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Post by dem bones on Jul 3, 2021 14:10:57 GMT
Just arrived #2 Sam Dawson - Pariah & Other Stories (Supernatural Tales, June 2021).  Sam Dawson
A Fine Cellar
Self-Isolation
Pariah
Sally's in the Well
The Whither Man
We the People
Field Trip
Visiting Hours
Identity Crisis
Stone, Paper, Scissors
Hidden Depths
The Horror, the Haunted
A Face in Wax
Tree-Borne
Black ShadowFrom the Press Release: Well done, Sam!*Edited to say the link to Supernatural Tales blog now fixed.* |
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Post by 𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr on Jul 3, 2021 15:06:17 GMT
Just arrived #2 Sam Dawson - Pariah & Other Stories (Supernatural Tales, June 2021). Sam Dawson And Where Will She Go and What Will She Do?
A Fine Cellar
Self-Isolation
Pariah
Sally's in the Well
The Whither Man
We the People
Field Trip
Visiting Hours
Identity Crisis
Stone, Paper, Scissors
Hidden Depths
The Horror, the Haunted
A Face in Wax
Tree-Borne
Black ShadowFrom the Press Release: Well done, Sam!Press Release: Sam Dawson is the favourite "I've never read him" author of Princess Tuvstarr. And although she won't be reading him as he is alive (despite his claims to the contrary, which she doesn't believe), she strongly urges you to buy this book, filled as it is with the bizarre, marvellous, and On the Buses level horror! Buy it NOW! Terror awaits across every page! You won't be disappointed! |
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Post by dem bones on Jul 4, 2021 6:42:11 GMT
Satan in ballet slippers; the servant problem escalates; "Go back where you came from" - truly the stuff of properly horrible supernatural horror.
And Where Will She Go and What Will She Do?: A twenty-strong gloom of Goths get together in the cemetery for a night of drink, drugs, ouija, etc. The despised Rhonwen, a coven of one on account of nobody can stand her, proposes they run widdershins around the church to summon Satan ...
A Fine Cellar: Rather than disturb shifty Squires the butler at this ungodly hour, too-mild-mannered-for-his-own-good Jules Fanshawe and guest brave the dank, dark wine cellar to fetch another bottle. Will they find anything to tickle their fancies?
Self-Isolation: "It's only a minority." The pandemic restrictions finally lifted, London based Mark, Neesha and the children hit the motorway for Cornwall to holiday in the county of his birth. Covid has done nothing to improve Greenshirt tolerance of outsiders or, especially, turncoats who left for pastures new. Wrecking, piracy and Pagan tradition are back in vogue. It is truly one big tourist trap.
Three hits from three.
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Post by samdawson on Jul 4, 2021 11:20:17 GMT
Just arrived #2 Sam Dawson - Pariah & Other Stories (Supernatural Tales, June 2021). Sam Dawson And Where Will She Go and What Will She Do?
A Fine Cellar
Self-Isolation
Pariah
Sally's in the Well
The Whither Man
We the People
Field Trip
Visiting Hours
Identity Crisis
Stone, Paper, Scissors
Hidden Depths
The Horror, the Haunted
A Face in Wax
Tree-Borne
Black ShadowFrom the Press Release: Well done, Sam!*Edited to say the link to Supernatural Tales blog now fixed.* Thank you Dem Bones, it feels rather good to have a book out. Thanks too for putting up all the blurb. |
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Post by samdawson on Jul 4, 2021 11:23:50 GMT
Press Release: Sam Dawson is the favourite "I've never read him" author of Princess Tuvstarr. And although she won't be reading him as he is alive (despite his claims to the contrary, which she doesn't believe), she strongly urges you to buy this book, filled as it is with the bizarre, marvellous, and On the Buses level horror! Buy it NOW! Terror awaits across every page! You won't be disappointed! Thank you, Princess. Apologies to all that I am so behind so many posts, I had a rather lengthy hospital visit to make yesterday. I will now try and catch up |
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Post by dem bones on Jul 5, 2021 13:59:36 GMT
Pariah: France, 1942. The Churchill 'Crocodile' - a tank mounted with a powerful flare thrower - is universally despised as the most disgusting of all death-dealing machines and "proof that the British did not always fight like gentlemen." Croc crews are frowned upon by their own side and should any be captured by the enemy they can expect the most agonizing death. Sergeant Freddie Brown, himself a mere 23 going on 80, volunteers his rookie crew for a relief mission at Personneville. Already the four youths have reason to suspect the vehicle is either haunted, cursed or both .... First of the book's novellas and the stand out story to date. Sequel, set on the forecourt of a derelict TA base in modern day peacetime, is no less horrible than what went before. Sally's in the Well: Sally, the village simpleton, tormented by the other children, was killed falling out of a tree. Fearful of punishment, her playmates disposed of the body down a well and no harm done. A tradition grew whereby, each June, the villagers would pour a glass of elderberry juice around the well rim to keep Sally sweet and prevent her returning for revenge. Unfortunately for the narrator, this tradition died out during World War II, the locals and evacuees having more tangible threats to concern them. The Whither Man: Still no word from a police officer sent to a remote Scottish island to investigating the disappearance of a little girl. Vignette, perhaps written with 4th Book of Horror in mind?
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Post by samdawson on Jul 5, 2021 15:48:58 GMT
Pariah: France, 1942. The Churchill 'Crocodile' - a tank mounted with a powerful flare thrower - is universally despised as the most disgusting of all death-dealing machines and "proof that the British did not always fight like gentlemen." Croc crews are frowned upon by their own side and should any be captured by the enemy they can expect the most agonizing death. Sergeant Freddie Brown, himself a mere 23 going on 80, volunteers his rookie crew for a relief mission at Personneville. Already the four youths have reason to suspect the vehicle is either haunted, cursed or both .... First of the book's novellas and the stand out story to date. Sequel, set on the forecourt of a derelict TA base in modern day peacetime, is no less horrible than what went before. Sally's in the Well: Sally, the village simpleton, tormented by the other children, was killed falling out of a tree. Fearful of punishment, her playmates disposed of the body down a well and no harm done. A tradition grew whereby, each June, the villagers would pour a glass of elderberry juice around the well rim to keep Sally sweet and prevent her returning for revenge. Unfortunately for the narrator, this tradition died out during World War II, the locals and evacuees having more tangible threats to concern them. The Whither Man: Still no word from a police officer sent to a remote Scottish island to investigating the disappearance of a little girl. Vignette, perhaps written with 4th Book of Horror in mind? Thanks DB, very glad you liked Pariah. It took quite a while to write and research and was rather involving, in a good way. It wouldn't be right to write a straight WW2 story, I feel, having not been there, but you can relax the rules somehow if it's horror. Not so presumptuous that way. The day I finished it there was a news item on the radio about three youths tormenting and killing a disabled teen, which is where the 2021 sequel came from. Before that it stopped with the Korean War. The Whither Man was written for the 3rd BHF book of horror. The editor loved it but the book never came out so it just sat in a folder till I committed it to this one, at which point the BHF books came alive again |
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Post by dem bones on Jul 6, 2021 10:01:57 GMT
Thanks DB, very glad you liked Pariah. It took quite a while to write and research and was rather involving, in a good way. It wouldn't be right to write a straight WW2 story, I feel, having not been there, but you can relax the rules somehow if it's horror. Not so presumptuous that way. The day I finished it there was a news item on the radio about three youths tormenting and killing a disabled teen, which is where the 2021 sequel came from. Before that it stopped with the Korean War. It certainly pays off. Personneville is (was?) an actual village? The murder of a rough sleeper is upsetting. Even as I was reading it, I kind of knew it had to be based on fact. There's a Ra Goli short in Spooky Isles Book of Horror Stories details a similar thrill kill (ghastly expression) in a Southend subway which has since spawned a very Tales of the Crypt flavoured urban legend. I'd imagine there was plenty research went into Field Trip, too. Will come to that one later. We the People: Humans have long been driven underground by mindless, flesh-eating hordes until there are but single numbers left alive. The narrator fears he may be the last living man in Britain. By day he tramps the city beneath the city - the sewers, the derelict tube tunnels, subterranean vaults - foraging for sustenance, hoping beyond hope he eventually finds another like himself ... Almost an inverted I am Legend. Particularly liked the explanation for ghost sightings in cemeteries. The reference to a certain gloompunk youth subculture made me smile. |
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Post by samdawson on Jul 6, 2021 10:16:51 GMT
Personneville is (was?) an actual village?
Using the name Personneville was a tip of the hat to the masterly Dashiel Hammett and one of the great opening sentences to a book, that of Red Harvest |
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Post by dem bones on Jul 6, 2021 16:38:18 GMT
Been having a most enjoyable unpleasant time with The Pariah. This pair most certainly have Black Book appeal.
Field Trip: Narrator and lifelong friend Karl are keen amateur ghost hunters and investigators of folk legends. This latest weekend break sees them visit Suffolk to seek out Pestende, a cottage once offered as shelter to lepers to prevent their venturing into the neighbouring village. Middlewoode itself was wiped out by the Great Plague with not even a map reference to show for its existence.
As night falls, the two men pass through a deep mist worthy of Loughville to find a contender for the countries most unwelcoming pub, The Wanderer No More, although the cadaverous locals perk up when Karl lets slip their intention to spend a night at the haunted leper house. Big tits the barmaid even fetches complimentary pints of the house cider. Things are looking up - until Karl comes over very unwell ....
Visiting Hours: London during the fogbound 'fifties. Trapped beneath collapsed buildings during the Blitz, broken and frazzled feral children forage beneath the city until the food supply is exhausted. Tonight they must break cover to obtain fresh meat.
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Post by dem bones on Jul 7, 2021 7:50:02 GMT
Identity Crisis: Dale Toombes gets his kicks from dressing in an SS Uniform to storm-troop across the site of his proposed themed paintball course. Fortunately for us - if not him - the woodland saw service as a military base in WWII where four recruits perished in training. Another for the Fashion Victims hall of fame.
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Post by dem bones on Jul 7, 2021 17:09:04 GMT
Stone, Paper, Scissors: Bob Steyne, 35, successful website designer and marketing manager, leaves London for a quiet country life at Martinmas St. George on the Isle of Purbeck where he takes up rock carving. Unfortunately, a slip of the power-saw while modifying his statue of the local barmaid - Soo, a '70's Kate Bush lookalike - takes away much of a hand. Steyne, nothing if not resourceful, replaces the lost digits with stone replicas, winning the admiration (and business) of all - save Rowena, a deranged 42-year-old natural healer with whom he mildly enjoyed a brief fling. Until it became clear that she was taking it all too seriously .... There's far more too this novella than the surface action and the near treeless landscape is the star of the piece. "The name of the place is a synonym for stone. Purback stone, Purbeck marble, Portland stone.Stone beneath your feet, towering over you in cliffs and hills, revealed jutting out of every earthen path, piercing the waves, and in every cottage, church and pub."
Hidden Depths: After spending the night trapped down a recently excavated Roman well below St. Albchurch, young curate Bartholemew Auberon is obliged to realign his devotions. Funny (and not a little horrible).
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Post by 𝘗rincess 𝘵uvstarr on Jul 7, 2021 22:26:09 GMT
samdawson I'm putting this on my wishlist for one of my admirers to buy me.
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Post by Swampirella on Jul 7, 2021 22:35:03 GMT
samdawson I'm putting this on my wishlist for one of my admirers to buy me. My Wishlist: 1. Admirers to buy me things (when I give them time off from admiring me)
2. Pariah and Other Stories
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Post by samdawson on Jul 8, 2021 10:23:11 GMT
Ladies, I'm sorry I don't have any comp copies, or I would pop a copy in the post, but the book is POD, so you don't get the usual author copies and I am currently buying ones to send out to reviewers.
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