Prism - September 2010

The next issue of Prism is now ready to go off to the printers in time to be posted out to BFS members early September, before FantasyCon.

This is its cover: (by Bryan Talbot)

Self Publishing and E-Books - Further

There's been a recent debate on the Horror Writers Association boards about self publishing and POD - something that was anathema there until recently. How times are changing!

Anyway, this was my contribution to the debate:

"I have begun to believe that certainly with collections of short stories POD may be the only answer for most writers, since mainstream publishers have little interest in short story collections for anyone outside a small circle of big name writers. The only alternative till recently has been to go to small presses for these, but with so many unreliable small presses around, I wonder whether most writers would be better off turning to POD instead. At least then they have full control over what their collection looks like - and will certainly collect more royalties from its sale."

Under the Dome

Just finished reading Stephen King's recent epic, Under the Dome. It's the first novel of his I've been able to finish for several years. I gave up on Cell after two tries, getting as far as 100 pages into it. Under the Dome, though, was a rollicking ride from beginning to end, with characters that really engaged me, the good, the bad and the changeable. It's a long book, but unlike Dream-Catcher, never for one page seemed to have been padded out. There's a lot of detail in it, and character backgrounds, but they all seem relevant to the story and create a rounded, filled-in novel that is epic in feel, even though it takes place over only a few days in a very small locality. King really excelled himself, in particular, with the darker characters - and with the quirkier ones. Indeed, one of the quirkiest, The Chef, is responsible for perhaps the worst act in the entire book, even though he doesn't do it out of malice strangely enough. A complex, fascinating book.

King often puts references in his book to characters or events in others he has written. In this, though, I noticed one character referred to (though he never appears in it) from the novels of Lee Child: the formidable Jack Reacher. (I love Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels and usually take one away with me each year as one of my main holiday reads.)

I won't say any more about this book, as I don't want to let slip any spoilers (all too easy!), except to add that this is King back on top form.

Self Publishing

There's an interesting discussion on Shocklines, with writers like Brian Keene participating, on the issue of self-publishing. Leisure Books, which have published most of Brian's books so far, is likely to turn to ebooks only in the near future. As a result Brian is looking towards self publishing. How many other writers of his ilk will do the same?

My own experience with the collection of my short stories that have been due for publication for several years is leading me to wonder whether I should go down this road too. At least all the stories in this collection have been professionally published before, either in anthologies or magazines. I'll give it a bit longer, but if there is still no serious indication that it will be published within the next twelve months, I can see no option but to look at doing a print run myself, then make it available as an ebook. This isn't something I would have even considered some time ago, but times are changing. And fast.

See also this on Brian Keene's website.

The Last Coach Trip

Spent a little time last night doing a final rewrite (more tweaking than writing) on this story, which is another set in Edgebottom and concerns a cast of Northern workingclass characters - some based on people I used to rub shoulders with back in the days before I got married and I used to spend many a night in Bold Street Workingmens Club in Accrington. I have based the club in this story very much on that place and their annual coach trips to Ripon races. I never did go on their last one, though. I'd stopped going there long before that sad day happened.

Anyway, I'm quite pleased with this tale, though it is gentler than most I've written about that place. Not sure where I'll send it to yet. It's very much a British tale and probably wouldn't go down too well across the pond.

See also this on Brian Keene's website.

My Kindle Books Now On Amazon UK

I have just found out that my Kindle books are now available on Amazon UK.

Sendings and The Worst of All Possible Places are priced at 75p each.

Goblin Mire is £3.01, but I have no control over the pricing for this.

I'm to be a Granddad

My daughter Cassandra and her husband Alan called round last night to give us the good news that they are to have a baby in February next year. They waited till they got their latest scan, verifying that everything was going fine, before telling anyone, just in case. Linden already suspected this several weeks ago, though. There's no fooling her!

This is going to be a busy time for Cassie, as she opens her new drama school, ReAct, at Oswaldtwistle Civic Theatre in September. Alan, who is a sound engineer, has only just returned from doing a job in Albania. He gets around quite a bit and has recently been off to Greece and Spain as well as this most backward of all the Balkan states.

Anyway, my wife is delighted. It's been something she's been after for ages.

Sherlock

Well, the third and final episode of the first series of the BBC's new, present day version of the Holmes saga was aired last night. Though the overall standard has been remarkably high, with some neat plot twists, plenty of atmosphere and some brilliant acting, I must admit the final minutes left me less than overwhelmed. The long awaited appearance of Moriarty finally happened, and what a disappointing, over-wordy, overly dramatic (or melodramatic) piece this was! Its implausability overshadowed everything else. The posturing of all the people taking part in it was particularly bad, turning what should have been a cliffhanger for the next series into little more than an implausable farce. Moriarty - the arch enemy of Holmes and the world's greatest criminal mastermind - was reduced to someone who would have looked over the top as The Master in Doctor Who. And where in the name of reality where all those snipers who had laser sights dotted all over Holmes and Watson? There must have been at least six of them - a whole crowd! And what criminal mastermind would have delayed one second in having both Holmes and Watson killed when he had the chance? The final minutes just didn't make sense and were a poor ending in what till then had been a superb episode.
I hope there is a second series, though. But one in which these faults are rectified in some way, if that is possible. I still think the BBC's choice of Moriarty and the way in which he was portrayed were big mistakes, letting the series down. Casting till then had been first rate.

The Melancholy Haunting of Nicholas Parkes

Some time ago when Chris Barker was still on speaking terms with me - or as near to that as you can get on the internet, as we have never met face to face - he emailed me a copy of this long short story. For various reasons I never got round to reading it, even after I discovered it was to be included in his collection, Tenebrous Tales, published by ex-occidente press.

On an impulse, though, I decided a couple of days ago to read it.

I must admit, I was pleasantly surprised to find what a well written, fascinating story this is, with at least one scene which is efficiently and effectively creepy in a true Jamesian fashion. Based largely on the true life story of Nick Drake, Nicholas Parkes' life, which ended with suicide in the mid seventies, is looked back on in retrospect by his present day obsessive fan, who becomes increasingly enthralled by the dead singer-song writer's spirit. The story moves at a leisurely pace, but is so well written and full of such well portrayed scenes, that I found myself engrossed by it, complete with a very satisfying conclusion.

If the other stories in Tenebrous Tales are up to this standard, then it will be an excellent collection. Unfortunately, because so many people have been turned against Mr Barker by his online persona, it is all too likely far fewer people will read this book than should. Perhaps time will eventually prove in Chris Barker's favour, though, and when today's disputes and antagonisms have been long forgotten, the stories won't.

Zombieland

Watched Zombieland, starring Woody Harrelson, on DVD tonight. I was a bit dubious about this as it was billed as America's answer to Shaun of the Dead, which is quite a challenge. In my view, though, it succeeded to a startling degree, even though Harrelson does seem to be getting uglier as he gets older - though at the same time he also seems to be getting more character - a long way on from his days in Cheers!

I liked the wacky humour of the running commentary from computer geek Jesse Eisenberg, who has his own set of rules for surviving in a world dominated by the living dead. Harrelson, on the other hand, is determined to kill as many zombies as he can in his search for the world's last Twinkies. Complete with a guest appearance by Bill Murray playing himself, and a pair of sisters who live off their wits and their ability to double cross and con anyone, this is a far cry from Dawn of the Dead, even though it does have its own fair share of gore!

It's quite a bit different to most other zombie films, but doesn't cheat on its premise even though it is a comedy and succeeds in making the end of the world look remarkably real.

September Issue of Prism

Started work last night on the next issue of Prism. Everything's working out well so far, with quite a few of the contributions in for it, including the graphics reviews, Ramsey's Rant and the Chairman's Talk. Unfortunately, it looks like we won't be having Mark Morris's piece this time. He's on holiday next week and must have forgotten about the schedule. Must remember to remind him next time well in advance. I do have John Probert's - that came weeks and weeks ago. He's obviously as keen as mustard at the moment.

It's hard to remember how much of a struggle the first issue was in March this year. Having my own template for the bulletin now, which I'm tweaking to add the odd improvement, does make doing it incredibly easy.


I'm hoping Prism is back from the printers and been distributed to BFS members before Fantasycon. That would be good. In actual fact, that's as it should be, since the convention isn't till the end of September!

Ex-Occidente

Ex-Occidente is a small press company operating from Romania. Quentin S. Crisp, who had a book due out from them, has just announced on his blog that he is severing all links with them. Quentin S. Crisp

My own involvement with Ex-Occidente goes back a couple of years when Dan Ghetu, its owner, emailed me out of the blue with the offer to publish Lurkers in the Abyss rather than Midnight House. As I had not fallen out with John Pelan, who runs Midnight House - nor have I since - and was quite willing to wait till Midnight House was in a position to publish my collection, I turned this offer down, but did propose a second collection made up of other, more recent stories. Initially Dan Ghetu was enthusiastic about this idea and asked me to email them to him, which I did. After that silence. Even when I emailed him a month or so later there was still no reply. Finally I emailed that I assumed his silence meant that the offer had been withdrawn. Still no reply. I understand that this silent treatment is not unusual from him - and not only for writers, but frequently purchasers of his books still awaiting their delivery months after they were due.

So, all in all, from my own personal experience, I have not been overly impressed by Ex-Occidente, even though I have bought one of their books by Reggie Oliver, Madder Mysteries.

George and Glenda

Not done much writing for the past few days but that doesn't mean I haven't been active. I've actually stopped to give myself some time to think over the next developments in a couple of projects I've been working on, in particular Lucilla and George and Glenda. The latter is almost finished now. It just needs the climax working out. The main idea for this came to me, strangely enough, at four this morning when I was lying in bed, unable to get back to sleep again. It's a good twist which puts two of the characters who are mutually hostile in great danger with a massive problem to solve.  Should work. Hopefully I can have this sorted in a few weeks, then the novel will be finished. This is different to most of what I have worked on before as it isn't horror as such, with no supernatural elements in it, but a crime novel.

Do your thing, Blade. Please!

I copied this from William Jones's Blog.

Would that be a fitting end to Twilight? If only it were real.