Edge-Lit 8

This weekend the lovely Cate and I will be in Derby for the 8th Edge-Lit convention.

Edge-Lit is one of the two cons I always attend every year (the other, of course, being Fantasycon, although this year we might have to give it a miss.) A one-day event organised by the most excellent Alex Davis, it's always well-attended and a great chance to catch up with old friends.

Among this year's luminaries are:

Confirmed Guests of Honour:
Aliette De Bodard, multi-award winning fantasy and science-fiction author
Anne Charnock, Arthur C Clarke Award winning author of Dreams Before the Start of Time
Christopher Golden, New York Times Bestselling Author of Ararat and The Pandora Room - joining us from the US!
Neil Spring, bestselling author of The Ghost Hunters, The Watchers, The Lost Village and The Burning House
Sarah Lotz, acclaimed horror and thriller author (The Three)
Tim Lebbon, popular dark fantasy and horror novelist (The Silence)
Special Guest:
Stephen Volk, author and scriptwriter (TV's Ghostwatch, Afterlife, Midwinter of the Spirit)
Speakers and Panellists:
Simon Bestwick, acclaimed horror novelist and short story writer (*waves*)
Jan Edwards, award-winning crime and horror author
Robin Triggs, author of Night Shift
David Mark, author of the DS Aector McAvoy crime series
Sarah Pinborough, Bestselling author of Behind Her Eyes and Cross Her Heart
Alex Reeve, writer of the Leo Stanhope series
Zen Cho, acclaimed fantasy author and editor
Adrian Tchaikovsky, Arthur C Clarke Award winning SF and fantasy novelist
Dominic Dulley, author of Morhelion and Shattermoon
Matt Hill, science-fiction author of Zero Bomb
Anna Stephens, fantasy author of the Godblind trilogy
Jen Williams, fantasy author of the Copper Cat and Winnowing Flame series
Genevieve Cogman, author of the Invisible Library series
Tim Major, SF and horror writer
KK Perez, YA author of the Sweet Black Waves series
Adam Christopher, acclaimed novelist, comics and tie-in fiction writer
Jodi Taylor, author of the Chronicles of St Mary series
Daniel Godfrey, author of The Synapse Sequence and New Pompeii
Ruth De Haas, fantasy author and blogger
Danie Ware, Warhammer 40k novelist and author of Children of Artifice
Dan Coxon, award-winning author and editor
AC Clarke, children's and YA fantasy author

It's also great for panels and workshops, both of which I'll be involved with this year. There'll also be readings of work, too, which I think is new.

Here's my itinerary, for those interested (or wanting to know which parts of Derby Quad to avoid!)

10.00 am. Panel:
Short Cuts: Does a Background in Short Fiction Help You Build a Career as a Novelist? (Sponsored by Fox Spirit Books)
Simon Bestwick, Zen Cho (Chair), Jan Edwards, Tim Lebbon, Tim Major.

2.00 pm. Workshop:
Simon Bestwick:Writing Your Novel

4.00 pm. Multi-Publisher Horror Book Launch:
Dark Minds Press launches A LOVE LIKE BLOOD by Simon Bestwick.

Hersham Horror Books launches THE WOODS: PENTANTH 6, with stories by Cate Gardner, James Everington, Mark West, Penny Jones and Phil Sloman.

Sinister Horror Company launches CANNIBAL NUNS FROM OUTER SPACE by Duncan P. Bradshaw.

Wine and nibbles available.

5.00 pm. Reading: 
Simon Bestwick and Robin Triggs.

As you can see, I'm a glutton for punishment. :)

Looking forward to this weekend. And I hope I'll see you there. 

Things Of The Week 8th April 2016

This week has been exciting and frustrating in equal measures. On the one hand, my crime novel has gone out to publishers; editors at three or four major imprints now have it on their desks. So now I just have to cross my fingers, wait and hope.

On the other hand, work on Devil's Highway hasn't been going as quickly or smoothly as I'd have liked; I'm in the process of typing up the first draft from pre-recorded notes, and I'm behind where I'd hoped to be. Well, that's often the way, but tendonitis and a lousy cold aven't helped; I've been feeling wiped out for most of the week. Not been out of the house very much either, which has been little help; I went for a walk yesterday, but came home exhausted and flopped out for the rest of the afternoon.

So I'm trying to take it easy today in the hope that'll help. Will see how that goes. I want to get the novel into a good enough shape to send a draft out to betas at the beginning of May.

The harder you pull, the tighter the knot gets. I've spent a lot of the last week or two typing stuff up, breaking away from it to work-avoid by dicking around on Facebook, then berating myself for not doing enough before spending more time glaring at the screen and demanding I do more work today, not going out of the house or doing anything else... it becomes a vicious circle, so I may have a week or two away from Devil's Highway to work on other projects, then try and go back to it (hopefully) refreshed. I have an idea or two revolving around abandoned communities - not this one or that one, though!

The Spectral saga resurfaced on Facebook, with much of the same unpleasantness as before. In the interests of fairness and full disclosure, though, I have now received the outstanding monies due to me from Black Mountain. Many thanks to Gary Compton for sorting that out. So, with the exception of any royalties that The Second Spectral Book Of Horror may accrue, that's hopefully the end of my involvement with the whole sorry affair. Other customers and authors are still in the process of recovering what they're owed, but the wrongs appear to be getting righted, steadily.

The lovely Priya Sharma has been doing a feature on her blog, interviewing contributors to the Black Shuck Books anthology The Hyde Hotel. So far, the victims have included James Everington, Alison Littlewood, Mark West - and, in today's instalment, the one and only Cate. There'll be one from me coming up soon.

On a happier note, here's something I've been meaning to link to for a while; the artwork of Sergey Kolesov, aka Peleng. Bizarre, grotesque, funny and macabre stuff.

The Lowdown with... Mark West

Mark West was born in Kettering, Northants in 1969 and grew up in nearby Rothwell, which serves as the basis for his fictional town of Gaffney.  He's married to Alison and they have a son called Matthew (who's more often than not referred to as Dude).

Since 1998, he's had over seventy short stories published, a collection (aptly titled “Strange Tales” in 2003), two novels (“In The Rain With The Dead” from Pendragon Press in 2005 and “Conjure” from Rainfall Books in 2009), a novelette (“The Mill”, originally in the “We Fade To Grey” anthology from Pendragon Press, 2008), a novella ("Drive" from Pendragon Press in 2014, which was nominated for a British Fantasy Award) and has more novellas forthcoming.  Both of the novels and “The Mill” have been reprinted in digital and print editions by Greyhart Press, whilst PenMan Press released a 'special edition' (digital and print) of "Strange Tales" in 2013. Mark has also been known to tweet, which he does here.

 

1. Tell us three things about yourself.

I have been writing fiction since I was eight, I can play adequate rhythm guitar and I’m a very good shot with a Nerf gun.

2. What was the first thing you had published?

A short piece in a school magazine, which filled me with pride.

3. Which piece of writing are you proudest of?

“The Mill”, a novelette I wrote for Gary McMahon’s “We Fade To Grey” anthology, which was later published as a stand-alone title by Greyhart Press. I lost my sister and the grief blocked me for a long time - Gary pulled me out of that and I wrote a story about someone consumed with grief who has to come to terms with some supernatural activity. People seem to like it.

4. …and which makes you cringe?

Probably that first piece in the school magazine, if I read it back today. With my earlier published stuff, going back to the late 90s and early 00s, I’m sure there are bits and pieces where the technique or blood and thunder content might make me raise my eyebrows now.

5. What’s a normal writing day like? 

I don’t have one, to be honest. I know the prevailing wisdom is to write every day but I never have and I learned long ago not to beat myself up for it. I can write at home, in silence (or with noise, if Dude comes in to see what I’m doing), I can write in my office during my lunch break.

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

“The Mill” seems to have developed a wide range of fans, so that’s perhaps a good start and my novella “Drive” is nominated for a BFS award this year, so that’s clearly doing something right.

7. What are you working on now?

I am just about to start a short for Stormblade Productions, which’ll be the first of my stories to receive the audio-book treatment. I’m excited about that and also looking forward to the writing - a female-centric tale set in a fogbound Paris where a necktie murderer is on the loose…

A Hazy Shade Of Winter...

...is out on ebook from those lovely people at Ash-Tree.

There has been squeeage. There may be even more.

You can buy it direct from the Ash-Tree website here, and it will, in due course, be available from Amazon as well.

I am very pleased about this.

Tomorrow I am off to Leeds, where Alison Littlewood is launching her new novel, A Cold Season: (here's the book trailer, directed by Mark West)

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I'll see my old buddy Gary McMahon, Simon Marshall-Jones, Emma Audsley and Shaun Hamilton of The Horrifically Horrifying Horror Blog, and many, many more. Oh, and I will be signing contracts with my new agent. Of whom more shortly.

Here's another song to end the bloggage on. Trust me, it's very appropriate. But you'll have to read the collection to the end to learn why.

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Shot Guts, Getting Stoked and Missing Faces

So, last night I was in Liverpool, for another of their Waterstones' Twisted Tales events, this time promoting Conrad Williams' rather excellent anthology Gutshot.

All great fun, not least because I got a chance to hook up with some good friends. First off was Gary McMahon, on his first trip to Liverpool; we repaired to the Caffe Nero opposite the bookshop, where we met Joel Lane and, of course, the Awesomeness that is The Ever-Reigning Cate. Then the event itself, with readings by Joel, Gary and the very nice and very funny Amanda Hemingway. Following which I was invited to join the panel for a Q&A session. I babbled. A lot. Sorry, everyone else.

Very nice Lebanese meal (yum!) with Ramsey and Jenny Campbell among others, before me and Gary ran for the taxi (well, Gary ran- I had to be pushed in a wheelbarrow) to catch the train home.

All in all, a great evening.

On the 'other nice things' front, I've had a couple of recommendations for the HWA Stoker Awards- my stories 'Dermot' from Black Static #25 and 'The Moraine' from Paul Finch's editing debut Terror Tales Of The Lake District have each received one. Of course this doesn't mean they'll make the shortlist- the list of recommendations is very long- but it's still nice.

And finally, following on from Mark West's great teaser trailer, the lovely Anna Taborska has put up the book trailer for The Faceless. I think it's a stunning piece of work and am really chuffed about it, to say the least. So here it is...

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Facing It

Well, The Faceless is at last complete and has winged its way to Jon Oliver over at Solaris Books. Meanwhile, I'm here in Barmouth, North Wales, trying to relax a little and rest up...

In the meantime, though, that nice Mark West fellow has made a teaser trailer for the novel. Whet your appetites here...

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