Wow, there are 200 of you now reading this newsletter (some poised as you read this to unsubscribe because you had forgotten about it until this very moment because the “weekly” in the title is a somewhat loose concept). Thank you for supporting small presses, especially this one, the best one, obviously.
It’s always busy, but it’s especially busy in and around school holiday time, as I’ve griped about before (and will gripe about again, surely). But I’ve been chugging away. I have three upcoming books in 2024, and they are all now more or less ready to go into print, pending a few minor editorial details. Would you like to know more about them? Of course you would.
Blue Hawk by Chloe Turner, out 17 July
17th century Gloucestershire. Joan, the daughter of a millworker with drink-fuelled pipe dreams, is thrust into her family's battle against poverty. With her father's legacy tarnished, Joan steps into his place, mastering the art of cloth-dying to save her family from destitution and restore their lost honor.
But Joan's exceptional skill challenges her community's rigid conventions--and stirs whispers of witchcraft. Her lonely endeavours are further shadowed by marital strife and a complex rivalry with her sister, Alice, fueled by jealousy and long-standing grievances.
Chloe Turner’s Blue Hawk explores the power of passion, the price of ambition, and the beauty of courage.
The Last Doorbell by William Parker, out 28 August
"What the bloody hell am I doing here?"
Ben's past was supposed to be behind him: debts paid, savings secured, and a collection of outrageous anecdotes that would amuse his friends for a lifetime. But under pressure from his escort agency for "one final favor," he now stands at a precipice, finger poised over a doorbell.
There’s a moment’s pause before his finger makes reluctant contact. He can’t possibly know it, of course, but this doorbell, the last, changes his life forever...
The Eater of Flies by Richard Gadz, out 24 October
Summer, 1868. London's West End buzzes with a chaotic blend of affluence and moral decay, a place where high society and underworld meet. A valuable box from Transylvania, sealed tight, falls into unscrupulous hands. Its opening releases a vampyr, a wraith-like parasite that hides inside a host – whether young or old, man or woman – and thirsts for human blood.
For those who live and work around Holmwood's music hall, just off The Strand, the vampyr's arrival begins a nightmare of betrayal and death, and a race to return the creature to the grave before others of its kind come to pick the city clean.
The Eater Of Flies leaves traditional vampiric lore behind, offering a chilling Victorian gothic tale laced with crime, pitch-dark humour and, above all, rampant greed: for money, for power … for blood.
(trailer to come)
As ever, these brilliant books are available for pre-order from deixis.press/books and Amazon, and they should all be available from other online booksellers soon—
—Which leads me to my final point. After all, what would this newsletter be without a complaint? This “week” I’m puzzled by why Blue Hawk, which is registered at Nielsen, has not percolated out to online booksellers like Foyles etc. Usually that happens immediately. I’m using a new content manager that was supposed to make my life easier; it has not as yet. Is the content manager to blame? Is it me? Am I the drama?
