PS Publishing Showcase, Liverpool One Waterstones

Twisted Tales always put on really entertaining events and last night’s PS Publishing Showcase, held in Waterstones Liverpool One, was no exception.

There was a great audience turnout to listen to three excellent authors read some recent work. One of these authors was Peter Crowther, editor-in-chief at PS, who kicked off the evening with an introductory background talk about PS and how they came to be the leading publisher of genre fiction that they are today. It’s particularly comforting to know that gaffes such as cover typos aren’t just constrained to self-publishing and very small press!

Paul Kane started the readings off with ‘Cold Call’, a story of creepy, stalkerish obsession from his anthology ‘The Butterfly Man’. Following up, Peter Crowther and Ramsey Campbell both read sections from their latest novels. Peter Crowther’s ‘Darkness Falling’ snippet was a very cinematic telling of staff at an American late-night radio show investigating a mysteriously crashed truck. The final excerpt, expertly read by Ramsey Campbell from his novel ‘Ghosts Know’ described the disbelieving protagonist having a very unnerving experience at a psychic show. The following Q and A session threw up all sorts of interesting topics, from favourite authors to how the process of translating novels is dealt with.

As usual I was too shy to actually talk to anyone I didn’t know..! But it was really nice to catch up, albeit briefly, with Ian Cai Mercer and Jon Mayhew.

I look forward to the next Twisted Tales event I’m able to attend, and thanks should go to Glyn and David for organising them. We’ve been informed that these events will be slightly less frequent in future, but they’re certainly worth waiting for.