M F Alfrey's Blog

Something monstrous this way comes! It's the British Fantasy Society's October 4th online event. Looks like they've got a fantastic line up of panels and readings, including an interview with #1 New York Times bestselling author Scarlett St Clair.

I'm stoked to have been invited to join the first panel, along with Sarah Maria Griffin, and Catherine Yu, to discuss monster building, the best and worst monsters, and our own monster-building process. Come and kick off the spooky season with us!

https://britishfantasysociety.org/eve...

Love body horror? Take a deep dive with me into my process of creating memorable, and gross, body horror creatures in this guest blog post over at the British Fantasy Society.

https://britishfantasysociety.org/dis...

Here's my new release: Silentium - a military sci-fi body horror and homage to the classics we all know and love.



Find Silentium here on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...

Aliens meets The Thing in M. F. Alfrey’s Silentium. In this action-packed military SF gore-fest, a struggling haulage crew and a squad of delinquent marines find themselves hurled together in a gruelling fight for survival beneath the ice.

If you want to read some of my stuff for free, check out my author page: https://mfalfrey.com/
M F Alfrey

Getting excited chills ... not long now.

Aliens meets The Thing in M. F. Alfrey’s Silentium. In this action-packed military SF gore-fest, a struggling haulage crew and a squad of delinquent marines find themselves hurled together in a gruelling fight for survival beneath the ice.

As a writer and an editor, I get asked this question from time to time, and see it posed on social media a lot. It is a seemingly innocent question. There are many answers to this, of course, but here in this brief article I will focus on something I have noticed that catches most newer writers out but also may hound experienced writers too. Find out what here.

Here it is, almost ...



I can't decide which colour scheme to go with! Vote for your choice in the comments below:
A, B, C, or D?

So you most likely have heard of a copy edit and proofread, and may have even heard of a line edit, and developmental edit if you have read this guide in order, but what about this thing called a proof edit?

Follow the link to Obsidian Prose to find out:
https://obsidianprose.com/2024/06/06/...

Birmingham, Great Britain. 2069. No one has figured out how or why The Merge happened. But that’s not the point. The point is, dinosaurs are back and they don’t seem to be going away.

Read the full short story here for free: https://mfalfrey.com/take-care-wear-y...

There are many articles out there on this topic, so let us cut right to the chase with a couple of solid definitions for clarity. A “pantser” is a frank term for an author who writes “by the seat of their pants”. The more literary and poetic types might prefer “writing into the dark” and the adventurous may lean towards calling it “discovery writing”.

Typically, a discovery writer creates bottom up, starting with a seed and freewriting from there. They blaze a trail, seeing where it carries them with little to almost no planning. I say almost because there is always something. A seed is the smallest of plans when you think about it. Within it are all the things necessary for a tree or plant to grow. A pantser may have roughed out the book in their head, made mental notes, and tweaked and refined their idea ...

Continue reading here: https://obsidianprose.com/2023/07/30/...

An academic essay

Reading as a writer is fundamental to developing one’s craft and something I have not always appreciated – especially when I first started writing. Recently, I have learnt the value of reading like a writer through studying creative writing at Master’s level. Whereas you by no means need to seek formal education in the craft to be capable of spinning a good yarn, I can attest that by reading critically on how others approach the craft, you will see a direct and positive influence on your own writing craft ...

Read more here: https://mfalfrey.com/2024/05/21/how-t...