"The triumph of Everington’s first novel is that, while hinting at lofty literary precedents, it cumulatively takes on an unsettling voice all of its own." The Guardian
Thursday 28 February 2013
So, these were something interesting: Intermentand The Social Diary Of A Ghoul are two sort of prose poem/graphic novel hybrids self-published by RJ Barker (words) and Mikko Sovijarvi (pictures).
They're lovely to look at, either on Kindle or especially on a full screen - you can see the style of art from the cover below. The words, as you might guess by the fact I like them, are suitably twisted. They aren't so much stories, as situations revealed in elegant, repetitive prose. Saying much else would be spoiling things.
Self-publishing is often criticised, but I love the fact that little gems like this can get released nowadays. No publisher would touch these, not for reasons of quality but for reasons of length, prose style, etc. If you're intrigued, do take a look at them.
Oh, and apparently there will be a third, the intriguingly titled The Boy Who Listened in at Doors...
Ramsey Campbell is an author seemingly as prolific as he is influential – I'm a big fan, but I've still got a number of his books to read. Fortunately my wife got me four of his books newly reissued as paperbacks from PS Publishing for Christmas. The first I've read is The Overnight.
(Before we start, I’ll say that these paperbacks from PS Publishing are very good quality-wise – not something I often notice with paperbacks, but these are nice books to read, seemingly on better paper than most paperbacks and with good covers and designs. But anyway.)
This edition has an interesting and enthusiastic introduction from Mark Morris – obviously a keen fan of Campbell, and as he admits possibly an indirect catalyst of the book itself, because it was Morris who first got Campbell a job in a bookshop... and The Overnight is set in Texts, a bookshop in a foggy retail park known as Fenny Meadows. (Incidentally, the fact that an author as talented as Campbell had to get a job to support his writing is profoundly depressing, isn't it? We should be putting up statues of the man, not have him stacking bookshelves.)
I suspect some horror fans won’t get on with The Overnight. The story is told from multiple points of view, and there is a looooong build up before things get truly nasty (but believe me, they do). Some of the devices used to generate tension in the earlier sections of the novel might seem hackneyed in lesser hands – unseasonal fog, mysterious noises, strange substances like slug-trails ignored. In his short stories, Campbell is the master of describing partially seen horrors that the characters rationalise away (and sometimes that refusal to see is as scary as the thing itself). Here, over the length of a full novel, it can sometimes seem annoying that all of the characters constantly display the same trait: not one of them thinking the thing that looks like an evil-fog-monster-thingy might actually be an evil-fog-monster-thingy.
But this adds a strength to the narrative as well - each character only sees part of the picture; it’s only the reader who sees the connections, only the reader who realises just how bad things are getting out there in the fog... Of course if they were talking to each other, the employees of Texts might realise too, but the book's characters often seem like they are talking a different language to each other (and not just between the American manager Woody and the rest of them). One of the themes of The Overnight is miscommunication: arguments & misunderstandings between the characters; electronic voices failing in the lift and on the speakers; videos becoming corrupted and books unreadable... and the taunting, mimicing voices of the unseen things themselves.
The final third of the book is a compelling set-piece, as Woody gathers all of his staff together for an overnight stock-take and the things outside move in - the characters are under attack and they don't even realise. Well, not until too late for most of them anyway - it's hardly a spoiler to say that not all the characters make it out of Texts alive. But, as befitting a novel about how miscommunication can leave us isolated, most (but importantly not all) of those who do die do so alone, unable even to warn the others...
It's a bleak message, but an exhilarating book. Highly, highly recommended.
So, I've been nominated by Martin Cosby (a new weird fiction author who I suspect you might be hearing more of...) for one of these blog thingies; it's called a Leibster apparently, and I have to:
a) reveal eleven facts about myself
b) answer eleven questions from Martin
c) set eleven questions for eleven other people
So without further ado, eleven facts:
Six days out of seven I will be wearing a Fred Perry polo shirt.
As I type this I am listening to the song Wonderful Excuse by The Family Cat. I also own a cat called George (or as much as anyone ‘owns’ a cat, at any rate).
I have never broken any bones. Well, not my own.
I suffer frequently from déjà-vu.
I once dressed as ‘boy from Kes’ for a film themed fancy dress party. This involved hasty manipulation of a rubber glove, some shoe-laces, and a kestrel I coloured in with felt-tips on some cardboard.
The first film I ever saw at the cinema was The Empire Strikes Back. It was a double-bill with the first film but my parents got the times wrong, so I saw them the wrong way round. I suspect this explains a lot.
My favourite cocktail is a Whisky Sour.
I am 89% sure that my life is not a Truman Show style hoax.
I contend that the best album of the 90s is Giant Steps by The Boo Radleys.
I suffer frequently from déjà-vu.
Martin's questions for me: 1. Do you write your first drafts by hand?
Yes I do. Writing by hand has lots of pluses (more speed, less distractions) and few negatives. I know some people would view having to type it up the first draft as a negative, but for me that's a plus too: it means going over every single line of prose again at least once.
2. Do you follow more than 10 blogs?
Yes - see sidebar >>>>>>>>
3. Do you play a musical instrument?
No. I'd love to be able to play guitar but I tried a few times as a teen, and good Christ I was bad. And not even bad in a sounds-cool-feedbacky kind of way, but just bad.
4. Given the choice, which opera would you attend?
Ummm, I know nothing about opera. Nothing. What was that one Mark Twain compared to an orphanage burning down? I'll go for that one.
5. e-book or paper book?
Both. I don't care if it's against the rules - both!
6. Do you use an electric blanket?
No. I don't know how to expand on that answer to make it vaguely interesting, sorry.
7. Do you write in cafes?
No, but I'd like to. Life isn't that luxurious at the moment.
8. Is there a film that has influenced you greatly?
The Empires Strikes Back - see above.
9. Do you keep a diary?
Not a personal one, but I do have a 'writing diary'. Like so much else in my life it is sporadic, partially illegible, and woefully behind schedule.
10. Which foodstuff do you like the least?
I had something in France - the name escapes me - I love most French food, including snails and the like, but this was vile. It stank to high heaven and ruined a perfectly good piece of fish beneath it. When we looked up the translation, it just said it was a dish consisting of 'innards stuffed with innards'.
11. Do you listen to music while you work? If so, what?
Yes, all the time unless I'm doing final editing of a story. Favourite artists include The Auteurs, Laura Marling, Bob Dylan, EMA, Pavement, Viva Voce, Radiohead...
And now, my eleven questions for eleven fine people:
Who’s the most underrated author out there that you know of?
You need to pick one song to be used to torture unpleasant terrorist types, by playing it to them full volume 24/7. What do you pick?
As a writer, what is your own personal definition of success?
How do you like your steak?
A genie grants you get an extra hour every day, meaning your days are 25 hours long. The condition is you must use this hour to take up a brand new hobby. What do you pick?
What’s the most overrated piece of writing advice you’ve ever been given?
If you were in a band, what would your band name be?
Oxford Commas – yes or no?
What’s the most embarrassing typo or mistake you’ve ever found in your work after publication?
Who’s your favourite Muppet?
Will you write me a haiku?
Monday 11 February 2013
"What do we want?"
"A new novella from Alan Ryker, published by Darkfuse, and about scary dolls if possible!"
For When the Veil Dropsis an anthology of short stories from the newly fledged West Pigeon Press. The stories are all pretty dark, but there’s no unifying theme or genre: horror, crime, and even surrealism are all at play here.
Multi-author anthologies, particularly when they feature relatively unknown writers as here, are probably always likely to provoke a mixed reaction. There were five stories that really stood out for me. As for the others, there aren't any stories here that are bad in any objective sense, but a number of them I found slightly ‘overwritten’ for my tastes (my inner editor wanted to cross out words quite a lot). Other readers may well have different favourites, but for the record mine were as follows:
The Chopping Block by Doug Morano. Quite a simple post-apocalyptic story, but no less effective for it. Of course stories about survivors of some apocalypse or other are ten a penny, but this one managed to be both original and quietly disturbing. One of those stories that works well because of what has been left out as much as what has been put in.
Beside Still Waters by BV Larsen. One of the two authors in the book that I’d read before (in the Pulp Ink 2 anthology) Larson’s contribution here is a crime story told by a classic unreliable narrator. I'm a sucker for unreliable narrators, but they are hard to pull off. But Larson does so with aplomb. A story about small-town life, prejudice (including our own as we read, perhaps), and revenge.
St. Mollusks by Paul L. Bates. Well this was very Thomas Ligotti (no bad thing). Like Ligotti in something like The Town Manager, this story really just describes the workings and rationale behind a very odd institution (sometimes “show don’t tell” doesn't apply!).
Thicker Than by Lydia Peever. A more ‘traditional’ horror story, this hit all the right notes for me. Well written and atmospheric, in a genre where atmosphere is a must.
Oh Abel, Oh Absalom by J.R. Hamantaschen. The other author I’d read before; and I’d probably say this is the best story by the him that I have read. It’s the longest story in the anthology, a novella told from the point of view of some lowlife who by any standards is morally dubious. He comes up against a group of people who do have morals – but a moral code that to modern sensibilities seems even worse than his immorality. It's a set up that makes for truly uncomfortable reading - there are no good guys here, or anywhere implies Hamantaschen.
Apparently, it's Women In Horror Month. As part of this you'll find many great female horror writers talking about their work, which can only be a good thing - I don't know if there's any residual sexism meaning woman have a harder time getting accepted as a horror author than their male counterparts, but given that dickheads like Vox Day exist, the answer is probably yes.
(Don't google "Vox Day" if you are unaware of the man or his views. Seriously, don't. You'll end up feeling worse about people in general, which is never good.)
Anyway, for Women In Horror Month I thought I'd post 20 of my favourite horror short stories by female authors. For no other reason than I like compiling imaginary anthologies; it's like making mix-tapes all over again...
This list is off the top of my head, so it's pretty biased towards stories I've read recently, but I've tried to include both classic and contemporary stories. I've only picked one story per author and as ever my definition of what makes a story 'horror' is pretty loose.
Further suggestions very much welcome in the comments...
In The Waterworks (Birmingham, Alabama, 1883) - Caitlin R Kiernan The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman Idolised - Emma Newman
The Screwfly Solution - James Tiptree Jr. The Little Dirty Girl - Joanna Russ Don't Look Now - Daphne du Maurier Cold Coffee Cups & Curious Things - Cate Gardner A.G.A. - S.P. Miskowski
The Summer People - Shirley Jackson The Dark - Karen Joy Fowler Replacement - Lisa Tuttle Under Fog - Tanith Lee The Dog That Bit Her - Autumn Christian The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas - Ursula K. Le Guin The Room Upstairs - Sarah Pinborough The Devil of Delery Street - Poppy Z Brite Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? - Joyce Carol Oates The Hortlak - Kelly Link
Afterward - Edith Wharton White Roses, Bloody Silk - Thana Niveau
![The Overnight [Paperback] by Ramsey Campbell](http://www.pspublishing.co.uk/ekmps/shops/appleworld/images/the-overnight-paperback-by-ramsey-campbell-1338-p[ekm]197x300[ekm].jpg)
