What have I been up to lately? Well, I’ve been enjoying my holidays, taking a bit of time off having done a lot of promotion for my recent fantasy novel Ravenseed. But what have I done when I’ve not been taking time off? Mostly writing short stories. I’ve written two of these, plus a novella. Here’s a little bit about each.

35 Chestnut Terrace

This is a mystery thriller directly inspired by a Sherlock Holmes short story. I shan’t say which, as I wouldn’t want to spoil your enjoyment either of my story, or of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s (in case for some absurd reason you’ve not read every Sherlock Holmes story already). The title pertains to the scene of a dreadful crime. The plot? A young woman tries to exonerate her fiancé of a horrific murder, but is he innocent?

35 Chestnut Terrace will be serialised in four parts on Medium and Substack this September.

Rachael

A spooky, supernatural tale, about which I remain fairly tight-lipped for now. It’s set in a private girl’s school, and the protagonist is a teacher. The plot involves a play, an ancient curse, and a ghost. I had a lot of fun writing the main character for this one, as she’s not the most well-behaved of my protagonists.

Rachael will be serialised in five parts on Medium and Substack this October.

Wulfric’s Quest

The title may change, but this novella is a second companion piece to Ravenseed, set in a kind of parallel universe Dark Ages Britain. I’m not giving any plot details at this point, but thematically, this is very much cut from the same cloth as both Ravenseed and the other companion piece novella I wrote, Bloodmire. Between the novel and its two supporting tales, I’ve probably written quite enough material set in the Dark Ages, for the time being at least. When will this one be published? I’m not sure. I might hang on to it as an exclusive for an upcoming fantasy anthology.

Ravenseed is available from Amazon on Kindle or paperback here (in the UK) and here (in the US). It is also available from Draft2Digital and their associated outlets here.

(Image Credits: All created by author in Canva.)