"In the centre of one village there was a timber chapel with a thatched roof. Its front door stood open on blackness, from which came a monstrous buzzing of flies. Rodric didn’t need to enter to know what he would find in there: bodies piled seven or eight deep; when all else failed, holy sanctuary would have been the only place left where the dying wretches could imagine they’d find solace or comfort, or – laughably, he now realised – refuge."
Hopefully that nasty little nugget will whet all your appetites for KING DEATH, my new novella from SPECTRAL PRESS, the amazing cover to which, courtesy of artist Neil Williams, is posted above.
I won't say too much for fear of giving things away, but KING DEATH is a full-on horror story set in my beloved Middle Ages, fourteenth century England to be precise, and it takes us to a world so ravaged by disaster and despair that the dividing line between normality and deranged fantasy has quite literally collapsed - which, it won't surprise you to learn, is not to the dissatisfaction of everyone.
The book is only officially available from December 6th, but I hear that orders and subscriptions are being placed at a rate of knots, so if you're interested in getting hold of this, it's advisable to get in there quickly.
Meanwhile, if you can spare me a personal moment (yes I know, another one) my script for THE DEVIL'S ROCK has received it's most fulsome praise to date in advance of the movie's offical premiere in North America at the Fantasia Film Festival, Montreal. An article on SPECTACULAR OPTICAL refers to it in the following terms: "An admirably smart and talky piece that doesn’t use dialogue exclusively to trot out plot elements or backstory, as is all too common in historical horror films. The ongoing faceoff between Captain Grogan and SS Officer Klaus Meyer is defined by rich character work and sparking dialogue".
What more can I say, except that I agree with every word.
On the subject of new releases, the 8th BLACK BOOK OF HORROR, of which I'm proud to be part, is now officially available, or will be imminently, from MORTBURY PRESS and all the other usual places, such as Amazon etc. I have to promote this one, as it's not too often that a book is published with an image of your severed head on the cover.
Demonik, who rules his excellent website VAULT OF EVIL with a rod of critical iron, appears to be suitably impressed. He apparently read the whole anthology within two days of receiving it and has described it as "a monsterpiece". (For the full TOC on 8BBH, check back a few posts on this blog).
On the back of a great holiday in sun-kissed Guernsey and a chance to explore at first hand the German fortifications that I wrote about in THE DEVIL'S ROCK, this has been a pretty good week so far. All I need now is a PA who'll work for nothing, to sort out the mountain of paperwork that always seems to build up in my office when I'm out of it for more than a couple of days.
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