Angela Slatter's Blog, page 27

Phantoms!

Very excited to be going over the proofs for this next anthology from Titan Books, Phantoms, edited by the wonderful Marie O’Regan. Four reprints and fourteen originals, including my “When We Fall, We Forget”.

When We Fall, We Forget – Angela Slatter

Tom is in the Attic – Robert Shearman

20th Century Ghost – Joe Hill

A Man Walking His Dog – Tim Lebbon

Cameo– Laura Purcell

Lula-Belle – Catriona Ward

Front Row Rider – Muriel Gray

A Haunting– John Connolly

My Life in Politics – M.R. Carey

Frank, Hide – Josh Malerman

The Chain Walk– Helen Grant

The Adjoining Room – A.K. Benedict

The Ghost in the Glade – Kelley Armstrong

The Restoration – George Mann

One New Follower – Mark A. Latham

A Haunted House is a Wheel Upon Which Some are Broken – Paul Tremblay

Halloo – Gemma Files

The Marvellous Talking Machine – Alison Littlewood

He’s here!

Back home at last, to find Himself had arrived a few weeks ago and has been waiting patiently in the pile of mail.

Soon he’ll be on the shelf with HP Lovecraft, and I shall make them stare at each other for eternity.

The Tommyknockers

High-pitched noises: @pspublishinguk is getting ready to send these babies out. The Tommyknockers by Mr Stephen King, artwork by the amazing @daniele_serra_art and an introduction written by me. ??

So much excitement!

Suspended in Dusk II: Stephen Graham Jones

Today’s SiD2 guest is Mr Stephen Graham Jones.

1. What was the inspiration for your SiD2 story, “Love is a Cavity I Can’t Stop Touching”?

Being fourteen and in love, pretty much.? And then being fifteen and in love. And sixteen. On down the line, through the years.

?2. Who are your top five horror-writing inspirations?

?All five are some version of every time I turn the light off, and the darkness populates with teeth.?

3. You get to choose one book for a desert island exile (yes, you did something terrible): what is it?

?Hm. Something I haven’t read yet but want to, and could probably reread a lot and gt more each time. So . . . Alan Moore’s Jerusalem, maybe.?

4. What’s your favourite trope in horror?

?Killer or monster or bad guy or whatever isn’t actually as dead as you thought.?

5. What’s next for you? 

?Slashers, and slashers, and then some more slashers. Second slasher on the left, and straight on till morning.

Bio:

Stephen Graham Jones is the author of sixteen novels, six story collections, and, so far, one comic book. Stephen’s been an NEA recipient, has won the Texas Institute of Letters Award for Fiction, the Independent Publishers Award for Multicultural Fiction, a Bram Stoker Award, four This is Horror Awards, and he’s been a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award a few times. He’s also made Bloody Disgusting’s Top Ten Horror Novels. Stephen lives in Boulder, Colorado.

Suspended in Dusk II: Alan Baxter

Today’s SiD2 guest at the blog is the inimitable Alan Baxter.

1. What was the inspiration for your SiD2 story, “Crying Demon”?

Two things. The first was that I wanted to address some aspects of bullying. I was relentlessly bullied as a kid, a lot of modern politics is fundamentally bullying on a national scale, and I wanted to explore that. The second was a thing going around the internet a few years ago about a secret video game on the dark web and its creepy effect on people. I took that idea and ran with it.

2. Who are your top five horror-writing inspirations?

Man, this is so hard to answer! Definitely Clive Barker, he’s been more of an influence on me than anyone else, I think. H P Lovecraft has to get a mention, as a lot of my stuff plays with cosmic horror. I’ve never written actual HPL mythos, but I love the concepts and explore my own version of them. Shirley Jackson, for her ability to maintain subtle, creeping dread and discomfort. Kaaron Warren, for much the same reason as Shirley Jackson. Stephen King, particularly for his amazing ability with characterisation. Oh, that’s five already. I could go on and on!

3. You get to choose one book for a desert island exile (yes, you did something terrible): what is it?

Holy crap. Probably The Great And Secret Show by Clive Barker. That’s a horrible question!

4. What’s your favourite trope in horror?

Consequences. I love to explore the nature of consequence, when someone has done something deliberately wrong, or even just inadvertently stupid, and the sequence of events that spiral away from that. I think some of the best stories are the ones that follow consequences all the way down.

5. What’s next for you? 

My supernatural noir novella, Manifest Recall, has just come out from Grey Matter Press. And that same wonderful publisher is releasing my new urban horror novel, Devouring Dark, in November. Devouring Dark is like Lock, Stock, and Two Supernatural Assassins. Crime, gangsters, dark supernatural abilities, the consequences of guilt and anger, all set in London (my old stomping ground). Following that, who knows! But I did just send my latest novel, a kind of folk horror tale, to my agent, so fingers crossed there.

 

Bio: Alan Baxter is a British-Australian author who writes supernatural thrillers and urban horror, rides a motorcycle and loves his dogs. He also teaches Kung Fu. He lives among dairy paddocks on the beautiful south coast of NSW, Australia, with his wife, son, dogs and cat. He’s the multi-award-winning author of several novels and over seventy short stories and novellas. So far. Read extracts from his novels, a novella and short stories at his website – www.warriorscribe.com – or find him on Twitter @AlanBaxter and Facebook, and feel free to tell him what you think. About anything.

 

Book for the Restoration launch!

Okay, we’ll be launching Restoration, the last book in the Verity Fassbinder trilogy!

Kim Wilkins and I will talk, my parents will object to how much we swear, and then everyone will have cupcakes!

We’ll be at the Brisbane Square Library on Friday 17 August for a 6.30 start. It’s free but you need to book your ticket!

You can book online here.

Walking between the worlds has always been dangerous – but this time V’s facing the loss of all she holds dear. Verity Fassbinder thought no boss could be worse than her perfectionist ex-boyfriend – until she grudgingly agreed to work for a psychotic fallen angel. Dealing with a career change not entirely of her own choosing is doing nothing to improve V’s already fractious temper. The angel is a jealous – and violent – employer, so she’s quit working for the Weyrd Council and sent her family away, for their own safety. Instead of indulging in domestic bliss, she’s got to play BFFs with the angel’s little spy, Joyce the kitsune assassin… and Joyce comes with her own murderous problems.

Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2018 ToC

Mermaid from one of Kathleen Jennings’ calendars

I’m delighted to announce that “The Little Mermaid, in Passing” has scored a berth in Paula Guran’s Year’s Best Dark Fantasy  & Horror 2018 from Prime Books!

The ToC is amazing …

“Sunflower Junction,” Simon Avery (Black Static #57)

“Swift to Chase,” Laird Barron (Adam’s Ladder: An Anthology of Dark Science Fiction)

“Fallow,” Ashley Blooms (Shimmer #37)

“Children of Thorns, Children of Water,” Aliette de Bodard (Exclusive for The House of Binding Thorns preorders/Uncanny #17)

“On Highway 18,” Rebecca Campbell (F&SF 9-10/17)

“Witch Hazel,” Jeffrey Ford (Haunted Nights, eds. Ellen Datlow & Lisa Morton)

“The Bride in Sea-Green Velvet,” Robin Furth (F&SF 7-8/17)

“Little Digs,” Lisa L. Hannett (The Dark #20)

“The Thule Stowaway,” Maria Dahvana Headley (Uncanny #14)

“The Eyes Are White and Quiet,” Carole Johnstone (New Fears, ed. Mark Morris)

Mapping the Interior, Stephen Graham Jones (Tor.com)

“Don’t Turn on the Lights,” Cassandra Khaw (Nightmare #61)

“The Dinosaur Tourist,” Caitlín R. Kiernan (Sirenia Digest #139)

“Survival Strategies,” Helen Marshall (Black Static #60)

“Red Bark and Ambergris,” Kate Marshall (Beneath Ceaseless Skies #232)

“Skins Smooth as Plantain, Hearts Soft as Mango,” Ian Muneshwar (The Dark #27)

“Everything Beautiful Is Terrifying,” M. Rickert (Shadows & Tall Trees, ed. Michael Kelly)

“Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience,” Rebecca Roanhorse (Apex #99)

“Graverobbing Negress Seeks Employment,” Eden Royce (Fiyah #2)

“Moon Blood-Red, Tide Turning,” Mark Samuels (Terror Tales of Cornwall, ed. Paul Finch)

“The Crow Palace,” Priya Sharma (Black Feathers, ed. Ellen Datlow)

“The Swimming Pool Party,” Robert Shearman (Shadows & Tall Trees 7, ed. Michael Kelly)

“The Little Mermaid, in Passing,” Angela Slatter (Review of Australian Fiction, Vol.22, #1)

“Secret Keeper,” Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam (Nightmare #61)

“The Long Fade into Evening Steve,” Steve Rasnic Tem (Darker Companions, eds. Scott David Aniolowski & Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.)

“Moon and Memory and Muchness,” Katherine Vaz (Mad Hatters and March Hares, ed. Ellen Datlow)

“Exceeding Bitter,” Kaaron Warren (Evil Is a Matter of Perspective, eds Adrian Collins & Mike Myers)

“Succulents,” Conrad Williams (New Fears, ed. Mark Morris)

“The Lamentation of Their Women,” Kai Ashante Wilson (Tor.com 8.24.17)

Suspended in Dusk II: Ramsey Campbell

Since today is the official release day of Suspended in Dusk II, how about I let the legendary Ramsey Campbell take over the blog?

1. What was the inspiration for your SiD2 story?

“Above the World” has its roots in an acid trip I took in the mid-seventies, when Jenny and I climbed Skiddaw above Keswick. Certain images – the view into the heart of the heather, for instance – are described pretty well as I experienced them. Other elements – the birds in the wall, for example, and the post office in the cottage – were observed later on, and all the named locations are real or were (alas, the Swan Hotel no longer exists).

2. Who are your top five horror-writing inspirations?

Lovecraft for his sense of structure and modulation of language, which is far more varied in his work than is often appreciated. M. R James for images that show just enough to suggest far worse. Blackwood and Machen for reaching through terror towards awe. Shirley Jackson for delicacy of disquiet – restraint that adds to the power of her work. All that said, Graham Greene and Nabokov are equally crucial to my stuff.

3. You get to choose one book for a desert island exile (yes, you did something terrible): what is it?

A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell.

4. What’s your favourite trope in horror?

Misperception – the apparently innocent item or event that turns out to conceal the uncanny or the dreadful. (“…and put its arms round my neck…”)

5. What’s next for you? 

Really quite a lot. The autumn will see The Way of the Worm, the final volume of my trilogy, and a new collection, By the Light of My Skull, both from PS. Centipede Press has an immense two-volume retrospective of short tales, Fearful Implications. Flame Tree will be issuing Thirteen Days by Sunset Beach and Think Yourself Lucky into the mass market, along with backlist titles. Right now I’m working on a new novel, The Wise Friend.

 

Bio:

The Oxford Companion to English Literature describes Ramsey Campbell as “Britain’s most respected living horror writer”. He has been given more awards than any other writer in the field, including the Grand Master Award of the World Horror Convention, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Horror Writers Association, the Living Legend Award of the International Horror Guild and the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2015 he was made an Honorary Fellow of Liverpool John Moores University for outstanding services to literature. Among his novels are The Face That Must Die, Incarnate, Midnight Sun, The Count of Eleven, Silent Children, The Darkest Part of the Woods, The Overnight, Secret Story, The Grin of the Dark, Thieving Fear, Creatures of the Pool, The Seven Days of Cain, Ghosts Know, The Kind Folk, Think Yourself Lucky and Thirteen Days by Sunset Beach. He recently brought out his Brichester Mythos trilogy, consisting of The Searching Dead, Born to the Dark and The Way of the Worm. Needing Ghosts, The Last Revelation of Gla’aki, The Pretence and The Booking are novellas. His collections include Waking Nightmares, Alone with the Horrors, Ghosts and Grisly Things, Told by the Dead, Just Behind You, Holes for Faces, Fearful Implications and By the Light of My Skull, and his non-fiction is collected as Ramsey Campbell, Probably. Limericks of the Alarming and Phantasmal is a history of horror fiction in the form of fifty limericks. His novels The Nameless and Pact of the Fathers have been filmed in Spain, where a film of The Influence is in production. He is the President of the Society of Fantastic Films.

Ramsey Campbell lives on Merseyside with his wife Jenny. His pleasures include classical music, good food and wine, and whatever’s in that pipe. His web site is at www.ramseycampbell.com.

 

Suspended in Dusk II: Nerine Dorman

Over at the blog today, Nerine Dorman talks Suspended in Dusk II.

1. What was the inspiration for your SiD2 story, “That Damned Cat”?

I’d been wanting to write horror for a while, but the concept for my story had been bugging me intensely for ages. So while my story didn’t quite come out dark and horror-ish, it still borrows from stock horror themes (demons, possession, evil cults) which I then subverted into a somewhat humorous yarn. The cat in the story is very much inspired by my own tortoiseshell horror Kali, whom we often joked was the result of a demonic invocation that went horribly wrong. (She is an erstwhile feral cat that adopted us more than a decade ago, and has ruled our household with her velvet claw ever since.)

2. Who are your top five horror-writing inspirations?

First and foremost, Poppy Z Brite. I love his lush, dark prose that takes time to engage your senses. Not so much about the story but the gooey essence of the world and the characters that inhabit it. I owe some debt to Clive Barker as well, though I haven’t read nearly enough of his writing as I’d like to – it’s more his worlds that have captured my imagination. Having a story published in an anthology celebrating his Nightbreed has been one of my publishing highlights. HP Lovecraft, as complicated as he is, is another huge influence on me – especially in terms of the defamiliarisation of his settings and the hints of primordial strange that sludges onto the pages. Even if his writing itself is quite cumbersome, it has some sort of enigmatic quality that I can’t quite escape. I’m going to add Neil Gaiman to the pile, even though strictly speaking he’s not a horror author per se – he has written some pretty dark fiction, and his Sandman comic books lean heavily on the genre at times. Lastly, there’s Algernon Blackwood. Specifically his story “The Willows” is one that I return to often – it’s an absolute masterpiece in building tension and where the environment itself becomes the antagonist.

3. You get to choose one book for a desert island exile (yes, you did something terrible): what is it?

My go to is The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. I make no apologies.

4. What’s your favourite trope in horror?

My favourite trope in a story is where the hero is faced with a choice of beating the horror at cost of his own life, or recognising the innate darkness within himself, and embracing it, and thereby being transformed by it to become more than human. Off hand, I’m thinking of that wonderful, cheesestastic film “Dagon” and its ilk.

5. What’s next for you? 

Currently, I’m plodding away at the first draft of a YA SF novel that’s best described as a mash-up of Star Wars and Dragonriders of Pern. Once again, I make no apologies. I don’t like limiting myself by genre. I’ve also got a hot date with revising and releasing some of my back list this year, my urban fantasy novel Inkarna, which will release with its sequel, Thanatos. And I’m also expecting edits back on a fantasy novel that’s currently sitting with one of my favourite editors – but I can’t make any announcements yet as nothing has been finalised. As always, I continue to curate the South African Horrorfest Bloody Parchment short story competition and anthology, which is a labour of love for me and offers an opportunity for fresh voices in dark SFF and horror an opportunity to shine.

 

Biography:

Nerine Dorman is a South African author and editor of SFF currently residing in Cape Town. Her short fiction has been published in an assortment of anthologies, including the Midian Unmade: Tales of Clive Barker’s Nightbreed; The Endless Ages Anthology for Vampire: The Masquerade; the Wraeththu mythos; and War Stories: New Military Science Fiction, among others. Her YA fantasy novel Dragon Forged was a finalist in the 2017 Sanlam Youth Literature Prize, and she is the curator of the South African Horrorfest Bloody Parchment event and short story competition. In addition, she is a founding member of the SFF authors’ co-operative Skolion.

 

Gaslight Gothic: Strange Tales of Sherlock Holmes

The fabulous Sci-Fi and Fantasy Reviewer has reviewed Gaslight Gothic: Strange Tales of Sherlock Holmes, edited by  J.R. Campbell & Charles Prepolec, published by  EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing. I’m especially delighted as he says lovely things about my story, “A Matter of Light”, in which Kit Caswell from Ripper meets Mr Holmes.

A Matter of Light by Angela Slatter is another interesting story in the anthology, and is perhaps the one that gave me the most to think about in terms of Holmes and Watson as characters. Featuring another occult detective, the character Kit Caswell (who I understand has featured in other works by the author), it’s a brilliant and multi-faceted story that really deserves multiple readings to fully comprehend everything to be found in its relatively short word-count. On the first reading, it’s a clever and inventive murder-mystery that makes use of social taboos that Conan Doyle would not have dared stray into in his canon writings, albeit with an overt occult angle at the end. But further readings highlight the difficulties that a female detective (occult or otherwise) would have encountered had they attempted to follow in Holmes’ footsteps; and in particular, Slatter uses this angle to throw light on some of the far less savoury aspects of Holmes as a character, particularly that much-lauded aspect of his ‘chivalry’ towards women which would obviously be seen in a much different light by the women themselves.