4 a.m. When the Walls are Thinnest – now on audio

Those clever people at Tales to Terrify have included one of my short stories in their latest podcast – number 20. You can listen here: http://talestoterrify.com/

‘4 a.m. When the Walls are Thinnest’ was first published in the Ghosts issue of Crimewave magazine, from TTA Press. It’s a tall tale of a prison break, which could have been equally at home in the dark supernatural environs of sister magazine Black Static.

I had a riot writing it, though I didn’t necessarily have a great time coming up with the idea. I’d had one of the central images from the story in my head for a while, but it didn’t seem to be connecting with anything. Then in the middle of the night – at almost exactly 4 a.m., in fact – I woke up, and the first half of it was in my mind, words and sentences spilling over themselves and demanding to be heard. So I did what I needed to do, got up and made notes for half the night, and lived with the tiredness the next day. Sometimes, when your mind gives you a gift, you have to grab it before it’s gone.

The following night, you may think I’d catch up on some sleep, but no – I woke up a second time, as near as damn it at 4 a.m., and the whole thing replayed itself – but this time I had the second half of the tale in my head.

Funny how the human mind works sometimes.

Anyway, after that, the title seemed an obvious choice.

I hope you enjoy the audio – the reader Gareth does a great job, and it’s true what they say about Larry Santoro – he really is the ‘Vincent Price of podcasts.’ If you like this issue, you can find plenty more on their website. They’ve featured some terrific writers – Gary McMahon, Christopher Fowler, Gemma Files and many others. In fact, I’ve just spotted that they’ve adapted a rather nice story from James Cooper’s collection. I may be some time…