The Lowdown with... Joseph D'Lacey

Joseph D’Lacey writes Horror, SF & Fantasy, often with environmental themes, and is best known for his unsettling novel, Meat.
Other books to-date include Garbage Man, Snake Eyes, The Kill Crew, The Failing Flesh, Blood Fugue, Black Feathers, The Book of the Crowman and Splinters – a collection of short stories. He won the British Fantasy Award for Best Newcomer in 2009.
He also writes children’s stories with his daughter.

  1.       Tell us three things about yourself.

I'm acutely shy and uncomfortable in social situations. In the 90s I was a British and European gold medallist in Tai Chi sword forms. I started writing fiction when I was 30.

   2.       What was the first thing you had published?

The first story I ever wrote was called 'Getaway Car.' It was about a terminally ill woman who buys a second hand car for a final road trip, only to discover the previous owner was an angel. I sold it on its first submission.

   3.       Which piece of writing are you proudest of?

It has to be MEAT because, although it was my sixth novel, it was the first one I sold. If I hadn't found a publisher for it, I might not be writing now. The book won me a BFS award and Stephen King, who has been a writing hero of mine since my teens, loved it.

   4.       …and which makes you cringe?

My erotic novel A Willing Pupil, published under the name Jacqueline Griffin. It doesn't make me cringe but it's the novel I wrote with the least angst and, therefore, the least attention to detail. For a while, Jacqueline had a profile on Library Thing. It must have been convincing because she started to get attention from a male reader who said, amongst many other things, "Thank you for being who you are." She mentioned in reply that, for 'professional reasons' she sometimes used pseudonyms. The admirer disappeared like Roadrunner. Jacqueline decided it was a good idea to delete her profile at that point and concentrate on 'real' life...

   5.       What’s a normal writing day like?

I don't have them any more. I used to be disciplined to the point of martyrdom and I really suffered at the desk. Since having a family, I'm more relaxed; I fit writing in around whatever else I'm doing. Sometimes, as a treat or to make some headway, I'll take a quiet weekend away on my own and write all day.

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

For a quick taste, my short story collection Splinters. For a big fix, Black Feathers and The Book of the Crowman.

   7.       What are you working on now?

I've just finished a post-diluvian fantasy set in the Far East. It has a very young hero and is significantly different from my other books. I would love to tell you more about it but I'm superstitious when it comes to talking about work before it finds a home.  Perhaps, if things go well, though...

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. :)