New Mark Morris interview

Spectral Book of Horror Stories, edited by Mark Morris – ©2014 respective individual authors/Spectral Press. Artwork ©2014 Vincent Chong

Hot on the heels of Paul Simpson’s Sci-Fi Bulletin piece yesterday comes another in-depth interview with the editor of The Spectral Book of Horror Stories, Mark Morris – this one’s by Gef Fox and has been posted on the Wag the Fox website. You can read it by going HERE.

BUY YOUR COPY TODAY – PUBLICATION DATE 6TH SEPTEMBER!!

This is going to be a very special anthology, so we really do encourage you to pre-order your copy today of this first volume in a projected annual series – ordering buttons below (if you want to pay by any other means, please contact us at spectralpress[AT]gmail[DOT]com and we’ll happily send you details). All prices are INCLUSIVE of postage and packing:

£12.50 UK

FOR THOSE ATTENDING FANTASYCON 2014 YOU CAN ORDER AT THE SPECIAL PRICE BELOW AND PICK IT UP AT THE CONVENTION VENUE.

FCon 2014 Special £10

£15 EU

$30 US & RoW

For those who prefer eBooks, this edition of The Spectral Book of Horror Stories will appear from pre-order on Amazon this week.

New reviews 24:04:2014

Home and Hearth © Angela Slater/Spectral Press. Artwork © Neil Williams 2014

Yes, we are starting to receive reviews of the latest chapbook from award-winning Australian writer Angela Slatter, entitled Home and Hearth. These have  been uploaded to Goodreads, with one from Mark West (who used to create Spectral’s promotional videos and wrote the chapbook What Gets Left Behind) and one from Ross Warren. Read what they have to say here.

Following on from that, we also have a new Goodreads review of the Unsigned Hardback Edition of The Christmas Ghost Stories of Lawrence Gordon Clark, written by Gef Fox (which will also appear on Amazon and the Wagging the Fox blog at a later date). Ypu can read that one right HERE. There are still copies left of this edition as well as of the other editions (please note: there are fewer than 15 left of the Deluxe edition – get yours while you still can!). See details below:

PURCHASING LINKS:

CONTENTS:

DELUXE EDITION (50 only- 14 left) (available May):

Foreword by MARK GATISS

Introduction by TONY EARNSHAW

Seven short stories by M. R. JAMES: The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral, The Treasure of Abbot Thomas, A Warning to the Curious, The Ash Tree, Lost Hearts, Casting the Runes, Count Magnus, The Signalman.

Exclusive new introductions to each story by LAWRENCE GORDON CLARK

Count Magnus teleplay by BASIL COPPER

Lost Hearts short stage play by LAWRENCE GORDON CLARK

Q&A with LAWRENCE GORDON CLARK by TONY EARNSHAW

Filmography, awards, of LAWRENCE GORDON CLARK by TONY EARNSHAW

Illustrated with unseen behind the scenes photographs, chapter heading vignettes by Nick Gucker,  as well as examples of storyboards by Lawrence Gordon Clark.

SIGNED, SLIPCASED DELUXE EDITION:

£85 UK

£87 EU

$145 US

UNSIGNED HARDBACK (100 only) (available now):

Foreword by MARK GATISS

Introduction by TONY EARNSHAW

Seven short stories by M. R. JAMES: The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral, The Treasure of Abbot Thomas, A Warning to the Curious, The Ash Tree, Lost Hearts, Casting the Runes, Count Magnus

Exclusive new introductions to each story by LAWRENCE GORDON CLARK

Q&A with LAWRENCE GORDON CLARK by TONY EARNSHAW

Illustrated with photographs as well as chapter heading vignettes (by Nick Gucker)

UNSIGNED HARDBACK EDITION

£45 UK

£47 EU

$80 US

PAPERBACK (Unlimited) (available now):

Foreword by MARK GATISS

Introduction by TONY EARNSHAW

Seven short stories by M. R. JAMES: The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral, The Treasure of Abbot Thomas, A Warning to the Curious, The Ash Tree, Lost Hearts, Casting the Runes, Count Magnus

Exclusive new introductions to each story by LAWRENCE GORDON CLARK

Filmography, awards, of LAWRENCE GORDON CLARK by TONY EARNSHAW

Basic edition – text only plus chapter heading vignettes by Nick Gucker.

PAPERBACK EDITION (unlimited – available now):

£17.50 UK

£19.50 EU

$30 US

The First Still Life reviews

“Still Life” © Tim Lebbon/Spectral Press 2013. Artwork © Jim Burns 2013

Yes, they are now starting to come in – the reviews for Tim Lebbon’s  latest novella from Spectral, Still Life. So, without any further preamble, they are:

Gef Fox’s write-up on his Wag the Fox review blog, which you can read here.

And Adam Joffrain’s thoughts on the book (in French), which you will find on his Par delà les montaignes hallucinantes blog right here.

We have decided to keep the two books launched at the WFC (Still Life and Ghosts by Paul Kane) at the convention prices for a further week – then they will definitely go back to pre-convention retail price! Order today!

STILL LIFE by Tim Lebbon.

PLEASE NOTE! Due to contractual reasons, the paperback edition of Still Life is limited to 100 only!!

UK £12.50

EU £15

US & RoW $25

“Ghosts” © Paul Kane/Spectral Press 2013. Artwork © Edward Miller 2007 – 2013.

GHOSTS by Paul Kane

UK £12.50

EU £15

US & RoW $25

STILL LIFE & GHOSTS: combined offer

UK £22.50

EU £25

US & RoW

Look forward to hearing from you!

New reviews – 24:04:2013

Two more reviews have reached us, one each for Stephen Volk’s Whitstable and Paul Kane’s Creakers.

Taking the Whitstable one first, this one is from Literary Mayhem and has been written by Peter Schwotzer – you can find that one here. Also, you can now purchase the paperback edition of the book from the Spectral Shop (first option on the above menu bar).

EDIT: this review has also just been posted to the Famous Monsters of Filmland website: http://famousmonsters.com/

And secondly, here’s the review of Creakers  – from Gef Fox this time on his Wag the Fox blog site. Just click here.

More reviews soon!

Review and news – 23:04:2013

To kick proceedings off on this sunny Tuesday morning, here’s a new review of Whitstable written by Gef Fox of the Wag the Fox review blog – as usual, just click on the link here to find out what he said.

NEWS

It is with great pleasure that we can announce that orders for the paperback edition of Stephen Volk’s novella are now open. This edition is exactly the same as the hardback, so includes the Afterword by acclaimed British novelist Mark Morris, and it will be published at the same time as the hardback. There will also be an eBook version available a week or so after the publication of the physical books. Prices below INCLUDE postage & packing.  Buy your copy today!

£15 UK

£17.50 EU

$29 USA

$29 RoW

The books will be sent out as soon as they’re ready next month – look forward to hearing from you!

News – 03:04:2013

First, here’s a little article about Peter Cushing and Stephen Volk’s Whitstable that appeared yesterday at Gef Fox’s Wag the Fox blog, written by Simon Marshall-Jones of Spectral. The article gives an insight into the actor and why Stephen wrote the novella, as well as what drives the narrative. You can read the piece here.

As many of you will know, this year will see the publication of This Spectral Season, a single volume gathering all eight chapbooks from Spectral’s first two years, together with some new material from each contributor. The volume will be available as an unlimited paperback and an eBook.. In addition to those, there will also be a very limited edition of TEN sets of all eight chapbooks in their original format, signed and presented in their own slipcase. The slipcases are hand-covered in red Wibalin cloth with the Spectral logo gold foil stamped on the spine, and the contents held in by a custom obi strip, printed on fine quality paper as befits such a piece. Publication date has yet to be set – but is most likely to be this summer. Watch out for further details!

Talking of slipcases, the standard ones are still available for order – black Wibalin cloth with the Spectral logo silver foil stamped on the spine. They are designed to keep all those lovely chapbooks pristine and in order, plus they look absolutely magnificent displayed on the bookshelf! Just pop on over to the Spectral Shop to buy one today!

Onwards and upwards! =)

Reviews round-up – 09:01:2013

Midweek again, and here we are with some more reviews of Spectral output:

First up is Gef Fox’s review of The 13 Ghosts of Christmas – this one was posted to Goodreads but will also appear on his blog Wag the Fox on 18th January. The review is here.

Goodreads is also the place where Ross Warren chose to review the latest in the Spectral series of chapbooks, David Tallerman’s The Way of the Leaves – that one can be found right here.

Another review of the chapbook has just been posted to KM Lockwood’s The Wedding Ghost blog – to read what she thought of the eighth entry in series of short stories, just go here.

NEWS

Yesterday, we posted an apologetic blog about how the paperback edition of The 13 Ghosts of Christmas wouldn’t arrive here at Spectral Towers until next week – well, late last night we were told that the books had already been printed and shipped out. We are awaiting delivery which should (theoretically) be today. As soon as they reach us they’ll be packaged up and sent out to purchasers. Thanks for everyone’s patience!

Onward and upwards!

Review round-up 24th October 2012

The reviews for Mark West’s What Gets Left Behind have been stacking up while we’ve been making exciting annoucements about other projects, so we decided to put them all together into one posting for your convenience. Anyway, enough waffling from us, here they are:

First review is a great write-up from Gef Fox of the Wag the Fox review blog, which you can read here. Then we have a review from She Never Slept, written by Marc Nocerino, accessible by clicking here (you’ll need to scroll down a bit for the review proper) – thanks to Marc for this. Moving on, Anthony Watson, a subscriber to the chapbooks, was kind enough to review Mark’s  story on his Dark Musings blog – just go here for the lowdown. Finally, writer Colin F. Barnes sets his thoughts down on the chapbook in his blog-post ‘A Fulltime Writer’s Diary – Week 1’ – once again, you will need to scroll down the page to find the review towards the end of the entry. The blog-post can be found here.

Anyway, there will be more reviews soon, as well as some more exciting announcements about some of the books we have lined up for you over the next year or two – we can honestly say that we have some fantastic authors onboard for years three and four of Spectral, so watch this space!

Onwards and upwards!

A couple of foxy reviews

This week ends on something of a high note (even better considering that there’s been a bout of illness at Spectral Towers), with notice of two new reviews over on Gef Fox’s Wag the Fox blog, of Gary Fry’s The Respectable Face of Tyranny and Alison Littlewood’s chapbook The Eyes of Water. It’s all part of his ‘Summer of Shorts’ season, featuring reviews and interviews posted during the month of July. We’ve been informed that an interview Gef conducted recently with Spectral’s Simon Marshall-Jones will be posted on the same site today, so please look out for that later.

In the meantime, go here to read Gef’s assessment of the two books.

More soon!

Spectral news 21:05:2012

To start the week off on some positive notes we thought we’d talk about some things going on in the world of Spectral. First, Alison Littlewood’s chapbook The Eyes of Water will be available within the next two to three weeks.  It’s a fantastic little tale, inspired by a trip to Mexico and a visit to the cenotés of the Yucatán. These flooded cave systems are as dangerous as they are beautiful, as Rick is about to discover…

Secondly, the cover to John Llewellyn Probert’s magnum opus, The Nine Deaths of Dr. Valentine, is currently being put together by JD Busch – preliminary sketches should be with us soon and then will come the exciting process of turning it into a fabulous cover image. We can’t wait to see what JD comes up with, but his ideas so far are definitely in tune with what we had in mind.

There’s been another quotable quote sent to us for Gary Fry’s The Respectable Face of Tyranny novella, this time from Laird Barron, author of The Croning, who said of it:

“The Respectable Face of Tyranny is a bleak tale of personal hell set against a canvas of cosmic horror. In revealing the machinery that powers modern civilization, [Gary] Fry’s gaze is pitiless. Almost as pitiless as the dark forces that feed upon hapless humankind.”

There’s also a new Amazon review of the novella courtesy of Gef Fox (Wag The Fox), which you can find here.

Onto other stuff:

In the New Year (yes, we plan that far ahead), the print run of each chapbook will increase to 125 to allow more people to acquaint themselves with both the chapbooks and the imprint, as well as get to know the work of some of the best authors out there. However, subscriptions to the chapbooks will be increasing in January, too, due to increased postage costs: they are still available at the old price, from Volume VIII onwards, until the end of this year – so take advantage by ordering a subscription now to save some money before the price rise (includes resubscribers).

A word about the future: we here at Spectral Towers are mooting the possibility of increasing the number of chapbook issues to six per year, ie from quarterly to one every two months. This is JUST a possibility at present and an idea we’re throwing around: one of the reasons we’re thinking this way, however, is the fact that we have many wonderful authors lined up to appear in chapbooks and this would be one way of reducing the waiting time for them. We are envisaging, however, that it won’t be happening before the March 2014 issue, Volume XIII, at the earliest. Comments are more than welcome upon the subject – nay, are actively encouraged.

There are a couple of other exciting developments in the initial planning stages, but we’re keeping those under wraps for later in the year until we’ve fleshed them out more fully. We here at Spectral are confident that the imprint has a good future ahead of it, and we certainly intend on keeping moving forward, albeit at a comfortable pace and without overstretching things. We sincerely hope that you’ll be here to share that future with us.