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BFS Awards juror
It’s been officially announced: I’m a member of the inaugural jury for the 2012 British Fantasy Awards. My fellow jurors are: James Barclay Hal Duncan Esther Sherman Damien G. Walter So I’m in excellent company. I’m currently in the last throes of reading for the Shirley Jackson Awards, so I’ll be keeping the momentum going into the BFS Awards. I will enjoy being given a short-list of material to read, and not every title/story that’s eligible. If you’re a member of the BFS please nominate your peers for this year’s Awards, and give the jury grounds for a lively debate. I may not want to read anything else for a…
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the tell-tale heart
This is a video of the 1953 adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe short-story “The Tell-Tale Heart”, narrated by James Mason. It’s adapted by Bill Scott and Fred Grable, and directed by Ted Parmelee. The animation is by Pat Matthews. I discovered this tonight on YouTube. YouTube has its share of dross, but it saves itself by offering up gems like this.
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Vic podcast is live
Thanks to dynamic duo of Sharon Ring and Del Lakin-Smith at Dark fiction Magazine my short story ‘Vic’ is now available as a podcast in its latest issue titled ‘The Waste land’. The TOC is: The God of Rain by Tim Lebbon (read by Marty Perrett) Vic by Maura Mchugh (read by Kim Lakin-Smith) My Love Sick Zombie Boy Band by Damien G Walter (read by Sam Moffatt) The Ease With Which We Freed The Beast by Lucius Shepard (read by David Moore) ‘Vic’ previously appeared in Black Static issue 10 and Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror 2010, edited by Paula Guran. I always approach listening to a podcast…
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Water in Black Static 21
My flash short story, ‘Water’, is appearing in Black Static 21. Thanks to editor Andy Cox for taking the story. A shout-out is also needed for non-fiction editor Peter Tennant, who has devoted the Black Static‘s Case Notes blog to the subject of women in horror for the month of February. At the moment you can read Nina Allen’s piece on ‘My hero: Joyce Carol Oates‘. I’d also like to highlight Melissa Helwig’s blog, Little Miss Zombie. Melissa is interviewing women who write horror throughout the month of February. If you think there aren’t that many women working in horror this will serve as a regular reminder that isn’t the…
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Involuntary Muscle
Issue 35 of Theaker’s Quarterly Fiction is now out and it includes my short story ‘Involuntary Muscle’. Thanks to editors Stephen Theaker and John Greenwood for choosing to include my story in this issue. It also features work by Matthew Amundsen, Douglas Ogurek, reviews by John Greenwood, Stephen Theaker and Howard Watts, with cover art also supplied by Howard. I find myself somewhat finger-tied at the prospect of writing a preamble or summary of ‘Involuntary Muscle’. I suppose the best I can offer is an anecdote from when I attended Clarion West, and Maureen McHugh was our mentor for a week. She said one time that when you write a…
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Vic podcast
Just before the dawn of 2011 I received word that my short story ‘Vic’, which recently appeared in the Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror 2010, will be podcast in the April edition of Dark Fiction Magazine. DFM is a relative newcomer to the horror podcasting scene, since it launched just last October, but it’s already podcast a lot of quality work. I’m pleased that Del Lakin-Smith and Sharon Ring, who run DFM, want to include ‘Vic’ in their roster of horror short stories. The best thing about podcasting is that it allows stories to reach a much wider audience. Ultimately, that’s what most writers want: people to read/hear their…
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Mise en abyme
This is a set of Matryoshka dolls, or Russian nesting dolls, I bought recently at the craft fair in Galway (they are from Minsk). I’ve always wanted at least one set, because there is something about the self-similarity aspect of the dolls that appeal to me a great deal. I was introduced to the concept of fractals by Martin, quite soon after we met. Martin was an engineering student at the time, and loved the elegance of fractal mathematics and the Mandelbrot set in particular. When I saw the recursive patterns printed as images it immediately reminded me of the artwork by M.C. Escher. When I was a kid a…
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a little thrill
Yesterday we dug our car out from under half a foot of snow and left Wexford for a long, careful drive up the South-East of Ireland before heading West to Galway. The first section was like driving through the landscape of Germany or Austria in winter, without the benefit of a country used to heavy snowfall. The entire countryside was swathed in white, and the snow-capped mountains appeared ready for skiers. As we passed through the Wicklow mountains we encountered a minor blizzard but luckily we were on clear, good roads and left it behind after a short distance. Once we hit the motorway to the West of Ireland the…
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non-horrid Halloween news
The picture above is another delightful shop window decoration from Galway city this weekend. Last night the clock went back by an hour, so this evening descended with the swift snick of the guillotine blade. On my way home in the early darkness I had to drive through patches of dense fog in the lower-lying areas – such as on the winding country road to my house. It’s as if it was conjured up to put the official spooky stamp upon the night. Yesterday I received the news that my short story ‘Involuntary Muscle’ will appear in issue 35 of Theaker’s Quarterly Fiction, which is due out at the end…
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Übermensch
If you would like to watch ‘Übermensch’, which won the Golden Blaster for Best Short Film at Octocon, here it is: https://dailymotion.com/video/xdm0p6?width=480&iframe=1&additionalInfos=0&autoPlay=0&hideInfos=0 ÜbermenschScreenplay by Daniel Poole, adapted from a short story by Kim Newman; Director: Simon Temple. For those who were at Octocon you can now watch the closing title sequence in full, which I recommend.
