Memories Don’t Lie by Pauline Yates – Launches 11th March 2023
I was a compulsive daydreamer growing up, and I turned that into a writing career. What could be better than doing the thing you love most?
Those of the Light by Nicola Currie – Launches 24th September 2021
Tenacity is just as important as talent. It is very easy to want to give up and lose faith in your work, particularly after rejection. But experiencing rejection and dealing with self-criticism are part of earning your stripes as an author, and I’m definitely a stronger writer for it.
The Gate to the Underworld by E.L. Giles – Launches 10th September 2021
Anything can inspire me. Movies, series, or a well composed soundtrack. Music in general. It can even be a single word I like, or a sentence. Sometimes it’s a sensation I want to recreate and build a story around. It’s rarely the same.
This Hideous Joy by Jonathan Inbody – Launches 21st August 2021
Filmmaking has always been my first love. But I love to write in any format, and short stories are just easier to bring into the world than films are (not to mention cheaper), so I end up putting out a lot more prose than I do short films.
Beyond Human by Matthew Clarke – Launches 23rd July 2021
What does literary success look like to you? Holding a book with your name on it. Everyone’s definition of success is different, but if you’re only writing with the aim of getting rich and famous, you’re likely to be disappointed.
The Salamandrion by Mike Adamson – Launches 24th July 2021
Literary success, to me, would mean scoring serious novel contracts with major publishers—mainstream circulation in the higher five figures and upward, with international reach, including foreign language editions and screen rights sales. This definitely calls for agency representation, and I’m hoping my track record, built up since 2016 in the short story market, will open that particular door. I’ve dabbled in screenwriting for the last twenty years, too, and a cross-pollination of success between fields is always possible.
The Bookworm by L.T. Emery and Andreas Hort – Launches 26th June 2021
I used to read books secretly during classes. I remember crying quietly during math because Sirius Black just died. After school, I’d usually visit the library. There’s this cherry tree next to the building. In summer, I’d borrow a book, climb the tree until I found a good branch, and I’d read while snacking on the cherries. Good times.
Place of Caves by Charlotte O’Farrell – Launches 11th June 2021
Place of Caves was my coronavirus lockdown project. I’d had the idea of a Nottingham-based horror novella bouncing around my head for years, with a secret order of priests and nuns sent to investigate demonic goings-on in the caves. But somehow, I’d never got around to it. Being inside for months and seeing the Black Hare Press call for underground-themed horror spurred me into action.
Underworld Games by Jonathan D. Stiffy – Launches 14th May 2021
To start a piece of work, it takes what I call a glimpse. A glimpse of something that is interesting, unique, and worth building a story around. Being a horror writer, for me that glimpse is usually something terrible. But that terrible glimpse leads to the idea for a suitable protagonist, antagonist, and goal. Then details of the story follow. For Underworld Games, that glimpse was of a kid in a flood tunnel vault in pitch darkness tracing the word “Loser” that was carved on his forehead, and then the terror when he saw light down the tunnel, and footsteps coming towards him. So, that is how this story starts—with the glimpse of terror.
13 Victims – Launches 30th March 2021
V.A. Vazquez: My husband loves to speculate about the day-to-day lives of henchmen in action films. Like when they go home for dinner at night, do they have to explain to their spouses that Mr. Big Baddie spent a billion dollars on a laser gun instead of making a larger contribution to their 401(k)s? When it’s Career Day at school, how do they explain their profession to a group of fidgety four-year-olds? Do we see so many British henchmen because they don’t need private medical insurance through their employers? So when I was asked to write a story for 13 Victims, I decided I wanted to write about two low-level drones who get caught up in trouble that’s way above their pay grade.