ADONAIS and other stories

(Charnel House, 2022)

Purchase links: https://charnelhouse.com/

These signed very special editions, designed and handmade by Joe Stefko, collect my short fiction together, including the title story, written especially for the collection. There are 250 numbered copies, handbound in iridescent Japanese silk, and 26 lettered copies bound in marbled paste paper and Japanese silk stamped in 22kt gold.

I am sincerely honoured that these books exist, and cannot over-emphasise how beautiful they are.

ONLINE SHORT FICTION

“Until We Find Better Magic” (Intergalactic Medicine Show Issue 41, September 2014)
A vain, selfish, not-entirely-good magician travels to the Underworld to rescue a dancer that he possibly loves.

This was the first story I seriously tried to publish, and it was accepted with kindness, enthusiasm, and generosity by Scott M. Roberts at IGMS. It was the cover story for that month, with this gorgeous full-colour illustration by James Owen that I am still not over looking at (seriously, look at it.) It then placed third-equal in the IGMS Reader’s Poll for that year, I’m sure at least partly because the illustration was so heart-stoppingly gorgeous. I love all my stories, but this one is special.

“Tommy” (Daily Science Fiction, 2014)
The police had come again in the night.

“Impossible Things Before Breakfast” (as Hannah Parry) (The Temporal Logbook, Pencil Tip Publishing 2015) 
I am so proud to be a part of this Doctor Who charity anthology. All proceeds go to the Positive Living Society of British Columbia, which is dedicated to empowering persons living with HIV/AIDS through mutual support and collective action. In my story, the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa encounter Lewis Carroll one rainy night at Oxford, as something malevolent approaches from the other side of a looking-glass. There is also a story in here by my extraordinarily talented sister, which is incredibly good and has the Seventh Doctor and creepy plague masks in it.

“Electricity Bill for a Darkling Plain” (Intergalactic Medicine Show Issue 45, 2015)
Four immortals share a flat. This made the Tangent Recommended Reading List for 2015. It was also possibly the most fun I’ve ever had writing anything. (CW: suicide.)

“Material Without Being Real” (Intergalactic Medicine Show Issue 52, 2016)
It’s the dawn of the 1920s, the Great War is over, and the dead return on a regular basis. Twelve year old Edith becomes suspicious of what has come back in her brother’s place.

“The Citizen” (as Hannah Parry) (Grave Warnings, Pencil Tip Publishing 2017)
At the height of the Reign of Terror, a man finds himself visiting the same woman in his sleep every night. This was part of a short horror anthology.