Adam L.G. Nevill's Blog, page 49
October 28, 2015
LOST GIRL BOOK LAUNCH, FANTASYCON 2015
This was my first DIY launch and I took along 70 copies. Instead of canapés and cocktails I opted for three dozen bottles of real ale. I thought that if 30 copies of the book were picked up, I’d be happy (and there were plenty of motorway service stations along the M5, on my journey home, with which to hawk from the car boot). But many came and 64 of you seized a Lost Girl. After the mass signing on Sunday, I returned home with a single copy. I now only have one copy of my new book, but I’d much rather other people had them.
The launch put a few volts through my weekend, so thank you for your support. It was additionally satisfying and a delight to see those Devon Dumplings vanish and to see Jim Mcleod get his book (you organised a good thing for a good man, Phil Sloman).
Special thanks to the Devonians, Mathew F. Riley and Paul Meloy, cashier and barman respectively. To Lydia Gittins too, who helped me out enormously from the moment I first hatched the idea (one tip alone from Lydia on how to arrange the tables was priceless). Cheers to Theresa Derwin and Gary Power for taking the pics and to Steve Shaw of Great British Horror for providing another amazing T shirt. This one features the Turkish cover of THE RITUAL with umlauts!
Good times, good friends. I always leave Fantasycon feeling a bit blessed to be a member of this community and to have made so many new friends since 2004 when I first took the Bfs FantasyCon oath, and the lanyard badge.
A selection of pictures from the launch, convention and awards below. Mostly taken by Gary Power and Theresa Derwin.
Promotional offer of Torbay real ale – The Devon Dumpling – in foreground
My brother and dad
Devonians helping me out – Mathew Riley and Paul Meloy
People came … the relief!
And they kept coming … thank you all!
BFS 2015 award winners
Tim Lebbon
Meal with friends and long terms dining companions in the Rye Café of Beeston
Two Adams: me and Adam Millard
Signing a copy for Jasper Kent
The post LOST GIRL BOOK LAUNCH, FANTASYCON 2015 appeared first on Adam LG Nevill.
October 9, 2015
A BOX OF HORROR - LOST GIRL AUTHOR COPIES
I have opened a box of incalculable personal horror, and in here also lies the steady collapse of civilisation (I've enough horror in me to include everything on the planet) ... But allow me a moment of uncontainable solipsism as I quote from my own text:
"There is no whimper or bang, just a long series of catastrophes. Year after year, decade after decade, always worsening, always leaving things changed after each crisis. The past is unrecoverable. Extinction is incremental. There is no science fiction. Advanced physics, inter-galactic travel, gadgets? An epic fantasy, the lot of it. There is only horror ahead of us now."
We go out to bat October 22nd. But if anyone missed this post, there will be others ...
"There is no whimper or bang, just a long series of catastrophes. Year after year, decade after decade, always worsening, always leaving things changed after each crisis. The past is unrecoverable. Extinction is incremental. There is no science fiction. Advanced physics, inter-galactic travel, gadgets? An epic fantasy, the lot of it. There is only horror ahead of us now."
We go out to bat October 22nd. But if anyone missed this post, there will be others ...
October 5, 2015
THE RITUAL IS PUBLISHED IN TURKEY BY PEGASUS
Moder has cantered into Turkey, snorting. Her young caper behind her, chittering ... And the author is really happy to have a second book out in Turkey through Pegasus. He may be prancing on his own white hooves.
AND I HAVE UMLAUTS! Waited my whole life to get that Crue and Motorhead vibe going.
AND I HAVE UMLAUTS! Waited my whole life to get that Crue and Motorhead vibe going.
I'M STARTING A NEWSLETTER - PLEASE SIGN UP!
Some Nevillish news: I have a new website coming and I am also starting a newsletter. I should have started the newsletter years ago, but as I only have four hooves, and two embryonic claws that lie hidden inside bristly pouches on my flanks, it's taken me a while.
This newsletter will be an occasional mailout direct from me, including news, recommendations, some extras, like missing chapters, and offers.
And like a withered and semi-transparent form, a revenant that has ...come to remind you of an old agreement that you wished had been forgotten, the first newsletter may appear without warning . . .
There is a sign-up button on my FB author page, and the link below. So join me, Old friends and Blood Friends, to receive more orations from a hierophant of horror.
http://adamlgnevill.us10.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=dd53f1209f5a504acd3a2d53f&id=61b07a44eb
This newsletter will be an occasional mailout direct from me, including news, recommendations, some extras, like missing chapters, and offers.
And like a withered and semi-transparent form, a revenant that has ...come to remind you of an old agreement that you wished had been forgotten, the first newsletter may appear without warning . . .
There is a sign-up button on my FB author page, and the link below. So join me, Old friends and Blood Friends, to receive more orations from a hierophant of horror.
http://adamlgnevill.us10.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=dd53f1209f5a504acd3a2d53f&id=61b07a44eb
October 2, 2015
JOEL LANE
Today is an anniversary of never forgetting a great writer.
September 24, 2015
NO ONE GETS OUT ALIVE shifts within its polythene wrappin...
NO ONE GETS OUT ALIVE shifts within its polythene wrappings at number one in the Amazon Horror Audio Book chart, so if anyone who reads my blog took a chance on a 17 hour recording of my darkest imaginings, then we raise our hooves and snort with approval amidst the willows ... Black Mag is dancing a jig too.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/No-One-Gets-Out-Alive/dp/B01574B8XQ/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1443107812&sr=1-3
http://www.amazon.co.uk/No-One-Gets-Out-Alive/dp/B01574B8XQ/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1443107812&sr=1-3
September 22, 2015
NO ONE GETS OUT ALIVE - THE AUDIO BOOK
17 hours and 9 minutes of my UNABRIDGED horrors are now available in audio book. And this is a story in which I took a character to the end of their physical, psychological and emotional limits (twice), and in which I attempted to make 600 pages feel like a matter of life and death (without fatiguing the reader being the intention). It was also my vision of a contemporary horror film. For me it was a mammoth undertaking, across around 18 months, to depict as authentic a version of inhumanity as I could, in two buildings with a limited cast. It's a heavy book.
Colleen Prendergast is the narrator and her audio book work includes 'Nine Uses for an Ex-Boyfriend' and 'Here Come the Girls' . . . Well here come 15 ghosts, 4 serial killers and something much worse in the cellar ...
But I feel proud of my small part in a massive blow against type-casting. I'll HAVE to download this to hear how the actor coped with Knacker and Fergal.
http://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Crime-Thrillers/No-One-Gets-Out-Alive-Audiobook/B01574AR3S/
Colleen Prendergast is the narrator and her audio book work includes 'Nine Uses for an Ex-Boyfriend' and 'Here Come the Girls' . . . Well here come 15 ghosts, 4 serial killers and something much worse in the cellar ...
But I feel proud of my small part in a massive blow against type-casting. I'll HAVE to download this to hear how the actor coped with Knacker and Fergal.
http://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Crime-Thrillers/No-One-Gets-Out-Alive-Audiobook/B01574AR3S/
September 21, 2015
ODDLY WEIRD REVIEW N.O.G.O.A
"Super super super book -- any novel that can make me jump from the ringing of a telephone is one well worth reading" We can only hope that the caller didn't then say, "I'm in your house now". http://www.oddlyweirdfiction.com/2015/09/and-he-does-it-again-no-one-gets-out.html#comment-form
September 4, 2015
BOOK REC'; THE NIGHT CLOCK BY PAUL MELOY
BOOK REC': For those, like me, who read Islington Crocodiles many years ago and have been waiting for Paul Meloy's first novel, well, the wait is almost over as The Night Clock is published in about eight weeks. I've been lucky enough to read the manuscript and thought . . .
"To write in such detail about life’s potential for awfulness, and some of the awful people in it - all of the frustration, pettiness, unfairness, injustice, wretchedness, and tragedy - while constantly b...ringing the reader close to a mad, ecstatic, life affirming laugh, is a rare skill. So how do you entwine humour and tragedy without one detracting from the other? Ask Paul Meloy, because he’s done it in The Night Clock.
There is so much to admire about The Night Clock – the poetry that seems to map the subconscious, the ideas, the forensic insight into everything from our foibles to the outright tragedy of being human. I love the way Paul Meloy sees the world and writes about it."
"To write in such detail about life’s potential for awfulness, and some of the awful people in it - all of the frustration, pettiness, unfairness, injustice, wretchedness, and tragedy - while constantly b...ringing the reader close to a mad, ecstatic, life affirming laugh, is a rare skill. So how do you entwine humour and tragedy without one detracting from the other? Ask Paul Meloy, because he’s done it in The Night Clock.
There is so much to admire about The Night Clock – the poetry that seems to map the subconscious, the ideas, the forensic insight into everything from our foibles to the outright tragedy of being human. I love the way Paul Meloy sees the world and writes about it."
August 24, 2015
WHEN MY LIFE BEGAN TO IMITATE AN M.R. JAMES STORY ...
Recently my life tried to become an M R James story, but I was saved by a morass of nettles and blackberry vines.
Part One (the true bit): I was in the Torquay Museum a while back with my little one, and as I checked out the prehistoric Torbay section, I came across a cabinet displaying human bones from a 5000 year old passage grave. The location of the grave is specified as being situated a few hundred metres from our house, and 300 metres behind Broadsands Beach (on an ar...ea of farmland arranged around a wooded hill, with Brunel's viaducts on either side). I did a double take at the display, then asked a member of staff if the grave was still there. A book was produced from a back room, and I felt like I'd waited my whole life for that moment: consulting with a museum curator on ancient ruins.
The grave was not listed in the book. But, a few days later, I was assured by a lifeguard on the nearby beach that it was still there. And though it was getting late, during my evening walk, I decided to beat a path up the hill to find the grave site ...
Part Two (still true): I climbed over a fence behind the beach huts and slowly made my way through 20 feet of brambles and reeds, then climbed the steep hill, scattering pheasants from the edge of the wheat field. I spent over an hour exploring seven fields divided by old, half-collapsed stone walls. The fields surrounded an eerie copse of trees on the summit, which reminded me of the M R James Wailing Well story; there was a large drinking trough for cattle set inside in a c...urious circle of trees. The stillness and silence up there was remarkable, as were the views of the bay below. Besides the antlike figures of the keep fit class, I saw nothing moving below the hill the whole time I was up there.
I eventually found the site of the grave, but the stones were entirely covered in nettles and vines ... Anti clmax, but I'll go back in the winter when the foliage recedes to get a decent picture. And yet, allow me to continue the story, but in my imagination ...
Part Three (speculative): But here's what began running through my imagination while I was up on that hill, entirely alone as the sun lowered in the sky. It might also be the conclusion to the story that you all wished for (and I don't blame you). But I imagined the final part of this tale appearing in some kind of report:
"The sole eye witness was a man taking part in an exercise class on the beach, some 300 metres away from the incident, but facing the hill. After hearing ...a short, shrill cry from the top of hill behind the beach, the witness looked up. With the setting sun in his eyes, he couldn't be certain of what then occurred on the south-facing slope, but was sure that he saw a man break from the copse of trees on the summit and run down the hill, towards the viaduct. The running man was then followed by a second figure, that also emerged from the treeline upon the summit. This second figure was described as being of a dark colour, small, and bone-thin, while also giving the appearance of being unclothed.
At the very moment when the second, smaller figure seemed to catch up with the running man, the witness lost sight of the two figures within the wheat. There followed one more cry from the hill, though it was muted as if the mouth that issued the cry had been covered or blocked.
The remains of the local man, reported missing since last Wednesday evening, were found within the semi-collapsed, megalithic, chambered tomb, on the far side of the hill."
I feel a longer story coming on (not my pics below, but those taken by local historians many years ago).
Part One (the true bit): I was in the Torquay Museum a while back with my little one, and as I checked out the prehistoric Torbay section, I came across a cabinet displaying human bones from a 5000 year old passage grave. The location of the grave is specified as being situated a few hundred metres from our house, and 300 metres behind Broadsands Beach (on an ar...ea of farmland arranged around a wooded hill, with Brunel's viaducts on either side). I did a double take at the display, then asked a member of staff if the grave was still there. A book was produced from a back room, and I felt like I'd waited my whole life for that moment: consulting with a museum curator on ancient ruins.
The grave was not listed in the book. But, a few days later, I was assured by a lifeguard on the nearby beach that it was still there. And though it was getting late, during my evening walk, I decided to beat a path up the hill to find the grave site ...
Part Two (still true): I climbed over a fence behind the beach huts and slowly made my way through 20 feet of brambles and reeds, then climbed the steep hill, scattering pheasants from the edge of the wheat field. I spent over an hour exploring seven fields divided by old, half-collapsed stone walls. The fields surrounded an eerie copse of trees on the summit, which reminded me of the M R James Wailing Well story; there was a large drinking trough for cattle set inside in a c...urious circle of trees. The stillness and silence up there was remarkable, as were the views of the bay below. Besides the antlike figures of the keep fit class, I saw nothing moving below the hill the whole time I was up there.
I eventually found the site of the grave, but the stones were entirely covered in nettles and vines ... Anti clmax, but I'll go back in the winter when the foliage recedes to get a decent picture. And yet, allow me to continue the story, but in my imagination ...
Part Three (speculative): But here's what began running through my imagination while I was up on that hill, entirely alone as the sun lowered in the sky. It might also be the conclusion to the story that you all wished for (and I don't blame you). But I imagined the final part of this tale appearing in some kind of report:
"The sole eye witness was a man taking part in an exercise class on the beach, some 300 metres away from the incident, but facing the hill. After hearing ...a short, shrill cry from the top of hill behind the beach, the witness looked up. With the setting sun in his eyes, he couldn't be certain of what then occurred on the south-facing slope, but was sure that he saw a man break from the copse of trees on the summit and run down the hill, towards the viaduct. The running man was then followed by a second figure, that also emerged from the treeline upon the summit. This second figure was described as being of a dark colour, small, and bone-thin, while also giving the appearance of being unclothed.
At the very moment when the second, smaller figure seemed to catch up with the running man, the witness lost sight of the two figures within the wheat. There followed one more cry from the hill, though it was muted as if the mouth that issued the cry had been covered or blocked.
The remains of the local man, reported missing since last Wednesday evening, were found within the semi-collapsed, megalithic, chambered tomb, on the far side of the hill."
I feel a longer story coming on (not my pics below, but those taken by local historians many years ago).
