From Dark Places

General Fiction

By Emma Newman

Publisher : eMergent Publishing

ABOUT Emma Newman

Emma Newman
Author of the forthcoming Twenty Years Later (Fall 2010), Emma was born in a tiny coastal village in Cornwall, south west England, during one of the hottest summers on record. Four years later she started to write stories and never stopped until she penned a short story that secured her a  More...

Description

Abby finds a creative solution to her father’s problems. Ben makes a pact with the Devil for a new Mum. Katie is pursued by unrelenting voices. John just found his colleague’s hand in a strange girl’s lap. Jarvis is falling apart on his wedding day. Rosalind comes face-to-face with her number one fan. And that is just the beginning.

E.J. Newman’s debut anthology is a dark and twisting journey across the urban landscape, mining the rich seam of human frailties with insight and humour. The stories traverse the magical and the mundane, where supernatural beings are indistinguishable from their mortal counterparts in their complexity and complicity.

In 2009, Emma Newman started a short story club on her blog which now has over 300 members. Free to join, members receive a short story in their inbox every month, inspired by a winning prompt submitted to the blog. The winning commenter has the opportunity to read the story prior to its release to the club. In early 2010, between short story club stories and flash fiction written for her blog, Emma realised she had enough to create a small anthology. Keen to experiment with self-publishing, she produced an e-book entitled ‘From Dark Places’ containing 11 short stories, sold via Smashwords. During this time, eMergent Publishing commissioned Emma to write a second short story for their Chinese Whisperings anthologies, after the success of The Red Book in 2009. After such a positive experience with the company, Emma approached eMergent in late 2010 to hire them to edit an extended second edition of From Dark Places. Instead, eMergent Publishing offered Emma a contract to publish a new edition of the anthology in traditional and digital formats. The 2011 edition of ‘From Dark Places’ contains 25 stories, including one written specifically for inclusion in the new collection.

“Newman is unafraid to explore the darker side of fiction and, by extension, life. The stories are by turns touching and funny and heart warming. And dark. In places very, very dark. Leave the light on.”
DAN POWELL, 2010 Yeovil Literary Prize winner
(Short Story)

“Gods, demons and angels inhabit these pages, as much at home as the cheating spouses, spurned lovers and ugly, foul-mouthed orphans. Newman is a powerful emerging voice in dark fiction. I’ll be watching out for more of her stuff. You should too.”

ALAN BAXTER , Author of ‘RealmShift’ and ‘MageSign’
With these short stories Emma Newman proved to me that she is indeed the master of the dark twist. Spooky mixed with a touch of humour that makes it all the more entertaining, this collection is a great sampler of her work, showing her many skills when it comes to creating (and abusing!) memorable characters in not many words. I agree with Steve Weaver's review: it would be amazing to hear her read these stories out loud. Great collection, Emma-- I can't wait to read what you produce next!
Jen Brubacher

Once again we are entertained and delighted by a hot new author on the scene. Emma Newman brings back insinuation and innuendo as an art form; reminiscent of the twilight zone or Outer limits. In an age of verbal overkill, Emma proves that less can be more! The only way it could have been the smallest bit more enjoyable was had she read them aloud.. If you have not heard her, then rush over to her website and indulge in some audio treats!!! Kudos and congratulations, I look forward to your next work.

Steve Weaver