Fantasycon 2014 - Reading

It's my first Fantasycon this year, which I'm immensely excited about. And I'm also very pleased to say that as part of it I'll be reading from my story The Place Where It Always Rains as part of a combined launch for Worms, X7, and After The Fall.

It will take place at 7pm on the Saturday, and as well as me they'll also be readings from:

Simon Bestwick
K.T. Davies
Mike Chinn
Anna Taborska

so it should be a great event. Hope to see some of you there, or just about generally over the course of the weekend. I'm shy as heck during these kind of things, so do come over and say hi!

Fantasycon 2014 book launches.

Some Recent Recommendations - Part 1

Here's some books I've read recently, and loved, and so you should read too, because you know I have such excellent taste...

The Best British Horror 2014 (Ed. Johnny Mains)

As you'd expect from the title, there's lots of excellent stories in here, including many I'd come across before that it was a pleasure to read again. Of the stories new to me, my favourites included those by John Llewellyn Probert, Stephen Volk, Elizabth Stott, and (especially) VH Leslie, whose Namesake is a gob-smackingly good tale that references a well known literary classic... But I can't tell you which without spoilers, so I'll shut up.


The Sleeping Dead - Richard Farren Barber

This is ace.
If you need more than that, I reviewed it on the This Is Horror site.


The Moon Will Look Strange - Lynda E Rucker

A fantastically accomplished collection of weird, Aickmanesque stories, this is one of my favourite horror reads so far this year. The stories are rich, varied, atmospheric and each one rooted with a strong depiction of location, be it the Irish coast, Central Europe, or isolated American mountain communities. Picking favourites from this collection is probably a mug's game, but here we go anyway: Beneath The Drops, The Moon Will Look Strange, The Chance Walker... 

[fade out before I list every story in the book]

Dark Forest & Morpheus Tales: The Best Weird Fiction #4

Couple of quickies:

My story Home Time has been reprinted in Morpheus Tales: The Best Weird Fiction #4 which is out now and features a whole host of good writers. Home Time originally appeared in Morpheus Tales #11 - my first ever story acceptance, so it will always retain a special place in my heart. (UK | US).

Secondly, I wrote an introduction for Algernon Blackwood's The Willows (for me, the finest cosmic horror stories ever written) for a new anthology of classic rural horror, Dark Forest. Released by Uninvited Books, it contains stories from the likes of Arthur Machen, Ambrose Beirce, and E. Nesbit, each introduced by a contemporary author. (UK | US).

Hauntings Launch

Yesterday I travelled up to Manchester for the launch of Hauntings from Hic Dragones, which contains my story The Man In Blue Boots. It was a really fun event, with readings, a raffle, and free wine. It took place in the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, which was a great venue - if only it was closer to home! I think my reading went down well, and several people afterwards said they liked it so hopefully I'm not deluded (well, not about that anyway). I was especially chuffed and grateful to the people who said my story was one of their favourites in the book, especially as I had to then rather shamefacedly admit I'd not read any of Hauntings at that point (I started it on the train back today).

It was great to meet some of the writers from the book in the flesh, even if some only fleetingly: so hello to Rachel Halsall, Tracy Fahey, Michael Hitchins, Jeanette Greaves, Sarah Peploe, Daisy Black, Mark Forshaw and of course Hannah Kate, head honcho of Hic Dragones.

Hauntings is available from the Hic Dragones site, or from Amazon (UK | US). Naturally I'm biased but based on the quality of the readings and the stories I've read so far, it's a book I'm really pleased to be part of.

Edit: this is what I looked like, apparently: