Ade Grant's Blog, page 9

Review: The Blackheath Séance Parlour by Alan Williams

Available in Paperback and on Kindle

Amazon Description:

In 1842, two sisters drunkenly debate their future, their family chocolate business has failed and so they decide to open a seance parlour. The locals are shocked but soon their shop is crammed with people wanting to contact the dead. Despite their change in fortune, a rift forms between the sisters, as young sister Judy gets her novel published, finds a man and proves to be more capable of contacting spirits than Maggie. Spurred on by jealousy, Maggie tries harder and soon even the Queen is consulting her. The Church decides they must be stopped by any means possible.

Ade’s Review:

Okay, confession time. I requested a review copy of this book and the publisher sent me one. Not a big deal, but I suppose that generosity does generate some goodwill. Secondly, and here’s the biggie, I live in Blackheath. If I walk a few minutes from my flat I can be sat on a bench with the Hare and Billet pub in one direction and Ranger’s House in another. So for a book set in Blackheath this is an advantage, and I derived a great deal of pleasure not only from sharing mutual admiration with the author for this village of ours, but also being educated about its past.

The Blackheath Séance Parlour is on the surface a murder/ghost story set in Blackheath in the mid-1800’s, but as the story progresses the real focus of the narrative becomes the relationship between three women. Two of these are sisters (Maggie and Judy Cloak), each facing fading dreams and mounting regrets. Together they run a failing chocolate shop and share in the debts and worry incurred by the enterprise. Through desperation for something more, Judy Cloak hits upon an idea for a new shop: a séance parlour, and in setting up this establishment they enlist the third of their triumvirate, an aging medium, Nettie Walters.

Without spoiling too much, the séance parlour takes off and we chart the controversies and challenges that arise as the women have to contend with the church, a murder investigation, rising fame and rivalries within their own inner circle. Williams does not play coy, the ghosts are real and we are thrown into a world of spirits, visions and ectoplasm (indeed, in the Author Notes he expresses his own distaste for books that shoehorn in a logical reason for séances and mediums after convincing the reader otherwise for the majority of the tale). Dark stormy nights on the heath are vividly described, the era’s clash between faith, science and superstition convincingly evoked. But through all the fantasy elements it is the relationship between the Cloak sisters that keep the pages turning, especially as fortunes dramatically differentiate the two.

At times whilst reading The Blackheath Séance Parlour I felt like I was on a time travelling pub crawl of local establishments: the Hare and Billet, The Crown, The Princess of Wales, The Gypsy Moth, The Blackheath Tea Hut and others, all are visited and described with affection. Williams seems to have done his homework and Blackheath comes alive.

Alongside the main narrative a second story is told, a novel within a novel, written by Judy Cloak. It is a titillating gothic serialised tale (also set in Blackheath), somewhere between Frankenstein and Dracula, that works for us as a satire on the fiction of the time, but also as an insight into the desires and fears of Judy, its author. The story does influence the main narrative, but at times I wish the editor had been a little more ruthless in trimming these parts back, as I found myself impatient to return to the Cloaks and learning more of their adventures.

I grew up in Croydon (South-East London) and so any pride I’ve felt about my home-town was tongue-in-cheek pride about surviving it. Now that I am settled in Blackheath a strange feeling has overcome me: affection for my surroundings. I suppose I am still an outsider as far as true Blackheathens are concerned, but still, there is a big space in my heart for this village mysteriously shielded from the city around it. But any affection I have is dwarfed by the love of Blackheath described in this book and for that I heartily recommend it.

So is this review biased? Well, yes it probably is. I don’t know what someone living in rural Utah might make of it. At times I wondered if the book might benefit from a small map, or a description of the Heath’s relation to London, as these might be difficult to picture. The cover-art would sit well in the London Dungeons, but I feel perhaps a classier image of Blackheath village would have been more appropriate.

I recommend the Blackheath Séance Parlour for anyone wanting an enjoyable, well researched, historical fantasy novel, and certainly for anyone who’s ever been to this little village I call home.

NOTE: The Blackheath Séance Parlour is having a book launch at Greenwich Waterstones today (26/09) at 5-7pm.

J.J. Abrams’ Stranger

J.J. Abrams has a new mystery project out, code named: Stranger. Take a look at the trailer here:

Whilst everyone else is speculating on what the project could be, I’ll throw my suspicious hat into the ring… J.J Abrams is a fan of The Mariner and is adapting it for the screen! Of course, it must be true! What’s more, he must have had access to the original artwork, which you can see below.

Original Reverse of Cover – Loose Lips Sink Ships concept

As you can see artist Christopher Hayes originally pursued a loose lips sink ships concept, which references the fear of triggering cases of Mindlessness, but also a deleted flashback scene in which [SPOILERS] Harris sews his crew’s lips shut as they begin to go mad. The scene was intended to follow on from his London flashback to demonstrate what happened to his doomed command before the ship crashed into Grace’s zoo.

Hmm.. whenever I discuss the plot of The Mariner it sounds damned ridiculous.

Anyway, in all seriousness, I have no idea what Stranger is, so calm down.

Liberal Democrat Wishlist

As the slow news summer rumbles along, the broadcasters turn towards political posturing, preparing for an autumn conference season which will see the political parties position themselves for the run up to the next general election. This will be a new experience for us Brits. In the USA they are well used to electioneering gearing up pretty much as soon as one election draws to a close, and because they have fixed terms they know just when to start buying up ad space and hitting the streets. Well, now we have fixed terms too, and whereas before our politicians would have sat on their cash in a darkened room paranoid the Prime Minister would either call a snap election or delay it as long as humanly possible, now they know when. It’s May 2015 folks. Bring it on.

So looking forward to the Liberal Democrat conference (for those of you non-Brits, the Lib Dems are our centre party – Labour is the party of the left… or at least is supposed to be) here is my wish list of policies & attitudes I would like to see expressed.

A courageous infrastructure plan based on technology of the future rather than standard procedure of the past

HS2, whilst bringing us up to date with pretty much the rest of the developed world, is rather lacking in ambition. The Lib Dems also run the risk of beating the same green drum that’s been kicking around since the eighties, without realising that there is a brand-spanking new green fiddle that is well worth a play. Rather than trying to reduce petrol consumption (which will happen anyway due to rising prices) they should be proposing investment / subsidies for driverless cars. Driverless cars will change our economy and change the way we live our lives and we should be at the cutting edge rather than playing catch up.

An economic message that is Stage 2 rather than Plan B

The Liberal Democrats went into coalition with the Tories. They supported a centre-right economic model. These are the facts and the Lib Dems have to live with them. There will be a strong urge within the party to distance themselves as far as possible from Osborne and whilst that desire is justified, it is not good politics. We already have one party howling in anguish at every announcement Osborne makes, we don’t need a second. The Liberal Democrats need to present to the electorate their own narrative of where to take the Coalition’s economic model, embracing the strengths whilst putting a unique centrist spin on its future. No matter how much people naively complain about all three parties converging on the same political space, in truth there is a vast gulf in the middle that a canny centrist party could exploit. It is better to talk about tax cuts for the poor than tax rises for the rich. They just need to quell the left to do it.

Take a lead from Uruguay and change the world

To hell with the Daily Mail. The Lib Dems need to come out in favour of legalising cannabis now. In ten years’ time it will be legal across the world and every party except UKIP will have accepted it. The Lib Dems need to take the lead and exploit this rare opportunity now, before the moment passes. Legalised cannabis means greater revenue in cash-strapped times, reduced burden on the justice department in an era of cuts and a healthier more educated public. It is a unique selling point that will differentiate the Lib Dems from the Tories and Labour. True, there will be voters who will never vote for a party who contemplates legalisation, but they would never vote Lib Dem anyway. But there will be plenty of swing voters and first time voters will be drawn be the prospect. I repeat: the time is now!

Embark on an aggressive fight back against authoritarian politics

Even under the coalition we have seen too many big-state solutions to social problems, from national security and terrorism to copyright infringement and pornography. It is time the Liberal Democrats distanced themselves from the Labour Party and Conservatives by pledging to repeal intrusive surveillance by the state and implementing safeguards against further such legislation in the future. Freedom is a notion that seems to be forgotten in modern British politics and it is time someone brought it back.

Double Giveaway

It’s that time again folks! Free goodies! But it’s not the just the one ebook I’m giving away, but two: The Mariner and Zigglyumph are available for free on Amazon until Sunday.

Praise for The Mariner

“This story is the wildest of rides – fast paced, energetic, unafraid, relentless, exhilarating, disturbing, and smart. I absolutely loved it.” C.W. RHODES, Writer & Blogger

“A barrage of harrowing imagery and bitter-sweet revelations… Both despicably vile and heart-warmingly comforting.” David Chapman, Goodreads Reviewer

“A surreal, political, critical and analytical allegory.” David Shelton, Amazon UK Review

“Made me wince at my species… my sex especially.” J. Hooker, Amazon USA Review

Praise for Zigglyumph and Other Poems

“I was drunk when I read this collection… and had a blast throughout.” Richard Langston, The Mind Of Madness

“Hilarious and warped… you can read it whilst drinking your afternoon tea, or indeed using the loo.” M, Amazon UK Review

Check It Out: Second Look Reviews

Looking for movie reviews both past and present? Interested in gems that might have sailed you by? Check out this film review site by screenwriter Tom Charles, “Second Look Reviews“. From personal experience, Tom Charles’ encyclopaedic knowledge of television, film and literature means that when he speaks, one should listen. Check it out and keep an eye.

Also, to commemorate hackers leaking names of EDL supporters, I’ve posted a couple of old poems which you can find off the Poetry drop-down above. The relevant one is “BNP List“, about a similar event that happened to a similarly far right political party some years ago.

Cameron’s Painful Swing

It has been a while since we discussed politics on this wee blog. Since then we’ve had a local elections, a revolt over Europe, bitter division over gay marriage and the resurgence of terrorism as a political punch-bag. The big picture is one of a nation whose political parties are becoming gross caricatures of their former selves, lurching to extremes rather than straddling the often uncomfortable centre ground where elections were won.

So first off: the local elections. The big shocker of the night was just how crazy the electorate are willing to be to teach the political classes a lesson. UKIP, the cuddly face of the bitter right, managed to poll 23%. Pretty impressive, given that their vote was considered a “wasted vote”, but despite this they polled strong, coming in third behind Labour 29% and the Conservatives on 25%. The Liberal Democrats whimpered into 4th with 14%, disappointing but actually above what they usually poll nationally.

So why care? It’s not as if Nigel Farage’s eurosceptic party managed to gain control of any councils, and with that share of the vote they aren’t going to form the next government. Hell, with our awful first-past-the-post system they are unlikely to secure a single seat. But, as subtle a shift as it had been to the nation at large, to the political classes the shift was seismic.

You see, those loonies that voted UKIP used to vote Conservative. They were Cameron’s loonies, and the party had grown lazy depending upon them to turn out every five or so years to keep up the fight against Labour and the Liberals. Suddenly, the right wing swivel-eyed loon vote is split and now we’re into a four horse race, and this simple change in the landscape has caused all the nonsense we’ve had since.

It has always been Cameron’s agenda to move the Conservative party to the centre right. That was the reason for those painful huskie shots during his time in opposition. Unfortunately the centre is not a place his party likes to sit, as in the centre you can still catch the odd whiff of the unwashed left. And now that their ranks are breaking for UKIP, the pressure has been to follow them, ceding the centre ground to the despised liberals. This panic led them to rebel over their own Queen’s Speech, attempt to sign into law an in-out Europe referendum, try to bring down the gay marriage legislation and lately to stand tough over terrorism with a badly thought through ‘snooper’s charter’.

But it ironic that of all the things that Cameron has got spectacularly wrong, the move towards the centre is one of the few things he got ri… er.. correct. The right of British politics is similar to its left counterpart, the domain of the political pariah. The tory party (against the wisdom of its leadership) is banking on being able to move right and scoop back up the UKIP vote whilst still holding the rest of its support, but this assumption is terribly flawed. A conservative move to the right would allow the liberals to strengthen by appealing to pro-business centre-right conservatives reluctant to support a party that could pull us out of the EU. Moving right would also allow the Labour party to sneak into the centre, saving them from the leftist-protest persona they have fallen into.

David Cameron has become trapped. He needs to stop the UKIP threat, but he has no tools to fight them. So far every attempt by his back benchers to move the party right has simply handed UKIP better poll ratings. If he can’t convince his party of political realities soon they will find themselves in opposition in 2015. Tee hee.

Sighisoara

Thank you to David Chapman for sending in these pictures of himself with a copy of The Mariner at various sites in Sighisoara! I’d been meaning to do a quick blog post about this amazing medieval town and he has given me the perfect opportunity. Here’s the pictures of David, and if you haven’t read The Mariner, beware – there be SPOILERS ahead!

Sighisoara is a well preserved medieval town in Transylvania, Romania. Most famous for being the birth place of Vlad Tepes (aka Vlad the Impaler, aka Vlad Dracula), but unfortunately this is probably the site’s biggest drawback as it’s littered with tourist traps stuffed with vampire memorabilia. I visited Sighisoara way back in 2007, before the onset of vampire-mania, so I dread to think how bad it’s gotten now.

The site was originally that of a Roman fort, built upon by Saxons and then in the 12th century a citadel was constructed, but it was only in 1431 that we find the first reference to the name Sighisoara being used. Highlights include a 14th century clock tower, church on the hill, Venetian house and Church of the Dominican Monastery.

Sighisoara Clock-tower

My own experience of Sighisoara was that of a fever dream. A friend and I had travelled to the town of Targu Mures for a music festival, but alas fate (and twelve shots of vodka) conspired to render us lost in this town with nowhere to stay and without a tent to camp in. A freezing night later and I was a wreck. Worse for wear (I shall spare you the gruesome details) we abandoned Targu Mures and fled south, hoping to find sanctuary at the next major tourist destination: Sighisoara. Shivering, sweating, shaking and swearing, I remember all too well the long walk from the bus stop to the citadel, desperately hoping I’d be able to keep control of my bowels until we found a room in an inn. Fortunately, we did find a hotel with space: the beautiful Casa Wagner, which our budget could extend to a single night.

Unfortunately my illness, while abating somewhat over the next 24 hours, never departed and our stay in Sighisoara was limited. We were soon forced to abandon our trip around Transylvania and retreat to Bucharest to find a doctor to bribe.

So when the Mariner sought his own oasis, it seemed only natural that his should be the same as my own. Indeed, his waking in the town square was reminiscent of my friend leaving me shaking on that same spot whilst the locals kept a wary distance in case I was contagious.

So is Sighisoara the same one that features in The Mariner? Yes and no. Similar to the fictional island, Sighisoara does have a hill rising up inside a citadel, and as in the book that hill is topped with a church. In the story, Tetrazzini has built a comfortable home around it, symbolic of his apparent stabilising influence in an era difficult to pin down.

After the Shattering, as the Wasp slowly drew the minds, meme by meme, from the human race, the world as it had stood became fragmented and chunks ceased to exist. Those minds that remained untouched, or only slightly removed were those closest to the source of the Wasp’s panic: [the Mariner] himself. So those in faraway Romania would not have been left “untouched” by the Wasp; they would have become mindless as their minds became a part of the collective whole. Sighisoara would have gone the way of most of the world, disappearing as the cocoon of reality dissolved, had it not been for Christopher McConnell, focusing his mind on a place he’d never seen but been described by his father. In the turbulent time of the Shattering, when reality (supported by the collective minds of those infected by the Wasp) was morphing in response to that collective splitting, Sighisoara was preserved, albeit a version more closely associated with the Sighisoara of McConnell’s imagination, rather than the memory held by his father.

Sound confusing? Basically, Sighisoara in the book should not be taken as a direct representation of the one in real life. Like all the ideas, religions, sciences, politics and philosophies in The Mariner, the landscape is rotten. Entropy is at work everywhere.

The Mariner’s Sighisoara is another broken promise. It is the illusion of redemption. The Mariner arrives at the settlement thinking that he is the monster, but what he finds is a society corrupted to the core with the façade of civility. At the first instance he is accosted by corrupt officials and soon after observes the funeral of a young lady who’s been recently murdered, the killers of whom he clashes with when he witnesses a gang rape in a shady gambling den. Indeed, even the supposed beacon of light, Tetrazzini, reveals himself to be a far darker creature than the Mariner could ever be. To paraphrase JRR Tolkien, the Mariner looks foul but feels fair unlike Sighisoara which (in the book) is quite the opposite. It looks fair, but as the Mariner soon learns, it is most certainly foul.

So once again, thank you David! And to the rest of you out there, why not do the same and send in pictures of you doing something Mariner related with your own copy? How about petting a Tasmanian devil? Flagellating with a whip? Or perhaps simply masturbating off the side of a boat? The choice is yours!

Oh, and for those of you wondering, the rest of my stay in Bucharest did not improve my luck. No sooner than I’d recovered from my illness I got attacked by wild dogs. Ho hum.

Tetrazzini’s Sighisoara, artwork by Christopher Hayes

Reviews

While I slowly tap away at the various short stories that are in the works (as well as the long slog that is my next novel), various reviews continue to roll in. The most notable being on the horror blog “The Mind Of Madness“, a link to which you can permanently find in the side bar. The author, Richard Langston, has also reviewed Zigglyumph & Seeker so I urge you to head on over and take a look.

So what’s been going on? Mostly I have been working on Tote projects – that’s the grim steampunk world that the Hayes brothers and myself have been developing for some time. Truth be told the task of capturing this alternate world has left me rather daunted, but the various tales chug along and I hope to have the first available soon.

I have also been listening to The History Of Rome podcast. This has quickly become one of my favourite pastimes and I highly recommend it. I am currently on episode 117 and am as gripped as ever.

So for now here’s something I stumbled upon whilst strolling in Kent. The setting was rather more idyllic that I would imagine a hill belonging to the Mariner to be.

Mariner’s Hill, Kent

Yummy Polls

It has been a while since we’ve discussed politics and my secret love: opinion polls. Yes, those dreary meaningless statistics that bear little relation to the real world are the small skirmishes between the battles and one such battle is approaching – Thursday’s local elections. Yesterday’s ComRes poll has the Conservatives on 32%, Labour 38%, UKIP 13% and Liberal Democrats trailing with 9%, but of course that is nationally and the elections that are taking place will not be fought under proportional representation. No indeed, these elections are going to be decided with good ole fashioned utterly bonkers first-past-the-post.

As a believer in electoral reform I should be shaking my head in disgust at how skewed the results on Thursday are likely to be, but there is a certain element of chickens coming home to roost, as it is the Conservatives who are about to taste a mouthful of feathers from the upstart right wing UKIP. The left has spent at least three decades being split and now it is the turn of the right. Even though support for right wing policies are on the rise (euro-scepticism, anti-immigration), having the vote split between two parties will help the liberals and labour parties in areas that they are consolidated enough not to bring down each other, a problem they and their supporters have grown accustomed to through years of bloody battles.

So ironically the Lib Dems best hope is Farage, and right now they should be delivering UKIP’s leaflets as well as their own. The more the Conservatives pull to the right to steal UKIP votes, the more sensible conservatives will flock to centrist Liberal Democrats, and the more to the left the Tories pull to defeat Lib Dems, the more they will lose to UKIP.

The only party that seems excluded from all this fun is Labour, who are still stuck with the same share of the vote they have had for ages with little impetus either way. Ed Miliband has been accused of turning his party into the party of protest (simply saying boo to cuts without giving any solution) but if that was his aim the plan backfired. No one wants to register their protest vote with Labour.

And then there’s the Greens who somehow, in a time of global warming, widespread disaffection with politics and grossly unpopular cuts, have managed to make themselves entirely irrelevant.

The Sound Of Silence (Quick Update)

It has been quiet on the Ade Grant front of late. This has primarily been because I’ve been visiting friends abroad, catching up with those at home, and working on the various novellas that have been haunting my brain for the last few years. During this absence, various current events have sailed by without comment, some underwhelming (public reaction to Thatcher’s death) some horrific (Boston bombing) but in unusual restraint I have held my tongue. Eventually you might have to endure a diatribe about Thatcher, but thankfully for all concerned that time is not now.

So while you watch this space, please consider picking up The Mariner, which is once again free for three days from today.

UPDATE: Featured on Indie Book Bargains