Max Scratchmann

Saturday 28 October, 12.30-1.30pm - Townshend Room

Max Scratchmann will be discussing some of his darker works such as Mermaids in a Jar and Bad Girls plus his new Steampunk collection - Circus of Lies - which will be released at the beginning of October. Followed by a book signing session in the Great Hall.

Bio
Max Scratchmann is a well-known British writer and performer. His poems and short stories have appeared in many anthologies and literary magazines, and he is the crazed genius behind the Edinburgh spoken word theatre company, Poetry Circus.

Examples of his work:
Mermaids in a Jar
From the feral imagination of Max Scratchmann comes a dark and erotic world of murderers, mermaids, mechanical maidens and other mythical monsters.
These magical realist fragments will both entertain and enthral you, transporting you to shadowy kingdoms where moonlit sirens crawl up from the depths and android lovers cry bitter tears of glass; where lost giants wander in forbidden valleys and cutthroats prowl the shadowy urban streets by night; and everything that seemed secure by the light of day dissolves into an arid dystopian landscape where darkness reigns supreme.
The twenty-six flash fiction tales in this collection include Bluebeard’s Seventh Wife, Iona Pearls, Dark but Natural, My Words Itch at Your Ears, The Snow Queen, Sargasso Sea, Mermaids in a Jar and many more…

Bad Girls
Bad girls. Wicked women. Lecherous, treacherous, remorseless, and delicious.
Immerse yourself in a feast of delectable depravity with these eight blackly humorous stories from the dark side, spanning all the gothic gambits of murder, lust and revenge with equal aplomb.
Murderous lesbians, ice-cold child-killers and psychotic gold-diggers are just a few of the bad girls that you’ll meet in this fast-paced anthology which proves without doubt that the female of the species is still decidedly more deadly than the male.

Circus of Lies
Circus of Lies is a new Steampunk story collection set in a time of contagion.
Revel in these six dark fairy tales playing out in a crumbling urban dystopia, stretching from the ruined cities of the west destroyed by religious wars to the vast snowbound plains of Russia and beyond. A scarred land of mutants and machines, robots and automatons, paramours, and predators.
Dark, richly detailed and erotic, these tales portray a gothic Victorianesque world of fantasy, and yet are hauntingly relevant to today’s unstable world…

16yrs+
Pre-booking advised.
Tickets £5
If you book for this author you can attend any of the others on 28 October (Gary Phelps, Gavin Inglis and Tara Paulsson) at no additional charge, you just need to register your interest to attend the others by calling our Castle reception on 01827 709626.

This event is part of our Tales from the Darkside week.