Edge-Lit 8

I'll be at the Edge-Lit convention again this year—always a fantastic day. I'll be around for most of the day mingling, eating, drinking, not-winning the raffle, and no doubt buying books. Plus! I'm also part of these programmed events:

3pm – Black Shuck Books – Book Launch
The official launch for Pareidolia, edited by myself and Dan Howarth, alongside The Finite by Kit Power.

4pm – Multi-Publisher Horror Book Launch
Launches for titles from Dark Minds Press, The Sinister Horror Company, and Hersham Horror who are releasing The Woods with a story from me, and others by Cate Gardner, Mark West, Penny Jones and Phil Sloman.


Hope to see a bunch of you there. Say hi!

Coming Soon: The Woods....

I've a new story out soon, in a forthcoming anthology from Hersham Horror called The Woods.

My tale is called 'A Short Walk Round The Woods'. As well as mine, you'll be getting stories from Cate Gardner, Phil Sloman, Penny Jones and Mark West....

Couple of Cool Things

A brief post on a couple of cool things recently:

A Sony C60 - brings back
so many memories.

Mark West has put together another one of his fabled 'mixtapes' - over on his site a number of us horror types have written about our favourite Stephen King short story. There's selections from Priya Sharma, Maura McHugh, Kit Power, Paula Limbaugh, Willie Meikle, and many many others.

My own piece is on King's story 'The Man In The Black Suit', although I spend almost as much time talking about a Bob Dylan song. (I often talk more about Bob Dylan than I should, especially after a beer or two.) You'll have to check out the Mixtape to find out which one.

On an unrelated note, the anthology Another Dimension (which features my story 'Red Route') has won an award! The Sterling Award, to be specific, which celebrates all things to do with the creator of The Twilight Zone. So that's rather nice.


Another Dimension (UK | US)

Fantasycon 2016.

The view from the bar on Day 1: Sunny Scarborough

Fantasycon this year took place in sunny Scarborough (and it really was sunny) amidst the faded, peeling glamour of the Grand and Royal hotels. As ever it was a long and intense weekend, so I'm just going to mention some of the highlights here...

John Gilbert; Sue Moorcroft; Neil Williams; me; Priya Sharma; Phil Sloman; Mark West; Lisa Childs; Ross Warren; Wayne Parkin; Cate Gardner

Panels:
On the Saturday, I featured on the 'Bright Lights' panel, which was about awards and new talent coming through in genre fiction. I wasn't quite sure how it would go, but it was really well moderated by Penny Reeve, with interesting contributions from my good friend Kit Power, Donna Scott and Liz de Jager. When the questions from the audience came there was the inevitable one about the rabid/sad puppies in America and in our own different ways both Kit and I made our thoughts quite clear...

I may have said "dickheads".

My favourite panel that I saw was 'Is Reality The New Horror' - it featured Paul Finch, Mark West, Tracy Fahey, Victoria Leslie, Helen Marshall, and Ramsey Campbell. With that calibre of talent it couldn't fail to be interesting - I'd have quite happily watched them talk for longer.

Great British Horror Launch:

Steve Shaw was launching both This Twisted Earth (edited by Dion Winton-Pollock) and Great British Horror #1:Green & Pleasant Land, a collection of horror stories with a stunning lineup of authors. Present at the launch were Victoria Leslie, Laura Mauro, Adam Millard, Simon Kurt Unsworth, Ray Cluley, Jasper Bark and Alexandra Benedict. I think all of them felt as thrilled as I did when Steve presented us with our contributor copies - wrapped & with a scroll of the artwork for each of our stories. Laura and Jasper read from their stories; Dion gave a very personal introduction to This Twisted Earth (complete with heckling gulls); Victoria gave a brief chat about the influence of Virginia Woolf on her (wonderful) novel Bodies Of Water, and then it was onto the signing. And we seemed to sign a lot of books. It was one of the most wonderful launches I've done and I left on a real high.

Best contributor
copy ever?

GBH Launch:
Laura Mauro,
Ray Cluley, me,
Simon Kurt Unsworth

Adam Nevill Launch:

I bought *cough* a few books over the weekend, but none were so handsome as Adam Nevill's latest,  Some Will Not Sleep. It's Adam's first collection of short stories and people were literally queuing out the doors for it. I for one can't wait to read it.

Hersham Horror Launch:
The launch for my novella Paupers' Graves, as well as novellas from good friends Phil Sloman, Stephen Bacon and Mark West, and a collection from Marie O'Regan. It had all been organised by head honcho Peter Mark May and I had an absolute blast. Lots of people seemed really interested in buying books and getting them signed, and it was a real pleasure to be launching alongside some of the first friends I made when I started attending conventions. The fact they're all fine writers helped too, of course.

Hersham Horror launch: Phil Sloman, Stephen Bacon, Mark West, me

D.P. Watt Launch:
An intersting one, this. I didn't really know anything about this book other than the fact Undertow published it - which was good enough for me, as I love what they put out. It was a very interesting reading: some of it delivered in the normal way, some via a preprepared recording. It made me instantly think of Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape. And the story itself seemed brilliant - needless to say I picked up a copy of Watt's collection, Almost Insentient, Almost Divine.

The People:
As well as the folks mentioned above, the following all helped make my weekend a brilliant three days: Conrad Williams (a nice prologue to the con on the train); Wayne Parkin; Andrew Hook & Sophie Essex; Jim McLeod (sorry I lost the t-shirt!); Ross Warren; Lisa Childs; Sue Moorcroft; Chris Barnes; Charlotte Courtney-Bond; Steve Shaw; Chris Teague; Jay Eales & Selina Lock; Neil Williams; Priya Sharma (congratulations on the award!); Cate Gardner; Simon Bestwick (telling rude jokes, natch); Richard Farren Barber; Laura Mauro (still no idea about that wrestling thing, sorry!); Gary Couzens; Ren Warron (told you we would have a proper chat this time), Victoria Leslie and Tracy Fahey (great cow stories!), Ben Jones (Whitby? Whitby??); CC Adams; Dion Winton-Pollock; Ray Cluley and his partner Jess; Kit Power, Helen Marshall; Des Lewis; Neil Snowden; Georgina Bruce; Steve Byrne; Amanda Rutter; Graeme Reynolds; Jasper Bark; John Travis; Terry Grimwood; Lynda E. Rucker; Gary Fry (thanks for the book!); Tim Power, and Tim Jarvis (a nice epilogue to the con in a cafe)

Horror writers are scary, serious people
Lisa Childs, Mark West, Laura Mauro (hidden), Ross Warren, Phil Sloman, Gary Couzens, Peter Mark May, me, Richard Farren Barber, Stephen Bacon

Paupers' Grave: First Reviews & Fantasycon Launch

My new novella, Paupers' Graves is being launched this Saturday at Fantasycon 2016 as part of the Hersham Horror launch event, which also includes great looking books by Marie O'Regan, Mark West, Phil Sloman and Stephen Bacon. (You can also preorder it here.)

It's had some pre-releases reviews already, and yet again I'm humbled by what what people have said about my work:

"...an incredibly powerful and scary story that actually has something to say - and something genuinely nuanced and uncomfortable, at that. Very highly recommended." Kit Power at Gingernuts Of Horror.

"As might be expected from the author of the amazing Quarantined City, this is a story which operates on multiple levels. It’s a story about stories; it’s about society. It’s ghosts and hauntings and is very effective in dealing out the thrills and chills. It’s a corker – scary and profound." Anthony Watson at Dark Musings.

My Fantasycon schedule is as below:

Saturday 12.00pm: Bright Lights panel, with Penny Reeve (Chair), Liz De Jager, Donna Scott, Kit Power & me.... (Royal Ballroom, Royal Hotel)

Saturday 1:00pm: Book Launch for Great British Horror #1: Green & Pleasent Land (Harbour Lights, Grand Hotel)

Saturday7:00 pm: Hersham Horror launch, including Paupers' Graves (Cocktail Bar, Grand Hotel)


Otherwise, I'll be hanging around enjoying myself. Hope to see as many as possible there!

Paupers' Graves - Pre-Orders

Paupers' Graves is my new novella, being launched at this year's Fantasycon. It's one of four novellas being released simultaneously by Hersham Horror–the others being by Stephen Bacon, Mark West and Phil Sloman, so I couldn't be in better company.

More to say nearer the time about this one, as it's a story I'm especially proud of. But will just say that the ebook version is available to preorder now.

In a Nottingham cemetery, hidden away from the grandiose tombs of the city’s rich, are the old paupers’ graves. Katherine and her team have been ordered to create an exhibit based around the lives of those unfortunates buried beneath. But the paupers represent part of the city’s history that Katherine prefers to avoid thinking about… as well as part of her own. 

But the dead, having had nothing in life, are enraged that even the truth of how they lived is being taken from them. Buried up to twenty under one stone, they whisper in the dark. Maybe they can show Katherine and her colleagues what their history was really like… and how cheap life was considered.

The Thirteen Signs

The Thirteen Signs is a new anthology from editor Dean M. Drinkel, and contains horror stories based around different signs of the Zodiac. I was given Pieces as mine, and my story 'Hooked' is set on Majorca and describes a birdwatcher caught up in a sinister trap. But is he the prey or the bait?

I had fun writing this one, and gleefully slagging off astrology (which I think is purest bollocks) in the process. The book has some other great writers in as well, including Lily Childs, Mark West, Tim Dry, Steve Byrne, Jan Edwards and Amelia Mangan. Ebook is out now from Nocturnicorn Press with a paperback to follow very shortly.

The Thirteen Signs (UK | US) 

Edge-Lit 5: After

On Saturday I went to Edge-Lit 5 and had a wonderful time, as always. The whole day passed in much of a blur, so this post won't be as detailed as Mark West's latest Convention Report: he's a man who seems to remember everything that happened. Maybe the fact Mark doesn't drink helps...

Mark West, me, Peter Mark May
(photo by Peter Colborn)

But my post is a few impressionistic snapshots of what I remember from the day:

Sitting opposite someone on the train who was reading a Sarah Pinborough book so I was convinced they were 'one of us' and I almost struck up conversation... but no, they got off at Long Eaton. Poor sod.

The launch for Trying To Be So Quiet (alongside Tracy Fahey launching her new collection and Exaggerated Press launching the Darker Battlefields anthology) seeming to go really well from what I could tell - I signed and sold a few books, so that was a good sign...

Buying some excellent looking books, including both those that launched alongside mine, The Grieving Stones by Gary McMahon, and the Hauntings anthology from NewCon Press

Good friends Mark West, Phil Sloman, Ross Warren, Lisa James, Steve Byrne, Kit Power and many more responding to my 'recent exciting review' in that most British of ways: by taking the piss.

Realising anew each time I signed a book (or in one case a contract) how truly shit my handwriting is.

Sitting discussing horror, ghosts and the past with Victoria Leslie in the sun while eating a delicious chorizo sandwich and fries from The Quad... only to hear Victoria repeat some of my bumbling ideas in her Supernatural Fiction panel later. She gave me credit for them though :)

The look of indignation on Steve's face when informing me they didn't serve beer before 11am...

Simon Bestwick continuing an animated political discussion we'd had online in the front page of his novel Hell's Ditch when he signed it for me. Still not convinced, Simon :)

My first mediocre convention curry. I blame Brexit.

Meeting friends old and new; and despite the risk of missing someone I'm going to list who I remember because these things really are about the people. So as well as the above, shout outs to: Priya Sharma, Peter Mark May, Holly Emma Ice, Dion Winton-Pollock, Andrew Hook, Nina Allen, Cate Gardner, Gary Couzens, John Travis, Johnny Mains, Ian Whates, Amanda Rutter, Terry Grimwood, Richard Farren Barber, Anthony Cowin, Ray Cluley, Roy Gray, Adele Wearing, Angelina Trevena, Gary McMahon, Steve Shaw, Yvonne Davis, Theresa Derwin, Greg James, Gary McMahon - with some of you it was all too fleeting a chat. Lets's rectify that over a pint that at the next one, okay?

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 - 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.

Edge-lit 4

Edge-lit 4 took place on Saturday, and as usual I went across to Derby for the day. I remember when I first went to the first Edge-lit (my first ever convention) I was pretty nervous as I didn't know anyone. Okay, very nervous. And yet somehow, in the intervening three years, I've met so many in the horror community that this post is mainly just a list of people I spoke to. I include as many people as I remember not to name drop, but to sincerely thank them all for being such a friendly and inclusive bunch. (And if I've forgotten to mention you, sorry - it was a hectic day!)

Things started well when Phil Sloman and I continued our habit of arriving in cities within 60 seconds of each other – despite having been travelling for hours, he was loitering outside the station when I arrived, so we headed up to the venue, talking about The Quarantined City, dodgy cafes and publisher foibles. Once at the venue we quickly bumped into Dion Winton-Polack and Lily Childs – the first of a number of Facebook friends I met for the first time in the flesh that day.

In the bar I went for drinks, spying Graeme Reynolds in the queue, and then in quick succession spoke to (deep breath) Paul Holmes, Neil Snowden, Adele Wearing, Mark Morris, Kit Power, Vicky Hooper, Ross Warren, Lisa Childs, Steve Byrne, Alison Littlewood, Stephen Bacon, Richard Farren Barber, John Travis and Terry Grimwood. I made a valiant attempt to actually get upstairs to the venue itself, but then bumped into Dan Howarth and his partner Jenny so we had a chat in the lobby. I must have been back to the bar and decided the sun was past the yardarm at this point too, for I definitely had a pint of Pedigree in my hand.

I tried to get upstairs again but ended up talking to Andrew David Barker (author of the fantastic The Electric) instead. Moving closer, right at the foot of the stairs, I bumped into Simon Bestwick, Cate Gardner and Rosanne Rabinowitz – Cate and I have been saying we’ll meet up at a con since 2012 but the fates have always been against us before, so it was fantastic to finally do so.

Shortly  before my first aborted attempt to leave the Quad bar.

And then it was lunch time, and I’d not even made it to any panels or events. A group of us went to a café which served lovely ‘artisan sandwiches’, although quite how they took so long to prepare I’ll never know. After lunch, Mark West lead a contingent to a local second hand market stall, but I figured I’d better go back to The Quad and actually try and make it upstairs – which I did, sort of. I stopped to chat to Theresa Derwin of Knightwatch Press about a 'Top Secret Project' (TM) myself, Dan Howarth and her have been working on… After that, I saw Hic Dragones had a stall so I went over to talk to head honcho Hannah Kate and posed with a copy of Hauntings. Then back downstairs, and I bumped into Ross Warren again who was talking to Ray Cluley who I’d pre-order a copy of Probably Monsters from. Ray signed it for me and with a cry ‘pick any card’ he flourished some old school horror postcards which he’d wrote mini one-off stories on the back. What a guy.

Pimping Hauntings

Finally at that point I went up to an actual to goodness Edge-lit event, a panel on Monsters – along the way bumping into Tim Major, who came and sat with myself and Ross. The panel was hosted by Adam Nevill and featured Sarah Pinborough, Mark Morris and Alison Littlewood. Then it was straight over to the Spectral Press launch event, where books by Stephen Volk, Mark Morris and Cate Gardner were being launched. I've already had the pleasure of reading Stephen's Leytonstone to review for This Is Horror, and was chuffed to see a quote from my review appears in the front of the book. Cate and Mark's books sounded great too.

In the audience I spoke to Paul Feeney (later on buying a copy of his debut novella The Last Bus), met Dean M Drinkal and Tony Cowin for the first time, before catching up with Dan again, passing on the info from Theresa about the Top Secret Project' (TM), which as it turns out wasn't to remain fully top secret for much longer...

Book (and CD) haul for the day.

Next up was the Knightwatch Press event, which was truly one of the most entertaining launches I've been to. Dion was there to launch Sunny With A Chance Of Zombies, and his daughter was dressed up for the part as a brain eating zombie (with an actual brain to scoff in her hands). She was brilliant and never broke character once. The readings for Sunny... and Chip Shop of Horrors were all funny as hell (deliberately so) and Phil knocked his reading out the park, especially when he did a mini song and dance in the middle. Then there was brain-cake, some free wine, and Theresa letting slip to the audience about the 'Top Secret Project' (TM) I mentioned above. So I guess I'll be mentioning it on here too soon...! All in all, a fantastic launch.

Then a group of us now including Fiona Ní Éalaighthe heading out for the traditional convention curry - after a walk in the rain we ended up in the same restaurant as last year. Because of course we did. Lovely (if very spicy!) food though and some great conversation about just what made conventions such fun. Which in short, was the people. (And the shit loads of books, too).

Handsome people eating a curry. If you're wondering where Fiona is, like a gentlemen I'm blocking all sight of her save ear.

We headed back for the raffle, which was a bit of a blow-out as far as our group was concerned - I did win a signed copy of some fantasy book so I suppose I shouldn't grumble... plus with Sarah Pinborough and John Connolly presenting it was full of laughs (many of them filthy ones). And then, too soon, the day was done (and hay-fever had about killed any chance I had of saying anything coherent anymore) so I headed back to the station. It felt especially bittersweet on the train back this time - I met great people some of whom I count as genuine friends, but I only get to see them a few hectic days a year like this one. But still, it was a great event, maybe the best Edge-lit to date and I for one can't wait for the next one.

(One of those good friends is Mark West, who has written his own take on the day here. I have also shamelessly nicked a few photos from him...)

Recommendation Redux: What Gets Left Behind by Mark West

I originally reviewed Mark West's What Gets Left Behind in October 2012 upon its release as a limited-run chapbook from Spectral Press. As it's now been released as an ebook (UK | US) I thought I'd repost my original review, minority edited.

What Gets Left Behind is the third Mark West story I've read [I've obviously read more in the intervening years..!] and possibly the best, although on an even-numbered day I might give that accolade to The Mill - a novella which has some similarities to this work.

The story is partially set in the 80s and partially in the present; the central character Mike Bergen has returned to the town where he spent his childhood, during which time a serial killer stalked local girls. West's evocation of the 80s is note-perfect - not just in the period details like Star Wars t-shirts and Noel Edmonds (and excitingly for this reader East Midlands Today!) but in the recreation of a time when no one had mobile phones and kids played outside at "the Rec" because there was nothing else to do. West is a more realistic writer than someone like Ramsey Campbell (whose realism is shot through with subjectivity) and there is a simplicity and clarity to his prose that's probably hard won. It certainly fits this story.

Like The Mill, What Gets Left Behind's core is as much emotional as horrific; although the horror, when it comes, is gripping and effective. I particularly liked the switches between the two time-frames, a device which reminded me of Stephen King's IT. The sense of history repeating itself, of the past not being over but haunting Mike's present is excellently done.

My Dad, IT, And Me

A quick heads up to say that I've a guest blog up over at the King For A Year site. The brainchild of Mark West, the project aims to get 52 reviewers to review 52 Stephen King books throughout 2015.

My own piece is a rather personal take on what is, to my mind, one of his greatest books: IT (or CA  as it always pleases me to see it called in French bookshops). You can read my review here.

Recomendation - Drive by Mark West

Mark West’s latest novella is in some ways a departure from the author’s previous work; there’s none of the supernatural horror of The Mill here. But despite its realism there are scares aplenty in Drive and its small-town English realism adds to the effect. Drive’s set up is simple: David and Nat are on their way back from a party; they've never met before but David has offered Natalie a lift home. On the way, they encounter a group of drunk and possibly high boy racers in a souped up car, who they see nearly run over some women in the street. Almost at random, David and Nat are targeted by these youths, and the two spend the rest of the night driving round the estates and one-way system of Gaffney, attempting to flee their pursuers, who become increasingly violent and unhinged.

It’s a tense ride indeed for the reader, and ideally one read in a single sitting with no pit-stops. The story is pared down, barely giving you room to breathe. The characterisation and changing relationship between David and Nat is well done, occurring for the reader in the brief windows between the action. By contrast, the yobs with their laddish banter and blaring music are presented with no back-story, no real explanation for their acts. This seems a deliberate ploy by West, emphasising the essentially random nature of the violence, and giving the car that pursues David and Nat some of the impersonal, relentless horror of the truck from Duel. (It’s certainly a more inventive and original reworking of that theme than the recent Stephen King/Joe Hill collaboration.)

In short this is another impressive work from West, who seems to be mastering the novella form. Published by Pendragon Press, and available both as an ebook and as a limited edition paperback, this one is very much worth a test drive.

Fantasycon 2014 - York

This weekend I attended my first Fantasycon convention; I've been to a few cons now but this was the first 'overnighter' and so I was slightly nervous as I am often am in groups of people I don't know. But it helped that I knew good friends from other cons were going to be there, in particular my fellow 'failed to find an Indian restaurant in Birmingham' partners Mark West, Phil Ambler, and Steve Byrne, who I knew could be relied on to draw me out of my shell if needed. (Backup plan: beer.) But any nerves were misplaced for it was one of the most friendly, welcoming events I've been to, and all the people I met or re-met over the course of the weekend made it so.

Some specific highlights:

Book Launch: No One Gets Out Alive by Adam Nevill
What I was saying about people above? Adam Nevill is a case in point - a thoroughly friendly and welcoming guy, and fellow Robert Aickman fan to boot. (Anyone who likes Aickman is alright in my book.) Adam's one of the most successful horror writers out there at the moment, and I'm a big fan of his work, so a chance to get a signed copy of his new book well before release day was too good to pass up.

A Tribute To Joel Lane
Unlike many people present, I never met Joel Lane, but his short stories were always excellent and if it wasn't for his tragically early death he would undoubtedly have been one of the authors I'd have spent ages trying to pluck up the courage to speak to. A number of authors including Simon Bestwick and Ramsey Campbell read from Joel's work and shared some memories of him. Despite the crap acoustics and loud people at the bar behind us, it was a really very special.

Reading: VH Leslie
VH Leslie's short stories are some of the finest I've read this year, a real class act. For this event she read her story Namesake  (you can find it in Best British Horror 2014) and her reading really brought out both the humour and the unease in the tale. I was lucky enough to get the chance to chat with Victoria a couple of times over the weekend; another damn friendly fellow writer.

Book Launch: The Spectral Book of Horror Stories
This was by far the most packed event I attended, and no surprise: the number of authors who were present to sign the book was massive, the signatures & messages in mine not even all fitting onto one page. Here I said hello to online friends Alison Littlewood and Stephen Volk for the first time in person, and finally overcame my stuttering awe to tell Ramsey Campbell what an inspiration he was and is.

Book Launch:The End by Gary McMahon
There was so much going on on the Saturday, but no way was I going to miss the book launch for a new Gary McMahon book. No way. Regular readers will already know how good I think his work is. I also got the chance to buy a copy of his forthcoming chapbook from Knightwatch Press, The Night Just Got Darker directly from Gary in the bar. Given the prices in the con bar, I think it was the cheapest thing I actually purchased in there...

Book Launch: Boo Books/Knightwatch
This was the event where I read from The Place Where It Always Rains from Worms, which seemed to go okay. There were also readings from K.T. Davies (a pleasure to meet, as always), Simon Bestwick (ditto), Allen Ashley, and Reggie Oliver reading Anna Taborksa's stories from Worms.

Food:the weekend also didn't disappoint on this score. Two fabulous pub lunches in The Maltings, which was an nice old fashioned pub (with decoration that included an old sign about where to get treated for VD). A scrumptious evening meal in The Yak & Yeti, apparently Britain's only Gurkha restaurant. And a Saturday curry organised by Phil, where the only thing bigger than the size of the guest-list was the size of the naan breads. Epic naan.

More People: I probably won't remember everyone, but in addition to those above it really was great to chat to Steve Mosby, Jim McLeod, Johnny Mains, Lynda E Rucker, Ruth Booth, Stephen Bacon, Ross Warren, Alex Davis, Terry Grimwood, Paul Holmes, Dion Winton-Polack, Neil Snowden, Sue Moorcroft, Steve Chapman, Neil Williams, Graeme Reynolds, Simon Marshall Jones, Christopher Teague, Robert Shearman, Dave Jeffery, Adele Wearing, Jasper Bark, John Travis...

If I've not mentioned you it's due to my own crapness, don't worry. Or because your pass was on the wrong way round when we spoke, or because you were someone I met exclusively between the hours of 1am and 3am on the Saturday when things were a bit hazy. And speaking of Saturday night:

A Summing Up: The penultimate song at the Fantasycon disco was Elbow's One Day Like This, which finishes with the repeated refrain Throw those curtains wide, One day like this a year would see me right. Which about sums it up - writing can be a lonely business, with the doubts and rejections and long nights, and even the most sympathetic non-writing friend or family member is unlikely to want to talk about our weird stories for more than a few minutes at a time... So chances like this to speak to fellow writers and editors and reviewers feel like something really special to me now, a chance to recharge my creative batteries and go back into the real world all fired up. A chance to remember how lucky I am to be part of a genre I love in some small way.

Okay, the lyrics don't quite fit, but yes: days like this, and all you fab people - you see me right.

Edge-Lit 3...

This year's Edge-Lit was a convention of firsts for me for a number of reasons, the main one being that I was actually on the bill, albeit in a small way - Worms from Knightwatch Press was being launched at the convention, and I was scheduled to read from my story The Place Where It Always Rains. Of which more later.

It was also the first convention where I'd specifically arranged to meet people there - indeed within 2 seconds of walking through the door I'd bumped into Phil Ambler. After signing in and getting our goody bags we went to the cafe at The Quad where we briefly caught up with Paul Holmes from The Eloquent Page. 

Phil and I then headed up to the first panel we liked the sound of - Ghost Stories Today with Andrew Barker, Johnny Mains, Marie O'Regan and Niki Valentine. This was certainly interesting, with the conversation referencing many of my favourite stories and authors, including The Turn Of The Screw, Dark Matter, The Willows and Afterwards. For me, those was a slightly awkward part where members of the audience were invited to share whether they had ever seen a ghost in real life, and one lady told a story about her child dying, but moderator Johnny Mains handled it really well.

After that, we finally meet up with Mark West and Steve Harris/Byrne, who introduced us to Alison Davies, John Travis, and Christopher Teague. Phil, Mark, Steve, John and I headed down for a few drinks, and we exchanged stories about the worst rejection letters/emails we'd received in the same manner as that scene in Jaws when they're talking about shark bites.

Mark West, Alison Davies, me, and Phil Ambler.

Then back upstairs for a slightly unusual event - Theresa Derwin (who runs Knightwatch) was having her head completely shaved to raise money for a cancer charity, as well as auctioning off a few books.The fact that she had the guts to do this, not even getting in too much of a flap when the cutters ran out of power, certainly put any nerves I was feeling about having to do my first ever reading into perspective.

Then a few of us went out for a quick lunch, our gang now including Richard Farren Barber and Ross Warren. Somehow we ended up in a cafe that did pensioner specials and cheap liver & onions. Myself and Phil then had to hoof it back to The Quad in order to be in time for our reading - it was also Phil's first time, reading from his story in the Potatoes anthology. The Worms launch and my own reading seemed to go really well, at least as far as I could tell. Phil did a good job too, although I think we both felt upstaged by KT Davies (who it was lovely to meet again) and her excellent reading from Worms; she did different voices and funny swearing and everything. Now the reading was done I helped myself to the free launch wine and olives, as well as signing a few copies of worms. My handwriting is truly shit, so I drew a little worm cartoon character in each copy too.

Then it was back down to the bar again for more drinks and chatting - we met up with Paul M Feeney, and I also had a nice talk with Andrew Barker about his book The Electric. Then it was time for the raffle - we didn't win as many prizes as at Andromeda One, but on the plus side that meant we weren't scared of being lynched on the way out this time.

Phil had to leave at this point, which left the rest of ready for 'Operation Curry' - we found somewhere that had been recommended and had a lovely, if slightly pricey meal. It was a nice end to the day, talking about books and drinking beer and eating nice food, with friends both old and new.

'Operation Curry'

Despite not having superhuman luck in the raffle this time, I still came back with a fair few books, including The Electric by Andrew Barker, Best British Horror 2014, Potatoes, a Gary McMahon novella The Harm, and of course Worms.

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.