Things Of The Week

Bit of admin first: I've now updated the page for Angels Of The Silences to include the info for the new edition, and Hell's Ditch now has its own page too.

Anyway... I haven't called this blog 'Nice Things of the Week', because there've been some decidedly not-nice ones: the passing of both David Bowie and Alan Rickman, both absolutely stellar talents. I have to admit Rickman's death hit me harder - I've been a fan since I saw him in Die Hard when I was a teenager. Plus, he was, of course, the definitive Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves, acting Kevin Costner and everyone else off the screen.

Plus, of course, there was this: Anthony Minghella's Truly, Madly, Deeply. A sort of quirkily British riff on the Swayze/Moore movie ghost, where he played alongside Juliet Stevenson as her deceased lover. Basically a rom-com, where one of them is a ghost - although a fairly solid one!

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Another less than entirely pleasant thing of last week was the collapse of Spectral Press in the UK,

which I blogged about on Friday. Not something I especially wanted to do or enjoyed doing, but necessary. I am very grateful to those who helped by providing necessary information, and to the many who, publicly or privately, sent messages of support. There'll be some further discussion on Brian Keene's podcast The Horror Show this week.

Friday also saw the rerelease of Angels Of The Silences, a novella of which I'm very fond. Thanks to all who attended the online launch party and/or bought a copy! 

Another anthology including one of my stories came out last week, and I completely forgot! The Mammoth Book Of Kaiju, edited by Sean Wallace, was published by Robinson Constable, and reprints 'Now I Am Nothing', from the Cubicle 7 anthology World War Cthulhu.

Friday also brought some really excellent news that I can't talk about yet! I will just say it involves a new story collection - I'll reveal all once the contract's signed and sealed.

ETA: I nearly forgot! Bad me. David A. Sutton's 2008 anthology Houses On The Borderland, which includes my novella The School House, is being reissued in February by Shadow Publishing, under the title Haunts Of Horror. The School House is another tale with a special place in my heart - albeit a fairly cold, dark one as it's one of the grimmest things I've written - so it's good to see it get another airing. (Of course, you can also read it in The Condemned.) Also includes stories by Allen Ashley, Samantha Lee, Paul Finch, Gary Fry and David A. Riley.

Oh, and just to say again you can still read the latest Friday Freebie, 'The Lowland Hundred', here until this coming Friday, when it gets replaced by a new one.

Have good week!

Houses On The Borderland

This is just a quick one, as I try to shake off the melancholia of both Rockworld and, a few days later, the inimitable Pete Steele of Type O Negative going west in the same week (c'mon, Death, couldn't you have taken Robbie Williams instead? Or how about Simon Cowell? Better yet- Michael Bay. Please take that soulless void of directing non-talent. And then flush. Don't forget to spray air-freshener)...

Ahem. Sorry. I said this would be quick, didn't I?

Some of you might remember the BFS anthology Houses On The Borderland, which came out back in 2008. It included some damn good stories from some damn good writers- Allen Ashley, Paul Finch, David A. Riley and Gary Fry- and also a novella of mine called The School House. All in all a very strong line-up of fiction, plus I don't think I've made any secret of the fact that this novella was, and is, very close to my heart, possibly one of the most personal things I've ever written, so it was a crying shame that the anthology seemed to sink without trace. As Oscar Wilde said, there's only one thing worse than being talked about, and that's not being talked about.

All of which is a long-winded preamble to the following: two reviews of Houses On The Borderland have just come out, one on Tales From The Black Abyss and another over at Hellnotes. Cheers to both Colin Leslie and Mario Guslandi for their kind words.

If any of the above piques your interest, you can buy the anthology here. It's always worth supporting the fine organisation that is the BFS.

And that's it from me. Have a nice weekend. Over and out!