FROM THE ARCHIVES...
Before I started writing Space Opera, I penned numerous novels, series and short stories in which I explored genre and theme, found my voice and developed my craft.
If you've exhausted the Dark Star Panorama, consider showing these older (and often weirder) books some love.
GERALD ODDMAN
Some stars are born. Others fall from the heavens.
All Gerald wants is for the world to know his name. The problem is, everyone seems to have forgotten it already. In an age of online influencers and superhero movies, who cares about an old man performing tricks?
Out of touch with the modern world, Gerald enlists the help of James Garrett and his scruffy friends. A video of Gerald’s performance goes viral, resulting in hundreds of television and sponsorship offers. But as unfortunate truths are revealed and public sentiment takes a turn for the worse, Gerald has to face his biggest fear – being treated the same as everyone else.
Will Gerald get the eternal fame he seeks? Or will he have to settle for infamy?
THE PORTRAIT LINGERS LIKE A WHISPER
Jane knows one thing. This house hides a secret.
All she has is her name, and even that she stole. And then there’s Jack. He says he’s suffering from the same amnesia, but Jane suspects she can’t trust him. She’d leave, but an inky blackness lurks outside the windows and doors.
As the night goes on and her relationship with Jack turns steadily more sour, Jane has a choice: put up with Jack and wait for rescue, or brave the darkness and find out who she really is.
The Portrait Lingers Like a Whisper is a dark page-turner of a mystery. If you like ghostly memories, dangerous strangers and unpredictable twists, then you’ll love T.W.M. Ashford’s latest novella.
CHECKING OUT
A miserable hotel guest. An irritable concierge. A universe of possibilities.
Three years after the death of his wife and son, George Webber checks into Le Petit Monde in London to spend his last night on Earth in luxury. Everything that matters to him is gone, save for what’s in the briefcase he keeps clutched at his side. But when that briefcase is stolen, George discovers there are a great many more worlds than his own. If he wants it back, he’ll have to postpone checking out and travel farther than he ever thought possible.
Checking Out is the first book in the series of the same name. If you like sarcasm, silliness and the space-time continuum, then you’ll love this enchanting and peculiar sci-fi fantasy from T.W.M. Ashford.
CHECKING OUT: CLOCKWISE
Another door. Another story.
Everything is going just fine at Le Petit Monde, the London hotel that doubles as a crossroads for time and space. Nobody’s been shot under Pierre’s watch for nearly three months now, and Viola has become one of the hotel’s more permanent guests. But when an inspector turns up unannounced, everything is thrown into disarray… especially when Pierre “accidentally” pushes her into another universe. He’ll have to get her back if he wants to avoid the hotel getting a bad rating, or worse… Pierre being banished from the multiverse altogether.
CHECKING OUT: ANTICLOCKWISE
One last door. One last story.
George has resurfaced at the far end of time and space, and Pierre has gotten ahead of the Torri-Tau… for now. But with nowhere left in the multiverse to run, the two of them need to work together and come up with a new plan to stop the blue menace - one which involves going right back to the start of everything… back to the Space Between Worlds.
Can George and Pierre finally put the multiverse right? And what might they lose in doing so?
BLACKWATER: VOL. ONE
How far would you go for the truth?
Hunter will kill for it. His daughter was abducted three years ago, and now he'll stop at nothing to find out what happened to her. Of course, in a city as sick and sordid as Blackwater, that can mean walking down some dark and peculiar roads...
At his wit's end, the elusive Thin Man offers him answers in exchange for taking on a simple security job. How could it go wrong? Framed for murder and on the run, Hunter has more than just shady mobsters to contend with. Something old and eldritch lurks beneath the streets, waiting to be reborn...
BLACKWATER: VOL. TWO
Three months have passed since Hunter and Liandra fought an undead spirit in an abandoned cathedral beneath Blackwater. Though the Thin Man escaped with a book capable of resurrecting an ancient god, all has been silent since. Having sat on the Chronicle’s invitation for long enough, Hunter decides it’s time to pay the mysterious old man a visit.
Teaming up with a guide and two-bit gangster, Eddie Buchman, he ventures deep into the heart of the Hollow. But the Chronicle isn’t quite how he imagined and he’s forced into a new bargain, one that brings him even closer to the shocking truth than ever before.
Join Hunter as he finally finds out what happened to his daughter.
BLACKWATER: VOL. THREE
The Old God has arrived. Blackwater City is in ruins. Hunter is nowhere to be seen.
A week has passed since the Old God broke through into our world. Abdul and the other survivors have put together a plan to close the tear between the lands of the living and the dead before the Old God can gather enough strength for a full invasion, but they’re missing a vital piece.
Can they find Hunter? And even if they do, has he the strength left in him to defy a god?
MOUTH OF MIDNIGHT
"Like many authors, I started out small. Some of these short stories and novellas were written before I even published my first book!"
A joke while camping in the woods gets taken too far. A secret parliament of cats meets to discuss business. A teenage runaway finds a dead body in the marshes. A fisherwoman watches the Moon leave home. A man’s car breaks down on a Texas Interstate with a serial killer at large. A family dinner goes horribly wrong. And Little Red Riding Hood receives her darkest retelling yet.
Welcome to the mouth of midnight.
EVERYTHING ENDS
"Everything Ends was the first novel I ever properly finished... and it shows. The writing is much rougher than in my later work and the story is naively under-developed, but hey. We all need to start somewhere.
I'm still proud of it for two reasons.
1.) Anyone's first book is hard to finish, even if it isn't particularly good. Few people ever get that far.
2.) I wrote it in response to my friend passing away from cancer in her mid-twenties. The shock spurred me to create something, and I guess what I created was a surreal and therapeutic exploration of death and grief.
This bittersweet dark fantasy story can be a hard read for some (and not just because it's my first book!), but if you want to see where the writing bug first bit me, this is the place to start."