Adam L.G. Nevill's Blog, page 22

MY 2019 RECOMMENDATIONS IN BOOKS, FILM & TV.

This is the time of year when I like to offer a few recommendations to folks with similar tastes; films, Tv and books from my reading and viewing in the previous year.

My favourite TV of 2019:

Too Old to Die Young

Succession Series 2

The Handmaid’s Tale Series 3

Billions Series 3

The Watchmen

The Boys

The Kingdom.

And my two favourite TV series of/seen in 2019 were Chernobyl and The Terror.

At the cinema, my favourite films of 2019 were:

The Joker

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Doctor Sleep

Midsommar was my film of the year. I caught an early screening in London, then watched it again, twice … and it really disturbs me. The most disturbing film for me since Aster’s debut, Hereditary.

Reading in 2019, I checked my reading diary yesterday and realised I’d hit 84 books – though it feels half that at year’s end as I have been so busy. But in horror and the weird fiction, in no particular order, I really enjoyed:

The Wise Friend by Ramsey Campbell (published April 2020)

Hollow Shores by Gary Budden

Wounds by Nathan Ballingrud

The Delicate Shore Beckons Us by Jonathan Wood

Children of the Crimson Sun by Karim Ghahwagi

The Bellboy by Rebecca Lloyd

The Ballet of Doctor Caligari and Madder Mysteries by Reggie Oliver

The Book of Bones by John Connolly

The Immeasurable Corpse of Nature by Christopher Slatsky (published 2020)

Wakenhyrst by Michelle Paver

Mothlight by Adam Scovall.

Other fiction I recommend:

Dodgers by Bill Beverly

Stoneburner & Time Done Been Won’t Be No More both by William Gay

Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan

The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters.

In Non-fiction, my favourite reads were:

The Weird & the Eerie by Mark Fisher (Lit’ Criticism)

Sleeping with Lights On by Darryl Jones (Lit’ Criticism)

Folk Horror by Adam Scovall (Lit’ Criticism & more)

Millennium by Tom Holland (History)

Underland by Robert Macfarlane (Nature Writing)

Wilding by Isabella Tree (Nature Writing)

The Moor by William Atkins (Nature Writing)

The Rings of Saturn by W. G. Sebald (Memoir or fiction?)

Waterlog by Roger Deakin (Memoir)

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara (True Crime)

All the Devils Are Here by David Seabrook (True Crime).

THE REDDENING MAKES 5 TOP BOOKS OF 2019 LISTS.

Professionally, 2019 has been the most intense year I’ve had since 2016. That was the year I created Ritual Limited and published Some Will Not Sleep, created a new website, started a newsletter and produced the free eBooks, Cries from the Crypt and Before You Sleep. Back then, I was retraining, changing things up and there was much crawling around in the dark, weeping and clawing at my skull. Four years on, I’m really glad I set that more independent course as a writer. Publishing three editions of The Reddening, launching the book myself and fulfilling the hardback orders has been arduous and accounted for half of my working year (and much of my wife’s), but it has been wonderful to see the book appreciated so widely. I’d have to look all the way back to House of Small Shadows in 2013 (a book supported by a big publisher with a London Underground marketing campaign, stocked in supermarkets and placed in the WH Smiths chart), to find a book of mine that attained a similar momentum.

The pre-orders and then the weekly appetite for The Reddening has been a relief and surprise and the book’s popularity has lost no energy at year’s end. The critical response has been warm and enthusiastic and The Reddening has also been blessed with inclusions on a few interesting year’s best lists:

At Night Worms here.

At Horror DNA here.

At The Quietus here.

At The Lonely Crowd here.

At Mother Horror here.

Primary to this book’s life is you guys: the readers. And the most important people in the whole equation. So I want to thank you all, heartily and sincerely and assure you, that down here where I dwell, the pyre is high, the piping loud and that the old songs of the west are being sung in your honour. The “Red” is abiding and I salute you for acquiring this book, for reviewing it, for boosting its signal, for giving it your eyes and time and thoughts. A great privilege for me as an author and something I never take for granted. You keep me going.

Wishing those who follow the blog a Happy New Year.

My 2019 recommendations to follow soon.

 

AND THE REDDENING IS SELECTED FOR THE YEAR’S BEST FICTION & NONFICTION AT THE QUIETUS

The second list is over at The Quietus and The Reddening was selected by Sean Kitching, who has taken a close interest in my terrors over the years.

Really delighted to have the book appear here too.

The Red Abides.

“The Reddening sets the bar for literary horror especially high, even by Nevill’s own standards.”

The full 2019 list of selected books can be found here.

And I talk to Sean Kitching about the novel and indie publishing here.

THE REDDENING MAKES THE LONELY CROWD’S BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2019 LIST

I’m really pleased to see The Reddening make a couple of terrific Books of the Year 2019 lists. For a start they’re not exclusively genre lists, so that might be a first for one of my books, and this is the first novel published independently since Banquet’ in 2004 (this novel through my own Ritual Limited). The Red is abiding.

“Adam Nevill’s The Reddening is a smart, literary horror totally embedded in the Devon landscapes of its setting, violently gruesome at times. The novel has a mind-bending sense of deep time linking us to our ancestral past when we shared caves with giant hyenas and monsters in the dark were dangerously real; and made the coastal path in Devon seem a terrifying place for a day’s walking.”

A big two-horned salute to The Lonely Crowd and Gary Budden.

Full List here.

INTERVIEW BY THE QUIETUS

Publishing, Witchfinder Apprentice, using landscape in stories, future projects … I’m interviewed over at The Quietus by Sean Kitching.

The fourth time no less that we’ve put our heads together to chew the fat about horror. This one is infused red.

The Red abides …

Full interview here.

DAY OF THE DEAD AT COCKINGTON COURT

I’m manifesting here tomorrow, as part of Cockington Court’s Day of the Dead Festival. I may even be the most hideous apparition present.

As the storm rages outside (like a hurricane in the Bay right now) I will be reading some of my own stories. Tales of horror and the weird.

“Visit @CockingtonCourt on 3rd Nov for spooktacular evening in the Cob Barn. An exciting&spooky reading session with award-winning horror novelist Adam Nevill.spiders Delicious food by Surf ‘n’ Turf Kitchen. Tickets £10 each (for 12 yrs up)call 01803 607230 to get your tickets”

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THE REDDENING REVIEWED. WHAT THE CRITICS THINK SO FAR.

We raise our horns and the red circle dances to offer thanks to these reviewers. I genuinely never really know how a book will be received until it is finished and published and out there. The Reddening took me two years to write and rewrite and another year to publish. Three years of my life, so these reviews and critiques are a wonderful confirmation:

Gingernuts of Horror:”Supernatural horror does not get much better than The Reddening. If you’re a fan of slow build-ups, heavy atmosphere, superb and intricate plotting, bloodletting and a novel which has a unique sense of time and place then you are going to love this quality story. 5/5.”

Full review here:

Hypnogoria: “A book that is powerfully visceral in all senses of the word, but it’s also fiercely intelligent – this is powerful, razor-sharp writing.”

Full review here:

Horror Bound: “”Nevill’s ability to set a mood and maintain that mood throughout a novel is what sets him apart from many of his contemporaries. It doesn’t take long to figure out you’re reading a Nevill book based solely on the descriptions of the setting and characters . . . Easily a strong 5/5 on this one.”

Full review here:

From Mother Horror: All the stars. This book, THE REDDENING by Adam Nevill gets all the stars from me because this is the kind of horror I want to read all of my days. This will definitely make my Best Books of 2019 list.

Full review here:

This is Horror: “The Reddening is an intense, chokehold of a novel. It grips from the start and holds you down as it makes you consume the horrors within.”

Full review here:

Nightworms: “Pick this one up for the gore, high tension, and superb writing. 5 Stars”

Full review here:

Steelrain Reviews: “Nevill does an immaculate job of describing the environments within these pages. It was easy for me to close my eyes and envision the cliffs, the paths, the caves of a country that I’ve never been to.” Steel Rain Reviews.

Full review here:

Anthony Watson, Dark Musings: “It’s the paciest book Adam has written, hurtling along, drawing the reader towards its horrifying climax. The writing throughout is of the highest quality, nothing is sacrificed to the momentum of the plot and the characters populating the story are perfectly drawn; real people facing an unreal situation. The use of location is particularly effective here, the eerie landscape of South Devon a character in itself.”

Full review here:

Patti’s Blogspot: “The Reddening is Nevill’s Devon Wickerman, and under his spell you might well, like me, shrivel into Edward Woodward hollering a heartfelt, yet impotent “Jesus. Jesus Christ!”

Full review here:

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I’M INTERVIEWED BY SONYA AT ‘HAUTE MACABRE’

I was also lucky enough to be invited for interview at Haute Macabre recently, by Sonya Vatomsky. We covered researching, folk-horror tropes, memetic ideas, mythos’s . . . and stuffed librarians.

Read on …

RAMSEY CAMPBELL ON ‘NO ONE GETS OUT ALIVE’ IN TODAY’S GUARDIAN

And then you read this on publication day, from your favourite writer of horror … and your imposter syndrome is so huge that you want to slither into the shed and hide with a 4-pack for company.

A moment of real confirmation that genuinely makes it all worthwhile.

Truly kind and generous words. They will be cherished like Abbot Thomas’s treasure.

This is a really interesting feature that includes many toothsome recommendations from the top writers of dark matter.

You can read the full article here.

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THE REDDENING. PUBLICATION DAY. SOME HISTORY.

Hark Hear the Red Folk Sing! On Publication day, the Red has left the cave.

I started researching and writing notes for this novel in Romania on The Ritual shoot in 2016. The actual start I began on a plane heading to Transylvania. At this early stage, my head was filled with so many ideas and images that my imagination choked itself. I’d previously filled my mental basket with scores of ideas from two years walking the coast path and swimming the local coastline. But the raw matter was finally ready to dig itself out of my head to try and fit itself into language.

By early 2018, I believed the book was finished. But . . . I had reservations. Like pebbles in shoes, or creases in bedsheets, these doubts would not disappear. I left my most recent draft alone for a few months and then returned to “tinker”. This tinkering resulted in another year’s work and four more drafts of the book, with final revisions made in early 2019. So, the usual ordeal. But I will not kid myself and this is what it takes for me to satisfy my inner reader and editor.

I’ve always consider writing equal parts euphoria and despair. I don’t consider it “fun”. I fear “fun” in relation to writing. To me “fun” might evoke levity or silliness in a story. I must suffer because my characters suffer. Stuff has to be at stake, it all has to matter. “Fun” might lessen the impact of their struggle, it might reduce weight. This is horror I’m writing after all.

By summer of 2018, I also had grave reservations about this novel’s place in traditional publishing and made the decision to publish this book independently, through my own imprint, in four formats, worldwide on the same day – a business model better suited to what I am writing and for aesthetic reasons that may have contradicted current publishing trends and editorial leanings.

I had the infrastructure and knowledge from publishing the two collections and I had a vision for the book, no better made as an aesthetic statement than by Samuel’s cover art. I’d create three editions with my team, and Journalstone would publish the audio book. Let’s go.

There then followed over a year of publishing … with the usual chores, including the relentless grind of checking every specification in each edition and every line of text design to get them all as damn near perfect as possible. There were problems and obstacles galore, but all were overcome eventually.

But all of this time spent writing and rewriting the book, and then publishing it so carefully and painstakingly, ultimately led to many of you guys pre-ordering the entire limited edition hardback print run weeks before publication date. The pre-orders for the ebook and paperback have genuinely taken me aback. The ebook and paperback at full price (and I believe a reasonable price) are in the main top 100 horror chart on Amazon this morning, amongst the many heavily discounted eBooks. That red face is snarling out there!

My wife who does business administration, fulfilment, the website, newsletter design, stock-reordering and inventory – around all of her other responsibilities – also carefully packed 400 books and wrote customs declarations and got them out before publication date. The whole endeavour would have been possible without Anne Parry. Simon Nevill and Pete Marsh worked their usual magic as designers, Samuel Araya came through with artwork that made my heart skip a beat, my editor Tony weighed in, and my enabler, Brian J. Showers consulted on the hardback. Gentlemen, I thank ye.

So, was it all worth it? Yes. Though I am an older and slightly more bent and wizened figure then when I started back in Transylvania in late 2016. I feel as if I have been dragged around a cave by the Old Creel. But anything worth doing doesn’t come easy.

So, to all who have bought a copy and who will read this book, we salute you with both horns, while the Red Folk make their music in your honour with their bone flutes. My ninth horror novel is out there.

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Amazon UK

Amazon US

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Amazon UK

Amazon US