Award-Winning and Prize-Winning Author of Access Denied, The Wretched, The Roots of Evil, The Ghost of Clothes, Omonolidee, First Words and Unzipped: The Mind of a Madman, The Deeper Roots of Evil, UFO, Cinema, Realm of Rhyme, BD & Thrashman, Safe Place and Windows of Time along with numerous short stories, poems and articles.
David E. Gates, who has interviewed the likes of Clive Barker, James Herbert and Terry Pratchett, has published several books and short stories and won prizes and awards for his work.
His first book, Access Denied, is a true story. A deeply personal and heart-wrenching account of becoming a father and having to fight the mother and Family Courts to see his daughter and also battles against the incompetence and lies of the Child Support Agency who seem hell-bent on ruining him, emotionally and financially.. It has garnered 100% positive reviews.
The Roots of Evil, his first horror novel, is a graphic, violent, intense and gore-laden horror story. It's sequel, The Deeper Roots of Evil, released on Friday the 13th of March 2020, has been getting rave reviews.
His second fictional novel, The Wretched, is an original horror story set in and around Portsmouth.
A short story, My Mother and the Medium, written by David, won The News (Portsmouth) Creepy Story Competition in December 2019.
His memoir, Motorcycle Man, is a joyous reminiscence of his motorcycling days.
He turns his attention to compiling a selection of stories, investigative reports and testimonies from witnesses and investigators from the wealth of material available, most notably that from recently retired or declassified records currently in the custody of the US National Archives and other sources, in his new book, UFO: The Edinburg Incident and Other UFO Stories.
Mind Blood is a collection of macabre and spooky short stories, many of which have never been published previously.
Realm of Rhyme is a collection of poems that have been inspired by historical events and includes some silly rhymes along the way and shows David's frustration and joy of the world around him.
His recent memoir, BD and Thrashman: The Express FM Years, tells of his and his friend's adventures and experience hosting a rock radio show on Express FM. Following this, David released a short travelogue called The Horror of the Hebrides and a short story called 'Til Deaf Us Do Part. His latest novella is a haunted house story called Safe Place, based on real experiences.
A unique selection of historical poems makes up Windows of Time. Featuring tales of fascinating and fierce women, such as Mary Ann Bevan, Susanna M. Salter, Mary Church Terrell, Harriet Tubman and The Mother of Angola. Poems telling of the cruelty of the Romans and the collaboration of two disabled men of different faiths. The survivor of a bizarre accident, Phineas Gage, is also remembered, alongside macabre events such as The Mary Celeste and poems that honour those lost in World War I and World War II.
David has previously written film reviews for Starburst and Samhain magazines and interviewed the likes of Clive Barker, Terry Pratchett, James Herbert and many others and his work has been featured on Express FM radio and Solent TV.
David's first book, Access Denied, was nominated for the 2017 Readers Choice Awards. His first horror novel, The Roots of Evil, was voted best to read on the Novel Festival site. His second horror novel, The Wretched, won silver in the AuthorsDB 2017 Cover Contest and Unzipped: The Mind of a Madman is currently a semi-finalist in the AuthorsDB 2019 Cover Contest.
David's poem, The Magic of Mushrooms, made runner-up in the Grow Wild poetry competition. Other poems, such as Vape Away, Terminators and Outrunning The Rain, have been featured in The Poetry Festival and The Ode of Phineas Gage is one of the poems being featured on the PoetrySoup website.
David also won the silver prize in the AuthorsDB 2016 Cover Contest for his short story, The Ghost of Clothes, and won best Horror Novel Logline for 2016 for The Roots of Evil.
He’s previously won first prize (Gold) for The Roots of Evil and third prize (Bronze) for Access Denied in the 2015 AuthorsDB Cover Contests, and previously won a competition to write the second part of a short horror story, called Savages. The first and last parts were written by the famous horror writer Shaun Hutson and are hosted on Shaun’s website.
David is currently working on a full-length novel called The Climbing Frame, producing a short film, and developing and writing the second sequel to The Roots of Evil.
Over the years, researchers and scientists have scoured government documents in search of proof that life exists beyond Earth and has regularly visited us here.
One set of documents, known as Project Blue Book, includes retired, declassified records from 1947 to 1969 from the United States Air Force (USAF), currently in the custody of the US National Archives.
According to a US Air Force Fact Sheet, a total of 701 out of 12,618 sightings reported to Project Blue Book remained “unidentified.”
In a world of disinformation and false reporting, what can we believe?
The reports and stories within are true testimonies from witnesses and investigators, along with evidence corroborating, disputing and even dispelling the accounts from what is often reliable and credible (and in some cases, multiple) witnesses.
Daniel Hess of ToTony Productions has published an interview with myself, David E. Gates, on his Better Know an Author Feature, a weekly spotlight series on authors from around the world.
I’m extremely honoured to have been included in the Portsmouth Literary Map created by data creator, Dr Mark Frost, of Portsmouth University.
The Portsmouth Interactive Literary Map is a civic engagement, digital humanities project created by the English Literature team at the University of Portsmouth. It celebrates Portsmouth’s rich literary heritage and ongoing literary work, providing details of the many authors with city connections, exploring the wealth of literary works set in Portsmouth, and offering a host of literary extracts that provide varied perspectives on this unique and fascinating place. The map is by no means complete, and will continue to grow, both within the city and beyond its limits.
The link to my birthplace entry is here. The link to where I grew up, is here.
Literary Location entries for those sites featured in The Wretched, a horror novel written by myself, set in Portsmouth and based on local folklore, can be found as follows:
A teenage boy explores the forbidden areas of his home town and gives life to a new evil that stalks him and his friends and family with vengeance in mind. Whilst grappling with the onset of puberty, he must battle the shape-changing menace which haunts his dreams and knows no bounds in its savagery whilst coming to terms with his own metamorphosis.
A unique horror story, drawing inspiration from local folklore, set in and around Portsmouth.
Available at all good online bookstores.
The Wretched won SILVER in the 2017 Authors DB Cover Competition
David E. Gates is a prize-winning and award-winning writer who has published a number of books and short-stories. His work has been featured in television, radio and print media.
His first book, Access Denied, a true story based on events from his life, was nominated for the 2017 Readers Choice Awards and selected for Book of the Day by Indie Book Butler in November 2019. His novel, The Wretched, won SILVER in the AuthorsDB 2017 Cover Contest and his latest anthology of short-stories, poems and articles has made the semi-finals of the AuthorsDB 2019 Cover Contest.
His short story, My Mother & The Medium, won The News’ Ghost Story competition in December 2019.
His first horror novel, The Roots of Evil, was voted best to read on the Novel Festival site!
The Magic of Mushrooms, made runner-up in the Grow Wild poetry competition. Other poems, such as Vape Away, Terminators and Outrunning The Rain, have been featured in The Poetry Festival.
He won the SILVER prize in the AuthorsDB 2016 Cover Contest for The Ghost of Clothes and won best HORROR Novel Logline for 2016 for The Roots of Evil.
He has previously won first prize (Gold) for The Roots of Evil and third prize (Bronze) for Access Denied in the 2015 AuthorsDB Cover Contest, and has made a film about the battlefield memorials in Ypres, Belgium called Ypres – The Battlefield Tours (available at www.shelleyshow.co.uk).
Get EXCLUSIVE content!
Sign up to the exclusive subscriber newsletter and, for just £10 per year, get unpublished short stories/poems, exclusive competitions and advance notification of upcoming publications.
To see the first newsletter, without subscription, click here.
My latest short story, inspired by a trip to a haunted village in Hampshire, called He Came Back, will be released soon.
Telling the tale of mysterious occurrences upon the return of a villager, it will be available in eBook format from all good online bookstores and in printed format directly from www.davidegates.com.
David E. Gates 