I am just going Outside…

Out now! The new novel by A.J. Kirby – ‘I Am Just Going Outside and May Be Some Time’, published by Wild Wolf Publishing. You can purchase a copy by following this link.

ABOUT THE BOOK

You can call me Mr. Lonely. Got a job working for The Institute. Might have fudged my tests some.

 

They placed me in a research lab at the very edge of the world; a wasteland of snow and ice.

My partner, Nico, went out a while back… he’s been some time. He took the only snow-sled.

 

Outside, the storm closes in. It brings with it monsters.

 

Whether those monsters are outside or within me is unclear. Nico believes the latter. Either way, the end is drawing near.

I’ve found patches of blood in the snow.

I am just going outside and may be some time is a chilling, claustrophobic tale about solitude, about being alone at the very edge of the world, but at the same time being surveilled. It’s a story about connections, lost and found, and connectivity. It’s a story about the madness of ‘shouting into an empty cave’; talking and talking and never quite knowing whether anyone at all is listening. Combining Kirby’s trademark dark humour – which tickles the sharper end of the funny bone – and the same heart-stopping horror we’ve come to know and love from his previous work (Bully, Paint this town Red, Small Man Syndrome, and Sharkways) this is a fast-paced, heart-jangling novella which will keep you up nights.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Featuring “cinematic imagery” (The Reading List), “astonishing prose” (The Guardian, “naturalistic, boisterous dialogue” (Leeds Student Newspaper), and “genuine intensity” (Gorezone Magazine), A.J. Kirby’s writing “constantly keeps you on your toes” (Speculative Book Review).

This graduate from the University of Leeds’ School of English hails from the north of England and he writes fiction from the darker side of the street.

He is the multi-award-winning author of eleven published novels and over sixty published short stories, which can be found widely in print anthologies, magazines and journals and across the web in zines, writing sites and more. Paint this town Red was short-listed for The Guardian’s Not the Booker prize, and Bully achieved number one status on the Amazon psychological horror chart.

He lives in Leeds, UK, with his partner Heidi and children Leon and Peggy. He blogs at: https://paintthistownred.wordpress.com/ and his Twitter handle is: @ajkirbyauthor  

REVIEWS

Amazon reviewer: “With a premise reminiscent of Aleksei Popogrebsky’s ‘How I Ended This Summer’, AJ Kirby’s latest fictional work takes us deep (too deep?) into the mind of a man trapped in an isolated polar outpost, on a government mission. The author lets us work out what happened to his colleague in the base, how he got there, and where he’s going through gradual reveals and subtle exposition amid the growing hysteria (without giving too much away, that last one has a very unexpected outcome…)

Taut, claustrophobic and a swift read for the Kindle, ‘I Am Just Going Outside…’ takes the tension inherent in this situation and ramps it up, bringing our unreliable narrator with his naggingly insistent voice into a new world of fear, hallucination, conspiracy, insanity and numerous threats to his person, from the landscape and elsewhere, as well as a recurring motif in the music of metallers Iron Maiden. There’s also a showstopping flashback set-piece in a smokehouse. What more could you possibly want?”

 

WHAT THEY SAID
Anna L Stephens (author of the Godblind trilogy) on Sharkways: “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.”

Ginger Nuts of Horror on Paint this town Red: “an all action blockbuster novel of survival, that will keep you reading in the edge of your seat.”

Cassandra Parkin (author of The Summer we all ran away) on Perfect World: “From this fantastic opening, the book gallops along with the speed and dizzying swerves of a racehorse on acid.”

Leeds Student Newspaper on Bully: “Reading this book is like trying to get to sleep after drinking too many vodka red bulls”