Dieser bereits vor vielen Jahren aufgegebene Kotten befindet sich im Randgebiet der Gemeinde Belm. Es ist schon ein eher bedrückendes Gefühl sich in einem derart verwitterten Haus zu bewegen.
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Nikon D60 ~ f/3,5 ~ 1/30s ~ ISO 200 ~ 18mm

Eine eindrucksvolle Umgebung um zu sehen, dass sich die Natur früher oder später alles zurückholt.
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Aufgenommen am 28.06.2009 im alten Güterbahnhof in Osnabrück
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Nikon D60 – Nikor 18-55 (Kit)
DRI aus einer Raw Datei

Der alte Güterbahnhof in Osnabrück liegt seit vielen Jahren brach …
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Doch wer weiß, welche zurzeit blühenden Industriezweige in einigen Jahren derart in Erscheinung treten?
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Nikon D60 – Nikor 18-55mm (Kit)
DRI aus einer RAW-Datei

In SW da es für mich besser zur Stimmung der verlassenen Halle passt

Im Rahmen meines Berlintripps am 13. September besuchte ich auch die seit diesem Sommer angebotenen Führungen im Spreepark. Es war Sonntag, 10 Uhr und da der Berliner ansich gerne etwas länger schläft waren wir nur ca. 20 Personen während die anderen Führungen mit 40 Personen komplett ausgebucht waren.

Der Herr, der die Führung veranstaltet hat, ist schon seit Jahren interessiert in der Geschichte des Kulturparks Plänterwald, bzw. des Spreeparks und unternimmt diese Führungen vollkommen Ehrenamtlich, respekt und vielen Dank dafür. Die 15 € Gebühren für diese Tour gehen direkt an die Sicherheitsfirma, die wiederrum von der Insolventen Spreepark GmbH bezahlt werden, also auch für Lau arbeiten.

Bei der Führung war auch der Cousin von Nobert Witte, der ja momentan seinen Wohnwagen in der Westernstadt aufgeschlagen hat und “für potentielle Investoren die Fahrgeschäfte auf funktionsfähigkeit überprüft”. Dementsprechend gut kam auch die Geschichte der Familie Witte bei der Führung bei weg. Da ich meist der ganz vorne in unserer Gruppe war (warum laufen eigentlich soviele Menschen immer so langsam?) konnte ich einige Anekdoten mitbekommen.

In der Mitte der Führung konnten wir dann ein Eisenbahngeräusch vernehmen, ich dachte an eine weiter entfernte Eisenbahn und habe die Aussage vom Cousin zum Führer “Guck mal da kommt Norbert mit der Parkeisenbahn” als Scherz aufgefasst. Dementsprechend überrascht war ich natürlich als der Herr Witte wirklich sein Spieltrieb auslebte und einige Runden durch den Park fuhr.

Die Frage einiger Führungsteilnehmer ob es möglich sei, mal mit der Eisenbahn mitzufahren wurde vom Spreeparkführer verneint “keine Genehmigung, kein TÜV”. Aber ein Herr Witte bleibt eben ein Herr Witte und lud uns überraschend zu einer Runde durch den Spreepark ein. Einerseits natürlich sehr verantwortungslos, aber da ich nutzniesser dieser Aktion war möchte ich mich nicht drüber beschweren.

Es war schon ein sehr merkwürdiges Gefühl nach sieben Jahren mit der erste Fahrgast dieser Parkeisenbahn zu sein, welcher dann auchnoch von Herrn Witte geführt wurde* und damit durch diesen “Geisterpark” zu fahren. Ein noch komischeres Gefühl war es dann über die Brücke an der Wildwasserbahn zu fahren, aber es hat ja gehalten .

Naja, jetzt habe ich den Titel:
First public Rider on Parkeisenbahn in Spreepark Berlin 2009.

Und noch viel schöner: Mir ist aufgefallen, dass ich die counts von meinem Besuch Anfang der Neunziger noch nicht eingetragen hatte, also indirekt noch gecountet.

*das soll weisgott keine Heldenverehrung sein, aber es ist nun eben “Mr. Spreepark” und steht für die Geschichte des Parks bis Heute – dementsprechend irgendwie merkwürdig, wenn der Zug von ihm geführt wird.

Hier findet man übrigens ein Video von der Fahrt auf der ich aber ich auch beiwohnte, das Video ist aber nicht von mir:

Man verzeihe mir die Bilderflut, aber ich liebe solche Lost Places.

This last couple of weeks has been a bit of greatness and a bit a crap, if I’m honest.

We’ll do the crap first: I won’t go into any details here, but I’ve been involved in discussions with Ghostwriter Publications regarding what I see as outstanding items owed to me, and the discussions have left a somewhat unpleasant taste in my mouth. I’m sad to say that they haven’t been particularly fruitful from my point of view and whilst I’m relatively sanguine about it all, it has confirmed that my decision to stop working with GWP, and it’s director Neil Jackson, was entirely the right one. It came to the point where I had to make a simple decision:  do I chase GWP through the courts, or do I let it go? Do I have the time or, indeed, the inclination? And even if I have the time , is my time worth wasting in having to carry on dealing with someone I can longer trust. And the answer is no; the situation, apart from being mostly boring, isn’t worth the effort it’ll take, not really, because I have more exciting things to do. I’ll take what Neil has agreed he owes me (assuming it arrives soon) and then I can walk away from this whole sorry mess. So, the final thing I’ll say about it all is this: I appreciate that the situation is specific to Neil and me, and I hope that his relationship and dealings with his other authors don’t turn out like mine and his did, but to anyone thinking of getting involved with GWP I would advise great caution.

On to bigger and brighter things: the cover artist for my Ash Tree Press collection has been confirmed as Jason van Hollander! Jason is a World Fantasy Award-winning artist whose covers have graced a number of other Ash Tree books – his covers for their anthologies are simply stunning. Jason’s website is here: http://www.jasonvanhollander.com/index.html - go and be astounded. At this point I have no idea what Jason will do for Lost Places but I’m absolutely sure it’ll be superb. I’m not sure if I’m supposed to make suggestions, because (let’s face it) when you have an artist the calibre of Jason van Hollander doing your cover, you just basically say “Whatever you want to do. Sir.” I can’t wait to see what he comes up with, and if Jason says he want to draw a picture of a daffodil wearing a trilby, who am I to argue? Hope he doesn’t, though…

Other news: I’ve rewritten the novel chapters and submitted them and I’m much, much happier with them. I editing them down by around 20%, and then slotted in some new supernatural gubbins, and the finished piece flows far better and faster. Clearly, I have no idea if they’re what the publisher’s looking for, but I can hope! I know I’m not going to hear back about them for a while, so I may well carry on with the next chapters, or spend some time with a new story I want to write about a plague of swearing. Watch this space.

Reviews

The first review this week is of the GWP anthology Creature Feature. Now, the first thing to say is that I’m a little biased about Creature Feature because a) I’m in it but b) my relationship with GWP isn’t great. In the interests of fairness, I’ll state straight up that the stories in this anthology are mostly wonderful, smart pulp creature stories that deserve to be read by as many people as possible, the cover’s eyecatching (although it’s slightly grainier than it looked in pictures posted of it on facebook and the GWP website) and it seems well bound. Creature Feature’s big problem is that  whoever proofread  it did a very poor job – it’s got quite a few basic typographical errors in it. The most glaring example occurs in Neil’s introduction, when he talks about Willie Meikle and Guy N Smith and then says that “These three gentlemen…” One might almost imagine that a third person was removed from the intro at the last minute but that no one bothered to read the rest of it to correct it for errors… It’s a shame because these kind of little things can affect the reading of the stories and can be taken to show, I think, a lack of respect for both the paying customer and the authors involved. Still, overall, it’s a good book and I’d certainly recommend it.

Full review next week, but I’m also reading Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, which I’m enjoying hugely. Of course, it has nothing to do with the fact that Chabon and I are soon to be ‘bookmates’, as we both have stories in the forthcoming Lovecraft Unbound anthology…

It’s funny, how life turns itself around, isn’t it?

NOTE: I warn you now that there’s good news coming, so everyone who enjoyed the relative solemnity of last week’s blog and was hoping for another week of non-chirpiness, turn away now. There’s a huge wave of good cheer coming, it’s top foaming white. Depressives are surfing it’s tubular length – look, one just fell in and drowned! Should we worry? No, fuck them, let’s get on!

So, anyway, good news: I am to have an Ash Tree Press collection! An ASH TREE PRESS collection! YEAH!

What happened was this: I was already in conversation with ATP (see how easy I slip into the jargon? I’m almost a natural) about pitching them a second collection – I had several stories ready to go, some that I thought I could work into shape and some ideas that I hoped they’d like. Barbara and Chris and I met at World Fantasy 2009 in Calgary and got on well, so most of the conversations had been more along friendly lines rather than anything formal, but things looked hopeful in the sense that they were at least happy for me to pitch. After making my decision about Ghostwriter (and thanks for all the messages of support that came in about that, by the way – much appreciated), Barbara and I had a chat about the newly free stories. I didn’t think they’d be interested, they said they were, and Bob’s your aunty’s live-in lover, suddenly I have a viable pitch. I sent along the new stories, plus some that had been intended for the GWP mini-collection we’d planned for Christmas, and a few days later ATP got back in touch to formally offer me a collection. The full listing for this masterpiece (I’m nothing if not slightly egotistical and very hopeful), which we’re calling Lost Places, is:

Befürchte eines Tages in einer Ruine durch die morsche Decke zu brechen – dann liege ich eine Etage tiefer mit kaputten Knochen und niemand wird mich finden. Diese Überlegung hält mich jedoch keineswegs davon ab, von meinem Treiben zu lassen.

And we continue apace…

This week, Ghostwriter Publications head honcho Neil J sent me a proposed cover for the collection, Black Dogs and Lost PLaces, which (after some back and forth tinkering) I like very much. It incorporates everything I asked for (nothing too gothic, a doorhandle and lock, creepy overtones without being overtly horrific or too pulp – I’ve said before and stand by the fact that I love pulp writing, but I’m not sure I write pulp so I didn’t want a pulp cover). The end result is, I think you’ll agree, really rather special:

Black Dogs and Lost Places

I’m getting all tingly again just looking at it… Spurred on by the arrival of my cover, I also finished proofing the galley, which is now done. Acknowledgements, Barbara Roden’s introduction, the stories themselves and the afterword are all now proofed and in the post back to Neil.

I’d just tlike to point out, if you hadn’t already noticed, that I have a rather lovely blurb by Stephen Volk. BAFTA award-winning Stephen Volk. Ghostwatch and Afterlife author Stephen Volk. How cool is that?

Did I mention it was Stephen Volk? I did. Oh. Never mind. Stephen Volk! Fantastic!

Anyway, work on the collection is progressing nicely, and as I get more news about its appearance, I’ll blog about it here and on facebook (probably at nauseating length, boring everyone senseless, but you know what? I don’t care. It’s my first collection and I’ll bore you about it if I want to).

I’ve been thinking a lot about the writing generally this week. I finished another story (which is either a complete piece of junk or really quite good, I can’t work it out), and I have several plans that I’m going to start work on in the next few months. None of them are specific enough for me to blog about yet, but rest assured when they are, I will! I have decided one thing, however: given that there are currently no specific anthologies for me to write/submit to, so this might be a good time to start work on the long-discussed novel. Ages ago, I submitted the first few chapters of a novel to a mainstream publisher for consideration and although I haven’t heard back from them yet, I reread the chapters and have decided that I like them a lot. So, my decision is to start seriously writing the novel. I’m certainly not stopping writing the short stories – I enjoy them too much to leave them alone, and suspect that they act as something of a safety valve for me, but I’d like to get my teeth into something more substantial now. Of course, if I get requests to submit to specific anthologies, I’ll still do it (partly because I love writing the shorts, but also because being in multi-author anthologies is fun and it’s always nice to be in company!), and I’ll certainly want to put out another collection of stories at some point if I can, but now it’s novel time. Time to imperil the world, I think…

Only other news is that I have someone building a website for me – at last! My friend Andrew has been putting something together and we’ve spent the past week sending photos to each other, discussing colours and fonts and arcane computer progams, searching out copyright free images that we can use, etc. Anyone know a good site for old woodcuts that are copyright free incidentally? I have some but I want more!! We’re hoping to get the site ready to launch in the next few weeks, so watch this space…

Still no reviews. I’m being lazy.

Right, off again. Later, one and all!

…and I’m back! Now, where was I? Oh yeah, writing.

Well, there’s not much to report, really. My writing diary is, for the first time in a while, entirely empty of specific jobs, so I can write pretty much what I want. I didn’t take my laptop on holiday (I normally write on the laptop, because it’s quicker) but I did have a notebook and pen with me so I wrote a new story sitting in the Moraira sun – I went away with three stories in my head, and wrote the one that presented itself most forcefully, about a self help group whose members are really struggling with their identity. Even longhand, the story shelled out nice and easy, and although there’s some sections that still need work, I’m confident it’ll be a good little tale when it’s done I just need to type it up now… The last story I wrote completely longhand was The Church on the Island, so I have pedigree here ha ha ha!

One thing that did happen on holiday was that another story presented itself to me, and as is traditional for me, it started out as a joke. We had a series of strange incidents on holiday with fruit and vegetable appearing in the villa pool (this is true: we had a tomato, a courgette, a lemon and three large green peppers appear in the water during the course of the week, probably thrown in by the children in the adjoining villa as a kind of weird joke), and my wife, parents and sister all said at some point, Well I’m sure there’s a story in there, Simon! and everyone laughs…except me. Partly, it was the challenge – sort of, Well, you’re all joking but I wonder, can I write a story about fruit appearing in a pool that’s dark and not funny? Creepy not silly? Yes, I think so. And partly, I think it was because it’s such a strange thing to happen that I wanted to record it in some way. So,  I came back with a kind of proto-idea bubbling in my brain, and worked out more details over the last week. What’s great is that other details have been swirling into place without me trying. For example, Helen Grant (excellent author and facebook friend) was messing about with redcurrants this week, so suddenly I have another fruit, and my main character has a name, and with the name comes a history (not Helen’s history, I hasten to add – I’ve nicked her name but not her whole life!). I started the story on Thursday, and I aim to have it done by the end of the week. I don’t have a place in mind for it, I’m just writing it for fun, and we’ll see how it turns out. More news as it happens.

One more thing: as you may know (I’ve banged on about it often enough!) Ghostwriter Publications publishes 2 chapbooks of mine, Button and Marley’s Haunting -a weird little thing about the perils of sticky buttons and a clasically inspired, vicious ghost story respectively. I have several copies of each available for sale direct from me, each one signed in lovely violet in by yours truly! They’re at the bargain price of £2.50 including postage – surely a dream purchase in anyone’s book! If you’re interested, contact me and we’ll sort out payment via paypal or cheque and delivery.

Quick request – anyone good at designing websites? I finally got round to buying the rights to www.simonkurtunsworth.com, but I haven’t got the first clue about building the site, etc. Anyone got any ideas, or fancy doing me a freebie??? I’d be eternally grateful…

No reviews this week – have several to write up for next week though, so watch this space. Right, life calls. Later, lords and ladies.

It’s been a hell of a year. I found out in August 2008 that The Church on the Island had been nominated for a World Fantasy Award for best short story, and things haven’t stopped since then. I got a publishing company interested in doing a collection of my work (and then more than interested, in that they agreed to do it) I went out to Calgary for the World Fantasy Convention (where i met some excellent people and made friends with some folk whom I’m hoping I’ll know for a long time yet, even if I didn’t win the award), I’ve had 6 stories accepted for publication in different anthologies and I’ve submitted a novel proposal to a major publishing house. So, where does that leave me?

Mammoth Book of Best New Horror #19

Well, Church on the Island was included in the Mammoth Book of Best New Horror #19, which is pretty good, and I did my first signing sat next to an author whose work I love, Christopher Fowler (at FCon, if you’re interested). I was on a high for days afterwards!

Creature Feature approaches!

Creature Feature (as you may or may not be aware, but if you’ve read this blog before you will be aware!) comes out in the next couple of weeks and contains 3 of my stories (Day Ten, Last Option and Peek A Boo), as well as 18 other tales of giant, wild creatures and other pulp delights.

Gaslight Grotesque: Nightmare Tales Of Sherlock Holmes, containing my story The Hand Delivered Letter is scheduled to come out in November of this year – this is a particularly gratifying acceptance for me, as it was the first time that I’ve written using someone else’s world and/or characters (in this case, Conan Doyle’s

Gaslight Grotesque

Sherlock Holmes). It was a huge test for me as a writer, I think, both in terms of how to do it and also, could I do it at all? When you read the story, you’ll see that I’ve not written a ‘traditional’ Holmes story, because I felt I didn’t know the originals well enough to do them justice, but I’m hoping that what iIhave produced doesn’t let the side down.

My story Vernon, Driving is being published in the Ellen Datlow anthology Lovecraft Unbound, due for publication in October.

Lovecraft Unbound

When I tell you that this was the 4th story I submitted to Ellen for this particular anthology, the first three having been rejected, you’ll maybe have some inkling of how proud I am to have finally made the cut. The other contributors to Lovecraft Unbound are a high-powered and well-regarded bunch, and you might ask yourself the question, what am I doing in there? Keeping my head down! is the answer, and hoping no one notices the interloper…

And, lastly on the anthlogies front, it is my huge pleasure to announce that the Zambia story (Mami Wata) has been accepted for inclusion in the forthcoming Ash Tree Press anthology Exotic Gothic 3. Again, having seen the lineup of other authors involved, you might wonder how the hell I got in there. Me, too, folks, me too! I’m not complaining, though…

As for other works, the collection Black Dogs and Lost Places is still set for a September release (we’ve had confirmation that we can launch at the British Fantasy Convention, so although this isn’t arranged yet, my hope is that this will happen and I’ll see you there!). It contains 10 stories, of which 6 are new and 4 reprints, and advance word via the blurbs I’ve had are simply astounding. Mark Morris has described it as “emotionally devasting” and the work of a “powerful new voice in horror”, Stephen Volk has said the stories are “creepy and impressive”, Lawrence Connolly that it is “the most impressive debut [he's read] for a long time”, Rob Shearman that the stories are “deceptively amiable, but creepy as hell” and Gary McMahon that I’m a “writer who knows the value of [his] craft”. Jesus! I thought maybe people would like them, but this kind of feedback is simply beyond what I ever expected. It’s enormously gratifying, slightly scary and makes me think that Black Dogs is something I can be very proud of and that people may actually like it. We’ll see…

Strange Gateways, the mini collection (5 new stories) I’ve decided to put back until December, to give me chance to concentrate on Black Dogs, but it will definitely come out, and will be a limited edition of 100 numbered, signed paperbacks. It’ll probably be available for pre-order from about August. In addition to this, Ghostwriter Publications have also released two chapbooks by me, Button and Marley’s Haunting, both of which will also be available as audios soon and will also be included in an audio collection due later in the year. There may also be audios of Strange Gateways and Black Dogs, if you’re very lucky!

The novel I don’t know about yet. I’m still waiting…

It’s not been a year without it’s downsides (although, if I’m honest, not many) – I’ve been rejected from a few anthologies that I wanted to get into, and one major piece of work seems to have fallen through (or at least, gone very quiet), which is a shame. My personal circumstances have changed which might affect the writing in the future if I’m not careful – having to get a proper job is never pleasant, but the one I got is excellent and will still hopefully leave me time to write each week. Mostly, though, this year has been incredibly successful. As well as the writing, I’ve set up this blog and have managed to update it regularly, I’ve got a presence on facebook (fun) and twitter (sorta pointless as far as I can see!) and have purchased the domain name www.simonkurtunsworth.com – I’ll set the site itself up during the coming months. So, I’ve been efficient, written a huge amount, and am starting to feel like a real author now (whatever one of those buggers is!). But you know the most important thing?

I’m having fun. No more, no less, this is the most fun I’ve had for ages, and I hope to carry on like this for the forseeable future!

See you after the holiday, when I shall be refreshed, relaxed and full of new ideas. I hope…

A quiet week, all told. Most of the time, I’ve been tied up with non-writing stuff, so that main focus has been getting the Zambia story sorted. The original draft (once again expertly critiqued by the messers Duffy, Thorley, Worgan, et al) was submitted to Danel Olsen, who seemed to like it but had suggestions to make to improve it. Danel is a great editor, who makes really tight, smart comments about the text and explains why he’s making them (and, perhaps even more importantly, wasn’t pissy when I camended his comments to something I liked better or ignored them completely), so we spent a few days batting around various drafts before we came to an agreement on the absolute last, final verion of the tale that we both liked. It’s been fun, watching my story evolve further than I thought it would. Along the way, the name of the story has changed (from Copperbelt to Mami Wata) and it’s tightened up a good deal. Mami Wata is now a really good story, I think, and although I’m still not sure if it’s made it into Exotic Gothic 3, I’m really rather proud of it.

I also wrote a piece of flash fiction this week for a competition – a 500 word story. Now, any of you who’ve read my stuff will know that 500 words isn’t usually enough for me to get out of the starting blocks, because I am a windy bugger, but I did manage it. Honest. It probably helped that I only found out about the competition a day before the closing date, so I didn’t have time to worry – just blasted the piece out on a train to London, and editing on the train back 4 hours later. It’s been submitted, but I haven’t heard back yet, but even if it doesn’t place (a distinct possibility!), it was fun to do and I might be able to expand the it later. The two characters I created, Cheshire and Poe, have started something sparking in my brain and I might try to flesh out them and their universe at some point. They join an ever-growing group of demons and nightmares that I’m gathering together ( take a bow, Mr Kobe and Mr Twomouth!) who are standing in the wings. Dunno what I’ll do with them yet, but their time is coming…

Not much else to tell, really.  I’ve been editing  the stories for Strange Gateways, which continues to develop nicely – more news as I get it. Got some more really good advance feedback on the stories in Black Dogs and Lost Places from World Fantasy Award-winning (and Doctor Who scriptwriter) Rob Shearman and the excellent horror author Mark Morris, so that was really positive. I’m really beginning to think that Black Dogs might be a critical (and hopefully commercial!) success. I’ve also had it confirmed that we can launch it at the British Fantasy Convention in September, so if all goes to plan I’ll do some kind of launch/signing there – the weekend of the 19th – 21st September, folks! Put it in your diary…

Creature Feature - June 15th approaches!

Oh, yeah, don’t forget, Creature Feature is out on Monday and should ship from Ghostwriter this week some time. 21 tales of creature both large and small, but all ( I would imagine!) deeply vicious. Includes three of my tales, so worth a look in anyone’s book. If you still aren’t convinced, I’d urge you to watch the excellent trailer on youtube (where you can also find trailers for other Ghostwriter Publications forthcoming releases, including my own Black Dogs and Lost Places collection, due September 2009. Did I mention that already? Did I?).

Okay, that’s enough. Don’t want to overload you.

I finally finished the story for submission to Charles Prepolec’s Gaslight Grotesque anthology. At the moment it’s in draft, but the feedback from the critical circle has been pretty good (better than anticipated) so I’m hopeful that Charles (and Jeff Campbell, the other editor and also a thoroughly nice fellow) will like it. The feedback has picked up on one or two things that need fixing with the story (nothing major), so the plan is to make the fixes this week and submit it by Friday if not earlier. Fingers crossed…

The other writing this week has been the story for submission to Danel Olsen’s Exotic Gothic III – a gothic story but not set in the traditional home of the gothic (the UK, Germany, Italy, France – basically western Europe!). I’ve been struggling with this for some time, trying to find a central peg to hang the story on. I knew what I wanted to do, sort of, but not quite how to do it, so this week I did a fun thing: I freewheeled through google. A while ago, I found a small document online about Zambian myths and cultures (I’m setting the story in Zambia for no reason other than an old family friend lives there and it’s certainly exotic in Gothic terms and i wanted to write a completely sunlit horror story )so I used one Zambian word from it to search and read what came up, took one Zambian term from one of the search results and searched for that, etc, and disappeared into Google’s merry depths. I ended up with an academic paper about a particular myth, a travel blog about a sort of beer made from corn and a weird little ‘my God’s better than your God’ blog by a kid in Africa, and somewhere in the middle of that, the story appeared. It’s not fully formed yet, but I have an opening couple of sentences that seem to work, an idea of where it’s going and a series of what feel to me like good, creepy images to incorporate. It’s working title is Copperbelt and I hope to have it written in draft during next week. Then it’s off to the critical circle and the nervous ‘awaiting comments’ period. I need it done in final version and submitted by June 20th, so I’ve left this one a bit late. Oops…

Creature Feature - June 1st approaches!

Final news this week: the full contents for Creature Feature have been released! The list is an exciting one, especially for me as three stories of mine are in there!

Guy N Smith – The Fish Thing
Guy N Smith – The Beast in the Mist
William Meikle – Rickmans’ Plasma
William Meikle – Stingers
Simon Kurt Unsworth – Day Ten
Simon Kurt Unsworth – Last Option
Simon Kurt Unsworth – Peek-a-Boo
Maxwell Dowie – Late Shift
Ian Faulkner – Sun
Barry J. House – Opening Night
David Jeffery – It Lives In Dark Places
Steve Jensen – The Devil Of Mons
Rakie Keig – The Moths That Ate New Jersey
Steven Lockley – The Flies
Kevin Lumley – Le Carcajou
Peter Mark May – Wookey Hole
David McAfee – Lakeside
Robert Morrish – Each Step I Take Is In Darkness
Stuart Neild – Old Slippery
Daniel I. Russell – Belvedere
Brooke Vaughn – Creeper

Details of how to order, cost, etc, can be found by following the link to the Ghostwriter Blog in the blogroll at the side of this page.

My other Ghostwriter projects are progressing well. Black Dogs and Lost Places  is pretty much in the bag. Barbara R is nearly through reading the stories and tells me she’s enjoying them so far (thank God!), so the intro is on its way. I need to chase the outstanding blurbs, but that’s no hassle really. The mini, limited collection, Strange Gateways, is on track as well. I have to do final edits on the stories and order them, but that should be easy enough and will only take a day or two. It’s definitely looking like a July release, and it will be a numbered paperback limited to 100 copies. Start saving those pennies now…

Reviews: The Birthing House by Christopher Ransom. Oh. Dear. Me. Not a bad book, exactly, but not good. It’s one of those iritating books that presents itself as a haunted house book, but then never really commits to the supernatural and bounces around the ‘is it maybe the main character’s madness’ motif as a story driver. It’s mostly well written, although the characterisation is poor and the characters mostly unbelievable, and the ending veers dangerously close to cliche. One to get out of the library, but not to buy.

I also watched the older movie The Woman in Black, based on the book by Susan Hill and written for the screen by Nigel Kneale (of Quatermass fame). This is a great movie, both creepy and upsetting, and it’s an object lesson in how to make creepy imagery without a massive budget or special effects. The sight of the woman in the abandoned graveyard will send shivers down your spine! Copies still turn up on ebay, so I’d urge you to track one down if you can.

Okay, there’s writing to be done and tasks to be completed. Until next week, Lords and Ladies, goodbye.

Good week bad week.

I had two rejections this week, both from the same anthology. Damn. The reasons for the rejections were, on first sight, slightly odd: that my stories were good but ‘too commercial’ and that the horror in my stories was ‘too overt’. Surely commercial is good? Well, no, in this case, it’s not! When I look at the other anthologies that the press have produced, the comments makes sense (and it’s reassuring that, despite not wanting them, the editor thought my stories were good and competently written) – there’s a subtlety to the stories in earlier anthologies and a strangeness that I haven’t quite mastered yet. I need, for this anthology, to let go of some of my more ‘concrete’ notions and try to think about those more delicate, less horrific incidents in life that are, nonetheless, creepy or in some way disturbing. And then I need to write about them… I’m hopful that I’ll be able to pull something together before the closing date that the editor will like. It’ll be a challenge to create something more emphemeral, so clearly I need to put my subtle head on…

Creature Feature - a reason to celebrate!

Better news: I have another story in Creature Feature! That’s makes three stories, which I’m very excited about. I’m not going to say much about the content of the stories, as I don’t want to give anything away, except to say that the third story is currently labouring under the title In the Kitchen, Hiding and that I’m enormously proud of the creature I created and I really, really wouldn’t want to meet it in a dark alleyway.  Or in a well-lit street. Or, indeed, anywhere.  The anthology is shaping up to be a really good one, with stories in from a range of excellent authors, so I’m looking forward to reading it. June the 1st is release day, and it’s only weeks away. Hurrah!

My other writing news is also pretty exciting: I’m still finalising the details, but it looks like there’s going to be a very limited edition mini-collection of my stories coming out in June or July. The collection will be another Ghostwriter Publications release (I’m getting on well with Ghostwriter – can you tell?). It’ll be hardback and slipcased, contain 5 new stories and its working title is Strange Gateways. Neil J and I are still discussing it to agree the final look, content, etc, but the likely ToC is:

1. Where Cats Go
2. The Station Waiting Room
3. A Meeting of Gemmologists
4. The Drunks’  Totem
5. A Different Morecambe

This is a really cool development as far as I’m concerned - the stories in it are ones I’m proud of but that didn’t quite fit into Black Dogs and Lost Places so knowing they’ve found a good home is really gratifying. It does mean I only have one ‘unplaced’ story, Stevie’s Duck – a weird little thing about suburban nightmares and a giant duck. I may put it into Stange Gateways yet, as it’s a story I’m really very attached to that’s a bit different from my normal stuff. I’m sure I’ll find a home for it soon, so don’t feel too sorry for it! I feel a little naked with a stash of stories to draw on, though, so I need to write some more to get my reserves back up soon. More news as I get it…

Reviews: Putting the Pieces in Places by Ray Russell. Now I’ll admit a little amount of bias, as Ray is a friend of mine, but this 5 story collection from the Ex Occidente Press is an excellent read. Ray’s stories are far, far subtler and more delicate than mine, often refusing to some to any hard and fast conclusions and making the reader work for their conlusions. Are there any supernatural experiences going on here? Maybe, but you’ll need to think hard about what they are and what they mean. Are there ghosts? Possibly. Are there flawed and confused human beings, struggling to make sense of a world that’s shifting around them? Oh, yeah! The stories are uniformly excellently written, and this beautifully bound and presented book is a definite recommendation. Enjoy.

Haven’t quite finished Garbage Man yet, although I’m not far off and I’m definitely enjoying it so far. I did read Guy N Smith’s Bats Out of Hell which was fun but not his best, and I watched … nothing. No films or TV at all this week.

More later, folks. Life calls.

Industrieruinen und ähnliches

Heute gibt es ein paar Bilder aus 2008, von denen ich zunächst nicht so wusste, wo ich sie zuordnen soll. Ich habe sie auf den human-Fotoblog gestellt, da sie ja doch (verlassenen) menschlichen Intensivraum darstellen. Die meisten der Fotos sind im Landschaftspark Bochum. In Stadtlandschaften liebe ich diese Orte die früher von reger Betriebsamkeit erfüllt waren und heute marode sind, leer stehen und eine geheimnisvolle Aura haben. Klagenden Augen und Mündern gleich durchbrechen die glaslosen Fensteröffnungen die roten Backsteinfassaden. Einladend genug, hindurchzuschreiten und sich auf diese verlassene Welt einzulassen.

Jahrhunderthalle

Marode

Das Auge des Technokraten

Diese und weitere Industrialfotos finden sich in größerem Format HIER.

Die ehemalige Stimmung in diesen Hallen trägt vielleicht diese Gedicht des von mir sehr geschätzten Herrn Tucholsky:

Arbeit tut not –!

Es raucht der Schlot. Sirene gellt.
Arbeit tobt durch die deutsche Welt:
Noch mehr Tender –!

Graumorgens taumelt, lungenkrank,
der Mann aus seinem Menschenschrank.
Die Pfeife hetzt zum Eingangstor,
Kontrolluhr, Wächter und Hund davor …
Noch mehr Tender! Noch mehr Automobile!

Der Stumpfsinn treibt die Transmission.
Wir haben auch einen Leitspruch schon:
Arbeit tut not!
Die Fräser surren,
Hämmer hämmern, die Sägen schnurren …
Noch mehr Tender! Noch mehr Automobile!
Noch mehr Zangen! Noch mehr Spatenstiele!

Grau stickt Büroluft alle Lungen.
Hier hockt die Jugend; hier sitzen die Jungen.
Rabatte gellen durchs Telefon –
es klappert Underwood und Cohn:
Noch mehr Tender! Noch mehr Automobile!
Noch mehr Zangen! Noch mehr Spatenstiele!
Noch mehr Aktien! Noch mehr Industrie!
Und alles made in Germany!

Waren! An Waren profitieren!
Waren sinnlos produzieren!
Will einer sie haben? Kann einer kaufen?
Unser Land soll in Waren versaufen!
Klopfen, hämmern, schneiden und weben –
eine Kleinigkeit fehlt: das Leben.
Kleben, kochen, färben und braten –
Kinder, macht Kinder! der Staat braucht Soldaten!
Sind die Gräben einst voll, sinds die Gräber auch –
das ist des Landes so der Brauch.
Produziert Kinder! Unentwegt!
Sie werden euch später in Kalk gelegt.
Das ist Wirtschaftspolitik.
Und es bläst die Militärmusik:
Noch mehr Granaten! Noch mehr Automobile!
Noch mehr Kinder! Noch mehr Spatenstiele!
Noch mehr Bleche! Noch mehr Krane!
Noch mehr Werften! Noch mehr Vulkane!
In die Welt gepreßt bis zum Börsensieg –
Und wenn sie nicht wollen, macht Deutschland
Krieg!
Wer wird uns den rasenden Kaufmann bezwingen –?
Arbeit tut not:
Die Masse wirds bringen.

Jahrhunderthalle Bochum

Canon Eos400D | Tamron 17-50mm 2,8 

Landschaftspark Bochum

Canon Eos400D | Tamron 17-50mm 2,8 

Gasometer Oberhausen

Canon Eos400D | Tamron 17-50mm 2,8 

Landschaftspark Bochum

Canon Eos400D | Tamron 17-50mm 2,8 

Landschaftspark Bochum

Canon Eos400D | Tamron 17-50mm 2,8 

Bank im Landschaftspark Bochum

Canon Eos400D | Tamron 17-50mm 2,8 

Landschaftspark Bochum

Canon Eos400D | Tamron 17-50mm 2,8 

Fußgängerunterführung Bonn

Canon Eos400D | Tamron 17-50mm 2,8