Stephanie Ellis's Blog, page 15

Review: Brain Tumours for Dummys

Below is the review I gave to Brain Tumours for Dummys by Daniel Lewis. Due to the nature of amazon's review policy, I kept any hint of knowing the background to this author out of it. I did not know Dan, but one of his nieces has been my youngest daughter's best friend since Reception year - they are now at college(!) - and through that link I have got to know a few of the family. I have known of his battle with this tumour for a while, usually via the Facebook updates from his sister and it was through her I also discovered he had written a book. Sadly Dan passed away recently and I finally got round to purchasing his story. I wish I'd bought it sooner. Everything I say below is an honest opinion, regardless of the small link I have to the family. I would urge anyone to read it. It puts so many of life's problems in perspective and makes you appreciative of what you have. 
It also brought to mind an old friend of mine, and one of my husband's childhood friends, who also succumbed to a brain tumour at the age of only 29. We still keep in touch with his Mum and even now, see how much of a loss he is to her and always will be. To witness a parent losing a child at any age is tough.
This book was written before Dan lost his battle but it is not depressing, despite the subject matter. He has provided an honest account of how he coped and there is much in there that might help anybody else going through the same sort of thing; not least all the addresses and organisations which offer support listed at the back. There is also much to raise a smile. I know the family are proud of him and, having read this, rightly so.

Brain Tumours for Dummys by Daniel Lewis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Powerful and Moving

A raw and honest personal account. Despite the horrors of living with a brain tumour, Dan writes with an inspirational and entertaining style. He shares the lows of radiotherapy with the highs of becoming a father of triplets, the ignorance and selfishness of neighbours from hell with the undeserving love and loyalty of family. His is a story that deserves to be shared.

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Flashback: Fürchtet Euch

Last week's entry to Microcosms 107 became, to me, an unexpected Judge's Pick. I'm always surprised when a story of mine gets placed, always think that others have done it better, and so am always appreciative of any kind comments or support that come my way. The story used the intro to Rammstein's Sonne as a framework. The video follows after the story if you want to check it out.

​Fürchtet Euch
287 words
Elements: Arrogant Teen; Rock Concert; Horror
​
He saw them looking. Eyes flicking in his direction. Small smiles. Wanting to be noticed, to become the One. Jay suppressed a self-satisfied smirk. Attention was a small price to pay for a free ticket to see his favourite band; the girls had invited him. He didn’t notice Fran standing at the back of the group. He certainly didn’t remember how he’d humiliated her, the pretend date, the shared photos of her alone at the diner. His attention was on the stage. The countdown began.

Eins
Jay watched the lead singer, noted moves he could copy.

Fran moved closer.

Zwei
Torches flamed against the backdrop. Jay ignored those around him.

Fran took another the step. The girls around her followed, giggling. A coven.

Drei
The drums rolled thunder, drew him in further. Jay was the lead singer, the girls his backing band.

They were behind him now.

Vier
Flame erupted from keyboards, guitars, drums.

The girls fanned out around him.

Fünf
No longer present, Jay allowed the pounding metal to take him away from everything.

Fran whispered something in his ear.

Sechs
Jay felt a light fluttering at his cheek. Ignored it.

The circle was complete. Fran spoke and the others responded. Call and response, each time with fire as their backdrop.

Sieben
Fire soared over the crowd. Jay looked on in awe.

Fran ignited her own flame.

Acht
Guitars scraped through him, their jagged edge commanding his attention.

The coven took Fran’s fire, spread it between them.

Neun
On stage, glittery embers started to shower down from above. Jay yearned to be up there, absorbed by flame.

Fran read his mind. Saw his dreams. She was only too happy to comply, to fulfil his wish.

Aus

Review: Arithmophobia by Ruschelle Dillon

Arithmophobia by Ruschelle Dillon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have read some of Ruschelle’s work previously online and in the latest Women In Horror Annual 2 so I was curious to see what sort of collection she would come up with. I had high expectations as she writes to a high standard and I am pleased to say this was reflected throughout her book.
Arithmophobia is a Greek word meaning the fear of numbers. Each story within this collection carries the importance of a particular number as a central theme; the numbers ranging from one to nine. These stories range from the squeamishly horrific, to the horrifically tragic with a dollop of dark humour thrown in for good measure. The standard is such that it is hard to pick a favourite, but here are my standouts:

Three is as Magic as can be. A cop hunts for parents who have disappeared in strange and worrying circumstances as his own family life crumbles around him. The eventual discovery of the murderer also allows him to resolve his own personal issues and you think, ah a happy ending until you get to that final, tragic twist; a heartbreaking denouement.

Four Men on Horses. I love Terry Pratchett’s Discworld and this tale of the Four Horsemen of the (failed) Apocalypse is wonderful and strongly reminds me of his writing. War, Famine, Death and Pestilence each take on the modern human and each is defeated. The responses of man, woman and child, whether the desire to take selfies with War or happily join a new Death ‘cult’, are not what the four expect and ultimately defeats them.

Seven Colors focusses on a scientist who, whilst experimenting with light, captures himself a leprechaun … and good old-fashioned chaos ensues.

Ruschelle Dillon is certainly a woman in horror to watch out for.

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Review: Badlands by Alyson Faye

Badlands by Alyson Faye
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Having read and published some of Alyson's work at HorrorTree.Com and read her contribution to the Women In Horror Annual 2, I was looking forward to this collection of hers. I am pleased to say it doesn't disappoint. Comprising 36 stories of flash it takes us into a world of tragedy and darkness relieved by some well-written black humour. The stories vary in length from drabble form (100 words) to longer flash, up to 1000 words. Tales are told against backdrops varying from the trenches of World War I to post-apocalyptic settings. There are ghosts and evil children, assassins and abused women, with styles ranging from the gothic to a nod to the Brothers Grimm. I enjoyed all the stories but particularly the opener Children's Games and its treatment of the horror of homelessness, No Home for Holly and its emerging love story between two damaged souls, and Scarecrow with its tale of grim revenge. A truly enjoyable book to dip into - trouble is you won't just dip into it, you will stay and turn the pages as I did.

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Flashback: Complicit

I haven't posted a bit of flash for a while so I thought I'd share my story, Complicit, from last week's Microcosms contest where it was placed 2nd Runner Up. But the main reason I'm posting it is because I cannot stand hypocrisy and as I developed the story it somehow gravitated towards recent events involving Harvey Weinstein and the reaction of women in the movie industry, particularly those in high places whose silence has allowed men like Weinstein to operate in safety.
Keeping quiet about such behaviour is nothing short of collusion. Powerful women in show business have had a voice for years, why have they kept quiet until only recently and on what planet do they expect a protest involving, in a number of cases, dresses slashed and plunged, to be taken seriously? To me the recent protest at the Golden Globes was shallow and self-serving. It does women no favours, especially when you know there are those Hollywood who could have spoken out sooner but chose not to. Instead they wore a nice dress - so that's all right then. Rant over.

Complicit

Story elements to be included: Hollywood Actress, Washington DC, horror

She chose the black dress she had worn to the previous night’s ball at the White House. It skimmed her figure, was slashed and plunged in all directions, exposed just the right amount of flesh. Ebony silk contrasted sharply with ivory skin, caused the group of devotees who had gathered to greet her to shiver involuntarily on her behalf. Lauren, however, was immune to such sensitivities; ice did not affect her but fire … oh, fire was such a different matter. She needed to burn. The script was in her purse and the director she had come to see was waiting.

“Lauren! Lauren!” Insistent calls demanded she detour from her task, sign the autographs, pose for selfies. Lauren flaunted her virtue, and they lapped it up.

Duty done, she headed indoors. The lift climbed slowly, red-lit numbers reflecting the colour of her eyes which sparked and crackled in her moving tomb. All was electricity. Eventually it stopped and she glided out.

She knew what to expect. Soft lighting, music. It wouldn’t be the first time. Lauren felt the hunger, the thirst, rise. She needed to feed, ran her tongue along bladed teeth, wondered what would be on the menu tonight.

The door was unlocked and she slipped inside as instructed. He was already there, waiting. A monster they called him … but they didn’t know the truth.

Frightened eyes, grateful eyes turned towards her as their owner wriggled into the corner of the couch, away from Matthew, the script forgotten on the floor. “I didn’t believe what people were saying,” she whispered, “but now …”

Lauren ignored her, looked at the director, waited.

“Action,” he said and she stepped forward.

Complicit, they fed on the girl and on camera wore black.

The 12th Dark Day of Christmas

For the anthology “12 Dark Days: One Hell Of A Christmas” (published by Alex Johnson’s Nocturnicorn Books and supported by John Gilbert / FEAR), Romain Collier wrote the final story entitled “Echoes of Drum” (based upon the 12th Day of Christmas – 12 Drummers Drumming). This is a deeply personal tale and Romain’s only third story in English. Romain is a double award winning scriptwriter (The Tragedy Of The Duke Of Reichstadt) and was Assistant Director on the short film 15 (Midas Light Films).
To check out Romain’s tale and all the other brilliant stories, please visit the UK LINK here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/…/dp/B077WHG…/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0…

12 Dark Days: Author Interview with Paul M. Feeney

We're now up to Day 11 of Dean M. Drinkel's author interviews. Christmas, it seems will soon be over - but the book remains, so - give it a read, post a review; you won't be sorry. In the meantime, here's the penultimate interview:

Paul is a top bloke (sorry, terrible expression, I know, forgive me but the sentiment is true!) – we’ve worked together once or twice previously and I was lucky to spend a few hours in his company at Fantasycon a couple of months back. For our anthology “12 Dark Days: One Hell Of A Christmas” published by Alex Johnson’s Nocturnicorn Press (and supported by John Gilbert / FEAR) Paul drew Day 11. I asked all the contributors a number of questions either relating to them as a writer or their Christmas experiences…here are Paul’s answers…
Author Name: Paul M. Feeney 
Story Title: Call of the Piper

Q: What inspired you to write this particular story? Did you do any research?
PF: This was actually my second idea for a 'Piper' story, following an attempt to write something set in the early 1900s in the epistolary style. It was a sort of panic idea, which came to me as I started to really feel the pressure of the deadline looming. Brainstorming ideas concerning pipers led me to think on the famous Hamelin story. And so I came up with something along those lines. And yes, there was a little bit of research around the Pied Piper, though mine differs significantly.

Q: Does a big ego help or hurt writers?
PF: I'm not sure if a big ego helps or hurts writers in their writing – though my thinking is that a healthy balance between confidence and insecurity about the work does help – but in relation to a public persona, any kind of overly cocky attitude comes across as ugly. In my opinion. Again, I think it's a balance; nothing wrong with feeling you've created good work, but I also think a small amount of humility goes a long way. As always, it's a balancing act, but no matter what you do, there will always be others who criticize for whatever reason, so perhaps just being yourself is the right way.

Q: Are you friends with other writers and do they help you become a better writer?
PF: I am friends with a fair few writers, and know many more through social media and various events. And I'd say they do help me be a better writer in a number of ways. But what helps even more is reading some fantastic stories with wonderful writing by many of them, which inspires me to try and improve my own work. I think any writer worth their salt should always be looking to do better with each piece, constantly refining and honing their craft; otherwise, what's the point?

Q: Do you want each story you write to stand on its own, or do you try to build a body of work with connections between each one?
PF: Personally, I try and make each story the very best it can be with whatever ability and talent I might have. Though there might be tiny connections between some stories, there isn't an overall connection. However, I do have thoughts around one or two series of stories, the first of which will be out in a magazine called OCCULT DETECTIVE QUARTERLY. Hopefully, readers will like my shape-shifting P.I. and want to read more. We shall see.

Q: If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
PF: Listen more to others who know. And politely ignore those who clearly don't.

Q: Do you base your characters on real people and if so, have they noticed?
PF: Not consciously; my characters personality traits are usually bits and pieces taken from a variety of people and mixed together with some made up stuff.

Q: How did you select the names for your characters?
PF: With great difficulty. Seriously; this is one of the hardest things I find with writing. Sometimes I can't press on without knowing what the character's name is. And some are chosen for specific reasons whereas others are a little more random.

Q: What do you think is literary success?
PF: Difficult one. Success is such a personal thing. It could be as small as having your first story accepted / published, or it could be having a huge success with a novel or series of novels. For me, it's each little milestone along the way; first story, first longer work, acclaim from those you respect as writers. Ideally, I'd like to be able to support myself with writing; that would be my ultimate definition of success.

Q: Do you hide secrets in your stories that only those in the know will find?
PF: Not sure I hide secrets as such, but I have peppered the odd story with sly little references to films or books I know are popular amongst my peers and friends. Hopefully, they get them.

Q: What was your favourite book / film as a child?
PF: It was THE HOBBIT. I read and reread it a lot; every year for a long time until I felt a little of the magic fade. It's just a wonderful book, a fantastic example of storytelling.
To read Paul’s brilliant story please check it out here (UK LINK):
https://www.amazon.co.uk/…/dp/B077WHG…/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0…
 — with John Gilbert and Alex S. Johnson.

12 Dark Days: Author Interview with ... me, myself and I

Editor Dean M. Drinkel's author interviews continue today with yours truly:

For our anthology “12 Dark Days: One Hell Of A Christmas” (published by Alex Johnson’s Nocturnicorn Books and supported by John Gilbert / FEAR) – Stephanie drew Day 10 (Lords A Leaping). I’ve always been impressed by Stephanie’s work ethic, she produces quality work well ahead of time and has always taken any editorial questions / queries / comments I have on board – she’s a pleasure to work with. Anyway, all the contributors were asked a series of questions about either their story or Christmas in general. Here are Stephanie’s answers:

Author Name: Stephanie Ellis
Story Title: The House of Lords
Social media: http://stephellis.weebly.com/ 
@el_Stevie

Q: What is the first book which made you cry?
SE: Books affect me deeply but only in recent years have they actually been able to make me tearful, and when I say recent I mean really in the past 23 years since I’ve had children. I think the whole maternal, hormonal thing changes your empathy levels considerably. “If This is a Man” by Primo Levi, “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas” by John Boyne, “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens – that moment when Sydney Carton takes the little girl’s hand as they approach the guillotine gets me every time. It would have been easier if you asked what was the first song that ever made you cry, easy – “Puff the Magic Dragon.”

Q: What do you not like about Christmas?
SE: How early it starts, ugh. Growing up, Christmas was always heralded by the sound of Slade on the radio and you would know that in a couple of weeks it would be Christmas. Now it starts at the end of summer, songs that were once special have become tired as they are put on loop and there is that endless drip, drip, drip of buy, buy, buy. What world do these advertisers think families live in when you have 3 children and limited income – buy a sofa, buy each child a laptop, get that giant tv, the latest mobiles. No, I’ve never succumbed to that (couldn’t afford it, wouldn’t do it if I could) but my children have grown up surrounded by families who have gone that route and had to suffer the bragging that goes with it. I am not religious but still believe this is a time for family and kindness to each other and compassion for others. A message sadly becoming lost in this materialistic binge-fest. I am also sad that those whose faith is the real point of Christmas are being side-lined for fear of offending other religions. Tolerance appears to work more for some and not for others. Can’t we just all get along? It’s a big world and room for all.

Q: Does a big ego help or hurt writers?
SE: Big egos do hurt writers. I’ve come across writers online who precede everything they write with ‘award-winning’, ‘number one’ or whatever title they decide they deserve. When I first began to be published, I would see these claims and feel very intimidated but then you read their work, ponder its claim to the titles it holds, dig deeper, find the award was some obscure event long ago and the writing turns out to be pretty poor. I feel let down, almost cheated when that happens. Writers with big egos feed the self-doubt of others and alienate readers who expect more and end up with less.

Q: Are you friends with other writers and do they help you become a better writer?
SE: Yes. It has been very much an online friendship, although I have met a small number in person now and hope to improve on that over the years. In particular, a group of flash writers, the FlashDogs have been an enormous source of support, advice and constructive criticism. Whenever I have achieved a publication or success, they have been there to cheer me on and I have made sure to do the same for them. I never see them as competition but as companions. I’ve joined one writer, David Shakes, in a partnership at THE INFERNAL CLOCK, and he has been particularly supportive – and amazingly we’ve actually met. So far, we have co-edited a couple of anthologies together – “The Infernal Clock” and “CalenDark” - and hope to develop more of our own individual writings under THE INFERNAL CLOCK banner. He is a very good writer, so be sure to check him out when you can. Others I have met via editorial work at the HORROR TREE, the online writer’s resource for speculative fiction. I’ve developed contacts with writers so that as well as feedback on submitted stories, we look at each other’s work beyond HORROR TREE, support each other with reviews and share the highs and lows we face. Writing is no longer such a lonely business. As writers, we are all in it together.

Q: Describe your typical Christmas Day.
SE: Now the children are all pretty much grown up, my youngest is 16, it is very much more relaxed. It’s downstairs and wishing my eldest daughter Happy Birthday first before her day gets lost amongst the Christmas malarkey. Then breakfast and presents, preparing dinner. I don’t do the whole military precision thing. We have a Jamie Oliver beef recipe which is wonderful and easy, stick the veg on (which has been prepared the night before) and then start to relax. After dinner, normally mid-afternoon or whenever it’s ready – again we don’t worry about it, I take up residence on the sofa with whatever book I’ve got for Christmas and don’t move until I’ve finished it. My husband Geraint, supplies me with drink and chocolate during this time but I ignore everything on telly and pretty much everything around me. Getting lost in a book like that is a real treat. And yes I do speak to my family on the phone as well. Note, all this is a stark contrast to growing up in a pub. As a child I could only open the presents at the bottom of the bed. Anything else had to wait until the pub shut, normally 2-2.30pm; my parents had half a day off a year. Dad would be messing about for ages in the pub even after that so Mum would send me back down to get him. Then it would be dinner and finally presents. I’ve grown up in a world where we learned to put others first, when it’s your livelihood, you have to.

Q: Do you base your characters on real people and if so, have they noticed?
SE: I wouldn’t dare! I work in a school and if I did that and anyone read my stories there would be real issues. Sometimes some characteristics or behaviours might seep into my work but generally I think it’s safer to completely divorce my characters from those I know. Plus I wouldn’t want to do something that might hurt another, especially so publicly.

Q: How did you select the names for your characters?
SE: I find this really hard. I am aware I tend to gravitate to very traditional names and worry I overuse them, even though they are perfectly normal in society. The story title in this instance gave me the surname for my family. At first I was thinking about MPs in our government and those who sit in the House of Lords. I turned this round to have a family with the surname Lord and referenced the House of Lords as a pun. The names for my two main characters, Daniel and Rebecca were chosen because of their religious background. They are also names I took from my family tree. Whenever I’m short of a name or looking for inspiration, I always look at the thousands in my family history and select one. There is a particular medieval character, Marmaduke Thwenge, who sadly may fall out of my tree due to lack of proof, but his is a wonderful name and one I would love to use it one day. My embodiment of evil, Jo Jo, was given that name because it was a child’s name, a name whose implied innocence contrasted strongly with the character’s personality.

Q: Favourite Christmas movie you could watch over and over again.
SE: Either LOVE ACTUALLY or THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS. Yes, IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE is consistently sat through but that’s my children’s choice…I go and read a book!

Q: What period of your life do you write about most often? 
SE: I used to think I didn’t reflect much of my own life in my stories until I noticed a pattern. A number of my pieces have rural settings, a few involve pubs, there is also a certain time of day, particularly dusk which clings to the edges of my tales. This all fits in with the years I spent growing up in a pub in the middle of nowhere (Shropshire to be exact). This pub, THE CIDER HOUSE, was isolated. Old animal traps (made harmless) hung on one of the room’s walls, these traps inspired ‘We Walk in the Night as Strangers’, a story published in Sanitarium Magazine; there were also cider presses which crop up in another story, ‘The Yowling’ in the first Weird Ales anthology and there are other stories, all with a rural setting or feel to them. When it was open, the pub was filled with farmers and the car parks with tractors. I spent school nights trying to fall asleep above the bar whilst I heard glasses chinking, people laughing and on Wednesdays – music night – the sing-alongs. It was a comforting sound in a way. I would have to walk a mile to the bus stop along narrow lanes to catch a bus to school. Those walks home in the winter between the bus stop and the pub have stuck with me, that sense of the world closing down, of quietening but hiding something…those memories stay and feed into my tales.

Q: What was your favourite book / film as a child?
SE: It was more like a favourite series: Enid Blyton’s FAMOUS FIVE, SECRET SEVEN and MALLORY TOWERS. I would get them all and just reread and reread until Mum stopped me and told me I should go outside and play (although playing outside on your own in the middle of nowhere was not very exciting, especially when sisters didn’t want to play either). Later on they got me a pony as something to do, so I would ride for miles quite freely and usually end up getting thrown off.
A favourite Christmas book was “The Night Before Christmas” which my mum would read to us on Christmas Eve before sending us to bed and going back downstairs to the pub. I read it to my own children when they were growing up. My favourite film was JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS (1963 version, note I was born 1964). I would watch it whenever it was on and I still do, even if my kids mock the special effects. Those fighting skeletons – I loved that scene.

Q: What is your favourite ever thing about Christmas?
SE: This is a really personal one. The birth of my first child, Bethan. She was born at 2.35am on Christmas Day. Not the first born that day (she was the third) but the first girl – for which we got our photo in the local paper, me complete with a terrible perm. I have memories of sitting on the hospital bed having just got her off to sleep and looking out of the window as dawn was coming up. There was a very, very slight flurry of snow and a tree on a hill had been decorated with Christmas lights. It was all very peaceful – until the doctors came round later singing Silent Night and waking all the babies up. Midwives wearing antlers also presented a risk during checkups!

To read Stephanie’s brilliant story please find the UK Link here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/…/dp/B077WHG…/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0…
 — with John Gilbert and Alex S. Johnson.

12 Dark Days: One Hell of A Christmas: Tim Dry

Christmas is almost over as the twelve dark days count down. Today, editor Dean M. Drinkel's author interviews continue with Tim Dry:

I first met Tim through our mutual friend, Barbie Wilde, I love Tim’s work and he’s appeared in several of my anthologies. For “12 Dark Days: One Hell Of A Christmas” (published by Alex Johnson’s Nocturnicorn Books), Tim was given Day Nine…I asked all the contributors a series of questions, here is what Tim had to say for himself:
​
Author Name: Tim Dry 
Story Title: Nine Ladies Dancing
Twitter @timdry1.

Q: What inspired you to write this particular story? Did you do any research? TD: Not research as such, I just rekindled memories from my past in the 1980s worlds of nightclubbing, disco, dance/mime and dodgy DJs and Agents etc. I added in an overwhelming need for revenge by those that been abused by so-called ‘Personalities’ in a position of Showbiz power back then.

Q: What is your ultimate Christmas experience? 
TD: Spending it with an old Art School chum in Cannes in 2004. Driving along the Moyenne Corniche to Villefranche and having lunch there on the harbour front on Boxing Day and then driving up to Eze Village for a livener with the best view ever!

Q: What is the first book which made you cry? 
TD: I tend to cry at movies rather than books to be honest. When I was a very young boy my Mum was reading to me an illustrated story in that year’s Noddy annual and there was one double, full colour page spread that showed Noddy all alone in a clearing in a dark and sinister wood at night. All the trees crowding in upon him had leering faces. That terrified me greatly and I burst into tears and never opened the annual again.

Q: What do you not like about Christmas? 
TD: Ho ho! How long have you got? I’ll keep it short then. I don’t have any family left and I don’t have children so I’m free to disregard any seasonal duties whatsoever! I detest the rampant commercialism and the blatant lie that Christmas is still some kind of religious festival. I don’t believe in fairy tales and so therefore the whole of the fake festivities is just a means to fleece more money out of gullible people. Me cynical? Of course!

Q: Does a big ego help or hurt writers? 
TD: I think that a big ego is not necessarily a bad thing if kept in check. People often confuse confidence with arrogance and most times that’s wrong. If you’ve written a tale that suddenly sells 150,000 copies you are naturally going to be pleased by that and feeling on top of it all. If you can maintain that creative energy that’s even better. If I should ever reach that moment I’ll let you know!

Q: Are you friends with other writers and do they help you become a better writer?
TD: My very best female friend is a very accomplished writer and her honest but heartfelt endorsements and critiques have helped me along and for that I’m very grateful. I am friends with other writers but that’s more of a social mutual admiration society.

Q: Do you want each story you write to stand on its own, or do you try to build a body of work with connections between each one? 
TD: I’m not really organized enough to be that deliberately structured to be honest. There’s no Master Plan at work in my head but just a need to tell a tale from different perspectives. Each story that I’ve written (to me) does in some way bear a slight relation to those that came before and those that hopefully will follow. There are certain motifs that seem to recur in my writing, namely destruction, abandonment, abuse, retribution, sex, revenge and quite often a calling upon a darker and more ancient power to facilitate the culmination of desire. Humour too plays a large part in my writing, as indeed it does in my day to day life.

Q: If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
TD: Just get on and do it. Stop procrastinating! Your imagination is wild and untamed and has to be used. You have to go with your own flow. It’s ok, no one’s going to judge you as a person by what you write. By the way - do your flies up!

Q: Describe your typical Christmas Day.
TD: Spending a few days with my best friends. Drinking wine, Martinis and Margaritas and eating delightfully spicy food whilst talking about all and sundry and watching our favourite movies and discovering new ones. It’s an absolutely untraditional few days and we’ve indulged ourselves this way for many years. No trees, no baubles, bangles and beads.

Q: As a writer, what would you choose as your emjoi / avatar / tv (or film character) / spirit animal? 
TD: A powerful black and sexy female cat.

Q: Do you base your characters on real people and if so, have they noticed?
TD: Some of the characters in a few stories are in some way based upon people that I have met or known over the years. They’d never know it though. Sometimes I like to take someone and warp them into something larger than life or smaller than life depending upon their status in the story. Other times I just make them whole like Baron Frankenstein did from many disparate characteristics and meld physical extremes of style, incapacity, strength, language and attitude all together and here comes someone unlike anyone else. Stand back!

Q: How did you select the names for your characters? 
TD: No formula, just words that sit well together in a suggestive kind of style.

Q: What do you think is literary success? 
TD: Not just achieving a Top Ten best seller but more importantly having a sympathetic and encouraging Publisher who believes not only in your work but also in you as a person. An individual. A creative being who needs shielding from rejection and dismissal but is encouraged to continue to create the words that turn your head and heart to the page. Obviously the primary action is to deliver a work that captures and entices the reader’s imagination and engages with them emotionally, intellectually and sensually. If you can achieve that and you’re a personable human being safe in the knowledge that what you’ve created is actually good and readable you could achieve a level of success that elevates you to a place of comfort.

Q: What is the best way to market your books? 
TD: If I could answer that you wouldn’t need to ask me!

Q: Favourite Christmas movie you could watch over and over again. 
TD: Anything with snow or palm trees!

Q: What period of your life do you write about most often? 
TD: Oh, tricky one! I do utilize elements of my childhood, my adolescent explorations, drugs that I took, books that I read, movies that I saw and people that I met. These days I find that I draw more and more upon the dreams that visit me on a nightly basis. They are so vivid, so bizarre, so improbable, so paranoid, so inexplicably ‘Odd’ that I have to use them in whatever way that I can. I don’t see my life as being a linear journey. No, it’s more like being a bewildered participant in a continuing surreal and indefinable spiral that goes around and around forever and one that defies previously held notions. Blimey! I need a lie down and a swift drinkette!

Q: Do you hide secrets in your stories that only those in the know will find? 
TD: No. Sorry!

Q: Do you Google yourself? If so, did you find anything you weren’t expecting? 
TD: Oh, I’m always Googling myself! It’s not that I find anything unexpected. Sometimes I’ll chance upon things that I’d swept under the carpet or forgotten about. On the whole everything is out there so no big revelations to be found!

Q: What was your favourite book / film as a child? 
TD: Film? Ben-Hur. Book? Rupert Bear and Eagle annuals.

Q: What is your favourite ever thing about Christmas?
TD: December 27th!
To read Tim and all the other excellent tales in “12 Dark Days: One Hell Of A Christmas” – please follow the UK LINK here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/…/dp/B077WHG…/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0…

On the Eighth Day of Christmas

Continuing on with editor, Dean M. Drinkel's series of interviews with the authors of Christmas anthology, 12 Dark Days: One Hell Of A Christmas:

For the Eighth Day of Christmas, Heide and Iain really conjured up something special – this story I really enjoyed because it appealed to my sense of humour. Quite a lot of “12 Dark Days: One Hell Of A Christmas” (published by Alex Johnson’s Nocturnicorn Books and supported by John Gilbert / FEAR) is by its very nature, dark – so there is some light relief in this bovine tale…I asked all contributors to the anthology a series of questions, here are Heide’s and Iain’s answers:
Author Name: Heide Goody and Iain Grant
Story Title: Eight Maids A Milking
http://www.pigeonparkpress.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Clovenhoof-Books-285544508177333
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Q: What inspired you to write this particular story? Did you do any research?
H&I: When there’s two of us writing, it’s hard to know where ideas come from. Heide was the one who thought ‘eight maids a-milking’ would be the ideal day to go for. And then Iain came up with the camping concept. And then…gosh, somewhere along the line there appeared a vengeful cow god and a whole lot of bloody murder. At least when we’re co-writing something we can blame each other for all the mad, crazy, sick and violent stuff.

Q: Are you friends with other writers and do they help you become a better writer?
H&I: We’re both friends with lots of writers. It seems like a very natural group of people to spend time with. Only another writer would understand your internet search history, or not question why you want to know who would win in a fight between a dingo and a python, what the most profane swear is in Dutch or how best to dispose of a body. Those ARE the kinds of important questions you need answering and you don’t have to explain to other writers why you need to ask them.

Q: If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
H&I: Um, go self-publish on Kindle right now. It’s the wave of the future, my son (Yes, turns out my younger self is my own son. One of those horrific time-loop things. I’d rather not talk about it). Oh, and you can’t proof-read your own work, Iain. You really really can’t. Pay someone else to do it.

Q: Describe your typical Christmas Day.
Iain: I think Christmas day is, for many people, a time for silly little traditions. In our house, breakfast is kippers and champagne. I don’t know why. It just is. And then it’s present opening time. We are one of those families where we have to watch each individual person unwrapping their present. Simultaneous present-opening is forbidden. The day then degenerates in a series of blurs that may or may not feature chocolate, overcooked poultry, crackers, the Dr Who Christmas special and sleep. At some point someone will definitely suggest a bracing walk. It’s not very clear what bracing will do for us or what it will brace us against.

Q: As a writer, what would you choose as your emjoi / avatar / tv (or film character) / spirit animal?
Heide: I love clever dog characters. It’s probably because I would really like to have one myself, so I’m going to say that it’s my spirit animal. It’s now turned into a minor admonishment every time we start a project. Iain insists we can’t have any more clever dogs. He has recognized that I will disguise it as a wolf / robot dog / shapeshifter or anything else I might get away with. They are all banned.

Q: Do you base your characters on real people and if so, have they noticed?
H&I: It can be a delightful indulgence to base a character on a real person. If we’ve both met the person it’s like an in-joke, or sometimes if people treat you badly, it’s nice to expose their annoying foibles to the reading public…in terms of people noticing, it’s actually the other way around. Someone I know insists that I must have put him in a novel. I tell him no, I really haven’t. He is crestfallen to hear this. Surely I have? Surely? For the record, we’ve only ever once definitively put a real-life person in one of our books. During our one attempt to get to the Welsh island of Bardsey (home to a fictional bunch of monks in the books Hellzapoppin’) we were given accommodation and were grandly entertained by a grey-haired German who we instantly agreed must be the basis for the prior of St Cadfan’s, Brother Manfred. Those melon-ball recipes that occasionally feature in our books were all based on a genuine and startling breakfast that our German host served us.

Q: How did you select the names for your characters?
H&I: Sometimes we ask for volunteers. The most volunteered-for role was that of a witch. We asked on a Facebook book group and we could have written a dozen witch novels with the number of names that were donated. It’s important to have names that are very distinct from each other, and that was something we were acutely aware of in Eight Maids a-Milking as there are a lot of characters for such a short story.

Q: What do you think is literary success?
H&I: It’s always the next thing, isn’t it? I believe that anyone who manages to write a novel deserves a gold medal anyway. But after that? Is it publication? Is it books sales? Is it having your book bought up by a Hollywood production company? Whatever milestone we reach, we’re always looking for the next one. Last week, someone shared with us a piece of fan fiction based on our Clovenhoof books, which was a first for us. THAT felt like literary success.

Q: What is the best way to market your books?
H&I: We are very fond of entertaining our readers. We have engaged in many ill-advised activities because we thought it might make people smile. Here are some examples:
Taking fun photos of a fake tentacle emerging from the canal
Being writers in residence of a phone box
Documenting the antics of an oddly satanic baby doll
We know that these things won’t sell books, but we enjoyed ourselves enormously, and people do remember us…

Q: Favourite Christmas movie you could watch over and over again.
Iain: It’s got to be one of the Christmas Carol adaptations. I have a huge soft spot for the musical Scrooge, starring Albert Finney, and the Muppet’s Christmas Carol. The best festive movies are ones where people are miserable and heartbroken for most of it (throw in a schmaltzy and mawkish song and I’m in Heaven). I love The Snowman too. It’s got an over-sentimental song and then the protagonist dies. Musical misery with zero redemption. That’s the perfect Christmas story for me.

Q: Do you hide secrets in your stories that only those in the know will find?
Iain: Absolutely. I write secrets into our books that even my co-writer doesn’t know about. Excruciating puns. In Beelzebelle, Clovenhoof gets a monkey helper. A psychotic monkey. I called him Gorky purely because to make a pun on the Welsh indie rock bank, Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci. There’s a character in the next novel we’re going to publish whose name is an absolutely appalling pun. It won’t even pay off as a joke until the sequel (if we write one).

Q: What is your favourite ever thing about Christmas?
H&I: The anticipation. The lead up is better than the resolution. I was shocked as a child to realise that the twelve days of Christmas START on Christmas day. It made far more sense to me that they were the twelve days leading up to Christmas. These days, Christmas starts around mid-November but definitely stops lunchtime on Boxing Day when everyone discovers that it’s going to be turkey leftovers every meal for the next week.
To read all the amazing stories in the anthology, please follow the UK Link:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/…/dp/B077WHG…/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0…