Black Ceremonies by Charles Black

I am very much enjoying working on Charlie Black's collection of short stories, Black Ceremonies, which I'll be publishing through Parallel Universe Publications a little later this year as a trade paperback. There are ten stories so far, with one still to come. 

The line up at the moment is: 

The Obsession of Percival Cairstairs
Call of the Damned
The Revelations of Dr Maitland
Tourist Trap, Face to Face
The Coughing Coffin
The Madness Out of the Sea, Death on the Line
The Necronomicon
A Bit Tasty
A Fistful of Vengeance
To Summon a Flesh-Eating Demon. 

More well known as an editor, I am pleased to be able to publish this outstanding collection of his finely crafted stories and show just how good a writer he is as well.

H. P. Lovecraft - Born August 20th 1890.

Born this day in 1890, perhaps the greatest icon in horror fiction, H. P. Lovecraft.

I mentioned this on facebook and someone kindly posted the following song in commemoration. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Their Cramped Dark World and Other Dark Tales to be published by Hazardous Press

I am pleased to announce that Hazardous Press will be publishing a second collection of my short stories, Their Cramped Dark World and Other Dark Tales. This will be the third collection of my stories in total (including The Lurkers in the Abyss and Other Tales of Terror from Shadow Publishing).

The stories included in this new collection will be:

Hoody (first published in When Graveyards Yawn, Crowswing Books, 2006)
A Bottle of Spirits (first published in New Writings in Horror & the Supernatural 2, 1972)
No Sense in Being Hungry, She Thought (first published in Peeping Tom #20, 1996)
Now and Forever More (first published in The Second Black Book of Horror, 2008)
Romero's Children (first published in The Seventh Black Book of Horror, 2010)
Swan Song (first published in the Ninth Black Book of Horror, 2012)
The Farmhouse (first published in New Writings in Horror & the Supernatural 1, 1971)
The Last Coach Trip (first published in The Eighth Black Book of Horror, 2011)
The Satyr's Head (first published in The Satyr's Head & Other Tales of Terror, 1975)
Their Cramped Dark World (first published in The Sixth Black Book of Horror, 2010)

Cargo - A brilliant short Australian zombie movie

I have often thought that the best medium for the zombie tale is in the short story form. I am now beginning to wonder whether it is also ideal for the short film format too, as shown in this brief but excellent Australian movie Cargo, which is both poignant and clever in its use of a mere seven minutes and no dialogue. Directed by Ben Howling & Yolanda Ramke, it was a Tropfest Australia 2013 finalist. It's so short that a review is superfluous except to say that it is well worth watching.

Need for Speed - review

Need for Speed - awful, idiotic nonsense

After thoroughly enjoying all five seasons of Breaking Bad, I was looking forward to seeing Aaron Paul in whatever movies he made as a result. Recently I saw and mildly enjoyed A Long Way Down, which was a light comedy about suicide (!). In this, though, starring parts were divided between Pierce Brosnan, Toni Collette, Imogen Poots and Aaron Paul.

Need for Speed saw Paul starring in his own right.

The pity is that this is a terrible movie. Morally, it's downright awful. The idea that a group of people who may be superb drivers can drive high powered cars, not only at incredibly dangerous speeds on public highways in illegal races, but endanger other road users by driving the wrong way down roads, cross pavements, etc., is so morally reprehensible that I can't imagine how anyone should think producing a film that makes heroes out of people like this is right, especially when the only audience this film is likely to appeal to are impressionable wannabe boy racers. Worse still are the sheer stupidities in it, such as the idea that a car can hurtle through the air at high speed, land and still be in a fit condition to drive or that a car can be refueled while racing at high speed on a public highway. It's not only morally reprehensible but downright stupid, with a plot that is an insult in its cliche-ridden naivety to every intelligent (or semi-intelligent) viewer.

Please, Aaron Paul, think twice before taking on something as bad as this again - or whatever kudos you amassed in making Breaking Bad will be thrown away.

Stop the Train: The Musical

Please see below the poster for Stop the Train: The Musical, in which my daughter Cassandra will be appearing this coming weekend.

Book Review: Landscape of Terror: A Tribute to Lawrence Gordon Clark

My review of Landscape of Terror: A Tribute to Lawrence Gordon Clark is now on the BFS website.