I loved the covers for Flesh Tones and for Mother, Dearest: Book 3 - Hell, as Seen from Heaven but just felt like they were missing something.
With a bit of jiggery pokery, I've remade the covers and have fallen completely in love with them. They're eye-catching, they fit the themes of the books much better, and hopefully all of you love them just as much.
With that in mind, here's the reveal video from YouTube AND I'll post the images below that too.
Flesh Tones: Anthology
Death is a universal truth that we all must come to terms with, but what happens when we come face-to-face with it?
In this anthology, you'll be taken on a journey through various perspectives on death.
From a young couple who inherit a grand mansion, to a man struggling with depression, to an elderly woman reflecting on her life, and even the ghosts of a serial killer's victims seeking vengeance, this collection will both haunt and captivate fans of the macabre.
All from the mind that brought you the award-nominated 'Mother, Dearest' trilogy, Patrick Scattergood.
Mother Dearest: Book 3 - Hell, as Seen from Heaven
Even in a world of deities and magic, life and death are things that will be forever entwined.
Michael knows that more than anyone. He, a fallen angel, has fought and killed his way to the leadership of The Family. When he commits the ultimate sin, the church becomes a place of horror and bloodshed in the name of calling forth the forbidden Tree of Knowledge.
Blood will spill, sacrifices will be made, but will Satara and the others be able to stop their world from being torn asunder?
I've always enjoyed stories starring the iconic Sherlock Holmes. I don't mind if they're set in the same time period or in the modern day; I just like reading as many different takes on the character as possible.
Now, obviously, none can come close to the classics by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; after all, they're timeless for a reason, but some superb authors, such as George Mann, have taken up the mantle and written their own.
After years of reading Sherlock Holmes novels and short story collections, there had always been that voice at the back of my mind wondering whether or not I could write one myself.
I'd written Time to Burn, alongside my partner, Golda Evans, which was a time travel and sci-fi adventure, and I'd written Mother, Dearest, the series that combined psychological thriller with the world of dark urban fantasy, but I'd never had the confidence to write something involving such a well-known and well-loved character.
The Case of the Morbid Detection was inspired by that little voice that told me to write one.
It is the story of a serial killer stalking the streets of London, leaving bodies cut with strange symbols next to a handmade Jack-in-the-Box toy.
While Inspector Lestrade and Doctor John Watson investigate the murders, Sherlock Holmes has retreated to London. His previous cases have worn him ragged, leaving him doubting his own abilities and even second-guessing whether or not he can keep those closest to him safe, but when Lestrade and Watson bring him back to London, the murders grow more vicious.
It's a simple story, in the grand scheme of things, but it's one that I found interesting. I didn't want to just copy what other authors had done while still keeping the things readers enjoyed about the character.
With that in mind, I wanted to present a version of the character who was struggling with the world around him, the toll the cases had taken on him, and even the heavy weight of expectation that his abilities had placed on him.
On the one hand, people seem to have enjoyed the fact that I took a new slant on the characters, giving them a bit more of a voice in my own style. On the other hand, the purists out there didn't like that I'd made changes like that, and that's okay. Each reader is different, and they all have different tastes. I, personally, am proud of the fact that I didn't go down the same route as the other Sherlock Holmes writers. But, as the hardest critic of my own work, I know it's not my strongest novel, but I am proud of the story that I put out into the world.
All in all, The Case of the Morbid Detection is a novel of which I am proud. I'd always wanted to write a Sherlock Holmes novel, and I did. Will I write another one? Perhaps not, but if I do, I hope I enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing this one.
The Case of the Morbid Detection is available from
I love reading short stories, but writing them? That's a whole new set of skills.
If I'm honest with myself about my writing, I tend to be a bit flowery, a bit wordy, with some of my stories, and that's okay; that's my writing style. For a long time, I dreaded writing a short story, despite the fact that I'd always wanted to try it.
That's where Flesh Tones: An Anthology came in.
I'd been working on a series of comic books with the same title, and a voice at the back of my head told me that the comic book stories would make a good set of prose tales. I hadn't revisited those comics for a couple of years, so I thought it would be a good way of a) giving them a new life, b) adding some more details and backstory to some fun stories, and c) getting a new skill under my belt.
I'm not going to lie and say it was easy to adapt them; it wasn't. In fact, I found it much harder than when I wrote the first Mother, Dearest novel, but, at the same time, it was actually kind of fun to do. It was even fun to take a fresh look at the characters, at the worlds created within the stories, and all that wonderful writer stuff that makes me sound like a pretentious douchebag.
For Flesh Tones: An Anthology, I wanted to give it a theme of talking about death—cheerful, I know, but I wanted to do it from different points of view. There's a story about a man adrift in space who sees an animated version of David Bowie; there's a romantic tale told from the point of view of an elderly lady living out her last days in a nursing home; there's even a tale from the mindset of a serial killer's victims.
With that in mind, these are the stories I included in the collection, one of which I will include links to below.
Flesh Tones: An Anthology contains:
The Mansion: When a young couple inherits a mansion from a relative they haven't spoken to in decades, they can't help but wonder if it's too good to be true.
Always Follow Your Heart: After attending a fancy party, Lady Scardale decides that she wants to walk home instead of taking her personal carriage, but as she walks through the city, she finds she's not alone in the night.
The Black Dog in the Night: It's late at night, and his personal demons are swirling around his mind, waiting for him to make up his mind. It's a hard choice, made worse by the black dog nipping at him every chance it gets. Does he live, or does he give in to those voices telling him to end it all?
The Tunnel: Will was always a bit of a drifter, floating from job to job and city to city, never bothering to make friends or to set down roots. He's also a serial killer looking for his latest victim.
The Passage of Time: Sitting in a nursing home, as her memories and her faculties begin to fade, an elderly woman just wants to see the love of her life one last time.
Physician, Heal Thyself: What would you do if you, a doctor, found out that the man who brutalised and murdered your daughter had been injured in jail only to be brought to the church that you work at?
The Scared Crow: Keith had always been a quiet child. Bullied by the other children and living in a small town where everyone knew everyone else, he had no friends. No friends, that is, except for the crows, who would go to any length to keep him safe.
Hallo, Spaceboy: Space is a vast, exciting, and wonderous place, but what would you do if you suddenly found yourself adrift with no way to get back to your capsule, especially if that meant you were being followed by an animated David Bowie?
I Speak in My Own Name: Deities, spirits, and creatures not unlike ourselves have been dotted throughout our stories and our history. What if one of those very same deities was looking down at us in disdain at what we do to one another?
You Go Hide, I Go Seek: A local couple had wanted a baby for years, and when they finally give birth, it appears all their dreams and prayers have been answered, but when that baby goes missing, it sets off a chain of events that will forever change the small town they live in.
So, there we have it: ten stories, all taking different looks at death and the consequences that come with it. The collection is available from the following links, so please enjoy the stories and, if you can, leave a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or anywhere else you can think of.
And if you would like a copy to review for your website or blog, then drop me a line at patricksscattergood@gmail.com and give me the details.
I thought that it might be a little bit of fun to talk about my debut novel, Mother, Dearest.
At first, it was fully intended to be little more than a fun little horror story about a man being haunted by his dead mother. That's exactly what the first draft was. Now, if you've read the actual book itself, you'll know that's exactly what it isn't.
After running through it a few times, more and more ideas started to come to me, and it merged into a completely different story that sits in a completely different genre. It is now a dark urban fantasy that not only includes things such as magic, fairy tale creatures, even an undead talking deer, but also takes a hard look at mental health issues, homophobia, transphobia, and the world's reaction to them.
One of the things that I am proudest of is the reaction to the writing of the mental health scenes and the representation of LGBTQ+ characters. Don't get me wrong, I've had my fair share of trolls and homophobic comments aimed at the book, but it's been mostly positive. I did have one Twitter user describe it as "gay shit with magic" and that kind of showed how much the world still needs to do in order to move forward with attitudes towards people's sexual orientations and their gender identities.
While writing the book itself, I took influence from a great many sources. Some readers have compared it to the work of Neil Gaiman and the television show Carnival Row, both of which I took as huge compliments. I firmly believe that I write in my own voice, but to be compared to those is very high praise, and I'm proud that the reviewer thought so highly of the story.
I was also inspired, in part, by the music I listen to. While writing, I listened to a lot of songs by Bif Naked, Skunk Anansie, Placebo, and more, as well as being influenced by the movie and comic book versions of The Crow by James O'Barr.
Mother, Dearest, and the sequel, The Man Who Died Twice, have gone on to be double award-nominated at the Queer Indie Awards two years in a row. That makes me feel really proud as a writer, especially as an LGBTQ+ creator, that people liked the stories so much that they were nominated by such an amazing site.
If you want to check out the Mother, Dearest series then you can here.
One of the titles that I am most known for, and by far my biggest seller, is the first book in the dark urban fantasy series Mother, Dearest, a title that was nominated for Best Speculative Fiction in the 2021 Queer Indie Awards.
The thing that I like the most about having written it is the simple fact that it comes across as something different depending on who reads it. Some have described it as a psychological horror. Others as urban fantasy and some have even described it as "gay shit with magic", which I loved as a description and therefore kind of adopted it myself.
I'd originally written it as a ghost story. Yes, really. I was more or less happy with it as that, especially as I am a sucker for a good ghost story. When it came time to go through the first draft, I started taking bits out, adding bits in and all sorts. It seemed to grow in to something else before my very eyes. No longer was it a story of a man being haunted by his dead mother. Instead, it turned in to a story that was set in our world but populated with fairy-tale creatures, deities, strange nightmarish creatures and more, all wrapped up in a nice bow with the use of magic, mental health issues and a healthy does of LGBTQ+ characters who weren't the stereotypical gay best friend or comedic relief. I will admit, there are some darkly comedic moments in amongst the destruction, the mental health scenes and more, but I wanted to put that in as a way of showing it was a coping technique for the main character. I do much the same in real life.
One of the things that I am most proud of, in relation to the book, is the reception it has gotten from readers, especially LGBTQ+ readers, who appear to have taken some of the characters to heart. They wanted to know about Naz, about the nonbinary/pansexual siren named Satara, about Trent and more. I loved that. I was a little surprised at the love for Trent, as I'd deliberately written him as someone with no conscience, but people adored him and wanted to see more. One reader even described him as a "sexier Negan", so that was both funny and strange. Readers also seemed to really love, and also appreciate, that I didn't shy away from the mental health issues that the main character had. I wanted them to come across as authentically as possible so I based some of them on the issues that I have had to face in the past. Obviously I dramatised them slightly, in the interest of the story, but they have been praised for how they were portrayed. I also really appreciate the kind comments I've received over the fact that the LGBTQ+ characters aren't just window dressing. I firmly believe that representation, in all forms, matters so some are heroes, some are villains. I'm over the moon that people have seen that and enjoyed that, especially as an LGBTQ+ writer myself.
Talking of comments, I have had to deal with a hell of a lot of homophobic abuse where the Mother, Dearest series is concerned. One, as I mentioned earlier, called it "gay shit with magic", another thought that posting "you write gay books" under each post would be insulting to me. It's a real shame that people feel the need to do that. It really is. Behind each book, whether you like it or hate it, is a person that has worked hard on bringing it to life. It's okay to not like it. It's okay to not give it a good rating or to give it a good one if you did enjoy it. What isn't okay is to abuse the author behind the words.
All in all, writing the book was a real eye-opening experience for me and I've gone on to write three other books. One is the second in the series, one is a stand-alone science-fiction book and the most recent is a Sherlock Holmes story. There are days when I don't like writing very much, especially when I get waves of homophobic comments with each release, but I've met some amazing authors and readers who have gone out of their way to support my work.
Thank you and I'll be back soon with some more stuff about my other books so take care, be safe and stay saucy and magical.
Mother Dearest is available now from the following links.
