Tag Archives: Simon Dillon

All Dark Places: Launch party today!

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Today, Dragon Soul Press are hosting an online launch party on Facebook for All Dark Places, the horror anthology for which I have contributed the short story Once in a Lifetime. The anthology is out now.

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The launch party is taking place between 2pm and 7pm UK time. You are invited!

I will be hosting between 6pm and 7pm, so dip into that hour (or any of the other hours) for Q&A, games, giveaways and more. Simply search Facebook Events with “All Dark Places release” and join the fun. Looking forward to seeing you there!

All Dark Places launch event this Saturday!

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As you are probably aware, my short story Once in a Lifetime has been selected for inclusion in the Dragon Soul Press horror anthology All Dark Places (out now).

This weekend, Dragon Soul Press are hosting an online launch party on Facebook, between 2pm and 7pm UK time. You are also invited!

I will be hosting between 6pm and 7pm, so dip into that hour (or any of the other hours) for Q&A, games, giveaways and more. Simply search Facebook Events with “All Dark Places release” and join the fun.

All Dark Places: out now

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All Dark Places is out today! This horror anthology, published by Dragon Soul Press, features a short story I wrote entitled Once in a Lifetime, and other scary tales from fellow authors Hui Lang, Anna Sinjin and AM Cummins.

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Once in a Lifetime is an existential dread short, inspired by an existential dread nightmare that troubled my sleep earlier this year. It involves a man who wakes up in a strange London flat in bed with a woman he doesn’t know, who insists he is someone else in an entirely different life. More disturbingly, memories of his former life – including his wife and children – start to fade from his mind.

For your copy or download of All Dark Places, click here.

All Dark Places: The countdown begins

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On the 30th of October, All Dark Places will be released by Dragon Soul Press. This horror anthology features a short story I wrote entitled Once in a Lifetime, as well as other spine-freezing gems from Hui Lang, Anna Sinjin, and AM Cummins.

Once in a Lifetime, is an existential dread short, inspired by an existential dread nightmare that troubled my sleep earlier this year. It involves a man who wakes up in a strange London flat in bed with a woman he doesn’t know, who insists he is someone else in an entirely different life. More disturbingly, memories of his former life – including his wife and children – start to fade from his mind.

Over the next few days, I’ll be interviewing my fellow contributors, so keep checking back every day to hear entertaining insights from these terribly talented wordsmiths.

All Dark Places is released on the 30th of October and can be pre-ordered here.

All Dark Places – Now available for pre-order

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All Dark Places, the horror anthology containing my short story Once in a Lifetime, is now available for pre-order from Amazon Kindle. Just click the link below.

NOTE: Dead tree (ie print copies) will be available for pre-order soon.

All Dark Places is published by Dragon Soul Press and released on the 30th of October.

BIG NEWS: The Spectre of Springwell Forest to be published by Dragon Soul Press

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I am very pleased to announce my next novel, The Spectre of Springwell Forest, is to be published by Dragon Soul Press this December.

Spectre of Springwell Forest sinister wood - for blog headerNeedless to say, I am utterly thrilled at this news. Having a traditional publisher has been a wonderful, eye-opening experience, and I am very excited to see where things go from here. My previous novels have all been self-published with varying degrees of success, but it is wonderful to now have talented publishing professionals working alongside me.

The Spectre of Springwell Forest is a mysterious, ghostly, gothic nail-biter. The story involves a young mother who is strangely drawn to a sinister painting of an abandoned railway tunnel. If you enjoyed my previous novels The Birds Began to Sing or The Thistlewood Curse, you’ll definitely enjoy this one too.

In the meantime, don’t forget I also have my short story Once in a Lifetime coming soon, as part of the All Dark Places horror anthology, also published by Dragon Soul Press.

All Dark Places is released on the 30th of October.

The Spectre of Springwell Forest is released on the 20th of December.

My brain needs a break

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My brain needs a break. Here’s a scary picture of me in brain meltdown mode.

IMG_0660(1) Given the rather excessively productive year I have had so far (first drafts on two longer than usual novels, lots of editing on earlier, currently unreleased novels, and a couple of short stories), I have decided to take a short break from writing and from posting on this blog. However, I will be back in the first week of September, and I will still post film reviews of any films I see at the cinema.

In the meantime, if you’re a regular visitor to this blog, or are stumbling on it for the first time, why not buy or download one of my novels?

I write in a variety of genres, so here are five that might interest you:

Folded Valley coverChildren of the Folded Valley – By far my most popular novel to date, this tale of a man looking back on his life growing up in a strange cult has over eighty mostly rave reviews on Amazon, and seems to have struck a chord with a lot of readers. It even seems to have got under the skin of people who didn’t like it (eg “Disturbing, distasteful and fascinating all at the same time” was one “negative” reader comment). I’ve also been told it’s my most “personal” novel to date, whatever the hell that means, although to be fair it is partly inspired by some of my own experiences in a cult during the early part of my life. Check it out here.

 

Uncle Flynn_CoverUncle Flynn – A story about overcoming fear and the dangers of mollycoddling disguised as a treasure hunt adventure, this is my second most popular novel, and again, Amazon reviews are mostly raves. It is aimed at all ages, so don’t be put off by the “children’s book” label. For example, one reader said “In this day and age I sometimes find myself reading books like this unaware. I loved it and I’m nearly 69 years old. Uncle Flynn is a real treat.”

Read more here.

 

The Birds Began to Sing_1600x2400_Front CoverThe Birds Began to Sing – A nail-biting psychological thriller about a wannabe writer entering a mysterious writing competition in a remote country house, this will satisfy anyone who loves a gripping, sinister narrative with a big twist ending. The reviews on Amazon are unanimous raves, with one reader commenting: “I kept guessing, thinking up various theories but never really sure which one would solve the mystery. As it turned out, none of my ideas were right!”

Click here for more.

 

Echo and the White Howl Cover 10 (FINAL)Echo and the White Howl – An animal fiction adventure about wolves in Alaska, mixing dirt-under-the-paw revenge story realism with a dash of the metaphysical. Tonally it is akin to something like Watership Down, and just as much aimed at adults as children. Here’s what one reviewer had to say: “The wolves bring to mind Jack London as well as George Orwell’s Animal Farm, but Dillon does it his own way, as always, with the spiritual/religious features that are common in his work.”

Click here for more.

 

LvsHonour 1600 x 2400Love vs Honour – Teenage romantic drama isn’t a genre I typically I dabble in, but this novel is something of an outside curiosity compared with my usual work. It details a tale of star-crossed teenage lovers with a religious twist, as the protagonists try to appease their religious parents by pretending to convert to Islam and Christianity respectively. A tangled web of deception ensues, building to a much darker final act that some readers think is brilliant and some readers absolutely hate. Why not have a read here and decide for yourself?

 

 

Happy reading, and see you in September.

Update on current projects

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2018 is more than half over, so here’s a sort-of mid-term report on how the year is shaping up for me so far.

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Ravenseed – The first few months of the year were spent writing this Dark Ages set fantasy novel. Even though I have yet to test it on any Beta readers, I’m really very pleased with the results. A brooding, melancholy tale of knights, sorcerers and enchantment, Ravenseed simmers with love, lust, betrayal and revenge. However, alongside the Dark Ages narrative is a parallel framing story set in the present, featuring a journey that echoes the quest in the ancient past. It was a very tricky novel to write, but I honestly think my hard work paid off.

Peaceful Quiet Lives (title to be confirmed) – This week, I have just finished making a few final adjustments to the first draft of this dystopian novel set in a future America. I have set out to satirise both sides in the so-called culture wars, and at this point I honestly can’t tell if I succeeded brilliantly, or if the novel is a crash and burn failure. Perhaps looking at it in a few months with a fresh eye and the feedback of Beta Readers will shed a more accurate light on what I actually have here.

The Spectre of Springwell Forest – This ghostly, gothic nail-biter (which I wrote in the early part of last year) will be my next release. The story is set in the 1970s, and involves a sinister painting and an equally sinister abandoned railway tunnel. Full details to follow soon. Watch this space.

In addition, this year I have written a short story which I have just submitted to a publisher in the hopes that it will selected for a horror anthology entitled All Dark Places which his due for release this October. If my story is chosen, more details will follow.

Speaking of short stories, I’m currently writing another, a romantic fairy tale, to submit to a different anthology due for release in December. In fact, I’d better get back to it…

Why I am an egomaniac

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I am a writer, which makes me a bit of an egomaniac.

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I don’t think that is a bad thing, and here is why. To honestly, truthfully believe that someone would want to read whatever it is you have written, you need to be possessed of a certain egomania. You have to believe you are a great writer. In fact, I personally believe every novel I write is the most imaginative, exciting, gripping, funny, relevant, thought-provoking and moving novel ever written, whilst I am writing it.

Of course, amid these dizzying heights come the dizzying lows (in my case, George McFly Syndrome), and invariably it is unlikely at best that I have written the greatest novel of all time. But I still have to believe that someone, somewhere will want to read it. Otherwise, it becomes very, very hard to persevere.

So, accepting that writers are egomaniacs to a greater or lesser degree, how can that ego be managed so it doesn’t become insufferable? My personal recommendation is twofold.

Have a very, very thick skin – This is vital for when Beta readers come back with critiques of your work. If they are worth their salt, they will not sugar-coat things and they will be severe when they need to be. I once had a Beta writer tell me to put a particular novel through the shredder (I have since agreed that it should never see the light of day). If you fail to listen to Beta readers (they may be wrong, after all), be aware that if they are correct, you are adding vanity to folly by exhibiting your flawed or failed work. In that case, be fully prepared for scathing reviews. Incidentally, I try to wear bad reviews on my sleeve wherever possible. Not everything I have published has been a roaring success, and in some cases, I have ignored Beta readers when I really shouldn’t have done. However, it is a learning process, so I take all that on the chin.

Have a very dark, self-deprecating sense of humour – This is more for the benefit of those you live with – wives, husbands, children, families, flatmates and so on. The ability to laugh at yourself will be a saving grace and a fine counterbalance to the egomania necessary to actually finish a book in the first place. Great books have been written by people who didn’t possess the ability to laugh at themselves, but I bet they were really, really horrible people to live with. If you are going to be a melodramatic flounce, at least try and be self-aware enough to realise that even if you are the greatest writer of all time, a bit of humility goes a long way, and the ability to laugh at yourself goes even further.

Now go and read my books. They are all absolutely bloody brilliant.

In the shadow of Nineteen Eighty-Four: Writing my current novel

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71Y5qibEolLI have recently re-read George Orwell’s dystopian milestone, Nineteen Eighty-Four. As ever, I came away from it stunned by the satirical and chilling narrative, and deeply alarmed at its prophetic insights. However, I also experienced something I hadn’t expected: Intimidation. This book has been called one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century, and sometimes the greatest. The bar for this kind of fiction has been set very highly indeed, not just with Nineteen Eighty-Four but also other classic dystopias like The Handmaid’s Tale, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, A Clockwork Orange and so on. Therefore, what business does an upstart like me have trying to write a dystopian future shock novel? Can I really add anything of value in this genre?

Whatever moments of George McFly Syndrome I may experience along the way, I honestly believe I can. I am about two-thirds of the way through what has become one of the most challenging and exciting novels I have ever undertaken. I have no idea if the finished product will be brilliant, terrible, or something in between, but nonetheless I am writing it with a passion unprecedented even by my standards.

The title remains a secret for now, but the story is set a little way into the future, in America. It is, broadly speaking, a dystopian drama about the so-called culture wars, satirising both sides and their various subcultures. The “religious right” and “liberal left” are equal targets of my ire, and common sense is utterly disregarded by both during the events of the story.

This makes it sound like I have an axe to grind, and perhaps, for once, I do. But I don’t intend to lash out at the reader in despair. Nor is this intended as a political statement of any kind (heaven forbid). What I hope for this book is that it will be gripping and dramatic; at times darkly comic, absurd, thoughtful, moving, tragic, and perhaps yes, a little bit angry. But I hope the overall feeling the reader is left with is sympathy for the plight of the protagonist, rather than a sense that they are being preached at. After all, in the past I have been very vocal about what can happen when writing a story with a conscious agenda. The last thing I ever want to sound like is condescending, finger-wagging or preachy.

More on this novel once it is finished, polished, and finally published. Watch this space.