Andrew Hook's Blog, page 2

Commercial Book / Perfect Love

As many of you will be aware, my short story collection, "Commercial Book", was recently published by The Eyeball Museum via Psychofon Records. The collection features 40 short stories of exactly 1000 words in length, and these stories are based on the 40 songs of exactly one minute in length that featured on "Commercial Album", released by The Residents in 1980. "Commercial Book" is fully endorsed by the band.

I'm aware that some of my readers will be unfamiliar with The Residents, and fans of t...

Commercial Book / Margaret Freeman

As many of you will be aware, my short story collection, "Commercial Book", was recently published by The Eyeball Museum via Psychofon Records. The collection features 40 short stories of exactly 1000 words in length, and these stories are based on the 40 songs of exactly one minute in length that featured on "Commercial Album", released by The Residents in 1980. "Commercial Book" is fully endorsed by the band.

I'm aware that some of my readers will be unfamiliar with The Residents, and fans of t...

Betaville

My short story titled "Betaville" has just been published in the anthology Unauthorised Departures edited by Rick McGrath for Terminal Press, and as usual I'm blogging a few words discussing how the story came to be written. There may be spoilers within.

"Betaville" is one of twelve stories I've recently written which takes French New Wave Cinema as a starting point and then runs with an alternative version of it. There will be no surprises here that the inspiration for this story comes from Jean...

Commercial Book

My eleventh collection of short stories, "Commercial Book", has just been announced for pre-sale over at Psychofon Records. This is my second book to be written in association with the legendary San Francisco anonymous avant-garde art collective known as The Residents, following my book on the Mysterious N Senada, O For Obscurity, Or, The Story Of N. Those familiar with the band will be fully aware that in 1980 The Residents released “Commercial Album”, a collection of 40 songs each of exactly o...

Cumulative Quote Story (2023)

 

During 2023 I read 80books. Following each reading, on both Twitter and Instagram, I would post apicture of each book together with what I felt to be a pertinent quote from thecontents. As I was devising my end of year list, it struck me that putting allthese quotes together might form a short story, so - entirely withoutembellishment and wholly in the order in which the books were read - here itis. I think there's some really fluid segues! For those interested - which Iimagine to be onl...

The Best and Worst of 2023

Well, it's that time of the year when everyone is doing their 'best and worst of' lists, so here is mine. I'm going to list the books and movies and records I read/watched/listened to in 2023 and then pick my favourites. This isn't restricted to what was new in 2023, but what I actually watched and read and heard - some of these items might be very old indeed.

Books:

I read the following in 2023:

Georges Simenon – The Madman of BergeracTim Major – Shade of StillthorpeIan Whates (editor) – La FemmeC...

My Writing Year 2023

As has become annual I thought I'd write a quick blog post as to my literary achievements during 2023.

Starting with short fiction, I wrote forty-eight short stories: "Elevator Pitch", "Some Pastel Morning", "Sundowning", "Betaville", "Inversion Layer", "The Good Men", "Water In The Wrong Light", "The Aspect", "An Absence of Ghosts", "Easter Woman", "Perfect Love", "Picnic Boy", "End of Home", "Amber", "Japanese Watercolor", "Secrets", "Die in Terror", "Red Rider", "My Second Wife", "Floyd", "Sub...

Keepers

My short story titled "Keepers" has just been published in the anthology At The Lighthouse edited by Sophie Essex for Eibonvale Press, and as usual I'm blogging a few words discussing how the story came to be written. There may be spoilers within.

Before I go ahead, I should say that the editor, Sophie, is my partner, but for the submission process she read all the stories without bylines so there is no favouritism when it comes to selecting my story for this book.

As the title of the anthology su...

The Natural Environment

My short story titled "The Natural Environment" has just been published in the anthology Reports From The Deep End edited by Maxim Jakubowski and Rick McGrath for Titan Books, and as usual I'm blogging a few words discussing how the story came to be written. There may be spoilers within.

The byline for this anthology is 'stories inspired by J G Ballard'. I enjoy Ballard's books, particularly when he explores the correlation between technology and human interaction (in that regard, "Crash" is my f...

The Enfilade

My short story titled "The Enfilade" has just been published in Black Static and as usual, I'm blogging a few words discussing how the story came to be written. There may be spoilers within.

Before I go ahead, however, I want to say a few words about this issue of Black Static, as it's the final one of a very long run. Andy Cox began publishing as The Third Alternative back in the early nineties. Once I'd discovered the magazine I not only found great new fiction, but also kindred spirits in that...