A mystical tale of cenotés – a chapbook from Spectral Press

My short story, The Eyes of Water, will be out soon as a chapbook from Spectral Press. Run by the lovely Simon Marshall-Jones, Spectral is a terrific new publisher which has just been nominated for a BFS Award.

I wrote this story after taking a holiday in Mexico, where I fell in love with the cenotés – beautiful flooded caves rife with myth and legend. Several other locations found their way into the story – for example, the submerged statue off the coast of Cozumel – providing a theme wrapped around spirituality, belief and sacrifice. Here is the blurb for the chapbook:

“Beneath the world . . .

The Mexican cenotés. Flooded caves that fracture the Yucatan Peninsula – places of mystery, the unexplored, and of ancient sacrifice.

When Alex meets an old friend while travelling, he doesn’t realise how far the encounter will take him. For Rick is exploring deep beneath the surface of the world, discovering new cave systems, one leading to the next. And when Alex is compelled to follow he has no way of knowing just how deep he will be expected to go, or how dark are the places he will find there . . .”

Mark West, who produced the video trailer for A Cold Season, has done another great job with The Eyes of Water. He’s even incorporated some moments from our holiday videos, filmed by my parter, Fergus:

Sadly, The Eyes of Water chapbook is sold out before publication. But Spectral have more lovely productions in the pipeline, with stories on the way from Mark West, Paul Kane, Dave Tallerman, Angela Slatter, Simon Bestwick, Robert Shearman and others. If you’d like to subscribe, the details are on Spectral’s website. There are some rather nice novellas on the way too, and for the writers among you, an open call for submissions for a Christmas ghost story anthology (deadline 30th June).

 

A Cold Silence

A Cold Silence

Acapulcalypse Now

Acapulcalypse Now

The Unquiet House

The Unquiet House

Path of Needles

Path of Needles

A Cold Season

A Cold Season