<strong>David O'Mahony</strong> is a horror and dark fantasy writer from Cork, Ireland. Having once harboured fantasies of being the next Tolkien or Goodkind he realised horror was his calling while attempting a historical fiction novel that only worked when he made it a ghost story. <br><br>With influences from HP Lovecraft and Mary Shelley to Paulo Coelho and Caitlin Marceau, he is inspired by what drives the human mind and soul, as well as the folklore of his native country. About 30 of his stories have found homes worldwide, including the US, Belgium, Canada, Australia, India, and Thailand, with stories recently accepted by Temple Dark Books and Britain's Rogue Planet Press. He was a finalist in the Globe Soup Primal Fears horror competition and his entry to the NYC Midnight Short Story contest was praised as "an original, creative take on the ghost story". <br><br>A journalist, copy editor, and historian by training he has written non-fiction at irishexaminer.com, where he is assistant editor. His first story collection is The Ties That Bind, published in December 2024, with a second, What Gets Left Behind, due to follow in 2025. His standalone novelette, House of Sorrows, is forthcoming from Graveside Press.<br><br>He lives with his wife, three children, and two cats outside Cork City in a house that's far too modern for somebody who specialises in ghost stories.
