A new anthology entitled Cthulhu Cymraeg The Night Country: Lovecraftian Tales from Wales, edited by Mark Howard Jones and featuring my story Strzyga, is out now on Crossroad Press.
Here’s a helpful blurb:
Before the American master of cosmic horror H.P. Lovecraft came the Welsh genius of the weird Arthur Machen, who filled his pages with tales of ancient evil. Now comes this collection of seven NEW stories from the ancient land of Machen, following in the footsteps of Lovecraft and his uncanny creations. Featuring original stories by: J. L. George, Mark Howard Jones, Paul Lewis, John Llewellyn Probert, C. M. Saunders & Charles Wilkinson
I wrote the first draft of Strzyga, named after a female Polish/Slavic demon similar to a vampire, a few years ago. It’s a pretty grisly story about a nightshift worker who finds something unnatural in his warehouse, the general concept focusing on what happens when the mundane collides with the extraordinary. At just under 10,000 words it wasn’t quite long enough to stand up on its own, but too long for most short story markets.
Until now.
Cthulhu Cymraeg The Night Country: Lovecraftian Tales from Wales, is available on eBook and paperback.
Greetings! And Happy New Year. Dang, 2025 was gone in the blink of an eye. It’s so weird how the older I get, the quicker the time seems to go. With that in mind, let’s get down to business with a quick recap. In the name of promotion, in the past I’ve tried to limit any magazine or blog interviews I do to around release dates. I have since come to realise that this probably isn’t the best strategy. Best case scenario, your name is everywhere, all the time, for a couple of weeks or so, and then it’s nowhere for a year. Or until you release another book. Your audience either gets tired of you or they forget all about you. So my new strategy is to try to toe the line by doing a couple of interviews a year when the opportunities arise, and spreading them out. Here’s one I did with Andrew Cooper about my novella Silent Mine.
2025 was a good year for short stories. Cutter was included in Big Smoke Pulp (Volume 1), the sci-fi chiller The Incomplete Sneeze was included in a time travel-themed collection on Smoking pen Press, and the drabble Girl’s Night appeared in Flash Phantoms. Later in the year, Horrific Scribblings published The Screaming Man, describing it as ‘quiet horror sci-fi’, a very fitting description, and Collection in Person was included in Clubhouse 3 on Crystal Cook’s 13 Days publishing.
Also, my stab (sorry) at erotic horror, The Cunning Linguist was reprinted in the Blood Lust anthology on Black Hare Press, and I sold Revenge of the Toothfish as a reprint to an antho called Murderfish, the title being a massive clue as to the theme. I probably take more satisfaction in selling reprints than original stories, because it means getting paid for the same thing twice.
You might remember a fella called Dylan Decker, star of the aforementioned Silent Mine. DL Winchester, head honcho at Undertaker Books, let slip that they were putting together a Western horror anthology and asked if Dylan Decker would like to be involved. Of course he would. Decker doesn’t turn down many assignments. The result was Midnight at Deadwood Station, and it is probably the Decker story I am most proud of to date. All writers know that feeling when you don’t have to dig around for the words, they just appear in your head and you write them down. That’s when we do our best work. The story came out about 8,000 words, which is pretty long for a short story, but it works, and Horror on the Range is out now. Fittingly, it was also my hundredth published short story, not including reprints. There will be a blog post about that particular landmark coming shortly.
In the longer form, Dylan Decker saddled up for another adventure, this time at Blood Lake where, right after an encounter with an angry grizzly, he gets yanked into a duel with a flying cryptid. There was quite a complex back-story surrounding Blood Lake, which I wrote about in depth here. Decker’s near-legendary encounter with the group of murderous Germans, A Christmas Cannibal, was also re-released as a stand-alone, and you might be happy to know that book three (or four, if you count A Christmas Cannibal) is already in the publisher’s hands.
2025 also saw the re-issue of a revamped and remixed version of Tethered, my novella inspired by internet rituals, the Cecil Hotel, and the death of Elisa Lam, by 13 days Publishing. I did a deep dive into the history behind it here.
When Dylan Decker is robbed and thrown off a moving train, he thinks his night can’t get any worse. Or weirder. But then he finds himself at an outpost called Deadwood Station, a place where the dead don’t stay dead, and the weirdness level goes through the roof.
Midnight at Deadwood Station, my hundredth published short story (not including reprints) is set in the same universe as the novellas Silent Mine, Blood Lake, and A Christmas Cannibal, and included in Horror on the Range, a new Western-themed anthology on Undertaker Books.
No, that’s not a typo. A few years ago I wrote a surreal, gory little story about a group of fishermen out trying to catch Patagonian toothfish (more commonly known by the more palatable name of Chilean sea bass) when they reel in something altogether more bizarre.
Revenge of the Toothfish was originally published in the anthology Trigger Warning: Body Horror, and now it’s back! Reprinted in the brand spanking new book Murderfish: An Aquatic Anthology on Wonderbird Press. Murderfish is part of the Unhelpful Encyclopedia series, where each volume focuses on a specific category of animal. Of course, the stories about these creatures go in fantastical directions, take place on other worlds, and often indicate that your fish really are trying to kill you.
“If you want your nature documentary to feel like a PG13 action-adventure romp, you’ve come to the right place.”
My latest short story, Collection in Person, is included in the anthology Clubhouse 3 on 13 Days Publishing. As the cover blurb says: “The tales in The Clubhouse 3 aren’t just of the bump in the night variety but also those that shriek into the daylight and paint the bright, bustling world in wet crimson.”
Collection in Person, about the downside of selling stuff on eBay is, by my count, my 98th published short story. It has heavy American Psycho vibes, and is probably one of the very few horror stories that features a guest appearance by Bruce Springsteen.
NB: Don’t worry, Tramps. No Springsteens were hurt in the writing of this story.
I am pleased to announce that my sci-fi short story The Incomplete Sneeze is included in A Twist on Time, the new time travel-themed anthology on Smoking Pen Press. I have worked with SPP before, when they included Down the Road in Vampires, Zombies, & Ghosts, another entry in their Read on the Run series.
From the cover:
You won’t find anything reminiscent of H.G. Wells, or of the Doctor Who series. Rather, you’ll find some unintended jumps in time, without any machines or devices. You’ll find some questionable means of travel. And – in contrast to the ‘standard’ rule that you cannot/should not change the past, you will find people from the future who come back with the goal of changing the future, and you’ll find efforts at do-overs, both successful, and not so successful.
What’s the Incomplete Sneeze about? Well, in the mornings I sometimes have sneezing fits. Some kind of allergy, I suppose. An old girlfriend once described sneezing as like having an orgasm in your head, which is a pretty unique description and not far off the mark. Anyway, I began to wonder what might happen if I fell through a wrinkle in the universe and teleported every time I sneezed. In my mind, this somehow got tied up with the mystery of the Somerton Man, when a ‘well-dressed’ gentleman was found dead on a beach in Australia and nobody could work out who he was, and a story was born.
A while back I read something about Japanese artist Mao Sugiyama, whose greatest claim to fame was cutting off his own genetalia and serving it to guests at a dinner party. That would go down a storm on Come Dine With Me. His actions made him a pioneer of the nullo movement, made up of men who have their bits lopped off and ‘go smooth’ in an effort to become androgynous.
Add some salt, seasoning, and a dash of revenge, and that’s just too good not to write a story about. That story became Cutter, and it is included in the multi-genre collection Big Smoke Pulp, Vol. 1 from the team behind Pesto Comics. The project is described as “A short story anthology dedicated to chaos and mayhem told at a breakneck pace,” and Cutter definitely has plenty of chaos and mayhem. It’s also my 97th published short story (not including reprints). I think I’m in line for a cookie or something.
Over the years I have set quite a few short stories in or around the village of Wood Forge, including What Happened to Huw Silverthorne, What Happened Next, Never Go Back, and Demon Tree, which were all published in various places. Some are inter-connected, most aren’t. They just share the same setting. A bit like Stephen King uses Castle Rock. The village is fictional, but it’s based on the place I grew up; New Tredegar in the South Wales valleys. It’s quiet and tranquil there. Mostly. Some city dwellers might even call it idyllic. But like most other places, it has a dark underbelly.
Here ’tis:
Lovely, innit?
The Widow of Wood Forge is about a boy living in the village who develops an unhealthy obsession with an old woman who recently died. Don’t worry, there’s no necrophilia involved. But he does break into her now-empty house one night, only to find it isn’t empty after all. There’s probably a lesson to be learnt there. The story was originally called Mrs Craven’s House, but I changed the title on the advice of the editor who presumably felt the new one fit the mood a bit better. If that’s the case, I have to say he was right. The alliteration is a bonus.
I’m pleased to announce my gruesome little short Misshapes & Rejects has been reprinted in the revised second edition of Handmade Horror Stories: An Anthology of art and craft-themed short horror fiction on Frost Zone Press. It even comes with a new cover!
“From quiet horrors to chilling nightmares, this anthology gives new meaning to being creative!“
The new version of Handmade Horror Stories is out now.
I’m excited to announce that my 92nd published short story The Cunning Linguist (once called The Cunnilinguist) is included in the new anthology Welcome to the Splatterclub, Vol III edited by Nikki Noir for Blood Bound Books. I have a long, blood-spattered history with BBB and the great people who run the joint. In the past, The Devil & Jim Rosenthal, Subject #270374, Siki’s Story, and Holiday of a Lifetime have all been part of projects they’ve put together. They are one of the few established publishers brave enough to operate at the more extreme end of the spectrum and I send them all the stories I write that involve genital mutilation.
As for the story itself, well, it’s about what you probably think its about. The protagonist is a player who thinks he is very, very good at oral sex. The Cunning Linguist is the handle he uses on dating apps. One night he meets his match, so to speak, and let’s just say he comes to a sticky end. Wink, wink.
I have a love-hate relationship with oral sex. And no, I don’t mean I love receiving but hate giving. When you think about it, it’s pretty gross. Our mouths aren’t supposed to go down there. Personal hygiene is incredibly important. You let that slip, even just a little, and it can ruin the other person’s whole experience. Trust me. On the other hand, you don’t want to be tasting of soap, either, because nobody likes eating soap. It’s a fine line. The whole topic is an absolute minefield, and definitely uncomfortable enough to write horror stories about.
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