Title Page

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my brand new nephew, Cameron.

Cameron, I’m sure you’ll grow taller as you get older, but right now you’re simply way too short. You also can’t talk or stand up, and I have yet to see you read a book. None of this is entirely your own fault, however – I blame the parents – so I hope my words don’t upset you too much.

The problem is, you’re surrounded by a formidable sister and some formidable cousins, so you’re going to have to grow up to be an exceptional person. I’ll do what I can to help, but the rest is up to you.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

Dedication

The Timeline

Introduction

ACROSS A DARK PLAIN

THE HORROR WRITERS’
HALLOWEEN BALL

THE LOST ART OF
WORLD DOMINATION

GOLD, BABIES AND THE
BROTHERS MULDOON

THE SLIGHTLY IGNOMINIOUS
END TO THE LEGEND OF
BLACK ANNIS

FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHTS

MYOSOTIS TERRA

THE WONDERGUL ADVENTURES
OF GEOFFREY SCRUTINOUS

JUST ANOTHER FRIDAY NIGHT

THE END OF THE WORLD

TRICK OR TREAT

GET THEE BEHIND
ME, BUBBA MOON

THE BUTTON

EXCLUSIVE PEEK AT
THE DYING OF THE LIGHT

Copyright

About the Publisher

The Timeline

Introduction

I’ve always loved Introductions.

They remind me of when I was a kid, wandering through second-hand bookstores, pulling battered old horror paperbacks from the shelves. Those wrinkled covers, those dog-eared pages, that wonderful, slightly stale smell of stories… Those books pulled you into their own history, made you a part of it, and if you were lucky – like, really lucky – right before the story started you’d find the Author’s Introduction.

This, to a kid who wanted nothing more than to be a writer, was a portal into imagination. I couldn’t Google a writer’s name and read his blog or watch every interview he’d ever done on YouTube (and I hereby wave to some reader way off in the future who’s just read that and is now getting information about “Google” “Blog” and “Youtube” downloaded directly into his brain), so I had to make do with what brief glimpses I was afforded. It was in the Introductions that authors talked about their work and their process, and I scoured these words, searching for the secret to writing, hunting for the Big Clue that would lead me to Where Stories Come From.