Early ReviewersRebecca Gransden

A collection of stories to repulse and delight.

The majority of the tales included in this collection were written near a decade ago, and most are available here for the first time.

Dangerous creatures, neglected kids and dejected employees face the weird, odd and perilous. Enter a world where possessed pageant girls get their revenge, a pigeon leads to an underground cult, and a video game mod threatens to unleash hell itself. Enjoy fourteen stories of spite, mischief, and malevolence!

Ten stories. For decades, Humankind sent transmissions around the globe. In addition to reaching every corner of the planet, the signals travelled beyond, into the dark void of space. All of broadcast history made its way gracefully through the stars, racing into the unknown—until the mid 1980s, when nuclear mushroom clouds plumed in the skies of Earth’s Third World War. The magnitude of the explosions caused the extinction of life on Earth, and sent a shockwave through the fabric of reality. Due to this anomaly, all broadcasts running at the time of the bombs hurtled into space at an impossible speed. The signals, disobeying natural laws, outran and passed all transmissions from previous eras, leaving them far behind. At the head of Earth’s messages to the cosmos travelled the collective broadcasts from one atomic day in history. In a remote star system, eyes turned towards the approaching 1980s transmissions. Curious consciousnesses examined the broadcasts from the strange extinct civilisation of Earth. Filled with these transmissions, the distant consciousnesses devised their response. They returned it in the form of their own transmission, directed back to the origin of its inspiration—1980s Earth. That transmission is Creepy Sheen.

One tower. One EXIT. Smoke fills the city air, choking the street, curling up and around the tower. Kattar Bassis hits the ground and crawls blindly through the chaos. A light shines out in the black, leading him to the entranceway of his building. So begins his ascent and search for the ever elusive EXIT.

In Hilligoss, a tired man searches for a son, a flamingo enthrals the night, and fireworks light up the lost. In these stories and more, Rusticles offers a meandering tour through backroads bathed in half light, where shadows play along the verges and whispers of the past assault daydreams of the present. Walk the worn pathways of Hilligoss.

A young girl emerges out of the woods. David is in the middle of wrestling with an unsatisfactory existence when she enters his life. He decides to look out for the girl, but he soon discovers she may not be all she seems. Together they decide to seek out a place of safety, away from a world that could misunderstand their relationship. As their troubles come to the surface, events take a turn that will have life-changing consequences for the both of them. An unconventional story with elements of magical realism and urban fantasy, this novel embraces the surreal and incorporates unusual and neglected places. A type of mystery that aims to worm its way into your soul.