Ellen Datlow Honorable* Mentions

Ellen Datlow's annual Honorable* Mentions list has been published, and I'm sure I'm not the only writer who scrolls down the alphabetical list to where my name might be before reading the whole thing...

So this year I was bowled over to see that my story 'A Glimpse Of Red' from Great British Horror #1 sitting at the end of the Es—my second mention. And not only that, but three stories from The Hyde Hotel (edited by myself and Dan Howarth) were also selected; richly deserved congratulations to Simon Bestwick, Ray Cluley and Amelia Mangan!

Being less self-centred, it's great to see stories from so many friends and excellent writers included. Of the ones I've read on the list I particularly liked those by Eliza Chan, Kristi DeMeester, Malcolm Devlin, Cate Gardner, Carole Johnstone, V.H. Leslie, S.P. Miskowski, Ralph Robert Moore, Simon Kurt Unsworth, D.P. Watt, Michael Wehunt, and A.C. Wise.

You can read the whole list here (Pt 1, Pt 2, Pt 3)

* this is the only occasion on which I'll be using the American spelling :)

Green & Pleasant Land: Paperback Edition & New Review

The anthology Great British Horror 1: Green & Pleasant Land has just been released in a new paperback edition, and a new review from This Is Horror has some kind words about the book overall and my contribution, 'A Glimpse Of Red':

"...a very ambitious piece about alienation, unreliable memory, and paranoia... Another excellent story from a writer who, though he has been working steadily in dark fiction for a number of years, seems set to gain even greater recognition." (Full review here.)

'A Glimpse Of Red' is a story that seems more timely to me now than when I wrote it. Its central character is an foreginer out of place in the confusing and vaguely sinister place in which she finds herself: modern Britain. In this post-Brexit, post-Jo Cox, immigrant-bashing, Trump-appeasing 2017, I'm increaingly feeling this country, my home, is baffling and sinister too.

Green and Pleasant Land is an anthology I am proud to have been a part of, featuring as it does a wealth of home-grown talent, including V.H. Leslie, Jasper Bark, Ray Cluley, Simon Kurt Unsworth and Laura Mauro.

Great British Horror 1: Green and Pleasant Land  Paperback (UK | US) | Kindle (UK | US)

Great British Horror 1: Green & Pleasant Land available to preorder

Great British Horror 1: Green and Pleasant Land is available to preorder now from the Black Shuck Books site. I really am pleased to be part of this book, and one glance at the lineup will show you why: it contains some of the best British horror authors currently working, and some of my own personal favourites. I'm genuinely surprised, flattered and gobsmacked to have a story alongside them. 

I bloody love the cover, too.

Green and Pleasant Land officially launches at Fantasycon By The Sea and if you're attending you can take advantage of a special preorder deal to collect it at the event, signed by all talented bunch inside its covers... plus defaced by my illegible scrawl. 

The Hyde Hotel is OPEN...

The Hyde Hotel officially opens its doors today. Published by Black Shuck Books, it's the first anthology I've ever edited (alongside Dan Howarth). I first had the idea for a book of stories all set in the same hotel a number of years ago, and it's taken awhile to bring to fruition... So big thanks must go to Theresa Derwin, Steve Shaw, and most importantly to all the authors involved who put up with a few delays and all contributed such fine stories. It's genuinely one of the books I'm most proud of being part of.

The Hyde Hotel is available in both ebook and paperback formats - all links at the Black Shuck Books website.


The Hyde Hotel Welcomes You…

The Hyde Hotel looks almost exactly as you’d expect it to: a faceless, budget hotel in a grey city you are just passing through. A hotel aimed at people travelling alone, a hotel where you know so little about your fellow guests that they could be anyone… and where, perhaps, so could you. But sometimes things are hiding in plain sight, and not everyone who stays at The Hyde gets a good night’s sleep…
Enjoy your stay.

Table of Contents

• CHECKING IN  by James Everington
• THE VIEW FROM THE BASEMENT  by Alison Littlewood
• NIGHT PORTERS  by Iain Rowan
• TICK BOX  by Dan Howarth
• THE EDIFICE OF DUST  by Amelia Mangan
• LOST AND FOUND  by S P Miskowski
• HOUSEKEEPING  by Ray Cluley
• SOMETHING LIKE BLOOD  by Alex Davis
• THE COYOTE CORPORATION’S MISPLACED SONG  by Cate Gardner
• WRATH OF THE DEEP  by Simon Bestwick
• THE SEALED WINDOW  by Mark West
• THE BLUE ROOM  by V H Leslie
• CHECKING OUT  by James Everington

The Hyde Hotel Welcomes YOU

So, a bit of an announcement. Really pleased to say that the first anthology I've edited (well, co-edited) will be out next year from Black Shuck Books. THE HYDE HOTEL features horror and weird fiction about guests all staying in the same hotel. As you can see from the contents below there's a fantastic list of contributors. I hope some of you will consider a stay at The Hyde.

Reservations from 07/01/2016.

THE HYDE HOTEL:
James Everington - Checking In
Alison Littlewood​ - The View From The Basement
Iain Rowan​ - Night Porters
Dan​ Howarth - Tick Box
Amelia Mangan​ - The Edifice Of Dust
S.P. Miskowski​ - Lost & Found
Ray Cluley​ - Housekeeping
Alex Davis​ - Something Like Blood
Cate Gardner​ - The Coyote Corporation's Misplaced Song
Simon Bestwick​ - Wrath Of The Deep
Mark West​ - The Sealed Window
V.H. Leslie​ - The Blue Room
James Everington - Checking Out

Recommendation: Probably Monsters by Ray Cluley

A few words of recommendation from me for the debut collection from Ray Cluley, Probably Monsters. Cluley is a writer I've liked for awhile; I'd read a number of the stories in this book before, in Black Static and the like, but it was a real pleasure to read so many all in one go. (Not always the case with single author collections, I find, sometimes a lack of variety can make a collection a real slog.)

But there's enough variety here to mean that's not a concern, even over the course of twenty stories. The settings range from rundown British housing estates (The Festering) to pristine Russian wilderness (Where The Salmon Run); the style varies from the dark as hell Knock Knock, through weird Westerns, to the Hollywood cliche parodying Shark! Shark! The latter in particular is a joy, a magic trick where you can't see how it's done: fourth wall breaking narration and overt cinematic references somehow coming together to make a superbly scary story. Other highlights include Beachcombing, Night Fishing and my own personal favourite, I Have Heard The Mermaids Singing (I'm a sucker for a TS Eliot reference), a story about decompression sickness and human corruption and possibly even mermaids themselves that, upon finishing (and picking my jaw up from the floor) I immediately turned back and read again.

I'm purposely avoiding saying to much about the plots of these stories because they're so well constructed; everything dovetails so neatly together that if I started to describe the opening of one of the stories here I wouldn't know where to stop. So rather than risk saying too much, I won't start.

Accomplished, atmospheric and an admirable showcase for Cluley's undoubted talents, Probably Monsters is likely to be up there with the best collections of the year.

Recent Recomendations

Some books that have rocked my world recently:

Leytonstone by Stephen Volk: I reviewed this for This Is Horror, and it's an utterly fabulous story about a young Alfred Hitchcock. If you were worried whether Volk could equal the superb Whitstable, rest assured: he bloody well did.

Within The Wind, Beneath The Snow by Ray Cluley: another review for This Is Horror, and another belter. Cluley's latest is a compelling novella set in the arctic. If you liked Michelle Paver's Dark Matter (and if you didn't, I'm very disappointed in you) then you'll like this.

The Derelict by Neil Williams: a deliberately old-school, nautical horror story, this one was like a mixture of Conrad and MR James. It's a quick read and thoroughly engrossing whilst it lasts.

Glass Coffin Girls by Paul Jessop: a collection of bizarre short stories, chock full of strange imagery and out of context fairy tale references. If you like Robert Shearman and Helen Marshall(and if you don't, I'm very etc.) you'll like this.

Coming Soon - The Outsiders

Very pleased to say that my story, Impossible Colours, will appeared in a collection of Lovecraftian fiction from Crystal Lake Publishing called The Outsiders.

All the stories are set around a gated community in England called Priory, and the other writers are V.H. Leslie, Ray Cluley, Stephen Bacon, Gary Fry, and Rosanne Rabinowitz. So I'm alongside some of my favourites of the current crop of horror writers, and it doesn't get much better than that does it?

The cover art is fantastic as well.

The book is due out early 2015 I think; more details on the Crystal Lake site.

Recommendation: Water For Drowning by Ray Cluley

Water For Drowning by Ray Cluley is the latest chapbook in the This Is Horror series. It’s a dark and brooding tale that is Cluley’s own interpretation of the mermaid myth – not of our sanitised, cartoonish modern versions but the original fables of doomed love, glass underfoot, and death. It’s told in the first person by Josh, who plays with a local rock band around the south coast - a big fish in a small pond. Josh is, at least at the start of the story, a bit of a cock. One night at one of his gigs, he meets Genna, a girl who seems smitten with his lyrics of water and rebirth as much as with Josh himself. Josh, normally a one-night stand kind of guy, starts to fall for Genna. (This doesn't, however, stop him acting like a bit of a cock.) Genna, meanwhile, has dreams and aspirations far wilder than Josh’s clichéd rock-god ones…

The story crams in as many references to mermaids as it can, from the sublime The Lovesong Of J. Alfred Prufrock to the, uh, not-sublime Tom Hanks film Splash, to the fake mermaid bodies exhibited in Victorian times. (Although there’s no allusion to Bob Dylan’s Desolation Row and it’s lovely mermaids between the windows of the sea.) In doing so, it builds a backdrop of allusion and history behind Josh and Genna’s tentative romance, and the gradual revelation of the depths of Genna’s obsession. And leaves open, too, the interpretation that maybe, just maybe, Genna isn't deluded at all.

Water For Drowning is one of those books where, as you read it, you realise what the author is going to attempt & what risks they are taking and you think – oh god. It’s like watching someone on a high-wire: what if he wobbles? What if he falls? Because don’t let the length fool you, this is an ambitious story, very much more than the sum of its parts. As such the slightest mistake could ruin its hard-won balance. Fortunately Cluley never puts a foot wrong, never falters, and makes crossing the wire look easy. He even does back-flips. It’s a fantastic achievement, a fantastic story that’s among the very best I've read this year.

In addition, the chapbook also includes a bonus story, the award winning Shark! Shark! – probably some of you will have read it in Black Static. It’s a very clever, genuinely funny, and unsettling story, that’s well worth another read. There’s also an interesting introduction to Water For Drowning  by the author himself. Whilst I've enjoyed all the This Is Horror chapbook stories to date, they seem to have upped their game in terms of production quality and extra content with this one.

 A must read. Preferably after a big plate of fish and chips like I did.

Ray Cluley on Short Stories

Regular readers (hello you) will know of my love for the short story form, and in particular its suitability to horror and strange fiction. So it was a pleasure to listen to this interview with Ray Cluley, where he talks about short stories with This Is Horror.

(There's also some filthy stuff about mermaids, too.)