"At his best Jeffreys writes memorable, perturbating prose with an overwhelming sense of menace. The stories stay with the reader, touching something in the psyche that is both troubling and intriguing." Bristol Review of Books.
Another of my stories, The Silence of the Heart, has been featured on Kristen Holland's Nocturnal Transmissions.
As with my previously featured story, Here Comes Mister Herribone!, Kristin did an excellent job narrating The Silence of the Heart. You can listen for yourself here.
The story is linked to my novel, The False Ones, and was first published in The Ghastling #18. It also appears in my collection The Hollow Hills and other Strange Tales.
.jpg)
This anthology, part of the Creature Feature Classics series from Snake Bite Books, includes my story Old Clawhand.
My thanks to editor Annie Knox for selecting my story for inclusion.
I'm greatly honoured to have had my story 'Here Comes Mr Herribone!' featured on Kristin Holland's Nocturnal Transmissions podcast. Kristin did a wonderful job narrating the story. Even though it's my story I found it a genuinely terrifying listen!
Click here to listen to the episode.
For anyone who enjoyed listening to this story, I'd like to give a quick reminder that I since expanded it into a novella, which is available from Dark Lane Books.
To find out more about this anthology, go here.
.jpg)
As a huge admirer of the work Rebecca Parfitt does on her 'modern day penny dreadful, The Ghastling, it's a real honour for me to have my work appear in it's pages. 'The Silence of the Heart' is another story about those shape-shifters that inhabit the Yorkshire Moors (more info here).Always beautifully designed and illustrated, with carefully chosen stories, The Ghastling is a wonderful thing to have plop through your letterbox, so why not visit their online shop and grab yourself a copy? Or two?
Me and fellow Manta Press author, Michael Wertenberg, recently had a Zoom conversation about my novella Holburn, our writing processes, inspirations, and Michael's own books. The video, which is part of Michael's 'Author's Talking Shop' series on his Youtube channel, can be viewed below. It was a pleasure chatting with Michael.
The Secrecy of the Heart concerns a confused young man named Benjamin whose car breaks down on the Yorkshire Moors, forcing him to seek refuge at an isolated house. Things at the house are not as they appear, but his time there will eventually lead him to an important revelation about himself. This story is linked to two stories I've previously written, The Shape of the Heart and The Lies of the Heart, as well as an as yet unpublished novel called The False Ones.
I ain't lying. See it with your own eyes here.
.jpg)
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.
“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.
"Author Tim Jeffreys pulls off a page-turner with his new novella Holburn. When irreverent Irish rock guitarist Gael Drake learns his younger sister has gone missing from her school on a remote island Drake’s laid-back life takes a deadly serious turn. Readers who like their writing pacy with shocks and splashes of humour may well rate this a rattling good read. A lively blend of mystery, thriller and chiller from an author well-tuned to the weird. Energetic, entertaining fiction from Jeffreys whose setting and characters may strike a chord with many. Admirers of Gael Drake may wonder if more adventures lie in wait." - Matthew G. Rees, author of Smoke House and other stories, and The Snow Leopard of Moscow.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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!
I'm unsure which genre this story falls into. Maybe comic fantasy with a touch of horror? Here's an except:
"But it wasn’t only awe the angel inspired in him, there was fear too. When he’d said it was big, he hadn’t meant only in size. It had presence. A strange kind of authority. The head jutted forward and the eyes were fixed as if it were scrutinizing him rather than being scrutinised itself. And there was something about the way Grace had carved its expression that made it seem as if the angel looked right into his thoughts. The sensation was so powerful the hairs bristled on the back of his neck and he had to turn away. He could still feel its eyes boring into his back as he set the clay down where Grace indicated."
Grace and the Grey Angel was in danger of becoming a trunk story until my good friend the writer Robert Pope gave me some suggestions on how to rework the ending. As a thank you I'm going to give a shout out to Robert's wonderful short story collection, Killers & Others (see cover at the end of this post).
I'd also like to thank the team at Jolly Horror Press, Jonathan Lambert and Autumn Miller, for accepting this story and the hard work they put into the anthology.
Blood Knife describes itself as an online magazine about cyber-punk, sci-fi, horror, neon, knives, blood, and capitalism. I'd like to give a huge thank you to editor Kurt Schiller for including my story, which can be read for free here.
I'd like to thank Penumbric's editor Jeff Georgeson for selecting this tale for inclusion. Read the magazine for free here.
