“Almost midnight. Enough time for one more story. One more story before twelve. Just to keep us warm.”
Seeing out 2025 with one more publication. Happy new fear!
Captain Creepy’s Tome of Terror #3 is out now in print & digital, featuring my spooky new story ‘Eternity Room’.
*15% off with discount code 15DEC2025 until 11:59pm local time Dec 30th 2025.
https://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/3230948
HIDING UNDER THE LEAVES, a folk horror anthology from The Slab Press is published today, featuring my story ‘Tumulus’.
Grab a copy of the e-book (epub format) direct from the publisher: https://payhip.com/b/HNdvM
Also available in paperback from your local indie bookstore! Order using ISBN: 9781738426867.
Or find it at Barnes & Noble, etc. https://mybook.to/hidingundertheleaves
We had a fantastic book launch event at World Fantasy Con in Brighton on Halloween with cake, drinks, readings, and book signings. Thanks to Donna & Neil from The Slab Press and to all who came along!
And check out the first review of the book here: https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/blog/2025/11/1/hiding-under-the-leaves-by-donna-scott
Thanks for reading & hope you enjoy Hiding Under The Leaves with us, like horror hedgehogs.
Thrilled to have my short story ‘To Take the Water Down and Go to Sleep’ in this gorgeous anthology from Flame Tree Press (publishers of my novels Hearthstone Cottage & Greyfriars Reformatory).
Never in a million years would I have dreamt that my work would be in a book with Bram Stoker & so many luminaries.
Can’t wait to read them all!
The book is out January 2024 (February 2024 in North America).
Full Table of Contents and further details here.
Thanks for reading,
Frazer x
Celebrating the release of my debut Doctor Who audiobook Gobbledegook today with a nice cup of tea.
It has been an exciting day & I even got a little mention on the official Doctor Who website! Not only that but my very own ‘TARDIS fam’ gifted me this beautiful framed cover art for my birthday in February. It’s now hanging in pride of place above my desk. I love how the artist included a steaming cup of tea in the Fifth Doctor’s hand, and Velar the space armadillo looks just how I pictured him.
Here’s the story synopsis:
Gobbledegook by Frazer Lee
Chief librarian Velar’s beloved books are being returned with their text completely garbled at planet Batear’s largest library. Batearian books are living things, organically linked via the ancient cave system where they are shelved. Unless Velar’s old friend the Doctor can detect a pattern in the chaos, Batear’s entire cultural history will become gobbledegook!
Gobbledegook is available as part of the Conflicts of Interest box set on download/cd from Big Finish Productions.
The box set includes two full cast audio adventures Friendly Fire by John Dorney and The Edge of the War by Jonathan Barnes. (I’m listening to Friendly Fire as I type this blog post, and it’s brilliant, really gripping!)
My 60min story Gobbledegook is narrated by the amazing Dan Starkey with music and special effects, and you can listen to it in the Big Finish app (just tap ‘Bonus’) or download via BigFinish.com under Bonus Content.
I really hope you enjoy my Gobbledegook as much as I enjoyed writing it! I’m grateful to John Dorney, David Richardson & all at Big Finish for letting me hop aboard the TARDIS.
Thanks for listening,
Frazer x
JANUARY 1978:
Young Frazer Lee was allowed to stay up (after 6pm!) to watch a brand new and very exciting sci-fi series on the BBC. He didn’t miss an episode and dreamed of one day writing (or directing!) something for the show.
45 YEARS LATER…
MARCH 2023:
It was a real George McFly moment when this gorgeous special contributor’s edition Blake’s 7 Unofficial Annual arrived in the mail.
The book features my Blake’s 7 story ‘Planet of the Dead’ and over 260 pages of amazing artwork, insightful interviews, superb stories, fantastic features, and groovy games.
My thanks to Grahame and Carol at Cult Edge for this opportunity to fulfill a lifelong ambition, cheers to NESSHEAD for the beautiful illustrations, and congrats to everyone involved in putting together such a fantastic book.
It’s an expensive book, but if you are able to invest in a copy, I can promise you it’s worth every penny. And to tempt you further, you can get 15% off your purchase with the following checkout code: WELCOME15.
All proceeds from the 2023 Blake’s 7 Annual go to the Red Cross DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal, a charity chosen by Jan ‘Cally’ Chappell who has an exclusive interview in the annual – a must for all fans of this beloved British S/F show.
“And coming up next on #BBCFrazerLee… It’s Doctor Who…”
Thanks for reading,
Frazer x
Been dying to tell you all about this & now the secret’s out…
Anyone who knows me is aware that I’m a lifelong Doctor Who fan. So this is a dream come true for me, a gift from the Universe. If you could tell the starstruck kid who watched Tom Baker (happy birthday Tom, 89 today!) regenerate into Peter Davison that he’d someday write a Doctor Who adventure I doubt he’d believe it!
Yes, I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve written an officially licensed Doctor Who audiobook adventure, Doctor Who – Interludes: Gobbledegook.
Interludes are hour-long audiobook adventures with special music and effects, bundled exclusively as download extras with selected new Doctor Who box sets, from Big Finish Productions. I can’t wait to hear the other Interludes stories too.
Writing my story within parameters set by John Dorney’s brilliant audio script Friendly Fire was a fun challenge and I’d like to thank him for trusting me with his wonderful character ‘Velar’. I’m indebted to both John & producer David Richardson for their support & guidance, and to all at Big Finish for putting this big stupid grin on my face.
I hope you enjoy listening to my Gobbledegook as much as i enjoyed writing it!
Pre-order Gobbledegook as part of the Fifth Doctor Adventures: Conflicts of Interest box set coming April 2023 from Big Finish Productions.
The titular Greyfriars Reformatory in my recent horror novel is one place you would never want to spend the night!
A lifelong horror fan, I have always been fascinated by haunted landscapes and creepy buildings. My childhood in the Midlands of England prepared me for my career as a horror writer and filmmaker with its abundance of spooky ruins and foggy canal paths.
I have since explored ancient sites all across the U.K. and Europe and my novels are inspired by these field trips into the uncanny, where the contemporary everyday rubs shoulders with the ancient and occult. Places become characters in their own right in my work and I think this list of books celebrates that.
I hope you find them as disturbing and thought-provoking as I have!
(And if you’re looking for similar reads, why not browse this book list featuring more titles set in psychiatric hospitals)
Cheers,
Frazer x
These beastly beauties arrived today!
Thanks to editor Darrell Buxton & congrats to all the authors & illustrators (i loved seeing the artwork for my stories — buy a copy & see!)
The Six-Six-Sixth BHF Book of Horror Stories includes my satanic story ‘Sixpack and the Angel’
Buy now: https://bit.ly/31sA89Y
The Seventh BHF Book of Horror Stories features my twisted tale ‘So Much to See’
Buy now: https://bit.ly/3EuNCQt
***All proceeds to charities FAST (Foundation for Angelman Therapeutics) & Bassetlaw Hospice***
Follow BHF Horror on Insta, Twitter, and Facebook.
Thanks for reading, Frazer x
In my last post from Castle Dracula I promised you a 2nd reading from my forthcoming Damnation: The Gothic Game tie-in novel… and here it is!
Spoiler alert though — this reading includes an early death scene from the book, so if you prefer to wait and find out who comes a cropper and when, avoid hitting ‘play’ on the video below my exclusive interview about the book.
Today marks the last day of the Kickstarter campaign for Damnation: The Gothic Game, so if you want to get your claws on a copy of the game & my book, plus some very cool perks, make a deal with the devil now!
See you in the graveyard again soon,
Frazer x
…I signed the publishing contract for my debut novel The Lamplighters.
I had pitched the book to legendary horror editor Don D’Auria at Dorchester Publishing’s infamous Leisure Books imprint in 2009, and I was excited to receive a full manuscript request from Don by return. I submitted the book and waited anxiously for the outcome.
…and then Dorchester Publishing went under.
It was difficult not to take that as a sign. Ha ha!
But when Don D’Auria became Executive Editor of the new Horror line at Samhain Publishing, my manuscript followed him there. Don told me he loved the book and thought it would be a fine addition to the line.
Contracts were finalised 26th April 2011, and the e-book was published in November of that year, followed by the paperback in February 2012. An audiobook followed in 2016 (now out-of-print).
Things went a little bit crazy from there. The Lamplighters was selected as a Finalist in the Bram Stoker Awards for ‘Superior Achievement in a First Novel’ from all the horror debuts published that year. I enjoyed sitting up at 4:30am in freezing cold England, watching the Stoker Awards webcast broadcast live from the USA. Don had written to me prior to the awards ceremony and asked me for an acceptance speech ‘just in case’. I wrote some waffle about not winning because I knew I wouldn’t, and I didn’t, so that was that. But as I always say to my creative writing students: “Remember, it’s cooler to be nominated. Unless you win and then it’s cooler to win.”
The Lamplighters was a Finalist again, this time in the Book Pipeline Contest for books deemed suitable for film/TV adaptation, one of only 6 from almost 1,000 entries. I wrote a screenplay based on the novel, and that went on to be a Semi-finalist in the Screencraft Horror Screenplay Competition, from over 2,000 entries.
Close, but no close-up this time Mr DeMille.
I still think The Lamplighters would make for an excellent scary movie, but then I would think that, wouldn’t I? (Ha ha #2)
The book became my first translated work, with the Japanese edition published by TakeShobo in 2015. I was really thrilled about that, especially when I learned that the Tokyo-based publisher has Stephen King and the Star Wars books on its roster. Getting my author copy was a surreal experience, and it’s a very beautiful object, that edition. Hey you guys! My other books are available for translation, just sayin’.
And then, just as Dorchester Publishing had during my initial pitching of the book, Samhain Publishing went under. IT’S NOT MY FAULT, OKAY? STOP MAKING OUT LIKE IT’S SOME KIND OF WEIRD CURSE THAT FOLLOWS ME AROUND… (Ha ha #3).
I like to keep my work out there and available and soon after, I signed with Crossroad Press/Macabre Ink for all my Samhain backlist titles. My thanks to the two Davids at Crossroad for keeping my malformed offspring in circulation.
And so, without any further ado, here it is.
Ten years and a day since I became a fully signed-up novelist, a new 10th anniversary paperback edition of The Lamplighters is now available.
The nightmare continues!
And coming soon… There will be a limited edition hardcover, too.
Happy anniversary, old thing. My thanks to Don D’Auria & all at Samhain, to the two Davids at Crossroad Press, and to all my readers (yes, all 3 of you! Ha ha #4) and reviewers for the last ten years.
Here’s to a few more, eh?
Frazer x
About The Lamplighters:
Life on Meditrine Island is luxurious…but brief.
Marla Neuborn has found the best post-grad job in the world—as a “Lamplighter” working on Meditrine Island, an exclusive idyllic paradise owned and operated by a consortium of billionaires. All Lamplighters have to do is tend to the mansions, cook and clean, and turn on lights to make it appear the owners are home. But the job comes with conditions. Marla will not know the exact location of the island, and she will have no contact with the outside world for the duration of her stay.
Once on the island, Marla quickly learns the billionaire lifestyle is not all it is made out to be. The chief of security rules Meditrine with an iron fist. His private police force patrols the shores night and day, and CCTV cameras watch the Lamplighters relentlessly. Soon Marla will also discover first-hand that the island hides a terrible secret. She’ll meet the resident known as the Skin Mechanic. And she’ll find out why so few Lamplighters ever leave the island alive.
Buy The Lamplighters:
Amazon.com
https://amzn.to/2YmMHvJ
Buy The Lamplighters at
Amazon UK
https://amzn.to/2Y91v5L
…and from all good horror novel stockists!
FrazerLee.com 