Five Things #6

It's been too long since a five things post, hasn't it? So without further ado:

1. No Logical Way To Write A Haunting by Jay Wilburn
I'm in the depths of writing my own take on the haunted house novel at the moments. This thoughtful piece in Dark Moon Digest is about this sub-genre, and the issues with trying to make the haunted characters' actions believable. In a nutshell: why don't they just walk out?

2. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - review by Sally Jane Black
Since my last Five Things post, the director of the seminal Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Tobe Hooper, sadly passed away. There was of course a lot written about him and TCM in the aftermath, and deservedly so - it's a far more artistic and subtle film than it often gets credit for (as well as being bloody and terrifying too). This piece by Sally Jane Black was the best retrospective I read.

3. Symbols & Signs by Vladimir Nabokov
I found this wonderful story via one of those weird social media discussions that ends up miles away from the topic it started put from. This is a link to the New Yorker version from 1948; apparently everywhere else it's titled 'Signs & Symbols'.

4. Nottingham: UNESCO City Of Literature
I've lived in Nottingham nearly all my life; the two writers everyone knows from my home city are Byron and D.H. Lawrence. But there's much more to Nottingham's literary past than that, and lots of talent in its present. Nottingham has recently been awared UNESCO City Of Literature status; check out this new site to learn about local writers, bookshops, events and more more more.

5. 'Don't Turn On The Lights' by Cassandra Khaw
And finally, this story from Cassandra Khaw in Nightmare magazine, a brilliant telling (and retelling) on those urban legend horror stories we all heard as teenagers...

Five Things #4

Latest post of things horror and book related I've enjoyed recently, and think you might too.

1. From Annihilation To Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer
Somehow I missed this at the time: an article in The Atlantic by Jeff VanderMeer on his Southern Reach trilogy, a series of books I called "masterful" when I first read them, and I'd still stand by that.

2. Shirley Jackson's Sublime First Paragraph in Hill House, Annotated
I surely don't have to tell most readers of this blog how brilliant Shirley Jackson's The Haunting Of Hill House is, or about its famed opening paragraph. Random House copy chief Benjamin Dreyer does a great job here walking through that paragraph and explaining why it's so good, the one thing he'd change, and mounting a sturdy defence of both adverbs and semi-colons.

3. The H Word: He Himself Was Not Corrupt by Lee Thomas
A really interesting piece for Nightmare about on the 'post-gay' representation of characters in horror fiction; that is, the depiction of gay characters whose sexuality is not a central point of drama or angst, but just part of who they are. Lee Thomas identifies Peter Straub's fine novel Koko as one of the key precursors here.

4. 'My Mother's Skin' by Brian O'Connell
I really enjoyed this story by Brian O'Connell, reprinted on his own site. A tale of the sea and transformation, of which the less said the better by me before you read it.

5. The Corner Of Lovecraft & Ballard by Will Wiles
A frankly superb article about the importance of architecture in the fiction of both Lovecraft and J.G. Ballard. Full of insight and close reading. Fascinating.

Five Things #1

I thought I'd start a new semi-regular feature where I link to various 'things' (stories, articles, reviews, whatever) that have interested me recently. It's the kind of stuff I normally tweet or post on Facebook, but that only gives people a fleeting opportunity to see them. So here's something more permanent.

1. And Then There Were (N-One) by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny Magazine)
This is a simply superb story, a clever mingling of Agatha Christie style murder mystery and multiple reality sci-fi. It is set at a convention in which all the attendees are different versions of the same person... and then one of the Sarah Pinskers is killed. But which Sarah Pinsker is the killer?

2. This Michael Wehunt blog-post about the types of horror and weird fiction he does (& doesn't) write. It's always interesting to read a thoughtful writer discuss their passions, but fewer talk about the roads they've not taken.

3. The Rage Of Cthulhu by Gary Fry: Gingernuts Of Horror review
If there's any current writer who can do something new and orginal with the Cthulhu mythos, it's Gary Fry (see also his story in The Outsiders). The Gingernuts Of Horror site agrees with me.

4. Red Hood by Eric Schaller (Nightmare Magazine)
I read this story blurry eyed one morning, drinking coffee while my daughter watched Peppa Pig in the background. And yet it still both impressed and unnerved me.

5. 9 Things To Do As A Notts Newbie (Left Lion)
I've lived in or around Nottingham most of my life, but I've not done some of these. I've including it here because of the book related ones, natch: a nice shoutout for the Five Leaves independent bookshop, where I had a launch for Trying To Be So Quiet. Also listed are the charity shops in Sherwood (where I live), in which I've found many a second-hand book-shaped bargain, incuding the Fine Frights anthology edited by Ramsey Campbell.