A.S.Chambers - January Roundup

Greetings all and welcome to this monthly update!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and a very pleasant New Year. I spent most of December hibernating, wrapped up in numerous jumpers and blankets, somewhat resembling a human version of the Very Hungry Caterpillar, having consumed too many mince pies, a bucket-load of Christmas pud and a rather delicious Christmas cake.

Anyway, my bulbs are surprisingly already up in the garden so I guess that means I’d better get back at it, which means up at five a.m. sharp, armed with a strong pot of coffee and a lovely view of the birds feeding outside my study window. 

First up this year will be Out Of The Depths. This is my latest short story anthology and should see the light of day in late February, early March. It contains a number of stand-alones as well as a few tie-ins to the Spallucciverse which will support Sam’s eighth adventure, Lux Æterna (more on that in a bit). Look out for the Kickstarter announcements later this month. There will be some cracking rewards to entice readers old and new and all Seraph members of my Book Club will receive a signed copy as part of their membership as this is a new material book.

Second in line for publication is the second Macabre Collection. This will be a reprint omnibus of about twelve shorts from my fourth, fifth and sixth anthologies. 

Third will be the penultimate Bobby Normal book. Bobby Normal and the Fallen sees Bobby and Katy drawn even further into the world of intrigue and danger as they encounter not only the fallen angel Asherah but also a certain archangel now living as a hermit in the Divergent Lands. More on this later in the year…

Number four will be the second Sam Spallucci Omnibus. Like the first volume last year, it will be a large shiny hardback and will contain Dark Justice, Belligerent Bard, Troubled Souls and Bloodline. It will also be graced with a cover made from my own photography of Lancaster.

Number five will see something definitely for the fans! Child of Light is a novella centred around the mysterious lodger who lives with Sam Spallucci — the Twin called Alec. We will travel back a few months before the start of Casebook and journey through events in history as we unravel his relationship with the fallen seraph Lucifer. This novella will be published as a companion book to Sam Spallucci: Lux Æterna.

Talking of which…

Well, the big one of this year has to be Lux Æterna. Sam’s eighth adventure is currently on track for publication this Halloween. I am currently halfway through and absolutely loving it. There will be weird Wonderlands, zealous zombies, an argumentative archaeologist and a crying crucifix. I’m also contemplating developing a long-standing relationship with a certain little redhead, but we’ll have to wait and see on that one…

Phew! Well, it looks like I’ve got a lot to crack on with, so I’d better get to 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.

Spalluccipedia - Luneside University (part one)

 

Greetings one and all to this little dive into the characters and topics that make up the Spallucciverse.

This time around I want to have a little chat about Luneside University. This is the fictional university where both Sam and Spliff studied back in the almost halcyon days of their youth and where Spliff ends up as the chaplain. I took a similar academic path to Sam, leaving the flat East Midlands and travelling up the M6 to the hilly landscape of Lancaster and, like him, I studied Religious Studies up here back in the early nineties. Also, while I was studying at Lancaster University, which is situated in Bailrigg just south of the city, I started to write some of the original drafts of his stories. This meant it was quite natural that I would draw upon my place of study for inspiration. So, like Lancaster University, Luneside has a large square surrounded by residences and departments and the campus is dominated by a tall structure. 

However, there are certain differences. 

For starters, the tall structure at Lancaster University is Bowland Tower, a tall block of flats that surrounds a chimney to the boiler house. In Luneside University, the tall structure is a massive chimney which is a relic of the old Williamson works upon which the campus has been built, down on the Quayside.

Next, the chapel is completely different, taking its inspiration from Saint Martin’s College, as was (now the University of Cumbria), situated in the Bowerham district of town.

And, most radically, the location of the university is completely different. As mentioned above, Lancaster University has a huge sprawling campus to the south of the city. Luneside, as its name implies, is located on the bank of the River Lune on the site of the old Williamson linoleum works. 

The reason that I created a fictional university rather than use the actual one was to give me control of the location. Also, I found that it was going to be easier to pace the stories if I located the campus in the city, rather than a fifteen-minute drive away.

 

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 - December Roundup

 December Book Club Update

Greetings all on an exceptionally chilly December morning.

The last couple of weeks have been fantastic with two book signing events taking place locally. On the 29th of November, I was made incredibly welcome at the Neuro Drop-In Centre in Torrisholme where I gave a chat about my books and my writing whilst having a long-term illness. Neuro Drop-In is an amazing local charity and I always enjoy going along to support them. You can find out more about the wonderful work they do here. 

Then, just yesterday, I was made incredibly welcome at my favourite bookshop, The Old Pier Bookshop in Morecambe. It was wonderful to see some familiar faces and to welcome new people to the shadowy world of Sam Spallucci. If you haven’t ever visited Tony and his outstanding temple to literature, then you can get a taste in The Case of the Bothersome Books which is the second case in Sam Spallucci: Fury of the Fallen where both book and proprietor make a cameo. Alternatively, you can visit his Facebook Page.

Now, a rather exciting bit of publication news. My next anthology, Out Of The Depths will be out in late February and, next week, I will be revealing the amazing cover art that has been developed by Liam Shaw. My Patreon Book Club members will get the first peek, then the general public. I am really pleased with this collection as there are even more stories tying into Sam’s ever-expanding universe.

On to works in development… 

I’ve finished the first draft of the first two cases in Sam Spallucci: Lux Æterna. So far, Sam has been pitted against zealous zombies and has been thrown into an Alice In Wonderland phantasmagoria. I am currently working on The Case of the Argumentative Archaeologist where he will meet his TV hero, the renowned Professor Robert Richmond. 

I am also cracking on with Child Of Fire. If you’ve been following my Sleepy Author updates on TikTok and Instagram, you will know that I have decided to write this one in the first person present, a style I’ve only used before in short stories. This way we get to see Amanda’s story unfold at the same time as she does. I am really enjoying running with this different type of style. It gives the story a great feeling of realism.  

And, just yesterday, I started work on a standalone Sam Spallucci and Spliff short which I hope to release around the same time as Out Of The Depths. At the moment it is tentatively titled The Case of the Pillaging Pirates and will be a crossover into the literary world of a favourite author of mine, but more on that as it develops…

Now, don’t forget that I have a growing YouTube channel. I’ve always loved making videos, ever since I was a kid and this is a great way for me to share facts about my characters and plots as well as post Easter Egg videos and reading of extracts. Why not hop over and give it a quick subscribe?

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: The Maths of Writing

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

It’s quite a short one this time as, quite frankly, the video says it all.

When we write we can start to become convinced that we’re not writing enough. We can become paranoid that, writing at our current speed, we will never finish a particular project. However, if we just take a moment, breathe and look at how much we’ve written, then start to multiply it by hours, days and weeks, we can start to realise that we are creating something rather impressive.

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: Relic

     Hello and welcome to this entry about a short story I wrote some years ago.

Relic made its publication debut back in 2015’s All Things Dark and Dangerous. It tells the story of a set of stones which rise to international fame after they are unearthed in an archaeological dig.

I seem to recall this was one that I more or less wrote in an afternoon. Archaeology fascinates me and I often wonder just how many things that we take as fact are in actuality completely wrong. This little story is based on some cobbles behind my house where I did indeed spill some white gloss paint after touching up some rusty paintwork on my car. As I stood there looking at the small, spindly trails of white, the thought did indeed pass through my head as to what an archaeologist might make of them, say in a thousand years or so. It didn’t take my overactive imagination long to turn this into a cataclysmic event.

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: Myth

Greetings one and all to this little dive into the characters and topics that make up the Spallucciverse.

This time around I want to have a little chat about the use of Myth in Sam’s world. I am a huge fan of ancient myths. As a western culture, we are obviously used to the Greco-Roman ones concerning Zeus, Apollo and all the Olympian pantheon. We learn at a very early age through history at school about how the Romans believed that the gods above constantly interfered in the affairs of humanity below.

However, this is such a small part of the finely crafted quilt of ancient stories that were woven together in an attempt to understand the world around us. Over the last couple of years, I’ve been immersing myself in ancient Canaanite myths surrounding El, Asherah and Ba’al. It is fascinating to watch how they have gone on to leave their mark in the ancient Hebrew myths and Biblical texts.  

This is something which we can easily overlook with myth. We often see a particular myth as belonging to a particular group of people, when it has actually developed over hundreds, if not thousands, of years to the point when it is finally recorded. Even then, as is seen in Roman mythology, that is never the end for a myth. New people can come along and develop it even further.

To a certain extent, this is something that I’m playing with in the Spallucciverse. I take established tropes and myths, study them and see where I can take them next.

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 - November Roundup

       Good morning on what is a rather cold and wet start to November. I hope you all had a great October and enjoyed some spooky merriment for Halloween.

October was a cracking month for me. Not only was I able to get copies of Fury of the Fallen out to my readers, but I was able to brave the storms and venture up north for Carlisle Comic Con. Once I had stopped shaking with fear from a crazy ride up the M6, I had a cracking time, meeting friends old and new. My next convention is over in Sunderland this Sunday. More details over at www.aschambers.co.uk.

After Sunderland, I have one more appearance this year before I hibernate. I will be signing at the Old Pier Book Shop in Morecambe on the 3rd of December. Again, the details are over on my website. It would be lovely to see some friendly faces as usual. I’m really excited about this one as Tony graciously allowed me to use his shop in the second story in Fury, The Case of the Bothersome Books.

So, now Fury is out in the wilds, the next book you can expect to see is my next anthology of short stories: Out Of The Depths. Containing eight shorts, four of which cross over with Fury of the Fallen, Fallen Angel and next year’s Lux Æterna, I am expecting it to be released in late February or early March 2023 with Bobby Normal and the Fallen following in the summer. I am also working on a Sam short story which is currently tentatively entitled The Case of the Pillaging Pirates. More on that as it unfolds.

The big piece of work that I am working on at the moment, though, has to be Sam Spallucci: Lux Æterna. I am about a third of the way through the first draft and it should be out for Halloween next year along with its accompanying novellas: Child of Light and Child of Fire. More on those in the new year.

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.