Tracy Fahey's Blog, page 4

Wonderful review of The Unheimlich Manoeuvre

It's always immensely gratifying when someone reads your work and really gets to the core of what you were trying to do. Andrew Garvey's very kind review of The Unheimlich Manoeuvre assesses the stories, one by one, in a thoughtful and senstive manner. I was particularly thrilled by his reading of them as contemporary Gothic...'Her version of the Gothic aesthetic feels both real and relevant. Her protagonists don’t moon about in elaborate nineteenth century castles; they languish in hospital beds, in doctors’ waiting rooms or their own quiet and lonely homes where their fears are grounded as much in the everyday, the imagined and the emotional as they in the supernatural.'Read the full reviewhere

Women In Horror Month

February is a special month because it aims a square focus on Women In Horror. There's a lot of muttering about this month, or, more specifically, about theneedfor this month (given the richness and diversity of women working in the industry), but at the moment, anything that shines a determined light on fabulous women writers is to be welcomed.Here's my two blog entries for this month below...The Motherhood of the Monstrousseries curated by Jim Mcleod. Article on 'Domestic Gothic: From Shirley Jackson to Gillian Flynn'The Women In Horror Mixtapeedited by Mark West. Read my piece on 'The Cat Jumps' by Elizabeth Bowen.And after that, read!Read lots of fiction by great contemporary women writers like V.H. Leslie, Priya Sharma, Laura Mauro, Georgina Bruce, Cate Gardner, Marget Helgadottir,S.P. Miskowski, Maura McHugh and so many more!Make every month Women In Horror month!

Review from Bastian Books

Very excited today to reada review of The Unheimlich Manoeuvreon Bastian's Book Reviews. It's a lovely review that also offers some constructive feedback (my favourite kind of review). Thanks so much to the reviewer for taking the time to read and write about it. I really appreciate it. You can read the review on the site. I've also reproduced it here, below...http://www.bastianbalthasarbooks.co.u... Unheimlich Manoeuvre. What a glorious title. The sort of title that made me pick it up and a stall at one of the conventions I attended last year (probably Fantasycon-by-the-Sea) and ignore the cover design (which I didn't really like) and the price (£15 for a fairly small book). The description on the back sold me on the book. Then I went along to a reading and, even though I only absorbed about half of it (I'm not very good at taking in stories read out verbally - I need to see the text), I realised I had made a good purchase.One surprising thing about The Unheimlich Manoeuvre is that this single-author short story collection does not actually feature a story by that name. That said, the stories contained in the collection do live up to the title. They aren't all horror stories or spooky stories. Some are very much based in a non-paranormal real world setting. They do, however, all have a richness about them. Some are deeply melancholy (alongside being uncanny). Others are frantic and frenetic (and uncanny). There are some which are claustrophobic (and uncanny). There are even stories which are not uncanny, but still somehow feel right for this collection.Tracey Fahey has an enviable talent for creating real-seeming characters with authentic problems and dilemmas. Her stories tend to hook the reader and not let go. Even the final story in the collection, which is really more of a series of vignettes with limited plot, is relentlessly readable. (Incidentally, it was this autobiographical story which she read aloud at the reading).The introduction describes them as traditional 'twist in the tail' stories, but I don't think that description is entirely accurate. They are traditional in that the endings are satisfying (the narrative doesn't just stop without any sense of resolution or plot movement), and one or two do have a 'twist' ending, but mostly the stories end with a climax, rather than a revelation that turns the entire story around. Most impressively, the quality of the stories ranges between "good", "great" and "exceptional". Even the weakest story (about a couple holidaying in Vienna) is good; but at her best (in a story about a young mother), Tracey Fahey's writing is world class.My copy of the book says there was a limited print run of only 150 - so if you can get your hands on this book somehow, do. It is superb.Rating: 5/5

'Holy Fire' now in print.

Well, my story, 'Holy Fire' (inspired by a visit to Bucharest in 2015) is seeing the light of day! It's appearing inThe Book of Blaphemous Words, edited by CJ Miles of the lovely collective that is A Murder of Storytellers. Based in Tulsa, Oklahoma - hometown of one of my teen idols, writer S.E. Hinton they've brought out a steady trickle of quality anthologies, all quirky, all interesting. Here's what they say aboutThe Book of Blasphemous Words.“Book of Blasphemous Words is a weird fiction, horror, and speculative fiction anthology about humanity’s relationship with its gods. When we answer the call for salvation from the bondage of the material—when we believe in gods—we reach a hand into the unknown and risk losing it to something peckish. When we forget the power of the hearth, we risk a conflagration that can return civilization to the dirt whence it has come.“We want stories of man’s beliefs turning on them, or vice versa. Of the creations of faith and myth growing beyond control, consuming their former masters, body and soul. Conmen siphoning a god’s power from believers for their own gain. A cult worshiping a deceitful demon to learn the meaning of life. A demigod of harmony that plots to bring the world to ruin.”Interested? You can buy ithere.

Into The Woods

Delighted to be appearing in this anthology - my short story, 'The Green Road' will be featured in Hic Dragones'Into The Woods.I'm especially proud of appearing on the cover, my name listed with Ramsey Campbell's, the man S.T. Joshi once called 'the leading horror writer of our generation.'Honestly, sometimes I'm a little overwhelmed at how far I've come in a few years. It really has been quite magical. It's also quite special to me to appear in another Hic Dragones anthology as they published my first ever short story, 'Looking For Wildgoose Lodge.'

Writing the Fairy Fort

My first post of the new year. This one's about Irish fairy forts, a theme I've been drawn to since childhood. The image above shows the fort beside my parents' house. Now sadly diminished due to ruthless pruning, this was originally a large fort with trees, large rocks jutting out of the ground and a complex, interpenetrating set of passages under the furze bushes. We were obsessed with the Famous Five as children, especially with their ability to go off on random adventures without any adult supervision - with a packet of sandwiches and gingerbeer parcelled up by a dutiful cook, no less. So this fort became our Kirrin Island, our place of independence. We called it The Secret Place, not heeding the fact that it was perched on a hill overlooking our house a.k.a. the worst kept secret in the locality. I used to read up there, books scattered at my feet as I sprawled on a sun-warmed flat stone.It was only many years later that I become interested in Irish superstitions and practices associated with the forts; their strange history as first settlements, the strong associations with the fairies, the conflation of forts with burial sites.And now I'm working on a project I'll be announcing later in the year...and it centres on an Irish fairy fort. As I write, memories of those sunny, childhood days keep resurfacing. I remember the smell of the May-bushes, the sweet coconutty whiff of the yellow flowers as they opened in the sun. I remember the feel of the coarse grass parting like water as we ran through it. I remember the endlessness of those days, the hugeness of the sky hanging above. I remember the intensity of concentration possible then, hours spent watching tiny ladybirds and hairy caterpillars navigate the plants and pebbles of their terrain.And so I type, surrounded by gentle nostalgia and sweet, half-forgotten memories...

Irish book launch for The Unheimlich Manoeuvre

With the launch tomorrow, Simon Bourke's article in the Limerick Post on The Unheimlich Manoeuvre is very timely!Simon has added in a lovely quote from my publisher, Alex Davis -“I receive a lot of work to consider here, but Tracy’s book was an immediate standout in how it explored horror – subtle and beautifully written, these stories are emotional, powerful and deeply human. It’s a book I’m proud to have produced and put out there, and one I know will have a great impact on readers.”How lovely.You can read the full article by clicking the link below'Tracy’s nightmare before Christmas' by Simon Bourke 

Read 'The Crow War' online. Old festivals, older rituals.

In bed with some mutant variant of flu derived from the flu jab, but my fevered brain keeps wanting to spill words. So here's a little blog post about theTales From The Lakeproject by Crystal Lake Publishing. Now on Volume 3, edited by Monique Synman, this series has featured stories of horror by Ramsey Campbell, Raven Dane, Jack Ketchum, Lily Childs, Joe Mynhardt and Graham Masterson. For Volume 3, Joe and Monique have added an accompanying list of Honourable Mentions, now online. And this list of four stories includes my own contribution, 'The Crow War', available to readhere.'The Crow War' is part of a much larger project I've been working on over the last few years; an exploration of what folk horror means in an Irish context. There's been an outstanding revival of folk horror in Britian, drawing upon a rich heritage of films from the late 1960's and 1970's includingWitchfinder General,The Blood On Satan's Claw, and the greatest of them all,The Wicker Man.Black Shuck Publishing have just released a wonderful collection (Green and Pleasant Land) where writers like V.H. Leslie and James Everington examine the enduring legacy of folk horror in Britain. But I'm more interested in the authentic living legacy of folk horror in Ireland, enshrined in traditions, curses, legends, and in stories still told today.'The Crow War' is influenced by childhood memories of driving from the east coast to the west coast on holiday, and finding small and peculiar festivals dotting our route along the way. These festivals were often tiny (a string of bunting, an abandoned stage on a lorry trailer) but each one meant something in its place or origin, related to thegenius lociand referring back to older traditions and memories.And as 'The Crow War' illustrates, not all of these rituals are benign...Read ithere.

Fantasycon by the Sea: Horror Time Slip

The first rule of Fantasycon is you must blog about Fantasycon. And I do apologise, unlike many prompter writers, I've been a little lackadaisical in that respect. This is partly because of the massive over-stimulation caused by interacting with hundreds of different writers and publishers over the course of the Con, and trekking to event after event with barely a pause to absorb it all. (But it's also, of course, because I flew back to Ireland at 11pm on Sunday and was in work by 9am on Monday.)...So here it finally is, in words and one very cluttered collage:Fantasycon 2016; Fantasycon by the Sea.From the first event - the Terror Towers experience on the seafront, filled with set-scenes from classic horror movies and live actors to stimulate audience apprehension, to my last event, a lingering and late Sunday lunch with the great and good of British horror, it was a truly memorable experience. Thanks to Alex, Pixie and all those who wore the red shirts for endless help and kindness. Highlights for me included writing classes with Joe Hill and Andrew Hook, my panel on 'Real Life Horror' with Helen Marshall, Ramsey Campbell, Mark West and Victoria Leslie, Priya Sharma's reading of 'Egg', the crumbling Victorian splendour of Scarborough, Tom Johnston's reading of his peculiar Lovecraft-meets-bowling-green story, the 'Women In Genre' panel, having quality chats with Victoria, Priya, Georgina Bruce, Tej Turner, Simon Lewis, James Everington and Steve Shaw, Victoria reading one of my favourite passages fromBodies of Water, getting the chance to unleash my 'Looking For Wildgoose Lodge' story on a kind audience, meeting a bewildering range of new people who were uniformly awesome (Dion, Andrew, Georgina and Laura included), and hanging out at different times and places with some of the finest women writers working in horror today, Cate, Priya, Victoria, Georgina, Rosanne Rabinowitz, Laura Mauro, Lynda Rucker, Maura McHugh. (Oh, and not forgetting my haul of books which filled of all the empty crevices in my suitcase.)It also reminded me of why we go to Cons: to connect, empathise, learn, network but above all, as Anne Of Green Gables would say, to meet 'kindred spirits'; those people who understand and share the strange, introverted, word-puddled life of the solitary writer.

Review: Bodies of Water (V.H. Leslie)

Bodies of Wateris an exercise in quiet, slow-building horror. It moves confidently between two eras in the life of Wakewater House, from the Victorian world of hydrotherapy and female ‘hysteria’ to modern London, where its protagonist, Kirsten, walks, lonely and wakeful in her converted apartment. As the novel moves inexorably forward, and we discover more about the history of Wakewater House and its inhabitants, the ‘real’ world of the twenty-first century seems to dissolve in a nightmarish swoon of shadowy women mingling with the river, and the omnipresent, slow invasion of water into the building, insidious drop by insidious drop.Reminiscent of the richly textured world of an A.S. Byatt novel,Bodies of Waterpresents us with a fascinating morass of feminist principles, folk tales and the female domain of water. Effortlessly written, and marvellously nuanced, this is a stunning debut novel by V.H. Leslie.