Back to Horror Writing.
This has been bugging at me for a long time. With eBooks and self-publishing there is a renewed demand for shorter books and what we used to call “short stories”, and this has given new life to my old passion – writing horror. I’ve decided to regularly publish new “short” horror stories – each one will take around an hour or so to read. It’s actually great fun writing this kind of thing, because you can concentrate on the horror, scary bits and hopefully frighten the behooters out of the reader, without labouring away at a full novel that takes perhaps years to write.
To kick things off I’ve split my collection of “Ghost Tales, Four Stories of the Dead Among Us” into four separate books and given the series its own branding and “look” calling each a “Horror Story” with a subtitle and volume number. Each one will be a stand-alone horror story (or perhaps two, if the one tale is too short) and don’t need to be read in any order. These first four are quite long compared to my basic idea of publishing something new every two-three weeks. In fact I have a new one, called “The Hangman’s Ghost” already written and it should be available within a week following a final edit and cover design.
And, even better, I get to compose a new tune for each horror title – an outlet for my music with direction, rather than doodling with song ideas on rainy days. Awesome.
It isn’t the end of my Lukas Boston mysteries. far from it – again, a new as-yet unnamed novel is finished and going through the last edits and cover creation. Mind you, I want to tweak the Lukas Boston series a little… give them a similar branding appearance to the Horror Story covers and remove the “Book 1, Book2…” references, because they really don’t need to be read in any sequence.
So, you’ll see a couple of new books here very soon. Let me know what you think.
Happy reading, Graeme Hague.
A new ebook, my first Lukas Boston novella, The Good, The Bad And The UnGodly is available. Must say, I haven’t had so much fun writing a book for years. Here’s the blurb.
Lukas Boston is a private detective who attracts trouble, beautiful women who prefer him tied to a chair, and the kind of investigation jobs that no one else will take on. Lukas also has the Gift to see the Dead, but the spiritual world is often more annoying than helpful. When the ghost of a dead drug courier starts visiting Lukas, it reopens a case involving a missing shipment of cocaine. Suddenly everyone wants Lukas to find the hidden, illicit treasure. He’ll be paid very well if he does – and killed if he doesn’t.
The style is modern crime mixed with a kind of dark humour. If you ever watched the movies “Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels” or “Snatch” you should know what I’m talking about. The Good, The Bad And The UnGodly is priced at US$2.99, but it comes up as something like AUS$3.74 in the Australia Amazon store… not sure why it’s not a straight currency conversion. Apparently Amazon charges more for digitally “sending” the book to Oz. Anyway, you can find it here. If you like the book, please leave a review.
I’ve almost finished the second book in the series, called “Damned If You Do, Hanged If You Don’t” and after editing and book cover designs it should be released in a few weeks. You can sign up for the newsletter, if you’d like to be told when it’s out.
Happy reading!
I’ve started a new series of books called Lukas Boston Stories, and I’ve got to admit I’m pretty excited by the whole idea. But one thing I’m going to make clear straight up – each book is a complete story of its own. While these books will have recurring characters and it will be best, though not an absolute must, to read them in order to know the “back” stories fully, each book will be a stand-alone adventure and you won’t be left hanging, waiting for the next installment.
Lukas Boston is a character who combines all the fun things I’ve been doing over the years – a slice of my ghost story writing, an even bigger slab of the crime and thriller stuff, plus I’ve mixed in some of the dark humour that my friends and family have been urging me to write for years. The end result is the Lukas Boston Stories, novellas of around 100 pages long (about one third the size of a “normal” book) that I’ll be regularly publishing as ebooks. Why only novellas instead of full novels? Simply because it lets me write and work on a great idea and finish it within a comparatively short space of time, then I can move on to the next one. Full-length novels can take well over a year to write, edit and publish, which means my readers have to wait a long time between books! I’m planning to release a new Lukas Boston ebook every six weeks or so.
Lukas Boston is a caricature of everyone’s favourite idea of a private investigator. An ex-police detective who quit the force to avoid a scandal, Lukas is ridiculously good-looking and knows it, believing every woman must find him irresistible (and many do, while the rest kick him in balls). He’s clever, witty and fearless, not mention a little arrogant and full of himself. To help things along, Lukas has inherited a fortune from his father, leaving Lukas financially free to do what he does best – chase down criminals, beautiful women and keep out of the gun sights of the bad people who don’t appreciate Lukas’ successful, crime-busting career. And to top it off, Lukas has a unique gift born from his grandmother’s gypsy blood to see and sometimes talk with spirits from the Afterlife. Unfortunately, these ghosts are usually more annoying than helpful, often pestering Lukas to right some wrong and providing clues that are less than clear.
I’ve completed the first draft of the opening book, “The Good, The Bad and The UnGodly” and it will hopefully be edited and published within a week (the cover design might take a little longer). I’ve added a newsletter sign-up to my website for anyone who like to be told directly and, of course, I’ll post on this blog when the book hits the virtual shelves. Feel free to comment here too, or drop me a line at lukasboston@graemehague.com.au
Cheers, Graeme Hague.