One last thing to do before you turn out the light this Halloween…

It’s two minutes to midnight – the witching hour – on 31st October 2013, and here’s one last scare to let your day finish with a bang (and a whimper). Why not get your fangs (and claws) into my new short fiction collection, Trickier & Treatier? It’s available now from Amazon.com – http://www.amazon.com/Trickier-Treatier-AJ-Kirby-ebook/dp/B00GBWTYSA/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1383219228&sr=1-1&keywords=trickier+and+treatier and Amazon.co.uk – http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trickier-Treatier-AJ-Kirby-ebook/dp/B00GBWTYSA/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1383219228&sr=1-1&keywords=trickier+and+treatier

May it electrify your chills…

Happy Halloween: Your Scares are about to get ‘Trickier and Treatier’

Trickier and Treatier is my all new horror shorts collection, released today to mark All Hallows Eve. The book is going to be released in all formats, but for now, it’s out as an ebook only, and it is available from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

Here’s those all-important links:  Trickier & Treatier UK Link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trickier-Treatier-AJ-Kirby-ebook/dp/B00GBWTYSA/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1383219060&sr=1-1&keywords=trickier+and+treatier+by+aj+kirby

Trickier & Treatier US Link: http://www.amazon.com/Trickier-Treatier-AJ-Kirby-ebook/dp/B00GBWTYSA/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1383219228&sr=1-1&keywords=trickier+and+treatier

Here’s the write-up:

“From the bloodied pen of critically acclaimed horror author AJ Kirby comes this new and terrifying collection of 8 bloodcurdling horror shorts.

These are short, sharp, shocking stories from the darker side of the street. They are viceral tales of body horror. They are tales of bloodthirsty beasts on the prowl. They are stories of madness and mayhem, and of things that go bump in the night.

This book is a must-read for horror fans, and those who’ve already enjoyed Kirby’s works such as ‘Paint this town Red’, ‘Bully’, ‘Sharkways’, ‘Perfect World’ and ‘The Haunting of Annie Nicol’.”

And here’s those all-important links again: Trickier & Treatier UK Link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trickier-Treatier-AJ-Kirby-ebook/dp/B00GBWTYSA/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1383219060&sr=1-1&keywords=trickier+and+treatier+by+aj+kirby
Trickier & Treatier US Link: http://www.amazon.com/Trickier-Treatier-AJ-Kirby-ebook/dp/B00GBWTYSA/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1383219228&sr=1-1&keywords=trickier+and+treatier

Halloween Freebie: ‘Sixth Sense’ by Marilyn Baron

The prolific and talented Marilyn Baron’s psychic suspense novel, Sixth Sense, is free on Kindle (Amazon and Amazon UK) Oct. 29-Nov. 2, just in time for Halloween. Here’s the link for UK readers:http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=sixth%20sense%20marilyn%20baron%20kindle

 

It’s a chilling tale of serial killers and a secret society of psychics. Here’s the blurb:

 

Sixth Sense: Psychics, Secrets and Serial Killers

 

Reluctant psychic Katherine Crystal, dubbed “Crystal Ball Kate,” is thrust into the national spotlight when she accurately predicts the death of a movie actor’s young son in a private plane crash. Besieged by requests to use her powers to help others, she realizes why her parents had warned her never to let anyone know of her visions.

By-the-book Atlanta police detective Jack Hale harbors a deep-seated distrust of psychics and ignores Katherine’s warnings when she calls to report her premonition. Jack is forced to partner with Kate, who uses her eerie sensitivity to evil to help him catch a serial killer in Sydney, Australia, but that’s only the beginning of the story. Jack and Kate are drawn into the investigation of a mystery surrounding Kate’s birth and find murder and romance among a secret society of psychics in the quaint seaside spiritualist community of Casa Spirito, Florida.

 

Trickier and Treatier: My New Horror Anthology… Just in time for Halloween

Trickier & Treatier, my all new horror shorts collection, will be going live on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk just in time for Halloween. Published by Manor House Press, the book will be initially available in ebook format only, but the paperback will be available in time for Christmas.

To get you in the mood for tomorrow’s release, here’s a sneak preview of a few of the covers I nearly used for the collection:

Roar and Thunder Magazine accepts ‘The Kings of the Swingers’ for publication

Australia’s Roar and Thunder magazine has accepted my fiction short ‘The Kings of the Swingers’ for publication. You can find out more about the magazine here: http://roarandthunder.com.au/

And, because I like it so much, here’s some of the lyrics from the Jungle Book’s original song:

“Now I’m the king of the swingers, the jungle V.I.P
I reached the top and had to stop
And that’s what bothering me
I want to be a man, man-cub, and stroll right into town
And be just like those other men
I’m tired of monkeying around
Now don’t try to kid me, man-cub, I’ll make a deal with you
What I desire is man’s red fire to make my dreams come true
So give me the secret, man-cub, clue me what to do
Give me the power of man’s red flower so I can be like you.”

The Magpie Trap Oktoberfest Promotion

My novel, The Magpie Trap, is available on special Oktoberfest promotion for FREE, from tomorrow (22nd October) until Friday. You can download your copy here (if you are a US reader): http://www.amazon.com/Magpie-Trap-Novel-ebook/dp/B00CKRWDWY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382376115&sr=8-1&keywords=the+magpie+trap And from here for UK readers: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Magpie-Trap-Novel-ebook/dp/B00CKRWDWY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382376115&sr=8-1&keywords=the+magpie+trap

And here’s a quick synopsis:

Undertaking one of the most audacious heists in modern times is not usually something that people scribble in to their dog-eared lists of ‘things to do before you’re thirty’. Nevertheless, as real life and responsibility close in on our three unhappy heroes, that is exactly what they find themselves planning to do. 

This is a modern morality tale, written with no little humour. It’s about the dark side of the mid-to-late 90’s financial boom. Set in the city of Leeds, UK, this action-packed tale is an excoriating commentary on allowing money to rule your life…

Danny Morris wakes up on the sofa with the furred-tongue and pounding headache of a serious hangover. On the coffee table is the sorry evidence of the previous night’s festivities; the mostly empty bottle of whisky, the overflowing ashtray and the greasy pizza box. There’s something else there too; the bag of money, loot from one of the most audacious heists undertaken in modern times.

A.J Kirby’s ‘The Magpie Trap’ is a high-octane crime thriller in which a band of unlikely criminals discover a technical loop-hole which will allow them to walk out of Edison’s Printers, carrying with them the famous Precisioner printer – the world’s most powerful bank-note printer. 

Will they get away with their crime? Will the money bring them a better life? Or will the dogged ex-detective Jim Hunter pick up their scent? Can they escape the magpie trap? 

AJ Kirby in Issue 1 of Blackwire Literary Journal

One of my all-new short fictions has been published in the inaugural issue of the Blackwire Literary Journal. You can download your copy of this lovely-looking zine, or else read it on your screen, here: http://blackwireliterary.com/issues.html

About the Journal

(This is an excerpt from the Blackwire manifesto)

“This is not a magazine for people who simply want a good story to read, something to distract them, a story that just melts their hearts and makes good honest folk vomit in a dark corner somewhere. Of course, we at Black Wire have lovely hearts and if your impulse upon sitting down to type your masterpieces is to set fire to the primary organ of your readers so that the flame burns on a different kind of colour spectrum, then our advice to you is to climb into bed with us and reveal yourselves in our black leather sheets. Our staff live only to publish great literature; not just great in terms of new ideas but work by writers with the highest understanding of structure, flow, pace and colour. If we do not receive work that we think matches what we hope to achieve, we will simply not publish that season’s issue.

The reading staff at Black Wire have a long history of working with other magazines and know how predictable and bourgeois many of them have become. Though there are still a few good ones out there, let us not be too harsh. Still, this was the reason Black Wire was formed – to publish work that not only inspires through colour and language but that helps to nurture a new breed of writers that can help literature evolve into something more complex, simple and reflective of the great and terrible things that supposedly exist in the world around us. As for specific styles and ideas, do not assume that we are only interested in work that is experimental or full of insane characters. However, at the same time do not be afraid to send us work that does not follow set rules. For example, perhaps your story is set inside of a saucepan of boiling water and your protagonist is a German style hotdog.

Many literary magazines prefer a specific flavour of writing and if you do not purchase their magazine there is no real way of finding out what it is they are looking for. Unfortunately many literary magazines have the same kind of palette and so, as we see it, nothing different ever really gets accepted. If a writer submits their work to a magazine and is rejected, there are a few ways they might respond. If they had already decided that they are the next Franz Kafka, they might send the editor of the magazine a scathing email about how he or she knows nothing about writing and that one day they will be proven wrong. This is not a good way to react, as it shows the magazine that the writer is immature and in all likelihood not experienced, as all writers have had to deal with rejection. Also, it means that the reading staff of the magazine will have a good laugh at what a fool the writer is and they will likely ignore any submissions that they send thereafter. The second response is to quit. This is the worst possible response! It is only natural to feel disappointed when work is not accepted, but one must not give up, we must try again and our advice is to read, read, read. The best way to deal with rejection is to say ‘Well, if they didn’t like that, I shall write something better.’ Writing is a craft and like any craft the more we work the better we will become. Rejection is a natural and important part of becoming a serious writer. It allows the writer to divorce themselves from their ego and look at their work in a more honest and objective light.”

October Book of the Month: ‘Police’ by Jo Nesbo

My October Book of the Month is Police by Jo Nesbo. I’ve reviewed it for the New York Journal of Books here: http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/review/police-harry-hole-novel

And here’s a brief excerpt:

“. . . the series’ crowning glory, its pinnacle achievement.”

Unless the author is highly original, unless the characters are interesting and engaging, unless the stories immediately hook the reader by the time a series of novels reaches its tenth installment it might have begun to seem stale. Formulaic. Samey.

By the same token, if the author is at the top of his or her game, if the characters still have the capacity to intrigue and confound expectation, if the stories don’t just hook the reader but club them on the head until they sit up and take notice, by the time a series of novels reaches its tenth installment, it might truly fly.

Police by Jo Nesbo is a case in point. This is the tenth in Nesbo’s Scandinavian noir crime fiction series featuring the inimitable detective Harry Hole. In the previous novels, Mr. Nesbo has already built one hell of a foundation and here he provides the series’ crowning glory, its pinnacle achievement.

This is, quite simply, a must-read book.

The Final Installment of DF Lewis’s Real-Time Review of ‘The Art of Ventriloquism’

And so, ladies and gentlemen, we reach the concluding parts of DF Lewis’s real-time review of ‘The Art of Ventriloquism’. It’s been a fun ride, and I’d like to sincerely thank Des for his work on this. I’m sure his salient and witty commentary on the text will enhance everyone’s reading of the text.

The latest episode of the review has appeared on the ‘Horror Anthology of Horror Anthologies’ website, which is fitting as the final two stories in the collection are pretty horrific. You can read the whole thing here: http://horroranthology.wordpress.com/the-art-of-ventriloquism/

And here’s a final couple of highlights:

‘The Ninth Circle’ – “The story has much strong writing and has elements of the Gavel’s kangaroo court and it poses several questions in my mind: one of which is the randomness, the sudden realisation there can be no synchronicity, no gestalt after all. And that is sufficient reason for this story’s poignant ending, a philosophical anti-natalism as a version of rough justice”

‘Politicking’ –  “POLITICKING is a grotesque John Dos Passos collage of a coda to the previous stories, one about a politician who is the Government’s Drugs Czar and is also reputed to be into drugs himself and with the fear of his own tiny genitalia as from ‘The Ninth Circle’. And there is another man with this book’s earlier self-harm as a condition of harming others, plus an Aga cooker and surveillance. A country house whodunnit to make this a crime fiction book after all. Where victims abound. You can have Horror without Victims but not a Victimless Crime… You can have women without men, but men without women is another Aga Cooker of fish. You can have leitmotifs without a gestalt, but not a gestalt without leitmotifs. A collection (or as it says on the main title page of this book: ‘anthology’) needs stories, but stories don’t necessarily need an anthology or collection or even a book to hold them. Some stories start in the head and sometimes stay there. These stories luckily escaped to the page. In the mean time…”

Overall, Des had this to say about the collection as a whole: “I loved this book. I am only regretful that I hadn’t got to one of AJK’s books before now. ”

 

“This work, I sense, is Kirby writing at full throttle” – DF Lewis on ‘The Art of Ventriloquism’

The very hungry caterpillar that is DF Lewis’s real-time review of my crime shorts collection, ‘The Art of Ventriloquism’, continues to wend its way through the various tunnels and sharkways of the internet, burrowing into new places on an almost daily basis.  It began on this site: DF Lewis’s Gestalt Real-Time Reviews, before chewing through to the dedicated Cone Zero website, and now, most recently, it has popped up on the Cern Zoo site, here: http://cernzoo.wordpress.com/the-art-of-ventriloquism/

 

That caterpillar’s been all kinds of busy – as has Des – and I can’t thank them both enough for their carefully considered and wonderfully complimentary reviews thus far.

And if you fancy joining the caterpillar for the ride, here’s how you can purchase the ebook: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Art-of-Ventriloquism-ebook/dp/B008VM8S0I/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1378740720&sr=1-1&keywords=the+art+of+ventriloquism And here’s how you can get your hands on the print version: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Art-Ventriloquism-A-Kirby/dp/1484904915/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1381400547&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=the+art+of+ventriloquism+by+aj+kirby

Most recently, Des has focused on three new tales – ‘Survival of the Fittest’, ‘What Got Garry Gorman’s Goat?’, and ‘The Burned Man’. And here’s some highlights:

‘Survival of the Fittest’ – “I already knew, from my own admittedly limited experience of this author, that he is good, really good. But this book is, for me, genuinely a revelation. I’m very surprised it has not made more of a profile in the world of fiction than its seems to have done so far. Maybe it is true after all that the Internet and ebooks and self-publishing &c. have inundated all of us and we can no longer see the needle from the haystack or the wood from the trees whence books should be made. We should indeed depend on the survival of the fittest…”

‘What Got Garry Gorman’s Goat?’ – “This is ostensibly a bizarre story upon which I have so far not managed to get a ratiocinative handle. Yet, that does not seem to matter. I have already given up any need to encapsulate the fiction in this book, like getting rid of my own chauffeur’s cap after having driven along its audit trail up to this point in the journey. Garry is a limo driver for hen parties, and there is a brilliant description of the group of girls who make up this night’s particular hen party and of their treatment of Garry, a tribe of wild female warriors preparing for domination of future’s reality zoo, I guess.”

 

‘The Burned Man’ – “This is of novella length. I am currently about halfway through reading it and I am literally enthralled… This work, I sense, is Kirby writing at full throttle, a compelling tale of a first person narrative by a female extensively evoking her life from teenage years onward until she gets a job at a radio station as a phone-in call-sifter. But that tells you nothing about the sheer silky flow of the text and its images, concepts, idioms, similes, emotions, nuances, poignancies and so forth, as if she has a ghost writer telling the story like a ventriloquist through you the reader, but that, at least, was what I felt.”