David A. Riley's Blog, page 124

Robert Aickman - discussed on the BBC

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Jeremy Dyson presented a discussion about Robert Aickman on the BBC Radio. Also on it were Ramsey Campbell and Ray Russell.

Bite Sized Horror - Review on BFS Site

Coincidentally, David Brzeski has reviewed Bite Sized Horror on the BFS site.

And then it wasn't

Over issues regarding contracts, etc., Obverse have now withdrawn their e-book version of Bite Sized Horror.

Bite Sized Horror - now available as a downloadable e-book

Bite Sized Horror from Obverse Books, which contains my zombie horror story His Pale Blue Eyes, has now been made available as an e-book for £3.99, although there are potentially some issues between the writers and the publisher which need to be resolved over this. More about this later.

World Fantasy Convention 2013

I have booked Lin and I for the World Fantasy Convention in 2013, which will be held in Brighton. I don't think I have ever booked so far in advance for a convention before, but the list of attendees is growing steadily and I want to have a good chance of booking into the convention hotel.

Do you smile when you find someone's been having a go at you online?

It amuses me, anyway.

I was today passed on a couple of links about the Seventh Black Book of Horror, in which, in the comments section, I found myself being described as a "far right asshole". Heyho, you can't be liked by everyone, and some people's perspective of what consitutes far right can be exagerated by just how far left they might be. It's all a load of nonsense, but adds to the colour of life, I suppose.

http://darkling-tales.livejournal.com/125161.html#cutid1

http://darkling-tales.livejournal.com/125616.html#cutid1

FantasyCon 2012

It's finally possible to book for FantasyCon 2012. Lin and I imediately booked. We both regret missing this year's, having arranged a trip to Bulgaria for the same date.

The next convention will be an important one for me as I'll have two books out. My collection, The Lurkers in the Abyss, is to be launched by its publisher, Noose & Gibbet Press at the convention, while my horror novel, The Return, is due out from Dark Continents Press in the US only the month before, so in a sense it will have its UK launch at the convention too.

Lucilla

After writing two lengthy short stories in a row (Old Grudge Ender and Swan Song), and having gone through and revised all the stories to go in my collection next year, The Lurkers in the Abyss, I have decided to get back to finishing a novel I started some time ago, Lucilla. I've already written 30,000 words. Read through it again today and was satisfied with how it was going. Unlike the novel due out next year from Dark Continents Publishing, The Return, this isn't straight horror, though it has strong horror elements.

The Halifax Ghost Story Festival, Dean Clough, Halifax 12th November 2011

Lin and I had a great time at this year's Halifax Ghost Story Festival. We decided to go to Halifax the day before and stayed overnight Friday and Saturday at the splendid White Swan Hotel, near Halifax Town Hall. What an amazingly friendly hotel this is, a large, old, brilliantly well maintained building, with some of the largest bedrooms I've ever stayed in. Recommended!


The Festival started at 1.30 p.m. on Saturday with a reading of Arthur Machen's The Ritual by Reggie Oliver (who kindly signed my copy of his recent Tartarus Press collection, Mrs Midnight).



 This was followed by a panel made up of Ray Russell, Mark Valentine, Gwilym Games and Reggie Oliver discussing Machen's stories. Thoroughly entertaining. It is always great to hear people discussiing a subject they know a great deal about and love.


Rounding off the Machen side of things, we were then shown a short film based on Machen's story The Happy Children. The director, Mark Goodall answered questions from the audience afterwards for several minutes.


The second panel of the afternoon was chaired by the ever entertaining John Probert, discussing how the boundaries of the ghost story could be expanded. Other members of the panel included Chris Maloney, Nicholas Royle and Mark Valentine. This was an excellent discussion and it was only a shame that it had to end when it did having run out of time. Although I'm not usually a great fan of panels this was exceptionally interesting.

The afternoon's events were rounded off by three films, two professional and one amateur. The professional films were an adaptation of Elizabeth Jane Howard's story Three Miles Up (directed by Lesley Manning) and Robert Aickman's The Hospice (directed by Dominique Othenin-Girard).The amateur film was a short feature called The Hairy Hand (directed by Ashley Thorpe).

There was a break of about an hour and a half after this, during which most of the afternoon's guests left. Lin and I stayed on to have a specially made Ghost Story Festival meal at the Dean Clough cafe, which included some delicious Pumpkin soup, vegetarian Indian food and parkin. We spent most of the time talking with fellow BFS members Caroline Callaghan and Di Lewis.

The final event of the evening was a showing at eight o'clock of a full length feature film, Ashley Thorpe's An Urban Ghost Story .

Altogether a very successful event, shorter than last year's, but neatly compacted with some interesting items.

Swan Song

Sent a copy of this story off to Charles Black by email today and he's accepted it for the Black Books of Horror. A "cracking story" is how he described it.