Things Of The Week 2nd April 2021: Best Horror Of The Year #13, Nine Ghosts Launch Video, Out Of The Darkness, Body Shocks Advance Review

So, two nights ago I got an email from Ellen Datlow, about a short story of mine called 'A Treat For Your Last Day,' letting me know she wanted to publish it in The Best Horror of the Year #13.

Anything like that is always great news, but this was particularly great for two reasons: firstly because it'll mark the first time I've appeared in Best Horror of the Year for two years running - it only seems like last week that I received my contributor's copy of Best Horror of the Year #12, the incredibly cool Reiko Murakami of which is pictured on the left - and secondly because 'A Treat For Your Last Day' was first published on my Patreon page.

I've had a Patreon account for a couple of years now, and my biggest challenge has been making it both something I can sustain and something that's worth looking at. I'll talk a bit more about my Patreon in another post some time. For now, I'll just say that I post new work there every fortnight and that you can read it for as little as a dollar a month. So there we go. 

In other news, the Kickstarter for Unsung Stories' Out Of The Darkness anthology still has five days to run, although it's already massively outstripped its original target of £2500. I'm one of a host of authors - including Laura Mauro, Aliya Whiteley, Georgina Bruce, Gary Budden, Tim Major - who've contributed horror and dark fantasy fiction inspired by the theme of mental illness. All author fees and royalties will be donated to Together For Mental Wellbeing.

Having hit its first stretch target of £5000, the anthology will now include an additional story by Malcolm Devlin; if it hits its second stretch target of £7000, a further story by Gareth E. Rees will be added to the table of contents. The total amount pledged currently stands at £6840, so things are looking pretty healthy there.

Ginger Nuts Of Horror has been hosting a series of articles in which the anthology's contributors talk about their own inspirations and experiences. Contributors Aliya Whiteley, Tim Major and Anna Vaught disucss their stories here; Alison Moore, Verity Holloway and Eugen Bacon talk about theirs here, and you can find Sam Thompson, Richard V Hirst and myself on our own contributions here. 

The first advance review of another Ellen Datlow anthology, Body Shocks - which includes my story 'Welcome To Mengele's' - is now up at HellNotes, and seems to be a rave. Hopefully the first of many for this book. 

Finally, Nine Ghosts, my new mini-collection from Black Shuck Books, was released on March 25th, and March 26th saw a live-streamed launch via YouTube. 

See! A fat beardy man wittering on!  

Hear! The two lucky winners of free copies of the book!

And tremble! At readings of two of the stories from the collection, 'The Cage' and 'Dab and Sole.'

If you missed (or if you didn't, and for some insane reason actually want to put yourself through that again,) here it is.

Have a good weekend, folks.

Simon. 

Things Of Last Week: 18th April 2016

I am a very bad person.

I normally do Things of the Week every Friday, but got a little distracted, not least because we had dinner guests - Priya Sharma and her partner Mark came round for dinner, several rounds of Cards Against Humanity (I won a pack of these a couple of months back) which is set to become a guilty pleasure, I suspect.

The only reason we didn't end up playing all night was because Priya had a Blu-Ray of Mad Max: Fury Road. So I finally got to see the damn film, and it was incredible. Charlize Theron is superb as Imperator Furiosa (and what a cool name that is) and Tom Hardy... damnit, Tom Hardy is Tom Hardy. After seeing him in Locke, I understood exactly why so many people go chicken oriental about the guy. He fits very snugly into Mel Gibson's boots here, but Theron basically owns this film, which is just great stuff: almost completely non-stop action, but it actually builds in heart and character development and emotional power without sacrificing a moment's pace. I will admit to welling up slightly at one point. To avoid spoilers, I'll just say this: "Witness me."


Yep.

Bottom shelf, second from left. :)

This week, things have ticked along. I've enjoyed my break from Devil's Highway continues, and
used it to rewrite some more of The Song Of The Sibyl. And then a new idea came along, and has started twitching into life. Should be worth the few days it'll hopefully take to bring it into the world. There are a few things I was putting off until 'after the book is written' that I'll try and do before going back to it, I think. I've a fairly tight deadline, but life's always fun lived close to the edge. (Famous last words, I know.) But you can't always do the sensible thing: see this excellent blog from Chuck Wendig.

This week has been the week of the London Book Fair, and both my publisher Snowbooks and my agent Tom Witcomb were there. They're probably just about recovering now!





And - nearly forgot! Angels Of The Silences got another review - this time on Hellnotes:

Bestwick’s talent for capturing the distinct voices of his protagonists is what sets this novella apart from others with a similar plot. Wrapping up in a quick but solid conclusion, Angels of the Silences will leave a lasting impression on any reader lucky enough to cross its path.


I'll take that. :)

May the Liberator carry you safely home.

 
On a sadder note, the actor Gareth Thomas died last week. I was a huge fan of Blake's 7 (and it was an influence on Hell's Ditch: there's a reason there's a character called Darrow in it...) and Roj Blake was, of course, the role he was best known for, but he had a long and solid career on the stage and television, and was actually twice nominated for a BAFTA, for the TV play Stocker's Copper and the series Morgan's Boy. (He even has an uncredited, blink-and-you'll-miss-him appearance in Hammer's Quatermass And The Pit - right at the beginning, as a workman...) Not to mention the cult TV series Children Of The Stones. Another series I always loved him in was the underrated Knights Of God, where he starred alongside John Woodvine, Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes and (in their final TV appearances) Nigel Stock and Patrick Troughton in a dystopian thriller set in a ruined Britain controlled by an order of clerical fascists. It was written by Richard Cooper, who's always good. I still have Cooper's novelisation of the script somewhere.


Knights Of God has never been released on DVD in the UK, but until it is, it's on YouTube:

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