Things Of Last Week: Another Year Older, And Cannot Come Again Cover Reveal, Locus Recommended Reading List, Cate Gardner Collection

Well.

I'm another year older, which has long since passed the point of feeling like any sort of improvement, but as someone once said, it's preferable to the alternative. And things could be a lot worse. There are some health issues, but I'm loved and in love, with a wonderful spouse and wonderful friends, and I'm writing. That's not too bad.

Locus Magazine has published its recommended reading list of work published in 2019, which you can read here. Shout-out to the wonderful Priya Poppins, Practically Perfect In Every Way Sharma (private joke!), whose superb novella Ormeshadow is namechecked there. There are many other names I recognise, many other friends, but if I even attempt a comprehensive list I'll end up missing people out.

Also on the list is the title novella from my collection And Cannot Come Again.

On the subject of which...

As readers of my blog will know, I ended up in the not-very-fun position of having to ask people not to buy And Cannot Come Again when a host of unsavoury revelations about the publisher, ChiZine, emerged.

Luckily, the collection quickly found a great new home with Graeme Reynolds' Horrific Tales, and a new edition, containing an additional two previously unpublished stories, will be launched at StokerCon in Scarborough this April. You can preorder the ebook here.

The new edition also features a stunning cover by Ben Baldwin, which I'm delighted to present here. Huge thanks to both Graeme and Ben for their work.

Another - and particularly excellent - collection of stories is also due out soon: the ever-reigning Cate Gardner's These Foolish And Harmful Delights, which is released by Fox Spirit Books this coming weekend.

Cate is (in my admittedly biased opinion) an amazing writer (but don't take my word for it, read this interview with Priya Sharma, Laura Mauro and Georgina Bruce instead, where they all agree on this point! Also, you know, read it because Priya, Laura and George are all brilliant writers and lovely people too) and this is a fantastic collection, including some of Cate's best work. It's built around four novella-length works, interspersed with shorter fiction. The stories include Cate's BFA-nominated meditation on love and grief, When The Moon Man Knocks, the Mr Punch-themed This Foolish and Harmful Delight, and Cate's own favourite novella, Barbed Wire Hearts. And much more. She's a unique writer, and you should take the chance to acquaint yourself with your work if you haven't already.

And if the fiction wasn't reason enough, it also boasts this ravishing cover art by Daniele Serra.

That's about all the news that's fit to print on this cold and windy Monday morning, anyway. Wrap up warm, folks, and have a good week.

The Lowdown with... Tracy Fahey

Tracy Fahey is an Irish writer of Gothic fiction. Her debut collection, The Unheimlich Manoeuvre (reissued in 2018) was nominated in 2017 for a British Fantasy Award for Best Collection. Her short fiction has been published in more than twenty Irish, US and UK anthologies and her work has been reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement. In 2016 two of her short stories were long listed by Ellen Datlow for The Best Horror of the Year Volume 8. Her first novel, The Girl In The Fort (Fox Spirit Press) was published in 2017 and her second collection, New Music For Old Rituals was released by Black Shuck Books in 2018.

1. Tell us three things about yourself.
The Gothic is hardwired into my system. My PhD is on the resurrection of the Gothic home in Irish contemporary art, and my first collection, The Unheimlich Manoeuvre examines the Gothic home through a series of stories on the uncanny. I finished both thesis and collection in the same week in 2015. That was a busy week…

I’m very influenced by my upbringing and surroundings in rural Ireland. The history and nature of Irish identity and folklore runs like a seam through both my YA novel, The Girl In The Fort, and my second collection, New Music For Old Rituals.  But traveling also informs my writing; every country I’ve visited I’ve made story notes based on the different locations – I also feel that my sense of identity emerges more strongly when I’m divorced from my immediate home setting.

I’m hugely influenced by the writing of Shirley Jackson, Donna Tartt, Angela Carter, Ray Bradbury
and Tana French.

2. What was the first thing you had published?
My very first publication was of the story ‘Looking for Wildgoose Lodge’ in the Impossible Spaces anthology released by Hic Dragones. It was a wonderful start to my writing journey; for the launch I was invited to do a reading in Manchester side by side with writers Ramsey Campbell, Douglas Thompson, Tej Turner, and of course, the wonderful Simon Bestwick! [ED. Aw, shucks.]

3. Which piece of writing are you proudest of?
There are some stories I am especially fond of.  My new collection, New Music For Old Rituals, deals with the folklore I grew up with, so stories from it like ‘Buried,’ ‘The Changeling,’ and ‘The Crow War’ feel earthed in a place I know very well.
‘I Look Like You, I Speak Like You, I Walk Like You,’ from The Unheimlich Manoeuvre is also dear to me, partly because it had a difficult journey towards publication. In spite of rejections I still clung to my conviction it rang true. I think it was hard to place as the theme is a difficult one - it deals with domestic abuse - and due to the quixotic nature of the protagonist, the story doesn’t really fit comfortably into a recognisable story arc. But I persevered and it finally found a home in JU Litzone Volume 10.

4. …and which makes you cringe?

I’m not embarrassed by anything that’s in print now, but some of my teenage efforts make me giggle to recall them. I went through a phase in my early teens where I just wanted to be S.E. Hinton and I wrote solely about motorbikes and gangs and knife-fights. It was the antithesis of ‘writing what you know,’ but I had fun and I’m wholly unrepentant.

5. What’s a normal writing day like?
I don’t really have a ‘normal’ writing day, as I also work full-time; I run a fine art department, a postgraduate research centre, research and teach. So writing tends to be done early in the morning, late at night, or covertly, on breaks. That’s why I always carry a notebook and pen around with me. If I think of something I have to set it down on the page immediately. Otherwise it’s lost forever in the Great Abyss, and the older I get, the wider the Great Abyss yawns before me…
Most of the time I write and edit on my own, but this year I worked very closely with Justin Park on my reissued collection and The Black Room Manuscripts Volume IV and it was wonderful to have someone else on hand to throw ideas back and forth to, and to get immediate feedback for my suggestions. That’s why I really treasure beta readers too; sometimes I get lost in a forest of my words, and someone fresh to the situation can analyse it for me much more coherently than I’m capable of.
At weekends, or on holidays, I get the chance to write in a more focused way – to get in The Flow - and that is both wonderful and terrifying. In 2018, The Flow deserted me for a spell – the first really difficult time I’ve had since I started writing – and it took a lot of self-coaching and self-motivating to get myself back on track. Being blocked is hard, but the hardest part is believing that the blockage can shift and melt away in time. I think it’s really important to be honest about these tough times as often on social media all you can see are people’s successes and staggering word counts, but not all the crying and pacing and rending of garments that goes on in the background.

6. Which piece of writing should someone who’s never read you before pick up first?

The Unheimlich Manoeuvre summarises a lot of themes that are very central to my work; the uncanny home, domestic confinement, doppelgangers, dolls and dystopias. So if you’re curious about my (slightly) skewed world vision, pick that one up from the Sinister Horror Company.
However, if folk horror and folklore are more to your taste, I recommend either New Music For Old Rituals (from Black Shuck Books) or The Girl In The Fort (from Fox Spirit Press).

7. What are you working on now?
This year I’m already working on a couple of projects. I have a third collection in the pipeline, I Spit Myself Out, which examines terrors that come from within; from within the body or within the mind. It’s based loosely on the essay by Julia Kristeva, ‘The Powers of Horror’, just like The Unheimlich Manoeuvre was centered on Freud’s ‘The Uncanny.’ I find every collection I’ve put together needs to have a theme in my head that I can then spin a series of divergent realities around.
For the rest of 2019 I’m also working on a podcast, some non-fiction pieces, some stand-alone short fiction, a novella, and am currently co-scripting a one-off graphic novel (which is a Secret Project but a very exciting one). This year I’ve resolved to say yes more to more diverse creative projects, to push my boundaries a little and although I’m slightly scared at the prospect, it’s also quite an exhilarating thought.

2018 In Review #2: Awards Eligibilty And All That

So now we come to the 'obligatory blowing of my own horn' bit, which doesn't come easily to a lot of Brits...

Anyway, here are the works that saw publication for the first time in 2018 and are eligible for nomination for any relevant awards...

Novel

Wolf's Hill, published by Snowbooks.

Story collection

Singing Back The Dark (mini-collection), published by Black Shuck Books.


Novelette

Breakwater, published by Tor.com. (16,000 words long, so some would consider it a novella and some a short story.)


Short fiction

'If I Should Fall From Grace With God' (Crimewave #13: Bad Light, TTA Press)

'Deadwater' (The Devil and the Deep, Night Shade Books)

'The Bells Of Rainey' (Great British Horror #3: For Those In Peril, Black Shuck Books)

'The Judgement Call' (Two Chilling Tales, Fox Spirit Books, Black Shuck Books)

'Hard Time Killing Floor Blues' (in Singing Back The Dark, Black Shuck Books)

'And All The Souls In Hell Shall Sing' (in Singing Back The Dark, Black Shuck Books)

'Moon Going Down' (in Singing Back The Dark, Black Shuck Books)

'Effigies Of Glass' (in Singing Back The Dark, Black Shuck Books)

'Dab and Sole' (Ko-fi)

'A Constant Sound Of Thunder' (Ko-fi)

The Judgement Call

My short story 'The Judgement Call' has had something of a chequered history. It was originally submitted for an anthology of Christmas horror stories, then was going to be a chapbook. When that didn't happen, it hovered in limbo, but finally found a new home with the lovely Aunty Fox, aka Adele Wearing at Fox Spirit.

It's Christmas Eve and businessman Miles is driving home through the rain, when his car goes off the road. Rescued from the crash, he finds himself in a cottage with three strange companions. A mysterious horn begins to blow, and one by one their guilty secrets are revealed. The Judgement Call has begun...


Fox Spirit will be publishing 'The Judgement Call' in chapbook form, together with another story: 'Along The Long Road' by Penny Jones. But I'll let Penny tell you about that:

"Come on, it’ll be fun." 
Beth wasn't sure why she agreed. Sienna's idea of fun wasn't the same as hers. Beth knew that the double date was a bad idea.

If you want to know more about 'Along The Long Road', you'll have to read it.

The cover artwork is by the always stellar Neil Williams.

The Lowdown with... Tade Thompson

Tade Thompson is the author of the award-winning novel MAKING WOLF, the upcoming ROSEWATER, and a number of short stories and novellas. His background is in medicine and social anthropology. He lives and works in the south of England.

 1. Tell us three things about yourself. 
-In Wimbledon, during the hot summer of 1976, I got sunburnt for the first and only time. I also kissed a girl on the playground for the first and only time.
-I am a lapsed martial artist with training in Taekwondo, Shotokan Karate and hapkido.
-In the Star Wars franchise I only like A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. The rest leaves me cold.

2. What was the first thing you had published? 
My first accepted story was a short piece of general fiction called 'Foster's Run' in a defunct magazine called Carillion, paid in contributors copies. This would have been maybe 2002. My first paid story was in another defunct online venue, Neverary, in 2003, for a slipstream story called 'Sidetracked'. I received the princely sum of five bucks American I think. My lesson from this sale was always look at the edits. I did not, and the published story did not reflect my vision, but that's entirely my fault and not the editor's. My first semi-pro sale was to Ideomancer (now defunct! I had nothing to do with this, I swear. I realise this is making me seem like a serial destroyer of venues that buy my fiction). I sold a story called 'The McMahon Institute for Unquiet Minds'. This was 2005 and my first reviewed story-basically, Tangent Online liked it, which felt good.

3. Which piece of writing are you proudest of? 
Agh! Okay, I'm one of those people who is never happy with work that I've published. The moment it's gone I think of a hundred things I could have done differently. It's a tie. I guess I'm most proud of my sci-fi novel ROSEWATER (Apex Books, 2016) which I think said exactly what I wanted it to say, and my horror novella GNAW (Solaris, 2016) which is a ghost story that I researched to the point of death. They're both coming out later this year and who knows how they'll be received?

4. …and which makes you cringe? 
The story 'Sidetracked' that I mentioned above. I'm kinda glad the webzine no longer exists (sorry, Lon!) The edits included adding bowler hats and unrealistic dialogue. I hated it.

5. What’s a normal writing day like? 
I wake up early and write new material for an hour. I write longhand with a gel ink pen in a nondescript notebook. In the evening when my family's gone to sleep I transcribe the morning's work, then I revise some older writing (I have dates on a calendar for draft revision). Then I read for two hours, beta-reading or fiction, then non-fiction. I rarely go to bed before midnight. I time-box, using a modified Pomodoro. This routine is not inflexible. Sometimes I get engrossed in one particular thing (usually a good book, or art or something).

6. Which piece of writing should someone who’s never read you before pick up first? 

Short stories: Slip Road, The Monkey House,  'One Hundred And Twenty Days Of Sunlight' In the African Monsters Anthology.  There is, of course, my debut alt history crime novel MAKING WOLF which won the Golden Tentacle Award at the Kitschies.

7. What are you working on now? 
Two things: A novella called 'The Murders of Molly Southbourne' which is...dark speculative fiction. This is in the revision stage and I hope to have news regarding a market soon. The second thing is a contemporary fantasy novel called LABOURS which is basically the 12 labours of Heracles meets The Warriors and it's kicking my arse. My first drafts usually go in starts and stops, with much wastage. No change here. I hoped to be further along by now, but getting it right is more important than speed.

The Lowdown with... Ruth EJ Booth

Ruth EJ Booth is an award winning writer from the North-East of England. With fistfuls of credits from The Independent to Kerrang! magazine, she made the leap from rock music journalism to SFF in the early 00's. In less than five years, she picked up the BSFA Award for Best Short Fiction for 'The Honey Trap' (La Femme, NewCon Press), a tale of hipsters and urban gardening. Her short fiction and poetry range from the stories of cracked AIs to the love affairs of Earth spirits, and can be found in anthologies from NewCon Press, Fox Spirit Books, The Speculative Bookshop, and in Far Horizons e-magazine. As of mid-2016, she is also a regular columnist for Scottish SF journal Shoreline of Infinity. A member of the Glasgow SF Writers Circle, you can find news on her upcoming stories in Fox Spirit, Pseudopod and more here.



1. Tell us three things about yourself. 

1) As a teenager, I could recite the scripts of series I-VI of Red Dwarf by heart. Not sure how it took me so long to start writing SFF, really.
 2) The three most famous people I've interviewed are Bill Bryson, Weird Al Yankovic, and Coby Dick from nu-metal poster boys Papa Roach. Coby had pretty good taste in post-rock, incidentally.
 3) At University, I got away with writing both my undergraduate project and my Masters thesis on video games. A wee suggestion if you're a Psychology third year: design experiments around 30 minute sessions on the SNES or Sega Megadrive. You'll never be short of participants.

2. What was the first thing you had published? 
Fiction-wise, that'd be a story written for a vanity press anthology that came out in 2012, comprising steampunk adaptations of Shakespeare's plays. I wrote a take on Much Ado About Nothing from the viewpoint of Don John, in a universe where Don Pedro is the head of a steampunk mafia family. There were some interesting ideas in there, but not so much in the title -- 'Much Ado About Steam Presses' -- so perhaps it's lucky that (as far as I know) it's completely out of print. Apart from that, anyone reading Student Direct (the University of Manchester's student paper) in the early 00's will have seen some of my early reviews. And if anyone has the Shiny Toy Guns review, the one with the line about the hula girl in the tumble dryer, please can you send me a copy?

3. Which piece of writing are you proudest of? 
That's a hard question to answer. The expectation is to pick the story that's done the most for you, and that would of course be 'The Honey Trap'. I am still very proud of it: the first story I had critted by other people, I was hella nervous about sending it to Ian Whates at NewCon Press (a proper tick off the bucket list that was), and I worked my arse off on the edits. It was a level-up in many senses, and I'm still stunned by the results. But I'm almost always most proud of the most recently completed thing, which gives me a choice of two. The first is the column I've been writing for Scottish SF journal Shoreline of Infinity. At the time I started it, I'd not reviewed or written an opinion piece for a while. Frankly, I was daunted by the prospect of starting again. There's an expectation -- or more accurately, a supposition -- that regular columnists should be some kind of expert or authority, someone who can hold forth on a particular subject, and hired as such. And on that score, I don't consider myself anywhere near -- I can only write about my own experiences after all. Ironically, the first column ended up as an exploration of the weight that expectations can add to your work -- other people's but especially your own. And I think it's some of the best and most honest writing I've done in a while. That appeared in issue 4, followed by my second column in issue 5, which is out now here if you'd like to read it. And the second, that's a short story called 'Telling Stories', which is about the stories we tell each ourselves about our relationships with other people. It's a more experimental mode of storytelling than I've used before, yet at the same time it's quite raw in places, and covers a subject that's close to my heart. It's doing the rounds right now, so we'll see what comes from it.

4. …and which makes you cringe? 

Oh god. Probably any one of the great many unpublished things... and possibly one or two of the published...

5. What’s a normal writing day like? 
A normal writing day is usually squeezed around a normal working day. So I have an hour in the morning, an hour at lunchtime, and an hour in the evening. These are split between two hours of writing and, on training days, an hour of running. Weekends, I aim to add another couple of hours writing time on top of that per day. If I fancy a treat, I'll schedule in a couple of hours at a cafe in town (where I'm typing this now). I don't really enjoy writing in the evening -- my ideal schedule would be 8am-2pm, maybe an hour or two at teatime -- but needs must when there's bills to pay.

6. Which piece of writing should someone who’s never read you before pick up first? 
It depends what you're after. If you like poetry, I'd say go for 'Love of a Season' in Winter Tales (Fox Spirit) -- or maybe the new poem in Thirty Years of Rain (see below for more details). If you like Horror, try 'Good Boy' (recently reprinted in Far Horizons' April 2016 Staff Picks issue, which you can find here). If you like non-fiction, go for my column in Shoreline of Infinity. If you're into SF and schadenfreude, try 'The Honey Trap' (reprinted earlier this year in Digital Dreams, available from NewCon Press).

7. What are you working on now? 
I’ve just finished a couple of things, including copyedits for a brand new poem, ‘Picture, of a Winter Afternoon’, which appears in Thirty Years of Rain (out now). This anthology marks the 30th anniversary of the Glasgow SF Writers Circle -- and considering its alumni include Amal El-Mohtar, Louise Welsh, Gary Gibson, Hal Duncan, Mike Cobley, Eliza Chan and Neil Williamson, I could not be more proud to be involved. Meanwhile, my latest published short story, (deep breath) 'Dame Ammonia Dastardly-Truste's Evil Genius College for Ladies Class of 2013: Graduation Speech [Transcript],' is in Fox Spirit's Fox Pockets: Evil Genius Guide. And, there are the things I've already mentioned. Also, while this isn’t directly about writing, I’ve just moved up to Scotland to study at the University of Glasgow for their MLitt in Fantasy. We’ve had some fascinating insights into the genre so far, including Shelley’s thoughts on universal truth, and George MacDonald on message and the role of a reader. On top of that, joining the passionate folks in Glasgow’s vibrant writing scene really has been a joy. I can’t wait to see what the next two years will bring. In the meantime, I’ll be working on more columns for Shoreline of Infinity, more short stories, more poetry. Oh, and my first audio story is due out from Pseudopod next year. So it might be worth keeping an eye on www.ruthbooth.com for whatever comes next.

The Lowdown with... Fran Terminiello

Fran Terminiello studied Journalism at degree level then rediscovered creative writing, a passion of her childhood, after the birth of her second child. Following a year of prolific output she turned her efforts towards becoming a professional writer and wrote the short story that later grew into Book One of Where Dead Gods Lie Buried – a series she is co-authoring with David Murray. Authors she admires are J.R.R. Tolkien, Jack Vance, Fritz Leiber,  Scott Lynch, Richard Morgan, Margaret Atwood and Joe Abercrombie. Fran lives in Surrey with her husband, daughter and son. She edits web content and fiction, and in her spare time enjoys fantasy role playing games. She also practices western martial arts (16th Century Bolognese swordplay and 17th Century rapier) and is fluent in Italian.

1. Tell us three things about yourself. 
Three things about myself? Okay: I am a sword fighting instructor, I run a small empire and I write stories sometimes.

2. What was the first thing you had published? 
First story I had published was in an anthology called Tales Of The Nun and Dragon from Fox Spirit, edited by Adele wearing. It's the story of sister amagda and her travels through the countryside. I tried to do in the style of a legend, the sort of story that is told rather than written down.

3. Which piece of writing are you proudest of? 
I think I'm most proud of my tale from Piracy, another anthology by Fox Spirit .Because it's the first story I received positive criticism for, both from readers and other authors.

4. …and which makes you cringe? 
What makes me cringe? I think overly choreographed and detailed fight scenes with lots of spinning, twirling, jumping and dialogue. Or historical inaccuracies. Or just inappropriate romance for the hell of it.

5. What’s a normal writing day like? 
I've never had an actual writing desk because I started writing when my children were very small and it would be whenever they fell asleep and had a nap. I would quickly whip out my pen and paper and start scribbling. Whether it was on the back of an envelope or an actual writing pad or into my phone I would just write wherever and whenever there is no right place or time. A lot of lay bys and car parks have been useful to me. I remember once actually being in tears because I had takes my daughter out for a walk and she'd fallen asleep, and then I found my pen didn't work.

6. Which piece of writing should someone who’s never read you before pick up first? 
My latest story in the Fight Like A Girl anthology by Kristell Ink, 'The Turn Of A Wheel' is set in the world of the novel I'm currently writing. So it best represents what Im mainly working on.

7. What are you working on now? 
It's been many years but I'm still working on a co written novel with David Murray. We keep picking it up and putting it down but I think this is the last run through, we've had good feedback from professional sources and we are determined to finish it.

The Lowdown with... Ren Warom

Ren Warom is a writer of the strange, dark and bizarre, not known for an ability to fit into boxes of any description. She's repped by the fabulous Jennifer Udden of Donald Maass Literary Agency and has two cyberweird novels forthcoming in the UK and the US with Titan Books - ESCAPOLOGY in 2016 and VIROLOGY in 2017. She Tweets here, waffles on Facebook here, and YouTubes over there.

1. Tell us three things about yourself.

I think the movie Tremors is perfect and I’ve seen it in excess of 100 times; I’ve also inducted my spawn into this obsession – sorry not sorry.

I left school at 15 with no GSCE’s but went on to hold a first class degree in writing and English.

I have never broken a bone, despite riding from the age of 6 and generally being a clumsy idiot.

2. What was the first thing you had published?

I had stories published in a few anthologies but the first story I was paid for appears in This Is How It Ends, the second Machine Of Deathbook, published by Grand Central Press. My story is called In Sleep.

3. Which piece of writing are you most proud of?

In terms of persistence and dedication I am most proud of the serial fiction I wrote for four years because I feel that was a hell of a thing to commit to and I did it every two weeks for all that time (it’s on my blog). A specific piece of writing though? Perhaps The Lonely Dark, my psychological horror SF novella published by Fox Spirit Books. It’s deeply personal, dealing with some of the feelings surrounding the loss of my sister and my struggle with mental illness and it was incredibly difficult to write in places. I’m proud that I wrote it and very proud that I was brave enough to put it out there in the world. There’s a lot more of me in that novella than in anything else I’ve ever written.

4. ...And which makes you cringe?

Oh Hades! So much. SO MUCH. I have written a terrible amount of unbearable dross.  Thankfully none of that will see the light of day. As for things I have had published – well, you can always see things you’d change in old work but I see no point in feeling embarrassed by it. At one point that was the best you could do and it’s great to look back and see a clear arc of improvement.

5. What’s a normal writing day like?

A challenge. I’m a single mum of three kids all in their pre-teens and teens on a writing deadline whilst starting her own business and running a YouTube channel. This is a house of drama and noise and chaos and whilst I love it, I often find it hard to steal quiet moments. I try and write when the kids are at school and college but I have to do everything else I need to do in that time too, so it can get a little crazy. Typically if I can get bum in seat or anywhere with my laptop and a internet connection (it’s a chromebook) I try and write until I have to move – that can be anything from ten minutes to three hours. You make the most of any chance you get basically.

6. Which piece of writing should someone who’d never read you before pick up first?

They could read The Lonely Dark, or my story Unravel in the BFS nominated anthology Tales of Eve. Or they can wait until next year and pick up my debut novel Escapology, which is a cyberweird and more indicative of what I usually write given ten minutes at a laptop or computer and some inspiration. :)

7. What are you working on now?

At the moment I’m working on edits for Escapology, then I’ll probably have to start working on Virology, but I’m also tinkering with a cyberweird novella dealing with cloning and thieves and awesome women called Peonies and planning another couple of novellas. One a grotesque, hallucinogenic, Burroughsian tale of personal metamorphosis and horror set in 1960s New York, the other an SF serial killer thriller slice of weird.

Thanks for having me!

The Lowdown with... K.T. Davies

About KT, AKA @KTScribbles on Twitter
I was born in the wilds of Yorkshire or ‘the North’ for all you southern types/those with a ‘thing’ for Game of Thrones. I somehow blagged a 1^st in literature and have worked variously as an actor, a scaffolder, a teacher, and until fairly recently, a theatrical prop maker — Look on my (past) works ye mighty and despair!
I have a lifetime membership of Club Nerd and play all manner of computer/console game as well as the unplugged varieties which I sometimes review for SFcrowsnest. I also review books n’ stuff. As if that wasn’t enough to prove I’ve earned my platinum geek credit card, I practice medieval martial arts (occasionally on horseback) I larp, read comics and wargame.
Interesting (?) factlets
I once fell down the highest mountain in Taiwan and was shown out of the jungle by a couple of tribesmen in exchange for a packet of cigarettes.
I have been taught to wrestle by ‘Crybaby’ Jim Breaks. I’ve been stabbed in a knife fight and I’ve got the scar to prove it.
Keeping me off the streets and (mostly) out of trouble is my partner, Ewan, ably assisted by our kids, three dogs, and one very grumpy cat.

1. Tell us three things about yourself.

I have a weird fascination for baseball films. No idea why, I don't actually like the game.

I've been playing computer games since the days of dial-up modems— first MUDs; stuff like Shades and Avalon, before moving on to shiny graphical MMOs like EQ, EQ2, DAoC, City of Heroes, Secret World, Warhammer, TESO. (Beta'dVanguard. It was a bit of a disappointment). I've cut back an awful lot, but for a good many years I was my own computer games widow...when I wasn't larping, or playing tabletop games, or wargaming...

I'm a terrible cyclist.

  

2. What was the first thing you had published?

The first thing I had published was a short story called "The Deal" in an anthology called Day of Demons. It's a short story about Breed, the eponymous protagonist of my latest novel which is a finalist for the Robert Holdstock Award for Best Fantasy Novel 2015, which is nice.

3. Which piece of writing are you proudest of?

That's a toughy. I'm proud of everything I've had published, but I'm sure I could re-write it all. Nothing is ever finished as far as I'm concerned.

4...And what makes you cringe?

Nothing really, although I could tweak everything endlessly. I've got a book of angst-ridden poetry that I wrote when I was a yoof. It will never be published, because it's rubbish, but it certainly makes me cringe.

5. What’s a normal writing day like?

Pretty boring really. Fall out of bed, launch the kids, do emails then write until lunch. After lunch write until tea time, then maybe write a little longer on how chaotic it gets. I might write in the evening if I've got a deadline and I've fallen behind or sometimes if I have a 'burn' on for what I'm writing. I try to avoid writing late at night because it's usually drivel.

6. Which piece of writing should someone who’s never read you before pick up first?

All roads lead to my second novel Breed at the moment. it's fantasy, it's dark and yet quite amusing, so I'm told.

7. What are you working on now?

A non fiction writing job because I gots ta eats. When I get a bit of free time, I'll be cracking on with Breed 2.