Today I have quite a bit of book news, because if you wait long enough everything comes at once.

The first bit of news is of a Free anthology. Yes FREE, on kindle and Smashwords and other places. Now normally the moment I talk about a free book I develop a nervous tick because no book is free, it all costs the writers, editors and publishers those most vital of resources, time and energy. Giving books away for free feels like a betrayal of the artist and a betrayal of the art… It is part of the malaise of the industry, because no one truly values that which is free*. However in this case the free anthology was created specifically to be free. It was also, ahem, my idea…

*except love… which should always be free

Sometime back in October last, round table of scared wood, with drinks in hand, there met three souls of dark wisdoms and strange visions. Which is to say Me, Gillie and John were in the pub discussing the Harvey Duckman Presents anthologies and how we might get them before a greater audience. We fired around a few idea, and after my suggestion of sacrificing virgins to the great god Arknuckle was ruled out because there is no great god Arknuckle, virgins are at something of a premium in Teesside and it was morally abhorrent to commit ritualised murder just to sell a few books, apparently, the idea of doing a free to reader anthology was suggested.

Now obviously, rather than give away a book I doubled down on the ritualised murder, but even when I pointed out that publishing in general is not an industry overwhelmed with morals I was again overruled and so we discussed the options of doing a limited free giveaway for one of the current Harvey anthologies. Which I pointed out was just not viable, books cost money to produce, we had invested in these titles and while we did not expect to make money, breaking even would be nice. Also I knew where I could source a nice barely used granite alter top…

Then I suggested, well we do have all the stories from the original Harvey anthologies, and we could ask the writers and see whom would be up for contributing a free story, and I am sure you could use one of mine if your really not up for ritualised murder, but I do have a nice set of yellow robes and everything…

At this point Gillie said she wanted to use ‘The Tower’ which is an old story of mine that I am somewhat fond of, which has a twisting knife of an ending that is almost a ritual sacrifice to the gods of narrative in of itself, so I said “sure,” and added “I am sure we will get ten or so of the writers to agree to let us use old stories from the defunct original Harvey series and a couple of the newer members of the collective might have the odd story knocking about, some might even write a story for the book if we ask. I am sure we can get enough to make a free book if we ask…”

So, we messaged the collective with the bare bones of an idea and I half expected us to struggle to get to 15 stories which is the average number of stories in one of our anthologies. As it proved, I was wrong…

We ended up with 28 Harvey authors and 29 stories, some new, some reprints, some flash fiction joys spread among the longer tales which ended up been all Gillies favourite writers and some wonderful stories, and because Gillie got carried aware with her enthusiasm (delightfully) for the project it is now the biggest Harvey Anthology we have ever done by some margin and all available from FREE on multiple platforms.

Welcome to this weird and wonderful gathering of our favourite Harvey stories from across the years. Some are old, some are new… all have been donated to showcase and celebrate our fab collective of slightly if not outright rebellious, and possibly unhinged, writers.

Bringing you the best of our main baskets, enjoy a taste of Dark Fantasy, Alternate Reality, Science Fiction and Urban Fantasy and get a glimpse into the many worlds beyond these pages.

Featuring stories from:

DARK FANTASY
Mark Hayes – The Tower
Steven C. Davis – Rievaulx Secrets
J.A. Wood – Fireflies
John Holmes-Carrington – The Dop-A-Glop
Jack Pentire – The Devil’s Bargain
Anna Atkinson-Dunn – The Knight and the Devastation of Lisièborg
Christine King – The Child, The Witch And The Werewolf

ALTERNATE REALITY
Liz Tuckwell – Tully and the Ghost
Phil Sculthorpe – A Change of Plan
Mary F. Carr – A Boiler Scout Jamboree
Jon Hartless – Poppy Orpington does the Business
Nils Nisse Visser – Learning The Ropes
Keith Errington – Pirates & Paperwork
Reino Tarihmen – Games Without Frontiers

SCIENCE FICTION
Will Nett – Come To Kepler
Nimue Brown – Swallowed By Time
C. K. Roebuck – Splinter Of Hope
Kate Baucherel – Xanthe
Reino Tarihmen – What Might History Say About Us
Joe Whitbourn – Rosetta
C.G. Hatton – Taylorson
Andy Hill – Distance

URBAN FANTASY
Angela Smith – The Butterfly Tea Set
Ben Sawyer – Shamble
Davia Sacks – The Flatmate
Louise Ewing – It Being A Tuesday
R. Bruce Connelly – The Seventh Attempt
Tamara Clelford – The Adventures Of Little Bear
Mark Hayes – Nothing Has Happened

You may of noticed the reason it is 29 stories from 28 writers is Gillie wanted two of mine in the end. the second of which features a frustrated occultist…. I don’t remember where the inspiration for that one came from…

But Harvey news does not end there. As well as FREE Harvey we also have another fabulous Sci-Fi anthology coming out in a few days and available on pre-order, which may feature a planet with a dead god entombed with in it, or possibly not….

Featuring stories from Adam Stone, Alexis Ames, Andrew Leonard, Louise Kerr, E.B. Sommer, Floyd Largent, James Waite, Keith Errington, Reino Tarihmen, Mark Hayes, Nimue Brown, Rob Butler, Ben Sawyer, Steven Mathes and J.M. Faulkner.

That isn’t the end of Harvey news either, there are also the monthly flash fiction books, the frankly a bit ridiculous Round Robin book and the 2025/2026 flash collection book. you can find out all this and much more at Harvey Duckman Is Alive!

Oh and I am finally writing the second book in the Maybe Trilogy, but all that aside, does anyone have a good source for ritual daggers and advice on the best way to get blood out of yellow linin ?