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Return to Lastings in Shuck

Return to Lastings in Shuck

Surprise! On December 21, 2022, we’re heading back to Lastings in a new Love Has Claws story: Shuck.

Shuck is a novella set in the small coastal town of Lastings, where the sea and its secrets are foremost in everyone’s minds. Robin, a man from the nearby city, is spending his holiday in a rental cottage at Sickle Cove, hoping to finish his book and start a new story for himself. He’s seeking inspiration.

He finds the siren.

The siren has followed a strange, compelling song across the sea and to the cove in Lastings. There, night after night, xe listens, and thinks, and hopes— and finally reveals xemself.

Shuck is about two beings recognising themselves in the other without exchanging a word. It’s what I have been calling “sad queer wicker man”, though actually no one dies in this story, at which I’m sure we’re all surprised! But mostly it’s about connection, and inspiration, and finding the absolutely perfect chip. Like all of the Love Has Claws series, Shuck is a standalone story, but you may wish to read (or reread!) other works in the series.


Cover of Shuck

Shuck
Love Has Claws #4

Amazon: CA | COM | UKKoboApple Books

Robin leaves the city and travels to the small coastal town of Lastings, hoping a holiday will help soothe his recent heartbreak. Staying at a remote cottage on the seafront, Robin spends his days walking along the cliffs and following the jagged line of the coast, while at night he plays guitar and sings his troubles to the sea.

He doesn’t expect the sea to begin singing back.

The siren has spent xyr long life singing to humans of their desires and yet has never considered the music of xyr own. When a compelling song reaches xyr hunting ground, the siren follows it to a strange new shore, where xe listens to the lone figure playing on the dock and wonders about raising xyr voice in response.

One night, the siren draws close enough to Robin to be seen.

Before long, however, a third figure joins their chorus: the Silver Maiden, one of Lastings’ ghosts. Powerful and mercurial, the Maiden has her own agenda and intends to use Robin and siren to fulfil it—even if the whole town of Lastings will suffer as a result. Can Robin and the siren reach an understanding in time to break free of the Maiden’s thrall? Or will they remain unheard?

Content Warnings: drinking of alcohol; mentions of the consumption of human flesh; abduction.

Letters From Dark Water (and my feelings)

Letters From Dark Water (and my feelings)

The dogs live.

That’s one of the most important things I have to tell you about LETTERS FROM DARK WATER, the last installment from Love Has Claws. Mal Jones (hermit; redhead; grumpy) has two dogs, and he speaks with them more than he does anyone else in Lastings… until he meets Reeve (mer; bookworm; romantic). But, Lastings being Lastings, things don’t go smoothly – you know, people get eaten, that kind of thing – and I want you to know going in that the dogs live.

Other salient information: Letters From Dark Water is a standalone book, as with the other installments in this series. You don’t need to read the other parts, but you’ll get a fuller picture of the town of Lastings when the series is read together. The book comes out April 30, 2020 and is c.48k. Publishing at around the same time (fingers crossed!) will be a print anthology of the whole Love Has Claws series – nearly 120k! How did we get here.

I’m (insert British understatement) pretty excited for this one, folks.

Love Has Claws started as an experiment. I had stopped enjoying what I was producing and LHC’s purpose was to explore my aims for this whole writing malarkey. Turned out I’m mostly here for cryptids getting their HEAs. To be honest, I didn’t think anyone would actually read the books(!), much less enjoy them like you have, enough to return to Lastings with me over and again. That means more than I can say without undercutting the sentiment with some quip. Just please know I am grateful.

To everyone who’s visited Lastings, and who may in future: thank you.


Cover of Letters From Dark Water

LETTERS FROM DARK WATER

Releasing April 30, 2020

Amazon: CA | COM | UKKoboApple Books
books2read.com/darkwater

Mal Jones has lost all his family to the sea. He is the only Jones remaining in Lastings, a small coastal town scarred with more secrets than salt. A self-declared hermit, Mal lives on the edge of Lastings with his dogs, his history, and his determination to be left alone.

So the letters from a mysterious admirer come as something of a surprise. As does the monstrous oyster shell unearthed from the foundations of the town’s old port, the discovery of which initiates a chain of events that threaten Lastings and everyone in it.

Reeve—letter writer, avid reader, and one of the merfolk—left the darkwater for Lastings at the sea’s behest, and stayed to learn what it is to be a lander. But when ocean creatures begin stalking on land, and seem to be targeting Mal in particular, Reeve is reminded that the only safety is the kind taken at the point of a claw.

When the sea goes walking, no one is left untouched. Together, Mal and Reeve must work to save Lastings—and each other.

PS. The dogs live.

Content warnings: bloody violence; gore; consumption of human flesh; death, including that of a child (the latterly mentioned very briefly, off-screen); child neglect; vomiting; allusions to alcohol dependency.


PS. If you’re wondering where I might be going next… Join my mailing list, and you’ll be first to know!

Coming soon…

Coming soon…

A quick update on my next books, as somehow the end of 2019 is in sight? Terrifying, what is time.

What’s next?

Less terrifying by far is my next book, HART OF WINTER, a fluffy winter romance set in Les Menuires, France. This is a dorky story about figuring out who you are, falling in love, and falling down mountains. With inherited shapeshifting curses and family secrets, because are you new here. Hart of Winter is released December 17, and you can find it in digital and paper format from your favourite internet store at books2read.com/hartofw

After the cosy season is over, we return to Lastings in LETTERS FROM DARK WATER, the last book in the Love Has Claws trilogy. If you’re looking to catch up on the series, you have until February 2020 to do so! More info about the book will come throughout winter, and through my twitter (inevitably). Also, there will be a print anthology released when Letters From Dark Water comes out in ebook, so look out for that!

And after that…

I have a couple projects lined up for 2020, but nothing firm to share as yet. I’m planning a third novel set in the metaschemata universe (Mage of Inconvenience; Hart of Winter), and at least two stand-alone short stories, but the biggest project is a fantasy novel I’ve been noodling over for Quite Some Time. 2019 has been weird, but things are looking up! (But not for my characters, you know they’re still all tragic princes whom I love dearly, and that’ll never change.)

If you’d like to keep up to date with what’s coming next, you can join my mailing list!

The Burial Club: Release day!

The Burial Club: Release day!

Draw your curtains, pour yourself a beverage, and get ready: THE BURIAL CLUB is available now!

The Burial Club is the second story from Love Has Claws, a series connected by the odd little town of Lastings. In this story we take to the city to meet Aggy Stephenson, a Lastings boy, and Laurel St. John, the vampire who loves him. (The first story is Nine Years of Silver.)

I really enjoyed writing this story! I’ve been thinking of it as gothic-adjacent with a high ‘perfectly compatible numpties’ content. Also: vampires! I hope you enjoy it, too. 🙂

THE BURIAL CLUB: Out now!


Cover of The Burial ClubAggy Stephenson is a funeral bidder, hand-delivering invitations to funerals in the latest fashion among city elite. His work takes him to the house of Laurel St. John, a man as handsome as he is rich, and as frequently bereaved. Despite the circumstances of their meeting, Aggy quickly falls for Laurel’s strange thrall. But they stand on either side of a barrier: wealth, status—and death.

Dilettante, socialite, and vampire, little surprises Laurel—until he meets Aggy. But Laurel isn’t the only creature with his eye on Aggy, and not everyone is restricted to hunting at night. When Aggy misses a delivery, Laurel wonders if his love has tired of a life of darkness. Then Aggy’s name appears on the list of the nearly departed intended for Laurel’s plate, and the sun isn’t enough to stop Laurel’s wrath.

Can Aggy and Laurel keep walking the thin line between the living and the dead? Or will the city force them to choose between existence—and each other?

Content Warnings: bloody violence; on- and off-screen murder; vampire-specific dub con; death, grief, and mourning; past death of a sibling; vomiting; workplace harassment; abduction.

THE BURIAL CLUB: Out now!