Crooked Cats' Tales - 20 stories right up your alley

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!

 

 

 Tonight at 8pm UTV+1. Crooked Cat Publishing is launching something very special. CROOKED CATS’ TALES - a collection of 20 tantalising tasters from a selection of Crooked Cat authors.

on AmazonUK here

on Amazon COM here

and on Smashwords here

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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

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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 23^rd 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...

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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!