Tuesday, 26 March 2019

HUGE EBOOK ... REALLY HUGE SPECIAL OFFER!

I've collected the first 5 full-length novels in my Raine's Landing fantasy series into one enormous Kindle eBook. And it's now available from Amazon at a Very Special Price.


Tuesday, 5 February 2019

BACK TO PAPERBACK















I've been self-publishing my own eBooks -- both on Kindle and from other outlets -- for a good few years. But now that Amazon have made the whole process considerably easier, I've started bringing out a few more novels and short story collections as paperbacks as well.

Some of my novels were already in that form ... the 6 books in my Raine's Landing supernatural series, for instance, two of which are pictured above. The same was true of my Californian detective thriller The Tribe.




And of my non-fiction handbook How To Improve Your Writing: The Art of Creating Professional Fiction.



But it used to take a fair amount of effort  to bring these books out. Now that Amazon have speeded up and simplified the work involved, I've started producing p/b editions of some of my other work, with plenty more to follow. Already out is Under The Ice, my Scandinavian-based chiller.



And there is also my collection Classic Pan and Fontana Horror, which has been so popular as an eBook in the UK.



Soon to come in paperback will be my first detective thriller, The Desert Keeps Its Dead, my near-future mystery novel The Electric Shaman, and my modern-day ghost novel Postcards From Terri.

And that's just for starters. As they say -- whoever they are -- watch this space.

Monday, 21 January 2019

FREE CHILLER, SCANDI-STYLE



My short novel Under The Ice -- a supernatural chiller set in Scandinavia -- has been through a good number of incarnations in the 14 years it's been around. It first appeared as part of my 2005 collection Ghost Dance from small publisher Sarob Press. A few years after that, I published it on Kindle, where it started doing rather well.

Then US-based Samhain Publishing picked it up, bringing out both an eBook and a paperback version. It got some serious critical praise that way, with the Horror Novel Reviews website praising it hugely and voting it one of the Top 10 novels of 2013. But Samhain dropped their horror list after a couple of years.

And so now Under the Ice is back on Kindle, and is as good a piece of fiction as it ever was. And as a special bonus to my readers, I am offering it free this week.

There's a paperback version of the book as well, in case Kindles are not your thing. I might even sign it for you when we meet .

Tuesday, 5 September 2017

THE TRIBE -- A CALIFORNIAN CRIME THRILLER

It's been a long while coming, but my second full-blown crime novel (no supernatural events, no magic) is now out.

My detective Matt Barrett first appeared in 2014 in the short novel The Desert Keeps Its Dead. And he's one of the favorite characters that I've invented, a former FBI agent who quit the Bureau after a dispute and now works as a private operative ... sometimes operating right outside the law when he can see no other choice.

And now he's back in this much longer thriller, courtesy of CD Publications and my new editor Norman Prentiss. The location this time is the central Californian town of Los Acantilados, an apparently pleasant coastal town (los acantilados means 'the cliffs') with a good number of wealthy residents. But -- as with Desert -- all is not precisely as it seems. There is a lot of ugliness and criminality hovering beneath the surface. Including murder, yes, and some crimes even worse.

Here is the back-cover blurb:

It couldn’t sound like a simpler job. Young Lacey Morganstern has fallen in with a bad crowd of spoiled, unruly rich kids and her mother wants her back.

But as Matt Barrett finds out more about the teenagers who call themselves “the Tribe,” the whole case starts to take on darker layers. Why the secret rendezvous at night? What are privileged kids doing hanging out with violent gangs? And then there is the matter of the Orange Grove Ranch, just outside the wealthy town of Los Acantilados.

A deadly game is being played where human lives don’t count for very much. And it isn’t too much longer before Matt is fighting for his own.

THE TRIBE is available on Amazon Kindle.

Also on B&N Nook.

And if you'd rather read the paperback, then here's the link to use.

Tuesday, 2 May 2017

MY FANTASY SERIES IS ON SPECIAL OFFER



There were REAL WITCHES in Salem back three hundred years ago. They fled from there before the Witchcraft Trials of 1692, moving to a lesser-known community … Raine’s Landing, Massachusetts. And that town has been filled with magic – both the good kind and the bad kind – ever since.
That's the premise for my Raine's Landing series of fantasy thrillers. And now 5 of the 6 novels (DARK RAIN, MIDNIGHT'S ANGELS, DEADLY VIOLET, SPEAK OF THE DEVIL and WITCH HUNTER) are on special offer at minimum price on Kindle ... that's 99p in the UK, about $1.28 in the States.
You can also pick 3 of the novels up on Nook, Kobo etc. for around the same price, with the other 2 due in those formats in the next couple of weeks.

You can view the Raine's Landing series on Kindle HERE.  
On B&N Nook HERE
On Kobo HERE.
And on Smashwords HERE.




Saturday, 15 October 2016

WHERE DO I GET MY IDEAS FROM? PLACES LIKE JAPAN, ACTUALLY.



I'm mostly known for writing scary supernatural stuff and -- these days -- tough, hard-bitten crime novels as well. But, as Jack Bristow said in the TV show Alias, 'no person is just one thing.' Which means that I'll occasionally come out with a much gentler supernatural tale than is my norm. One of them is free on Amazon this weekend, and it's a story that has its own story behind it.
I'd already visited Japan once before, the main island of Honshu, starting at Yokohama, and then taking in Tokyo, Kyoto, and a lot of points in between, Mount Fuji included. And I'd already written stories set in those locations.
But back in 2005, the opportunity arose to visit Kyushu, Japan's southernmost island. And it turned out to be a completely different deal from its far bigger sister. Tropical, quite like Hawaii, with palm trees and golden beaches. Extremely volcanic too, with geysers and fantastical pumice sculptures along some shorelines where flowing lava had hit the ocean and had formed weird outlines as the water cooled it. But Kyushu is also the historic and spiritual home of the Shinto religion, the place where the Japanese gods are supposed to have settled when they came down to our world, and so the place is full of the most fascinating shrines and temples too, some of them in striking locations. On beaches, next to waterfalls, even in a cave beside the sea. What inspiration for a writer of imaginative fiction! By the time my ten day trip was over, I already had a story set there burning a big hole inside me.
It was a grueling journey back, 22 hours, involving three planes and a long connecting coach trip. Once home -- naturally -- I collapsed into bed. But I only stayed there for about three hours. Hauled myself up, fixed myself a cup of coffee, went straight to my laptop and started work on 'HANAKO FROM MIYAZAKI.' I completed it in just two days. It first appeared in CD magazine the following year, but now it is available as an eBook, along with several other of my gentler and more wistful tales. So ... where do I get my ideas from? Now you know.


Monday, 1 August 2016

ALL THE RAINE'S LANDING NOVELS ARE NOW AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK

E-books are wonderful things, and I've been publishing my own -- both new fiction and reprints -- for a good few years now. But a lot of people still prefer a paperback, the feel of it, the solidity of it. And the sad fact is that when it comes to my Raine's Landing supernatural thrillers, there've been no hard copy versions of the last three novels. They have only been available to readers digitally.

Until now.

I'm very pleased to be able to announce that I have finally put that right, and there is now a fine-looking trade paperback of every last Raine's Landing novel save the second one. Let's deal firstly with the three books that are having their first outing in this style.


DEADLY VIOLET sees a beggar girl getting hold of an extremely powerful magic jewel. When she begins using it, the boundaries of reality begin to crumble and break down. Ross and Cassie and the rest are suddenly confronted with bizarre monsters roaming the streets ... and that's just for starters. As the fabric of existence continues to come apart, everything becomes considerably more frightening . And the only way to stop it is for Ross and Cass to set off on the strangest journey of their lives.


In SPEAK OF THE DEVIL, the town's major adepts start being attacked  by mysterious cloaked, hooded men. And when Ross and Cass investigate, they begin to uncover the horrifying truth. It's people from inside the town who are responsible for this ... some of Raine's Landing's own citizens have turned  to Devil-worship. They plan to deliver the whole of the Landing over to the forces of Hell. And to ensure this happens, demons have already arrived in the town, disguised as human beings.


And in WITCH HUNTER, the sixth and latest in the series, an old-time witch from back before the time the Salem witches came returns to life and re-visits Raine's Landing, bringing her own lethal brand of magic with her. But that's not the biggest problem Ross and Cassie have to face. The man who killed that witch is also back, and he's considerably more powerful than her, since he is in the service of a very ancient being whose one desire is to destroy the Universe itself.

As for the first Raine's Landing novel -- DARK RAIN -- and the third -- MIDNIGHT'S ANGELS -- there have been paperback versions of both titles  in the past, but they are now also available in this  smart new format.

There's a link to the page for all five novels here.