Adam L.G. Nevill's Blog, page 44
April 29, 2016
DEAD LETTERS ANTHOLOGY PUBLISHED THIS WEEK
DEAD LETTERS is out this week (Titan). I have a story included – ‘The Days of Our Lives’, that ranks as one of the strangest tales that I’ve committed to paper (so far).
The invitation to take part in this themed anthology just lit my fuse from the get go: for one thing, it had the marvellous Conrad Williams as editor, and the second lure was the original nature of the invitation to submit a story: an object was sent to me by post to inspire the tale . . .
Take a look at the track listing on the jacket, and here’s the blurb:
“The Dead Letters Office: the final repository of the undelivered. Love missives unread, gifts unreceived, lost in postal limbo. Dead Letters: An Anthology features new stories from the masters of horror, fantasy and speculative fiction, each inspired by object from the Dead Letters Office. Featuring original stories by: Joanne Harris * Maria Dahvana Headley & China Miéville * Michael Marshall Smith * Lisa Tuttle * Ramsey Campbell * Pat Cadigan * Steven Hall * Alison Moore * Adam LG Nevill * Nina Allan * Christopher Fowler * Muriel Gray * Andrew Lane * Angela Slatter * Claire Dean * Nicholas Royle * Kirsten Kaschock”
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April 27, 2016
LAST DAYS REVIEWED BY GINGERNUTS OF HORROR
Kit Power has reviewed LAST DAYS very favourably over at Gingernuts of Horror, one of the leading online sites for horror fiction, film and culture. I’m delighted with this review.
“Last Days is a tour-de-force of a horror novel – atmospheric, tense, and powerful. Nevill has an incredible talent for building a sense of creeping dread, setting up a scenario and then slowly, methodically, and mercilessly turning the screw on his unfortunate protagonists . . . I really don’t have a bad word to say about this exceptional horror novel. It is an exquisite and literate piece of work, from the grand structure to the sentence by sentence prose. It is inspired, original, and terrifying.”
http://gingernutsofhorror.com/fiction-reviews/last-days-by-adam-nevill
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LOST GIRL REVIEWED AT DIABOLIQUE
A strong review for Lost Girl has appeared at Diabolique Magazine:
“Because of the novel’s intensity, taking breaks from reading it are sometimes required. Yet the lure to return to the book is assured since Nevill skillfully hooks the reader with both the macrocosm and microcosm of the plot.”
My thanks to Sheila M. Merritt!
http://diaboliquemagazine.com/lost-girl-book-review/
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April 15, 2016
SOME WILL NOT SLEEP
My first short story collection will be published later this year (probably late summer), and in time for The Ghost Story Festival in Dublin, and Fantasycon 2016 in Scarborough, where I will be manifesting as special ghost and guest apparition, respectively. The title of my first collection is: SOME WILL NOT SLEEP: SELECTED HORRORS, and will feature eleven of my horror and weird tales, written between 1995 and 2011 (and published between 2003 and 2012 across a range of horror anthologies).
Though primarily a novelist, I have amassed enough short stories, since the mid-nineties, to compile three collections of short weird and horror fiction. I have decided, though, to publish two selected editions, reprinting the stories that still ring my bell in 2016. The second collection plans to manifest in 2019.
Despite many kind offers from indie publishers to publish my first short story collection, I have decided to publish this book through my own company, RITUAL LIMITED. My reasons for going-it-alone are manifold, not least to maintain creative control over each aspect of the publication, from text design to cover. But I’ve also worked in senior editorial positions for the last eleven years, in traditional publishing, and want to invest the accumulated stress, anguish, and experience, into creating high-spec’, limited edition hardbacks of my shorter fiction (a 400 copy first print run is planned for SOME WILL NOT SLEEP), plus an eBook. The hardback edition should also come with special, bespoke gifts …
Meanwhile, here’s another unveiling of the Ritual Limited logo, created by Moonring Design. We’ll also be working together in the future on other stuff to realise the underground, extreme, and black metal record label stylings of Ritual Limited.
Please sign up to the newsletter for more details on my author page, or website!
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March 16, 2016
SHORT STORY AT NIGHTMARE MAGAZINE
Kicking off a year in which my milky eyes turn their gaze upon short stories, NIGHTMARE MAGAZINE have made ‘Where Angels Come In’ available to read online . . . and it’s free.
http://www.nightmare-magazine.com/fic...
And there is an Author Spotlight up at Nightmare Magazine too, and I’m mostly chatting about haunted places …
“When we imagine the full variety of the lives that were experienced inside an old building—the intensity of the pain, tragedy, misery, ecstasy, joy, loneliness, terror and love, the life and death, that may once have been very real beneath that roof—do we not sense, when we are there, that at certain times these former experiences, personalities and events can manifest in strange ways around us, or inside us, as influences?”
http://www.nightmare-magazine.com/non...
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March 14, 2016
THE RITUAL: FOLK HORROR AND WEIRD
I was delighted over the weekend to see The Ritual canter onto this folk horror list. And just when I thought it was all over, The Ritual cropped up on another book list. This time for being weird and dream-like, which I highly approve of. Intriguing selections here too.
https://litreactor.com/columns/five-g...
http://outlandishlit.blogspot.co.uk/2...
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February 23, 2016
MORE BOOK RECS – THE ICE TWINS & THE WELL
Over the years, I’ve often dipped into the mega-selling, front-list fiction genres to see what all the fuss was about (I’ve done this from Bridget Jones & chick-lit, to Fifty Shades). Most of these trends, if I am honest, have not been to my taste (I felt I should have liked the Da Vinci/monks-running-on-covers novels, but didn’t). But I have come across a trend that I am finding very good: Grip Lit.
I’m guessing this loose school of thrillers, with unreliable narrators, began with Gillian Flynn’s terrific Gone Girl, and hit its peak in 2015? But two recent novels that have had me nailed to the sofa are THE ICE TWINS by S.K Tremayne (I disliked each character, but found them so well observed, and I like that friction as a reader), and THE WELL by Catherine Chanter (an extraordinary first novel). These two had a subtle uncanny quality too, that arises from the extreme mental states of the narrators, and that was well done (touch of Henry James in the Ice Twins).
I won’t dwell on those books that I thought ordinary (with a popularity that was probably created by the level that the books were published at, as much as anything else), but it’s also good to see the likes of Canongate, Faber and Vintage getting into this genre, without compromising the core literary quality that they’re known for (that’s actually what drew me in). A more sophisticated approach to the actual writing, combined with a strong story and compelling situations, has always been a draw for me. I will continue exploring Grip-lit and report back …
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GATEWAYS TO ABOMINATION, STARDUST, BLACK STAR BLACK SUN
I’m having a novella and shorter book season and reading through a stack of books that I bought recently. Of these, so far, I thought GATEWAYS TO ABOMINATION by Matthew M. Bartlett was very special. This book hit me as a series of expressionist nightmares and I was quickly struck by the presence of an original imagination inside the Abominations (always a pleasure to get that voltage). I was also slightly reminded of the respective visions of Mark Samuels and Thomas Ligotti (but with sex) and there’s a touch of a T.S Eliot style wasteland in these bizarre and hideous creations. As this book is priced at less than a fiver on Amazon UK, for the price of a pint in London, here’s a longer lasting delirium at much better value, and a more effective method of degrading your sanity.
An absolute gem is STARDUST by Nina Allan. Fans of M John Harrison and Aickman take note. Always liked Nina’s stories in multi-author collections, and she’s brilliant on panels at cons, so I picked this up at Fantasycon. I’d say that two of my favourite recent horror stories are in this collection of novellas and longer short stories – ‘Wreck of the Julia’ & ‘The Gateway’. Her writing is so clear and precise too that reading her work is like a cooling eye-balm (one of those writers who make me tuck my shirt in and want to do better).
Another writer, who I won’t offend by calling new (as he has three novels and a novella out) is young, Rich Hawkins, whose cosmic BLACK STAR, BLACK SUN possessed a horror energy of sufficient intensity to make me sit up straight. A descriptive force that shifts from the raw to the nuanced and that reminded me of fellow Brit’, Gary McMahon. Hawkins’s tendency to obsessively investigate the grotesque also reminded me, dare I say it, of my own hideous preoccupations . . .
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February 22, 2016
ADAM NEVILL & GARETH L. POWELL IN PLYMOUTH
I’ve just signed up for another event for 2016 (and my last, I reckon, as I’ll need to keep my rear-end in a chair for a bit too this year), but I’ll be teaming up with Gareth L Powell – our fourth gig in the South West – for a discussion on science fiction, horror, with readings and a Q&A.
If you’re around, it’s on FRIDAY 11 MARCH 2016 7PM, at the PLYMOUTH ARTS CENTRE.
http://literatureworks.org.uk/adam-ne...
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February 20, 2016
GUEST AUTHOR AT SCI-FI WEEKENDER MARCH 17 – 20 2016
Things get away from me … my claws often swipe in thin air … but I’m also one of the guest authors at this huge Fan Con’ in mid-March: SCI-FI WEEKENDER. I have an interview and will be doing panels, and might often be found looking bewildered. Someone may even have to collect me from lost property, but I look forward to meeting anyone on here who is going.
There will be a bit of cos play going on too, by the looks of things, but I can always fit into that naturally by just being myself: Nosferatu. You should see my shadow on the wall of a caravan …
http://www.scifiweekender.com/
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