And the House Lights Dim

And the House Lights Dim

Short story collection, published by Luna Press, July 2019

Strange stories about houses, homes and families

Features ‘Eqalussuaq’, selected for Best Horror of the Year Vol 10, and novella ‘Carus & Mitch’, shortlisted for This Is Horror Awards.

A sentient house is overprotective of its occupants, a husband and wife cope with loneliness on a lengthy space flight, a Greenland shark mounts a supernatural attack on a mother and son, two sisters live in fear of the destroyed world beyond their walls, an engineer sabotages a post-apocalyptic holiday village, a camping trip turns a family feral, a man defragments his mind and another splices a rival’s brain patterns onto his own.

Also includes author’s commentary on each story, plus links to soundtracks for two stories.

Buy

Luna Press
Amazon (UK)
Amazon (US)

Reviews

“House Lights is an inventive, imaginative, wide-ranging collection of stories from a writer with complete control of his craft. Major writes with a great flair for dialogue, effortless prose, and gripping story telling worthy of Stephen King. His combination of psychological realism with science fiction, horror and an experimental streak makes this collection a diverse and unpredictable read.” Storgy

“And the House Lights Dim is an immensely worthwhile read. A liquorice allsorts of genre and theme which nonetheless coheres thanks to the enduring prose style and strong sense of voice… If you like your stories strange, eerie and thought-provoking, this one is for you.” Black Static

“Tim Major’s weird slipstream collection opens with one of the strangest opening gambits I have ever read in a collection… Any story that takes the point of view of an overprotective home, has to be read to be believed. When you factor in the excellent story notes and a soundtrack list to read the collection to, this is a unique highly interesting collection. Ginger Nuts of Horror
(Selected by Ginger Nuts of Horror as one of the best short story collections of 2019)

“The focus on post-catastrophe survival is a common factor… the moments of genius are worth the entire volume and more” British Fantasy Society

“Carus & Mitch is punchy and scary and tense and genuinely moving. The central portrait of the book’s sibling relationship captures its mixture of friction and love spot on, with heartbreaking precision. Tim Major is an exceptional writer.” Adam Roberts

“More The Road than The Hunger Games, blending a John Wyndham-esque melancholy with a dose of existential despair, Carus & Mitch is a compelling, unconventional page-turner. Once I started reading it, I couldn’t put it down until I reached the end.” Lynda Rucker

“Looked at in one light, Carus & Mitch is a plot-driven page-turner; in another it is a compelling puzzle to be pondered over. As such, it’s a book which will no doubt find a loyal readership fascinated by its intricacies.” This Is Horror

List of stories

  1. O Cul-de-Sac!
    (original to this collection)
  2. Read/Write Head
    First published in Garbled Transmissions, 2013.
  3. Eqalussuaq
    First published in Not One of Us #58, 2017. Selected by Ellen Datlow for The Best Horror of the Year Volume Ten, 2018.
  4. Finding Waltzer-Three
    First published in Interzone #255, 2014.
  5. St Erth
    First published in Into the Woods, Hic Dragones, 2017.
  6. Tunnel Vision
    First published in Kitchen Sink Gothic, Parallel Universe Publications, 2015.
  7. The Eyes Have It
    First published in The Third Spectral Book of Horror Stories, Spectral Press, 2016.
  8. The Forge
    (original to this collection)
  9. All I Can See Are Sad Eyes
    First published in The Literary Hatchet #13, 2015.
  10. Winter in the Vivarium
    First published in Winter Tales (Fox Spirit), 2016.
  11. Lines of Fire
    First published in Game Over, Snowbooks, 2015.
  12. Honey Spurge
    (original to this collection)
  13. By the Numbers
    First published in Voluted Tales Vol. 14 Issue 10, 2013.
  14. The House Lights Dim
    First published in Sanitarium Issue 11, 2013.
  15. Carus & Mitch
    First published as a standalone novella, Omnium Gatherum, 2015.

Guest posts and interviews

Press

Soundtracks