Paul Mudie nominated for Best Artist - BFS Awards

Paul Mudie, who has done every cover for the Black Books of Horror has reached the shortlist for the British Fantasy Award for Best Artist. Congratulations Paul!

These are some of his covers:

Back From The Dead nominated for BFS Award

Back From The Dead, edited by Johnny Mains and published by Noose & Gibbet Press, has been nominated for the British Fantasy Society award for Best Anthology. The short list includes:

Back From The Dead: The Legacy Of The Pan Book Of Horror Stories – Johnny Mains – Noose & Gibbet
End of the Line, The – Jonathan Oliver – Solaris
Mammoth Book of Best New Horror Volume 21, The – Stephen Jones – Robinson & Constable
Never Again – Allyson Bird & Joel Lane – Gray Friar
Zombie Apocalypse! – Stephen Jones – Robinson & Constable

Having a story in Back From The Dead I am obviously hoping that this eventually clinches the award. Well done Johnny!

The Eighth Black Book of Horror

Just got the proof copy of my story in The Eighth Black Book of Horror off Charles Black for me to check through. Not sure yet when this anthology will appear, but it must be imminent now. My story is called The Last Coach Trip.

This is the cover without the title heading, etc:

Willy by Robert Dunbar

I'm currently reading a brand new book courtesy of being one of the jurists for the HWA's Stoker Award for best novel. This one is Willy by Robert Dunbar, published by Uninvited Books. A strange, dark novel set in a school, most of whose pupils are boarders and all of whom seem oddly damaged. Mind you, most of the staff seem oddly damaged too.

The writing is vaguely reminiscent of Catcher in the Rye, though it's not a pastiche or anything like that. It's a real-time journal kept by one of the damaged pupils, whose roommate is a charismatic but possibly doomed young teenager called Willy.

This took me a short while to get into, possibly because of the way it's written, but it's sucked me in now and, though nothing overtly horrifying has happened yet, there are enough premonitions that things are not going to turn out well...

Birthdays: Sir Christopher Lee and the late Vincent Price

It would have been Vincent Price's 100th birthday today. As it is, today sees Sir Christopher Lee reach 89.

Coincidentally, two days ago it was also the anniversary of Peter Cushing's birth.

BFS Journal

This is the cover for the next issue of the BFS Journal I think this is my favourire cover for it so far.

Green Lantern movie

I remember when DC started the Green Lantern comics in the 1960s. I once had a complete collection of them, till I finally decuided to give up getting comics (big mistake) and got rid of them (even bigger mistake!)

Anyway, Green Lantern has finally made it to the big screen. Looks good too.

Will You Still Love Me In The Morning - Oswaldtwistle Players

The next production for the Ossy Players will be Will you still love me in the morning, which will run from October 12 - 15th at the Civic Theatre, Oswaldtwistle. The farce is by Brian Clemens and Dennis Spooner.

Flesh Eaters - Joe McKinney

Received a copy of this book through the post a week or so ago as part of my new duties as a member of the HWA's Stoker Jury for Novels. I've not read many zombie novels - they're not normally my preferred reading, I'll admit. The only ones so far have either been by Brian Keene or David Wellington, two of the better horror novelists who specialise a lot on this particular trope. 

Joe McKinney is a new writer to me. I must admit, in my ignorance, not knowing his name before this book arrived. That said, I found this a thoroughly satisfying and enjoyable read - if you can call having to put a book down sometimes because you have been brought to the brink too often over the past few minutes and need a break! It's a sign of a writer's skill that he can make you empathise with his characters - and not just the good characters either. And it's an even better sign of a writer's skill that his bad characters - the villains, other than the zombies - are never painted just in black, but have redeeming features as well, sometimes even admirable ones, like courage, self sacrifice and a sense of duty. The zombies, of course, are important to this novel, and these are truly horrible creatures - perhaps some of the worst I have ever come across either in books or films. Also important is the general situation, which is Houston, Texas, flooded by a succession of freak storms that have destroyed its infrastructure and killed off much of its population. The main characters are members of Houston's police, who are striving to keep what order they can in a deteriorating situation that is quickly escalating from bad to worse. Add to this an ebola-related infection which turns its victims into zombie-like cannibalistic nightmares. 

This is a long book, well over 300 pages, but it is never boring, switching through a well-drawn cast of interesting characters who are struggling to make sense of what's happening and to survive. The ending, I'll add, is thoroughly satisfying and well worth the trip. 

Joe McKinney is definitely a writer whose books I'll look out for in future.

The Inquisition - The Black Abyss

My Inquisition by Colin Leslie (The Black Abyss) is now available to read online.

Malicious Deviance

My copy arrived in the post today - and I'm impressed at its size and the quality of the printing. It looks really good - and I'm looking forward to reading it, apart, of course, from my own story, They Pissed On My Sofa.

Malicious Deviance is published by Library of Horror Press.

The Long List - the British Fantasy Awards

The long list of recommendations for the British Fantasy Awards has just been issued.

Pleased to see that Back from the Dead, the Legacy of the Pan Book of Horror Stories made it.

Plus the Sixth and Seventh Black Books of Horror

The Eighth Black Book of Horror - cover art

Charles Black just emailed me a copy of the artwork by Paul Mudie to be used for the cover of the next Black Book of Horror, made up of the severed heads of the contributing writers. I'm in there amongst them!

The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui

Last night was the final night for this production at Oswaldtwistle Civic Theatre. Everyone enjoyed it, and I was pleased that my wife, Linden was presented with a beautiful bouquet of flowers afterwards and a box of chocolates for all the work she put in to create the four fourteen foot banners used in the play's finale and 29 armbands for the cast.

It's been a great production and I have enjoyed virtually every minute of it, from the twice weekly rehearsals to the final week, when we performed the play every night for seven consecutive nights, including the final four before an audience. Tired now, but I would certainly do something like this again. Oswaldtwistle Players are a great group to work with, with some outstandingly talented members who it's been a real pleasure and privilege to have worked with on this production.