Ken McGrath (Author)

I've got some new stories coming out over the next while.

'The Hungry Sand' will be appearing in the Burial Books Blog and 'They Waited' is going to be in an anthology with details yet to be revealed. More details on both to follow once I have them.

The housing marketing in Ireland right now is hell...

After an evening spent watching far too many relocation, relocation, relocation style shows, having gone down a rabbit hole thanks to a friend appearing on one, this story was born.

'House Hunters Interdimensional' is available to read for free on the awesome Burial Books Blog.

The sun is shining in Ireland which is apt as my latest short story, 'Put it back' is set on a beach.

Enjoy now for free here on Sci Fi Shorts and thanks again for supporting new Irish fiction.

First short story of the year published in 'Dark Descent: Whispers From Beyond Vol 9' from Darkholme Publishing.

Delighted to be appearing in these pages with my story 'Busy signal on the reincarnation hotline'.

New short story, free to read, up on Witcraft.

Do you believe in magic?

Find out here.

New free short, snappy fiction up now on Sci Fi Shorts.

Give it a read and watch out for your fingers. Gotta love that funky artwork too.

Read it here.

Ever get a pizza that was a little too much on the fiery side? The exorcist Delton Waynes knows all about that in 'Hot Topping', my latest short story published in issue 64 of the Siren's Call Magazine.

Hope everyone's had a great 2023 so far and is looking forward to Christmas and the holiday season wherever you are.

If you've been following me on Instagram (kenmcgrath_author) you'll see that for the latter part of this year I've been working on something called Project V.

Originally written as a long, long, long short story (or so I told myself so I wouldn't get spooked by the enormity of the work, my Writing Shed were not fooled however but played along – bless their inky hearts) this can now be acknowledged as a novel - the first I have completed. Obviously, I'm very, very proud of this and if nothing ever comes of it then at least I've achieved this much.

Project V is currently out with some beta readers, who I'm hoping will find it entertaining and won't stumble into too many plot holes. It's a sci-fi adventure that I think is faced past and exciting, well that was my intention anyway, but sure we'll see what happens.

As a result of the focus on Project V (and learning to drive, and doing a college course, and, and, and,… it’s been a busy, busy year) I’ve not done much in the way of short story writing but thankfully the year won’t be totally dry. The lovely people at Siren’s Call magazine recently accepted my short ‘Hot Topping’ for publication in their Winter 2023 issue.

I’ve been lucky enough to appear in Siren’s Call before, most recently in their Winter 2022 issue, and it’s great to be returning to their pages again.

‘Hot Topping’ features my recuring character, the exorcist Delton Waynes, as he’s called upon to deal with a haunted pizza oven. Good times.

Delton Waynes has previously appeared in the stories ‘Boo-B-Q’, ‘Should Have Bought Flowers’, ‘Bad Patch’ and ‘Exercising, Exorcising’ which you can find links to via the Stories tab above.

Finished up 2022 with some good news on the fiction front - my very short story 'Béaldubh Lough Hotel Brochure' got reprinted in the Winter issue of Siren's Call Magazine. You can check it out on page 205. The magazine's free to download at the link below and I’m delighted to be appearing in their pages again. Thanks for supporting new fiction and best of luck to everyone in 2023. Take care of yourselves and if you're looking for a relaxing hotel break you might want to give Béaldubh Lough Hotel a miss. @sirenscallpublications​ 

http://www.sirenscallpublications.com/pdfs/SirensCallEZine_Winter2022.pdf

Just in time for Halloween and Samhain I’m happy to announce that my short story ‘Béaldubh Lough Hotel brochure’ will be getting a new lease of life when it appears in the forthcoming issue of Siren’s Call magazine. It’s always a treat to be appearing in their pages, no trick there. 

‘Béaldubh Lough Hotel brochure’ originally appeared as a Patreon exclusive for Crystal Lake Publishing subscribers, so it’s nice to know that it’s being resurrected where it’ll be available for everyone else to read for free. 

This is a big one for me.  

My newest short story has appeared in the summer 2022 (issue 58) of Siren’s Call magazine. Not only does it feature the return of the exorcist Delton Waynes (’Exercising, Exorcising’, ‘Bad Patch’ and ‘Should Have Bought Flowers’), as he attempts to deal with a suitably, summery haunting, but it’s also the 50th original short story I’ve had published. That’s huge. 

This was also the first brand new piece of fiction that I finished after we went into lockdown in Ireland in 2020 so it comes with a lot of memories for me. 

You can check out ‘Boo-B’Q’ for free in the latest issue of Siren’s Call Magazine, it’s on page 66 if you want to dash there first, before reading the rest of the amazing stories that I’m lucky to be sharing pages with. 

Until next time stay safe and thanks for supporting new fiction. 

Who says that all horror has to happen in the dark?  

Very happy to announce that I’ve had a new flash fiction story published thanks to Crystal Lake Publishing’s ‘Shallow Water’ monthly flash competition. 

‘Béaldubh Lough Hotel brochure’ is, at the moment, only available to their Patreon subscribers, but go ahead and sign up. It’s well worth it. There’s some truly awesome content available, lurking just below the waves. 

In other news the exorcist Delton Waynes will return this summer for an appearance in the always brilliant Siren’s Call magazine. More news on ‘Boo-B-Q’ when it lands. 

Over on Tor.com Jared Shurin (editor of ‘The Outcast Hours’) has posted an article, ‘Our Cyberpunk Year’ in which he puts it that cyberpunk is not dead, that we’re all actually living in a cyberpunk world and that the genre itself is in robust health across a multitude of media, thanks in no small part to ‘Cyberpunk 2077′ and ‘The Matrix Resurrections’.

So I was pretty stunned to see, when it came to examples from short fiction, that he’d mentioned my story ‘Hunting Warbirds’, which was published in Hyphen Punk in August of this year. 

Shurin writes “Cyberpunk stories, for example, proliferated across short fiction outlets... Ken McGrath’s “Hunting Warbirds” (HyphenPunk) is more familiar fare—an action-packed heist in an unequivocally cyberpunk setting”, which is pretty amazing. 

Just in time for Halloween I’ve a brand new short story out, so if you’re in the mood for a little something spooky drag your corpse on over to The Sirens Call and check out ‘Should Have Bought Flowers’ in their free-to-read Halloween Issue (Issue 55). It starts on page 170 if you want to skip ahead, but be sure to check out the amazing stories, poetry and artwork I’m lucky enough to find myself featured alongside. This is my second time in The Sirens Call and I’m delighted that they had me back. 

In 'Should Have Bought Flowers' the exorcist Delton Waynes returns for a new case but you can get up to speed with his previous appearances in:

‘Exercising, Exorcising’ in The Arcanist

‘Bad Patch’ in The Sirens Call 

While you’re here don’t forget to check out my other most recent publication, ‘Hunting WarBirds’ in the simply brilliant Hyphen Punk Magazine. With lashings of body-horror and cyberpunk adventure it should fit in alright at this time of the year without too much difficulty. 

Feel free to show all these great, independent magazines some love by sharing, tagging, reposting or whatever it is you do best and if you’re hanging around Instagram drop me a line on kenmcgrath_author if you want to say hi.

Delighted to have a brand new short story, 'Hunting WarBirds', published today in the fantastic 'Hyphen Punk Magazine'. You can check it out for free here. Suitable for fans of cyberpunk, future-cops and teppanyaki. 

They say: “The government has developed a new method of hacking people’s brains so that all of their memories are laid bare, and their first use will be on Johnny Crucifix. Johnny’s gang doesn’t want that info in the world, so they are hellbent to stop it at all costs. Come enjoy Hunting Warbirds by Ken McGrath”.

I should probably do something slightly more than a brief update given that it’s been months since I’ve been around these parts, but what’re you going to do about it? Life is good, the words are coming and the acceptances have started up again, which is great. It’s nice to be seeing some green on the spreadsheet once more. 

First up I’ll have a story, ‘Hunting WarBirds’ coming out through HyphenPunk, in August. I’m very excited about this one, they’re a great new publication which you can, and most definitely should, check out here. ‘Hunting WarBirds’ is an all action slice of cyberpunk with a side of body horror going on. Lovely stuff. 

Then, in October, the exorcist Delton Waynes will be making his return to the pages of the brilliant Siren’s Call Magazine in a romantic little tale called ‘Should Have Bought Flowers’. I’m delighted to be making a repeat appearance in the pages of Siren’s Call, this time with an original story. The last was with a reprint of ‘Bad Patch’, which you can read for free here.   

You can now check my story 'The Astronaut's Ghost' using your ears in episode 26 of The Night's End podcast. They've done an amazing job, if I can say so myself. Big shout out to Jimmy Horror for having me. 

They say of ‘The Astronaut’s Ghost’ “a young girl in Ireland has a surprise encounter with an interesting spectre”. Originally published December 2018 in ‘Transcendent: Dreams, Nightmares, Visions And Hallucinations’ from Transmundane Press and longlisted for the An Post Irish Short Story of the Year 2019 it’s brilliant to have ‘The Astronaut’s Ghost’ out in a new format to everyone to enjoy. 

I’m really privileged to be a part of this. You can listen for free here or on Spotify or wherever you get your Podcasts from.