First release of the year – in Terror Politico from Scary Dairy Press

January 13, 2019 ~ Kev Harrison ~ Leave a comment

2019 is off to a flyer, with this first release of the year, Terror Politico, released by the excellent people at Scary Dairy Press. Edited by Broos Campbell and Cin Ferguson, this anthology takes an irreverent look at the politics of today – often the politics of fear – and uses the lenses of science-fiction, horror, bizarro and other genres to do so.

My story, ‘No Such Thing As A Free Lunch,’ takes the case of a businessman-turned-politician in the USA, who claims to be there to help the little man, while the reality is something altogether more sinister. No prizes for guessing who might have inspired the story.

While the story is set in the US, the themes, both in my story and in the anthology overall, are evident in much of the world today, where consideration, nuance and the greater good are being sidelined by populists in exchange for buzz words and scapegoats.

I do hope you will check the anthology out. It is only available in paperback at this stage, but a kindle edition is coming very soon and 10% of all proceeds go to the UNIDOS Disaster Relief and Recovery Program, to help the residents of Puerto Rico, who are still suffering immensely from the after effects of Hurricane Maria.

Pick up your copy here.

A Bit of News – At Last

October 21, 2018 ~ Kev Harrison ~ Leave a comment

Lately, things have been immensely quiet on this site. Since the launch of the amazing Lost Films, all of my other projects have been ‘in-progress,’ with no real end product to share with you all. But, with halloween just around the corner, things are about to get busy again.

Releasing any time now is Terror Politico, from Scary Dairy Press. There are so many great stories here and mine, ‘No Such Thing As A Free Lunch’ is perhaps one of the most disturbing I’ve written. I hope you’ll check it out and enjoy it. It’s a political horror release (the clue is in the title) and it’s hoped that the stories there are ones that will make readers think every bit as much as they shock and scare.

After this, I’m happy to say my first ever YA release is coming in the November issue of Frostfire Worlds, the YA speculative fiction magazine from Alban Lake Publishing. More news on that at launch. My story is ‘Your Blue Friend,’ a supernatural tale involving Egyptian ‘ushabtis’ and cosmic horror.

This week, I also sent back the final, approved version of my story, ‘Muscle Memory,’ a story set in a hospital that I don’t want to reveal more about, for Renaissance Press’ We Shall Be Monsters anthology of work inspired by the two-hundred year-old classic, Frankenstein. I can tell you that the proof I have seen of this book looks so gorgeous, you are not going to want to miss it.

A new release has also hit the shelves this week, in the form of The Horror Tree’s Trembling with Fear: Year One anthology, which features hundreds of short stories and drabbles by a wide variety of authors. My story, ‘The Long Road to Immortality’ is a chilling reference to the world of instant celebrity through technology and how it, sometimes, can bite back.

These releases are very exciting but, perhaps most exciting of all is the supernatural horror novel which I am currently working on, set in a long-abandoned mining community, where a man is looking to rehabilitate his family’s past with dark, unforeseen consequences. I’m aiming to finish the manuscript this year and to start shopping it to agents and publishing houses in 2019.

Finally, I have just sold two more stories this week. One, a dark sci-fi short will be featured on a well known podcast, while the other, a classic horror tale, will be featured in an anthology in 2019. More news on both, as and when possible.

The Summer of Scares

July 1, 2018 ~ Kev Harrison ~ Leave a comment

It feels like it’s about time for another blog post and a bit of an update. Traditionally, within horror and dark fiction circles, the beginning part of the year can tend to be terribly slow as releases are few and far between, and so 2018 has proved, to date. However, with summer well and truly here now, we begin to shift through the gears and releases start to come out thick and fast towards Autumn – Halloween in particular – and a swathe of releases.

So, here’s what’s coming up for me:

July sees the release of Beyond the Infinite: Tales from the Outer Reaches from Things in the Well. Edited by Steve Dillon, this looks like a great anthology, with tales by Clive Barker, H. G. Wells and Brian Lumley sandwiched together with new stories of sci-fi terror from Stephen Herczeg, Lisa Pais and yours truly (my story’s title is ‘A Precious Quarry’). The cover artwork is a thing to behold (see below) and I’ll be adding this to my list of publications as soon as it’s available.

Also coming in July or August will be another story for The Other Stories podcast. I’ve literally JUST signed the contract on this one. I was so happy with what they did with my previous story for them – ‘Show Cooking: Cannibal Edition‘ and can’t wait to see what they do with my story on the forthcoming theme of The London Underground.

Moving into August and perhaps the most eagerly awaited anthology release of the year at the moment is Lost Films from Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing. I mentioned this in a previous blog post from which you can place a pre-order for the book in paperback, or eBook format. The heavyweights writing in the anthology are both humbling and inspiring and I look forward to hearing what people think of the anthology as a whole and my story, ‘The Fourth Wall.’

In November, there will be two new releases, the first of which is my first Young Adult fiction release of a story called ‘Your Blue Friend,’ which will appear in the Frostfire Worlds magazine, from Alban Lake publishing. You can find previous issues of the magazine at the Alban Lake store. I’ll publish cover artwork here as and when it is revealed.

Also coming in November is Scary Dairy Press’ Terror Politico anthology, a collection of stories about the dystopian state of our current politics. My story ‘No Such Thing as a Free Lunch’ will hopefully provide a harrowing account of the status quo and make you think, while turning your stomach. The cover art for the anthology has been revealed (below) and looks terrific.

TerrorPoliticoCover-195x300

I still have my first novella – working title The Balance – under consideration with a publisher and I have broken ground on a new novel/novella, set in a long-collapsed gold mine, more news on that as it comes.

Sorry for the long update. I look forward to sharing these new stories with you in the near future. Enjoy the summer.

2018 – the story so far

April 7, 2018 ~ Kev Harrison ~ 2 Comments

I’ve only just set up the site, but here’s a little update about what is coming up in 2018. So, here goes:

Autumn is looking like the time of year when it’s all happening for me this year, as I have a story, entitled ‘No Such Thing As a Free Lunch’ coming up in Scary Dairy Press’ Terror Politico anthology. Scary dairy have been a delight to work with. Contracts are signed and now I’m simply awaiting edits to confirm/deny. The anthology is inspired by the current political climate in the US (but could arguably be transposed with few changes to the UK) and features a local billionaire politician who decides to provide free lunches to the homeless. The catch is there’s no such thing as a… well, you get the idea. I’ll have more information on that when it’s available.

Second up, scheduled for release in the December issue of Alban Lake’s Frostfire Worlds magazine, is my first YA story to make it into print. The story is titled Your Blue Friend, and involves ancient Egyptian enchantments and a devilishly smart teenage female protagonist who I loved writing and I hope you’ll love reading.

There is one more confirmed release which is aimed at late summer but, at this stage, I am not liable to say what it is. Only that, in terms of exposure and the potential for my work to feature alongside some truly stellar fiction, this might well be my most eagerly anticipated release so far.

As you might imagine, there are other stories awaiting the thumbs up or thumbs down from various anthologies, magazines, etc and other stories that are somewhere between my brain, my laptop screen and an email to another submission call.

Finally, a word on the novella I’m working on. It’s tentatively titled The Balance and is a (hopefully) fresh take on the Slavic mythology of Baba Yaga. It’s set in Poland, a place where I lived for a few years and a culture I believe I know well. It’s currently in its third draft stage. My hope is to have it ready for submission before too long.

That’s all from me. Be well and do, please get in touch if you have anything you’d like to say or to share with me.