Diary of a Dizzy Deviant - A.S.Chambers

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Saturday, 15 August 2020

A Quick Catching of Breath...

Welcome to my monthly roundup for August!

July was an incredibly busy month for me. First, and most

definitely foremost, after many trials and tribulations, Sam Spallucci: Troubled Souls finally saw the light of day. Originally due out in the summer of 2019, it was originally set back by my ill health and other issues. It was then due an Easter publication, but fell afoul of Covid-19 and ended up being pushed back to July. However, all good things come to those who wait and, after an immensely successful Kickstarter campaign (again, thank you, thank you, thank you to all my lovely backers) it came out three weeks ago and is flying off the virtual shelves over on Amazon.

The Kickstarter for Troubled Souls saw something that I hadn’t done before. I offered up the chance for readers to be killed off as characters in my latest book. In this case, a modern copycat of the Victorian Bare Lane Butcher dispatches victims using a good old-fashioned cutthroat razor in the back streets of Morecambe. I had four corpses up for grabs and all went within the first couple of hours. Indeed, apparently there was a virtual “fight” for the one victim which was a speaking role. Who would have known there would have been so much excitement? Due to the popularity of this whole thing, I’ve decided to offer up another speaking victim as a Kickstarter reward for Sam Spallucci: Bloodline when that comes out (hopefully next summer). But more on that another time…

Also on the book news front, this summer saw me complete my next short story anthology which will be out this November, in perfect time for Christmas! Hide Not Thou Thy Face will follow my usual anthology format and will contain a selection of short horror stories. Most notably will be the two interlinked tales: Orion’s Hunter and Disquiet Mind. These, along with Orion’s Child from Mourning Has Broken, will form the prologue for Sam Spallucci: Bloodline, looking at the events preceding the lycanthropic attempt to take over Sam’s beloved city of Lancaster. As I mentioned just before, Face will appear in November after a short Kickstarter in October. All my Seraph level Patreon subscribers will receive a signed copy in the post as soon as I have my physical copies which will be adorned by the amazing artwork of the incredibly talented Liam Shaw.

One piece of sad news this last month was the cancellation of York Comic Con. This is an event that I look forward to each year as I get to meet lots of readers. If you were planning to buy your latest Sam Spallucci fix from me at York, then please drop me a line via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or www.aschambers.co.uk and I will be able to post one out to you.

So, what is currently in the pipeline?

Well, after Hide Not Thou Thy Face comes out in November, I will be taking a much-needed Christmas break before finalising the format of my first Bobby Normal novella: Bobby Normal and the Eternal Talisman. I’ll give more specifics about this nearer the date, but it will be a story set around a couple of orphans in the time post-Divergence. We will finally get to explore the world after the rise of Kanor and the devastation caused by his constructs. This should be out in spring 2021. Close on its heels, next summer will be the aforementioned Sam Spallucci: Bloodline, with my sixth anthology If Ye Loathe Me coming out for Christmas 2021. Also, at some point during this publishing frenzy, I’m hoping to squeeze out a Sam Spallucci Omnibus which will contain the first three Sam books: Casebook, Ghosts and Shadows.This will be a nice glossy hardback to add to the collection. I just need to finalise the cover art and get my head around the new print format. Anyone know how to create clones? I really could do with one…

Anyway, I seem to have rambled on for far too long, so had better let you get back to your life.

Keep checking for what lurks in the shadows…

Austin.

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Thursday, 4 June 2020

A very big thank you!!!

Welcome to June’s blog!

I want to use this as an opportunity to say a big “thank you” to all those who have helped me out with my Kickstarter for Sam Spallucci: Troubled Souls. It was launched on Monday 1^st June and, quite incredibly, reached its target in under two hours! Needless to say, I was totally blown away by this. You guys are all incredibly generous and it has been wonderful to see people getting so excited about my new work.

The Kickstarter will run until the end of June. All the large rewards have now gone. These were the ones where your name appeared as a victim of the Bare Lane Butcher in the book or the sponsor had a talking role before being despatched by the serial killer’s cut throat razor. The most popular reward has been the signed copy of Troubled Souls accompanied by the signed copy of Children of Cain. There are only a few of these left now, so if you want that deal, you had best get in quick. Also running low are individual signed copies of Troubled Souls. I think there may only be about twelve left of these for the Kickstarter. To hop over to the Kickstarter, click here.

Once the Kickstarter has completed, there will be about two weeks where it will be finalised as payments come in. After that, the book will go to the printers and I am looking at a publication date at the beginning of August. Ideal timing for the summer!

But Troubled Souls is not the only book that I have coming out this year. In November, my next short story anthology Hide Not Thou Thy Face will hit the shelves. Following my usual anthology format, it will contain about eight or nine shorts of varying length. There will be two more prologues for Sam Spallucci 6 (Bloodline – due next year) as well as another “Dragon” short. One to really watch out for though is a short story set post-Divergence entitled The Virtuous Man. Those of you who have read Dark Justice should recognise the title from the prophecy concerning the individual who is supposed to be the hope for humanity after the rise of Kanor. More on that another time.

Something else to watch out for is an online store that I am currently putting together. I get asked a lot to post out signed books to my readers. Once this site is up and running, it should make accessing my signed books a lot easier. Again, watch this space for details.

Stay safe and look for what lurks in the shadows,

Austin.

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Thursday, 9 January 2020

Hello 2020!

Happy new year to you all!

2019 was a fantastic year for me. I had three new publications come out. Here’s a quick run-down of them in case you missed them.

Children of Cain – A Vampire Omnibus was a collection of the vampire stories that I had previously published across my first three short story anthologies. It collected together for the first time in one place all the stories of the Children of Cain who exist and interact with Sam Spallucci’s universe. There were the three tales set in the modern day concerning newly created vampire Dave Nichols and his mother the regent Nightingale. Alongside these there were three in the Wild West centred around the reluctant heir to the empire, the gunslinger Claw and the ill-fated relationship that he develops with a young orphan boy. Then there were two contrasting stories centred around my favourite pair of construct hunters: Tigress and Scorpion. One saw them out on the tiles and hunting down their unsuspecting prey whereas the other showed us a more vulnerable side to their relationship.

Songbird was another Children of Cain based book. This novella centred around the vampire Nightingale. It tracked her last few weeks as a human, suffering at the hands of a sadistic employer, through to her rebirth and rise to regent of the shadowy figures that await the Divergence and the rise of Kanor.

Finally, Needs Must received an outing as an eBook. Originally part of the anthology All Things Dark And Dangerous, this very popular short story tells the tale of Odd Bod, a human-eating creature down the bottom of a well who has to venture up into the world above when his food source dries up, only to encounter something far more deadly than himself – a little red-headed girl.

So what of 2020? Well the big news is that the next Sam Spallucci book Troubled Souls is now in the editing stage and, all being well, should be published late spring. Like Casebook and Shadows of Lancaster, this new outing for Lancaster’s investigator of the paranormal will take part over five interconnected cases as Sam tries to come to terms with the fallout from Dark Justice.

The Case of the Cherokee Checkout sees Sam reluctantly drawn into the spectral happenings at a new supermarket which has apparently been built on a Native American burial ground. Quite an achievement for Lancashire! During the investigation, he encounters Craig Shaw, a local author who has written a book about the Bare Lane Butcher, a serial killer in Morecambe from the 1800s. Not only this, but photographic evidence puts Sam right at the heart of the Victorian killing spree.

The Case of the Distressed Demoniac has Sam called in to try and cure a teenage girl from what appears to be a demonic possession. However, things aren’t quite what they seem and, what’s more, a certain shadowy figure who haunts Sam’s dreams begins to take a far from healthy interest in the occult goings on.

The Case of the Time Travelling Tea Room sees Sam and Spliff transported back to a Victorian Morecambe which is in the grip of the murderous hand of the Bare Lane Butcher. As they try to solve the case and find a way home, they team up with detectorator duo, Mulberry and Touchstone who have leapt from the pages of Peter Cakebread’s novel The Morecambe Medium.

The Case of the Dabbling Dominion involves more time travel as the dominion Mister Tibbles whips Sam and Alec back and forth through points in history (and out of history...) as the diminutive angel tries to force the hand of Sam’s mysterious lodger and get him to accept his destiny. Be prepared to find out what really caused the destruction of the Indus Valley civilisation!

The Case of the Bare Lane Butcher is the final of the five connected tales and sees Sam rooted firmly in the present as the Victorian serial killer seems to raise his ugly head in modern day Morecambe. As Sam hunts down the murderer before they can kill someone close to him, he struggles with continued appearances from Kanor, before things finally come to a head.

So, have a great 2020. Continue to watch this space for more details as and when they are announced and remember: The Divergence Is Coming!

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Tuesday, 9 April 2019

A Shadowy Spring

As I sit typing this, the sun is streaming through my window and spring has finally sprung. Duckings are quacking their way down the canal and lambs are starting to learn about the bogeyman spoken of in hushed tones as “mint sauce”. Spring always brings a feeling of rebirth and renewal, a shot in the arm of patent vim and vigour. It makes you feel that perhaps everything can be all right with the world.

Oh, that things could be that simple for my dearly beloved investigator of the paranormal, Sam Spallucci! I am now two cases into his next outing, Sam Spallucci: Troubled Souls, and things are, as usual, spiralling rather out of control for him. Following the same format as Casebook and Shadows of Lancaster, the latest book will be compiled of five interlinked cases: The Case of The Cherokee Checkout, The Case of The Distressed Demoniac, The Case of The Time-Travelling Tea Rooms, The Case of The Dabbling Dominion and The Case of The Bare Lane Butcher. We will see Sam encounter love-stricken spectres, lost creatures from another realm, an interfering angel and not one, but two, serial killers stalking the back streets of Lancaster and Morecambe.

I am enjoying this outing for numerous reasons. As well as exploring the ever increasing interference in Sam’s life by the mysterious Kanor, bringer of the apocalyptic Divergence, I will also be using Sam’s lodger Alec a lot more and delving into his family.

Plus, on top of all this, I am delighted to be working with the marvellous Peter Cakebread. A few years ago, I had the pleasure of reading his novel The Morecambe Medium which is set in Victorian Morecambe and I asked him at the time whether or not he fancied penning a joint effort. The Case of The Time-Travelling Tea Rooms will be my half of this venture. Sam, accompanied by his bohemian best friend Spliff, will find themselves teamed up with Peter’s detectorators Mulberry and Touchstone, tracking down the original Bare Lane Butcher. As usual in Sam’s world, not everything is as it seems and there will be repercussions later on in Troubled Souls.

Upcoming Events:

As well as scribbling away, I shall be making a few appearances over the next few weeks. Saturday 13th April sees me in Wakefield at the Pagan Federation North East Conference. Then, on the very next day, I shall be just down the road in Doncaster for the Doncaster Unleashed Comic Con. The 4th and 5th May see my return to the ever popular EM-Con (where I hope to successfully stalk cast members of Star Trek: The Next Generation) and on the 11th May I shall be at the annual Oldham Comic Con. Feel free to come along and say, “Hello!”

All the best,

A.S.Chambers (April 2019).