Three days to go - get ready for Pyres!

Happy almost-October everyone. How fast time has flashed by since I hit “Approve for pre-order” on Pyres. The way the book has been received, both by potential readers and those who have seen early copies, has been awesome, with more copies pre-ordered than any of my previous books. Huge thanks for that, and if you still haven’t clicked the button, you can still guarantee your copy for Friday, right up until the big day.

I write this email, by the way, on Tuesday evening. I arrived home from Japan last night at 8pm, had a meeting today after lunch at the school where I’ll begin teaching again tomorrow, so forgive me if any of this is (more than the usual amount of) gibberish.

But anyway, let’s get into it!

September was a wild month for me, starting with finishing teaching my summer course in the UK, then driving west to the Weston-Super-Mare horror book con, Chapter 3 of the incredibly exciting series of horror book conventions put on by the Indie Horror Chapter. It was an amazing event and, even though I was knackered before it even got started, it was great to meet up with fellow writers, as well as so many readers - some of whom will be reading this and made a beeline to grab Pyres. Thanks so much to those who did, I can’t really express what your enthusiasm and support means in words, truly. I hope to get to more of these events in the coming year or so. Watch this space!

Once the event was over and I’d had a few beers with some of my fellow writers, it was time to drive down to Plymouth, onto a boat, and across the water to Santander. It was a stormy crossing, so no dolphins and whales this year, but I got home in one piece where, after just one day at home, I was jetting off to Japan.

I won’t write too much about it here, though I will likely blog about it elsewhere, but suffice to say it was a dream of a trip, and if you’re interested in seeing what I got up to -spoiler: a lot of eating, amongst other things - feel free to hop over to my Instagram.

Now I’m back and, as I mentioned, starting back at a full time teaching position, I’ve turned my mind to what’s next on the writing slate. Of course, I’ll be writing the new novel - the first in an occult detective series, which I’ve mentioned previously - but I also have three other books finished which require different levels of editing. So, I thought I’d enlist you fine people, my readers in deciding which gets done first. Let’s do a poll, shall we?

Here are short synopses for the three books I need to edit. All you have to do is read them, then vote below on which you would most like to read. Here goes:

The Solstice:

“Centuries ago in rural northern Portugal, a man must take his son - the only boy of his generation in the village - to have a mask made in a final, seemingly suicidal attempt to ward off the dark spirits ravaging the land at the winter solstice.”

The Siren of Armorique:

“A British boy is orphaned in a shipwreck off the Brittany coast of France and, while housed in a nearby rural village, something sinister at the heart of the forest sparks to life. Can Sophie, a gendarme exiled after an operation gone wrong in Paris, find out what’s happening and save him?”

Untitled Haunting Novella:

“A black metal band led by an uncompromising, mysanthropic vocalist head to a notoriously haunted manor house in the Suffolk countryside, aiming to engrave the evil of the place into the music of their new album.”

Vote here:

As with July, I managed to take advantage of being in the UK by meeting up with some horror writers, this time in Birmginham. We got together for a curry, a few drinks and a lot of shop talk. Great to hang out with these fine fellows, and look forward to another meet up next year.

And this is a rarity - I even caught up with Michael David Wilson in real life while in Osaka. He introduced me to Hama sushi, which is an amazing conveyor belt sushi chain in Japan and took Ana and I to a fantastic coffee place. Again, great to catch up!

Recommendations

Reading - Lionhearts by Dan Howarth

Last year, Dan Howarth blew up in writing terms with the hard-hitting stag do gone very very wrong novel, Last Night of Freedom. If you read that and thought it was brutal, you probably need to prepare yourself for his new one, Lionhearts. I beta read this book and, at times, had to put it to one side, so uncomfortable were the themes. Strangely, it picks at threads present in my own new novel, Pyres, albeit from a very different direction and in Dan’s inimitable way. I won’t say more, but do take a look and, if you think it could be for you, pre-order Lionhearts here. 

Listening - Lonely People with Power by Deafheaven

We were sitting in the fantastic Music Bar Universe in Gion, Kyoto, drinking cocktails, when two lads came in. One of them, from the weird fiction capital of the world, Portland, Oregon, strongly recommended this album. I looked at the cover art. The title. The fact it was released through Roadrunner Records, who haven’t put out much I’ve liked in a good while. But he implored me to check it out. Told me it was his favourite ‘blackgaze’ album in a while. I didn’t get around to it until the flight home from Japan but, my goodness, thank you to that gentleman, because this album is terrific. More aggressive than Alcest and Les Discrets, or other bands within that sub genre, the hooks on this record had me banging my head within minutes and it just kept on going. You can see if it works for you on your chosen streaming service, here.

Watching - The Ballad of Wallis Island - In-flight movie

Okay, so this really isn’t a horror movie. It’s not even dark. Apologies. I watched this on the plane home and found it to be simultaneously hilarious, touching, and a brilliant angle on what it is to be a fan of an artist, as well as what it means to be an artist. The quirky, awkward humour resonated with me so hard, too. Apologies for not having any horrors for you this month, but give this one a shot, you might be surprised. Check out the trailer here.

Bargains and Freebies

Free horrors, this month, come courtesy of my friend Robin Knabel of Spooky Bones Press and more than twenty other authors. You can check out the full list and grab a free spooky read here.

Writer S. K. Gregory has gathered over thirty horror reads, perfect for spooky season. Grab yourself a terrifying tome here.

Author, podcaster and human dynamo Daniel Willcocks has gathered a select group of horror scribes to participate in The Deliciously Twisted Halloween Book Sale. It officially starts tomorrow (October 1st), but bookmark this one to ensure you don’t miss out! Check out the phenomenal list of discounted reads, here.

That’s all from me for this month. Spooky season starts tomorrow, which I’m incredibly excited about, of course. I’ll be back just before Halloween with news on some podcast appearances, and much more. In the meantime, if you want to ask me something, recommend a book, film or album, or simply say hello, you can catch me on Bluesky, Xitter, Instagram. I love hearing from you lovely people.

In the meantime, take care of yourselves, be kind, and I’ll see you next month.

Kev