It’s not been a good week this week – i just thought I’d reassure you of that before we go any further, so I won’t be nauseatingly over-happy in this post and you can read on. Reassured? Good, then we’ll wander forth. It’s not been a bad week by any means, but it’s not been a good one either. Good news and bad, frustrations and movement.
Bad news first: the story i mentioned had been accepted for a good-sounding anthology that wasn’t Creature Feature (well, okay, crowed about and showed off a bit)? It’s been bumped! Well, what actually happened was that, despite a number of lengthy conversations between the editor and me, we simply couldn’t get it to work. The story itself (tweaks required aside) is fine (actually, it’s pretty good I think), but it simply wasn’t fitting into the anthology in the way we’d hoped. It’s a shame, because I think it’s going to be a good anthology and it would have been good to be a part of it, but that’s how these things go. I’m disappointed, obviously, but not too disappointed. In fact, in an odd way, there’s a part of me that’s quite pleased. The story was beginning to mutate into something that, although i still liked it, it didn’t feel entirely mine. The editor has done a fantastic job of pointing out the story’s stylistic and plot faults, most of which I’ll certainly remedy, but some of them didn’t actually feel like faults at all. to me To get it to fit into the anthology’s structure, and into the editor’s vision of how the story should function, we were starting to add chunks that didn’t feel wholly mine (sentences, paragraphs, ideas). I was beginning to wonder if I should award the editor a co-credit! Don’t get me wrong, the edits suggested are all valid, it was simply that the story was moving away from my original vision for it. Anyway, my plan now is to take back complete ownership of the story (obviously, by incorporating all of the suggested edits I like but pretending I they were my idea in the first place) and use it as the final story in my forthcoming collection. The story’s called The Hotel Guest, by the way
So, the good news: by using the now-free Hotel Guest, I’ve essentially completed the collection! There’s been lots of movement on the collection this week generally: we’ve had title changes, cover discussions and now a completed lineup of contents! Black Dogs and Lost Places (as it’s now called) is till due in September, and I can’t wait. The title change came about because, secretly, I’ve always been a bit uncomfortable with Black Dogs and Lost Art. I came up with that title after a night of trying out different things, none of which worked. Finally, in a fit of irritation with myself (I’m rubbish at titles generally and it’s really frustrating – it can take me as long to find a title as it can to write the damned story!) I thought, ‘Well, what’s it about? I’ve got some dog stories in there and some about various aspects of art. Sod it, Black Dogs and Lost Art it is’. A couple of days later I thought of Black Dogs and Lost Places but by then the ball seemed to be rolling so I didn’t ask for it to be changed despite some misgivings – people might think (thought i) that I was implying that writing good stories was a lost art (which it isn’t – a quick look through the links below will reveal a mass of hugely talented authors whose short stories are brilliant). It’s not that Lost Art is a problem – I do like the Lost Art idea, and am working on a story about that very thing – but I didn’t want to come across as arrogant. Consequently, when we discussed the title again this week, I said that I prefered Lost PLaces and Hey Presto! It’s changed! One person has already told me they prefer the Lost Lost Art title, but never mind. I like the idea of lost places and what happens when we find them…
I’ve also had some more thoughts about the collection’s cover this week, and had some good discussions with the Ghostwriter head honcho (the tolerant, enthusiastic and patient Neil Jackson) about it. Upshot is, we’re abandoning the cover we currently have and developing a new one. I hope to have some really exciting news about that in a few more weeks. Until then, all must remain secret… The foreword (by an author I admire and like) is in development, and we have some good ideas for a launch event and publicity to go alongside it. And a gratufying number of authors whose work I really like have said they’ll take a read of the stories and see if they can write me some form of blurb, hopefully saying nice things about me. Exciting times!
The other thing that has finally started moving this week is the novel. I’m currently trying to revise/edit the first 5 chapters so that the publisher can see what I’m aiming for, and there’s been something not working that’s been frustrating me. I finally worked out what the problems are and how to resolve them, I think. I need to completely redo the prologue, and to add a couple of scenes of deeply supernatural horror, and I’ve managed to think through some plotholes and worked out solutions for them. I’ve also come up with a ‘theme’ for the supernatural happenings, and a visual signature for them to evolve around, so instead of editing I’m actually writing again to put these in. Hurrah! More on that front as and when it happens.
Review time: and I’m going to start this with a flag raised in the interests of fairness. Last week, I reviewed the movie Bad Biology negatively. However, my friend Gary McMahon has an entirely different opinion of the film, so if you want an alternative view of whether it’s any good or not, head over to Gary’s site (link below) and follow the links to his review. I personally still think it was crap! This week, I watched the film Shrooms, which was mostly a disappointment. Well made, certainly, and nice looking but poorly scripted and acted and with a very odd view of Ireland and the Irish. Plus, I’m getting entirely bored of movies that set out their supernatural stall only to reveal at the end that it’s actually a madness or drugs-related story (The Devil’s Chair, take a big, lazy bow). It just strikes me that when filmmakers do that, it’s often so that they can have the best of both worlds (“We’ll attract the ghost crowd! And the stalking-demon lovers! Then we’ll sucker in the slasher flick mob! Result!”) and they normally end up with something that’s just mediocre in all camps. Shrooms wasn’t bad, exactly, it just wasn’t good. Pah. If you want to watch a good Irish horror movie, watch the impressively bleak and muddy Isolation. Never have cows been so scary…
I’ve finished Bill Hussey’s The Absence, which I liked a lot. This is a smart, literate piece of horror fiction with some strong, vivd scenes. His characters are mostly believable, and his evil force both clearly drawn, internally logical and at times damned creepy! In some ways, this is a ‘traditional’ horror story (family struggling with tragedy inherits old building, goes there, gets attacked by dark and mysterious forces) but it has good modern spin. Hussey’s evils might be old, but his protagonists’ reaction to it are entirely believable and of today’s world; this is a place where mobile phones (mostly) work, radios play songs from new groups and yet people still die. It’s also, for the most part, well written (there were some stylistic tics I wasn’t keen on – Hussey sometimes overuses capitalisastion, as though he doesn’t quite trust his readers to notice how important something is, and characters make speeches that sound like speeches as opposed to naturalistic dialogue) and easy to read. However, he’s good at characterisation (especially incidental characters – the lawyer, Cuttle, is a particular delight) and generally has his characters act in believable ways. It’s gratifying to see horror novels like this getting fairly widespread, mainstream exposure. Recommended.
One last recommendation – the HP Lovecraft Historical Society’s radio dramatisation of The Shadow Out of Time. Like all their addaptations (done as though they were broadcasts from the 1930s or earlier), this is just great. Well made, intelligent versions of Lovecraft’s stories that capture just the right tone of cosmic horror, personal terror and worlds tilting sideways. This one is my second favourite of the 4 dramas (best is At the Mountains of Madness, as it doesn’t need any kind of narrator – all the characters are reporting anyway) and like all the others, it comes packed with extras. These are dramas made with love, care and attention and I can’t receommend them highly enough. www.cthulhulives.org
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Creature Feature anthology cover - good stuff!
So here we are; fifth time in and I ought to be getting good at this by now. Am I? God only knows.
It’s been another good week (I’m wary of this turning into the Simon’s Good News Show, but if that’s life then that’s life!) on the writing front. I spent a very long time on the phone on Monday night with an editor discussing one of my stories that needs some work before it gets to a publishable state. It was a really interesting couple of hours, getting a detailed perspective on how someone else reacts ‘professionally’ to one of my stories. I’m lucky, I think, in that so far no editor has said anything that I rabidly disagree with, and this was another case in point – lots of positive feedback and critique that I can use to improve the piece. It’s particularly heartening to realise that most of the critique was stuff I already suspected (I use far, far too many semi-colons; far too many; no really, I do; it’s just too much). I spent part of the week revising the story in light of the comments and have sent it off. It’s a tighter piece as a result – I’m not sure that I prefer the newest version, exactly, as I liked the earlier version as well (we parents are proud and uncritical!) but it’s certainly sharper and more in line with the criteria for the anthology. Reading this (third) version of the tale feels a bit like looking at a picture of the back of my head – interesting and…no, I’ve lost that metaphor, sorry. I think I was going to say that it’s something I know well but don’t see often, and it’s good to see it from a new perspective, but honestly I’m not sure. Oh well. Anyway, it’s another fingers crossed time, I’m afraid…
More good news of a more concrete nature: remember the creature feature story? Well, the first draft was good enough for the editor to accept it despite the story’s shortcomings (it needs to be longer, especially the climax, which is something I’ve heard before although I’m not saying in what context). Since then (and as is usually the case with the estimable Ghostwriter Publications), things have moved incredibly quickly and I’ve already got a copy of the proposed cover, which has appeared (as if by magic) at the top of this blog. It’s a good looking, eyecatching piece of art, isn’t it? It’s certainly garnered some positive feedback, anyway. And lo! What’s that? Look at the third name down! Marvellous! The book should be available on June 1st (that’s the plan, I think) from Ghostwriter Publications – there’s a link to their website at the side of my page – and I have to say, I’m enormously excited by it. I’ve never been named on a cover before, especially one that looks as fine as this. I’m beginning to feel like a real writer (whatever one of them is), and that this whole writing thing might actually be something I can do for a while. Weird. But fun. Definitely,
The novel work is going well, and that’s about all I’m going to say about that for now except for the fact that I was awake at 5 this morning bothered about a plot point and panicking because I realised my creepy intro chapter was, in fact, a plot barrier. Damn! Anyway, I’ll post more about this as and when I can. Me and Forrest like our secrets…
Actually, that’s about it for the writing. It’s all been rewrites and edits this week, which might be a metaphor for life if I could be bothered to stretch it. So, review time:
The promised review of Bill Hussey’s The Absence will be next week – I’ve been so knackered this week that I’m only half way through it. I will say that I’m certainly enjoying it so far, so unless Mr Hussey shoots himself in the foot in the second half, I think we’re on to a winner. It’s out now so can be purchased places.
I’ve just heard that my friend John Probert’s new book is out, so I’ll investigate and get back to you on that, although I think I can say on the evidence of his previous work that it’ll be a worthwhile and satisfying purchase.
Don’t watch: Bad Biology. This is Frank Henenlotter’s new movie, and it’s awful. Now, I’ll say here that I’m normally a big fan of Henenlotter’s and that Brain Damage is one of my favourite B movies because it’s smart, literate, well made, shocking, funny and sad. Bad Biology, however, is just stupid, lazy film-making, poorly acted and with entirely questionable sexual politics (and if you’re reading Mr Henenlotter, though I doubt you are, having a female lead character espouse cod-feminist philosophilcal ideas about women’s position in society as sex objects for men doesn’t then excuse you from treating women as sex objects throughout the rest of the movie – it’s not post-ironic, it’s just blokes objectifying women whilst and assuming that they all they secretly need is a good shag from a well-endowed bloke to make their lives complete!). This movie was a huge disappointment, and was (surprisingly, for a movie so full of nudity and sex) as unerotic as a bowl of porridge (don’t. don’t say it. if you find porridge erotic, keep it to yourself). Avoid.
Rant over.
The only other thing I’ve watched this week is my son’s new Postman Pat Special Delivery Service DVD. Well animated, certainly, but hyper and bright and simply too busy, and a poor comparison to the earlier series. Not only have the got a different guy doing Pat’s voice (sacrilege!) but it’s lost the thing that made the earlier series so good: peaceful, tranquil viewing that showed kids that calm was okay! A sad deterioration… Or maybe I’m just getting old?
Rant definitely over now. Honestly. Promise. And on that note, goodbye.
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I should have done this yesterday but I was part of a mad house, getting ready for Ben’s birthday ‘jelly and ice cream’ do with family and a few friends, so I’m a day late. Ho hum.
It’s a been a good week. I got a lot of positive comments about the last blog entry, for which many thanks – it’s nice to know that what I’m writing here isn’t just cluttering up the ether pointlessly. Cluttering it up but being read I can cope with; it’s being friendless and alone that bothers me! Additionally, I’ve finished two stories (well, finished them to first draft stage anyway). Both still need work, but I’m pleased with them. They have specific homes (i.e. anthologies) in mind, which has been good because it’s meant I’ve been able to carry on targeting my writing towards specific rules/remits, which is a skill I’m keen to develop. Both stories deal with things I’ve not really written about before (specifically, aggressive sex and marauding beasts), which has been good fun too. It’s been odd to realise that I’m entirely comfortable describing people getting their heads ripped off, but less comfortable describing a blow job; I’m convinced that says something very telling about me, but at this point I think I’ll ignore it and pretend that it’s totally normal! I have no idea if either story’ll be good enough to be accepted or not, but it’s been fun doing them. With luck, you may be able to read them one day.
The meeting about the novel was … interesting. It was a really positive experience, and although they don’t want it, I can understand why. What was gratifying was that the problems they pointed out with what I’d written were partly things I (secretly of course) knew they were there and partly things that made perfect sense when they were explained to me. At the end of a very positive half hour (during which time my novel was, gently, strangled and placed into the unmarked grave of interesting ideas with flawed execution) I was asked if I had ‘any other ideas’. Well, yeah! I pitched something I’d been thinking about a while, they seemed excited and the upshot is they want to see chapters as soon as possible. So, a novel may still be on the cards if I can write something that ticks their boxes. Here’s hoping…
My plan is to leave the two stories for a week or so, get some distance from them (and maybe show them to one or two trusted critics, who’ll be firm but fair and not too vicious) and concentrate on the novel. I know how everything starts, and where I want to take it, and what I’m aiming for (I’m not telling, so don’t ask!), and I’m looking forward to the new challenge. It’s all a bit vague, isn’t it? Sorry, but I don’t want to jinx things by talking about them in any more detail than this. You’ll just have to wait!
And now for something a bit more concrete: review time!
Main one this week is Let The Right One In – a pretty good vampire novel. This is atmospheric, smart, moving and intuitive about people, their emotions and the things that drive them but…but…but…it wasn’t quite what I expected, and I ended up slightly disappointed. This is probably because (at least in part) I heard really good things about this book and was looking forward to it a lot, but there also seem to be a couple of problems with it (SPOILER ALERT). One is that, for me, it doesn’t quite find the right balance between the social comment/decaying lives stuff and the bloodthirsty vampire stuff. What’s there of both is excellent, there’s just a little too much of one and not enough of the other. The other problem I had is with the ending (or rather, with the unsaid parts of the ending). I think that, since becoming a parent, I’m far more aware of the impact of what happens not just on the person/people involved but also on the people that care for them. In LTROI, I couldn’t help but feel really sorry for Oskar’s mum, who’s just abandoned at the end without so much as a reference. Surely Oskar would miss his mum a bit? Surely she deserves at least reference or a comment, as she wasn’t a villain in the book? This seems to illustrate (albeit mildly) a problem I have with some horror stories: they don’t consider the wider emotional implications of what’s happening. Action and sex yes, but emotional bleakness? Well, sometimes, but often only in passing or not in enough detail, which is a shame because I’m strongly of the opinion that the most affecting things are located there. Or maybe that’s just me thinking too much about this stuff… Anyway, this is still a good read and worth hunting out, and I’m interested in seeing what they do with the movie of it.
Not watched any movies this week, been working and writing too much. Maybe I’ll manage it this week. Also, keep an eye out – in the next few weeks I’ll be reviewing the second novels from both Bill Hussey and Joseph De Lacey (The Absence and Garbage Man respectively).
That’s it. I’m done. Get on with your lives.
S
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Well, here we are again. Or, at least, here I am again; I have no idea if anyone else is there or not. Since my last post, I’ve received two pieces of valuable advice about blogging – don’t spend three paragraphs saying I can’t think what to write, and have a clear purpose in mind for the blog. With that in mind, I’ve decided that the blog is best placed as a home for all the writing-related occurrences in my life, with occasional sidetracks into reviews and recommendations. There – a sense of purpose and a clear(ish) remit decided upon, and it’s only twenty past 7 on a Sunday morning.
It’s been a good week for the writing. Yesterday, I heard that a story of mine has been accepted for inclusion in a new anthology. I can’t say much more than that at the moment, because the details of the anthology aren’t being released yet, but I can say that I think the story of mine is a good one and I’m proud of it. I’ve seen the proposed cover art and read stuff by some of the other contributors, and it’s shaping up to be a really good anthology which I’m sure will be well received and that I’m going to enjoy being part of. My story still needs some work to tweak and clean it up, so I’ll speak to the editor this week to sort that out with luck, and then that’ll be another tale bagged and tagged.
I’ve also been asked to contribute to an anthology of creature features! It’s exciting, because (much as I love creature features) I’ve never really tried to write one before and I’m not sure if I can. One of the things I’m most enjoying about having a moderate amount of success and positive critical response to my writing is that it’s throwing up lots of new challenges, which is keeping the writing interesting (for me at least!). I’m enjoying writing to other people’s rules, and responding to their suggestions when the story I produce isn’t quite right. It’s forcing me to right different things, which is great. So, can I write a creature feature? Hopefully, although the story that’s in my head is probably not what most people have in mind when they hear the phrase ‘creature feature’. We’ll have to see if it works out or not…
The work on the collection is going well – I have one story to complete and then Black Dogs and Lost Art is complete (apart from the editing, the foreword, the introduction, the story notes, the blurb collection, the publicity, the final decisions about which stories get included and the order they go in, and the audio version, the enormous number of good reviews, followed by the inevitable sale of all the stories to large Hollywood studies, general success and eventual authorial burn out and collapse). The outstanding story is a longer one, and I’m hoping it’ll act as one of the cornerstones of the collection. I’m aiming to have it done by the end of next month. If I’m efficient, of course.
I also have two other anthologies that have asked me to contribute, so I need to work on those soon – I have ideas for both stories, but I need to do some research so that they contain some realism. Well, so that they can be as realistic as horror stories ever are. Research is a newer thing for me as well – I normally just make stuff up, but both of these stories need something more than that. It makes them harder and longer to produce, but with luck the benefit of it is that they’ll be all the better for it.
I’m also in London this week to have discussions with a publisher about novels, but that’s more in the way of exploratory fumblings. It’s all very exciting, and I can’t help but get my hopes up, but I’m trying not to get too excited, as it may come to nothing. Fingers crossed, though.
And lastly, as part of my general duty to inform:
If you can be bothered, watch Midnight Meat Train – it’s fun but it’s not worth making a huge effort for.
Listen to the HP Lovecraft Historical Society audio dramas, because they’re great. And if you took my advice on this last week and have already listened to them, don’t worry – just go and listen to them again.
I’m still reading Let the Right One In, which is good so far but I’m reserving judgement on ’til I’ve finished it.
Read Mike Carey’s Felix Castor novels, they’re really very good indeed.
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So it’s two or three days after setting this damn thing up and I’m beginning to think to myself, what is there to say? I’m reminded horribly of my attempts to keep a diary when I was younger, all disastrous through a mix of laziness and the general mundanity of my life. By that I don’t mean my life is dull, or boring or in some way lacking – it’s not (although a slightly bigger house so I could own more books and DVDs would be nice!), it’d just that it only seems to be of interest to me (and, where diaries are concerned, even I can’t see the benefit years from now of knowing what I did on, say, May 3rd 1992 – “Bored. Watched TV. Drank.”). My friend Simon Strantzas (www.strantzas.com) always seems to be able to write insightful, intersting blogs and I can’t help but think, I’m going to be such a disapointment in comparison. Oh well.
So, we’ve established that I’m not going to stun or enlighten you, but I may as well at least inform you:
Go and read Rob Shearman’s excellent Tiny Deaths collection – won a World Fantasy Award (well deserved, I might add), and a story from it (Damned if you Do) was nominated for a WFA. It didn’t win (and my personal favourite in the collection is actually So Proud), which is a huge shame because it’s a stunning story, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.
Read John Probert’s Coffin Nails (published by the ever-excellent AshTree Press), it’s a gleefully brilliant, fun collection.
Read Simon Strantzas’ Beneath the Surface – very dour and excellent collection of tales. Oh, wait, you can’t ‘cos it’s sold out. Never mind – I’ll reread it and tell you how good it is.
Don’t watch Simon Mason’s The Devils’ Chair – it’s crap.
Listen to the HP Lovecraft Historical Society’s audio dramas of At the Mountains of Madness, The Dunwich Horror and Shadow Over Innsmouth – all brilliant.
Listen to the BBC’s dramatisation of The Midwich Cuckoos – excellent, and Bill Nighy just drips class.
I think that’s enough for now. I’ll add more as I think about it, or when I’ve actually got something worth saying.
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So I thought I’d create a blog as a kind of stepping stone to sorting out my own website at some point. I’ve toyed with this on occasion before (at places like MySpace) but never really committed to it, so I’ll have to try harder this time.
Part of the point of this is to act as a way of publicising my writing and to advertise the various pieces of work I’ve had published, so here goes:
The Church on the Islandwas published in the AshTree Press anthology At Ease with the Dead, was nominated for a World Fantasy Award for best short story (didn’t win! curses!) and was reprinted in the Mammoth Book of Best New Horror #19.
Old Man’s Pantrywas printed in the AshTree Press anthology Shades of Darkness and has, so far, picked up no notices whatever. Oh well.
I have a collection coming out through Ghostwriter Publications in September 2009, and they also market one chapbook and two short audios of mine (Button and Marley’s Haunting) – they can be seen (and purchased!) at www.ghostwriterpublications.com.
I have a story in Ellen Datlow’s Lovecraft Unbound anthology, due out in October 2009 and stories due in future editions of All Hallows, the journal of the Ghost Story Society. I’m working on various submissions for various anthologies, and am in discussions about a novel but that’s not looking enormously hopeful. We’ll see. I’m in love with writing, and write the sort of stuff I like to read, and in the bits of my life when I’m not writing I’m a husband and dad, both of which are the most important things I do in my life.
More later, as it occurs to me.
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