Kris Ashton

I’m beyond excited to announce that Wicked House Publishing has picked up my horror novel Nightmare at the Ironstone. It’s scheduled for publication in late 2024.

Imagine Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde mashed up with Stephen King’s Needful Things and written from an Australian perspective. With the sensibilities of Lamberto Bava’s movie Demons (1985) thrown in to liven things up. Here’s the blurb:

Times are tough in Black Wattle. Drought and forest fires have ravaged the town and its lifeblood, tourism, is on the wane. Nobody is feeling the pinch more than divorcee Shirley Goodsall, who is trying to keep the historic Ironstone Hotel afloat while quelling animosity between her ex-husband and their teenage daughter. So when the business manager for a local brewery, Damon Prince, offers her a promotional deal that includes free kegs of beer, Shirley jumps at the chance.

Two nights later her pub is packed for the first time in months and Shirley’s fortunes appear to be changing. But her elation soon turns to horror as she discovers she has unwittingly helped Prince unleash dark forces in Black Wattle. Innocent residents are hunted down and subjected to unspeakable torment as the town becomes a testing ground for a supernatural weapon of unholy power. Shirley and a handful of survivors band together to try to foil Prince’s fiendish plot, but Prince is no ordinary man. He will stare into their souls and turn their most shameful personal demons against them…

Keep an eye on my website or my Twitter/X page @wordsmanship for updates on its publication.