Zoo of the Dead & Other Horrific Tales

Three years ago I decided to get serious about my writing, and part of that seriousness meant I signed up for The Write Practice’s Story Cartel course (as it was then called).

The course was all about finding your tribe – or Cartel – of fellow writers. It’s where I met David Rae, and it made me realize that I really wanted to share my stories with other people.

Because of that course I set up this website and decided to pursue self publishing. It encouraged me to approach other writers, and as a result I got to interview some of my heroes, including Douglas Preston and Beth Cato. Who knew all I had to do was ask?

The last assignment was to publish a short story, but at the time I didn’t think anyone would buy a short story, so I decided to gather together some of my previously published horror flash, add some new work, and release it as a collection.

Zoo of the Dead & Other Horrific Tales was that collection, and it sat unseen and unloved on Amazon until I joined Twitter a year later (even I didn’t buy it!).

I’ve learned a lot in the last three years and my cover designing skills have improved since my first days of using canva. I love the stories in this collection, so I wanted the package to better represent them.

Presenting the second edition:

I’m pleased with how my artwork and lettering turned out on the new cover, and I am in love with how old and battered it looks! Who knew that thrift shop chic would be such a trend in horror fiction?

After drawing pictures for the 7th Hell series, I thought I’d add illustrations to each of the stories (including new pictures for scene breaks within the story) and I’m super pleased with them. They look lovely in the ebook and I can’t wait to see them in the paperback.

But wait, there’s more…

I never think people will be interested in hearing my stories about writing (that’s why I prefer writing stories or book reviews), but I love when I read a collection and the author puts in notes about the origins after a tale.

So I thought why not do that too!

I’ve written nine short notes on each of the stories in the collection, which I hope will be of interest to somebody.

Changes

I used to give away Zoo of the Dead & Other Horrific Tales to new subscribers of my newsletter, but with the new edition (and other reasons that will be explained later), I’m no longer going to do that.

Return to Hades and Other Adventures is now looking very awkward with its non creased cover. I’m currently working on updating it too, so watch this space!

Buy! Buy! Buy!

Oh yeah, I guess I should give the necessary links in case anyone wants to buy the new and improved Zoo of the Dead & Other Horrific Tales.

It’s available for $3.99 ebook (or equivalent currency) on Amazon.

I’ll update this post when the paperback is available for purchase (currently under review).