Dark Heart - A Collection of Short Horror Fiction - FREE TODAY!

To commemorate the birth of Prince George of Cambridge, Dark Heart - my collection of short horror fiction - is currently free to download to your Kindle.

Enjoy! (And don't let me hear you say the Royal Family never did anything for you.)

Oh, and tell all your friends. ;-)

BBC National Short Story Award 2010

The BBC National Short Story Award has launched its fifth year. The award is one of the most prestigious for a single short story, with the winning author receiving £15,000. The runner up receives £3,000 and three further shortlisted authors, £500 each.

This year’s award is now open for submissions from publishers, agents and published authors from the UK.

The closing date for entries is 18th June 2010. To find out more, click here.

33 - something a little different

July sees the publication of 33, a collection of short stories that pushes the genre into new territory, or at least into the 33 borough of East and West London. And one of the short stories you'll find within its pages is I Love Richmond, by yours truly.


This was something of a departure for me, as it's not the type of subject matter I normally write about. It's contemporary, it's a love story, it's told entirely through dialogue, and it's... Well, to say anymore would give away the twist.

33 is published in July and is available from Glasshouse Books.

Simon Davis and the BP Portrait Award

I am grateful to writer David Bishop's blog Vicious Imagery for bringing this snippet of good news to my attention.

Artist Simon Davis won second prize in the world's most prestigious portrait competition, the BP Portrait Award, with nearly 1,750 artists from around the world submitting work to the competition. What this means is that Simon receives £8,000 in prize money for his piece, Amanda Smith at Vincent Avenue, and the portrait will now be on show in the National Portrait Gallery.

Amanda Smith at Vincent Avenue

As long-term readers of this blog will know, Simon once illustrated one of my short stories (Mark of the Beast, Black Library, 2003), so this is my moment to bathe in a slither of some totally undeserved reflected glory.

Mark of the Beast