Publisher: Angry Robot, October 2017 Genre: Gothic When Catherine Helstone’s missionary brother, Laon, fails to send word from Arcadia, the land of the Fae, she sets out to find him, disembarking into a sinister world beyond her imagination. This is a slow burn that conjures a fully realised world and literary history, parallel to that... Continue Reading →
Short Story Publication: One for Sorrow, Two for Mirth, in: ParABnormal Magazine, June 2019
I'm thrilled to confirm that my fantasy short story, One for Sorrow, Two for Mirth, has been published in Alban Lake Publishing's ParABnormal Magazine, June 2019. It is the story of two sisters and the lengths they must go to in order to protect the youngest from a soursmith who would prey on her soul.... Continue Reading →
Publisher: (this edition) Fantasy and Horror Classics Genre: Gothic Horror; Ghost; Fantasy M R James’ ghost stories have a foot firmly placed in the dark romantic gothic story telling traditions from the 18th century (which later saw a revival in the Victorian age with the likes of his contemporaries, Bram Stoker and Dickens, and with... Continue Reading →
Publisher: Serpent's Tail (October 2018) Genre: Gothic Fiction After reading an unnerving manuscript, Helen Franklin becomes convinced that Melmoth the Witness now follows her path: a woman in black, both beguiling and fearsome, condemned to walk on bloodied feet, bearing witness to sin. This is one suspenseful gothic mystery that combines vignettes of classic gothic-terror... Continue Reading →
From the World of The Procurement of Souls…
A huge dome sat in the middle of the room, stripped of its brass panels, curved girders, like the ribs of an elephant carcass, the only thing maintaining its form. Other machinery lay scattered and broken across the floor, harnessed chairs with glass piping fractured and fissured in every length creating breaches which served to... Continue Reading →
From the World of The Procurement of Souls: EMOTOMETER
The next invention from the world of The Procurement of Souls is another of Magnus Drinkwater's patented instruments, the EMOTOMETER. EMOTOMETER Notes: Patented by Magnus Drinkwater, the emotometer is a brass-based cylindrical apparatus which houses filament receptors capable of reading and interpreting states of being, determined by the density and combination of hormones and pheromones... Continue Reading →
The Children of Blackmarsh to be Published in the Kyanite Press Speculative Fiction Journal Halloween Special
Following the publication of , The Rookery at Smeaton Abbey, I'm pleased to announce that another of my short stories, The Children of Blackmarsh, will feature in the Halloween special edition of the Kyanite Press Speculative Fiction Journal. The tale is a gothic horror about the grim fate of an isolated community living in poverty... Continue Reading →
From the World of The Procurement of Souls: Morpheuserum & Veriform
The next inventions up from The World of The Procurement of Souls are patented serums from The Inventors' & Engineers' Guild of Bio-Alchemy. Morpheuserum High strength sleeping draught designed by Fellow and Master of The Guild, Professor Clarence Malahide. Veriform This truth serum was designed by Baron Magnus Drinkwater under commission from... Continue Reading →
From the World of The Procurement of Souls: VIVISALVE
VIVISALVE Formulated by Baron Magnus Drinkwater under commission from the king and part-funded by the Sovereign Armaments Division, Vivisalve is a paste compound primarily formed of propolis and the coagulant accelerants vitamin K, Mandragora officinarum, and Guaiacum officinale. The balm is capable of greatly accelerating the healing time of wounds and temporarily boosting the... Continue Reading →