A shop owner receives a mysterious box that he just can’t help opening… I didn’t know what I was getting into when I agreed to mind the box for Frankie. If I’d known what would happen—if I’d realized the terrible consequences of doing so—I would’ve told Frankie to take his mysterious box and get the…
A vampire gets more than he bargained for when he breaks into a victim’s house to feed… I broke into the house that night thinking it was just going to be another regular feeding session. Get in, drain the victim, get out. Easy, just like I’d done countless times before, then I’d be good to…
I don’t really write that many short stories, preferring the longer novel form, but this is one I wrote a while back. It’s urban fantasy, but with a big Lovecraftian horror element to it… When Sasha Benedict first saw the portal, she was trying not to scream in pain as the man who was supposed…
From its humble beginnings in the 1980s, urban fantasy has emerged as a riveting, ever-evolving genre that has captured the hearts and imaginations of countless readers. While it may not yet rival the commercial success of titans like romance or mystery, urban fantasy continues to flourish and expand its reach, offering boundless possibilities for both…
“I have seen the future of horror…and it is named Clive Barker.” So says Stephen King in a very famous quote that graced the cover of just about every Clive Barker book in the eighties and nineties. At that time, Barker was highly celebrated as one of the best horror novelists of his generation. Today,…
Urban fantasy with a male lead–or tough guy urban fantasy as it is sometimes known–has seen something of a resurgence in the last few years. Once upon a time, the urban fantasy genre was dominated mostly by books featuring female protagonists from authors such as Kim Harrison, Laurel K Hamilton and Patricia Briggs to name…
Before we begin, let me point out that this article is not intended to be some sort of blueprint for “How To Write A Bestselling Urban Fantasy Series”. The article merely outlines the research I did before I started writing the male urban fantasy series that I’m still hard at work on. As well as…
I am delighted today to have Shane Stadler on the blog for an interview. Shane is the author of the awesome and twisted Exoskeleton and and its sequel, Tympanum, both of which I have praised (and rightly so) in my reviews of the respective books. In this interview, I got the chance to ask Shane…
I am really glad I didn’t have to wait almost four years for this story the way a lot of people did. I only got to reading Exoskeleton, the previous novel from Shane Stadler, a couple of months ago (read my review here), so thankfully I didn’t have long to wait on the follow-up novel,…