HISTORY

ERA ONE - ELDRITCH TALES

2020-2021

In May 2020, I began to write a short story, based upon a half-remembered tale I had heard about from the news a while before, about a dead woman found in her home years after her death, forgotten and left to rot, her television still on. This became The Mysterious Incident at Number Nine London Road, self-published on 20th May 2020, which birthed an entire world of eldritch stories of mysteries and horror; One Hundred and One Mysterious Incidents. Each of those stories was published individually and can still be bought online, though for convenience they are all available in one single book, released in April 2021, less than one year later.

As I began to work on my longer-form stories and my debut novel, I still kept a tight grip on my roots as a flash fiction writer, following up One Hundred and One Mysterious Incidents with a series of novelettes beginning with The Shadow Roads of Night, a collection of spooky night-time trucker tales based loosely on Reddit stories.

Sister Myrtle was, at the time of publication, the longest book I had written, and marked a departure from my humble origins and a movement towards the longer books I now love to write. This one, inspired by the works of Ed and Lorraine Warren, follows the young nun Sister Eleanor Jesse as she begins her career, as well as beginning a lifelong introspection which would go on to be explored in sequels.

The Beast in These Pages was my second novelette, and a brief return to my short story work. Following a home security archivist, this one was largely based on my own lonely late nights, watching spooky videos on the internet and writing creepy stories.

2022

Sister Amelia followed-up Sister Myrtle in The Life of Sister Eleanor Jesse and officially introduced Professor Jules Agincourt, though by this point I had already been writing Vulwarz for almost two years and felt I had already greatly explored that strange, wise old man.

The Stranger Next Door arose from a simple question; what if you had the opposite of a hallucination? What if, instead of seeing someone that was not there, everybody else could see someone that you could not?

Vulwarz came next, my seventh book (or one-hundred-and-seventh, depending what you count!) and was my first proper novel! At over 260,000 words, this behemoth dwarfed all my other works, and indeed very nearly was bigger than everything else I had written put together. Based on the short story The Mysterious Incident on The Twenty-First of September, which also served as a prelude to the novel, Vulwarz is an epistolary - like most of my books - written by four different characters, including Jules Agincourt, who got his first proper go at the spotlight in this novel. This also featured a cameo by Sister Eleanor Jesse in her old age, and introduced future protagonists Sam Jenkins, and Goschial Wholffbloode to my Eldritch Canon.

Deus Ex Chasma came next, my fourth novelette, and the story itself was actually inspired by the cover art; the monochrome image of a tall, thin black mountain, set against a dull grey sky. Whilst writing this book, I thought of one that tied it to The Stranger Next Door: Mister Nobody.

2023

Theodore, a loose spin-off from the main chronology which was written as a letter to Professor Agincourt, followed a young couple as their Valentine’s Day went terribly wrong. Based on the idea of finding an interesting take on the dolls-as-villains trope, the monster of this book appears at a first glance to be an innocent teddy bear.

The Impossible Death of Chrissy Dean was an expansion upon the concept of a Revenant which I had written about extensively in Vulwarz, but which I felt was in itself a tragic and creepy enough of an idea that it deserved a book of its own. Like Theodore this story was written as an email to Agincourt, tying it loosely to the main chronology.

Hadal was another story which, like Vulwarz, was based on a Mysterious Incident, this one aboard the Triton Station at the bottom of the sea. I myself have thalassophobia, and so writing this book made me scared at least as much as any reader will be!

A Haunted Christmas was an idea I had, when I realised that since Professor Agincourt was living (sort of) in Agincourt House in the countryside during the 40s, he probably would have hosted some evacuees. Couple this with the mention of ghosts at the nearby standing stones in Vulwarz and a bit of Christmas, and this more child-friendly (12+) Christmas ghost story was born.

2024

Mister Nobody, the missing link that ties together The Stranger Next Door and Deus Ex Chasma had been sitting on my computer, fully written and finished, since the end of 2022. It wasn’t until I decided I wanted to release six books in 2024 that I started prepping it for release, and it is by far the most dizzying story I’ve ever written.

Wholffbloode, which begins with the very end of Vulwarz, is a soft sequel to my original novel, and follows the side character of Goschial Wholffbloode, a millennium-old Vampire, in the days after his 1,000th birthday, having sworn off murder and bloodlust since his escape from Agincourt’s zoo in the original novel.

Sister Nathalia is the third instalment in The Life of Sister Eleanor Jesse and the longest of the four books by far. This macabre tale takes place in the 1980s as Jules and Sister Eleanor work together to fight a zombie uprising. I felt that I’d explored Demons enough in the first two books, and at risk of getting repetitive, I wanted to try a different angle. And so, stealing ideas in part from the legend of Sisyphus, the mortal man who captured Death, I decided to seriously ask myself… what would a world without Death actually look like?

The Gallow Man, my eighth novelette, came about because I wanted to add a little murder to my books, with the fictional life and crimes of England’s last hangman becoming the tale of a sadistic killer.

It Fell From above, my ninth and final novelette in this mini-series, was largely inspired by an episode from Guillermo Del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, about an advanced alien parasite, as well as The Thing (1982), creating a creepy short story about an alien parasite that crash-lands from the stars.

Applewood, my second novel, was originally set for release New Year’s Eve 2023, but was instead released New Year’s Eve 2024. I originally started writing the early drafts of this story in 2020 at the same time I started Vulwarz, and like Vulwarz this tale was originally conceived as a Mysterious Incident, though one that was never completed or published. Inspired by Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, Henry James’ The Turning of The Screw, and Mike Flannagan’s two series based on both, this ghost tale plays with time as three hauntings take place in the same house on the same night, across three centuries.

2025

The Young Witch Jenkins: A Crash-Course in Ferromancy is a short story set shortly after the events of Vulwarz, and which features one of Sam’s first outings as Jules’ apprentice in witchcraft, part one of a trilogy of short stories bridging the events of Vulwarz with future books.

The Young Witch Jenkins: A Crash-Course in Mob Gods will is a short story set one year into Sam’s formal training as Jules’ apprentice as she meets a new adversary and makes an enemy of her own, part two of this trilogy of short stories bridging the events of Vulwarz with future books.

UPCOMING

The Young Witch Jenkins: A Crash-Course in Vampires will follow Wholffbloode and Sam as she and Jules try to help the Vampire following his solo adventure, part three of this trilogy of short stories bridging the events of Vulwarz (and Wholffbloode) with future books.

Sepulchralia, written as a play script, will be my first story to take place in the far future, in the latter half of the 50th century, set for release 20th May 2025 (on the five-year anniversary of my first short story.)

Sister Agatha will be the fourth and final book in The Life of Sister Eleanor Jesse, following her final case through her retirement years up to when she began writing the first book. Set for release 1st August 2025.

At the end of 2025, to complete the first era of my career, I will be releasing Eldritch Tales, a collection of thirteen short stories I have written on and off over the course of the last few years. Together, with One Hundred and One Mysterious Incidents, these two collections of short stories will bookend this era. Eldritch Tales will mark the end of the journey I began with The Mysterious Incident at Number Nine London Road. What happens next? You’ll have to wait and read on to find out…