Len Maynard and Mick Sims have been friends since school, where they met for the first time in 1964, aged eleven. Both lived in Enfield, Middlesex, for many years but Len now lives in Norton, Hertfordshire, with his wife Karen and several cats; Mick lives in Birchanger, Hertfordshire, with his wife Clare and young daughter Emily.

They began writing supernatural stories in 1972, and their first published story was in 1974, followed by several others in hardback anthologies and magazines in the 1970s and 1980s. After a long gap, they began to write supernatural stories again in the summer of 1997. Since then numerous stories have been published and several others accepted in magazines and anthologies.

Their first book, a collection of stories called Shadows At Midnight, was published in hardback by William Kimber in 1979. The 1999 Sarob Press edition of Shadows At Midnight is so heavily rewritten that the authors consider the stories to be completely new. The book was nominated for The Dracula Society Award.

A second collection of new and extensively revised stories, Echoes Of Darkness, was published by Sarob Press in 2000 (and is reviewed elsewhere in infinity plus). The book and stories from it were Stoker nominated.

In 2002 Cosmos Books are publishing The Secret Geography of Nightmare and Selling Dark Miracles, which combine Shadows At Midnight and Echoes Of Darkness (both now out of print in their Sarob editions) with other stories, essays and interviews: the complete Maynard-Sims story to 2000. Cosmos are also publishing their 1998 novella Moths in a double novella book in tandem with In The Mirror by Sarah Singleton.

And a new short novel, The Hidden Language of Demons, was published by Prime in January 2002 - a book described as "Poe in his Sgt Pepper period" and "Picasso prose". Details at www.maynard-sims.com.

Since 2000 Len and Mick have been in overdrive, with many publishing, editing and writing projects in progress.

Elsewhere in infinity plus:

• fiction - Moths (an extract from the novella); An Office in the Gray's Inn Road.
• non-fiction - Echoes Of Darkness reviewed by Jason Gould.

Elsewhere on the web:

• Visit the Maynard and Sims website.
• Moths and other Maynard and Sims titles are published by Cosmos Books.

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