An award-winning horror author from Kenilworth has launched a new monthly series of free short stories, as part of his attempt to release a new book every month in 2026.

Dave Musson, 40, has just published the first edition of Schism, a series that will see him collaborate with another independent British horror author each month until the end of the summer.

In each instalment, Dave and his collaborator will both write a short story based on the same theme or prompt, offering a pair of chilling tales about the same topic.

For the opening volume, Dave has collaborated with A.D Jones on the topic of religion.

Jones, based in the north west of England, explores what religion might look like if the pay-off was more immediate than having to wait until you die in his story Blessings and Prosperity Will Be Yours.

Then, Dave offers Comfort in Silence, an examination of religion in a post-apocalyptic, post-religion world. The followers of The Faith are searching for their Leader, and might just have found her.

Another joint publication will follow every month from now until August, with collaborations between Dave and Bethany Russo, Christopher Badcock, Sarah Jules, and T M Lunn planned.

Dave explained how the idea for the series was inspired by punk and hardcore music.

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He said: "In many of the genres of music I listen to, it's common for two bands to put out a split release, where they each have a couple of songs on an EP or short album. I wanted to extend that idea to books and so, Schism was born!

"More importantly, this is about celebrating British independent horror authors. Everyone I've collaborated with in this series is a terrific writer and brilliant person - I really hope people check the stories out and then go and explore the full bibliographies of each author involved."

Since first being published in 2021, Dave has steadily grown his reputation as a horror writer. His first collection of short stories, Once More Round the Sun, was released in 2024 and was named both the best horror release and best collection of that year in the Bookstagram awards, where Dave also won the title of best author.

The Schism series is just part of a busy year for Dave, who has set himself the challenge of publishing a new book every month in 2026, and releasing them all for free.

So far, he's on track. In January he released Found - a series of short stories set in his fictional version of Kenilworth. That was followed in February by Short & Sharp, a set of 26 tiny tales of terror - with one for each letter of the alphabet.

Then last month he released his longest published work so far: Shattered Soul is a novella also set in his own version of Kenilworth, and tells the story of a metal band that pretends to sell its soul to the devil, only to unwittingly invite a demon into their lives.

Dave added: "I'm having a lot of fun getting my stories out there with the only hope being that people read them and enjoy them. I decided to make them all free to simply remove any barriers someone might have about trying an independent author and instead just getting lost in a good, scary story."

Schism 1: Religion by Dave Musson and A.D Jones is available for free as an ebook on Amazon, Google Play Books and from Dave's website. Volume two will be released in May.

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To find out more about Dave and sign up to his newsletter, head to davemussonauthor.com.