A BEST-SELLING horror writer whose books are set to be brought to the big screen says she owes her success to Bolton.

Former University of Bolton student Sam Stone is returning to the town to promote her fourth nail-biting tale of gore, Zombies In New York And Other Bloody Jottings—a collection of short stories and poems.

After a flying visit to Los Angles, the mum of one is to talk about her career at Waterstones, in Bolton, and revisit the university where she developed her skills.

She said: “I’m really excited to be coming to Bolton as it holds warm memories of being at the university.

“It made me feel really welcome and gave me the confidence to succeed and walk away with a really good degree. I had a poor education really and left school at 16, so Bolton made me feel like I had finally got an education in my early 30s.”

Inspiration for Sam’s characters and stories comes from people she meets, her nightmares, and memories of watching Hammer Horror movies and reading Stephen King as a youngster.

Her books have been so successful that her publishers are in talks with an American production company to bring her creations to the big screen.

The fourth book is an eclectic collection of 13 short stories which explore genres of crime, erotic, urban fantasy, psychological thriller and black comedy.

It also includes author notes through which Sam explains where each idea came from.

Sam travelled to a Doctor Who and media convention in LA to launch the book.

Sam, who has a daughter, Linzi, aged 18, now lives in North Wales with her partner David J Howe — author of Doctor Who television guides.

Formerly from Whitefield, as a mature student she graduated from the University of Bolton with an English and writing for performance degree in 2006. She completed an MA in creative writing then qualified as a teacher before returning to her first love of writing.

Sam is writing the next book in her Vampire Gene collection, Hateful Heart, which is due to be launched in September.

She will then embark on an epic fantasy series called The Jinx Chronicles.

As part of a North West tour, Sam will be at Waterstones, Deansgate, from noon to 4pm, on Saturday, April 2.