Andrew Hook's Blog, page 7

Best British Short Stories 2020

My short story, "The Girl With The Horizontal Walk", has just been reprinted in Best British Short Stories 2020 edited by Nicholas Royle, published by Salt. In view of that, I'm reprising this post from last year when the story was originally published as a standalone chapbook by Salò Press, and as usual I'm blogging a few notes about how the piece came to be written. There will probably be spoilers for those yet to read it.

The subject matter of "The Girl With The Horizontal Walk" is Marilyn Mon...

My Somnambulant Heart

My short story titled "My Somnambulant Heart" has just been published in the anthology Terror Tales of the Home Counties, edited by Paul Finch, and as usual I'm writing a few words discussing how the story came to be written. There may be spoilers within.

First of all, the Terror Tales anthologies are a long-running series which focus on horror stories set within particular locations (in fact, this is the thirteenth anthology in the series). I was approached by Paul Finch a while back as to wheth...

Frequencies of Existence

My seventh short story collection, Frequencies of Existence, is published today through NewCon Press, so I thought a short blog post to celebrate this was in order. The collection contains twenty-four stories, four of which are original to this book. The other stories have been previously published in magazines and anthologies such as Black Static, PostScripts, and Strange Tales amongst other places. As usual for me, there are a mix of styles, which might include elements of SF/F/H but perhaps a...

The Residents

As readers of this blog will be aware, my most recent publication is a biography of The Mysterious N Senada, a Bavarian musician whose Theory of Obscurity greatly influenced the American art collective known as The Residents. "O For Obscurity, Or, The Story Of N" is available as a limited edition paperback through Psychofon Records and also had been coupled with The Resident's recording of Senada's "Pollex Christi", although I believe that version has now sold out. Anyway, despite The Residents ...

O For Obscurity, Or, The Story Of N

My next book, "O For Obscurity, Or, The Story Of N", has just been announced for pre-sale over at Psychofon Records. Publication sees the culmination of a long journey for this title, which began when I discovered an encrypted diary page written by The Mysterious N Senada when I was at a London television studio researching my novella, "Ponthe Oldenguine", back in 2009, and then subsequently the discovery of the full diary by the San Francisco avant-garde collective known as The Residents whilst...

Dave Greenfield: 1949 - 2020

It's not often that four disparate individuals form a band and each holds equal importance to the other. The Stranglers were such a band.

In January 1978 I was ten and a half years old. I had been a punk for some time without really knowing what punk was. I was at the nebulous age where reality was only just starting to coalesce around me and my world view was naive and malformed. Initially it wasn't even clear to me that punk was about music, but I knew it was political because a few of us at...

The Best and Worst of 2019

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 2019 and then pick my favourites. This isn't restricted to what was new in 2019, but what I actually watched and read and heard - some of these items might be very old indeed.

Books:

I read the following in 2019:

Jeff Vandermeer – Borne
John Grant – Tell No Lies
Paul Finch – Dean Man Walking
Douglas Thompson –...

Mr Writing Year 2019

As has become annual I thought I'd do a quick blog post as to my literary achievements during 2019.

It's been a productive year in some respects but has felt completely unproductive in others. I feel this  is probably due to my own personal perception rather than anything else, as in terms of publications it's not been bad at all.

Usually I aim to write a short story a month, but due to a desire to focus on other projects and also a lack of impetus I only wrote seven short stories in 2019:...

Life + Illusion = Love + Dream

My flash fiction piece, "Life + Illusion = Love + Dream", about the life of Pete Shelley has just been published in the anthology Love Bites from Dostoyevsky Wannabe, and as usual I'm blogging a few lines as to how the story came about for those who might be interested. It's 445 words in length.

Like many of my generation, punk had a massive impact on my formative years. Even though I was just 9 years old in 1976 I was aware of the scene and the brouhaha it was creating. The first si...

Of Course, A Girl

My short story, "Of Course, A Girl", about the life of Zelda Fitzgerald has just been published in the anthology Afterlives of the Writers from 5th Wall Press, and as usual I'm blogging a few lines as to how the story came about for those who might be interested. Beware, there are likely to be spoilers for those who haven't read it, so it might be best to purchase a copy before reading on.

It was the writer Rhys Hughes who brought the guidelines of this anthology to my attention. Immediately I...