X for Sale!

Yes, I said X. To help give X3, my third collection of short fiction, a little boost, the first two volumes are 0.99 each for a limited time. That’s less than half price. Or you could say they are two for the price of one. Whichever way you slice it, they are cheap. Links below.

This is what happens when you ‘wake up’ inside a dream, when the urban myth you heard turns out to be so much more, and when that hottie you pick up in a bar springs a terrible surprise. But what do you do when your wife gives birth to something not entirely human? When your past discretions come back to haunt you? Or when a serial killer moves in next door?

The first collection of horror and dark fiction from the critically acclaimed writer C.M. Saunders, including three previously unpublished stories, plus an introduction and extensive notes. Also features exclusive artwork by Greg Chapman.

US LINK

UK LINK

The sequel to 2014’s successful X: A Collection of Horror features ten more slices of dark fiction from the blood-soaked pages of Fantastic Horror, Unspoken Water, Dark Valentine and several anthologies. Also includes two previously unpublished stories, extensive notes, and original artwork by Greg Chapman.

Meet the teacher who sees dead pupils, the ambulance crew who pick up a casualty who won’t die, and the childhood friends who spend the night in a haunted pub. Along the way you can meet a man who refuses to accept his wife’s death and goes to extreme lengths to keep the flame of love alive, the boy who just likes to watch you sleep, and maybe even pay a visit to an antique shop with a deadly secret. If you dare.

US LINK

UK LINK

I should mention that X SAMPLE is also 0.99. But that was 0.99 anyway, so there’s no big story there.

Finally, don’t forget the latest installment, X3 is available for pre-order now. And it’s 0.99 until release day on Friday 13th April. Then it goes up to £12.5 million.

 

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X3 – Cover Reveal

X3, my third collection of short fiction, is coming out next month. The first volume gathered together my early stories, most of which were published in the small press explosion of the late nineties, while the second covered the noughties. More info on those can be found here.

This third volume mainly includes stories which were published in various magazines, ezines and anthologies in 2012-2014, plus a couple of surprises. More details, and ToC to follow. In the meantime, I wanted to share the cover with you, designed once again by Greg Chapman who recently won a big HWA award. Congratulations, Greg!

And here it is:

Impressive, eh?

X3 is available for pre-order now and is half-price for a very limited time, so get yours early. 😉

100 Word Horrors – An Anthology of Horror Drabbles

Late last year, I was asked to contribute to an anthology. It wasn’t themed like so many are these days, the interesting thing about it was that it was to consist entirely of drabbles (a piece of fiction exactly a hundred words long, not including the title). This is something I had never even attempted before, so I initially did it for the challenge. After banging my head against the wall for a few days, I eventually came up with a story called Coming Around. I can’t say writing it was easy, but it was a lot of fun. As the project grew legs and started running, it turned into a who’s who of horror, and something I am very proud to be a part of.

Kevin J. Kennedy, has once again brought together the best of the horror world to bring you an anthology that is packed with creepy tales. Between these pages you will find over one hundred drabbles, written by a wealth of talented authors. From the best indie horror authors to Bram Stoker award winners and Amazon top sellers. We have monsters, mayhem and madness. Come join us.

Contains drabbles by Amy Cross, William F. Nolan, Lisa Morton, Gord Rollo, Michael A. Arnzen, Mark Lukens, Richard Chizmar, Rick Gualtieri, Jeff Strand, Kevin J. Kennedy, P. Mattern, Lee Mountford, Ike Hamill, Michael Bray, Andrew Lennon, Craig Saunders, Matt Hickman, Glenn Rolfe and many more.

In her review, Erica Robyn had this to say about my contribution:

Absolutely terrifying!! This one is a straight up nightmare! 5/5

Thank you, Erica 😉

100 Word Horrors is out now.

Echoes & Bones

My group (of writers), The Deviant Dolls, have released our first anthology, Echoes & Bones. And it’s not your usual collection of short stories. I know. That’s what they all say, right? But I, ahem, mean it. What we did was decide on a theme, then each of us wrote a story adhering to said theme.

The results were… interesting.

Some of us kept things civil, others toed the line. Then, as always, there were a couple who said “Fuck the line,” and took the extreme route. Suffice to say, if this book was a movie it would probably be one of those weird, dark, Eastern European snuff films. Still, at least we can say there’s probably something for everyone.

Here’s comes the blurb, followed by the splendid cover art (shout out to Renee Miller) and finally the hard sell. That’s the best bit.

The Florida Keys, a psychic, and a chipped teacup; not very interesting on their own, but together, they weave dark, sometimes twisted tales of secrets, death, mystery and fantastic discovery. Join us as we listen to the echoes and wade through the bones, to unearth the treasures hidden in our deviant minds.

Including:

CONSTRUCTIVE DISMISSAL – Michael Keyton
Cheating a houngan is bad news. A classroom won’t save you.

THE LAST READING OF MADAME SHAHRAZAD – Steve Wetherell
Stacey James makes a comfortable living pretending to talk to the dead, but a dangerous stranger is about to put her talents to the ultimate test.

THE PAST ENTOMBED – C.M. Saunders
Amanda has a tragic past. She also has a gift. Or maybe it’s a curse. Psychometry. The art of ‘reading’ inanimate objects. It’s something she has struggled with her entire life, but learned to accept. Until one morning, when she stumbles across an object at a market which brings the past and the future crashing together.

WASHER WOMAN SHOALS – Liam McNalley
Between her part time job mixing drinks at her landlord’s bar and deceiving tourists as Madame Ezora, Belle earns enough money to allow for a simple new life in Key West. A strange object found on the beach, though, turns her world upside down. Now, the only way to avoid certain death is for Belle to actually contact a spirit from the other side.

MISBEGOTTEN – Frank E. Bittinger
Haunted by a memory or haunted by an actual spirit, that is the question. Even in paradise, it seems you cannot outrun the past. Will turning to one who communicates with those who have passed beyond the Veil provide answers or will it only lead to a dead end?

THIS ONE IS MINE – Katrina Monroe
Patty will look into a stranger’s past for a small fee. Now, it’s time to confront her own.

KEEPER – Renee Miller
Ford’s dusty pawn shop in the Florida Keys is full of both trash and treasure. The items he hides in the room behind the store, though, are his most prized possessions, and definitely not for sale. Rare beauty, exquisite gifts; each worth a price only Ford comprehends.

Echoes & Bones is available for a limited time at a reduced price for on ebook and paperback.

Fearful Fathoms: Collected Tales of Aquatic Horror (Vol. 1 – Seas & Oceans)

You can find my short story, Band of Souls, in the fantastic-looking new anthology on Scarlet Galleon Publications, Fearful Fathoms: Collected Tales of Aquatic Horror (vol. 1 – Seas & Oceans).

Editor Mark Parker has done an amazing job pulling together a host of writers (Full table of contents below) who all contributed stories with the same watery theme. Actually, that’s not strictly true. The project proved so expansive that it morphed into two volumes, one based on seas and oceans and the other rivers and lakes. My own offering, about an old man sitting on his fishing boat contemplating life when things suddenly and irrevocably go sideways, was first published in the Edgar Allan Poe homage Return of the Raven back in 2009. It’s actually a lot older than that, and is probably one of the first stories I ever completed. It originally had the working title, ‘Faces in the Mist,’ and I remember spending months and months on it, making sure every word said exactly what I wanted it to say. For the longest time, I considered it one of my most accomplished efforts. But reading it now, it’s quite obviously heavily influenced by John Carpenter’s seminal film The Fog (1980) which I don’t know is a good thing or a bad thing. Anyway, Band of Souls then became an unfortunate casualty of my long sabbatical from fiction (2000 to 2008), and spent that entire time gathering virtual dust on a hard drive somewhere.

HOW DEEP DOES YOUR FEAR GO? Scarlet Galleon Publications and editor Mark Parker are here to help you find out!

Volume I of this new double-anthology features a long-unpublished story (“Seascape”) from Jack Ketchum, a landmark collaboration (“Widow’s Point”) from father-and-son writing duo, Richard Chizmar and Billy Chizmar, and many other eerie tales, accompanied by full-color illustrations by Luke Spooner.

In order of appearance, stories include:

“Widow’s Point” by Richard Chizmar & Billy Chizmar
“The Gray Man” by Mark Parker
“Fear Sun” by Laird Barron
“Carnacki: The Lusitania” by William Meikle
“Floodland” by Cameron Pierce
“Sirens” by Dallas Mullican
“Draugar” by Bryan Clark
“Old Bogey” by Lori R. Lopez
“The Lighthouse” by Annie Neugebauer
“Port of Call” by W.D. Gagliani
“Beneath the Surface” by Stuart Keane
“Once Tolled the Lutine Bell” by Jack Rollins
“She Beckons” by D.G.
“Cape Hadel” by Brad P. Christy
“Seastruck” by John Everson
“Alone on the Waves” by Eric S. Brown
“Band of Souls” by CM Saunders
“A Thousand Thick and Terrible Things” by David Mickolas
“Maelstrom” by Doug Rinaldi
“Hallowed Point” by Andrew Bell
“Wanderer” by Shane Lindemoen
“Canned Crab” by Nick Nafpliotis
“On Ullins Bank” by John Linwood Grant
“The Way We Are Lifted” by Aric Sundquist
“Surviving the River Styx” by Paul Michael Anderson
“The Water Elemental” by A.P. Sessler
“The Paper Shield” by James Lowder
“Seascape” by Jack Ketchum
“Corbett’s Cage” by Shawn P. Madison
“Jonah Inside the Whale: A Meditation” by Jason Sechrest

Fearful Fathoms: Collected Tales of Aquatic Horror Volume 1 is available now on paperback and ebook.

Matt Hickman’s Sinister Scribblings

Matt Hickman has burst onto the UK horror scene in the past few years, gaining quite the reputation for both his collaborations with other authors (notably Stuart Keene and Andrew Lennon) and his solo efforts Amnesia and Jeremy. His latest release is the short story collection Sinister Scribblings, which also features bonus stories by the aforementioned Keane and Lennon, as well as Michelle Garza & Melissa Lason (aka The Slaughter Sisters), Daryl Duncan, Mark Nye, Dale Robertson, and myself. My contribution, Jumping at Shadows, is a previously-unpublished tale about the perils of the LDR. The long-distance relationship. I’m sure anyone who has ever tried it will agree they are never easy, even without the intervention of a supernatural entity.

Blurb:

From the vivid imagination of Matt Hickman comes a collection of thirteen short horror stories that are guaranteed to leave you feeling unsettled and disturbed. Featuring a foreword from Kyle M. Scott, Sinister Scribblings brings together a unique blend of stories, some of which have been previously published, others that are original pieces and only available within this collection.

In this collection we meet a whole host of broken, deranged characters in a sequence of horrific circumstances, including a mother who is determined to seek vengeance upon the school thugs that are bullying her only daughter; a woman who’s lifestyle has spiralled out of control after finding her boyfriend in a more than compromising position; a man who once spent his life in the public eye, has fallen from the heights of stardom and is slowly rebuilding himself; a teenage boy, a daydreamer who enjoys chocolate eggs for breakfast, who finds himself unravelling a unique Easter gift; a cave dwelling creature who has a taste for young flesh; a mischievous young boy who finds himself upon the naughty list at Christmas; a man, who after recently losing his job, makes a compelling agreement with a strange figure in a bar; two twin sisters who battle it out in brutal style after a major misunderstanding; a group of friends on their friends stag night, who get more than they bargained for upon entering an abandoned hospital for a prank; a man who awakens in a terrifying situation, in a strange location following a party with his friends; a woman abandoned in her friend’s cabin at a picturesque lake during a thunder storm; a man who crashes his car whilst driving home and spotting the figure of woman in amongst the trees beside the road; a serial killer enduring complications whilst receiving the lethal injection.

Sit back, relax and immerse yourself in these Sinister Scribblings.

Subject #270374 in DOA III

After six years and more than fifty authors, the Unholy Trinity is complete. This third instalment in the DOA series offers thirty stories from the originators of splatterpunk as well as the newest voices in extreme horror.

You’ll laugh…you’ll cry…you’ll vomit
Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Last year, I wrote one of the most twisted short stories I’ve ever attempted. It’s too twisted to even go into much detail here. Suffice to say it involves clinical drug trials, revenge and dismemberment, among other things. I called it Subject #270374.

Coincidentally, just as I finished it I saw a submission call from Blood Bound Books who were putting together another volume of their legendary DOA anthologies of extreme horror. Because they had published another of my stories in a previous volume, and because I honestly thought I had crossed too many lines for the story to interest any other publishers, I sent them Subject #270374 and sat back to wait for the rejection slip.

It didn’t come. Instead, a few weeks later, I received an email. They liked Subject #270374, but it wasn’t gory enough for them. They didn’t want me to tone it down, they wanted me to tone it UP. So that’s exactly what I did, even though I was sick in my mouth a couple of times.

After some discussion, and a few rounds of edits, Subject #270374 was finally accepted for DOA III where it sits with a veritable who’s who of extreme horror writers including Jack Ketchum, Bentley Little, Wrath James White, Shane McKenzie, Richard Christian Matheson, Edward Lee, Jeff Strand, Betty Rocksteady, and a whole host of others. I am very proud, and humbled, to be in such renowned and illustrious company.

So if you like your fiction bloody and bizarre, and have a strong stomach, come and check out DOA III.

We’ll be waiting.