Eight days into the new year (a happy one, btw!) and I'm getting back into the draft of the fourth book in the Flammark series. I seem to have been banging on about finishing it for months! On New Year's day I woke with a sudden urge to get on! The fact that the series so far sold gratifyingly well in my seasonal advertisng campaign will have had something to do with it, I suspect. Obviously had to reacquaint myself with the details of the story so began editing from the very beginning. That killed more than a few stones: managed to bin a stack of post-its which contained plot-tweaks. Should be back at the raw writing by the weekend.
So if the prospect of the fourth and last Flammark book intrigues you, here’s and here’s the opening to intrigue you more.
Deep within a wooded place, this place did live. If it could be called living. For neither frog croaked nor bird sang. No creature took a breath.
A lake of sorts, muddy and deep, covered in weed, slimy with stink; the roots below tangling and dangling, strangling the life out of all that drew near.
Not that much did. Certainly no human, ‘cept by accident and who’d then back the hell out and forget. So it existed alone, crouching beneath the glamour that hid it, shrouding itself with itself, a deadly blot invisible.
It had not always been this way. Before … before its violation … it had been a simple woodland pool—a liquid glade that watered the trees and quenched the thirst of man and beast; a place to rest, a place of peace. It did not at first feel the poison exuding from the intruder rudely embedded within its depths, nor the start of its choke.
But—inevitably, inexorably—the toxic ooze overwhelmed the innocent waters; muddying, thickening, corrupting the trees that drank from them, deforming trunks and twisting branches, their leaves turned black by the bane they grew to rely on.
And as the canopy closed and the water sweated, the world forgot it was ever there and the poison was left to build, until the time came when it would leech way beyond the little pool.
Drop by evil drop.
Likee? I decided to use the same technique that opened my second book, Animus. Setting an atmosphere before getting to the true horror that lies at the heart of Flammark village.
Feel moved to get on board? First book is here…
I’ve have the first three books in omnibus, too, if anyone wants to commit to the full series.
The final instalment should be out soon after Easter.
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In other news, Am also trying to crack on with Domain, my Werewolf novel. I’m posting it here on Substack chapter by chapter for my paid subscribers (Link here.) I have high intentions for it since it’s a kind of a reimagining of Jane Eyre who gets embroiled in her own horror story at the hands of Rochester, a man with undoubted appetites. Always thought he’d make a great werewolf, lol! Am also going to be publishing my own edition of Jane Eyre. I have a killer cover in mind. That said, I don’t think I’ll be trying to write two books at once in future. Sure is draining.
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Interested in your NY resolutions. Do reply if you fancy it. Mine is to read more. I’ve neglected this side of my work terribly over the past few years. Am currently reading Blight, a debut by Tom Carlisle (click the pic for an Amazon link – UK only but you know what to do). Victorian gothic. Atmospheric for sure. Not at the stage where I can recommend it yet. Jury’s still out.
I can thoroughly recommend the Quiet Apocolypse series, though, by my good friend Dave Jeffery. He’s had a great deal of interest in this—including a studios pitch and has been acclaimed by some pretty heavyweight horror writers. A MUST read for all readers of the genre. The pic has a link to my website review from where you’ll find the relevant Amazon links.
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That’s mostly all from me for now. Except … just a word about the latest moral panic about Substack and why I’m still here. For those not in the know, SS has refused to de-platform newsletters from about a dozen hate-mongering Nazis. I wish they would. But I’m agreeing with fab horror writer Brian Keene, also here on Substack. I’m fed up of upping sticks and trying to find better platforms. Hate is everywhere and it wants us to run. So I’m sticking with.
Have a good day and happy reading!
Polls