Katherine Roberts

No, not the Duchess... this Kath Middleton writes books, and the unicorn is delighted to welcome her to this blog to talk about her seriously spooky new title  Souls Disturbed. KR: Is this your first venture into the dark side of fiction, or has this book grown out of earlier work? KM: It’s my first real trip over to The Dark Side, although my first book, Ravenfold , was thought to be quite dark, though not in the spooky sense. I’ve not explored the supernatural in previous work and I found myself ‘on a roll’ you might say. Souls Disturbed is a collection of three novellas and later this year I’ll be publishing a short story on a similar haunting theme. I think I’ve probably got it out of my system now. another spooky title from Kath Middleton KR: Hmm, I like that 'probably'... though be warned, once you've gone over to the dark side, it can be difficult to escape! Who is your favourite horror writer, and do you think he/she has had any influence on

It's that time of the year again... the time of tricks and treats, when my Halloween title Spellfall  is on special offer for half term. Until October 31st, you can download the ebook (for Kindle, Nook, Apple or Kobo) for only 99c/99p: Kindle UK  /  Kindle US Nook Kobo Apple If you prefer to read a 'real' book, or would like to buy Spellfall as a gift, there is now a brand new paperback edition (which will get you the ebook for free if you buy it from amazon). And the treats don't stop there! If you have already enjoyed  Spellfall, the long-awaited sequel  Spell Spring is now out in both ebook and paperback, picking up the story six months later when Natalie is summoned to Earthaven to take her mother's seat on the Council of Oq: Kindle UK  /  Kindle US Nook Kobo Apple Paperback Please spread the word!

Chill winds from the sea have sent waves crashing over the promenade this week, and the dogs are back on the beach... all signs that summer is over, and so is my Great Big Rhino hunt. I tracked down my final rhino at Exeter's Bernaville Nurseries on my third attempt to access the west side of the city... who would have thought a few extra miles would prove so complicated? The first time, I tried to catch a bus from the city centre but waited at the wrong stop... or maybe the bus was stuck in traffic... and had to dash back to the station for my train home. My second attempt to drive my mum out for lunch at the garden centre ended in failure when we met a massive traffic jam into the city, where apparently an accident had blocked the road. Lunch would have stopped serving by the time we got there, so we turned around and went somewhere else. The third time I chose a Sunday (hoping for less traffic - ha!) and put up with a slow crawl around the ring road to reach the garden cen

Usually my unicorn is the only horned creature allowed to post on this blog. But, just for this week, he's allowed his real-world cousins the rhinos to take over... So why are we all here in Exeter? Well, it's the last few days of Paignton Zoo's Great Big Rhinos Trail , and we're actually quite glad we're city rhinos with the cold winds blowing in from the coast today. There are 16 of us altogether, making 40 along with our brothers and sisters down in Torbay, though we're one short now because poor Paladin could not return to his post in front of Exeter Central station after getting knocked off his plinth by some high-spirited students last week. We've been very popular with visitors, especially children, so maybe it's no surprise some famous children's authors visited us too. Here they are posing with Finding Faru in Southernhay Gardens... yes, they spotted little Faru! CJ Busby and Sandra Greaves... looking for Faru Found him! One o

Where's Paladin...? As you might have guessed by now (see previous two posts), I am busy hunting down all 42 rhinos on Paignton Zoo's  Great Big Rhino Trail. Having found the 24 Torbay and district rhinos, I finally made it to Exeter in search of the other 16 currently in Devon... only to be confronted with a big space outside Central station where my first city rhino - Paladin - should have stood: ...gone AWOL! A spot of amateur sleuthing later (interrogating the unfortunate ticket attendant at the station barrier - sorry! - and later the helpful staff in the tourist office who directed me to a difficult to find rhino in the shopping centre) revealed the sad fact Paladin had suffered an attack last week by students who knocked him off his plinth, and as a consequence has been returned to Paignton Zoo for repair before the auction. I couldn't even find his plinth, though without a rhino standing on it that's merely a concrete slab ( plus the code for the dra