| INXS to stop touring |
[14 Nov 2012|01:11am] |
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I'm an INXS subscriber and received an email today, a press release that's also posted on their site (which you can read here in full). Basically, they're not going to tour any more, which I suppose means - taking into account the word retirement - that they're splitting up. “We understand that this must come as a blow to everybody, but all things must eventually come to
an end. We have been performing as a band for 35 years, it’s time to step away from the touring
arena” “Our music will of course live on and we will always be a part of that.” “We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to all the friends and family that have supported us throughout our extensive career. Our lives have been enriched by having you all as a part of the journey.” As regular readers of this blog will know, I'm a massive INXS fan and have been since accompanying an ex-girlfriend to their 'Summer XS' gig at Wembley stadium, in 1991. I saw them again, with Alison, at DeMontfort Hall in Leicester as part of the 'Get Of Out The House' tour (this blog post is kind-of about that), then at the NEC in 1997, as they supported 'Elegantly Wasted'. After Hutchence's death, we saw them again - at the NEC - with Jon Stevens on vocals and whilst it wasn't a bad concert, it didn't really work for me. I avoided the whole Rockstar thing and the album 'Switch' (though Alison likes it a lot) and we saw them last year, at the Clapham Common gig (see here). There was also a link on their Twitter feed to a Rolling Stone article from 1988, when they were in the prime as the mighty KICK album was just starting to take over the world and it makes great reading (here's the link). Reading that brought home the fact that, for me, the true INXS sound ends with the suicide of Michael Hutchence and it's been 15 years since he departed. Having said that, they're a great live act and their gigs were always worth going to, so it's a real shame. “It’s been 35 years for INXS as a live touring band and unbelievably it’s been 15 years ago since we
lost Michael” said Jon Farriss. “We lived for each other in the trenches and we loved each other. It was the six of us against the
world and then suddenly and inexplicably we were but five. We were lost right at the moment we
were on top.” As Jon Farriss says, “INXS’ touring days could never last forever. We wanted it to end on a high. And it has.” 
Thanks for everything, boys, for the pleasure you've given me and millions of others over the years and rest assured that I'll be listening to your music for a long time to come. Long live INXS.
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| In Portugal - A Real Life Ghost Story |
[28 Oct 2010|03:02pm] |
In 1989, my friend Craig Tankard & I went on holiday to Portugal. Whilst there, we experienced something that, to this day, neither of can properly explain.
Mark Deniz’s Beyond Fiction website is having a Ghost Awareness Month and he invited me to write a blog entry for him, so I thought I’d publicly tell mine and Craig’s story.
All of this is true (I even got Craig to read through the piece, to make sure our memory of the events meshed) and I’ll leave it up to you to decide what we saw.
Beyond Fiction website
Sweet dreams!
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| NewCon 5 (9/10th October 2010) |
[13 Oct 2010|04:38pm] |
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You know how sometimes you read a report and it appears as if the person wasn't at the event at all? This is one of those, I'm afraid - I had a great time, I met a lot of good people, I went to a reading but I didn't do any of the main panels. So other people might have far more accurate reports of the con than I do. Oh well, I had a good time.
I’d never been in the Fishmarket art centre in Northampton before, but it’s a good space - open and airy, with plenty of natural light. There’s a little café at the top, small special-interest shops down the sides and plenty of room to move about.
Paul from the NSFWG was manning the door when I arrived, so I had a chat with him and Susan (another NSFWG member). Russell Morgan, an artist from Kettering that I knew from Facebook but only met for the first time at FantasyCon, came over - he had some (very good) pictures in the art show and we had a drink and a chat, about writing and drawing, influences and horror and a project that we might work on together.
There were panels and readings through the day - the panels were in the main area (which carried quite a bit of echo), the readings at the back, in a little room that was rather exotically called a studio. I unfortunately only managed one reading - though I did get to meet Sam Stone, which was a bonus - held by Jaine Fenn, Ian Whates and Stephen Palmer, who let Ian read his piece too. Very good, with some great excerpts read, but the room got a little stuffy after a while.
After chatting with Sam about writing, later joined by David Howe, I then checked out the stalls, met Ian Whates’ lovely partner and finally got to see “Shoes, Ships & Cadavers” (the anthology of new writing from the Northampton SF Writers Group, edited by Ian Whates and Ian Watson, with a terrific introduction by Alan Moore). Neil Bond & I oohed-and-aahed over it and it’s lovely looking tome. He & I sat and chatted for a while, joined by Donna Scott (both members of the writing group).
After lunch (where I managed to pick up a long sought 70s sleaze novel from the market in town), I took to door duty with Tim Taylor (also from the NSFWG), where we were entertained by the Jester and his magic show and chatted about writing, our plans and our processes. All good fun. 
Then there was a real buzz in the air, as Alan Moore arrived. Now I’ve never met Alan Moore before (he’s a Northampton resident) and the only real contact I’ve had with him has been interviews regarding films of his work, where he comes across as quite crotchety (though it has to be said, having seen the films, I can see his viewpoint). His very lovely words about my story “What We Do Sometimes, Without Thinking” made me think differently, but I was still a bit trepidatious when I went to introduce myself. How much of an idiot am I? “Hello,” I said, “my name’s Mark West and I just wanted to thank you for your kind words about my story.” “Which one’s yours?” he asked. I told him it was the train one and he remembered it, complimented me on it again and was full of praise for the book and what we were doing and then he said “keep it local” What a truly lovely man, all beard and great jacket and rings, but exuding this wonderfully genial air. I didn’t get to sit next to him on the signing panel (damn you, Tim!), instead I was sat between Neil and Dr Steve and had a great time. The book seemed to do well, people were very interested and hey, if you’re a writer, being on a signing panel is terrific fun. Three months ago, I wasn’t even in the NSFWG. Now I was, I’d written a story in a week and met Alan Moore through it. Sometimes, you know, this writing lark is bloody brilliant!
I had to head off a little after this and didn’t get to say goodbye to everyone, but the rest of NewCon partied into the night (and then met up again the next day). It was a cracking con, I really enjoyed myself and can’t wait for the next one.
 Donna Scott, Neil Bond and me, on the signing panel
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| FantasyCon report (17-19th September 2010), in Nottingham |
[22 Sep 2010|10:13am] |
After attending many Con’s in the past, only for the Saturday, I decided to push the boat out a bit and stay for the weekend. And I’m really glad I did. I caught the train up and found my hotel, the Plaza, immediately (and thank you so much to Mick Curtis & Gary Cole-Wilkin for suggesting it - lovely room, plenty of space, very close to the Con itself). So much happened, it’s going to be impossible to try and create a decent blog post so I’ll go with the bullet point method:
Friday
* Got signed in, chatted with Martin Roberts (cool haircut) and Helen Hopley. Bumped into Stu Young and Peter Mark May (the first of many new friends, who I’d already conversed with through Facebook). Had my afternoon planned out, which readings I was going to go to, which panels, all sorted.
* Convened in the bar, met Mick & Debbie Curtis and Gary Cole-Wilkin & Soozy Marjoram (all good people) from the RCMB. Also met Simon Marshall-Jones (SMJ from hereon) - we’d been saying it felt like ages since we last met up, but it was Terror Scribes in July. How times flies. Also met the lovely Raven Dane and Pixie Pants - wonderful ladies.
* Went out for dinner - Zizzi’s, very nice, very expensive - with Stu Young, Pam Creais and Lilly (don’t know her surname, unfortunately). Due to the extraordinary length of time they took to serve us, managed to miss Simon Bestwick and Peter Mark May’s readings. Whoops! On the plus side, Stu gave me two books he’d picked up in local charity shops, a Jesse Stone hardcover (Stu & I love Robert B Parker and often end up talking about him, when we meet and on email too) and a Robert Crais.
* Back to the hotel, met more people, went to the Quiz (our team was bolstered by the wonderful Jay Eales - recovering from graphic dental work that he kept trying to tell me about - and Selina Lock) and two chaps I never really caught the name of. The quiz was tough (seriously, who knows that much about the bloody Transformers) and we came last, though there were only about 6 points between us and the winners.
* “Get Real” panel, which I attended with Stu.
* Back at the bar, meeting and chatting. Called it a night at just after midnight, then was kept up until 3am by the shrieking of Nottingham night-life-folk on the main road outside my hotel.
Saturday
* Up good and early, checked out the hotel breakfast. Decided £16 was too steep, walked around to Greggs and got a croissant. On the way, I bumped in Gary Greenwood, we had a chat and agreed to meet up later. Determined to have a more pro-active approach to the readings and, for the most part, managed it. In fact, the lift (or ready lack thereof) scuppered me more than anything else. So what did I do today?
* Met Gary and Emily McMahon on the way into the hotel. Had a nice chat, talking about awards and work and families. Stu Young came by, gave Gary a copy of “The Godwulf Manuscript”, which he & I have been raving over and which Gary wanted to read.
* Andrew Hook’s reading was great fun, included the penguin head and I got to ask him some questions at the end.
* Gary McMahon’s reading was equally good. I’m very lucky, I’ve pre-read “Pretty Little Dead Things” (an ARC of which appeared over the weekend) but it was great to hear it in Gary’s own voice.
* To the bar, where I met up with Paul and Cath Finch, David Price, Simon Unsworth, the McMahon’s and Shaun Hamilton, who I originally met in Fiction Factory. We took some photo’s. I also finally got to meet, face-to-face, Stephen Bacon. Steve & I have been corresponding for a while now and we’re working on a collaborative project together, but it was great to shake his hand. His wife, the lovely Andrea, had come along for the day with him and it was great to meet her too. I only hope she didn’t get too bored!
* Caught Paul Meloy’s reading and I’m glad I did. The story was incredibly moving, written (and read) with power and very affecting. I’ve never been disappointed by Meloy and this was no exception.
* Went to lunch at the Java café with Dave Price and SMJ. By the counter, at a small table, were Stephen Volk, Tim Lebbon and Mark Morris, who all said hi. Stood behind Jonathan Oliver in the queue and the lady behind the counter asked what we were all doing. We explained about the Con and that we were writers. She asked if any of us were famous. As one, we all turned and pointed at Steve Volk.
* Steve & Andrea Bacon joined us for lunch and he & I talked over our collaboration project. I’ve got a good feeling about it.
* “End Of The Line” launch - picked up my copy, got a signature from everyone who was there. When I got to Conrad, shook his hand and thanked him for the confidence burst that FicFac had given me. He’s a gracious man, that Williams.
* Paul Finch’s reading was good, though I only caught the tail end because of the launch and the bloody lifts.
* “The Grass Is Greener” panel. I went in on my own, interested to hear about moving genres (I’m not leaving horror, but my Lost Film novella is functionally a crime story, told in that voice and I’ve been reading a lot of crime lately to absorb it). Paul Meloy came in and joined me. Good panel, very interesting.
* Paul & I have a chat in the reception area, about brands. Decide that it’s all about the writing. He goes to the dealers room, I head up to Ian Whates’ reading. Once again, foiled by the lift but I catch at least 20 minutes. Ian runs the Writers Group I’ve recently joined and it was great to hear him read aloud, even better that he finished early and so I got to ask some questions.
* Back to the bar, where I meet up with John B Ford, who has dropped in for a while and Alison Davies. I haven’t seen either of them for years but, quite literally, it’s as if no time had gone by. John looked good and, despite his dreadful last few years, was upbeat. Let’s hope this isn’t the last Con we see him at.
* “How Not To Get Published” panel, which I’d been really looking forward to but, to my mind, didn’t work at all - it got quite snide, I thought, so I left. Managed to meet up with Jonathan Oliver for a chat a little later, as I wanted to ask him how he liked his novel pitches.
* Back to the bar, for more chat, then SMJ collared me and we sat down with Adrian Chamberlin. The three of us - and Mark Deniz - are working on a 4-writer-collection and we batted some ideas back and forth. One of them, in two parts, was really quite exciting!
* The RCMB Curry trip, wonderfully organised - as ever - by Gary Cole-Wilkin and Soozy Marjoram (and a terrific job they do, I organised a “thank you” round of applause when we finished). We were rounded up, led down, seated and eating really quickly - conversation was loud and passionate and funny and the meal was terrific. Attending were: Paul & Cath Finch, John Travis, Charles Rudkin, Ally Bird, Simon Unsworth, Terry Grimwood, Daniele Sierra, SMJ, Joel Lane, Simon Bestwick, GCW, Soozy, Shaun Hamilton, Mick & Deb Curtis, me, Gary & Emily McMahon, Chris Teague and Gary Fry. Great fun.
* Back to the Brittania and into the awards. Neil Bond and Donna Scott, from my Writers Group, had saved me a place at their table for the event and I didn’t realise, until too late, that I was sharing it with David Riley and Sharon Ring. Wish I’d known at the time, I’d have introduced myself! The awards were good (I wish Selina Lock had won for ‘Girly comic’ but Neil Gaiman - who he? - is, I suppose, a big draw) and Conrad William’s acceptance speech for “One” was about the most moving I’d heard since Tim Lebbon’s last year. Fantastic stuff and I made a point to go and congratulate him and Sarah Pinborough before the evening dispersed everyone.
* Back to the bar. More chat.
* Into the small bar, for the Pan book launch. It was held back by another event running late, so Peter Mark May & I stood chatting with John Forth and his partner Esther Sherman. We chatted about many things, but “Piranha 3D” got a good airing - it’s important, I think, to find folk who share your belief that a 3D film full of boobs can only be a good thing! Great fun, great couple and I really hope that Esther’s promise of a horror-Burlesque performance comes off.
* The Pan Launch was fabulous, helped in no small part by Johnny Mains’ enthusiasm and John L Probert’s incredible oratory skills.
* Back to the bar, more catching up with people (including Matthew F Riley), then back to the Plaza to listen to the Nottingham harpies.
Sunday
I admit, I chickened out. I got a text from Mick Curtis, wishing me a safe journey and decided to head straight for the train station and my pre-bought ticket and reserved seat. If I’d stepped back into the hotel, I’d still be there, I think.
This was a fabulous con, brilliantly organised and run and I had a whale of time! Roll on the next one!
The Seven Dwarves of the Apocalypse (or, variants on a theme)
(Gary McMahon, Shaun Hamilton, Steve Bacon, SMJ, me, David Price, Simon Unsworth)
In the Brittania bar, Saturday morning - picture by Emily McMahon
Me & Gary McMahon at the Curry evening, Chutney's. Very nice it was too.
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| My blog round-up |
[03 Jun 2010|11:06am] |
Here's a round-up of recent entries at my blog, which resides at www.markwest.org.uk
"Come See My House In The Pretty Town" (come on, you knew the working title of 'david & the clowns' wasn't going to stick, didn't you?) has just winged its way over to the editors in-box and I await her decision with what approximates patience from me.
I like the story a lot - it's a very different beast to "Mr Huxton Goes Camping" but I think that's a good thing and, as Sarah (my kid sister and stalwart pre-reader) says, at least this ending explains itself!
I'll let you know how it goes...
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I got a copy of “Generations” in the post today, a new marketing booklet from FordDirect that collects together car-related memories and is illustrated throughout with old photographs. The reminisces make for a nice read – my favourite is the lady who fondly remembers “doing all the things I no longer approve of in my Escort XR3i” – and the pictures are, on the whole, wonderful reminders of family life that’s often decades old.
My interest – and the reason the copy arrived – is that there’s one image on the back cover and it’s of me, standing in front of my Dad’s (borrowed) Ford Anglia, on a family holiday to Chapel St Leonards in June 1972. The agency found the image on my Flickr account and I was more than happy for them to use it.
I’m really quite pleased to be associated with it.
There are more details on the campaign here.
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WHERE THE HEART IS
A GUIDED TOUR OF BRITISH HORROR - edited by Gary Fry
Take an alternative tour of Great Britain…
Writers are often told to write about what they know best . . . and what do they know better than their own homes? In this anthology, 19 fine authors of dark fiction reveal some of the less palatable elements of their native environments.
There’s blood where the heart is.
Much blood.
Superb new stories by:
Stephen Volk, Rhys Hughes, Gary McMahon, Paul Finch, Joel Lane, Simon Bestwick, Gary Fry, D F Lewis, Andrew Hook, Allen Ashley, Stuart Young, Simon Kurt Unsworth, Carole Johnstone, Michelle James, Stephen Bacon, John Travis, Mark Patrick Lynch, Mark West and Mike O'Driscoll
Paperback: £8.99 / $16 (+p&p)
ORDER NOW: http://www.grayfriarpress.com/catalogue/whereheart.html
(features my story "The City In The Rain", revamped especially for this anthology)
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On Saturday, Matthew & I went along to Waterstones in Kettering to see my old critiquing partner Sue Moorcroft, who was having a signing there. Her latest book - “All That Mullarkey” - has just been published by ChocLit and it’s wonderful - I’d go so far as to say it’s my favourite book of hers to date (I read it in draft, some time ago) and I’m really looking forward to getting into it again.
Sue writes romance/chick-lit, which isn’t a genre I tend to read particularly widely in, but her books always work for me (in fact, her “Starting Over” is currently no.1 in my books-read-this-year list) and “Mullarkey” does more than most. The lead character reminded me of a very dear, close friend, it’s funny, touching and clever and there’s a character in it who writes horror for the small press. I enjoyed the version I read so much, in fact, that it’s the book Beth Hammond takes to Heyton with her in “Conjure”.
Sue’s book is available in all good bookshops or can be ordered from Amazon here.
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I have two new reviews in the May edition of VideoVista.
Both are French, part of the new-wave horror that seems to be coming out of there right now and both of them, for the most part, are very good.
High Lane features some hair-raising climbing footage that had my afraid-of-heights wife almost swooning at times
Mutants is a kind of zombie film, but not.
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All entries originally posted at www.markwest.org.uk
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| Books up on eBay |
[05 May 2010|12:12pm] |
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After some quite considerable time away, I've decided to dabble once more in the eBay waters and have put 10 books up for sale (my shelves were getting seriously overloaded and these were the first cull casualties).
Apart from "The Birthing House" by Christopher Ransom, which is absolutely awful, the rest are decent enough books and all are in immaculate condition.
Interested? The link to my eBay page is:
Happy browsing!
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| "Huxton" 2nd draft now completed |
[09 Apr 2010|03:36pm] |
The second draft of “Huxton” is now done and off to a handful of pre-readers and so I await their feedback. I’ll read the draft to Alison over the weekend, so I can get a feel for the story-told, as opposed to the story-written and I’ll combine my thoughts, with those of the pre-readers, to come up with the third draft.
It’s weird - after years of not writing a short, to have now created one to 2nd draft in less than a week is quite astounding!
I still don’t know about the ending though and that’s one of the strange things about writing, especially if you work in a genre that requires reaction - shock, for horror; surprise, for a mystery; a good laugh for a comedy. As the writer, you get the initial idea, then you write the first draft, which you read, then you write the 2nd draft, which you read, then you write the 3rd draft. By that time, the story has gone through the mill six times and you don’t really see the words any more, you certainly don’t get a lot of sense from them. So what was shocking as an idea, by the 3rd draft is “ho hum, now we’ll kill them with the steak knife and a warmed spoon”. That’s why the first-readers are essential.
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| Sometimes, I do complete stuff |
[07 Apr 2010|12:39pm] |
I’ve just completed the first draft of a short story that has the filename of “Huxton1” (I did think of a working title - “Mr Huxton Goes Camping” - but that seems counter-productive now) and I’m really chuffed. Why? Well, this is my first short story since “Risen Wife”, back in 2004 and came about because I realised that as a horror writer, I had to write something. Since “The Day It Rained” fell over last year (30+k words in) and because I can’t quite get into “Project Gash”, I needed to do something. So on Sunday night, I was on the Net and saw some reviews for The Black Book Of Horror and it got me thinking - why not try getting back into shorts? Not as a full-time thing, but it’ll keep my hand in and I can submit them and it’d be nice to have something else accepted.
I wracked my brains but had no ideas (for short stuff, anyway) and, as ever, I worried that my short story engine was conked out. On Monday, we went to Northampton on the back-road and as we re-joined the A43, I saw the field across the way. It had been ploughed and bird-scarers put up - old white feed-bags on broomsticks. For some reason, this struck me as a creepy image and by the time I got to the Moulton Park roundabout, I had about 25% of the story in my head. By the time we’d finished in Northampton and arrived at Irchester, I had another 25%. I started writing that night, terrified but excited.
Progress was better than expected and, on occasion, I employed a technique I’d used with “The Mill”, of writing out of sequence. I don’t like to do it often, but it does sometimes make sense. I had a rough concept of the ending from the start and it evolved as the story did, but it’s not too far away now (though I’ve made it more oblique than my original idea would have had it), yet I’m not sure it works. So I’ll let this rest for a little, work on the second draft and then get some ‘first-readers’. I’ll take my kid sister and my friend David, as they pre-read virtually everything, but I might also target some fellow writers because I’m so unsure about that ending - it’s either bloody brilliant or bloody rubbish and I’m too close to tell which.
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| Everything comes back around |
[22 Feb 2010|11:41pm] |
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Still battling this damned lurgy, it’s been well over a week now and I still feel as rough as a bag of bricks. But I won’t complain…
It was my niece Lucy’s Christening on Sunday and we had a great day - I love being the Godfather. As we were getting ready to go, I put on my suit and Matthew was in the bedroom with me. As I was putting my tie on, he asked if he could wear one and, for a moment, I was stumped. Then I remembered my old red leather skinny tie, from back in the 80s, which was still in my wardrobe. So I pulled it out, tied it for him and put the excess (and there was a lot) in his pocket. And my goodness, did the Dude look cool? Well, I’ll let you decide:  This is Dude, yesterday, looking like he just stepped fresh out of the New Wave scene in the early 80s. Seriously, how cool does he look?
 And this is me, in 1987 (or thereabouts), modelling the same tie. I didn't always look like this in the 80s, but we used to go to the chicken & chip discos at the Hunting Lodge (back when it wasn't quite as refined as it is today) and we all took the piss out of the chicken (if you got a couple of forkfuls of meat, you were lucky). Anyway, ignore the facial expression and the chicken, check out the tie!
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| Convention Reports |
[20 Feb 2010|03:36am] |
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Putting it together this evening, it's interesting to see the people I've met over the years and how some of them have faded away from the writing/horror scene altogether and how others have gone from strength-to-strength.
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| It's been a weird week... |
[20 Feb 2010|01:13am] |
 I was all set, this week, to ramp up my creative juices and get cracking with ZoQuNo and what should happen? Well, even I'm not entirely sure, except that I started to feel a bit off-colour on Sunday, to such an extent that even getting out of bed on Monday morning was an ordeal. I think, between Monday and Wednesday, I slept more than I have in the past two weeks and I only ate a quarter of the food. I felt bad - really, really bad. It's now Friday evening as I write this and whilst my sleeping and eating is a bit more on-track, my ears, nose and throat aren't anywhere near. Even Alison decided it wasn't man-flu by Tuesday!
With the few waking hours I've had, apart from spending loads of time with Matthew, I've been reading - two Three Investigator books and "The Complete Making Of Indiana Jones", which I bought with my birthday money. Excellent tome, well worth a read - I reviewed it over at Goodreads.
I have done a little bit of creative stuff, a book trailer for "Life Once Lived" - the publisher is just looking over it now and once he's signed it off, I'll post it up here.
This weekend - assuming I'm feeling better and not evacuating record-breaking levels of (what looks to be the colour of re-animation fluid) snot - I get to be Godfather to Lucy. I have the set now - births, deaths and marriages (I've delivered a eulogy to someone who really shouldn't have needed one for many more years, performed every male-orientated task at a wedding except father of the bride - best man twice) - and I'm really looking forward to it.
originally posted at www.markwest.org.uk |
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| All good things... |
[12 Feb 2010|10:58am] |
I realise I’m stuck in time, but one of my favourite bands ever is Blondie. If we take “The Hunter” as being their farewell album (before “No Exit” in 1999), they finished in 1982 when I was 13 and therefore too young to have seen them live. I’ve made up for it in the meantime though - I saw Debbie Harry at Summer XS in 1991 (pushed my way as close to the front of the Wembley stage as I could get during her set), Blondie with Squeeze in support at the NIA in 1999 and then the Blondie/INXS (without Hutchence) tour at the NEC in 2002 - and really enjoyed each show. So I was quite excited to read that they’re touring again in 2010 and went online to find the tour dates.
Sometimes, I think, you have to accept the truth and that applies to everyone, from the balding man with the combover or the person who keeps buying clothes one size too small in the vain hope they’ll be able to diet in them; from the actor who now only appears in cheap DVDs filmed in Eastern Europe and the z-elebrity has-been who has to demean themselves in a house or jungle for weeks at a time. Sadly, I think this is Blondie’s calling. They’ve gone from being the biggest band in the world (though one torn by poor management, drugs, in-fighting) to playing most of the year on the east coast of England, from Butlins to the Vauxhall Holiday Camp in Great Yarmouth.
I have nothing against these places - if I did, “Conjure” wouldn’t exist - and I have nothing against a band wanting to get out on the road, but in this case, should the two be mutually compatible? It must be costing a fortune to ship everything from the US and I’ve been in those holiday camps, the punters don’t stop talking when the band takes to the stage.
Having said all this, I’d still love to go and see them and I’m sure they’d put on one hell of a show but it all feels more than a little bit sad to me.
originally posted at www.markwest.org.uk
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| More fiction from me! |
[08 Feb 2010|10:52am] |
 I received my contributor copies of my new chapbook, “Life Once Lived”, yesterday and it’s a very nice beast. It features two of my short stories and has an excellent cover by Neil Jackson. As I did with “A Quiet Weekend Away”, I thought it might be interesting (even if only to me) to include some backgrounds to the stories, as a kind of electronic afterword.
Risen Wife
Paul Kane emailed me, asking if I had a story for an anthology he was co-editing, that would see publication first in Germany and then in the UK. I agreed, though at the time I was working on what would become “Conjure” and I owed my co-writer, T M Gray, an edit on our joint novel “White Meat”. The only stipulations Paul had were that it should be about 3k words and not OTT gory and I noted at the time “I don’t want to write about gore - I want to write a love story where one of the protagonists is dead and rotting.”
The concept of a zombie partner is one I’d had knocking around for a while and finding my original first line - “Jenny came back today” - really kicked it off. That tied in with a lot of horrible feelings I’d had, revolving around people “understanding how I felt” following the passing of my sister. Most of that venom was written out as the drafts went on, but it was very therapeutic writing it down in the first place.
The story is set in Gaffney, using the same cemetery as the one in my novel “In The Rain With The Dead” and although the story didn’t lend itself to flippancy, there is a little in-joke - my best friend Nick borrowed my copy of “Night Shift” and read it in the bath and it did, indeed, swell up to the size of a phone book.
The book - Albions Alpträume: Zombies - was published in 2006 and was a very nice edition, but it never appeared in the UK. Hence, this is the first English language publication.
A Stirring
I got word, through an Internet group I belonged to, that an anthology was being produced that would feature classic monsters. I was working on my novel at the time, so I didn’t think too much about it, until we went on holiday to Wales a few weeks later. Whilst there, we saw an old church in the middle of nowhere and that got the creative juices flowing (along with nagging thoughts of zombies, the only classic monster I have any real enthusiasm for, other than werewolves).
It took a few drafts to get this around, though most of the story came out as I went along - I worked from the barest of frameworks and had little idea of how it would end. Canuris, obviously, isn’t real but this is set around Snowdonia and, more specifically, the town of Bedgelert (where there is a very nice pizza place that does excellent garlic bread).
This was originally published in Darkness Rising 7, in July 2003 and I had some terrific editorial input from Mick Sims.
The chapbook, published by Ghostwriter Publications, can be ordered from the publisher at this link
Also, the latest issue of Deadlines e-zine has just gone online and features my story ”A Cottage By The Sea”.
A chilling little tale (which uses as its location a favoured holiday destination of Alison and myself, just down the coast from Caernarvon in Wales), this was originally published in the “Hauntings” anthology in February 2004.
If you get a chance to read it, I hope you like it and, as always, feedback is welcome.
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| A Quiet Weekend Away |
[22 Jan 2010|02:11pm] |
I received my contributor copy of “The 4th Book Of Terror Tales” yesterday, where my story “A Quiet Weekend Away” nestles in with tales by such genre luminaries as Peter James, Neil Gaiman, Kim Newman, Simon Clark, Peter Crowther and Tony Richards. I’m very chuffed with it.
I thought it might be interesting (perhaps only to me) to include some of the background to the story, since there’s no ‘afterword’ in the book.
The story was written during October 2002 and originally sold to Durant Haire’s anthology “Beyond The Dust” which had a quite frankly stellar TOC but died when the publisher did. I knew I wanted to do something with ghosts and, at the time, there was a mobile phone ad on TV, where leaves and rain drops created faces and it struck me as quite a scary image. For some reason, that linked in with people being menaced by something they couldn’t see and plague pits (my mind works in mysterious ways). Once I had that, everything seemed to fall into the place with the final piece being a comment by my friend David Roberts (who often reads my stuff in draft, focussing on the folk-lore and medical aspects) about the nursery rhyme “Ring A Roses”. He also sent me a PDF of plague info, so as a thank you, I named the village Berstor, an anagram of Roberts. Sue Moorcroft, my critiquing partner, also helped me out, picking up a couple of bits I’d missed.
The research on York was from mine and Alison’s visits and also the Internet and the garage and its environs are based on the one just outside of Rothwell on the A14. The bit about the beggar in the park is real - it happened to me, on my first solo trip to London and has been sitting there for the best part of 16 years, waiting to fit into a story.
I'm thrilled it's finally found a home and in such a handsome volume too! Viva Rainfall Books!
originally posted at www.markwest.org.uk
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| Happy New Year (and the "Conjure" afterword) |
[13 Jan 2010|01:17am] |
So, that was 2009 and all-in-all, it was a good year. Writing-wise, 2010 is hopefully going to be as good. I have a story due in Terror Tales 4 (which should be out soon), my chapbook should also be out soon and I’m going to start work on a new novel. Yes, I’ve decided to go with the Zombie-Quest-Novel, so if you hear me mention ZoQuNo, you’ll know what I’m talking about. I’ll keep you posted with updates on my progress.
I've also updated my website with a (very) thorough (it comes in at some 2,600 words) afterword on “Conjure”, which obviously contains spoilers (and goes into the nuts-and-bolts of the writing process, in places). I’ve also put it behind the cut here, just in case you’re interested and if you do read it, I’d be very interested in your thoughts.
( (Very) thorough “Conjure” afterword behind hereCollapse )
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[17 Dec 2009|10:11am] |
It’s a little bit early, but I’d just like to take this opportunity to wish everyone (and their loved ones) who stops by here, however occasionally, my very best wishes for Christmas and all the best for 2010!
Merry Christmas, one and all!
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| Reading for 2009 |
[11 Dec 2009|04:12pm] |
This lunchtime, I finished “Once Upon A Galaxy” (about the making of ‘The Empire Strikes Back’), which is the 43rd ‘adult’ book I’ve read this year (in addition to 11 Three Investigator books) and, as I have another Three Investigator to go and a couple of biographies as Christmas presents, I thought now might be time to consider my Top 10s.
I set myself a tough target in 2009, to read 24 books and 12 Three Investigator mysteries. I’ve sailed past that, obviously and it’s been a damned good reading year for it. Since I tend to read in different areas, I’ve separated out the fiction and non-fiction and haven’t completed listings for the comic books or TTI mysteries.
So without further ado, here are my top 20 novels of the year (so far!):
1. Different Skins, by Gary McMahon
2. Chasing The Dead, by Joe Schreiber
3. We All Fall Down, by Simon Wood
4. They (unpublished), by Gary McMahon
5. The Turtle Boy, by Kealan Patrick Burke
6. Promised Land, by Robert B Parker
7. Hugger Mugger, by Robert B Parker
8. Johnny Gruesome, by Greg Lamberson
9. Crimson Orgy, by Austin Williams
10. Tide Of Souls, by Simon Bestwick
11. Stardust, by Robert B Parker
12. The Dare, by John Boyne
13. Vardoger, by Stephen Volk
14. Stories We Could Tell, by Tony Parsons
15. Covenant, by John Everson
16. The Nightwalker, by Thomas Tessier
17. Live Girls, by Ray Garton
18. The Hides, by Kealan Patrick Burke
19. Shrink Wrap, by Robert B Parker
20. A Savage Place, by Robert B Parker
horror - 11 books
crime/thriller - 6 books
drama - 3 books
(note - this was a year of good choices and with less reading volume, several of these books would have easily been my number one choice).
Non-fiction (so far !):
1. Skywalking, by Dale Pollock
2. The Life & Times Of The Thunderbolt Kid, by Bill Bryson
3. On The Road, by Frank Skinner
4. Remember The 80s, by Richard Evans
5. Blondie, by Fred Shruers
6. Once Upon A Galaxy: Making Empire Strikes Back, by Alan Arnold
7. Friends Like These, by Danny Wallace
8. The Wah-Wah Diaries, by Richard E Grant
9. INXS - Band On The Road, by INXS and Ed St John
10. Donna Summer, by Haskins/Stifle
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