The Quarantined City Parts 1 & 2 Reviewed...

Daniel Ausema reviews the first two parts of The Quarantined City on the Geekiary site.

"There is a wonderfully surreal quality to this story so far... the writing skill here and the narrative hooks are enough to keep readers coming back to see how it will all play out."

Nicely balance review, with the odd worry that I'm attempting to spin too many plates at once with this project... Hopefully they'll still all be spinning at the end, and it won't end with me weeping into a mound of broken china... :)


You can read the full review here.

The Quarantined City #3 Out Today!

The third part of my serial for Spectral Press, The Quarantined City, is released today. It's called Spot the Difference and in this episode, things start to get really bizarre for Fellows in his hunt for the reclusive writer Boursier... Cover art and blurb below - very slight spoilers if you've not read the first two episodes.

And as a bonus, the previous episodes The Smell Of Paprika and Into The Rain, are available at a knocked down price at the moment.

Episode 1: The Smell Of Paprika (UK | US)

Episode 2: Into The Rain (UK | US)

Episode 3: Spot The Difference (UK | US)

Fellows is determined to rid his house of the crippled and blank-eyed child haunting it, and to do so he needs to track down Boursier. 

But his search of the quarantined city for the reclusive writer takes him deep into the heart of the protest movement, which is stranger than he ever imagined. What kind of methods are they prepared to use to end the quarantine, and at what price? And how far will Fellows have to go helping them if he is to get the information he needs?

The Story Behind The Quarantined City

"It was a really bad time to begin writing a monthly serial..."

I've a guest post up at the Upcoming4me site, as part of their 'The Story Behind...' series. Find out about the slightly hectic gestation of The Quarantined City serial here.

Out Today! The Quarantined City: The Smell Of Paprika

So, at some point overnight whilst I slept, The Smell Of Paprika, the first episode The Quarantined City, went live...


My thanks to Simon Marshall Jones from Spectral Press for the invite to do a monthly serial and to Iain Rowan, Mark West, Phil Ambler and Martin Cosby for help, proof-reading and general encouragement along the way.

You can download The Smell Of Paprika here (UK) and here (US).

The next episode, Into The Rain, is already in the hands of the publisher, and all being well will follow in a month's time...



The Quarantined City: sealed off from the outside world, with only the sight of the ocean to remind its inhabitants of life beyond. No one knows why the city has been quarantined and conspiracy theories abound.

But for Fellows life continues largely as before. He walks the streets, hunts out rare books; the sun continues to shine and the gulls circle above.

There’s the small matter of the ghost haunting his house, but Fellows doesn't let himself think of that.

But when he tracks down a story by the reclusive writer known as Boursier, his old certainties fade as he becomes aware that the secrets of the city, the ghostly child, and the quarantine itself, might be more connected than he thinks…