Things of the Week 19th February 2016

Hello again!

So, what's new? Well, my contributor copy of The Hyde Hotel arrived - edited by James Everington and Dan Howarth, it features stories from Cate Gardner, Alison Littlewood, V.H. Leslie, Ian Rowan, Amelia Mangan, Dan Howarth, S.P. Miskowski, Ray Cluley, James Everington, Alex Davis and Mark West. Oh, and me, with a tale called 'Wrath Of The Deep'.

The Hyde Hotel Welcomes You…
The Hyde Hotel looks almost exactly as you’d expect it to: a faceless, budget hotel in a grey city you are just passing through. A hotel aimed at people travelling alone, a hotel where you know so little about your fellow guests that they could be anyone… and where, perhaps, so could you. But sometimes things are hiding in plain sight, and not everyone who stays at The Hyde gets a good night’s sleep…
Enjoy your stay.

Also, here I am with Haunts Of Horror, formerly known as Houses On The Borderland. Edited by

David Sutton, the original of this suffered a non-release via the British Fantasy Society in 2008 and pretty much sank without trace. Now it's getting a new lease of life thanks to David's own Shadow Publishing imprint!

Houses on the borderland of madness and horror! “Houses are where we live, eat, sleep, love, dream. Houses are our private worlds, the places we find shelter from a cruel universe. But houses are also the venues of horrors and nightmares” Six terrifying novellas by top horror authors Allen Ashley - Simon Bestwick - Paul Finch - Gary Fry - Samantha Lee - David A. Riley.A seaside home, a school, a fantasy castle, a lighthouse, a wooden hut, a run-down tower block — all are tainted by an abnormal atmosphere. Be wary of what’s beyond the entranceway. For we have six dwellings eager to molest the human spirit at its lowest ebb, its most vulnerable time. Welcome… please step across the threshold…

Meanwhile, it's just over a week till the paperback release of Hell's Ditch! There'll be discounts! There'll be an online launch party with freebies! There'll be a launch party in meatspace at Waterstones Liverpool One! And there'll be a very excited Bestwick bouncing around and squeaking excitedly.

In other news, it's a little under three months now before Cate and I tie the knot. Yes, that's right: marriage. Feels like only yesterday that I popped the question. :)

Livia Llewellyn, who Lowdowned for this blog last year, has a new collection out called FURNACE, and it's gonna be epic. Hie ye to Amazon and buy thereof.

*pauses to kick language centres back to 'early 21st century' mode*

The Spectral Press fallout continues to... well... fall out, sadly - see this post from Gary McMahon.

An article of note this week was this one from Chuck Wendig. I hate HuffPo articles anyway because my laptop always ends up freezing up when I'm trying to scroll down them, so I never finish reading the bloody things. However, I won't be even trying to read the Huffington Post after this little gem:

Don’t write for Huffington Post. Don’t even share links to there. They’re so profitable by not paying writers? Fine. Demand they pay their writers and until they do, don’t click their links, don’t share their links, don’t speak their name while wearing anything other than a Mister Yuck face. Starve them of content and they will see how precious it is to them.

Pay the goddamn writers.

And I'll just add this, since it never gets old.

Get your own valid XHTML YouTube embed code

Finally....

Okay, at the end of the month, voting closes for the British Fantasy Awards. The longlist currently includes my eligible work from 2015:

Novel
Hell's Ditch (published by Snowbooks)

Stories
The Face Of The Deep (published in Game Over)
Horn Of The Hunter (published in The 2nd Spectral Book Of Horror Stories)
The Climb (published in Black Static#49)
No Room For The Weak (published on Mark Gunnells' blog)

If you read and enjoyed these, and believe they're worthy of consideration for your vote - well, then, you know what to do.

Have a good weekend, and all the best.

Awards Eligibility and Assorted Grumblings

A hard-earned and well-deserved prize. :)

I have to admit to being pretty ambivalent about awards. I wish I could be completely indifferent to them, as some claim to be; God knows I've tried. What matters is the work: I've said that many times and I believe it. That's what counts, not the money or the tick you get from teacher for doing it well, but show me a writer who's never suffered crippling doubt or a profound sense of 'why the hell do I even bother doing this?' and I'll show you a liar or a raving egomaniac (who's quite probably a shit writer into the bargain.)

Self-doubt is a bastard that gnaws at us all. Over the past few years, I've seen many other writers get multi-book deals while my own career stayed stalled. It wasn't their success that rankled; just my lack of it. It doesn't take much to bring out that persistent little inner troll that tells you you're a fraud, a fake, an imposter, a second-division hack who's worthless compared to the other talents out there. I've had a good year in professional terms, but that doesn't kill the troll; it's a persistent, nasty little beast, and you take whatever fire you can to drive it back into the dark.

In the absence of fame or riches, an awards nomination can mean a lot. And there are many, many good writers whose work, through no fault of theirs, just isn't commercial enough; if they're not going to get the big bucks, they at least deserve a damn good shout-out.


(Hell, when you're feeling low enough, a nice review on Amazon or Goodreads can do wonders for your spirits. By the same token, a one-star review can be an almighty kick in the tadpole factories, but we won't go into that.)

The flipside of that, of course, is how the run-up to awards sees so many people feverishly self-promoting, spamming and bigging themselves up. We've all seen awards of one kind or another cheapened by it, and by the prizes going - in some cases - to the loudest mouth, rather than the best writer. The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate self-promotion and passive-aggressive Facebook posts whenever they get a bad review.

If your work's good, it should get noticed, but that doesn't always happen. I've been in more than one anthology that's sunk without trace due to poor promotion or other fuck-ups, and stories (no, not just mine) that deserved a wide readership failed to make even a blip on most readers' radar.

A degree of self-promotion is necessary, but pinpointing how much is too much is never easy. Blowing your own horn often goes against the grain, but if you don't make at least some attempt to call attention to your work, there's a good chance you'll be completely overlooked.

So, anyway, here's what I had published for the first time in 2015.

Novel:
Hell's Ditch (Snowbooks, Dec 2015.)

Short Stories:
No Room For The Weak (Mark Allan Gunnells' blog, December 2015.)
The Climb (Black Static #49, ed. Andy Cox, TTA Press, November 2015.)
Horn Of The Hunter (Second Spectral Book of Horror Stories, ed. Mark Morris, Spectral Press, September 2015.)
The Face Of The Deep (Game Over, ed. Jonathan Green, Snowbooks, August 2015.)

Ah well: when all else fails, there's always these wise words of W.H. Auden's: "Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered."

Happy New Year, Folks

A picture from a slightly more wintry winter.

Coming up briefly for air here; I meant to do an end-of-year vlog for New Year's Eve, but I'm working on a novel redraft that needs doing by Monday, and by the evening I hadn't got round to it. Yesterday passed in much the same way.

So, a few quick words on 2015.

It was a tough start to the year. Cate's mum passed away just before last Christmas, which was a huge blow. Pauline was a kind, funny lady who had deserved better from life than she ever got, but never let it get her down. I'd liked her a great deal and wish there'd been time to know her much better, and she and Cate were very close. Seeing the person you love in that kind of pain and being helpless to make it go away is awful.

Plus, we were still living in the neighbourhood where Cate and her mum had lived for decades, in The House Of Damp And Mould (and perenially malfunctioning boiler.) I hadn't published a novel in three years, unless you counted the serial Black Mountain, and still didn't have an agent. (Although I was working on a new novel for Solaris, so it wasn't completely bleak.)

A lot has changed since then.

Cate's lovely and moving piece here says more than I could about coming to terms with loss. We moved in June from Tuebrook to the Wirral, to a little house we both love. There are plenty of green spaces close to hand, we're fifteen minutes from the beach by bus and our landlord's great. It's a new start, and it's done us both good. And we've set the date for our wedding next year - this year, I mean.

Hell's Ditch, which I'd started to fear would never see daylight, found a home with Snowbooks and came out last month. It's the first book in a story that's been steadily evolving since I was nineteen. I started writing it back in 2010, broke off for 2011 to write The Faceless and finished it in early 2012 before the long hard task of shopping it around began. Now it's out, and suddenly the rest of the Black Road needs to be travelled. In a few weeks I have to go back to the world of Helen and Gevaudan, Danny and Alannah, of Dr Mordake and Colonel Jarrett and Tereus Winterborn, and start writing about it and them after a three year absence (although I did pop back for a couple of brief visits without too much trouble.) It's exciting, and it's scary. All being well, The Devil's Highway will be out in October. (The paperback of Hell's Ditch will be released this March.)

I finished the novel for Solaris, The Feast Of All Souls (the original title, Redman's Hill, was felt to sound too like a Western for American readers!) and that'll be available in December 2016. Watch this space for a reveal of Ben Baldwin's brilliant cover art.

In between the first and second drafts of Feast, I wrote another book - a crime novel, belted out hard and fast, at white heat. It was great fun, and it got me an agent.

Four short stories came out, including 'The Face Of The Deep' in GAME OVER, which was singled out for praise by the Financial Times, and 'Horn Of The Hunter' in THE SECOND SPECTRAL BOOK OF HORROR STORIES - one of fourteen stories picked out of over 800 submissions! The others were 'The Climb' in Black Static #49 and 'No Room For The Weak', published on Mark Allan Gunnells' blog as part of the Hell's Ditch blog tour.

So 2015 ended a hell of a lot better than it started. It wasn't an unbroken uphill climb, of course: there were setbacks and downturns along the way. Especially in the wider world. There was the election result back in May: Britain, already a darker, meaner and more frightening place, is becoming more so. And then there were the horrible massacres in Paris, Baghdad and Beirut, and the vicious racism and hatred that's arisen in response to them. And the Christmas period has brought a succession of horrendous storms with torrential rain and flooding across many parts of the country. There will, very likely, be more to come. But there's still good in the world; there's compassion and kindness and love. Sometimes I think there's actually enough of it. But I always was an optimist.

However good things are going, something can always happen to pull the rug out from under. But just
because it can doesn't mean it will. So I'm starting 2016 with guarded optimism: there's a lot of hard work ahead, and not everything will be easy. But I have my health (touch wood), I'm with the woman I love and I've reached a couple of professional milestones.

2016 will see two novels published - The Devil's Highway and The Feast Of All Souls. And in a couple of weeks, my novella Angels Of The Silences will be reissued by Omnium Gatherum (and here's the new cover art - ain't it beautiful?) It's going to be a busy year in every way: hopefully it will be followed by more.

Happy New Year to all of you. I hope it brings you everything you want, need and hope for.

Game Over Reviewed In The Financial Times; Special Love for 'The Face Of The Deep'

Cate and I ended up pottering around Liscard yesterday in search of a copy of the Financial Times - not bloody easy to find in Liscard, I can tell you! - as I'd heard there was a review of Jonathan Green's excellent anthology GAME OVER therein.

And so there was. It had this to say:

'The authors Green has selected, though not household names, are resopected in their fields or notable up-and-comers, and their stories delve beneath the clunky graphics to find paranoia, madness, murder and ghosts. There are three standouts:James Wallis' Tetris-referencing 'The Russian Effect,' Simon Bestwick's 'The Face Of The Deep', which fuses H.P. Lovecraft and Frogger, and James Swallow's 'Screen Burn,' where a long-lost game becomes a lethal urban legend.'

So to celebrate, here is a picture of a happy frog.

And they say it's not easy being green.

You're welcome. :)

The Lowdown with… Jonathan Green

Tomorrow sees the release of Snowbooks' GAME OVER anthology! So, of course, for the last in this special edition of The Lowdown, we could only interview one man: its editor, Jonathan Green, (aka The Evil Genius Without Whom The Anthology Would Not Exist.) Jonathan is a writer of speculative fiction, with more than fifty books to his name. Well known for his contributions to the Fighting Fantasy range of adventure gamebooks, he has also written fiction for such diverse properties as Doctor Who, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000, Sonic the Hedgehog, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Moshi Monsters, LEGO and Judge Dredd.

He is the creator of the Pax Britannia series for Abaddon Books and has written eight novels set within this steampunk universe, featuring the debonair dandy adventurer Ulysses Quicksilver. Jonathan also the author of an increasing number of non-fiction titles, including the award-winning YOU ARE THE HERO – A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks.

GAME OVER is his second anthology as editor, the first being the critically-acclaimed SHARKPUNK, also published by Snowbooks. To find out more about his current projects visit www.JonathanGreenAuthor.com and follow him on Twitter here.

1. Tell us three things about yourself.

The artist who designed the masks used in Mad Max: Fury Road illustrated my first published comic strip. I once directed Colin Firth (yes, the Colin Firth). Leeta from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine once bought me dinner.

2. What was the first thing you had published?

Spellbreaker, a Fighting Fantasy gamebook published by Puffin Books in 1993. I’ve been published every year since.

3. Of which piece of writing are you most proud?

YOU ARE THE HERO – A History of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks. It was a real labour of love and took me almost two years to write. It is also the only thing I’ve written that has featured on the BBC News website or won an award.

4. …and which makes you cringe?

I’m proud of everything I’ve had published, to a greater or lesser extent, but some passages in my early novels were just too overblown and featured far too many adjectives.

5. What’s a normal writing day like?

Is there such a thing? For me, at the moment, a ‘normal’ writing day never seems to include enough actual writing time, and ends up with me going to bed far later than is sensible – but then my kids are half way through their school summer holidays at the moment.

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

It depends on what they’re into really, as I’ve been fortunate to have written a whole range of different things for different age groups.

The best example of my non-fiction work is YOU ARE THE HERO, which I’ve been told can be enjoyed as a social history of the 1980s and as a fantasy art book, even if you have never actually heard of Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks before.

If short horror fiction is your thing, then check out my short story The Doll’s House. In terms of long-form fiction, give my Steampunk novel Pax Britannia: Dark Side a go. And if you love adventure gamebooks, then Howl of the Werewolf would be the one to go for, if you can find a copy; if not, try Night of the Necromancer.

7. What are you working on now? 

Aside from promoting GAME OVER to death, I am writing a brand new adventure gamebook inspired by the works of Lewis Carroll, called Alice’s Nightmare in Wonderland. As well as being a gamebook it is also features a healthy dose of my perennial occupations, Steampunk and horror. And of course, I’m also planning my next anthology…

GAME OVER is released tomorrow!

The Lowdown with... Adam Chillman

Adam Chillman. We think he's the one on the left.

Today's Lowdown is with GAME OVER contributor Adam Chillman. Adam is a proud husband and dad who, when he finds time between work and toddlers, occasionally writes Twitter fiction and even more occasionally writes short stories. He eventually intends to occasionally write a novel. He can normally be located somewhere in the middle of England, or in his own world plotting stories in his head. He has a slight coffee addiction. He Tweets here and has a website there. 

1. Tell us three things about yourself.

Right, ok, so three things. That should be easy really... I mean,  I'm thirty-one so I'm sure I have three interesting facts I can pull from three decades of experience. Wait,  does my age count? No, I have better. Honestly. I am a working father with two outgoing, lovely toddlers and an equally lovely, supportive, wife who are the driving force behind everything I do. That's one, see, this isn't that hard. Right, whats next? My eldest reliably informs me it is two.

I hate writing about myself. Seriously, give me any kind of fiction brief and I will, whether or not it ends up readable, happily attempt to write anything about anything. Ask me for something as basic as three things about myself and I start rambling more than the local walking group (they are very active). You may be wondering then why I agreed to an interview, which, by its very nature is going to entail a certain amount of talking about myself. One of the best pieces of advice I was ever given was that pushing yourself to do things which you aren't confident at is the only way to become confident at them. Failing just means you've tried to do something.

And three. I have an awful sweet tooth...  Well my wife thinks it is awful, I rather enjoy it.

2. What was the first thing you had published?

Everything I have read told me not to admit this, but, between us, this is my first publication. I hope it leads to more because it has been so much fun, despite the huge doses of imposter syndrome I keep feeling when I look at the amazing authors I have been lucky enough to be included in a book with. Seriously, wait till you read their stories...

3. Which piece of writing are you proudest of?

So I guess that would make my story for Game Over the piece of writing I am proudest of, as it is the first thing I have written that people actually, apparently, want to read... Or at least Jonathon did, and I hope you do!

4. .…and which makes you cringe?

My current long term project. Constantly. Which is admittedly normal for me early on in working a story out... And pretty much throughout. I'm told self doubt is only unhealthy if it stops you doing something though, so i'm going to have some serious cringe lines by the time I'm finished.

5. What’s a normal writing day like?

Wait? People write during the day? Feel free to tweet any advice on how you manage that to @chilliswriting. My wife and I both work full time around looking after our boys so writing for me only really happens between 9 at night and 1am. Unless it's nursery day, and our youngest is asleep!

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

There is a quote from Fran Lebowitz, "I write so slowly that I could write in my own blood without hurting myself". That's probably useful to know. Also, for a variety of reasons, a book that is always in the back of my mind when I'm writing is Night Mare by Piers Anthony. For me it is as perfect an example of story telling as you will find anywhere in literature, and suitable for any age. Plus full of amazing puns.

7. What are you working on now? 

Aside from my first attempt at a... Probably novella... I am working on three short stories for my currently empty website, which have been floating around my head for a while, scratching at the gate to be let out. One is currently presented as a research article, unless the cringing wins over and I rewrite it.  The second a short form horror inspired by Kate Bush's 'Wuthering Heights' for a presently non-existent section of my site. And the third is currently just scribbles from a dream, and needs more time for research than I have at present! Thank you for putting up with my ramblings, and hope you enjoy my story.