Gingernuts of Horror LGBTQ+ month

To prove how truly rubbish I am at keeping up this blog, this blog post is pretty much just going to link to a couple of blog posts I wrote for another website!

I’m delighted to have an article and an interview with me included as part of Gingernuts of Horror’s LGBTQ+ focus month, which is running for the whole of January 2019 and aims to spotlight LGBTQ+ horror writers, who are so often underrepresented in the genre (as in writing in general).

It’s really great to see such a popular and respected site run a feature like this, and to commit to better representation of diverse creatives in general.

You can read more about the LGBTQ+ month in an interview with site owner Jim McLeod here.

You can read my article ‘The Struggle: writing transgender representation’ here.

You can read an interview with me (in which I talk about my horror loves and what makes me write) here.

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The Creative Artist -new documentary series

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to take part in the filming of a new documentary series ‘The Creative Artist’. Photographer and director Adam Pestridge of Portrait Films Ltd is producing this six-part mini-series to explore the creative arts in the Flintshire and Cheshire area – from writing, to music, to art and everything in between.

I’d like to thank Adam again for giving me the opportunity to be involved in this fascinating project. I’d never been filmed for an interview before, so the whole process was particularly interesting to me – and I now have a much greater appreciation for the film industry where the slightest change in natural light can affect a whole shot!

Each interview consists of ten questions and the end result for each episode will be made up of clips featuring the six interviewees for the particular creative art in question. I’m excited to see the finished series when it’s all finalised.

• Read more about Portrait Films Ltd
• Adam J Pestridge Photography

Get Gothic for free this October!

Just a quick reminder that as part of the Chester Literature Festival, I’ll be reading a story from My Glass is Runn in the splendid gothic surroundings of Chester Town Hall on Friday 14 October 2016.

The event is ‘Gothic’ – readings from Chester Writers exploring the dark recesses of the genre – and it’s from 4pm til 6pm (but as I understand it, I’m first in the running order, if you want to hear me read.)

It’s a free event but places are limited so if you’d like to come along then please book your free ticket here.

There’ll be copies of my books on sale afterwards (for anyone who’d like to avoid shipping fees!) and there might even be an extra little free-of-charge surprise for anyone attending… I would love to see you there.

Pssst… wanna know the secret password?

Here’s a little Monday pressie for you – if you’re interested in my brand new short story collection ‘My Glass is Runn’ but not quite sure if you want to commit to buying a copy, you can now read my story ‘This is the Life’ for free – but only if you visit the right page and enter the password… OK, I’ll make it easy for you:

Visit ‘This is the Life‘ and enter password ‘Okapi’ to read a story from ‘My Glass is Runn’ that might hopefully make your Monday not seem quite so bad..!

And if you enjoy that one, then you can buy ‘My Glass is Runn’ in ebook or print format from my shop page – ebooks cost less than a pint and are guaranteed to last longer and never give hangovers, so what are you waiting for? ;)

My Glass is Runn – NOW AVAILABLE!

It’s finally launch day! You can now buy My Glass is Runn online, exclusively from Lulu, via the links below.

• Buy paperback – £5.99 plus postage
• Buy Epub – £2.99 (Can be read on Kobo, Blackberry, Nook, iBooks, Kindle Fire, and more)
• Buy PDF – £2.99 (Can be read on most e-readers but best for laptops and tablets)

If you’re teetering on the fence as to whether to give My Glass is Runn a go, I’ve already had a lovely review (thank you so much, Lucy!) for the collection from one of my advance readers that might give a bit more information:

I read this from cover to cover in less than 24 hours. That’s how good this collection is. It is in turn intriguing, wry, and incredibly creepy.

I really enjoy the way that Booth toys with genre expectations in all of these stories. In some of them I had no idea at any point what the conclusion was going to be; in others I could see where the story might be going but to journey to get there was always different from what I could have guessed.

I won’t go into too much detail about the stories themselves as I’d hate to give too much away, but I do think that in this collection there’s something to creep just about anyone out. Booth’s writing is exceptionally vivid and the images conjured stay with you for hours after you put the book down.

I can’t possibly choose my favourite story but I can give a few personal highlights (and if you want to go into this book completely cold stop reading here!)

I’ve always been a mild arachnophobe and I have a bit of a weird aversion to large displays of taxidermy, so unsurprisingly both Don’t Be Afraid Of The Lights and The Fourth Ape gave me the genuine creeps. I was gripped by The Ghost Bride to the point where I hovered inside the door of my house trying to finish it before I had to go out, and The Dust Bunnies vividly reminded me of why I insisted on sleeping with the light on as a child.

This is definitely a book I will revisit many times. Thoroughly recommend!

You can read more reviews of my work on Goodreads, too.

Finally, I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who reads and supports my work. You mean the world to me and I really appreciate you taking the time to read my stories – I hope you enjoy this new collection.

My Glass is Runn – table of contents sneak peek!

For anyone who’s interested, this is the table of contents for My Glass is Runn, which will be available to buy online from August 13th:

1. The Audsley Chimera
2. Hearts of Gold
3. This is the Life
4. The Dust Bunnies
5. To be Heard
6. Play Ball
7. Waifs
8. The Ghost Bride
9. Sphere Music
10. Life Skills
11. Don’t be Afraid of the Lights
12. Twice a Day with Water
13. Maketh the Man
14. The Fourth Ape

These are all previously published stories, but this is the first time they’ll be available together as a single author collection.

Things the Sea Brings Us – for FREE!

So, the lovely people over at Firewords Quarterly have asked to use my story Things the Sea Brings Us (which featured in Issue 5 of Firewords) for a free sampler newsletter that they’re putting out. I really can’t recommend this magazine highly enough – the compelling writing and full-colour illustration is a thing of beauty and I’m chuffed to be part of such a wonderful publication. If you’d like to read my story (and others!) for free, all you have to do is subscribe to the Firewords newsletter (visit their site and scroll right down to the bottom of the page to the subscription bit) and it’ll drop right into your emailbox. The hard copy of Issue 5 is apparently sold out now, so get in quick and subscribe to read the sampler. Hopefully it’ll tempt you to order a hard copy too, as these books are not to be missed!

• Order e-copy of Issue 5 (that’s my illustrated story there as the example!)
• Buy print and e copies of Firewords
• My author bio on the Firewords site