Books in the Black Shuck Signature Novellas series

"I've been told that this is the most elegant thing I've ever written. I can't think how such a dark brew of motifs came together to create that effect. But there's unassuaged longing and nostalgia in here, interwoven with the horror, as well as an unflagging drive towards the final consummation. I still feel more for the story's characters, whether love or loathing, than for any others I've created to date. Tragedy, urban legend, Gothic romance, warped fairy tale of New York: it's all there. And of course, most important of all is the seductive allure of writing and of books - and what that can lead some people to do. You may not like my answer to the mystery of the third book. But I hope you stay to find out." - Paul StJohn Mackintosh

"This book is my love letter to the horror genre. It is about what it means to be a horror fan; about how the genre can nurture an adolescent mind; how it can be a positive force in life.This book is set during a time when horror films were vilified in the press and in parliament like never before. It is about how being a fan of so-called 'video nasties' made you, in the eyes of the nation, a freak, a weirdo, or worse, someone who could actually be a danger to society. I wanted to address that. Show how a love - a pure love - for a piece of art can make a young man want to better himself; how being inspired by a certain film - in this case, The Evil Dead - can propel someone to want to break out of his class, out of his town and out of his limited prospects, and be set on a path of creating a life for himself. A positive, creative, and fulfilling life.This book is partly autobiographical, set in a time when Britain seemed to be a war with itself. It is a working class story about hope. All writers, filmmakers, musicians, painters - artists of any kind -were first inspired to create their own work by the guiding light of another's. The first spark that sets them on their way.This book is about that spark." - Andrew David Barker

"Black Star Black Sun is my tribute to Lovecraft, Ramsey Campbell, and the haunted fields of Somerset, where I seemed to spend much of my childhood. It's a story about going home and finding horror there when something beyond human understanding begins to invade our reality. It encompasses broken dreams, old memories, lost loved ones and a fundamentally hostile universe. It's the last song of a dying world before it falls to the Black Star." - Rich Hawkins