Well I’m a bit late with this post (oops) but back in January I did a thing and published a collection of short stories, ‘A Dish Best Served Cold: Short Tales of Horror & Revenge’, and I’m not even asking for any pennies for it. Here’s what it’s all about:
An outcast takes bloody revenge on the workplace bully; an old lady’s folk tale turns out to be more than just a story; an industrious fairy goes to war with a customer service department; a slighted woman gets away with murder… or does she? Vampires, werewolves, ghosts and monsters lurk within the pages of this collection of short stories. But it’s really the humans you need to look out for…
In A Dish Best Served Cold I’ve collected my most successful speculative stories (with a couple of extras thrown in for good luck). From 100-word drabbles to novelette-length urban fantasy, the tales in this collection range from horror to dystopia to lighthearted fantasy and romance, many with the theme of revenge at their heart (because who doesn’t love a bit of cold retribution, right?)
Available as a free download at Smashwords and other selected retailers
But that isn’t all I’ve been up to!
You might recall me mentioning my mate John Commons, landlord of The Victoria Bikers Pub in Coalville, Leicestershire and star of Channel 4’s Four In A Bed (amongst other TV shows he’s appeared on). Well John has written a memoir, The House of Commons, which I’ve edited and helped him to publish, along with his Johnny’s Jaunts series of travelogues in which he details his motorbike tours around Europe. All three titles, complete with photographs, are available as ebook downloads. I highly recommend them, and I’m not just saying that because he’s my friend, they really are laugh-out-loud entertaining!
So what else have I been up to? Doing lots of reading (as usual). Particularly enjoying the Cormoran Strike series from Robert Galbraith / Queen JK. I know I’m late to the party on this series but I’m so glad I found them. Intricately plotted with a gripping will they/won’t they relationship between Strike and Robin. I’m a couple of books behind so I still have Troubled Blood and The Ink Black Heart to catch up with, which are next on my TBR list.
Earlier in the year I devoured all of Guy Martin’s books after finding a bunch of signed, limited edition copies in a local charity shop. Despite a lot of friends being bikers and my local pub being a biker-friendly bar, I’ve never been interested in motorbikes or anyone who races them, but Guy is such a down-to-earth bloke and his books were really entertaining. I look forwards to reading his next one.
I’m also currently muddling my way through The Art of Darkness: A History of Goth by John Robb of The Membranes fame. I’m not quite sure what the relevance was of the first 13o-odd pages and the production standard is atrocious considering what I paid for it. It’s not even had a sniff of a proofread as far as I can tell and the errors descend into farce halfway through. The book was originally advertised as ‘650+ pages and packed with photographs’. Well it’s under 600 pages and I’m halfway through and have only come across three pages of black and white photos arranged in collage. The text is also horrendously small. I suspect all of this had something to do with production cost. It screams ‘poorly self-published’ and yet the author recently stated on social media that the book was published by Manchester University Press, so what do I know? There are also endless footnotes on every page. EVERY page. You’re constantly having to look up and down and it’s annoying. I gave up about fifty pages in and just stuck to the body text. Don’t get me started on the way the index at the back is organised, or on how many times the words ‘dark’, ‘darkly’ and ‘darkness’ get used, or the endless, intricate word saladry! The author’s style would work fine in a magazine article but hundreds upon hundreds of pages of purple prose means I’m having to read it in small chunks. Thankfully it is the kind of book you can dip in and out of, and despite all of the above I’d still recommend it for anyone interested in our kooky old subculture.
I don’t know why but I’ve really picked up speed on the novel-in-progress in recent weeks. If I’m honest I’d fallen out of love with writing for a while. The publishing world has been captured by the wokerati, authors are tied up in knots over identity politics rather than concentrating on telling a good story and everything has to go through sensitivity readers now. For a while it stopped me in my tracks because I knew I would never get on board with any of that snowflake-pandering nonsense. Then I suppose I thought, ‘fuck it’. There are still a few publishing houses and agents that haven’t succumbed to the great cult of our time, and even if I can’t get published traditionally anymore I’ll just self-publish. I’ve had a lot of practice of that recently!
I can’t sign off without mentioning Whitby Goth Weekend. We spent five days there in April catching up with friends, watching some great bands and dancing our big goth socks off. Chips were eaten in obscene quantities and many pints of snakebite and black were sunk. Alas, the dress-ups were still there in abundance but that’s just the way the weekend’s gone now. Also, the Little A pub had gotten rid of the World’s Best Goth Jukebox. Sacrilege!!!
On a final note, should you have a higher power, could you ask them to keep Leicester City in their thoughts?? I’m already nervous for the final game against West Ham on Sunday. We can’t get relegated. Can we??
xXx
Kate Lowe is a speculative fiction author from Leicestershire, UK. Her short fiction has won first place in two competitions & has appeared in various zines, magazines & anthologies. Her story The Wolf Runs in the Barley received an Honourable Mention in The Best Horror of the Year Volume 4, edited by Ellen Datlow. These stories and others are now collected in one volume, ‘A Dish Best Served Cold’, available to download free from Smashwords. Kate is a goth, a keen Fortean and a proud supporter of Leicester City Football Club and Leicester Tigers Rugby. Her favourite band is Fields of the Nephilim, she loves silver jewellery and hunting for antiques, and is usually to be found with a book in her hand. You can find her online at www.kateloweauthor.co.uk
Kate Lowe - Author 