And so we say farewell... ending the year on a high

2013 hasn't been the nicest of years. I lost one of my best friends and the world as a whole lost a lot of good people and gifted artists. Okay, we lost Maggie Thatcher as well, and good riddance, but that doesn't really make up for it.

On the other hand, something really good happened yesterday.

I sneaked up to Liverpool on a day return ticket, and with a little help from the ever-reigning Cate's work colleagues Lucy and Jill (thanks ladies!) was hiding behind the Christmas tree in the foyer of her office when she came downstairs, supposedly to sign for a package. Except that it was the end of her shift, and she was heading out the door.

So I stepped out from behind the tree and called her name. Cate then did the most perfect double-take I've ever seen in real-life, gawped and said 'What the fuck are you doing here?' (I will tell our grandchildren of this.)

I explained that I'd been missing her a great deal and couldn't wait another day to see her - oh, and by the same token...

I went down on one knee (with a brief mental prayer for the integrity of my trousers) and took out a small hinged box. At which point Cate saw her work colleagues watching and with a cry of 'not in front of everyone!' ran outside in a fit of mortified embarrassment. (Yes, I'll be telling our grandchildren about this too.)

After a short chase, I asked her properly, on the Pier Head at Liverpool: 'Cate Gardner, will you marry me?'

She said yes.

Happy 2014, everybody.

Joel Lane

Today is a very sad day.

I'm going down to Birmingham to attend the funeral of Joel Lane - a brilliant writer, and one of my best friends, who died suddenly in his sleep on 26th November.

I've written about Joel elsewhere, and don't feel able to go on at greater length, but just wanted to remember him, however briefly, here.

Goodbye, mate. We love you.

Other remembrances can be found here:
Nina Allan
Rosanne Rabinowitz
Conrad Williams
Mark Valentine
Des Lewis
Andrew Hook
Nine Arches Press
Jonathan Oliver
Pete Coleborn
Martin Sketchley
Lynda E. Rucker
Steve Jones
Mat Joiner
Mike Chinn
Thomas Ligotti
Martin Roberts
Gary McMahon
Simon Strantzas

Sailing The Storm, or the Vanishing Mr Quill

On Monday, finally, I completed the final draft of Riders on the Storm, my novel about the R.101 airship, and emailed it to my agent, the redoubtable Sharon Ring.

Of course, when I say it's the final draft, it's really nothing of the sort. It's the final draft that I needed to do before sending it out into the world; there'll be another draft when my agent's finished reading it, to knock it into some sort of final shape. And if (crosses fingers) a publisher takes it up, it can still expect to be tweaked and massaged some more before it sees the light of day.

And that's fair enough. A good agent, like a good editor, will like your book for what it is, not what they think it should be. Any suggestions they make will be aimed at making it the best it can be.

I don't think anything I've written to date has gone through as many rewrites, as many changes, as Riders has. It's demanded more research than anything I've done before, and has been unlike anything I've previously written.

Big changes happened from draft to draft. One of the biggest was the stuff that disappeared; the thing about a big, open-ended series is that you don't have to throw everything at the readers at once. So the whole last third of the novel vanished - it'll form the opening of the next novel in the series, should that ever come to pass. Another disappearance was the novel's antagonist, Mr Quill. You might meet him in a later book. Or you might not. Only time will tell.

It's been a long, strange, journey, but I hope it'll prove to have been worth it all.

To finish off, here's a video that was one of the first things I found when I started combing the internet for information about R.101. It catches the strange magic and majesty of the great airships perfectly, I think. And it ultimately led to me making contact with its maker, Trev Monk, a fellow airship enthusiast, who proved a truly invaluable help in making Riders happen. Cheers, Trev!

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Update 3 of 3: The Condemned - Hardcover Edition

The Condemned, my new collection, is now out in paperback. Unfortunately the printers, Biddles, has now gone into administration. They did so before printing the limited edition hardcover of the book, but not, sadly, before taking payment from Gray Friar Press for it.

Due to the extremely ballsed-up nature of things at Biddles - whose boss, apparently, was invoicing people practically up to the moment they went under - getting the money back may be easier said than done.

As a result of all this, I'm sorry to say that the hardcover edition of the book may not now happen.

None of this is the fault of Gary Fry at Gray Friar, who is very much the victim here and who has behaved throughout like the honest gentleman that he is. I know that he's already working on a solution for those who've pre-ordered the hardcover.

The paperback is still very much available and you can buy it here, here and here.

Update 2 of 3: Best British Fantasy 2013, Let's Drink To The Dead Reviewed and Machen, Maggie & Moses Gate...

My short story 'Dermot' has been reprinted again, this time in The Best British Fantasy 2013, published by Salt and edited by the estimable Steve Haynes. I'm delighted to announce that it also includes a story from the ever-reigning Cate, 'Too Perfect For Human Form'. And many, many more good tales.

My mini-collection Let's Drink To The Dead has received a glowing review from Anthony Watson at Dark Musings, who says: 'Disturbing and horrifying, Let's Drink to the Dead is another brilliant piece of writing from Simon Bestwick. Buy it you should.'

The most recent instalment of my Heretic Songs column at This Is Horror is The Shrinking Space, which manages to talk about legacies of Arthur Machen and Margaret Thatcher (pauses to spit), and also about Moses Gate Country Park in Bolton, in an attempt to find out what the hell has gone so wrong with how we live now.

Update 1 of 3: Joolz Denby Interview and A Tribute To Richard Matheson

Hello there.

Yes, it's been a while. Sorry about that. So here I am, bringing you up to date on events in Bestwickland. There's a fair bit, so I'm breaking it up into three chunks: it's all go over here.

The first one concerns two of my favourite writers. The news is sad in respect of one of them, but great in respect of the other.

Richard Matheson: He was legend.

Richard Matheson died on Sunday. He was a brilliant writer who worked in many genres and media, but he's best known for his SF and horror fiction.

I'd loved his work for decades and had always considered him one of the greats; as with Ray Bradbury's passing last year, even though I never met the man, his passing brings with it an acute sense of personal loss.

This Is Horror are publishing tributes to the man at the moment: you can find mine here.

On a happier note, I recently got to interview the poet, novelist, short story writer, artist and tattooist Joolz Denby, one of my favourite writers, not to mention a hell of a role model.

Joolz Denby: Another legend. Oh, and me.

The first part (the second will follow in due course) is now up - also at This Is Horror. It's an illuminating and honest interview with a writer who deserves a much bigger readership.

You can read it here.

The Condemned- Available to pre-order. And here's the trailer.

The Condemned is now available to pre-order here at the Gray Friar Press website.

There is also a trailer, courtesy of the lovely and talented Anna Taborska, with music by the excellent Kevin Macleod. Here it is:

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