Fifteenth Time
I finally finished the story for submission to Charles Prepolec’s Gaslight Grotesque anthology. At the moment it’s in draft, but the feedback from the critical circle has been pretty good (better than anticipated) so I’m hopeful that Charles (and Jeff Campbell, the other editor and also a thoroughly nice fellow) will like it. The feedback has picked up on one or two things that need fixing with the story (nothing major), so the plan is to make the fixes this week and submit it by Friday if not earlier. Fingers crossed…
The other writing this week has been the story for submission to Danel Olsen’s Exotic Gothic III – a gothic story but not set in the traditional home of the gothic (the UK, Germany, Italy, France – basically western Europe!). I’ve been struggling with this for some time, trying to find a central peg to hang the story on. I knew what I wanted to do, sort of, but not quite how to do it, so this week I did a fun thing: I freewheeled through google. A while ago, I found a small document online about Zambian myths and cultures (I’m setting the story in Zambia for no reason other than an old family friend lives there and it’s certainly exotic in Gothic terms and i wanted to write a completely sunlit horror story )so I used one Zambian word from it to search and read what came up, took one Zambian term from one of the search results and searched for that, etc, and disappeared into Google’s merry depths. I ended up with an academic paper about a particular myth, a travel blog about a sort of beer made from corn and a weird little ‘my God’s better than your God’ blog by a kid in Africa, and somewhere in the middle of that, the story appeared. It’s not fully formed yet, but I have an opening couple of sentences that seem to work, an idea of where it’s going and a series of what feel to me like good, creepy images to incorporate. It’s working title is Copperbelt and I hope to have it written in draft during next week. Then it’s off to the critical circle and the nervous ‘awaiting comments’ period. I need it done in final version and submitted by June 20th, so I’ve left this one a bit late. Oops…
Creature Feature - June 1st approaches!
Final news this week: the full contents for Creature Feature have been released! The list is an exciting one, especially for me as three stories of mine are in there!
Guy N Smith – The Fish Thing
Guy N Smith – The Beast in the Mist
William Meikle – Rickmans’ Plasma
William Meikle – Stingers
Simon Kurt Unsworth – Day Ten
Simon Kurt Unsworth – Last Option
Simon Kurt Unsworth – Peek-a-Boo
Maxwell Dowie – Late Shift
Ian Faulkner – Sun
Barry J. House – Opening Night
David Jeffery – It Lives In Dark Places
Steve Jensen – The Devil Of Mons
Rakie Keig – The Moths That Ate New Jersey
Steven Lockley – The Flies
Kevin Lumley – Le Carcajou
Peter Mark May – Wookey Hole
David McAfee – Lakeside
Robert Morrish – Each Step I Take Is In Darkness
Stuart Neild – Old Slippery
Daniel I. Russell – Belvedere
Brooke Vaughn – Creeper
Details of how to order, cost, etc, can be found by following the link to the Ghostwriter Blog in the blogroll at the side of this page.
My other Ghostwriter projects are progressing well. Black Dogs and Lost Places is pretty much in the bag. Barbara R is nearly through reading the stories and tells me she’s enjoying them so far (thank God!), so the intro is on its way. I need to chase the outstanding blurbs, but that’s no hassle really. The mini, limited collection, Strange Gateways, is on track as well. I have to do final edits on the stories and order them, but that should be easy enough and will only take a day or two. It’s definitely looking like a July release, and it will be a numbered paperback limited to 100 copies. Start saving those pennies now…
Reviews: The Birthing House by Christopher Ransom. Oh. Dear. Me. Not a bad book, exactly, but not good. It’s one of those iritating books that presents itself as a haunted house book, but then never really commits to the supernatural and bounces around the ‘is it maybe the main character’s madness’ motif as a story driver. It’s mostly well written, although the characterisation is poor and the characters mostly unbelievable, and the ending veers dangerously close to cliche. One to get out of the library, but not to buy.
I also watched the older movie The Woman in Black, based on the book by Susan Hill and written for the screen by Nigel Kneale (of Quatermass fame). This is a great movie, both creepy and upsetting, and it’s an object lesson in how to make creepy imagery without a massive budget or special effects. The sight of the woman in the abandoned graveyard will send shivers down your spine! Copies still turn up on ebay, so I’d urge you to track one down if you can.
Okay, there’s writing to be done and tasks to be completed. Until next week, Lords and Ladies, goodbye.
Fourteenth Time
A week of consolidation.
After last week’s distinct lack of writing, I had hoped to get back on track this week and start scribbling again (well, okay, pecking at the keyboard) but it didn’t really work out like that. There is, apparently, a thing called ‘life’, and it kept getting in the way. Hmm… I did, however, finally finish the only outstanding elements of Black Dogs and Lost Places, the acknowledgements, endword and story notes. I’ve never written anything like that, and found it surprisingly hard to do: I know where the stories come from, but does anyone else want to? Do they care what I think the stories are about, or which bit of my life inspired them? Well, I like to read story notes, so I’m assuming that other people do, but could I write story notes and make them interesting?
Dunno.
I ended up writing something about each story’s origin, trying to show where they come from, and then asking the person I trust most, my wife, about them. She seemed to like them (although she did make some comments and suggestions which I incorporated because a) you don’t ask for advice if you aren’t going to listen and b) it’s was good advice), so I’m hoping that other people will like the notes as well. As for the Acknowledgements, the main problem was, who to include? I was wary of it turning into something like an oscar acceptance speech (with full accompaniment of tears, dribble and heartfelt gratitude to just about every bugger I’d ever met), but I also didn’t watnt to forget any of the people who’ve genuinely helped and supported me. And, again, does anyone besides the author and his/her family read the Acknowledgements section? Well, I do, so I suppose that means something. In the end, I think I came up with something short, pithy and including all the people that have contributed to my writing career. We’ll see when the collection comes out whether I’ve forgotten anyone or not…
Creature Feature - June 1st approaches!
The other writing related work this week was around titles: I discovered that Neil J wanted to retitle the stories I’d submitted to him for the Creature Feature anthology. We had a long discussion about it, which was fun because I’d never thought about it from the publisher’s perspective before. My titles (and I”ll state up front, I’m terrible at finding titles for my stories – it’s the part of writing I struggle most with for some reason) tend to be either single words or long phrases, and all three for Creature Feature were in the ‘long’ category. From Neil J’s perspective, they didn’t fit the tone of the anthology (which, as befits all decent creature features, is short, punchy and exciting), so we needed to come up with something else. What was fascinating from my point of view was trying to find something that fitted Neil’s requirements but which I felt reflected the heart of my stories – even in a short, punchy and exciting anthology I seem unable to write completly short, punchy stories. Exciting, yres (I hope) but short? No. I tried but it’s just not hapenin’, dude. Sorry. Eventually, bewteen us we came up with shorter, sharper versions of my original titles, and the stories are now sailing out with the monikers Day Ten, Last Option and Peek-A-Boo. It was good reminder that what I write exists not in a vacuum but in commercial world, and that there’s a difference between what I need from the stories and what Neil (or any other publisher) needs from them. What’s great is that we worked really well together and came up with something that we’re both happy with. I should point out that Neil has made no changes to the stories in the collection (other than some text edits), because there isn’t the same pressure there: Black Dogs has no drivers other than me writing the best stories I can.
Just a reminder: a teaser advert for Black Dogs and Lost Places is available to view on Youtube, as is the new advert for Creature Feature. You can find them by typing Simon Kurt Unsworth into the youtube search engine, or watch them here:
If you do visit youtube, you can also check out the adverts for other Ghostwriter Publications books, and also the 7 minute clip of me doing a reading from Church on the Island. Highly edifying! Enjoy.
Okay, that’s it. No reviews because, basically, I’ve not managed to finish anything this week. Soon, I promise. Soon.
Thirteenth Time
For the first time in a long while, I’ve done very little writing this week. Partly that’s because I haven’t had a huge amount of time, but it’s also partly because I wanted to give myself a week off – writing (even if it starts to earn me some money) should only ever be a fun thing, I and I don’t want it to feel like a pressure, or a commitment that I have to fulfil.
So, I lazed about? Well, no. Not quite. I had two longer train journeys again this week, and I did do some writing on the first one of these. The story for Charles Prepolec and Jeff Campbell’s Gaslight Grotesque is now half finished, and I’ll crack on with it this week. It’s proving to be a bit of a bugger to pin down, but I’ll have it strapped and constrained soon… I also wrote the first draft of the afterword and story notes for Black Dogs and Lost Places which was an interesting experience. It’s been fun revisiting the stories and trying to think about what people might want to know about them (and about me). I’ll mess about with what I’ve written a bit more over the next few weeks and get it finished at some point – you’ll have to wait to September to read it, though. You’ll also have to buy the collection!
I might not have been writing much, but I have been messing about in the field of writing, however. On Wednesday, I met the excellent Neil J and Sarah Whyberd, who run Ghostwriter Publications, and had a good couple of hours with them. I took possession of my author’s copies of the two chapbooks I’ve written for them (which look, even if I so say so myself, excellent) and a draft audio of one of the stories. Neil and Sarah were both great, and I think we’re going to have a long, positive and productive relationship. You only have to look at the advert Neil J made as a teaser for Black Dogs to see that he’s serious about selling his authors’ stuff, and presenting them in the best light possible, which I’m extremely happy about. Just a note on the video, incidentally: all of the quotes in it are real! People really have said things that nice about my writing! And, for one brief moment, my video had the most hits of all the Ghostwriter videos on Youtube. Then they put up the two Guy N Smith Crabs videos and blew me out of the ballpark. Oh well…
The other thing I did this weekend was a reading. My friend Mollie decided that, for her birthday, she wanted all her friends to perform, so on Sunday night a motley collection of poets, musicians, performance artists and me gathered to do slots in the Gregson pub to help Mollie celebrate turning 32. I did a short version of the story An Afternoon With Danny, and it seemed to go down well. After I’d finished, one of the Monkeyrack mob (the writers’ group I’m involved in) told me that, as I read the sentence that the story turned on, he looked at the audience and they all looked ‘worried’. Got ’em! I hadn’t even realised that the story hada sentence it turned on, but apparently it does! It was a great night, with everyone getting into the spirit of having a laugh whilst doing their funky thing – i wish more people had birthday parties like this one. Another aside: performances by most of the Monkeyrack mob can be found on Youtube (Mollie’e ‘Virgin Mary Blues’ song is particularly fine!), and we have a good MySpace page. Check us out, dudes…
Oh well. Life calls…
Twelth and a Half Time
I was only ever intending to do one blog a week, so this is an extra – just after I poste the last one, Neil J sent me the finished advert for Black Dogs and Lost Places , which is just brilliant. It can be viewed on Youtube here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a30AQVWy6G4
Enjoy!
Twelth Time
Good week bad week.
I had two rejections this week, both from the same anthology. Damn. The reasons for the rejections were, on first sight, slightly odd: that my stories were good but ‘too commercial’ and that the horror in my stories was ‘too overt’. Surely commercial is good? Well, no, in this case, it’s not! When I look at the other anthologies that the press have produced, the comments makes sense (and it’s reassuring that, despite not wanting them, the editor thought my stories were good and competently written) – there’s a subtlety to the stories in earlier anthologies and a strangeness that I haven’t quite mastered yet. I need, for this anthology, to let go of some of my more ‘concrete’ notions and try to think about those more delicate, less horrific incidents in life that are, nonetheless, creepy or in some way disturbing. And then I need to write about them… I’m hopful that I’ll be able to pull something together before the closing date that the editor will like. It’ll be a challenge to create something more emphemeral, so clearly I need to put my subtle head on…
Creature Feature - a reason to celebrate!
Better news: I have another story in Creature Feature! That’s makes three stories, which I’m very excited about. I’m not going to say much about the content of the stories, as I don’t want to give anything away, except to say that the third story is currently labouring under the title In the Kitchen, Hiding and that I’m enormously proud of the creature I created and I really, really wouldn’t want to meet it in a dark alleyway. Or in a well-lit street. Or, indeed, anywhere. The anthology is shaping up to be a really good one, with stories in from a range of excellent authors, so I’m looking forward to reading it. June the 1st is release day, and it’s only weeks away. Hurrah!
My other writing news is also pretty exciting: I’m still finalising the details, but it looks like there’s going to be a very limited edition mini-collection of my stories coming out in June or July. The collection will be another Ghostwriter Publications release (I’m getting on well with Ghostwriter – can you tell?). It’ll be hardback and slipcased, contain 5 new stories and its working title is Strange Gateways. Neil J and I are still discussing it to agree the final look, content, etc, but the likely ToC is:
- Where Cats Go
- The Station Waiting Room
- A Meeting of Gemmologists
- The Drunks’ Totem
- A Different Morecambe
This is a really cool development as far as I’m concerned – the stories in it are ones I’m proud of but that didn’t quite fit into Black Dogs and Lost Places so knowing they’ve found a good home is really gratifying. It does mean I only have one ‘unplaced’ story, Stevie’s Duck – a weird little thing about suburban nightmares and a giant duck. I may put it into Stange Gateways yet, as it’s a story I’m really very attached to that’s a bit different from my normal stuff. I’m sure I’ll find a home for it soon, so don’t feel too sorry for it! I feel a little naked with a stash of stories to draw on, though, so I need to write some more to get my reserves back up soon. More news as I get it…
Reviews: Putting the Pieces in Places by Ray Russell. Now I’ll admit a little amount of bias, as Ray is a friend of mine, but this 5 story collection from the Ex Occidente Press is an excellent read. Ray’s stories are far, far subtler and more delicate than mine, often refusing to some to any hard and fast conclusions and making the reader work for their conlusions. Are there any supernatural experiences going on here? Maybe, but you’ll need to think hard about what they are and what they mean. Are there ghosts? Possibly. Are there flawed and confused human beings, struggling to make sense of a world that’s shifting around them? Oh, yeah! The stories are uniformly excellently written, and this beautifully bound and presented book is a definite recommendation. Enjoy.
Haven’t quite finished Garbage Man yet, although I’m not far off and I’m definitely enjoying it so far. I did read Guy N Smith’s Bats Out of Hell which was fun but not his best, and I watched … nothing. No films or TV at all this week.
More later, folks. Life calls.
Eleventh Time
A great week.
Creature Feature - unleashed June 1st
The first thing is, I got another story into Creature Feature, the highly anticipated anthology from Ghostwriter Publications. This is my second story in the antho, and it’s something new for me (specifically, it’s far shorter than my normal weighty tomes, clocking in at a stripped back, healthy 1500 words). I don’t want to say too much about either of the stories I’ve written for the book, except to say that they’re called Morris Expedition, Days Nine and Ten and Implementing the Least Desirable Solution, and I hope you’ll enjoy them. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the stories in the anthology as well – roll on June 1st, I say!
The second thing is, I finished a story that’s been hanging around and poking at me for ages. I have a particular anthology in mind for it, but have been struggling to make the damn thing work. This week, however, I broke its back and made it behave. Sweet. The story, A Meeting of Gemmologists, is another departure for me, as I’vetried to approach a ‘classic’ form of horror story from a (for me) new direction, and it contains my first attempt at a (slightly) twist ending. I’m really happy with the finished item, and I’ve sent it to my normal circle of critics, naysayers and fanboy friends – those of them who’ve fed back seem to like it (and have made several suggestions, now incorporated, that improve the story no end). My wife is upstairs in bed reading it as I type this – ever my sternest critic, I await her feedback with a certain amount of nervous tension.. Assuming that she doesn’t pick it to pices, it’ll go off before the weekend is done and then I just have to wait the editor’s decision. Who’d be a writer? Well, me actually…
…and this is why. By far the best thing to happen to me this week was that I started to get some feedback on Black Dogs and Lost Places. I sent the pdf to 5 authors whose work I admire greatly, and I’ve now had 2 of them pass comment. Both of them have been astonishingly nice and positive about what they’ve read (including comparing me favourably to MR James and Ramsay Campbell! Holy God!). There’s something terrifying about waiting for your peers and contemporaries (people established and well-regarded in a world you’re only just breaking into) to comment on stuff you’ve produced, so it’s incredibly reassuring to find that they seem to like what I’m doing. I won’t say too much about the specific comments as yet (I’ll save that for when we’ve sorted out an advertising strategy for the book, nearer the time), but to have two people whose opinions is importnat to me (a BAFTA award-winning screenwriter and creator of one of my favourite TV shows ever , and an author who’s had stories in the past 2 Mammoth Book of Best New Horrors), say that they like my stuff is just beyond wonderful. If you’d told me two years ago that I’d be in this position, I’d have laughed and told you to bugger off; now, I’ll laugh and say ‘Hurrah!’.
Reviews: Still not much, I’m afraid. I’m still enjoying D’Lacey’s Garbage Man, but haven’t finished it – I promise I’ll finish it and review it soon. Honest. I did finish watching Neverwhere, though, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Now, I’ll admit it’s a little dated and its low budget shows through on countless occasions, but this is still one of my favourite Neil Gaiman works. It’s well acted (especially by Hywel Bennet and Paterson Joseph), smartly thought out, and (in Mr Croup and Mr Vandemar) has two of the best villains ever commited to screen. Hywel Bennet, in particular, imbues Mr Croup with such oily, creepy unpleasantness that he dominates the screen whenever he’s on. Its vision of two Londons, one above and one below, and its use of tube station names as key story elements (who is the Angel in Islington? who are the the black friars? why, exactly, do we need to mind the Gap?) is imagination at its best, twisting the world into new and weird shapes, and I love it. One of the things people remember about Neverwhere, I suspect (and which probably puts them off from rewatching it now), is that it was filmed on video (rather than film) and looked flat and dull when it was first shown, but oddly that’s not so much of an issue now. In these days of HiDef TVs and DVDs that have to be upscaled (and often still end up looking flat and depthless), Neverwhere is looking better than it ever has before. You can still see its TV origins, of course, but they’re far less noticeable than when it was initially aired. Not perfect, but well worth checking out.
Right. Back to the writing. Until next week, goodbye.
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