The Birthday of Doom (promo post and free story)
It’s my birthday, and I’ll cry if I want to. Which I do, because it’s the kind with a zero at the end. And a four at the beginning. Damn.
However, since a birthday is nothing without presents, I have a little something for you…
I wrote a short, scary (and somewhat sexy) story, The Caldwell Ghost, about a Victorian ghost hunter named Simon Feximal, journalist Robert Caldwell and a rather unusually haunted house. Then, because it turns out that writing Victorian pastiche gay romance ghost stories is really good fun, I wrote another one, Butterflies, in which Robert and Simon’s paths cross again when two bodies are found choked to death on butterflies. (I blogged over at Boys in our Books about the inspiration behind these.)
Cover design by Susan Lee.
The Caldwell Ghost is available from Torquere Press and at the usual places. But, because it’s my goddamn birthday, I’m making Butterflies a free download. Don’t say I never do anything for you.
I hope you enjoy it!
Catch up with me discussing romance and horror over at UK Gay Romance on Halloween, or talking about the inspiration for the stories over at Boys in our Books, or lurking in the pub pretending I’m still 39. You’re buying.
Happy birthday! And thanks for the freebie. 🙂
Thank you! Hope you enjoy it
Yay freestuff! *cough*
I absolutely love Susan’s work on the cover – it’s just perfect, and suits the story well.
Forgive my rampant greed but I hope we’ll see more of the Secret Casebook 🙂
Also happy birthday 🙂 *goes to the bar*
I am hatching a Christmas story. Which is entirely your fault.
Happy birthday! Are you descended from hobbits by any chance?
What, and therefore still a teenager? Good point. I shall get myself adopted quick.
Happy birthday! I read Butterflies last night and of course I loved it! <3 I want to see more from these two!
(Oh and I downloaded the Carnacki stories from Project Gutenberg and am enjoying them immensely. Thanks for the tip!)
Excellent! I really like them, they are unjustly forgotten. Best of the occult detectives if you ask me.
Hey, good to find someone who agrees with me. GMTA.
/ Howdy! Someone in my Myspace group shared this website with us so I came to takea look. I’m definitely loving the information. I’m book-marking and will be tweetingthis to my followers! Excellent blog and wonderful design and style.
Downloaded it, read it, loved it. Off to read Feximal #1! (Just love that name)
And a belated Happy Birthday to you! 😀
Thank you very much, delighted to hear it!
I’ve bought all your books available on amazon, but cannot find The Caldwell Ghost anywhere (not smash words or torquere press). Please help!
That’s currently unavailable – it’s out of contract with the original publisher – and current plan is that it will be made part of the full Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal, coming from Samhain in June 2015. Which will be a complete Simon and Robert short collection from Caldwell Ghost, the backstory of Remnant and beyond. Hang on, I blogged, let me find the link…
http://lovebytesreviews.com/2014/11/22/the-shape-of-books-to-come-and-gone-2/
I loved the first two Magpie books and I want to buy the rest of them, and I’ve heard such good things about THINK OF ENGLAND. But I broke up with B&N, won’t touch Amazon, and am skittish about starting a new relationship with Samhain.
So, yeah, any chance you’ll sell books through SmashWords or ARe? Or am I just too picky?
My Samhain books are available through ARe, so you’re sorted. 🙂 But the Samhain site is fine as well. I know what you mean about Amazon, I keep hating myself for using them (so seductively easy though…)