January/February

photograph of several copies of Beyond & Within: Witchcraft, edited by Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane, inside a cardboard box

Happy New Year! January is of course the launch month for Marie and Paul’s new anthology, Beyond & Within:Witchcraft and publishers Flame Tree sent them a bundle of books to celebrate.

photograph showing a stack of copies of Beyond & Within: Witchcraft, edited by Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane, showing the books' spines

photograph showing nine copies of Beyond & Within: Witchcraft, edited by Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane, in three rows of three

They also included the antho in their newsletter for January (below), plus you can listen to one of the stories for free – ‘What Bones Remember’ by Buhlebethu Sukoluhle Mpofu – introduced by Marie & Paul, on their Myth & Fiction podcast here.

screenshot of Flame Tree's newsletter, heading Fantasy Fiction: Flame Tree. Original & Own Voices

screenshot from Flame Tree Newsletter. Image features Beyond & Within: Witchcraft, edited by Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane. Text reads: Witch Craft: An impressive new anthology of horror stories exploring what it means to be 'witch', including the rediscovery and reclaiming of that power, its links to nature, and witchcraft mythology from around the world. Award-winnnig anthologists Marie O'Regan and Pual Kane have commissioned and chosen an outstanding selection of tales, with contributions from authors including Ally Wilkes, Eliza Chan, Angela Slatter, Gabriella Buba and Lisa L. Hannett. Five brand new stories have also been selected from a popular open submissions call. The full list of featured authors in this book is: Eugen Bacon, David Barnett, Melissa Bobe, Gabriella Buba, Mark Chadbourn, Eliza Chan, Aveline Fletcher, Helen Grant, Muriel Gray, Kay Hanifen, Lisa L. Hannett, Damien Kelly, Amanda Mason, Alison Moore, Buhlebethu Sukoluhle Mpofu, Angela Slatter and Ally Wilkes.

Visit the page for the book on the Flame Tree site here, and order yours here and here.

image showing a copy of Death Comes at Christmas, edited by Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane, against a pale blue and white background. The image has gold and red borders, with blood spatter depicted in the corners. Text reads #1 Best Seller. Eighteen festive stories!

While back in December, Death Comes at Christmas hit the coveted Number 1 bestseller spot on Amazon, across ebook, paperback and hardback editions (above and below).

screenshot from @amazon.co.uk. Showing the cover of Death Comes at Christmas, edited by Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane, with a #1 Best Seller sticker above it - in crime, thriller and mystery anthologies

screenshot from amazon - Kindle edition of Death Comes at Christmas, edited by Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane. Showing a Best Seller sticker

screenshot from amazon - text reads: Best Sellers Rank. 1 in Crime, Thriller & Mystery Anthologies. 1 in Crime, Thriller & Mystery Series. 8 in Crime, Mystery & Thriller Short Stories

photograph showing two copies of Death Comes at Christmas, edited by Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane, on a dark blue background. Sticker at the top left reads #1 Best Seller

There were also some more mentions and reviews. ‘A thoroughly enjoyable selection of Christmas stories to curl up and read on a wintery Christmas night, or a warm summer evening, depending on where you are in the world!’ said @fortheloveofbooks383 (below).

screenshot from @fortheloveofbooks383. Image shows a copy of Death Comes at Christmas, edited by Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane, standing against a black and white picture of a snowy pine forest

‘Perfect Christmas reading. Cratchits, bookshops, ghosts, and a wonderfully clever Joseph Spector story,’ was @j.s.savage_author’s take (below). 

screenshot from @j.s.savage_author. Image shows a copy of Death Comes at Christmas, edited by Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane, standing against a lit and decorated Christmas tree

@katies_cosy_reading_corner (below) said, ‘Each story is packed with imagination and flair… This book is one of those that you could easily curl up with… dip in and out of in-between the continuous prepping for Christmas.’

photograph showing a woman's hand holding a copy of Death Comes at Christmas, edited by Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane, up against a decorated Christmas tree

And @shesdefinitelyreading left the below picture reviews…

screenshot from @shesdefinitelyreading. Image shows a copy of Death Comes at Christmas, edited by Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane, superimposed over a faded image of a tablet with an image of Christmas trees on a black background, a red and green wreath and a decorative bread wreath decorated wit almonds. Text reads: From locked room mysteries on Christmas Eve to devilish whodunits and tales of simmering rivalries unfolding at the dinner table, these eighteen original seasonal tales will delight and shock at every twist and turn

screenshot of a five-star review of Death Comes at Christmas, edited by Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane. Text reads: A classic mix of dark, murdery Christmas tales - some hits, some misses, but plenty of festive mayhem. My favorites were: What She Left Me, The Red Angel, and Deadly Gift

For those of you who celebrate Christmas all year round, the book is still available here and here.

screenshot from @george_can_read. Heading reads Best Anthologies - featuring In These Hallowed Halls, edited by Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane

Sticking with anthologies for a moment, and over on Insta @george_can_read chose Marie & Paul’s first Dark Academia book In These Hallowed Halls as one of his anthologies of the year.

You can pick up your hardback or paperback copies of that one here and here.

wraparound cover for Phantasmagoria Daleks Special

Marie wrote about her first encounters with the Daleks – on TV!! – for the latest Phantasmagoria Special (above) last month and received her contributor copy (below). Exterminate!

photograph of a man's hand holding up a copy of the Phantasmagoria Daleks Special. Text of subtitle reads: THE DALEKS IN THE MOVIES! 60th ANNIVERSARY

photograph showing a man's hand holding up the Phantasmagoria Daleks Special to show the back cover.

You can pick yours up here or here.

banner image showing a red portable TV showing static and the BFS logo in a garden filled with plants and red flowers

Interview time, and Marie & Paul were interviewed by Lauren McMenemy for the British Fantasy Society recently (above and below). You can see what they had to say here, and directly on YouTube here.

screenshot showing Lauren McMenemy of the BFS holding up a copy of Beyond & Within: Witchcraft, edited by Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane

screenshot from BFS interview. L to R: A smiling Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane

Marie’s new collection Bleed for Me (below), which dropped from Demain in December as an ebook, is now out in paperback. You can get your hands on that here and here.

Cover of Bleed For Me, by Marie O'Regan. Cover shows a ruined church, with blood dripping down the book cover. Text reads: Bleed For Me, Marie O'Regan. 'I'm incredibly impressed...she's extraordinarily talented.' Clive Barker'

And a new review has appeared of Marie’s novella from last year, Resurrection Blues (below), written by Peter Tennant. He said: ‘Musician Marcus buys a beautiful harmonica that he sees in a shop window and thinks he has got himself a bargain, but when he performs with his band at a club that night he sees ghosts in the audience… In many ways this reminded me of A Nightmare on Elm Street, with its predator who is disposed of by a mob of his victims’ nearest and dearest, only to prove more of a problem dead than he was alive. Louis certainly haunts Marcus’ dreams, but that is only a part of his horror. O’Regan is her own woman and creates a truly memorable monster, one with a killing line in dialogue and even deadlier and inventive streak of violence. But the forces of good are nearly as strong, with Marcus’ mother Irene a towering presence, both in life and death, and Albert a steadfast friend, one with his own paranormal talent. Marcus himself is a strong character, driven by his love of music, but at the same time with a feeling of guilt over his decision to take this course in life and leave the family home…

The battle against Louis is gripping, with fights in an old house and a ferocious showdown in a cemetery, the sense that things could go either way, but before all of that we get a sound build up with appearances of the dead and a creeping sense of something gone very badly awry. There are magic rituals throughout the narrative and a strong element of the macabre, with hearts removed from bodies with extreme prejudice. At the book’s core is a story of good vs evil, and if the latter is to be defeated it is through the sacrifices of the good people, the ties that bind them together and hold true when all else fails.’

You can read the full thing here.

Plus pick up your copy of the book here, here, or here.

Finally, a couple of Marie’s Absinthe titles have been reviewed recently. Firstly, Alakazam by Mia Dalia (below) was reviewed by Happy Goat Horror here and by Lachlan’s Book reviews here.

Alakazam, by Mia Dalia

And Visions of Grace by Alison Littlewood (below) was reviewed by Runalong the Shelves here.

Visions of Grace, by Alison Littlewood

You can visit the Absinthe page and check out the entire range here.