is Pauline a la Plage, directed by Eric Rohmer, so he lent his name to Club Eric.

In real life, Paris was everything I wanted it to be and more - as beautiful and grimy as London can be, with fantastic architecture and a wonderful atmosphere - and I had a lot of fun revisiting it with Polly.

The Metro at Saint-Michel, Paris - May 2012

A Bouquiniste, alongside the Seine, with Notre Dame in the background - May 2012

The plane hadn’t stopped before the first telephones began chiming with incoming messages and passengers got to their feet to pull their belongings from the overhead lockers.  Nobody had sat between Polly and the man and she’d noticed him giving her furtive looks throughout the flight, mainly at her legs.  Horrible creepy man.

She waited until he got up and retrieved his laptop case and a small rucksack before she moved across the seats.  He looked down and gave her a sour smile.  “Enjoy Paris,” he said.

“I’ll enjoy my romantic weekend,” she said.

“I’m sure you will,” he said and pushed into the line of people.

Polly watched until he’d left the plane before she stood and waited for someone to let her into the queue.

She went through passport control quickly, the immigration staff apparently uninterested by blonde English women.  The man behind the counter quickly checked her photograph then handed the document back with a curt, “Thank you.”
“Merci,” she said and offered him a bright smile.  His expression didn’t change.
Charles DeGaulle airport was light and airy, with high ceilings, plenty of glass and pale marbled floors.  It wasn’t overcrowded and Polly allowed herself to be carried along with the knot of fellow passengers to Arrivals.  Some bags had already come onto the carousels and she stood to one side, trying to spot Mr Creepy but he was nowhere to be seen.  Ahead, through the windows, she could see roads and car-parks and the sun struggling to break through the clouds.
After she got her case, Polly made her way to the entrance, checking signs and trying to read the language rather than look at the symbols.  She passed a couple of small cafes, the smell of fresh coffee intoxicating.  Further on was a big restaurant, surprisingly full and kids dragged their parents into a McDonalds franchise next door.  Between the two was a toilet and she went in, relieved herself, washed her hands and stared in the mirror.
The forty-four-year-old Polly Harper who stared back looked better than she’d expected.  Yes there were perhaps a few too many laugh lines around her mouth and eyes but they added to her, she’d earned and wore them well.  Her straight blonde hair was cut to her shoulders and looked good, the fringe covering most of her forehead.  She had a narrow nose, blue eyes that seemed darker in winter than summer and thin lips, none of which she particularly liked but all of which made her Polly.  She’d never really considered herself pretty but now, looking at herself in the mirror and disconcerted by the vaguely haunted look in her eyes, she realised she would have to or else she’d crumble.  What she’d discovered at home, what she’d walked in on, didn’t reduce her - if that was the view she took, she was lost.  No, she was as pretty as she’d ever been, if she wasn’t prettier than she was yesterday or the day before that and she needed to keep that in the forefront of her mind, to try and drive away the haunted look.
She saw the girl, her eyes large with surprise and perhaps fear.  She saw Dale’s hands all over her tits and felt a shiver run down her spine - no, don’t think about it.  It can’t be changed, now is the time to move forward.  Think ahead, think positive.  She was here in Paris, so what if she was on her own, she might have been in Barcelona now with a husband she didn’t know was cheating on her. 

Polly ordered a coffee from a busy stand near the main entrance.  Next to it was a newsagent and she glanced at the headlines as she waited for her Americano to cool.  The police, apparently, were no nearer to finding out the identity of the so-called Necktie Murderer, having just released a suspect.
She blew on the coffee and took a sip - strong and rich, just as she liked it.  Now what?  She hadn’t planned beyond this point and couldn’t decide between catching a train into the city, which would be more glamorous or a taxi, which would be more direct.
She looked up as Mr Creepy came out of the toilet, stopped by the door and used his handkerchief to wipe the corners of his mouth.  Surprised, Polly stepped back behind a pillar and counted to five, then peeped around.  He was looking in the opposite direction, towards the signs for the train station and that made up her mind on how to get into the city.
Mr Creepy turned slowly and locked eyes with her.  A small smile played at the corners of his lips and he nodded.  “I see you,” he mouthed.
Startled, it felt like his words had pulled the oxygen from her lungs as her heart seemed to thud against her ribs.  She slipped behind the pillar again and rested her head against it, her mouth suddenly dry, the only sound the rushing blood in her ears.  Had he really mouthed that?  Perhaps he was trying to be flirty, a kind of “peekaboo, I see you” and not something sinister, but it hadn’t felt like that.
“You’re being paranoid,” she said out loud as if making a sound would confirm it.  Nobody paid her any attention, which didn’t help.
Not wanting to see what Mr Creepy was doing - if he suddenly appeared around the pillar, with that little half-smile, Polly was convinced she’d scream - she grabbed her case and made for the main doors, trying to lose herself in the gaggle of people there.  She didn’t turn, didn’t pause, just barged her way through and out into the cool morning air.
A few people were standing at the taxi rank but there were more vehicles than passengers, so she stopped by the drivers door window of the first unoccupied one.
“Are you free?” she asked the driver, a huge black man who spilled over his seat onto the centre console.
The driver nodded and smiled.  His left canine was capped in silver.  “Oui, je suis entrer.”
“Merci,” she said and got into the back, sitting behind him.  As he pulled into the traffic, shouting heartily at a bus that wouldn’t let him by, Polly risked a glance behind but couldn’t see Mr Creepy.  She took a deep breath, willing her heart rate to slow down.

Don't forget the launch party!

Polly, a new novella...

Coming soon from Stormblade Productions, available in print, digital and audio editions.

Polly Harper had always wanted to visit the City of Love

She just didn't expect to be doing it on her own...

More similar in tone to Drive than my horror output, Polly is a thriller featuring a woman who discovers, on the eve of her twentieth anniversary, that her marriage isn’t all that she thought it was.  Fleeing to Paris for the weekend, she befriends an American tourist and then meets a man in a bar...

Neil Buchanan, at Stormblade Productions, asked if I’d like to write something for him and I readily agreed (I thoroughly enjoyed their Everett Smiles audio book).  Knowing that Carrie Buchanan would be narrating, hearing the INXS song New Sensation and memories of an afternoon in Paris combined to give me the seeds of the novella, which I pitched at FantasyCon in Nottingham.  Thankfully they liked it and I had great fun working on it.

Polly will be released later in the summer, supported by an online launch and the print and digital editions will include an afterword.

More details to come...

Writing update

It's been a while since I did a post about my writing (last August, other than stories being published, which you can read here), so I thought it was about time I did a bit of an update.

Things are pretty good, I’m pleased to say and 2016 is shaping up well on the writing front.

So far this year, I’ve seen The Sealed Window (in The Hyde Hotel anthology, edited by James Everington & Dan Howarth) and This Is The Colour Of Blood (in the Chromatics anthology, edited by Dean M Drinkel) published and there are several more on the horizon.

I’ve also managed to keep up the pace with my writing, having completed two shorts - The Order Of Aries (featuring my recurring character Mike Decker for A Zodiac Of Horror, again from Dean M Drinkel) and the gruesome love story Deb Loves Robbie (for Easter Eggs & Bunny Boilers, edited by Matt Shaw).

Aside from some essays and articles for the blog (which I’m thoroughly enjoying researching and writing), my next project is a novella for Hersham Horror Books (Peter Mark May’s publishing imprint, for whom I edited the Anatomy Of Death anthology back in 2013).  He’s been asking me to write him a novella for ages but, for one reason or another, I haven’t been able to do anything.  I got an idea late last year that excited me so I pitched it to him and he liked it and that’s what we’re going with.  Currently untitled, it’s a gruesome, action-packed horror story featuring a group of friends and what they find in an old, abandoned factory that has a less than pleasant history to it.  It will be launched, along with novellas by Steve Bacon, James Everington, Phil Sloman and a collection from Marie O’Regan at FantasyCon-by-the-sea in Scarborough, this coming September.

After that, I’ve been invited to contribute a story to a charity anthology based around the music of a very famous singer, which I’m thrilled (and nervous) about (and will let you know more when I’m able).  I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet (truth be told, I’m a bit scared) but I’m looking forward to it.

Following that I’m going to start planning a new novel, which I’ll hopefully begin work on during the summer.  Following the success of Drive and the novella I’ll discuss in a minute, I’ve decided to edge slightly out of horror and into dark thriller territory with it.  I don’t have a lot of the plot worked out yet - apart from the main character and her situation, as well as a gruesome murder set piece - but I talked it through with my friend Sue Moorcroft as we sat on a train at Leicester station and she liked it.

My final piece of writing news is a project that I hope you’ll be hearing a lot more about in the weeks to come.  Last year, Neil Buchanan of Stormblade Productions emailed me, asking if I’d like to write something for them to be published in print, as an ebook and also as an audiobook.  I liked the sound of that - I’ve never been ‘audiobooked’ before - and even better, it would be narrated by Carrie Buchanan, who’d done an excellent job on Everett Smiles.

Knowing I'd be writing for Carrie to read, I decided to make my lead character a woman and then heard “New Sensation” by INXS which gave me the idea for an event that would lead my protagonist to Paris.  I pitched the idea to them at FantasyCon in October, wrote the first draft through November and the second during December.  I let it sit for a while and did the third draft, taking in pre-reader comments, in mid-January and Neil accepted it a couple of weeks later.

The novella is called Polly, it’s a thriller (complete with a couple of creepy moments and some messy violence) and I’m really pleased with how it’s turned out.  More details as we get closer to the publication date.

Like I said before, 2016 is shaping up very nicely indeed...