Author and Scriptwriter

'Among the most important writers of contemporary British horror.' -Ramsey Campbell

Monday 15 February 2016

Things of the Week, 15th February 2016

Me, my (remaining) hair and a book.
A belated 'things of the week'...

Various things have taken place. One of them was that my contributor copy of THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF KAIJU arrived. My story 'Now I Am Nothing' shares space with tales by Gary McMahon, Lavie Tidhar, Neal Asher, Jeremiah Tolbert, Natania Barron, James A. Moore, Cody Goodfellow, Tessa Kum, Steve Rasnic Tem and many, many more. There's a lot of names in the TOC I don't recognise, so I look forward to discovering some new writers...

Some contracts were signed. One was for Ellen Datlow's upcoming anthology NIGHTMARES: A NEW DECADE OF MODERN HORROR, out on October 31st from Tachyon Press. It's a follow-up to Ellen's earlier anthology DARKNESS: TWO DECADES OF MODERN HORROR. Here's the full TOC (in order of year from 2005-2015):

Shallaballah by Mark Samuels
Sob in the Silence by Gene Wolfe
Our Turn Too Will One Day Come by Brian Hodge
Dead Sea Fruit by Kaaron Warren
Closet Dreams by Lisa Tuttle
Spectral Evidence by Gemma Files
Hushabye by Simon Bestwick
Very Low-Flying Aircraft by Nicholas Royle
The Goosle by Margo Lanagan
The Clay Party by Steve Duffy
Strappado by Laird Barron
Lonegan’s Luck by Stephen Graham Jones
Mr Pigsny by Reggie Oliver
At Night, When the Demons Come by Ray Cluley
Was She Wicked? Was She Good? by M. Rickert
The Shallows by John Langan
Little Pig by Anna Taborska
Omphalos by Livia Llewellyn
How We Escaped Our Certain Fate by Dan Chaon
That Tiny Flutter of the Heart I Used to Call Love byRobert Shearman
Interstate Love Song (Murder Ballad No. 8) by CaitlĂ­n R. Kiernan
Shay Corsham Worsted by Garth Nix
The Atlas of Hell by Nathan Ballingrud
Ambitious Boys Like You by Richard Kadrey

That is some seriously amazing company to find yourself in, some of the finest names in contemporary weird fiction. To say I'm delighted would be a huge understatement.

The other contract was with Pseudopod Magazine, who'll be releasing 'Dermot' and 'The Moraine' on podcast in the near future. More news on that as I have it.

Me, my hair and another book.
In other news, the paperback of HELL'S DITCH is out on March 1st from Snowbooks, which I'm
delighted about. Can't wait to lay hands on it.

As I may have mentioned, there'll be an event at Waterstones Liverpool One to promote it at 6.30 pm on 11th March. Further details now available: I'm going to be in the company of Ramsey Campbell and Conrad Williams, which should make for a fun evening. If you'd like to come, you can book your ticket here.

That aside, the last week or two has been spent gearing up to write THE DEVIL'S HIGHWAY, the follow-up to HELL'S DITCH. I say 'gearing up' because my outlines for novels tend to be ever-longer and more detailed, the better to get the first draft closest to the finished work. They're practically first drafts in themselves these days: the outline for THE DEVIL'S HIGHWAY is nearly 30,000 words.

But I'm having to step briefly back from it now because my agent's emailed me with the second round of edits on my crime novel. The first round arrived at Christmas and kept me out of mischief for a good couple of weeks. The second round isn't as big a deal - touch wood, most of the issues that needed fixing are now fixed - and I'm hoping to have finished up on them by the end of the week.

It's also worth noting that Tom's email contained what has to be my favourite editorial note ever: 'Malnutritioned singing children are better than crucified eviscerated ones.' 

Indeed.

So, I've got a lot to keep me occupied - along with another project I've been mulling over for a while. I'm planning on setting up a Patreon account; those who sponsor it will be supporting the creation of a new serial novel. I enjoyed writing BLACK MOUNTAIN and it would be fun to revisit the form - plus, it would help forestall having to get a day job. More news as it's made - assuming anyone's interested in the project, of course!

Have a grand week, folks. See you on the other side!

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