My Dark Ambient Album Deep Space Impingement is Out Now

Almost one month ago, I collected some of my own dark ambient tracks together into an album and released it on Bandcamp. It's called Deep Space Impingement and I've decided to give myself the artist name of Reality Scruncher. The album is themed around a deep space starship and its descent into weirdness and madness. The full album description is:

A starship journeys far beyond the known, delving into strange twisted distortions of the reality that birthed it. 

Presences watch it. Probe it. Toy with it. The starship can take it. The crew... not so much. 

A droning, rumbling, space-infused album, one created in the hopes of transporting the listener into vast, futile, and malignant soundscapes.

The full album is also up on YouTube and I`ll embed it below if you'd like to check it out that way. If you listen and find yourself liking it, it's currently a free download on Bandcamp. I will also paste some Bandcamp codes at the end of this post if you'd like to add it to your library in a more permanent way. 

Bandcamp codes to redeem at https://realityscruncher.bandcamp.com/yum :

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4h22-eh8e

4cla-uebu

qssg-judq

b443-y5xt

5csl-ufab

8j4h-jquw

2fsh-yte4

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My New Book Horrifier is Available on Kindle Now!

When I was a kid and on a long car journey, I would often imagine what it would be like if the distant traffic was vaporised by aliens, war, or even a marauding giant. As an adult, I still find myself doing this in a variety of circumstances; the more boring the situation, the bigger the challenge in spicing it up a little.

Early last year, I decided to create a collection of ten dark tales, each set in its own so-called boring situation. I imagined some suitable scenarios, and fed them through the ‘horrifying’ machine that is my brain. If, as John Milton says, our minds can make a heaven of hell and a hell of heaven, at the least, mine should be able to inject some interesting, darkly twisted elements into mundane activities.

So that’s what I did. How would I make a queue at the post office interesting? Or someone gazing out of the window? Or someone eating in a quiet restaurant? You’ll have to buy Horrifier in the Amazon Kindle Store to find out!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09PHCXWHJ - Amazon.com

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09PHCXWHJ - Amazon UK

If you have a Kindle Unlimited Subscription, Horrifier can be also be read as part of that.

Dark Fiction: What Monsters Do For Love

Love twists people into strange shapes. It can make monsters of the nicest people, and sometimes, turn a monster into something a little less monstrous. 

What Monsters Do For Love is a new horror anthology from Soteira Press. It consists of 3 volumes, each stuffed with tales of human and inhuman monsters; the shapes that love twists them into. 

My own tale: The Corrupter, is in Volume II.

Amazon links: Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3.

Bloody Red Nose: Fifteen Fears of a Clown Out Friday 13th

Bloody Red Nose: Fifteen Fears of a Clown Out Friday 13th

Bloody Red Nose: Fifteen Fears of a Clown is a new anthology of dark tales, tales in which the clown is the victim or hero, rather than the gurning evil-grin wearing psychopath. This particular anthology contains one of my own dark tales too.

The blurb: In a world filled with menace, dare to paint on a grin. The world is full of images of scary clowns: packs of grinning figures with knives plaguing towns; pom-pom clad serial killers; loners who like children in the wrong way. But clowns can be a force for good: it takes a kind heart to put other people’s joy first; keeping children entertained is honest work; what better disguise than one that makes the villains laugh? 

What if, rather than being childhood-spoiling serial killers, clowns were the victims or heroes of the story? When all the children at a party are poisoned, an entertainer’s profession and past both make him a prime suspect. An anti-corporate prankster discovers his guru might be just as callous as the capitalist world-view he claims to reject. A clown attempts to redeem the image of his profession by saving a group of teenagers from a serial killer. And twelve more stories of clowns facing humanity’s baser natures.

Bloody Red Nose: Fifteen Fears of a Clown releases tomorrow, Friday the 13th September 2019, and is available from the following retailers, among others, with the paperback costing £7.99 and the eBook version coming in at £3.99.

Amazon:

Paperback: https://smarturl.it/BloodyRedNosePrint

Kindle: https://smarturl.it/BloodyRedNoseKindle

Kobo:

https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/bloody-red-nose

Barnes&Noble:

Paperback: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bloody-red-nose-david-r-higgins/1133395384

eBook: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bloody-red-nose-dave-higgins/1133387784

iBooks: 

https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1479227618 

Five years on.

As has become a habit for me, I am posting on or around the birthday of my website. Five years old this week.

As far as previous years, the one now passed has been a quiet one. I’ve continued reviewing various music/books/films and games, written the odd one off article and generally carried on in the same vein as usual, but haven’t really succeeded in pushing on further.

A few weeks ago I posted that this upcoming year may be my last as a writer if I can’t turn things around, and that still very much stands. At this moment in time, I don’t think I will be able to.

I can’t think of much more to add so with that, I will end this subdued birthday post here. Thank you to anyone who reads my writing, wherever it might be posted, I appreciate it.

Four Years On...

Once again I find myself at the birthday of my website, another year has passed and in that time, I have done various things and am now taking the time to mull over what a few of those things were.

Thanks to an opportunity through Geek Syndicate, I managed to get a couple of my articles on the blog portion of the Huffington Post website. (These were: Gaming Rituals and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Version 2.0). I’ve continued to write and edit for the guys at Geek Syndicate, including a timely Xmas article about Mindful Bingewatching, and hope to continue doing so for a long time to come. 

My fiction “Unravelled” made it into the Irrational Fears anthology from FTB Press. This was another nice milestone for me as it was someone else publishing some of my fiction and paying me for the privilege.

I’ve reviewed lots more dark ambient music and, as always, I am thankful to the people who send me their creations to listen to. Alongside heavy metal, dark ambient is my other music genre of choice.

I wrote a number of articles for ME/CFS website Foggy Friends which looked at mindfulness, electronic relaxation aids and ASMR. This was a nice change of pace for me and they were topics that I found very interesting and relatively easy to write about, as they fall into areas I already have a fair amount of knowledge about.

I’ve seen some great live metal bands: Coal Chamber, Soil, Skindred, Crossfaith, and most recently, Machine Head.

I’ve also lost a few stone in weight and seem to have stamped out a lot of my more minor Obsessive Compulsive Disorder behaviors, even though certain large areas of anxiety still remain, so it’s some progress at least. It’s a shame my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is still a total fucker however.

I don’t have specific hopes for the year to come as I’m sure it will be shit in ways I can’t imagine, and good in other ways I can’t imagine, so why bother trying. I just hope I can progress and get my writing to a higher level in the ways that matter.

Thanks for reading, and if you know anyone looking for a freelance writer, particularly in the areas mentioned, please send them a link to my website, that would be amazing.

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Dark Fiction - Irrational Fears Is Out Now!

A short while ago I posted that one of my short stories, Unravelled, would be in a new anthology by FTB Press. That anthology, Irrational Fears, released a few days ago and is now available to buy from Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. The paperback is currently £6.42 / $9.99, the Kindle version is currently £1.99 / $3.10. Click here for the book on Amazon UK and here for it on Amazon US.

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My Dark Tale 'Unravelled' to be in Irrational Fears Anthology

My fiction writing has sadly slipped since the start of the year. I did however, find something in an issue of one of my writing magazines that made me feel I had a chance with a submission. That submission was for FTB Press' Irrational Fears anthology and, I am happy to say, my story Unravelled was accepted. This is another great milestone for me when it comes to my writing so I am very chuffed. Stay tuned for more info.

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Front Page

Well, my item about Gaming Rituals that was posted on The Huffington Post is now on the front page! Not much to say about that except 'Woo!' You can read the article here if you missed my post yesterday.

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Article on the Huffington Post

An article I wrote for Geek Syndicate Magazine awhile ago, on Gaming Rituals and habits, has been published on the Geek Syndicate website proper here. It has also, as of today, been published on The Huffington Post, which is something I am very chuffed about!

This wouldn't have come about in the manner it did if it wasn't for Barry and Geek Syndicate. Yes I wrote the thing, but if I hadn't been contributing to G.S, I may never have written that article. It was also through G.S that this opportunity arose. It just goes to show, you never know when something you've written might come in handy in the future.

+

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Three Years On - Progress and Strain

My website is 3 years old today. Much like last year, I will use it as a measuring stick to see how far I’ve come, what I might have achieved and how close to madness I came.

I will start with looking at my hopes of a year ago and seeing if they were met. I laid out some very numbers-based goals for number of posts done, Twitter followers gained and site traffic reached. I met some, failed to reach others, but I find myself not really caring as they miss the point. They are just a metric to measure one aspect of what is going on; they shouldn’t be goals in and of themselves.

The biggest thing for me from a writing perspective was finally going self-employed as a freelance writer. The manner in which it came about was incredibly stressful and my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder damn near killed me in the trying, but months on, I am slowly getting a handle on things. I am also getting paid work which is also very helpful but is taking some getting used to.

Shortly after going freelance, I got my Dark Distractions Anthology onto the Amazon Kindle Store, which was another milestone for me. Of course, this site is no longer called Dark Distractions but I liked the name enough to keep it for my writing. I wanted my site address to be relate-able to my own name, especially if people might see some of my writing and decide to Google me.

I have continued my writing for Geek Syndicate and enjoyed the various things coming my way to review. I am heartened to see G.S go from strength to strength and for Barry and Dave to be rewarded with their BBC iPlayer shows and interviews. I also want to thank the site for giving me something to do when other things have seen my mind whirling away in fear and anxiety; it was a great way to keep writing, which was the most important thing for me.

Another notable event was being invited onto BBC Radio 4’s Digital Human show to talk about how my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder affected my use of technology. It was a great experience and even though not much of my interview was used in the end, I appreciated the opportunity to put into words things that I struggle with on a day to day basis.

One area that has really taken off is the amount of contact I have with writers and musicians who would like me to review their work. I have thoroughly enjoyed writing my dark ambient music album reviews and it is always a great feeling to have music that I enjoy listening to coming to me for a change, rather than having to hunt things out for myself. That probably makes me sound very lazy but I just like to think it’s having a relaxed attitude to entertainment.

My fiction writing has continued in fits and starts, partly due to adjusting to more article and news writing, and partly due to horrendous energy levels and the anxiety it causes me to embark on a larger piece of work. If writing flash fiction and short stories is like gently pootling about in a row-boat just off the beach, writing a novella or novel is like rowing out to sea and losing sight of land for weeks. It’s something I will get on top of but as of yet have not taken steps in that direction.

If the year before last, someone had told me I would have been a freelancer and have a book on the Kindle Store by now, I would have said yes please and taken it gladly. As it is, I’m pleased but it’s hard to feel too cheerful about it. I know intellectually I have done it, but it feels like my heart hasn’t accepted it. I won’t fret about what I’m feeling or not feeling though and will just carry on taking steady steps towards being the writer I would like to be.

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Dark Distractions Anthology Volume One is Out Now!

I am happy to announce that nearly every one of my short story and flash fiction posts on this blog from the last couple of years (spanning March 2012 to July 2014) is now bound up in this handy Kindle eBook. Dark Distractions Anthology Volume One is available from Amazon now and is the most simple way to kick back and read my dark fiction in comfort.

"Unlike some first time authors who rely solely on details of gore and bloody scenarios, Casey Douglass opts instead for story and character progression. And it works so well, you’ll be lost in those characters. Whether it’s a short piece of flash fiction or a medium size tale, you feel as if you’re in the world they are in." Dave - Horror Cabin.

Amazon.com = $0.99

Amazon.co.uk = £0.99

It is also available on Amazon sites in other regions by searching for my name or the title.

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Dark Fiction - Inheritance and Four Flash tales in Print

You can now find five more of my dark tales in two new Darker Times Collections. They were printed as a reward for placing in the Darker Times competitions during last year and into this one.

• Darker Times Anthology Volume 7 : My short Cthulian horror Inheritance.
• Darker Times Collection Volume 2 : Four pieces of Flash Fiction - Original, Mirror, Deep & Distance.

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Published Letter

A nice surprise today as I finally had time to read through a couple of back issues of Writing Magazine. It sounds funny saying that I "finally had time", I should probably say that I finally felt well enough to read a little bit. I turned to the letters page and saw my letter. Not the achievement of the century but it's the first proper letter I have had published since trying to power up my writing, so I am quietly happy. I would happily recommend Writing Magazine for any writers who want tips/motivation/ideas. It's well worth the modest cover price.

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Dark Distractions is Two Years Old Today!

My blog is officially two today, and just like last year, I thought it would be interesting to do a post that is more for me than anyone else. A post that will let me see what I did in the last year, and how that improved on the year before. It will also include some shout-outs and thanks, as I didn't do it alone.

The year before last I wrote 43 blog posts. This past year I did 75. I’m pleased that I almost doubled my output, even though I know quantity is no assurance of quality. I will aim to double it again this year.

I went from around 25 Twitter followers to around 300. I’m not chasing numbers as it’s all about quality followers, not just slack-jawed “I’ll follow you if you follow me’ers.” Twitter is nice but I don’t think I’m social enough to really take full advantage. Even so, my goal for this year is to pass the 1000 follower mark.

My blog traffic went from around 2,000 hits to around 21,000. It’s nice to see some traffic, even if a lot of it is just automated bots and crawlers. I think this year my goal will be another 10X increase to around 200,000 hits.

I managed to get an article into every edition of the Geek Syndicate Magazine, and thirteen articles/reviews for the website. I will aim to continue that level of contribution to the magazine (as it is beyond my power to make it come out more frequently) but I will try to increase my website contributions.

I wrote 9 film reviews for the Generic Movie and TV blog before I decided to part company with them and put my effort into my other areas of interest. I did have a look at letterboxd but think that I will just keep the odd film review to my blog.

I wrote 17 pieces of flash fiction for #fridayflash. Fridayflash is a great community of writers and it has only really been the second half of the year that I have been able to fully take part and commit to publishing a story each week. I think it has helped my writing a good degree to have something weekly to aim for.

I entered 5 competitions gaining various places/mentions in each, which won me a free ebook (Grey Matter Press) and my stories featuring in 3 print and ebook anthologies (Darker Times). I had only entered one competition before these, and that was before this blog even existed. I am committed to keeping the competition entries flowing as I feel that they are the main way to gauge my progress and, if won, the main way to get my name out more. It was also very nice to be able to hold my work in printed form, something physical to show for the effort. On a larger note, I aim to plan and complete a novel of some kind in the next 12 months.

I joined the Horror Blogger Alliance, which has led to three review requests from people that found my blog and asked me if I fancied reviewing their books/films. 

I was given a Liebster award by Steve Green which was very kind of him. It wasn’t my first but the first one I was able to accept. Paul Dail gave me my first but it came at a time where I couldn’t meet the criteria for accepting it and so it fell from my mind. I appreciated the gesture though.

One low point was that I did sign up to do NaNoWriMo but just couldn’t get started with it. I had a couple of ideas for novels that I wanted to follow and the indecision ended up putting too much pressure on me so I just let it drop.

As usual, I would like to thank my good friend Paul Brewer, who has tirelessly commented on my posts when I'm sure he has had much more interesting things to be getting on with. Thanks as always Paul :).

Thanks to everyone who knows me, reads my stuff and lets me know that I am not writing in a vacuum.

Casey.

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Dark Fiction - Pollywocker in Print

The Darker Times Anthology Volume Six is now out in paperback and ebook format on Amazon. My story Pollywocker is inside, as I placed in the Darker Times competition and my prize was to be included. It's not like having my own book out but it's a step in the right direction at least. It's nice to know my work is out there in a physical form, which is refreshing when it has all been digital to date.

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Dark Fiction - Inheritance

My submission for the Darker Times January short story competition was Inheritance, a tale of lonely halls and deep shadows. You can read it here on the Darker Times website.

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Dark Fiction - Pollywocker (Darker Times Competition Honourable Mention)

My entry to the December 2013 Darker Times Competition, Pollywocker, achieved an honourable mention. Anyone who would like to read my strange story can read it here.

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Dark Pondering - My Second Competition Result

I entered the August Flash Fiction Competition on Darker Times and received two honourable mentions, which I am quite happy with. I'm a bit disappointed to have not improved on my last attempt but I`ll settle for that. Winners, runners up and honourable mentions can be seen here.

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Dark Pondering - My First Writing Competition Result

I entered my first paid entry writing competition last month. The reason it has taken me so long isn't due to any aversion to paying, just that I didn't really feel ready until now. I had entered a couple of free to enter competitions over the last few years but didn't place in those.

When I found Darker Times, I felt that I could write the kind of story that I really enjoyed and so felt it was definitely worth a go. A few days ago the results for July 2013 were published and I was very happy to see that both of my flash fiction stories were placed. One as a runner up, one as an honourable mention. I was disappointed not to win of course, but to have two get a mention was almost just as good for me. Even better, they will hopefully be published later in the year as part of the Darker Times Anthology, which I can actually buy from Amazon as a paperback! I know it's not quite the same as having your own book published but mentally, I feel that I am another step along the path that I want to travel with my writing.

I will certainly be entering again, and other competitions too. If I can repeat or better that result, I will feel more able to push ahead and to at least have some confidence in the idea that I might not be deluding myself as to my abilities or my feasibility as a writer.

The winning entries, along with the runner up and honourable mentions can all be seen here, and are well worth a read if you like dark things.

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