Guy Adams collects careers like baseball cards. In his, surprisingly limited, time he has tried his hand at Museum Curator, Tour Guide, Historical Researcher, Newsagent…
     His main occupations, however, have always been acting and writing. In the former he has mugged people in Emmerdale, watched Rugby in Where The Heart Is, perved around in his y-fronts simulating sex with a woman dressed as a horse (Jean Genet’s The Balcony) and earned something of a reputation by impersonating real people (Hemingway, George Bernard Shaw and Hitler, to name but a few). He also toured as one half of the wittily titled “Adams & Jarrett” on the comedy circuit and is the youngest professional actor to portray Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes.
     As a writer, he has churned out scripts for the above comedy shows and falsified Elizabethan Mummer’s Plays. A couple of novels, More Than This and The Imagineer have earned nothing but people seem to like them so he doesn’t let it worry him. He is the author of three books about the television series Life On Mars — two for Simon & Schuster and one for Transworld. If nothing else, these have kept him in Gin.
     He is currently working on a big book about Sherlock Holmes, a Deadbeat novella or three and a children’s book set in his adoptive country of Spain which he is rather hopeful that one of the previous mentioned publishers will pay him good money for.

Visit Guy’s site: guy-adams.com

Gregory Ashe grew up on a particularly desperate stretch of English coastline where he learned from very early on the benefit of escaping into fantasy.
     Leading something of a nomadic life these days he prefers the interest of new horizons to the bland stability of a suburban semi and writes longhand as he travels. If nothing else this makes contacting him a logistical nightmare.
     As well as writing he has a long held affection for stage magic and has worked off and on in the field for many years.

Humdrumming titles by Gregory Ashe:
The Imagineer, “FireEye Edition”
The Imagineer, “SnowScape Edition”

Roy Cane was born in Stratford-upon-Avon. When he was older he became ‘Mr. Cane The Teacher’, who one day — after appearing in three productions with the RSC, back in the 1990s — upped sticks and ran away to drama school.
     He didn’t have to run far, because the drama school was The Birmingham School of Speech and Drama.
     Once there, Roy got the chance to work with The Birmingham Bach Choir and the European Community Ballet Company. He also managed to get the part of “Mr. Eagle” in Arthur Miller’s A Memory of Two Mondays at the RSC Fringe Festival in Stratford.
     Since leaving drama school, Roy has appeared with the New Birmingham Theatre Company, and with Opera Works as “Jason” and “Theseus” in Benda’s Two Women Scorned.
     All was going well — including parts in several Cromwell Film productions, a fine portrayal of Richard Rich in Robert Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons, again in Stratford, plus what has now become an ironic appearance in a V.W. T.V. commercial — until he felt a hard sort of tickle in his throat, which… “…quickly began to bother and so I went to see the doctor, the first of four different General Practitioners I spoke to over the next two to three months.
     “I was given some ear drops, anti-acid tablets and told to prop up the end of my bed. I had an antibiotic: Erythromycin, usually prescribed for coughs, colds, and ‘the Clap…’ ”
     It turned out to be throat cancer.
     That was 2002, and from then until he passed away in June of 2008, Roy re-invented himself, becoming a director of both theatre and film. He also wrote a lot more, which is very good.

Humdrumming titles by Roy Cane:
The Happy Café

James Cooper lives in Nottinghamshire, England, with his wife and son. He is the author of the novel The Midway (Crowswing Books, April 2007), and is the editor of the anthology Dark Doorways (The Prufrock Press, 2006). His début collection of short stories, You Are The Fly (Tales of Redemption & Distress), was published in September of 2007 by Humdrumming.
     He has also sold over thirty short stories to small-press magazines and anthologies in the last three years, including Cemetery Dance; Black Static; PostScripts; Hub; All Hallows; Midnight Street; Not One of Us; Cold Flesh; Daikaiju 2; The Harrow; Black Petals; When Graveyards Yawn; and Red Scream.
     He is currently heading up a project for Humdrumming entitled In Conversation: A Writer’s Perspective, interviewing some of today’s leading practitioners of dark fiction, including Ramsey Campbell, Joe R. Lansdale, Tim Lebbon, Greg F. Gifune and Graham Joyce.
     He is also at work on his second novel, Gothic Revival; and a new collection of short fiction.

Visit James’ site: jamescooper.org.uk

Humdrumming Titles by James Cooper:
You Are The Fly (Tales of Redemption & Distress)
The First Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories [contribution]
The Second Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories [contribution]

Multiple award-winning author, editor and publisher Peter Crowther has written more than 120 stories plus Escardy Gap (with James Lovegrove) and the Forever Twilight cycle.
     Equally at home with crime/suspense as he is with horror and SF, his work has sold to both TV and the big screen.

Humdrumming Titles by Peter Crowther:
The Land at the End of the Working Day “Very Special Edition”
The Land at the End of the Working Day “Special Edition”

Christopher Fowler would make a good serial killer. He's charming and English and lives in a white penthouse with a view of St Paul’s Cathedral, and you'd think butter wouldn't melt in his mouth until you read his dark urban fiction — 17 novels and over 120 short stories so far.
     His œuvre divides into black comedy, horror, mystery, the odd revolting death and a set of novels unclassifiable enough to have publishers tearing their hair out. Emerging from a film industry background, he has come painfully close to having movies made of his novels Roofworld, Spanky, Psychoville and Calabash, but oddly it was his short story “The Master Builder” that became a film called Through the Eyes of a Killer, starring Tippi Hedren and Marg Helgenberger. 
     He is currently writing the ‘Bryant & May’ mysteries, featuring two elderly, argumentative detectives, but his latest book, Paperboy is autobiographical. His graphic novel for DC Comics was the critically acclaimed Menz Insana.
     He also achieved three pathetic schoolboy fantasies, releasing a pop single, being used as the model for a Batman villain, and acting as a stand-in for James Bond.

Visit Christopher’s site: www.christopherfowler.co.uk

Humdrumming titles by Christopher Fowler:
The Second Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories [contribution]

Gary Fry has a first-class degree and a PhD in psychology, though his first love is in fact literature. He’s had around 60 short stories published all around the world, and his first collection The Impelled and Other Head Trips (Crowswing Books) was released in 2006, with an introduction by Ramsey Campbell in which Gary was described as “a master.”
     His second book is a collection of cosmic horror entitled World Wide Web and Other Lovecraftian Upgrades (Humdrumming; introduction by Mark Morris), and his third a collection called Sanity and Other Delusions: Tales of Psychological Horror (PS Publishing; introduction by Stephen Volk).
     Gary also runs Gray Friar Press, and amid his publishing schedule, is currently working on several novels and more stories.

Visit Gary’s site: grayfriarpress.com/gary-fry/

Humdrumming titles by Gary Fry:
World Wide Web (& Other Lovecraftian Downloads)
The First Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories [contribution]
The Second Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories [contribution]

Rhys Hughes is one of the most prolific and successful authors in Wales, although his work has rarely been available in his own country. His earliest publications were chess problems and mathematical puzzles for newspapers.
     His first short story was published in 1992 and since then he has embarked on a project that involves writing exactly one thousand linked ‘items’ of fiction, including novels, to form a gigantic story cycle. Many of these individual items have appeared in magazines, journals and anthologies around the world and his books are currently being translated into French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Serbian and Greek.
     Rhys’s latest novel, The Postmodern Mariner, is available from Screaming Dreams; who also have released Dead Ends: Anthology containing his story “Degrees of Separation”.

Read Rhys’s blog, The Spoons That Are My Ears: rhysaurus.blogspot.com

Humdrumming titles by Rhys Hughes:
Less Lonely Planet
The First Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories [contribution]
The Second Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories [contribution]

Davin Ireland was born and bred in the south of England, but currently resides in the Netherlands. His fiction credits include stories published in a wide range of print magazines and anthologies on both sides of the Atlantic, including Underworlds, The Horror Express, Zahir, Neo-Opsis, Rogue Worlds, Fusing Horizons, Storyteller Magazine and Albedo One.
     Upcoming from Davin is Slow-Motion Genocide, which Humdrumming is proud to be publishing.

Visit his site: home.orange.nl/d.ireland/

Humdrumming titles by Rhys Hughes:
The First Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories [contribution]
Slow-Motion Genocide [forthcoming]

Michael Kelly’s fiction has appeared in several journals, magazines, and anthologies, including All Hallows, Alone on the Darkside (Roc), City Slab, Dark Arts (Cemetery Dance), Flesh and Blood, Space and Time, and The Book of Dark Wisdom.
     In 2002, Michael edited a book of ghost stories, Songs from Dead Singers (Catalyst Press). His first collection of short fiction, Scratching the Surface (Crowswing Books), was published earlier this year. Ouroboros (Humdrumming Ltd.), a novel co-written with Carol Weekes, is forthcoming in 2008.

Read Michael's blog: livejournal.com/users/lonesome_crow/

Humdrumming titles by Michael Kelly:
Ouroboros (with Carol Weekes) [forthcoming]
The First Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories [contribution]
The Second Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories [contribution]

Garry Kilworth’s first novel was published by Faber and Faber — In Solitary — a science fiction novel. He has written SF and fantasy novels, film novelisations such as Highlander, historical war novels set in the Crimean War (as ‘Garry Douglas’) and general fiction, such as Witchwater Country and In the Hollow of the Deep-Sea Wave. As ‘FK Salwood’, he’s indulged in historical novels about country matters. Garry likes to do something different each time, so if you want an author who has a string of books set in the same world with the same characters you’re in the wrong part of the library.
     In 1980, Garry began writing children’s books and this has become a major part of his output. The themes remain science fiction, fantasy, ghost stories and imaginative and speculative material, though — as with his adult books — there are some straight fiction novels amongst them. He goes into the schools to give talks to the kids about writers and writing and finds them both receptive and bright, even in so-called ‘failing’ schools. Students ask a lot of searching questions and Garry has to give sensible answers or they boo him. It’s good fun and he learns a lot.
     In all Garry’s been short-listed for about two dozen awards. He won the British Science Fiction Award, the World Fantasy Award, and the Interzone Magazine poll for the best short story for “The Ragthorn”, which was written in collaboration with Robert Holdstock. Garry had previously won the Interzone Magazine award for “The Sculptor”. He has been twice short-listed for the children’s Carnegie Medal and has won the Lancashire ‘Children’s Book of the Year Award’ (which is judged by kids so it’s doubly relevant).

Visit Garry’s site: www.garry-kilworth.com

Humdrumming titles by Garry Kilworth:
In the Country of Tattooed Men (and other cyphers)
The First Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories [contribution]

Tim Lebbon is a talented, highly-respected author, and the winner of the British Fantasy Society’s August Derleth Fantasy Award for Best Novel (2006) for Dusk (Bantam Spectra, 2006), the first of his “Noreela” fantasy saga. It was followed with the release of Dawn (Bantam Spectra, 2007), and 2008 sees the publication of Fallen.
     Mr. Lebbon is the co-author with Christopher Golden of the novel Mind the Gap: A Novel of the Hidden Cities (Cemetery Dance: May 2008; Bantam Spectra, May 2008). He also wrote Hellboy: Unnatural Selection (Pocket Books, 2006), and The Everlasting (Necessary Evil Press, March 2007; Leisure Books, May 2007).
     Mr. Lebbon is also the author of The New York Times-best-selling novelization of the terrifying horror movie 30 Days of Night (Pocket Star, 2007), which is on the short-list for a “Best Novel (Adapted)” Scribe Award in the category of “Speculative Fiction”. The Second Annual Scribe Awards is presented by the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers, which acknowledges and celebrates excellence in licensed tie-in writing, and will be presented at the San Diego ComicCon in July of this year.
     Several of his novels and novellas are currently in development as movies.

Visit Tim’s site: www.timlebbon.net or www.noreela.com to learn about the fantasy novels

Humdrumming titles by Tim Lebbon:
The Reach of Children [very special edition] — forthcoming
The Reach of Children [special edition] — forthcoming
The Second Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories [contribution]

Gary McMahon has placed over 60 stories in magazines and anthologies in both the UK and USA. He is the author of the novellas Rough Cut (nominated for a British Fantasy Award, 2007) and All Your Gods Are Dead, as well as a short story collection titled Dirty Prayers, and the novel Rain Dogs.
     His contribution to The First Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories, “Hum Drum”, was honoured with inclusion in Ellen Datlow’s The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror #21. Previously, he was lucky enough to receive two Honourable Mentions in YBF&H #18, and four more in YBF&H #19.
     M^cMahon lives with his wife and son in West Yorkshire, where he watches the rain and studies the shadows, transcribing the nightmares he sees there.

Visit Gary’s site: www.garymcmahon.com

Humdrumming titles by Gary M^cMahon:
All Your Gods Are Dead
Rain Dogs
The First Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories [contribution]
The Second Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories [contribution]

Mark Morris became a full-time writer in 1988 on the Enterprise Allowance Scheme, and a year later saw the release of his first novel, Toady. He has since published a further thirteen novels, among which are Stitch, The Immaculate, The Secret of Anatomy, Mr. Bad Face, Fiddleback and Nowhere Near an Angel.
     His short stories, novellas, articles and reviews have appeared in a wide variety of anthologies and magazines, and he is editor of the highly-acclaimed Cinema Macabre, a book of fifty horror movie essays by genre luminaries, for which he won a British Fantasy Award in 2007.
     His latest novels are Doctor Who – Forever Autumn, which was voted “Best Doctor Who Book of 2007” by readers of Doctor Who Magazine, and The Deluge, published by Leisure Books in the USA.
     Forthcoming work includes a novella entitled It Sustains, a “Hellboy” novel entitled The All-Seeing Eye and another book in the immensely popular “Doctor Who” range, Ghosts of India.

Visit Mark’s site: www.markmorriswriter.com

Humdrumming titles by Mark Morris:
Toady
Stitch
World Wide Web (& Other Lovecraftian Downloads) [introduction]
The First Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories [introduction]
The Second Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories [contribution]

Sarah Pinborough was born in 1972 in Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire, UK where her family have their home. She spent much of her childhood travelling all over the world — her father, now retired, was a diplomat and so her early years were spent trawling the Middle East — before at 8 years old she packed her trunk and headed off to boarding school for a ten year stretch, the memories of which she says still provide her with much of her material for horror writing.
     She now lives about five miles from where she was born with her cats, Mr Fing and Peter. She is a member of the British Fantasy Society, The Horror Writers' Assocation and — along with fellow horror authors Sarah Langan, Alex Sokoloff and Deborah LeBlanc — the writing collective MUSE.
     She really doesn't know what people that don't write do with their time. Housework, probably.

Visit Sarah’s site: www.sarahpinborough.com

Humdrumming titles by Sarah Pinborough:
The Second Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories [contribution]

Simon Strantzas was born in the dead of the Canadian winter and has lived in Toronto for more than thirty years, making a name for himself writing tales of the strange and the biƒarre, tales that examine the illusions that mask our malignant and corrupting universe. Over twenty of these have been sold to places as Cemetery Dance, Postscripts, and The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, from where they spread their sickness into unsuspecting minds.
     There. Did you feel that? You too have just been infected, and there is no cure but death.

Visit Simon’s site: www.strantzas.com

Humdrumming titles by Simon Strantzas:
Beneath the Surface [forthcoming]
The First Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories [contribution]
The Second Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories [contribution]

Jack Torridian was born in Innsbruck, Austria. Raised by his immigrant grandparents in the rural Midwestern US until he was eight, Jack knew virtually no English prior to entering school. Labelled a slow learner by faculty because of his poor command of English, he was put in remedial learning groups in early grade school. An only child until he was fourteen and isolated by cultural and social barriers, he kept to himself for most of his youth. By mid-teens he fell deep into an undiagnosed depression, and by twenty, the combined effects of alcohol and depression put him on academic probation, in trouble with the law, and in detox — hardly a good start on life.
     Fortunately, Jack met someone who helped him put his life back on track, and despite setbacks, Jack went on to earn degrees from both the colleges of engineering and of liberal arts. Subsequently, he held jobs that allowed him to travel across the Europe, from Norway to Italy & parts in between; criss-crossing the US & Canada from New York to L.A.; from Toronto to Vancouver; red states and blue states; coastal states and provinces; mountain states & provinces; and plains states & Canadian prairies — meeting people from various walks of life along the way. His adventure fiction The Trainer was inspired by his travels, the people he met, the jobs he held, and the experiences he lived.

Visit Jack's site: www.torridian.com

Humdrumming titles by Jack Torridian:
The Trainer

John Travis has had over thirty stories published in various books, magazines and journals in the UK and abroad, in places such as Nemonymous, The Urbanite, All Hallows, Fusing Horizons and online as a guest writer for Simon Clark’s Nailed by the Heart website. His most recent appearances to be found in Triquorum 2, E’CH PI EL #3 and the hardback anthology At Ease with the Dead. He has further stories due in Supernatural Tales and The British Invasion.
     Currently he is working on a new novel, The Designated Coconut, the second in a series featuring a feline Private Eye, set in a world which is now run by mutated animals. The first novel, The Terror and the Tortoiseshell, is being looked at by a publisher, while another publisher looks at a collection of his idiosyncratic short stories. And you’ll never guess who’s publishing his first collection next year. Novellas, apparently. It Came Through the Leslie Speaker, if you can believe such a thing.

Humdrumming titles by John Travis:
It Came Through the Leslie Speaker [forthcoming]
The First Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories [contribution]
The Second Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories [contribution]

Carol Weekes has published fiction and non-fiction since making her first short story sale in 1995. Her work has been nominated for the Bram Stoker and Aurora Awards, and 2007’s Journey Prize, as well as having garnered several Honourable Mentions in Ellen Datlow’s Best of… series.
     Since then she has gone on to place work in myriad magazines and anthologies, mainly within the Horror genre.
     Her first novel, Walter’s Crossing, was released from Naked Snake Press in April of 2007. Her second novel, Ouroboros — co-written with author Michael Kelly (Scratching the Surface) — will be released by Humdrumming in 2008.
     Carol resides in Ingleside, Ontario, with her husband, two children, and a plethora of animals, including many cherished pet rats.

Visit her site: myspace.com/darklexicon

Humdrumming titles by Carol Weekes:
Ouroboros (with Michael Kelly) [forthcoming]
The First Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories [contribution]
The Second Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories [contribution]

Conrad Williams was born in 1969 and has been in print since 1988. He is the author of the novels Head Injuries, London Revenant, and The Unblemished; the novellas Nearly People, Game, The Scalding Rooms, and Rain, and the collection Use Once Then Destroy.
     He is a past recipient of the Littlewood Arc Prize, the British Fantasy Award and the International Horror Guild Award. His new novels, due to be published in 2009, are ONE and (as “Conrad A. Williams”) Decay Inevitable.
     He lives in Manchester, UK, with his wife, three sons and a large, plastic bag-chewing Maine Coon.

Visit his site: www.conradwilliams.net

Humdrumming titles by Conrad Williams:
The Second Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories [contribution]