Best Wishes for 2025

I'd like to wish all my faithful fans and all the potential readers out there the very best for 2025. If you haven't yet read my three novels and three collections, this is the year to do it. You'll find puzzles to solve, post-apocalyptic wastelands to navigate, strange neighbours who'll have you checking the doors and windows are locked, a mysterious postman terrorising a country town, tunnel runners living beneath your street, a homicidal botanist and so much more! Read, review, and tell your friends about my books. Happy 2025 and stay tuned for new stories this year!  

 

Dark Inside the Haunted Train: An Interview with Karen Heard

British short story author Karen Heard is one of the writers whose stories are featured in the soon-to-be-published anthology The Haunted Train: Creepy Tales from the Railways. Here she answers questions about childhood fears and writing inspiration.

Have you ever seen a ghost? Tell us about the experience.

I haven’t seen a ghost but quite often I dream that I meet people who in my waking life are now dead - and at the time don’t realise that I’m dreaming. Sometimes it’s nice as I get to tell people that I love them, and clear the air about things I’m sorry or angry about. At others I forget that they are dead and we still argue like we would in real life or I‘m trying to take the opportunity to save them from whatever killed them. When I wake up, I have the same mixed feelings you might have if visited unexpectedly by a ghost from your past.

What scared you when you were a child?

When I was a young child I found it really hard to sleep as I was convinced that when falling asleep I might never wake up. At the same time I believed there was a monster living under my bed that came out at midnight, stared closely at my face, and would murder me if it saw that I was still awake after the witching hour.

It’s no wonder I became a horror writer - yeah? I also remember telling myself stories in the dark cold room, to calm and distract myself from the fear and stop myself falling asleep.

After many many terrifying nights screwing my eyes shut, afraid of the monster but also afraid to let myself drift off into death, I realised that I couldn’t go on like this and had to work out whether my fears were true or not. I gathered up the courage to look under the bed.

I must have been very young, because I remember there was a child’s potty under the bed for night time use. I kneeled down, lifted up the blankets, and looked under my bed to prove to myself that nothing was there… But I was right - there was a monster under my bed! Staring at me inches from my face.

I can still vividly see how it looked… and in retrospect what I see is a, head-sized, giant, dead desiccated moth, leaning on one side with its dried out wings splayed out like a vintage aeroplane with a feral stare frozen on its skull. I think, after the first initial terror, and running from the room in horror, I worked out even at the time that it was a dead creature of some kind, but the fear of that first moment when I looked and realised that everything that I thought I must be imagining - it was all true - is probably where I get my love of both horror and irony.

When I wrote my story for this anthology, and realised it needed an extra element, apart from just the events on the train, to tie things together, I used this memory of that intense fear for when the protagonist looks to see what is inside their closet.

For your story ‘Out of Order’ in The Haunted Train, where did you get the inspiration?

I wanted to write a story where the protagonist's senses are restricted in some way, such as hearing noises on the other side of the door but not knowing exactly what is happening. I’m intrigued by the idea that suggestion can do a lot more than actually describing the events. The readers fill that space by imagining what they truly find frightened.

Describe your writing voice.

Psychological and gothic, balanced out with ironic humour.

 

ABOUT KAREN HEARD

Karen lives in London and writes short stories, plays, books and scripts. She works in digital marketing and content creation, and used to manage the website for Railway magazine. Some of her stories are collected in the book It’s Dark Inside. 

 

 

 

  ABOUT THE BOOK THE HAUNTED TRAIN: CREEPY TALES FROM THE RAILWAYS

Come on board for a Gothic journey in a funicular railway in Victorian England, a freight train in the Carpathian mountains, a high tech sky train in Bangkok, an underground railway in Tokyo. Visit stations which lure with the promise of safe shelter but harbour unexpected dangers. Meet the people who work on the tracks – stationmasters, porters, signal-men – and those who travel – commuters, tourists, dead bodies, murderers and ghosts. In this volume, editor Rayne Hall has collected twenty of the finest– and creepiest – railway tales. The book features the works of established writers, classic authors and fresh voices. Some stories are spooky, some downright scary, while others pose a puzzling mystery. Are you prepared to come on board this train? Already, the steam engine is huffing in impatience. Listen to the chuff-chuff-chuff from the locomotive and tarattata-tarattata of the giant wheels. Press your face against the dust-streaked window, inhale the smells of coal smoke and old textiles, watch the landscape whoosh past as you leave the familiar behind and journey into the unknown. But be careful: you can’t know the train’s real destination, nor your fellow travellers’ intentions. Once you’ve closed that door behind you and the wheels start rolling, you may not be able to get out.

The ebook is available for pre-order from Amazon at the special offer price of 99 cents until 31 January 2023. (After that date, the price will go up.) https://mybook.to/Train

The paperback edition will be available soon.

An Interview with Deborah Sheldon

Deborah Sheldon’s new collection, Liminal Spaces, is now available, and I’ve interviewed her to the mark the occasion. You can also read my five-star review on Goodreads.

Thanks for agreeing to be interviewed, Deborah. The most important question first of all - what’s your favourite writing snack or drink?

While writing, I favour sparkling chardonnay pinot noir. While editing, black unsweetened tea. Oh yes, I’m a fan of Hemingway, all right – in more ways than one.

 

How do you celebrate when you finish your book?

My husband and son took me out to dinner when I finished my collection Liminal Spaces: Horror Stories. Every time I finish a book, my celebrations centre around food. If not at a restaurant, then at home with a special meal such as lobster bisque, or a treat like a layered cake with fancy piped icing. Actually, I celebrate every event with food. Christmas, Easter, birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, career successes, whatever – you’ll find me in the kitchen trying to whip up something tasty to mark the occasion.

What is your kryptonite as a writer?

Boredom. Over the 36 years of my professional career, I’ve found that feeling “safe” is the fastest way to kill my enthusiasm. I need the anxiety of the unfamiliar. How thrilling to face down a new writing medium and have no idea if I’m capable of doing it! Uncertainty and challenge seem to jump-start my creative brain.

What risks have you taken with your writing that have paid off?

All of them. Back in 1986, while at university, I began my career as a feature writer for magazines. Then I moved to TV script-writing. After that, to medical writing and non-fiction books. Followed by fiction and horror writing. And now I’m dipping my toe into the untested waters of poetry. It’s like refreshing myself as a writer every time I experiment with a new medium. Whether or not the risk pays off professionally doesn’t negate the personal benefit.

When was the last time you Googled yourself and what did you find?

The last time I Googled myself I found a book review, and promptly shared it on social media, my website, and newsletter. Actually, I Google myself every month or so. I cultivated this habit when I stumbled across a book review some two years after it had been published! Which, yeah, felt way too late.

Are you active on social media? How do you use it?

I’m on social media, yes, but not in a participatory sense. For example, someone else runs my Facebook author page, and while I’m a member of Goodreads I don’t belong to any groups or interact in any significant way. I’m in poor health, so fatigue and chronic pain force me to be miserly with how I spend my time. While I’d love to muck in with horror writers on Facebook, Goodreads and other sites, and network and attend conferences and so on, the reality is I don’t have the physical capacity. My concern is that people in the industry might dismiss me as snobby or standoffish, but the truth is, I’m unwell.

What’s the trickiest thing about writing characters of the opposite gender?

My whole life long, I’ve believed that humans are essentially the same regardless of sex, race, religion or era. A person from 3000 years ago would understand my fears, joys and concerns as if I were their contemporary. I must admit, however, that I’ve never been a “girly” girl. I don’t wear earrings, eyeshadow or perfume, have no interest in fashion, own three pairs of shoes and one handbag, and I’m typing this interview wearing an old t-shirt and my husband’s tracksuit pants. Perhaps my lack of interest in stereotypical “feminine” pursuits helps me write male characters that feel authentic.

Have pets ever gotten in the way of your writing?

On the contrary! For the past decade, I’ve had a budgerigar in my study to keep me company while I write. Our first budgie was Atlas and now we have Zeus, who is gutsing seeds and watermelon even as I type. I’ve got into the habit of discussing my writing issues with our birds. Often, I read out my drafts. Zeus is an attentive listener. His feedback includes wise nods, whistles, chattering, and occasional flurries of cursing that he’s picked up from me. (Fun fact: Zeus inspired one of my best-loved characters, the police dog in Thylacines.)

Animals – particularly birds – play an important and generally terrifying role in your fiction. Why?

I wrote the stories in Liminal Spaces over the years 2017 to 2021, sprinkled between longer-form projects including my bio-horror novella Thylacines, zombie novel Body Farm Z, bigfoot novella Man-Beast, and the anthologies Midnight Echo 14 and Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies. It wasn’t until I was compiling the collection and laying out my TOC that I noticed – with surprise – how many of my stories involved birds! No, this wasn’t a deliberate symbolic device. I honestly did not realise. Some people call themselves dog- or cat-people, and I guess I’m a bird-person. Birds have a fascinating duality about them. Beautiful, friendly and playful Australian varieties like budgerigars and lorikeets can remind you of their dinosaur genes every time you look at their claws and the scaly rings about their eyes.

Your fiction is rich in Australian lingo and traits, and that’s bloody awesome! Is this a conscious decision or just natural for you?

Yes, it’s very much a conscious decision. What I’ve always admired about storytellers from the United States – across prose fiction to films to TV – is their love of writing US-centric stories filled with US locations, characters and language. So, I’m a flag-waver for Australian locations, characters and language. Not for me the generic “set anywhere” type of story. I don’t like that as a reader, and I won’t do it as a writer. That’s why my first anthology with IFWG was open to submissions only from Australian citizens, residents and ex-pats – and why my second anthology (with the same press) will do the same. One’s culture deserves to be celebrated: I’m not a fan of “cultural cringe”. 

Thanks, Deborah. 

You can buy a copy of Liminal Spaces on Amazon or through IFWG Australia. 

 

***

Deborah Sheldon is an award-winning author from Melbourne, Australia. She writes short stories, novellas and novels across the darker spectrum of horror, crime and noir. Her award-nominated titles include the novels Body Farm Z, Contrition and Devil Dragon; the novella Thylacines; and the collection Figments and Fragments: Dark Stories.

Her collection Perfect Little Stitches and Other Stories won the Australian Shadows ‘Best Collected Work’ Award, was shortlisted for an Aurealis Award and longlisted for a Bram Stoker. Deb’s short fiction has appeared in many well-respected magazines such as Aurealis, Midnight Echo, Andromeda Spaceways, and Dimension6. Her fiction has also been shortlisted for numerous Australian Shadows Awards and Aurealis Awards, and included in various ‘best of’ anthologies such as Year's Best Hardcore Horror.

As editor of the 2019 edition of Midnight Echo, Deb won the Australian Shadows ‘Best Edited Work’ Award. Her anthology Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies was a flagship 2021 title for IFWG Publishing Australia.

Deb’s other credits include TV scripts such as NEIGHBOURS, feature articles for magazines, non-fiction books (Reed Books, Random House), stage plays, and award-winning medical writing. Visit her at http://deborahsheldon.wordpress.com

DEB’S AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE https://www.amazon.com/~/e/B0035MWQ98

 

Among the Headstones - Interview with Pamela Turner

I’ve interviewed fellow contributor to Among the Headstones: Creepy Tales from the Graveyard, Pamela Turner, as part of the preparations for the release of the anthology early next year. Full details about the haunting anthology are provided at the end of the interview.

#

How do you feel about cemeteries? Do find them creepy?

When I was growing up in my hometown, I believed the local cemetery was haunted. No one had told me it was. I believed it because I read horror anthologies in elementary school, and it fed my imagination. I remember thinking how scary it must be for those living near the cemetery, especially after dark. Now cemeteries are some of my favorite places to visit. I like learning about the different symbols, looking at the statues, and even discovering a unique headstone.

How would you like to be buried?

Since my husband was a veteran, I will probably be buried with him in the veterans’ cemetery. On Veterans Day this year, I met a veteran who told me that when a spouse dies and is buried with the veteran, his or her information is engraved on the other side of the veteran’s headstone. Next time I go to the cemetery, I’m going to look for this.

What scared you when you were a child?

Dolls. Believing my dolls would steal my soul, I made them face the wall before I went to bed. And one was a Raggedy Ann doll. At the time, I didn’t know about the infamous Annabelle, which was probably a good thing. I’ve since read Algernon Blackwood’s short story and watched the Night Gallery episode.

What’s your favourite horror book? What do you like about it?

The Shining by Stephen King is my favorite horror novel. A family is trapped in a hotel during the winter with the father/caretaker slowly going mad and threatening his wife and son. But his wife fights back to save her family.

Who is your favourite Gothic author? Why?

Shirley Jackson is my favorite Gothic author. Her novel The Haunting of Hill House is, along with The Shining, one of the creepiest stories I’ve read. It impresses me how she made the house itself a character and a sinister one. Also, I’ll never forget the ending. What I’m curious about is what happened in Hill House to cause the haunting, although I don’t think that’s ever explained.

For readers who are new to your fiction, which of your books would be a good start?

My novella The Ripper’s Daughter, which takes place ten years after the Ripper’s murder spree. Prostitutes are showing up dead in Louisville, Kentucky, and a former detective inspector turned vampire/tavern owner fears Jack is responsible.

ABOUT PAMELA TURNER

Pamela Turner’s love for the paranormal began in elementary school, where she discovered anthologies filled with ghosts, witches, vampires, and other creatures that go bump in the night. Then there was Rod Serling’s Night Gallery and that creepy doll. Fearing her Raggedy Ann doll would steal her soul, Pamela made the doll face the wall before she went to bed.

Despite this, her interest in the supernatural continued. In middle school, she penned her own tales of terror. Fellow students enjoyed them, and she dreamed of becoming a published author.

After a short stint as a freelance magazine writer, she decided to return to writing fiction. She's also an award-winning screenplay writer.

Currently, she writes paranormal suspense featuring vampires, dragons, angels, and demons. Just don’t expect her angels to always be good or her demons to always be evil.

Many of her stories are set in Louisville, Kentucky where she lives with her daughter and herds three rescue cats. When not writing, she enjoys anime and manga, weaving, aviation, cemeteries, and abandoned buildings.

You can find her at https://pamturner.net

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PamelaTurnerAuthor

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pamturner97/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/pamelaturner

ABOUT THE BOOK

AMONG THE HEADSTONES: CREEPY TALES FROM THE GRAVEYARD

This anthology, edited by Rayne Hall, presents twenty-seven of the finest - and creepiest - graveyard tales with stories by established writers, classic authors and fresh voices.

Here you will find Gothic ghost stories by Robert Ellis, Lee Murray, Greg Chapman, Morgan Pryce, Rayne Hall, Guy de Maupassant, Myk Pilgrim, Zachary Ashford, Amelia Edwards, Nina Wibowo, Krystal Garrett, Tylluan Penry, Ambrose Bierce, Cinderella Lo, Nikki Tait, Arthur Conan Doyle, Priscilla Bettis, Kyla Ward, Edgar Allan Poe, Paul D Dail, Cameron Trost, Pamela Turner, William Meikle and Lord Dunsany who thrill with their eerie, macabre and sometimes quirky visions.

You'll visit graveyards in Britain, Indonesia, Russia, China, Italy, Bulgaria, Thailand, USA, Australia, South Africa and Japan, and you can marvel at the burial customs of other cultures.

Now let’s open the gate - can you hear it creak on its hinges? - and enter the realm of the dead. Listen to the wind rustling the yew, the grating of footsteps on gravel, the hoo-hoo-hoo of the collared dove. Run your fingers across the tombstones to feel their lichen-rough sandstone or smooth cool marble. Inhale the scents of decaying lilies and freshly dug earth.

But be careful. Someone may be watching your every movement... They may be right behind you.

Purchase Link: mybook.to/Headstones

The ebook is available for pre-order from Amazon at the special offer price of 99 cents until 31 January 2022. (After that date, the price will go up.) The paperback is already published.

Among the Headstones - Interview with Kyla Lee Ward

I’ve interviewed fellow contributor to Among the Headstones: Creepy Tales from the Graveyard, Kyla Lee Ward, as part of the preparations for the release of the anthology early next year. Full details about the haunting anthology are provided at the end of the interview.

#

What are cemeteries like in the country where you live?

The main things that differentiate Australian cemeteries from those in Britain or other British colonies are the dangers of heatstroke and snakes. And spiders - really large spiders that live in holes. The cemetery of Rookwood covers 314 hectares and large tracts have gone quite wild. I know whereof I speak.

What gives you the creeps?

Let’s see – if it’s not graveyards, snakes, spiders, or nightfall, then it must be people. Not all people, but certainly some. What people can do to each other and the scars it leaves, sometimes in the very walls.

What do you like about the Gothic Fiction genre?

To me, the Gothic is about coming home. That’s one of its key tropes – the young outsider who enters the crumbling mansion, discovering its secrets and those of their own heritage. Think of Anne Rice’s The Witching Hour and Tanith Lee’s Dark Dance. Finding a place where you belong, even if it is stained with murder and full of ghosts and bats. Especially if it’s full of ghosts and bats, and people behaving very, very badly. That’s history - the present is just a tiny, shiny ticket booth at the entrance to that old pile. You can’t understand who you are until you enter.

What’s the scariest story you’ve written?

Oh goodness, how do I answer this? The two Stoker nominees, “And In Her Eyes The City Drowned” and “Should Fire Remember the Fuel?” must be considered officially good as well as officially scary. The former has been translated into Japanese, which may give it an edge – but that story of mine which has been most reprinted is a very short and wry piece titled “The Loquacious Cadaver”. It is also included in The Macabre Modern and Other Morbidities.

How do you go about research for the fiction you write?

I read a great deal of history, myth and legend, custom and tradition. Past endeavours have found me in the Special Collection of the Mitchell Library, teasing out a description of Memphis written by a Persian adventurer in the 12th century, from a book printed in the 19th century, in my extremely shaky French – now that I think about it, there had to be an easier way. But when you’re dealing with a place that still exists, there is no substitute for having visited it yourself. I have been privileged to travel and find that some places present me with stories on platters, while the memory of others may lurk for years in the back of my mind before the right tale presents itself.

Another fine method of research is visiting museums (always take a sketchbook and make notes about every photo you take) and engaging in historical re-enactments. I am a part of the medieval re-enactment movement in Australia, and I assure you, it is much easier to describe the sensation of moving in armour once you have done so.

What are you currently working on?

I am currently working on a dark fantasy novel and pulling together the material for my first full story collection. I have written substantial new work for this, including a novella concerning necromancy and the French revolution that makes extensive use of the Paris catacombs.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kyla Lee Ward is a Sydney-based creative who works in many modes, that have garnered her Australian Shadows and Aurealis awards. She has placed in the Rhyslings and received Stoker and Ditmar nominations.Reviewers have accused her of being “gothic and esoteric”, “weird and exhilarating” and of “giving me a nightmare.” Her latest release is The Macabre Modern and Other Morbidities, her second collection of dark and fantastic poetry after 2011's The Land of Bad Dreams. Her novel Prismatic (co-authored with her partner as "Edwina Grey") won an Aurealis Award for Best Horror. 

Her short fiction has appeared in the likes of Weirdbook, Shadowed Realms, Gothic.net and in the anthologies Oz Is Burning and Gods, Memes and Monsters: a 21st century Bestiary. Her work on RPGs including Demon: the Fallen saw her appear as a guest at the inaugural Gencon Australia. An artist and actor as well as an author, her short film, 'Bad Reception', screened at the Third International Vampire Film Festival and she is a member of both the Deadhouse immersive theatre company and the Theatre of Blood, which have also produced her work. In addition, she programmed the horror stream for the 2010 Worldcon. A practicing occultist, she likes raptors, swordplay and the Hellfire Club. To see some very strange things, try http://www.kylaward.com

ABOUT THE BOOK

Among the Headstones: Creepy Tales from the Graveyard edited by Rayne Hall, presents twenty-seven of the finest - and creepiest - graveyard tales with stories by established writers, classic authors and fresh voices.

Here you'll find Gothic ghost stories by Robert Ellis, Lee Murray, Greg Chapman, Morgan Pryce, Rayne Hall, Guy de Maupassant, Myk Pilgrim, Zachary Ashford, Amelia Edwards, Nina Wibowo, Krystal Garrett, Tylluan Penry, Ambrose Bierce, Cinderella Lo, Nikki Tait, Arthur Conan Doyle, Priscilla Bettis, Kyla Ward, Edgar Allan Poe, Paul D Dail, Cameron Trost, Pamela Turner, William Meikle and Lord Dunsany who thrill with their eerie, macabre and sometimes quirky visions.

You'll visit graveyards in Britain, Indonesia, Russia, China, Italy, Bulgaria, Thailand, USA, Australia, South Africa and Japan, and you can marvel at the burial customs of other cultures.

Now let's open the gate - can you hear it creak on its hinges? - and enter the realm of the dead. Listen to the wind rustling the yew, the grating of footsteps on gravel, the hoo-hoo-hoo of the collared dove. Run your fingers across the tombstones to feel their lichen-rough sandstone or smooth cool marble. Inhale the scents of decaying lilies and freshly dug earth.

But be careful. Someone may be watching your every movement... They may be right behind you.

Purchase Link: mybook.to/Headstones 

The ebook is available for pre-order from Amazon at the special offer price of 99 cents until 31 January 2022. (After that date, the price will go up.) A paperback will follow.

Among the Headstones - Interview with Priscilla Bettis

Among the Headstones: Creepy Tales from the Graveyard will be released early next year, and it’s my pleasure to share this interview with fellow contributor, Priscilla Bettis. Full details about the haunting anthology are provided at the end of the interview.

#

Hi Priscilla and thanks for agreeing to answer a few questions about your story and inpiration. How do you feel about cemeteries? Do find them creepy?

There’s a cemetery at the end of our road. It gets full sun and has a beautiful view of the Blue Ridge Mountains (I live in Virginia), so no, not creepy at all. On the other hand, if there was a dilapidated, Gothic-style house with a family graveyard in the back overrun with dead thorn bushes, then yes, that’d be very creepy!

Has a real-life cemetery, grave or headstone ever ended up in your stories?

One time, to feed my creativity, I explored a cemetery blindfolded. All my other senses were on high alert. I was able to pepper different stories and poems with my observations, how freshly turned soil smells, how a granite tombstone is devoid of warmth . . .

Have you ever seen a ghost? Tell us about the experience.

Does hearing a ghost count? I was home alone, snuggled up on the sofa and lost in a book. The door at the end of the hallway creaked open. We have a cat who nudges doors open, so I wasn’t frightened. Sure enough, the tick-tick of tiny claws on the wood floor grew closer. Then the sofa cushion next to me pulled away from my thigh as if the cushion had been depressed. I patted my lap, inviting the cat to sit. Then I remembered: our cat had died three days prior. I finally looked up from my book. No one was there.

What do you personally, as a reader, like about anthologies?

Anthologies are great, especially if they’re full of ghosts.:-) When I read an anthology, I always find a wonderful, new-to-me author.

As a writer, what are your literary influences?

Andy Davidson because of his poetic Southern Gothic prose. When I grow up, I want to be Andy Davidson. And Jo Kaplan for her atmospheric, contemporary Gothic settings. When I grow up, I want to be Jo Kaplan, too!

What are you currently working on?

I am working on the final touches of a Southern Gothic novelette, The Hay Bale. It will be released on the 10th of January, 2022. (I gave myself chills writing that creepy story!) I am also editing my literary horror novella, Dog Meat, which will be published by the fantastic folks at Potter’s Grove Press in 2022.

Thanks for your time, Priscilla. I'm looking forward to reading your tale.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Priscilla Bettis read her first horror story, The Exorcist, when she was a little kid. Priscilla snuck the grownup book from her parents’ den, and The Exorcist scared her silly. From that moment on, she was hooked on horror and all things deliciously off kilter. As an adult, Priscilla turned to engineering physics, a wonderful profession, but what she really wants to do is write . . . or die trying, probably at the hands of a vampiric wraith. Priscilla shares a home in the Blue Ridge foothills of Virginia (USA) with her two-legged and four-legged family members. 

Website: priscillabettisauthor.com

Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/Priscilla-Bettis/e/B08R97Z63M

ABOUT THE BOOK

Among the Headstones: Creepy Tales from the Graveyard edited by Rayne Hall, presents twenty-seven of the finest - and creepiest - graveyard tales with stories by established writers, classic authors and fresh voices.

Here you'll find Gothic ghost stories by Robert Ellis, Lee Murray, Greg Chapman, Morgan Pryce, Rayne Hall, Guy de Maupassant, Myk Pilgrim, Zachary Ashford, Amelia Edwards, Nina Wibowo, Krystal Garrett, Tylluan Penry, Ambrose Bierce, Cinderella Lo, Nikki Tait, Arthur Conan Doyle, Priscilla Bettis, Kyla Ward, Edgar Allan Poe, Paul D Dail, Cameron Trost, Pamela Turner, William Meikle and Lord Dunsany who thrill with their eerie, macabre and sometimes quirky visions.

You'll visit graveyards in Britain, Indonesia, Russia, China, Italy, Bulgaria, Thailand, USA, Australia, South Africa and Japan, and you can marvel at the burial customs of other cultures.

Now let's open the gate - can you hear it creak on its hinges? - and enter the realm of the dead. Listen to the wind rustling the yew, the grating of footsteps on gravel, the hoo-hoo-hoo of the collared dove. Run your fingers across the tombstones to feel their lichen-rough sandstone or smooth cool marble. Inhale the scents of decaying lilies and freshly dug earth.

But be careful. Someone may be watching your every movement... They may be right behind you.

Purchase Link: mybook.to/Headstones 

The ebook is available for pre-order from Amazon at the special offer price of 99 cents until 31 January 2022. (After that date, the price will go up.) A paperback will follow.

The Animal Inside

Pre-orders are now being taken for the ebook version of my second collection of short stories through Amazon. The print version will be published on the 10th of October.

The Animal Inside is a collection of thirteen strange and twisted stories that will take you for a walk along the fine line between insanity and reason, the peculiar and the prosaic, and the animal kingdom and human society, then leave you wondering where one ends and the other begins. These tales will confuse, amuse, shock, and intrigue, but they will also cause you to contemplate your very own animal inside.

Publication details: Black Beacon Books, 2020

Genres: suspense, horror, erotic horror, dark literary

Length: 13 stories / 200 pages / 57,000 words

      

Cleopatra’s Mystery Box

The Church of Asag

Old Mabel’s Stray Cat

Veronica’s Dogs

The Crows of Eildon Hill

Lauren

Milk

Horror at Hollow Head

Declan’s Fantasy

Forgotten Falls

Animal

Like Sisters

It Starts with Insects

            

The Shortcut

"The Shortcut" is one of the rare supernatural horror stories I've written in recent years. As always with my horror tales, atmosphere and suspense are key, but I think that only makes the reader jump all the higher when the weirdness bites.

This story follows a young woman home from a wild party. Would you have taken the long road through the industrial estate or chosen the shortcut?

Buy your copy on Amazon or visit Stormy Island Publishing

The Devil's Windmill

The Windmill Pact, my retelling of a Breton legend, is now available in Thuggish Itch: Devilish, accompanied by an unholy host of diabolic tales. You can find it on Amazon or on the Gypsum Sound Tales website.

More about Thuggish Itch: Devilish from the editor:

Devils, demons and the idea of Hell have always featured prominently in the horror stories that I found myself reading as a teenager or the films I still delve into on a rainy day. I’ve always found it quite amazing how differently the leading man, Satan, is portrayed depending on the creativity and beliefs of the creator. Thuggish Itch’s Devilish collection features, in no particular order, thirteen of our favourite tales, each of which provides a different take on the mythology, the red man himself and all of his minions.

Where is the Devil's Windmill?

The Devil's Windmill stands just outside the town of Guérande, which I refer to by its Breton name, Gwenrann, in my story. How much of the legend is true is up to you to decide. If you go there, chances are you won't meet the devil. The area is actually picturesque and the windmill is now part of a crêperie, so the only thing devilish ought to be the food and cider. 
Kalon Digor! Bon appétit!

KindleScout

My forthcoming collection has been accepted for KindleScout. This means you can read it and nominate it. If it gets enough nominations, I'll be able to sign a gargantuan book deal that will allow me to spend more time writing stories you love. Check it out here: https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/3PDH4KZWOZHYN

The Animal Inside is a collection of thirteen strange and twisted stories that will take you for a walk along the fine line between insanity and reason, the peculiar and the prosaic, and the animal kingdom and human society, then leave you wondering where one ends and the other begins. These tales will confuse you, amuse you, shock you, and intrigue you, but they will also cause you to question the world and contemplate your own animal inside.

2015: The Year of Darkness and Lighthouses

The year is drawing to a close, and I'm certainly looking forward to a holiday from the day job as an English teacher. Perhaps, just perhaps, I'll even have an hour or two to get some writing done before the clocks herald the midnight hour on the 31st of December. Please join me as I look back on what I accomplished in 2015.

Australian Horror Writers' Association

This year, as vice-president of the AHWA, I wanted to carry out a project that would become part of the association's history. That vague idea soon grew clearer and I decided it was time for the AHWA to publish its first anthology of horror stories written by members. With an enthusiastic nod from my fellow committee members, In Sunshine Bright and Darkness Deep: An Anthology of Australian Horror was published in the lead-up to Halloween. It is now available for purchase in print or as an ebook.

I was also pleased, as the AHWA's competitions coordinator, to have organised the Flash Fiction and Short Story Competition, which was won by J. Ashley-Smith (short story) and Zoe Downing (flash fiction). Their winning entries will be published in the next issue of Midnight Echo, the magazine of the AHWA. The guidelines for the 2016 competition are available now and entries can be submitted as of the 1st of January.

Black Beacon Books

In 2013, I founded Black Beacon Books, one of just a handful of Australian small press publishers dedicated to horror, suspense, and mystery short fiction and novellas, and the only one currently active in Brisbane. This year, we published our second anthology, Lighthouses: An Anthology of Dark Tales, which features tales set in and around lighthouses by authors from around the world - but predominantly Australian. It was no mean feat publishing two anthologies in one year and making sure that both were of the highest quality in terms of content and design... but it happened!

Writing

Needless to say, with so much editing and marketing taking up what little free time I had, this year wasn't my most productive when it came to penning my own tales. All the same, I did manage to work on several short stories this year, and two of them have found homes. They are both strange and disturbing, and that's all I'll say...

The Crows of Eildon Hill

Blue Crow Magazine #4

Milk

The Literary Hatchet #13

Next Year

Can this momentum be kept up? Well, probably not, to be frank. That said, one of my resolutions is to find more time to work on my own writing, and I'm intent on making the AHWA Flash Fiction and Short Story Competition even more successful than it was this year. What about another anthology? Well, you've probably worked out that I'm hooked, so yeah, you can expect submissions guidelines to be announced early next year for the next Black Beacon Books anthology. After all, there is a wealth Australian writing talent out there but a lack of psychological horror and suspense markets these days.

So, stay tuned for 2016! 

Of Devils and Deviants

Crowded Quarantine Publications have just announced that "Of Devils & Deviants: An Anthology of Erotic Horror" is now available to pre-order from Barnes & Noble. It is available as a hardcover or paperback, the ebook will be available in late May. 

This stunning anthology features artwork throughout and stories from Graham Masterton, Lucy Taylor, Aaron J. French, Mandy DeGeit, J. Daniel Stone, Kenneth W. Cain, Taylor Grant, Maynard Sims, and many, many more. My contribution, "Lauren", is a tale about what happens when boy meets girl in one of Brisbane's grooviest cocktail bars, The Bowery. Where it goes from there, you can't possibly imagine... suffice to say, it's kinky and creepy.


Place your order today at:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/of-devils-and-deviants-adam-millard/1119120676
 

New Interview

My most recent interview is up now on Lindsey B. Goddard's website, Author Interview Corner. I really enjoyed answering this set of questions because several of them gave me cause to think about my writing in a way that I tend not to do of my own initiative.

If you are a fiction reviewer or interviewer and would like to read some of my work, just send me a message at ctrost(at)hotmail.com with "Review/Interview Request" in the subject line. 

The Helping Hand of Horror, Part 2

                            

My involvement in charity continues in October with the release of what is set to be the most exciting horror anthology of the year. 
 
FEAR: A Modern Anthology of Horror and Terror brings together, for the first time, tales of murder, monsters and madness, by sixty of the world’s best indie horror authors. Discover what lurks in the water at the end of the garden, learn of the unforgiving loyalty of a loving toy and meet a writer, just itching to finish his latest horror story. Every author in the anthology has generously contributed their work for free. All royalties from sales will go directly to the international charities, Barnardo’s and Médecins Sans Frontières. Fear, with forewords by international bestselling authors, Peter James and Sherri Browning Erwin, will be released in paperback and on Kindle, October 3rd 2012.
 
My weird horror tale "Old Mabel's Stray Cat" will be included in the first volume of the anthology and I am going to hold a giveaway of my short story collection "Hoffman's Creeper and Other Disturbing Tales" to coincide with the launch of FEAR. All you have to do to win an ecopy of my collection is buy a copy of the first volume of FEAR, read my story, and answer this simple question by contacting me at ctrost(at)hotmail.com with the subject "Old Mabel's Stray Cat" and telling me what format your ereader accepts:  
What name does Old Mabel give to the stray cat?
 
I will give a free copy to the first ten readers to answer the question correctly!  

Click here to visit the FEAR Facebook page.