Among the Headstones: Creepy Tales from the Graveyard
** WARNING SELF PROMO INCOMING! ** Among the Headstones: Creepy Tales from the Graveyard Not convinced? Check out these two interviews...
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About us
We are Pugnacious Press, Purveyors of the Weird and Unusual, Publishers of Peculiar Horror.
We endeavour to not only amuse and horrify but also explore topics that make readers think.
We strive to work with driven creators, passionate artists, and compulsive storytellers, and make the world a better place by connecting people with meaningful stories.
Welcome to the weird, we've been expecting you.
Pippa Bailey
Foul-mouthed horror author, voice actor, reviewer & all-round good person.
Likes tea & too much gin.
Veronica Abbott
A writer who exists in the glorious gap between unconsciousness and the outskirts of bourbon.
Says "cunt" a lot.
Reviews
"Simply put, the two authors deliver hard with tight sharp wit, humour and horror hand in hand.
As it should be."
★★★★★
Nelson W. Pyles
Author, creator and executive producer of The Wicked Library Podcast
"The stories are wonderfully creative, darkly humorous, shocking, horrifying, and wholly entertaining."
★★★★★
Lisa Lee Tone
Reviewer at Bibliophilia Templum: Reviews and Resources for the daring reader
"A few tales had me so enveloped that I kept looking over my shoulder! I will definitely keep this duo on my literary radar and you should too!"
★★★★★
Christina Eleanor
Reviewer, beta reader, and owner of The Voracious Gnome blog
Chromophobia is coming for Pippa!
I'm Screaming from the rooftop, I GOT INTO CHROMOPHOBIA! As you can guess from the title, Chromophobia is all about colour, or in the case of my story, Achromatica is about the lack of colour. Answering the question of what would happen if the world was white? I am a big believer in the world as a spectrum, we need colour, we need individuality, after all, variety is the spice of life.
This story was written in the wake of the George Floyd murder, when I was left questioning the horror of the hidden and not so hidden segregation in modern society, and the importance of colour in the world. The story is almost an allegory for the damage done when we allow the beauty of colour to be drained from our world, in favour of a white, hollow existence.
I was absolutely flawed and incredibly happy to find my story "Achromatica" accepted to the anthology CHROMOPHOBIA: A Strangehouse Anthology by Women in Horror, edited by the brilliant Bram Stoker award winning Sara Tantlinger and published by the amazing Nicholas Day and Don Noble of Rooster Republic Press. Check out their website to learn more about their other releases, their editors, and pre-made book covers. Chromophobia will be released in a limited hardcover during the summer of 2022, with trade paperback releases scheduled for Halloween 2022. You can pre-order the special edition hardback version here.
In Audio - Panel
Fantasycon 2021
Charlotte Bond (Moderator), Pippa Bailey, Pauline Kirk and E. M. Faulds
Whether it’s a podcast, an audiobook or an adapted audio drama, or a story told solely in audio, the rise of the listener as an audience compared with that of the reader is a modern phenomenon made easy through technology.
Similarly, creators have found ‘a voice’ in audio. Join our panel in discussing the aspects of podcasting, audio narration, performance and more.
On Screen Panel
Fantasycon 2021
Myk Pilgrim (Moderator), Gavin Smith, Adam Simcox, Tim Lebbon, & Kelly White
Fantasy and Horror on screen. With the profusion of streaming services and channels available to the audience, has our appetite for the genres on the small and the big screen changed?
What are the interactions between the screen and the page? Our panel consider their own experiences and offer some insight into film and television.
And, also a drinking game.
13th February 2021
Women in Horror Month WiHM - Live chat with Women Horror Authors
This first live show from DarkBetweenPages featuring the lovely:
Violet Castro https://www.vvcastro.com/
Pippa Bailey
Kelly Charron https://kellycharron.com/
and Lezlie from The Nerdy Narrative
January 28th 2021
Close Your Mouths and Clench Eyes Tight by Pippa Bailey
Click here to hear the story for FREE right now
So my most recent short story was released from the WICKED LIBRARY with the fantastic audio from Guy Fortt.
It's the Midnight Mayhem Camp-out and everyone is sharing their scariest stories. A teenager shares a story about when his father was a boy and came face-to-face with majik, voodoo, and the Gunny Sack Man in a tale he calls "Haitian Graffiti and Tonton Macoute".
This story was inspired by Serpent and the Rainbow and my love of folk horror. It's not often I can delve into a culture outwith my own, and expand on the traditional bogeyman story of children taken in the night. But here we are... It's dark, twisted, and lonely.
Close Your Mouths and Clench Eyes Tight by Pippa Bailey
https://www.spreaker.com/user/8992719/twl-1020-128
Told by: Guy Fortt
Custom Score: Nico Vettese
Voice of the Librarian: Nelson Pyles | Artwork: Jeanette Andromeda | Host / Producer / Showrunner: Daniel Foytik | Executive Producers: Cynthia Lowman, Nelson Pyles, Nico Vettese, Scarlett R. Algee Lead Editor: Scarlett R. Algee
9th August 2020
“A Fish Doesn’t Know” by Myk Pilgrim The Wicked Library 1011:
Season 10 continues with a wet and Wicked wild wade into the waves.
Nicola Hope is exhausted, tired, buggered even.
She spends most of her time sweating like a pig in the Horny Haggis kitchen, but now that she's done for the day, all she wants is to sit at the bar and guzzle down all the beer in the world - and maybe just maybe, if she's lucky enough, she might even score a little action. It's always nice not to spend the night alone.
But that all disintegrates like a politician’s promise when her mother texts. Mostly everything Nicola loves crumbles when Mammie touches them, and Mammie likes nothing more than touching the things that make her daughter happy.
Set in Dreich, the same damp Scottish town as "The Nun's Cat", Myk Pilgrim's contribution to The Wicked Library's 13 Wicked Tales Anthology – “A Fish Doesn't Know” is about the terrible joy at seeing yourself as you are.
Told by: Erika Sanderson
Custom Score: Nico Vettese
Voice of the Librarian: Nelson W. Pyles | Artwork: Jeanette Andromeda | Host / Producer / Showrunner: Daniel Foytik | Executive Producers: Cynthia Lowman, Nelson W. Pyles, Nico Vettese, Scarlett R. Algee
Lead Editor: Scarlet R. Algee
Get your copy of The Wicked Library Presents: 13 Wicked Tales on Kindle, or in print. Visit thewickedlibrary.com/read to get your copy today.
8th May 2020
The Little Book of Harm - available for pre-order NOW!
Public release on Wednesday 13th May 2020
Pugnacious Press proudly presents The Little Book of Harm.
A lifestyle guide to rot and ruin, from the chaotic mind of Veronica Abbott, The Queen of Cuss.
200 self-destructive ideas guaranteed to add a little pandemonium to any situation.
Be inspired to wash less and drink more.
The Little Book of Harm will be released into the wild on Wednesday 13th May 2020 and you can pre-order it right now at any of the links below.
But, if you can't wait to poison your soul, you can snag yourself a digital copy of The Little Book of Harm right now (and a colossal buttload of other dubious content) by signing up to the Pugnacious Patreon for a single measly dollar.
Pugnacious Press Patreon https://www.patreon.com/pugnaciouspress
Free for patrons - The Little Book of Harm https://www.patreon.com/posts/free-for-patrons-36850519
Pre-order The Little Book of Harm here:
Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/2WbVUsS
Amazon COM: https://books2read.com/u/mqvWkv?store=amazon
Apple Books: https://books2read.com/u/mqvWkv?store=apple
Barnes & Noble: https://books2read.com/u/mqvWkv?store=bn
Kobo: https://books2read.com/u/mqvWkv?store=kobo
Angus & Robertson: https://books2read.com/u/mqvWkv?store=angus-robertson
12th April 2020 - Easter (that's humpin' bunny day)
Poisoned Candy: Bite-sized Horror for Halloween Full Horror Reading for Quarantine
Live reading of our first collection Poisoned Candy! Poisoned Candy was released October 2018 - featuring ONE HUNDRED, one-hundred-word stories.
It was a hell of a challenge but we think you'll enjoy our endeavours to entertain you during the apocalypse.
Stay home, safe, and wash your fucking hands.
30th October 2019
OUT NOW! Devil's Night Bite-sized Horror for Halloween
A collection of Bite-sized horror short stories for Halloween - designed to thrill, chill, and get you good and damp in the pants region.
Welcome back, boils and ghouls, monsters and misfits, preternaturals and perverts, to the undisputed (if anyone dares to say otherwise, smack them in the gourds) most wonderful time of the year!
Join us in Devil's Night for more chills, thrills, and uncomfortable moments; like the time you jumped at that fake spider at school and just a little bit of pee came out; it's ok, we've been there too, and this book is for you.
The Wicked Library Presents: 13 Wicked Tales OUT 31/10/2019
From an early age, we are taught to fear the unknown; to be afraid of what we do not understand. You're about to discover that what you do know can not only hurt you, but can scare you to death!
The award-winning horror fiction podcast has gathered thirteen amazingly talented authors from around the world to explore the very notion that learning about the unknown can have terrifying results.
Step inside, kiddies... It's storytime at The Wicked Library
Featuring specially commissioned tales from two of our authors
The unmaking of Jennifer Hawkins by Pippa Bailey
and The Nun's Cat by Myk Pilgrim
RANCID EGGS: Bite-sized Horror for Easter Available now!
14th April 2019
Grab your copy on Amazon now!
Pippa Bailey And Myk Pilgrim brought you Poisoned Candy for Halloween, Bloody Stockings for Christmas, and now we’re back with Rancid Eggs for Easter.
Now, delve into an orgy of chocolate and bunnies, celebrating what Easter is really about... copious amounts of gore, excess, and humping, glorious, glorious humping.
We promise you won’t be disappointed. So stick on a smile, smear that chocolate on your genitals, and prepare to have your mind blown and pants destroyed. Welcome to Rancid Eggs: Bite-sized Horror for Easter.
🐇 AMAZON UK 🐇 AMAZON COM 🐇 GOODREADS
March 29th 2019
Bunny Nuggets are fun for everyone!
Are you hangry and craving crunching and munchings? Look no further than Bunny Nuggets cereal! They turn your milk chocolatey...really, really, chocolatey.
Only available from Pugnacious Press! Pick up a copy of Rancid Eggs: Bite-sized Horror for Easter, today on pre-order, released Sunday 14th April 2019 for our Bunny Nuggets and even more delectable filth.
Also, it's ONLY £2.99! That's right, ONLY £2.99 And what's more, our Bunny Nuggets are cheaper, tastier, and far more satisfying than your usual brown flake based breakfast cereal - Trust us, we know, we've been watching you in the mornings before work - your mom is right, you really should get that rash looked at...
Bunny Nuggets, once you plop, you just can't stop.
RANCID EGGS: Bite-sized Horror for Easter
🐇 AMAZON UK 🐇 AMAZON COM 🐇 GOODREADS
March 12th 2019
So there's been a lot going over the last few months and just to top that off with a lot more of the same we (Pippa & I) have got a load more planned for 2019.
First up on the agenda is the release of our third bite-sized horror collection Rancid Eggs.
A gory, overly humpy collection of terrible stories about birth, rebirth, & all the bonking that has to happen to facilitate #1 & #2 on that list.
The book will be out on soft release with lots of time to spare for Easter proper
- so watch this space for updates!
13th December 2018
Bloody Stockings: Bite-sized Horror for Christmas
Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/book/show/43071485-bloody-stockings
Yule is somehow a far more sinister time, and in Bloody Stockings, the chill has fully set in.
Between these blood-soaked pages, you'll find murderous carollers,
a less than conventional advent calendar,
Hobos that smell like seasonal cake,
dodgy gifts from Uncle Nelson,
lonely snowmen,
what lurks in the spaces between the tolling of the church bells, flaming turkeys,
humbugs looking for a place to nest,
and an Elvis impersonator with a wardrobe malfunction to end all wardrobe malfunctions.
So, sit down in front of the fire with the ones you love the most (and your family too), gorge yourself on mince pies, guzzle down all the eggnog you like (remember it’s 150% organic), and enjoy our ode to the second most wonderful time of the year.
26th October 2018
DARK PLACES, EVIL FACES Volume II
Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/book/show/41448486-dark-places-evil-faces-volume-ii
Dark Places, Evil Faces is Volume 2 in this Horror and Dark Suspense anthology series.
Including works of fiction by Clive Barker, Ramsey Campbell, Graham Masterton, Joe R. Lansdale, Jack Ketchum and many more.
All the proceeds raised from the sale of this book will be donated to Rethink Mental Illness.
24th October 2018
Poisoned Candy: Bite-sized Horror for Halloween - Book Reading
Roll-up roll-up for some bone-chilling,
wang-shaking, and downright despicable horror stories specifically designed to give you that, Every Day is Halloween feeling.
Remember - It's the most wonderful time of the year.
Listen along with us as we read from our Halloween collection, purely for your own pleasure... and a little of ours.
25th October 2018
Poisoned Candy: Bite-sized Horror for Halloween
Poisoned Candy: Bite-sized Horror for Halloween
https://books2read.com/PoisonedCandy
Have you checked your Halloween sack for Poisoned Candy? Take a twisted journey through 100 bite-sized Halloween horror stories.
In a world where the only thing scarier than the monster under your bed, is the person tucking you in. Where pumpkins bite back, and the thing that lives in the sink doesn’t eat just your leftovers.
Come door to door with us and enjoy a deadly, delectable offering of short fiction with a vile sense of humour to make you moist in all the wrong places.
Please discard all decency before reading this book - we did whilst writing it.
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