Angela Slatter's Blog, page 28

And then this happened …

… some days you get an email like this one and it makes you so damned happy! Thanks, Kaja Holzheimer, I’m so proud of you!!

Hi Angela, This might seem a little out of the blue… I’m writing to THANK you for the time and effort and wisdom you put into the classes I took with you through QWC back in 2012. Why do this now? Because tomorrow I check in to the Odyssey 2018 Writing Workshop, here in Manchester, New Hampshire for 6 weeks of writing madness. And I recognise how much your support, your early and emphatic encouragement, and your slightly terrifying critiques helped to get me here. I still have so much to learn–about writing, about craft, about “persistence-despite”–and I think I’m finally ready to learn it. (Some of us are slower than others…) So. Thank-you for pointing me in the right direction and giving me a little push. I am so looking forward to this opportunity! Catch you later, Kaja

Every time!

Check out the artwork on the deluxe edition of The Tommyknockers! Every time I see something new I’m just astounded.

The Teardrop Method: Simon Avery

Today, Mr Simon Avery takes over the blog to talk about writing in general and his TTA novella, The Teardrop Method.

1. How did you start out?

I worked at Andromeda bookshop in Birmingham from 1988 for ten years. For the genre fan of a certain age, Andromeda – then the world’s oldest and longest running SF/Fantasy bookstore – was the place of pilgrimage. People from all over the world visited our humble little shop in Birmingham. It was where I decided that writing was something I wanted – and needed – to do. I met hundreds of authors during my years there – a veritable who’s who of genre writing: Clive Barker, Iain Banks, Peter Straub, Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, Anne Rice, Dan Simmons… It was hugely inspiring to be able to spend time with these people and discuss their craft. I have some fond memories of those years.

In the early nineties I also discovered the slipstream movement that featured in Christopher Kenworthy’s Barrington Books anthologies and in Andy Cox’s The Third Alternative. Joel Lane in particular was a massive influence on my first few years’ work. Joel was a mentor to me, as well as a great friend. We were introduced to each other in the early 90’s at Andromeda Bookshop. I have fond memories of hours spent in pubs, curry houses and parties, discussing anything and everything with him.

He read my first story, Suzanne, and gave me some pretty detailed analysis and feedback. It was published by Chris Kenworthy in the Watch Fire anthology in 1995. He also suggested I send something to Andy Cox, who is the other person instrumental in my writing career. That was Blue Nothings, also published in 1995. Andy has always been a great supporter of my work, and has continued to publish it for over twenty years now, in The Third Alternative, in Black Static and most recently in TTA Press’s novella range.

2. What was the inspiration behind The Teardrop Method?

A couple of things. After meeting my girlfriend, Amanda, we started to travel across Europe for our annual holidays. Paris, Rome, Venice, Bruges, Lake Garda, Salzburg… Somewhere along the way, I decided I wanted to write something that was drenched in the atmosphere of a fading European city in the snow, and Budapest became the destination that fitted the story I wanted to tell.

The other thing grew out of a fascination with reclusive artists, particularly musicians. I knew very early on that I wanted to base the character of Krizstina on the Swedish singer/songwriter Stina Nordenstam. I’ve been a fan of her work since she released her debut album back in 1991. She hasn’t released anything since 2004. Her website has gone, the Facebook group only lights up with old videos, and the message boards have nothing to report. No one it seems knows what she’s been doing these past 14 years. In this day and age of social media, I find it fascinating that someone can abandon their career and fade out of view so completely.

The Teardrop Method was a way to combine the atmosphere of a wintry Budapest with a strong female character who takes herself out of the view of the public for a very specific reason. From that I found myself wanting to write about creativity and loss and how you recover from tragedy.

3. Are you a big plotter and planner or a pantser?

I can’t even begin until I have notes spilling off the table and onto the floor. Sequences half-written out, jumping off points, a title before I begin anything; safety nets galore. But somehow I still allow myself some leeway so I can allow the characters to breathe and maybe go their own way. Just not too far…

4. Who are your top five literary inspirations?

John Harrison, James Salter, Joel Lane, Jonathan Carroll, Robert Aickman.

5. Which do you prefer: writing the first draft or doing the editing afterwards to make it shiny?

I like certain aspects of both processes. Although I find the notion of actually sitting down and trying to create something good fraught with all sorts of anxieties, the days when you feel like you’re flying and the characters are telling you what to do make that process completely worth it. Editing is much simpler. I can put on records and play with the dog while I’m doing it. My girlfriend also prefers it to those first draft days where I’m banging my head against the table, wondering what the point of it all is.

6. Can you remember the first story you read that made you want to be a writer?

Early on, in my teens, it was probably something by Jonathan Carroll or Clive Barker. But when I decided that this was something I wanted to do with real conviction, it was ‘And Some Are Missing’, by Joel Lane.

7. What attracts you to speculative fiction?

I enjoy the moment when strangeness creeps into a scene of relative normality, and illuminates some aspect of character or changes the way we see things. I think I’ve been paring away that strangeness over the years, seeing how far I can get with a story before it arrives and turns everything on its head.

8. You get to take five books with you to a desert island – which ones do you choose?

Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll, The Course of the Heart by M. John Harrison, Watership Down by Richard Adams, The Magus by John Fowles, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon.

9. Who’s your favourite villain in speculative fiction, novel or film?

Norman Bates, Hannibal Lecter, the Joker or the Wicked Witch of the West. I cannot narrow that list down!

10. What’s next for Simon Avery?

This month sees a new novelette appearing in Occult Detective Quarterly 4 featuring a character that started out in Sunflower Junction, a story that appeared in Black Static 57. I’m aiming to write a series of loosely connected stories featuring him, with a view to collecting them all together in one volume somewhere down the line. The stories reside in a very English area of folk horror and Hauntology. As I get close to the end, I intend to arc the stories into something more connected so that the collection has a very definite beginning, middle and end.

I’ve also just completed a new novella, called PoppyHarp. I’m delighted with how it’s turned out. It’s inspired by the nostalgia for children’s programming from the seventies, the animation of Jan Svankmejer, Alice in Wonderland, London and the BBC, and Underground bunkers from the Cold War. It felt like I was going somewhere new with it, which is exactly the feeling you want from writing. Once it’s edited, I’ll be sending it out into the world.

Simon Avery’s fiction has been published in a variety of magazines and anthologies, including Black Static, Crimewave, The Third Alternative, The Best British Mysteries IV, Beneath the Ground and Birmingham Noir. This month he features in the Joel Lane tribute book, Something Remains, and a story, A Very Lonely Revolution will be published in the next issue of Black Static.

A novella, The Teardrop Method is forthcoming in September from TTA Press.

 

Phantoms!

So excited to have a story in this anthology edited by the wonderful Marie O’Regan!

Phantoms is out from Titan at Halloween, and is available to pre-order!

The Horror, The Horror VII

So, I’ll be teaching this in July along with luminaries Lynda E. Rucker, S.P. Miskowski, and Michael Cisco – Writing Horror Fiction with Substance.

My week will be all about self-editing for writers, how to get your work into the best shape possible before you inflict it on others (especially editors).

There’s more to horror fiction than shock and revulsion.

Over the space of four weeks, a quartet of today’s leading horror experts will take you through the elements that go into constructing a better horror story, from introducing weird elements, to better understanding POV, to finding your best setting, and finally, teaching you to edit your work to a fine point. 

And by the end, you’ll have a better appreciation of the tremendous possibilities horror fiction continues to offer the ambitious writer.

Over the course of your four weeks in this class, you will get:

Original lectures written by each instructor specifically for this course
The opportunity to study with four of today’s leading horror writers
Instructor and peer critique within a supportive environment
Writing assignments designed to help you to develop your ability to create dynamic horror stories
Insightful commentary from all four instructors to help you to develop your writing more fully

For details, go here.

The Tommyknockers are in the house …

… or at least the four bajillion signing sheets Daniele Serra and I need to put our chicken scratches on for the deluxe edition from PS Publishing! This will be my Monday.

Aaron Dries: The Sound of His Bones Breaking

And today the delightful and delovely Mr Aaron Dries takes over the blog to chat horror, writing, ugly sweaters, and The Sound of His Bones Breaking.

1. What do new readers need to know about Mr Aaron Dries?

I’ve got a love for ugly jumpers. Consider that fair warning. My collection is spreading like some polyester/cotton fungus through my bedroom. Other than that, I write fiction. Horror, thrillers and suspense stories have been my jam thus far. I was once in conversation with fellow author Adam Cesare, and we were talking about the importance of writers having an understanding of their ‘brand’. I confessed to him that I honestly had no idea what mine was. He was like, “Are you kiddin’, man? Your brand is COMPLETE AND UTTER EMOTIONAL OBLITERATION.” So I guess I write emotional horror. I put a hell of a lot of effort into building real and relatable worlds with real and relatable people living in it. That way, when things go south, you really feel it. I guess I’d like to be known as an author with surprises up his sleeve. Someone willing to embrace the surreal. But more than anything, I’d consider myself as unflinching.

2. What draws you to horror?

I’ve got a vivid recollection from when I was a kid. My buddy had slept over and that night we’d watched Tobe Hooper’s adaptation of Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot. The following morning, his dad and my mum were chatting on the veranda. “Oh, this horror stuff,” they were saying. “We loved it too when we were their age, but they’ll grow out of it.” Sorry, Mum! I couldn’t answer this question then and I can’t now. I just know that the desire to walk through the dark and say hi to the critters amongst the trees has always been with me. Both of my grandfathers, both since passed, were like that, too. I got it from them. Horror is a bit of a jellyfish genre. It’s sometimes pretty, calm, and indeterminable. It sometimes strikes you as solid and is at other times ethereal. It can be both beautiful and will lash out at without a second thought. A poisonous thing both living, and simultaneously dead… There’s something about that I find endlessly entertaining.

3. Can you remember the first horror story you ever read? Or the one that made the biggest impression on you?

I can’t remember the first one I ever read, though I’ll happily say I was raised on a steady diet of R.L. Stine Goosebumps books. But the first horror story to make a big impression on me was ‘Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper’ by the great, late Robert Bloch. I will never ever forget reading that for the first time, and the rippling shock of its twist – quite obvious now that it’s been riffed so frequently since. It was a slap in the face. I remember adapting it into a comic for my friends as a gift when I was a kid, and I remember doing projects on it at school too. Raised a few eyebrows, from memory – young dude with his Ripper fixation trying to steer my year seven English class away from Harper Lee and towards Robert Bloch. I guess I keep coming back to the genre to get my fix of that initial jolt. Chase the dragon, good folks. Chase it all the way.

4. You can take five books to a desert island with you ? which do you choose and why? 

Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier – Because if I was on a hot and barren desert island, I know I’d rather be in the dark and mysterious corridors of Manderlay.

Imajica by Clive Barker – Because it is a veritable atlas of human emotion and sexuality. Desert islands are boring. This book is the antithesis of that.

The Stand by Stephen King – Because M-O-O-N … that spells amazing.

The Bottoms by Joe R. Lansdale – A recent favourite that left me spellbound. A modern day To Kill a Mockingbird — beware the Goat Man.

Blackwater by Michael McDowell – Okay, caught me on a technicality. It’s a six volume edition covering a multi-generational supernatural epic in the deep south . McDowell is a master of time and place. And I’ll need that mastery to distract me from the dreaded island (I burn easy).

5. Who were/are your literary heroes/influences?

Like all authors, I stand on the shoulders of giants. Some of them would be: Robert Bloch (of course). Daphne DuMaurier, whose mastery of the craft is a joy to a word-nerd like myself. Thomas Harris, who blew my mind. Shirley Jackson, who can literally unhinge your world with an effortless twist of words. Richard Matheson, who would write exactly what I wanted to happen , and when it did happen, that melding of author and reader was a firm handshake in the dark. Jack Ketchum, who broke my heart again and again. And of course, Stephen King, whose collected works I’ve obsessed over since I was a teenager.

6. What was the inspiration behind House of Sighs and its sequel The Sound of His Bones Breaking, both out now in a two-for-one edition?

Here’s a story. I put myself through university by slogging it out as a pizza delivery boy in the Hunter Valley. I had this one woman and her two children who were always on my Friday route. They ordered every week – and always the same thing. Vegetarian pizzas. As though they were being health conscious, to some degree. I knew them by name and face, and they knew me too. One day, the orders stopped coming. That charming woman murdered her children and killed herself afterwards. This shocked me. What made her do it? What really goes on behind closed doors? These questions, and more, drove me to write what would become House of Sighs. I’ve had an idea for sequel since the original was released in 2012, but the ideas were all disparate. That was until I was having beers one Christmas with a mate in Ballina two years ago. We watched a drunk taxi driver pull up out front of the pub, and a street brawl came so very close to breaking out right in front of us. That was when the ideas clicked . The link between Sighs and Bones isn’t immediately clear, but it’ll emerge as readers read on. There’s a line in the novella, “…trauma has teeth, big ones, and it’ll always come back for seconds if you let it…” I really wanted to explore that concept. And I didn’t want to hold back.

7. Can you remember when you decided you wanted to be a writer?

I’d thought about being a writer since I was a kid. But I knew I wanted to be a writer in the seventh grade when my school teacher laughed at me for wanting to be a writer.

8. Who is your favourite villain in fiction and/or film?

Carrie White from Stephen King’s debut novel, Carrie. The best villains believe they’re doing the right thing, right? Well, not only did Carrie do the right thing for herself in that awful moment when things ‘clicked’, she couldn’t control that rightness. And there’s something fundamentally heartbreaking about that loss of control. Yes, Carrie becomes a villain, a terrifying one at that. But she was pushed that way. Bent and prodded and bullied and manipulated until she snapped. I think there’s something in that for us all to relate to. Carrie, the book (and the great DePalma adaptation) is like a twisted mirror of our own limitations and flaws. That’s frightening to me.

9. What are the three novels that have influenced you the most?

Hannibal by Thomas Harris – I’ve gone through about four copies of this book because I always end up underlining passages, ripping out pages, opening this book’s bloodied innards to see what works and what doesn’t. My expectations were so high for this book, and those expectations were shattered. Harris taught me about who’s the boss when it comes to the author/reader. He schooled me. Inspired me. And I think the final 100 pages of the book were unmatched by anyone, in any genre, until Dan Simmons came along and gave us the conclusion to The Terror.

Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis – This blend of meta fiction and horror blew my mind when I first read it. It had me scratching my head at first as an autobiography slowly turned into a spin on The Shining, and it left me weeping by the end.

Off Season by Jack Ketchum – Ketchum wrote a number of amazing novels and short stories, and whilst I think his best is The Girl Next Door, it’s Off Season that I keep coming back to. Ketchum imbues the book with an incredible urgency, sickening dread, and when the innards hit the fan, boy oh boy do they splatter. It’s a textbook on how to build and maintain tension.

10. What’s next for Aaron Dries?

I’ve been working on a big book for a few years now, my first solo novel-length work since A Place For Sinners. It’s called Lady Guillotine. Other than that, my second novel, The Fallen Boys, is back in print from the good folks over at Black T-Shirt Books. I’ve got a novella coming out soon from a publishing house I’ve dreamed of working for all my life. And other than that, I’ve been chipping away at two stories, both of which, like the ugly jumpers making their way across my bedroom floor, are slowly growing in size, bit by bloody bit.

Bio: Author, artist, and filmmaker Aaron Dries was born and raised in New South Wales, Australia. His books include House of Sighs, The Fallen Boys, A Place for Sinners, and Where the Dead Go to Die, which he co-wrote with Mark Allan Gunnells. The Sound of His Bones Breaking, Aaron’s most recent novella, is out now. In addition, you can find his illustration work and short stories in numerous genre anthologies. Feel free to drop him a line at www.aarondries.com. He won’t bite. Much.

Happy birthday to me!

I’m a day late, sure, but the wonderful Jo Fletcher Books were not when these babies arrived on my doorstep yesterday – perfectly timed for my birthday.

Corpselight in paperback form with a brand new, never published anywhere before story, “Swan Girls” in the back …

Guest Post: Alan Baxter – When Good Noir Goes Darker

Today, author Alan Baxter is taking over the blog!

Huge thanks to Angela for hosting me today.

With the recent release of my novel, Hidden City, I’ve done a lot of thinking about genre. I’m unashamedly a genre writer, and the simple fact is that I’ve never met a genre I didn’t like. I love to read westerns, crime, noir, mystery, fantasy and SF, horror of course, and more. And while most of my stuff is dark fiction and almost always includes elements of dark fantasy and the supernatural, I’ve always ignored genre boundaries while writing and crammed in as many ideas as I felt I needed. With Hidden City, I did something a little differently. I deliberately started with noir. I knew I wanted to write a noir novel, but then build dark urban fantasy and horror into that.

I live in the country now, and that’s where I was born and raised (in a different country’s country) but in between I’ve lived in a lot of cities. They fascinate me, thrill me, and appal me in equal measure. Cities are incredible places, so a lot of my fiction is set in them. And it’s that city-based sense of place that most attracts me to noir fiction. Within those classic noir stories of the past, and in the modern stories that emulate that style, the city is ever-present. It’s a character too, as important to the plot as the protagonist and antagonist. It’s a bit player or a secondary character, but an essential one. So when I came to write Hidden City I decided to up-end that trope a little bit. In my novel, the city is a key player, a co-protagonist. And Cleveport is not only an essential character, she’s a sentient one.

I’ve long held the belief that all cities have a kind of sentience. Consider, if you’ve been, places like Sydney, London, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, New York, any other you care to name. They all have distinct personalities, and those cities shape the population just as much as the population shapes them. It’s a small step to consider those personalities as actual gestalt sentience. That’s where I went with Cleveport. And a city that had grown to that level of conscious awareness would also attract a higher level of human consciousness, don’t you think? So whether they realize why or not, people with active or even latent magical tendencies are drawn to Cleveport. Their presence subsequently increases the citymind and Cleveport grows further.

So that’s my noir setting and my fantasy element. But I’m a horror writer too. So how do I fit that in? Well, it seemed obvious once I thought about it. If I have this sentient city and her connected population, it would be pretty terrible if Cleveport was sick, even dying. That would mean her population would be dying too. And perhaps none of them would realize.

Well, one person realizes. Steven Hines, low-level citymage and grief-stricken private eye, sees the changes in his city, as he’s more closely connected to her than most. And he knows it’s only going to get worse. He also knows that the authorities can’t recognize the real problems and are only treating the symptoms. Meanwhile, organized crime syndicates are making hay while the sun shines. But it’s a false sun, that’ll burn everyone to cinders in a short amount of time. So Steven Hines and a handful of friends have to step up and save everyone, even if it costs them everything.

So my idea to write a noir novel, to indulge that passion of mine, went pretty dark. But that’s what my fiction always seems to do. I like it in the dark. Do you?

Hidden City is available in ebook and paperback wherever you buy books. Learn more at Alan’s website: https://www.alanbaxteronline.com/books/hidden-city/ or Buy it on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078YH5G4F/

Find Alan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AlanBaxter

 

Corpselight Paperback!

Peeps! The Corpselight paperback is out on May 17! The day *after* my birthday, so it’s almost like my birthday!

So, if you require the paperback size to match the Vigil on your shelf (those who care about such things), then now is the time to put in your orders at your favourite bookshop …

Also, the paperback contains a new, unpublished story called “Swan Girls” … it’s a Sister Bridget origin story …

Swan Girls

by Angela Slatter

Sister Bridget Hazelton is twelve when she sees her first angel.

Of course she’s not a Sister then, just a sister – to Eleanor, who’s half her age, with twice her capacity to get into trouble – but she sees the angel nonetheless. Eleanor, of course, does not.

Bridget is walking home from school, her sister dancing along in front, singing the national anthem – in 1964, it’s still ‘God Save the Queen’ and they have to sing it every morning at assembly, standing to attention on the burnt red parade ground. But at this very moment Eleanor is chanting it to the same tune as the Gilligan’s Island theme song. It sounds wrong, but Eleanor doesn’t care.

There are a lot of things Ellie doesn’t care about; Bridget is the one with a thing for rules. She’s the eldest, so all their parents’ expectations and hopes, terrors and fears have been vested in her. Ellie reaps the benefits of Megan and Will’s exhaustion with making and enforcing their own decrees; it’s a known fact that as long as the first-born isn’t obviously broken by the time the second comes along, parental units tend to relax/collapse on the whole ‘boundaries’ front. They inevitably try to make up for this is by handing a degree of responsibility to Child Number One.

Bridget is aware of the weight of these expectations and it has affected her posture: she doesn’t slouch, but stands straight, feet always braced a little bit apart so that anything trying to knock her down will have to work extra-hard. Her shoulders are held back with the discipline of a soldier, which makes her look taller. It’s a stance that will stay with her for ever, that, and the way she juts her chin forward, daring the world to have a go and see what happens.  

Bridget knows, courtesy of her parents, that she is Responsible. She is  Responsible for her own good grades. She is Responsible for collecting the mail when she comes home from school. She is Responsible for laying the table and for drying the dishes her mother has washed up. She is Responsible, most of all, for her little sister.

Ellie makes that particular task so much harder by being a thorough-going little brat. If there is a means to get into trouble, she will find it. It is invariably Eleanor who locate the hidden wasps’ nest and stirs it up; expensive electrical equipment will either short out when she touches it, or, curiosity will overwhelm her and she will take it apart, and even if she does put it back together (which is not guaranteed), it will never work again, for some critical component will have gone mysteriously missing. If she so much as looks sideways at a piece of their mother’s jewellery, it (or part of it at least) will disappear. Megan Hazleton has long ago accepted that she’s destined to have more unmatched earrings than anyone else on the planet. She continues to hope that one day it might become fashionable.