Tag: dan howarth

Announcement – Folklore Times Four

~ Kev Harrison ~ 4 Comments

A couple of weeks ago on my Twitter feed, I alluded to some exciting news:

I couldn’t say any more at the time, because things were still awaiting signatures and so on, but today – I can!

A little over two years ago, my debut novella, The Balance, was let loose upon the world. As any author will likely tell you, this was a moment of pride, terror, enthusiasm and trepidation on a rinse/repeat cycle. I had absolutely no idea whatsoever how it would be received.

Thanks to the amazing reaction of readers over the past couple of years, along with the promotion and word of mouth recommendations of a number of readers and fellow writers, the publisher of the book, Lycan Valley Press Publications, have approached me about putting together four new folkloric horror novellas between now and the end of 2024. I’ve now signed on to do just that.

As readers of my newsletter will know, this summer I’ll be transitioning to a 9 months’ writing/3 months’ intensive working plan for the next few years. I have been lining up projects to make that writing time productive, plotting out the details of the first two books. Both folkloric horror novellas. I’m incredibly excited to be working with Lycan Valley again – who did such an excellent job on the eBook, physical and audio editions of The Balance – and for the serendipitous timing which now means I can get on with the work and focus fully on making these books the absolute best they can be.

I don’t want to give away too much about the new books yet, but the first is going to be loosely connected to this image:

The queen of the 'fées de la mer' rides a nautilus shell
I can also hint that, when I finish my university teaching job in September this year, there will be a short jaunt to France to do some research, take photos, etc, for the book, before I go on my actual holiday to Italy. No hints for book two just yet!

I’m still plugging away at selling my novel, Shadow of the Hidden, to one of the publishers it remains under consideration with this year, as well as finishing up the Haunts project I am working on with Dan Howarth, Grant Longstaff and Paul M. Feeney for a late 2022/early 2023 release.

But 2023 – 2025, it seems, will be time for some horror folklore.

So come, sit around the fire. I’ve got some stories to tell you.

Treading the Paths

~ Kev Harrison ~ 1 Comment

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here (especially as I’m now putting out a monthly newsletter which you can sign up to here). But, with my debut collection, Paths Best Left Untrodden clawing its way from its subterranean lair this Saturday, it would be remiss of me not to mention it.

I started thinking about a short story collection about eighteen months ago. I’d had a number of shorts published in some quite prestigious and exciting anthologies. Hopefully I gained a fair few readers from my fiction sitting shoulder to shoulder with some titans of the genre, such as Gemma Files, Richard Chizmar, Mary SanGiovanni, and Brian Evenson but, after the relative success of my debut novella, The Balance, I felt there were perhaps others who might want to absorb the breadth of my work to date without having to invest huge sums on the anthologies I’ve been part of. Of course, I also wanted to get some new, unpublished tales into the world.

The title, Paths Best Left Untrodden is very much a representation of what horror is for me. The misstep. The erring from what, deep down, we know is the correct trajectory and into a state where control leaves us and where we are at the mercy of monsters, human or otherwise. I hope that people will find this thread throughout the thirteen stories in Paths.

Responses so far have been overwhelmingly positive, with incredibly kind blurbs from four sensational writers in TC Parker, Ross Jeffery, Dave Jeffery and Dan Howarth. Dan also saw fit to publish Paths as the second title under his new Northern Republic imprint. Initial reviews from Simon Paul Wilson at Kendall Reviews and J Maddux entertainment have also been effusive.

This has alleviated some of the pre-release nerves.

One thing I was never nervous about was the cover art. Placed into the safe hands of Greg Chapman, who also crafted the cover for The Balance, I find myself with a thing of beauty to hold in my hands. And something which, in its sinister-yet-not-overt nature, hopefully represents the contents of the book well.

Paths Best Left Untrodden is released Saturday 5th June in eBook format, with a paperback due imminently thereafter, through Northern Republic. You can pre-order your copy here.