And now for a reprint

I'm delighted to share with you that my short story, The Last Library, which appeared in New Myths Magazine back in 2020, will be reprinted in the forthcoming anthology from New Myths, Janus Gates, due sometime in 2026.

Short Story in Leading Edge Magazine

My latest short story, They Meet by Moonlight, has been published in the most recent issue of Leading Edge Magazine.

An alien detective sets out to solve a human murder but learns a few things he hadn't bargained for along the way.

You can find a copy here: Leading Edge Issue 85

Sale of Two Drabbles

In case you are wondering, a drabble is a short story of exactly 100 words. And I'm delighted to share with you that two of my drabbles, 'Afterwards' and 'Oak and Ash' will be appearing at Wyldeblood Press in the not too distant future. I will let you know when they go live.

Flashes of Darkness is Free!!

For the next three days - and three days only - you can grab yourself a copy of Flashes of Darkness - Fifteen deliciously dark sinister flashes from five exciting authors!

And you don't have to pay a penny - or cent depending on where you are!

So don't miss out - grab your copy now!

Amazon UK

Amazon US

99 Tiny Terrors will be with your soon!

There’s nothing better than a short, sharp slice of flash fiction to get the mind working. 99 Tiny Terrors is an anthology that the reader can dip into for something deliciously dangerous in a short amount of time or spend an afternoon trolling through blood soaked stories from all over the world including Canada, England, Germany, Greece, Ireland, India, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, the United States, and Wales.

Featuring stories from the devious minds of Seanan McGuire, Ruthanna Emrys, Meg Elison, Wendy N. Wagner, Scott Edelman, Cat Rambo, Tim Waggoner, and more.

 

“99 TINY TERRORS is an absolutely wild ride through some truly weird territory. Fast, freaky, furious, and fun! Highly recommended!” --Jonathan Maberry, NY Times bestselling author of INK and V-WARS

Check out the kickstarter campaign - lots of goodies up for grabs!

Flashes of Darkness is out!

Flashes of Darkness has been unleashed on the world.

Fifteen sinister stories.

Five exciting authors.

Available from:

Amazon UK

Amazon US

Pre-order Flashes of Darkness.

Our little flash fiction collection is now available for pre-order of Amazon, and I have to say that the process was much easier than I expected. 

I managed to find out a lot of information online before I started so I had already read up about the pricing options and about how to choose your categories and keywords, as well as being aware what I needed for the Tax questionnaire as a non-American.

There was also plenty of information as I went through the process, which was clearly laid out and quite straightforward. All in all the whole thing took about half an hour.

The bulk of the work, for which we have several of our fellow forum members to thank, was all done beforehand. The collection was thoroughly edited and had been converted into epub format ready for upload. We also have some lovely cover art, again, already set up in the correct file format. It really has been a collaborative effort and huge thanks to everyone involved over at the SFFWorld Forums. You guys are amazing!

Flashes of Darkness will go live on 2nd September 2021, but you can pre-order your copy now. There are some great stories!

Flashes of Darkness UK

Flashes of Darkness US

'The Forgotten City' published at Neo-Opsis

 My short story, The Forgotten City, has just been published in Issue 32 of Neo-Opsis Magazine. You can purchase a copy here: Neo-Opsis Issue 32.

A Foray into Kindle Publishing

 I’ve been a bit quiet recently because we’ve been busy working on Flashes of Darkness 1 – the collection of Flash fiction that a group of friends who met on the SFFWorld forums have been pulling together, mainly selected from the forum’s monthly flash fiction challenges.

We’ve had some excellent help. One forum member kindly agreed to act as our editor and did the really thorough and professional job. Another designed the cover for us and then generated the epub file. So it really has turned into a collaborative effort.

I’ve now taken on the role of actually publishing it to Amazon. I’ve never done this before but I’ve been searching the internet and I think I now have a pretty good idea of what I need to do.

Another one of our group is putting together a marketing plan. So hopefully I will soon have a publication date to share with you all, and I’ll let you know how the uploading to amazon part goes. 

This is going to be fun!

Flashes of Darkness 1 – Coming Soon

For a while now I’ve been hanging out on the SFF fan site SFFworld.com, where I’ve been rubbing shoulders with fellow SFF fans and writers.

It’s a nice site and a friendly bunch of people. It posts regular reviews through which I’ve found some excellent new books to read, as well as hosting general discussion about the genre.

One of the good things about this site is that there is a lively community of writers who run a number of monthly writing challenges, for flash, micro and short story length pieces. We take it in turns to set the prompts and then vote for our favourites as well as giving feedback to those who want it. It’s a good way to flex those writing muscles.

A few months back one of our number came up with the idea of putting together an anthology of some of our flash pieces. Five of us have come together and the anthology is now in its final stages of preparation.

Flashes of Darkness 1 will contain 15 original pieces of dark flash fiction and will be free. I’ll let you know when it’s available.

Flash Fiction Sale

My flash fiction piece of gothic horror, Burgundy, inspired by many summers spent exploring wine country in France, has just been accepted to appear in the forthcoming anthology, 99 tiny Terrors from Pulse Publishing.

Flash Fiction at Newmyths.com

My latest short story – a flash fiction piece called “The Last Library” is now live in Issue 52 of Newmyths.com. I hope you enjoy it.

“The Relic” is Published.

 The Relic, my latest short story, is now in print.

My contributor’s copy of BFS Horizons #11 landed on my doormat on Friday. A lovely volume with beautiful cover art, packed full of poetry and prose. I’ve dipped into it a couple of times already and thoroughly enjoyed what I’ve read and I’m looking forward to working my way through the rest of it in the weeks to come.

Sale to Neo-opsis

The Canadian SF magazine Neo-opsis has been on my submission radar ever since I started writing and submitting SF short stories and every so often, when I have something I think they may like, I send it their way.

Well I’m delighted to say that my latest offering, ‘The Forgotten City’, has been accepted for publication in a future issue. The contract is signed and sent back and I look forward to sharing this story with you all.

Always check your SPAM!!

I’m normally quite good at this – keeping an eye on my junk or spam folders for any emails that might inadvertently be flagged up and side-lined. But this time one slipped through.

I’ve had a few computer issues lately. Well, when I say issues it’s really called ‘husband upgrading and tinkering’ and doing annoying things such as deleting all my contacts! And somewhere in amongst all this a short story acceptance was marked as junk and then deleted. Or maybe it never got through at all. Whatever the reason I never saw it.

The first I knew was when I checked my junk folder this week there was a message from a few days previously from a magazine editor asking had I received their email of acceptance back in December and was the story still available.

Well clearly I hadn’t and I promptly replied apologising and said that yes, the story was still available and I was happy for them to proceed.

I’ve not heard any more so who knows? But for now I’m marking this as a sale and hopefully I’ll be able to share The Relic with you all in the not too distant future.

Except it’s set during a virus outbreak so maybe they’ve changed their minds!

Short Story Sale to NewMyths.com

My latest short story sale is a flash piece called ‘The Last Library’ which has found a home at NewMyths.com. It is due to be published later this year. I’ll let you know when it comes online.

New Short Story Published

My latest short story sale – a Cli-Fi piece called Permafrost, has just gone live over at Issues in Earth Science.

Issues In Earth Science are a teaching resource and they’ve put together a really informative supporting work package for the classroom, so if you want a bit of background science click on the Teaching Resources link at the top of the story.

Enjoy.

The cold bit into me. I forced myself on, step by painful step through the deepening drifts. Numb toes. Numb fingers. Beside me Mitzi stumbled and dropped to her knees and the sledge we were dragging slid into the back of my legs. I reached out with clumsy fur wrapped hands and tried to pull her to her feet.

Short Story Published today by Seren Books

My short story, 'A Legend of Flight' is short story of the month over at Seren Books. It's a free read, so head over there and enjoy!

"The night you didn’t answer.

I tried to call but each time your phone rang for a while, then went to voicemail. I didn’t leave a message. I’d already texted you twice."

Incidentally this is the story I won the 2016 Yeovil Prize with.

A Change of Direction

So far all my published work has been under the name Kate Kelly. These are my SF and weird fiction short stories, my short story collection, and of course my YA thriller Red Rock, the peak of my writing career so far.

But I’ve been reviewing my current work and I can’t help feeling that, without really thinking, I’ve taken a change of direction.

I’ve looked at the various novels written over the years and the ideas I’ve been running with recently and there are four projects which I feel have legs.

Novel 1. A thriller with a speculative twist – currently seeking representation.

Novel 2. This is the YA SF thriller I wrote after Red Rock which my publisher declined. But looking at it now I think it deserves more. So my plan is to age it up, restructure the plot and give it a major rewrite.

Novel 3. Another SF thriller that I was trying to make work as a YA novel. Only it doesn’t want to be. Rewrite and complete.

Novel 4. A thriller with a speculative twist about 20% written.

Looking at these I think I can see my ‘brand’ emerging - speculative thrillers. These are the novels I’m going to be running with. And I plan to change my by-line – ever so slightly, to reflect this.

I’ll keep you updated.

Enter the Aftermath

Enter the Aftermath, a collection of post-apocalyptic fiction from TANSTAAFL Press has just been released. This is the second in the ‘Enter the…’ series of anthologies and contains my Cli-Fi short story “A Time of Dying”.

The first in the series, Enter the Apocalypse, was published last year and explores a range of possible apocalypses that might befall mankind. In Enter the Aftermath the stories explore the height of these apocalypses and in the third, to be released later this year, Enter the Rebirth will look at how the world might find a new equilibrium.

Enter the Aftermath is available in both print and kindle formats from Amazon US and Amazon UK. So if you like your fiction apocalyptic why not head over and buy yourself a copy. And in the meantime here is a little extract to whet your appetite….

“From here I had a better view. It was definitely a settlement up ahead. A cluster of houses that must once have been a village or small town. Only the walls remained, the roofs caved in, either by the weight of the sand as the shifting dunes had smothered them, or by the bombs that came before. Either way, the dune field, running before the wind, was clearing away, leaving the ruins exposed. For a while at least, until the next set of dunes reached this spot. 

Places like this were always good for scavenging. The last place we’d found ammunition and dried rations, out of date but still usable. This place looked promising. 

But someone had got here first.” 

Buy Enter the Aftermath at:

Amazon US
Amazon UK