There has been cause for celebration here in my woodland lair. Crows have cawed, bats have blazed through the air and frogs have croaked in the fog.
As mentioned in yesterday’s post, The Book of Kindly Deaths has been featured in Amazon’s Daily Deal. Cue constant refreshing of my Internet browser as I watched it climb the Amazon Sales Rank…until my head felt like it was full of tiny fish, and my eyes were pebbles.

I woke today to find the book in the Amazon Top 100, which was a perfect way to start the day! Naturally, I’m over the moon in a top-hat shaped balloon, and writing this post from somewhere near Jupiter. I’m also incredibly grateful for all the lovely people who purchased the book, tweeted and shared it, and left many wonderful reviews.

Here’s some quotes from the reviews, and links so you can read the full reviews 🙂

“There are so many things to love about The Book of Kindly Deaths, Eldritch Black is so descriptive that I couldn’t help but be delighted when picturing the hoardspikes, hackthins, and aranachiros that frequent the land of Grimwytch. The characters were layered and mysterious, and their stories left me wanting more. This is the perfect type of book to pick up if you are a fan of the darker side of middle grade novels. Fans of Claire Legrand and yes, even Neil Gaiman will be delighted to read about the monsters that frequent this land.”
http://bookstakeyouplaces.com/2014/10/13/the-book-of-kindly-deaths-by-eldritch-black/

“One of the things that I loved the most about THE BOOK OF KINDLY DEATHS is the world. I don’t mean the real world England that is the Eliza’s home, even though that’s certainly fine and plenty dark, especially when we get a glimpse into the stories of the monsters’ victims from the book. I mean the world beyond the window where the monsters live. WHAT AN AMAZING PLACE. It’s dark, literally and figuratively, and the inhabitants are perfect—vicious, dangerous, sometimes evil, grotesque, and scary.”
http://www.trippingoverbooks.com/2014/10/10/book-review-book-kindly-deaths-eldritch-black-2/

“I am not afraid to admit that I was sincerely creeped out while reading THE BOOK OF KINDLY DEATHS. Not like I needed to put the book in the freezer (LOOKING AT YOU GONE GIRL) but definitely felt creepy crawlies and had to have the light on while I read just to make sure everything was legit. Yeah, this is a middle grade book, but the kind of creepy that Eldritch Black infuses transcends age and keeps you on the edge of your seat!”
http://www.bookishbroads.com/2014/10/review-book-of-kindly-deaths-by.html

And from Amazon:

“When the story crosses over from the ordinary world to the dark alternative world of the Grimwytch, it’s like Edgar Allen Poe, Hieronymus Bosch, and the Brothers Grimm got together and repopulated the world on the other side of Alice’s Looking Glass. Wondrous, nasty, and unforgettable!”
Link

“What I loved the most about The Book of Kindly Deaths is it was easy to form a mental image of the scene and characters as they were described in the book. On a number of occasions, I found myself thinking of a possible comparison. The author that kept coming to mind is Neil Gaiman, and his books The Graveyard Book and The Ocean at the End of the Lane, which both revolve around pre-adolescent characters. I also loved the fact that while this book called be called fantasy, it’s a little darker too.”
Link

“The characters are unique and interesting, and most importantly – believable. The setting is absolutely amazing, and the various stories within the greater story are compelling. Heroes are here, as well as villains, but none are one-dimensional. The best of them have doubts and foibles, and the worst of them have their own reasons for what they do. There are ethical challenges and moral choices, and the consequences of a poor choice can be dire, but the right answer isn’t always evident.”
Link

Do you ever wonder where monsters come from? You should…because it’s best to know where they are at all times. That way you can avoid them.
And now you can, for The Book of Kindly Deaths documents the eerie and strange lands of the Grimwytch. And today, you can buy this dreadful, fantastical story and guide to the realm of monsters at a reduced price. For one monstrous day only!
So go now, interpid adventurers, and lose yourself in The Book of Kindly Deaths…

Greetings and felicitations.
How time flies when you’re writing novels. I lifted my head up from my quill and ink (or laptop, to be more accurate) to find winter gone, and the Fool’s day looming. This is a favourite time of year, as I wait for the ghost in the wall to start scratching at 3am on April Fool’s, just as she does every year. Or the spider left in my shoe to bite my toes (a trick our most sinister cat likes to play). And then there’s the gibbering beast in the woods. Who knows what foul tricks he’ll play this year…

Moving on from dark antics, I’ve been hard at work over the winter. A new novel is almost finished and another two are being planned. So expect to see some new work soon! But for now, I wanted to let you know you can win a signed copy of The Book of Kindly Deaths simply by registering for the giveaway below.
Good luck, and Merry Fool’s Day for next week…

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Book of Kindly Deaths

by Eldritch Black

Giveaway ends April 06, 2015.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Even though The Book of Kindly Deaths has been available for a couple of months now, I still get an immense thrill from seeing it in real-life book shops.
Including Local Grown, the very place I wrote a great deal of the novel in. Local Grown’s a coffee shop situated on the island where I live. Yes, a writer writing a book in a coffee shop, who would have thought it?
The coffee shop is situated on a pier which overlooks a cove. There’s really nothing better than gazing through the window across the waters when stuck on the odd passage of writing. Beyond the glare of the screen is the calming ebb and flow of the water. At least on the surface, for who knows what tentacled horrors lurk below.
I try not to think about them too much, for fear any directed attention might summon them up from the water.

Strange things happen there from time to time. Perhaps it’s the collective imaginations of all us caffeinated writers at work. Warping reality.
On one occasion, it seemed very much as if a character from one of my new novels actually came into the shop to buy a coffee. Yes, it probably wasn’t actually him, and yet it was a very close facsimile and not a pleasant experience.
Because that character was as bad as bad can be.
But that’s a subject for another post.

For now, I thought I’d share a couple of pictures of the novel out in the wild, as well as a passage from the very beginning of The Book of Kindly Deaths. I hope you enjoy it.
And finally, I’m planning on updating ‘The Occasional Blog’ more often in 2015, as I have a number of exciting things planned.
More on that soon…

CHAPTER ONE Awakening

On a desk in the room with the stained glass window sat a book.
It was a thick volume with a worn and cracked black cover showing a gold symbol, a rectangle within two circles that sparkled and flickered as if teased by ghostly fingers. Voices whispered from inside the book, growing in volume, a few human, a few not. As their distant howls and cries grew, the book rocked with such force that it flew into the air and hovered.
When it thumped back onto the desk, the thick fountain pen next to it leapt into the air like a small brass salmon. As it clattered down upon the desk, a spark shot from the pen’s nib, playing over the book and sending its pages flying open.
One by one, the pages flipped, faster and faster, an animated blur of neat blue writing seeming to jump with the book as its dusty pages turned.
Beyond the room with the book and the stained glass window, the room that had no business being there, the dark, sprawling house was silent.
Like a cat, tensed and still and waiting for its prey to make a move.