• Looking to escape to another world with a super fast read? Looking for urban fantasy that is a bit different? Or weird stories to make you think? Wanting to discover speculative fiction from writers that could become your new favourite authors? Harvey Duckman presents the seventh in a series of short story anthologies featuring some of the most exciting voices in science fiction, fantasy, horror and steampunk today. Volume 7 includes stories by: Will Nett, John Holmes-Carrington, Tamara Clelford, Jeshanth KS, Dominic JP Nelson-Ashley, Peter James Martin, Kate Baucherel, Andrew Openshaw, Graeme Wilkinson, Marios Eracleous, R. Bruce Connelly, Robin Moon, Ross Steven Pickering, Mark Hayes and Joseph Carrabis, with a foreword from Harvey regular Andy Hill. Edited by C.G. Hatton. Available in paperback and Kindle eBook.
  • The No Dragons issue... there are absolutely no dragons featured in this book. Harvey Duckman presents the eighth in a series of short story anthologies featuring some of the most exciting voices in science fiction, fantasy, horror and steampunk today. Volume 8 includes stories by: Christine King, Mark Hayes, Alex Minns, Muriel R. Blythman, Adrian Bagley, Crysta K. Coburn, Peter James Martin, Joseph Carrabis, Jack Pentire, R. Bruce Connelly, Melissa Wuidart Phillips, Davia Sacks, Liz Tuckwell, Kate Baucherel and Alexandrina Brant. Edited by C.G. Hatton. Available in paperback and Kindle eBook.
  • From Shrug to the Moon: The Robert Nichols Story Available now from Amazon in paperback and Kindle. Described as a subcultural force of nature, Rob Nichols is known throughout Teesside as the editor of the Boro Fanzine Fly Me To The Moon and equally as the front man of post-punk band Shrug, famous throughout Europe and still playing to sell out audiences. Steve Spithray gets Rob to talk about both and much more besides, including archaeology, local history and his love of Teesside, giving an indepth, behind the scenes glimpse into an incredible character who has thrown his whole life, time, energy and enthusiasm into supporting the Boro, the Teesside music scene and everyone around him.
  • An interplanetary package holiday takes a dark turn. A man is driven to madness by an unseen torturer. Construction workers discover a tunnel beneath the streets of the French Riviera. The author’s quest for a historical relic does not go to plan. Vengeance is sought in the Lowlands of Europe. A cat helps lay the foundations of a northern town. These, and other strange tales, form an anthology of the arcane as Will Nett’s short stories are collected together for the first time. Journey with the author, where little is as it seems, as the reader is drawn in to the vague reality that is ‘Bank Notes’. From the author of My Only Boro.
  • Harvey Duckman presents... not the special plumbing edition. But kind of! The latest in the series of collected works of suspense and mystery in the genres of science fiction, fantasy, horror and steampunkery, called, oddly enough Harvey Duckman Presents… is, as it says on the cover, volume 9 but it may or may not feature a brilliant array of plumbing and plumber related tales, in amongst our usual offerings. As always, this anthology features work by exciting new voices in speculative fiction, including both established authors and previously unpublished writers. These short stories give a glimpse into some fantastic worlds that are already out there for you to enjoy, as well as a taste of more to come. Volume 9 includes stories by: John Holmes-Carrington, Graeme Wilkinson, Mark Hayes, R. Bruce Connelly, Will Nett, Davia Sacks, Peter James Martin, Robin Moon, Joseph Carrabis, A.L. Buxton, C.K. Roebuck, Liam Hogan, Kate Baucherel, Liz Tuckwell and Ben Sawyer. Edited by C.G. Hatton.
  • Prepare to be disturbed… A private investigator hunts for his client’s missing stepdaughter in a dieselpunk Los Angeles while keeping secrets of his own… A middle-aged recluse has a phobia about teenage girls… In a medieval England, what do the women get up to when all men and boys fall asleep every full moon? A young boy and his alchemist master try to find out… Will Charlotte Bronte be tempted by the devil…? All this and more as dark, quirky fantasy and wonderfully disturbing horror mix seamlessly in this collection of short stories from British writer, Liz Tuckwell.
  • On Terra, an Earth-like place, our resourceful friends Grynne, Gretchen and the Captain go from Puzzles to Pirates, from Looms to Dooms, from Taverns to Tales, from Laughter to Love and finally to Battles aided by a family of female Ninjas and a Blue Ocean Hawk. The prospect of rescue or disaster looms large. Can Grynne, Gretchen and the mysterious Captain storm Atoll Dubh and retain global peace?
  • Critical Nexus (SimCavalier Book Four)

    Jack Sladen, tech billionaire and local hero, is coming back to his roots. Cameron Silvera, busy fighting a new cybercrime threat, doesn’t trust him. Is he out to save the world, or to destroy it? The Sladen Foundation seems like a great idea, but Cameron knows Jack Sladen of old, and has spent much of her infosec career tidying up the bugs and exploits in his software. Can he be trusted with this new venture, and why does he want Cameron’s help? Meanwhile, the Argentum team has caught wind of a new cybercrime outfit that is making waves and recruiting heavily. The Steamyard’s attacks look familiar. Who could be behind this new threat, and how are they connected to Jack? And what of the very special high security prisoner at Way House? As long as Yasmin the Admin is behind bars, Cameron knows that she and her family are safe. But black hat hackers have other plans, and as the Sladen Foundation celebrates its launch, their end game is set in motion – to create a monster that will take everyone down.
  • The enthralling new romance from the author of The Blade and the Dove, Echoes of the Stones and Smuggler's Moon. Life in Regency London quickly turns sour when debts rise and the man of the house, once charming and handsome, turns out to be an unscrupulous rake. Estranged from her own wealthy family, Gabriella’s mother is distraught as she watches her young family fall further and further into a life of degradation and poverty. When her vicious father finally sells her to secure his own release from debtor’s prison, Gabriella is an innocent young virgin, but not for much longer… As she manages to escape and flee north to the wilds of Yorkshire, can she trust the handsome young man who rescues her or is she destined to face the same fate as her mother? Available now in Kindle and paperback.
  • The story of how a boy and a rat met... and how their magical adventures began. With the human race under threat from an evil Fae overlord, it falls to Brennan, a teenage boy from Thornaby-on-Tees, to step up and fight. The only problem is he has to do it with Riz, a talking rat with darker origins than Brennan could ever realise... Based on real folklore and real locations, combined with witty characters and a dry dynamic between Brennan and Riz, the debut novel from Peter James Martin is packed with the familiar and the unusual. “Charismatic, lots of fun, and I love the interplay between Brennan and Riz. Riz is brilliant!” “Funny, new, snappy and totally addictive.”
  • In the summer of 2017, the Crossing the Tees Book Festival invited local writers to enter its first short story competition. With the theme, ‘Crossing the Tees’, the competition struck a beautiful chord and elicited almost a hundred entries that varied from whimsical ponderings to poignant memories, from fantastical tales to gritty commentaries on life in Teesside.

    This anthology celebrates the winner, runners-up, and highly commended stories, as judged by Becci Sharrock, John Nicholson and Mark Freeman, as well as the rest of the short-listed entries.

    “Brilliantly written creative reimaginings of a region rich in writing talent.” Tracey Iceton, Writer in Residence

  • The boy Drimble is stuck in a life of violence, abuse and horror. All courtesy of the man Sigismondi. And a disembodied head called the head. Dragged around a shattered world, performing as part of the man Sigismondi’s weird musical routine for a wretched populace in the fetid music halls that offer the only entertainment left, Drimble takes his punishment, all the while never uttering a single word. But he hangs on… until, eventually, escape beckons. The third novel from world-unrenowned, non-award winning author, Graeme Wilkinson, Lost At The End Of The World is a post-apocalyptic Oliver Twist. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll wonder just how on earth you lived without this book in your life. Paperback, 210 pages, RRP £10 ISBN 978-1-908299-99-4 Published by Sixth Element Publishing, April 2017
  • Music journalist Ben Johansson is living the high life. The luxury apartment in Los Angeles. A beautiful girlfriend. Tickets to any gig in town. He has it all. But his boss isn’t the only one noticing that his writing isn’t what it used to be. And when Ben is handed an unusual assignment back in his hometown of Minneapolis, it’s the last place he wants to go. As he starts to unravel the mystery of a talented young singer-songwriter who died before any of his music could be released, Ben is forced to face the demons of his past. And as he connects with the music in ways he no longer considered possible, maybe it is the one thing that can bring about his redemption…
  • Continuing the tradition started in the summer of 2017, this year’s Crossing the Tees Book Festival launched its second short story competition and once again attracted almost a hundred spectacular entries from local writers. With no specified theme this year, it seemed that everyone’s imaginations were freed to create a richly varied collection of thoughtful and downright entertaining stories. This anthology presents the winner, runners-up, and highly commended stories, as judged by Mike Edwards (writer and performer), Carman Marcus (author) and Carol McIntosh (librarian), as well as the rest of the short-listed entries.   “Amazing to see the festival build on last year’s successes and inspire even more people from our region to write such fantastic stories.” Mark Freeman, Stockton Libraries and former Crossing the Tees competition judge
  • Continuing the tradition from the summers of 2017 and 2018, Crossing the Tees Book Festival launched its third short story competition and attracted over a hundred spectacular entries from writers nationwide. With no specified theme again this year, everyone’s imaginations were once more freed to create a richly varied collection of thoughtful and downright entertaining stories. This anthology presents the winner, runners-up, and highly commended stories, as judged by Rob Scragg (author), Amy Lord (author) and Carol McIntosh (librarian), as well as the rest of the short-listed entries. Paperback, 238 pages, RRP £10 ISBN 978-1-912218-75-2 Published by Sixth Element Publishing, December 2019
  • In the midst of the Covid-19 global lockdown of 2020, the Crossing the Tees Book Festival Short Story Competition carried on regardless, and gave the writers of the Tees area and beyond a chance to take part in Zoom workshops and work hard to craft their stories.

    With many thanks going to this year’s judges, Peter Barron MBE (journalist and author), Laura Degnan (writer and film maker) and Kay Tranter (librarian), this anthology showcases the winners along with the rest of the brilliant stories that were short-listed from over ninety great entries.

    Serious, poignant, funny, thought-provoking… there is no particular theme but all were written from the heart during the pandemic that stopped the world.

  • After growing up in Newcastle on Tyne and graduating its Medical School in 1953, Geoffrey Marsh had a 34 year career as a GP in Norton, Stockton-on-Tees, helping to transform General Practice from its 1950s pattern of single doctors working independently to its current pattern of multidisciplinary teams and targeted preventive work. Upon retiring, he pursued his interests in gardening and creative writing. This book is a collection of his memories of Norton and writings on his medical school years, as well as his poetry, prose and ponderings on family, life and his favourite place to visit, Italy. A wonderful mix of funny, poignant and insightful reflections, Northern Roots shares a glimpse of life as a GP in a very different time. All proceeds from this book will be donated to Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières).
  • This handbook presents a complete six week course on yama which is firmly rooted in the teachings of Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra. It is a practical companion text and includes: •    An accessible explanation of the yama sūtra. •    Weekly asana sequences which relate to each of the yama. •    A graduated plan for developing ujjāyī prāṇāyāma. •    Thirty yama based mantra for meditation. •    Six complete relaxation scripts. •    More than thirty ‘off-the-mat’ practices which support understanding. •    A comprehensive bibliography. •    Recommended websites for easy access to high quality information and training. The course is designed so that readers can use the whole course or choose specific practices to bring fresh ideas to existing plans. Susan Lodge BA, PGCE, MA (Ed), BWY Dip, YFHF Cert is an experienced yoga teacher who has been practising yoga for almost twenty years. She has studied yoga with teachers in England and Spain, and teaches regularly in the North East of England and on yoga holidays in Turkey. In this series of books developed especially for yoga teachers, Susan presents fundamental principles which lie at the core of her teaching in an accessible and extremely useful format. Paperback, 88 pages, RRP £12.99 ISBN 978-1-908299-92-5 Published by Sixth Element Publishing, May 2016
  • In early 2020, Ian Wolf – manga critic in print and online, autistic comedic data specialist, and some time question writer for Richard Osman’s House of Games – decided that the best way to keep himself occupied while Britain was in Covid lockdown was to write a humorous book about his favorite manga artists – CLAMP... the women behind such works as Cardcaptor Sakura, xxxHOLiC, X and Magic Knight Rayearth.
    If you want to find out why the cases of the CLAMP School Detectives sound like challenges from Taskmaster, why almost everything in Magic Knight Rayearth is named after a car, why the British Museum illustrated their manga exhibit using the soft-core lesbian manga Miyuki-chan in Wonderland, or why the Cardcaptor Sakura Kinomoto’s best friend has more than a whiff of The Fast Show’s 13th Duke of Wybourne about her, this is the book for you. Find out more at: https://ianwolf.org/
  • Minneapolis Reign: An Unofficial Guide to Prince’s Hometown NEW 2nd Edition Order now at www.minneapolisreign.com The sudden death of legendary rock musician Prince Rogers Nelson on April 21st 2016 sent shockwaves around the world. One year on, Stuart Willoughby, a fan from the north east of England, made a four thousand mile pilgrimage to Prince’s hometown of Minneapolis in an attempt to understand the life and work of this seminal artist. Arriving in the U.S. in the anniversary week of Prince’s passing, Stuart found himself on an incredible adventure that brought him closer to Prince than he ever could have imagined. Part travel guide and part biography, this is one Prince fan’s emotional account of an incredible journey he felt compelled to make in honour of his musical hero. “The Estate of Prince Rogers Nelson is not affiliated, associated, or connected with Minneapolis Reign: An Unofficial Guide to Prince’s Hometown, nor has it endorsed, authenticated or sponsored Minneapolis Reign: An Unofficial Guide to Prince’s Hometown. Further, The Prince Estate has not licensed any of its intellectual property to Minneapolis Reign: An Unofficial Guide to Prince’s Hometown.” Paperback, RRP £14.99 ISBN 978-1-912218-40-0 Originally published by Sixth Element Publishing, November 2017 2nd Edition published by Sixth Element Publishing, October 2018
  • A Family History in Wales and the North East of England Diagonal Ties is a fascinating account of one family’s connections throughout the generations with both the North East of England and the South of Wales. Susan Lewis relates the tale of her search for ancestors with humour, an eye for detail and an intriguing insight into life during the times in which they lived. Starting with rural Welsh life in the 1700s, the story moves through the heart of the industrial revolution and on into the foundries of the North-East. Susan considers with poignancy and compassion how events including a war in South Africa, a riot in Llanelli, a general strike, and two world wars, affected the lives and fortunes of those concerned. The story spans the reigns of nine kings and queens as one person from each generation makes that diagonal journey that will determine whether he or she will live as a Welsh person or a North Easterner. Paperback, 200 pages, RRP £14.99 ISBN 978-1-908299-46-8 Published by Sixth Element Publishing, May 2013
  • The story of one man’s descent into a brief period of madness and the surreal world he creates.

 Stan L. Abbott’s The Episode exudes a realism and fatalistic inevitability, reminiscent of Canetti’s Auto da Fé or John Fowles’s, The Magus. Buy The Episode now or read for free on Kindle Unlimited. Paperback, 656 pages, RRP £14.99 ISBN 978-1-912218-49-3 Published by Sixth Element Publishing, March 2019
  • Learn to read music with Stave the friendly spider, his musical web and his amazing band: Anton the red ant, Bella the beautiful butterfly, McCoo the cockatoo, Dray the dragon, Em the emu, Flop the frog and Gosher the grasshopper. A beautifully creative and imaginative way to introduce notes and music to children. A5 Paperback, 114 pages, RRP £19.99 ISBN 978-1-912218-17-2 Published by Sixth Element Publishing, December 2017
  • eBook available on Kindle That Sounds Like Stevie! is a fascinating journey through the lesser-known musical adventures of the incomparable Stevie Wonder. Universally acknowledged as one of music’s most influential and successful artists, Stevie Wonder has enjoyed a career like no other. But how much do you know about his other work, that of songwriter, producer, arranger, vocalist, and highly sought after session musician for other people, and mostly on tunes unknown? In this astonishing collection, which is the result of years of painstaking research and determined digging, lifelong fan and chronicler of Stevie’s life Mick Hutchinson sheds light on the other side of his illustrious career. A must for Stevie fans who want to appreciate the extended work of a living legend, and his never-ending celebration of song. Paperback, 490 pages, RRP £20 ISBN 978-1-912218-41-7 Published by Sixth Element Publishing, May 2019
  • Sale!
    Eleven extraordinary stories by eleven extraordinary students. Written and published by students in Year 7 at Nunthorpe Academy, this set of eleven easy to read books aimed at 8 to 10 year olds is the result of a year-long publishing project. 11 Paperbacks, RRP £6.99 each MY STORY SET OF 11 BOOKS SPECIAL PRICE £50 SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY OFFER £25 Published by Sixth Element Publishing, June 2018 As featured in an article by Jan Hunter (one of our own!) in the Darlington & Stockton Times, Friday 13th July 2018.
  • Sixth Element Mentoring Sessions £25/hour Need a bit of a boost on your work in progress? Not sure what to do next with your book? Treat yourself to a one hour intense mentoring session with Sixth Element. We can help fix a manuscript, work on structure or character development, help with KDP listings, come up with promotional ideas or help with any writing projects. Meetings can be by phone, Zoom or Skype. Please email us to arrange an appointment.
  • TEESSIDE SEEN THROUGH AN APOCALYPTIC LENS... It is coming.
 We all feel it in our bones. Join photographer Ian Robinson as he explores Teesside... an area haunted by the ghostly presence of its industrial past, around housing estates demolished but not rebuilt, under towers left empty and over roads now derelict. And ponder for a while with some of the writers from the Post Apocalypse School of Teesside as we imagine how our world might end and what we can do to survive it. Paperback, 70 page, glossy coffee-table photograph book
  • Does your book cover need a bit of care and attention? We love designing book covers and we believe that the effort you put into your book deserves a cover to do it justice. Whether you have a cover already, that you're not quite happy with, or you need one designing from scratch, we can help. Buy now or give us a call to discuss your book.

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