Monthly Archives: September 2025

Update: September 2025

Posted on by

This will only be a brief update, as I’m juggling several writing plates at present.

For a start, I’m deep into the planning of my next novel, to be written in earnest early next year. This is the second in a long-running supernatural thriller series I’m planning. The first novel was written earlier this year, and I’m going to revisit that manuscript next year to start polishing, testing on beta-readers, and so forth. I’m very excited about this series, which introduces a couple of recurring investigator characters I’ve rather fallen in love with. I hope you do too, when you get the chance to read them. But that’s probably at least a couple of years away, at this point.

In the slightly nearer future, paying subscribers to my Substack page will get to see the horror short stories I’m currently writing, possibly as early as next year. One is a ghost story (first draft finished), the other a sort-of body horror piece that perhaps someone like David Cronenberg could make into a suitably twisted film (currently halfway through the first draft). These will be released after I’ve finished serialising The Hobbford Giant, a horror mystery novel currently being released in weekly instalments. To whet your appetite, why not read the first chapter here, absolutely free?

There’s more I could say, but I’m sure you’d prefer that I was hard at work writing, so I’ll get back to it. I’ll return with another update at the end of next month.

(Header image created by author in Canva.)

New Novel Exclusively on Substack: The Hobbford Giant

Posted on by

I’m thrilled to announce my horror mystery novel The Hobbford Giant is now being made available to paying Substack subscribers. It will be serialised over the coming weeks, but to whet the appetite, the first chapter is available to everyone. I do not plan to release The Hobbford Giant in any other format at this time. Therefore, for the foreseeable future, this novel is a Substack exclusive. Here’s a brief tease of what lies ahead, plot wise.

Against the wishes of her parents, Mira Webb moves in with her estranged uncle, after getting a job at the local paper in the southwest town of Hobbford. Her first assignment involves a piece on archaeologists digging in the grounds of a children’s home closed years previously in the aftermath of an abuse scandal. Their discoveries may shed light on the legend of a giant that once menaced the area, but after she experiences ghostly visitations, and the archaeologists start winding up in comas, Mira comes to believe an ancient curse may be at work; a curse to which she has a horrifying personal connection.

The Hobbford Giant belongs at the darker end of my fiction. It opens like a mystery thriller, but evolves into a psychological horror story with (possible) supernatural elements in play. It explores themes of repressed memories, childhood trauma, and what happens when lies are covered by more lies. The tagline “Some secrets can claim your soul” feels apt, for reasons I obviously won’t spoil.

The first chapter of The Hobbford Giant is available to read now, entirely free of charge. Head over to my Substack page by clicking here. To read later chapters as they are released, and for full access to the rest of my archive on Substack (including several novellas, short stories, film retrospectives, top tens, exclusive videos, and more), upgrade from being a free subscriber to a paid subscriber at $5 per month.

(Header image created by author in Canva.)