“It’s been a long time since I rock and rolled”

Or rather, it’s been a long time since I wrote a blog post. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been writing. Oh no. Writing is an itch I have to scratch. I’m always writing. Unfortunately, it’s the publishing side of things I struggle with! And the less said about marketing the better.

For example, since my last post I actually released a novella. Now, you’d think I’d make use of this website in order to advertise such a thing, but I only realised this morning I didn’t even have a post. That has since been fixed up and you can now find Egg right there at the top of the homepage. I’m pretty proud of that silly little story. It’s a bit of a love letter to the Alien franchise, to rock music, and to Yorkshire… three of my favourite things.

Now that’s done, I figured a little update might be in order. A stocktake if you will, to let you know where I am and what I’m working on. Or, more realistically, to keep tabs on myself.

The following is a list of books I’ve written and haven’t found a home for…

Never Have I Ever – a YA/NA urban fantasy about a group of friends meeting in their first year of university… a decade after mysterious dark-robed ‘watchers’ appeared throughout the world.

The Last Witch in Brisbane – an urban fantasy set in Brisbane about a young man who discovers he is a witch descended from a long line of European witches originally sent to Australia in a secret ship that followed behind the first fleet.

The Children of the Ninth – MG/YA about the famed Ninth Roman Legion who disappeared from the records sometime after the turn of the millennium. In this story, all the adults of the legion vanish in the north of Britain, leaving their children behind to fight and survive whatever curse hunts them.

William John Park and the NotHereHere – a MG story about a young boy whose family is cursed by a witch. She steals his father and freezes his mother. William has to venture into the magic and fantastical world of his own overgrown back garden to make everything right.

Cleopatra Elizabeth Jones and the NotHereHere – a sequel to the above. This one follows a book-obsessed young girl in Melbourne whose parents barely even know she exists. Her life takes a turn when a witch moves into the neighbourhood.

The Dragoman – historical fantasy set in Egypt during the 1800s. It follows a young man cursed by the jinn as he enters the employ of upper-class English explorers. Together, they search for treasure in the tombs of the ancients but unlock demons instead. This is based on my own ancestor.

Shadows in the Sand – A unit of the famed LRDG find themselves up against an unnatural enemy in the North African desert during WW2. This one is loosely based on my grandfather’s experiences in the war and is perhaps the most important thing I have written (personally speaking).

I Draw the Line at Vampires – Arthur Crazy #4. This one had a publication deal that fell apart. It is the fourth in the Arthur Crazy series of books and sees Arthur (and Steve) taking a business trip to the famously vampiric Whitby. Unlike the other Arthur books, this one is written in the first person (from Arthur’s point of view) as an homage to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. It is by far the longest in the Arthur Crazy series and actually ties the Arthur story into The Dragoman and Shadows in the Sand.

Katheryn Howard: The Motorbike Riding Ghost Queen of Yorkshire – a graphic novel script for the story of the ghost of Katheryn Howard. This ties her appearances in the Arthur Crazy series together and explains how she went from a ghost trapped in King’s Manor in York to a motorbike riding badass patrolling the North Yorkshire Moors.

Girt By Sea and a Zombie-Proof Fence – comedy horror. The whole world has been overrun by a zombie apocalypse… except for Australia. It follows a school teacher who is bitten by a priest and quarantined on Christmas Island. There, they learn the virus has mutated into animals and they must make their way back to the mainland in order to help prevent an outbreak.

and finally…

Won’t Somebody Please Think of the Orcs! – a satirical fantasy following the adventures of two orc friends as the world around them descends into chaos following the defeat of the latest Dark Lord.

But I won’t say too much about this one… because I am going to publish it myself later this year. Watch this space!

That’s a lot, isn’t it! I mean, that’s really a lot of books. I just did some quick calculations – that’s nearly 800,000 words! And it doesn’t even include all the stories I started and didn’t finish. These are all complete novels. I reckon if you add the drafts, and the ideas, and the scrapped beginnings, you’re looking at well over a million unread words.

I don’t know whether I’m proud, mortified, or just plain exhausted!

The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men

Gang aft agley,

An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,

For promis’d joy!
To a Mouse by Robert Burns

Or, for those who don’t speak “Burns” – sometimes good plans go tits up.

And so it is with my debut book series.

A few days ago, I posted on social media that the 4th Arthur Crazy book has been cancelled and I jokingly blamed Trump. The truth is that’s not entirely a lie, so I figured I’d take some time to explain.

In July 2020, I signed a deal with Parliament House Press for the Arthur Crazy series. The Book and the Blade was the debut, picked up by the wonderful Mike Feeney and it all sort of went from there. Before I knew it, I had a trilogy, and then a fourth, and the deal was for all of them. I was working with wonderful people, living the dream, and all was right with the world. The best laid schemes and all that…

About a week ago, I sent an email to the publisher asking for details about the upcoming fourth book… and was told there would not be an upcoming fourth book.

Gutted.

Now, to be clear, the email was lovely and polite and very honest… essentially, there are simply not enough resources to be putting out another book. It’s a general ‘state of the world’ scenario for a small, independent press based in the USA. So, I blame Trump, because he’s a dick.

Fun fact though, I went looking for the Publishers Marketplace statement for when the deal was struck and found that it only listed a three-book deal. I’d entirely forgotten about that mistake. The image below was sent to me years ago by the publisher with an explanation that it would be fixed up (because I did indeed sign a four-book deal) but I guess maybe it was written in the stars from the start?

So, what happens next?

The truth is, I have no idea. I am genuinely gutted and honestly struggling to find the motivation. The fourth Arthur book is ready – it has been for some time – and is very different from the first three in that it is written from Arthur’s point of view. I think it’s the best one yet (I would, though, wouldn’t I) Hell, it’s even got a little bit of nookie! But I just don’t know what to do with it. I could try and see if another publisher would be interested but that would cause all sorts of problems with the rights – because PHP have already published the others. I could have the rights of those three reverted back to me, but then I would have to republish them independently. Or I could self-publish the fourth, which I’ve done before, but it’s a shit-ton of work, and I’m bound to balls it up. Plus, I’m already working on something big (and orc-like) for later in the year. Oh, and I’m also supposed to be releasing my novella Egg in a few weeks, but I’ve hit a wall. Hell, even this website is due for renewal.

As you may have guessed, I’ve spiralled into a little bit of ‘doing sod-all’ self-pity.

So, as I often do when I find myself floundering like this – after drinking way too much and generally being a big old cranky-pants – I turn to Sir Terry Pratchett for inspiration.

“If you trust in yourself. . . and believe in your dreams. . . and follow your star. . . you’ll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren’t so lazy.”
The Wee Free Men – Terry Pratchett

Sigh. He’s always right, isn’t he. Always. The git.

I guess I’ve got some work to do (although I still don’t know what).

Christmassy Book Sale!

For the last few years, I have released a novella at Christmas and for the next few days, they’re all FREE!

Over on Amazon, you can get access to the entire Reindeer Games trilogy and it won’t cost you a penny.

“But, Alex,” I hear you say, “I don’t have a kindle!”

No problem… the kindle app is free to download on any device and they have a handy web viewer if you want to read on a computer.

The only slight issue is the strange eccentricity of Amazon being unable to sell kindle books on the Amazon app itself… you have to go onto the actual Amazon website.

That’s a lot of Amazon.

And look, I know some people aren’t big fans (or even actively hate that platform) but for little indie plebs like me, there really aren’t many options.

So, the books!

It all started with…

Reindeer Games

A silly story about Santa’s reindeer being picked off one by one on the night before the night before Christmas.

It was only ever supposed to be that one book, and I did it for a laugh. But then along came the sequel, and I really eased into the parody angle.

Reindeer Games 2: Rein Harder. With a Vengeance.

Mrs. Claus is forced to rescue her husband who has been kidnapped by terrorists and held captive during the Christmas party at Knickerbocker Towers. High-brow stuff, and I bloody loved making the back cover…

And that was it. No more silly, violent, bad-taste, sweary Christmas books. But then people kept asking me, “So, what’s the next one about?” and the answer was obvious because, like an idiot, I’d left book 2 with a cliff-hanger ending… there’s a bomb on the sleigh! Which led to…

Sleigh: Reindeer Games 3

I had no choice, really. I had to write it!

So, there it is. Three silly and violent Christmas novellas, and this year, they’re all on sale. In fact, they’re all free.

click on the image and it’ll take you to the Amazon website in your country.

So, that’s it, right? Not quite. The second novel of my Arthur Crazy series is set at Christmas as well, and the lovely folks at Parliament House Press have joined in the Christmas sale and popped the ebook online for a dollar.

That’s four Christmas stories for a dollar if you think about it! Surely, that’s enough?

Nope!

Introducing the latest… The Frost Identity!

I promise I’ll stop eventually. But it is not this day!

Happy Reading and Merry Christmas, ya Filthy Animals!

The Grey Lady of York

There are that many “grey ladies” in York it is sometimes hard knowing where to begin. The Holy Trinity Church on Micklegate has one, so does The Theatre Royal, The Treasurer’s House, King’s Manor, Lady Peckett’s Yard… and I used to make up stories for American tourists when I worked at The Judge’s Lodgings regarding apparitions in The Tower Room – the more lovelorn and tragic, the better the tips!

It seems there is something as enticing about the spectre of monochromatic women as there is about the lost boys from my previous post. They really capture our imagination. Perhaps it is the tragic events in their lives that brings these ladies back, or perhaps it is the tragedy thrust upon them that makes right-minded (and somewhat romantic) folks like myself hope for their story to continue?

I find ghost stories are usually all stories of hope – a soul lingers due to unfinished business, to make amends, as punishment that will one day end.

Nearly all Grey Ladies share tragedy in common. Murdered by a jealous spouse, condemned for love, broken-hearted, betrayed, beaten. Very few of the stories of the Grey Ladies are cheerful (what ghost stories are?) but I particularly liked the one associated with the church on Micklegate. It was one of the first ghost stories I read about in York and I knew when it came to writing The Book and the Blade that I had to include it.

The white lady appeared. Tall, beautiful, and stern. She walked across the front of the church with a purposeful gait and only paused when she reached the end of the building. There she turned and beckoned for her daughter and the nurse that accompanied her; this was their nightly routine—the pattern they were forced to replay every evening.
The Book and the Blade.

Ah look, I know I changed her colour a little but there were so many Grey Ladies I had to mix it up a bit. In fact, by the time I was about 50k words in and drowning in research notes on the many many York ghosts, I had the inkling of an idea that would come to be one of my favourite parts of the novel…

The Council of the Grey Ladies

The Council of the Grey Ladies emerged out of a perceived necessity to “bring the dead together” and gave rise to lots of half-hearted jokes along the lines of “community spirits.” But, as ghostly councils go, it is a relatively new organisation. In fact, in living terms, the group has only been gathering for the better part of ten years. It took one Irene Napier to gather the disparate ghosts and bring them together as a collective.
The Book and the Blade

Because if you have a city with that many Grey Ladies wandering around, it makes sense they might bump into each other! It just took the right sort of ghost to get them organised. Enter… Irene Napier.

Busy was a word entirely insufficient when used to describe Irene Napier, and now that she didn’t have the need for sleep, she was a force of nature in her own right. The fact her husband had died two days after she, and then entirely failed to join her on this plane of existence, is a testament to that. He couldn’t live without her, but the thought of spending eternity standing in a corner figuratively holding the coats was enough to make him jump through the door at the earliest opportunity.
The Book and the Blade

A friend of mine – the talented Mark Boardman – who read the very early drafts of The Book and the Blade said he wanted to know more about Irene Napier. So do I when I look back on it now. Who knows, in the future, there might be some “Arthur Crazy” spin-offs.

Actually, I have written a Queen Katheryn Howard graphic novel tie-in but that’s getting way ahead of myself!

Anyway, the Grey Ladies. Bloody wonderful they are! Just don’t try and cheat at bingo. You’ll never hear the end of it.

Thanks for reading.

If The Book and the Blade seems like something you might like to read, please check this link for your best buying options (or ask your friendly neighbourhoos librarian). And if you have read it, please consider leaving a rating or review where ratings and reviews are left… they make such a huge difference.

Cheers folks!

Alex

The One Where I was a Guest Author at my Local Library… 10,000 Miles Away!

A few weeks ago, I had the honour of being a guest author at an event hosted by Redcar and Cleveland Libraries. I grew up in Redcar and set my comedy/horror novella, Rock Zombie, there. It is my hometown, it is where I went to school, and where most of my family still live. I love the place. I was contacted by the lovely Debbie, who found my book and asked if I would be interested in giving a little talk at an event for local authors. I was thrilled. But then the reality of logistics kind of got in the way… ten thousand miles’ worth of ‘logistics’ that is.

I live in Australia now but the idea of giving a talk in my local library was too good to pass up. Thankfully, Debbie is a legend and quickly got to work organising a Zoom/Skype/Teams/Whatever-it’s-called alternative to an in-person show… we even had a little practice the night before… and then it was time for the big day.

I can’t tell you how much this meant to me.

Actually, that’s bollocks. I should at least try, I am a writer after all!

It meant a lot.

I was one of those kids who just didn’t really know where I fit in. The 90s was a bizarre time to be a teenager and I was, in my own words, a bit of a gobshite. I danced that precarious teenage dance of trying to fit in everywhere, and with everyone, and never quite getting any of it right. I flitted about all over town, between all the different groups and substrata of society, but always at the centre of this maelstrom of angst, hormones, Nirvana, and Spice Girls, there was Redcar Library.

The funny thing is, Redcar Library as I remember it sadly no longer exists, and the ‘local author’ event actually took place in Loftus, a few miles away… which also happens to be where my dad lives. I’ll be honest, I was a bit gutted about this, as I think some small part of me had always dreamed about returning to that original library as an author, but that’s a bit hard to do after it’s been knocked down!

I was also getting cold feet before the event because I wondered how many people would actually turn up. Due to the time difference, my slot was midday (9pm for me) and, let’s be honest, I am absolutely NOT suitable for kids! Plus, most of my friends and family were on holiday so I genuinely thought there was a good chance it would just be me, Debbie, and Dad.

When the camera turned on… it was indeed me, Debbie, and Dad, but also my Uncle Mike (who I dedicated the third Arthur Crazy novel to (The Saint and the Shadowman), and another lady whose name I (disgracefully) forget. A few minutes later we were joined by a few more and we got going.

And then a giant red-headed Viking walked in.

My best friend from school… Phil… turned up and sat at the back… my phone buzzed…

I relaxed then (the wine helped!) and had a bloody great hour chatting away with lovely people while trying to keep some of those embarrassing teenage secrets still secret from my dad and uncle. Phil, of course, asked how much of the book was based on personal experiences because only the absolute best of mates have zero hesitation dropping you right in it!

At one point, I confessed to ‘killing real people’ in Rock Zombie by taking surnames and forenames of people who pissed me off and putting them together. There was a titter of laughter from the crowd, a few seconds of pause, and then Phil burst out laughing when he worked two of them out!

I read a short passage in which the main character, Rob, runs through Redcar (after a horde of zombies, of course) and retraces his childhood memories. Most of those childhood memories were my own, and it was bloody wonderful seeing my dad and uncle in the front row nodding along (and laughing in all the right places!)

Debbie MC’d wonderfully and there were lots of insightful questions from her and the people in the room. It’s funny, but if I was asked them again I would probably give different answers. Phil, who knows me well, asked, “Apart from Terry Pratchett and Stephen King which other authors have inspired you?” I talked about Roald Dahl and loving his genius ability to craft a story… usually by putting the main character in danger and getting rid of the safety-nets. It’s an answer I stand by but I could have talked about anyone from a lifetime of reading… Cornwell, Gemmell, Blyton, Morrison, Tolkien, Herriot, Bryson, Le Guin, Stoker, Shelley, Lee, Hinton. The list goes on.

My uncle asked me if I plan my stories out and I had to confess that I barely know what is going to happen before the words appear on the screen. There are some occasions when I know the end, or the beginning, or a scene, but it is rarely – if ever – something I can control. And that’s my absolute favourite thing about the whole writing experience. The simple fact is, I do not see twists coming… even when I write them. That’s magic!

One of the highlights of the chat though was the lovely lady (a photographer) who told a story of being on South Gare (near the sea) and suddenly finding herself in the midst of a horde of zombies! Apparently, there is a decent sized cosplay/roleplay group in the local area. I’ll have to get in touch!

This was a really wonderful and unique experience and I’m incredibly grateful to Debbie for organising it and for everyone who came to listen and have a chat.

Thanks for reading!

Support your local library!

The ghost of Sarah Brocklebank

The tale of Sarah Brocklebank is a relatively well-known “ghost story” in York. There are many people who will be familiar with her but perhaps even more who know aspects of the story… but not the name. She’s…

The ghost on Micklegate Bar

The girl who lost the keys

Just a kid… it was her birthday

An old woman… she died of a heart attack

Stuck on the walls

Roams the city

That’s the problem with these sorts of tales… they get told and retold so many times (and often in pubs after a few drinks) that they become so embellished and overstuffed as to be almost unrecognisable from the “truth”. That’s not a complaint by the way, I mean, it’s literally what I do as a writer (and a husband, if you ask my wife!) and Mark Twain did famously say,

“Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.”

Sarah Brocklebank is the first ghost Arthur speaks to in The Book and the Blade and when I started writing her character I only had a few “facts”

Sarah was the daughter of Thomas Brocklebank.
Thomas was the “keeper of the keys” of Micklegate Bar
The keys went missing (supposedly, Sarah’s fault)
Thomas lost his job
The family were kicked out of their home and impoverished
Thomas never forgave Sarah and disowned her

There were other bits and bobs and snippets of information floating around in various dusty books, old newspapers, and shiny (albeit darkly aesthetic) blogs; mainly regarding Sarah’s age and the places she haunts.

For my part, I placed Sarah in her mid-20s, I kept the loss of the keys, the family ruin, and Thomas blaming her, but I had Sarah’s ghost suspended in a moment of time before the family were made destitute. In The Book and the Blade, Sarah is frantically searching for the keys all over the city, starting at Micklegate Bar, heading into Holy Trinity church, then the heart of the city and St Helen’s Square. Each night, Sarah is fated to hunt for the keys and return them to her father “before it is too late.” The instant she finds them, however, the night restarts and Sarah appears back on the walls at Micklegate. This has been her existence for over 200 years and has driven her quite mad, which is understandable… especially when you learn that it was her little sister who lost the keys and Sarah took the blame (this little addition appeared in the first draft of the novel and was cut out at some point, but there are still hints. It is also entirely made up).

Like many ghost stories, Sarah’s is one of unfulfilled longing and unrealised destiny. She is the quintessential “hungry ghost” — never quite able to achieve satisfaction, and doomed to spend eternity trapped in a cycle of misery… until the night she meets Arthur Crazy.

Sarah shivered. She was tired. Deep down tired within the very core of her being. But she couldn’t give up. Those keys meant everything, and she had to find them. Tonight was her last chance. Without the keys, her father—her family—lost everything.

It is also worth mentioning that Micklegate Bar used to be a museum of sorts and apparently contained a statue of a young girl dressed in old clothing. In one hand she held a basket but the other was empty. So the staff there gave her a set of keys to complete the look. Perhaps Sarah’s whole story is a bit “chicken and egg” but I think it’s more fun to follow the advice of Mr Twain.

Cheers,

Alex

The Arthur Crazy Trilogy:

The Book and the Blade

The Sword and the Hounds

The Saint and the Shadowman

The Black Cats of York

The Book and the Blade started out as a stray thought in the back of a drunk kid’s head. Me. I was that drunk kid. I was 18 years old and trying to make my way back through the city of York to my student accommodation. I’d only been at uni for a few weeks but I was already in love with the city. Cobbled streets, historic buildings, a rumoured 365 pubs within the walls, and more ghost stories and folklore than you could shake a bunch of sage at. Imagine if you got so drunk you could talk to ghosts, I thought. But you wouldn’t know it, because you were so drunk. Well, that’s how it started… and about twenty years later I wrote it down.

One of my favourite things about The Book and the Blade – and the subsequent Arthur Crazy novels – has been researching the myths and legends of the city and figuring out ways to weave them into the narrative. In the third book, The Saint and the Shadowman (released last month), it is revealed that Arthur himself has a list.

The list was actually two A4 pieces of lined paper folded together with neat writing on both sides. Arthur had wanted a Moleskine diary, but they were so bloody expensive, so he just nicked some paper from the office and got to work. It was a list of names and places and other notes. Some had been crossed out. Some had been added to. Some were detailed and some were vague.
The Saint and the Shadowman

Well, the list exists and I thought it might be fun to share it with everyone. And because I’m a much bigger nerd than Arthur (and I also don’t have a Moleskine diary… anymore) I decided to create some ‘playing card’ style graphics to go along with it.

Those with an eagle-eye for certain aspects of nerdery might recognise a nod or two to the classic Hero Quest tabletop game.

The first card off the deck is, The Black Cats.

Black cats are often regarded as being harbingers of ill fortune and bad luck and are treated with suspicion and distrust. I am guilty of this throughout the three Arthur Crazy books (well, Arthur is) but I shouldn’t be. As Arthur’s mum rightly says in The Sword and the Hounds,

“You’re in Yorkshire now, Father. Nothing unlucky about a black cat crossing your path here. Quite the opposite in fact.”
The Sword and the Hounds

Black cats are a sign of good luck in York and the surrounding country, so much so that the city has pretty much adopted them as an unofficial mascot. Statues of cats have appeared on the walls and rooftops for over two hundred years. In fact, ‘The Cat Trail’ makes for a pretty good walking tour if you fancy something different from a packed Coney Street.

The story goes that the original statues were intended to act as ‘scarecrows’ to scare off the disease-infected rats and mice, but of course this is Yorkshire we’re talking about, so there’s also the added bonus of warding off evil spirits. Arthur’s first realisation that something might be amiss comes when he sees a black cat do a fairly passable David Bowie impression (a la Labyrinth) and defy physics to run up a vertical wall. Mind you, now that I think about it, we used to have a cat that could pretty much do the same thing (she used to perch on the top of the door) so maybe it was all in Arthur’s head?

The cats in The Book and the Blade aren’t just comedy asides and unsubtle foreshadowing, however, in fact two specific felines take centre-stage about midway through. These are the cats of one Lord Acaster… the ghost of a Royalist officer cursed to spend eternity tending to his wounded soldiers in what is now Ye Olde Starre Inne pub on Stonegate (but we’ll get to that) and Arthur wouldn’t have got very far without them.

SEMI-SPOILERS AHEAD:

There perhaps should have been a trigger warning in The Book and the Blade because not all of our furry little friends make it through the night. Although I can reliably inform you that one particular unfortunate feline does in fact have 6 lives left. I know this because a) I wrote it, and b) I have a little black cat with a number 6 tattooed on my upper arm thanks to my tattoo-gun-wielding friend Amy… because I’m from Yorkshire, remember. Where black cats are lucky.

Thanks for reading,

Cheers!

Future ‘Arthur Crazy’s List’ entries will include Sarah Brocklebank, The Grey Lady, Headless Percy, Mansion House, and the Fetch.

Arthur Crazy #3 – The Saint and the Shadowman – and some other stuff.

On July 22nd, 2025 – if Cyclone Alfred doesn’t wipe us out in the meantime – the third Arthur Crazy book will be hitting the shelves!

The Saint and the Shadowman picks up a few months after the events of book 2 and takes place back in the beautiful, haunted city of York. But it’s the height of summer… there can’t be that many ghosts kicking around when the sun sets at 1030pm, right? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

I’ve been spectacularly slack with my blog updates since Rock Zombie and Sleigh: Reindeer Games 3 came out but I think it’s about time I remedied that. You might notice – if you fancy a rummage in the undercarriage – that this little website has had a bit of a spring clean. I got rid of some faffery and streamlined the whole deal to try and make it seem a bit more… professional? I’m not sure if that is the right word for me. And I will endeavour to post more frequent updates and perhaps take this whole thing a bit more seriously. Well, it can’t be any worse than arguing with strangers on Threads can it!

The truth is, I sat down today – a bizarre and random day off work because we live in the path of Tropical Cyclone Alfred – and I decided to roll the dice one last time for a few of my books.

It was… exhausting.

I LOVE having a publisher, and the work Parliament House Press have done on the Arthur Crazy books is bloody brilliant, but it’s a hard slog trying to find another publisher to take on my other books. And with Rock Zombie – and the Reindeer novellas – I had a lot of fun doing it by myself. Oh sure, I sold feck all but it was fun!

Maybe I’m just tired? Or maybe I should just suck it up and crack on.

To self-publish or not to self-publish… that is the question.

Actually, what was this post about? Oh yeah… The Saint and the Shadowman… which IS being published!

Yep… “professional”

Arthur Crazy is hungover, but the dead don’t care about headaches.

The city of York is teetering on the edge of disaster. During a rare eclipse, the Shadowman casts a spell atop the Minster, trapping the city between the realm of the living and the dead. Ghosts flood the streets, and Arthur, with his best friend Steve, is the only one who can stop the chaos.

But Arthur’s not exactly in hero shape. Haunted by his past and drowning his sorrows in the nearest pint, he’s barely keeping it together. That is, until he meets Nae—a beautiful stranger who might just hold the key to helping him feel normal again.

Now, with the Shadowman’s spell tearing the veil between worlds, the city’s only hope rests on a washed-up hero, a saint from the Shambles, and a dog who won’t stop talking.
York needs a miracle. Arthur needs another drink.

Or maybe a Panadol and a panini.

PRE-ORDER HERE!

“There’s a bomb on the sleigh!”

Sleigh: Reindeer Games 3 is out now so get ready for the Christmas rush!

The third and final instalment in my series of utterly bizarre Christmas comedy/horror novellas is available on Amazon – books2read.com/reindeergames3 – and as usual, it’s cheaper than a pint! (or two pints if you’re going for the paperback).

I also stole an idea from my last novel, Rock Zombie, by having the chapters named after famous songs. This time it’s Christmas bangers!

Wonderfully, the exceptionally cool Dave Musson of ‘Dave Reads King’ on YouTube and Instagram put together this amazing review of all three Reindeer Games stories. Have a looksie and give the man some love…

Finally, here’s the blurb for Reindeer Games 3…

Christmas is safe! Mrs. Claus brought down an entire terrorist cell and rescued her husband from the towering inferno of Knickerbocker Plaza. Now it’s the time for Santa to do what he does best: deliver the goods! But as jolly old Saint Nick takes to the skies, the North Pole gets a chilling call:

There’s a bomb on the sleigh! Ho. Ho. Ho.

Enter Jack Frost, the nymph-loving Prince of Winter, with his own entries in both sections of the Naughty and Nice List.

Partnered with Sandra, a fiercely determined rookie reindeer with dreams of pulling the sleigh, Jack hurtles into a chaotic quest through time warps, wormholes, and a nightmare-inducing sack of horrors.

Can this unlikely duo save Santa and Mrs. Claus, defuse the bomb, and rescue Christmas? Or will the holiday season go up in flames—along with everyone on the sleigh?

Packed with bad-taste jokes, twisted thrills, and more profanity than a drunk elf on Boxing Day, Sleigh: Reindeer Games 3 is a no-holds-barred comedy horror thrill ride that will leave you laughing, cringing, and questioning the sanity of anyone who recommends it.

Tis the season to sleigh!

Thanks for reading everyone.

Merry Christmas!

Rock Zombie is published!

Finally, after months of me annoying people with semi-cryptic posts, snippets of random nonsense, and bizarre TikTok videos, my silly, gross, over-the-top, comedy horror – Rock Zombie – has shuffled off the mortal coil and invaded your shelves/Kindles.

But as with all things Finlayson, it hasn’t been a smooth journey. You may notice – to start with – that it is not yet Halloween. In fact, we are still a few days out from the publication date. The reason for this is a combination of impostor syndrome and impatience (and an idea from Dan). I got worried that if I published a horror novel ON Halloween it would be too late for anyone to give a stuff about. Silly, I know, but I likened it to releasing a Christmas novel on Christmas Day… who is going to read it?!

So, I brought the release date forward and instantly made a mess of things… the book vanished from all servers for a few days and I had a mini melt-down thinking I’d lost everything. But it really just boiled down to me being an idiot.

And then it was here!

Sort of!

For some reason known only to the Amazon overlords, my silly little, supposed-to-be-cheap, stuff-it-in-your-back-pocket-and-dog-ear-it, pulp-fiction of a novel was listed for $42 here in Australia! That’s insane! I set the price at $18.99! I wanted it to be less than $20 and Amazon bloody doubled it! I have reached out, I have tried to change it, but there is nothing I can do. From what I can gather from other frustrated indie authors on social media, it boils down to Amazon just not playing nice with other people. Simply put, they do it because they can.

The listing is fine in other countries and territories, but here in Australia, where I live and am likely to sell most books, it costs a fortune!

I’m gutted.

I have reached out to book shops – particularly Books@Stones in Brisbane – and hope they will stock it.

In the process of writing this I have just seen that The Nile have it on for the expected price! Happy days!

Update: For some reason, I cannot add The Nile link to my Books2Read profile. Ah, well. It’s never simple is it.

So, it’s out there. My silly little book that I’m super proud of… and I’m having a book launch on Saturday 9th November at the very cool Nosferatu Distillery, Bar and Cafe in Bowen Hills, Brisbane (and I won’t chicken out of this one).

I really hope you enjoy Rock Zombie for what it is… a silly, fun, gory little romp through ’90s nostalgia. If you do, please consider leaving a review on Goodreads or (shudder) Amazon. It really does make a difference to little plebs like me.

I am beyond grateful to everyone who reads my books. I love ya!

Cheers,