I’m Steve Deighan. I am an Edinburgh-born, Lanarkshire-based writer of horror fiction. I have had stories published in national and international publications since the late 90s. But there was a time – twice, actually – I almost didn’t get to write about any of the following...
In 2015, I privately published my short story The Tent as a limited-edition, landscape hardback with illustrations (it landed on every major UK publisher’s desk!), and it introduced me to Bethany Childs, my forthcoming fictional demoness, and the eponymous protagonist of my/her 2020 novel. She is a trademarked entity, so there is that to consider regarding [her] ownership. Do not dismiss her beauty and passive nature; she has had a ‘hell’ of a time, and she’s still only a teenager.
In July 2017, I suffered a massive stroke. This was at a time I was beginning to stretch out Bethany Chiller® beyond a word count I only ever dreamed about. Eventually making steady progress on and off the page, I spent many evenings emailing prospective publishers in and out of the UK until mid-2018. I spent many subsequent afternoons reading their replies that were in the way of “Thanks, but no thanks…” until Glasgow’s Ringwood Publishing sat on the manuscript for a bit. A period of indecision ensued but, in that time, American publisher Dreaming Big Publications emailed me with an acceptance. I had committed a cardinal rule: submitting a manuscript simultaneously! I approached Ringwood with the situation and their advice was to go with DBP, since they still had other projects to contemplate before considering mine wholeheartedly.
February 2019: doctors at the Golden Jubilee Hospital in Clydebank told me on my first ever visit there that I needed to stay for a few days. My congenital cardiomyopathy had worsened to the point I was in advanced heart failure and had been for some time. I was placed on the list for heart transplantation. The operation followed on Easter Sunday. I had been brought back to life. Saved, again, by the amazing NHS. I was only 35.
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“It was one of the most difficult manuscripts for us,” emailed DBP’s editor-in-chief, Kristi King-Morgan, sometime mid-2020. She does not mean the content, which itself is brutal and harrowing. DBP prides itself on publishing challenging fiction. Kristi was growing reluctant to making excess changes I wanted made to the manuscript. “I’m not confident with portions of the text,” I explained, some of it being a couple of years out-of-date. Plus, the marketing campaign I was running meant that everything – from the Bible quotes to the original, commissioned artwork – had to be consistent. “No errors,” I insisted. Regrettably, some remained and are visible in the finished product. I’m proud of what we achieved. Bethany treasures the most intimate tale of possession. And it was finally told.
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There is a sequel in the pipeline. It aims to be more ambitious and powerful than anything Bethany or I could have imagined.
She ‘speaks’ to me occasionally because she acknowledges that I [literally] shaped her story. Bethany Chiller®, giving me direction and strength for the future, helped shape mine, too.
