Sam Stone
Sam Stone is a British author of gothic, horror, fantasy, science fiction and more recently a playwright for film and stage. She is the commissioning editor of Telos Publishing imprint Telos Moonrise. Stone's debut novel "Gabriele Caccini" (authored as Paigan Stone) won the silver award for best horror novel 2007 with "ForeWord" in the USA. She was shortlisted for the August Derleth Award for Best Novel in the British Fantasy Awards for her second novel, "Futile Flame". This book was also a finalist in "ForeWord"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s Book of the Year Awards in 2009 and the third  book in the series, "Demon Dance", was also a finalist for the 2010 Foreword magazine Awards and won the August Derleth Award for Best Novel in the British Fantasy Awards 2011. This made her the first female writer to win the Award since Tanith Lee did so in 1980. However, after the awards were announced, there was controversy over the voting and so Stone publicly returned the Award, not wishing to be associated with something which might have been awarded erroneously. The BFS then declared that the voting was valid, but then in a later statement announced that the Best  Novel would be declared a 'No Award' for that year. Stone was not consulted in this decision. She also won the Best Short Story Award in the British Fantasy Awards in the same year. In August 2012 Telos Publishing issued a press release announcing the forthcoming audio of Stone's horror collection – Zombies In New York. Telos also published her Steampunk/Horror Novella Zombies at Tiffany's. Early life and education. The youngest of seven children, Stone was born in Manchester, England, which forms the partial backdrop of her novel "Killing Kiss" and is the common location of the Vampire  Gene Series. She graduated with a BA (Hons) in "English and Writing for Performance" at University of Bolton, a "PGCE" at Manchester University and her "MA in Creative Writing" also at Bolton. "Gabriele Caccini" was originally written as her dissertation. Stone worked as an English teacher at St Christopher's Church of England High School, Accrington until 2007, where she decided to leave her position after it was discovered that she was the author of "Gabriele Caccini", which she had written under the pen name of "Paigan Stone". The same year, the book received the Silver Award in American Literary  Magazine, ForeWord's book of the year awards. Career. Stone's novel was re-edited and re-released as "Killing Kiss" in September 2008 by The House of Murky Depths. Writer Tanith Lee gave a quote for the back of the book which said : "A deceptively readable date with darkness – watch your step! This book is lit for the much more discerning chick (and cock) who likes to walk in the shadows. Relax with it, but be prepared for sudden jewels and little masterpieces – and the rug to be pulled from under your feet." In 2011 a short story collection , "Zombies in New York and Other Bloody Jottings", was published by Telos Publishing. The collection was later picked up in October 2012 by AudioGo. Stone has since gone on to publish several more books with Telos Publishing, "Zombies at Tiffany's" (August 2012) and "Kat on a Hot Tin Airship"(August 2013). In 2013 it was also announced that she was involved in a Doctor Who spin-off film "White Witch of Devil's End" which was released on 13 November 2017 on DVD as part of "The Daemons of Devil's End" boxset by Reeltime Pictures. In May 2015 Stone  became host to her own radio show, The Stone Tapes, on Lincolnshire radio station SirenRadio. In the June 2016 edition of Locus Magazine it was announced that Stone had sold a new novel "Posing for Picasso" to Kevin J Anderson at Wordfire Press. The book went to print in January 2018. Novels and writing credits. Novels Novellas Collections Audio Screenplays Short stories Editorial credits