'Hell Is' - Supernatural Tales 56

Pleased to say my story, 'Hell Is', appears in the latest issue of Supernatural Tales, edited by David Longhorn. This is my fourth appearance in ST, so I must be doing something right.
 

Supernatural Tales #56, (UK | US)

Print Versions 

(Cover art by Sam Dawson)

'Self Expression' in STRANGER from Sans. Press

 Really excited by this one: my story, 'Self Expression' is out now in the wonderful looking STRANGER anthology from Sans. Press:

"Between doppelgängers and shape-shifters, magical healers and clever tricksters, you should trust no one – including yourself!

In the #7 Sans. PRESS anthology, 15 writers try to find answers to how we can truly know each other; on the way, they find psychedelic worms, supernatural roommates, new dimensions and the deeply rooted question of how to know even ourselves. With stories by: Scott Beggs, Phil Cummins, Corinne Engber, James Everington, David Hartley, Tim Jeffreys, LL Garland, Lauren Mulvihill, Lily Nobel, Elaine O′Connor, Elin Olausson, Diana Powell, Shalini Srinivasan, Claire Watson and Rebecca Weinert. This edition is digitally signed by the writers!"

 

The book is available in hardback, paperback, and ebook formats - and as you can see from the image, it looks magnificent. All links to buy here. 

Reflections

A new small bit of flash-fiction from me published today: 'Reflections' appears in the latest issue of The Sirens Call. You can download it (for free) and have a gander here.

For Tomorrow

I'm sure we all remember where we were when we heard the news about Wellbrook High; I know I do, much as I might want to forget some of the images from the TV news that night.

Now, over 30 years later, Dan Coxon has put together an anthology of stories about what happened after.

My story, 'Comments On This Video Have Been Disabled' is one of them, and I'm very proud of it, and that its alongside pieces from many other fine writers. But, given the situation, this isn't one I'll boast about too much; that doesn't feel proper. 

“We all live in the shadow of Wellbrook High – it’s been called the tragedy that defined a generation… That’s why this book feels so important, and so long overdue – as we go back to Wellbrook, and pay witness to those who had the courage and the strength and, yes, the simple luck to pull through. A timely work, and an urgent one.”
—Robert Shearman

You can pre-order For Tomorrow from Black Shuck Books here. 

Also features stories by C.C. Adams, Charlotte Bond, Phil Sloman, Lucie McKnight Hardy, Malcolm Devlin & Helen Marshall, Verity Holloway, Ray Cluley, Polis Loizou, Ashley Stokes, Daniel Carpenter & Penny Jones.

#wewillremember93

'The Switch' to appear in Uncertainties 6

I'm pleased as punch to say my story 'The Switch' is to be appear in the forthcoming anthology Uncertainties 6 from the mighty Swan River Press.

“Ghost stories,” as Elizabeth Bowen observed, “are not easy to write—least easy now, for they involve more than they did.” But these eleven writers take up the challenge, each in their own way, with expert awareness of the genre’s limitless possibilities.

Uncertainties is an anthology series—featuring authors from Ireland, France, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom—each exploring the concept of increasingly fragmented senses of reality. These types of short stories were termed “strange tales” by Robert Aickman, called “tales of the unexpected” by Roald Dahl, and known to Shakespeare’s ill-fated Prince Mamillius as “winter’s tales”. But these are no mere ghost stories. These tales of the uncanny grapple with existential epiphanies of the modern day, when otherwise familiar landscapes become sinister and something decidedly less than certain . . .

Readers of my fiction, or of this blog in general, will no doubt recognise why this chimes with me so, and why I'm excited to have a story in this latest volume, alongside some absolutely fantastic authors. 

You should never trust a writer's own opinion of their work, but I've always considered 'The Switch' to be a very me story, a very Everington story. A writer friend who read a draft of it said "only send this one to the best places" and, with Uncertainties 6, I certainly obeyed.

You can read more about the anthology and pre-ordered it here.

New Story: 'Not That Kind Of Place'

Very pleased to be back in print in the pages of Supernatural Tales. My tale 'Not That Kind Of Place' appears in the latest issue (#49) alongside stories from Rosalie Parker, Steve Duffy and others. It's my third time appearing in ST - always a pleasure.

Supernatural Tales #49 (UK | US)

Fiction: 'Advent'

This story appeared online last year as part of a creepy advent calendar of stories for the wonderful Sinister Horror Company (who publish Trying To Be So Quiet & Other Hauntings, as well as much other sinister goodness).

When I originally got the invite to write a story for the project, I decided to be get all meta, and try and write a horror story about someone opening an advent calendar (because that's just the kind of twat I am). The piece was originally published on the 17th of December, which is when its set, and also my birthday. So I thought I'd republish it here, a year to the day later. Thanks to Justin Park at Sinister for asking me to write it in the first place.

Happy Christmas to all readers of this blog... if we get past the 17th December, that is.

Advent

The next day, he opened the window on the advent calendar: 17th December. He cut himself on the cardboard doing so, sucked the pad of his finger. There was a chocolate wrapped in red foil inside; he looked around for his son but his son wasn’t there, so he ate it, dropped the foil to the ground. Tasted blood.

***

The next day, he opened the window on the advent calendar: 17th December. He cut his finger on the cardboard doing so. There was a chocolate wrapped in yellow foil inside; he looked around for his son but he wasn’t there. He called his son’s name but there was no answer, so he yelled again, then ate the chocolate, dropped the foil to the ground. Tasted blood.

***

The next day, he opened the window on the advent calendar: 17th December. He reopened a cut on his finger doing so. There was a chocolate wrapped in orange foil inside; he looked around for his son but his son wasn’t there. He called his wife’s name instead, but she wasn’t there either. He listened for the sounds of weeping in the house, then ate the chocolate, dropped the foil to the ground. He felt sick and at the same time hungry. Tasted blood.

***

The next day, he opened the window on the advent calendar: 17th December. There was a callous on his finger that stopped him cutting himself. He looked around for his wife and son but they weren’t there. What were they so scared of? He’d slept it off now. He unclenched his fists. He ate the chocolate, dropped the red foil to the pile of it on the ground. He felt sick and at the same time hungry. Tasted blood, which couldn’t be right?

***

The next day, he opened the window on the advent calendar: 17th December. The thick callous on his finger stopped him cutting himself. He looked around for his wife and son but they weren’t there. What were they so scared of? He was sober now. He unclenched his fists. He ate the chocolate, dropped the orange foil to the pile on the ground. He felt sick like he’d eaten too much chocolate and at the same time hungry like he’d eaten nothing but. Tasted blood, but from where?

***

The next day, he opened the window on the advent calendar: 17th December. He didn’t cut himself. He looked around for his wife and son but they weren’t fucking there. What were they so scared of? He was sober now. He hit the wall, remembered her face. How she’s been slicing beetroot at the chopping board at the time. He ate the chocolate, dropped the yellow foil to the pile of it on the ground. His insides felt sick, emptied. Tasted blood, which when he spat it out was stained brown.

***

The next day, he opened the window on the advent calendar: 17th December. He didn’t cut himself. He looked around for his wife and son but they weren’t fucking there. What was he so scared of? He’d kill for a drink. He hit the wall, remembered her face, how she’d said she wasn’t going to let him do it again. He ate the chocolate, dropped the foil to the pile of it on the ground. His insides felt sick, emptied, muddled. Tasted blood, like he always did.

***

The next day, he opened the window on the advent calendar: 17th December. He didn’t cut himself. He looked around for his wife and son but couldn’t see them. What was he so scared of? He hit the wall, remembered her face, how she’d said she wasn’t going to let him do it again. Said she’d see him in hell first, and he’d said prove it you bitch. There were drifts of foil around his feet. He ate the chocolate. His insides felt sick, emptied, wounded. Tasted blood, like he always did when he got angry.

***

The next day, he opened the window on the advent calendar: 17th December. He couldn’t feel his fingers. He looked around for his wife and son, for anyone, but everywhere was grey and misted in his sight. What was he so scared of? He touched the wall, saw the colour his hands left it. She’d said she’d see him in Hell, and he’d said prove it you bitch. How she’d been slicing at the chopping board at the time. He puked up chocolate even as he ate it. His insides felt sick, emptied, wounded. Tasted blood; his fingers had been clutched to his gut and he tasted blood off them.

***

The next day, he opened the window on the advent calendar: 17th December. Tasted blood.

The cold foil around his feet was red and orange and yellow, like flames.

The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: Volume 2

Very pleased to say my story 'The Sound Of The Sea, Too Close' has been reprinted in The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror Volume 2, edited by Paula Guran and out now for Pyr. The lineup selected for the book lives up to the title and I'm proud my story found a place in among such great authors. 

The book is available here: The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror Volume 2, Pyr 2021 (UK | US)

The story was originally published by Micheal Kelly in the brilliant anthology Shadows & Tall Trees #8 (Undertow Publications).

The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror #2

Thrilled to say my story ‘The Sound Of The Sea, Too Close’ has been selected for forthcoming The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror #2, edited by Paula Guran. You can see the whole lineup for the anthology here; I'm in good company.

My story was originally published in the brilliant Shadows & Tall Trees #8 from Undertow.

New Story: Advent

I have a new story out, as part of The Sinister Horror Company's Advent Calendar of horror fiction. I asked for mine to be behind the window for the 17th, as it's my birthday today. 

It's called 'Advent' and is about a man opening an advent calendar on the 17th of December, because I'm allowed to be as meta as I want on my birthday.

You can find it via the link above, and do check out some of the stories behind the other windows while you are there...

Nightscript Vol. 3 Out Now

Nightscript is an annual anthology of the strange and the creepy edited by C.M. Muller, and although it's only in its third year it has already found it's own special place in the literary horror ecosystem (I loved the first two volumes).

So I'm especially pleased that Volume 3 contains my story 'The Affair', as well as stories from twenty-two other writers, including Simon Strantzas, David Surface, Adam Golaski, M.K. Anderson, Daniel Braum, Rebecca J. Allred, M.R. Cosby and Malcolm Devlin.

In my humble (and now biased) opinion, the world needs more anthologies like Nightscript, so I do hope you'll check out all three volumes.

Ebook (UK | US)
Paperback (UK | US)

A Romantic Comedy

I wrote this story years and years ago; I was still experimenting with styles and genres at this point, finding my feet. I never wrote anything like this ever again, but I've always kind of liked it. It's nothing like the writing I do now and clumsily try and promote on here; it's not horror, it's not weird. But sod it, it's Valentine's Day, so I thought I'd post it. (I've deliberately not amended anything that my twenty-something self wrote.)


A Romantic Comedy
It wasn’t a relationship, but a rehearsal. We weren’t really boyfriend and girlfriend, but just trying out those roles for future reference. We were very young. I don’t know why you picked me, out of all the boys who auditioned. You were considered very pretty, with your long brown hair and startling hazelnut eyes, the kind that would look good on movie posters.

We would walk around the park holding hands, while the light fell on us from different angles. Or we would kiss, learning how it was done. We never went any further than that, because ours wasn’t that kind of film. We were too young to have seen films that went further.

But what script would stop there? There was another boy, waiting in the wings. He had been learning his lines, getting into character. He was very good; I didn’t know what was happening. Suddenly I was being out-staged. You barely wanted to hold my hand anymore, let alone kiss me. You told everyone kissing me was “disgusting”, just when I thought I had got the hang of it. My first bad review.

I was forced into a different role. I happen to think I played it rather well. I took long, lonely walks, kicking at dead leaves and not letting myself cry. I wrote letters to you that I never sent. I brooded and listened to sad songs late at night. Everyone saw how well suited I was for the part, but I knew there would be other films later. I never meant to become typecast.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. It was supposed to be just a rehearsal with you, when all the doors were still open and we thought we had time to explore them all. We were just seeing which roles we would want to play later. But the doors seem to have shut behind us.

Every script I get offered seems to be the same, with the same ‘surprise’ ending that doesn’t surprise me anymore: dead leaves and late night radio. And I can’t help but thinking that maybe it wasn’t a rehearsal, back then with you, but something far more important and fundamental, that set the scene for all that followed.

I’ve played my part with many girls, although sometimes not for long. And I just wanted to tell you that none of them have seemed as beautiful as you seemed then. I still think of you, every time the film ends, and I watch the credits with tearful eyes. I always watch until the very end, in case anything changes. It never does. I still think of you. My writing this to you when I’ve not seen you for years is perfectly in character.

What more is there to say? It all remains the same, the same long slog through the same lonely scripts. My film career has failed to take off. I’ll probably end up in some dull pantomime, with one of the ugly sisters. While your face beams down on us from the billboard of your latest blockbuster, your romantic comedy, your happy ending.

We Are All Haunted

Pleased to say that I have a new story called The Man In Blue Boots in the forthcoming Hauntings anthology, from the fabulous Hic Dragones press.

I believe it will be released on the 31st July; in the meantime here's the blurbage below:

Hauntings
An anthology of new fiction, edited by Hannah Kate

A memory, a spectre, a feeling of regret, a sense of déjà vu, ghosts, machines, something you can’t quite put your finger on, a dark double, the long shadow of illness, your past, a nation’s past, your doppelgänger, a place, a song, a half-remembered rhyme, guilt, trauma, doubt, a shape at the corner of your eye, the future, the dead, the undead, the living, a grey cat, a black dog, a ticking clock, someone you used to know, someone you used to be. We are all haunted.

The Things That He Couldn't See

 Pleased to say that my (very) short story, The Things That He Couldn't See has been published in Sanitarium Magazine #15.

It's the second time I've been published in this market, and this time my name made the cover. So that's nice.

I always like the design and artwork for Sanitarium, so it's a pleasure to be included in a magazine that's obviously aiming to make a name for itself.

Their website is here.

Wish List

So, I've a new story out in the charity anthology Murder, Madness, and Mystery.

My story is called Wish List and it's about at least two of the three Ms in the anthology's title, as well as the dangers of owning to many books...

100% of the proceeds from this anthology are donated to The Hunger Project, so I'm very happy to be involved. You can buy the anthology from Amazon (UK | US).

---

Also, I'd to mention  The Year's Best Weird Fiction, a crowd-funding project I've contributed to here. It's a new venture, being published by Michael Kelly (behind Shadows & Tall Trees, a really good horror magazine) and the first volume will be edited by Laid Barron. Do check it out.

Fifteen Minutes in The Sirens Call

A quick update to say that a new story, Fifteen Minutes, is available in the latest issue of The Sirens Call.

As you might guess from the title, it's a story about the desire to be famous - specifically the desire for that strange, modern type of fame, where people are famous for being famous, rather than for actually being talented...

It's also got that whole weird what's-real-what-isn't thing that I'm drawn to so often going on.

I'd love to know what you think of it; Sirens Call #8 is available to download for free from their site.

Story News x 3

So, it's been quite a long time since I've mentioned much about my own writing on here (I can't quite believe The Shelter has been out for nearly eighteen months..!) but all that's about to change...

I'll probably be boring you all stupid talking about this soon, but I'm delighted to reveal that my next collection of short stories, Falling Over, will be out this summer from Infinity Plus. I couldn't be more chuffed - Infinity Plus have put out a lot of books & stories I've loved, so it's a real thrill. 

I won't say anything else at this point - more news & updates about Falling Over nearer the time, I'm sure. (I've added a fancy new mailing list thing to the blog, if you want to be kept super-up-to-date.)

Also, another thrill - Supernatural Tales #23 is out, and it contains my story The Second Wish. I really like this mag (I am a subscriber) so it's genuinely exciting (and surprising!) to have a story accepted for it. The Second Wish is a story about grief, the dead, and memory; it's also a deliberate riff on that old classic The Monkey's Paw by WW Jacobs.

And also (the good news has kept coming recently, which probably means karma's saving up a writing related face-slap for me), I received my contributor copies of Polluto #10 today - it's a really nice looking and well designed magazine, with some great authors in there. You should check it out. It includes a very short piece from me The Men Who Value Everything In Money.

Robert Aickman Word Clouds

So, I've been participating in a fabulous group read of The Wine Dark Sea by Robert Aickman - no need to explain to regular readers how much I admire Aickman's stories, I'm sure I've banged on about him often enough...

Anyway, I wanted to do a post about some of the stories in the book, and I've decided to do something a bit different. Because reading Aickman is so subjective I'd hesitate to offer my interpretation of one of his stories as definitive; so (with their permission) I've decided to use other people's words from the group read to create these 'word-clouds' for the title story and for The Trains. The phrases are just ones that struck me from the discussion, be they people's view on what the story meant, or other stories it reminded them of, or whatever. The idea was to get a more impersonal, multi-layered, ambiguous description of each story than if I'd just waffled on myself.

I think the results look quite good, and if there's a positive response I'll probably do a couple more.

The Wine Dark Sea

The Trains

Scary Women Mixtape

Apparently, it's Women In Horror Month. As part of this you'll find many great female horror writers talking about their work, which can only be a good thing - I don't know if there's any residual sexism meaning woman have a harder time getting accepted as a horror author than their male counterparts, but given that dickheads like Vox Day exist, the answer is probably yes.

(Don't google "Vox Day" if you are unaware of the man or his views. Seriously, don't. You'll end up feeling worse about people in general, which is never good.)

Anyway, for Women In Horror Month I thought I'd post 20 of my favourite horror short stories by female authors. For no other reason than I like compiling imaginary anthologies; it's like making mix-tapes all over again...

This list is off the top of my head, so it's pretty biased towards stories I've read recently, but I've tried to include both classic and contemporary stories. I've only picked one story per author and as ever my definition of what makes a story 'horror' is pretty loose.

Further suggestions very much welcome in the comments...

In The Waterworks (Birmingham, Alabama, 1883) - Caitlin R Kiernan
The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Idolised - Emma Newman

The Screwfly Solution - James Tiptree Jr.
The Little Dirty Girl - Joanna Russ
Don't Look Now - Daphne du Maurier
Cold Coffee Cups & Curious Things - Cate Gardner
A.G.A. - S.P. Miskowski

The Summer People - Shirley Jackson
The Dark - Karen Joy Fowler
Replacement - Lisa Tuttle
Under Fog - Tanith Lee
The Dog That Bit Her - Autumn Christian
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas - Ursula K. Le Guin
The Room Upstairs - Sarah Pinborough
The Devil of Delery Street - Poppy Z Brite
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? - Joyce Carol Oates
The Hortlak - Kelly Link

Afterward - Edith Wharton
White Roses, Bloody Silk - Thana Niveau

Polluto: Wage Slave Orgy

Clutch your credit-chips close and head on over to see what Polluto has on offer: a world of malls, stretching endlessly into one another. Systems of oppression, both real and fictional. Corporations of the future, Flooded London, money and privilege, a human life claimed for art. A mathematician feverishly tattooing his formulae onto prisoners of war. Workers on special offer: cheap-labour, clone-labour and corpse-labour. And bear in mind, valued customers, that nothing comes for free!

A nice start to 2013: my story The Men Who Value Everything In Money is available in the new issue of Polluto magazine, edited by the awesome Vicky Hooper.

This edition of the magazine is subtitled Wage Slave Orgy.