COLIN ALCOCK

NOVELS • SHORT STORIES • FLASH

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2025 RELEASES

Autumn Extra

Iliustration of pouncing black panther

Halloween may be over
but there are still monsters abroad!


The monster that slayed my Amy-Lee is a disturbing tale of how prejudiced pre-judgement can lead to a man's imprisonment.

CLICK HERE to read.

Or for other short stories follow the menu at the top to Shorts.

Just Published

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A NEW COLLECTION OF SHORT
AND VERY SHORT STORIES

Hints of Darkness is a collection of short works featuring a generous mix of tales that embrace a variety of genres from light humour to the macabre. Many with a dark turn to the plot.

You will encounter both human tragedy and delight, you will meet monsters and paranormal experiences, ordinary folk in less than ordinary situations, a few ghosts and some futuristic scenarios. Your emotions will be stretched between sorrow and joy … and fear.

Most of all you will be entertained, so that the bleaker moments of your life can be lifted, happier days complemented – and senses sometimes shocked.

Available now at Amazon in Paperback and Kindle versions.

RECENT RELEASES

Completing the trilogy

From A Dark Heart Front Cover
Written in response to readers' requests for more of the avaricious Anna's exploits, FROM A DARK HEART follows her desire to gain even more wealth.

Now married to Gray Sowerby, Anna has moved to a new luxury home overlooking Poppit Sands and her own business venture is expanding, with a new branch in the offing. Gray, with building partner Jed Evans, is having his own success, too. But life gets tougher when Anna's hidden secrets revisit her and there is tragedy ahead for the Sowerby family.

Will she survive the storm or will all she desires be blown away?

Will her secrets remain that way?

Drama across the Celtic Sea

Front cover of novel
A full length novel, 'WITH ONLY THE WAVES AS WITNESS' traces Paul Addam's journey across Cornwall, over to Ireland and on to the French coast, in search of his missing, presumed dead wife, Marion. A seemingly hopeless task, he finds help and companionship from the Post Office in the shape of of Kathy McDonnell who is suffering her own trials, stemming from her abusive, alcoholic, now separated husband, Archie.

Of prime interest is flamboyant Patrick Donoghue, photographer, smuggler and flatterer of women, who plies the Celtic Sea in a luxurious sailing boat. While on home shores Paul has to contend with Stella, Marion's meddlesome twin, spinster, brilliant accountant, and obsessively concerned about the loss of her sister, always laying the fault at Paul's door.

As the truth unfolds, for Paul and for Kathy, will it bring happiness or sorrow?

A diverse choice

The books I write cover a diversity of genres and are aimed simply at providing entertaining reads, rather than great literary works. Novels you can bury yourself in for escapist pleasures and compilations of shorter works that showcase a plethora of mood teasers. There's drama, there's humour, there's the joy of living, the despair of death, in the present and in the future, plus a few much darker tales that cross the line from our world to those we only imagine – or perhaps prefer not too.

 No heavy reading. Just books to enjoy.


But the books aren't the end of the story. There are tales as yet unpublished and some published elsewhere on lit-mag websites, including
The Cabinet of Heed, Reflex Press, The Molotov Cocktail, Ad Hoc Fiction, and Paragraph Planet. And while some new writing will appear first on this website, other stories plucked from my books, or previously published elsewhere, might also be highlighted from time to time.

All the titles found here are just to give you a taste of what you will find in Paperback or Kindle eBook formats direct from
Amazon, with some also listed online at Waterstones.

 Short stories or flash fiction for those whose life is a whirl.

On the Shorts page you'll find shorter works, which will sometimes be an entirely new story or one not published in any of the compilations. Or perhaps just a story from way back in the archives, that some might not have read before. It's always worth taking a look to see the frequent updates to this website.

Click or tap your way through this website to discover more.

author & publisher

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