'Self Expression' in STRANGER from Sans. Press

 Really excited by this one: my story, 'Self Expression' is out now in the wonderful looking STRANGER anthology from Sans. Press:

"Between doppelgängers and shape-shifters, magical healers and clever tricksters, you should trust no one – including yourself!

In the #7 Sans. PRESS anthology, 15 writers try to find answers to how we can truly know each other; on the way, they find psychedelic worms, supernatural roommates, new dimensions and the deeply rooted question of how to know even ourselves. With stories by: Scott Beggs, Phil Cummins, Corinne Engber, James Everington, David Hartley, Tim Jeffreys, LL Garland, Lauren Mulvihill, Lily Nobel, Elaine O′Connor, Elin Olausson, Diana Powell, Shalini Srinivasan, Claire Watson and Rebecca Weinert. This edition is digitally signed by the writers!"

 

The book is available in hardback, paperback, and ebook formats - and as you can see from the image, it looks magnificent. All links to buy here. 

Reflections

A new small bit of flash-fiction from me published today: 'Reflections' appears in the latest issue of The Sirens Call. You can download it (for free) and have a gander here.

For Tomorrow

I'm sure we all remember where we were when we heard the news about Wellbrook High; I know I do, much as I might want to forget some of the images from the TV news that night.

Now, over 30 years later, Dan Coxon has put together an anthology of stories about what happened after.

My story, 'Comments On This Video Have Been Disabled' is one of them, and I'm very proud of it, and that its alongside pieces from many other fine writers. But, given the situation, this isn't one I'll boast about too much; that doesn't feel proper. 

“We all live in the shadow of Wellbrook High – it’s been called the tragedy that defined a generation… That’s why this book feels so important, and so long overdue – as we go back to Wellbrook, and pay witness to those who had the courage and the strength and, yes, the simple luck to pull through. A timely work, and an urgent one.”
—Robert Shearman

You can pre-order For Tomorrow from Black Shuck Books here. 

Also features stories by C.C. Adams, Charlotte Bond, Phil Sloman, Lucie McKnight Hardy, Malcolm Devlin & Helen Marshall, Verity Holloway, Ray Cluley, Polis Loizou, Ashley Stokes, Daniel Carpenter & Penny Jones.

#wewillremember93

Favourite Short Stories 2023

Another year done, another of my annual favourite short stories of the year posts. Same 'rules' as before (you can find links to lists from previous years here). For each story, I've linked to the publication where I read the story, which isn't always where they were first published.

Ruth Barber: Unfinished Business (Uncertainties 6, Swan River Press)

James Bennett: The Changing Dust (The Dark #99)

Simon Bestwick: And Ashes In Her Hair (Something Remains, Alchemy Press)

Méabh de Brún: This House Is Haunted (Irish Independent)

Méabh de Brún: Consumed As In Obsessed (Uncertainties 6, Swan River Press)

Ramsey Campbell: The Render Of The Veils (The Inhabitant Of The Lake & Other Unwelcome Tenants, Drugstore Indian Press)

Ramsey Campbell: The Plain Of Sound (The Inhabitant Of The Lake & Other Unwelcome Tenants, Drugstore Indian Press)

Truman Capote: A Diamond Guitar (Breakfast At Tiffany's & Three Stories, Penguin)

Ray Cluley: Sideways (All That's Lost, Black Shuck Books)

Ray Cluley: The Final Girl's Daughter (All That's Lost, Black Shuck Books)

Dan Coxon: Far From Home (Nox Pareidolia, Nightscape Press) 

Libby Cudmore: The Rituals Of Bathing (The Dark #99)

Kayleigh Dobbs: The Last Word (The Perfectly Fine Neighbourhood, French Press)

S.L. Edwards: In The Vastness Of The Sovereign Sky (Nox Pareidolia, Nightscape Press) 

Brian Evenson: The Room Above (Nox Pareidolia, Nightscape Press) 

Kurt Fawver: Merge Now (Nox Pareidolia, Nightscape Press) 

Neil Gaiman: Goliath (Fragile Things, Headline Review)

Neil Gaiman: How To Talk To Girls At Parties (Fragile Things, Headline Review)

Neil Gaiman: Pages From A Journal Found In A Shoebox Left In A Greyhound Bus Somewhere Between Tulsa, Oklahoma & Louisville, Kentucky (Fragile Things, Headline Review)

J.L. George: Water, Word, Flesh (Kaleidotrope)

William Gibson: New Rose Hotel (Burning Chrome, Gateway)

William Gibson: Johnny Mnemonic (Burning Chrome, Gateway)

William Gibson: The Winter Market (Burning Chrome, Gateway)

Adam Golaski: (Rabbit) (Strange Little Stories Newsletter, David Surface)

LC von Hessen: Herr Scheintod (Nox Pareidolia, Nightscape Press)

Timothy J. Jarvis: We Recognise Our Own (Treatises On Dust, Swan River Press)

Timothy J. Jarvis: And Yet Speaketh (Treatises On Dust, Swan River Press)

Timothy J. Jarvis: The Yellow Book (Treatises On Dust, Swan River Press)

Brian Keene: Where The Heart Is (The Perfectly Fine Neighbourhood, French Press)

Micheal Kelly: The Devils Curve (IZ Digital)

Garry Kilworth: Fata Morgana (Bloodmoon & Other Stories, Infinity Plus)

Gwendolyn Kiste: When The Nightingale Devours The Stars (Nox Pareidolia, Nightscape Press) 

Annie Knox: Incorporeal Tax (The Perfectly Fine Neighbourhood, French Press)

Thomas Ligotti: Les Fleurs (Songs Of A Dead Dreamer, Penguin)

Thomas Ligotti: The Greater Festival Of Masks (Songs Of A Dead Dreamer, Penguin)

J.A.W. McCarthy: No Baggage (Hungry Shadow Press)

Gary McMahon: Broken Eye (Something Remains, Alchemy Press)

Avra Margariti: Pulmonary (The Rumpus)

Alison Moore: Where Are They Now? (Uncertainties 6, Swan River Press)

Thana Niveau: Bad Faith (Something Remains, Alchemy Press)

Joyce Carol Oates: Mr. Stickum, (Playboy)

Joyce Carol Oates: Sign Of The Beast (Night-Gaunts & Other Tales Of Suspense, Head Of Zeus) 

Joyce Carol Oates: Night Gaunts (Night-Gaunts & Other Tales Of Suspense, Head Of Zeus) 

Kate Orman: Saltier (IZ Digital)

Jorja Osha: The Fish's Wife (The Dark #103)

John Llewellyn Probert: The Missing (Something Remains, Alchemy Press)

Sarah Royston: She Walks In Fields Of Light (The Rumpus)

Sarah Royston: In the Shrine there stood a Statue with a Stone set in its Foot, which was called Lady of the Spring (Full House Literary)

 Lynda E. Rucker: Knots (Now It's Dark, Swan River Press)

Lynda E. Rucker: The Vestige (Now It's Dark, Swan River Press)

Lynda E. Rucker: The Unknown Chamber (Now It's Dark, Swan River Press)

Robert Shearman: Jason Zerrilo Is An Annoying Prick (We All Hear Stories In The Dark, PS Publishing)

Robert Shearman: The Censor's Report (We All Hear Stories In The Dark, PS Publishing)

Robert Shearman: The Beast At World's End (We All Hear Stories In The Dark, PS Publishing)

Alan Sillitoe: Noah's Ark (The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner, Harper Perennial)

Alan Sillitoe: Uncle Ernest (The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner, Harper Perennial)

Teika Marija Smits: The November Room Or Leaving The Labyrinth (IZ Digital)

David Surface: Strange Little Story #22 (author's newsletter)

Steve Toase:: Uprooted (IZ Digital)

Steve Toase: Safe (author's website)

Lisa Tuttle: Closet Dreams (Pseudopod)

Peter Watts: The Things (Clarkesworld #40)

Michael Wehunt: Hello (Nox Pareidolia, Nightscape Press) 

Michael Wehunt: It Takes Slow Sips (Pseudopod)

Neil Williamson: A Moment Of Zugzwang (author's website)

Neil Williamson: Thirty-Two Tumbling Teeth (Black Static 78/79)

"The Sinister Horror Company"

Some years back, while leading up to Trying To Be So Quiet being published by The Sinister Horror Company, I for some reason wrote a story called 'The Sinister Horror Company'. It was a small piece with a tone different to most of what I write, and it was about, well, a sinister horror company taking over the world... 

It's been homeless since then, not really fitting anywhere, but with the recent sad news that the real Sinister Horror Company is winding up shop, I'm pleased to say that this fictional* 'Sinister Horror Company' has now been published over at the brilliant yet sinister HAPPY GOAT HORROR run by the also brilliant/sinister Kayleigh Dobbs. Anyway, here it is.

* honest, fictional. **









** THEY MADE ME SAY THAT

Darkest Nights

Pleased to say I'll be be taking part in Darkest Nights writing school, running one of the online sessions along with some fantastic authors, as you can see below:

Details & tickets here

 

'The Switch' to appear in Uncertainties 6

I'm pleased as punch to say my story 'The Switch' is to be appear in the forthcoming anthology Uncertainties 6 from the mighty Swan River Press.

“Ghost stories,” as Elizabeth Bowen observed, “are not easy to write—least easy now, for they involve more than they did.” But these eleven writers take up the challenge, each in their own way, with expert awareness of the genre’s limitless possibilities.

Uncertainties is an anthology series—featuring authors from Ireland, France, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom—each exploring the concept of increasingly fragmented senses of reality. These types of short stories were termed “strange tales” by Robert Aickman, called “tales of the unexpected” by Roald Dahl, and known to Shakespeare’s ill-fated Prince Mamillius as “winter’s tales”. But these are no mere ghost stories. These tales of the uncanny grapple with existential epiphanies of the modern day, when otherwise familiar landscapes become sinister and something decidedly less than certain . . .

Readers of my fiction, or of this blog in general, will no doubt recognise why this chimes with me so, and why I'm excited to have a story in this latest volume, alongside some absolutely fantastic authors. 

You should never trust a writer's own opinion of their work, but I've always considered 'The Switch' to be a very me story, a very Everington story. A writer friend who read a draft of it said "only send this one to the best places" and, with Uncertainties 6, I certainly obeyed.

You can read more about the anthology and pre-ordered it here.