Conrad Williams's Blog, page 12
June 10, 2015
Best British Horror 2015
Containing my story Shaddertown, this volume in Salt’s acclaimed series is available to purchase now from Amazon.
But think of George thirty years younger at the Twisted Wheel, dressed to the nines in blazer and brogues while she was always at sixes and sevens over what to wear. His hair scraped back with the ubiquitous back-pocket comb. The Oxford trousers and sports vests. The smell of sweat and Brut. The amphetamines; the jaw grinding. Juicy Fruit and Doublemint. He moved so hard and fast on the dance floor she was scared sometimes that he might break. The heat and the smoke in that place grew so thick that it condensed on the ceiling and returned as a light yellow rain.
June 9, 2015
Hard Core Bourne
The Bourne Trilogy (John Powell)
Propulsive. Edgy. Soaring.
Standout track: Berlin Foot Chase
All three soundtracks are worth a listen. Tip: ditch Moby…
1002 words
June 8, 2015
Norway to go
Substrata (Biosphere)
Chilly. Sparse. Melancholic.
Standout track: Kobresia*
*Yes, I know, there are ‘lyrics’… but they’re in Russian. So it doesn’t count.
1109 words
June 7, 2015
Saxtastic
A Biography of the Rev. Absalom Dawe (John Surman)
Looping. Insistent. Elegiac.
Standout track: Countless Journeys
1065 words
June 5, 2015
Words and Music
I listen to music when I write. I can’t write in silence, a) because I find the quiet just as distracting as random noise, and b) because it doesn’t exist. Certainly not in a house filled with three roaring boys and a chatty cat. It doesn’t exist today; the neighbours are having their garden landscaped (concrete mixer, angle grinder, Radio One). Some years ago I invested in a pair of noise-cancelling headphones to combat the headaches I was getting from a series of trans-Atlantic flights.
I can’t listen to music with lyrics, though. One minute you’re typing merrily away, the next you’re thinking ‘what the hell is a sanhedralyte*?’. So my diet pretty much consists of classical music, dark ambient, or soundtracks. Over the coming days, as I try to bend the WIP to my will, I’ll be listing some of my favourites†. I’ll also be providing a word count for the day in the hope it spurs me to break the back of the novel this month.
There will be no order of preference. Here’s today’s choice:
Batman Begins (Hans Zimmer & James Newton)
Downbeat, muscular, achingly beautiful.
Standout track: Lasiurus
* Ask Simon le Bon. I bet he doesn’t know either.
† Not a displacement activity. Nope. Uh-huh. Honest.
1215 words
May 25, 2015
25.05.05.
You can’t call yourselves Liverpool players if you have your heads down. If we create a few chances we have the possibility of getting back into this. Believe you can do it and you will. Give yourself the chance to be heroes. – Rafa Benitez
April 8, 2015
Crimefest 2015
I’ll be attending this year’s CrimeFest in Bristol, and participating in a panel on the Friday (12.30 – 13.20) called Private Eyes And Lone Wolves: Lacking The Backing Of The Law along with fellow writers Frances Brody, Rosie Claverton, Cal Moriarty and Ruth Downie. Between 14.10 and 14.30 on the same day I’ll also be giving a talk about the blurred borderline between crime and horror fiction.
April 5, 2015
Dormiveglia
There’s some good can come from waking at 5.30 am with a full bladder, or an accidental kick in the shins, or the cat deciding that your head is the place where it wants to sit. This morning I drifted in and out of consciousness, now eyeing the LCD of the clock radio, now fending off a cat tail like a supersize feather duster, and ideas accumulated. Swathes of dialogue, scenes, plot points, possibilities. I opened my mind and sucked it all down. The drawback, of course, is that you then have to get up and write it all down, or risk dropping back into sleep and forgetting the lot. I usually have a notebook and a pen by the bed. This morning? Of course not.
March 7, 2015
Cover Up!
I’m very happy to share with you the cover from the first in a series of crime thrillers I’m writing for Titan Books. I love it to bits. I hope you’ll keep any eye out for the novel when it hits bookshops some time in November…
‘A gritty and compelling story of the damned and the damaged; crackling with dark energy and razor-sharp dialogue. Conrad Williams is an exciting new voice in crime fiction, and Joel Sorrell is a character you will want to see plenty more of.’ – Mark Billingham
