The Respectable Face of Tyranny: a teaser…

On Monday, if you remember, we announced that Spectral would be launching a new line of novellas under the umbrella title of Spectral Visions. We also announced that Gary Fry’s The Respectable Face of  Tyranny would be the first entry in the series, to be published in April. To whet your appetite, here’s a little blurb about it…

“What the monsters used to achieve with claws, they now manage with pens… 

Three years ago, Josh lost a lot of money on the unforgiving stock market. Now he’s divorced and living with his teenage daughter in a seaside caravan. Sally wants a tattoo; Josh just needs work.

For solace, he explores Saltwick Bay, a secluded stretch of beach whose cliff-side rock runs back to the ruthless Jurassic periods. There’s also a rotting boat there, leftover from the violent Second World War.

But when eerie creatures appear at night, dancing in the silent bay, Josh’s mind starts turning along unfathomable tracks . . . which may lead right back to the birth of tyranny.

Gary Fry’s new novella channels the spirit of Algernon Blackwood and other great masters of the weird tale, summoning forces from this world and others in a relentless symphony of unease. The signed limited hardcover edition includes an extensively revised version of his Lovecraftian novella WORLD WIDE WEB, in which a young boy must make sense of his parents’ divorce in a world of buried secrets and inexorable cosmic interventions . . .” 

The novella will be available as a limited signed hardback with coloured endpapers and a silk ribbon marker (plus a bonus novella), a Print on Demand paperback and a e-book. Pre-orders for the hardback will be available from next month – pricing to be announced soon.

More news soon!!

SPECTRAL VISIONS: a new line of novellas from Spectral

Monday mornings, just because of their bad reputations and the fact that most people actively hate them (except when on holiday), are the one time of the week that announcements were made for. And yes, this is a slightly long-winded way of saying that we here at Spectral have an announcement to make, to wit, that we are launching a new line of books, starting the month after Simon Kurt Unsworth’s Rough Music chapbook has been unleashed on the world.

SPECTRAL VISIONS

This is the name we’ve given to a line of occasional novellas, the first of which will, as hinted at above, be published in April of this year. And the title that will inaugurate the line will be The Respectable Face of Tyranny by Gary Fry (Abolisher of Roses). It is envisaged that there will be several versions – a limited hardback (which will also contain a bonus novella World Wide Web), a Print On Demand paperback (without the bonus story) and an electronic version covering the various e-reader platforms (also without the bonus story). Pricing is still being worked out as this is being written but pre-orders will be taken on the hardback from early next month.

Novellas in the Spectral Visions line won’t be published as regularly as the chapbooks are – the next one isn’t going to be published until next year. What I can guarantee, however, is that the same rigorous attention to detail will be lavished on them as the chapbooks have had – Spectral will never publish anything less than absolute high-quality. Full-colour boards with excellent artwork like readers have come to expect, stylish endpapers, quality paper stock and even a silk marker ribbon for the hardbacks will definitely make them extremely good value for money. AND, rest assured, the same concerns will govern the production of the paperbacks and e-books.

Don’t forget to check back here regularly for more details of this exciting new development in the expansion of Spectral!! Onwards and upwards!!