Things Of The Week 8th April 2016

This week has been exciting and frustrating in equal measures. On the one hand, my crime novel has gone out to publishers; editors at three or four major imprints now have it on their desks. So now I just have to cross my fingers, wait and hope.

On the other hand, work on Devil's Highway hasn't been going as quickly or smoothly as I'd have liked; I'm in the process of typing up the first draft from pre-recorded notes, and I'm behind where I'd hoped to be. Well, that's often the way, but tendonitis and a lousy cold aven't helped; I've been feeling wiped out for most of the week. Not been out of the house very much either, which has been little help; I went for a walk yesterday, but came home exhausted and flopped out for the rest of the afternoon.

So I'm trying to take it easy today in the hope that'll help. Will see how that goes. I want to get the novel into a good enough shape to send a draft out to betas at the beginning of May.

The harder you pull, the tighter the knot gets. I've spent a lot of the last week or two typing stuff up, breaking away from it to work-avoid by dicking around on Facebook, then berating myself for not doing enough before spending more time glaring at the screen and demanding I do more work today, not going out of the house or doing anything else... it becomes a vicious circle, so I may have a week or two away from Devil's Highway to work on other projects, then try and go back to it (hopefully) refreshed. I have an idea or two revolving around abandoned communities - not this one or that one, though!

The Spectral saga resurfaced on Facebook, with much of the same unpleasantness as before. In the interests of fairness and full disclosure, though, I have now received the outstanding monies due to me from Black Mountain. Many thanks to Gary Compton for sorting that out. So, with the exception of any royalties that The Second Spectral Book Of Horror may accrue, that's hopefully the end of my involvement with the whole sorry affair. Other customers and authors are still in the process of recovering what they're owed, but the wrongs appear to be getting righted, steadily.

The lovely Priya Sharma has been doing a feature on her blog, interviewing contributors to the Black Shuck Books anthology The Hyde Hotel. So far, the victims have included James Everington, Alison Littlewood, Mark West - and, in today's instalment, the one and only Cate. There'll be one from me coming up soon.

On a happier note, here's something I've been meaning to link to for a while; the artwork of Sergey Kolesov, aka Peleng. Bizarre, grotesque, funny and macabre stuff.

Tyneham

Funny how things click together in my head. Like I said, lost communities fascinate me, and I was actually thinking of one earlier today when I heard about the death of Rachel Johnson, the last native St Kildan.

The village of Tyneham had stood on the Dorset coast, near Worbarrow Bay, for centuries when it and the surrounding land was commandeered by the War Office just before Christmas 1943, supposedly for the duration of the war. The last resident to leave pinned this message on the door of the 13th century church, St Mary's:

Please treat the church and houses with care; we have given up our homes where many of us lived for generations to help win the war to keep men free. We shall return one day and thank you for treating the village kindly.

After the war, despite the promise that it would be returned to its original inhabitants, the Army

placed a compulsory purchase order on Tyneham, and it has remained in use for military training since then.

Many of the houses are in ruins now, but what remains of 'the village that died for England' is open to visitors at weekends and during August.

A few years ago, I found this video on YouTube. Overlook the spelling and punctuation errors in the text; it's actually quite beautiful and haunting.

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St Kilda

Lost and abandoned communities fascinate me, and Britain's littered with them. Mediaeval villages depopulated by plague, destroyed by war or the whim of a feudal lord, mining communities deserted as the seams of lead or gold ran out, coastal settlements lost to the sea, islands finally abandoned when life there became too hard...

I just saw this news article: a woman called Rachel Johnson, nee Gillies, passed away today at the age of 92. Her death marks the end of an era.

The archipelago of St Kilda is one of the most remote of all the British Isles; nearly fifty miles west of Harris and Lewis, it's the most westerly of the Outer Hebrides. It was inhabited for nearly two thousand years, until the last of its inhabitants were evacuated on 29th August 1930.

Life there was hard and isolated, but the islands - now a nature reserve - remain some of the most

beautiful in the UK. They're also home to unique animal species like the Soay sheep, the St Kilda wren and the St Kilda fieldmouse. (There was also a St Kilda house mouse, which became extinct following the desertion of the islands.)

Rachel Gillies was eight years old when she was evacuated. With her death, the last of the native St Kildans has passed away.

The story of the islands is a rich and fascinating one, and you can learn more about them here. Here's a 1972 documentary about them to whet your appetite.

In the words of one former inhabitant, 'it was a far better place.'

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The Lowdown with... Willie Meikle

William Meikle is a Scottish writer, now living in Canada, with over twenty novels published in the genre press and over 300 short story credits in thirteen countries. He has books available from a variety of publishers including Dark Regions Press, DarkFuse and Dark Renaissance, and his work has appeared in a number of professional anthologies and magazines. He lives in Newfoundland with whales, bald eagles and icebergs for company. When he's not writing he drinks beer, plays guitar, and dreams of fortune and glory.

1. Tell us three things about yourself. 

I'm Scottish, I live in a house on the shore in rural Newfoundland in Canada, and I wish I was a spaceman.

2. What was the first thing you had published? 

It was back in late 1992, my story AN EARLY FROST appeared in a UK small press magazine, XENOS. A lot of us back then had stories in it - it was one of the more regular publications and ran to an impressive number of issues. I ended up placing half a dozen stories there before it went the way of so many others. The story itself was a dark fantasy, featuring an abused kid, a winter night, and a wee frosty pal who shows him the ways of cold magic. Like many of my early stories, it was based heavily on childhood dreams and nightmares. I've still got a warm place in my heart for it, and it's since appeared in several other magazines. The first thing I wrote, a wee ghost story, DANCERS, wasn't published till later (in ALL HALLOWS) but it did win 2nd prize in the WRITER'S NEWS annual competition in '92, so I was off and shuffling about a bit.

3. Which piece of writing are you proudest of? 

I think I nailed what I wanted to say most strongly in my novella TORMENTOR from DarkFuse. I've had a love affair with the Isle of Skye for many years, had an idea in my head for a long time about a revenant spirit of rhythm that was tied to the history of a place, and I wanted to say some things about loss and creativity. The idea of getting those ideas together was percolating for years until I felt confident enough in my writing to do it justice, then, back in 2014, it all came in a rush. I think I got away with it.

4. …and which makes you cringe? 

Some of my early stuff was little more than exercises in leading up to very bad puns. I really wish I could take several of them back. The worst offender is a very short story called "At the Trial of the Loathesome Slime" which is a melange of Laurel and Hardy references, a big blobby thing that gets killed by putting it through a micropore sieve, and a last line 'That's another fine mesh you've gotten us into.' See what I mean?

5. What’s a normal writing day like? 

I generally start about noon, having spent the morning getting the chores / shopping / admin / pissing about on Facebook etc squared away. I sit at my laptop and write in bursts of about 300 words at a time punctuated with more visits over to Facebook and email and trips downstairs for coffee and biscuits. That goes on through the afternoon until teatime. After food I'm generally back at it for a couple more hours. I average, what with editing, deleting and rewriting, around 1300-1500 words a day. The day usually ends with us watching a movie or some old scifi series. I used to have regular breaks for guitar playing but that's been curtailed quite a bit in recent years by the onset of a touch of arthritis in wrists and fingers. Luckily it's not stopped me typing - yet.

6. Which piece of writing should someone who’s never read you before pick up first? 

I'd suggest my most recent novel THEDUNFIELD TERROR (DarkFuse again). Newfoundland has been slowly taking a hold in my writing since we got here, and TDT is a synthesis of this place with all my old influences. There's Wyndham, Quatermass, Lovecraft and possibly even some Doctor Who in this novel of a strange thing crawling through a major winter storm in a rural fishing village in Eastern Canada. It's another story where I think I nailed almost exactly what I wanted to say, but more than that, I had an awful lot of fun with it, and I think it shows.

7. What are you working on now? 

I'm in the early stages of a new novella which is shaping up to be another synthesis of Newfoundland and old influences. This time it's my distant past training as a biologist, and an investigation of strange Cetacean deaths leading to the uncovering of a centuries old whale worshipping sect in a remote community. I'll be having to avoid too much of the Wicker Man creeping in, but it has started well and I'm keen to see where it ends up.

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.

The Lowdown with... Carole Johnstone

Carole Johnstone is a British Fantasy Award winning Scottish writer, currently living in Essex, England. Her fiction has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, published by Constable & Robinson, PS Publishing, Tachyon Publications, ChiZine, Running Press, and Night Shade Books, among many others.

Her fiction has also been reprinted in many Best Of anthologies, including Ellen Datlow's Best Horror of the Year, and Salt Publishing's Best British Fantasy series. Her novella, Cold Turkey, and debut short story collection, The Bright Day is Done, were both shortlisted for 2015 British Fantasy Awards.

More information on the author can be found at her website.

1. Tell us three things about yourself:

I LOVE beer. (Hence the photo). But ninety-nine point nine percent of the time, I drink wine instead. Because beer does not love me.

I collect medieval weaponry, the bigger and uglier the better. I buy most of it from museum auctions, so that I know I’m not paying often ridiculous amounts of money for something that’s been cobbled together in someone’s shed. My pride and joy is a huuuge iron battle axe head from the Black Forest.

I once picked the balls out of the bag live on Scotsport for the Scottish Cup. It was the single most terrifying moment of my life.

2. What was the first thing you had published?

It was a short story called 'The Morning After', and it was published in Black Static #3, back in 2008, I think. A very short, very simple story with a very predictable twist, but I still have a soft spot for it all the same.

3. Which piece of writing are you proudest of?

God, that’s hard, Simon! I’ll do what I usually do, and pick a few...

I’ve just finished a dark psychological thriller called The Love of My Life, and I’m hugely proud of that, but as it hasn’t been published yet, I’ll choose my 2014 BFA-nominated novella, Cold Turkey. It’s about a guy who tries to give up smoking, but finds that the side-effects of going cold turkey are far more horrific than he’d been expecting. I wanted it to be all things: scary and sexy and funny and moving; a love story and a horror story, a cautionary tale. Whether anyone actually thinks that it’s any or all of those things is, of course, entirely beyond my control. I was trying to give up smoking myself at the time – which proved entirely beyond my control too.

And I recently had a short called 'There You’ll Be' published in the anthology, Terror Tales of the Scottish Highlands, that I’m pretty proud of, if only because it was a pretty big departure for me, and probably the most personal thing I’ve ever written.

4. ...and which makes you cringe?

My first longer work was a novella called Frenzy, published back in 2009. It’s a story about a group of survivors adrift on the Pacific over the Mariana Trench, at the mercy of the elements, sharks, and each other. And the something waiting in the abyss beneath them.

I don’t hate it – I probably shouldn’t say so, but I’ve never hated anything I’ve had published – although it is very overwrought and overwritten. I was channelling at least half a dozen other – better – writers at the time. Plus, the ending is horribly ambiguous, with little or no resolution at all – the kind of book that I, as a reader, would want to hurl across the room in frustration. Weirdly, this didn’t occur to me at the time.

There are still elements that I like, and I can see what I was trying to do; if I went back now, I’d do a far better job of it. I’ve always had a tremendous sense of fascination/terror for the deep ocean, and just adore the whole lost and alone on the alien sea narrative, so maybe one day I will!

5. What’s a normal writing day like?

Well, I work pretty much full time, so I write when I can, usually in the evening and at weekends. I do have rituals: I read something similar to what I’m writing to get into the mood; I listen to classical music, mostly movie soundtracks (unless I’m editing – then it’s nothing); erm...wine. If it’s going badly, vodka. Very badly, beer. I’ve given up smoking now, but e-cigs are a constant writing companion.

I’m not the kind of writer who can grab a few moments here and there: on the tube, in my lunch hour etc. I have to be all the way down in it. Often I’ll write for seven, eight hours straight, sometimes until dawn, and although not all of it will be any good, it’s definitely my most productive way of working.

6. Which piece of writing should someone who’s never read you before pick up first?

If they’re looking for long fiction, Cold Turkey. For short fiction, my BFA-nominated short story collection, The Bright Day is Done.

7. What are you working on now?

Having just finished a novel, I’m enjoying writing a few shorts just for me: no commission, no theme, just whatever I feel like, which is great. I’ve also just finished a long short/short long, which is a bit Taggart meets True Detective, and I can’t remember when I last had such a blast writing anything.

I’m planning on starting work on a new novel in the new year. A dark psychological thriller set in Edinburgh, about two very different twin sisters. I’ve got it all pretty much plotted out, so can’t wait to get stuck in.

I’ve also got a couple of pretty major decisions to make next year writing-wise, so watch this space!