The demons of finding another publisher by Cat Cavendish

Catherine.

Well, firstly may I say I am delighted (if confused) that you hammies have invited me back again. I know poor Hamstah Dickens and I have had our differences –mostly over a complete misunderstanding which he took so personally.

[image error]

Catherine ..

It was never meant as such… Anyway, that’s ancient history.

[image error]

Catherine ..

Right now, I am looking around to see the quickest exit route. Ah, yes, over there. Just so I know. In case I need to make a swift getaway. Those hamster teeth are sharp.

[image error]

Catherine..

Assuming I make it out here with all my faculties intact… Right now, I am thrilled that these five novellas – Cold Revenge, The Demons of Cambian Street, The Devil Inside Her, Miss Abigail’s Room and The Second Wife – are out there again.

[image error]

Then, in October, Damned by the Ancients is released by Kensington Lyrical. This is the third in the Nemesis of the Gods trilogy set in Egypt and Vienna (mainly) and centred on the evil, obsessed Dr Emeryk Quintillus who has hatched a new plan to reincarnate Cleopatra.

[image error]

Catherine..

Sad to say, she didn’t have one. Mind you that was a good thing because she was away a lot and the poor thing would have starved. Or the maid, Becky would have screamed and let it out. Either way, it would have been a dog’s life… for a hamster.

[image error]

[image error]

Catherine..

Cold Revenge was the first – born out of a conversation when I pondered, what if revenge really was a cold dish? The Demons of Cambian Street was second and had its beginnings in a spooky walk-in cupboard in the 260 year old Welsh apartment we currently live in. When I decided to approach Crossroad Press (with whom I have another five titles), I read through each of these for the first time in a few years and immediately began re-editing them. I believe my writing is sharper now and the earlier work contained superfluous detail in some instances. I edited this out – trimmed off the fat if you like.

[image error]

Catherine..

Then Crossroad’s editors gave it their professional eye and now we have five brand new editions I am really happy with.

[image error]

[image error]

[image error] [image error]

Catherine..

I have always liked scary stories, ever since I was a child. I would snuggle up in bed with a book of horror short stories and absorb M.R. James, Sheridan le Fanu, Edgar Allan Poe and a host of others. Horror is the safe scare. You know it’s not real but it gives you a delicious thrill. The real horror of course is what is happening in the world and that is far from safe. Loving to read horror fiction meant I was naturally inclined to want to write it. So I did.

[image error] [image error]

[image error]

Catherine ..

Crossroad Press is a brilliant, small, independent American publisher with a great ethos. They are such fabulous, talented guys to work with and treat their authors extremely well. They specialise in breathing new life into currently out of print work of a high standard and I share their roster with such names as Brian Keene, Mary Sangiovanni, Brian Lumley, Charles L. Grant, Frazer Lee and the late, great Jack Ketchum to name but a few. They also now welcome original books.

[image error]

Catherine..

As for losing those titles… I had no advance warning that they were disappearing. It was a fellow author with whom I shared their then publisher who gave me the heads up that a whole shedload of books, not just by me but by many of my fellow authors, had been taken down from all online retail outlets, without warning. I contacted the publisher only to be told that they had decided to discontinue publishing any non-American authors! It was a huge shock. At least, though, I had another publisher, but for some of my fellow authors, had been loyal to this one publisher only to be left with no books for sale. Not, to my mind, a professional way of behaving. Another publisher of mine sadly went out of business and they handled things very

differently.[image error] [image error]

[image error]

Catherine..

Only one? That’s really difficult to decide. There are so many fantastic horror stories out there

[image error]

Catherine..

but you’ve squeezed me into a corner and…OUCH! That hurts!…

OK, I’ll pick on one by one of my top favourite authors – Ramsey Campbell.

[image error] [image error] [image error]

[image error]

It’s actually the first one of his I ever read and it’s called The Overnight. Why do I love it?

[image error]

It has all my favourite ingredients. It’s set in a large bookstore where the staff have to do an overnight stocktake. The tension builds steadily as we get to know the central characters but meanwhile, outside, a fog is descending and there is something in that mist. Something evil…and it’s getting closer. Fabulous! Ramsey is such a great storyteller. As I am sure Hamstah Dickens will be…one day…if only he’d stop eating his work!

[image error]

[image error] [image error]

[image error]

The five titles:

[image error]

Cold Revenge

Some dinner invitations are best ignored…

For no apparent reason, Nadine, Maggie, Gary, and Nick are invited to dinner at the lavish home of top fashion writer, Erin Dartford. But why has she invited them? Why doesn’t she want her guests to mingle? And what is it about the mysterious Erin that makes them want to run for their lives?

Little do they know that as they prepare to eat their first course, an evil as old as mankind is about to be unleashed. And revenge really is a dish best served cold…

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

[image error]

Miss Abigail’s Room

It wasn’t so much the blood on the floor that Becky minded. It was the way it kept coming back…

As the lowest ranking parlour maid at Stonefleet Hall, Becky gets all the dirtiest jobs. But the one she hates the most is cleaning Miss Abigail’s room. There’s a strange, empty smell to the place, and a feeling that nothing right or Christian resides there in the mistress’s absence.

And then there’s the blood, the spot that comes back no matter often Becky scrubs it clean. She wishes she had somewhere else to go, but without means or a good recommendation from her household, there is nothing for her outside the only home she’s known for eighteen years. Then when a sickening doll made of wax and feathers turns up, Becky’s dreams of freedom and green grass become even more distant. Until the staff members start to die – and Lord Stonefleet sees her and screams as if the hounds of hell were after him.

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

[image error]

The Demons of Cambian Street

Sometimes evil wears a beautiful face…

After her illness, the quiet backwater of Priory St Michael seemed the ideal place for Stella to recuperate. But in the peaceful little town, something evil is slumbering, waiting for its chance to possess what it desires. When Stella and her husband move into the long-empty apartment, they’re unaware of what exists in the cupboard upstairs, the entrance to an evil that will threaten both their lives…

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

[image error]

The Devil Inside Her

When nightmares become dreams, someone must die…

Haunted by the death of her husband and only child, Elinor Gentry’s recurring nightmares have left her exhausted. She’s crippled by debt, and only the remnants of her former life surround her, Then, for no apparent reason, the nightmares transform into pleasant dreams. Dreams that lead her to take back control of her life.

A string of horrific and unexplained suicides–and an unnerving discovery about Elinor herself—lead her best friend to seek help from the one person who has seen all this before, and things begin to spiral out of control. Hazel Messinger knows that Elinor’s newly found wellbeing is not what it seems, and Hazel’s not about to let the demon inside remain there permanently.

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

[image error]

The Second Wife

Emily Marchant died on Valentine’s Day. If only she’d stayed dead…

When Chrissie Marchant first sets eyes on Barton Grove, she feels as if the house doesn’t want her. But it’s her new husband’s home, so now it’s her home as well. Sumptuous and exquisitely appointed, the house is filled with treasures that had belonged to Joe’s first wife, the perfect Emily, whom the villagers still consider the real mistress of Barton Grove.

A stunning photograph of the first Mrs. Marchant hangs in the living room, an unblemished rose in her hand. There’s something unnerving and impossibly alive about that portrait, but it’s not the only piece of Emily still in the house. And as Chrissie’s marriage unravels around her, she learns that Emily never intended for Joe to take a second wife…

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Cat’s contact links:

View more on Shehanne Moore's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag