Spalluccipedia: Kanor

 Welcome to this month’s little Spalluccipedia article. Today, I want to have a chat about the big bad of Sam’s world, the hooded, brooding figure that is Kanor.

For me, something that can really make a story is having a good villain of the piece, whether it be your Lex Luthor or Kingpin of the comic world or, say, a Sauron of a more literary universe. One thing, though, that really gets the audience to connect to the villain, is understanding why they do what they do. We see that with the above-mentioned adversaries and, as Sam’s world progresses, we start to get hints of that with Kanor. As I say in the video, this is a person who halted paradise. He stopped heaven and Earth from becoming one. Surely he had to have a very good reason?

His creative origins go back to my teenage years when I was writing stories about this vampire called Claw who was battling through a post-apocalyptic land in order to take out its ruler, Kanor. These stories, over the years, have morphed into the Bobby Normal series and the Divergent Lands series and, as we travel through the post-Divergence land that Kanor created, we see that it truly is a horrible place in which to live as a human. 

One thing that I am really enjoying doing with the big bad of the Spallucciverse is leaving a breadcrumb trail of clues as to his identity. I would love to hear your theories 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 advance 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 all on a rather chilly first of April.

First, all pre-orders, Kickstarter rewards and Book Club editions of my latest book If Ye Loathe Me have been mailed out. These should be dropping through mail flaps over the next few days, so watch out for them. Selfies with books would be greatly appreciated over on my Facebook Page.

Second, it's been busy few days this weekend as I was over at Doncaster for Doncaster Unleashed Comic Con on Sunday. I had an absolutely cracking time and had a hoot being interviewed live on stage with my good chum Kelvin V A Allison. Who knew that pigeons could be so traumatic???

Third, I have entered the world of Reddit. For now, I'm using it as a convenient place to list all my monthly blog and YouTube posts, but, who knows, it might expand as I explore it. You can find me there at https://www.reddit.com/user/ASChambersAuthor/posts/

Fourth, my next Kickstarter launches on April 23rd. This one is for the third in the series of the Bobby Normal books. There will be, as usual, some cracking rewards with chances to bag some amazing artwork, journals and copies of older books that you need to fill your collection. Make sure you’re following me over on Kickstarter to receive a notification when it launches. 

Annnnnnd finally… did you know that I have a monthly newsletter that goes out via email. It is the easiest way to stay up-to-date with everything I do and write. You can sign up in less than a minute here.

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.

Right, that's all for now.

Stay safe and I'll see you again very soon.

ASC

Read! Read! Read!

 It is so crucially important, as a writer, that one reads material almost continually. I was on a social media forum a few months back where a writer boasted that they had never read a book in their life! Their view was that in reading any other material, they would be influencing their own style and their work would not be pure. 

Well, what utter balderdash!

When artists learn how to paint, they study the masters to understand how techniques work.

When musicians start to compose, they will have over a hundred years of previous melodies bouncing around in their head to inspire and guide them.

Writing is exactly the same. If you do not read, you cannot write in a satisfying or indeed satisfactory manner. What is crucial, though, is that you do not stick to reading just one genre. When I was a teenager, I grew up on a diet of King, Straub and Rice. Needless to say, my earliest works emulated them. My stories were effectively fan fiction, which is a great place to start, but rapidly becomes tedious if you progress no further. Tedious for the reader and the author. It wasn’t until some years later, when I picked up detective novels and other types of genre, that I really started to develop my own style. I was able to sit down with the smorgasbord of literature and pick and choose elements which I enjoyed working with and tasted delicious as I scribbled away with them.

So, if you are a fan of horror, go away and read some romance. If you stick resolutely to historical fiction, dive into some sci-fi. You’ll be surprised at what you’ll take away from these other styles of writing.

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.

ASC.

A Return to Running!

 Hello there!

Today sees me returning to something that I love but haven’t done for quite a while: running! Those of you who have been doggedly following my blog for some years will know that I used to run quite a bit and, indeed, I would regularly post on here regarding my progress. Unfortunately, all that came to a crashing halt when I developed Covid back in March 2020. 

Sure, I had a few stalled attempts to get back at it, but Long Covid is a bitch, taking a good twelve months to get anywhere near ready to exercise again, then the vaccinations wiped me out somewhat. As a result, I fell back on beautiful walks in the countryside to keep me fit and relatively sane.

Well, today, I just felt like getting out there and having a blast down by the River Lune. I’m so glad I did as i clocked up 4.95km in about 33 mins. Like Iß say in the video, hardly a world record, but such an improvement on what I had been doing.

Anyway, I’m hoping to make this a weekly thing. Let’s see how it goes.

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.

ASC.

March Story - 53, Bell Court

Welcome to this month’s short story. This month I have a video attached of Yours Truly reading  the horror story 53, Bell Court. 

This particular story is one of my early ones and is a story for which I still feel a lot of affection, mainly because it’s based on true events. When I was a teenager, I, like many others, had a paper round. In fact, I had numerous rounds for my local corner shop that was opposite my old primary school in Wellingborough. Now, if you ask me to describe most of the residences to which I delivered the Evening Telegraph, our local rag, I would not be able to tell you a thing. Not a jot. 

That is, except for one: 53, Bell Court.

The small block of flats was exactly as it is described in the story. There was that stale fusty smell, dead plants and even a flickering fluorescent light on a timer that never gave me long enough to get to the door and back before it clicked off, plunging me into the dark, awaiting a boney hand to come clamping down on my shoulder as I ran away. 

I think it’s safe to say that this daily dose of fright was one of the things that prompted me to start writing down ideas for horror stories. I originally penned this one when I was about fifteen. It’s evolved somewhat over the years, but still holds the same feeling of dread as it did back then.

I hope you enjoy it.

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.

 

Writing Workshop: Reviewing

     I want to have a little chat this month about reviewing. Reviewing is a crucial part of the writing process. It’s when we routinely sit down and reread what we have already written and should become a part of your daily writing routine. 

Why is it so important? There are two main reasons.

The first is that it helps refresh our memory as to where a story is going. If, before we start our writing for the day, we read through the scene that we wrote the day previous, it gives us a clarity as to what were thinking and helps us remember where the plot was headed and how we were developing the characters. This stops us from throwing in weird random plot changes or character quirks that readers often find off-putting. There is nothing more frustrating when reading a story where a character’s personality does a sudden u-turn or the plot leaps about all over the place. Reviewing can help nip this in the bud right at the beginning of the creative process.

The second is that reviewing plays a role in a constant editing process and therefore makes any large edit later on so much less of a burden. If we review something we wrote 24 hours previous with fresh eyes, we will pick up weird little typos, phrases that we might be overusing, inconsistencies in spellings of names — all that sort of thing. These are the sorts of mistakes which really slow down that large edit when we’ve finished the story at the end of the first draft. If we clear a lot of these annoyances out of the way as we go along, then that large edit becomes far more enjoyable as we are concerned more with polishing the story than locating masses of hidden errors.

I have a lot more of these videos over on my YouTube channel. I also have an active Facebook Page and a Group as well as the obligatory Twitter and Instagram. Should you want to receive monthly updates about my writings and escapades, then you can sign up to my monthly newsletter here. 

You can find more details and links to just about everything I do over at my website: www.aschambers.co.uk. 

Writing Workshop: Be Flexible

So, hands up if you’ve set out on a path to write a particular story in a particular way. You’ve sat down and planned it all out, right to the smallest detail. You’ve micromanaged the interactions of your characters. You’ve set in stone themes that you know need to be explored. Hell, you’ve even got a title and a cover sorted for your grand project.

Then, horror of horrors, your main character goes and does something expected. They fly off piste and find themselves in a situation for which you hadn’t bargained, experiencing emotions that you didn’t realise that they have, hurtling to a conclusion that you didn’t foresee.

What do you do? It is very tempting to try and drag them back to this Magnum Opus that you had planned, to bring them back to the Light and convert them to the one true religion of the way you see their universe running. You can insert twists and turns that will force them to comply with your intentions, making their life hell until they finally bend to your will as their creator.

The problem is, in the long term, it just won’t work. You end up sitting staring at your screen, gawping at the words you have spent the last month frantically typing, trying to bring your story back on track and you come to the devastating realisation that it is utter garbage. In trying to divert the story back to where you want it to go, you have made up unrealistic scenarios, created over-convoluted plot twists and changed your protagonist into a warped and hideous two-dimensional simulacra of what you actually intended them to be. 

And, this is where the dreaded writer’s block sets in. You have dug yourself into a hole and thrown away the shovel. There is no way out. You just sit there and weep.

However, it is all easily avoided. If your story takes a turn that you did not expect, then explore that twist. Never forget that writing is a creative art form. It is not a precise science where an equation states that if you apply one element, another must automatically follow. Let your characters evolve like letting a child grow into their new experiences. Don’t be afraid to play around with new ideas. Write them up, examine them, see if they work. If they’re absolute pants, then save them somewhere and try again to see what else might happen. 

It is crucial to be flexible. In doing so, you will let your story, and indeed your own writing style, evolve in a much more natural way, producing deeper content and far more believable stories.

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Spalluccipedia: Spliff and His Origins

In this month’s Spalluccipedia entry, I want to have a chat about a much loved member of the Sam Spallucci books, the Reverend James Francis MacIntyre, or “Spliff” to his friends.

One of the longest running members of the Spallucciverse, Spliff first met Sam when they were students at Luneside University about nineteen years ago. Living on the same corridor, they quickly bonded and formed a friendship that would last way beyond graduation. 

Spliff acquired his nickname as he was known as the guy on the corridor who was always able to lay his hands on varying recreational drugs, something which he put behind him when, after university, he went to selection conference and was accepted into training for the Church of England. Ordination subsequently followed, along with a number of disastrous  postings in numerous parish churches. It was finally decided that he should be placed somewhere where he could do little harm and, at the start of the Spallucci series, we find him settled in for a few years as the chaplain of his old university.

Somewhat of a known maverick, he still managed to get himself into trouble with the authorities of  both the church and academia, however he was greatly loved by the students and was never fired, even though his libido often found him in embarrassing situations. Having said that, in the Spallucci series it is apparent that his ecclesiastical superiors are trying to persuade him that perhaps it is time for him to move to a country parish. 

Sam continually refers to his best friend as his rock and sees him as someone who keeps him continually grounded in the world of weirdness that is constantly unfolding around him. However, by Troubled Souls it is apparent that Spliff is, in fact, ill and is hiding the details of his condition from Sam, something which proves to create tension between the two friends.

A number of characters in the Spallucciverse have a certain amount of grounding in real life. Spliff is most definitely one of these. He is actually based around three characters (as I mention in the video), bringing to life a colourful character with real depth of personality who is always there for Sam through thick and thin.

www.aschambers.co.uk

Writing Workshop: Location

I just want to have a quick word today about the importance of location when it comes to writing, especially in works of fiction.

It is supremely important when we set our story somewhere that the place where it is set actually feels believable. This can be a real tripping point for books. We may be enjoying the characters, the dialogue and the plot, but there is something that feels somewhat askew, something that we can’t quite put our finger on. More often than not, it is the place where the story is taking place, most likely because it feels vague or unbelievable. It could be that the author has set a story in a city that they have never visited, so it lacks the smell of local cuisine or the sights that one would expect to see from that place’s landmarks. This would be like me setting my stories in New York. Sure, I’ve seen it on the television and in films, but there’s no way that I could do it justice. It would feel like a cardboard cutout of the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty which have been smeared in hot dogs and bagels! Or it could be a fantasy land where the writer is basically making it up as they go along, so the reader just does not feel engaged with a wishy washy background to an otherwise decent tale. The reader just sees elves and orcs battling it out on a landscape which is continually changing shape and not adhering to ever-changing arbitrary rules.

So, my suggestion, when you are starting out, is to take a place that is familiar to you and use that. It could be your country, your town or even your house. Explore details of the surroundings and look at what they mean to your characters. Include things about these places that are special to you, and your love (or even, hatred) of those places will shine through in your writing and help the reader to engage with your story.

This is why I set the bulk of my stories in my hometown of Lancaster. It is familiar to me; I know all its little quirks and details. I can then bring these in a neat little package to my readers, the vast majority of whom have never been here, and they can immediately pick up a sense of the city and its surroundings. Plus, they can see how the location affects my characters such as Sam Spallucci, my investigator of the paranormal.

Have a go. See how you can get on. Take somewhere that really means something to you and just play with it.

www.aschambers.co.uk.

Spalluccipedia - Sam Spallucci

     I often get asked, "Where did the idea for sam Spallucci come from?"

    The short answer to this is a teenage blend of Mike Hammer and, amongst other movies, a pirated copy of An American Werewolf in London. I was a huge fan of the former and terrified by the latter (I still can't open the front door if it's dark and the Muppets are on TV. I'm sure you know which scene I'm referring too...). I was also heavily influenced by an old Hammer werewolf whodunnit The Beast Must Die, as I explained in my little video from January 2021.

    So, one evening, when I should have been doing my chemistry homework, I sat down at this ancient Bulgarian typewriter that my dad had obtained from god knows where and wrote this, what I called, a novel (it was in fact just five or six pages…) about a fedora wearing private eye who gets called in to track down a werewolf that’s rampaging through a small village. The next day, I showed it to my mate as we sat at the back of the chemistry lesson avoiding being asked questions on a subject for which neither of us had prepared. He read it through and said that he really enjoyed it, especially the detective. He said that it was like Sam Spade meets the Wolfman. I took this as high praise indeed and as I had actually neglected to give my detective a memorable name, this suggestion got me to thinking. Sat on the other side of me was a girl named Maria Gallucci. I took Spade and Gallucci, then just glued them together and Sam Spallucci, investigator of the paranormal was born.

    Sam sort of stayed like that for about ten years or so until I drifted back to him in my twenties and started playing around with certain scenarios and realising that he could fit into the same universe as Fallen Angel, another novel that I was chipping away at. So it was that I finally knuckled down in my mid-thirties and, just after my fortieth The Casebook of Sam Spallucci was finished.

    At the time of writing this, I'm up to Sam Six (Bloodline) with four more due for release over the next few years before he catches up with the events of Fallen Angel. So, he's got a way to go yet and I hope we enjoy the journey alongside Lancaster's very own investigator of the paranormal.

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The exciting month of May!

 Greetings one and all and welcome to this May update.

So, the big news of the month is that Bobby Normal and the Eternal Talisman is now published and available to be purchased. If you would like to jump into the adventures of Bobby and his kid sister as they are drawn into a world of intrigue in the post apocalyptic world of the Divergent Lands, then there are three ways to grab a copy for yourself (or even for a loved one).

The easiest method would be to nip over to Amazon. There are links for this over on my website. Also on my website, you can order a signed copy, should you want something a little bit more unique. Just drop me a line with your details on the contact page.

The third method, and the one that I am most excited about, is my shiny new Book Club. It has four levels of membership, offering you more and more weekly goodies depending on which level you subscribe to. Until the end of May, all new subscribers to the top level, Seraph, will have a signed copy of Bobby Normal and the Eternal Talisman posted out to them as part of their membership and at no extra cost. If, after that month you feel the Book Club isn’t for you, then you can cancel your membership. Details of all the membership levels are here on my website.

Now, I’m not sleeping on my laurels with the publication of BNET. Far from it. The second book in that series, Bobby Normal and the Virtuous Man, is currently at the proof-readers and I’m hoping to get that out late summer after a Kickstarter campaign, so watch this space for that. There will be all manner of rewards accompanying that one.

Also nearing completion is the next Sam Spallucci book, Bloodline. Set directly after the events of Troubled Souls, it will follow Sam as not only does he have to deal with the lycanthropic Bloodline of Abel setting their sights on Lancaster, but also the return of a romantic face from his past. I am currently targeting November as the publication time zone for this one. It’s been a blast to write and the artwork by Liam Shaw is outstanding. The Seraph members of my Book Club will be the first ones to see that, later this month.

Right, I’d better shoot off and let you get back to your lives.

Stay safe and keep looking for what lurks in the shadows!

Austin.

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Bobby Normal is on his way!

Greetings one and all!

I hope this newsletter finds you safe and well as we continue to dip a tentative toe into 2021, hoping that we find the water pleasantly warm and not infested with starving piranhas.

So, over the last month or so, I’ve been hinting at my next project, Bobby Normal and the Eternal Talisman. I thought now would be a good time to fill you in on some details regarding this new venture for me. 

BNET is going to be the first of five novellas set in the future, after the Divergence has come about. Kanor has risen, unleashed his constructs (and a few more horrors besides) and humanity has been reduced to a pitiful remnant. Into this post-apocalyptic scenario are born our main character, Bobby, and his sister Katy. Bobby is early teens and his sister is a feisty eight-year-old. When the series start, they are eking out a meagre existence in the village of Irlingbury, a few years after their father was executed by Shadow Wraiths, a type of uber-construct. 

Not only is life hard for Bobby and Katy, constantly having to hide from the bully Teller whose father is a quisling for the tyrannical rule of Kanor, but one day they find themselves tasked with having to deliver the Eternal Talisman into the hands of the Man of Virtue who is currently residing in the neighbouring village of Orchester. It has been said that the talisman will be a tool that will help him to destroy the “black dragon”, Kanor.

BNET tells the story of Bobby and Katy as they journey out of their home village for the first time in their lives and the adventures that they have on the way to Orchester. They are chased through derelict sewers by a horde of rats, meet an elderly enigmatic traveller known only as Cutter and are constantly tormented and tested by the vile Teller, leading to a horrific and unexpected climax.

I thoroughly enjoyed writing this novella, which is currently in its formatting stage and I adore the amazing artwork that the talented Liam Shaw devised for its cover. It will be published this Easter and I hope to have a Kickstarter up and running in March to cover the publication costs. More on that next month but, in the meantime, all my Seraph level patrons are currently enjoying teaser extracts from the book in the run up to its publication and they will receive a signed copy through their letter boxes as soon as it sees the light of day. If you want more details about becoming a patron, then please visit my Patron page.

 

Anyway, that’s all for now. I hope February treats you and yours well and I look forward to chatting to you next month.

 

All the best, 

Austin.

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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Sam Spallucci: Troubled Souls - Your Questions Answered!

In this month’s blog, I’ll be chatting about my forthcoming book, Sam Spallucci: Troubled Souls which, all being well, should hit the shelves in August this summer. The fifth book in the Sam Spallucci series, I’ve been asked loads of questions regarding it, so I thought this would be a good time to deliver some answers for those who are hungry for their next dose of Lancaster’s beleaguered investigator of the paranormal.

When is Troubled Souls set?

This next set of adventures is going to be set straight after Dark Justice and will deal with the fallout in Sam’s life, both professional and personal, that he suffered at the end of the last book. It will take place over about three weeks, bridging the festive (or not so festive) season and will climax in the new year.

Is this book a single storyline or a set of separate cases?

The easiest answer to that is probably, “both.” There are five cases in total: The Cherokee Checkout; The Distressed Demoniac; The Time Travelling Tearoom; The Dabbling Dominion and The Bare Lane Butcher. However, there are two strong over-riding arcs: one regarding Sam’s relationships with the supernatural beings that continually interfere with his life and the other being the Bare Lane Butcher, a serial killer who Sam tackles first in Victorian and then in modern-day Morecambe.

Is it true that you will be using characters from another author’s book?

It is indeed! I am delighted that Peter Cakebread allowed me to use Mulberry and Touchstone his detectoratorsfrom the fabulous Morecambe Medium. I read the book a few years back and fell in love with his style and, as I was reading it, wished that I could use the loveable detectives in one of my stories. I originally bounced the idea off Pete a couple of years ago and he gave me the go ahead. He was the first person to read the finished story that they appear in (Time Travelling Tearoom) and was delighted with the finished product.

Is there a real-life character appearing in Troubled Souls?

Sort of. There is going to be an author called Craig Shaw making an appearance as a researcher in the Bare Lane Butcher. He is actually based upon a good friend of mine, author Craig Hallam (click here for his blog). Craig loves all things Victoriana and Steampunkery, so I couldn’t resist using a character based upon him and he jumped at the chance to appear.

Will there be reappearances from characters in Sam’s universe?

Most definitely! I think it is safe to say that it is crammed full of readers’ favourites. As the cover art shows, Sophia plays a very central role as do her little travelling companions. Mister Tibbles, the familiar of Boom Box Betty will reappear in Tearoom and Dominion, causing chaos as he interferes with Sam’s life. Alec, Grace and Spliff will obviously be around as will a new love interest for one of them. I’m delighted to have DCI Jitendra Patel back in The Bare Lane Butcher where he enlists Sam’s help in hunting down the modern-day serial killer. Perhaps most excitingly though, two of Sam’s phantasmagorical nemeses will finally appear in the flesh: fallen seraph Lucifer and bringer of the divergence Kanor. I don’t want to say too much (spoilers and all), but the scene where Sam finally gets to meet Lucifer has to be possibly my favourite scene in the whole series so far.

Are there any new characters?

Off the top of my head, there are two new faces that we can expect to see again. The first is a ghost who is haunting a local supermarket whilst dressed as a Cherokee chieftain. He turned out so well, that I shall most likely use him again in a few books’ time. The second is a police officer by the name of Becks Mullen. WPC Mullen is driven and ambitious and will first appear in Bare Lane Butcher. Passionate about what she does, she will be butting heads with her ordered boss and will definitely be a character to watch when she reappears in Bloodline.

Is there going to be a Kickstarter for Troubled Souls?

I was very nervous about holding a Kickstarter for Songbird, but it was a resounding success, raising funds for the publication process and introducing new readers to my books. So, most definitely yes, there will indeed be a Kickstarter.

As well as the varying levels of backing which will give you access to artwork and books, there will also be two levels which will let you actually appear in the book! At one level you will have the chance to be named as a victim of the Bare Lane Butcher and on the highest level, you will actually have your name used for a speaking character in the book (before being brutally murdered of course).

All details will appear on my Kickstarter campaign which should launch in June. Here’s the link to my Kickstarter profile. Make sure to follow it to get more details as they are launched. I will also be posting updates on my Facebook page and in my Facebook Group, so make sure to subscribe to those and keep your eyes peeled!

 

After Troubled Souls, what will be next?

I have already started on the next two novels, Bloodline and Fury of the Fallen.

The first of these sees the Bloodline of Abel descend upon Lancaster. It will tie together all the little Easter eggs that I have been laying down since Shadows of Lancaster (I hope you’ve been watching carefully…) and will follow on from the three prologues from the anthologies Mourning Has Broken and Hide Not Thou Thy Face (this book is due out later on this year). Again, not wanting to give spoilers, but tears will be shed as there will be death and heartache… 

Fury of the Fallen will follow on directly from Bloodline and will have the fallen angels Asherah and Asmodeus interject themselves into Sam’s life. Sparks will definitely fly.

Well, I think that is all for now. I had better get back to causing chaos in Sam’s life.

Take care, stay safe and remember to look for what is lurking in the shadows…

A.S.Chambers.

www.aschambers.co.uk

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