UK Ghost Story Festival

I love ghost stories, and so I jumped at the chance to be involved in the UK Ghost Story Festival, which takes place 29th November to 01 December in Derby. I'll be taking part in two events, both on the Saturday:

Supernatural Shorts: Why Do Short Ghost Stories Work So Well?
With James Everington, Alison Littlewood, Rhiannon Ward (Chair) and Mark Latham
So many of the most renowned authors of ghost stories made their name in short fiction, with the works of MR James, Arthur Machen, Charles Dickens and many others gaining iconic status. But why is the supernatural so effective in its shorter form? This panel discussion will explore this tradition and explore the reasons for its success, with time for audience Q+A at the end of the session.

Spirit Masters - Who Are The Best Ghost Story Writers Ever?
With Alex Davis (Chair), James Everington, Alison Littlewood and Marie O'Regan
Get ready to rumble as our expert panel dissects the merits and quality of some of the best-loved ghost story writers out there, as well as those lesser-known purveyors of the form who might deserve that bit more credit. How do the traditional masters of the field compare to its modern authors? Who are the greatest names largely forgotten today? Expect to be taking away a mighty reading list from this lively discussion on who are the best of the best! We’ll also have time for audience Q+A at the end of the session.

As well as my two bits, there's so much else going on that looks worthwhile and I'll definitely be checking out plenty of other events myself as a punter. You can either buy tickets for individual events or weekend/Saturday passes. Check out all the info. here...

Recommendation: Cottingley by Alison Littlewood

"Dear Sir Arthur Conan Doyle..."

So begins this new novella from Alison Littlewood, the second in the 2017 NewCon press horror range. And it makes a nice contrast with the first, Case Of The Bedevilled Poet by Simon Clark. Clark's novella played with the fictionality of Sherlock Holmes; Alison Littlewood's Cottingley offers a fictionlised version of Holmes's creator.

Doyle himself does not appear onstage in this story, but it is based around a well-known chapter in his life, that of the Cottingley fairies. Famously, Doyle was taken in by these fakes, but in Littlewood's novella fairies are real; but they aren't as innocent as those in the famous photos. Instead, this tale explores the darker side of fairie lore. Littlewood's fairies don't seem evil or good so much as alien and other: beings that might entrance or harm us for their own unfathomable motives.

The story is told in the form of letters written by a Thomas Fairclough, a resident of Cottingley, who lives with his daughter in law and grandchild (his son having perished in WW1). They encounter shinning beings near the local brook, and despite the beauty of what they encounter even here there's traces of the unease to come. An unease only heightened when Fairclough returns home with the dead body of one of the creatures for reasons (he says) of science. Despite the story being related entirely via Fairclough's letters to Doyle and his associate Mr. Gardner (we never get to read their replies) we see both the good side of his character and his foibles—a certain vanity, perhaps, in his being the one to discover of the fairies, and a desire for the respect of great men like Conan Doyle. But Fairclough is a brave man, too, and it isn't long before he is put to the test...

It will be no surprise to long time readers of this blog how much I like Littlewood's fiction, and Cottingley is no exception. It expertly evokes both its setting and the characters' emotional lives; it's impeccably paced, perfectly structured, and a genuine page-turner. I devoured it in one sitting. Make sure you pick up a copy.

(UK | US)

A-Z Of Books

I saw this blog challenge thingy on the site of the excellent horror author Thana Niveau who picked some great books. So I thought sod it, I'll give it a go too. Because it's basically just another excuse to talk about books... not that I really need excuses.

AUTHOR YOU’VE READ THE MOST BOOKS BY: A score-draw threeway between Ramsey Campbell, Stephen King and Terry Pratchett.

BEST SEQUEL EVER: The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe by Douglas Adams.

CURRENTLY READING: A Cold Season by Alison Littlewood - as you might expect, so far this is bloody brilliant. Oh and I'm also rereading The King In Yellow.

DRINK OF CHOICE WHILE READING: Currently a glass of Marston's Pedigree. 

E-READER OR PHYSICAL BOOK: I read both; in fact I'm normally reading a book on each at any given time.

FICTIONAL CHARACTER YOU WOULD HAVE DATED IN HIGH SCHOOL: Knowing my luck, Carrie White.

GLAD YOU GAVE THIS BOOK A CHANCE: Emma by Jane Austin. I guess my view of what Austin was like was coloured by half-watched TV adaptations. But she's so much more cynical and astute than her reputation for period romance might suggest.

HIDDEN GEM BOOK: Ice Age by Iain Rowan. A stunning collection of weird-creepy-shit stories.

IMPORTANT MOMENT IN YOUR READING LIFE: I've mentioned this before on here, but when my Dad handed me a copy of Salem's Lot from his bookshelves.

JUST FINISHED: The Wanderer by Timothy J. Jarvis, which was fantastic, and the The Best Horror Of The Year 6 edited by Ellen Datlow.

KIND OF BOOKS YOU WON’T READ: Anything where it's so obviously been written aiming for a film adaptation. Plus anything where the blurb is some kind of mashup such as "Like Harry Potter in Space!" or something equally repellent & cynical.

LONGEST BOOK YOU’VE READ: Not sure really. Vanity Fair? Anna Karenina? Crime & Punishment? Spot Bakes A Cake? 

MAJOR BOOK HANGOVER: The Road by Cormac McCarthy. An absolutely stunning achievement. But Christ, it makes most end of the world novels seem like Enid Blyton.

NUMBER OF BOOKCASES YOU OWN: Eight.

ONE BOOK YOU’VE READ MULTIPLE TIMES: The Waste-Land & Other Poems by T.S. Eliot. The language is so breathtakingly poweful and precise, sometimes I just reread the same lines.

PREFERRED PLACE TO READ: Somewhere with a view of the sea.

QUOTE THAT INSPIRES YOU FROM A BOOK YOU’VE READ: I'm not going to pick anything trite and inspirational, I'm just going to pick what I consider to be one of the most perfect openings to a novel ever written. It's inspirational because it's what I'm aiming for, and constantly falling short of:

“My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all, I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death-cup mushroom. Everyone else in our family is dead.”
We Have Always Lived In The Castle, Shirley Jackson

READING REGRET: That I'll die before I read everything I want to, even if people stopped writing now. And yet, non-reading people get to live on average the same length of time. There's no justice; their years should be mine.

SERIES YOU STARTED AND NEED TO FINISH: The Culture novels by Iain M. Banks.

THREE OF YOUR ALL-TIME FAVOURITE BOOKS: Three? Three? Jesus, it was bad enough picking five for a recent interview. So here's three that I didn't include there:

1. The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood
2. House Of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
3. The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad

UNAPOLOGETIC FANGIRL/BOY FOR: Ramsey Campbell. He's the guvnor.

VERY EXCITED ABOUT THIS RELEASE: Too many to mention, obviously, but I'm very much looking forward to The Grieving Stones by Gary McMahon.

WORST BOOKISH HABIT: When I'm reading and someone comes to talk to me and I look like I'm listening to what they're saying, but really I'm still thinking about the book...

X MARKS THE SPOT: START ON THE TOP LEFT OF YOUR SHELF AND PICK THE 27TH BOOK: The Woman In The Dunes by Kōbō Abe.

YOUR LATEST PURCHASE: Bodies Of Water by V.H. Leslie and Oh! The Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss, for my daughter because it was one of the readings at her Naming Day.

ZZZZ-SNATCHER BOOK (LAST BOOK THAT KEPT YOU UP WAY TOO LATE): Phonogram 3: The Immaterial Girl. I love these graphic novels, in which music really is magic. There's some fantastic use of pop-cultutral imagery and references in this third volume, especially when the protagonist becomes trapped in a murderous version of the video for Take On Me. And the Appendix, explaining all of the musical references is a delight, so I stayed up late reading it and looking up various music videos on the internet.

The Hyde Hotel is OPEN...

The Hyde Hotel officially opens its doors today. Published by Black Shuck Books, it's the first anthology I've ever edited (alongside Dan Howarth). I first had the idea for a book of stories all set in the same hotel a number of years ago, and it's taken awhile to bring to fruition... So big thanks must go to Theresa Derwin, Steve Shaw, and most importantly to all the authors involved who put up with a few delays and all contributed such fine stories. It's genuinely one of the books I'm most proud of being part of.

The Hyde Hotel is available in both ebook and paperback formats - all links at the Black Shuck Books website.


The Hyde Hotel Welcomes You…

The Hyde Hotel looks almost exactly as you’d expect it to: a faceless, budget hotel in a grey city you are just passing through. A hotel aimed at people travelling alone, a hotel where you know so little about your fellow guests that they could be anyone… and where, perhaps, so could you. But sometimes things are hiding in plain sight, and not everyone who stays at The Hyde gets a good night’s sleep…
Enjoy your stay.

Table of Contents

• CHECKING IN  by James Everington
• THE VIEW FROM THE BASEMENT  by Alison Littlewood
• NIGHT PORTERS  by Iain Rowan
• TICK BOX  by Dan Howarth
• THE EDIFICE OF DUST  by Amelia Mangan
• LOST AND FOUND  by S P Miskowski
• HOUSEKEEPING  by Ray Cluley
• SOMETHING LIKE BLOOD  by Alex Davis
• THE COYOTE CORPORATION’S MISPLACED SONG  by Cate Gardner
• WRATH OF THE DEEP  by Simon Bestwick
• THE SEALED WINDOW  by Mark West
• THE BLUE ROOM  by V H Leslie
• CHECKING OUT  by James Everington

The Hyde Hotel Welcomes YOU

So, a bit of an announcement. Really pleased to say that the first anthology I've edited (well, co-edited) will be out next year from Black Shuck Books. THE HYDE HOTEL features horror and weird fiction about guests all staying in the same hotel. As you can see from the contents below there's a fantastic list of contributors. I hope some of you will consider a stay at The Hyde.

Reservations from 07/01/2016.

THE HYDE HOTEL:
James Everington - Checking In
Alison Littlewood​ - The View From The Basement
Iain Rowan​ - Night Porters
Dan​ Howarth - Tick Box
Amelia Mangan​ - The Edifice Of Dust
S.P. Miskowski​ - Lost & Found
Ray Cluley​ - Housekeeping
Alex Davis​ - Something Like Blood
Cate Gardner​ - The Coyote Corporation's Misplaced Song
Simon Bestwick​ - Wrath Of The Deep
Mark West​ - The Sealed Window
V.H. Leslie​ - The Blue Room
James Everington - Checking Out

FantasyCon 2015 - Before...

I've never been important enough to have an actual 'schedule' for a convention before. I'm still not important, but here's the things I'm involved in at this year's FantasyCon 2015, in my home town of Nottingham in just over a week:

Friday 23rd
2pm, the bar: not an official event this, but an hour before FantasyCon formally starts there is going to be a launch of the Masks anthology from KnightWatch Press, which features my story Porcelain. I believe I'll be doing a reading but details are still to be confirmed.

Saturday 24th
3pm, Conference Theatre: I'll be moderating the British Horror Present & Future panel, with an all star cast of panelists: Nina Allan, Cate Gardner, Alison Littlewood, Adam Nevill, Simon Kurt Unsworth and Stephen Jones. I've never moderated a panel before, so it's certainly in at the deep-end given how much I admire all of the panelists' work. Should be fun/terrifying.

11.30pm, somewhere: I'll be doing a reading slot during the graveyard shift; not sure exactly what I'll pick to read yet. Any requests?

Other than that, I'll likely be in the bar/attending some of the excellent book launches, panels & readings/eating curry/meeting up with friends old and new. Hope to see a few of you there!

Recommendation: Horror Uncut

I'm always dubious of reviews of anthologies that claim that 'all the stories are worth reading'. It's as if the reviewer either doesn't have any critical acumen or they daren't upset any of the authors involved.

However...

Horror Uncut, from Gray Friar Press, is an anthology of 'austerity themed horror' in which, uh, all the stories are very much worth reading. Honest.

Of course I had my favourites. Joel Lane's dark and twisted A Cry For Help couldn't have been a more chilling opening tale; Pieces Of Ourselves by Rosanne Rabinowitz contained a brilliantly evocative description of modern day protesting before becoming enjoyable surreal. Laura Mauro's Ptichka was utterly heartbreaking, whilst John Llewellyn Probert's The Lucky Ones was delightfully sadistic. Oh, and Stephen Bacon's The Devil's Only Friend and Andrew Hook's The Opaque District were both wonderfully constructed pieces of weird fiction, and the Gary McMahon and Simon Bestwick stories were up to their usual high standards. Plus there were fantastic stories by Alison Littlewood and Thana Niveau and.. well, did I mention every story here is worth reading?

It's theme of modern day austerity, its victims and its monsters, makes this a timely anthology, but the sheer quality of stories on display makes it one for the ages as well. Thoroughly recommended; buy it before your native currency collapses.

Recommendation: The Unquiet House by Alison Littlewood

I love haunted houses, me. I love Hill House, I love Hell House, I love The House Next Door and the House Of Leaves.

And now I think I love Mire House, too.

For Alison Littlewood's new(ish) novel is a haunted house novel to rank with all the above; where the house is not just a home for spooky beings, but a corruption of all a house should actually be; an archetypal 'bad place'; a mirror of its inhabitant's hopes and fears; a trap.

The Unquiet House is told in four interlocking sections, starting in the present day and then working back to the 1973, then to 1939, before finally coming back to 2013 - it almost reads like three self-contained novellas about a different generation's experiences at Mire House. But the historical parts of the novel provide a rich and plausible justification for the terrors in the present, and at the end Mire House is left still standing, still unquiet (still "not sane" as Shirley Jackson would no doubt have it) and still occupied by... something. And there's a strong suggestion that all is not over, and that another generation is about to be trapped and consumed by the horrors of the past.

I love haunted houses, me.