Cate Gardner's Blog, page 8

Read 2020 - Interzone #277

This is how far behind I (we) have gotten with our reading. Thanks to number generator, I finally got to read issue 277 of Interzone, which was published at the end of 2018. To my shame, there are even older copies on my to-read-shelf. Forgive me, Andy.

My favourite reads this issue were:

Territory: Blank by Aliya Whiteley (a burgeoning superstar). Territory: Blank is told in a series of fragmented diary entries in a future world where there are hungry things.  "I press through it, wait for the mouths to come for me too."

Singles' Day by Samantha Murray. This is the story of four girls in different parts of an overcrowded Earth, who are offered a chance to go to a new world, but will have to leave much behind. The horror part of my brain kept expecting something awful to happen. "We take our stories with us. We take all of our past."

Book 3 of 2020 - The London Satyr

It was going to be a tough job following The Essex Serpent but The London Satyr by Robert Edric held its own. I don't know how long this book sat on my to-read-shelf because it was deposited there by the Bestwick. 

Again, we visit 1890s London with fictional and real-life characters (Henry Irving, Ellen Terry and Bram Stoker), set in theatre-land and in a seedy underworld of pornographic photography, with a side-trip into spiritualism. An interesting look at 19th century London. Highly recommend.

 *I'm enjoying allowing a random number generator to pick my books for me. It's also encouraging me to read faster than usual. 

Book 2 of 2020 - The Essex Serpent

This book is delightful and I'm glad it only languished on my to-read-shelf for just a couple of months. A beautifully-written story of a suspected monster, 1890s London and Essex, folklore, fear, illness and love both forbidden and other.

Here are some of Sarah Perry's words:

...puts on her black dress, and sits in the window looking like an artist's idea of grief.

"She's the kind of woman who's misunderstood. They think because she's so pretty and wears clothes so well, and because she gossips and chatters, that she's nothing but a ballerina in a jewellery box turning round and round..."

Made for the Dark - John Llewellyn Probert

A new year's resolution - to review more of the books I read. That said, here is a review of the first book I have read this year.

MADE FOR THE DARK by JOHN LLEWELLYN PROBERT

‘There lived a girl who was the recipient of the grief of all mankind’.

Each story in this collection begins with a Twilight Zone style introduction and it’s very effective (especially when you imagine it read with JLP’s enthusiasm).

The story ‘Scattered Ashes’ opens the collection. ‘The girl was beautiful, at the beginning…’ Four mysterious men hire a private detective in this wicked tale of murder and revenge. Favourite stories include ‘It Begins at Home’, questioning what you would do to make ‘There lived a girl who was the recipient of the grief of all mankind’.

Each story in this collection begins with a Twilight Zone style introduction and it’s very effective (especially when you imagine it read with JLP’s enthusiasm).

The story ‘Scattered Ashes’ opens the collection. ‘The girl was beautiful, at the beginning…’ Four mysterious men hire a private detective in this wicked tale of murder and revenge. Favourite stories include ‘It Begins at Home’, questioning what you would do to make money in extreme financial circumstances. A tale full of dread. The creepy ‘A Taste of Honey, A Horror of Stone’ that left me thinking freaking hell. Seriously, dude. In contrast, ‘The Life Inspector’ is quite light-hearted for me if not for the character. ‘Girlfriend School’ is about a first date that goes very badly. In ‘The Girl with no Face’ we find that sometimes the people we meet are more dangerous than we are.

Finally, ‘The Girl in the Glass’, my favourite of favourite stories in the collection, an unnerving tale of an unusual haunting.


*I would link to where you can buy it - Black Shuck Books - but I suspect that all 50 copies of this limited edition are long gone.

Happy Old Year

Happy New Year! Here are some of the things I had published in the grand old year 2019. I'm very proud of all of them (makes a change).

 The Bone-Cage Blues in A Miscellany of Death & Folly
 The Iron Curve of Thorns in The Woods
 The Mute Swan in Terror Tales of Northwest England
 In the City of Concrete Dandelions in Industrial Horror: Threads of the Infinite  

Ginger Nuts of Christmas

Jim McLeod - Mr Ginger Nuts of Horror himself - has listed his top anthologies and single-author collections of 2019. I am happy to announce that The Woods is amongst the listed and Jim has this to say about my story:

Cate Gardner proving once again just how amazing a writer she is, and confirming that her recently announced collection will be going straight to the top of my TBR pile.

My head just about made it through the doorway this morning. Although, if it had gotten wedged, I wouldn't have had to come into work.

Other work (amazing work) to make the list include collections by Laura Maura, Georgina Bruce, Andrew Freudenberg, Tracey Fahey and Tim Major.

A Des Lewis Review

The wonderful Des Lewis is currently doing a real-time review of the Egaeus Press anthology, A Miscellany of Death and Folly. Here are some things he said about my story, The Bone-Cage Blues.

"This impossibly tantalising story deserves the accolade of being the only one I could not nail down at all while still wholly believing it held for me a meaningful meaning.

I especially like that he referred to a macabre theatre of curious acts because I once wrote a book by that name. Des' review of my short novel, Theatre of Curious Acts, is here.

Infant Whack Jobs

While browsing the internet - procrastinating - I came upon a forum discussing Paul Finch's Terror Tales series, and absolutely loved this description of my characters - How will a public performance of Swan Lake by infant "whack jobs" play out? A Tutu terror dark fantasy.

Read more: http://vaultofevil.proboards.com/thread/6918/finch-terror-tales-northwest-england#ixzz65oNLiPfu

Thanks, Dem Bones.

You can buy the anthology over at Amazon in kindle or paperback format.

A Miscellany of Death & Folly

My Story, The Bone-Cage Blues, appears in this beautiful anthology, A Miscellany of Death & Folly from Egaeus Press, edited by Mark Beech.

It is an absolutely beautiful volume and includes stories from DP Watt, Angela Slatter, Kaaron Warren, Chris Kelso, and many others. It is an absolute honour to appear in this gorgeous book.

Limited to 300 copies, it is £35 inclusive of postage.

Concrete Review

On Amazon, there's a wee review for the above Snowbooks anthology of Industrial Horror, Thread of the Infinite, which contains my story In the City of Concrete Dandelions (gosh, that's a lot of italics).

Here be a snippet: (incl. more italics)

Entertaining and thought provoking stories painting bleak post apocalyptic landscapes and some more personal intimate takes with children as the protagonists. Cate Gardner's 'In the City of Concrete Dandelions' was heartbreaking, powerful and drew me right in.