Sam Spallucci: Troubled Souls sees the light of day!

So, finally, after a year or so of teeth gnashing, soul searching and shirt ripping (well, probably two out of three of those…) Sam Spallucci: Troubled Souls is finally in print. It’s only a year late, but who’s counting? I’m just pleased to see it happily alive and kicking after suffering from continual bouts of ill health and then the insanity of Lockdown. Hopefully it should be a dose of refreshing summer entertainment for established and new readers alike.

Troubled Souls follows straight on the heels of Sam Spallucci: Dark Justice. We see Sam co-opted into the hunt for a missing angelic companion of the mysterious, librarian styled, Sophia. Along the way he encounters a ghost in a local supermarket who happens to dressed as a Cherokee chieftain as well as an entity from another universe that has possessed an unfortunate teenage girl. 

However, the main connecting arc of the five cases concerns the ruthless serial killer known only as the Bare Lane Butcher. Sam and Spliff first track him down in Victorian Morecambe only to find him resurface in modern day Lancaster. Not only this, but he seems to have his sights set on someone near and dear to our poor hero. 

Throw in a good dose of apocalypse-loving, cowl wearing Kanor plus an actual face-to-face meeting for Sam and a certain fallen seraph, and you have my personal favourite of my Sam Spallucci books to date.

You can buy the book over on Amazon or order a signed copy from Yours Truly by messaging me through my website.

 

Something else which also has me excited is that I will be venturing over to the wonderful city of York on the 9^th August for my first comic con since Lockdown began. York Unleashed is going to be a fantastic affair and a much welcome dose of geeky fun. I’ll even get to stalk the amazing David Warner who will be appearing as a guest. I can imagine it will be something akin to me just standing there and squeaking lots at him…

 

Then, once I’ve recovered from that, I will have to sit myself down and crack on with Sam Spallucci: Bloodline which is due out next summer (laughs inwardly at the notion of deadlines). Not only this, but I will be officially be launching my Patreon site. But more on that next time. 

 

All the best!

Austin.

Why Lancaster?

A question I am frequently asked is, “Why have you set

stories about a paranormal investigator in Lancaster of all places?”

When I first moved to this hidden jewel of the North West, tucked away to the side of the M6, I was but a mere university undergraduate. Living on the campus a few miles south of the city, I rarely ventured into town. However, when I did, it was normally at night time to frequent the pubs and clubs. I was soon drawn into a world the like of which I had never experienced before. Having grown up in a small market town which had undergone numerous rejuvenations, I had only ever heard of these mystical little routes between buildings known as alleysand had never actually seen them up close.

Lancaster was (and still is) full of them.

The city's heyday was in Georgian times when the majority of the hoi polloiwandered around on foot. Only the rich had access to carriages and, as a result, most of the main roads were narrow and the small footpaths that connected them were even more of a squeeze. Wandering around as a bright-eyed fresher, I could not help but be attracted to these tiny veins and arteries of my new home. As I passed one in the middle of the night, I could easily imagine what creatures might lurk down its shadowy depths and I would automatically cross to a lighter side of the high street to avoid being dragged away for some nocturnal creature's midnight snack.

Time and familiarity tend to eradicate childish fears. So it was that, in my twenties, I started to see these little footpaths as less a potential lair for the undead and more a quick shortcut home from work. They lost their edge and became just like everything else in my early working years, part of the norm. I would stroll down them without giving a thought to ghosties or beasties that might have dwelt along their cobbled paths.

Then, when I stumbled rather bemusedly into my thirties, I began to hear tell of stories regarding Lancaster's past. Tales that portrayed the city as less of a sparkling diamond, but more of a mysterious dark orb. There were ghosts that wandered the dressing rooms of the Grand Theatre. There was the screaming head that rolled down Castle Hill. 

And who, in Lancashire, has not heard about the fate of the Pendle Witches? Members of two families whose feud boiled over into allegations of Satanism and witchcraft, leading them to be incarcerated at Lancaster Castle before gruesome deaths and executions.

So it was that I started to reevaluate my sanitised view of my city and began to once more regard its shadowy alleys with a dose of caution and a certain amount of trepidation. These were footways that had known history, and not just the peaceful type where everyday folk merrily went about their business. There were murders, deaths and destruction that had bled their way into the very cobblestones upon which I walked.

So, when I get asked the aforementioned question, I tell those who enquire to come to Lancaster. Visit this place steeped in blood-stained history and walk down its alleyways at night. Then they will see how it might just be possible that there is a werewolf roaming Williamson Park, that a vampire might happen to run a local comic shop or that maybe, just maybe, the crazy woman singing on the street corner could very well be descended from the Pendle Witches.

Until next time, keep looking for what lurks in the shadows.

A.S.Chambers.

www.aschambers.co.uk

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Back In The Old Home Town.

One of the questions that I get asked a lot about my Sam Spallucci books is, “Are all the places in the books real?” The easiest answer to this is, “Usually.” For example, most of the locations in Lancaster exist in the real world with the exception of Luneside University, which happens to be Lancaster University transported magically down onto the side of the river Lune. All the rest of the locations in Sam’s adopted home town are more or less as you find them. There is the Ashton Memorial in Williamsons’ Park, the Priory Church of St Mary, the Borough and indeed 15a Dalton Square, all of which are real locations.

But what about Sam’s originalhome town of Wellington which we first visit in Shadows of Lancaster? Does this have a basis in fact? 

Indeed it does. Wellington first came into existence when I wrote the as yet unpublished Fallen Angel. I needed a small market town with an impressive gothic church so I went with the old adage, “write about what you know.” All I reallyknew as a teenager, was my home town of Wellingborough in Northamptonshire. So I used that.

Specifically, I used my parish church of All Hallows.

All Hallows was a perfect model for All Saints in Sam’s world. A gothic beauty, it is almost virtually identical in the books as it is in real life: a towering spire, next to a thriving market, the ornate rood screen with the lifelike figure of the crucified Jesus in calm repose.

And, yes, there is the font.

Now, the font in All Hallows may not have the enigmatic inscription “Knaves Are Not Our Responsibility”, but it is a fine piece of stone craftsmanship, nonetheless. As a chorister there, I witnessed many babies getting dunked in the large stone bowl. What I can absolutely testify to is that there is nothing supernatural about it and there are no mysterious

watery noises coming from beneath it, even though Wellingborough was a spa town in Tudor and Stuart times.

Speaking of All Saints, Songbird – A Nightingale Storyis now out online and in a select few shops. It tells the tale of a young girl who rises from the poverty of Victorian England, to become Nightingale, the leader of the Children of Cain, the group of vampires in the universe of Sam Spallucci. As we follow her journey, she spends time at the church of All Saints in Wellington, where she witnesses a number of supernatural events surrounding the font and is subjected to the sadistic wrath of the parish priest before being rescued by her vampiric father, Doulos.

If you want to treat yourself to a copy, it is available to buy over on Amazonor, if you want a signed copy, feel free to drop me a line at www.aschambers.co.uk.

Until next time, keep looking for what lurks in the shadows.

A.S.Chambers.

www.aschambers.co.uk

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Steampunkery and Vampires.

So, the last week has been somewhat manic for me.

Not only have I launched a Kickstarter for my new novella Songbird: A Nightingale Story (more on that in a bit), but I had the delightful pleasure of attending this year’s A Splendid Day Out at the Platform in Morecambe.

For those of you who don’t know, Steampunk is a fantastical fusion of high Victoriana and all manner of things futuristic. If you can imagine Sherlock Holmes hanging from a Zeppelin whilst blasting off a patented Tesla ray gun, then you are in the right sort of ball park. 

A Splendid Day Out has taken over Morecambe every year now for the past six years (if memory serves me correctly) and I have been lucky enough to attend the majority of the events. It is marvellous to see the little seaside town transformed into something quite spectacular. 

As well as the traders’ market with all sorts of goodies on sale, there was tea duelling, teapot racing, clog dancing, magical shenanigans and wonderfully eccentric music to name but a few of the array of attractions.

Then there was the authors’ tent, where Yours Truly had an absolute blast. I can safely say that I have never been to an event where I have been so inundated with enquiries (and indeed sales of) my books. My fellow authors were an absolute hoot and we all had a great time chatting to members of the public and basically causing general anarchy. I feel deeply sorry for the poor chap who had to try and control us during the panel on the end of the Sunday: it was like trying to herd LSD-infused felines!

If you haven’t been to the event, then I highly recommend it. The link to the ASDO website is here.

So, if having a blast over the weekend wasn’t enough to keep me entertained, last Monday I launched the Kickstarter for my next book Songbird: A Nightingale Story.

I have to say that I felt sick to the core when I clicked on launch for the crowdfunding for my vampire Nightingale’s origins novella. I was convinced that it would be a flop and I would just sit and watch tumbleweed drift through my campaign for the next thirty days.

Well, all those nerves were well and truly squashed when the campaign zoomed past its target in just six hours!!! Needless to say, I was totally gobsmacked and my thanks goes out to everyone who has contributed so far.

There are still approximately three weeks left on the campaign and there are still plenty of goodies left to be snapped up. Primarily there is the opportunity to preorder digital and paperback copies of the book which see Nightingale rise from the poverty of Victorian England to becoming the leader of the Children of Cain, the vampires from the world of my very own Sam Spallucci. 

Not only this, but there is also the opportunity to grab yourself some limited edition artwork by the amazing Liam Shaw. I have a very limited run of A4 prints of the cover art on offer alongside signed copies of Songbird, The Case of The Belligerent Bard  and The Casebook of Sam Spallucci.

Why not hop over to Kickstarter now and have a look for yourself? You can reach it here.

Until next time, keep looking for what lurks in the shadows.

A.S.Chambers.

www.aschambers.co.uk

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