The Merry Blacksmith Press

We’ve got all of the i’s dotted and t’s crossed on this amazing three-book adventure featuring time travel, vampires, and the end of the world by the one and only Matt Howarth. Each book is available to order at our Gray Trilogy order page.

You can also order all three volumes at once and save money. Not a bad thing considering the times and portents of the day.

Check out the ordering page for more details, and stay tuned for further updates regarding The Gray Trilogy and the upcoming Cassidy Trilogy, also by Matt Howarth.

Is it over? Is it safe to come out?

Not yet? Damn.

Who knew pandemics lasted this long? I mean, aside from everybody.

Nevertheless, we’re sticking our heads out of our shell, so to speak, and getting back to trudging through the sand. COVID messed with our schedules a bit and some priorities had to be shifted for a time.

That said, we’re at the point now where we can recalibrate and get things heading back to where they should be. These last few months of dread 2020 should actually be pretty good. I mean, we have eight or nine titles scheduled to come out. Some are a bit belated, such as Matt Howarth’s The Gray Trilogy featuring novels Gray Dawn, Gray Noon, and Gray Twilight (with an alternate cover!).

We’ll be posting ordering information for Gray Dawn by this weekend. Keep your eyes peeled to our Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook pages.

Also coming this year from famed comic book artist and writer Matt Howarth will be Storms On the Homefront, the first of three Cassidy novels. Expect to see that become available within the next couple of weeks followed soon after by Duress Largesse and Nasty Places.

In plenty of time for the holidays, we’ll have a new Tim Lockley collection, A Farce of Nature, out, as well as a new collection by Marla Mason author TA Pratt. Also look for a collection by Rory O’Brien, author of Gallows Hill and The Afflicted Girl.

And that’s just 2020. Who knows what 2021 will bring? But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Lots going on. Books to put out, a website to update, a bit of catching up now that we’ve got a handle on the world. To make sure it continues to go on, yours truly is getting back to work now. Background music courtesy of Gorillaz.

Cheers!

Our most abject apologies to those who have placed orders for The Afflicted Girl and have not received them yet. We ran into an issue with our own stock order and we’re still trying to sort it out between Amazon and the post office. Actually, at this point we’re thinking of just cutting this as a loss–a most likely package theft incident. Sadly, it wasn’t just copies of Rory’s book that went astray. Very frustrating one a number of fronts.

That said, we are taking steps to fulfill those orders as soon as possible. What we’ll begin doing tonight is filling out the orders via our Amazon account and will send the ordered copies to purchasers through that.

Again, our most humble apologies. We’ll get this sorted straight away.

If there are any specific questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact us at orders@merryblacksmith.com.

From the author of Gallows Hill comes a new Salem mystery!

The murder of a man famously known as “Mr. Hallowe’en” has Detective Andrew Lennox searching for the only witness—a troubled young woman who believes herself to be the reincarnation of Bridget Bishop, a supposed witch hanged centuries ago. This afflicted girl is hiding somewhere in Salem and unwilling to come forward, but Lennox is not alone in his search—can he find her before the killer does?

Enjoy this thrilling new mystery set in Salem, Massachusetts by Rory O’Brien, a man who knows where all the bodies are buried and is more than happy to show you.

The Afflicted Girl is available now for order.

Yep, we’re back! From the looks of things, it appears that we’ve not been doing a whole lot the past couple of years.

Can’t really deny it based on appearances. We did manage to put out a couple of books last year, but we didn’t really engage much. Why?

Okay, not fair to blame the boy, but there has been a period of adjustment. And a bunch of other personal issues arose. I’m happy to say, however, that we’ve had a bit of a reset and are back in business. We have four new titles coming out before the end of the year, and plans for events in 2020.

So stay tuned for more news as it develops. We’ll be updating the site on a more regular basis and engaging more on social media. (Actually, been keeping somewhat active on Twitter and Instagram, but we’ll be appearing on Facebook more often now as well.)

Heck, let’s kick this off announcing a new book…

Outstanding titles for your consideration and enjoyment. Now that the tyranny of summer has passed, it’s time to enjoy the emerging fall season with these great reads.

Closing Doors by TA Pratt is the final installment of the wildly popular Marla Mason series. Monsters, banter, moral and physical jeopardy, jokes, thrills, and tragedies await!

It’s Halloween in Salem and there is murder in the air. Rory O’Brien’s Gallows Hill perfectly captures the character of Salem in this engaging mystery–suitable for reading any time of the year.

2050: Gods of Little Earth by Joseph Zornado is the first volume of a trilogy that sweeps across millennia and explores a possible future Earth that’s starting to get a little too close for comfort. Timely and captivating!

In Everybody Dies Tomorrow by master storyteller Matt Howarth, Detective Barry Windsor stumbles across the beginning of a zombie holocaust…or has he? Everything seemed too real to be a dream, but too unbelieveable to be real, yet there he was—surrounded by the undead. Until he wasn’t. And zombies weren’t the only threat out there. Perfect Halloween-season reading.

It has admittedly been a challenging year while breaking in our new intern Jack. New titles have slowed and we’ve not made it to many events this past year. That said, however, I’m happy to announce that we have a couple of new titles arriving before the end of the year. Special titles that are going to be perfect for the upcoming holiday season. And we’re talking amongst ourselves about what’s coming out in 2018 and what events we’ll be appearing at.

Jack forgetting that our dress code requires shoes.

So if we’ve been a bit too quiet for the past year, we’re blaming it on the new intern. Yeah, that’s the ticket.*

*We’re not really blaming Jack for anything. Dear old dad and humble publisher took some time in balancing the schedule. Happy to say we’re moving forward!

Stay tuned for announcements on new titles, events, and other items of interest.

Cheers!

The One That Got Away — a new collection by Timothy C. Lockley

We’re super-pleased to announce the latest from Timothy Lockley, his sixth collection is chock full of all of the gags, jokes, puns, and delightful drawings we have come to know and love over the years. It is now available for order–just in time for the holidays!

Check out the order page here.

And enjoy!