This page contains the latest announcements from WyrdStar. Older bulletins can be found on the WyrdStar News Archive page.
If you'd like to keep track of the latest news, you can:
RSS news service;Thanks for visiting!
1 December 2023
"AIN'T DEAD YET", the debut album by DITCH THE DEMON, is out now! (Prozakville Records).
Compact Discs of "Ain't Dead Yet" can be ordered online from Ditch the Demon's page on BandCamp, price £12.00 (plus P&P). Digital downloads of the album are also available from BandCamp, price £7.00; and also from Amazon Music, Apple Music and other online music services. CDs will also be on sale at gigs, of course!
We're really pleased with what we've achieved in "Ain't Dead Yet". With four songwriters in the band (including yours truly!), Ditch the Demon assimilates power metal and psych rock under a dark yet uplifting aura, a journey of light 'n' shade through hard rocking numbers, epic ballads, psych and even a dalliance with rock-diva vaudeville. We've been compared to bands such as Epica, Evanescence and Within Temptation, along with older influences Heart and Coven, whose songs we sometimes cover. Intrigued? Check us out!
Ditch the Demon have a couple of gigs left to play this year: Saturday 2 December at the Brickmakers B2 in Norwich (we're on around 6pm, opening a long night of rock bands) and then back in Hastings at The Carlisle on Saturday 16 December (headlining another multi-band affair). Gig details and more can be found on our website at www.ditchthedemon.co.uk. See you there...?
Happy listening! Steph.
P.S. Friday 1 December is also BandCamp Friday, where artists get a greater share of sales proceeds. Support independent artists today!
19 October 2023
DITCH THE DEMON'S forthcoming album "AIN'T DEAD YET" is finally available for pre-orders on Bandcamp! After a few delays, I'm able to announce a release date: 1 December. This is the debut album from a certain Hasting-based psych-rock band in which I play bass. We're really pleased with how this has turned out.
"Ain't Dead Yet" can be pre-ordered from Ditch the Demon's page on BandCamp, price £7.00 (digital album) / £12.00 (compact disc). The title track (which I wrote!) is available straight away for those pre-ordering the album. More about the band can be found on our website at www.ditchthedemon.co.uk.
This album and the preceding single "Fright Night" has led to the resurrection of Prozakville Records, WyrdStar's own record label. The album "Ain't Dead Yet" by Ditch the Demon will be released on iTunes and other digital music services for pre-order from 3 November.
Finally, for those in London tomorrow evening, Ditch the Demon is playing a gig at the St. Moritz Club, 159 Wardour Street, London W1F 8WJ at around 8pm. Maybe see you there...?
Happy listening! Steph.
21 June 2023
The economic woes of the UK continue to make everything more expensive, including publishing books. Due to increases in Amazon's printing costs, the price of producing print-on-demand books went up as of yesterday: that is, the paperback editions of my science-fiction novels Hollow Moon, Paw-Prints Of The Gods and City Of Deceit. After running the figures, this unfortunately means a sizeable price hike to avoid selling books at a loss.
From today, WyrdStar paperbacks will priced £13.99 ($17.99). However... UK readers can continue to order paperbacks directly from WyrdStar at the current special price of £9.00 (see book pages for the order form - I will be setting up a PayPal shop at some point!).
Happy reading! Steph.
1 June 2023
June is Pride Month, a chance to reflect on the contribution LGBTQ+ folk make to society and the ongoing fight for rights. My one contribution (so far) to the world of queer fiction is THE LUCK OF THE DEVIL ebook, which will be on sale for $0.99 (75% off, coupon code KD26D) throughout June at Smashwords. Being trans myself, this remains my most 'personal' novel to date. Susan Jones, a transgender woman struggling to get by in the economic woes of 1990s Britain, is under the care of psychiatrist Doctor Mordussen. He in turn is obsessed by her disturbing nightmares. But are her demons real? Pick up a copy now...
Happy Pride Month! Steph.
13 May 2023
RELEASED TODAY IS "FRIGHT NIGHT", a furious explosion of sumptuous manic lust and high-speed heavy rock from Hastings psych-rockers Ditch the Demon! This download-only track is a taster of the band's forthcoming album AIN'T DEAD YET. I've been playing bass for Ditch the Demon for a few years now and couldn't wish for a better bunch of bandmates. We're all really excited about the album, which is due out this summer.
"Fright Night" also marks the resurrection of Prozakville Records, WyrdStar's own record label, which was originally set up to distribute recordings by my old band Danse Macabre. The album "Ain't Dead Yet" by Ditch the Demon will be released on BandCamp and all streaming services.
"Fright Night" is available to buy and download from Ditch the Demon's page on BandCamp. Further information about the band can be found on our website at www.ditchthedemon.co.uk.
Happy listening! Steph.
1 March 2023
THE FOURTEENTH ANNUAL SMASHWORDS 'READ AN EBOOK WEEK' takes place from 5th to 11th March. A myriad of indie authors and publishers are offering lovely deals on ebooks, including yours truly. Over next week, the following FREE downloads will be available from WyrdStar at Smashwords:
In other news, returning visitors to the WyrdStar website will have noticed that it's finally getting a long-overdue update. The site, well over a decade old, was originally written using Microsoft FrontPage Express, which was hardly cutting-edge even back then. Years of tweaks and additions had left the website code in somewhat of a mess.
Late last year I finally decided to do something about it and started stripping out obsolete code to make all pages HTML 5 compliant. Phase two of the update, now almost complete, is introducing 'responsive' layouts so that the website displays properly on mobile devices. There was some duplication of content across the website so some pages have been retired. And there is now a proper contact form! The final phase of the refresh, which I'm still pondering, is to completely revamp the home page into something more cool and snazzy. Watch this space...
Happy reading! Steph.
17 December 2022
PUBLISHED TODAY is "The Ivory Tower", this year's free seasonal tale from The Worlds Of Hollow Moon. This story is a science-fiction pastiche of the fairytale "Rapunzel", because why not?
Civil war might be raging on the moon of Yuanshi, but Raja Surya did not think that justified spending Christmas stuck in a room at the top of a tower in the middle of nowhere. Worse still, caretaker Amashilama was making him do exercise. But who is the mysterious stranger, lured by his terrible singing and bringing him gifts?
The short-story anthology Merry Christmas, Mister Wolf has been reissued to include the new story. This collection is priced at £1.49 / $1.99 (the accompanying anthology To Dance Amongst The Stars is £1.99 / $2.99); through the amazing flexibility of ebooks, readers should only need to buy each one once to get future updates free of charge. One change in availability is that due to software changes, the Smashwords version of this ebook release is available in ePub format only: it can no longer be downloaded as other file types (e.g. mobi, pdf). Sorry about that!
Merry Christmas, one and all. I say this every Christmas: books and ebook readers make excellent gifts! In the UK at least, it seems that as we recover from one crisis (coronavirus) we're hit with another (cost of living and a colder than usual winter), but I hope you are keeping safe, warm and well.
Happy reading! Steph.
Older news items can be found on the WyrdStar News Archive page.