I’m just as passionate about short stories as I am the longer form. Sometimes an idea can be barely much more than a single scene, but it is so engaging, and its characters so rich, that even if it’s only five thousand words in the telling, it’s a tale that needs to be told.

When I feel a collection in the offing, I try to make it so that there is a theme that binds them together, hopefully giving the reader more than just a string of stories. So then…

A VERY BAD YEAR. This was my first collection and does what it says on the tin. There are twelve stories, each focusing on a month of the year. So January is about resolutions, February is Valentine’s Day, and so on… Many readers like to follow it in that manner, picking up each story in the corresponding month. Others live a year in a day. It’s up to you!

DARK DETOURS. This one was written as we came out of Covid, and I got to thinking about how much of a detour we’d all been on. That then became the mantra for these tales: characters taking the pass less travelled, and usually with disastrous outcomes.

REQUESTS FROM THE DEAD. Here was a project borne out of my involvement in the rather excellent Facebook group, Books of Horror. I asked for members to get involved: if they gave me their name, a couple of details, and whether they wanted their character to live or die, I would write their story! This book was the result.

LOSERS GET HAUNTED. Perhaps not as tightly themed as some of the others, but the stories are - in the main - populated by outcasts and underdogs, or people not conforming to society’s norms. Sometimes it’s good to be a loser.

All of the books mentioned above are available in paperback and in the shop (or direct from Amazon). These next two are currently ebook only, but will get into print soon.

UNLUCKY NUMBERS. Thematically quite simple. We’re surrounded by numbers all day, every day. Each of these stories has a number at its core. They’re just not always lucky.

BITTERLY. I had the idea of setting a series of stories all in one location - a fictitious village which had experienced an unusual, almost cosmic event - and writing about the trouble that befell a whole host of different people, some of it dark, some of it whacky. Welcome to Bitterly. Please drive carefully.

And finally FRIGHTFUL, not pictured because it will probably stay as ebook only, is a collection of Christmas horrors. Always available to download on Amazon though.

Thanks, Stephen