News 07:08:2014

We have a great deal of news to report this morning, so without any more pre-amble:

The latest episode, number 8, of Simon Bestwick’s Black Mountain serial, A Lake of Fire, is now available through Amazon. Once again we have to thank the brilliant Neil Williams for the superb cover (above), which we happen to think is one of his best yet.

Amazon UK

Amazon US

Even more good news is that the slipcases for The Christmas Ghost Stories of Lawrence Gordon Clark have at last arrived, and they look lush – see the photos below.

The slipcases will be dispatched to purchasers from this weekend onwards

Next, in getting around to opening some boxes after having been in our new place for seven months, we discovered we have a couple of copies in signed and numbered hardback of the following titles:

The Nine Deaths of Dr. Valentine by John Llewellyn Probert (TWO only)

The Respectable Face of Tyranny by Gary Fry (TWO only)

They can be had for £12 UK/£15 EU/$30 US & RoW each – but only if you hurry. Please contact us first on spectralpress[AT]gmail[DOT]com to secure your copy on a first come first served basis.

Finally, please check out the latest issue of The Spectral Times (unrelated to Spectral Press), where you’ll be able to find an interview with two Spectral stalwarts: Lawrence Gordon Clark and Stephen Volk. Lawrence talks about his involvement with the A Ghost Story for Christmas dramas for the BBC in the seventies and about the Deluxe Edition of the Spectral Book. Meanwhile, Stephen discusses the infamous Ghostwatch, with a mention of Whitstable along the way. The electronic edition of the magazine is FREE, and can be obtained from HERE.

 

A trio of Whitstable reviews – 01:07:2013

Today, we have not ONE, not TWO, but THREE reviews of Spectral’s most successful book to date, Stephen Volk’s Whitstable. So, without further messing about, let us tell you all about them.

First is a write-up from Gary Fry who, you will remember, wrote the very first Spectral Visions novella last year, The Respectable Face of Tyranny (which is up for a British Fantasy Award later this year). You can find his assessment on his website, which you can find right here.

Next, we have one from Sci-Fi Bulletin from the pen of Paul Simpson – that one you can find here.

Finally, we have a couple of pull quotes from a review written by Sean Hogan which appears in what is probably the most popular horror magazine of all time – Fangoria.

“Using a real person as a fictional protagonist, especially one as beloved and respected as Cushing, can often be a hazardous proposition, but Whitstable‘s delicate sketching of the actor would be admirable enough in a purely invented creation. As a portrait of the actual man, it is both empathetic and touching.”

“[W]hile the novella is undeniably elegiac, it is also a beautifully observed, heartfelt tribute to a genre icon… Any fan of Cushing or fine, humane writing should purchase it.”

And, just to make it easier to do as Sean says, you can find purchase links to Amazon below.

PAPERBACK

AMAZON UK

AMAZON US

KINDLE

AMAZON UK

AMAZON US

More soon!

Spectral Visions paperbacks and eBooks

To make it convenient for customers to buy the paperback and eBook editions of all the Spectral Visions novellas, all the links have been listed below:

THE RESPECTABLE FACE OF TYRANNY

PAPERBACK

AMAZON UK

AMAZON US

KINDLE

AMAZON UK

AMAZON US

THE NINE DEATHS OF DR. VALENTINE

PAPERBACK

AMAZON UK

AMAZON US

KINDLE

AMAZON UK

AMAZON US

And, just for good measure, here’s the link to Stephen Volk’s Whitstable as well:

PAPERBACK

AMAZON UK

AMAZON US

KINDLE

AMAZON UK

AMAZON US

Major news – 18:06:2013

We’ve been dying to tell you this news for about six weeks or more now, but at last we can reveal that Spectral Press has, for the second year running, been nominated for a British Fantasy Award, for Best Small Press (PS Publishing Independent Press). This is an absolute validation for all the hard work we’ve been pouring into Spectral over the last 30 months, and it certainly puts the imprint into the top flight of genre publishers (at least we like to think so… ). There’s some stiff opposition in the category, but that’s all for the best in our belief.

Additionally, Spectral publications received two other nominations, both in the Best Novella Category – namely, The Respectable Face of Tyranny by Gary Fry and The Nine Deaths of Dr. Valentine by John L. Probert. We think it’s absolutely brilliant that the first two Spectral Visions novellas each receive a nomination.  We’ve included the links to the Kindle books on Amazon below:

THE RESPECTABLE FACE OF TYRANNY

AMAZON UK

AMAZON US

THE NINE DEATHS OF DR. VALENTINE

AMAZON UK

AMAZON US

And, just for good measure, here’s the link to Stephen Volk’s Whitstable as well:

AMAZON UK

AMAZON US

Finally, congratulations to ALL the nominees in this year’s awards, which will be presented at World Fantasy Con in Brighton, UK in November. You can find the complete list on the British Fantasy Society website here.

New review and news – 17:06:2013

Mondays appear to come around far too quickly these days. Never mind, however, as we have a few words here about Stephen Volk’s Whitstable novella from the well-known and much respected critic Kim Newman, writing in the British Film Institute’s Sight & Sound magazine (July 2013 issue). Here’s the pull quote from the review:

“Though a speculative portrait, Volk’s Cushing is convincing… [I]t takes a fiction writer […] to get closest to who (Cushing) was and what he meant.”

NEWS

Fans of Gary Fry’s work will be pleased to know that we have now made his Spectral Visions novella The Respectable Face of Tyranny available for Kindle for small money – just click on the appropriate link and it’s yours within minutes:

AMAZON UK

AMAZON US

More soon!

New review and news – 05:06:2013

Just a very quick post this morning, to tell you about the very latest review of Stephen Volk’s Whitstable which has just crossed the virtual Spectral Publishing desk – this one’s from Matthew Dent and has been posted to his A Man with a Blog blog. Not only does he have nice things to say about the novella, but he also has good things to say about Spectral too! You can read Matthew’s review here.

NEWS

Some of you will be pleased to know that the previous novellas in the Spectral Visions series, The Respectable Face of Tyranny by Gary Fry and The Nine Deaths of Dr. Valentine by John Llewellyn Probert, will soon be available in eBook form. Keep checking back here for when they’ll be available.

More soon!

Another Spectral miscellany

SPECIAL OFFER!

As a special treat to you all you lovely people out there, we’re offering the two Spectral Visions novellas we’ve recently published in paperback, The Respectable Face of Tyranny by Gary Fry and The Nine Deaths of Dr. Valentine, as a bundle at a bargain price of £9 (plus P+P). All you need do to secure them is to click on the requisite button below and we’ll do the rest (all prices include P+P):

UK £11.50

EU £13.00

USA & ROW $23

Supplies are extremely limited, so hurry and order your copies now! If you want to pay by any other means, then please contact us on spectralpress[AT]gmail[DOT]com and we’ll let you know the details.

NEWS

The Christmas Ghost Story Annual is coming along very nicely, and the final selection has almost been made. There’ll be some familiar names and some less well-known, but all the stories are excellent examples of modern interpretations (and reinterpretations) of the classic ghost story. The selection spans all styles, from grim to blackly comedic, and so there should be something for everyone in there.

We here at Spectral were impressed by the quality of submissions – in fact, there were enough to nearly fill next year’s annual in addition to this year’s. Authors will be contacted very soon as to whether they were successful or not – so keep looking in your inbox over the next few days!

There was one surprise: Simon Bestwick’s tale ‘The Judgement Call’ so impressed us that it’s going to replace the originally planned chapbook of his which was due to be published in June next year. Now, we are looking to publish ‘The Judgement Call’ in either September 2013 (as a taster for the Ghost Story Annual) or December 2013. Keep checking back here as more details become available.

Onwards and upwards!

What Gets Left Behind: first thoughts

What Gets Left Behind by Mark West, the latest chapbook from Spectral Press, gets its first review, and it also continues the tradition of Jim McLeod being amongst the first to air his reviews on Spectral output. Mark’s tale is very much grounded in the everyday reality of a specific time and place, yet the concerns of the main protagonist Mike are very universal and will be familiar to all. To read what Jim thought about What Gets Left Behind please go here.

We also have another review for you to read, but this time the focus is Gary Fry’s Spectral Visions novella The Respectable Face of Tyranny, which (with the kind permission of Graeme Reynolds, who wrote it and uploaded it to GoodReads) we reproduce in full below:

“Spectral Press are fast becoming major players in the world of horror fiction. Their limited edition chapbooks are beautifully presented collectors editions, containing stories that disturb and challenge the readers perceptions in equal measure. It was with a fair amount of excitement that I started reading their first novella length work – The Respectable Face of Tyranny by Gary Fry.

Josh is struggling to cope with his life. The economic downturn led to him losing his high paying job, his expensive home and his wife. To try and get himself back on his feet he moves into a caravan near Whitby with his teenage daughter, where he spends his time caring for his ailing mother and walking through the surrounding countryside, to try and make some sense of where his life went wrong. Before long he starts to see apparitions above the bay at night, and comes across strange carvings on the beach. Is he catching a glimpse of something ancient and terrifying, or have his recent troubles brought on the same dementia that claimed his invalid mother?

This is a very introspective piece of work. Gary Fry is quite obviously very familiar with Whitby and the surrounding area, and describes not only the town and its surroundings, but the people that live there in a level of detail that was quite astonishing. I’m not sure if I can remember reading anything recently that evoked such clear mental images for me. Similarly, the characters of Josh and Sally, his daughter, are beautifully drawn, to the extent that they were very real to me right from the start. Against this vivid backdrop, the insidious cosmic horrors that Josh has to contend with also become very real.

The Respectable Face of Tyranny is a slow paced and measured novella, that takes its time in painting a vivid picture and building the terror of both the creatures that Josh encounters and his own fear of losing his mind.

Very highly recommended for those that want something a little deeper and disturbing than the average horror story.

4 out of 5 stars.”

More reviews soon!

FantasyCon 2012: paperback offer

For those of you out there who are going to be at the event of the year in Brighton between the 28th and 30th of this month, there will be a special offer available to attendees on the paperback editions of Gary Fry’s The Respectable Face of Tyranny and John L. Probert’s The Nine Deaths of Dr. Valentine – in other words, if you buy both at the same time, it’ll only cost you £9 instead of £11. They will still be available separately at the usual prices.

Look forward to seeing you there!

The Nine Deaths of Dr. Valentine: the competition

We were thinking the other day that we hadn’t run a competition for a while so, in order to rectify this obviously heinous situation, we’ve decided that, since John L. Probert’s affectionately gruesome homage to the films of the late actor and horror icon Vincent Price, The Nine Deaths of Dr. Valentine, is due to be launched at the end of this month, then this a prime opportunity to hold one, and what a competition it is!

All you have to do is answer this question, set by the friendish Mr. Probert himself:

In the film THEATRE OF BLOOD, how many plays made up Edward Lionheart’s final season of Shakespeare?

THE PRIZES: Top prize is a personally signed copy of the hardback, along with a poster of the front cover image (also signed), a paperback copy of Gary Fry’s The Respectable Face of Tyranny (signed), a set of posters of the covers of all the chapbooks published to date, and a Spectral badge.

Second and third prizes for the next two correct entries will be signed paperback copies of The Nine Deaths of Dr. Valentine, accompanied by a poster of the cover image (unsigned) and a Spectral badge.

Please your answers to the question to us here at Spectral Towers on spectralpress[AT]gmail[DOT]com, to arrive no later than the 24th September 2012. The winners will be notified via email after FantasyCon 2012 and your prizes will be despatched in the first week of October>

Looking forward to hearing from you!