Dan Coxon's Blog

Haunted House anthology Unquiet Guests coming this Halloween!

I warned you that I'd been busy on a secret project... but it's secret no longer!

On 30 October, Dead Ink Books will publish Unquiet Guests, my latest anthology, in a beautiful deluxe hardback edition. (Is it too early to say 'Christmas presents'? I think not...) The book gathers stories by ten of our finest authors of the Uncanny on a Haunted House theme.

So exactly who will you find within its pages? I can honestly say that I think it's one of the strongest lineups I've been involved with - I hope you agree! Our unquiet guests are:

Chuck Palahniuk
Grady Hendrix
Kirsty Logan
Claire Fuller
Matthew Holness
Irenosen Okojie
Will Maclean
Ally Wilkes
Clay McLeod Chapman
Alison Moore

If you're as excited about it as I am, then please do consider pre-ordering a copy (or two) via the link below. Pre-orders are a great way of supporting the writers you like, and send a clear message to bookshops that they should stock plenty of copies! 

Pre-order Unquiet Guests here. 

Writing the Magic open for preorders!

You may have noticed that I've been quiet recently, but I haven't been resting. The past couple of months have been spent putting the finishing touches to a whole host of new book projects, and I'm thrilled to say that the first is now open for preorders.

Writing the Magic will be published by Dead Ink Books this September, and marks the fourth installment in our 'Writing...' series (after Uncanny, Future, and Murder). As you might guess from the title, the focus this time is fantasy fiction, and we've assembled an incredibly skilled and experienced party to help you on your quest.

The book contains essays by:

Francesco Dimitri
Hannah Kaner
RJ Barker
Kritika H. Rao
Juliet E. McKenna
Jen Williams
Jeff Noon
Alex Pheby
J.L. Worrad
Richard Strachan
Charlotte Bond
Katherine Langrish
Lucy Holland 

Here's the official blurb: 

From Lord of the Rings to Game of Thrones, over the last hundred years few genres have captured the public imagination as powerfully as fantasy. Whether it’s epic quests of dwarves and elves, wizards and paladins, or the influential childhood classics of Alan Garner and C.S. Lewis, the appetite among readers for all things magical seems insatiable.

Pulling together a fellowship of some of the best writers of modern fantasy fiction, Writing the Magic invites you to step through the portal and discover what gives these tales such enduring appeal. Writers such as Jeff Noon, Hannah Kaner, RJ Barker and Jen Williams pull back the curtain on how they write fantasy, demystifying topics such as worldbuilding, sources of magic, creating authenticity, and how best to deploy your dragons.

An essential map for anyone wanting to write their own world into being, Writing the Magic explores the perilous realms of fantasy fiction – and arms novice writers with everything they need to embark on their own adventure.

 

Richard Hirst and I are incredibly excited for this one, and we hope you are too! It honestly might be my favourite in the series - click here for more details and preorders.

Back from the dead... Come Sing for the Harrowing returns!

You might remember that my second short story collection, Come Sing for the Harrowing, was released by Weird Little Worlds in October 2024. It received some great early reviews, particularly from Horror DNA and Happy Goat Horror (who both placed it on their Year's Best lists!), but then the publisher shut down and it went out of print - a mere two months after release.

As much as this sounds like a sob story, I finally have some good news to share. The collection has been picked up by CLASH Books (who are absolutely wonderful), and will be reappearing in spring next year - with a couple of added surprises. I'm so thrilled that the book will get a second shot - here's the official announcement: 

 

Come Sing for the Harrowing - new collection out now!

My second collection of short stories, Come Sing For The Harrowing, was published by Weird Little Worlds on 10 October and I can't wait for you to read it! Some of these stories have been published in magazines and anthologies over the last couple of years, but seven of them have never seen the light of day before (and a couple have been reworked for the collection). Overall they're a strange blend of folk horror and weird fiction - I set myself a mission to try and warp the familiar folk horror tropes into something original and contemporary. You can decide whether I succeeded.

A select few people have had a chance to read it in advance, and I'm thrilled to say that the word is good. Brian Evenson has very kindly written a Foreword to the collection, and had this to say:

 "The stories are deft and subtle, occupying that sweet spot where the weird and the strange and unsettling and the uncanny converge and collide... Here, he proves himself capable of not only continuing to reweave and manipulate the possibilities of folk horror, but of making inroads into countless other avenues of the strange. Indeed, Coxon’s stories find an Aickmanesque balance where their strangenesses can simply be, and where we feel increasingly that we are witnessing characters who find themselves in over their heads in a world that they cannot fully understand. Coxon is a writer who, flitting on the edge of horror as a genre, extends and complicates the domains of folk horror and the weird in important ways."

In addition, Eric LaRocca had this to say about it:

“Come Sing for the Harrowing is a true gift for connoisseurs of the bizarre and the unusual. Sinister and deeply affecting, Coxon’s remarkable collection is too compelling, too inventive to miss.”

And Laird Barron commented that:

"Dan Coxon expertly weaves modern gothic and folk horror. Come Sing for the Harrowing brims with specters, blood-soaked occult rituals, and old, hungry gods. Salvation and damnation haunt these pages, locked in an infernal embrace."

You can pre-order a copy direct from Weird Little Worlds , or orders are also open on Amazon (both .com and .co.uk) if that's easier. I even have a few copies left on my shelf, if you're in the UK and would like a signed copy.

The Reaper is coming... 

 

Heartwood: A Mythago Wood Anthology - Robert Holdstock tribute

I'm utterly thrilled to announce that my latest book, Heartwood: A Mythago Wood Anthology, will be published by PS Publishing later this month! We'll have copies on the PS table at Worldcon later this week - so if you're in Glasgow, it's the perfect time to pick up a copy (there will be a group table signing at 1pm on Saturday, at the PS Publishing table in the Dealers' Room). If you're not in Glasgow, there's a pre-order link below.

Robert Holdstock's Mythago Wood was published in 1984, and went on to win both the World Fantasy Award and British Fantasy Award. It's an incredible masterwork of modern fantasy, combined with elements of horror, sci-fi and folklore, and a book that's always been dear to me. In his Introduction to the anthology Michael Moorcock calls it "the outstanding fantasy book of its time", and I'd have to agree!

I've spent the last two years working with Holdstock's estate and some of the best modern writers of fantasy and horror to put together this tome of brand-new Mythago stories, the first of its kind. There are some truly wonderful stories here, and I think we've done Rob proud. I should also warn you that, at over 450 pages, it's a hefty volume!

Here's the table of contents:

Introduction: The Matter of Albion – Michael Moorcock
Editor’s Note – Dan Coxon
Transient in Green – RJ Barker
Paved with Gold – Adrian Tchaikovsky
Here There be Monsters – Tim Waggoner
Raptor – Maura McHugh
Horsey Horsey – James Brogden
Et in Acadia – John Langan
The Crossing Place – Paul Kane
What Happened to the Green Boy? – Gary Budden
The Dog on the Hookland Road – Justina Robson
Voici les Neiges d’Antan – Chaz Brenchley
Old Coal – Mark Morris
The Myth of Grief – Steven Savile
Into the Heart – Allen Stroud
Lovely, Dark and Deep – Lisa Tuttle
Prey – Matthew Ward
Mad Pranks and Merry Jests – Jen Williams
Hearts of Ice – Peter Haynes
Calling the Tune – Lucy Holland
The Known Song – Aliya Whiteley
Knight of the Air – Gareth Hanrahan
A Mythago Wood Glossary

A.G. Slatter has called it “A magical, mystical anthology, a deep dive into the new territory of an old land. Striking,” while Adam Roberts calls it “A beautiful, and beautifully varied, set of responses and reimaginings of one of the most important Fantasy novels of the twentieth century.” You really won't want to miss it. 

Pre-order Heartwood here.

Sharpen your knives... Writing the Murder coming this September!

 

The edits are done, the manuscript is handed in... and I'm thrilled to announce that the third book in our 'Writing...' series will be published by Dead Ink Books on 26th September!

Following hot on the heels of Writing the Uncanny (Winner - British Fantasy Award for Best Non-Fiction) and Writing the Future (longlisted for the BSFA Awards), Writing the Murder features 13 brand new essays exploring the craft of mystery fiction. Including spotlight pieces on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie and Patricia Highsmith, it's intended as both an inspiration for aspiring writers and an exploration for the avid reader of crime fiction.

The table of contents is as follows:

Tess Little - It Bleeds
Charlie Higson - The Killer Inside Me: Writing the Criminal
Andrew Gallix - The Deader the Better: On Writing the Murder
Barry Forshaw - No Compromises: The Crime Fiction of Patricia Highsmith
Louise Welsh - There’s Been a Murder: Miscarriages of Justice, Respectability and the Fatal Flaw
Carole Johnstone - Setting Out Your Stall
Saima Mir - The Mirrored Room
Jessie Greengrass - On Reading as Escape: All of Christie’s Murderers, and Me
Vaseem Khan - Making the Dead Dance: Historical Crime Fiction
Quentin Bates - Breaking the Translation Barrier
Paul Finch - Cop Stuff: Fact or Fantasy
Tom Mead - The Method and the Effect: Conjuring the Impossible Crime
Tim Major - The Problem of the Faithful Pastiche

Pre-orders are open now! Co-editor Richard V. Hirst and I are so excited to get this book out into the world - it's a great companion piece to the two volumes so far, and an intriguing investigation into mystery fiction in its own right. Get sharpening those knives!

(Pencils. I meant pencils...)

Pre-order a copy here.

For Tomorrow: the Wellbrook High Yearbook 1993 - new anthology out now!

It's finally here! My latest anthology, For Tomorrow, hit shelves last week - and it's already getting rave reviews. Here's what Runalong The Shelves had to say:

This is a fascinating collection with an intriguing spin on the ideas of found footage and cursed object, but in this case it’s the character who is cursed and here are their unknown later stories. These relatively young people are, through very little fault of their own, now marked in some way. This was the type of collection where I thought I’ll just try one and then found a few hours later I’d devoured it in one sitting!

... For Tomorrow I think is one of the creepiest collections I’ve read, managing to offer varied and powerful stories and yet at no time is it ever clear what did happen in 1993 at Wellbrook, which makes it even by the end more ominous and sinister. I do wonder if we could find more lost pupils from that school in the future, but this is a standout modern horror collection well worth tracking down! Strongly recommended! Read the full review here.

If you've missed the previews and teasers online (although frankly, I don't know how), then here's the official blurb again: Wellbrook High is the school that needs no introduction. After the infamous events of 1993, it has become synonymous with unexpected – and unexplained – tragedy.

While what happened thirty years ago is still being unpicked by Internet conspiracy theorists, however, the lives of the handful of survivors are a matter of public record. In this recreation of the fabled Yearbook of ’93, some of the best emerging writers of horror and strange fiction revisit the years that followed the tragedy, and the lives of those who walked away on that fateful day.

Some might say they were the lucky ones. The reality is not so clear.

Featuring: Carrion ~ Lucie McKnight Hardy | Finger and Palm ~ Malcolm Devlin & Helen Marshall | Amusements ~ Verity Holloway | As I Want You To Be ~ Ray Cluley | Hyperlink ~ Polis Loizou | The Crumbling Edifice ~ Ashley Stokes | Habitual ~ Daniel Carpenter | Shadowing ~ Penny Jones | As If Your Mouth Were Sewn Shut ~ C.C. Adams | Shadow Burdens ~ Charlotte Bond | Trial ~ Phil Sloman | Comments On This Video Have Been Disabled ~ James Everington I'm also giving away six exclusive Wellbrook High pin badges to six lucky readers. These were produced for the contributors, so this is literally the only place you can get your hands on one! All you have to do is order a copy of the anthology, and post a picture of it on social media (Facebook, X, Instagram, Bluesky or Threads) once you receive it, tagging me and #wewillremember93 (where hashtags are supported!). The first six people to post pics of their copy get a badge. If only Blue Peter badges were this simple...  You can order a copy of For Tomorrow here , direct from Black Shuck Books, or via the usual outlets.

Isolation shortlisted for the British Fantasy Awards - and a giveaway!

This will already be old news for some of you (that it's taken me three weeks to write this is testament to how busy I am right now), but I'm thrilled to announce that Isolation: The Horror Anthology has been shortlisted for a British Fantasy Award. The book came out last September with Titan Books, and if you haven't already grabbed a copy you should know that it includes stories by Joe R. Lansdale, Paul Tremblay, Tim Lebbon, M. R. Carey, Ken Liu, Nina Allan, Ramsey Campbell, Alison Littlewood, Brian Evenson, Angela Slatter, Jonathan Maberry, Mark Morris and many, many more. Everyone involved with the book has given it their best, and I wholeheartedly believe that you won't find a better set of authors anywhere.

Here's a snippet from the introduction to whet your appetite:

Of course,horror has always been aware of the dangers of isolation. From the OverlookHotel to the Nostromo, there are perils awaiting us when we drift toofar from society’s faint circle of light. We have an inbuilt fear of straying outsideour communities, of setting foot in the dark woods—a fear that, many thousandsof years ago, might have saved our lives. There is danger in the unknown, andthe farther you stray into the wilderness, the less you know. In space, no onecan hear you scream.

More than themonsters that lurk on the shadowed fringes of society, though, the real dangercomes from within. Humans are social animals, and away from the pack we startto lose our identity, question our reason; eventually, we lose our grip onreality. The Overlook may have ghosts in its halls, but it’s Jack Torrance thatthey prey upon as he goes slowly mad. As Jonathan Maberry says in his Sam Imurastory “Lone Gunman”, reprinted in this anthology: “Alone, though, it’s easierto be weaker, smaller, to be more intimate with the pain, and be owned by it.”Isolation finds the cracks in our psyche, and works its way insidiously inside.

It's up for the Best Anthology award against some stiff competition (including Great British Horror 7: Major Arcana, which features my story 'The High Priestess') but I'll be keeping my fingers crossed when the winners are announced at Fantasycon on 16 September. Best of luck to all the other nominees, in all categories!

You can, of course, still buy a copy of Isolation here. If you fancy getting your hands on a free signed copy, however, then make sure you sign up to my newsletter before the end of August. At the start of September I'll be picking one subscriber at random to receive a signed copy (and I'm feeling generous, so the draw is open to everyone outside the UK too). You can sign up on my home page, or just follow the link to sign up here.

I'll also be at Fantasycon for all three days, so if you see me wandering between rooms, grab me and wish me luck. I think I'll need as much as I can get...

Farewell to Unsung Stories

A week ago we announced that indie SF publisher Unsung Stories will be closing. If you've been paying attention, you'll know that I've been working as editor at Unsung for the past five years or so, and it's with a heavy heart that George Sandison and I have decided to call it a day.

Times are particularly tough for independent presses right now. Bear in mind that Unsung has won two British Fantasy Awards, and had numerous books shortlisted for awards, including the Arthur C. Clarke Award and Shirley Jackson Awards - but even we couldn't make it work indefinitely. (You can read George's full farewell message here .) So... if you have an independent publisher that you love, buy some books from them! (Go on, do it now. You can open a new window. I'll wait.)

Our shop is still open for a couple of months, as we wind things down and get as many books into people's hands as possible - so if you've ever thought of buying a book from Unsung Stories and didn't do it, now is the time to put that right. All our paperbacks are on sale, with prices starting at £1.99, as well as some fantastic bundle deals. There's no excuse for not filling your baskets with quality fiction. The sale includes my anthologies This Dreaming Isle and Out of the Darkness, of course, but you can also pick up books by fantastic authors like Aliya Whiteley, Verity Holloway, Ashley Stokes, Rym Kechacha, Peter Haynes and E.J. Swift.

Shop the Unsung Stories sale

Writing The Future - coming in September!

In case you missed it, we made a big announcement last month. Following on from the success of Writing The Uncanny, Dead Ink will be publishing Writing The Future this September. There's a glorious cover reveal too - don't tell me those two volumes won't look pretty next to each other on your shelf...

The lineup was announced at the same time, but I can reveal a few more details here. The contributors are as follows, with a hint of what to expect from their essays:

Toby Litt on writing truly alien aliens
Nina Allan on J. G. Ballard
T. L. Huchu on science fiction as crystal ball
James Miller on the political act of writing eco-SF
Adam Marek on how to generate sci-fi ideas
Rachelle Atalla on the bleak landscape of dystopia
Anne Charnock on Margaret Atwood
Aliya Whiteley on the science in science fiction
Adam Roberts on H. G. Wells
Una McCormack on the similarities with historical fiction
Oliver K. Langmead on the future form of the novel
Marian Womack on the weird poetics of eco-SF
Maura McHugh on the legacy of 2000 AD

The book also has the usual introduction from myself and Richard V. Hirst, as well as recommended reading lists of 50 speculative short stories and 100 speculative novels.

The release date is officially set as 5 September 2023, and there will be more information closer to the time. In the meantime, make sure you pre-order your copy through your favourite bookseller, or direct from Dead Ink Books here.