C.M. Rosens's Blog, page 15

Author Spotlight: Nat Weaver

Nathan “Nat” Weaver has been writing for a long time across stage, film, television, short stories, and finally became a novelist in 2020 when he published Sweet Sixteen Killer, the first in his Mercedes Masterson Detective series. He followed it up with Her Last Halloween, a short story in the series, in 2023.

Weaver’s noir detective series, Mercedes Masterson, is ongoing with several installments available now.

Books: mercedesmasterson.com

Threads: @natweaverwrites

Facebook: @weavern

Newsletter: weaver.wtf

Blog: weaversdeepthoughts.com

Cash App: $natweaverwrites

Ko-Fi: ko-fi/natweaver

How do you plot a Mercedes Masterton novel – can you talk us through your process of drafting from an idea to a full outline?

Well, I don’t have a full outline in advance, so there’s that. I typically have a basic idea for the plot and a beginning and ending. It’s all the middle bits that muck it up. I typically, outline a little out in front of me using a spreadsheet method with a brief description of the action in the chapter, characters, estimated word goal, and actual word goal when I finish the first draft (that also gets updated regularly during the editing stage). I’ll have about 5-10 chapters outlined ahead of me as I go. With it being a series, I do have to regularly go out and plan things ahead from time-to-time, to make sure I’m hitting my marks.

How did Mercedes develop as a character as you were planning the series?

I first came up with the character in the summer of 2005. I was working with a group of friends on a short film that I was to write and direct. I needed a character for an actress, and I developed Mercedes. Mainly, because I was like, “Hey, where are the cops? There should probably be a detective after this murder.” It’s a character I’ve been developing off and on for years since then, along with the actress who first played her – she appears on the cover and website. That’s her. At any rate, at some point I had this idea of doing a spin-off TV series where she quit the force and became a private detective. Years passed, and I decided to reverse adapt that private detective idea into a book series. Now that I’m working with her in the novel form, I get to play around a lot more with her than I ever got to in film. Not that you can’t in that medium, but it has opened me up to delve more into her character. There’s a lot to come.

In The Sweet Sixteen Killer, we’re introduced to Mercedes Masterton and her transition from one career to another, from law enforcement (after a decade of fighting police corruption and organised crime) to the private sector. Why did you choose to pick up her story at this point, rather than when she was still with the force?

As I mentioned above, I have worked with her in a previous storyline. In that storyline, though, she is more of a supporting role. In this series, I’m able to put her front and center, and really develop her character. Plus, I think it’s just a fascinating storyline, she is turning 30 and turning over a new leaf. This was something I did when I was 30 as well. Mostly, I just wanted to write about her. Originally, I started with a 7-book series of books about her high school career. One of these days maybe I’ll get back to that.

What do you think noir as a mode/subgenre adds to your themes of personal identity exploration and absences/loss in Jonah of Olympic? 

When I was first writing Mercedes, I pictured her as both a femme fatale and a heroine all wrapped up in one. And that first film with her was a noir series, even in black and white. That said, I would say when writing noir, you have to be willing to get a little dirty, or gritty, and also inside the mind of some of the characters. I think that helps these themes along. Things tend to be sort of bleak in noir, especially classic noir, so it sort of raises the bar when it comes to the emotional toll of the characters. This was a fascinating question.

What aspects of the series (or your newest release specifically) do you find most difficult to write, and how do you manage this?

Honestly, editing. Editing longform, especially my own work, I find a daunting task. I enjoy the heck out of editing, when it comes in shortform. But that’s not what the question is really about. You would think it would be violence since the series has violence, but honestly, I don’t find it too difficult to write. Maybe that’s because I’ve seen violence. I don’t know. But I tend to come at it from the perspective of wanting to know what the goal is, where is the violence taking us emotionally. And also, this is important, to know what you don’t want the violence to do. But some types of violence are just extremely difficult to process, even in fiction, and I tend to shy away from that stuff, or I write about it vaguely. Or maybe we could learn about it through someone reading a police report. That way the reader isn’t in the thick of it. I always say that I tend to write about things I hate. I actually detest violence and am not a violent person at all.

Now that I think of it: sex scenes. I think it’s important to write good ones, not like the comical ones we see on social media written by men about women, like, “she moved breastedly across the floor.” I’ve actually been practicing writing some. Mercedes is closeted bisexual, but I do want her to have an active sex life.

How many stories are planned for the series as of now and what are the next releases to look out for?

That’s hard to say at the moment. Originally, I was sitting at about 15 plots/books. But that didn’t include some of the short stories and novellas that fall between the novels (and yes, it’s all important). But recently, I went through and consolidated some plots into subplots, and I realize that’s probably what I’m going to try and do moving forward. I’m 40, I don’t know if I have enough life in me to write 15 books. Plus, I’m of the opinion that a book cannot be made of one single good idea, but many good ideas. So, the consolidation of subplots can help make a book great.

On the Mercedes Masterson site, we’re trying to plot out ahead so we can see what’s coming – at least in terms of a title and a stand-in graphic. Currently, there is Sweet Sixteen Killer and Her Last Halloween out now, and then up next is Jonah of Olympic and The Book of Jude (which is currently missing on the site), followed by Winter Wanderland and Supernature.

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Check out Josiah Akhtab – character-driven sagas, vampire fiction and dark toned adventures.

Author Spotlight: Elad Haber

Elad Haber has been quietly publishing short fiction for more than twenty years. He attended Clarion when he was eighteen years old. You might find his stories in various forgotten corners of the Internet or in the dusty backrooms of basement bookstores. He has recent publications from Lightspeed Magazine, the Simultaneous Times Podcast, and Underland Arcana. His debut short story collection, “The World Outside” will be published by Underland Press in late 2024.

Website: eladhaber.com
Twitter/X: @MusicInMyCar
BlueSky: @eladhaber.bsky.social
Threads: @ehaberrr
Book Link: underlandpress.com/world-outside

Can you talk us through the process of ordering the collection, and the selection of the stories in each section?

The stories in The World Outside are sequenced in a loose chronological order but also grouped together by theme. It is my hope that readers will be able to track my writing journey through the stories themselves, both in craft and in subjects I was thinking and working through as I developed as a writer.

I’ve always worn my inspirations proudly and after being introduced by a friend to the work of Angela Carter, specifically The Bloody Chamber collection, I set out to write a series of dark fairytale retellings and those were among my first publications. I always fashioned myself a Science Fiction writer because that was the majority of what I was reading at the time (although that will change), so the next few stories are me stretching my SF muscles with stories set after the apocalypse, stories about time (but not time travel), AI, talking stars, and imagining a future so hot, people take a drug called Chill so they can venture outside.

As I matured and branched out with my reading consumption, a discerning reader will be able to see Magic Realism and Horror start to filter into my work. Ruminations on death and grief, my take on a Golem story, and some experiments in psychological horror are the next few stories. And finally, with the last group, a bit of a homecoming with some overt Science Fiction pieces, a superhero story, a story about drugs that make you forget and some that make you remember, and imagining a future where sleep has been genetically banned.

2. What about short fiction led you to choose this form as the vehicle for your stories and themes? Do you think any stories would work in other formats?

I’ve always been drawn to the short form. I was that nerd in the high school lunch room reading copies of Fantasy and Science Fiction. When I started writing and submitting, probably too early as a awkward teenager, there were just a handful of print magazines and they seemed like these exclusive towers where the barrier to entry was so high and the quality of the writing so strong. Yet, I tried. I was young and confident and I was lucky enough to get into Clarion when I was just eighteen and about to graduate high school. It was a wonderful experience for me and even though it took many years after to finally start publishing, the lessons I learned – and the friends I made – were priceless.

Going back to your question, I’m a big fan of TV. If novels are like movies, short stories are like TV episodes. Sometimes they are short and quick and sometimes they linger for a while and demand a followup. That’s the beauty of short fiction. You could tell an incredible beginning to end narrative in a thousand words. They strip away side stories and meanderings and are lean and direct as if the writer is calling you over for a hushed confession that only you can hear.

As for other formats, one of my favorite pieces in the book (also my first professional sale) is “Number One Hit” and a few years ago a friend of mine reached out to me about adapting that story into a short film. We worked together on a script and started figuring out where we could shoot it. As often happens with these things, the project lost steam and was shelved but I heard recently there’s someone out in Las Vegas is trying hard to make that short film so I’m hopeful that will happen.

3. Do you have a personal favourite story (or favourite few), and what do you think the reader response will be to them?

I’ve been lucky enough to live in three major cities in my lifetime. I grew up in New York City, went to college in San Francisco, and have lived the last twenty years of my life in Miami. A few years ago, I was thinking about the stories I was writing and realized I had never written a story set specifically in Miami, this very important place where I’ve settled down, gotten married, had a daughter. So I started thinking about what a story set in Miami would be like and I started thinking about how hot it gets down here. But I didn’t want to write a story about climate change and its global effects, I wanted something that was more concrete and personal. I’m also a big dog person. I love having a dog and taking them for walks but then I started thinking about how would you take a dog for a walk if just being outside in the heat was dangerous? That was the kernel of the idea for “Stay in Your Homes.”

I put a lot of my various obsessions into that story. I’m a huge Alice in Wonderland fan and I kept an expanded edition of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass on my desk for years for inspiration. I also like to write about big drug-fueled parties as a kind of homage to my youth (not that I went to many of those types of parties, but I would have if I had been invited). Also, that story has an interesting publication story. It was originally rejected by the publisher and then only after they announced the Table Of Contents for the issue, the publisher emailed me to tell me the story had stuck with her and she was a bit hesitant about some of the darkness in the story, she said she had to publish something that really spoke to her. Additionally, it came out during the pandemic when we were all staying in our homes.

In terms of what I would want readers to take away from that piece, I think anytime I look forward in writing a Science Fiction story, I am very interested in ways in which a future civilization adapts to their environment. Whether it’s climate related or the aftermath of some kind of human folly, I believe humans will always find ways to survive. That’s the nature of all animals. In fiction, we always want to focus on the character. And, for my style of writing, I use a lot of first person perspective so character is always first but those background aspects of a civilization surviving allows for some kind of hope, even in a sad story.

4. Are there themes you would like to explore further that didn’t make it into this collection?

It’s clear we live in a fraught political climate, both here in the United States and abroad. I’ve always written stories that center on families or single characters, but as I grow and continue to develop as a writer, I’d like to cast my net wider. I’d like to write stories that imagine larger futures, either hopeful or dystopian, but stories will always have people trying to survive or live better and in that way, even the darkest stories have hope within them.

5. What is next for you in your writing journey?

For me, continuing to write and publish is the reward for two decades in the field. I’m hopeful the book will raise my profile a bit so when I do have something published, it gets more attention in this crowded landscape of published fiction. There’s so much good work out there and I just want to be one more voice sharing my stories. And, maybe, if I’m lucky again, to put out another collection in the future.

6. If you had to pick 3 things you want readers to take away from the collection, what would they be?

Great question! I wanted readers to really get to know me through this book. I included a short biographical statement early in the book as an introduction, not so much to the themes and subjects of the book, but me, personally. Then I let the stories speak for themselves and allow a discerning reader to get know me through my published work. I also wanted to put out a book that was different than your average single author collection. Often, writers pick a lane and stick to it, whether it’s a genre or general subject matter. But I’ve never been able to sit still like that. I imagine myself a slipstream or interstitial writer, a journeyman balancing on the lines and adding Fantasy elements into Science Fiction and vice versa. And over the last decade or so, taking in the amazing things happening in the Horror genre and trying my best to join that conversation.

And finally, to add my voice to the chorus of “Never Give Up.” As I mentioned earlier in this interview, I was lucky enough to attend Clarion at eighteen years old. But my writing journey since then has been filled with mountains of rejections. I’m forty-four now and putting out my first book. So to all the other writers out there, writing and getting rejected or publishing but feeling like nobody really cares: I see you. I believe in you. Never give up.

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Author Spotlight: Nicole M. Wolverton

Nicole M. Wolverton is a fear enthusiast who grew up in rural Pennsylvania, wondering what lurked in the cornfields outside her bedroom window. Today, Nicole is a Pushcart-nominated writer of (mostly) speculative and horror fiction for adults and young adults. She is the author of A MISFORTUNE OF LAKE MONSTERS, a young adult speculative novel (CamCat Books, July 2024), and THE TRAJECTORY OF DREAMS, a 2013 adult psychological thriller (Bitingduck Press). She served as curator and Editor of the 2021 anthology of short fiction BODIES FULL OF BURNING (Sliced Up Press), exploring horror through the lens of menopause—the first of its kind. Her short fiction, creative nonfiction, and essays have appeared in approximately fifty anthologies, magazines, and podcasts. She currently lives in the Philadelphia area and still wonders what creeps in the dark.

LINKS:

website

instagram

threads

bluesky

print book – A Misfortune of Lake Monsters

audiobook – A Misfortune of Lake Monsters

If you had to pick 3 words that sum up what your novel means to you, as the author, what would they be and why?

childhood, ambition, love

What led you to the plot point and themes of impersonation and fakery in your latest novel?

To start with, when you grow up in a rural place it can be difficult to outrun who and what people think you are. That’s part of the reason I wanted to leave my own childhood home–I wanted to be who I imagined I could be, not live up (or down) to others’ expectations. It’s the weight of those expectations that really drove the themes of impersonation and fakery in A Misfortune of Lake Monsters. While I’m not much like Lemon Ziegler, my main character, the desire to be more and escape to something new is something we share (or shared, since high school is long over for me). But part of small town living is rooted in secrets. Perhaps that’s any setting–urban, suburban, or rural–but it feels so much more intense in rural places because there’s so little true privacy. It takes a lot more effort to keep things private.

What about YA Horror led you to choose this genre as the vehicle for your story and themes?

Being a teenager is horrifying–it’s always been horrifying. Whether it’s other teenagers being bullies or jerks, parents or siblings being bullies or jerks, teachers being bullies or jerks…you’re trapped in this world without much, if any, personal agency. You’re treated like a child but expected to operate like an adult. There’s all this pressure from every direction, and on top of that, you’re expected to at least pick a direction for your future. And, of course, you want to stand out from the crowd and be your unique self while not being too much of a weirdo or too off-putting. Not to mention that the world is a shit-show–school shootings, climate change, civil rights, war. At every turn, it seems like the people in charge are actively trying to make sure the future is dismal. What are you supposed to do with that? I’m barely able to deal with it at 52, let alone when I was 16 or 17. The only way to survive is to imagine that there’s another world where things are different–but it also helps to imagine that there’s another world where things are way worse. Misery does love company, after all. That all sounds really negative–but it’s very much born out of my experience as a teen. I was a miserable.

One of the things that has always attracted me to YA horror is that I can write teens in their crap situations–crappier than normal teen situations–but give them agency to be heroes. Give them agency to fight the bad guy, to find solutions to problems that are both ordinary and extraordinary. There’s a school of thought that even the most messed up, terrible YA books have to offer a ray of hope at the end–a hope that not everything is a nihilistic waste of time and effort. I do agree with that in many ways, but it looks different in horror, and that’s what makes YA horror such a fun genre/category to write in.

Other than your MC, which character do you think readers will love?

There are two characters that people seem to be drawn to. The first is Lemon and Troy’s best friend Darrin; he’s an immature teen boy with a trucker mouth, but he’s also funny and confident and loyal. He gets pretty much all the best lines in the book. The second character is Amelia, the new student at school. It’s not necessarily who people think she is that makes readers love her… it’s who she reveals herself to be in due time. There’s something very brusque about her in a very lovable, human way. Incidentally, while Lemon and Troy are great characters, and I love them, I also have a very big soft spot for Darrin and Amelia.

What was the hardest ‘darling’ for you to kill to get to the final draft?

A Misfortune of Lake Monsters was originally written in a close third person, and I really liked it that way because I could explore a few things–racism, in particular–that it’s far more difficult to explore from a first person POV. I lack the credibility, you know? And so when my former agent suggested I convert to first person, I had to drop some passages that I thought were important–and during developmental edits with the publisher, the editor wanted to bulk up a part of the plot that had been relatively minor, and that also led to simplifying other plots even more simply so the plot wasn’t super-duper and unnecessarily complex. That was kind of a bummer. Another piece I had to lose in editing was a sketch I’d made of something Troy finds. I’m not an artist, and any kind of drawing comes really hard for me… it just about killed me when the editor told me they couldn’t include it in the book. The effort I put into this sketch was… well, it was a lot. Ha!

If you had to pick 3 things you want readers to take away from the novel, what would they be?

1. It’s possible to get what you want you want while managing the weight of others’ expectations–it just takes some finagling.

2. horror doesn’t have to be so serious all the time–it can be cozy and fun and sweet and comforting and romantic, while also being terrifying

3. the ordinary is often the extraordinary in hiding

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Author Spotlight: Josiah Akhtab

I write. I workout. I make Youtube videos. I play Basketball. I meditate. I journal. I read either Fantasy or Philosophy. Oh, and did I forget to mention that daydreaming about a story is more entertaining than writing it? But hey, if I don’t write the story who will, right?

Josiah Akhtab has been writing for over ten years, and has published ten books. His first novella, Confession, was published in 2017 with Dorrance Publishing, and his first novel, The Jake Matthews Saga: Ascension, was published in 2019.

Website: www.josiahakhtab.blog

Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Josiah-Akhtab/author/B08WRYSJVL

Instagram: josiahakhtab

CashApp: $josiahakhtabofficial

What drew you to writing as a creative outlet, and how did your publishing journey begin?

It all began with Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and The Olympians series. A story of adventure, emotion, world-building, and fantastical creatures. It captivated and inspired me so much that I wanted to create a story of my own with those same elements. 

As for my publishing journey, it began with me traditionally publishing a novella, Confession, in 2017 with Dorrance Publishing. After that, I decided to take more control of my journey and venture into self-publishing which has taught me more about the writing world and helped me become more then just an author. 

What were your main influences for your first novella Confession (2017), and for The Jake Matthews Saga? 

I would say Animes like Dragon Ball Z, Bleach, Naruto, One Piece were large influences for both works. I prefer action packed, gritty, fast- paced, and dark and those animes are the top examples of all those elements. 

Are there repeated themes in your work? Anything that might be recognisable to repeat readers as your author “brand” where it comes to elements, themes, tropes?

The signature tropes of my work are often zero to hero or The Hero’s Journey. The four core elements I try to have in every story are darkness, grittiness, loads of action, and fast pacing. Those are the things I focus on with all of my stories.

What drew your attention to the vampire, and what is your take on them?

Vampires have two key interpretations, monstrous and/or seductive. I used to watch movies like Van Helsing and Interview With A Vampire, Vampire Diaries, etc. and I wanted to find a way to combine all those qualities and put a unique spin on the traditional interpretations of the mythical creature.

My personal take is that vampires are often seductive, debonair, and alluring. They also have a sense of dynamism that makes them distinct and uniquely human despite their predatory nature. 

Where do you see your take on vampires fitting into other literary traditions like Gothic Horror, Paranormal Fiction, etc that feature them?

I see my take being a unique fusion that has elements of all the traditional genres but is not easily classified as any one genre specifically. My personal take focus on vampires being dynamic, relatable yet still monstrous and seductive to the human audience. 

What do you most want to develop in your writing, and what is next for your work?

I would like to develop the core elements of my stories being dark, action-packed, gritty, and fast paced. I want to fill my stories with as much of those elements as possible to maintain a vice grip on my audience. 

What is next for my work is to complete the series that is The Jake Matthews Saga and Immortal. I would like to create the demand for the second instalments first before writing the second books so people have an amazing series to look forward to. 

My latest work is The Adventures of Fleeting Grace which centres around a fourteenth-century girl of North African descent adopted by European parents, who dies and becomes a tangible spirit with a magical cape and finds a portal that leads her to different worlds on a series of adventures. It is set to come out on Christmas this year (25 December 2024).

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Author Interview Series!

Greetings, book friends!

I’m starting up my author interview series, looking to give authors a boost, particularly authors without the clout of a trad deal, and more so for those experiencing marginalisation because of their identity, ethnicity, disability, and/or neurodivergence.

I have opened up my comment form to requests for interviews, and I’m happy to give a platform to authors here.

Drop me a message on my FIND ME page. You can also DM me on social media if we’re mutuals!

There’s no deadline or expiry for this; my plan is to release a few interviews a month until I run out of people, basically. It will be a rolling open invite, so you can drop me a message any time until I specify that I’m closed on my FIND ME page.

Disclaimer (Strong Language Warning)

Featuring authors does not mean I’ve read the books, although I do try and support people as much as I can. If I later find out that there is harmful (-phobic, racist) content or the author themselves is a bit of a cunt, and not someone I feel comfortable platforming, I’ll be taking the interviews down. If the author is exposed as lying about who they are, the interview comes down. This should go without saying, but here we are.

Authors for Palestine: Event Live 10-20 June

What is the AFP Event?

You can find this information on the AFP website, reproduced here. Credit to L. B. Shimaira for the website creation, and to Shariva Khan for the idea and hosting and putting everyone together! Other organsiers include myself (C. M. Rosens), Micah J. Anthony and Katy Haye.

Over 50 authors have come together to pool their various works (poetry, novels, short stories, and more) to help increase the amount of donations going to Palestinians in need.

We’ve selected 3 families from the OOB spreadsheet to help boost their fundraisers during the AfP event. Please help support: Mohammed, Ibrahim, and Rula. These fundraisers are featured on Operation Olive Branch. You can read all about Operation Olive Branch here and check out their entire spreadsheet of people who could use your help. Even if you’ve run out of funds to donate, please consider sharing OOB or individual fundraisers.

More information on the families, whose GFMs were getting the least traction of the OOB featured fundraisers at the time of the Authors For Palestine campaign, can be found here on the afp.ju.mp website.

How To Join

1. You make a donation of $5, $10, $15 or more to one of the following people and make a screenshot of your successful donation.

MohammedIbrahimRula

2. You fill in the event form and attach the screenshot.

3. Done! And now you wait.

4. Once your donation has been verified via your form submission, you will receive a link to the various participation rewards.5. At the end of the event, 1 winner will be selected per extra reward bundle. These winners will be contacted so they can receive their various bundle rewards.

– It’s important to provide accurate contact information, or else we might not be able to get you your rewards. (Eg, make sure that if you say we can DM you, that your settings allow for non-followers/non-friends to message you.)
Also, be sure to check your message requests/spam folders if you’ve won. – Please note that the $5 reward tier is only for people located in the USA (due to shipping costs). The $10 and $15 tiers are open internationally.

Participation Awards

A confirmed donation of at least $5 will grant you access to the following rewards:

16 Free eBooks:

• Sweet Tooth by A.K. Caggiano (Urban Fantasy RomCom)
• The Ajani’s Sister by Alek L. Cristea (Queer Fantasy)
• The Hills We Run From by Ellis Mae (Queer Literary Fiction)
• Hotel of Lost Souls by H.S. Kallinger (Queer Urban Sci-Fantasy)
• Only One Bed by Katy Haye (Queer Cosy Fantasy)
• Reset by L.B. Shimaira (Queer Dreampunk)
• Spark and Tether by Lilian Zenzi (Queer Scifi Romance)
• Losing the Stars by MJ Anthony (Fantasy)
• Saving the Star by Rachel Bowdler (Sapphic Romantic Suspense)
• Safe & Sound by Rachel Bowdler (Sapphic Romantic Suspense)
• Handmade With Love by Rachel Bowdler (Sapphic Romance)
• Dance With Me by Rachel Bowdler (Romance)
• Along For the Ride by Rachel Bowdler (Romance)
• 3 AM by Shane Blackheart (Sapphic Gothic Horror)
• What Lies Beyond by Shane Blackheart (Achillean Literary Gothic Fiction)
• The Hunt and the Haunting by Victoria Audley (Queer Regency Romance)

3 Store Discounts:

• CM Rosens’ Kofi: 25% off on shop items
• Talia Queen’s Kofi: 99% off all digital items
• Victoria Audley’s Kofi: 50% off

What are the various reward bundles?

There are multiple extra reward bundles, split into tier 1 ($15), tier 2 ($10), and tier 3 ($5, USA only).

Tier 1:
• SFF Adventure Bundle
• Dark Fiction Bundle #1
• Dark Fiction Bundle #2
• Lovebug Bundle #1
• Lovebug Bundle #2
• Cozy Bundle

Tier 2:
• SFF Adventure Bundle
• Dark Fiction Bundle
• Lovebug & Cozy Bundle #1
• Lovebug & Cozy Bundle #2

Tier 3:
• SFF Adventure Bundle
• Dark Fiction Bundle
• Lovebug Bundle

To see which books are in each bundle, click the buttons below.

Tier 1Tier 2Tier 3AFP WEBSITE

Check out the website for more information!

Films To Know Me… 2000s Edition

As of now, I’ve logged a lot of horror films made in the 2000s on letterboxd… Chloe (2009) dir. Atom Egoyan, a slow burn dark erotic thriller, is not ‘horror’, but I’m still thinking about that film now despite only seeing it once in the cinema when it came out in 2009. It’s not here on the list, though.

I just couldn’t work out my condensed list, and found myself adding loads from 2009 & 2007 especially, so … I did a year-by-year, and then tried to whittle it down from that.

I know it was the decade that brought us The Others, some dodgy reboots and remakes of classic franchises, sequels, and so on. Also, we had some horror/action SciFi like Doom and Ghosts of Mars, and I do like those films a lot! But they don’t make it to my ‘get to know me’ pick list, as sadly (?) those films just don’t vibe with me as much. I enjoyed them, but I watched a lot of them too late to really get the full impact of them.

The Blade trilogy will always have a special place in my heart too, but didn’t end up on the list in the end – the first film is on my ’90s list though for sure, I just didn’t really rate the sequels as much? They had some great moments though for sure.

I think the films that deserve a very special shoutout, before we go any further, are the two Pat Higgins films from this decade that made me laugh so hard I nearly spat a mouthful of water over my laptop, and in trying not to do so, very nearly drowned:

KillerKiller and Hellbride (both 2007).

Memorable for the best and worst reasons. Highly recommend these as embodying the true spirit of indie British horror of the 2000s; off the wall, tongue-in-cheek, my-mate-wanted-to-be-in-a-film quality all the way through, then doubled down on. Check out Pat Higgins’ work, you will be many things, but not disappointed. Give this director a proper budget and Jason Statham’s number, for the love of God.

Honorable mention goes to Dan Gildark’s Cthulhu (also 2007 – what a gift of a year), which is online for free, on the director’s own YouTube channel. It’s a gay Lovecraftian cult romp, and there’s so much going on in it. So much. It’s an interesting watch, and worth highlighting in a category of its own.

Plus, another dark fantasy with monsters (and my comfort film of the 00s) that gets a mention here and is classed as horror: Van Helsing (2004) dir. Stephen Sommers. This film had the brides/Dracula that partially inspired S. T. Gibson’s A Dowry of Blood, and Saint discussed that with me in this episode of my podcast. I’m not ranking it with the other horror films, as I personally don’t class it in my head as Horror.

These are the ones I definitely did vibe with:

Top 10 Horror Picks Dog Soldiers (2002) dir. Neil Marshall – My ultimate comfort werewolf film which I watch as a double bill with Howl (2015) dir. Paul Hyett. Howl didn’t quite make it to the top 20 of the 2010s, but it would definitely be in the top 30.House of 1000 Corpses (2003) dir. Rob Zombie – parts of this are a comfort watch, parts of this I leave the room for and make a cup of tea and come back when it’s over Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008) dir. Darren Lynn Bousman – I had this musical on repeat at one point.El Espinazo del Diablo/The Devil’s Backbone (2001) dir. Guillermo Del Toro – Really enjoy repeat watches of this one, my original introduction to Del Toro, I think? But I also loved Pan’s Labyrinth which I saw in the cinema. That one isn’t classed on Letterboxd as ‘Horror’ but rather as dark fantasy, and I’d say The Devil’s Backbone is more squarely horror, so that’s why it’s on this list instead. Wake Wood (2009) dir. David Keating – I loved the concept and the necromancy element so much. The Midnight Meat Train (2008) dir. Ryûhei Kitamura – I also like the Clive Barker story it’s based on. Jennifer’s Body (2009) dir. Karyn Kusama – Just a lot of fun. The Children (2008) dir. Tom Shankland – I hate kids. Creepy kids are the worst. This is the worst film for the worst kids. 30 Days of Night (2007) dir. David Slade – A comfort watch. El Orfanato/The Orphanage (2007) dir. J. A. Bayona – Heartbreaking, had a big effect on me when I originally saw it not long after its release, and I don’t revisit it often.Top 10 Horror Runners-Up

Debated adding Splice (2009) dir. Vincenzo Natali and Les Pacte Des Loupes/The Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001) dir. Christophe Gans to this list for very different reasons. Neither of them won. This is so hard because this is the decade that brought us Låt Den Rätte Komma In/Let The Right One In (2008) dir. Tomas Alfredson. It also brought us Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Rob Zombie’s Halloween reboot that I didn’t hate, more famous films like The Strangers and Signs and The Descent, not to mention 28 Days Later. But I feel like you’d get a better idea of me as a viewer (a trash goblin) from these instead:

The Woods (2006) dir. Lucky McKee – when I want a woodsy boarding school horror but not in the mood for the original Suspiria, this is fine I guess.The Collector (2009) dir. Marcus Dunstan – My favourite is actually The Collection (2012) but it didn’t beat the others in my list for the 2010s (I actually kind of forgot about it), so I’m adding The Collector in here as penance. Dagon (2001) dir. Stuart Gordon – This is here because it brought me so much pure unbridled joy. It’s a low-budget Lovecraft adaptation which is really ‘The Shadow Over Innsmouth’ set in Spain. I watched this in German with German subtitles, which sort of gave up and started not translating the Spanish into German halfway through, and that massively improved the experience. No, I don’t speak German, or Spanish, but I can not read both slightly better than I don’t speak either. Best 95mins of my week, easily. Je ne regrette rien, as they say in neither Berlin or Imbolca.헨젤과 그레텔/Hansel & Gretel (2007) dir. Yim Pil-sung – I liked this take on this fairytale. When Eun-soo gets lost in a country road, he meets a mysterious girl and is led to her fairytale ike house in the middle of the forest. There, Eun-soo is trapped with the girl and her siblings who never age. Eun-soo finally discovers a way out which is written on a fairy tale book. But the book tells a story of none other than himself! Borderland (2007) dir. Zev Burman (narrowly won out over Vacancy (2007), but I keep going back and fore on it. I haven’t seen Hostel so the comparisons of Borderland with that are lost on me, and I don’t think they’re substantially the same from what I’ve heard/read.)The Devil’s Rejects (2005) dir. Rob Zombie – I really enjoy fucked up family dynamics, so this one got watched a lot while I was thinking about writing my own twisted inbred family for Pagham-on-Sea. The Dark (2005) dir. John Fawcett – By no means a perfect film, but I actually like it. Absolutely nothing like the book it’s nominally based on, Sheep by Simon Maginn. Everything is completely different, in fact, except it’s still set in Wales, and the backstory of the pastor sending his congregants over the cliff is still used. The book is psychological horror – the film is supernatural horror borrowing elements of Welsh folklore and myth. Maginn isn’t Welsh, and the film isn’t Welsh-made, so while the setting might qualify as “Welsh horror” in the sense of horror about Wales, it’s not strictly speaking Welsh horror or Welsh Gothic. That said, a drowning child and suicidal sheep are definitely elements of Welsh Gothic/Welsh rural horror. One reviewer described this as “Welsh misery porn”, and that feels right.Calvaire (2004) dir. Fabrice Du Welz – I’m never watching it again, it was the most viscerally fucked-up thing I’ve seen in a while, and I almost wish I’d never seen it to begin with. I think about it a lot. (CW: male rape, bestiality, check doesthedogdie.com on this one)Hannibal (2001) dir. Ridley Scott – It was between this and American Psycho, which I really like too, but I read Hannibal as a teenager, around 15/16, and so this one wins for the Thomas Harris nostalgia. Shadow of the Vampire (2000) dir. E. Elias Merhige (I know Final Destination and a few others came out this year, but I’ve enjoyed my rewatches of this one more.)

I’m pretty happy with my choices there, I think…

Authors for Palestine

@ shariva.writes on instagram

CALLING ALL AUTHORS AND ARTISTS WHO ARE ABLE & WILLING TO CONTRIBUTE TO A RAFFLE IN AID OF PALESTINIAN FAMILIES

Deadline to sign up and contribute physical and/or digital items to the raffle tiers is 08 June.

You can contribute anything, as long as you can ship it out to raffle winners.

Participation is obviously free, and in order to enter, there will be three tiers to choose from – $5, $10, and $15.

Winners can choose a bundle of items made available to their tier.

There might also be participation discount codes to use on Ko-Fi and Smashwords, sent to entrants when they buy a raffle ticket for their chosen tier; you can opt in/out of this as a creator, just contribute what you can and what you are comfortable with.

Proceeds will go to families in need picked out with Operation Olive Branch so the money can be used directly to help get a family to safety.

If you want to get involved, get in touch with Shar Khan (shariva.writes) on Instagram.

If you want to buy a ticket, watch this space for details and links!

Films to Know Me… 2010s Edition

Up to now, I’ve watched 161 horror films from the 2010s, according to my Letterboxd logs (which never lie). My favourite films are going to be really hard to whittle down, but I can try!

I’m not including my favourite 2010s trilogy, Gogol, dir. Egor Baranov, as I watched this as a series like Fear Street. That ran 2017-2018 and I really enjoyed it. It’s supernatural Gothic with fun twists, based on Gogol’s stories, and really fun.

These are a mix of stuff that really gets to me, things I thought were really hard watches in places, things that were really enjoyable and worth multiple rewatches, and comfort films.

Top 10 Horror Picks Us (2019) dir. Jordan Peele – I started watching this when it was on telly and turned it on just as the doppelganger family are at the bottom of the driveway and that bit freaked me out so I turned it off and I only just got brave enough to watch the whole thing. Really glad I did, because I loved it. Husband and wife Gabe and Adelaide Wilson take their kids to their beach house expecting to unplug and unwind with friends. But as night descends, their serenity turns to tension and chaos when some shocking visitors arrive uninvited. Ready or Not (2019) dirs. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett – comfort rewatch. Love this one. I’ve seen it so many times that it has to go in the top 10. A bride’s wedding night takes a sinister turn when her eccentric new in-laws force her to take part in a terrifying game. Annihilation (2018) dir. Alex Garland – I really like the books by Jeff Vandermeer, and how divergent the film is. I think this stands on its own really well. A biologist signs up for a dangerous, secret expedition into a mysterious zone where the laws of nature don’t apply.Aterrados/Terrified (2017) dir. Demián Rugna – That fucking dead kid. No. It genuinely was the scariest film I saw for the #100HorrorMoviesin92Days Challenge last year. Police commissioner Funes and three researchers of supernatural phenomena investigate inexplicable events that are occurring in the suburbs of Buenos Aires.Get Out (2017) dir. Jordan Peele – Really enjoyed this one. Another rewatch, and I also would recommend the talk I saw on this as Afro-Gothic, or American Gothic; Race, Romance and Horror in Bridgerton, Candyman and Get Out with Tanagra GGNOC and Sam Hirst. Chris and his girlfriend Rose go upstate to visit her parents for the weekend. At first, Chris reads the family’s overly accommodating behavior as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter’s interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he never could have imagined. The Lodgers (2017) dir. Brian O’Malley – Genuinely a really great Irish Gothic film, using the Supernatural Gothic to explore the tensions in Ireland between the Irish rural working class and the Anglo-Irish elite in the turbulent years between the Easter Rising and Irish Independence [for the Republic]. 1920, rural Ireland. Anglo-Irish twins Rachel and Edward share a strange existence in their crumbling family estate. Each night, the property becomes the domain of a sinister presence (The Lodgers) which enforces three rules upon the twins: they must be in bed by midnight; they may not permit an outsider past the threshold; and if one attempts to escape, the life of the other is placed in jeopardy. When troubled war veteran Sean returns to the nearby village, he is immediately drawn to the mysterious Rachel, who in turn begins to break the rules set out by The Lodgers. The consequences pull Rachel into a deadly confrontation with her brother – and with the curse that haunts them.La Región Salvaje/The Untamed (2016) dir. Amat Escalante – Erotic, violent, visceral, tentacles. Not for everyone and people do get hentai’d to death. Desperate to flee but consumed by fear, Alejandra, a young mother and working housewife, is trapped in a violent and unsatisfying relationship with her husband, Angel. She leans on her brother Fabián for support, but he has secrets of his own. All of their lives are turned upside down by the arrival of the mysterious Veronica. She convinces them that in the nearby woods, inside an isolated cabin, dwells something not of this world that could be the answer to all of their problems… something whose force they cannot resist and with whom they must make peace or suffer its wrath. Crimson Peak (2015) dir. Guillermo Del Toro – One of my favourite Gothic Horror Romances. You should subscribe to Johannes T. Evans’ Medium to read his PROLIFIC outputs, but his post on Crimson Peak: A Love Letter to Gothic Romance is worth a read. In the aftermath of a family tragedy, an aspiring author is torn between love for her childhood friend and the temptation of a mysterious outsider. Trying to escape the ghosts of her past, she is swept away to a house that breathes, bleeds… and remembers. A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (2014) dir. Ana Lily Amirpour – I really enjoyed this, although it was such a hard watch. CW for drug addiction and coercive pressure to shoot up. In the Iranian ghost-town Bad City, a place that reeks of death and loneliness, the townspeople are unaware they are being stalked by a lonesome vampire. The Woman in Black (2012) dir. James Watkins – I love this film. It was the first proper ghost story Hammer ever did, and I have a lot of love for the bleak aesthetic and how they diverged from the ending in the play/novella to make it less awful. The story follows a young lawyer, Arthur Kipps, who is ordered to travel to a remote village and sort out a recently deceased client’s papers. As he works alone in the client’s isolated house, Kipps begins to uncover tragic secrets, his unease growing when he glimpses a mysterious woman dressed only in black. Receiving only silence from the locals, Kipps is forced to uncover the true identity of the Woman in Black on his own, leading to a desperate race against time when he discovers her true identity.Top 10 Horror Runners-up The Invocation of Enver Simaku (2019) dir. Marco Lledó Escartín Haunt (2019) dirs. Scott Beck, Bryan WoodsTau (2018) dir. Federico D’Alessandro – as seen in my Rapunzel post! A Dark Song (2016) dir. Liam Gavin – I’m still not sure the effects at the end worked well for the film as a whole but I really liked the whole premise and the claustrophobic atmosphere and performances. Cold Moon (2016) dir. Griff Furst – Southern Gothic but I can’t get over the fact it’s Will from Criminal Minds in a VERY different role Dabbe 5: Zehr-i Cin/Curse of the Jinn (2014) dir. Hasan Karacadağ – this is a straight tie with Karacadağ’s Dabbe 4: Cin Çarpması/The Possession (2013) and honestly I can’t choose between them so I’m cheating. I thought 4 was my favourite, but then there’s stuff in 5 I really liked as well. The Borderlands (2013) dir. Elliot GoldnerJug Face (2013) dir. Chad Crawford Kinkle – cw for incest & graphic miscarriage Red Riding Hood (2011) dir. Catherine Hardwicke Outcast (2010) dir. Colm McCarthy

I don’t know if I’ll change my mind as soon as this is posted… I think I’m ok with these for now…

The Crows is Fully Restored!

Blending elements of kitchen sink drama and slice of life fiction with a chilling horror core, the Pagham-on-Sea series is a truly unique and fascinating addition to the horror genre. The Canelo team are beyond excited to put forward an offer for World rights for The Crows and Thirteenth.

Opening Lines of the Canelo Proposal (2023)

Release Day: TODAY

Welcome back to Pagham-on-Sea, and the ruined manor on the outskirts known as The Crows. Come and explore the meandering twists and turns of this Gothic horror with tentacles tale set in a creepy paranormal-riddled seaside town…

UK: Get it NowUS: Preorder for 08 october 2024Publishing Journey

I began this journey in 2013 with a pantsed romantic paranormal murder mystery in which a woman falls in love with her house. It was fine I guess – it stayed up on my CelticMedusa Wattpad profile for a few years (the C. M. in my pen name – my other Wattpad username was CelticRose and that’s where the Rose bit of the pen name comes from + a couple of characters from an old password I don’t use anymore).

(I actually made a new friend while writing this first iteration of the story – he was a student from Nigeria picking up shifts in the factory near where I was living, and we sat next to each other on the rail replacement bus. He saw me writing a chapter on my phone and we started talking. We fell out of touch later on, but that was a cool thing that happened. Anyway!)

I wrote a load of other things, including a werewolf thriller, where Bramble Cottage appeared in a painting, and decided to keep it as a location. I then did a crossover with a dark fantasy series I was writing. In the crossover, called The Reckoning, I invented new characters called Katy (a stroppy eldritch teenager) and Ricky, a cameo appearance of one of the residents of Bramble Cottage. He wasn’t the Ricky of the series as he exists now, but he had a second mouth and wore a grey hoodie (of an undisclosed band).

I rewrote The Crows in 2018, and changed a lot of the original plot. I could have done it a lot better now, but it was the best I could do at the time. I decided that this was the book I could publish. At the time, everyone was more into my dark fantasy, so it made sense to start with something else to test the waters, like practice. It made sense to me, at least.

I had gone through the querying mill unsuccessfully with the dark fantasy thing. I’d been writing Book 1 since I was about 15, and had a bite from Blackies Publishing which then folded. I felt it was about time to shelve it and try something new. So, The Crows was born, revised, and prepped for self publishing. There was a Twitter pitch event for Rebellion Publishing, and an editor found my pitch and requested a synopsis and full MS. I just tweeted that pitch on impulse, as I had already found and commissioned an artist (Tom) for 5 interior illustrations, and I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to use them if it got picked up by a press.

Fortunately (?), the editor had some great feedback but ultimately didn’t think it was what they were looking for, so I didn’t have to face that dilemma! I went ahead with self publishing, and released The Crows officially on 4th January 2020. I had rewritten the ending about 3 or 4 times at that point, and messed around with it so much that it just had to go.

It was a slow start – but it got into the Romancing the Gothic book group and started making its way around by word of mouth. My main worry about it was the “problematic character/rep” discourse that resurfaces every now and again, so I was really, really surprised when ace and aro (and aroace) people started to connect with Ricky and the central platonic/queerplatonic relationship he builds with Carrie throughout the novel.

I don’t know how this will be interpreted/received the second time around by a wider audience, as it’s already been interpreted as a romance in some reviews, and Ricky has been compared to Gothic novel “love interests” which… he is not.

In 2023, after a couple of reviews online like Horrified zine (2021), and releasing the audio on my podcast, and also releasing Thirteenth (2021), my sales were picking up and I was doing ok for a self published author in a very niche genre with no marketing budget or reach. My biggest platform was Twitter, with 4K followers.

At the start of the year, I was emailed out of the blue by the commissioning editor of a brand new independent press imprint – Canelo Horror. Canelo Books was at the time the 10th biggest independent press in the UK, and had started out as an eBook publisher. The Horror imprint was looking to reissue books for which the authors had the print rights, and were going to launch with John Langan’s The Fisherman, Sarah Langan’s The Keeper, and Ronald Malfi’s Bone White.

I was sent a full proposal for the print rights for both The Crows and Thirteenth in April, which coincided with my planned release of the third book in my series, The Day We Ate Grandad.

I decided to go ahead with the release of Book 3 as planned, but the proposal really impressed me, so I consulted a few people (I’m still unagented), and thought about it, asked questions, and then agreed to look at a draft contract. I got a few people to look at that for me too, a couple of minor corrections were suggested, and I signed the formal, actual version.

Mainly, I was convinced by the editor’s understanding of the series, and I wish I had thought of the descriptions for marketing purposes earlier…

More than anything else during my time reading and exploring the world of Pagham-on-Sea that you’ve created, I was enchanted by the amount of passion and work that has gone into these books and into this world. And this extends further than just the manuscript subject matter. The imagery you’ve included in the works themselves, the listen-along series you’ve cultivated as part of your podcast, and even the companion volume and novellas that you’ve written to accompany the main texts. It’s all just so wonderful to see, your absolute engagement with your fictional world bursts forth so readily.

And what a world it is. To first instincts, the combination of quasi-soap opera and horror is perhaps not an obvious one, but their marriage in Pagham-on-Sea is truly a match made in heaven. Speaking on The Crows, I was immediately invested in Carrie’s plight – her much-needed escape from the trauma of her relationship with Phil, and her not-so-simple indoctrination into the weird, wonderful and often outright terrifying reality of life in this strange, market town. She is a wonderful protagonist for this story, and a smartly written one too, one who the reader can step in the footholds of as she explores and uncovers the dark secrets hidden below the surface of Pagham-on-Sea.

Every nook and cranny of this world is bursting with life and intrigue. I’m sure it is something that you are already considering, but there are just too many characters with fascinating backstories to focus on at once, which is a rarity, for the supporting cast to be so strong. The Porters, of course, take centre stage in Thirteenth, and they prove to be every bit as captivating as Carrie and Fairwood. It would have been hard to believe after what we see from Ricky that he would be the only Porter we have the fortune – fortune for us, misfortune for many others – of meeting, but Wes and Katy are both wonderful additions, and do what all good characters should in fiercely plotting their own paths while also elevating the intrigue in those around them.

Original Proposal – Canelo Horror Commissioning Editor

I was also assured AI wouldn’t be used in the cover art, and that the team would be leading on the marketing – so I wouldn’t have to rely on my own reach anymore. This was a big pull for me, as lot of authors in independent presses and trad publishing have to do their own marketing. I think if I’d had to continue to market it all by myself, I would have thought twice about selling the rights.

I took it down from all the eBook sites and Amazon (the only way to get a paperback), so nobody could get it for a while!

That leads us all the way here – my author copies arrived (x10), and now The Crows has gone through the in-house proofreaders (full disclosure: I didn’t see the proofs before the author copies, and spotted some things that shouldn’t have been changed, so hopefully if we go to a second printing those can be corrected). It’s already being released in Waterstones a bit early, and people can read it! Again!

Preorder Thirteenth

Thirteenth is up for preorder now too, and you can get that (again) in October 2024 (UK). It will be released in the US later on, in 2025. When the link is live for that, I’ll try and remember to update this post!!

UK Preorder – Oct 2024