Horror writer signs up for three books

Claire Colley from Portchester was contacted by Kensington Gore Publishing on Twitter asking her for a snippet from her next book.

The 35-year-old said: ‘They also asked me for the synopsis of two further books that I had planned.

‘Then a few weeks later they got back to me and offered me a three-book deal.’

Her first book with Gore Publishing will be titled Season’s End and it is expected to hit the market in 2018.

The author explained: ‘The story is loosely related to a funfair at Portsmouth and it is about a kind of a demon and its blood ties to a family.’

The second book will feature a woman in a dusty second-hand bookshop whilst the third will explore a ‘presence’ in a house in Portchester.

Claire said: ‘Horror is a great escape from the world because it really scares you.

‘But it is not where I started as a writer, I also write dark contemporary fiction.’

The author has won awards for her works including winning the Laughing Horse Comedy Poetry Competition at the Edinburgh Fringe, and being previously shortlisted for the London Short Fiction Award.

Claire’s first book Season’s End is also set to be turned into a movie with filming scheduled to start next year.

Mark Logan, known for the award-winning short film Solitary, is going to take the director’s seat having previously worked with Claire on a few short films.

She added: ‘Mark read a short story I had written and he loved it and wanted me to develop it so that it could be an appropriate length for a feature film.’