Holburn

 

Very happy to report that my novella, Holburn, was published by Manta Press on August 9th 2022.

The book is now available from Amazon.

A huge thank you to Tim McWhorter, and the rest of the team at Manta for accepting this story and putting it out into the world.

Here are a few nice things people are saying about the book:

"A layered mystery wrapped in paranormal intrigue that will have you racing to the end!" - Steve Stred, Splatterpunk-nominated author of 'Sacrament' and 'Mastodon.' 

“Holburn is a gripping tale of love, loss and the irresistible force of family ties.  Tim Jeffreys has created a headlong rush of a story, gripping the reader and not letting go until the final page.  An addictively readable combination of horror, the supernatural and the relentless pull of one’s own flesh and blood.  Join Gael Drake in the breathless search for his missing sister Ava, despite the apparitions she has raised.  Holburn Academy is a secluded girls’ school haunted by a mysterious death, ghostly spectres and a sudden disappearance.” - Martin Cosby, author of 'The Trains Don't Stop Here and Other Stories.

“Finally, a modern ghost story done right! One of the creepiest, most unsettling books I’ve read in a long while.” Tony Evans, author of Sour and Wicked Appalachia

 “Jeffreys’ HOLBURN is a chilling novella filled with academy intrigue, haunted corridors, teen angst galore, and vengeful ghosts around every corner. Moody and with great, deeply flawed characters, this Gothic tale will keep you up all night waiting to see what manifests in the end.” - Gaby Triana, author of Moon Child and the Haunted Florida series, and editor of Literally Dead: Tales of Halloween Hauntings.

 

The Voice of Savages Wood

My story about a nature artist who unwittingly breaks the veil between this world and the next, The Voice of Savages Wood, has now been published in Wild Horses Magazine No.3.  I'm doubly-pleased to see that this issue also features a story by Robert Pope.

Worth buying for the cover alone!

My thanks to editor Wayne Kyle Spitzer (who's own story 'Clouds' also appears in this issue) for accepting this story.

Myerscough and Skelton podcast on Tales to Terrify

 My flash fiction 'Myerscough and Skelton' is featured on Episode 527 of Tales to Terrify as read by Alexandra Elroy.  You can listen to the episode here.  

Generation X-ed

 

2021 - My Year in Books

Weird year, huh?  Even weirder than the previous one in my opinion.  A year when I was determined to get my head down and do some serious writing, making up for all the lost writing time in 2020, which is exactly what I did.  I wrote a good number of short stories, finished a novella, and started work on a novel which is about half-way done.  Not too shabby.  I also saw some of my stories printed in a batch of quality publications, and had a new collection put out by Insomnia & Obsession Books.

First up was one off the bucket list.  I'd always wanted to have one of my stories appear in Supernatural Tales and back in March my 'man-possessed-by-creepy-costume-head' story Here Comes Mr Herribone! appeared in issue #46.

My flash fiction about sinister money collectors, Myerscough and Skelton, appeared online in Blood Knife.  An audio version of this story is also due to be podcast on Tales to Terrify in early 2022.

I was glad to get Grace and the Grey Angel finally let loose on the public when it was published in the Jolly Horror love-gone-wrong anthology, Fornever After.

Two of my stories were published by the good folk at Granfalloon.  First, a story of murder, chess and the universe called Castling.  Next was In Strangers' Gardens, a warning about the direction social media could go in the future.

The Daughters, a folk horror set in Cornwall appeared in The Alchemy Press Book of Horrors 3, and Heir Apparent, a tale of a young man who uncovers a horrible family secret when taking over his father's business empire, was published in Stories We Tell After Midnight Vol.3.  Two anthologies in which I'm especially proud to appear.

Insomia & Obsession Books put out a kind of 'best-of' collection of my previously published stories called Autumn Country in October.  The stories for this collection were chosen by the writer Robert Pope, who also wrote an introduction.  A huge thank you to Robert for gifting me this book!

Of all the books I've read this year, the one that I'm going to recommend is The Smoke House by Matthew G Rees.  The Smoke House is a collection of beautifully written strange tales.  After reading so many disappointing weird fiction collections over the past few years, it was a treat to uncover a writer who could be a genuine heir to Robert Aickman, Flannery O'Connor, or Shirley Jackson.

Here's a pic from back in August when Martin Greaves and I went for a stroll over Saddleworth Moor, ostensibly so I could do some research for the novel I'm writing, but actually to catch up after not having seen each other in the flesh, as it were, for about 8 years.

The Daughters

The Alchemy Press Book of Horrors 3: A Miscellany of Monsters will be released in time for Halloween, and I'm very happy to say that I'm included in the stellar line up of authors within.  My story, The Daughters, concerns a determined wife and a stroppy teenager going up against some mythological beasts.  And if that hasn't sold it to you, well...

This is my second outing with The Alchemy Press (my story Black Nore appeared in Horrors 2).  Thanks to editors Peter Coleborn and Jan Edwards for including me once again - a real honour!

Castling

"After the guards departed, Bryan hugged his son.  He knew at once, from the way Nicholas’s gaze searched his face, that this was the day.  Questions were coming.  What he didn’t know was how he was going to answer those questions in a satisfactory way."

Read my flash fiction 'Castling' for free on Granfalloon.