Let the Horror Cons Commence!

Hi everyone, and welcome to this latest version of my newsletter. It's now April (approaching May), the weather's getting warmer, we're seeing a bit of sunshine, and better still, we've just had a bank holiday weekend with another couple to come. What could be better?

It's that time of year when the horror conventions start in earnest, and to ram the point home, I spent the last weekend at the newly launched Horrorfied show in Farnborough. The event couldn't have gone better. The guests were great (Robert Englund, Lance Henriksen, and the cast of The Descent, to name but a few), and the attendance was through the roof. For me personally, it was my most successful show by some considerable way. I met loads of great people, talked books, talked movies, and generally got to geek out. The photo above is of me talking to a couple of my readers, and if I remember rightly, they're also the readers who decided to buy the one and only upside down version of Pale Face and The Raven :). If this is you, thank you so much for stopping by and picking up my books. Speaking of which, I'm continually astounded how well that particular story, the first full length novel I ever wrote, continues to sell, completely selling out partway through the second day.

Next up is Maidstone Comic Convention on the 4 May, and then the fantastic HorrorCon UK in Sheffield on 17/18 May. I'm looking forward to both of those. If you're in the vicinity, pop in and say hi. I'll have all four of my books at show only prices, plus the usual bundle discounts. More than that, it'll be great to see you. If you can't make those and would like to catch up, check out my Instagram page ( Instagram) to find out when my scheduled shows are. There's plenty more this year.

From a writing perspective, I'm deep into the third and final Luke Raven book and really enjoying re-visiting the troubled town of Westhampton. For fans of the series, there will be some surprises, some old characters (Lisa, Billy, Molly) and some new, a pretty nasty baddie, lots of twists and turns, and a really satisfying but shocking conclusion. As I've been saying to lots of you, my aim is to get this one out by November (no promises), which would mean publishing two books in one year under my newly created Skull Cherry Books brand — a PB for me.

In terms of What Doesn't Cure You, the sci-fi action horror I released last month, the reviews are coming in and they have been really, really positive. One reader said, 'I loved every single twist and turn, and every blood soaked, gore filled scene,' while another wrote, 'we get a WHOPPER of an ending that I shall not spoil, but let me just say I LOVED it.' I never take good reviews for granted, and I never ignore constructive criticism. If people take the time to write a review, I always study it and take the comments, good or bad, on board. If you've read one of my books and would like to let me know what you think, either message me on my contact form, or if you really want to help me out, write a review on Amazon or Goodreads or both.

Lots of you have been asking about Audiobooks. As many of you know, there are already two audio versions of my works on Audible; Pale Face and The Raven (Pale Face & the Raven Audiobook | Free with trial ) and The Faraway People ( The Faraway People Audiobook | Free with trial), both of which are great listens. They're also free to download if you sign up to be an Audible member. I'm getting my act together to get The Hawk and The Raven and The Faraway People narrated soon, so I'll keep you updated on those. These things tend to take a bit of time, so please bear with me. I know there are lots of you who prefer to listen to books rather than read them, so I'll do my best to get them out there ASAP.

I also plan to release a special edition box set of my Raven series alongside the launch of the new book. It's still conceptual at the moment, but my vision is to re-issue all three books in the same size and format, and design a box to go around them. I'd love to hear your thoughts on that. What would you like to see in the box set? Would you prefer to see all three books issued as a compendium addition? Would you like some detail added (perhaps as a limited edition addendum) about my inspiration behind the settings and the characters?

People have also been asking me about hardbacks for all five books. This is also something I'm considering. I'll be getting quotes shortly to see if the numbers work, but assuming it's positive, I'll launch them as soon as I can.

Other than that, the big event in our diaries this year is our daughters wedding — the first of our children to tie the knot. As you can imagine, we are really excited for the big day and can't wait for it to be here. Jayden is pretty good at organising things, so there's no real panic, but I can imagine as the day nears, there will be a few fraught moments.

Anyway, that's it from me for this newsletter. I hope you had a great Easter and are looking forward to the weekend. I'll post again in a couple of months, but in the meantime, happy reading.

SD.