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year’s best
Horror editor Paula Guran has announced the Table of Contents for the Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror 2010, which is being published by Prime Books in October. I’m delighted to confirm that my short story “Vic” has been selected for the anthology. “Vic” was first published in Black Static, issue 10, so a big thank you to editor Andy Cox for taking a chance with the story. It’s a thrill to see my story listed in the company of so many writers whose work I admire. The anthology will be 500+ pages featuring 38 stories (about 250,000 words) so there will be plenty to read. Quite appropriately the volume…
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Soho Ghost finalist
I can now mention that my photograph, entitled “Soho Ghost”, is a top ten finalist in the Cities of Night contest, being run by ChiZine Publications. The contest was created to celebrate the release of Philip Nutman’s short story collection Cities of Night, and the brief was to supply a subtle, creepy, evocative photo of a city at night. Since May 6 CZP began announcing the finalists, one per day, and my photo “Soho Ghost” went up last night. The overall winner will be announced on May 15, Cities of Night‘s official launch date. The winner receives: A free, signed, limited edition hardcover copy of Cities of Night Twenty-five postcards…
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The Campaign for Real Fear: the top twenty
Christopher Fowler and I have announced the winning stories in the Campaign for Real Fear. It’s been a great deal of work, but we were determined to select the winners in a timely fashion. Due to the large number of entries, and the high calibre of the final group of submissions, Chris and I have decided to select twenty winning stories. You will be able to read the first batch of ten stories in the June issue (#17) of Black Static followed by the second batch of ten stories in the August issue (#18), and they will be podcast by Action Audio. Top Twenty ‘Copy Degradation’ by Gemma Files; Canada…
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sun in the sky you know how I feel
I’ve been getting a constant stream of birthday greetings from people via Facebook and Twitter today, and it’s lovely. Thank you all! People might grumble about social media, but it has its good uses too. I’m just about recovered from my two-week trip with back-to-back convention in the UK. World Horror Convention was probably the highlight because it was a well-run convention, and I met loads of new people at the event since the horror/dark fantasy crowd aren’t well represented at the likes of Eastercon (which focuses more on SF and Fantasy). It’s pretty much confirmed that I’ll have to start attending Fantasy Con in England, and I’ve already joined…
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horrible happenings
I’m in London at the moment, but I’ll be heading to Heathrow for Eastercon later today. Some time after 2pm this afternoon I’m back on “Arts Brew” on the Internet Radio Z103, and I’ll be discussing the forthcoming Cúirt International Festival of Literature in Galway, among other things. World Horror Convention in Brighton last weekend was tremendous fun, if somewhat exhausting. The samples of the Roisin Dubh comic book arrived just in time for the convention on Friday morning, and it was a real joy to hold the 10-page preview. The panel I moderated about Women in Horror was excellent: our panellists were articulate and the audience asked questions and…
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a jaunt in the UK
I’m off to Brighton tomorrow morning to attend the World Horror Convention, which should be fun. I’ll be moderating a panel on Saturday at noon, in the Russell Room, called Femme Fatales: How Can We Get More Women in Horror?, where I’ll be in the distinguished company of Ellen Datlow, Tanith Lee, Allyson Bird, Sarah Pinbourgh and Suzanne McLeod. I suspect there might be some interest in this panel. Rob Curley, my co-conspirator on Róisín Dubh, received copies of our preview issue today. Alas, it’s too late for my early flight tomorrow, however he’s posting copies to me, so I should have them before the weekend, and in plenty of…
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graphic preview
I’ve established a web site for the Róisín Dubh graphic novel I’m working on. I’ve been blogging intermittently about the project for the past couple of months. There’s also a twitter feed and a Facebook fan page, if you like either of those media. Artist Stephen Daly has been working flat-out, lettering and making tweaks to the final cover of our ten-page preview issue. It went to the printers on Tuesday, and I’ll be taking copies of it with me next week to World Horror Convention and then on to Odyssey 2010, so those of you attending the events should be able to get a sneak-peek I’m looking forward to…
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give us your fear
Chris and I are already receiving submissions for the Campaign for Real Fear, so keep them coming! We say: “Give us your terror, your fear, Your horrid tales yearning to alarm, The wretched stories of your teeming brain. Send these, the disturbed, nightmare-tossed to us, We lift our laptops to behold their forms!” With homage to Emma Lazarus and The New Colossus. Also, it pleases me no end that the Australian Horror Writers Association has announced its finalists for the 2009 Shadows Awards and three out of the five entries in the Long Fiction Award are women. There are also three women out of five in the short fiction category,…
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Campaign for Real Fear
Christopher Fowler and I have launched the Campaign for Real Fear: a horror short story competition. Send us your best 500-word story that explores horror in the 21st century. We want diversity of characters and themes, and beginner or pro can enter. The top ten stories will be published in Black Static, and podcast by Action Audio. The deadline for entry is 5pm GMT, on Friday the 16th of April. If you want change, you better write it. Information on how to enter is available on the Campaign for Real Fear web site.
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women in horror: a summary of recent posts
It’s time for a summary of the reaction across the Internet to my recent posts about the lack of representation of women in the SFX horror edition. As I mentioned last week David Barnett at the The Guardian blog brought up the issue immediately, and by the end of the week UK Feminist web site The F Word was running with the story. Once I posted editor Ian Berriman’s reply to my query, the response in the comments, on Internet articles and to me personally has been anger and frustration at the lack of knowledge displayed about women’s participation in the horror industry. As Cheryl Morgan put it, it was…
