New Publications for 2019

For a year when I was supposed to be taking things easy - at least on the fiction-writing front - I've had a surprising number of published stories. Obviously there's still a month to go until the end of the year, but so far in 2019 I've had a total of seven new stories published - making it one of my most prolific years to date. Of course, it helped that this Halloween offered a bumper crop, with three stories appearing in the week of All Hallows Eve alone. That's one of the perks of writing horror fiction, I guess.

Interestingly, the first two publications of the year were under my pen name, Ian Steadman.. The name was then retired, and I hit a bit of a fallow period - clearly I was in mourning. Some of the stories that came out in the second half of the year could easily have been Ian stories too, had he still been with us. If you're curious as to why I retired the pen name (or why I used it at all), you can read about it here.

My short story publications for 2019 are as follows. It goes without saying that I'd love for these to be nominated for any awards, should anybody see fit - but more importantly, I hope you find the time to read some of them. A story only truly comes to life when it finds a reader, so your job is just as important as mine.

The stories:

We Live in Dirt (as Ian Steadman)
This was published in Shallow Creek early in the year, an anthology from the fine folks at STORGY. Mushrooms, VHS tapes, a murder, and a whole truckload of weirdness.

The Sea Wall (as Ian Steadman)
A story in Hell's Empire, an anthology edited by John Linwood Grant and published by Ulthar Press. The remit was to bring the denizens of Hell to Victorian Britain - so where better to head than to the seaside?

After the Reservoir
A fairly short tale I'd been messing around with for a while, that finally found a home in BFS Horizons #9 (the journal of the British Fantasy Society). Partly influenced by Algernon Blackwood. 

By Black Snow She Wept
Ever wanted to read an epistolary John Wyndham-influenced horror story set in the Old West? Well, here you go... This appeared in the debut issue of The Macabre Museum this October, just in time for Halloween.

Ones and Zeros 
Another Halloween publication, this time in The Ghastling. Writing on the theme of 'the Number 10', what came out was an attempt at an unconventional haunting with foxes, binary code and the obligatory creaking floorboards.

Far From Home 
I've been working on this story on and off for close to five years, so I was thrilled when it made an appearance in the excellent Nox Pareidolia anthology from Nightscape Press, alongside such fine writers as Laird Barron, Brian Evenson and Annie Neugebauer. Consider me starstruck. 

Goya in the Deaf Man's House
My final publication of the year (probably). An award-shortlisted story from the Bath Short Story Award Anthology 2019. Does what it says on the tin.

All in all, that's a respectable number of words this year. As for next year... I have two publications in the pipeline already, but who knows what else it will bring. Whatever it is, it will surely be odd, and uncanny, and maybe a little unsettling. Watch this space.







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