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Till the Score is Paid by Gemma Amor is out NOW!

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Gemma Amor’s new illustrated short story collection Till the Score is Paid available now

cover image for till the score is paid

Cover art by Mark Pelham

Happy Book Birthday to me! I’m delighted to share that my new book, Till the Score is Paid, written by me (Gemma Amor) is out now from Giles Press.

BUY TTSP NOW

We’re doing things a little differently this time, so pay attention:

Special Hand-Numbered Edition

The special, hand-numbered First Printing Edition of this book is available from the Giles Press website, here. There are only 50 copies available of this first edition, so it’s an idea to get your order in quickly, before they run out. 

If you can’t get a hold of one of these, fear not! The book will shortly be available on Amazon as a paperback and ebook/kindle version as well. I’ll update this post, and my social media, when I have that link. 

Revenge, retribution, and redemption

The theme for this collection is one my readers will be familiar with- good old-fashioned revenge. Each story blends some element of retribution or redemption with horror, and as with Cruel Works of Nature, I have hand-illustrated a plate for each tale too. 

Emotionally, however, Till the Score is Paid digs deeper than Cruel Works did. I went on a bit of a journey, and I explored some far more challenging (and upsetting) themes that may be difficult for some of you to read. With this in mind, I have included some trigger warnings in the foreword of the book. The stories Justine and The Strangler in particular were difficult to write, but I hope I have done right by the themes explored within.  

The official blurb is as follows:

 “Till the Score is Paid is Gemma Amor’s follow-up collection to 2018’s critically acclaimed Cruel Works of Nature. This collection deals with:

  • Lost dogs
  • Mountain streams
  • Halloween costumes
  • Mysterious gravediggers
  • Locked basements
  • Hiking with friends
  • Daddy-daughter dates
  • Strange prisons
  • Birthday cakes
  • Cultists

. . . and so much more. With her signature flair of emotional horror, Amor forces readers to accept the fact that sometimes the monster lurking under the bed is, in fact, someone we know.”

As usual, you may have encountered some of these stories if you listen to the excellent horror-anthology podcast, The NoSleep Podcast. Others are coming out soon: keep an eye out for them!

Don’t forget to leave a review!

As always, I am eternally grateful for those of you who take the time to review my work. Those of you with advanced reader copies (thank you for putting up with the typos!) can now drop a review if you wish on Goodreads. Those of you purchasing the finished product- you are also welcome to review on Goodreads, or on the amazon page once this goes live- amazon reviews in particular can make a large difference to a book’s online visibility. 

Reviews are so important for indie authors and publishers alike, so any rating or recommendation you can provide at all would be massively appreciated. 

Finally, if anyone would like to chat about interviews or features, please get in touch or email me with your enquiry. 

Much love,

Gemma 

Listen to my No Sleep story ‘The Path Through Lower Fell’

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The Path Through Lower Fell: Bad Cow Disease

Cows can be scary!

Artwork by Naomi Ronke

The Path Through Lower Fell is a story I wrote about two things in particular: how scary cows can be, and why revenge is so satisfying. And those wonderful people at the NoSleep Podcast turned it into an operatic audio drama of simply epic proportions.

Narrated flawlessly by Erika Sanderson and David Ault, with an amazing cinematic score by composer Brandon Boone, the story unfolds atop a tense, vivid soundscape to die for, produced by audio wizard Jeff Clement. In short, hyperbole aside, I couldn’t be happier with the end result.

The story is another Season Pass story for Season 10, so you’ll need to purchase the Episode to listen (or why not just splash out on a whole Season Pass? Twenty-five episodes of horror stories, each two hours long, plus bonus material, flash fiction…the best money you’ll spend this year, I promise).

Listen to ‘The Path Through Lower Fell’ on the NoSleep Podcast.

The story also got some brilliant cover art, which you can see above. The artwork is by the very talented Naomi Ronke, and I love it.

The idea for this story came from a post I put out on Facebook, asking people what scared them the most. Cows, surprisingly, were a popular response, so I went to town on the concept. I’m a big fan of turning everyday, mundane realities into nightmares. I’m also a big fan of asking my friends for inspiration and writing prompts- it keeps things fresh when I fall into a creative rut.

Enjoy…mooooo!

 

 

The Little Man- read and listen here

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I like weekends. Why? For two reasons.

One: I get to eat buttered toast in bed (if I ask my husband nicely, that is, or forcefully bribe him with cinnamon buns).

Two: the No Sleep Podcast releases a new episode for me to sink my teeth into. Oh, how I hunger for those RSS feed announcements. Mmmmmm. RSS feed. Mmmmm. 

Anyway, in my last post I spoke about my story ‘His Life’s Work’, which was produced by the very talented No Sleep team. They took my little pile of words and turned it into something marvellous: a living, breathing piece of work with AMAZING sound effects, particularly if you enjoy listening to a grown man gratuitously vomiting all over himself. Mmm, vomit. Mmmmmmm.

This week, it was the turn of my campfire story ‘The Little Man‘, released on Episode 13 of Season 10. 

Again, this is exclusive Season Pass content, but honestly- what else are you going to spend your money on? Beer? Shoes? Food? Why would any sane person do that, when the alternative is so much better? Who wouldn’t want over two hours of rich, immersive, fully produced audio fiction, pouring into your ear-holes and trickling into your cerebral cortex like molten honey? I ask you. In fact, I shouldn’t have to ask you! Tut tut. 

Anyway, this story was born of the No Sleep’s book group writing prompt, a regular challenge with a different theme each month to write around. 

With this story, I wanted to subvert the traditional ‘campfire tales’ approach, and make it more about the nature of friendship than about marshmallows or strange scrabbling noises outside the tent door. 

Hearing something I’ve written in real, spoken form is teaching me to be a better writer. I’ve learned that my preambles are too lengthy, and my carefully crafted descriptive prose sounds a lot more like carefully crafted descriptive waffle than I realised. I tried to work on both these issues with the story I wrote next (details coming soon), and I’m much happier with the end result.

Anyway, if you want to read the original version of ‘The Little Man’, simply click on the image above for a link to the PDF. Don’t forget to leave me your feedback, good, or bad, or even leave me a review on my Facebook page– it all helps me to gain traction!

Until next we meet, dear reader. Mmmmmmm. 

 

 

His Life’s Work- read it here

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As per my last post, I thought I’d put a written version of ‘His Life’s Work’ up here for you to enjoy. 

Hi's Life's Work, a short horror story by Gemma Amor

Meet Mr. Halo, an aged scientist on a mission to finish His Life’s Work. Be warned, though-  he may want to make you a part of his experiment…

This story was recently picked up and produced by the No Sleep Podcast, something which I’m still pinching myself about vigorously. You can hear the excellent production here, on the Season Pass version of the podcast episode.

I have an long abiding fascination with alternate realities, doors, gateways and things that might exist beyond. Have a read, and don’t forget that I love feedback, so please do contact me with your thoughts. 

His Life’s Work- now out on the NoSleep Podcast

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I don’t do New Year’s resolutions, but I did promise myself I was going to start submitting work this year instead of writing it, obsessively polishing and re-editing it, and then putting it in a dark corner of my hard drive to rot and wither. Once a story goes there, it’s done for- I just can’t bear to pick it up again once I’ve consigned it to the shadows. A careful sweep of my computer will bear sad fruit: countless abandoned novels, poems and characters, starved of attention, doomed to live out their days in a half-finished state, through no fault of their own. I’m just not a natural finisher of things. I am a beginner, but not a finisher.   

Anyway, I decided enough was enough. It was time to finish something, finish anything, and send it off, no matter how shit I thought it was. Published work that is imperfect is a lot better than near-perfect, unpublished work. 

And, so far, so good. I wrote a short story about a mad scientist, submitted it to an audio fiction podcast that I love called The No Sleep Podcast, and… they accepted it! You can find ‘His Life’s Work’ here on their website, although it is worth saying that you’ll need to buy the Episode to hear it, as it’s part of the Season Pass deal. It’s easy enough to click that ‘buy full episode button’, and it’s only $1.50 for over two and a half hours of awesome content, so go on, treat yourself. 

So, yes, that happened. When I got the email, I blinked, quite a few times. Surely this isn’t supposed to happen? Surely that should have said, ‘Thank you for your submission, but…’

But no, no mistake. Before I knew it it was edited, cast, recorded, produced and released. The excitement that hit me when release day grew close was unbelievable. Something I made, out there in the public domain for others to hear, and hopefully, enjoy. Or not. Again, who cares? It’s out there! I am published! I have transitioned! 

Perhaps it’s beginner’s luck, but honestly, who cares if it is. The podcast in question is one of my most favourite things in the cosmos right now. No Sleep has been producing superior quality, award-winning horror fiction in audio form for some years, and honestly, there’s very little else like it in podcast land. I’m an avid subscriber, have purchased all the season passes, and pretty much spend all my spare time plugged into the latest episode, so it feels incredible to have a story of mine accepted by the show. 

I’ll publish ‘His Life’s Work’ in written format in a separate post shortly. In the meantime, listen, support the show, and please help to turn me into a better writer with your feedback. 

Also, watch this space…there may be more productions to come! Onwards!