Gray Matter Novellas

Series · 5 books · 2007-2009

By Steve Vernon, Paul Finch, Stephen Volk, and more

Books in series

Rain

2007

This is no ordinary storm ... Ben and his family move in to a French house cloaked by storm clouds. The walls fail to keep out intruders. Warnings appear. There is an accident. There is death. There is rain. Much rain. This is Conrad Williams' new novella. Remember to breathe. Conrad Williams was born in 1969 and has been in print since 1988. He has sold around 80 short stories to a diverse range of publications and anthologies. He is the author of three novels, 'Head Injuries', 'London Revenant' and 'The Unblemished'; three novellas, 'Nearly People', 'Game' and 'The 'Scalding Rooms'; and a collection of short stories, 'Use Once then Destroy'. He is a past recipient of the Littlewood Arc Prize and the British Fantasy Award. He lives in Manchester with his wife, the writer Rhonda Carrier, their sons, Ethan and Ripley, and a monster Maine Coon cat called Reddie. www.conradwilliams.net

Hard Roads

2007

There's something about a hard road that calls a body to wander. You want to know what's waiting down there just past the far edge of the horizon. What darkness hides beyond that fish hook of a blind curve scything out to the left. It calls you and all you can do is wander on down. HARD ROADS offers two brand new novellas from Nova Scotia's hardest working horror writer, Steve Vernon. In the first tale, Trolling Lures, you will take a drive down a lonesome Nova Scotia hardtop road and you'll find yourself running into a troll, a suicide, and a hint of divine intervention. Coyote is howling soft and low and the moon is watching the pines trees gossip with the cool Atlantic wind. Come closer to the campfire, the old man is talking. The second story, Hammurabi Road, is a dark tale of retribution, backwoods justice, and getting closer to a black bear than was ever dreamed possible. We start off with the eternal triangle - three men ride out in a pick-up truck; two in front and one duct-taped in the back. It's a clear cut case of Northern Ontario railroad vengeance, served up as cold as a frozen hunting knife. We eat what we kill out here and we apologize to no one who doesn't deserve it. Come on. What are you waiting for? It ain't getting any easier staring at it.

The Appetite

2008

London, the late 1980s. A storm of hurricane strength brings two people together. One of them is married. 'Nicholas Royle writes at the very edge of genre, both at the cutting edge and at the border with something that is rather different' - Roz Kaveney, TLS 'His books are a tonic for our jaded palates' - Jonathan Coe 'He makes the ordinary seem spooky and the uncanny seem believable' - Laurence Phelan, Independent on Sunday 'A master craftsman' - Ron Butlin, Sunday Herald

Groaning Shadows

2009

GROANING SHADOWS Brand new novellas of mystery, madness and supernatural torment. Travel with Paul Finch along four twisting trails, any one of which could lead to your worst nightmare. The decayed seaside town, where the actions of a depraved sex attacker only hint at the evil that has wakened. The Cornish island, where a deserted fishing village stands in memorial to a menace from the mists of time. The inner city slum, where a derelict church houses something unspeakable. The grotto in the wood, to which far more than gruesome memories are attached. Contents The Sundered Flesh • shortfiction by Paul Finch We Are the Shadows • shortfiction by Paul Finch Their Bones Picked Clean • shortfiction by Paul Finch The Baleful Dead • shortfiction by Paul Finch

Vardøger

2009

Welcome to Shewstone House Hotel. One of those quiet places. An oasis of calm to escape the stresses and anxieties of modern living. Where a non-paying guest waits for his next victim . . . BAFTA-winning writer Stephen Volk outraged the critics with his first screenplay, Ken Russell's GOTHIC, and shocked an unsuspecting nation with his notorious BBC TV Halloween hoax GHOSTWATCH. His gripping supernatural drama series AFTERLIFE was called "Terrific television" (The Guardian) and "Unmissable" (Mail on Sunday). VARDOGER is his long new novella and it's fully as cunning and frightening as any of his previous work . . .

Authors

Steve Vernon

Author · 38 books

Hi! I'm Steve Vernon and I'd love to scare you. Along the way I'll entertain you. I guarantee a giggle as well. If I listed all of the books I've written I'd bore you - and I am allergic to boring. Instead, let me recommend one single book of mine. Pick up SUDDEN DEATH OVERTIME for an example of true Steve Vernon storytelling. It's hockey and vampires for folks who love hockey and vampires - and for folks who don't! For more up-to-date info please follow my blog at: http://stevevernonstoryteller.wordpre... And follow me at Twitter: @StephenVernon yours in storytelling, Steve Vernon

Paul Finch

Author · 45 books

Paul Finch is a former cop and journalist, now full-time writer. Having originally written for the television series THE BILL plus children's animation and DOCTOR WHO audio dramas, he went on to write horror, but is now best known for his crime / thriller fiction. He won the British Fantasy Award twice and the International Horror Guild Award, but since then has written two parallel series of hard-hitting crime novels, the Heck and the Lucy Clayburn novels, of which three titles have become best-sellers. Paul lives in Wigan, Lancashire, UK with his wife and children.

In 2007 Conrad Williams won the International Horror Guild Award for Best Novel for The Unblemished. In 2008 he won the British Fantasy Award for Best Novella, for The Scalding Rooms. In 2010 he won the British Fantasy Award for Best Novel for One.

Nicholas Royle

Author · 28 books

Nicholas Royle is the author of seven novels, two novellas and a short story collection. He has edited sixteen anthologies of short stories. A senior lecturer in creative writing at the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University, he also runs Nightjar Press, publishing original short stories as signed, limited-edition chapbooks. He works as a fiction reviewer for The Independent and the Warwick Review and as an editor for Salt Publishing. From : http://www.nicholasroyle.com/biograph...