Burnt Fur

My short story, The Others, is included in the furry-themed anthology Burnt Fur, edited by Ken MacGregor, and available now on Blood Bound Books.

BBB, who have previously published my stories The Devil & Jim Rosenthal in DOA and Subject #270374 in DOA III, are one of my favourite publishing companies, and it’s always a pleasure to work with them. We have something else in the pipeline for 2020, more details of that project to follow soon.

Right now, it’s all about the Burnt Fur…

“Burnt Fur: An Anthology of Horror is easily one of my favourite modern horror anthologies. There isn’t a bad story amongst the bunch with some just lacking the extra spark to really get the horror juices flowing.”

From the review by Games, Brrraaains & a Headbangin’ Life

My contribution, the Others, has an interesting back-story. A few years ago when I lived in Hunan Province, China, I started dating a local girl called Ebony. That’s not her real name, by the way. I couldn’t even pronounce her Chinese name, let alone remember it. I called her Ebony because she had beautiful dark skin. One day she told me a story. She said when she was little, she would see animals which looked a bit like ‘friendly bears,’ interacting with people around her. Some were big, some were small, they wore colourful clothing and seemed to communicate with each other. Strangest of all was that apparently nobody could see these things except her. She thought she was going mad, and when she was telling me about this, her eyes filled with tears. Telling someone about this was a big thing for her.

I didn’t know what to think. It’s not something you hear every day. I didn’t doubt her sincerity for a moment. I sympathised because she was relating what had obviously been a traumatic experience for her, or numerous traumatic experiences, as it hadn’t been a one-off incident. These bear-like creatures were around for years. The question was, what did she see? Were these things real? Transgressors from another dimension, maybe? Or was it all in her mind?

I never did find out. Our relationship fizzled out soon after. But her weird confession formed the basis of this story. I also wanted to say something about the convenience and the increasing prevalence of online dating. Because on the internet, you’re never really 100% sure who you’re talking to. 

Is that creepy enough for you? If not, why not slip into your Fursona and see what else Burnt Fur? has to offer?

Burnt Fur Available now on paperback and ebook.

Year One – Dark Moments Anthology

My drabble, The Bell, is included in Year One, the first Dark Moments anthology from Black Hare Press with a whole host of stellar names.

Again, fuck cancer.

Year One is available now on paperback and ebook.

100 Word Horrors 4

Hello, you sexy bastards. I just want to let you know that I have a drabble included in the new anthology 100 Word Horrors 4, which will probably be the last in the series, edited once again by the irrepressible Kevin Kennedy. Without giving too much away, my contribution, entitled Louie’s Room, is about a boy who loves playing with toy soldiers. Didn’t we all? But maybe Louis loves playing with his toys a little bit too much and as ever, there’s a twist.

Bagging a spot in number four means I’ve been lucky enough to have had stories published in each volume of the 100 Word Horrors series, and a few of my drabbles have found homes on other platforms. At first, I found the whole process of writing drabbles a drain. It was too restrictive, the margins for error too fine and a lot of work for very little pay-off. But over the past couple of years I’ve grown to love it. It’s still a challenge, but it’s also a good exercise for other forms of writing. You have to make every word count. It’s much easier said than done, but don’t take my word for it. Have a go. Sit down and write a bona fide story, with a beginning, a middle, and an end, in 100 words not including the title or byline. Not 99 or 101 words. Exactly 100. I’m sure people have been driven insane by much less.

100 Word Horrors 4 is available now.

2019 in Review

It’s that time of year again…

Another one ‘in the books,’ so to speak. And time for another quick review.

2019 kicked off in a high gear for me. In January I finally finished the final edits of my novella Tethered and started punting it around carefully selected publishers, and placed drabbles in 100-Word Horrors volumes 2 and 3, to follow-up my appearance in the first volume.

Saunders for the hattrick.

I also finished compiling X: Omnibus, a collection of all three of my short story collections to date, plus some other odds and ends. I’d already commissioned a cover from the sublime Greg Chapman, but even though most of the stories have been published before in various places, many of them still needed a bit of spit and polish. That process complete, I then had to format both the paperback and ebook versions and set about the task of marketing the sucker. I try to do a couple of guest posts at horror blogs and sites around every release. I find it beneficial, as well as fun. Most notably, this time around I popped up on Kendall Reviews discussing why I write horror.

In the first quarter of the year I had a couple of ‘quiet horror’ stories accepted into anthologies. Specifically, Down the Road appeared in a two-volume anthology on Smoking Pen Press entitled Vampires, Zombies & Ghosts, and Where a Town Once Stood was included in the Corona Book of Horror Stories. Obviously, I couldn’t stay ‘quiet’ for long and indulged my wild side in Trigger Warning: Body Horror from Madness Heart Press which included my surrealist skit Revenge of the Toothfish. Tiny Little Vampires was in a similar vein, and that was published by Tell Tale Press and elsewhere, The Bell showed up in Dark Moments.

With seven (count ’em!) new short stories being published, 2019 was probably my most successful ever calendar year in fiction. I also wrote seven or eight more shorts of various lengths and made a start on a new novel about a P.I. (Paranormal Investigator) and his cat I’ve been planning for a long time. For the most part, my fiction has taken a slightly surreal turn. There have been disembodied fingers poking through plugholes, giant cockroaches, and assassins with supernatural abilities. Still, most of the time, I’ve been living in China and writing non-fiction under a pseudonym. There are a lot of good reasons why I use a pseudonym when I write about my adventures and misadventures in the Middle Kingdom, which I won’t go into here. Let’s just say what happens in China is often best left in China, and written about by some other dude with a fake name. But it’s no big secret. If you want to know who this guy is, PM me and I’ll probably tell you, as long as you’re not the thought police.

*Nervous grin.*

I’m quite excited about this coming year. My RetView series of blog posts where I re-visit classic horror movies is picking up more readers and going from strength to strength, the latest installment of my X series of short fiction (imaginatively entitled X4. I like to keep things simple) is set to drop soon, and I’ve already had a couple of stories accepted into anthologies penciled in for 2020 releases. Hopefully, I’ll also have some new material which I’ve been working on for a while out in the second half of the year, so watch this space!

Thanks for reading.

2018 in Review.

The Corona Book of Ghost Stories

I am pleased to report that my 6th short story of the year, Where a Town Once Stood, has been included in the Corona Book of Ghost Stories on Corona Books, UK-based independent publishers of the “brilliant, innovative and quirky.”

 

I’m not sure which category Where a Town Once Stood belongs, probably the third one. It’s a pretty straight-forward ghost story with a dash of social commentary based on a period of my life when I was trying to break into journalism. I was still working full-time in a packing factory, so I did a few voluntary shifts at a local newspaper called the Merthyr Express in my spare time. I just wanted to see what went on behind the scenes at a newspaper. Suffice to say it wasn’t exactly Fleet Street. In fact, it was far more boring than I thought possible, and while I sat in the office fielding phone calls about fetes and community meetings I yearned for something exciting to happen. A real-life ghost story would have been the dream, but there were times when I would have settled for a giant cucumber story.

Reading it now, Where a Town Once Stood would be a perfect addition to my series of stories set in the fictional Welsh village of Wood Forge. For some reason however, I named the village Tref y Meirw which (I think) means ‘Town of the Dead’ in Welsh.

A little private joke there.

By the way, to give credit where it’s due, I appropriated the title Where a Town Once Stood from an Alarm song about the decline of post-industrial Wales from the seminal album Change.

Check out the ToC:

The Corona Book of Ghost Stories is out now.

100 Word Horrors 3

I am happy to announce that my drabble (100-word story) Naughty Step, a nasty little tale ultimately about the consequences of adultery, has been included in the new anthology 100 Word Horrors 3 edited by Kevin J. Kennedy.

Check out the awesome cover art.

I’ve been lucky enough to have had stories previously included in 100 Word Horrors and 100 Word Horrors 2, both of which picked up some fantastic reviews, so it’s great to keep the streak alive. Saunders for the hat trick!

100 Word Horrors 3 is available on Amazon now.

Vampires, Zombies and Ghosts, oh my!

I am pleased to announce that my short story, Down the Road, is featured in part two of the new twin-volume anthology on Smoking Pen Press entitled Vampires, Zombies & Ghosts.

Here’s a sneak preview of the breathtaking cover art by Elle Rossi.

I first wrote Down the Road, an alternate take on the phantom hitchhiker urban legend with one of my customary twists in the tail, several years ago. It was originally accepted by another publisher for a proposed new horror fiction magazine, but financial problems meant that project was put on hold indefinitely. After about two years in limbo, I finally accepted the fact that the project was probably never going to get off the ground, withdrew my story, started submitting it again, and here we are. It’s one of my more subtle, thought-provoking offerings. I am excited that thanks to the good people at SPP, it will finally see the light of day. Or the dark of night.

Vampires, Zombies and Ghosts (Volume 2) is out now on paperback and ebook.

100 Word Horrors 2

Back last year I contributed to an anthology of drabbles called 100 Word Horrors. I’d never written a drabble until then, but found it a lot of fun as well as a good exercise. When you only have 100 words, you have to be concise and make every word count. The format is one I enjoy, and I’ve dabbled (drabbled?) in it quite a lot since.

Here’s another one.

Fast forward a few months and editor Kevin Kennedy is at it again.

Introducing… 100 Word Horrors 2.

How’s this for an awesome cover?

My contribution this time around, Hitori Kakurenbo, is a spin-off from my recently completed (and as yet unpublished) novella Tethered. It isn’t set in the same universe, nor does it feature any of the same characters, but the two stories are linked because they both concern creepy internet rituals. Translated from Japanese, Hitori Kakurenbo means ‘One person hide and seek.’ Or something along those lines. I’ll be giving the game away if I divulge too much here, but let’s just say it involves a stuffed doll, a knife and some blood. Wahoo! What more do you need for a fun night in by yourself?

Check out 100 Word Horrors 2 to read Hitori kakurenbo in its 100-word entirety, along with stories by lots of other, more talented writers including Amy Cross, Andrew Lennon, David Moody, Michael Bray, Shaun Hutson, Terry West and my spirit uncle Craig, to name but a few.

I’m just there for the shits and giggles.

And the stuffed dolls.

100 Word Horrors is available now on ebook and paperback.

X: Omnibus is out now!

Look what I did!

The complete published short fiction of dark fiction writer C.M. Saunders taken from the pages of Raw Nerve, Roadworks, Dark Valentine, Fantastic Horror, Siren’s Call, Screams of Terror, Gore magazine, the Literary Hatchet and many more magazines, ezines and anthologies in one bumper volume.

Includes everything from the first three X collections of short fiction, the stand-alone Human Waste, and two bonus stories exclusive to this collection.

Contents:

Thin Disguise
A Hell of my Own Creation
Monkey Man
The Awful Truth
Mr. C
Fame / Infamy: A Deconstruction
Another False Dawn
The Night Everything Changed
The Devil & Jim Rosenthal
Club Culture
Little Dead Girl
Curiosities
Intruder
The Night Visitor
Hero of the Day
Embracing Solitude
Treat Night
Handsome Jack
Tiny Little Vampires (Flash Version)
Roadkill
‘Til Death do us Part
Gwraig Annwn
The Delectable Hearts
The Answer in Darkness
What Happened to Huw Silverthorne
What Happened Next
Altitude Sickness
Switchblade Sunday
Slots-a-Pain
The Elementals & I
Human Waste
Coming Around
The Forever Nameless
Afterword

Out now on paperback and ebook.

X: Omnibus – Cover Reveal

Greetings! I am excited to announce the imminent release of my next project. And this is a BIG one. Details to follow soon, but in the meantime I wanted to give you a sneak preview of the stonking new cover art designed by the ludicrously talented Greg Chapman.

What do you think?

The ebook is available for pre-order, and through some strange quirk of fate, the paperback is out now.