‘The End’ editor, Ashley Stokes, has his latest short story, FIXATOR, featured in The Lonely Crowd Issue 3, alongside fellow 'The End' author Tania Hershman.

An extract from FIXATOR by Ashley Stokes:

“The other boys have already left you behind. It is winter, the end of January. The park is misty, the sky low and solid white. You are limping. Either side of you the trees stand like black tusks. In the mist they seem to smoulder, as if a great fire swept through here, a fire like in the Chinese painting of Hell you saw at the museum. Duncan ‘Donuts’ Bennett, who always comes last at cross-country, even he has shambled past you. Sweat came off him like you imagine sweat would spray from a bear cooling itself on a hot day.

Some of this is true, some of it embellished. You would not have compared Bennett to a bear. You’re not sure that he was called ‘Donuts’. You were certainly not thinking about Oriental art during the run. The weather wasn’t misty, only drab. You have authored these details, added a cultural reference and a silly name. You have invented the atmospherics, the mist. The mist that smudges the line of trees to your right, the mist that hangs above the path of trodden grass ahead, it rolls in from ‘now.’ ‘Now’ is the Place of Mists.”

You can order The Lonely Crowd here.

There’s also an essay by Stokes “Some of this is true, some of it embellished: Writing Fixator" on The Lonely Crowd blog

‘The End’ writers Angela Readman and Dan Powel along with editor Ashley Stokes, are featured in The Wales Arts Review Halloween Special. The anthology is an annual celebration of the ghoulish and macabre. This year they have published an exclusive and free collection of short stories from a selection of renowned writers, including Niall Griffiths, Rebecca F. John, Jo Mazelis and many more. As an additional bonus a selection of the stories are read by actors in the FMIC Arts And Culture Podcast Special.

You can read the stories and listen to the podcast for free here.

I Am Because You Are is a timely collection of new fiction and non-fiction from novelists and science writers, all inspired by the theme of Relativity. Each contributor treats the subject in their own unique way. The results are charming, witty, sometimes challenging but always accessible, presenting complex science themes in imaginative, easy-to-understand and highly entertaining ways.

Contributors include novelists Andrew Crumey, Dilys Rose and Neil Williamson, alongside popular science writers like Pedro Ferreira, Jo Dunkley and Lance Miller. Edited by acclaimed, award-winning writers Pippa Goldschmidt and Tania Hershman, I Am Because You Are will be the perfect vehicle for both press and public to engage with this important centenary. 'Sparkling with wit and originality, making a virtue out of the frail humanity of science, these stories perfectly reflect the breathtaking poetry of Einstein’s greatest theory. Enlightening, entertaining and sometimes moving, this collection is a beautiful celebration of relativity’s influence on our cultural landscape' Michael Brooks, author of 13 Things That Don't Make Sense.

'The amazing thing about science is its explanation of why things are possible- introduce it to short stories and anything is possible. Rabbits, shrinking ladies, fat women, eclipses, and black holes, I Am Because You Are is a dazzling collection of stories that make you aware of the universe.' Angela Readman, author of The Rubery Book Award-winning short story collection Don't try This At Home.

You can order I Am Because You Are by visiting Freight Books website here.

Advertising agency Robot Mascot have just completed the book jacket design for The End: 15 Endings To Fifteen Paintings. The book, which is edited by Ashley Stokes, features a cover painting by artist Nicolas Ruston. To see more of Robot Mascot’s design work for publisher Unthank Books click here.

Melissa is set in 1999-2000. At roughly 2pm on 9th June 1999, on a small street in Hanford, Stoke-on-Trent, a young girl dies of leukaemia; at almost the same moment, everyone on the street experiences the same musical hallucination. The novel is about this death and accompanying phenomenon – and about their after-effects, as the girl’s family gradually disintegrates over the following year.

“Melissa is an intricate kaleidoscope of a novel that explores the inevitable decay of bodies, of houses, of minds and of families. And the unexpected beauty of what comes after” (Jenn Ashworth).

“Melissa is such a successfully ambitious book that riffs and ranges through medicine, mathematics and music. It’s a flight of darkly comic fancy that takes off from the solidity of a Midlands housing estate and fires its satiric barbs at every form of society’s cant. It’s reminiscent of a Burslem Beckett” (Desmond Barry).

You can see more details about Melissa on Salt Publishing’s website here.

And you can also pre-order Melissa here.

Three poems by writer Tania Hershman have been published in And Other Poems, which is a treasure trove of wonderful and varied poetry, you can read the poems here.

Her poem Vandalism, has also been commended in the 2015 PenFro poetry competition.