All the latest Shadow Writer news and announcements.       February   More book cover reveals to kick off this month, as Titan announced Paul & Marie’s follow-up to In These Hallowed Halls, These Dreaming Spires (above). The cover was seen by over 25,000 people on socials in less than a day, so we’re guessing it went down well! Also announced was the list of authors included this time: Olivie Blake, Genevieve Cogman, De Elizabeth, Faridah Abíké-Íyímídé, Ariel Djanikian, Elspeth Wilson, M.K. Lobb, Kit Mayquist, Jamison Shea, Kate Alice Marshall, Erica Waters and Taylor Grothe.  The new term starts in September, but to request an ARC just click here. Or you can pre-order the book here and here. ------------------------------------------------     And hot on its heels was the reveal of Paul’s new collection, Bleeding Hearts from Demain publishing with a cover by Adrian Baldwin (above). This from the official PR: ‘Where do you go when you lose the love of your life, and who do you turn to? What if you ended up cursing them by mistake? Is it really a sin to fall for the wrong person, and what happens in a relationship when reality and fantasy begin to merge? Can dating in the modern world really be that dangerous, and what are the consequences when you take advantage of other people’s adulation? What happens when godlike beings fall in love, does it have an affect on us mortals? And how far would you actually go for the one person you think the world of? Inside the pages of this book are the answers, as we follow the Bleeding Hearts courtesy of award-winning and #1 bestselling author Paul Kane (Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell, Dark Reflections, Before, The Roads Less Travelled). With an introduction by Barbie Wilde (Hellbound: Hellraiser II, Voices of the Damned), this collection of twisted tales is sure to make you lovesick…or sick of love!’ ‘A heady cocktail of love, sex and the macabre’ – from the introduction by Barbie Wilde, Female Cenobite and author of The Venus Complex. The ebook is out, appropriately enough, on Valentine’s Day, and you can pick that up here. ----------------------------------------------     Over on Instagram, contributor Megan Bannen shared a short extract from her story ‘The Larkspur’ in The Secret Romantic’s Book of Magic (above). You can pre-order that one  here, here, here, here, here, here, here, or here. -----------------------------------------     Paul was over the moon to discover last month that the Spanish version of Servants of Hell (above) published by Dimensiones Ocultas was in the Top 5 bestsellers of 2024 at the Estudio en Escarlata bookstore! (below)     Also, the French edition of Servants dropped in January with a stunning new cover! It’s out from Elder-Craft (below) and you can get yours here.   But that wasn’t all, Alessandro Manzetti of Independent Legions made a video to show Italian fans the physical copies of Paul’s Hellraisers. You can watch that by clicking on the below:     --------------------------------------------------     Paul has been talking all things Hellraiser as the Featured Author in the first issue of the Literary Press Journal RBZEEN, from @runawaybooks on Instagram (above and below).         The publisher shared photos of the physical copies of the magazine, which you can see below:       ---------------------------------------------     As reported by the British Science Fiction Association, a glowing review of Paul & Marie’s anthology from Flame Tree, Beyond & Within: Folk Horror, has appeared on the Concatenation site. Here’s what Arthur Chappell had to say: ‘Some story/poetry anthologies bear a mix of good, bad and middle-ground work, but this superb collection was 100% gems all the way for me, so with seventeen works to choose from, I can only really highlight a few. Some certainly stretch the definition of folk horror, and prove to be more general fantasy realm works. H.R. Laurence’s “The Marsh Widow’s Bargain”, for example, deals with a woman seeking revenge on a swamp dwelling shaman-necromancer. Everyone involved is fully aware of dark magic, so there is no sense of collision between ancient pagan beliefs or legends with modern Christian, or secular thinking. A more traditional take and my favourite story in the collection is Jen Williams’s “Rabbitheart”. It centres on a quiet remote rural community where a young farm girl ensnares a child in a rabbit-trap. She brings the strange boy home to help nurse him back to health, and as he grows and heals, her family begin to decay and wither but she and they seem powerless to prevent the changes taking place. There are echoes of Lovecraft’s The Colour Out Of Space (1927) to this genuinely creepy tale. B. Zelkovich also has a fairie encounter with a woman beguiled into an erotic longing for a beautiful forest woman who takes her horse away into the misty realms and begins transforming her too, though her desires make her cease caring what is lost. Helen Grant has another take on such realms with a story showing multiple riffs on the legend of Tír n’Aill. Of the men drawn to an elf-land of plenty, unaware that for each day that passes there, many years pass in ours, leading to shock, and sudden ageing on return to what we might naively call the real World… Some stories, like John Connolly’s “The Well”, would not be out of place in Edwardian anthologies alongside works by M.R. James. In Lee Murray’s “Summer Bonus”, two friends visit a New Zealand beach village where there is an unusual seaweed the community seem quite guarded towards… How the situation plays out is truly unexpected and chilling. One of the best twist endings I have seen in many years. Alison Littlewood’s “Good Boy” is about a dog who is anything but good. A man takes care of it from discovering it as a puppy despite seeing a neighbour kill its demonic mother… A varied range of often genuinely scary tales, all of the highest quality. A very handsomely presented hardback edition too.’ You can read the full thing here. ----------------------------------------       Sticking with the BSFA for a moment, and Paul was delighted to see Heartwood – the anthology featuring his story ‘The Crossing Place’, published by PS – on the longlist for their award this year.     But that’s not all, the anthology Shadowplays – also from PS and containing his story ‘Stigma’ – was on the longlist for the Bram Stoker Awards as well! Whatever happens, it’s shaping up to be a good year for Paul’s short fiction and congratulations to all involved in both books. --------------------------------------------       An old review now that Paul missed, for his story ‘The Turn’ in Haunted Nights over on Earth and Skye. Here’s what they had to say in their 5/5 write up: ‘It’s human nature to turn around when you hear footsteps. To look into the dark when you don’t know what’s there. But, after this story, I think next time I hear a bump in the night… I’m going to hold my giant dog close and bury myself under the covers. It was just creepy. And intense. And creepy. To make this story even more goosebumpy – it’s written from two different POVs. The hunter and the hunted. The being that really wants you to turn around and the man who knows that he just shouldn’t. It makes it so much more terrifying. Because you know that he’s waiting and Tom knows that he shouldn’t turn… but then there’s curiosity. Most short stories I don’t get crazy sucked into, I mostly just thoroughly enjoy the ride. Not so much with this one. I even pulled the pages really close to my face, because I was so absorbed. I stopped getting closer and closer when the book actually touched my nose… I write quick dot point notes when I read a story. That way it makes it much easier to write a review when I actually get a chance to open my computer (which sometimes takes a few days). The last point in my comments on this? “But seriously, don’t FUCKING turn!” I think that kind of sums this up well. I will read this again, and again, and again.’ You can read the full thing here. While the story itself was reprinted in Tempting Fate (below), which you can pick up  here and here.     A more recent review appeared over on TikTok, of an old book this time – Paul’s Sleeper(s) (below).     Sharon Joy Reads on there said: ‘Ooh, this is good! Very much in the style of old-school sci-fi, with a presumed alien infection changing and controlling the population. The violence and deaths are brutal and gory, the infections insidious and the military machinations nefarious. It’s a tale that asks how much control we really have over our lives. Haunting and heart-breaking in the midst of horror, this is exceptional story-telling.’   January     We’re well into the New Year now, so time for a new book cover reveal! This time it’s for the standard edition of the Italian translation of Hellraisers, artwork by Scott Harben (with a wraparound that includes the Scribe puzzle box Paul designed). -------------------------------------------     Sticking with Hellraiser for a second, Horror Pulp gave Paul’s novel Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell a terrific shoutout on X last month (above), calling it, ‘One of the best books I’ve read in a very long time... It integrated these two worlds seamlessly and worked out perfectly. Thank you so much for writing this, we don’t deserve this. It was eloquently done!’ You can buy your copy here. -------------------------------------------     In the run-up to the big day last month, lots of people were posting their pictures of Paul and Marie’s anthology from Titan Death Comes at Christmas, like @noirreadsandknits @lovetoread42 @shelf_ishly_lit @moremysteryplease and  @thebookpear (above and below).           It was also spotted in bookstores around the world, including Switzerland and Germany below (photos courtesy Fabienne Schwizer and Helen Fields).       Paul and Marie were busy doing more publicity for the book as well, including an interview on the US based Sirius XM Nemo radio show with a reach of about 2 million, they went on author Cavan Scott’s substack talking about their Perfect Sunday – see Paul’s here – plus they talked to Horror Tree here, all below.         While Town & Country magazine included Death Comes at Christmas in their '21 Coziest Holiday Mysteries to Read This Festive Season’ alongside books by Agatha Christie, Janice Hallett and Louise Penny here.     The book also continued being reviewed, including by the Peterborough Telegraph (below), who gave it 8/10 and said: ‘Here’s an 18-story anthology of murderous tidings from top crime writers taking slay rides with locked room mysteries, whodunnits and festive season tinsel-wrapped twists. Top contributors include Sarah Hilary, Liz Mistry, Claire McGowan, Belinda Bauer and Vaseem Khan - so, no turkeys!’       Colin Steele of the Canberra City News (below) said: ‘It opens with the CL Taylor’s story, “How to Commit Murder in a Bookshop”, which Taylor says was inspired by a Christmas party she attended at Waterstones bookshop in Swindon… The second story, “Christmas Yet To Come” by Helen Fields, spins off the characters Charles Dickens created in A Christmas Carol. It begins on Christmas Eve 1899 when Marley, the nephew of Jacob Marley, who had inherited his wealth, is walking through the corridors of the Marley Memorial Workhouse… Vaseem Khan, the award-winning author of the Malabar House series, sees in “Indian Winter”, his main character Persis, India’s first female police detective, collaborating once more with Archie, an English forensic scientist. This time they are investigating and ultimately solving an intriguing locked room murder in a Bombay mansion on Christmas Day, 1950…And in Liz Mistry’s “Secret Santa”, in which the Christmas office party has a deadly outcome.’     The Cozy Owlet (below) had this to say: ‘A benefit of a short story collection like this one is that it doesn’t have to stick to one definition of “festive”. Authors can – and do – apply their own interpretation of crime at the holidays. The result is a delightfully diverse set of stories, from the creepy to the warm. You’ve got the Dickensian setting, and a historical Indian one. There are stories set in Victorian England and at an office Secret Santa. There are the snowed-in villages that turn dangerous, and the hotel Christmas crimes. And of course there’s the requisite bookshop crime story, almost required in this kind of collection. The stories are also ordered in a way that maximizes this feeling of diversity, bouncing from setting to setting, vibe to vibe. I personally love warm, cozy Christmas, and this ordering helped me get through the darkness of the thrillers. Knowing a cozy or heartwarming story would soon follow made it easier to sink into the creepier stories. If you’re a fan of modern crime writing, there is likely at least one short story here that will tickle your fancy.’  Read the full thing here.     Mat Coward over at Morning Star (below), said: ‘Crime stories have been a fixture at Christmas for well over a century now, and Death Comes At Christmas (Titan, £19.99), edited by Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane, is one of the best anthologies of its type I can remember. There’s not a single weak entry among the 18 pieces by as many authors, and several real winners, with a good variety of tone and type, from locked rooms reminiscent of the Golden Age to forensic techs wearing bloodstained paper suits. I won’t try and pick out highlights, for fear of slighting the others, except to say that Alexandra Benedict deserves a Best Punning Title prize for “The Midnight Mass Murderer”.’       Finally, @travels.along.my.bookshelf called it: ‘A fabulous festive collection of short stories featuring a gathering of great writers and all in the tradition of Christmas crime. There’s something for everyone here.’ Steve Beresford said: ‘This is a great anthology of festive short stories, from locked-room mysteries to whodunits. All very Christmassy & murdery. Superb stuff!’ @thestucumminsreads stated: ‘I absolutely loved this book! I enjoyed every single story. There is quite a mix of themes, time periods, styles, and subject matters.’ And Lee Allen over on Goodreads offered: ‘From stories in the style of Golden Age classics to gritty modern thrillers, set in the snowy English countryside to the heat of Bombay, India, we are treated to a delightfully gripping mix of brutal crimes and complex puzzles, with flourishes of comedy, romance and creepy chills, all with a sprinkling of seasonal fun…Overall, this is a collection of well-written, thrilling tales, many in the tradition of much-loved and classic Christmas tales and mysteries, and a fantastic showcase of writers from the world of modern crime fiction, each tale an enjoyable slice of Yuletide magic. Highly recommended reading for these cold nights as we count down to Christmas.’ (All below)           You can still keep the spirit alive and grab your copy here! -------------------------------------------------------     Our very special Guest Writer for January also featured in Death Comes at Christmas with his tale ‘The Red Angel’. It’s none other than Russ Thomas, author of novels like Firewatching (above) and Nighthawking. He’s on the site with an extract from his latest, Sleeping Dogs, which you can read simply by clicking here.     ------------------------------------------------     Following on from last month’s news, here’s the exclusive cover reveal for the 404 Editions French version of Paul and Marie’s anthology Twice Cursed (above and below). We’re sure you’ll agree it looks stunning!     You can still pick up the UK version here, however. --------------------------------------------------     A future anthology now, and a callout for stories has been posted for Paul and Marie’s follow up to Beyond & Within – Folk Horror from Flame Tree: Witch Craft! You can read the guidelines here, but hurry, because you don't have long . . . ----------------------------------------------       A closer look at the wraparound artwork for Shadowplays, painted by Ilan Sheady – and featuring the protagonist of Paul’s story ‘Stigma’ front and centre (above).         Paul received his signing sheets for the exclusive limited edition not long ago, (above) and you can pre-order that one from PS Publishing here. -------------------------------------------     Contributor copies now, and Paul was sent his absolutely gorgeous copy of Heartwood – also by PS – just before Xmas, featuring his story ‘The Crossing Place’ (above and below).           This version sold out long ago, but you can still get the trade paperback here.     Paul also received his The Sorceror’s Incantation novel co-written with Jennifer Ash and Paul Birch to celebrate 40 years of Robin of Sherwood.         You can purchase your own copy here. -------------------------------------------     A massive thank you to @bookishbonnie for including Her Husband’s Grave in this ‘Top 6 Go-To Authors’ post alongside Sharon Bolton and AA Chaudhuri (above).   ‘Thrillers, twists, and unputdownable suspense kept me on the edge of my seat!’ she says. You can buy this PL Kane title, plus the two others Her Last Secret and The Family Lie at 40% off at the moment in the HarperCollins winter sale. On until the end of January, just click here. ------------------------------------------- A bit of fun to end with, and Paul’s return to the Cult Classics podcast where he chatted about Hellraiser last year. This time around he’s discussing another favourite movie, the immortal Escape from New York. You can listen to that by clicking the link below.     -------------------------------------------------------------- ARCHIVE 2015 |2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024

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