Hi everyone!

Another Halloween rolls around, so it's time for an update to Matazone. Huzzah!

In this mail:

Halloween short stories
Short stories - what about animations?
No seriously, what about the animations?
Comic
Novel
Tell your friends - I need your help!

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Halloween short stories!

Instead of a few minutes of animation, this year I've got something a bit different for you in the form of audio book short stories. You'll need to register in my shop to download them, but these two are on there and waiting for you now. Your ears and mind will thank you:
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A Kiss on the Palm

A man wakes at the wheel of his car, driving at 90 miles per hour down the motorway at night. He only has one clue to the events of the evening, and from that, the horrifying memories begin to return.

Approx 6 minutes.

http://www.matazone.co.uk/shop/product_info.php?cPath=27&products_id=81
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Salvatore's Birthday

Salvatore turns sixteen and is excited to finally meet the woman who has talked to him all of his life, but why has she spent so long waiting for him?

Approx 5 minutes.

http://www.matazone.co.uk/shop/product_info.php?cPath=27&products_id=83
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Those are two free audio books, totalling over ten minutes of new gubbins for your audio pleasure.

There are also two more audio book short stories on there:
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Fresh Salmon for McTavish

The strapping Scotsman, Drew McTavish, is on his way home where his wife his preparing fresh salmon for dinner. He is most disgruntled to be delayed by a fearsome beastie.

A slightly daft story. Approx seven minutes.

http://www.matazone.co.uk/shop/product_info.php?cPath=27&products_id=84
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Status Update

A ghost story about love and memory. Jonah is forced to confront his raw feelings about an ex-girlfriend on the anniversary of her death.

Approx 10 minutes.

http://www.matazone.co.uk/shop/product_info.php?cPath=27&products_id=82
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Those are £1 each, or you can download them together and get 25% off here:
http://www.matazone.co.uk/shop/product_info.php?products_id=85

That's around 17 minutes of silly and spooky stories for £1.50. That's better value than a couple of tracks on iTunes and all the proceeds go towards supporting your friendly neighbourhood creative chap, and what callous person wouldn't want to do that?

(If you're scared of the awesomeness of British pounds sterling then there's a 'currency' box on the right-hand column in the shop that lets you pay in US dollars or Euros.)

So, that's two free stories, and two more. Happy Halloween!

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Short stories - what about animations?

More than a few of you may be wondering why I've written short stories instead of making a Halloween animation. There are many aspects to the answer, so I'll try and summarise them. As my writing has developed, my stories have exceeded the time that I have available to do them justice in animated form. I could either compromise the stories or I could move to a different medium. That's it, in essence. I can tell longer, better stories this way, and hopefully you will enjoy this new direction too.

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No seriously, what about the animations?

I hope that I will get to finish the Little Goth Girl series one day, but the complexity of the story means that I would probably prefer to write the whole thing from scratch as a novel. No, I've not forgotten or abandoned her, only put the story on hold until I can do it justice.

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Comic

Have you forgotten about Trouble Down Pit? Of course you haven't!

http://comic.matazone.co.uk/

I update my webcomic twice a week, and it's probably the greatest comic called Trouble Down Pit ever released bi-weekly on the web! More importantly, if you've never read it, there's now over three years of a back catalogue for you to plow through, including a sci-fi re-telling of the complete Romeo & Shakespeare story, and an incredibly sacrilegious version of the nativity.

If you've never read a webcomic, then now is a great time to start :)

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Novel

Those of you with long memories may recall that I've been working on a novel. This is still ongoing - the novel is written and only needs a little more polish, but getting an agent is a land full of dark spiky animals hiding in the grass that you're strolling through barefoot. It's a real pain. I figure that it'll be easier if I can say '3000 people have downloaded my audio books!' on a letter to my agents. On which note...

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Tell your friends - I need your help!

You may notice on those audio book pages that there are little 'share on Facebook' buttons. If you like my stories and want to help me, click the link and tell your friends about my stories.

I really can't make this work without you! If even one twelfth of the people who visit my site every year were to buy a short story then I could move to doing this full time, producing a lot more free things for you to all enjoy. That's my dream, but I need your help. Spread the word!

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That's your lot! I'll be adding new stories onto my shop whenever I can, so I hope this let's me put more fun things out there for you to enjoy.

See you soon, and happy Halloween!

Mata