After over 10 years of work it is finally LAUNCH DAY for my debut novel, Mime. To celebrate the launch, I’m running a giveaway to win a signed copy of the book, plus extra goodies! I’ll be doing a live stream on Facebook tonight at 6pm. I hope you’ll join | Read more…
Oily and bitter, the lingering odour of burnt flesh lodged in the back of Elliot’s throat. If he hadn’t known where the smell came from, he might not have thought anything of it.
Fifteen minutes had passed since the first reports had hit social media. Ten minutes since “spontaneous combustion” had started trending and flagged up on Elliot’s searches. Mostly third-hand accounts, but he’d found enough supposed eyewitnesses to convince him it was worth investigating.
Seven minutes since he’d left the Weird News office to drive down Whiteladies Road and across the city centre to the scene. Now, as he approached the waterside edge of Castle Park, that hint of charred human on the breeze made the whole situation more real. He pressed his lips together, swallowed, and headed closer.
A couple of patrol cars were parked on the roadside, alongside a grey Ford Mondeo he suspected was an unmarked police vehicle from the radio equipment visible on the dashboard. Rows of curious people gathered behind railings strung with blue-and-white striped tape. Some held phones above their heads like digital periscopes, trying to glimpse the focus of all the activity before the daylight faded. People loved a morbid circus.
Elliot pushed closer to the front. | Read more…
My (long) short story Gravewatcher appears in the newly released Tales from The Graveyard from North Bristol Writers. Here’s a sample from the opening. Carina watched from the cemetery gate. Her new arrival tried to shove the gardener’s shoulder, passed straight through, and stumbled to his knees. Those who died | Read more…
The front door towered over me, a solid slab of studded oak. No one needed a door that big. It was a way to mess with the minds of people stood on the threshold. So too the braided rope which hung beside it and mysteriously disappeared into a hole in | Read more…
“Mummy, I picked some berries.” She kept her eyes glued to her phone screen as she tapped out a message. “That’s nice. Make sure you share them with your sister.” “Okay.” When she found them later, their lips and fingers stained deep purple, eyes glazed, she would think, what message? | Read more…
“I can’t die.” Even before I say it I know you’ll never believe me, but it’s true. “I can prove it.” I turn the knife over in my hand and watch your eyes slant towards the door behind me. You know you can’t get past me, which is why you | Read more…
An adventure full of the stuff nightmares are made of. Infamous Reign fills in another chapter from the past of Nathaniel Garrett, hero of McHugh’s Hellequin Chronicles which so far include novels Crimes against Magic and Born of Hatred. While the novels are principally set in the present day, the | Read more…