Day Eight. Halloween is Here!

Just over a week ago, I promised you a number of tricky treats on the countdown to Halloween. I set about to publish links to eight stories to curdle your blood as we sneak up on 31st October…

Well now, finally, we’re here. And I have a special treat for all of you who’ve stayed with me throughout the duration of these dark days and even darker nights.

I’ve got an all new short story, published in Litro magazine’s special Ghosts issue, for you to feast your eyes on.  JELLYFISH can be picked up from any of these London locations FREE.

And if you don’t live in London, why not check out the best dark short I’ve ever written, THE HAUNTING OF ANNIE NICOL, which can be yours for just £1.29!

Thanks for staying with me all week. If you’ve enjoyed it, you can read more stories by AJ Kirby here: http://andykirbythewriter.20m.com/custom_1.html

Or why not check out my creature feature, Paint this town Red, here. Or dare to open The Black Book here. Or try my supernatural tale of revenge from beyond the grave, Bully, which was an Amazon horror number 1, here.

And don’t forget that if you play with fire, you’ll get burned. The Haunting of Annie Nicol has been described as “the perfect ghost story” and is available here.

The road to hell begins in the mind… So watch out at Halloween. Sharkways is a novella which can be read in one sitting, and will scare the pants off you. “The ascent from the midway point is fantastic, and fuses some great, tangible imagery with some haunting psychological terror. (…) Kirby ratchets the tension up to ten and delivers a gratifying finale…” Horror Novel Reviews.

Day Seven. Tricky treats on the countdown to Halloween: Eight stories to curdle your blood.

Triskaidekaphobia. That means the fear of the number 13. And, with Halloween less than 13 hours away here in the UK, here are 13 horrific things to help you get through the night, a baker’s dozen of frights. First up, for all of you who fear the number thirteen, here’s me answering 13 questions on all things horror on the Horror Sleaze Trash website. And here’s three other horror writers I’d recommend: Ralph Robert Moore, Ron Malfi, and of course, the master, Stephen King. So that’s four.

Five is a review of my horror novella Sharkways by the writer Anna L Stephens (here). Six is me interviewed on the Ginger Nuts of Horror website, and seven is a link to The Horror Anthology of Horror Anthologies, of which I am a part. Eight, nine and ten are these excellent horror and dark fiction publishers: Wild Wolf Publishing, TWB Press, and Damnation Books.

Eleven is a list of the 50 scariest horror films of all time, twelve is my guest blog on the Legend Press website about everything-phobia…

So, pumpkins at the ready. Here’s the latest in my scary story a day campaign on the build up to Halloween. THE DANCING QUEEN’S LAST DANCE: http://thenightlight.co.uk/2011/05/the-dancing-queens-last-dance/# And this is your bonus, number 13.

Of course, if you and I survive the 31st, I’ll be undertaking the final leg of my Paint this town Red book tour in Bradford so I hope to see you all there.

And if you can’t wait to read more, you can read more stories by AJ Kirby here: http://andykirbythewriter.20m.com/custom_1.html

Or why not check out my creature feature, Paint this town Red, here. Or dare to open The Black Book here. Or try my supernatural tale of revenge from beyond the grave, Bully, which was an Amazon horror number 1, here.

And don’t forget that if you play with fire, you’ll get burned. The Haunting of Annie Nicol has been described as “the perfect ghost story” and is available here.

The road to hell begins in the mind… So watch out at Halloween. Sharkways is a novella which can be read in one sitting, and will scare the pants off you. “The ascent from the midway point is fantastic, and fuses some great, tangible imagery with some haunting psychological terror. (…) Kirby ratchets the tension up to ten and delivers a gratifying finale…” Horror Novel Reviews.

Day Six. Tricky treats on the countdown to Halloween: Eight stories to curdle your blood.

We’re nearly there. Maybe you can already hear the impatient knocking at your door of so many trick or treaters. Maybe you’ve already handed out all your candy and are scarping the barrel, handing out cans of beans or whatever’s left over in the cupboard. But let this be a warning to you. Cans of beans are your means of survival. Because if the forces of darkness do take over on All Hallow’s Eve on Wednesday, and you’re forced to board yourself up in your cellar, how are you going to survive without your essential provisions? Well? Huh? (And in case the zombie apocalypse does happen, I wrote this guide a few years back for Itchy Leeds magazine)…

Anyway, that’s not what I really wanted you to read today. What I really wanted you to read today is this piece. Horror doesn’t have to concern monsters. The monsters can be ourselves.

And so, without further ado, here’s the latest installment of my story a day on the build up to Halloween. DOORWAYS. http://thrillskillsnchills.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/doorways-by-aj-kirby.html

And if you can’t wait to read more, you can read more stories by AJ Kirby here: http://andykirbythewriter.20m.com/custom_1.html

Or why not check out my creature feature, Paint this town Red, here. Or dare to open The Black Book here. Or try my supernatural tale of revenge from beyond the grave, Bully, which was an Amazon horror number 1, here.

And don’t forget that if you play with fire, you’ll get burned. The Haunting of Annie Nicol has been described as “the perfect ghost story” and is available here.

The road to hell begins in the mind… So watch out at Halloween. Sharkways is a novella which can be read in one sitting, and will scare the pants off you. “The ascent from the midway point is fantastic, and fuses some great, tangible imagery with some haunting psychological terror. (…) Kirby ratchets the tension up to ten and delivers a gratifying finale…” Horror Novel Reviews.

 

Day Five. Tricky treats on the countdown to Halloween: Eight stories to curdle your blood.

With Halloween on the horizon, here’s another daily scare story from the bloodied pen of AJ Kirby. LIP SERVICE: http://wamack.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/lip-service.html

And if you can’t wait to read more, you can read more stories by AJ Kirby here: http://andykirbythewriter.20m.com/custom_1.html

Or why not check out my creature feature, Paint this town Red, here. Or dare to open The Black Book here. Or try my supernatural tale of revenge from beyond the grave, Bully, which was an Amazon horror number 1, here.

And don’t forget that if you play with fire, you’ll get burned. The Haunting of Annie Nicol has been described as “the perfect ghost story” and is available here.

The road to hell begins in the mind… So watch out at Halloween. Sharkways is a novella which can be read in one sitting, and will scare the pants off you. “The ascent from the midway point is fantastic, and fuses some great, tangible imagery with some haunting psychological terror. (…) Kirby ratchets the tension up to ten and delivers a gratifying finale…” Horror Novel Reviews.

Day Four. Tricky treats on the countdown to Halloween: Eight stories to curdle your blood.

Well, by the skin of your teeth, you’ve managed to make it through to Day Four of my countdown to Halloween blog, and you’ll have read your petrified eyes over three stories already… So are you ready for another one? I hope so, because there’s someone banging at your door and he won’t be turned away. His voice is gruff and seems to carry up from the bowels of hell. Can’t you hear him?

Trick or treat? he demands. Trick, or treat?

Do you trust him? Of course not… But then, trust’s a very funny thing, isn’t it. So now, get ready for something a little different. Today’s story is called A QUESTION OF TRUST: http://wordlnd.weebly.com/a-question-of-trust.html It featured on the Wordland zine, run by the excellent Terry Grimwood…

Don’t be fooled by the bright breeziness of this bar (pictured). Darker things run just underneath the surface…

And if you can’t wait to read more, you can read more stories by AJ Kirby here: http://andykirbythewriter.20m.com/custom_1.html

Or why not check out my creature feature, Paint this town Red, here. Or dare to open The Black Book here. Or try my supernatural tale of revenge from beyond the grave, Bully, which was an Amazon horror number 1, here.

And don’t forget that if you play with fire, you’ll get burned. The Haunting of Annie Nicol has been described as “the perfect ghost story” and is available here.

The road to hell begins in the mind… So watch out at Halloween. Sharkways is a novella which can be read in one sitting, and will scare the pants off you. “The ascent from the midway point is fantastic, and fuses some great, tangible imagery with some haunting psychological terror. (…) Kirby ratchets the tension up to ten and delivers a gratifying finale…” Horror Novel Reviews.

Day Three. Tricky treats on the countdown to Halloween: Eight stories to curdle your blood.

Still with me? Good. As you’ll know, I’m celebrating the descent of the world into darkness… Or in other words the countdown to Halloween… by publishing the link to one of my blood-curdling short stories every day until 31st October. These are stories which should be read around a crackling fire whilst the wind whips around your house… Draw your curtains, wrap up warm… Settle in.

But don’t get too comfortable. These are stories which, in turn, can tickle the darker side of your funny bone, or else they are stories which’ll have you checking over your shoulder. And they’ll have you running for the hills when you hear that creak from downstairs…

Today, I’m happy to present the third in my ‘countdown to Halloween’ chilling short-short fictions. This one’s called PSYCHOPOMPERY: http://www.kissthewitch.co.uk/seinundwerden/april11/page12.html and it featured in Sein und Werden’s online edition. So if you’re feeling brave, why not take the opportunity to read some more from Sein’s excellent contributors.

Want to know more about psychopomps? Well, Stephen King could give you a few hints (see The Dark Half) or else you could check out Wikipedia here.

And if you can’t wait to read more, you can read more stories by AJ Kirby here: http://andykirbythewriter.20m.com/custom_1.html

Or why not check out my creature feature, Paint this town Red, here. Or dare to open The Black Book here. Or try my supernatural tale of revenge from beyond the grave, Bully, which was an Amazon horror number 1, here.

And don’t forget that if you play with fire, you’ll get burned. The Haunting of Annie Nicol has been described as “the perfect ghost story” and is available here.

The road to hell begins in the mind… So watch out at Halloween. Sharkways is a novella which can be read in one sitting, and will scare the pants off you. “The ascent from the midway point is fantastic, and fuses some great, tangible imagery with some haunting psychological terror. (…) Kirby ratchets the tension up to ten and delivers a gratifying finale…” Horror Novel Reviews.

Day Two. Tricky treats on the countdown to Halloween: Eight stories to curdle your blood.

Halloween is, like some rough beast, slouching into town. And though you might batten down the hatches and lock your doors, mark me it’ll creep in, red in tooth and claw. It’ll haunt you…

In order to celebrate (?) the forthcoming festival of all things dark, I’m releasing the link to a grizzly new scare story on a daily basis as the countdown to All Hallow’s Eve continues. Today (drum roll), my second daily dose of Halloween horrors is the flash story MOORE’S LAW OF RELATIONSHIPS: http://clockwisecat.blogspot.co.uk/2009/06/moores-law-of-relationships-by.html. Moore’s Law featured on the Clockwise Cat website and is a haunting piece about a relationship gone stale, psychotic tendencies, and bloody murder…

And if you can’t wait to read more, you can read more stories by AJ Kirby here: http://andykirbythewriter.20m.com/custom_1.html

Or why not check out my creature feature, Paint this town Red, here. Or dare to open The Black Book here. Or try my supernatural tale of revenge from beyond the grave, Bully, which was an Amazon horror number 1, here.

And don’t forget that if you play with fire, you’ll get burned. The Haunting of Annie Nicol has been described as “the perfect ghost story” and is available here.

The road to hell begins in the mind… So watch out at Halloween. Sharkways is a novella which can be read in one sitting, and will scare the pants off you. “The ascent from the midway point is fantastic, and fuses some great, tangible imagery with some haunting psychological terror. (…) Kirby ratchets the tension up to ten and delivers a gratifying finale…” Horror Novel Reviews.

Day One: Tricky treats on the countdown to Halloween: Eight stories to curdle your blood.

It’s just over a week to go until Halloween, and, as a horror/ dark fiction author, I’ve had the date marked off on my calendar in red ink (or is it blood?) And in order to celebrate that fact, this blog, and my Twitter account (@ajkirbyauthor – follow me if you like) will be linking to a dark fiction tale of mine every day as the sands in the timer slowly drag down. As the countdown to darkness continues… Mwahhahahaha…

So pack your warm clothes, because I’ll be taking you places which will send a chill down your spine. Make sure your electricity’s working because you’ll want the lights fizzing on full. And that bump you’ve just heard from the basement/ closet… Maybe don’t check it out just yet.

So, pumpkins at the ready, here goes. We’ll start off with CORPORATE: http://spinetinglers.co.uk/ReadStory3200.aspx This ghostly story was published this year on the Spinetinglers website.

And if you can’t wait to read more, you can read more stories by AJ Kirby here: http://andykirbythewriter.20m.com/custom_1.html

Or why not check out my creature feature, Paint this town Red, here. Or dare to open The Black Book here. Or try my supernatural tale of revenge from beyond the grave, Bully, which was an Amazon horror number 1, here.

And don’t forget that if you play with fire, you’ll get burned. The Haunting of Annie Nicol has been described as “the perfect ghost story” and is available here.

The road to hell begins in the mind… So watch out at Halloween. Sharkways is a novella which can be read in one sitting, and will scare the pants off you. “The ascent from the midway point is fantastic, and fuses some great, tangible imagery with some haunting psychological terror. (…) Kirby ratchets the tension up to ten and delivers a gratifying finale…” Horror Novel Reviews.

“A must-read novella for Halloween”: ‘Sharkways’ Reviewed…

I’m delighted to be able to say that my novella, Sharkways, continues to garner excellent reviews, most recently on the Anna Stephens the Writer site here. This particular review is one of the most insightful reviews I’ve ever had, with some great critical analysis of plot, structure and character, as well as some brilliant and visceral descriptions of how exactly the book made her feel… And I can’t thank Anna enough for it, especially for her headline quote: ‘A must-read novella for Halloween.’

And you can get your hands on a copy in paperback, or Kindle version here.

There are many review highlights, and I’ve picked out just a few here, but remember to visit Anna’s website too, which is a great read, describing itself as “A record of the quest to become a published novelist – with a dusting of randomness for good measure.”

Sharkways Review Highlights

“Kirby has written horror before, horror that has made me uneasy and twitchy. He’s never before made me nearly bite my own tongue off in broad daylight on a crowded bus. Sharkways did. Sharkways made me want to pull my legs up onto the chair in case insects crawled out from the gloom beneath my seat and up my legs. The middle part of Sharkways stopped me sleeping.”

“It’s one of those breathless reads that keeps you turning pages and forgetting what you were supposed to be doing.”

“Never has a ghost been more frightening…”

“I don’t want to give too much away as this is a must-read novella for Halloween and those long, dark nights of winter which are coming, but the final ending, after all this horror, was startling in its simplicity and utterly unexpected. For a moment I couldn’t believe Kirby actually had the audacity to do what he did, but in the end I had to simply applaud that audacity, as it created an ending that was both satisfying in the outcome for Minto, and comforting to the reader to learn that all Minto had experienced was truly self-inflicted.”

Book of the Month: The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe

My review of Will Schwalbe’s The End of Your Life Book Club has been published today on the New York Journal of Books website. You can read the review by following this link.

And here’s a taster:

“. . . it’s hard not to love this book.”

If you were asked to describe your stereotypical book club, you’d likely think along the same lines as I. You’d picture a newish suburban house with a fresh-cut lawn. A couple of nice cars, one of them an SUV, in the driveway. A few more SUVs parked up at the curb, most of which would have some kind of jokey bumper sticker hanging off the back. They might say something like “I’d rather be reading” or “Proud parent of an honors student at X Middle School.”

Inside, there might be a cat curled up in a basket in the hallway. There might be vague noises of teenagers present somewhere in the house, though mostly the place will be quiet.

Then you might step through into a living room, the epitome of cozy. Big fluffy sofas laden with cushions. A plethora of occasional tables buckling under the weight of doilies and chintz. A larger, coffee table upon which the book supposedly under discussion will rest unopened, ignored in favor of triangle-cut sandwiches and homemade cakes served from Tupperware containers, or if there are pretensions to gentility anywhere on the premises, perhaps on nice china platters.

Lots of chatting. Not much really being said.

As you may have gathered from the title, Will Schwalbe’s The End of Your Life Book Club is a different kind of book club. It is a club that contains only two members: Will, the son, and Mary Anne, his mother, who has been given months to live after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Their clubhouse? The waiting rooms of the various hospitals, clinics, and doctors’ offices in between the various treatments, including chemotherapy, doled out to Mary Anne. Their ultimate aim, the unspoken mission statement of their club? To allow books to work their magic and bring the pair of them closer together as Mary Anne enters the dusk of her life.”