S.J.Budd

I'm super chuffed to have a story appear in this, Tales of the Realm. It's the latest anthology to be released from Aphotic Realm the home of strange and sinister fiction. Tales from the Realm features the best tales from 2017. There's some really great talent in here, so do give it a read. It will be available in both paperback and kindle from May 1st 2018 Also available are; Apparitions  Banished   Classified  That's not all, also a great short story collection, Shadows of the Mind by Mandi Jourdan Stay tuned!

This is a book I've been meaning to read for a while and I'm really glad I finally got round to it. Seriously my TBR pile is getting huge, there's just so many great books out there. This is a great collection. Israel Finn has a really cool sort of laid back writing style that has an informal feel to it like he's right beside you talking to you reeling you in unawares.  Dreaming At the Top of My Lungs covers a great range of subject matter and themes and no two stories are the same. I'm not quite sure what genre this falls into, its not horror but definitely dark and has some elements of science fiction, weird and speculative fiction. Which is cool as I like stories that don't really fit in with the crowds. These are tales about the down and outs, the forgotten people who fall through the cracks and feel they will never be able to haul themselves back up. These are the people who feel they've lost everything already. As I read this I get the

(Book Review originally posted on  British Fantasy Society Review Page ) Drag Hunt is the bonus tale accompanying Unclean Spirits  by Chuck Wendig which I have recently reviewed but I felt it deserved its own blog post too!  It’s set in the same world as Unclean Spirits and features some of the same characters. I really loved this darkly funny and delightful tale. In Drag Hunt, Kai AKA Coyote has his penis stolen and he will stop at nothing to get it back. Joining him in his quest is Richard Green a young man whose life is spiralling into constant misfortune after losing his job, his home and his girlfriend in one hit. In the same vein as Unclean Spirits there are lots of gods trying to claw their way back to heaven. I loved the selection of Anglo-Saxon deities featured in Drag Hunt which is set mostly in the U.K. Pat Kelleher does a great job of continuing Chuck Wendig’s epic Unclean Spirits. The tales really complement each other. Pat Kelleher really

(Book Review originally posted on British Fantasy Society Review Page ) Unclean Spirits is an urban fantasy unlike any I have read before. Our main character is Cason Cole, a lovable rogue who has been serving E as a bodyguard for the last five years. His employment is suddenly terminated when a mysterious guy appears and blows up his boss into tiny little pieces. Is Cason upset, angry or scared? No, he makes a bid for freedom getting into the first taxi he can find and makes a trip back to his beloved wife and son whom he hasn't seen in five years. All hopes of an ecstatic family re-union are dashed when both his wife and son try to kill him when he turns up unannounced at their house. Confused yet?  As I said this is unlike anything I've read before. I'm going to tentatively call it  American lad horror,  if that even is a thing? The book starts off quite confusing but fret not it all clicks into place very quickly. I took a while to get into it,

Wow this was one helluva read! This is a tale about demons messing with man kind but with a twist. I've recently read Unclean Spirits by Chuck Wendig and this book is strangely similar. Half of this story is about a young girl on the cusp of womanhood trying to figure out her life and who she is, the other half is crazy demons trying to possess her! Her house is so haunted a TV show PI:Paranormal Investigations has set up surveillance in her house and made her an international reality TV star. Sure her and her beloved grandpa are making loads of money but it's coming at the expense of her feeling alienated from her friends and the sort of life a teenage girl should be living. It's revealed that the ghost is only after Molly,  except it's not a relatively benign ghost going by the name of old Bill but an ancient immortal demon coming to claim Molly when she turns sixteen? Can Samuel a paranormal expert who's presenting the show do enough to save her from th