The Thirteen Signs

The Thirteen Signs is a new anthology from editor Dean M. Drinkel, and contains horror stories based around different signs of the Zodiac. I was given Pieces as mine, and my story 'Hooked' is set on Majorca and describes a birdwatcher caught up in a sinister trap. But is he the prey or the bait?

I had fun writing this one, and gleefully slagging off astrology (which I think is purest bollocks) in the process. The book has some other great writers in as well, including Lily Childs, Mark West, Tim Dry, Steve Byrne, Jan Edwards and Amelia Mangan. Ebook is out now from Nocturnicorn Press with a paperback to follow very shortly.

The Thirteen Signs (UK | US) 

Edge-Lit 5: After

On Saturday I went to Edge-Lit 5 and had a wonderful time, as always. The whole day passed in much of a blur, so this post won't be as detailed as Mark West's latest Convention Report: he's a man who seems to remember everything that happened. Maybe the fact Mark doesn't drink helps...

Mark West, me, Peter Mark May
(photo by Peter Colborn)

But my post is a few impressionistic snapshots of what I remember from the day:

Sitting opposite someone on the train who was reading a Sarah Pinborough book so I was convinced they were 'one of us' and I almost struck up conversation... but no, they got off at Long Eaton. Poor sod.

The launch for Trying To Be So Quiet (alongside Tracy Fahey launching her new collection and Exaggerated Press launching the Darker Battlefields anthology) seeming to go really well from what I could tell - I signed and sold a few books, so that was a good sign...

Buying some excellent looking books, including both those that launched alongside mine, The Grieving Stones by Gary McMahon, and the Hauntings anthology from NewCon Press

Good friends Mark West, Phil Sloman, Ross Warren, Lisa James, Steve Byrne, Kit Power and many more responding to my 'recent exciting review' in that most British of ways: by taking the piss.

Realising anew each time I signed a book (or in one case a contract) how truly shit my handwriting is.

Sitting discussing horror, ghosts and the past with Victoria Leslie in the sun while eating a delicious chorizo sandwich and fries from The Quad... only to hear Victoria repeat some of my bumbling ideas in her Supernatural Fiction panel later. She gave me credit for them though :)

The look of indignation on Steve's face when informing me they didn't serve beer before 11am...

Simon Bestwick continuing an animated political discussion we'd had online in the front page of his novel Hell's Ditch when he signed it for me. Still not convinced, Simon :)

My first mediocre convention curry. I blame Brexit.

Meeting friends old and new; and despite the risk of missing someone I'm going to list who I remember because these things really are about the people. So as well as the above, shout outs to: Priya Sharma, Peter Mark May, Holly Emma Ice, Dion Winton-Pollock, Andrew Hook, Nina Allen, Cate Gardner, Gary Couzens, John Travis, Johnny Mains, Ian Whates, Amanda Rutter, Terry Grimwood, Richard Farren Barber, Anthony Cowin, Ray Cluley, Roy Gray, Adele Wearing, Angelina Trevena, Gary McMahon, Steve Shaw, Yvonne Davis, Theresa Derwin, Greg James, Gary McMahon - with some of you it was all too fleeting a chat. Lets's rectify that over a pint that at the next one, okay?

FantasyCon 2015 - After...

So, Fantasycon 2015. What a weekend.

This year it took place in my home town of Nottingham. Despite my being local, somehow Steve Byrne got to the venue before me, so when I saw on Facebook he was hanging around in the hotel bar I set off. We were soon chatting away over a pint and gradually other people arrived and joined our table: Ross Warren, Lisa Childs, Phil Sloman, Alison Littlewood & her partner Fergus, Simon Bestwick, Cate Gardner, Priya Sharma (who it was lovely to meet for the first time), Theresa Derwin, Steve Shaw and Dean R Drinkel.

Neil Williams, Wayne Parkin, me, a glass of free wine

The latter three were here for the unofficial launch of Masks (which features my story Porcelain) which we'd been planning to do in the bar... unfortunately the constant flow of people coming to check in and the unpromising acoustics meant we couldn't do any readings as planned, but the books looked great (the artwork is by the late James Powell, who sadly passed away earlier this year) so a number of people bought a copy and asked for signatures from me & Phil, which was great.

They'd been a stir of excitement in the hotel when Joe Hill (a late addition to the convention) entered, wearing a Haunting Of Hill House t-shirt no less. When I came back from the bar I found he was stood talking to our little group; Theresa was somewhat flushed and flustered, and managed to introduce me to him as if I were the important celebrity writer: "Joe, have you meet James Everington?" I could see in his eyes he was thinking 'who the hell is this guy?' but he was charming enough not to say it out loud. I just played it cool and told him I liked his t-shirt.

Me and Steve Byrne then went to get signed in and pick up our free books - in terms of choice it was far superior to last year, and I got some lovely hardback editions of Alison Littlewood, Joe R Lansdale and Sarah Pinborough novels, a Conrad Williams collection from PS Publishing as well as several interesting looking paperbacks.

Stephen & Mark

We went into the convention venue proper then, and in the space of another drink or two meet Graeme Reynolds, Lynda E Rucker, Peter Mark May, Paul Feeney, Ray Cluley and his partner Jess, Mark West, Sue Moorcroft, Paul Feeney, Wayne Parkin, Stephen Bacon, Steve Chapman, Clover & Dion Winton-Polak and Emma Audsley. We then went to the first book launch, The Lost Film, featuring a novella apiece by Mark West and Stephen Bacon - two talented writers I'm proud to call friends. They both did a reading, watched over by publisher Chris Teague. It was a really good launch - a big queue for the book, which it deserved given the quality of both Mark and Stephen's previous work.

We then went off for some food, which given the rather poor quality of food in the hotel (already notorious even on the first day) and lack of other options nearby meant a walk to a Toby Carvery. The glamorous life of a writer. So let's gloss over that - back at the convention, Mark had a panel/mock gameshow to attend called The Atrocity Exhibition, which was different to say the least, and got some laughs. I had to leave that before the end to get to Victoria Leslie's reading. I've not managed to review it on here as yet, but I consider her collection Skein & Bone to be among the finest released over the last few years and her reading of one of the stories was predictably brilliant. Later, Victoria and I had a good natter at the bar about all things horror - these kind of conversations that you can't have with 'normal' people are why I relish events like Fantasycon. Somewhere in the midst of the next few drinks I meet both Nina Allen and Simon Kurt Unsworth, who I wanted to say hello to as they were on my panel the next day, and also Neil Williamson, a fellow Infinity Plus author who I've know online for awhile; we've been talking about meeting up at some point for ages.

It was then time for Simon Bestwick's reading, the late night atmosphere suiting his rather bleak extract from his forthcoming novel. After that (I think - bit hazy by this point) I spoke to Alex Davis who will be publishing Trying To Be So Quiet soon and we discussed some of his ideas for the design of the hardback, which sounded amazing.

Saturday started with the launch of Adam Nevill's new novel Lost Girl, complete with a free bottle of local ale - lovely. Adam's a great guy and very supportive of other writers - a fact shown by the fact he let a few of us take over the last fifteen minutes of his launch for a surprise event...

Jim McLeod is the man behind The Gingernuts Of Horror website, one the best sites out there, and he's been a tireless supporter of the horror genre for years, both of the big stars and us lesser names working in the small press. So Phil Sloman put together a book for Jim... a very special book, of which they'll only ever be one physical copy printed. Jim McLeod Must Die! features stories from over 20 different horror authors; in all of them a character called Jim McLeod dies or suffers a fate worse than death. My own story is called Peephole and it was an absolute pleasure to be asked to be included in something so special. The look on Jim's face when he realised what was going on was priceless and for me a moment that sums up Fantasycon: the friendships made at conventions really do lead to great moments like this.

Jim McLeod, Mark West, Phil Sloman (with Sue Moorcroft in the background)

Then followed the launch of the second Spectral Book Of Horrors, in which a huge number of the authors were in attendance to sign, including many I've already mentioned, plus top gents Robert Shearman and Stephen Volk - and of course editor Mark Morris and publisher Simon Marshall Jones.

The it was on to my first panel. Gulp. Which I was moderating. In the main theatre. Double gulp. British Horror Present & Future featured myself, Simon Kurt Unsworth, Nina Allen, Stephen Jones, Cate Gardner, Alison Littlewood and Adam Nevill. Of course, with a lineup as good as that I didn't really have to do much as moderator - we got through less than half the questions I had prepared because everyone's answers were so good. Someone said later that it had the feel of a proper discussion rather than just a back-and-forth Q&A so I was really pleased with that. And as with all these things, once you're actually doing it your nerves vanish.

Me, Simon Kurt Unsworth, Stephen Jones, Cate Gardner, Alison Littlewood, Nina Allen, Adam Nevill

After that a bunch of us went to Priya Sharma's reading, which was excellent, and confirmed what I already knew: that I need to read more of her work. I think it was just after Priya's reading that I said hello to Laura Mauro for the first time, another writer who I know online but was glad to meet in person. (Nearly all horror authors turn out to be lovely people, in my experience.) Then myself and Mark bumped into Andrew David Barker, whose novel Dead Leaves was being launched at the con. Andrew's a great guy but very modest and he couldn't have looked more abashed as me and Mark praised his book to heaven and back...

Then I went to see the Weirdness, Darkness & Madness panel, which was obviously right up my street. It was moderated by Terry Grimwood and featured Mark West, Kim Lakin Smith, Helen Marshall, Deborah Walker and Timothy J Jarvis. It was a great panel, one of the best I've seen at a convention.

Outside, we gathered in the foyer for one of the most important parts of any con - curry. Before setting off I had a quick chat with Timothy Jarvis - some of what he had said on the panel had been really interesting, and he gave me a copy of his book. He had a reading later, which I said I'd attend after the curry - after all we had nearly three hours, so what could possible stop me?

Unfortunately it wasn't to be - despite having booked, when so many of us turned up at the restaurant they were woefully unprepared. It was nearly 90mins before starters arrived, never mind the main course. (To be fair, my food was great.) So with the 20min walk either way, we were gone for hours, meaning I missed both Timothy's reading and the Undertow launch of Skein & Bone and Aickman's Heirs. Still, during the loooooong meal I was introduced to Simon Clark and had some good chats with Phil, Dean, Jay Eales & Selina Lock and Benedict Jones.

Paul Woodward, Phil Sloman, Stephen Bacon, Mark West, Alison Littlewood, Jim McLeod, me, Gavin Williams (front)

I had a late night reading slot (11.30) and I was thinking that at that time hardly anyone would turn up, especially as it clashed with the infamous Fcon disco (where I'm reliably informed Mark owned the dance floor for the second year running). But there must have been 20, 25 people there and I read part of my story The Man Dogs Hated which seemed to go down really well - I sold a number of copies of Falling Over afterwards with one person even turning straight to the story to see how it ended. My reading was followed by one by Kit Power (and his flamboyant trousers) which was really enjoyable. Outside, not fancying the sounds of the Timewarp bellowing from the dance floor I sat and had a few beers with Steve and Laura & Peter Watkinson, Stephen King (not that one) and Katina Bill.

I only attended one event on the Sunday, but it was a corker: a reading by Helen Marshall. Like all her work the story was simultaneously funny and moving. I saw a lot of great readings this year, but against tough competition Helen's was the best. I then perused the Dealers Room, having a chat with Terry Grimwood and then the boys from the Sinister Horror table. And then after a few more beers it was time for goodbyes. It took about an hour to say goodbye to everyone there at that point. 

Reading back, somehow I've not even mentioned meeting Ruth Booth, Gary Couzans, KT Davies, Paul Holmes, Fiona Ní Éalaighthe (and her ear!), Andrew Hook, Carole Johnstone, Tom Johnstone, fellow Outsider Rosanne Rabinowitz, John Travis, Tim Major, Ren Warom (we'll have a proper chat next time!) or Paul Woodward. Which just about sums FantasyCon up - there's so many great people there, so many friendships to forge or renew that's it's impossible to remember it all.

A special mention must go to Adele Wearing though, who I didn't manage to see all weekend, despite the fact that she apparently waved at me on a few occasions. That's my professional networking skills for you - completely blanking an award winning publisher (Fox Spirit deservedly won this year's Small Press award) even when she beckoned me over... 

There was a nice coda to the convention when myself and Phil headed into Nottingham to have some food and a few pints before his train. Phil had never been to Nottingham before, so I took him to The Broadway cinema (largely on the basis it has The Shining quotes on one window) and then, of course, to Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem (or 'The Trip' as everyone in Nottingham calls it) which is meant to be the oldest pub in the UK, and is built into the cliffs under the castle. We had a great chat about our hopes for our writing in the future and then Phil left to get his train and it was all over...

I got home, dumped my bag... and later that night logged on and order my ticket for FantasyCon 2016.

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...)

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.

Edge-Lit 3...

This year's Edge-Lit was a convention of firsts for me for a number of reasons, the main one being that I was actually on the bill, albeit in a small way - Worms from Knightwatch Press was being launched at the convention, and I was scheduled to read from my story The Place Where It Always Rains. Of which more later.

It was also the first convention where I'd specifically arranged to meet people there - indeed within 2 seconds of walking through the door I'd bumped into Phil Ambler. After signing in and getting our goody bags we went to the cafe at The Quad where we briefly caught up with Paul Holmes from The Eloquent Page. 

Phil and I then headed up to the first panel we liked the sound of - Ghost Stories Today with Andrew Barker, Johnny Mains, Marie O'Regan and Niki Valentine. This was certainly interesting, with the conversation referencing many of my favourite stories and authors, including The Turn Of The Screw, Dark Matter, The Willows and Afterwards. For me, those was a slightly awkward part where members of the audience were invited to share whether they had ever seen a ghost in real life, and one lady told a story about her child dying, but moderator Johnny Mains handled it really well.

After that, we finally meet up with Mark West and Steve Harris/Byrne, who introduced us to Alison Davies, John Travis, and Christopher Teague. Phil, Mark, Steve, John and I headed down for a few drinks, and we exchanged stories about the worst rejection letters/emails we'd received in the same manner as that scene in Jaws when they're talking about shark bites.

Mark West, Alison Davies, me, and Phil Ambler.

Then back upstairs for a slightly unusual event - Theresa Derwin (who runs Knightwatch) was having her head completely shaved to raise money for a cancer charity, as well as auctioning off a few books.The fact that she had the guts to do this, not even getting in too much of a flap when the cutters ran out of power, certainly put any nerves I was feeling about having to do my first ever reading into perspective.

Then a few of us went out for a quick lunch, our gang now including Richard Farren Barber and Ross Warren. Somehow we ended up in a cafe that did pensioner specials and cheap liver & onions. Myself and Phil then had to hoof it back to The Quad in order to be in time for our reading - it was also Phil's first time, reading from his story in the Potatoes anthology. The Worms launch and my own reading seemed to go really well, at least as far as I could tell. Phil did a good job too, although I think we both felt upstaged by KT Davies (who it was lovely to meet again) and her excellent reading from Worms; she did different voices and funny swearing and everything. Now the reading was done I helped myself to the free launch wine and olives, as well as signing a few copies of worms. My handwriting is truly shit, so I drew a little worm cartoon character in each copy too.

Then it was back down to the bar again for more drinks and chatting - we met up with Paul M Feeney, and I also had a nice talk with Andrew Barker about his book The Electric. Then it was time for the raffle - we didn't win as many prizes as at Andromeda One, but on the plus side that meant we weren't scared of being lynched on the way out this time.

Phil had to leave at this point, which left the rest of ready for 'Operation Curry' - we found somewhere that had been recommended and had a lovely, if slightly pricey meal. It was a nice end to the day, talking about books and drinking beer and eating nice food, with friends both old and new.

'Operation Curry'

Despite not having superhuman luck in the raffle this time, I still came back with a fair few books, including The Electric by Andrew Barker, Best British Horror 2014, Potatoes, a Gary McMahon novella The Harm, and of course Worms.

2013 - Looking Back...

Advanced warning: this is a very much me-me-me post, although I will be taking the time to thank a few people who've helped make this year what it was.

So, 2013.

Obviously, the main event in terms of my own writing was the publication of Falling Over - a move away from self-publishing, Falling Over was released by the stupendous Infinity Plus. The reasons I wanted to try and get this book published by someone else were as much psychological as practical or monetary: for a long period of my adult life, although I was writing I did very little in regards to trying to get published, and the reason was simply I was scared to. I was afraid to find out what reaction my stories would get. And I don't think it can be good for you, psychologically, to have not done something in your life that you want to because of fear. So in 2013 I did it. (Thanks to Iain Rowan who gave me a valuable shove when I was dithering.) And I'm exceptionally pleased with how it turned out: the artwork by Keith Brooke is great (lots of people have told me how much they like it) and the reviews from readers and sites such as Amazing Stories, Dark Musings, and Horrifically Horrifying Horror have been uniformly positive. And just being published by a publisher like Infinity Plus seems to have got me some attention and invites to write stories for people, which is all to the good. So I was stupid to be scared after all (mind you, that fear wasn't 100% misplaced: I'm very glad some of my earliest stories have never seen the light of day!)

Falling Over has got a bit of love in people's 2013 round ups as well, garnering an 'honourable mention' in the short story collection of the year category on Dark Musings, and being picked as one of Martin Cosby's favourite books of the year on Stranger Designs. And The Shelter has also got a mention in Mark West's Fifth Annual Westies Awards, at No. 11 in his fiction reads of the year. What a star.

I met a lot of great people in 2013, both online and out in the wild at Edge-Lit 2 and Andromeda One. I'm not naturally the most outgoing of chaps when I'm with people I don't know, so going to these things alone is always slightly daunting, and I'd like to thank each and every person who was so friendly. In particular it was a real laugh hanging around with Phil Ambler, Mark West and Steve Harris/Byrne at Andromeda One, and with the Fox Spirit gang plus assorted hangers on (i.e. me) at Edge-Lit. It's a sign of how quickly friendships can develop between people with the same, slightly warped, interests that I'm already looking forward to hopefully catching up with people again next year, and meeting some new faces.

I had a fair few stories published in 2013; the two I'm most proud of probably being The Second Wish which featured in Supernatural Tales #23 (a magazine I've always really admired) and Calligraphy in the recently released anthology Little Visible Delight, where I'm alongside such cracking writers as Lynda E. Rucker and SP Miskowski. I also wrote a number of stories that have been accepted for publication that are due out next year; they're some of my best work, I think, and I can't wait to be allowed to tell you all about them...

As to 2014, well I'm currently pausing between drafts of a novella called Other People's Ghosts - this one is proving a sod to get the structure right for, but I'm sure I'll get there in the end. Between drafts on that I'm working on a story called Retro Night. It's about going out when you're young and invincible and think you can live forever... and going out when you're older and wiser and know that you won't.

And, tentatively, I'm starting to think about a third collection of short stories as well - working out which ones I have available would fit together thematically and trying out some hypothetical running orders... 

But enough navel-gazing - I hope everyone who reads this has a great festive period and a brilliant 2014. Have a drink on me. 

Cheers!

Recommendation: Phoenix by Steve Byrne

I was lucky enough to win a copy of Phoenix by Steve Byrne in the Andromeda One con raffle, and after just finishing it I can safely say it was a fantastic prize. Phoenix is a horror-thriller set in the Vietnam war, moving from 1967 all the way to the fall of Saigon. The horrors of war, the sheer bloody waste of it all, are all too evident, as the central character - an Englishman called Bram Curtis -  travels around Vietnam, initially accompanying his sister who is looking to adopt a Vietnamese orphan from a village deep in the combat zone... and near an ancient Montagnard temple. 

It's a tricky thing to do, to make mere supernatural creepiness seem relevant amidst the man-made horrors of war, but Phoenix pulls it off. Partly that's because the supernatural element is part of the war, or of all wars, and the scope of the story keeps expanding as Bram's quest becomes ever more desperate. There's a touch of early Dan Simmons evident in the skilful way Byrne sets his story against real life events and in the expertly written set pieces, including a particularly thrilling attack on a steam train. But Phoenix is darker, and more nihilistic in its ultimate message than most pieces of commercial fiction. It's a long book but never boring, and it has a large cast of characters, nearly all of whom - American, Vietnamese or English - are well realised. Bram in particular changes out of all recognition from the somewhat purposeless, naive young man we meet at the start of the novel. And the final chapter - hell, even the final word - provide a final surprise, a final twist to Bram's journey. Or maybe not so final at all.

Phoenix (UK | US)

A Day Out At Andromeda One...

So, on Saturday I made my way to Birmingham for the Andromeda One convention; this is the con’s first year and as such it felt like a small, friendly gathering of like-minded genre fiction fans. The venue was the Custard Factory, an interesting space with a statue of the Green Man, dragons on the walls, and members of the public randomly shopping in the middle of things. To be honest, for a small convention like this the various rooms seemed a bit to spread out, and there was no kind of central ‘hub’ (like a bar...) where people naturally congregated. But the pub round the corner did a decent pint of bitter, and as I said there was such a friendly atmosphere it didn't really matter.

 

The Panels: 

I went to three of the panels: one discussing genre boundaries (really interesting stuff, especially from Adam Nevill and Adrian Tchaikovsky), one about zombies (plus Scooby Doo, bizarrely) and one around the role of the small press (in a word, vital). All were lively and informative, although I did miss some of the genre one because I was laughing so much when Steve Harris (who was sitting next to me) attempted to re-enter the room ‘quietly’ and ended up destroying his seat somehow.

 

The Books – Part 1:

During the zombie panel I was chuffed with myself for answering a spot-question to win a copy of Dave Jeffery’s Necropolis Rising and in the (somewhat sparse) Dealer’s Room I picked up a copy of a book I've wanted to read for ages: Whitstable by  Stephen Volk. Along with the book I received in my goody-bag on arrival (where I bought three strips of raffle tickets with my usual convention pessimism) I thought this would be a good haul to take home. Little did I realise the tsunami of books yet to come…

 

The People: 

It was great to finally meet up with Mark West, who I've mentioned on here many times before, Phil Ambler (who I appeared alongside in City Of Hell: Trifecta), and Spectral Press head honcho Simon Marshall-Jones. And lovely to see KT Davies and Alex Davis again, however briefly. A nice writerly chat in the pub at lunch with Mark and Phil as well as Steve Harris/Byrne, Ian Whates and Dave Jeffery where we put the publishing world to rights over a pint and a Cumberland sausage pizza. We also spoke about one of the con’s star-guests Adam Nevill (who we all admired) - later on I had a nice chat with Adam about Robert Aickman – always brilliant to meet another Aickman fan. I'm sure there’s people I've missed, to whom I say hello and sorry. 

Oh, and then there’s all the many people who were heckling us by the end of the raffle…

 

The Books – Part 2: 

The raffle. So, myself, Phil Ambler, Mark West and Steve Harris went to raffle, with typical low expectations from previous cons. These expectations seemed to be accurate when the ‘star’ prizes (mainly signed Raymond E. Feist limited editions) were being raffled or auctioned off. But by about midway all four of us had won a prize, which felt pretty nice. And then… well, the four of us just kept winning. And winning. And winning. It actually got pretty embarrassing and we all ended up pretending we’d not got tickets we had, or giving prizes away. Even with this we still must have had fifty books between us by the time the raffle ended – fortunately I think most people in the room ended up with something, if only one of our cast-offs, so we weren't stoned to death Lottery style outside…

So all in all a great day out, with friends old and new. Congratulations and well done to the organiser Theresa Derwin, and here’s to next year’s Andromeda Two(?).