Short Story: Humble Pie

 Hello and welcome to this month’s short story video.

This time around, it is the turn of Humble Pie, a tiny bit of flash fiction

I hope you enjoy it. Please leave your thoughts below.

Don’t forget to visit my website www.aschambers.co.uk for more details about my books. 

You can subscribe to my newsletter here for up-to-date details regarding all my writing and appearances.

You can check out my Patreon Book Club for advanced screenings of my videos and free books.

Take care and keep looking out for what lurks in the shadows…

A.S.Chambers.

One Minute Writing Workshop: Music

 Hello and welcome to this little one-minute writing workshop.

This month, I want to have a little chat about something that helps me with my writing. Music.

I always have music playing when I’m writing. I find that the background noise really helps get the creative juices going.

What do you like to listen to? Let me know in the comments below.

Don’t forget to visit my website www.aschambers.co.uk for more details about my books. 

You can subscribe to my newsletter here for up-to-date details regarding all my writing and appearances.

You can check out my Patreon Book Club for advanced screenings of my videos and free books.

Take care and keep looking out for what lurks in the shadows…

A.S.Chambers.

Spalluccipedia: Lancaster

 Greetings and welcome to this monthly dive into characters, places and themes in the ever-expanding world of my paranormal investigator, Sam Spallucci.

This time around, I want to have a little chat about Lancaster itself.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with my city of residence, Lancaster is a small city in the Northwest of England, situated in the heart of Morecambe Bay. The earliest known settlement here was Roman and I came here to study back in 1990. 

I never left.

It is a glorious little city with wonderful views of Morecambe Bay and the Lake District. Containing two universities, it is a cultural hub and well worth a visit for those in the area.

Lancaster has a marvellous history and I draw on this quite a bit when dealing with Sam. 

I hope you enjoy the little accompanying video. Please leave your thoughts and comments below.

Don’t forget to visit my website www.aschambers.co.uk for more details about my books. 

You can subscribe to my newsletter here for up-to-date details regarding all my writing and appearances.

You can check out my Patreon Book Club for advanced screenings of my videos and free books.

Take care and keep looking out for what lurks in the shadows…

A.S.Chambers.

Short Story - My Divergent Lands

 Hello and welcome to this month’s short story video.

This time around, it is the turn of My Divergent Lands, one of the stories from 2016’s anthology Let All Mortal Flesh (links for which you can find at www.aschambers.co.uk).

This is one of the many shorts I’ve written that tie in with the stories of Sam Spallucci. 

However, this one is a bit different…

What we have here is the shadowy Black Dragon Kanor looking out over the Divergent Lands and revelling in his obliteration of the human race. For once we get to see the world from this devastator of humanity.

I hope you enjoy it. Please leave your thoughts below.

Don’t forget to visit my website www.aschambers.co.uk for more details about my books. 

You can subscribe to my newsletter here for up-to-date details regarding all my writing and appearances.

You can check out my Patreon Book Club for advanced screenings of my videos and free books.

Take care and keep looking out for what lurks in the shadows…

A.S.Chambers.

Spalluccipedia: DCI Jitendra Patel

Greetings and welcome to this monthly dive into characters, places and themes in the ever-expanding world of my paranormal investigator, Sam Spallucci.

This time around, I want to have a little chat about one of the interesting side characters from the Spallucciverse: DCI Jitendra Patel.

Lancaster’s fictional DCI has been a bit of a labour of love for me. Introduced right at the beginning of Sam’s adventures in The Casebook of Sam Spallucci, I kept him happily bubbling away on the creative stove for six books, occasionally adding more spices and ingredients every time we met him. 

We quickly learnt that he was a straight-laced, organised neat freak who commanded respect and loyalty from the police officers that served under him. We then discovered that he was secretly pursuing his own research into the Bloodline of Abel after his encounter with hawking in Williamson Park. This eventually led to the tragically climactic events of Sam Spallucci: Bloodline.

Part of Jitendra’s role was to act as a foil for all the supernatural shenanigans in Sam’s life. To a certain extent, like Spliff, he was an anchor for Sam, giving him a certain amount of grounding in the mundane world. Like Spliff, this anchor was eventually cut loose and we shall have to see what effect this has on Sam in the later books.

I hope you enjoy the little video about him. Please leave your thoughts and comments below.

Don’t forget to visit my website www.aschambers.co.uk for more details about my books. 

You can subscribe to my newsletter here for up-to-date details regarding all my writing and appearances.

You can check out my Patreon Book Club for advanced screenings of my videos and free books.

Take care and keep looking out for what lurks in the shadows…

A.S.Chambers.

 

Spalluccipedia: Justice

 Greetings and welcome to this monthly dive into characters, places and themes in the ever-expanding world of my paranormal investigator, Sam Spallucci.

This time around, I want to have a little chat about one of my favourite side characters: Justice the Vampire.

Way, way back in the dim distant past of 2011, when I was working on The Casebook of Sam Spallucci, I sat down and wrote in practically one sitting, the short vampire story High Moon. The premise was that an unnamed vampire wanders into a Wild West town and eliminates the corrupt sheriff who happened to be a construct, one of the big bad golems from my Spallucciverse. The short was heavily influenced by my love of the Dollars trilogy and, if you read the description of the taciturn vampire, you can see that his look is clearly influenced by the late, great Lee Van Cleef. 

Interestingly, I didn’t give the vampire a name at that time. It wasn’t until his second outing in First Hunt: Then that we discovered he was called Justice. In fact, my whole use of vampires was still in its infancy. However, it was his striking appearance in the town of Salem that made me want to do more with him. As a result, he developed into the role of the King of the Children of Cain with a deep and complex back history that would explode into Sam’s fourth outing, Dark Justice.

I hope you enjoy the little video about him. Please leave your thoughts and comments below.

Don’t forget to visit my website www.aschambers.co.uk for more details about my books. 

You can subscribe to my newsletter here for up-to-date details regarding all my writing and appearances.

You can check out my Patreon Book Club for advanced screenings of my videos and free books.

Take care and keep looking out for what lurks in the shadows…

A.S.Chambers.

A.S.Chambers - April Roundup

 Good morning one and all! 

Well, didn’t March go quickly? I thought February shot off like a rocket, but March seems to have done likewise. The daffodils are starting to give way to tulips, the forsythia is in bloom and the sparrows are getting randy. Spring is certainly starting to make itself felt here in Lancaster.

So, where am I at as the nights get longer and the warmth creeps in?

Well, currently, I’m in my sick bed! I was rather ill in early March with something that looks like it was Covid and it has absolutely knocked me for six. I dragged myself up to Carlisle Comic Con last weekend by use of paracetamol and sheer bloody-mindedness, but I am certainly feeling the after-effects now. 

However, I refuse to let a small matter of illness halt my creativity. I’ve spent the last week re-reading all the material I’ve written so far for Lux Æterna and I’m really happy with how it’s turning out. There’s about half a case to go and the book is twisting and turning left and right, keeping the reader guessing about the big picture while tying in nicely to all the expanded universe stories that surround it. Health permitting, the first major draft should be finished by the end of April and I’m looking at a Hallowe’en launch date.

In the meantime, Out Of The Depths is due for publication later this month. I just need to finish the final bits of formatting (when I’m not running a sky-high temperature…) popping in the dedication for all my lovely Patrons and Kickstarter backers who chose that reward. Keep your eyes peeled for updates. Don’t forget that all Seraph Tier Book Club members will receive a free signed copy as part of their membership.

Also, watch out for updates on a double release this summer! That’s right, not one, but two books will be heading your way, probably in August. The fourth outing for Bobby Normal, Bobby Normal and the Fallen will be team tagging with Sam Spallucci: The Case of the Pillaging Pirates.  BNTF will be the penultimate solo (hmmmm… I wonder why I stressed that???) outing for Bobby with Bobby Normal and the Black Dragon following next year. PP is a quick little short set just a week or so before the events of Casebook. 

What else is coming this month?

Well, two conventions, that’s what! On Easter Monday (10th April), I’ll be at Morecambe Comic Con and on the 30th of the month, I’ll be at Hull Comic Con. Links for both can be found on my website: www.aschambers.co.uk.

And finally… So, the sharp-eyed of you might notice some new bits of material here in the Book Club. There are now new daily pieces for those of you who subscribe to the £1 Poltergeist Tier and above: the sixty seconds roundup, the Tuesday teaser, the Wednesday word, Schroedinger says and the Spalluccipedia Short. I hope you enjoy these as much as I enjoy making them. If there’s anything else that you’d like to see, please let me know.

Righty-ho! I’m off for a nice warm Lemsip.

Don’t forget to visit my website www.aschambers.co.uk for more details about my books. 

You can subscribe to my newsletter here for up-to-date details regarding all my writing and appearances.

You can check out my Patreon Book Club for advanced screenings of my videos and free books.

Take care and keep looking out for what lurks in the shadows…

A.S.Chambers.

Short Story: First Hunt - Then

 Hello and welcome to this month’s short story video.

This time around, it is the turn of First Hunt: Then, one of two short vampire stories from 2015’s anthology All Things Dark and Dangerous (links for which you can find at www.aschambers.co.uk).

I’ve always been a fan of vampires; more so than werewolves. This is why they feature as heroic figures in the Spallucciverse. However, I’ve always despaired somewhat at stories where they’re put up on untouchable pedestals. When I read vampire fiction that basically regurgitates the same language and tropes as Dracula (which I hasten to add is one of my favourite books), I sigh in despair. That iconic novel was written over one hundred and twenty years ago. Surely, vampires, like humans need to move with the times?

So, when we see my vampires, the Children of Cain, they are very much characters of their own time periods. They neither ravish virgins nor laze around in an armchair in a “sanguine haze”. They are still rather human, with all our human problems.

The two First Hunt short stories really illustrate this, showing how vampires who take waifs and strays under their wings are just as must at sea as a human counterpart would be.

I hope you enjoy this one. First Hunt: Now will follow next month.

Don’t forget to visit my website www.aschambers.co.uk for more details about my books. 

You can subscribe to my newsletter here for up-to-date details regarding all my writing and appearances.

You can check out my Patreon Book Club for advanced screenings of my videos and free books.

Take care and keep looking out for what lurks in the shadows…

A.S.Chambers.

Spalluccipedia: Dante the Cat

 Greetings and welcome to this monthly dive into characters, places and themes in the ever-expanding world of my paranormal investigator, Sam Spallucci.

This time around, I want to have a little chat about one of my favourite little characters in Sam’s world: Spliff’s cat, Dante.

When I first started out writing the Sam Spallucci books, Dante was firmly based on a cat I knew about thirty years ago. His name was Mephistopheles and he was the cat of the chaplain at Saint Martin’s College in Lancaster. Mephs, was a big, black beast, more panther than a domestic cat and was known for his hunting prowess. As with Dante, he lived at the top of a tower block and was regularly seen on the windowsill, swiping careless sparrows that flew too close. Dante’s loathing of humans was firmly based on that of Mephs. Both felines had a hatred of anyone who wasn’t the human that fed them and lavished unconditional love on them. I recall many times when a student got too close to Mephs and paid the price with a severe, bloody scratch.

However, Dante began to be redeveloped somewhat in my books seven years ago when a black bundle of fur and bossiness strolled into my life. Those who follow me on social media will know very well that my constant companion is Schroedinger, a small black cat who is incredibly like Dante in appearance and personality. Schrodie regards most humans with disdain, only lavishing his affection on a select few. So it is that, as the books have progressed, Dante has taken on more and more of my own cat’s characteristics. It is now up to my readers to decide which of the tales I tell about him are fiction and which are, indeed, reality.

Don’t forget to visit my website www.aschambers.co.uk for more details about my books. 

You can subscribe to my newsletter here for up-to-date details regarding all my writing and appearances.

You can check out my Patreon Book Club for advanced screenings of my videos and free books.

Take care and keep looking out for what lurks in the shadows…

A.S.Chambers.

Spalluccipedia: Sophia

 Greetings and welcome to this monthly dive into characters, places and themes in the ever-expanding world of my paranormal investigator, Sam Spallucci.

This time around, I want to have a little chat about one of the more curious side characters in my books, Sophia.

Dressed in appearance like a prim and proper librarian, Sophia first turns up in Sam’s world in Sam Spallucci: Ghosts From The Past, where she warns Sam that Wallace is involved with the coming of the Divergence and insists that our hero tries to stop his old university acquaintance. Sam being Sam is never one for having his chain jerked one way and then the other and has a decidedly frosty relationship with this entity as he feels that she is constantly looking down on him and seeing him as beneath her, only there to do what she wants “for the greater good”, so to speak. 

Things certainly come to a head in Sam Spallucci: Troubled Souls when it is revealed that Sophia is, in fact, Alec’s mother, the part human/part angel Eloise and possesses the same aptitude for digging into people’s heads with her psychic capabilities.

I hope you enjoy the short video in which I explain a bit about her origins, how I’ve used her and my thoughts for her future.

Don’t forget to visit my website www.aschambers.co.uk for more details about my books. 

You can subscribe to my newsletter here for up-to-date details regarding all my writing and appearances.

You can check out my Patreon Book Club for advance screenings of my videos and free books.

Take care and keep looking out for what lurks in the shadows…

A.S.Chambers.

One Minute Workshop: Routine

 Hello and welcome to this little one-minute writing workshop.

When it comes to writing productively, one thing which can quite often be overlooked is a good routine. As writers and creatives, we often feel that we should start putting pen to paper when the Muses move us. We feel that we really need to be in the zone in order to generate worthwhile material that we will be proud of. 

However, this can lead to us lurching from one project to another with no consistency and a distinct lack of progress. Yes, we need to be mindful of when inspiration strikes, but that should be used as a time for note-taking and research, for the jotting down of ideas and playing with topics in our head. As far as the writing process is concerned, it is far more beneficial to have a set time of day to pursue this. For some, this could be first thing in the morning (personally, I’m up at 5 o’clock and writing at half past for a few hours before the day kicks in), some are night owls and some might split it into two blocks of a few hours each. It is important that we find what works for us and that we stick to it. This way we will be able to compare our progress from day to day and set attainable targets with regard to how we want our work to progress.

Don’t forget to visit my website www.aschambers.co.uk for more details about my books. 

You can subscribe to my newsletter here for up-to-date details regarding all my writing and appearances.

You can check out my Patreon Book Club for advanced screenings of my videos and free books.

Take care and keep looking out for what lurks in the shadows…

A.S.Chambers.

Short Story: Teeth

 Greetings one and all and welcome to this month’s short story, Teeth.

Originally published in my Oh Taste And See anthology and then in my Macabre Collection: Volume One, this tale of dentures, nightmares and childhood terror was one of the first non-Spallucciverse stories that I wrote. At the time, there were a plethora of adverts on the radio for teeth implants, encouraging people to do away with the awkwardness and discomfort of dentures. Promises were being made of a nice new smile which was easier to maintain and didn’t need soaking overnight in a glass tumbler.

Now, I have an overactive imagination at the best of times, and upon listening to these tales of wonderful dentistry, I couldn’t help but wonder: What would the old dentures feel about being thrown away? So, it didn’t take me long to sit down and take a piece I had written in my late teens and bring it bang up to date, complete with the disturbing dream sequences regarding the marionette (Because let’s face it, marionettes are seriously creepy…)

So, the next time you think about trading up for the next latest and greatest, just bear a quick thought for that thing which you’re getting rid of. They might not like being consigned to the drawer, wastebasket or recycle bin…

Don’t forget that I have Patreon Book Club where you can access all these videos long before they reach this blog. Also, Seraph tier members get free books for joining as well as free signed copies of every new material book that I publish. You can find out more details here.

You can also visit my website www.aschambers.co.uk for more details about my books. 

You can subscribe to my newsletter here for up-to-date details regarding all my writing and appearances.

Take care and keep looking out for what lurks in the shadows…

A.S.Chambers.