Nightjar Press are publishing two of my short stories as signed, limited edition chapbooks. I've been a massive Nightjar fan from the very first time I read a pair (Joel Lane's Black Country and Alison Moore's When the Door Closed, It was Dark) and have since collected them all. Run by writer and editor Nicholas Royle, the press specialises in the kind of stories I love best, those that make you uneasy and linger in the mind. Obviously, I'm shamelessly plugging mine here, but I'd urge you to think about buying others that haven't sold out yet, too. The last two titles were by GA Pickin and Christopher Kenworthy and the two before that were by Tom Fletcher and Christopher Burns.
The wonderful covers for mine are by photographer, writer and critic, Marc Werner, and they were designed by John Oakey.
The chapbooks are going to be launched next Wednesday (28th March) at the brilliant spoken word night Bad Language, at The Castle Hotel in Manchester. I'll be headlining and there's a fantastic line-up on the open mic (all details here). If you're in the area and fancy it, it would be lovely to see you there.
Now, the competition...
The fantastical transformation of people fascinates me and it's an idea that crops up in many of my stories (including my Nightjars). To celebrate the publication of Marionettes and Into the Penny Arcade, I'm giving away three sets of the two chapbooks. There are three ways to enter and I'll give a set to a winner picked at random from each category. The closing date/time is 1pm BST on Wednesday 28th March and you can enter from anywhere in the world.
To enter, in the comments below you can either...
a. Tell me what you would most like to transform into.
(I'd love to fly, so would most like to transform into a bird, but I also quite like the idea of dissolving into the wind.)
b. Tell me the title and author of your favourite story that involves a fantastical bodily transformation. And please mention what the character in the story is transformed into.
c. Briefly describe the last person/creature/substance/object mentioned in the comment above yours, transforming into something or someone else.
I hope that makes sense. Please mark your comment a, b or c. And you can enter in more than one of the categories for more chances to win. If you need some ideas to get you started, there's a good top 10 list of transformation stories here, compiled by Ali Shaw (who's written beautiful novels about a girl transforming into glass and a man with a storm inside him).
And if you don't win, but would like to read the stories and help support a brilliant independent publisher, the chapbooks can be ordered by emailing nicholasroyle@mac.com They're £3 plus 50p P&P each.