Small Spec Book Awards - 2026 Semi-Finalist Feature #4
For my SSBA 2026 semi-finalist series, I have focused a post each on fantasy, horror, and sci-fi. So, it only make sense that post #4 be a mix of all three categories. Our authors this week are:
- Val Loughcrewe, author of Puppet's Banquet (Horror);
- Blair Bidmead, author of Rose-Coloured Crosshairs (Sci-Fi); and
- Keith Miller, author of The Witch's Journey (Fantasy).
Every Sunday between now and when the finalists are announced (or until I run out of mini-interviews), I will be highlighting the semi-finalists at a time. More information on the awards can be found here. The full list of the 2026 semi-finalists can be found here.
Each author has been asked the same questions:
1. What inspired you to write this book?
2. What was your favourite part of writing it?
3. Where can we find you and your work? (socials, blog, website)
Puppet's Banquet by Val Loughcrewe
Married couple Celia and Martin are brutally attacked on their drive through the Irish countryside. The attack leaves Celia with a violent schism in her mind, seemingly existing in two places at once: one the “real” world, the other a howling maelstrom of abstract monstrosity.
Of her husband, there is no trace…until weeks later, when Martin is discovered in a hospital for rare and abnormal diseases, his body spliced together with that of an unknown woman.
And they are very pregnant.
1. What inspired you to write this book?
Real life horrors I cannot in good conscience get into here. The medical system can harbour some absolute monsters who just want to abuse their power. I wanted to excise some of the horrible feelings I had in that regard here.
2. What was your favourite part of writing it?
Being able to finally put on the page some characters and ideas that me and my friend Daniel came up with many many years ago, as well as getting to put some scenes in straight from my nightmares.
3. Where can we find you and your work? (socials, blog, website)
@Gorsorcerer at Bluesky and @val_loughcrew_creations on Instagram
Rose-Coloured Crosshairs by Blair Bidmead
There was a temple at the dawn of time. Except it was not a temple and it was not at the dawn of time.
A dreadful thought crossed the man’s mind. Except the thought was not dreadful and the mind did not belong to a man.
A tube train arrived at a London Underground station. Except it was not a tube train and it had not arrived at a London Underground station.
The sabre-toothed tiger strode majestically across the ice-age wasteland. Except it was not a sabre-toothed tiger and it was not an ice-age wasteland.
Memories cheat.
But so do Faction Paradox.
1. What inspired you to write this book?
I was approached by Obverse Books publisher, Stuart Douglas - with whom I have worked with before several times before - to edit a book of short stories, set in the Faction Paradox universe. I was to come up with a linking theme and he would put me in touch with some writers, who would supply the short stories. I agreed. I came up with the idea of setting all the stories in one location, but each would happen hundreds, thousands or millions of years apart.
Then, plans changed. The short story collection would happen somewhere else, and Stuart asked me to write the book, that I had been planning, by myself. It was nice that he felt that I could come up with the goods, when all I had at that point was a linking theme! So, in a way, the main inspiration to write this book was the big, empty spaces where the short stories were supposed to go!
When I stopped hyperventilating, I realised the best thing to do was stick to what little plan I had, and write the book like a series of short stories, only now I could make them all fit together more completely, as I was writing them all myself.
2. What was your favourite part of writing it?
I came up with the title, Rose-Coloured Crosshairs, early in the process, and it kind of acted as my North Star when I started the book. I really needed that, as I was pretty lost at the beginning!
The title had a mood, but what did it actually mean? The various interpretations I came up with, as I was writing, kept the story moving in interesting directions.
3. Where can we find you and your work? (socials, blog, website)
For insightful findings and incendiary fiction, join my newsletter, The Hypolloi, for free here - buttondown.com/Hypolloi
Buy my books from obversebooks.co.uk
I am @blairbidmead.bsky.social on Bluesky and @blairbidmead on Threads
The Witch's Journey by Keith Miller
In a town beset by demons, from which the children are disappearing, redheaded Mira grows up wild and willful. When she’s around, soups boil over and flowers catch fire, and one night in her sleep she unwittingly turns her house around.
The morning of her thirteenth birthday, Mira receives a gift from the river: a gold key. It will lead her on a journey, to seek the door her key will open.
The Witch’s Journey is a dark fairytale embroidered with fairytales, full of sorrows and terrors, heartbreaks and delights, chocolates and mayhem and magic.
1. What inspired you to write this book?
I write without premeditation, placing characters in propinquity and allowing them to interact. However, at some level the book was inspired by a discussion with a historian friend on the witch hunts of the early modern period. Up to a hundred thousand people were killed, mostly women who were practitioners of pre-Christian religious rituals. My friend suggested that the relative scarcity of red hair in northern Europe is a result of this genocide.
2. What was your favourite part of writing it?
I was sitting outside one fall afternoon in Madison, Wisconsin, working on something else, when the first page arrived unbidden. A magical moment.
3. Where can we find you and your work? (socials, blog, website)
My website is millerworlds.com. My blog is millerworlds.blogspot.com.
Thanks for reading!
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