Adam L.G. Nevill's Blog, page 38

LOST GIRL REVIEW AT SCI FI CROWSNEST

Cracking review from SF Crowsnest. Not sure this novel has had better. Great to know the book is still being read and thought about somewhere:

“‘Lost Girl’ is a complex, morally ambiguous novel which explores the fragility of modern civilised life through the gradual destruction of one man’s moral compass as he tries to right the terrible wrong inflicted on his family. Adam Nevill mixes strong, three-dimensional characters with a high stakes, high energy plot which pulls you in and doesn’t let go until the final page. Warmly recommended.” Patrick Mahon

Full review here

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HASTY FOR THE DARK: SELECTED HORRORS. COMING SOON … HALLOWEEN 2017

Well, it’s in the wind, so who is hasty for the dark?

More selected horrors are coming. Halloween 2017.

In a flesh and blood alliance, all the artwork for this book has been designed by my brother, Simon Nevill.

[for a fuller story and more info’ see my newsletters – just signup at my homepage]

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THE VOID

I enjoyed The Void. The penultimate scenes were fascinating – grotesque and overblown, but also striving, and not wholly unsuccessfully, for a sense of cosmic awe.

What I recommend is watching the “Making of” documentary on the DVD; I found it as enjoyable as the film, and the filmmaker’s story is tense. When you consider what indie film makers are up against, and how they will literally break themselves while seeking to achieve their original vision for their project (whilst so many moving cogs keep flying off in complicated collaborative arrangements), I often wonder how any of these films get made.

When I saw what it took for them to make those sets and creatures, by hand, I felt inclined to temper my criticisms. The most memorable scene was initially ruined by rain, powercuts, and no money. Watching two figures with buckets creating an underworld with wet toilet paper, all through the night in an abandoned building, made me salute. Particularly as all of my fave recent horror films seem to have erupted from this process, often flawed in parts but possessing some memorable aesthetic that is missing elsewhere. As with Across the River, when you consider what the filmmakers started with, then what they ended up with is extraordinary.

What I’d really like to see next is the prequel, with the backstory in the foreground. What a film that could be. They were touching a void here that my imagination wanted to pass into more deeply.

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BIRMINGHAM FEAR FEST – MAY 28TH AT THE GUNMAKERS ARMS

Fellow Brummies and lovers of horror. On the 28th of May, you have a gem of a little horror fest’ up and dancing. It’s also being held at the Gunmakers Arms Brewery and its onsite pub. I did an event there recently with the Birmingham Horror Group, and it’s a cracking location, and only a few mins walk from the city centre.

Steve Green is running this, and he’s “good horror people”.

I’ve done two events in Brum recently, and if I was closer to Birmingham, I’d be running to this on my rickety skeletal legs. The schedule and guests are listed at the link.

Only £15 for the day, which includes films and a full schedule.

Get some!

All details here.

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TV REC’ – TOP OF THE LAKE

“All you hear are your own crazy thoughts. Like a river of shit, on and on. See your thoughts for what they are. Stop your helping. Stop your planning. Give up! There’s no way out. Not for others, not for you. We are living out here at the end of the road, the end of the earth in a place called paradise. How is it going? Perfect? No. You are madder than ever.” GJ

I think that quote could be useful at the sign-up pages of social media sites. And though I haven’t watched much on the screen this year, I broke my fast for Top of the Lake. A six part thriller set in New Zealand that’s been out for a few years now. But if, like me, you’re late to the party, it’s a strange and compelling drama with the most awe-inspiring locations. A mix of a gritty crime mystery but on the set of a fairy tale … with the photography of a nature documentary.

Excited to read that a second series is planned.

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THIS IS HORROR PODCAST PARTS 1 – 3

TIH 139: Adam Nevill on Haunted House Stories, Online Book Launches, and Book Signings

TIH 138: Adam Nevill on The Ritual, Writing Process, and Facebook Advertising

TIH 137: Adam Nevill on Under A Watchful Eye, Ritual Limited, and Creative Writing

SOME WILL NOT SLEEP: SELECTED HORRORS – KINDLE COUNTDOWN DEAL. 99P OR 99C!

Today and tonight SOME WILL NOT SLEEP: SELECTED HORRORS will enter its second Kindle Countdown Deal. The eBook will be priced around 99p or 99c.

If you know anyone who might like to read the collection (15 years of my life!) for less than the price of five trial-sized Viscount biscuits in Poundland, then I thank you profusely for letting them know about this promotion.

Amazon US here. 

Amazon UK here.

An Early Influence: “Doctor Who: The Talons of Weng Chiang”

“You incompetent lice! You crawling, mindless dogs! That bag contained the key to the time cabinet. I must have it, do you understand, if I have to tear this accursed city apart stone by stone!” (a typical outburst from Weng Chiang)


 


I was seven when I last watched this Doctor Who series, and until that point in my life I’m pretty sure that I’d seen nothing on TV or in a book that had frightened me as much as Mr Sin, the Peking Homunculus. For scale, I was one year older than my daughter is now (I actually wouldn’t let her near this DVD). So I’ve treasured my memory of this story, and it’s had an influence on some of my horror (a few of my earlier short stories and a few novels). Forty years later, I have finally watched it again, and with some trepidation. It was hallowed horror ground for me and you know how disappointing returns to the past can be.


 


To give more detail on the hideously marvellous creation that is Mr Sin, the homunculus was once the toy of a royal family (“a plaything for the commissioner’s children”). Can you imagine? Part robot, it was made sentient with the cerebral cortex of a pig. And there is a scene that closes one episode, in which Mr Sin walks haltingly into Professor Lightfoot’s dining room, holding a knife before itself; I remember that scene nearly stopped my tiny seven year old heart. Sin had the most horrible face that I had ever seen.


 


The way in which Sin gets inside Professor Litefoot’s house, as a kind of a Trojan dummy inside a laundry hamper, was solely responsible for creating my enduring unease of wicker baskets (interestingly, a friend once admitted the very same fear after having seen Mr Sin in his basket, and at the same age as me). For years, I could never use a bathroom in comfort if there was a wicker basket present … When characters moved close to Sin’s inert form in the theatre, backstage, I could barely look at the screen for fear that he would move.


 


Sin’s malignant presence, even when unseen, permeates six episodes. I think an enduring dread is one of the pinnacles of horror, one of its highest achievements, and is rare. Above ground you had Sin, below the streets there was a giant rat. No escape and a most claustrophobic environment is conjured. I still strive for the same effects in what I write.


 


On balance, I always keep in mind that this show was “made for children”, but through my older eyes I still appreciated the fog-smothered atmosphere and the masterly sense of foreboding that never lets up. A distinguishing feature is its creation of four terrific monsters. They maintain a tone of absolute loathsomeness, and an unremittingly sinister discourse.


 


As well as Mr Sin, there is Weng Chiang himself (the masked psychopath), and Li H’sen Chang (with that immobile rubbery face so at odds with his immaculate manners), and the giant rat. Oddly, I probably appreciated the rat more this time around; first time, I only feared the grate through which it was fed, and its roar in the sewers. Though I remember real trauma when the rat got hold of Leela’s legs in the sewer; you then had to wait a week to see if she made it. But a very imaginative ensemble of evil characters here, that left a deep groove in my childhood imagination that I still revisit.


 


As with the ‘Pyramids of Mars’ that I also revisited recently, I remembered a few of my observations at the time, while a mere seven years old; one of which, was to question why the likes of Sutek the Destroyer and Weng Chiang managed to command such loyalty from their acolytes, who would gladly die for these incredibly rude, robed tyrants in their shiny dressing gowns. It was the awe before a god that they experienced before them, and the all consuming terror before the autocrat.


 


Through adult eyes, I can see that every character is a stereotype (and so heavy on the Sax Rohmer it made me wince at times). Some of the action scenes verge on slapstick, as in anything involving the expendable Peelers. It’s also filled with gags and literary and cinematic references. I can now sense that the actors were having a hoot while making it, their tongues are rarely out of their cheeks. But all of that escaped me, and was of no consequence to me, at the time this show engulfed me with its terrifying magic in 1977.


 


While watching it again, it also unlocked a couple of memories: the taupe-to-gold upholstery of our living room furniture that I haven’t thought about in decades. And I remember pretending that tic-tacs were the tiny scorpion venom pills that Weng Chiang and Li H’sen Chang administered to their “incompetent lice”. I also recall that the hallway and staircase outside our living room became too forbiddingly dark and fearsome to enter after watching the show … Sin could have been up there, progressing like a toddler through the dark with his grunt-squeal. Would I get round him, as he moved slowly and needed to get in close? Or would I freeze with terror and hope that he dealt swiftly with me in the dark?


 


I find I’m still in love with The Talons of Weng Chiang, 40 years later. But I was relieved to have not been so frightened this time around.

Mr Sin

Mr Sin and Li H’sen Chang

Weng Chiang aka Magnus Greel

Weng Chiang and Sin

THIS IS HORROR PODCAST PART 1

Five things I should never be asked about (if you’re in a hurry): horror, books, writing, music, climate catastrophe. Bob Pastorella, Michael Michael David Wilson and Dan Howarth didn’t know this until they asked me about all of these subjects … hence this being part one of a long chat. 

Might be things of interest here for newish writers, readers of my horrors, those considering self-publishing, and those with an interest in horror.

Show Notes

[03:55] Interview start/growing up and first experiences with story

[06:20] Standout supernatural horror writers from childhood/influential stories

[22:10] Areas of creative writing that can be taught

[28:10] Reaction to writing genre on Creative Writing course

[33:45] Now and then: perceptions of genre in Universities

[38:55] Under A Watchful Eye: autobiographical elements, subject matter,

[48:10] Influence of Joyce’s Portrait and the consequences of creativity

[48:40] Lost Girl, climate change, and the future

[54:00] Ritual Limited and lessons learnt self-publishing

You can listen to the show here

 

ELLEN DATLOW’S BEST HORROR OF THE YEAR VOL.9

Delighted to have my story included in Ellen Datlow’s ninth volume of Best Horror of the Year. My third time in this excellent series, that still features my favourite cover art in a horror series. My story was originally published in Dead Letters, edited by Conrad Williams and published by Titan.

Here’s the full track listing:

Nesters                                                Siobhan Carroll

The Oestridae                                     Robert Levy

The Process is a Process All its Own  Peter Straub

The Bad Hour                                     Christopher Golden

Red Rabbit                                          Steve Rasnic Tem

It’s All the Same Road in the End      Brian Hodge

Fury                                                     DB Waters

Grave Goods                                       Gemma Files

Between Dry Ribs                              Gregory Norman Bossert

The Days of Our Lives                                Adam LG Nevill

House of Wonders                                 C.E Ward                            

The Numbers                                        Christopher Burns

Bright Crown of Joy                           Livia Llewellyn

The Beautiful Thing We Will Become  Kristi DeMeester        

Wish You Were Here                              Nadia Bulkin                      

Ragman                                                  Rebecca Lloyd         

What’s Out There?                                Gary McMahon

No Matter Which Way We Turned    Brian Evenson

The Castellmarch Man                          Ray Cluley

The Ice Beneath Us                                   Steve Duffy           

On These Blackened Shores of Time    Brian Hodge

The anthology is published by Sky Pony Press in June of this year.