Background Fears #1

I've recently been rereading a whole bunch of my stories with a view to selecting those that will work best together as a third collection. Such an activity is interesting, because it reveals connections, motifs, and repeated/recycled imagery & ideas in my work that I've never noticed before.

And one thing I spotted is... I obviously can't stop worrying about climate change.

I mean, I kind of knew it was there in the background of my fiction, because it's in the background of every thought I have, so it seems. That little niggle, that little voice that doesn't let you forget where we're heading unless we do something. But I've only written about the subject directly once (in an as yet unpublished story) and I unthinkingly assumed I'd only mentioned obliquely in a few of the others that have seen the light of day.

As a horror writer, I should have known we can't bury our fears as deeply as that. Reading back, I'm constantly hinting at it. Trying to give voice to those moments of anxiety whenever something reminds me of climate change (which given it's in the background of everything, could be almost anything).

An incomplete list of the more obvious places it occurs in my work:

Pretty obviously, it's part of a whole set of background worries abut the future for the narrator in 'Falling Over'.

It's part of the world building in 'He'. Same with 'Mirages In The Badlands', too, with its "dreadful heat".

'Across The Water' alludes to it, although of course the central character of that story probably doesn't believe in climate change. (He doesn't believe in a lot of things, but if horror teaches us anything it's that disbelief can't save us.)

Looking back, I see that 'The Place Where It Always Rains' is totally a metaphor for climate change - how could I not realise that? - and similar 'strange weather', for want of a better term, drives the action of both 'Snow' and the 'Into The Rain' section of The Quarantined City.

It's a constant, now I look for it. It's hiding in both the haunted house tale I'm currently writing and the first story I ever had published, 'Feed The Enemy'. It's quite obviously something which haunts me but which I cannot exorcise, not even through fiction.

It's in the background, of everything. But like all monsters in the background, it's not going to stay there forever.

It's coming for us.

Double Ginger Nuts

Big thanks to the Ginger Nuts Of Horror site for not just one but two fantastic reviews recently. Firstly, head honcho Jim Mcleod reviewed my forthcoming novella Trying To Be So Quiet. Jim's a massively respected reviewer in the UK horror scene, so I was naturally relieved that he liked it so much:

"Everington has always been one of those writers to watch out for, a gifted writer with a keen eye for refined horror, Trying To Be So Quiet doesn't so much as cement his place as a great writer, as but catapults him into the ranks of exceptional writers." (Review here.)

Then author Kit Power reviewed my collection Falling Over, which he claimed was his short story read of 2016 so far... He also said:

"...this is a masterful collection from a writer with an incredible deftness of touch. Note perfect grasp of character, the ability to render the mundane strange with a turn of phrase, deeply literate yet not an ounce of pretension, Everington is a quiet but potent voice in horror fiction." (Review here.)

Bits & Bobs

A few bits and bobs of recent stuff:

American podcast Booked gave The Hyde Hotel a very positive review, as well as talking about hotel horror in general. You can listen to it here.

Forgot to mention this at the time, but over on Gingernuts Of Horror, the writer Kit Power picked The Shelter as one of his favourite reads of 2015, which I'm truly grateful for. "... a breathtaking piece of writing..." - cheers Kit.

Nina Allan was one of the participants on the panel I moderated at Fantasycon last year; she's expanded on her comments about diversity in the horror genre (which we only touched upon lightly on the day, unfortunately) in this essay on Strange Horizons. It's very stimulating well worth a read, not only for Allan's thoughts on the topic but also her recommendations of books and authors, some of whom are new to me.

Lastly, Des Lewis is conducting one of famed real-time reviews on my collection Falling Over as we speak, and I'm delighted at the things he's had to say about the stories he's read so far. If you've never read any of these utterly unique and idiosyncratic reviews, you might want to spend some time checking out the whole site.

FantasyCon 2015 - After...

So, Fantasycon 2015. What a weekend.

This year it took place in my home town of Nottingham. Despite my being local, somehow Steve Byrne got to the venue before me, so when I saw on Facebook he was hanging around in the hotel bar I set off. We were soon chatting away over a pint and gradually other people arrived and joined our table: Ross Warren, Lisa Childs, Phil Sloman, Alison Littlewood & her partner Fergus, Simon Bestwick, Cate Gardner, Priya Sharma (who it was lovely to meet for the first time), Theresa Derwin, Steve Shaw and Dean R Drinkel.

Neil Williams, Wayne Parkin, me, a glass of free wine

The latter three were here for the unofficial launch of Masks (which features my story Porcelain) which we'd been planning to do in the bar... unfortunately the constant flow of people coming to check in and the unpromising acoustics meant we couldn't do any readings as planned, but the books looked great (the artwork is by the late James Powell, who sadly passed away earlier this year) so a number of people bought a copy and asked for signatures from me & Phil, which was great.

They'd been a stir of excitement in the hotel when Joe Hill (a late addition to the convention) entered, wearing a Haunting Of Hill House t-shirt no less. When I came back from the bar I found he was stood talking to our little group; Theresa was somewhat flushed and flustered, and managed to introduce me to him as if I were the important celebrity writer: "Joe, have you meet James Everington?" I could see in his eyes he was thinking 'who the hell is this guy?' but he was charming enough not to say it out loud. I just played it cool and told him I liked his t-shirt.

Me and Steve Byrne then went to get signed in and pick up our free books - in terms of choice it was far superior to last year, and I got some lovely hardback editions of Alison Littlewood, Joe R Lansdale and Sarah Pinborough novels, a Conrad Williams collection from PS Publishing as well as several interesting looking paperbacks.

Stephen & Mark

We went into the convention venue proper then, and in the space of another drink or two meet Graeme Reynolds, Lynda E Rucker, Peter Mark May, Paul Feeney, Ray Cluley and his partner Jess, Mark West, Sue Moorcroft, Paul Feeney, Wayne Parkin, Stephen Bacon, Steve Chapman, Clover & Dion Winton-Polak and Emma Audsley. We then went to the first book launch, The Lost Film, featuring a novella apiece by Mark West and Stephen Bacon - two talented writers I'm proud to call friends. They both did a reading, watched over by publisher Chris Teague. It was a really good launch - a big queue for the book, which it deserved given the quality of both Mark and Stephen's previous work.

We then went off for some food, which given the rather poor quality of food in the hotel (already notorious even on the first day) and lack of other options nearby meant a walk to a Toby Carvery. The glamorous life of a writer. So let's gloss over that - back at the convention, Mark had a panel/mock gameshow to attend called The Atrocity Exhibition, which was different to say the least, and got some laughs. I had to leave that before the end to get to Victoria Leslie's reading. I've not managed to review it on here as yet, but I consider her collection Skein & Bone to be among the finest released over the last few years and her reading of one of the stories was predictably brilliant. Later, Victoria and I had a good natter at the bar about all things horror - these kind of conversations that you can't have with 'normal' people are why I relish events like Fantasycon. Somewhere in the midst of the next few drinks I meet both Nina Allen and Simon Kurt Unsworth, who I wanted to say hello to as they were on my panel the next day, and also Neil Williamson, a fellow Infinity Plus author who I've know online for awhile; we've been talking about meeting up at some point for ages.

It was then time for Simon Bestwick's reading, the late night atmosphere suiting his rather bleak extract from his forthcoming novel. After that (I think - bit hazy by this point) I spoke to Alex Davis who will be publishing Trying To Be So Quiet soon and we discussed some of his ideas for the design of the hardback, which sounded amazing.

Saturday started with the launch of Adam Nevill's new novel Lost Girl, complete with a free bottle of local ale - lovely. Adam's a great guy and very supportive of other writers - a fact shown by the fact he let a few of us take over the last fifteen minutes of his launch for a surprise event...

Jim McLeod is the man behind The Gingernuts Of Horror website, one the best sites out there, and he's been a tireless supporter of the horror genre for years, both of the big stars and us lesser names working in the small press. So Phil Sloman put together a book for Jim... a very special book, of which they'll only ever be one physical copy printed. Jim McLeod Must Die! features stories from over 20 different horror authors; in all of them a character called Jim McLeod dies or suffers a fate worse than death. My own story is called Peephole and it was an absolute pleasure to be asked to be included in something so special. The look on Jim's face when he realised what was going on was priceless and for me a moment that sums up Fantasycon: the friendships made at conventions really do lead to great moments like this.

Jim McLeod, Mark West, Phil Sloman (with Sue Moorcroft in the background)

Then followed the launch of the second Spectral Book Of Horrors, in which a huge number of the authors were in attendance to sign, including many I've already mentioned, plus top gents Robert Shearman and Stephen Volk - and of course editor Mark Morris and publisher Simon Marshall Jones.

The it was on to my first panel. Gulp. Which I was moderating. In the main theatre. Double gulp. British Horror Present & Future featured myself, Simon Kurt Unsworth, Nina Allen, Stephen Jones, Cate Gardner, Alison Littlewood and Adam Nevill. Of course, with a lineup as good as that I didn't really have to do much as moderator - we got through less than half the questions I had prepared because everyone's answers were so good. Someone said later that it had the feel of a proper discussion rather than just a back-and-forth Q&A so I was really pleased with that. And as with all these things, once you're actually doing it your nerves vanish.

Me, Simon Kurt Unsworth, Stephen Jones, Cate Gardner, Alison Littlewood, Nina Allen, Adam Nevill

After that a bunch of us went to Priya Sharma's reading, which was excellent, and confirmed what I already knew: that I need to read more of her work. I think it was just after Priya's reading that I said hello to Laura Mauro for the first time, another writer who I know online but was glad to meet in person. (Nearly all horror authors turn out to be lovely people, in my experience.) Then myself and Mark bumped into Andrew David Barker, whose novel Dead Leaves was being launched at the con. Andrew's a great guy but very modest and he couldn't have looked more abashed as me and Mark praised his book to heaven and back...

Then I went to see the Weirdness, Darkness & Madness panel, which was obviously right up my street. It was moderated by Terry Grimwood and featured Mark West, Kim Lakin Smith, Helen Marshall, Deborah Walker and Timothy J Jarvis. It was a great panel, one of the best I've seen at a convention.

Outside, we gathered in the foyer for one of the most important parts of any con - curry. Before setting off I had a quick chat with Timothy Jarvis - some of what he had said on the panel had been really interesting, and he gave me a copy of his book. He had a reading later, which I said I'd attend after the curry - after all we had nearly three hours, so what could possible stop me?

Unfortunately it wasn't to be - despite having booked, when so many of us turned up at the restaurant they were woefully unprepared. It was nearly 90mins before starters arrived, never mind the main course. (To be fair, my food was great.) So with the 20min walk either way, we were gone for hours, meaning I missed both Timothy's reading and the Undertow launch of Skein & Bone and Aickman's Heirs. Still, during the loooooong meal I was introduced to Simon Clark and had some good chats with Phil, Dean, Jay Eales & Selina Lock and Benedict Jones.

Paul Woodward, Phil Sloman, Stephen Bacon, Mark West, Alison Littlewood, Jim McLeod, me, Gavin Williams (front)

I had a late night reading slot (11.30) and I was thinking that at that time hardly anyone would turn up, especially as it clashed with the infamous Fcon disco (where I'm reliably informed Mark owned the dance floor for the second year running). But there must have been 20, 25 people there and I read part of my story The Man Dogs Hated which seemed to go down really well - I sold a number of copies of Falling Over afterwards with one person even turning straight to the story to see how it ended. My reading was followed by one by Kit Power (and his flamboyant trousers) which was really enjoyable. Outside, not fancying the sounds of the Timewarp bellowing from the dance floor I sat and had a few beers with Steve and Laura & Peter Watkinson, Stephen King (not that one) and Katina Bill.

I only attended one event on the Sunday, but it was a corker: a reading by Helen Marshall. Like all her work the story was simultaneously funny and moving. I saw a lot of great readings this year, but against tough competition Helen's was the best. I then perused the Dealers Room, having a chat with Terry Grimwood and then the boys from the Sinister Horror table. And then after a few more beers it was time for goodbyes. It took about an hour to say goodbye to everyone there at that point. 

Reading back, somehow I've not even mentioned meeting Ruth Booth, Gary Couzans, KT Davies, Paul Holmes, Fiona Ní Éalaighthe (and her ear!), Andrew Hook, Carole Johnstone, Tom Johnstone, fellow Outsider Rosanne Rabinowitz, John Travis, Tim Major, Ren Warom (we'll have a proper chat next time!) or Paul Woodward. Which just about sums FantasyCon up - there's so many great people there, so many friendships to forge or renew that's it's impossible to remember it all.

A special mention must go to Adele Wearing though, who I didn't manage to see all weekend, despite the fact that she apparently waved at me on a few occasions. That's my professional networking skills for you - completely blanking an award winning publisher (Fox Spirit deservedly won this year's Small Press award) even when she beckoned me over... 

There was a nice coda to the convention when myself and Phil headed into Nottingham to have some food and a few pints before his train. Phil had never been to Nottingham before, so I took him to The Broadway cinema (largely on the basis it has The Shining quotes on one window) and then, of course, to Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem (or 'The Trip' as everyone in Nottingham calls it) which is meant to be the oldest pub in the UK, and is built into the cliffs under the castle. We had a great chat about our hopes for our writing in the future and then Phil left to get his train and it was all over...

I got home, dumped my bag... and later that night logged on and order my ticket for FantasyCon 2016.

Dark Lane Anthology

Pleased to say that my story The Man Dogs Hated has been republished in the Dark Lane Anthology Volume 1 (it originally appeared in Falling Over). The anthology includes some fantastic authors, including M.R. Cosby, whose name regular readers of this blog will recognise...

It also includes some great interior illustrations, including one for my own story, which I'm particularly pleased about.

Dark Lane Anthology Volume 1 (UK | US)

Fox Bites Reading

This Saturday, I'll be reading from my story The Man Dogs Hated from Falling Over as part of the Fox Bites event organised by Fox Spirit, alongside a host of other great authors.

The event is at Cafe Malvern, Leicester starting at 3.30pm.

Compulsory 2014 Retrospective Post

So, 2014.

The Writing:
In terms of my writing, 2014 has felt like an important year for me, although from the outside it might not seem like it. Falling Over continued to pick up some nice reviews, and I had some stories published in anthologies this year, but no big releases. Nothing new purely under my own name.

But I've been hard at work on a lot of different things this year, most of which will see the light in 2015.

Most exciting is The Quarantined City, my monthly serial which will be published by Spectral Press, with the first episode The Smell Of Paprika hopefully being released in January. Spectral Press are one of my favourite publishers and the fact that they're releasing something of mine feels like a real achievement, something that if you'd told me a year ago I'd never have believed. In addition, in writing The Quarantined City (the episodes so far, at least) I feel I've written my most ambitious work to date. Without giving away too much at this stage it's part horror, part fantasy (sort of), part head-scratching weirdness. I've stretched creative muscles I've not stretched before and had a blast doing so.

Max Ernst's Europe After the Rain II will provide the basis for the cover art for each episode of The Quarantined City.

In addition, I've a story in the Lovecraftian anthology The Outsiders from Crystal Lake (another dream publisher) coming out early 2015,  my chapbook Dark Reflections from Knightwatch Press, plus a few other acceptances and thingabobs that I can't mention as yet.

The People:
This year conventions and book launches have gone from being things I was pretty nervous about (because I knew no one and am shit at introducing myself to strangers) to things I actively look forward to, in part through the realisation that the horror community are among the friendliest people I've met (especially those who like a good curry). I've done a few readings this year as well, which went okay, I think. So 2014 felt like an achievement in that sense as well. I certainly hope to attend as many events as is realistic next year. And not forgetting the friendship & advice from people I've only ever met online, which is just as appreciated.

So lots of people I should thank, but too many to list here without it becoming interminable. Here's to you all; you know who you are. The first pint's on me.

Top Ten Books:
The Language Of Dying - Sarah Pinborough
No One Gets Out Alive - Adam Nevill
The Southern Reach Trilogy - Jeff VanderMeer
The Spectral Book Of Horror Stories
Gifts For The One Who Comes After - Helen Marshall
Into The Light - SP Miskowski
Best British Horror 2014
Shadows & Tall Trees 2014
The Sleeping Dead - Richard Farren Barber
Dream Of The Serpent - Alan Ryker

(See also my massive favourite short stories post)

Top Five Films: American Hustle; The Double; The Grand Budapest Hotel; A Most Wanted Man; The Wolf Of Wall Street

Top Ten Albums: 
EMA - The Future's Void
Martin Carr - The Breaks
Jenny Lewis - The Voyager
Sharon Van Etten - Are We There
King Creosote - From Scotland With Love
Allo Darlin' - We Come From The Same Place
Lana Del Ray - Ultraviolence
Chvrches - The Bones Of What You Believe
Bob Dylan - The Complete Basement Tapes
Stephen Malkmus - Wig Out At Jigbags

Falling Over reviewed for the British Fantasy Society

"There are times when you read a new author’s work and you simply sit back and admire. This is one of those times." 

Got to say, when you read a review as good as this new one from Phil Sloman on the British Fantasy Society website, it makes all the days when the writing is like pulling teeth seem worthwhile. Made my day.

Have a read here, if you're so inclined.

Falling Over ebook (UK | US) & Paperback (UK | US),

The Story Behind The Book Volume 3

A quick one to say that my non-fiction piece about some of the inspirations for my most recent collection of short stories, The Story Behind Falling Over, has been published by those good folks over at Upcoming4Me in the book Story Behind the Book : Volume 3 - Essays on Writing Speculative Fiction.

All the proceeds from the book go to the charity Epilepsy Action, and it includes pieces by a whole bunch of ace writers including Christopher Fowler, Eric Brown, Garry Kilworth, Steve Rasnic Tem, Ian R. MacLeod, Pat Cadigan, and a whole lot more. What's not to like?

You can buy the book from Amazon UK (Kindle | Paperback) and US (Kindle | Paperback).

BlogHop: Three Things I Don’t Write (& Three Things I Do)

Another one of these author blog hops thingies, this time on the theme of three things I don't write about, and three I do. I was nominated by the always ace sci-fi author Neil Williamson, who also nominated Chris Beckett and Keith Brooke (who's such a swot he's written his already). My own nominations are at the end of my piece. 

So without further ado...

Three Things I Don’t Write About:

• Real Places: I set stories in real places where the story itself seems to demand it, but most of the time I don't feel the urge. A lot of my stories are set in unnamed urban settings; recognisably British maybe, but not somewhere you could actually recognise as being Nottingham or Basingstoke or Widnes or wherever. As long as the readers recognise the details of the place that I'm using for atmosphere - the lonely bus-stop or the graffiti ridden alleyway - then I don't think it needs to be a specific town or city. Indeed I think such detail in a short story, where everything needs to dovetail together, could be counter productive. As I said, there are exceptions in my work such as Home Time (very specifically about the contrast between Oxford and a Nottinghamshire mining village) but even here it's what the place means to the character and the story that's important, not accurately depicting it as is in real life.

• ‘Monsters’ That Might As Well Be Real Animals: A lot of horror deals with death, and so obviously a lot of horror deals with things that kill people. But what bores me is to write the kind of horror where the ‘monster’ – be it vampire, psycho, or blob from the plant K – is just a physical threat which people either run from, fight, or get eaten by. As far as the plot goes, the monster might just as well be a wild dog. Which isn't to say physical beasts don’t feature in my work; it's just I like my monsters to mean something and for the characters to be fighting for more than their brute survival – for their sanity, perhaps, or their view of the world, or to preserve their illusions. I especially like to write about horrors that might not be physical at all – The Other Room being an example.

• Cthulhu & Co: For a writer who portrayed cultist as mad degenerates, it’s ironic how much of a cult has built up around HP Lovecraft’s so-called mythos. I find it odd how Cthulhu and the like, vast and literally indescribable beings who induce awe and madness in equal measure, have been minimised by later generations into generic horror tropes, or t-shirt designs, cuddly toys or RPG monsters with their stats spelt out for you like a kobold’s. Some authors, obviously, have taken Lovecraft's ideas and twisted them to their own ends – TED Klein and Ramsey Campbell spring immediately to mind – and Neil Gaiman’s inspired spoof Shoggoth's Old Peculiar is brilliant. But in general I don’t understand the urge to write ‘straight’ Lovecraft homages nor do I have much interest in the plethora of anthologies called things like Cthulhu In The Wild West or Dagon In The West End. It seems doubly strange because it’s so obvious from reading his work that Lovecraft was using the imagery of his mythos to help articulate a highly philosophical and personal view of existence. He wasn't just thinking Ohhhh Godzilla with a squid for a head – cool!

 Three Things I Do Write About:

• Doubles & Doppelgängers: I think anyone who’s read even a fraction of my work will probably have picked up on this. There’s the obvious doppelgänger stories like Falling Over or New Boy, where there’s a physical copy of someone (maybe)  but there’s also the Jekyll and Hyde like parallels within people’s personalities that I exploit in stories like The Other Room and The Time Of Their Lives. Coming at it all from a completely different angle is Dark Reflections (forthcoming from Knightwatch Press next year) which, as you can possibly guess from the title is about that doppelgänger we all have on the other side of the mirror… There’s also a second aspect to this, where two different stories serve as partial reflections of each other – for example in the collection Falling Over, the story The Time Of Their Lives tells of some sinister adult behaviour from the uncomprehending point of view of a child… whereas Sick Leave shows an adult protagonist struggling to grasp the equally incomprehensible behaviour of a group of eerie children… I didn't write these stories to be conscious reflections of each other (indeed, they were written years apart) but when putting together a collection of stories I like finding these kinds of echoes in my work and to exploit them where I can.

•   Ambiguity: I love endings where you're still not sure what will happen next, or still not sure what has happened, and especially endings where you're not really sure what it all means. There's lots of different types of ambiguity in narrative, and I've argued before that if anything distinguishes 'weird fiction' from straight horror it's ambiguity. That's not to say that my stories simply just stop, or become so weird as to be impenetrable - trying to get the emotional kick of an ending whilst not tying everything up with a neat bow is what I'm going for. 

•  Flawed People: God, is there anything more boring to write about than happy well-adjusted people? Or even worse, people with so many abilities and advantages that they overcome everything they face? This is something Neil included in his three things, actually, where he said he’d never write about superheroes and I completely see his point. Even where people in my stories do have abilities beyond the ordinary (Regina in The Watchers for example) their ‘powers’ are as much a curse as a blessing, and not really under their control. But I'm not much drawn to this theme, and much prefer to write about flawed, two-faced, self-deceiving and even downright repellent people in my fiction. Part of his goes back to the idea that the horrors of the story should have some connection to the protagonist, and part of it is the much simpler horror trope that an unpleasant protagonist should get their comeuppance in the end.

Passing The Baton...

Up next are Mark West, Amelia Mangan, and Jennifer Williams. Fabulous writers one and all, so do see what they have to say for themselves.

"... a strange place indeed..."

"James Everington's world is a strange place indeed."

An accurate* start to Colin Leslie's review of Falling Over, which after some comparisons to Ligotti and Samuels (yes, yes I'm showing off for once; don't worry I'll feel embarrassed about it later) ends "This is a fine collection of Weird fiction for those who love their horror well written, intelligent and liminal."

You can read the full review over on The Wanderer In Unknown Realms.


* Actually, not accurate at all; I was just saying that for effect. My life, outside of what I read & write, is actually quite pleasingly boring and normal. I save the weird creeping paranoia stuff for the writing.

2013 - Looking Back...

Advanced warning: this is a very much me-me-me post, although I will be taking the time to thank a few people who've helped make this year what it was.

So, 2013.

Obviously, the main event in terms of my own writing was the publication of Falling Over - a move away from self-publishing, Falling Over was released by the stupendous Infinity Plus. The reasons I wanted to try and get this book published by someone else were as much psychological as practical or monetary: for a long period of my adult life, although I was writing I did very little in regards to trying to get published, and the reason was simply I was scared to. I was afraid to find out what reaction my stories would get. And I don't think it can be good for you, psychologically, to have not done something in your life that you want to because of fear. So in 2013 I did it. (Thanks to Iain Rowan who gave me a valuable shove when I was dithering.) And I'm exceptionally pleased with how it turned out: the artwork by Keith Brooke is great (lots of people have told me how much they like it) and the reviews from readers and sites such as Amazing Stories, Dark Musings, and Horrifically Horrifying Horror have been uniformly positive. And just being published by a publisher like Infinity Plus seems to have got me some attention and invites to write stories for people, which is all to the good. So I was stupid to be scared after all (mind you, that fear wasn't 100% misplaced: I'm very glad some of my earliest stories have never seen the light of day!)

Falling Over has got a bit of love in people's 2013 round ups as well, garnering an 'honourable mention' in the short story collection of the year category on Dark Musings, and being picked as one of Martin Cosby's favourite books of the year on Stranger Designs. And The Shelter has also got a mention in Mark West's Fifth Annual Westies Awards, at No. 11 in his fiction reads of the year. What a star.

I met a lot of great people in 2013, both online and out in the wild at Edge-Lit 2 and Andromeda One. I'm not naturally the most outgoing of chaps when I'm with people I don't know, so going to these things alone is always slightly daunting, and I'd like to thank each and every person who was so friendly. In particular it was a real laugh hanging around with Phil Ambler, Mark West and Steve Harris/Byrne at Andromeda One, and with the Fox Spirit gang plus assorted hangers on (i.e. me) at Edge-Lit. It's a sign of how quickly friendships can develop between people with the same, slightly warped, interests that I'm already looking forward to hopefully catching up with people again next year, and meeting some new faces.

I had a fair few stories published in 2013; the two I'm most proud of probably being The Second Wish which featured in Supernatural Tales #23 (a magazine I've always really admired) and Calligraphy in the recently released anthology Little Visible Delight, where I'm alongside such cracking writers as Lynda E. Rucker and SP Miskowski. I also wrote a number of stories that have been accepted for publication that are due out next year; they're some of my best work, I think, and I can't wait to be allowed to tell you all about them...

As to 2014, well I'm currently pausing between drafts of a novella called Other People's Ghosts - this one is proving a sod to get the structure right for, but I'm sure I'll get there in the end. Between drafts on that I'm working on a story called Retro Night. It's about going out when you're young and invincible and think you can live forever... and going out when you're older and wiser and know that you won't.

And, tentatively, I'm starting to think about a third collection of short stories as well - working out which ones I have available would fit together thematically and trying out some hypothetical running orders... 

But enough navel-gazing - I hope everyone who reads this has a great festive period and a brilliant 2014. Have a drink on me. 

Cheers!