Free Read Published and an Anthology Acceptance!

I just found out my short story, Adeline, has been accepted by Angelic Knight Press for their latest anthology, Satan's Toybox: Demonic Dolls.

I've always found those old porcelain dolls to be super freaky. As a child, I crept downstairs and read one of my mother's horror books by the light of the fish tank (this was a regular occurrence for me and I wondered why I suffered from night terrors) and one of the books I found had a story about a whole heap of puppets who stuck needles into people until they became a puppet as well. I've no idea what this story was called or who wrote it, but it left a lasting impression. When I had the opportunity to write a doll story myself, I couldn't resist. I'll keep you up-to-date about the publication.

My other piece of news is that my prequel to Alone, The Vengeful Vampire, is now free to download from Smashwords. If you'd like to know how Sebastian was turned, this is the read for you!

Anthologies Looking for Submissions..

I love writing short stories. I'd even go as far as saying I prefer writing them to novels. With short stories, there is none of the angst that goes with writing a novel, figuring out plot lines, worrying about not hitting the needed word count, the endless editing that happens once the novel is completed.

Short stories are the times to take chances with your writing, try something different, or controversial, and you know what, if it doesn't work, then who cares. You've only wasted a couple of weeks of your working life instead of a whole year!

I've not been going the normal route with submitting my short stories to anthologies lately, mainly because I'd rather keep hold of my rights than sell them to a publication. However, a couple of anthologies have come up lately that I'm planning to submit to and I thought I would share them with you.

The first is Mark Crittenden's new anthology from Static Movement, called 'Frozen Fear Deluxe'. He's looking for your best tales, taking place in frozen/arctic climate. The stories must be between 2 -5K in length and can be in any style you like (supernatural/monsters/psychological) as long as they're horror! You can find out more about the submission guidelines here!

I've had a short story published by Mark before, in the vampire horror anthology, Their Dark Masters. Their Dark Masters has been shipped to Ellen Datlow, to be considered for Best Horror of The Year Vol. 4 ( which covers all horror published in 2011 ) so wish us luck!

The second anthology is from fellow author Blaze McRob's new publishing house, Angelic Knight Press. They're looking for submissions for the anthology 'Satan's Toybox: Demonic Dolls. I've always hated dolls, the damn things are always guaranteed to scare the shit out of me, so I knew I had to write something for this one! You can find out more right here!

Happy writing everyone!