Last year, one of my favorite presses for weird and strange literature, Egaeus Press, published a book of haunted house stories, Crooked Houses, that included my story "Miasmata." But the print run sold out within a week, so if you didn't act fast, it was gone! Now I'm happy to be able to announce that … Continue reading Crooked Houses: Second Printing

The new Black Static is out! Issue #77 contains my column "Notes From the Borderland," this time focusing on Christmas ghost stories. There is fiction by Philip Fracassi, Steve Rasnic Tem, Françoise Harvey, David Martin, Shannon K. Gaerity, and Eric Schaller. Cover art is Ben Baldwin; Joachim Luetke also illustrates a story. Other columns are by Ralph … Continue reading Black Static #77 is out

I am surprised and pleased to announce that I have been nominated for a British Fantasy Award in the nonfiction category for the column I write for Black Static, "Notes from the Borderland." This is only the second award nomination for my writing I've ever received--in 2016 I was nominated for and won the 2015 … Continue reading British Fantasy Award nomination

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAPi24uvt5M&feature=youtu.be A couple of weeks ago, I participated in an author's panel on Zoom moderated by Kate Jonez of the publishing company Omnium Gatherum. Unlike many people, I have been slow to warm up to Zoom in These Pandemic Times, but I really enjoyed chatting with my fellow authors Simon Bestwick, Tom Johnstone, and Mark … Continue reading My weird dark shadow and a new short story

Just a quick note to say that Black Static #76, the September/October issue, is out now, and includes my column "Notes From the Borderland." It's a bit of an odd one as I wrote it in the late spring for the summer issue but that issue got pushed ahead and it is very much about … Continue reading Black Static #76 out now

I'm delighted to report that the Sept/Oct edition of the magazine Rue Morgue (on newsstands September 1) features an article on the anthology Crooked Houses by Dejan Ognjanovic. It's a terrific little piece that includes remarks from editor Mark Beech and writer Reggie Oliver as well as writer Steve Duffy and me talking about the origins of … Continue reading CROOKED HOUSES featured in RUE MORGUE magazine

As you may know, Dublin's Swan River Press publishes an unthemed anthology of strange and unsettling fiction known as the Uncertainties series, and I had the pleasure of editing volume 3. The talented Timothy Jarvis was the editor of Uncertainties 4, and after many delays, pandemic-related and otherwise, Tim and I sat down, virtually speaking, and … Continue reading a chat with Timothy J. Jarvis for Swan River Press

Wherever humans go, there we are. We talk a lot about how online has changed us, fractured our attention spans, made us more vicious, more judgmental, (more connected? hmmmm), more more more everything, but it's that "more more more" that's the key. I do think we are changing but there's nothing fundamentally new about how we … Continue reading on all the things you don’t have to do

Hey! I mentioned a few posts ago that Egaeus Press would be publishing another of their beautiful books, Crooked Houses, this one containing my story "Miasmata." Now, the book is available for pre-order, to be released later this month. We were asked to contribute stories to this book about hauntings, but not the kind that could … Continue reading CROOKED HOUSES is available for pre-order!

What matters: seagulls (screaming kiss her, kiss her, kiss her, kiss her as XTC sang) soaring on an updraft of warm air; the cold North Sea curling round your ankles; your first time in a used bookstore post-pandemic-lockdown, the rows and rows of battered pre-loved or never-loved volumes, the wood shelves and creaky floors and … Continue reading things that matter and things that don’t