Wolf's Hill and Breakwater nominated for British Fantasy Awards

The shortlists for the British Fantasy Awards were announced on Tuesday, and I'm stunned to have made the running for not one, but two awards.

Wolf's Hill has been shortlisted for the August Derleth Award for Best Horror Novel, alongside Little Eve by Catriona Ward, The Cabin At The End of The World by Paul Tremblay and The Way of The Worm by Ramsey Campbell.

To be sharing a shortlist with those three authors, those three novels, to be included in the same category, feels like an award in itself. I'd be happy to lose to any of them.

It's also particularly poignant because the Black Road novels mean a lot to me, and there've been times when I wonder if anyone's even reading them. In guess some people are, and enjoying them too.

Breakwater, meanwhile, has been shortlisted for Best Novella, alongside 'Binti: The Night Masquerade' by Nnedi Okorafor, 'The Land Of Somewhere Safe' by Hal Duncan, 'The Last Temptation Of Dr Valentine' by John Llewellyn Probert, 'The Only Harmless Great Thing' by Brooke Bolander and 'The Tea Master And The Detective' by Aliette de Bodard. Again, a storming list of names.

The winners will be announced at FantasyCon in Glasgow on 20th October.

Here are the BFA nominations in full:

Best Fantasy Novel (the Robert Holdstock Award)
The Bitter Twins, by Jen Williams (Headline)
Empire of Sand, by Tasha Suri (Orbit)
Foundryside, by Robert Jackson Bennett (Jo Fletcher Books)
The Green Man’s Heir, by Juliet E McKenna (Wizard’s Tower Press)
The Loosening Skin, by Aliya Whiteley (Unsung Stories)
Priest of Bones, by Peter McLean (Jo Fletcher Books)

Best Horror Novel (the August Derleth Award)
The Cabin at the End of the World, by Paul Tremblay (Titan Books)
Little Eve, by Catriona Ward (W&N)
The Way of the Worm, by Ramsey Campbell (PS Publishing)
Wolf’s Hill, by Simon Bestwick (Snowbooks)

Best Newcomer (the Sydney J Bounds Award)
Tomi Adeyemi, for The Children of Blood and Bone (Macmillan Children’s Books)
Cameron Johnston, for The Traitor God (Angry Robot)
RF Kuang, for The Poppy War (HarperVoyager)
Tasha Suri, for Empire of Sand (Orbit)
Marian Womack, for Lost Objects (Luna Press Publishing)
Micah Yongo, for Lost Gods (Angry Robot)

Best Novella
Binti: The Night Masquerade, by Nnedi Okorafor (Tor.com)
Breakwater, by Simon Bestwick (Tor Books)
The Land of Somewhere Safe, by Hal Duncan (NewCon Press)
The Last Temptation of Dr Valentine, by John Llewellyn Probert (Black Shuck Books)
The Only Harmless Great Thing, by Brooke Bolander (Tor.com)
The Tea Master and the Detective, by Aliette de Bodard (Subterranean Press)

Best Short Fiction 
Down Where Sound Comes Blunt, by GV Anderson (F&SF March/April 2018)
Her Blood the Apples, Her Bones the Trees, by Georgina Bruce (The Silent Garden: A Journal of Esoteric Fabulism)
In the Gallery of Silent Screams, by Carole Johnstone & Chris Kelso (Black Static #65)
A Son of the Sea, by Priya Sharma (All the Fabulous Beasts)
Telling Stories, by Ruth EJ Booth (The Dark #43)
Thumbsucker, by Robert Shearman (New Fears 2)

Best Anthology
The Devil and the Deep: Horror Stories of the Sea, ed. Ellen Datlow (Night Shade Books)
Humanagerie, ed. Sarah Doyle & Allen Ashley (Eibonvale Press)
New Fears 2, ed. Mark Morris (Titan Books)
This Dreaming Isle, ed. Dan Coxon (Unsung Stories)
Year’s Best Weird Fiction, Vol. 5, ed. Robert Shearman & Michael Kelly (Undertow Publications)

Best Collection
All the Fabulous Beasts, by Priya Sharma (Undertow Publications)
The Future is Blue, by Catherynne M Valente (Subterranean Press)
How Long ‘til Black Future Month?, by NK Jemisin (Orbit)
Lost Objects, by Marian Womack (Luna Press Publishing)
Octoberland, by Thana Niveau (PS Publishing)
Resonance & Revolt, by Rosanne Rabinowitz (Eibonvale Press)

Best Non-Fiction
The Evolution of African Fantasy and Science Fiction, ed. Francesca T Barbini (Luna Press Publishing)
The Full Lid, by Alasdair Stuart (alasdairstuart.com/the-full-lid)
Ginger Nuts of Horror (www.gingernutsofhorror.com)
Les Vampires, by Tim Major (PS Publishing)
Noise and Sparks, by Ruth EJ Booth (Shoreline of Infinity)

Best Independent Press
Fox Spirit Books
Luna Press Publishing
NewCon Press
Unsung Stories

Best Magazine / Periodical
Black Static
Gingernuts of Horror
Interzone
Shoreline of Infinity
Uncanny Magazine

Best Audio
Bedtime Stories for the End of the World (endoftheworldpodcast.com)
Blood on Satan’s Claw, by Mark Morris (Bafflegab)
Breaking the Glass Slipper (www.breakingtheglassslipper.com)
PodCastle (podcastle.org)
PsuedoPod (pseudopod.org)

Best Comic / Graphic Novel
100 Demon Dialogues, by Lucy Bellwood (Toonhound Studios)
B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth, Vol. 1, by Mike Mignola, John Arcudi, Guy Davis, Tyler Crook & Dave Stewart (Dark Horse)
Hellboy: The Complete Short Stories, Vol. 1, by Mike Mignola and others (Dark Horse)
The Prisoner, by Robert S Malan & John Cockshaw (Luna Press Publishing)
Saga #49-54, by Brian K Vaughan & Fiona Staples (Image Comics)
Widdershins, Vol. 7, by Kate Ashwin

Best Artist
Vince Haig
David Rix
Daniele Serra
Sophie E Tallis

Best Film / Television Production
Annihilation, Alex Garland
Avengers: Infinity War, Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely
Black Panther, Ryan Coogler & Joe Robert Cole
The Haunting of Hill House, Mike Flanagan
Inside No. 9, series 4, Steve Pemberton & Reece Shearsmith
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Phil Lord & Rodney Rothman

Congratulations to my fellow nominees!

Shock Against Racism

This one's a bit political. (I know: me, political? Who would have thought...)

There is a real and rising tide of far-right and racist activity in the UK (and in Europe. And in the US. And, let's be frank, damn near everywhere we look.) This is a Bad Thing.

The UK genre community is, on the whole, a fine and welcoming place, one that opposes the politics of division, prejudice and hatred. Certain people have tried to portray it as being otherwise: at best they're mistaken, at worst, liars.

But actions, not words, are needed. Hence: Shock Against Racism.

SAR is a network of horror writers, artists and fans against racism and the far right. Our goal is to raise funding to combat the Right's lies and hatemongering, any way we can.

Two Shock Against Racism events are planned for this year: the first event will take place at Write Blend, 124 South Road, Liverpool L22 0ND at 7.30 pm on Friday 23rd November, and will feature readings by Ramsey Campbell, Priya Sharma, Cate Gardner and myself. Tickets £3.00 on the door, and all proceeds donated to Hope Not Hate.

The second event will take place at the Cowley Club, 12 London Road, Brighton BN1 4JA at 7.30 pm on Sunday 25th November, and will include readings by Tom Johnstone, Rosanne Rabinowitz and V.H. Leslie. Tickets £3.00 on the door, with all proceeds donated to Brighton Anti-Fascists.

As well as the need to take action against the far right and to show where our community really stand, there's another reason I decided to start SAR. The 25th November will mark the fifth anniversary of the death of Joel Lane, an exemplary author and friend to many of us in the community. Joel was avowedly political and a committed anti-fascist: I can think of no better way to honour his memory.

The Facebook page for the Liverpool event is here.

The Facebook page for the Brighton event is here.

The main Shock Against Racism Facebook page is here.

We hope you'll join us and help spread the word.

Things of the Last Couple of Weeks: 21st November 2016

Yep, I've used this one before, but it still applies.

I haven't really done Things of the Week for a while, because the most recent Things of the Week have been, well, horrible. Donald Fucking Trump for Christ's sake. We also lost Leonard Cohen, yet another in the non-stop roll call of great minds and talents 2016 has taken from us.

I'm not going to make jokes about it. I have POC friends, LGBT friends - not to mention pretty much any US friends who aren't complete douches - who are quite rightly terrified right now. An actual fascist is going to be the next US President. His White House will be run by an avowed White Supremacist. His Vice President has vowed to roll back not only same sex marriage, but every law preventing discrimination against LGBT people. (And despite all the right-wing jeering about PC culture, 'safe spaces' and 'special snowflakes', the new US strongman flies into a world-class tizzy when the cast of a musical dare to speak out to that Vice-President and call on him to, you know, not to be a bigot.)

But the Right are hypocrites. The same people demanding everyone now unite behind Trump are the ones who burned Obama in effigy and vowed to make him a 'one term President' (although their utter incompetence in that regard might at least be heartening.) They'll scream and shout over the cast of Hamilton calling out Mike Pence (as they did over the Dixie Chicks when they criticised Bush and the Iraq Invasion) but will scream about FREE SPEECH when it's their right to spew venom. There's no playing nice with them; they exploit the liberal idea that one should see both points of view, be reasonable, play by the rules - while refusing to do any of those things themselves.

The ones in the UK are no better. Anyone believe for a moment that Farage and the rest of the Leave campaign would have shut up and walked away if the June Referendum had gone to Remain by 52% to 48%? Like hell they would. But now that four per cent margin is a club to try and beat their critics into silence. Meanwhile, hate crimes have rocketed since the Brexit vote, and our new Prime Minister, who has openly stated that she wants to abandon the European Convention on Human Rights and who has now instituted the most intrusive mass surveillance in British history, has practically adopted UKIP's political agenda.

I've said for years we've been sliding into fascism; it's one of the recurrent themes in so much of my work.

Now we're pretty much there.

But despair is an ally to the enemy. Margaret Corvid has written an excellent piece on practical things Brits can do to combat Trump and what he represents. This article by Masha Gessen, who fled a similar brand of fascism in Putin's Russia, also makes for sobering but essential reading.

To my American friends: contrary to what some people claim, the horror community in the UK is not made up of fascist sympathisers, appeasers or collaborationists. (A certain individual is still spreading that claim, because everything has to be about themselves and their personal feuds - it's not only a lie, but now it's a pernicious one because it sows discord between people who should be on the same side.) Let me, let us, know what we in the UK can do to help. For what little it may be worth, if anyone's looking for a place to guest-blog about what's going on, to get what they want to say out there, consider this blog of mine a platform, yours for the asking.

Best wishes, everyone. This year has been a grim and scary one in so many ways, and it isn't over yet. 2017 isn't looking particularly promising. But the Trumps, the Farages, people like that can ultimately only destroy. Their end will come. In the meantine, let's focus on making their time in power as short as possible, stopping them doing as much damage as we can, and making sure as many of us as possible are still here when the morning comes. Because there will be a morning. There will be, if we can believe in it.

Rosanne Rabinowitz shared this one of Leonard Cohen's recently. It seems pretty apt right now.

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Simon x

The Lowdown with... Rosanne Rabinowitz

Rosanne Rabinowitz lives in South London where she engages in a variety of occupations including freelance editing, copywriting and care work. Her novella Helen's Story was a Shirley Jackson Award finalist in 2014, and her stories have appeared in a variety of anthologies. She takes part in anti-austerity campaigns and also contributes non-fiction to union, community and campaign websites.

1. Tell us three things about yourself. 
1. I like whisky. A lot.
2. I am definitely not the sporty type, but I did play on the girls' basketball team at school. While I loved shooting baskets, I was a lazy person who

hated all that running around. So I cultivated a good hook shot, took up a position just under the basket and waited for people to pass the ball to me. Being tall helped too.
3. I believe I tested the first home computers in a temp job in 1981. The computers were brought into the testing room on a gurney, hidden by a tarp. It was all top secret! We would insert the disks and the machine went through a series of noisy operations, scrolls of code would appear and when the indicator blinked 'finished' at the bottom we took the disks out. The computers often broke down so we’d end up doing overtime, which involved reading and listening to music while waiting for the techies to tweak the machines. It wasn’t a bad gig. For years I thought we were testing Amstrads because of the thick disks we were used, but it's possible the computers were Commodores.

2. What was the first thing you had published? 
First, I'll tell you about the very first thing that was accepted for publication. It would have been in an anthology of London-based lesbian and gay writers published by a now-defunct independent called Brilliance Books. The editor who accepted it was Jeanette Winterson. Despite her previous reputation to the contrary, I found her very pleasant when we spoke on the phone. I was paid £30 for the story. Then the anthology was cancelled because of a political dispute among the contributors – some wouldn’t appear in a book with certain other contributors. This was the ‘80s, remember. The publisher told me I could keep my £30, though. This happened many times – stories accepted, but the anthologies didn’t happen. One time I wrote to a US-based editor after six months' silence: “What happened? Has the publisher gone bust?” "Not quite. He was busted… for transporting fire arms over state lines". As for the first time a story saw the light of day, “Maza Zoftig” was published in The Slow Mirror: New Fiction by Jewish Writers (Five Leaves Press) in 1996. That’s the earliest publication listed on my website. OK, I've had a few stories published before that. See "What makes you cringe". And if you're talking about 'things' rather than 'fiction', I did publish a lot of non-fiction in a radical women's 'zine called Bad Attitude around the early to mid-1990s, and before that I was involved with a little 'zine called Feminaxe.

3. Which piece of writing are you proudest of? 

While I like most of my published stories, the ones I take the most pride in are those that took a lot of work, research and thought. They're stories that bring disparate strands of history and time together. Such tales can be a hard slog to create, but once it's done I'm very pleased. I'd say that my novella Helen’s Story (PS Publishing) is in that category. A 2009 novelette In the Pines, in Extended Play (Elastic Press) meant a lot to me too. However, some technical aspects of a ‘near future’ section set in 2015 is now somewhat slightly cringifying. I'd like to get this story reprinted in some form, but I'll have to get my gadgets right in the last section! More recent stories I’m very fond of are "Bells of the Harelle" in Tales from the Vatican Vaults, "The Matter of Meroz" in Jews Vs Aliens, and "The Lady in the Yard" in Soliloquy for Pan. At the opposite end of the spectrum, I was recently pleased to produce a 2000-word story about Universal Credit, quantum computing and multiversal weirdness, which appeared in a charity anthology We Need to Talk. This was a first for me – a proper short short story, when many of my stories tend to be in the 10,000+ range. I think using Twitter must have trained me – who knows? Maybe I'll try some flash fiction just for the hell of it.

4. …and which makes you cringe? 
Some of the stuff I wrote in the 80s and early 90s. Maybe it wasn't really that bad, but I can't face rereading those pieces to find out.

5. What’s a normal writing day like?
I initially spend some time drinking coffee, reading, kind of preparing myself... and trying to not get too distracted by the internet. As for what happens later, it depends a lot on deadlines and we’re I’m at with a project. I do write at night as well, often while I’m watching a film or IPlayer. I like to have background noise and something to look at while I mull a plot point or image over. I also do social media work for a campaign group, so I try to combine the two in a writing day. When I'm on a job where I go out to work, I usually make notes or do some editing in the evening… unless I go out to get 'inspired' somewhere.

6. Which piece of writing should someone who’s never read you before pick up first? 
Going for a shorter piece of around 5000 words, I’d suggest "Survivor’s Guilt", [reviewed here by Peter Tennant] published in Black Static and reprinted in the Never Again anthology. This story grew out of many of my historical concerns and themes, and its Central European atmosphere is an element in much of my writing too.

7. What are you working on now? 

I have several stories on the go. I’ve also been working on a novel Heretics, which I keep putting aside when I have short story deadlines. It’s about a woman leader of a heretical sect in 15th-century Bohemia, which was big on sexual liberation and class warfare. "Bells of the Harelle", mentioned above, is actually a 'prequel' to this.

Meanwhile, other novel ideas keep popping up. One takes off from a few short stories I've already written, set in the changing landscape of North Lambeth (Arthur Machen was very disparaging about South London, but he was wrong about that). I'm also working on a piece – which could become part of a novel – that takes place in an alternate world where the German revolution of 1919 had more success, the Nazis never came to power and large swathes of people live in a libertarian socialist society of sorts. Perhaps this book will explore similar contradictions to Ursula LeGuin’s The Disposessed, but it will take place on a recognisable Earth.

Something Remains

I've talked about this elsewhere, but with the book coming out next month I felt it deserved a blog of its own.

When my friend, the author and poet Joel Lane, died in November 2013 at the ridiculously early age of fifty, he left a great deal undone. There'd been a planned monograph on 20th century horror fiction, which would have been up there with Lovecraft's Supernatural Horror In Literature as an overview of the field; he'd also spoken of writing a crime or horror novel.

And there were his notes for short stories - dozens of them. Some were a paragraph or two, others more detailed. And so Joel's old friend Pete Coleborn, proprietor of the Alchemy Press, approached a number of writers with a proposal: to take a set of Joel's notes and use them as the basis for a new story of their own, to be collected in a tribute anthology.

Edited by Pete and by Pauline E. Dungate, the result is Something Remains - a deeply Joelesque title. It includes, among many other (and probably better) tales, my story 'And Ashes In Her Hair.'

Something Remains will be released at Fantasycon By The Sea in Scarborough. The official launch will take place on Saturday 24th September 2016 between noon and 1.00 pm.

John Grant, Rosanne Rabinowitz and Lynda E. Rucker have also blogged about their involvement in the anthology.

Here's the full TOC:

• Foreword by Peter Coleborn
• Introduction by Pauline E. Dungate
• Joel by Chris Morgan (Verse)
• Not Dispossessed:  A Few Words on Joel Lane’s Early Published Works by David A. Sutton (Essay)
• Everybody Hates a Tourist by Tim Lebbon
• The Missing by John Llewellyn Probert
• Charmed Life by Simon Avery
• Antithesis by Alison Littlewood
• Dark Furnaces by Chris Morgan
• The Inner Ear by Marion Pitman (Verse)
• Broken Eye by Gary McMahon
• Stained Glass by John Grant
• Threadbare by Jan Edwards
• The Dark above the Fair by Terry Grimwood
• Grey Children by David A. Sutton
• The Twin by James Brogden
• Lost by Pauline Morgan (Verse)
• Through the Floor [1] by Gary Couzens
• Through the Floor [2] by Stephen Bacon
• Bad Faith by Thana Niveau
• Window Shopping by David Mathew
• Clan Festor by Liam Garriock
• Sweet Sixteen by Adam Millard
• Buried Stars by Simon Macculloch
• And Ashes in Her Hair by Simon Bestwick
• The Pleasure Garden by Rosanne Rabinowitz
• Joel Lane, Poet by Chris Morgan (Essay)
• The Reach of Children by Mike Chinn
• The Men Cast by Shadows by Mat Joiner
• The Winter Garden by Pauline E. Dungate
• Natural History by Allen Ashley
• The Second Death by Ian Hunter
• The Bright Exit by Sarah Doyle (Verse)
• Blanche by Andrew Hook
• The Body Static by Tom Johnstone
• You Give Me Fever by Paul Edwards
• The Other Side by Lynda E. Rucker
• Of Loss and of Life: Joel Lane’s Essays on the Fantastic by Mark Valentine (Essay)
• Shadows by Joe X Young
• I Need Somewhere to Hide by Steven Savile
• Coming to Life by John Howard
• The Enemy Within by Steve Rasnic Tem
• Afterword: The Whole of Joel by Ramsey Campbell (Essay) 

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Things Of The Week: 1st April 2016

Gardner, Bestwick & Sharma.

So, this week...

Last Sunday Cate and I went to Eastercon on a day membership with our friend Priya Sharma. Obviously it's more SF/Fantasy than horror, but it was well worth going to, and we got to catch up (briefly) with Ramsey and Jenny Campbell, and Sarah Pinborough.

Priya rocks the Gothic.

I also ran (all too briefly) into Mike Cobley and Martyn Taylor, long-time fellow ranters at the monumental bastardry of the Conservative Party, and to see the Q&A between Kari Sperring and Aliette de Bodard, who'd just won two BSFA awards for her work. (I managed to snag a copy of her first novel, House Of Shattered Wings, while I was there...) Later I bumped into the lovely Lydia Gittins, (former PR for Solaris, now PR for Titan Books) too, and got to chat with her for a good half-hour (but sadly, didn't get a chance to steal her pink coat. Pity.)

Me and a slightly blurred Nina Allan.

It was our first Eastercon, and Priya's first time ever on a panel (Sumptuously Gothic). She was a bit nervous, but did a great job. Hopefully she'll be doing many more in the future.

After the panel, we made off with Rosanne Rabinowitz in search of food, and accidentally kidnapped Nina Allan on the way (while Christopher Priest strolled back to the convention hotel without having noticed his other half had been shanghaied) for tapas at a Greek restaurant.

One of my resolutions this year has been to write more short fiction  - and, more to the point, to try

Rosanne Rabinowitz and Cate.

and write more short fiction that I'm really proud of. A lot of the stories I've written over the past couple of years has been to commission, and much of the rest has been... well, proficient enough in technical terms, but without the heart and soul that the stories I'm proudest of have had.

Too much of it has either been action driven, with characters who feel a little too 'stock', or go over old, safe ground. It felt, in the words of Austin Powers as though...

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Earlier this week I wrote a story called 'And Ashes In Her Hair,' based on some story notes left behind by the late Joel Lane. When Joel passed away, he had the notes for a number of stories left over, and a number of writers are working with these notes to create stories for a tribute anthology. Writing 'And Ashes In Her Hair' felt like a step in the right direction, a move towards writing something real once more. I'm proud of it.

I've got (some of) my mojo back.

Logan Masterson.

On a less happy note, news broke a couple of days ago on the passing of US author Logan Masterson.

I'm afraid I didn't know Logan at all - we were Facebook friends but had never really interacted - but it was still shocking and sad to hear of his death. Especially when it emerged that culprit was an enemy that has claimed the lives of far too many men: depression.

As I said, I didn't know him - and there's little more contemptible than people who try to gain attention and sympathy by falsely claiming intimacy with somebody who's died - but from what I saw of his Facebook posts he was a decent man, someone with whom I think I would have enjoyed talking to had the chance arisen. Having suffered from (thankfully fairly mild) depression in the past, I know how horrible and debilitating it can be; it's not something I'd wish on anyone, and it's always deeply sad to hear about someone losing their battle with it. So here's a link to a piece by someone who did know Logan. There is also a memorial fund, to which you can donate here.

To anyone suffering from depression, I would just say: please, talk to someone. There is help out there. Try to find it. ESPECIALLY if you're a man. You are not lesser, or weaker, if you admit you are in pain.


Have a good weekend, all. Be well, and take care.