Title

The Other Story

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One liner

The only thing more dangerous than her imagination is what happens when it refuses to stay on the page.

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Short blurb

“Ink binds you; blood ends you.  You exist because I allow it.  I withdraw my permission.”

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When budding novelist Ev Cawthorne inherits the isolated marshland house of Rookmere, she decides it’s the right time to finish her books.  Her autistic mind thrives on connections and multiple stories.  Working on two manuscripts; a prison horror and a children’s adventure, reality begins to warp as characters cross pages and walk into her waking life.  Her creation insists the books are its canvas as much as hers.

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As the Dunwich area of Suffolk reels with mysterious bodies, children trapped in nightmares and police officers vanishing without a trace, Ev realises she is the conduit.  The wall between fiction and reality has thinned, and only her writing can close it.  But at what cost?​

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Publication date

​Coming September 2027

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Publisher

Rowan Prose Publishing

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Genre

​Psychological thriller

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Who might enjoy it

​Fans of  The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall, The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell, and Calling All Monsters by Chris Westwood

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​​Behind the story

​Being autistic gives me a potentially unique way of working and writing as I work on several works in progress at once, flicking from one to the other as ideas come up. The idea for this story came from a random unsolicited sales pitch via Instagram trying to scam me to spend money marketing my first novel The Awakening. As part of the message, the person (or bot) asked how I manage to write several books at once. It was interesting as I'd not really thought about how I do it, it's just what I do. As I then pondered how I keep the stories separate, especially as I write in different genres too, the idea sprang with a loud clang into my head as a question: what would happen to the stories of they began to bleed into each other. And hence The Other Story was born.

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Updates

​September - first full edit completed and sent back to Rowan Prose Publishing

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Where to find it

​Currently you can find the initial details on my Goodreads page where you can add it to your want-to-read list.

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Outtakes

This time she brought the fear deliberately.  This was not possession; this was exorcism by creation.

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“Explain,” she said to herself.  She scrunched her eyes closed, trying to force all these thoughts into some sense of coherence.

“You write the trap,” repeated Sam. “You make rules that both worlds will follow.  You make the rule in Real and Read.”

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“Only your own shadow speaks to you.  Only your own shadow confesses.  The rule is narrow.  The rule does not bend.  Shadows are loyal only to the feet that cast them”

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