Guest Workshoppers

GUEST WORKSHOPPERS - FIRST FEARS

Simon Bestwick lives on the Wirral in North-West England, and is still happily serving as husband and butler to long-suffering fellow author Cate Gardner. He is the author of seven novels, four full-length short story collections and has been four times shortlisted for the British Fantasy Award. His latest books are the novella Devils Of London, from Hersham Horror, and the novel Black Mountain, from Independent Legions Publishing. His ambitions are to move to Wales, get a dog, and avoid honest work.

James Brogden is the author of Hekla’s Children, The Hollow Tree, The Plague Stones and Bone Harvest, along with The Narrows, Tourmaline and The Realt. He spent many years living in Australia, but now lives in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire with his wife and two daughters.

Georgina Bruce is a teacher and writer. Many of her short stories, including the award-winning White Rabbit, can be found in her collection, This House of Wounds. She lives in Edinburgh.

Tracy Fahey is an Irish writer.  In 2017, her debut collection The Unheimlich Manoeuvre was shortlisted for a British Fantasy Award for Best Collection. She has published two further short story collections; the folk horror New Music For Old Rituals (2018, Black Shuck Books) and I Spit Myself Out (2021, Sinister Horror Company) and one YA folkore-inspired novel, The Girl in the Fort (2017, Fox Spirit Books). Fahey’s short fiction is published in over thirty American, British, Australian and Irish anthologies. Nine of her stories have appeared on Ellen Datlow’s Recommended Reading Lists from 2016-2020. Fahey holds a PhD on the Gothic in visual arts, and her non-fiction writing on the Gothic and folklore has appeared in Irish, English, Italian, Dutch and Australian edited collections. She has been awarded residencies in Ireland and Greece. More information available on her site at www.tracyfahey.com

Tim Major is a writer and freelance editor from York. He is the author of seven novels, including Hope Island, Snakeskins and Sherlock Holmes: The Back to Front Murder. His short stories and novellas have been selected for Best of British Science Fiction, Best of British Fantasy and Best Horror of the Year. Find out more at www.cosycatastrophes.com  

Rhiannon Ward is the author of two gothic historical thrillers. Her first, The Quickening, was a Radio Times book of the year and The Shadowing was a Daily Express critic's favourite of 2021. As Sarah Ward, she is the author of four DC Childs novels set in the Derbyshire Peak District where she lives and she also has written two Doctor Who audio dramas.