My debut novella Naming The Bones is now available for purchase over on Amazon. Hooray!
As I mentioned a few days ago, Dark Minds Press are holding an official launch for Naming The Bones (alongside Mark West’s new collection Things We Leave Behind) at Edge-Lit on Saturday 15th July, and you can also pick the book up there. Mark & I will be there, and we can even put a squiggle in your copy if that’s your thing.
To whet your appetite, here’s an excerpt:
Share this:She frowned, turning a circle in search of a sign. Loman Street. Offices on the right, a long, windowless building on the left. Somewhere along the way she’d taken a
wrong turn.
The mosquito whine of a building alarm sounded from somewhere nearby. She heard the low thrum of traffic ahead; a main road, still busy even at this hour. It would be easy enough to get her bearings there. She set off, suddenly aware of how dark it was down here, how few of the street lights seemed to be functional. The sour smell of overripe binbags drifted in on the wind. The shrill sound of the alarm seemed to carry a long way in the quiet. Her shadow waxed and waned as she passed between the lights, limbs stretched, form distorted. Just like…
No. She shoved her hands in her pockets. It wasn’t real. I proved that.
Behind her, close by, something skittered out into the road.
A fox, she told herself, though she felt her pace quicken, her muscles tightening. Lots of foxes around here. The sound came again, closer still, and it seemed that there were eyes on her, tracking her frantic motion; her fingers closed around the keys in her pocket, slipping them between her knuckles.
Occipital, parietal…
She was tipsy and alone, and a woman walking solo on a dark, isolated street was an
easy target. Her screams would be lost beneath the wail of the alarm. Nobody would
come for her. Nobody would know she was here.
Frontal, temporal, sphenoid…
She sucked in a deep breath and peered over her shoulder.
Something long and thin retreated into the shadows.
