My debut novel, Krill’s Tale, is out some time in 2025 with Nightmare Press.
Krill’s Tale
Things are bad enough in the bog for eight-year-old Krill living under the control of notorious outcast Wend. He has strange feet, violent tendencies and can only dream of freedom. What’s more, he lives in fear of Shadow Things, monsters who strut across the estuary, and their lord, the Whispering Shadow, who haunts his nightmares. What little stability Krill has is thrown into chaos when a valuable book of Wend’s is stolen, and she forces Krill to go to the gloomy Pond House to steal the only other copy from her weird mother and sister.
After accidentally destroying the book, Krill is forced to choose between life in the town and returning to Wend in the wild. He tries his best to fit into town life, but bizarre physical developments make this impossible, and he begins to learn the truth about his existence: he is half Shadow Thing. After his suspicious great grandmother confronts him with evidence of this, he experiences a burst of rage and kills her. This is witnessed by creepy leather merchant Joe, who blackmails Krill into stealing Wend’s original copy of the book, now in the possession of the cruel Astronomer.
Krill decides to steal the book for himself, believing it contains secrets that will allow him to breed his own society of human-Shadow hybrids, but the truth is much more harrowing. When he finally confronts the Astronomer, he is forced, once more, to choose between civilisation and wildness, only this time the future of the empire rests on his decision.
Krill’s Tale is a novel inspired by my unusual seaside upbringing. It is set in Sundown, a fictional island inspired by Blackpool and the Falklands.