Accent Press - new anthologies

I feel very guilty at having not blogged in so long. Mainly though this is due to spending time writing, the result being short stories in two new anthologies by Accent Press. The latest anthology from Accent, 'Shiver', is due out early October. It is a collection of terrific, spine chilling Halloween stories. I love Halloween and remember one particularly brilliant party when I was around nine years old. There was the usual apple bobbing, cakes shaped like little ghosts and jellies set with plastic spiders inside. But the best bit was the storytelling. We were at the house of a girl called Camilla Bains (Camilla, if you're out there somewhere do get in touch). Her mum had sat us all in a circle in the dark while she told us the spookiest of stories. The best bit was that she passed around props. So, as she told of the tapping of the dead man's finger at the window we passed between us in the pitch dark, a cold sausage. I remember the clammy digit being thrown up in the air only to land on the head of another terrified kid who probably has nightmares to this day. The dead man's heart was a sopping peeled and squishy peach. At that age, I was both scared out of my wits and enthralled at the story, which is the sort of reaction we all hope to get from the best horror stories. They should be like a car crash - awful but compelling. My story in the Shiver collection, 'Your Number's Up', is a tale of be-careful-what-you-wish for when the unappealing and mean minded Kevin buys a lottery ticket, a series of (as Lemony Snicket would say) unfortunate events ignites his normally dull life in ways he could never have expected. Finally, my move into crime has been sealed with Accent's 'A Case of Crime' which is a collection of short stories of murder and mayhem. 'Goodbye My Darling' is my offering where a woman who thinks she's found the perfect mate learns to her cost that perfection can be hard to find in a marriage partner. I do hope people enjoy these, I'm now going to have a go at a Christmas story which may or may not be dark, dark, dark.......