welcome to my page
WELCOME
You've probably gathered already that I write mostly horror ( I know, the banner kinda gave it away). I'd love you to check out my stories below. They're categorised accroding to average word count. The Bite Size horror stories are ideal if you're looking for a quick read, perhaps while communiting. The reason I say "mostly horror" is that my forthcoming seires Theft of Lies moves away from horror and focuses on fantasy, although there are strong paranormal elements. It's dark and gritty, filled with the fantastical; it's almost Guillermo-del-Toro like in places and sits somewhere between that and The Game of Thrones. I'd love you to check that out above.
Feel free to contact me about any of my work. Thanks for looking.
ABOUT COLIN
Colin lives in Buckinghamshire with his
wife and two daughters. He has been
interested in writing for many years,
influenced by such writers as Stephen King,
Dean Koontz and Clive Barker, finding
escapism between the pages of books, shaping his taste for the macabre. Villains and monsters, wondrous worlds and the capers of their inhabitants fed his imagination and in that he found his own dark places, monsters and heroes that whispered then shouted, demanding to be heard and liberated. So, here they are, waiting for fresh eyes to give them new forms and new life beyond his own renditions.
A vicar haunted by visions of horrific murders… but solving them may put him right in the hands of an unimaginable evil.
Divorcee Vicar Alex Jennings is making a fresh start in a new parish in the small quiet village of Trenton. He hopes his appointment will stifle those haunting visions of sacrifice and murder.
Skeletons ripped from men and women…
He soon realises that these visions drove him to this village, the city of which has now become the epicentre of a series of murders that are somehow linked to one that occurred over thirty years ago. His visions, torturing in their vagueness and teasing in their beckoning of answers, drives him to a bloodied corpse of a once-upon-a-time man. The more he tries to make sense of these visions and this gruesome discovery the more he becomes embroiled in a secret deadly pact and a police investigation that soon marks him as a principal suspect.
There are blasphemous beasts beneath this human-driven society. Things born of suffering, giving rise to a mish-mash of forms that the human mind would not dare imagine.
As he delves deeper into the cracks in the façade of this world, his faith becomes tested to its limits, his sanity pushed to breaking point. Can he solve an age-old murder and put a stop to the visions before they put him at the heart of an ancient evil that could destroy everything he knows.
MY WRITING
INFLUENCES
Thinking back over the years, there have been many literary influences - the writer behind the pen, the characters and the fantastical worlds in which they all exist. My favourite story I think has to be Mary Shelly's Frankenstein -The Modern Prometheus. A simple notion of animating a corpse, infusing the dead with life. The idea of defying death is one that resonates with us all, tapping into our fear of it, forcing us to acknowledge our own mortality, bringing the darkness of a past grief to the forefront of our minds. It's a story that explores humanity, questions the existence of a soul and weather or not it is even a requisite of human life.
Over the years, I suppose that the rawness of it, even the crudity of it, has been diluted to the rendering of a thousand incarnations, but the singular concept of "is there life in death?" has always remained.
This was not the first book I read. For me, It was Dean Koontz's Lightning that popped my literary cherry. I love this book and I regard it dearly and with nostalgia. I had read books before as a child but this was my first serious read, which in a way marked my adolescence with a maturity that I was reluctant to embrace. The story follows Laura Shane though her life, suffering the loss of her mother and father, enduring the hardships of an orphanage, losing friends along the way. It also follows the drive of a German soldier indigenous to the past, working for a government that develops time travel for the purpose of altering the outcome of WW2. But, he uses that power for his own purpose - to try and undo the bad in Laura's life. Every step of the way he's confronted by opposition in the form of fate and aggressors and soldiers that want him dead. Both stories ( Frankenstein and Lightning) have this is common: detrimental obsession. The characters here have a drive to achieve an objective, sensing, knowing, that their endeavours are simultaneously ruining them but they continue to the outcome of accomplishment and the prospect of self- sacrifice.
Clive Barker's stories have been another strong influence, gothic morbidity mingled with eroticism. Books of Blood, Weaveworld - some of my favourites. I've lost myself to his darkness more times than I can remember, always feeling slightly ashamed at having enjoyed the lasciviousness of his characters. I guess that my hope is that one day others will regard my stories with the same fondness. I hope you enjoy exploring my site. Feel free to contact me if you have an questions or just want to chat.
Thanks for reading.
Carl would do anything to protect his daughter. A beauty born of evil is about to put him to the test.
Following the murder of his wife, Carl struggles for closure. With the police no closer to finding her killer, Carl knows that he needs to move on for the sake of his only daughter.
Her approach was akin to the unwrapping of a gift, the contents of the darkness emerging to reveal more, to stir the imagination to a frenzy.
But after finding a seemingly innocent-looking box at a car-boot sale, Carl soon finds himself faced with beautiful women who fight for his acceptance and love, their affections leading to a dangerous obsession that threatens his and his daughter’s lives. As he learns more about them he realises that they are mere semblances of the female form, born of a supernatural power that is connected to him, his daughter and his past.
Even though she was the cause of his panic and fear, and June’s screams, her beauty even now managed to captivate him.
Carl must find the architect of these forms to save himself, his daughter...and much more than he thought possible.
MY FIRST FIVE STORIES
Bodies in Revolt
Flat Number 9
What Goes Around
Unto You
Skin Deep
Devlin found a new home, a new life, a new love… and a secret that could destroy it all.
Devlin thought he had found the perfect flat. He could call it his own, a mark of independence from his overbearing mother and controlling father. It was the middle finger to his cheating girlfriend.
Why would she leave without taken the thing that was most important to her?
Exploring the flat, Devlin finds a journal belonging to the previous tenant – Gwendolyn. The pages reveal her visions: a world of which she has no understanding but to which she is intrinsically linked. Through her entries he finds himself drawn to her. He starts to question her disappearance, attracting the attention of others who will do anything to stop him learning the truth. In his search for answers he learns of a ravaged, hate-filled history belonging to a different world. He finds the strength to dig past the lies and deception, deeper into a magic beyond these walls.
“It is what it is.” The man stepped to the wall again, and this time touched it, caressed it. “The essence of the chosen. It is the mirror in the magic box, the trapdoor on the grand stage of illusion. The blood of those…”
Can he find her before he is stopped, before she falls beyond his reach forever. Can he find the answers that will lead to the core of what awaits: a new identity and a love shrouded in destiny, displaced recollection and malice.
You can view these stories from the slides above if you like. Originally I wrote these as a collection of stories to be sold in one volume. Each one was supposed to be the same length as the first I wrote - What Goes Around - which was about 11k words. But, I got a bit carried away with them and some of these ended up being in excess of 50k words so I decided to publish them as standlone books.
To mark the completion of these, I created a vid in comic-strip style ... just because I wanted to really. Take a look; hope you like. You may need to unmute the vid to listen. The books are available on Amazon as well as all good stores (of course good stores. Not like I'll be putting them on stores that are so bad as to be akin to dodgy dealings from the back of a van in a side alley). Although, there's potential revenue there. Drop me a line if you want and let me know what you think. Would be good to hear from you... especially van owners.
They can run from the law, walk away from their victims… but they cannot escape themselves.
For Miles it was about money and power. For Will it was just to fit in. For Burney it was a struggle for independence. They all had their reasons for mugging and abusing the innocent.
Will notices that he’s being followed. Police? Have they finally found them, here to make them pay for what they’ve done? With the help of Burney and Miles they realise that they are being tracked and hunted by people from their past, seeking vengeance for an injustice. But as they delve deeper into their past to learn the identities of their pursuers, they soon realise that are not what they appear to be. These people, these things, know their every move; understand them better than they know themselves. The three of them are pitted against each other in a battle of mistrust and deception that escalates to violence and murder.
The answer was staring at her. It was Will – deformed and twisted, but it was somehow him.
If they are to find the source of their retribution, they must first survive each other.
His victims were easy prey. But this killer is about to meet his match – his own conscience.
Malachi works for a delivery company. He visits his languishing mother in the nursing home. And during his spare time, he likes to murder people with his weapon of choice – scissors. He buries his victims out at his special place – the barn. As they rot, so he strengthens finding power and growth in their eternal state of unrest.
He stood over the body, wanting to feel what any normal person should feel. But since the deaths of his brother and father he had never been normal.
Someone is following him, has been for days. The police? A confrontation leads to the unveiling of secrets, of a past that awakens an inner enemy that is greater than any he has faced: compunction.
Will Malachi fall victim to his own conscience, or can he bury his contrition as easily as he has his victims?
They say you cannot change fate. But Cyrus must change his, or face one far worse than death.
Cyrus finds himself boarding a train, having no idea why or how he came to be there. His mental anguish is accompanied by physical pain and as he begins his journey he realises he’s been injured. Was he attacked? Mugged? He seeks the help of one passenger but as she attempts to comfort him, he senses that she’s keeping him from learning the truth of what happened.
He touched his fingers to his head before bringing them into view. Blood!
As he questions her and his surroundings, he realises that the passengers are not what they appear to be and that they and she are somehow connected to a past he cannot remember. The train keeps going, passing one stop after another. Malformed monsters emerge from the carriages, adding to his struggle to stop the train.
There was nothing but blackness behind the lids of his eyes and as the woman slipped from his awareness, he wondered if he was drifting into death.
Will Cyrus remember his past in time to survive his future? Will stop the train in time to change his fate?
