What my daughters taught me

Misha Herwin

You would think that in the normal course of things it’s mothers that teach their daughters, for me, however, it hasn’t always worked out like that. Learning can be a two way process.  I taught Posy and Lucy the basics, starting from when they were little and hopefully inculcating some of my own values as they grew up. However, over the years I have learned so much from them.

Starting with the small things: Lucy introduced me to “A Girl called Jack” and Jack Monroe’s thrifty recipes, I also now keep my broccoli in the fridge and only use environmentally friendly cleaning products in my kitchen and bathroom.

Lucy is also good at re-cycling clothes that no longer fit, or suit her and I’ve followed her example in my occasional wardrobe culls, as evidenced on my “Bulging Wardrobe” pages.

On a deeper level, she’s shown me how entrenched our un-conscious…

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Interview with Peter Coleborn & Jan Edwards

Q&A with Jenny Barber for Alchemy Press Book of Horrors #horror #fiction #alchemypress #anthology

Jenny Barber

Today it’s my pleasure to welcome Peter Coleborn and Jan Edwards to talk about their new anthology The Alchemy Press Book of Horrors, the joys of editing, horror and short fiction!

Today sees the launch of your latest anthology The Alchemy Press Book of Horrors – what inspired you to choose the theme and what horrors can we look forward to seeing in it?

Peter: Besides the very general theme ‘horror’ the book has no theme. I feel that stories in themed anthologies, especially tightly themed ones, can become too similar. I enjoy variety. I enjoy coming across something unexpected. In this I mirror the views expressed by Mark Morris, editor of the wonderful New Fears series.

I use the word ‘horror’ as a wide catch-all net. What you will find between the covers is 25 well-written yarns that will hopefully chill you, or at the least make you…

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Finding the Right Cover

Misha Herwin

Finding the right cover for your book, is one of the hardest things to do as an Indie author.   There is so much to bear in mind. The cover must convey genre, it must stand out and yet fit in so that anyone picking it up will know that it is a book for children, or women’s fiction, or a thriller. And, of course, you want it to be unique and special just as your book is unique and special.

For “City of Secrets” this was particularly hard as right from the start I had a vivid picture of Letty Parker, a twelve year old pie seller, sitting on the wharf side as the sun set into the river. Great image, but it didn’t say enough, Letty might be the main character, but her friends Jeb, Mango and Gabriel play crucial roles and I wanted something that would suggest the…

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Misha Herwin : City of Secrets #Q&A #booklaunch #cityofsecrets #childrensfiction

Misha Herwin is a writer of books for children and adults and lives in Staffordshire, in a house with a dragon in the garden. She has been writing for as long as she can remember and in her own words – has always been fascinated by the magical and supernatural, which makes this time of year, when the nights have drawn in, the pumpkins have been carved and ghosts summoned, or scared away, the perfect moment to launch City of Secrets, a fantasy adventure for 8-12 year olds.

Tell us about the City of Secrets
The Bristol of “City of Secrets” is a dark and sinister place. Making a living selling pies is not easy, but Letty Parker is a resourceful girl who has learned to tread her way carefully through areas ruled by rival gangs and to avoid the Barbary eels who lurk in shadowy corners. Her business is going well − until the street children, who are her friends and customers, start to go missing.

Letty is determined to find out what has happened to them and when the authorities prove less than helpful, for who cares about children who are poor, she gets together with her friends, Jebediah Hill, the leader of a gang of pickpockets, and the mysterious Gabriel and they hatch a plan…

Butterflies in Hobnail Boots

Misha Herwin’s City!

Misha Herwin

There are “butterflies in hobnail boots stamping about in my insides” as Letty Parker would say. Letty, the main character in “City of Secrets” has a way with words and I like this analogy because it sums up both the flutter of excitement and the twist of nerves go with launching a book.

On the one hand, I can’t wait to hold the finished product in my hand. The cover is beautiful. The picture painted by my sister, Anuk Naumann, is just right and Peter Coleborn has done a brilliant job in turning it into a book cover.

The The insides, in the proof, look pretty good too and the story, according to my beta-readers, really grips and carries you along.

All good, so far, but in the depths of three o’clock in the morning, the nerves, like the Barbary eels that lurk in the shadows of my “City of…

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Peter Mark May : Edwards Q&A Challenge #Q&A #Horrorfiction #Fantasyfiction #writers

Peter Mark May hails from Walton-On-Thames in Surrey and now lives in Hersham.

He is the author of six horror novels and one novella Demon, Kumiho, Inheritance [P. M. May], Dark Waters (novella), Hedge End, AZ: Anno Zombie, Something More Than Night and Forky’s House.

Peter  also writes historical crime under the name Alexander Arrowsmith, his first of a series of novels Pillars of Blood was published 2016/17.

Dean M. Drinkel Takes the Edwards Q&A Challenge #horror #q&a #horror #deandrinkel

Taking up the ‘Edwards Q&A Challenge’ this week is horror writer and award winning film maker Dean Drinkel:

TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF AND YOUR WRITING

Hi – I’m Dean. Primarily I am a horror writer but in 2016 I moved to France to write a historical film script called “The Tragedy Of The Duke Of Reichstadt” with the French writer, Romain Collier. The script won two awards at the Monaco International Film Festival. Right now I am writing a horror / historical script set at the Battle of Waterloo called “The Scum Of The Earth.” A collection of four novellas (Romain Collier, Jan Edwards, Phil Sloman and myself) I compiled / edited called “Into The Night Eternal: Tales Of French Folk Horror” has just been published electronically and very soon in paperback. I have my own small press (Demain Publishing) and currently I am editing a WW1 anthology called “The Darkest Battlefield” which will be released in November – there are then a number of smaller books we will be releasing through the ‘Short Sharp Shocks!’ and ‘Murder Mystery Mayhem’ series. Also – I have been commissioned to write two other horror films which I am, as we speak, plotting out and hopefully getting some sales in for a Christmas theme antho I previously put together for Nocturnicorn Press called “12 Dark Days: One Helluva Christmas”.  Busy times!