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.