Die Booth's Blog, page 10

Book review – ‘White Ibis’ by Wendy Dalrymple

‘White Ibis’ is a neat horror novella that can be read easily in a sitting or two. This was the first book of Wendy Dalrymple’s I’ve read and her accessible, enjoyable writing style had me immersed in the story from the start.

This is a horror story, but for me the true terror of it wasn’t in the supernatural elements, but the human ones. Every character is perfectly unlikable – although not impossible to feel sorry for, as they’re all stuck in such awful situations, often of their own making. I...

How I write quiet horror

As an author I’m absolutely delighted that the term ‘quiet horror’ is recently gaining a bit of traction in the writing world. I’ve struggled for years to come up with the right, understood, term for the stories I pen that manage to straddle the horror and ‘literary’ genres in a way that is sometimes a nightmare to market or even describe. So here are my tips on how to write quiet horror.

What is quiet horror?

For me, it’s easier to define quiet horror by what it isn’t. Slashers, gore, body hor...

How I name my characters

If you’re anything like me, naming the characters in your stories can sometimes get a little challenging. I’ve been writing for a long time now and as the short stories and flash fictions rack up, things can get a little, well, repetitive. So here are a few tricks that I use to come up with an endless supply of individual character names.

1 – They name themselves

This is the ideal situation. Sometimes, the character just names themselves – like that perfect plot that just pops into your head ful...

Queer SciFi feature on ‘Making Friends’

On launch day, the lovely folk over at Queer Sci Fi did a fantastic launch article for ‘Making Friends (and other fictions’) – you can read it here and it includes a taster of my story ‘The Night Post’ which features in the book.
While you’re there, I highly recommend checking out the Queer Sci Fi website – it’s a fantastic resource for LGBTQ+ speculative fiction of all kinds!

Making Friends (and other fictions) OUT NOW!

Sound the alarm, the day has come! Making Friends (and other fictions) has finally been released into the wild!

This one has been a long time in the making and I want to sincerely thank everyone who has been there cheering me on, sharing my social media posts and generally being hyped to get hold of this collection. I am truly grateful to every single one of you and I’m excited for you to finally meet my creature.

Now, onto the where and how:

Pick up an e-copy (all formats) from Smashwords here...

One month til Making Friends launch – and TOC reveal!

Time is really flying – I can’t believe it’s just a month until my new collection ‘Making Friends (and other fictions)’ is released into the wild. It will come pawing at your door at night, so my best advice is to let it in, feed it some bread and milk, and then maybe when you wake up it will have folded all your laundry.

Until then, you can pre-order the e-book here in all formats, or if you’d like an ARC for review then please comment on this post or drop me a note at die[dot]booth[at]gmail[do...

Making Friends – release date confirmed!

Here’s a little bit of good news for this Friday 13th – I’ve now confirmed the release date for my new collection of  stories.

‘Making Friends (and other fictions)’ will be released into the wild on 21st September, 2021 (a good planetary alignment date!)

This is a collection of short stories and flash fiction with the main theme being it was all written by me..! It’s a bit quiet horror, a bit historical, a bit LGBTQ+, a bit uplifting, a bit unsettling, but hopefully all worth your attention.

It...

Queer Sci Fi ‘Ink’ out today!

Queer Sci Fi’s annual flash fiction anthology is finally here – and this year the theme is Ink. My story ‘Faith and the Thorncutters’ features in this hefty collection and I was honoured to get both an Honourable Mention and Judges Choice.

I received my copy yesterday and it’s a really lovely, thick book, packed full of 121 little stories spanning horror, fantasy and sci fi LGBTQIA+ voices. I’m so happy to be a part of it!

INK (NOUN)

Five definitions to inspire writers around the world and an un...

Humans are the Problem

Very soon Weird Little Worlds are publishing ‘Humans are the Problem’, an anthology for monsters struggling to navigate the 21st century.

As someone who usually sides with the ‘monster’ I love the concept of this one – and I am stoked to have a story included in it! You can read more about the anthology on the Weird Little Worlds website here.

Humans are the Problem cover

Making Friends cover reveal

It’s my birthday today, so I think it’s an appropriate day to do the cover reveal for my new book. I can’t believe it’s been five years since I released a new one!

‘Making Friends (and other fictions)’ is due out… well, soon… like, in the next couple of months soon. I’ll post more on that when I have a firm date set.

I’m pleased with how the cover turned out. As with all of my books, this is a completely solo effort – written, formatted and illustrated by me, cover photo and design by me (not to...