News from the writer’s desk: Autumn harvest

The morning chill is chasing away memories of sweaty summer days. Evenings are drawing in, squally winds are blowing, leaves are turning and there’s a faint scent of damp and decay in the air. 

Yes folks, it’s autumn, that season of mists and mellow fruitfulness that signals that nature is approaching her annual semi-coma and a good night in involves hot chocolate and roaring fires.

Nature may be slowing down, but my imagination seems to have gone into overdrive. After a fallow period over the past two months, I seem to have got my story-telling hat back on and there’s a bumper harvest burbling up from the depths of my brain demanding to be told, just in time for Hallowe’en.

First off is the publication of “The Grim Keepers”, an anthology of dark little tales from 15 authors. Just the sort of thing to keep to awake and aware of things that go bump in the night after you switch off the bedside light! My contribution Evil Eye draws on some of the customs of my adopted home, Greece, and considers ow they might play out in a modern setting. There are lots of different voices in “The Grim Keepers” – we hope you enjoy them. 

It’s available for free download at Smashwords https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/584161 and will be available to buy as a ‘real’ book on Amazon in just over a week.

Just as I was delighting in the news that the Keepers was coming out, news came that I had been selected as a winner in AuthorTrope’s “I Made the Darkness” competition. 

As one of those short-listed for the overall prize, my tale Guilt Trip was recorded and put online at https://www.youtube.com/attribution_link?a=I_lncEWRap4&u=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DgsZj02Os4pA%26feature%3Dshare where you can go and have a listen. It gave me a special thrill to hear my story told in a voice other than the one inside my own head. If you like what you hear, then please give it a thumbs-up on the YouTube page, as it’s the number of Likes each entry gets that will determine the overall winner at the end of the month.

Finally, at least for now, some more of my words will be spoken out loud on Friday 16 October in an evening of Folk and Fairytales at the New Venture Theatre in Brighton (that’s my beloved Brighton in Sussex, England). 

If you’re in town, check it out and keep your ears open for the title Gargoyle and my pen name AJ Millen. 

Details of the event can be found at https://www.facebook.com/events/146593105687498/

More’s to come from my restless pen, and even more restless brain. 

Stay tuned.