Embers of Bridges coming soon!

It’s official! After weeks (months!) of writing, editing, proofreading, rewriting, re-editing, designing a cover and sweating a few buckets, Embers of Bridges is all set to hit the virtual shelves and will hopefully be available by this time next week.

This noirish comedy of errors in set in Birmingham (the suburbs, the canals and above all, the world famous Jewellery Quarter) and features Mickey, Gaz and the rest of the Live Hard, Die Young gang as well as friendship, loyalty, disillusionment, a few Pink Floyd references and even the occasional elephant.

Here’s the blurb:

“Four friends. One robbery. What price loyalty?

Van driver Mickey’s been following best mate Gaz from one scrape to another since primary school. He’s been deluding himself about the reasons for almost as long: Gaz is fun; Gaz brings excitement to his otherwise dull life; Gaz’s sister Trudy is hot enough for any kid to die for.

Now the Live Hard, Die Young gang’s all grown up and the scrapes have turned into robberies, but the excuses stay the same. Mickey’s loyalty is about to be tested, though, as Gaz is acting weird and the robberies keep going tits-up. As their latest job in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter leads to a bizarre getaway on a canal boat, he can think of only one thing. Not him. Not Gaz. This can’t be lurve. Can it?

But Mickey isn’t the only one with a secret. And when he finds out what Gaz is hiding, he has to decide which of his bridges to burn…”

And here’s the rather spiffing cover, which I designed myself using images from ilya on Pexels and Tim Mossholder on Unsplash. The colours, the bridge and the helicopter are all strangely relevant…

I’ll post again the minute the book’s available, but in the meantime, here are a couple of quotes from readers who’ve devoured the ARC and seem to have enjoyed it…

‛Fiona Glass is fabulous at building an atmosphere and that is one of the gripping elements of this beautifully written and quietly compelling contemporary gay noir story.’ —Ellie Thomas, author of ‘London in the Rain’ and the Twelve Letters series

‘What do you do when life’s going pear-shaped, and the mates you thought you could trust let you down? Embers of Bridges has it all: dark wit, a distinctive Birmingham setting, and a grifter you can’t help liking. Mickey Delaney is just trying to make a life for himself, but with friends like his, that’s not going to be as easy as he’d like! Come along for the ride as Mickey dodges bad traffic, bad weather, bad luck, and dodgy friends!’  —Margot Kinberg, author of the Joel Williams mysteries and the Patricia Stanley mysteries

Good news

Things have been a little… unusual here in Britain lately, so it’s nice to have some really good news to liven up the gloom and uncertainty.

And I have.  Caffeine Nights Publishing have just confirmed that  ‘Raise the Blade’ is due out by late summer, which is now only a few weeks away.

As you can imagine, I’m really excited.  As far as I’m concerned late summer can’t come soon enough – although in reality it will take time to arrange a book launch (and hopefully a few book signings) and sort out all the other arrangements and preparations that having a new book out entails.  So I guess that, like everyone else, I’ll just have to wait!

In the meantime, here’s a reminder of that pretty cover Caffeine Nights designed for me, and a brief teaser of the book’s first few words.  I’ll be revealing more… gradually… over the next few weeks.  Oo-er!

Duncan raises the blade and watches the parcel squirm.  He’s going to love the next few hours…

 

 

New stories

I promised more details about the stories I’d had accepted the other day, so here they are.  In the meantime I’m delighted to say that ‘a couple’ has turned into three, or four if you count the one currently appearing in the new 81 Words anthology.  It’s been quite a week!

First off, there’s ‘Scorpio’, a twisted but topical little tale inspired by the old ‘frog and scorpion’ fable, coming soon in Thrills, Kills ‘n’ Chaos magazine.

Next there’s ‘Singing From the Same Sheet’, which Near 2 the Knuckle have just accepted for their forthcoming Rogue anthology.  This dark story asks what separates the good from the bad – and you may not like the answer very much!

Finally, brand new magazine Betty Fedora, which specialises in fiction about ‘kick ass women’, has accepted ‘Going Off the Deep End’, a darkly humorous revenge story about a woman slighted by her ex best friend, for their first issue, due out this time next year.

You can find more details on the stories on my website.  Do check back from time to time, as I’ll be updating release dates etc whenever I have more information.

Exiles nears completion

The excitement is building: the Exiles anthology, due out very soon from Blackwitch Press, now has a running order. There are a lot of extremely good writers on this list, not least the late Colin Graham, who I believe the book will be dedicated to since he very sadly passed away during production.

Here’s who else is in it, not forgetting yours truly:

INTRODUCTION: HEATH LOWRANCE
REFLECTIONS ON A DECADE IN THE WILD EAST – COLIN GRAHAM
EATING THE DREAM – K A LAITY
MIDNIGHT TRAIN TO DELHI – CHRIS RHATIGAN
BOXING DAY IN MUROS – STEVEN PORTER
WE ARE ALL SPECIAL CASES – PATTI ABBOTT
NEVER A VESSELL LARGE ENOUGH – RYAN SALES
THE SOLOMON SEA – GARETH SPARK
AGENT RAMIEL GETS THE CALL – PAMILA PAYNE
THE WEATHER PROPHET – PAUL D. BRAZILL
THE RAIN KING – JASON MICHEL
DULLCREEK – CARRIE CLEVENGER
IN AMERICA – DAVID MALCOLM
THE PLACE OF THE DEAD – NICK SWEENEY
DISAPPEARING ACT – SONIA KILVINGTON
WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR – ROB BRUNET
PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY – JAMES A. NEWMAN
DEAD MAN WALKING – TESS MAKOVESKY
SHUT OUT THE LIGHT – CHRIS LEEK
FLYING IN AMSTERDAM – MCDROLL
THE TRIBE – RENATO BRATKOVIC
WETWORK – WALTER CONLEY
DIGGER DAVIES – MARRIETTA MILES
TAKING OUT THE TRASH – AIDAN THORN
MISSING AN EAR – BENJAMIN SOBIECK
THE TENDER TRAP – GRAHAM WYND
FALLING THROUGH THE HOURGLASS – RICHARD GODWIN

Watch out for further details very, very soon!