For a while now, I've not been reading as much as I should and my to read pile is seriously dusty (or would be if I didn't dust the shelves). My attempt with posts like this is to encourage me to stop faffing about on Facebook and get back to reading all of the things...

New entries to my 'to read pile' for this month':
Albion Fay by Mark Morris
Leytonstone by Stephen Volk
The Last Bus by Paul M Feeney
Probably Monsters by Ray Cluley (which came with a mini story on a postcard)
Gemsigns by Stephanie Saulter
No One Gets Out Alive by Adam Nevill
Shimmer - issue 26
Fabulous Beasts by Priya Sharma

What I have read this month:
Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel
Leytonstone by Stephen Volk

Short Stories:
Wolves and Witches and Bears by Alison Littlewood (Nightmare)*
The Ghost of you Lingers by Kevin McNeil (The Dark)*
An Ocean of Eyes by Cassandra Khaw (The Dark)
End Game by Barry Charman (Daily SF)
The Cork won't Stay by Nate Southard (Nightmare)*
Things to do after they're gone by Mimi Mondal (Daily SF)


*Favourite short stories this month

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Found this interesting submission call while trawling the internet.

Fearful Fathoms: Collected Tales of Aquatic Terror
Looking for stories set in or around water that are dark, atmospheric and chilling.
Submission Period: August 1st to August 31st
Word Count: 2000 to 5000 words
Payment: 1 cent per word with a maximum payment of $50

Full details (including some very specific formatting) can be found at Scarlet Galleon Publications.


And if you're stuck for watery inspiration, you could read this British Fantasy Award nominated novella, Water for Drowning by the awesome Ray Cluley. See how I slid that in there. I am so tricky.

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Over the past ten days, I have written three stories and sent them out into the world, completed the first drafts of a further two, and am in the process of writing the first draft of a further story. Getting back to what I love doing after a very dry period has meant that his week I have felt happier and more confident (an acceptance from Black Static may also have helped) than I have in some time. I really thought I couldn't do this any more.

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At the beginning of the year, I announced that after three hundred and seventy-four years, I had finally sold a story to Black Static. We all have goals as writers and this was one of mine. I did it, mum. Seeing a story of mine within its pages was phenomenal.

Today, Andy Cox accepted my novelette, When the Moon Man Knocks, for Black Static. I opened, read and closed the email about six times before the words made sense - my brain automatically read it as a rejection. I did it again, mum. Maybe I should read the email one more time just to be sure.

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This weekend I will be at Edge-Lit in Derby where my novella, The Bureau of Them, will be released alongside Stephen Volk's Leytonstone and Mark Morris' Albion Fay. The paperbacks are usually £10 each, but you can get all three from Spectral Press (or at the event) for £25. The event runs from 3:15 to 4:05 on Saturday and is taking place in The Box (sounds ominous). If you get there early, we'll each be reading from our respective novellas - cue desperate laughter.

Hope to see you there.

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So this is me on the radio last Saturday in sunny Manchester. Well, it was Sunny when we arrived in Manchester, and raining by the time we left. I think the sky was weeping because I'd blathered on for nearly two hours. I hear it's still crying somewhere.

Anyhow, here is me being interviewed by the lovely Hannah Kate.

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Gather your pooches around the radio this Saturday (6 June) between 4pm and 6pm and tune in to North Manchester FM (106.6FM), where I'll be talking to Hannah Kate about books and possibly gabbling that fast and that high that only dogs will hear my squeaks.

Don't worry if your dog seems temporarily possessed he/she will regain full use of their legs once they have processed what they've just been subjected to. All humans should remain unaffected.

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Paul Finch's latest Heck novel, Hunted, is released this week and you can meet Paul in Waterstones Liverpool One store on Wednesday 6th May 2015 at 18:30 where he'll be in conversation with Luca Veste.

Paul and his wife Cathy are awesome folk so if you're in the local area, come give Paul your support. The Bestwick and I will either be cheering from the front row (him) or the back row (me).

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My short story Too Delicate for Human Form, which appeared in the anthologies Fish (Dagan Books) and Best British Fantasy 2013 (Salt Publishing) is now available in audio over at Far Fetched Fables alongside The Island of Peter Pandora by Kim Lakin-Smith.

The story is narrated by Heidi Hotz.

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A couple more reviews of Black Static #45 and my story The Drop of Light and the Rise of Dark.


"...standing out from the other fiction in the magazine in that it's set at a pitch of full-blooded, heart-stopping terror almost from the outset." Tom Johnstone

"Gardner amps the creep factor up to 11 in this claustrophobic fever dream that ends in a way I hadn't expected." Nick Cato, The Horror Fiction Review

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Adele Wearing's imprint, Fox Spirit, want unusual and elegant speculative fiction stories for the following anthology:

Winter Tales
Theme: (erm...) Winter
Word Count: 1500 to 7500 words
Deadline: June 15th 2015
No Reprints
Payment: £10 plus copy of the ebook and the print book

Full details are available over at the Fox Spirit webpage.

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Spectral Press are running a special offer at the moment. You can order the following three limited edition novellas in hardback as a package and save money:

Leytonstone by Stephen Volk
Albion Fay by Mark Morris
The Bureau of Them by Cate Gardner (oh, that would be me).

My book is minus cover art as we are awaiting its completion but should be here soon. All three titles will be launched at Edge-Lit in July and all prices include postage. The offer runs until the end of this month.

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My short story, The Drop of Light and the Rise of Dark, appeared in Black Static #45 last month. I'm still pinching myself and resisting getting this beauty framed. Here be links to reviews from some fine folk:

"This one takes a very simple seeming scenario and weaves a dark, brooding story full of menace and terror, which ushers in some real, heartfelt emotion." Paul M Feeney, Ginger Nuts of Horror.

"So that redoubled the terror of this second little girl story (here physically disabled) who imagines the eclipse never-ending as she tries to struggle downstairs to find her parents or her best friend." DF Lewis

"...Gardner keeps an extra cruel sting in her tail – a reminder that in horror, and in life, you can’t get away so easily." Gareth Jones, Dread Central.

There is also a lovely review by Jess Landry over at HELLNOTES that favourites SP Miskowski, Stephen Hargadon and Steve Rasnic Tem's stories.

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I'm delighted to announce that Caroline Callaghan of Frightful Horrors has excepted two of my short stories - Blood Moth Kiss and We make our own Monsters here.  They will be published as a mini-bite on Kindle in June/July this year. The title of the mini-collection is Shadow Moths. Both stories are previously unpublished.

In almost as exciting news, I've finally rearranged my study. This means, SKY allowing, that I will have proper internet access again and will be able to blog (hello, world) and keep up with submitting stories. If I actually have any to send out that is. I have one out in the Land of Please, one in my inbox in the Doom of No, and three in scrap form that need to be typed up, edited etc etc etc.

Image courtesy of wikicommons.

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A wee announcement over at the Spectral Press website today:

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A dream came true yesterday. An ambition. I sold a story to Black Static, a magazine I've been trying to get into since before it existed (those who've been around the small press for a while will remember its previous incarnation The Third Alternative). At a rough estimate it took me about eighteen years. Hopefully it won't take me more than a decade to sell another story to them.*
The Drop of Light and the Rise of Dark is my first completed story this year.

In extra good news. Damien Angelica Walters also had a story accepted there yesterday.



*Resists sending another story to Andy today.

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Silvia Moreno-Garcia has a book out from awesome publisher Solaris. A debut novel, and anyone who's anyone knows those are wondrous things.

The book is Signal to Noise and here be the blurb:

Mexico City, 1988: Long before iTunes or MP3s, you said “I love you” with a mixtape. Meche, awkward and fifteen, has two equally unhip friends — Sebastian and Daniela — and a whole lot of vinyl records to keep her company. When she discovers how to cast spells using music, the future looks brighter for the trio. With help from this newfound magic, the three friends will piece together their broken families, change their status as non-entities, and maybe even find love…

Mexico City, 2009: Two decades after abandoning the metropolis, Meche returns for her estranged father’s funeral. It’s hard enough to cope with her family, but then she runs into Sebastian, and it revives memories from her childhood she thought she buried a long time ago. What really happened back then? What precipitated the bitter falling out with her father? And, is there any magic left?

According to Amazon it's out February but pre-orders are available now.

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Earlier today I thought of an awesome idea for a blog post. Phew! At last, I would have something to blog about and I'd so wanted to resurrect this blog, or rather, add new content to it.

I've forgotten the awesome idea.

That's okay, I doubt it was awesome or brilliant anyway, more likely random nonsense like this is. But go team me, I'm actually formulating a blog post. Now I figure I should add some actual content because someone, somewhere, in a hundred years from now (or later today) might stumble upon this post.

Scratches chin.

Ah, my thirty-two short story file - yes, that's the place to start.

In the midst of when mum was becoming really ill (for those who don't know, my beautiful mum died at Christmas), I opened a file and listed thirty-two random quotes and started to construct stories inspired by them. I didn't choose to write thirty-two in particular, it was merely the figure I ended up with when I got bored looking for quotes to add to the file. I sometimes think I get bored easily and at other times think I can cope with all of the boredom longer than most. I doubt either is true.

Anyway, back to the file. I started said file because I couldn't concentrate on writing and wanted something I could dip into without pressure. Or at least, without pressure just yet. I thought - honestly thought - that it would be something I could escape into in the weeks following mum's death. I was building a fort for myself*. When it came to it, my mind refused to open the door. It preferred staring into space, crying and making me clean every corner of the house over and over.

This is good. After months of looking after mum, the house needed some TLC.

I've started to dip into the file over the last couple of days. Nothing too wearisome but something; a line here and there. Thirty-two stories won't emerge from the file and at some point I'll have to drag out the ones that could go somewhere - prays for at least ten workable stories. Then, I guess I'll have to get back on the submission horse. I think I'll call him Cripes for no other reason than that's what just came into my head.


*mention of a fort made me think of this picture (taken at Formby). An awesome fort of trees amongst the sand dunes.

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Some awesomeness found its way onto my Facebook feed this morning.

The Transfiguration of Mister Punch (including my novella This Foolish & Harmful Delight) has made it onto the following list: The Literature of Fear: 12 High-Quality Horror Books for Sleepless Nights by Rick Kleffel.

Other books on the list include Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes, The Conspiracy against the Human Race by Thomas Ligotti, Last Days by Adam Nevill, and The Bitterwood Bible by Angela Slatter.

That's two blog posts within a week. Next thing you know a whole fleet of buses will turn up.

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So I don't post for months and then when I do I'm all look at me. Well not quite look at me because I'm hiding behind a cupboard and refusing to have my photo taken or come out and say hello to anyone. Don't worry, I'm happy there. Just post some cake under the cupboard. Actually don't, too much cake is partially the reason that I'm hiding behind said cupboard and possibly why I'm stuck.

So the reason for my look at me post. I sold a story to POSTSCRIPTS! In the Macabre Theatre of Nightshade Place should appear in the summer/autumn of 2015. 

It will be my third story in Postscripts. The Hollow Framework for the Cotton Man appeared in Oct 2010 and Hand Scratched Note in Dec 2009, back in the heady days of when I used to send stories out all the time. I can't believe how long ago that was. Hangs head in shame and knocks forehead against the back of the cupboard.

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The shortlist for the British Fantasy Awards were announced yesterday. They be as follows:

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Ellen Datlow has announced the Honorable Mentions for The Best Horror of the Year Volume Six. I'm delighted to find my story 'This Foolish & Harmful Delight' listed amongst many fine writers including Ray Cluley, Nina Allan, Peter Atkins, Conrad Williams and Adam Nevill. You can find the full list here but I've cheated and only listed the people who I have met in real life.

The Transfiguration of Mister Punch (where my novella lives) is available here. It's a gorgeous book.

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Some news from the trenches.

My novella Barbed Wire Hearts is now out of print and I'm in the process of removing links to Amazon because they lead nowhere or will shortly lead nowhere. Thank you to everyone who purchased the story during its short life. Hopefully, it will appear in some other format at some other time.

There's an interview with me over at Blood Cake News where I may or may not discuss cake.

Peter Tennant reviews my novella, In the Broken Birdcage of Kathleen Fair, in the forthcoming issue of Black Static. Here be a wee bit of it...

She writes about such marvellous things as a duel fought with balloons and a perfume created by stealing the essence of people. She shows us sympathy for the devil and crafts a beguiling fable, one that constantly delights with its verve and invention, and which will resonate in the reader’s mind long after the book has been closed and put away

.... and it's only £1.03 in good old British pounds.

I heart novellas, and speaking of them.... Here's some news from trenches near you:

SALT are looking for contemporary issue-led novellas between 20,000 and 30,000 aimed at 18 to 24 year olds. More details here. Ideas are swirling at this end, characters are lining up to take part.

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