William Meikle's Blog: Latest, page 51
December 8, 2017
The Ghost Club Launch Tour - Stop 6
The Ghost Club Launch Tour - Stop 6A longish interview for stop 6, mostly about the writing itself rather than THE GHOST CLUB in particular -- how I got started, how I go about it, and what keeps me going.
https://www.sylv.net/william-meikle/
December 7, 2017
The Ghost Club Launch Tour - Stop 5
The Ghost Club Launch Tour - Stop 5This one went up early, but this is its scheduled slot, so in case you missed it, here's my guest blog at Horrortalk, where I discuss some of my all-time favorite horror stories by Ramsey Campbell, Saki, Fritz Leiber, Karl Edward Wagner and Daphne Du Maurier.
https://www.horrortalk.com/features/8...
THE GHOST CLUB TOUR - Stop 4
The Ghost Club Launch Tour - Stop 4My latest stop is an interview about the Ghost Club and its writers over at John Linwood Grant's Greydogtales site. John and I share many of the same enthusiasms, being of similar ages and academic backgrounds. He's a whimsical Yorkshireman -- you dont get many of them to the pound -- and I enjoyed investigating the act of lying convincingly in this long interview.
http://greydogtales.com/blog/ghost-cl...
December 6, 2017
The Ghost Club Launch Tour - Stop 3
The Ghost Club Launch Tour - Stop 3Listen to my podcast interview with Dave Wood on Wood on Words, where I talk about my writing process, the difference between writing short stories and novels, how I created Derek Adams, the Midnight Eye, why I write horror, and how THE GHOST CLUB came about among other things.
http://woodonwords.blogspot.ca/2017/1...
THE GHOST CLUB TOUR - Stop 2
THE GHOST CLUB LAUNCH TOUR - STOP 2
Today I'm over at my friend Blaze McRob's place, talking about some Scottish supernatural fiction writers and some other Scots who have influenced me over the years.
http://www.blazemcrob.com/2017/12/gue...
Today I'm over at my friend Blaze McRob's place, talking about some Scottish supernatural fiction writers and some other Scots who have influenced me over the years.
http://www.blazemcrob.com/2017/12/gue...
December 5, 2017
THE GHOST CLUB TOUR - Stop 1
THE GHOST CLUB Launch Tour kicks off properly today with a long introductory interview over at my favorite review site THE GINGER NUTS OF HORROR. Jim has built up a great resource over there in recent years, and has always been a strong supporter of my work, so it's only fitting we start here, at the very beginning, a very fine place to start.
Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin...
http://gingernutsofhorror.com/intervi...
November 22, 2017
The End of an Era
I mentioned to Sue today that I was 'emotionally invested' in my GHOST CLUB collection. I meant it as a joke, at the time, but there's more than a nugget of truth in the remark.
It feels like the culmination of the last six or seven years of writing. Before this collection there were the Carnacki stories, the Holmes stories, the Challenger stories, and the collaborations with M Wayne Miller, the deluxe hardcovers and sales to Dark Regions and Dark Renaissance. But with the end of Dark Renaissance in particular, that door is now firmly shut, and THE GHOST CLUB feels like a death, and an obituary as well as a celebration of everything I love about the era and the storytellers.
I'm fast approaching my sixtieth birthday, a wee milestone that has me thinking about what I might be able to achieve with my writing from now on. S T Joshi's remark about me 'trying to make a career out of Carnacki pastiches', while badly researched and a cheap shot, also got me thinking, and one result is that THE GHOST CLUB marks the end of me writing in other people's worlds unless I get specifically commissioned.
I have my own furrows to plow, in the Sigils and Totems mythos, in my enduring, unwavering love for creature features, and in the fantasy field where I have things I've always wanted to write and never got round to. I'll also still be writing period pieces, but from now on, they'll be my period pieces.
Onward.
It feels like the culmination of the last six or seven years of writing. Before this collection there were the Carnacki stories, the Holmes stories, the Challenger stories, and the collaborations with M Wayne Miller, the deluxe hardcovers and sales to Dark Regions and Dark Renaissance. But with the end of Dark Renaissance in particular, that door is now firmly shut, and THE GHOST CLUB feels like a death, and an obituary as well as a celebration of everything I love about the era and the storytellers.
I'm fast approaching my sixtieth birthday, a wee milestone that has me thinking about what I might be able to achieve with my writing from now on. S T Joshi's remark about me 'trying to make a career out of Carnacki pastiches', while badly researched and a cheap shot, also got me thinking, and one result is that THE GHOST CLUB marks the end of me writing in other people's worlds unless I get specifically commissioned.
I have my own furrows to plow, in the Sigils and Totems mythos, in my enduring, unwavering love for creature features, and in the fantasy field where I have things I've always wanted to write and never got round to. I'll also still be writing period pieces, but from now on, they'll be my period pieces.
Onward.
November 13, 2017
The Ghost Club Party and Tour Itinerary
The Ghost Club Party and Tour is taking shape. The tour is in support of my new collection, THE GHOST CLUB, coming on 9th December from Crystal Lake Publishing.
There's going to be live podcasts, interviews, reviews and guest blogs on various subjects like Nigel Kneale's THE STONE TAPE, why I write Victoriana, London's influence on my writing, my five favorite ghost stories, Scottish supernatural fiction that's influenced me and a lot more including live readings from me here on FB.
I may even practice the SHE SLEEPS IN THE DEPTHS song that turns up in a few of my stories. I promise not to sing it live if you're nice to me.
Join me in the online party and tour here -->
https://www.facebook.com/events/19800...
Here the itinerary so far: -
06/12/2017 Blaze McRob, Big Ultra Man, Guest Blog
06/12/2017 David Wood, Wood on Words, Podcast
07/12/2017 John Linwood Grant. Graydogtales, Interview/Feature
08/12/2017 Steve Pattee, Horrortalk, Guest Blog
08/12/2017 Sylv, Sylv.net ,Interview
09/12/2017 Stacy, Horror Addicts, Guest Blog
09/12/2017 Ash Hamilton, Horror Fix, Guest Blog
09/12/2017 Steve Savile, Newsletter Guest Slot
10/12/2017 Steve Lockley, Whisperings, Guest Blog
10/12/2017 Jimmy Weinholz, The Horrific Network, Podcast
11/12/2017 Josh Reynolds, Hunting Monsters, Guest Blog
12/12/2017 Nick Kaufmann, The Scariest Part, Guest Blog
12/12/2017 Armand Rosamilia, Arm Cast Podcast
13/12/2017 Mark West,Strange Days, Guest Blog
14/12/2017 Eric Ian Steele, Confessions of a British Writer, Guest Blog
More info and additions to come.
November 7, 2017
On literary snobbery
One of my pet peeves is literary snobbery. I hear it far too often, in cries of 'hack' and 'appealing to the unwashed masses' from people who are so entrenched in their rigidly defined enclaves they can't see past their own shit.
Sure, literary work has merit. But that doesn't mean that genre work does not. And it also doesn't mean that only a carefully defined part of genre writing that might be literary if you squint at it is the only genre work that is valid.
Pulp is seen as second class by far too many people. People hear ‘pulp’ and think ‘shoddy’, whereas I hear ‘pulp’ and think ‘adventure.’ and 'fun'-- and for that, I get castiigated.
Well, screw 'em all.
Storytelling for the sake of storytelling is often lightly dismissed as ‘just entertainment’ — but not everything has to have deep psychological insight. Sometimes all you need to be satisfied is people in peril, and a bad guy to beat up. And there’s nothing wrong with that in my opinion.
My most successful and probably most commercial work is The Invasion. It reached #3 in Kindle SF and #4 in Kindle horror, so covers both genres, and is the tale of a strange green snow that starts to fall during a winter storm—snow that quickly starts to spread—and multiply—and mutate. It’s a B-movie on paper, and a homage to many of the things I love—alien invasion, slimy horror, apocalyptic disasters, and normal working folks in peril. It’s pulp, through and through, and over 20,000 people have bought it. That tells me there’s more people like me out there.
They’re the ones I’m writing this stuff for, not for the sneering sycophants looking for their place in the ivory towers. I'm down here with the unwashed masses. And I like it.
Onward and upward.
Sure, literary work has merit. But that doesn't mean that genre work does not. And it also doesn't mean that only a carefully defined part of genre writing that might be literary if you squint at it is the only genre work that is valid.
Pulp is seen as second class by far too many people. People hear ‘pulp’ and think ‘shoddy’, whereas I hear ‘pulp’ and think ‘adventure.’ and 'fun'-- and for that, I get castiigated.
Well, screw 'em all.
Storytelling for the sake of storytelling is often lightly dismissed as ‘just entertainment’ — but not everything has to have deep psychological insight. Sometimes all you need to be satisfied is people in peril, and a bad guy to beat up. And there’s nothing wrong with that in my opinion.
My most successful and probably most commercial work is The Invasion. It reached #3 in Kindle SF and #4 in Kindle horror, so covers both genres, and is the tale of a strange green snow that starts to fall during a winter storm—snow that quickly starts to spread—and multiply—and mutate. It’s a B-movie on paper, and a homage to many of the things I love—alien invasion, slimy horror, apocalyptic disasters, and normal working folks in peril. It’s pulp, through and through, and over 20,000 people have bought it. That tells me there’s more people like me out there.
They’re the ones I’m writing this stuff for, not for the sneering sycophants looking for their place in the ivory towers. I'm down here with the unwashed masses. And I like it.
Onward and upward.
November 3, 2017
November News
I'm busy setting up a tour of blogs and podcasts for the launch of THE GHOST CLUB from Crystal Lake Publishing on 8th December. Got some great blurbs in for the book too.I'm looking forward to the release of INFESTATION, my big bug creature feature novel from Severed Press, and I have a new contract to write another novel for them.
I have a story in THROUGH A MYTHOS DARKLY from PS Publishing
I have a story in SHADOWS OVER MAIN STREET 2 from Cuttingblock Press alongside the likes of Joyce Carol Oates and Joe Lansdale
I have one of my Sherlock Holmes stories in OCCULT DETECTIVE QUARTERLY #3
I have a novella coming in the huge I AM THE ABYSS anthology from Dark Regions Press alongside the likes of Michael Marshall Smith and Steve Rasnic Tem that's available to order now
Crossroad Press have a schedule for the publication of all my rehomed DarkFuse books new and old. Next up is RAMSKULL, a Scottish black magic Hammer horror tribute thing
Carnacki:The Edinburgh Townhouse and Other Stories is selling well from the Lovecraft Ezine Press
I'm on part 3 of a secret big honking fantasy trilogy I'm writing with a name author.
Busy, busy, busy.
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