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 →
Celebrating eBooks with Smashwords’ Read an eBook Week: Get Involved!
In my book, if you'll pardon the pun, Smashwords is a fantastic ebook platform. For those self-published authors out there, it offers an exceptional tool and service for publishing and formatting your ebook outside of Amazon. Amazon is, of course, also undeniably brilliant in facilitating the self-publishing process but it is limited to their own... Continue Reading →
‘Fairy Tales and Opera: The Perfect Match?’ OR ‘Dispelling the Myths that Fantasy Fiction is Lowbrow; that Opera is Elitist’
Norse mythology came to the fore in a big way a couple of years ago when Neil Gaiman released his celebrated book of the same name, but as of yesterday, Francesca Simon’s book, The Monstrous Child, has it rearing it’s deliciously vile and decidedly grotesque head once again. When the YA novel came out in... Continue Reading →
Recommendation in 60 Words: The Ravencrest Chronicles, Book 1 – Seahaven
Publisher: Kyanite Publishing (February 2019) Genre: Flintlock; Dark Fantasy When Hillcrest Manor is left unguarded, burglar, Gareth Vann, seizes his opportunity. But it’s more than riches that greet him. Clean prose and a well-realised world, of ale-houses, choked back-alleys and sewers, deliver an enjoyable read, enriched by a punchy plot and cast of humorous and... Continue Reading →
Recording an Audio Book: Practical Top Tips for Ensuring a Dynamic and Engaging Delivery
While I’m in the midst of self-producing the audio-book for my novel, The Procurement of Souls, I thought I would put together a blog on things other writers might like to consider when producing their own. I don’t pretend to be a technical whizz, although I will be making a software recommendation in a follow-up... Continue Reading →
Speculative Fiction Recommendations in 60 Words: What’s on the TBR Pile Now?
After thoroughly enjoying Melmoth by Sarah Perry, I've got more great reading in store, including a couple of ARCs sent my way from Kyanite Publishing. Here's what's next, and what I'm sure will make for some more 60 Word Recommendations: Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeannette Ng Genre/s: Dark Fantasy / Gothic Fantasy / Fairy... Continue Reading →
Baba Yaga and the Ailing Child Published in the Kyanite Press Journal of Speculative Fiction: Fables and Fairy Tales Winter Digest
I was very pleased when my Slavic folklore inspired short story, Baba Yaga and the Ailing Child, was chosen, alongside my guest foreword, for inclusion in the Kyanite Press Journal of Speculative Fiction: Fables and Fairy Tales Winter Digest. It tells the tale of a community, living on the edge of the woodland inhabited by... Continue Reading →
On the Importance of Fairy Tales Published in the Kyanite Press Journal of Speculative Fiction Fairy Tales and Fables Winter Digest
Thrilled that my article, On the Importance of Fairy Tales, was used as the guest foreword in the Kyanite Press Journal of Speculative Fiction Fables and Fairy Tales Winter Digest. In this short foreword I look briefly at the roots of traditional story telling and their inherent shared authorship; at how they act as societal mirrors;... 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 →