Things of the Week Friday 20th March 2020: Free Fiction on Patreon and PDF Download, plus And Cannot Come Again News

I hope you're all keeping well. I've been signed off work for a further period, which is probably for the best as the coronavirus pandemic continues - in addition to my MH issues, Cate and I are both in 'at risk' categories...

StokerCon, like most events scheduled over the next few months, has been cancelled, but the new edition of And Cannot Come Again - including the previously unpublished stories 'In The Shelter' and 'Black Is The Morning, White Is The Wand' - will still be released by Graeme Reynolds' Horrific Tales next month.

In the meantime...

With increasing numbers of people forced to remain at home, a number of authors are making work available to readers either free of charge or at reduced rates. They include Sarah Pinborough, who's made her early horror novels for Leisure Books - The Taken, Breeding Ground, Feeding Ground and Tower Hill available, or Adrian Tchaikovsky, who's put together an ad hoc collection of short fiction, including a collaboration with the fab and lovely Keris McDonald. This article by Philip Fracassi for the Book and Film Globe lists a bunch of others.

In the same spirit, I've decided to make my two Gray Friar Press collections, Pictures Of The Dark and The Condemned, likewise available as free downloads. The Google Drive folder containing them - and any future titles I add - is here. In addition, I've made the fiction I've uploaded to my Patreon page, including the novelette Roads Heading South and the SF/horror/comedy/thriller The Mancunian Candidate, available to the public at no charge.

Hope these provide some enjoyment. If you have work you're making available in this way that hasn't been mentioned here or in the Fracassi article, let me know and I'll add a link below.

Keep well, take care and hold steady, and have a good weekend.

Simon x

The Lowdown with... Stephen Bacon

Stephen Bacon lives with his wife and two sons in South Yorkshire, UK. His fiction has been published in magazines and anthologies such as Black Static, Shadows & Tall Trees, Cemetery Dance, Crimewave, and Postscripts. Several of his stories have been selected by Ellen Datlow for her Best Horror of the Year series. His debut collection, Peel Back the Sky, was published by Gray Friar Press in 2012. By day he works in an office, where he smiles at his co-workers and imagines very dark things happening to them. His website is here.

1. Tell us three things about yourself. 
Three things about me? Well, here goes - the first thing is that I love football. I'm actually a Nottingham Forest fan. I know a couple of other Forest fans who write horror (Richard Farren Barber and Danny Rhodes) so make of that what you will. The club's woes for the past 20-odd years probably speaks a language that horror lovers can understand.

The second thing is that, whilst I love horror and fantasy literature, I'm not a huge fan of the genre in film. I can probably count on one hand the number of horror or fantasy films I love. Actually, probably make that two hands. But compared to films from other genres (science fiction and crime and comedy) horror and fantasy fair pretty poorly. Books, however, are a different matter.

The third thing I need to tell you about me is this – once I finish my existing writing commitments I'm going to have a crack at writing the ubiquitous novel. I know, I know - that's what we all say. Well it feels like that might be the next phase of my writing path. So I'll be percolating ideas and making notes for the next few months (probably years) because it feels like the novel is an itch I'm about ready to scratch. Watch this space.

2. What was the first thing you had published? 
The first thing I ever had published was a short story called 'Webbed Fingers', which appeared online in a webzine called Dark Fire Fiction. Not long afterwards a story of mine called 'The Motive' was published in an American magazine called Aoife's Kiss.

3. Which piece of writing are you proudest of? 
My favourite story from my own work is probably either 'Cuckoo Spit' or 'None So Blind'. The first was published in Black Static and the second appeared in Shadows & Tall Trees. Both stories were received pretty well, and they felt like milestones in my writing path. 'None So Blind' was also the first story of mine that was selected for Best Horror of the Year rather than just making the honourable mention list.

4. …and which makes you cringe? 
Many of my earliest stories are incredibly overwritten, and not half as subtle as I thought they were when I first wrote them. But I suppose the evolution of a writer means that your path is visible for all to see. As long as your writing is improving, you can't argue too much...

5. What’s a normal writing day like? 
I work a full-time day job so my writing has to happen around that. I always have the weekends off too, which makes me sound incredibly lax. So I write weekdays in an evening, usually from around 7.30 pm onwards (until very late). During my lunch-break at work I tend to write longhand in my notepad, and then revise it when I type it up in the evening. I'm definitely the kind of writer who prefers having written rather than actually writing. I also read a lot which sometimes does make it difficult to spend as much time writing as I'd like, however I think it's essential to read extensively (inside and outside your chosen genre) in order to be able to write to a suitable standard to contribute. The way I work is that every time I write, I read through the previous bit and edit as I go along. That way my productivity is a bit slower, but hopefully I catch the time back by not needing quite as much in the subsequent drafts. I'm also the type who adds to the original draft rather than cutting bits out to streamline it. I prefer a leaner framework on which to hang my meat. I should also say that if you're reading this and your harbour a desire to write, the one thing I would definitely recommend would be to attend the odd convention here or there (Fantasycon and Edge-Lit are my preferred two) because you won't regret it. Just mixing with creative types is the most immersive and inspiring thing you can ever do. Some of my closest friends were people that I met at conventions. What can be better than chatting with likeminded souls until the early hours, all the while being surrounded by people selling books? If such a thing as Heaven exists, it'll look like a combined version of the dealers' room and the bar at a writers' convention. Trust me on that one.

6. Which piece of writing should someone who’s never read you before pick up first? 
Probably Peel Back the Sky, which is my debut short story collection. It is a snapshot of my writing from the first 5 or 6 years since I sold my first story. It was nominated for a British Fantasy award. It's due out very soon in a shiny new electronic version. However, at the moment I'm looking for a publisher for my second collection. This feels like it's more representative of how my writing has progressed in the last few years. There'll be stories from publications like Black Static and Postscripts and Shadows & Tall Trees and Crimewave and Cemetery Dance. Even a few that made Best Horror of the Year. And, of course, a few original pieces. I'll keep you posted once I find a willing publisher.

7. What are you working on now?
I am working on three projects at the minute. The first is called Laudanum Nights, which is a novella of fantastical dark crime set in a pseudo-Victorian city populated by insane toy-makers, immortal recluses and monstrous insects. It is due to be published at Fantasycon in September by Hersham Horror Books. [NB: AND IT WAS, AND YOU CAN BUY IT HERE] The second is a short story called 'Fear of the Music', which is inspired by notes from the much-missed writer, Joel Lane, who sadly passed away in 2014. Joel and I corresponded several times over the years and he was very encouraging and supportive about my writing - even being kind enough to provide a blurb for Peel Back the Sky - so this story feels incredibly important to me. My story will appear in the tribute anthology, Something Remains, [NB: OUT NOW] the profits of which benefit Diabetes UK, a condition from which Joel suffered. The third project is a novella called Cockatrice which I am writing for a US publisher. It's a multi-viewpoint tale concerning a young boy who lives with his parents in an apartment block by the seaside. Neglected by his parents, who have troubles of their own, the young boy comes to believe that the mysterious tenant from the top-floor flat might be some kind of monster. I hope to be able to announce details of this one very soon.

Things of the Week: 26th May 2016

So this week has principally been about Getting Back Into The Groove.


Cate had another week off work after the honeymoon, allowing us to relax a little... and to get on with stuff like writing thank you notes (a lot of them!) and, among other things, buying a new bed! (Our existing one is a cheapo model with a knackered mattress.) Thanks to all the people whose gifts have made that possible.

Cate and I both decided recently to work together at losing weight and getting into better physical shape; that was after I was referred for a talk on bariatric surgery (aka weight-loss surgery) at the end of March. We both came away with a strong 'HELL NO' attitude to it, but if anything it made us more committed to living healthier lives. And it's been working. A couple of years ago, I was 24 stone (that's 336 pounds, to US readers) and had managed to drop to about 23, but my weight was stuck around there. By the time we got married, I was down to 22 stone.

Then came the honeymoon, and there was a lot of going out for meals and eating that extremely nice ice cream they do in Barmouth. By the time we got home, we'd both some - but by no means all - of the weight back on.

Initially I tried to go straight back to counting calories, keeping to 1800 or less a day. Didn't work; I kept getting hungry between meals, craving sweets and treats. So I indulged myself. A little. Not as much. But bit by bit, I've eased myself back into my old routine.

Today, I weighed myself, and for the first time in years, I'm under 22 stone. Okay, 21 stone, 13 and a quarter pounds, but psychologically speaking, that's a big milestone. Next target - 21 stone and less than ten pounds. Then less than 21 and a half stone. And so on. Baby steps. They work.

They work with the writing, too. While I'm still able to write full-time, I need to make every day count. That means not only Devil's Highway and the remaining Black Road novels, but short stories and a couple of other WIPs that I'm struggling to find time to work on, not to mention the 'admin' side of things - everything from finding writing markets for stories and submitting them, to putting together a list of my short stories for my agent, doing something about a tribute anthology I inherited, booking tickets for a show, applying for grants and bursaries, writing some spec non-fiction articles... all the little bits of stuff that need doing but keep getting put off because of the big tasks.

That meant working out a schedule for the day that would let me do all those things. But, like the dieting, you can't just impose a whole new regime at once - not least because I have to type up Devil's Highway from the dictated recordings in order to rewrite it, and that's a big job, still ongoing. But bit by bit, I'm getting there. Baby steps again. And the work is getting done.

Albeit slowly, and not without stress. Just this morning, I found the end of one chapter missing. I know I recorded it, but the file isn't where it's supposed to be. It might be on the old laptop, if I can get the damned thing running again. If not... well, I'll try not to panic. Get it typed up, then write in any missing bits. One problem at a time.

But as, piece by piece, the story materialises in concrete form, I find I'm getting excited about it again, remembering why Helen and Gevaudan and the rest got my interest in the first place. My only worry is how little time I've left myself to get everything fixed and ready. All hands to the pump.

I got in touch with my agent on my return; he's reading Black Mountain and enjoying it, which is good news! He'll have some notes soon, and hopefully a way forward for Mynydd Du to rise once more. In addition, I need to put together a full listing of all my short fiction for him... (see 'Admin') My Dad's reading Black Mountain too, mainly to make sure I haven't screwed up monumentally with my Welsh. Apparently he's enjoying it as well, though, even though he's not particularly a horror fan...

The final piece of news is a sadder one: Gary Fry today announced that, after over a decade, he is closing down Gray Friar Press.  Gary is, and has been from the word go, a class act. I have him to thank for publishing two of my story collections, Pictures Of The Dark and The Condemned, and it was also down to him that my short story 'The Moraine' first saw print (later to be reprinted in Ellen Datlow's Best Horror Of The Year.

 I'm just one of numerous authors given a break and a start by Gary. He's also been an absolute model of how to run a small press: when the printing firm Biddles went into administration, making it cost-ineffective to proceed with the hardback of The Condemned, he promptly refunded those who'd pre-ordered it, offered them copies of the paperback and also provided them with a PDF of the additional story the hardback should have included. On top of that, he took the hit caused by the money lost, while still paying me the full royalties owing for the book.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is how it's done.

Gray Friar has been a solid bulwark of the UK small press, and it's very sad to see it go. Here's to Gary and all he does in the future.

And on that note.... have a good weekend, folks.

The Condemned

My new collection, The Condemned, will be released by Gray Friar Press around the end of March this year as part of their 'Gray Matters' series of novellas. 

The Condemned contains six novellas and novelettes, including the BFA-nominated The Narrows, which was reprinted in Best Horror of the Year #1, and The School House, originally published in Houses On The Borderland.

The other tales, Dark Earth, A Kiss Of Old Thorns, The Model and Sleep Now In The Fire, are all previously unpublished. The collection will be released in paperback and a hardback limited edition; the hardback will contain an additional short story, 'Made Of Clay.'

As if this wasn't enough to put a smile on my face, some truly excellent writers have provided blurbs for the collection. From Alison Littlewood (author of A Cold Season and Path Of Needles):

'Simon Bestwick writes the kind of fiction that gets under your skin and stays there . . . thoughtful, tense and genuinely scary, his short stories lead you into dark places and then blow out the candle. His next collection is set to be a must-read of the genre.'

Further blurbs come from the mighty Paul Finch:

‘Simon Bestwick has penned some of the downright eeriest fiction I've ever read. But there is nearly always a hard, urban edge to it, and a deep political awareness. This is an author who bleeds onto the page when he's writing. He really believes in what he's doing. It's his passion and his mission, and as such his meaningful brand of horror is raw, shocking and right in-yer-face. Potent stuff, on so many levels.’

And another from Joseph D'Lacey:

'Grim, beautifully crafted and thought-provoking, Bestwick’s fiction satisfies on every level.'

And to crown it all, the great Ramsey Campbell has this to say:

'Simon Bestwick is among the most important writers of contemporary British horror. His work is rooted in unflinching social observation, and his supernatural tales have a real moral resonance. He's living proof that horror fiction can talk about the way we live today and shine an uncanny light on life, which throws its darkness into sharper relief.'

Many thanks to Ramsey, Joseph, Paul and Alison, and to Gary Fry at Gray Friar; as you can imagine, I am a happy chappie. :)

Apocalypses, Monsters and Airships, Oh My!

The weather is fantastic here right now, and I'm doing my best to make sure I get out in at least some of it.  At the moment, though, Hell's Ditch is taking up big chunks of my time.

To get the book ready for its early June deadline (at which point it goes out to the beta readers for a last going-over before being sent on to the redoubtable Agent Ring) I'm needing to revise about 20 pages a day, which is double what I'd normally set out to do.  The revisions here are basically to do with reducing wordcount, trimming about 10% in an effort to boil the writing down what what really matters.  As I'm going I'm compiling a list of things, big and small, that will need fixing or changing- anything from the layout of a room to a minor character's development over the course of the whole book to a series of short additional scenes that will need slipping in to build atmosphere.

Hell's Ditch is quite different from my first two novels.  Set in a dystopian and devastated Britain twenty years after a nuclear attack, it has more elements of science fiction in it for a start, and it's the first in a planned quartet of novels.  But it's got plenty of darkness and Lovecraftian horror in it, too.  I wrote the first half of the novel in 2010, but stopped work on it towards the end of that year when my grandmother died.  Funnily enough, as I keep working on the novel I see how it needs, very much, to be about grief and loss and the different ways in which people cope with and survive them.  Or, as the case may be, don't.  (However, it's also about scary monsters, shootouts and explosions, and has a main character called Helen Damnation.  Nobel Prize for Literature, here I come...)

Once that's finished with, I have a collection, The Condemned, which I will need to proofread and- in the case of a couple of stories- make some extensive revisions to.  The Condemned, which will be published later this year by Gray Friar Press, is a collection of six novellas and novelettes, plus a bonus story for buyers of the hardback edition.  After that- I hope to have time to write a couple of new short stories and novels, before moving on to a novel I've been wanting to write for some time.  This one will be another departure for me and the start of another planned series, born out of my fascination with the largest British aircraft ever built- the R101 airship. 

Before anyone asks- no, I'm not abandoning horror in search of success.  There is no point in being a writer if you don't tell the stories you want to tell.  These tales have been in my blood for a while now, waiting to get out.  And believe me, there will be horror.  Even on the airship.

That's pretty much the rest of 2012 mapped out for me, then.  The end of the year should see me returning to The Song Of The Sibyl, for hopefully the final and decisive engagement with a novel that's refused to let go of me, even though the writing (never mind the rewriting) of it has probably been the most fraught and complicated project I've had yet!

So- apocalypses, monsters and airships, oh my!  It's going to be a fun year.

Enjoy the lovely weather!

Terror Tales Of The Lake District

Paul Finch is, as anyone who's read his fiction can testify, one of the finest British writers currently working in the field. And the emphasis is on the British here- his writing is rooted solidly not only in the landscape and terrain of the British Isles and in modern everyday life there, but also in its rich and varied traditions and folklore. If you don't believe me, just hunt down one of his many fine collections (just go on Amazon and stick his name in; I'm not doing everything for you here.)

He's also now a very fine editor, with his first anthology, TERROR TALES OF THE LAKE DISTRICT, coming out from those nice folks at Gray Friar Press. It's the first in (hopefully) a series of regionally-themed horror stories, and has (as you can see) some very fine artwork from Steve Upham of Screaming Dreams. Numerous stories by both well-established and up-and-coming names are interspersed with accounts of the region's various eerie legends. Among other tales, you'll find my story, 'The Moraine'.

Just to whet your appetite a bit more, here's the TOC in full:

Little Mag’s Barrow by Adam L.G. Nevill
The Mad Clown of Muncaster
The Coniston Star Mystery by Simon Clark
The Croglin Vampire
Devils of Lakeland by Paul Finch
The Mumps Hall Murders
The Moraine by Simon Bestwick
The Tawny Boy
The Claife Crier by Carole Johnstone
The Monster of Renwick
Jewels in the Dust by Peter Crowther
The Devil’s Hole
Above the World by Ramsey Campbell
Nightmares of Burnmoor
The Jilted Bride of Windermere by Gary Fry
The Horror at Carlisle Castle
Walk the Last Mile by Steven Savile
The Poltergeist of Walla Crag
Framed by Peter Bell
Fiend’s Fell
Night of the Crone by Anna Taborska
The Tortured Souls of Lord’s Rake
Along Life’s Trail by Gary McMahon
The Black Hound of Shap
Striding Edge by Reggie Oliver

As you can see, there's a really stellar line-up here, and I'm delighted to be included. TERROR TALES OF THE LAKE DISTRICT is now available to pre-order from Gray Friar Press

A Blast From The Past

Anyone remember a TV series called Death Rattles?

If not, don't worry- you're in good company. Written by controversial playwright and scriptwriter Dennis Shapiro, Death Rattles was a short-lived and decidedly near-the-knuckle horror anthology series from the mid-80s, broadcast in the early days of Channel 4. It caused a fairly big stir at the time- there was pretty graphic nudity, gore, sex and violence and to cap it all it was all shot in the bleak, gritty style you'd more associate with a Ken Loach or Alan Clarke film than with the usually-cheesy effects of genre TV. I heard it actually caused questions to be raised in the House of Commons... but nobody remembers it now (proof that today's headlines are tomorrow's fish-and-chip wrappers- or they were then, anyway.)

I never got to see it at the time, however- it was way past my bedtime for a start (I was barely out of primary school when the bloody thing hit the airwaves.) Years later, though, I got to see some grainy home video recordings a horror-loving mate of mine had picked up at a car-boot sale, and was blown away.

Sadly my friend lost his video copies before we could watch the rest of the series (or I could get a copy for myself) and when I tried to buy it on video or DVD, I found it'd never been released commercially. No chance of it, either, as some dipstick apparently wiped all the master tapes shortly after release.

Fast forward to Fantasycon in Nottingham last year- there were a bunch of us, propping up the bar in the Shitannia Hotel (OK, slouched around one of the tables on chairs and couches, we were beyond standing by then) and up came the subject of classic genre shows. Gary Fry and Stephen Volk were leading the discussion- and then someone mentioned Death Rattles. I'd like to say it was me... so I will. :-)

Turned out a lot of well-known horror writers had never even heard of it, but a good half-dozen of us had. Most had seen the original run, although a couple of us- myself and the expatriate US writer Thana Niveau- had caught it through less orthodox channels. (I was quite chuffed to discover I was the baby of the group.)

With the original series lost forever, Gary Fry came up with the idea of trying to recreate the stories as best we could from memory (the original scripts, even, being unobtainable.) So I got the chance to do justice to The Children Of Moloch, which is still, for me, one of the most disturbing and distressing pieces of television- genre or otherwise- I've ever seen.

Anyway, Gary's Death Rattles anthology is out now, with stories from me, Gary McMahon, Paul Finch, John L Probert, Thana Niveau and Gary Fry himself, plus an introduction from Stephen Volk, and all for a mere £7.99/$14.00 plus P&P. Go on and treat yourself- if you dare (bwahahahahahaha!)

Where The Heart Is Reviewed

The first review of Where The Heart Is is now up. It's reviewed by the inimitable Des Lewis here. He has good things to say about the anthology, including 'Winter's End.' At least, I think so... Des has such an idiosyncratic view of the world it's sometimes hard to tell! 'Winter's End' is reviewed on the second 'page', for anyone who wants to see.

Shameless Pluggage #1: Where The Heart Is

First up is this nice little anthology from Gray Friar Press, those lovely people who also brought you Pictures Of The Dark. Hint hint.

Take an alternative tour of Great Britain . . .

Writers are often told to write about what they know best . . . and what do they know better than their own homes? In this anthology, 19 fine authors of dark fiction reveal some of the less palatable elements of their native environments.

My story 'Winter's End' appears herein, alongside work by Stephen Volk, Rhys Hughes, Gary McMahon, Joel Lane, Paul Finch, Gary Fry, D F Lewis, Andrew Hook, Allen Ashley, Stuart Young, Simon Kurt Unsworth, Carole Johnstone, Michelle James, Stephen Bacon, John Travis, Mark Patrick Lynch, Mark West, Mike O'Driscoll

Edited by that very nice chap, Gary Fry.

In stock and shipping now.

Where The Heart Is is available to buy here.