Steve Toase

Offer for 25% off pre-orders of Curious Cats and Fantastical Felines by Willow Winsham, valid on the Waterstones website and app from 14-17 October. Showing the book cover, with an orange background, title text on white and four tabby cats prancing around the words.

Waterstones are offering 25% off my pre-orders of my next book, Curious Cats and Fantastical Felines!
Enter code OCTOBER25 at checkout on the Waterstones website or app, valid until 17th October.

I think a year is good, but I've had ones that have not been published for two years or so. However, I think good communication is the key. Keeping in touch, especially if things drift etc, makes a huge difference.

Having lived in Munich, the idea of an apartment for €600 feels like scifi.

Kicking off this November, I'll be taking a look at the world of WRITING SHORT STORIES for four weeks - and it's all happening online, so you can join us from anywhere! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/writing-sh... #shortstories #shortstory #writing #writers #authors #fiction

YouTube video by Johnny Cash - Topic I See A Darkness

6Music just played this, which is a damn powerful cover to play on daytime radio youtu.be/vM3HKEHdN-k?...

If you like a kind of dark creative story telling the likes of which you have not experienced before, check this out 💯

He did it again for the 5 year anniversary

Snoopy and peanuts seemed to be a parallel thing, but is still out there a little bit (disclosure, I do have a snoopy biker t-shirt, because it's funny). Maybe Garfield became Minions in some kind of Pokémon evolution.

Looking back at photos from the eighties and it appears we have a collective amnesia about how ubiquitous Garfield was. Phones, clothes, stuck in the back of cars. Was there a secret cult worshipping him in the eighties, giving him power?

Well, that's definitely a thing...

I endorse this book.

A really good collection, and a steal at the price.

The cover of Dirt Upon My Skin by Steve Toase, featuring a black background and a circle with a pattern made up of brown trowels in the centre

Do you like archaeology? Do you like horror? Do you like archaeological horror?* I have the book for you. Ten stories, £5.99 for the paperback or £1.49 for the ebook.

blackshuckbooks.co.uk/shadows-37/

*different from horror archaeology like a winter watching brief in the snow, finding nowt.

Good Vibrations

📌 buff.ly/U17rzaN
📚 buff.ly/QRDiR7u

What an amazing album. I remember going on a huge Bonnie Prince Billy deep dive after seeing Dead Man's Shoes.

Are you ready for HELLEBORE’s first short story anthology?

👉🏼Pre-orders for Tales of Occult Britain are open worldwide on helleborezine.com

I'll be at World FantasyCon in Brighton! You can find me:
- 9pm Thursday, Satirical Fantasy, Edinburgh Panel Room 3
- 1pm Sunday, Writing For That Popular Tabletop Wargame, Balmoral Panel Room 1

...and just, y'know, generally around. I'll probably commit karaoke on Saturday.

Eeek go listen!! I had so much fun 🥰

I mean, a friend had a rescued jackdaw that would fly into neighbours windows and peck their eyes to see if they were asleep, or dead and had become a tasty snack, but "Eyes were out on jackdaws." doesn't scan so well.

That would be shocking.

Novels are just comics consisting of one picture and an overwritten caption.

The IT™ Virtual Challenge | The Conqueror Follow the Losers’ Club’s journey as they uncover Derry’s dark history, descend into the sewers, and confront Pennywise, where everyone floats.

Conqueror Challenges are releasing an It challenge. Surely if they were going to do a Stephen King themed challenge, The Long Walk would have been more thematically appropriate... www.theconqueror.events/it/?utm_sour...

3:00 pm – 4:00 pm Reading Gloucester Reading Room 2 Reading Group 10 (Horror) Participants: Steve Toase Hildur Knútsdóttir Dave Jeffery Tags: Horror Reading

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm Talk Oxford Main room Launch: Newcon Press Newcon Press are launching two exciting titles: Futures to Live By, Ana Sun and Blood in the Bricks edited by Neil Williamson with cover art from Vincent Chong. Participants: Ana Sun Neil Williamson Vincent Chong James Bennett Tim Major Joanna Corrance Lyndsey Croal (she/her) Ellis Saxey Phil Sloman Steve Toase Chair: Ian Whates Tags: Collection Launch publishing

3:00 pm – 4:00 pm Panel Oxford Main room The Weird Fiction Panel Weird fiction creates existential dread by the intrusion of the “impossible” into a representation of the real world. Could this be a horror that lingers beyond the fear? Or a fantasy that remains strange to us? Join us to discuss the unique qualities of Weird Fiction, the historical writers and the current practice. Participants: Dan Coxon Steve Toase J.S. Breukelaar Joanna Corrance Chair: Dave Jeffery Tags: fantasy Horror Linge rMyth Scare Weird

7:30 pm – 9:00 pm Ceremony Oxford Main room British Fantasy Awards & The Aldiss Award. With the British Fantasy Society and Tim Aldiss Participants: David Green Chair: Shona Kinsella (she/her) Tags: Awards fantasy Horror

The full programme for @worldfantasy2025.bsky.social is up, and this is where I'll be over the weekend. Really looking forward to reading, and the panels, and thrilled that my @blackshuckbooks.bsky.social collection Dirt Upon My Skin is shortlisted for Best Collection in the British Fantasy Awards.

Bronze figurine of a walking skeleton with elongated limbs and detailed ribcage, shown against a dark gradient background.

Halloween is near! It's time to post this marvellous articulated Roman skeleton, presumably meant to be a reminder to enjoy life to the fullest, since pleasure ends irrevocably with death.
In Petronius’ Satyricon, the host of a dinner party brings out a small skeleton with moveable...🧵1/2

tanithleestoryteller.com “Storyteller: A Tanith Lee Tribute Anthology is a lovely tribute, indeed. From the first tale to the last, a deep love and admiration for Lee’s life and work shines through in each authors’ interpretation of her distinctive style and voice. These sixteen stories capture the spirit of Tanith Lee’s fiction with their elaborate world-building, complicated consequences, and wild magic everywhere. It is a wonder to see how unique and yet how familiar this anthology feels.”--Nerdgoblin.com

“Storyteller: A Tanith Lee Tribute Anthology is a lovely tribute, indeed. From the first tale to the last, a deep love and admiration for Lee’s life and work shines through in each authors’ interpretation of her distinctive style and voice. These sixteen stories capture the spirit of Tanith Lee’s fiction with their elaborate world-building, complicated consequences, and wild magic everywhere. It is a wonder to see how unique and yet how familiar this anthology feels.”--Nerdgoblin.com

Two lovely reviews for Storyteller just showed up! I'll be on the Tanith Lee panel at the World Fantasy Convention later this month. If you haven't picked up a copy yet, you can find it at all the usual places, including tanithleestoryteller.com

Great news!

Post you from a different era.

These are about 18 months apart.

One of my favourite events of the year. Really looking forward to going back in November.

I had a great conversation with @drrachelknightley.bsky.social at The Writers' Gym, talking about writing, being in different worlds, embodiment, rejections, Shimmer Magazine, writing as gardening, and many other topics.
drrachelknightley.podbean.com/e/rachel-kni...

Thank you! I hope it works well as a collection.