Andrew Kirby

A.J Kirby (or Andy to his friends) started to write seriously after just losing out on winning a cash prize on a TV game show, despite being told the answers beforehand… What they say about your mind going blank when you’re in front of the TV cameras and sweating because of the lights really is true.

Writing fiction to suspend belief in skint reality is his stock in trade now, and he’s lucky enough to have his short stories featured in a wide number of publications, including anthologies (Legend Press's Eight Rooms, Nemonymous 8: Cone Zero & Nemonymous 9: Cern Zoo from Megazanthus Press and Graveside Tales' Fried: Fast Food Slow Deaths) print journals (Sein und Werden, Jupiter 24, Skrev Press, and Champagne Shivers) and webzines (New Voices in Horror, Pumpkin, The Second Hand, US Short Story Library, and Underground).

In addition to his short fiction, Andy has written three novels; Bully, a supernatural horror novel of revenge from beyond the grave (published by Wild Wolf Publishing in September 2009); the crime-thriller, The Magpie Trap, which has been published by Youwriteon.com and Legend Press through their UK Arts Council initiative (April 2009), and When Elephants walk through the Gorbals, which won third prize in the Luke Bitmead Memorial Bursary run by Legend Press in 2008.

He was runner-up in the 2008 Huddersfield Literature Festival creative writing competition, and this year was also short-listed for the Cinnamon Press short fiction prize and the Mere Literary Festival prize.

Andy lives in Leeds , UK with his girlfriend Heidi and his incredibly noisy, but lucky cat, Eric.
To find out more, visit Andy's website: www.andykirbythewriter.20m.com.

The Magpie Trap
Bully
8 Rooms
Nemonymous Anthologies
Events

The Magpie Trap, Published by Youwriteon.com & Legend Press, 2009:
ISBN: 9781849238830

Danny Morris wakes up on the sofa with the furred-tongue and pounding headache of a serious hangover. On the coffee table is the sorry evidence of the previous night’s festivities; the mostly empty bottle of whisky, the overflowing ashtray and the greasy pizza box. There’s something else there too; the bag of money, loot from one of the most audacious heists undertaken in modern times.

A.J Kirby’s The Magpie Trap is a high-octane crime thriller in which a band of unlikely criminals discover a technical loop-hole which will allow them to walk out of Edison’s Printers, carrying with them the famous Precisioner printer – the world’s most powerful bank-note printer.

Bully, Published by Wild Wolf Publishing 2009:
ISBN: 978-0-9562114-5-3

They say you should never go back. But sometimes you don’t have a choice…

After Gary Bull’s miraculous survival from an explosion in Afghanistan, he is forced to return to the small town where he grew up. Forced to confront a past that he thought he had buried forever. Forced to face the horror of what he did when he was young that all started with the bullying.

Newton Mills is a town with more than its fair share of graveyards; a town where the skeletons are liable to walk right on out of the closet.

8 Rooms, featuring the story ‘A Galaxy far, far away’: Published by Legend Press, 2009

Short story collection.

Cone Zero: Nemonymous 8 / Cern Zoo: Nemonymous 9. Published by Megazanthus Press, 2008, 2009

Short fiction by various authors

A list of forthcoming events at which Andy will appear.

Signings

Bully:
- Borders York, 1-5 Davygate, York, YO1 8QR; Sunday 6th September 12-3pm
- Borders York, 1-5 Davygate, York, YO1 8QR; Sunday 11th October 12-3pm
- Borders York, 1-5 Davygate, York, YO1 8QR; Sunday 1st November 12-3pm

Eight Rooms:
- Borders Leeds, 94-96 Briggate, Leeds, LS1 6NP; Thursday 10th September 6.30pm

Launch

Bully: TBA