Publication

Spirit Machine has been announced!

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Hello, wonderful creatures!

I am so proud to finally be able to share this news. I’ve been holding it tight for a little while now and it makes me giddy every time I think about it.

My short story “Girl in Glass, Brightly” is to be published in Air and Nothingness Press‘ spooky, exciting 2022 anthology Spirit Machine: Tales of Séance Fiction.

Name a better genre—you can’t, there isn’t one.

“Girl in Glass, Brightly” will appear alongside thirteen other steampunk-esque stories of séance fiction—though I have affectionately dubbed my own ‘glasspunk’—and fourteen works of science fiction.

I am so thrilled to be sharing a contents list again with In Somnio author, Lin Darrow, whose stories always have the most excellent titles.

Air and Nothingness Press is one to look out for—they always have the most wonderful submission calls, and the book design and production is stunning. I cannot wait to get my hands on a copy of Spirit Machine.

In Somnio Author Spotlight & Kickstarter Launch

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Hello again, my feathered friends.

I was recently asked to do a little interview with editor Alex Woodroe to celebrate the soon-to-be launch of the IN SOMNIO Kickstarter, which goes live tomorrow! Eek! You can follow it here.

In the interview, I get nerdy about the theatre, tell a slightly embarrassing story about my childhood want of a dog and generally ramble happily about publishing.

Click here to read the interview on the Tenebrous Press website.

But wait, there’s more! I was also asked to record a reading from my story, “Ghost Light”, and I might have gotten a little carried away. If you want to check out the interview first, you can find the reading over there too, but if you just can’t wait…

In Somnio, Modern Gothic Horror Anthology Announced!

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Hello, you beautiful creatures. It’s been a while!

Things have been quiet on the publication front but I’ve been madly writing for Camp NaNo for the last few weeks and am twelve thousand words deep into a new project—I am on a roll and I am very excited about it.

However, that is not what this post is about. This post is about In Somnio, an exciting anthology which is launching on Kickstarter very soon and features a story by yours truly. It’s may be my favourite thing I have ever written and I can’t wait to see it in print—it is my ode to theatre and the sea.

From the announcement post of the brilliant Alex Woodroe, who has been charged with editing this beautiful beastie:

Tenebrous Press returns with its next highly anticipated Horror anthology, IN SOMNIO: A Collection of Modern Gothic Horror!

In the hands of Mary Shelley, Daphne Du Maurier and Shirley Jackson, Gothic Horror often explored the bleak shadows of our very homes and the darkest corners of the human mind. It examined themes of madness, personal transformation, phantoms, and the occult.

Drawing inspiration from these original Gothmothers, IN SOMNIO takes those familiar themes and recasts them in a modern light!

This collection features nineteen vibrant, unique stories ranging from deeply intimate one-room settings to sprawling fantasy worlds; from the depths of darkness to comedy and adventure. Each story brings a new perspective on our inherent love of Gothic Horror and what those vital elements of terror still have to say today!

—Alex Woodroe

For the teeniest, tiniest preview of my Phantom of the Opera x Waterworld crossbreed:

I can’t wait for you to meet Madrigal and Allegra in all of their glory. If you like gothic horror, the theatre and the sea, you might love this story.

Please consider backing this collection on Kickstarter

This anthology is going to be something really special, packed with a host of wonderful stories and (hopefully) lots of fabulous illustrations. I’m so excited for you to hold it in your hands, and beneath your ribcage.

A Gift, a Witch and a Wakening of Honey in Hexagon

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I would be lying if I said I wasn’t really excited about this one. I’ve been keeping track of Hexagon since it’s first issue, which became a home for “Cold Storage” by my good friend and phenomenal writer, Nicholas C. Smith; imagine my excitement when its second issue hit my screen including a story by friend, and Walled Women issue-mate and Apparition Lit flash challenge companion, Taylor Rae—“Benjamin Buckley’s Impossible Menagerie” is a wonder.

Now, I’m so proud to have my own story in issue 4!

“A Gift, a Wish and a Wakening of Honey” is a cosy little story about a witch and a hive of troubled bees, and it might be my favourite of all of my published pieces. (If anyone asks, you didn’t hear it from me.)

You can read it here, and I hope you love it as much as I do!

If you liked the issue, and feel so inclined, please do give it a quick review on goodreads.

Such a Shame published in Walled Women

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Today sees the release of Walled Women‘s first issue. When I first wrote “Such a Shame”, I had no idea what to do with it. The opening sentence had haunted me for a while and when I finished writing I was fully prepared for it to be something that just sat in my writing folder.

Then the wonderful Taylor Rae—whose poem “A Little Death” also appears in the issue—shared the submission call for Walled Women and it seemed a little bit like fate for my dark, little flash fic.

You can read “Such a Shame” here.

content warning: implied physical/sexual violence

Conferring with Ghosts… in Underland Arcana

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I have been waiting for a long time to write this post. If you follow me on twitter, or the twitter account of Crow & Cross Keys, you may know how much I love long titles. They can be book titles, the titles of songs or poetry, short stories or anything else that can have a title. I will gobble them all up and love every second of it.

Now, I can finally share one of my own long-titled short stories!

“Conferring With Ghosts Between the Hours of Three and Four Forty-Five in the Morning” is a strange little story about a girl and some ghosts. It was a challenge to write and I’m really proud of it.

I really hope you enjoy it!

You can read it here.

Do check out the rest of the stories in issue one—one of my issue-mates is actually a wonderful friend of mine, and her story, “Vieux Carré”, is excellent. Highly recommend.

Cover image by George Cotronis

Like Shedding Skin published in Emerge Literary Journal

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I’ve been sitting on this one for a long time. I can’t quite remember when I submitted it but I’ve been wanting to blog about it ever since I received the acceptance. I could have, but I like to share a link if I can so here we are; there is a link at the end of the post.

I love Emerge, the work they share is always fab and I am proud to now be counted among their number. If you have any work that leans towards literary, I would highly recommend submitting. The Emerge team often do blitzes, wherein they respond to submissions within 24 hours! I just missed a blitz with my submission but even in their usual submission window, the response was speedy.

“Like Shedding Skin” is a little piece of flash fiction that is and isn’t about a broken teapot.

I really hope you enjoy it.

You can read “Like Shedding Skin” here.

Shattered Moon, Hungry Sea on Apparition Lit

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Earlier this month, I entered Apparition Literary Magazine’s November Flash Fiction Challenge, for which writer’s are challenged to create flash fiction based on a certain image, and I am delighted to announce that I won!

My story “Shattered Moon, Hungry Sea” went live today. It’s a speculative fairy tale about a mother, a daughter, the moon and the sea.

I really love this story, and I hope you enjoy it!

You can read it here.

The Boat and the Boy published on 101 Words

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Hello, hello. It’s been a little while and this update may well be longer than the story itself! A little while ago, I wrote a teeny, tiny story—a one-hundred-and-one word story, to be precise.

Today, that story went live on 101 Words! I’m so pleased. I adore tiny stories so having my own published is particularly lovely.

Click here to read!

In other news, Crow & Cross Keys is now live and packed with beautiful stories and poetry. I’d love it if you could check it out!

Every week, I share the words of two brilliant contributors. If you like your words a little dark and a little strange and a little lovely, you’re going to love CCK.

:)

The Art of Doing Nothing in Aloe

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In May, I wrote a couple of poems about the gut-punch anxiety I was feeling during lockdown. I wasn’t sure if there was anything I could do with them, I’d pretty much resigned them to a folder on my harddrive. Then I found Aloe.

Aloe is a collection of new writing from the UK and Ireland produced under lockdown and I’m so pleased one of my poems, “The Art of Doing Nothing”, has found a home there.

If you would like to give it a read, you can download a free copy or purchase the print edition (with all profit being donated in support of UK and Irish healthcare workers) on the Aloe website.

Aloe imagery by Samuel Best