Bubby

by Philip Taffs

A NEW MILLENNIUM.On 31 December 1999, Australian advertising creative Guy Russell arrives in New York along with his fragile wife and their young son. A painful tragedy has led them to swap Melbourne for Manhattan, and seek a fresh start.A NEW BEGINNING.With a new job secured at a thriving midtown agency, and temporary residence obtained in the Upper West Side's Olcott Hotel - a building with a morbid history of its own - Guy feels that now is the time to lay his troubles to rest.A NEW NIGHTMARE.Yet something won't let him. A sinister force from Guy's past begins to scratch its way back into his present.While the behaviour of his son, Callum, also starts to become increasingly disturbing and chilling.As Guy grapples with whether the evil tormenting him is in his surroundings, his son, or his own mind, he pushes himself ever closer to the edge.

285 pages, Paperback

Published February 6, 2024

About the author

I got fired from an ad agency and began writing 'Bubby' that very afternoon.

(Coincidence?)

It was rejected everywhere you can possibly be rejected across 3 continents before finally being picked up by those geniuses at Quercus in London - who were smart enough to also publish 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'.

I had a short story - about Elvis not really being dead and entering an Elvis impersonators competition - published in a generous magazine that paid me $900 when I was broke… and won a PEN International Award for another one about a butcher’s assistant who gets locked in a freezer…but that's another story.

When I'm not writing, I'm watching old movies or screaming at the Carlton Football Club.

It's hard to believe but I have two sons who love me.