A GOTHIC author and artist provided some haunting sound bites when he appeared on a radio show to talk about his vampire novels.

Glenn James of Malvern Road, St John's, Worcester, got a half-hour slot on The Carl Chin on Show on BBC Radio WM to talk about his Skaler Stories.

The stories, which Mr James hopes will soon be published, are about the ancient vampire Prince Germane's hunt for another vampire, Skaler, who spends 800 years trying to evade capture.

The first novel begins as Germane begins to close in on his prey as the plot builds towards a final, explosive confrontation between the two vampires.

Mr James also illustrates his novels and has already exhibited his drawings to some considerable success, including one drawing being shown at the Giger Museum in Switzerland. He is a member of the British Fantasy Society, based in Birmingham, and the Society for Art of Imagination.

He completed the work when working as a short hand writer at the crown courts of Worcester and Birmingham.

More recently his well known drawing Dream Walker, the villain of the Skaler novel, has been part of the Worcester Festival at the Pitt Studio Gallery this August.

Mr James polished his skills as a writer working in community radio in the Black Country from 1994 to 2001.

Mr James said he was honoured to be invited on the show.

"Skaler well and truly grew from the soil of the Midlands," he said.

"It grew when I was travelling to work in Wolverhampton, making notes like mad on the 126 bus through Dudley, and then I really got down to it when I moved to live and work in Worcester.

"As far as I know, Skaler is the only Gothic Fantasy novel to feature the Midlands at all, particularly Dudley Castle, as a tribute to James Whale, the director of the 1931 Frankenstein."

For more information about the Skaler Stories visit www.skaler.co.uk.