Isobel Blackthorn's Blog, page 30

Author Interview – James Watts

I am delighted to welcome author James Watts, whose debut horror novel Them was released by Fear Front publishing on 15 May 2017.

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Tell me a little about yourself James. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?

I grew up in the small town of West Jefferson, Alabama. Born in Birmingham, Alabama on March 17, 1976.  A few years after high school I moved to Panama City, Fl for around 10 years. I moved back to Alabama 5 years ago and currently live in my old home town of West Jefferson.

At what age did you realise your fascination with horror?

It was pretty early on, around the age of 6 or7. My older sisters and brother were always watching horror films. Especially my sister Tammy. She introduced me to Nightmare on Elm Street. And my sister Eugenia and her boyfriend, now husband, took me to a drive-in to see Friday the 13th.

When did you start writing?

Around the age of 11. I was using the library more and more around the 4th grade and discovered the Hardy Boys. Loved those books. And not long after I picked up a copy of Stephen King’s “The Stand”, and knew after that I wanted to write. Between my love of comics and novels, I eventually tried my own hand at it. And it was terrible, but I kept going.

Who are your favourite authors to read? Who inspires you in your writing?

My son Bailey is my inspiration to keep pushing on. My favourite authors include Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Robert McCammon, John Saul, Anne Rice, Peter Straub, Edgar Allan Poe, and Richard Matheson.

Tell me a little about your latest book?

 Them is a horror narrative set in the small Alabama town of Maple Grove and took a little over a year to finish, mainly because I was working in security at the time and was constantly working.

The fictional town of Maple Grove is actually located around five miles from my hometown of West Jefferson. By knowing the area so well, it was easier to tell my story. It doesn’t end with familiar surroundings either. There is a lot of me in this book, different smaller parts of me in every character. For instance, the protagonist Ray Sanders moved to Florida to escape the pain of betrayal. I did the same thing. Although, our reasons for returning are different. Now as for Ray’s childhood, it was pulled from my own to a certain extent.

The story itself focuses on Ray overcoming his insecurities and to be the man he must be in order to destroy the evil that has hovered over Maple Grove for over a hundred years, and to break the hold it has over his bloodline. Mind control, creepy animals, and vividly eerie dreams make this task almost insurmountable.

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“In the small town of Maple Grove, Alabama, an ancient evil resurfaces to claim its right to life and the human race be damned. When Ray Sanders returned to Maple Grove to attend his mother’s funeral, he never planned to have to overcome all of his insecurities in order to save the town from an evil as old as time itself. For over a hundred years, the town of Maple Grove has suffered from the deranged minds and unquenchable hunger of parasitic creatures not of our Earth. Once before in a sacrifice of blood, the forces from beyond were locked away presumably forever. Now they have returned, hungering for their chance to evolve. It will be up to Ray Sanders, his cousin Roy, and a woman either them recall to stop this evolution and prevent the reign of these ageless creatures before their evil can spread.”

Thanks for the interview James, and all the very best with your book, Them, which very very creepy.

You can buy a copy of James Watt’s book on Amazon

You can find James on Facebook at

https://www.facebook.com/Southernhorrorwriter/

Twitter @james2go34

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: debut horror, Fear Front Publishing, horror, James Watts

Me and Bettina Arndt – in conversation with Ann Creber Monday May 15

I’m pleased to announce I’ll be on Ann Creber’s The Good Life, this Monday May 15th, in conversation with Bettina Arndt on the topic of domestic violence.

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Bettina takes a very different view of domestic violence to me. We both acknowledge the problem, but with very different takes on the perpetrators and victims, and the statistics. See http://www.bettinaarndt.com.au/news/2479/

My experience of domestic violence, both as a child and as an adult, along with my stays in three women’s shelters, has provided me with first hand experience of this very ugly side of human nature. Here’s one story I wrote, ‘The Refuge,’ first published in American literary magazine Mused, and later in my short story collection, All Because of You.

Although I have also experienced workplace bullying from female perpetrators. https://open.abc.net.au/explore/82764

I won’t deny that both men and women can be abusive. It’s just that men have a greater capacity for domestic terror than women. They tend to be bigger, stronger and more likely to feel a sense of entitlement when it comes to exerting their power over others.

I’m about to start giving creative writing workshops for women survivors of domestic violence. Each participant will be writing a short story, to add to an anthology of survival stories.

All in all, the combination of views should make for a lively and interesting chat!

Tune in to 3MDR 3-5pm Monday 15th May for The Good Life – http://www.3mdr.com/
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: All Because of You, Bettina Arndt, creative writing, domestic violence, Feminism, short stories, trauma, women's shelters

Tell Me Why by Sandi Wallace

All good books are hard to put down. Sandi Wallace’s Tell Me Why is no exception.

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“Picturesque Daylesford has a darker side. Melbourne writer Georgie Harvey heads to the mineral springs region of central Victoria to look for a missing farmer.There she uncovers links between the woman’s disappearance and her dangerous preoccupation with the unsolved mystery surrounding her husband.Maverick cop and solo dad John Franklin is working a case that’s a step up from Daylesford’s usual soft crime; a poison-pen writer whose targets are single mothers.Georgie’s investigation stirs up long buried secrets and she attracts enemies. When she reports the missing person to the local cops, sparks fly between her and Franklin. Has he dismissed the writer too quickly? A country cop, city writer, retired farmer and poison-pen stalker all want answers.What will they risk to get them? What will be the ultimate cost?”

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The twin elements that will win the hearts of crime fiction fans are setting and an interesting sleuth. In Tell Me Why Wallace has both. The setting is Daylesford, a small country town east of Melbourne famous for its proximity to Hepburn Springs, rendering the locale a lure for the rich and famous, an area of luxury hotels and spa retreats. Knowing this before opening Tell Me Why, the reader may be forgiven for anticipating an Agatha Christie cosy mystery, or a sort of corporate crime conspiracy novel. Tell Me Why is neither. The novel is firmly situated in the sub-genre of Australian rural crime, since there is such a thing.

The novel has two sleuths, senior constable John Franklin, and Melbourne-based writer Georgie Harvey, each investigating a separate mystery. The inclusion of two sleuths, one from the country, the other the city, plays to the theme of the rural-city divide, although the dichotomy serves more as a backdrop than as an issue explored and developed in a literary sense. Both Franklin and Harvey are well-crafted characters, satisfyingly complex and damaged. Neither sleuth is especially likeable at first. Both are hard edged, carrying their hurts and prejudices close. Both are judgemental, Harvey more so, her heart filled with resentments and frustrations, whereas Franklin is prone to the sort of casual sexism found in Australian rural society. Through both pairs of eyes social realism veers close to stereotyping, with single mothers under the spotlight.

Inevitably, the various foibles of Franklin and Harvey drive the plot. The story opens with a short prelude, a catastrophic fire and a mystery. From there the  narrative jump cuts from Franklin to Harvey, as their individual inquiries unfold.

The jump cuts work well, if making for a seemingly disjointed narrative at first, more demanding of the reader’s attention. The style makes for a fast pace and creates natural tension, the reader forced to wait for vital information as her attention is diverted back and forth between the points of view. What unfolds is a cracking plot. There is never a dull moment. The reader sinks into the story, confident the author is in control of the narrative and won’t disappoint. No small feat. Crime readers are a sharp bunch, likely to extract a calculator to check up on a distance or a passage of time. Thankfully, Wallace manages to avoid stepping outside the bounds of plausibility.

The writing is strong, gritty, earthy and witty at times. Tell Me Why  is a considered work, written with care. Wallace knows her craft. Tell Me Why is a perfect balance of action, dialogue, and reflection. Description is kept to a minimum, just enough to be evocative. Wallace knows her readership too. Themes appealing to female crime lovers abound. Mothers and babies, the strong bonds of female friendship, a cast of utterly believable and endearing minor characters, all held together in a pleasing the rural setting.

Tell Me Why is a compulsive read. The novel should appeal to crime lovers everywhere. I am looking forward to reading the newly released sequel, Dead Again.

Find Sandi Wallace here: http://www.sandiwallace.com/

This is the second book I have reviewed for the 2017 Australian Women Writers Challenge. To find out more about the challenge, visit the website
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: #AWW, Australian women writers challenge, Book review, Dead Again, Rural crime, Sandi Wallace, Tell Me Why

Margo’s Slippers on Wandsworth Radio

What an auspicious day this is! My short story, Margo’s Slippers,  is live on air on Wandsworth Radio, GMT 00.45. Or 9.45am EST.

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I have to thank literary journal Fictive Dream for arranging this and the presenter of The Chimnea, Andy Bungay.

Once its live, my reading will be permanently archived here.

 

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Fictive Dream, Margo's Slipper, The Chimnea, Wandsworth Radio

Australian Women Writers Challenge

Today I have signed up to the Australian Women Writers Challenge and committed myself to reviewing at least 6 titles in 2017. I am certain I can manage that, especially since I have already read and reviewed two.

 

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I’m looking forward to seeing where this takes me!

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Australian women writers challenge, book reviews

The Drago Tree – review by Juliet Butler

It’s getting on for two years since The Drago Tree was released by Odyssey Books. Reviews still trickle in and feedback is always warm, sometimes glowing. My publisher is so passionate about the story they have arranged for it to be translated into Spanish, and are releasing it themselves in Australia and worldwide in August. Bucking the trend to release translations using the same cover, Odyssey Books are also investing in a brand new cover which I’m itching to see. I feel privileged and can’t wait to hold the Spanish version in my hands.

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Meanwhile, this short and sweet review came in via NetGalley and I thought I would share it here for all to see.

“A beautifully written book. The author managed to capture the essence of Lanzarote, its cafes, markets, and rugged landscape. I thought the characters were well developed and their stories pulled you into the narrative. An engaging and thoughtful read.” – Juliet Butler, NetGalley

Thank you Juliet!

You can read more reviews here.  And you can purchase a copy here on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Drago-Tree-Isobel-Blackthorn/dp/1922200360

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Canary Islands, Isobel Blackthorn, Lanzarote, literary fiction, Odyssey Books, The Drago Tree

Our Lady of the Inferno by Preston Fassel – review

Our Lady of the Inferno is a gripping story of redemption and revenge set against the backdrop of New York’s 42nd Street and its sleazy underbelly. There is much in this novel to please the horror aficionado and the average reader alike.

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“Spring, 1983. Sally Ride is about to go into space. Flashdance is a cultural phenomenon. And in Times Square, two very deadly women are on a collision course with destiny– and each other.

At twenty-one, Ginny Kurva is already legendary on 42nd Street. To the pimp for whom she works, she’s the perfect weapon– a martial artist capable of taking down men twice her size. To the girls she works with, she’s mother, teacher, and protector. To the little sister she cares for, she’s a hero. Yet Ginny’s bravado and icy confidence hides a mind at the breaking point, her sanity slowly slipping away as both her addictions and the sins of her past catch up with her…

At thirty-seven, Nicolette Aster is the most respected woman at the landfill where she works. Quiet and competent, she’s admired by the secretaries and trusted by her supervisors. Yet those around her have no idea how Nicolette spends her nights– when the hateful madness she keeps repressed by day finally emerges, and she turns the dump into her own personal hunting ground to engage in a nightmarish bloodsport…”

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The irony in the title, Our Lady of the Inferno, with its reference to the biblical Virgin Mary, one tainted, corrupted, existing in an infernal hell, alerts the reader to the sort of novel talented author Preston Fassel has produced. The story has an urban feel, gritty, noir, providing the reader with a unique window into an American subculture of which prostitution forms a part, a world littered with 1980s pop culture references to comics, television and film. References to cinematic horror, often oblique, foreshadow the horror emerging in the lived reality of the narrative.

The story is the union of two portraits. A young woman prostitute and her disabled sister, and a psychopath with a vendetta.

Meet protagonist Ginny, a troubled young prostitute with a taste for the obliterating altered state of consciousness alcohol affords, and a commitment to education as the key to redemption for those in her charge, a small group of pornai at the Misanthrope Motel. She’s ruthless yet compassionate, obeys the rules that have been imposed upon her, and craves and strives for escape. Her younger sister, Tricia, is confined to a wheelchair. Ginny regards Tricia a burden she’s resigned to carry, shouldering the responsibility with long-suffering love. Their banter is funny, lighthearted. They bicker and squabble, tease and goad, and yet there’s an undertow of bitterness and regret, and overwhelming frustration, each of them craving the unobtainable, a better life. While Ginny drowns her anguish in the bottle, Tricia escapes into film and comics.

Through the sisters, Fassel explores an important moral theme, recognising that it is society that places young women like Ginny and her small group of pornai in such vulnerable situations and then ignores their existence. Further, that while prostitutes exist in a reality where almost all the predators are men, it’s a dangerous assumption because, sometimes, one of those predators will be a woman.

Antagonist Nicolette, at once disturbed and disturbing, slices into the main narrative, at first offering puzzling intrigue and menace. Fassel paints her portrait with texture and depth. She’s a troubled soul shut off from the world, obsessive compulsive, living her life through a set of complex rituals. Her mind is racked as much by fear and paranoia as it is loathing and rage. Hers is a quest for retribution. She blames, but as is often the case with childhood abuse and neglect, the target of her blame is misdirected. She’s a repulsive character yet the reader is drawn into sympathy even while revolted by her acts.

In Our Lady of the Inferno, Fassel weaves together the two narratives, building the suspense, the dread, leading the reader towards the inevitable, all the while inviting them to look at that which confronts, to ponder, to penetrate beneath the surface of taken for granted attitudes and norms.

The carnal aspects of the novel are juxtaposed with a theme of transcendence, embodied both literally and metaphorically in Sally Ride: cosmic, spiritual, aspirational and social transcendence, all are sought after by protagonist Ginny, for herself, her sister, and the pornai in her care, as she struggles to find  liberation from her pimp and motel owner, the outright misanthropic Colonel.

Written with grace, restraint and poise, the prose is evocative, at times almost poetic; edgy when it needs to be, sometimes suggestive; insinuating rather than descending into gratuitous portrayals of gruesome acts. And when the horror does take place, its detail is measured and carefully crafted.

Fassel is a visual, visceral writer, one in full command of the craft. Capable of conjuring a charged atmosphere one moment, a poignant scene the next, the author’s descriptive powers are enviable, especially in his depictions of character: “His intellect perhaps enough to make up for his lack of physicality but his social manners too crippled to cement the relationships he is always reaching out towards.”

Our Lady of the Inferno is as much a page turner as a novel to inhabit and thoroughly absorb. The story is well-paced, unfolding petal by petal until its awful truth lies splayed. Fassel handles his subject well, demonstrating sensitivity and insight, the result of considerable research and a natural empathy. The result is a novel that is finely tuned, ironic and hard hitting in equal measure, rounded out with a touch of comedy and a penchant for the absurd.

You can purchase a copy of Our Lady of the Inferno here.

 

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: 42nd Street, dark fiction, Fear Front Publishing, horror, literary horror, Our Lady of the Inferno, Preston Fassel, Sally Ride [image error]

The Tower by Marguerite Steen

In The Tower, Marguerite Steen provides the contemporary reader with her valuable insights into the world of the struggling if moderately successful artist of 1950s Britain, a time of post-war transition in society and the art world, as abstractionism grew in ascendancy.

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“Painter Tom Proctor and his wife Antonia are among innumerable victims of the so-called Welfare State, their problem complicated by their child, Noelle, who is in desperate need of care. Tom’s career has arrived at an impasse, in which his sole support is the steadfast belief of Antonia in the value and honesty of his work.

Torn between duty to wife and child and artistic integrity, Tom is about to play for safety by accepting a salaried job in an art school. In The Tower, Marguerite Steen delicately explores domestic tension and the strength that comes from a loving relationship against an artistic backdrop she knows so well.”

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In The Tower Marguerite Steen demonstrates considerable literary prowess, painting in words a character riven by situations and conditions beyond his control. Tom Proctor is enduring a form of mid-life crisis. With mounting debts and a wife and child to support, he is torn between satisfying convention and taking risks. He’s broody, wary, given to intense moods, staunch when he can’t afford to be, and prone to bouts of drunken recklessness. His angst centres on finding ways to earn a living from his art in a changing world. He hankers after a past, his own in those early years before the birth of a severely disabled daughter, Noelle, and for a time in the art world when primitivism was valued over abstraction.

The reader senses early in the narrative that Tom’s explanations and justifications for his various decisions take the form of an elaborate excuse for something disastrous. He is confronted with a decision, a fork in the road, two futures presenting themselves, one of security and stability, the other its opposite. What ensues has the flavour of a descent into desperation without redemption.

In Tom Proctor, Steen balances ruthless honesty and self scrutiny with equally acute observations of other characters, particularly the pretentious upper classes in the art and theatre milieu. Proctor’s observant eye is that of a painter regarding his subject and the result is a novel filled with evocative depictions of setting and character.

The Tower is not a work of perfection. Some of the transitions between scenes could have been more deftly handled. At times the narrative feels hurried, some plot points skated over rather than dwelt on, yet if they had been explored in more detail, the narrator pausing, attending, then The Tower would be a different book, and not what it is, a masterful portrayal of one man’s account of his motivations, apprehensions and misgivings in the face of an art scene filled with dilettantes, and a post-war society in transition. Steen provides an intimate tale of an artist battling with authenticity versus compromise, with his conscience, with his own artistic temperament and with his domestic responsibilities.

The re-release of this novel will satisfy a new wave of readers hankering after works composed in a richer style of prose, those who seek not only an entertaining read, but a work that stimulates the imagination and ignites the intellect.

I’d like to thank NetGalley and Odyssey Press for my review copy.
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Book review, literary fiction, Marguerite Steen, The Tower

Cassandra by Kathryn Gossow

Kathryn Gossow is a masterful storyteller who displays great insight and sensitivity in her handling of difficult themes. The result, her debut novel Cassandra, is an extraordinary and engaging coming of age tale.

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“On a remote farm in Queensland, Cassie Shultz feels useless. Her perfect brother Alex has an uncanny ability to predict the weather, and the fortunes of the entire family hinge upon his forecasts. However, her own gift for prophecy remains frustratingly obscure. Attempts to help her family usually result in failure.

After meeting with her new genius neighbour Athena, Cassie thinks she has unlocked the secret of her powers. But as her visions grow more vivid, she learns that the cost of honing her gift may be her sanity.

With her family breaking apart, the future hurtles towards Cassie faster than she can comprehend it.”

There is much to love in this novel. The reader is enchanted from the opening scenes, of a very young Cassie playing where she isn’t meant to, under the house; of her encounter with a snake and the nightmare that follows; of her innocent curiosity. “A crackle of excitement pops in her belly. Like Coco-Pops when the milk first goes on.”

Through the early chapters, Cassie soon grows into a teenager, and it is this lonely, rebellious, confused girl eager to belong, who experiments with her own abilities in an attempt to understand them.

Cassandra is laced with evocative descriptions of rural Queensland. Gossow’s characterisations are convincing and her pacing measured. Early suspense shades into a textured exploration of clairvoyance, dreams, trance states and the predictive powers of Tarot, as Cassie tries to get a handle on her own inner powers; her friend, the ever doubtful Athena, egging her on. These moments are convincingly portrayed, never overplayed, each adding another dimension to the fabric of the paranormal. In this fashion, tinges of Jungian psychology and Greek mythology are blended seamlessly into a family drama.

Cassandra rises and flows, rises and flows, the reader held in a deep ocean swell. When the end of the novel is sensed on the horizon, this swell breaks into great waves that eventually deposit the reader on the shore of normality, somewhat transformed by the experience.

A novel with broad appeal, Cassandra is told in well-crafted, elegant prose. The reliance on simile to create a childlike atmosphere works well in my view. Think Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things.

Gossow’s literary skills shine in her portrayal of Cassie’s altered states of awareness. It is in these scenes that the author demonstrates much empathy, empathy needed in order to render authentic the inner experiences of the protagonist. In this aspect, I am reminded more of Madeleine Thien’s Booker-shortlisted Do Not Say We Have Nothing than I am Paula Hawkins’ bestselling The Girl on The Train. Through all of the numerous scenes of other-wordly introspection, Kathryn Gossow reveals a fine literary talent.

The reader is gifted a gem of a story in Cassandra.  Highly recommended.

I’d like to thank Odyssey Books for my review copy.

Visit Kathryn’s website here.

Buy her book on Amazon here.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Book review, Cassandra, Clairvoyance, Kathryn Gossow, Tarot

RESPECT at Pave Festival

When musical duo Savannah Rose invited me to speak at their RESPECT show I was honoured and baffled all at once. What would I talk about?

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With their smooth and dulcet harmonies, Suzanne Diprose and Bree Cleal sing dark and old-school country. Their awareness-raising show depicts how women are portrayed in song lyrics. They are joined by Moonshine Coalition, Heidi & Jules, and The Borrowed Boys. I needed to fit into all that and I don’t have a country bone in my body.

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But I am a story teller. I’ve led a rich and interesting life. So I decided to write a five-minute memoir. My life, through the lens of song lyrics.

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I’ve a tiny part in a grand event filled with fun and games and lots of laughter. The show packs a punch too. The message is strong. Especially for songwriters!

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The RESPECT show’s next date is at Emerald’s Pave Festival, Thursday 6th April 2017 @ 7.30-9.30pm. $12 entry ($10 conc).

I’m donating 20% of all book sales to women’s shelters.

 

 

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Dark Country, domestic violence, family violence, memoir, Pave Festival, Savannah Rose, Women in Song, women's refuges, women's shelters