British Fantasy Awards

Congratulations to all the winners of the British Fantasy Awards 2012.

The full list of winners is as follows:

August Derleth Novel: The Ritual by Adam Nevill (Pan)
Robert Holdstock Award for Best Fantasy Novel: Among Others by Jo Walton
Novella: Gorel and the Pot Bellied God by Lavie Tidhar (PS Publishing)
Short Fiction: The Coffin-Maker’s Daughter by Angela Slatter (A Book of Horrors, Jo Fletcher Books)
Anthology: The Weird; editors Jeff and Ann Vandermeer (Corvus Books)
Collection: Everyone’s Just So So Special by Robert Shearman (Big Finish)

Screenplay: Woody Allen, Midnight in Pari
Comic/Graphic Novel: Locke and Key; Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez (IDW Publishing)
The PS Publishing Independent Press Award:Chomu Press
Best Magazine: Black Static
Artist: Daniele Serra
Nonfiction: Supergods: Our World in the Age of the Superhero by Grant Morrison (Jonathan Cape)
Karl Edward Wagner Award: Nicky and Peter Crowther of PS Publishing
BFS/Sydney J Bounds Best Newcomer award: Kameron Hurley

World Fantasy Convention 2013

Booked what we were told was the last available double bedroom at the convention hotel this afternoon for the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton next year. Whew! Would have hated to have to go for one of the overspills.

The convention hotel, The Hilton Brighton Metropole, looks brilliant.

The Poe House in Baltimore

 

This is Edgar Allan Poe's house on 203 N. Amity Street in Baltimore, which looks amazingly small. 

For more information about Poe click here.

Demons and Nightmares

I have a small group of my longer stories off with a publisher at the moment for a possible collection. Am toying with the title of Demons and Nightmares. I don't know of any other collection with that title and have made a quick search online without success. My thoughts are to aim at a possible series, with the next called, obviously, Demons and Nightmares 2.

The Ninth Black Book of Horror edited by Charles Black

Charles has just released images of the cover for The Ninth Black Book of Horror, which will be launched at FantasyCon later this month.

Again it's the work of Paul Mudie, who has done all of the Black Books covers.

 

Contents are:

The Anatomy Lesson - John Llewellyn Probert
The Mall - Craig Herbertson
Salvaje - Simon Bestwick
Pet - Gary Fry
Ashes to Ashes - David Williamson
The Apprentice - Anna Taborska
Life Expectancy - Sam Dawson
What's Behind You? - Paul Finch
Ben's Best Friend - Gary Power
The Things That Aren't There - Thana Niveau
Bit on the Side - Tom Johnstone
Indecent Behaviour - Marion Pitman
His Family - Kate Farrell
A Song, A Silence - John Forth
The Man Who Hated Waste - Marc Lyth
Swan Song - David A. Riley

Extreme Zombies edited by Paula Guran

Received my contributor's copies for Extreme Zombies, edited by Paula Guran for Prime Books, this week. Very impressed with the collection, and by those stories I've read in it so far. My own story, Romero's Children, was originally published in The Seventh Black Book of Horror, edited by Charles Black, and its nice to see it get a second airing, especially in such great company as George R. R. Martin, Joe Lansdale, and Brian Keene etc.

• “Charlie’s Hole” by Jesse Bullington
• “At First Only Darkness” by Nancy A. Collins
• “The Blood Kiss” by Dennis Etchison
• “We Will Rebuild” by Cody Goodfellow
• “Dead Giveaway” by Brian Hodge
• “Zombies for Jesus” by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
• “An Unfortunate Incident at the Slaughterhouse” by Harper Hull
• “Captive Heart” by Brian Keene
• “Going Down” by Nancy Kilpatrick
• “On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert With Dead Folks” by Joe R. Lansdale
• “Susan” by Robin D. Laws
• “Makak” by Edward Lee
• “The Traumatized Generation” by Murray Leeder
• “Meathouse Man” byGeorge R.R. Martin
• “Abed” by Elizabeth Massie
• “For the Good of All” by Yvonne Navarro
• “Home” by David Moody
• “Jerry’s Kids Meet Wormboy” by David J. Schow
• “Aftertaste” by John Shirley
• “Viva Las Vegas” by Thomas Roche
• “In Beauty, Like the Night” by Norman Partridge
• “Romero’s Children” by David A. Riley
• “Tomorrow’s Precious Lambs” by Monica Valentinelli
• “Provider” by Tim Waggoner
• “Chuy and the Fish” by David Wellington

 

The Ninth Black Book of Horror

The Ninth Black Book of Horror, edited by Charles Black, will be launched at FantasyCon in September. The cover hasn't been revealed yet but will again by the work of the artist Paul Mudie.

The stories in this edition will be:

The Anatomy Lesson - John Llewellyn Probert
The Mall - Craig Herbertson
Salvaje - Simon Bestwick
Pet - Gary Fry
Ashes to Ashes - David Williamson
The Apprentice - Anna Taborska
Life Expectancy - Sam Dawson
What's Behind You? - Paul Finch
Ben's Best Friend - Gary Power
The Things That Aren't There - Thana Niveau
Bit on the Side - Tom Johnstone
Indecent Behaviour - Marion Pitman
His Family - Kate Farrell
A Song, A Silence - John Forth
The Man Who Hated Waste - Marc Lyth
Swan Song - David A. Riley

The Death of Gore Vidal

I haven't read as many of Gore Vidal's books as I probably should have done, which is surprising as the two I have, Washington DC and Julian, are brilliant novels which I enjoyed reading immensely. Julian, in particular, which I bought many years ago while on holiday in Austria, where I read it within a matter of  days, has always lingered strongly in my memories. It had a huge influence on my attitude towards monotheistic religions and the old religions of Rome and the ancient world.

Wikipedia

M. R. James - 150th Birthday

Today is M. R. James' 150th birthday, born 1st August, 1862, and still read with great admiration today as one of our finest ever writers of ghost stories.

The Walking Dead

I watched the penultimate episode of the second series last night and was struck by just how great this show has become. Last week saw one major character go - traumatically - and this week saw another. Not only that, but at the end we could see just what an apocalyptic episode the series finale is going to be next week! That is definitely going to be an edge of seater!

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Finally got round to seeing Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows for the first time this weekend. I must admit straight away that I am a traditionalist when it comes to Holmes and prefer him played straight, as per the brilliant TV series starring Jeremy Brett. I do, however, like most of the 1930s/40s Basil Rathbone interpretations, though these do play havoc at times with both period and character, particularly poor Watson.

I also like Robert Downey Jnr as an actor.

(Spoiler Alert)

Yet, despite some moments that truly work, overwhole this film really doesn't. Perhaps it's the all too frequent bursts of frenetic action that punctuate it. These are so far over the top they are almost cartoonish. And there are so many things that are just plain daft, like Holmes' sudden passion for camouflaging himself. And why on earth did we have to have the ridiculous spectacle of Stephen Fry as Mycroft wandering around his stately home in the nude? What was that all about? I'm mystified. I honestly am.

The climax with Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls was well done and, as Holmes forces them both over to tumble to their deaths, there was, for a moment, a genuine feeling of poignancy. A poignancy that was ended too abruptly a short time later with Holmes' reappearance, camouflaged, at the end, which was so trite, whimsical and downright silly that, for me at least, it gave a hollow ring to the entire film.

Robert Downey Jnr's interpretation of Holmes may suit some people, but I feel it's too carefree and silly and lacks any conviction. Perhaps, at the end of the day, I can only blame its director, Guy Ritchie, who seems neither to care nor have any real feeling for Doyle's character, because this is one of the worst interpretations of Holmes I have ever seen.

Lovecraft eZine No 16 - online now

The latest issue of The Lovecraft eZine is online now.

It contains:

In the Tank by Scott Nicolay
The Thing In the Depths by Pete Rawlik
Fish Eye by David A. Riley
Fade to Black by Robert Borski
The Visitor From Outside by A. J. French

And this is the illustration for my story:

Lovecraft eZine issue 16

While we're still waiting for this issue to be made available online, its cover has been revealed:

The Ninth Black Book of Horror

Pleased to see that the Ninth Black Book of Horror from Mortbury Press, edited by Charles Black, is to be launched at FantasyCon this September. Unfortunately I won't be able to attend but I hope the launch goes well. Stories in it by Simon Bestwick, Kate Farrell, Paul Finch, John Forth, Tom Johnstone, Thana Niveau, Marion Pitman, John Llewellyn Probert, David A. Riley, Anna Taborska and David Williamson. I can't believe it's reached the 9th volume already!