INTERVIEW: MARK CASSELL - PART ONE

Welcome to Part One of Confessions of a Reviewer’s interview with an author who is, quite possibly, one of the nicest men you will ever meet at a con.

Tonight, we present Mr Mark Cassell.

I first met Mark at Emcon in Nottingham earlier in the year and was immediately impressed by his manor and his set up at the con. This has developed into meeting him a couple of times now and we have had quite a lot of contact putting this together and I have to say my initial impressions were spot on.

In Part One, tonight, Mark talks about himself and his writing in general. He also talks about his obsession with seventies singing star, Leo Sayer, and gives us some info on what he’s doing and how he does it.

Part Two, tomorrow night, features chat all about the new book, some more general stuff and of course The Ten Confessions where it turns out Mr Cassell has one or two demons of his own hiding in closets!

Wednesday sees the Confessions review of his book The Shadow Fabric followed by showing it off on Thursday.

Nothing left to say at this point other than go grab some nibbles and a drink and sit back, and most of all……enjoy!

CoaR – So, tell everyone a bit about yourself in general. Who is Mark Cassell and what is he about?

MC - I'm a guy who lives on the south coast of England with my wife, a cat, a rabbit, and a guinea pig. And I have far too many apocalyptic dreams featuring Sean Bean.

CoaR - Do you have a boring pay the bills job or are you a bone fide writer?

MC - I'm part-time scribe, part-time driving instructor. Twelve years ago I dropped the yes-sir-no-sir shit to embrace self-employment. Becoming an instructor has proven invaluable, now giving me a flexibility to write. It's only recently I've dropped to around fifteen hours a week, leaving me more time for writing.

CoaR - Why writing? Why decide on that as a career?

MC - I need to get the weird stuff out of my head. I can't draw or paint, so I did the word thing.

CoaR - That it? No long winded story about how your family always wanted a writer in the family and because you were the last hope they made you write short stories on the back of toilet paper?

MC - I could give you some profound bollocks about one day discovering the written word where inspiration slapped me across the face and I began writing.

But no, nothing like that.

I've always enjoyed writing, certainly, and I've always loved telling stories and letting my imagination wander. It's a bonus that I'm able to pour it out in written form. Plus, it's a bonus that there are people out there who enjoy my work. Then on top of that, those readers demand more. That's why I'm chasing this.

CoaR - Take us through your process for a story. How do you start it and follow it through to the final product?

MC - Often it'll be a title that I work from, or perhaps even an opening line, then I free-write a first draft where it spews out like a kid's written it. I'll build and sculpt the story rather than write it linear, often going back to delete chunks, shift stuff around and cringe. For me it's a slow process whatever the word count. There are many, many drafts.

CoaR - You seem to be one of those quiet men in the indie horror world. There isn’t much info out there about you, including your own site. Is this how you like it or is it all for show?

MC - Perhaps it's both for show and the way I like it!

CoaR - What’s it worth for me to keep some of the secrets to myself?

MC - A free copy of my next book? I'll sign it and give you a bookmark. In all honesty though, I guess my fiction gives you a good insight into what makes Mark Cassell tick. Not only that, I'd rather write a story than write stuff for my website.

CoaR - How do you keep track of your ideas? Do you carry a notebook with you everywhere or write stuff on the back of your hand?

MC - Notebooks. Everywhere. In every room. That's why I wear combats pretty much all the time, so damn handy with their many pockets.

CoaR - Music seems to play a big part in your life. As I type this I know you are at a festival. How did it go? Who did you like best? I know you were excited to see Leo Sayer!

MC - Haha! Leo bloody Sayer! I was there for the camping and the company, not really the music. Adam Ant headlined and although I think I was keen to see him, I spent the duration of his set necking beer outside our tents. The whole weekend consisted of me emptying beer cans.

CoaR - In case there is someone out there who is unfamiliar with Leo Sayer, Mark asked me to add this video. It’s one of his personal favs.

CoaR - On a serious note, I noticed a Dream Theater quote on your site. Do you reckon, like me, they went to hell when Mike Portnoy left?

MC - Absolutely hell all the way. I often play their albums, and the one I always bounce back to is Images and Words. What year was that produced? '92 I think (I'm not Googling it, can’t be arsed). I reckon my music tastes are stuck in the early 90’s. I often try to tune into new stuff and of different genres, but I always lean on rock and metal of that decade.

CoaR - It was 1992. You Googled it, didn’t you?

MC - Believe me, I didn't! I also know their Awake album was released in 1994. Back when music came in plastic cases rather than clickable links onscreen, I would read—no, I'd devour—the inlay cards. Remember when those inlays featured lyrics, too? Does that still happen?

CoaR – I believe it does but I am a Spotify man now!

CoaR - Can you tell us if any of the characters in your books are based on people you have come across in your life or maybe even yourself?

MC - I'm a horror writer and I kill people. Every one of my stories contains characters sharing traits with those I've met and yeah, even family members. As for myself, the main character of my debut novel has a knee injury, and that's just one example among many where a character's life parallels my own.

CoaR - Did you get embarrassed when you came back from your pee at Horror Con and realised I had sold all your stuff while watching your table? Were you even more embarrassed at the fact I had to give people their change out of my own pocket?

MC - I never get embarrassed; I'm emotionally stunted. Besides, you know I desperately needed that pee. I did consider doing it under the table, you know?

CoaR - Yeah, I had a look under the table. What was with all the masks?

MC - Those, my friend, are the faces of my enemies. Seeing that you still have your face intact and it is not now a leathery feature in my collection, shows you're not an enemy. Let's keep it that way.

CoaR - Are you ever going to give me that change back?

MC - Dude! Did I not pay you back? Sorry, man. How much do I owe you?

CoaR - It was 50p. I was 50p short for my taxi to the train station so I had to walk. Was the pee worth that?

MC - I'm outta change right now, so it'll have to be an I-owe-you. That okay? Besides, walking's good for you; keeps the blood flowing.

CoaR - Tell us about Chaos Halo?

MC - It's an ongoing dystopian cyberpunk saga inspired by the images of Future Chronicles Photography, first published in their zine. I often attend conventions with them, and their cosplayers and models have proven invaluable for ideas.

Only released a couple of months ago, Chaos Halo 1.0: Alpha Beta Gamma Kill is already pulling some fantastic reviews. Someone recently said it's like "Blade Runner meets Mad Max…with a cyborg chick."

CoaR - So this is definitely going to continue?

MC - It will. I have a whole notebook dedicated to the protagonist, Abigail, and what she learns of her origins. Right now however, the Chaos Halo series is taking a back seat so I can concentrate on the Shadow Fabric Mythos.

CoaR - Who would be the authors you would give the credit of being your influences and who do you just not “get”?

MC - Brian Lumley is up there among my top influences, with his awesome Necroscope series where he perfects the crossovers between horror and fantasy. There's a slice of Sci-Fi in there, too. Next, I have to say the boundary-leaping Clive Barker: his supernatural stuff is off the chart.

As for an author I do not get, I have tried countless times to read Terry Pratchett. I fail every time.

CoaR - What’s the most difficult part of writing for you?

MC - Shoving aside the procrastination demon, that sneaky bastard. Social media is a time drainer, but you gotta be seen to be active right?

CoaR - Talking of social media, why do you have a website, and a blog?

MC - Sad as it is to say, these days I hardly ever blog. I just want to write! My hits are pretty low and I rarely add content.

However, my website does lead directly to a Free Story subscriber list, and that's where the attention goes (www.markcassell.com). I'm actually amazed at how that list has grown since I first started handing out those freebies. I guess everyone loves free stories, right?

Plus, I have a Shadow Fabric page (www.theshadowfabric.co.uk) where all things to do with the mythos exists. It even features fan art, and some of that is astounding. One fan has actually had the Shadow Fabric sigil tattooed on her foot. The website is slowly growing, but it needs a keen eye for expansion.

Again, I'd rather be writing.

CoaR - What would your ultimate wish be with your writing?

MC - Simply a healthy readership, a committed following, and I know I'm blessed with those I have already. On top of that, I'd love to see the Shadow Fabric Mythos become a role playing game, or even adapted into graphic novels. You know, to really expand the concept. I'm already in talks with some artists.

Well unfortunately that is it for Part One of the interview. Please remember to come back tomorrow night for Part Two.

And please remember to tell your friends.

Thanks again for visiting Confessions of a Reviewer.

Mark Cassell lives in a rural part of the UK with his wife and a number of animals. He often dreams of dystopian futures, peculiar creatures, and flitting shadows. Primarily a horror writer, his steampunk, dark fantasy, and SF stories have featured in numerous anthologies and ezines including Rayne Hall's Ten Tales series and horror zine, Sirens Call.

His best-selling debut novel, The Shadow Fabric, is closely followed by the popular short story collection, Sinister Stitches, and are both only a fraction of an expanding mythos. His most recent release, Chaos Halo 1.0: Alpha Beta Gamma Kill, is in association with Future Chronicles Photography.

And for more about Mark, visit his site or find him on social media:

Website – Facebook – Twitter – Goodreads – Amazon Page - Blog

GUEST POST: Confessions of my Past, Present and Future #50 - Mark Cassell

Confessions of my Past, Present and Future

by

Mark Cassell

The Past

I don't know when I first became aware of Brian Lumley's work, nor whether he indeed inspired me to become a horror writer. Atop that, I certainly cannot remember how old I was when I read his 1986 novel, Necroscope. Before I say anything more, I'll allow Mr Lumley to explain what a Necroscopeactually is (pulled from his website www.brianlumley.com):

Tele- (Gk. tele: ‘far’.) A telescope is an optical instrument which enlarges images of distant objects. For example: the surface of the Moon may be viewed as from only a few hundred miles away.

Micro- (Gk. mikros: ‘small’) A microscope is an optical instrument which makes small objects visible to the human eye. Through a microscope, a drop of ‘clear’ water is seen to contain countless unsuspected micro-organisms.

Necro- (Gk. nekros: ‘a corpse’) A Necroscope is a human instrument which permits access to the minds of the dead. Harry Keogh is a Necroscope – he knows the thoughts of corpses in their graves.

The main difference between these instruments is this: the first two perform purely physical, one-way functions. They are incapable of changing anything. The Moon cannot look back through the telescope; the amoeba does not know it is under microscopic scrutiny.

That’s Harry Keogh’s big problem: his talent seems to work both ways. The dead know – and they won’t lie still for it!

For me, it's the way Lumley dunks the reader headfirst into the Cold War era, where British and Russian secret services use psychic investigators and spies. That's where Harry Keogh, Necroscope, comes into play. At just over five hundred pages, the novel is a little wordy at first yet Lumley weaves Rumanian history and ancient lore into an incredible story, combining secret agents and time travel, and introduces some seriously vicious undead creatures. These are in no way your typical vampires. For a novel that's thirty years old, it can still hold its ground.

Indeed, what Harry discovers beneath the ground of the Rumanian mountains has to be my favourite antagonist in literature.

Since the novel's release, the concept became a fifteen book series. The first three—the original trilogy, no less—are by far the most ground breaking. In the third instalment, The Source, we're taken into the source world where Lumley tears apart all we know of werewolves and vampires to lay down his own rules. Here, he creates new myths and legends which reveal some truly gruesome characters.

Those guys don't just bite people, they ravage them.

This was the first time I'd experienced a piece of work that expertly played the cross-genre game. Lumley crafts horror, fantasy, and science fiction together to rewrite our legends.

The Present

Bringing us to today's literature, only last week I placed back on its shelf a novel that gripped me from the first page. Being a storyteller myself, I am one fussy bastard, and seeing that I could not put the damned thing down, this is a book I must shout about. I'm talking about Paul Kane's Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell, a three hundred and eighty-page stonker that yanks the classic detective into Clive Barker's Hellraiserworld.

I am a huge fan of the Hellraiser movies as well as the original novella, The Hellbound Heart, let alone Barker's work in general, so when I heard of this novel I was quick to scrawl it on my birthday wish-list. Incidentally, I've recently gone under the needle and had a Lovecraftian tattoo sleeve that includes the sneaky appearance of six puzzle boxes. Such is my fandom level.

In The Servants of Hell, Holmes and Watson investigate a missing person's case, and the pair are drawn into dealings with a shadowy organisation known as The Order of the Gash. Written in such a way to be unique, this novel masterfully mirrors Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's delivery of his finest supernatural tales from back in the 19th century. Alongside that, it reflects a precision of Barker-esque horror where all hell breaks loose and snatches the reader into familiar settings for both Hellraiser and Holmes fans.

Kane manages to portray the Hellraiser world better than the original author managed in his 2015 novel, The Scarlet Gospels. Needless to say I was disappointed with that one. The only way I can describe Barker's Gospels as a novel, let alone a Hellraiser episode, is it lacks substance; there's little to the characters, the setting, and sadly even the Cenobites themselves failed to shine. Anyone familiar with the Hellraiser franchise knows the importance of the Cenobites because they are, after all, Servants of Hell.

Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell had such sights to show me, and I was not let down.

The Future

So here I am, supposed to look to the future, to see as far as thirty years from now… And damn, that's tricky. What will I be writing? What will I be reading?

First up, I'll be seventy years old. Mark Cassell: an elderly gentleman with white tufts of hair sprouting from a liver-spotted scalp, seated with a slight hunch from squinting into some new technological wonder into which he's plugged, imagining his stories, his masterpieces, direct to digital format. All the while, no doubt, confused at the world and how the youth of that day aren't a patch on what he once was.

Just like my music tastes are mostly stuck in the 90’s, I imagine my reading preferences would be the same where I'll revert to the classics of my generation. But of course I'll dig deep into my peers' work, and I'll keep up with current trends. I most definitely refuse to become stale, to hate all the new drivel that's on the shelves. Or would that all be digital shelves because no one uses paper anymore?

As for what I'll be writing…

I'll let you into a little secret: my debut novel The Shadow Fabric as a title was first scribbled back in 1991 (Holy shit, that’s twenty-five years ago). Supernatural, the paranormal, demonology, witchcraft, ghosts and creatures of the night have always fascinated me, so I doubt that'll change. Thirty years from now? I'll still explore the furthest reaches of the Other Side, of the darkness where demons and spirits and hell's creatures lay in wait. Perhaps by the time I'm in my seventies, I'll have shaken hands with at least one of them.

I know for sure the Shadow Fabric Mythos will have become something larger by then. I do wonder how many novels and novellas will have extended the original concept. Indeed, how the Fabric will unravel further.

In addition to dabbling with the dark arts, if only in my written work, I would like to think that I would've finally expanded on my steampunk universe and have something out there in novel form. A series would be nice, but a standalone novel would be just as satisfying.

For those unfamiliar with steampunk as a genre, think of it as science fiction but without spaceships, robots or laser guns. Instead, there are air balloons, clockwork automatons and gas-powered rifles, all typically set in an alternative Victorian England. There's even steam-powered motorcycles rather than hover-cars, corsets rather than spandex.

A couple of years ago when editor Rayne Hall first approached me to write a story for her then-upcoming anthology, Cogwheels: Ten Tales of Steampunk, I hadn't read anything in that genre. Let alone written anything. I immediately devoured a number of books and eventually developed a tale of a disabled engineer whose automaton breaks free to run amok through a sleeping town. Titled Hole in the Sky, this story inspired me to follow up with several flash fiction pieces if only to see if the concept could be expanded.

As way of signing out, here I'll leave you one of those flash fiction stories:

Monice

By Mark Cassell

Smoke dirtied the moonlight, and fires crackled beyond the trees. The gas lamps that remained upright still glowed, drenching the dead in a putrid yellow. Most of the town's residents had fled to the park only to be trampled or ravaged or snatched into cavernous mouths.

Now the screams had stopped, Monice knew she was alone. At her feet the Commander’s body lay twisted into the mud. A three-clawed impression had crushed his weapon. And his head. The mud and grass blended with skull and hair, flesh and oxygen mask. Shell casings glinted.

Like discarded mannequins, her platoon surrounded her in various mangled states. Monice had been the only one to take cover beneath the crumpled sheet of metal she guessed was an airship wing. Its length had protected her from the onslaught as she'd fired round after round at those...things.

She licked dry lips and adjusted her dented armour. Her comrades' blood smeared the breastplate.

In a surprisingly steady hand, she hefted her rifle. A green light pulsed within the valves, and chemicals bubbled through coiled tubes. Of late, the Ministry were spending a heap of taxpayers’ money on weapon modifications. The contraptors in research and development had unparalleled reputations but the mods had so far proved inefficient.

She refused to end up like the rest of her platoon. Besides, she had aspirations to head for Sky Island once her duty ended. This was, indeed will be, her last duty to the King.

Something crashed—a tree perhaps—and a roar echoed on the smoky air.

Over the trees and beyond the park, tentacles lashed the sky. Claws, too, on gnarled fingers. Spirals of smoke curled as those fleshy limbs whipped and tore away the top branches.

More trees crashed. The ground shook.

Those things were close.

Time to move. Towards them.

Mud squelched and she ran into the shadows. For now, the trees would offer protection. She knew where the creatures were most likely headed: the town centre, near the zoo, the clock tower. That was where it had all began. No more than a couple of hours ago the tower created a portal, only to snap shut on an emerging creature. That one was dead. Speculation from the Ministry suggested that now the fabric between worlds had torn it was inevitable more beings would come through. And they had, amidst a vortex that spat red lightning. Two beings slithered into the world, and the rip in space proceeded to suck everything into it.

The hulk of a fallen evacuation ship loomed over her. At least half of it—the other half, she could only imagine, was in another world.

The curved panels of the fuselage lay buckled and tangled with shreds of balloon fabric. Blood caked the inside of the cracked windows. Suspension cables snaked across the grass. Glass and iron splinters littered the area. Plus, several bodies, some with missing limbs.

She ran faster.

Once these creatures were defeated, her duty to the country would end. Then Sky Island.

Time to find a larger weapon…

You can buy The Shadow Fabric here:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

You can buy any of Mark’s other books here.

Amazon US

Amazon UK

If you would like to help support Confessions of a Reviewer, then please consider using the links below to buy any of the books mentioned in this feature. This not only supports me but also lets me know how many people actually like to buy books after reading my reviews.

Thanks.

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Mark Cassell lives in a rural part of the UK with his wife and a number of animals. He often dreams of dystopian futures, peculiar creatures, and flitting shadows. Primarily a horror writer, his steampunk, dark fantasy, and SF stories have featured in numerous anthologies and ezines including Rayne Hall's Ten Tales series and horror zine, Sirens Call.

His best-selling debut novel, The Shadow Fabric, is closely followed by the popular short story collection, Sinister Stitches, and are both only a fraction of an expanding mythos. His most recent release, Chaos Halo 1.0: Alpha Beta Gamma Kill, is in association with Future Chronicles Photography.

And for more about Mark, visit his site or find him on social media:

Website – Facebook – Twitter – Goodreads – Amazon Page - Blog

REVIEW: David Bernstein - The Sludge

Genre: Horror

Publisher: Great Old Ones Publishing

Publication Date: 4^th July 2016

Pages: 131

REVIEWED BY NEV

A copy of The Sludge was sent to Confessions of a Reviewer by the author, David Bernstein, in exchange for an honest review. This is said review. This book is published by Great Old Ones Publishing.

Sometimes this reviewing game throws you surprises. A lot in fact. A lot of welcome surprises. One of them that never fails to amaze me is the fact that, sometimes you read someone’s work and rave about it. Then you pick up something else of theirs and it doesn’t do a lot for you. When you review it, you automatically think that is the last you will hear from that author. Think this reviewing lark is easy? It’s a minefield I tell you.

David Bernstein’s last book, A mixed Bag of Blood was a collection that I didn’t really connect with. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it, but it didn’t grab me the way some of his other stuff has.

I was delighted when David sent me a copy of The Sludge to review. Firstly, because he hadn’t fallen out with me, and secondly because…..well…..just look at that cover! It screams old skool horror! I couldn’t wait to get my teeth into it.

This is what I thought.

Bull and John are removing some toxic waste. They should dispose of it carefully but they are just going to dump it in Lolo National Forest.

They throw it in a lake and it mixes with some stuff they dumped years ago and starts a chain of events that will create a monster no one thought could ever exist.

Cole and Derrick are brothers. They are about to rob a bank with their friend, Dirk. The plan is to hide out in Lolo after the job is done.

Edgar, June, Kim and Tyler are hiking in Lolo when they stumble across the camp belonging to the brothers. Everyone is in for the shock of their lives.

The Sludge is brewing.

Our characters in this one are bloody brilliant. Bull and John aren’t in it for too long so can’t say much about them other than they are twats for what they did. Cole and Derrick are brilliant. Small time criminals with big time ambitions convinced that robbing a bank is the answer to their prayers. They probably would have been right if they picked somewhere else to hide out.

Edgar and June are a couple. Both outdoor types and totally into their hiking. June is a nurse and seems to be pretty worldly wise but Edgar is a different matter. Kim and Tyler are a couple too. Kim is like Edgar and Tyler like June. Seems to me like they should swap. They also keep a lot of secrets.

Then of course we have The Sludge. I’m not going to tell you what it is or what it looks like. Just look at the cover. How it comes to be is unrealistic and nothing short of fantasy but you know what? It is superb. Think B movie person in a rubber suit type monster. Stupid in one sense but creepy in another.

The plot is simple. Take the three situations mentioned above and mix them all together and throw in some sludge. The thing that I love about the way David Bernstein writes this stuff though is that although the plot is simple and follows a certain path, it is unpredictable. You can guess what way things are going to go. The chances are you will be wrong though. The variables always change when you don’t expect them to. It’s like a rollercoaster you have never been on before. You know you are going to get thrills but you just don’t know when or where.

Mr Bernstein has a knack for writing stories that make you feel at ease very early. You feel like you belong. You can imagine yourself being there watching everything that is happening or even taking part yourself. He makes it believable. This is why I enjoy his stuff so much. There is nothing complicated about it. You can set it down for days on end if you wanted to and when you pick it up again you don’t have to try and remind yourself what the story was doing. It hits you as soon as you start to read again.

I have a negative though. Not enough horror for me. When you start to learn of The Sludge’s transformation – from what, and into what, I am not going to tell you – it is horrific. You will cringe at the description of how it interacts with a human. You will feel sick. You may hold onto parts of your body very tightly.

When it makes an appearance in the story, it is genuinely creepy and tense. It just doesn’t happen enough for me. Doesn’t make the story any worse, it just could have been a bit scarier.

To summarise: a good old fashioned monster story that could be directly out of a comic. Brilliant characters again that are easy to read and make the story flow very well. Just needed some more scares for me.

General rating:

★★★★ nearly there.

Horror rating:

★★★ needed more for me.

If you would like to help support Confessions of a Reviewer, then please consider using the links below to buy The Sludge or any other books from David. This not only supports me but also lets me know how many people actually like to buy books after reading my reviews.

Thanks.

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Book Synopsis:

Deep in Montana's Lolo National Forest, toxic waste is leaking from aged oil drums and mixing with a new batch of biological sludge that has been dumped into a remote lake. It sickens, it mutates, and like cancer, it spreads and devours.

A group of hiker’s stumble upon bank robbers who've been hiding out in the forest. Held at gunpoint, they soon discover they are being hunted by a vicious predator, and it will take their combined efforts to make it out of the forest alive.

CONFESSIONS REVIEWS DAVID BERNSTEIN

Skinner

Goblins

A Mixed Bag of Blood

Jackpot

I am a dark fiction writer, a horror writer. I write the gamut, from atmospheric horror to extreme gory horror to dark fiction and dark thriller, oh, and the occasional bizarro tale.

Gory: The Unhinged, Damaged Souls, Witch Island, Apartment 7C, Amongst the Dead

Extreme horror: The Unhinged (you were warned)

Horror with a twist: The Tree Man, Apartment 7C

Zombie fiction: Machines of the Dead trilogy. Amongst the Dead.

Darkfuse horror: Relic of Death, Surrogate, Skinner (coming July 2015)

Dark thriller/supernatural/ action: Tears of No Return, Toxic Behemoth

Monster horror: Toxic Behemoth (Deep Sea/Kaiju book)

Bizarro/Gross out/funny horror: Fecal Terror

And for more about David, visit his site or find him on social media:

Website – Facebook – Twitter – Goodreads – Amazon Page - Sinister Grin Press

NEXT WEEK: A WEEK OF MARK CASSELL

Next week sees another of Confessions week long features on an author we think you should be reading more of, and certainly one we think you will be seeing a lot more of in the years to come.

If you have been to any cons in the UK recently you will probably have met him, and you will probably agree as well, that he is one of the nicest, most approachable guys in the UK horror scene.

We talk, of course, about the one and only, Mark Cassell.

I met Mark a few months ago and picked up a couple of his books, one of which was The Shadow Fabric. This is a book that you should really pick up to get a feeling of how this man writes. If you go to a con as well, don’t be shy, introduce yourself to him. He is always up for a chat. Then steal all his sweets and run away very fast!

It all kicks off on Sunday with his Past, Present and Future confession. Monday and Tuesday will see parts One and Two of an interview with the man himself. Wednesday night is the review of The Shadow Fabric and Thursday is me showing off my own copy of the book to give you an idea of what to expect when you buy it!

Make sure you all come back next week, and don’t forget to tell your friends!

Thanks again for visiting Confessions of a Reviewer.

Nev.

Mark Cassell lives in a rural part of the UK with his wife and a number of animals. He often dreams of dystopian futures, peculiar creatures, and flitting shadows. Primarily a horror writer, his steampunk, dark fantasy, and SF stories have featured in numerous anthologies and ezines including Rayne Hall's Ten Tales series and horror zine, Sirens Call.

His best-selling debut novel, The Shadow Fabric, is closely followed by the popular short story collection, Sinister Stitches, and are both only a fraction of an expanding mythos. His most recent release, Chaos Halo 1.0: Alpha Beta Gamma Kill, is in association with Future Chronicles Photography.

And for more about Mark, visit his site or find him on social media:

Website – Facebook – Twitter – Goodreads – Amazon Page - Blog