The Outer Dark: A Strange & Darksome Night

27th November 2017.
The Lovecraft Bar, New York City.
Julia Rust. David Surface. Daniel Baum. Inna Effress.

Four fantastic writers get together for a night of readings from Nightscript III and to discuss weird fiction in general.

Bet you wish you could have been there and heard that, huh?

Well, now you can (hear it at least) thanks to The Outer Dark podcast, you can. The show is hosted by Scott Nicolay, joined by Daniel Baum and Nightscript editor C.M. Mueller. You can listen it now on This Is Horror:

The Outer Dark #27: Nightscript III

Imposter Syndrome: This Is Horror Review

Imposter Syndrome, the anthology of doubles and weirdness edited by myself and Dan Howarth, has been reviewed over at This Is Horror—and I'm slightly overwhelmed by what reviewer Paul Michaels has to say about it. Every story gets deserved praise, and he says of the anthology overall:

“Imposter Syndrome is a book which deserves to sit on every horror aficionado’s shelf. Its stories are to be savoured and marvelled at, each author meeting and exceeding expectations.”

Full review here.

Suffice to say that I (and the pod-person in my basement) couldn't be happier.

You can buy Imposter Syndrome here: (UK | US)

Hyde Happenings

As readers of this blog will know, The Hyde Hotel (edited by myself and Dan Howarth) was released by Black Shuck Books last week. It seems to be doing well so far, hitting several Amazon top tens and also getting it's first review over on Anthony Watson's Dark Musings site:

"... this is an impressive collection of stories and one that provided an excellent start to 2016... a hugely satisfying anthology." (full review here)

Dan and I also recorded an interview talking all things Hyde with Michael Wilson over at This Is Horror, which you can listen to here. We're grilled on the genesis of the idea, the practicalities of seeing it to fruition, and I also get asked which author most intimidates me...

The Hyde Hotel is available now from Black Shuck Books.

Gifts For The One Who Comes After by Helen Marshall

Gifts For The One Who Comes After by Helen Marshall is a collection of short stories as good as it's title, and I recently had the pleasure not just of reviewing it, but of interviewing Helen as well. Links to the relevant This Is Horror pages below:

Gifts For The One Who Comes After - Review

Helen Marshall Interview

Recommendation: Water For Drowning by Ray Cluley

Water For Drowning by Ray Cluley is the latest chapbook in the This Is Horror series. It’s a dark and brooding tale that is Cluley’s own interpretation of the mermaid myth – not of our sanitised, cartoonish modern versions but the original fables of doomed love, glass underfoot, and death. It’s told in the first person by Josh, who plays with a local rock band around the south coast - a big fish in a small pond. Josh is, at least at the start of the story, a bit of a cock. One night at one of his gigs, he meets Genna, a girl who seems smitten with his lyrics of water and rebirth as much as with Josh himself. Josh, normally a one-night stand kind of guy, starts to fall for Genna. (This doesn't, however, stop him acting like a bit of a cock.) Genna, meanwhile, has dreams and aspirations far wilder than Josh’s clichéd rock-god ones…

The story crams in as many references to mermaids as it can, from the sublime The Lovesong Of J. Alfred Prufrock to the, uh, not-sublime Tom Hanks film Splash, to the fake mermaid bodies exhibited in Victorian times. (Although there’s no allusion to Bob Dylan’s Desolation Row and it’s lovely mermaids between the windows of the sea.) In doing so, it builds a backdrop of allusion and history behind Josh and Genna’s tentative romance, and the gradual revelation of the depths of Genna’s obsession. And leaves open, too, the interpretation that maybe, just maybe, Genna isn't deluded at all.

Water For Drowning is one of those books where, as you read it, you realise what the author is going to attempt & what risks they are taking and you think – oh god. It’s like watching someone on a high-wire: what if he wobbles? What if he falls? Because don’t let the length fool you, this is an ambitious story, very much more than the sum of its parts. As such the slightest mistake could ruin its hard-won balance. Fortunately Cluley never puts a foot wrong, never falters, and makes crossing the wire look easy. He even does back-flips. It’s a fantastic achievement, a fantastic story that’s among the very best I've read this year.

In addition, the chapbook also includes a bonus story, the award winning Shark! Shark! – probably some of you will have read it in Black Static. It’s a very clever, genuinely funny, and unsettling story, that’s well worth another read. There’s also an interesting introduction to Water For Drowning  by the author himself. Whilst I've enjoyed all the This Is Horror chapbook stories to date, they seem to have upped their game in terms of production quality and extra content with this one.

 A must read. Preferably after a big plate of fish and chips like I did.

Review: Thin Men With Yellow Faces

Thin Men With Yellow Faces is part of the This Is Horror chapbook series, and is jointly written by Simon Bestwick and Gary McMahon. Sometimes when two authors I like collaborate I've found they muffle each other's voice, but other times it's more like amplification. I'm happy to say this story is very much in the latter camp.

Thin Men With Yellow Faces (and let's say right away what a great title that is) is a story perfect to read in a single setting, absorbing the grim atmosphere and allowing the tension to build. And build it most certainly does.

The set-up - child in trouble and menaced by human-like monsters - is like an episode of Doctor Who gone horribly awry, written with Northern verisimilitude and pessimism, and containing horrors that are very much adults-only. As you'd expect if you've read any of their previous work, these two authors don't stint on the chilling or grotesque.

The titular monsters are truly unforgettable, with a historical background that only makes them scarier. The story has a pleasing moral ambiguity to it, and could be read as a loose allegory about many of the horrors and injustices of the modern world (or our denial of them, at least). There's no easy get out for the characters here, and none for us either.

Overall this is a great collaboration, with the two-headed Bestwick/McMahon hybrid in fine form and breathing fire. You can (and bloody should) buy it directly from the This Is Horror site.