Things of the Week, 15th February 2016

Me, my (remaining) hair and a book.

A belated 'things of the week'...

Various things have taken place. One of them was that my contributor copy of THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF KAIJU arrived. My story 'Now I Am Nothing' shares space with tales by Gary McMahon, Lavie Tidhar, Neal Asher, Jeremiah Tolbert, Natania Barron, James A. Moore, Cody Goodfellow, Tessa Kum, Steve Rasnic Tem and many, many more. There's a lot of names in the TOC I don't recognise, so I look forward to discovering some new writers...

Some contracts were signed. One was for Ellen Datlow's upcoming anthology NIGHTMARES: A NEW DECADE OF MODERN HORROR, out on October 31st from Tachyon Press. It's a follow-up to Ellen's earlier anthology DARKNESS: TWO DECADES OF MODERN HORROR. Here's the full TOC (in order of year from 2005-2015):

Shallaballah by Mark Samuels
Sob in the Silence by Gene Wolfe
Our Turn Too Will One Day Come by Brian Hodge
Dead Sea Fruit by Kaaron Warren
Closet Dreams by Lisa Tuttle
Spectral Evidence by Gemma Files
Hushabye by Simon Bestwick
Very Low-Flying Aircraft by Nicholas Royle
The Goosle by Margo Lanagan
The Clay Party by Steve Duffy
Strappado by Laird Barron
Lonegan’s Luck by Stephen Graham Jones
Mr Pigsny by Reggie Oliver
At Night, When the Demons Come by Ray Cluley
Was She Wicked? Was She Good? by M. Rickert
The Shallows by John Langan
Little Pig by Anna Taborska
Omphalos by Livia Llewellyn
How We Escaped Our Certain Fate by Dan Chaon
That Tiny Flutter of the Heart I Used to Call Love byRobert Shearman
Interstate Love Song (Murder Ballad No. 8) by Caitlín R. Kiernan
Shay Corsham Worsted by Garth Nix
The Atlas of Hell by Nathan Ballingrud
Ambitious Boys Like You by Richard Kadrey

That is some seriously amazing company to find yourself in, some of the finest names in contemporary weird fiction. To say I'm delighted would be a huge understatement.

The other contract was with Pseudopod Magazine, who'll be releasing 'Dermot' and 'The Moraine' on podcast in the near future. More news on that as I have it.

Me, my hair and another book.

In other news, the paperback of HELL'S DITCH is out on March 1st from Snowbooks, which I'm
delighted about. Can't wait to lay hands on it.

As I may have mentioned, there'll be an event at Waterstones Liverpool One to promote it at 6.30 pm on 11th March. Further details now available: I'm going to be in the company of Ramsey Campbell and Conrad Williams, which should make for a fun evening. If you'd like to come, you can book your ticket here.

That aside, the last week or two has been spent gearing up to write THE DEVIL'S HIGHWAY, the follow-up to HELL'S DITCH. I say 'gearing up' because my outlines for novels tend to be ever-longer and more detailed, the better to get the first draft closest to the finished work. They're practically first drafts in themselves these days: the outline for THE DEVIL'S HIGHWAY is nearly 30,000 words.

But I'm having to step briefly back from it now because my agent's emailed me with the second round of edits on my crime novel. The first round arrived at Christmas and kept me out of mischief for a good couple of weeks. The second round isn't as big a deal - touch wood, most of the issues that needed fixing are now fixed - and I'm hoping to have finished up on them by the end of the week.

It's also worth noting that Tom's email contained what has to be my favourite editorial note ever: 'Malnutritioned singing children are better than crucified eviscerated ones.' 

Indeed.

So, I've got a lot to keep me occupied - along with another project I've been mulling over for a while. I'm planning on setting up a Patreon account; those who sponsor it will be supporting the creation of a new serial novel. I enjoyed writing BLACK MOUNTAIN and it would be fun to revisit the form - plus, it would help forestall having to get a day job. More news as it's made - assuming anyone's interested in the project, of course!

Have a grand week, folks. See you on the other side!

Things Of The Week

Bit of admin first: I've now updated the page for Angels Of The Silences to include the info for the new edition, and Hell's Ditch now has its own page too.

Anyway... I haven't called this blog 'Nice Things of the Week', because there've been some decidedly not-nice ones: the passing of both David Bowie and Alan Rickman, both absolutely stellar talents. I have to admit Rickman's death hit me harder - I've been a fan since I saw him in Die Hard when I was a teenager. Plus, he was, of course, the definitive Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves, acting Kevin Costner and everyone else off the screen.

Plus, of course, there was this: Anthony Minghella's Truly, Madly, Deeply. A sort of quirkily British riff on the Swayze/Moore movie ghost, where he played alongside Juliet Stevenson as her deceased lover. Basically a rom-com, where one of them is a ghost - although a fairly solid one!

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Another less than entirely pleasant thing of last week was the collapse of Spectral Press in the UK,

which I blogged about on Friday. Not something I especially wanted to do or enjoyed doing, but necessary. I am very grateful to those who helped by providing necessary information, and to the many who, publicly or privately, sent messages of support. There'll be some further discussion on Brian Keene's podcast The Horror Show this week.

Friday also saw the rerelease of Angels Of The Silences, a novella of which I'm very fond. Thanks to all who attended the online launch party and/or bought a copy! 

Another anthology including one of my stories came out last week, and I completely forgot! The Mammoth Book Of Kaiju, edited by Sean Wallace, was published by Robinson Constable, and reprints 'Now I Am Nothing', from the Cubicle 7 anthology World War Cthulhu.

Friday also brought some really excellent news that I can't talk about yet! I will just say it involves a new story collection - I'll reveal all once the contract's signed and sealed.

ETA: I nearly forgot! Bad me. David A. Sutton's 2008 anthology Houses On The Borderland, which includes my novella The School House, is being reissued in February by Shadow Publishing, under the title Haunts Of Horror. The School House is another tale with a special place in my heart - albeit a fairly cold, dark one as it's one of the grimmest things I've written - so it's good to see it get another airing. (Of course, you can also read it in The Condemned.) Also includes stories by Allen Ashley, Samantha Lee, Paul Finch, Gary Fry and David A. Riley.

Oh, and just to say again you can still read the latest Friday Freebie, 'The Lowland Hundred', here until this coming Friday, when it gets replaced by a new one.

Have good week!

Me And My Shorts

No wait, come back! This blogpost does NOT feature pictures of me showcasing various trouser-related clothing items. No-one needs to see my hairy thighs; Cate suffers enough of that.

No, this is about short stories! There are things afoot, and of course you want to know about them. What? Yes, you do. Stop struggling. Come back here.

Anyway.


First and biggest - My short story Horn Of The Hunter has been included in Mark Morris' anthology THE 2ND SPECTRAL BOOK OF HORROR STORIES, alongside stories by some truly excellent writers. Very good company indeed, and I'm proud to be included. The anthology will be released in October, at Fantasycon 2015.

My story from WORLD WAR CTHULHU, Now I Am Nothing, will be reprinted in THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF KAIJU next year, edited by Sean Wallace.

My story The Face Of The Deep will appear in Jonathan Green's upcoming arcade-game-themed anthology, GAME OVER. Basically imagine a cross between Frogger and the Book of Genesis and you're getting there...

Two stories are forthcoming via TTA Press:

The Gaudy, Blabbing And Remorseful Day will be published in BLACK STATIC.

If I Should Fall From Grace With God will be published in CRIMEWAVE.

And, of course, The Judgement Call will be published at the end of the year as a Spectral chapbook, in tandem with the incredible Robert Shearman's Christmas In The Time Of Ennui - a single volume, so I shall be between the covers with Rob, as it were. At least he'll make me look good.