Favourite Books Of 2015

My 'to read' pile, yesterday

As it's that time of year again, here's a post about my favourite books released in 2015. I've picked seven novels/novellas and seven short story collections/anthologies that, for various reasons, had a special place in my heart this year.

My usual post listing my favourite individual stories read this year (and it's bigger than ever for 2015) will be coming the other side of Christmas...

So, in no particular order:

Favourite Novels/Novellas of 2015:

1. Dead Leaves, Andrew David Barker, Boo Books
2. Carus & Mitch, Tim Major, Omnium Gatherum
3. The Wicked & Divine #2: Fandemonium, Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie, Image Comics
4. The Russian Sleep Experiment, Holly Ice, Almond Press
5. The Bureau Of Them, Cate Gardner, Spectral Press
6. The Ragthorn, Robert Holdstock & Gary Kilworth, Infinity Plus
7. Leytonstone, Stephen Volk, Spectral Press

Favourite Collections/Anthologies of 2015:

1. The Second Spectral Book Of Horror Stories, Ed. Mark Morris, Spectral Press
2. Darkest Minds, Ed. Ross Warren & Anthony Watson, Dark Minds Press
3. The Strangers & Other Writings, Robert Aickman, Tartarus Press
4. The Monstrous, Ed. Ellen Datlow, Tachyon
5. Probably Monsters, Ray Cluley, Chizine
6. Skein & Bone, VH Leslie, Undertow Publications
7. Aickman's Heirs, Ed. Simon Strantzas, Undertow Publications

Bad Memories

Just a quick note to say that my story, Bad Memories, is included in Dark Lane Anthology Volume 2 from Dark Lane books, which is out now.

The book also features tales by Rebecca Lloyd, Tim Major, and Kelda Crich plus many others, so it is well worth a read. The interior and exterior artwork are both great as well.

Bad Memories is a slightly unusual story for me, being set in the future. Or at least, a version of the future. The future of the world outside the Other Room, perhaps? It's a story about the relationship between a psychiatrist and a patient with an unusual malady...

Dark Lane Anthology Volume 2 is available now (UK | US)

In other news, the final two parts of The Quarantined City should be out this month from Spectral Press - it will be interesting to see what people make of the whole thing...

Edge-lit 4

Edge-lit 4 took place on Saturday, and as usual I went across to Derby for the day. I remember when I first went to the first Edge-lit (my first ever convention) I was pretty nervous as I didn't know anyone. Okay, very nervous. And yet somehow, in the intervening three years, I've met so many in the horror community that this post is mainly just a list of people I spoke to. I include as many people as I remember not to name drop, but to sincerely thank them all for being such a friendly and inclusive bunch. (And if I've forgotten to mention you, sorry - it was a hectic day!)

Things started well when Phil Sloman and I continued our habit of arriving in cities within 60 seconds of each other – despite having been travelling for hours, he was loitering outside the station when I arrived, so we headed up to the venue, talking about The Quarantined City, dodgy cafes and publisher foibles. Once at the venue we quickly bumped into Dion Winton-Polack and Lily Childs – the first of a number of Facebook friends I met for the first time in the flesh that day.

In the bar I went for drinks, spying Graeme Reynolds in the queue, and then in quick succession spoke to (deep breath) Paul Holmes, Neil Snowden, Adele Wearing, Mark Morris, Kit Power, Vicky Hooper, Ross Warren, Lisa Childs, Steve Byrne, Alison Littlewood, Stephen Bacon, Richard Farren Barber, John Travis and Terry Grimwood. I made a valiant attempt to actually get upstairs to the venue itself, but then bumped into Dan Howarth and his partner Jenny so we had a chat in the lobby. I must have been back to the bar and decided the sun was past the yardarm at this point too, for I definitely had a pint of Pedigree in my hand.

I tried to get upstairs again but ended up talking to Andrew David Barker (author of the fantastic The Electric) instead. Moving closer, right at the foot of the stairs, I bumped into Simon Bestwick, Cate Gardner and Rosanne Rabinowitz – Cate and I have been saying we’ll meet up at a con since 2012 but the fates have always been against us before, so it was fantastic to finally do so.

Shortly  before my first aborted attempt to leave the Quad bar.

And then it was lunch time, and I’d not even made it to any panels or events. A group of us went to a café which served lovely ‘artisan sandwiches’, although quite how they took so long to prepare I’ll never know. After lunch, Mark West lead a contingent to a local second hand market stall, but I figured I’d better go back to The Quad and actually try and make it upstairs – which I did, sort of. I stopped to chat to Theresa Derwin of Knightwatch Press about a 'Top Secret Project' (TM) myself, Dan Howarth and her have been working on… After that, I saw Hic Dragones had a stall so I went over to talk to head honcho Hannah Kate and posed with a copy of Hauntings. Then back downstairs, and I bumped into Ross Warren again who was talking to Ray Cluley who I’d pre-order a copy of Probably Monsters from. Ray signed it for me and with a cry ‘pick any card’ he flourished some old school horror postcards which he’d wrote mini one-off stories on the back. What a guy.

Pimping Hauntings

Finally at that point I went up to an actual to goodness Edge-lit event, a panel on Monsters – along the way bumping into Tim Major, who came and sat with myself and Ross. The panel was hosted by Adam Nevill and featured Sarah Pinborough, Mark Morris and Alison Littlewood. Then it was straight over to the Spectral Press launch event, where books by Stephen Volk, Mark Morris and Cate Gardner were being launched. I've already had the pleasure of reading Stephen's Leytonstone to review for This Is Horror, and was chuffed to see a quote from my review appears in the front of the book. Cate and Mark's books sounded great too.

In the audience I spoke to Paul Feeney (later on buying a copy of his debut novella The Last Bus), met Dean M Drinkal and Tony Cowin for the first time, before catching up with Dan again, passing on the info from Theresa about the Top Secret Project' (TM), which as it turns out wasn't to remain fully top secret for much longer...

Book (and CD) haul for the day.

Next up was the Knightwatch Press event, which was truly one of the most entertaining launches I've been to. Dion was there to launch Sunny With A Chance Of Zombies, and his daughter was dressed up for the part as a brain eating zombie (with an actual brain to scoff in her hands). She was brilliant and never broke character once. The readings for Sunny... and Chip Shop of Horrors were all funny as hell (deliberately so) and Phil knocked his reading out the park, especially when he did a mini song and dance in the middle. Then there was brain-cake, some free wine, and Theresa letting slip to the audience about the 'Top Secret Project' (TM) I mentioned above. So I guess I'll be mentioning it on here too soon...! All in all, a fantastic launch.

Then a group of us now including Fiona Ní Éalaighthe heading out for the traditional convention curry - after a walk in the rain we ended up in the same restaurant as last year. Because of course we did. Lovely (if very spicy!) food though and some great conversation about just what made conventions such fun. Which in short, was the people. (And the shit loads of books, too).

Handsome people eating a curry. If you're wondering where Fiona is, like a gentlemen I'm blocking all sight of her save ear.

We headed back for the raffle, which was a bit of a blow-out as far as our group was concerned - I did win a signed copy of some fantasy book so I suppose I shouldn't grumble... plus with Sarah Pinborough and John Connolly presenting it was full of laughs (many of them filthy ones). And then, too soon, the day was done (and hay-fever had about killed any chance I had of saying anything coherent anymore) so I headed back to the station. It felt especially bittersweet on the train back this time - I met great people some of whom I count as genuine friends, but I only get to see them a few hectic days a year like this one. But still, it was a great event, maybe the best Edge-lit to date and I for one can't wait for the next one.

(One of those good friends is Mark West, who has written his own take on the day here. I have also shamelessly nicked a few photos from him...)

Available Now: The Quarantined City #4: A Lack Of Demons

The fourth part of The Quarantined City, entitled A Lack Of Demons, is available now. Thanks as ever to Spectral Press and Simon Marshall Jones. Blurb and links below:

Fellows has finally tracked down the quarantined city’s most mysterious resident, the reclusive writer known as Boursier. A man so utterly meek and placid it seems impossible he can have written the stories Fellows has found so affecting. The stories he is convinced don’t just reflect reality but are actually changing it… 

The alterations in the quarantined city, and in his own life, are getting more dramatic, but how much is that really due to Boursier and how much just caused by Fellows’s own meddling?

A Lack Of Demons is the fourth episode of the six part monthly serial The Quarantined City from James Everington and Spectral Press. (UK | US)

And of course, episodes 1, 2 and 3 are also still available. Here's what critic and blogger Damien G Walter had this to say about the first episode: "...there is an edge of Murakami here, we are in a world just slightly skewed from our own but all the more foreign for that. Everington has a crystal clear prose style, reminiscent of J G Ballard but, like China Mieville, twisted toward the gothic..." 

Buy Episode 1: The Smell Of Paprika here (UK) and here (US).
Buy Episode 2: Into The Rain here (UK) and here (US).
Buy Episode 3: Spot The Difference here (UK) and here (US).

'A Lack Of Demons' - Cover

There's been a bit of an unintended pause before the release of the next episode of The Quarantined City, but things are moving again and Spectral Press have revealed the wonderful cover art for episode #4, A Lack Of Demons.

Episodes 1, 2 and 3 are available now. Here's what The Geekiary site had to say about the first two: "There is a wonderfully surreal quality to this story so far... the writing skill here and the narrative hooks are enough to keep readers coming back to see how it will all play out."

Buy The Smell Of Paprika here (UK) and here (US).
Buy Into The Rain here (UK) and here (US).
Buy Spot The Difference here (UK) and here (US).

The Quarantined City #3 Out Today!

The third part of my serial for Spectral Press, The Quarantined City, is released today. It's called Spot the Difference and in this episode, things start to get really bizarre for Fellows in his hunt for the reclusive writer Boursier... Cover art and blurb below - very slight spoilers if you've not read the first two episodes.

And as a bonus, the previous episodes The Smell Of Paprika and Into The Rain, are available at a knocked down price at the moment.

Episode 1: The Smell Of Paprika (UK | US)

Episode 2: Into The Rain (UK | US)

Episode 3: Spot The Difference (UK | US)

Fellows is determined to rid his house of the crippled and blank-eyed child haunting it, and to do so he needs to track down Boursier. 

But his search of the quarantined city for the reclusive writer takes him deep into the heart of the protest movement, which is stranger than he ever imagined. What kind of methods are they prepared to use to end the quarantine, and at what price? And how far will Fellows have to go helping them if he is to get the information he needs?

The Quarantined City Episode 2: Into The Rain

I woke up this morning, ears still ringing from a Jesus & Mary Chain gig, to find out that Episode 2 of The Quarantined City, 'Into The Rain', is out now from Spectral Press.

Blurb and links below.

For Fellows, life in the quarantined city is getting stranger.

The previous day had been a normal one, spent walking the streets and hunting rare books. But then Fellows had read a story by the reclusive writer known as Boursier, and things changed. His memories of the city no longer seem to tally with the streets around him, and the ghostly child in his house seems to have redoubled its efforts to touch him. The protestors against the quarantine are getting more vocal and the unity government more intolerant.

Fellows just wants to ignore these complications and concentrate on finding further stories by Boursier, but his efforts to do so just entangle him further in the secrets of the quarantined city.

Into The Rain is the second episode of the six part monthly serial The Quarantined City from James Everington and Spectral Press. (UK | US)

Episode One: 'The Smell Of Paprika' available here (UK) and here (US).

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.

Out Today! The Quarantined City: The Smell Of Paprika

So, at some point overnight whilst I slept, The Smell Of Paprika, the first episode The Quarantined City, went live...


My thanks to Simon Marshall Jones from Spectral Press for the invite to do a monthly serial and to Iain Rowan, Mark West, Phil Ambler and Martin Cosby for help, proof-reading and general encouragement along the way.

You can download The Smell Of Paprika here (UK) and here (US).

The next episode, Into The Rain, is already in the hands of the publisher, and all being well will follow in a month's time...



The Quarantined City: sealed off from the outside world, with only the sight of the ocean to remind its inhabitants of life beyond. No one knows why the city has been quarantined and conspiracy theories abound.

But for Fellows life continues largely as before. He walks the streets, hunts out rare books; the sun continues to shine and the gulls circle above.

There’s the small matter of the ghost haunting his house, but Fellows doesn't let himself think of that.

But when he tracks down a story by the reclusive writer known as Boursier, his old certainties fade as he becomes aware that the secrets of the city, the ghostly child, and the quarantine itself, might be more connected than he thinks…

The Quarantined City Episode 1: Cover Art & Blurb

Here's the cover art and blurb for the first episode of my monthly serial for Spectral Press.

The Quarantined City: sealed off from the outside world, with only the sight of the ocean to remind its inhabitants of life beyond. No one knows why the city has been quarantined and conspiracy theories abound.

But for Fellows life continues largely as before. He walks the streets, hunts out rare books; the sun continues to shine and the gulls circle above.

There’s the small matter of the ghost haunting his house, but Fellows doesn’t let himself think of that.

But when he tracks down a story by the reclusive writer known as Boursier, his old certainties fade as he becomes aware that the secrets of the city, the ghostly child, and the quarantine itself, might be more connected than he thinks…

The Quarantined City Episode 1: 'The Smell Of Paprika' will be available very, very soon...

Compulsory 2014 Retrospective Post

So, 2014.

The Writing:
In terms of my writing, 2014 has felt like an important year for me, although from the outside it might not seem like it. Falling Over continued to pick up some nice reviews, and I had some stories published in anthologies this year, but no big releases. Nothing new purely under my own name.

But I've been hard at work on a lot of different things this year, most of which will see the light in 2015.

Most exciting is The Quarantined City, my monthly serial which will be published by Spectral Press, with the first episode The Smell Of Paprika hopefully being released in January. Spectral Press are one of my favourite publishers and the fact that they're releasing something of mine feels like a real achievement, something that if you'd told me a year ago I'd never have believed. In addition, in writing The Quarantined City (the episodes so far, at least) I feel I've written my most ambitious work to date. Without giving away too much at this stage it's part horror, part fantasy (sort of), part head-scratching weirdness. I've stretched creative muscles I've not stretched before and had a blast doing so.

Max Ernst's Europe After the Rain II will provide the basis for the cover art for each episode of The Quarantined City.

In addition, I've a story in the Lovecraftian anthology The Outsiders from Crystal Lake (another dream publisher) coming out early 2015,  my chapbook Dark Reflections from Knightwatch Press, plus a few other acceptances and thingabobs that I can't mention as yet.

The People:
This year conventions and book launches have gone from being things I was pretty nervous about (because I knew no one and am shit at introducing myself to strangers) to things I actively look forward to, in part through the realisation that the horror community are among the friendliest people I've met (especially those who like a good curry). I've done a few readings this year as well, which went okay, I think. So 2014 felt like an achievement in that sense as well. I certainly hope to attend as many events as is realistic next year. And not forgetting the friendship & advice from people I've only ever met online, which is just as appreciated.

So lots of people I should thank, but too many to list here without it becoming interminable. Here's to you all; you know who you are. The first pint's on me.

Top Ten Books:
The Language Of Dying - Sarah Pinborough
No One Gets Out Alive - Adam Nevill
The Southern Reach Trilogy - Jeff VanderMeer
The Spectral Book Of Horror Stories
Gifts For The One Who Comes After - Helen Marshall
Into The Light - SP Miskowski
Best British Horror 2014
Shadows & Tall Trees 2014
The Sleeping Dead - Richard Farren Barber
Dream Of The Serpent - Alan Ryker

(See also my massive favourite short stories post)

Top Five Films: American Hustle; The Double; The Grand Budapest Hotel; A Most Wanted Man; The Wolf Of Wall Street

Top Ten Albums: 
EMA - The Future's Void
Martin Carr - The Breaks
Jenny Lewis - The Voyager
Sharon Van Etten - Are We There
King Creosote - From Scotland With Love
Allo Darlin' - We Come From The Same Place
Lana Del Ray - Ultraviolence
Chvrches - The Bones Of What You Believe
Bob Dylan - The Complete Basement Tapes
Stephen Malkmus - Wig Out At Jigbags

Favourite Short Stories of 2014

I've been keeping a list of the best short stories I read this year - they weren't all necessarily published this year, but they're all relatively recent. I read a lot of short stories, so although there's nearly a hundred below that doesn't mean I've not been very strict in selecting what to include. Each story had to impress me enough to make a note of it in the first place, and then still seem as impressive when I whittled the list down for this post.

I've tried not to include too many stories from any single author or from any specific book; in all cases I've listed the publication I read the story in, not necessarily where it was originally published.

Last year I had a few emails from readers saying they discovered some new stories from the 2013 list, so I hope that's the case this time. And a big cheesy thank you to all the authors & publishers, for the inspiration, exhilaration (and not a little envy) your stories gave me.

Nina Allen: Seeing Nancy (The Mammoth Book Of Ghost Stories By Women)
Stephen Bacon: Apports (Black Static #36)
Stephen Bacon: I Am A Creation Of Now (Peel Back The Sky, Gray Friar Press)
Stephen Bacon: The Trauma Statement (Peel Back The Sky, Gray Friar Press)
Richard Farren Barber: Bus Routes Through the Sticks (The Horror Fields, Morpheus Tales Publishing)
Richard Farren Barber: Where The Stones Lie (The 13 Ghosts Of Christmas, Spectral Press)
Jasper Bark: How The Dark Bleeds (Stuck On Your & Other Prime Cuts, Crystal Lake)
Laird Barron: Nemesis (Primeval: A Journal Of The Uncanny #1) 
Simon Bestwick: A Kiss Of Old Thorns (The Condemned, Gray Friar Press)
Michael Blumlein: Success (Year's Best Weird Fiction, Undertow)
Eric Brown: The Disciples Of Apollo (Ghostwriting, Infinity Plus)
Eric Brown: The Man Who Never Read Novels (Ghostwriting, Infinity Plus)
Pat Cadigan: Chalk (This Is Horror chapbook)
Chloe N Clark: Mud (The Rain, Party, & Disaster Society Feb 2014)
Chloe N Clark: Who Walks Beside You (Supernatural Tales #25)
Ray Cluley: The Festering (Black Static #36)
Ray Cluley: Water For Drowning (This Is Horror chapbook)
Ray Cluley & Ralph Robert Moore: The Space Between (Shadows & Tall Trees 2014, Undertow)
Erin Cole: Between Feathers & Furs (February Femme Fatales)
MR Cosby: Necessary Procedure (Dying Embers, Satalyte Publishing)
MR Cosby: Turning The Cups (Haunted, Boo Books)
Anthony Cowin: The Brittle Birds (Perpetual Motion Machine)
KT Davies: Zombie Worms Ate My Hamster (Worms, Knightwatch Press)
Kristi DeMeester: Like Feather, Like Bone (Year's Best Weird Fiction, Undertow)
Paul M Feeney: The Weight Of The Ocean (Phrenic Press)
Gary Fry: Biofeedback (Best British Horror 2014, Salt)
Terry Grimwood: Red Hands (The Exaggerated Man & Other Stories, The Exaggerated Press)
Terry Grimwood: Soul Masque (Spectral Press chapbook)
Stephen Graham Jones: The Elvis Room (This Is Horror chapbook)
Rachel Halsall: The Conch (Hauntings, Hic Dragones)
Frances Hardinge: Slink-Thinking (La Femme, NewCon Press)
Hannah Kate: Lever's Row (Hauntings, Hic Dragones)
Holly Ice: Trysting Antlers (La Femme, NewCon Press)
Jane Jakeman: Adoptagrave (Supernatural Tales #16)
Carole Johnstone: Scent (The Bright Day Is Done, Gray Friar Press)
Carole Johnstone: Stomping Ground (The Bright Day Is Done, Gray Friar Press)
Joel Lane: Like Shattered Stone (Joel Lane Archive, Spectral Press)
Emma Lannie: There Is A Light & It Never Goes Out (After The Fall, Boo Books)
VH Leslie: Namesake (Black Static #36)
VH Leslie: The Quiet Room (Shadows & Tall Trees 2014, Undertow)
Alison Littlewood: The Dog's Home (The Spectral Book Of Horror Stories, Spectral Press)
Livia Llewellyn: Furnace (Year's Best Weird Fiction, Undertow)
Sean Logan: The Tagalong (Supernatural Tales #27)
Johnny Mains: Aldeburgh (Frightfully Cosy and Mild Stories for Nervous Types, Shadow Publishing)
Usman T Malik: Ishq (Black Static #43)
Nick Mamatas: And Then, And Then, And Then... (Innsmouth Free Press)
Amelia Mangan: If I Were You (X7, Knightwatch Press)
Amelia Mangan: These Blasted Lands (After The Fall, Boo Books)
Helen Marshall: Death & The Girl From Phi Delta Zeta (Gifts For The One Who Comes After, Chizine)
Helen Marshall: In The Year Of Omens (Gifts For The One Who Comes After, Chizine)
Helen Marshall: We Ruin The Sky (Gifts For The One Who Comes After, Chizine)
Laura Mauro: When Charlie Sleeps (Black Static #37)
Gary McMahon: For The Night Is Dark (Knightwatch Press chapbook)
Gary McMahon: The Ghost Of Rain (Tales Of The Weak & Wounded, Dark Regions Press)
SP Miskowski: This Many (Little Visible Delight, Omnium Gatherum)
Alison Moore: Eastmouth (The Spectral Book Of Horror Stories, Spectral Press)
Alice Munro: Queenie (Penguin chapbook)
Scott Nicholay: Eyes Exchange Bank (Year's Best Weird Fiction, Undertow)
Thana Niveau: And May All Your Christmases (The 13 Ghosts Of Christmas, Spectral Press)
Thana Niveau: Stolen To Time (From Hell To Eternity, Gray Friar Press)
Antony Oldknow: Ruelle Des Martyrs (Supernatural Tales #26)
Jonathan Oliver: Baby 17 (British Fantasy Society Journal #11)
Reggie Oliver & MR James: The Game Of Bear (The Mammoth Book Of Best New Horror #21)
Stephen Palmer: Palestinian Sweets (La Femme, NewCon Press)
Sarah Pinborough: Collect Call (The Mammoth Book Of Ghost Stories By Women)
John Llewellyn Probert: The Secondary Host (Best British Horror 2014, Salt)
Iain Rowan: The Grey Ship (52 Songs, 52 Stories)
Iain Rowan: Waiting For The Man (52 Songs, 52 Stories)
Nicholas Royle: Dead End (X7, Knightwatch Press)
Nicholas Royle: The Reunion (The Mammoth Book Of Best New Horror #21)
Lynda E Rucker: Beneath The Drops (The Moon Will Look Strange, Karoshi Books)
Lynda E Rucker: The Moon Will Look Strange (The Moon Will Look Strange, Karoshi Books)
Karen Runge: The Philosopher (Pantheon July 2013)
Daniel I Russell: Following Orders (Phobophobias, Western Legends Publishing)
Ray Russell: Company (Supernatural Tales #16)
Eric Schaller: To Assume The Writer's Crown: Notes On The Craft (Shadows & Tall Trees 2014, Undertow)
Robert Shearman: Granny's Grinning (The Mammoth Book Of Best New Horror #21)
Robert Shearman: It Flows From The Mouth (Shadows & Tall Trees 2014, Undertow)
Angela Slatter: Home & Hearth (Spectral Press chapbook)
Phil Sloman: P Is For Pathophobia (Phobophobias, Western Legends Publishing)
Michael Marshall Smith: Author Of The Death (Best British Horror 2014, Salt)
Elizabeth Stott: Touch Me With Your Cold, Hard Fingers (Best British Horror 2014, Salt)
Simon Strantzas: The Nineteenth Step (Year's Best Weird Fiction, Undertow)
Cameron Suey: East (After The Fall, Boo Books)
Adrian Tchiakovsky: Lost Soldiers (The 13 Ghosts Of Christmas, Spectral Press)
Steve Rasnic Tem: The Night Doctor (The Spectral Book Of Horror Stories, Spectral Press)
Stephen Volk: The Magician Kelso Dennett (Best British Horror 2014, Salt)
Mark West: The City In The Rain (Strange Tales, PenMan Press)
Mark West: A Quiet Weekend Away (Strange Tales, PenMan Press)
Conrad Williams: The Jungle (Nightjar Press chapbook)
Neil Williamson: Amber Rain (The Ephemera, Infinity Plus)
Mercedes M Yardley: Black Eyes Broken (Little Visible Delight, Omnium Gatherum)
Rio Youers: Outside Heavenly (The Spectral Book Of Horror Stories, Spectral Press)

Fantasycon 2014 - York

This weekend I attended my first Fantasycon convention; I've been to a few cons now but this was the first 'overnighter' and so I was slightly nervous as I am often am in groups of people I don't know. But it helped that I knew good friends from other cons were going to be there, in particular my fellow 'failed to find an Indian restaurant in Birmingham' partners Mark West, Phil Ambler, and Steve Byrne, who I knew could be relied on to draw me out of my shell if needed. (Backup plan: beer.) But any nerves were misplaced for it was one of the most friendly, welcoming events I've been to, and all the people I met or re-met over the course of the weekend made it so.

Some specific highlights:

Book Launch: No One Gets Out Alive by Adam Nevill
What I was saying about people above? Adam Nevill is a case in point - a thoroughly friendly and welcoming guy, and fellow Robert Aickman fan to boot. (Anyone who likes Aickman is alright in my book.) Adam's one of the most successful horror writers out there at the moment, and I'm a big fan of his work, so a chance to get a signed copy of his new book well before release day was too good to pass up.

A Tribute To Joel Lane
Unlike many people present, I never met Joel Lane, but his short stories were always excellent and if it wasn't for his tragically early death he would undoubtedly have been one of the authors I'd have spent ages trying to pluck up the courage to speak to. A number of authors including Simon Bestwick and Ramsey Campbell read from Joel's work and shared some memories of him. Despite the crap acoustics and loud people at the bar behind us, it was a really very special.

Reading: VH Leslie
VH Leslie's short stories are some of the finest I've read this year, a real class act. For this event she read her story Namesake  (you can find it in Best British Horror 2014) and her reading really brought out both the humour and the unease in the tale. I was lucky enough to get the chance to chat with Victoria a couple of times over the weekend; another damn friendly fellow writer.

Book Launch: The Spectral Book of Horror Stories
This was by far the most packed event I attended, and no surprise: the number of authors who were present to sign the book was massive, the signatures & messages in mine not even all fitting onto one page. Here I said hello to online friends Alison Littlewood and Stephen Volk for the first time in person, and finally overcame my stuttering awe to tell Ramsey Campbell what an inspiration he was and is.

Book Launch:The End by Gary McMahon
There was so much going on on the Saturday, but no way was I going to miss the book launch for a new Gary McMahon book. No way. Regular readers will already know how good I think his work is. I also got the chance to buy a copy of his forthcoming chapbook from Knightwatch Press, The Night Just Got Darker directly from Gary in the bar. Given the prices in the con bar, I think it was the cheapest thing I actually purchased in there...

Book Launch: Boo Books/Knightwatch
This was the event where I read from The Place Where It Always Rains from Worms, which seemed to go okay. There were also readings from K.T. Davies (a pleasure to meet, as always), Simon Bestwick (ditto), Allen Ashley, and Reggie Oliver reading Anna Taborksa's stories from Worms.

Food:the weekend also didn't disappoint on this score. Two fabulous pub lunches in The Maltings, which was an nice old fashioned pub (with decoration that included an old sign about where to get treated for VD). A scrumptious evening meal in The Yak & Yeti, apparently Britain's only Gurkha restaurant. And a Saturday curry organised by Phil, where the only thing bigger than the size of the guest-list was the size of the naan breads. Epic naan.

More People: I probably won't remember everyone, but in addition to those above it really was great to chat to Steve Mosby, Jim McLeod, Johnny Mains, Lynda E Rucker, Ruth Booth, Stephen Bacon, Ross Warren, Alex Davis, Terry Grimwood, Paul Holmes, Dion Winton-Polack, Neil Snowden, Sue Moorcroft, Steve Chapman, Neil Williams, Graeme Reynolds, Simon Marshall Jones, Christopher Teague, Robert Shearman, Dave Jeffery, Adele Wearing, Jasper Bark, John Travis...

If I've not mentioned you it's due to my own crapness, don't worry. Or because your pass was on the wrong way round when we spoke, or because you were someone I met exclusively between the hours of 1am and 3am on the Saturday when things were a bit hazy. And speaking of Saturday night:

A Summing Up: The penultimate song at the Fantasycon disco was Elbow's One Day Like This, which finishes with the repeated refrain Throw those curtains wide, One day like this a year would see me right. Which about sums it up - writing can be a lonely business, with the doubts and rejections and long nights, and even the most sympathetic non-writing friend or family member is unlikely to want to talk about our weird stories for more than a few minutes at a time... So chances like this to speak to fellow writers and editors and reviewers feel like something really special to me now, a chance to recharge my creative batteries and go back into the real world all fired up. A chance to remember how lucky I am to be part of a genre I love in some small way.

Okay, the lyrics don't quite fit, but yes: days like this, and all you fab people - you see me right.

The Quarantined City

And secondly today, I'm really very happy to be able to say that the wonderful Spectral Press will be releasing a monthly serial I'll be writing called The Quarantined City - it will be released in monthly episodes from January to June 2015.

Now I just need to write it...! 

Recommendations: Two Chapbooks

I've read two impressive chapbooks recently: Chalk by Pat Cadigan (part of the This Is Horror series) and Terry Grimwood's Soul Masque from Spectral Press.

Despite being roughly the same length and both being 'horror' the two were as different as, well, Chalk and cheese. (Sorry.) Chalk starts off quietly and realistically, building up a view of the narrator's world - it's a growing up story, and tells of two girls who are best friends, and who mark their surroundings with chalk to indicate good places to hide from parents and siblings. The weird element intrudes gradually, and is subtly done - just how much should we believe of what the narrator is telling us, looking back as she is at events she can surely not have fully comprehended at the time? It's ultimately a story about the loss of the past, of the fragility of memory, and of childhood innocence so close you think you can recapture it...

By contrast Soul Masque starts with a bang; in fact it starts with an epilogue and ends with a prologue. It's a noir-ish story about shifting allegiances in the battle between Heaven and Hell, it's action driven by a cast of drug-addicts, angelic singers, and hideous demons. There's a lot of skill in the way Grimwood packs in so much unobtrusive world-building; equally so in daring to use a few different narrators in such a a short format. In contrast to Chalk's elegiac, quiet tone, Soul Masque seems to race along, driven by staccato prose and vivid one-line imagery that hit you where it hurts.

So, two excellent but very different chapbooks. Take your pick or just read both. And sorry again about that chalk and cheese joke.

Recent Book Recommendations

The festive break means I've been off work and able to devote more time to do what I was put on God's earth to do: read books. Mind you, I received more new books as presents than I actually read, so in reality I've slipped back in my fight against the dreaded 'to read' pile.

These were the pick of the bunch of recent reading:

Dark Room - Steve Mosby
A very dark, very grim crime novel with an interesting intellectual premise behind it. After Black Flowers, confirms Steve Mosby as one of my favourite current crime writers.

Ill At Ease 2
A collection of seven horror short stories from Mark West & Co and as good as expected. Here's hoping there's a third volume soon!

The Thirteen Ghosts Of Christmas
The perfect time of year to read this anthology from Spectral Press; thirteen Christmas ghost stories ranging from the traditional Jamesian ghost story to the more modern horrors of Thana Niveau's spectacular And May All Your Christmases.

We Are Wormwood - Autumn Christian
A surreal tales of drugs, madness, and a demon with wormwood eyes, told in dense, lush prose. A true original.

Tales of the Weak and Wounded - Gary McMahon
I've got a theory (it's probably bunkum) that all great horror writers are great short story writers. Gary McMahon certain provides positive evidence here.