As a publisher
of predominantly full-length fiction, Crooked Cat Publishing always wanted to
create a collection of short stories by their authors – so here it is, a
sampler of their work.
Twenty tantalising tasters from Crooked Cats from the UK, Spain, France and the US, all keen to showcase their writing skills with glimpses into their existing releases, or with something new altogether.
Stories of historical and contemporary fiction, crime and drama, fantasy, humour and ghostly shenanigans. Murder. Love. Adventure. Gossip. Growing up. Scheming. Friendship – Crooked Cats’ Tales has it all!
Twenty tantalising tasters from Crooked Cats from the UK, Spain, France and the US, all keen to showcase their writing skills with glimpses into their existing releases, or with something new altogether.
Stories of historical and contemporary fiction, crime and drama, fantasy, humour and ghostly shenanigans. Murder. Love. Adventure. Gossip. Growing up. Scheming. Friendship – Crooked Cats’ Tales has it all!
on AmazonUK here
on Amazon COM here
and on Smashwords here
***
Crooked Cat short stories and their authors:
Crooked Cat short stories and their authors:
Cocktail Hour by Pamela Kelt
A Rescue in Graphite by Maggie Secara
Once Again by KB Walker
The Pied Piper of Larus by Kathy Sharp
Her Visitors by Ailsa Abraham
White Rose by Carol Hedges
A Bright New Copper by Catriona King
Altared by Adele Elliott
Misgivings by Nancy Jardine
Saturday Fever by Sue Barnard
The Wanderer by T.E. Taylor
Sheffield Steel by Trevor Ripley
The Blue House by Carol Maginn
Processionary Penitents by Nik Morton
The Second Summer of Love by Michela O’Brien
Young Loves by
Jeff Gardiner
Cradle of Man by J.L. Bwye
Silken Knots by Frances di Plino
The Thread that Binds by Mark Patton
Boo! by David W Robinson
Cradle of Man by J.L. Bwye
Silken Knots by Frances di Plino
The Thread that Binds by Mark Patton
Boo! by David W Robinson
***
The
authors, in brief:
Pamela
Kelt worked in journalism in the 1980s and is now author of six novels and a
smattering of stories. She lives in Kenilworth. Her novel Tomorrow’s Anecdote is published by Crooked Cat.
Maggie
Secara’s poetry and stories have appeared in a variety of little magazines both
on- and off-line. Her latest novel, The
Mermaid Stair, the third adventure in the Harper Errant fantasy series from
Crooked Cat, is released on May 23, 2014. As for the story in this volume, last
year’s King’s Raven featured a pair
of supporting characters in mid-Victorian London… and this is about them.
KB
Walker revisits some of the characters and Castlegate, the scene of her novel, Once Removed. Originally from Michigan,
Kimm Walker moved to Yorkshire and took up a career in teaching.
Kathy
Sharp lives on the Jurassic Coast at Weymouth, Dorset. The years she spent
living on the Isle of Portland, in particular, provided her with wonderful
ideas for quirky and amusing tales as well as being the model for her first
novel, the fantasy Isle of Larus.
Ailsa
Abraham lives in France. Working under two pen-names she has published six
books. As Ailsa Abraham published by Crooked Cat, she has written Alchemy and Shaman's Drum. She
is presently writing the third book in this series which will continue the
adventures of Iamo, Riga, The Gaia Foundation and the other characters from the
first two books.
Carol Hedges is the author of eleven books for teenagers and adults. Her novel Jigsaw (now an ebook: Jigsaw Pieces) was long-listed for the Carnegie Medal. Crooked Cat recently published her Victorian murder mystery, Diamonds & Dust. Carol lives in Hertfordshire.
Catriona
King is a doctor and has trained as a police Forensic Medical Examiner. Her best-selling
Craig Crime series of novels are set in the streets of modern Belfast and
Northern Ireland. The Craig Crime series comprise: A Limited Justice The Grass
Tattoo The Visitor The Waiting Room The Broken Shore. Books six and seven, The
Slowest Cut and The Coercion Key will be released in June and August 2014 respectively.
Catriona's latest release, The Carbon
Trail, is a standalone thriller set in New York City.
Adele Elliott is a New Orleans native, exiled in Columbus, Mississippi. She is a 1995 graduate of the University of New Orleans with a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts. She minored in English and was the fiction editor of Ellipsis, the literary magazine of UNO. Her novel Friendship Cemetery is published by Crooked Cat.
Nancy
Jardine lives in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Nancy has four novels published by
Crooked Cat: Topaz Eyes – an
ancestral/dynasty based mystery thriller. The Celtic Fervour Series of
Historical Romantic Adventures: The
Beltane Choice (book 1); After Whorl:
Bran Reborn (book 2); After Whorl:
Donning Double Cloaks (book 3).
Sue
Barnard was born in North Wales but spent most of her life in and around
Manchester. Her
first novel, The Ghostly Father
(Crooked Cat, 2014) is a new take on the traditional story of Romeo &
Juliet. Her second novel, a romantic mystery entitled Nice Girls Don’t, is due for publication by Crooked Cat later in
2014.
Tim Taylor was born in Stoke-on-Trent and now lives in Meltham, near Huddersfield. He studied Classics at Pembroke College, Oxford, and some years later did a PhD in Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London. As well as fiction, Tim writes poetry, which he often performs on local radio. His historical novel Zeus of Ithome was published by Crooked Cat in November 2013.
Trevor
Ripley works full time for the NHS and is studying for a Master’s Degree. Lily Lovebug and
the Unconquered Planet, a 30,000 word novel for readers aged 8 upwards, is
the first of Trevor’s works to be published. Sheffield Steel – Aisha’s Story
presents a sample of his 80.000 word crime thriller Sheffield Steel, set in the city close to his heart.
Carol Maginn currently lives in Liverpool, her home city. She has published a number of short stories and non-fiction. Ruin, her first novel, was published by Crooked Cat in December 2013. Her second, Daniel Taylor, is a thriller set in Rome, which will be published later in 2014.
Nik Morton is me, so you probably know too much already... This story is my 23rd Leon Cazador case; the others can be found in Crooked Cat’s Spanish Eye. At least three books are due out in 2014: a co-written fantasy quest novel Wings of the Overlord, a sixth western The Magnificent Mendozas and, from Crooked Cat, Sudden Vengeance, a vigilante crime novel. I live in Spain, but you probably know that...
Michela
O’Brien was born in Milan, Italy. She moved to England in 1994. Crooked Cat has
published her novels Playing on Cotton
Clouds and A Summer Of Love, both
of which have received much praise.
Jeff Gardiner is the author of two Crooked Cat novels: Myopia explores bullying and prejudice, following the stories of Jerry and Mindy, who also appear in ‘Young Loves’. Igboland is a novel of passion and conflict set in war-torn West Africa. Treading On Dreams is a tale of obsession and unrequited love from Tirgearr Publishing. His collection of short stories, A Glimpse of the Numinous, contains horror, romance and humour. His work of non- fiction, The Law of Chaos: the Multiverse of Michael Moorcock is due out later in 2014.
Jane Bwye, a businesswoman and intermittent freelance journalist, lived for over half a century in Kenya. Her first novel, from Crooked Cat, Breath of Africa, was written to feed her nostalgia when she and her husband left for the UK at the turn of the century. Other publications include a cookbook in aid of the Kenya Museum Society and a History of her local church.
Frances di Plino is the pen name of Lorraine Mace, children’s author, humour columnist for Writing Magazine and a competition judge for Writers’ Forum. She also runs a private critique and mentoring service for writers. Writing as Frances di Plino, she is the author of the crime/thriller series featuring D.I. Paolo Storey: Bad Moon Rising, Someday Never Comes and Call It Pretending. The fourth novel in the series, Looking for a Reason, is due out in the autumn 2014.
Mark
Patton was born and brought up on the island of Jersey, studied archaeology and
anthropology at Cambridge, and completed his PhD at University College London.
He has taught at several universities in the Netherlands, France and the UK,
and now teaches with The Open University. He writes historical fiction for
Crooked Cat: Undreamed Shores and An Accidental King.
David
Robinson is a Yorkshireman living in Manchester; he is a prolific freelance
writer, novelist and humourist. To date eleven of his Amazon best-selling STAC
Mysteries and three stand-alone thrillers have been published by Crooked Cat.
The first of his new series of supernatural mysteries, Spookies, will be published by Crooked Cat in the summer, 2014.
Links to the authors and their blogs/websites and books can be found at the end of each story...
***
The above twenty
are only a few of the many talented Crooked Cat authors. These stepped up to the plate in
record time. Why not browse Crooked Cat Publishing online? You’re bound to find
books of interest!
Crooked Cat at Amazon
UK here
Crooked Cat at Amazon
COM here
Note that the next open window for submissions
for Crooked Cat is 25-27 April, 2014. The clock is ticking!
2 comments:
Great post, Nik! What a fabulous collection. And one of yours is there, too. :-)
Thanks, Cathie. It's certainly an impressive line-up.
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