Wednesday 28 September 2016

The Greens

My novella, "The Greens", has recently been published by Snowbooks and as usual I'm blogging about how the story developed for those who might be interested. Beware: there may be spoilers for those who haven't read it.

I believe "The Greens" has the longest gestation period of any of my fiction and some of the background has been lost in the mists of time. However there are three distinct story strands. The first is the twelfth century legend of the green children from Woolpit, Suffolk. The story goes that two young children - a boy and a girl - were discovered with green-coloured skin. They stated they came from underground, from St Martin's Land, which had it's own sun, and had become lost. Not long after their discovery the boy sickened and died, but the girl went on to marry a local landowner and her skin eventually lost its green tint. According to the legend, the girl bore no children. I remember hearing this legend and thinking: what if they did have children? What if there were descendants of the green girl living today?

Some time after this I watched a documentary regarding obsessive-compulsive behaviour. Previously I must admit I was a little ignorant as to the subject matter, other than that I knew sufferers might obsessively wash or needed to place items in specific orders. What I hadn't realised was that for some sufferers the need to do this was based on a genuine fear that harm would befall others - such as family members - if these rituals weren't adhered to. It was easy to understand how someone might feel trapped in this situation, because even if they understood the improbability there would still be the fear of ceasing the ritual. And then I wondered, what if this were true? What if the ritualistic behaviour of OCD sufferers actually was keeping evil at bay? And what if it turned out that all the descendants of the green girl suffered from OCD? What might they unconsciously be trying to contain?

The third strand was partially linked to the legend of the green children emerging from underground. I had long been interested in Hollow Earth theories. As a teenager I remember reading a book called "The Great UFO Breakthrough" which mentioned reports of an underground race called the Dero. These evil entities were 'detrimental robots' who originally appeared in a short story by Richard S Shaver in Amazing Stories, but who were subsequently believed to have a basis in truth. There's a fascinating article about them here. I had also subscribed to an email list for a company who were planning an - always aborted - trip to the Arctic to investigate Hollow Earth, and those emails provided me with useful information which I decided to work into the story.

So these were the three strands which became "The Greens". It was an ambitious book for me, as I usually work with more internalised dilemmas, and it took a while to structure it to my satisfaction. Without getting too technical I wrote the story from the perspectives of several different characters, but it was how I then ordered those accounts within the book which - I believe - became part of its strength.


Finding a publisher was also a long process. The seeds of the ideas came from 2005, I wrote the book in 2009/2010, and many of the publishers I submitted to either took an age to respond or accepted but were then unable to proceed with it. I began to wonder if the book was jinxed, but on a whim I submitted to Snowbooks and had an acceptance within hours! All the years of turmoil had worked as a channel to direct me to a serendipitous moment. My submission hit the spot at just the right time.

Here's an extract from the start of the book:


The fingers of her brother’s hand wriggled in her grip, but she had no intention of letting go. The noise came again, a distant tinkling of tiny bells reverberated the cool air. Their sheep were quiet, heads down, aware. She bent her knees and whispered in her brother’s ear. He nodded, but she knew he didn’t understand. Sometimes she felt she was the only one who understood anything.

Their sun was low in the sky, casting their faces in a sub-orange glow. The landscape here was barren, rocks pushed through the grass, stubbling the distant view. She tugged on her brother’s hand, but he was reluctant to move. If the sound of the bells entranced her, then they had hypnotised him. He didn’t waver.

She tried to release her fingers but whereas before she had reached for his hand, now it was him who held her tight. She shook her fist, hard, and almost knocked him to the floor. His eyes were a mixture of wonder and fear. The bells continued. When it came to the Unknown, neither of them had any experience. You couldn’t rely on rumour.


"The Greens" was published on the 23rd September and can be purchased here via amazon. So far there is one review, from respected horror writer Gary Fry: "Overall I enjoyed this offbeat adventure a great deal...it's very Andrew Hook and his capacity to take aspects of everyday life and make magic out of them. An intriguing, readable and satisfying piece." If you do read the novella, please take a moment to place a review on amazon or goodreads or comment here. Feedback is always appreciated.


Thursday 22 September 2016

Blanche



My short story, "Blanche", will shortly be published in the anthology, "Something Remains", from Alchemy Press, and as usual I'm blogging about how the story came about for those who might be interested. Beware: there will be spoilers.

Most of you reading this will be aware of Joel Lane, an excellent and wholly individual writer who amassed a great body of short stories, poetry, novellas, and novels before his early death at the age of fifty in 2013. Joel's death reverberated around the genre community, not only because of its suddenness, but also because of the great affection and respect he had gained within the scene - probably much more than he was aware of. I won't go into too much detail here (my blog post shortly after his death already covers this), but Joel strongly influenced my own writing and that of many others in the genre.

At FantasyCon 2015 Peter Coleborn of Alchemy Press announced an intriguing call for submissions. After Joel's death a large amount of unused material had been found - scraps of story notes, unfinished work etc. Peter had been approached by Joel's friend and fellow writer, Pauline Dungate, with a view to possibly using this material. From Pauline's introduction to the book: "My idea was somehow to resurrect the best of the ideas and ask some of Joel's friends to finish them." Peter had those notes with him at FantasyCon and invited those who might be interested to take a look.

I must admit my first thought was that this was something I wanted to take part in followed very quickly by reservations that it might be an unintentional ghoulish venture picking over scraps. Whatever the merit in the intention - and clearly neither Peter nor Pauline would have broached the anthology if they hadn't carefully considered it - would the result be somehow distasteful? I decided to look at Joel's notes purely out of curiosity, and it wasn't long before my reservations were overcome. Seeing Joel's handwriting made the proposal more personal. It would be a fitting tribute. Not only this, but it was clear that any writer taking part would be doing so for the same reason: to properly honour Joel's memory.

It wasn't long before I knew with absolute certainly which set of notes I wanted to work with. They show below:

"Blanche" resonated with me. I had previously named a character Blanche Noir, and whilst I didn't subsequently re-use that name in the story my mind was already working. Some of the other notes were more detailed, but I was looking for a skeleton, for themes which I usually work with, for a sketch. "The crowd in the flickering b/w stop-motion film of the disco" immediately appealed, as did the reference to Blanche in "A Streetcar Named Desire", and the nature of identity (Blanche being a female name applied to a male protagonist). The seeds were there. The story had to be written.

I won't go into too much detail into how these elements infused my subsequent story, but there is plenty of Joel in the telling and whilst it's definitely my story it does fit the guidelines as I believe Peter Coleborn intended them: not as a homage or a pastiche but as a continuation. I hope Joel would have approved.


"Something Remains" has a stunning list of contents:

  • Foreword by Peter Coleborn
  • Introduction by Pauline E. Dungate
  • Joel by Chris Morgan (Verse)
  • Not Dispossessed:  A Few Words on Joel Lane’s Early Published Works by David A. Sutton (Essay)
  • Everybody Hates a Tourist by Tim Lebbon
  • The Conscience of the Circuit by Nicholas Royle (Essay)
  • The Missing by John Llewellyn Probert
  • Charmed Life by Simon Avery
  • Antithesis by Alison Littlewood
  • Dark Furnaces by Chris Morgan
  • The Inner Ear by Marion Pitman (Verse)
  • Broken Eye by Gary McMahon
  • Stained Glass by John Grant
  • Threadbare by Jan Edwards
  • The Dark above the Fair by Terry Grimwood
  • Grey Children by David A. Sutton
  • The Twin by James Brogden
  • Lost by Pauline Morgan (Verse)
  • Through the Floor by Gary Couzens
  • Fear of the Music by Stephen Bacon
  • Bad Faith by Thana Niveau
  • Window Shopping by David Mathew
  • Clan Festor by Liam Garriock
  • Sweet Sixteen by Adam Millard
  • Buried Stars by Simon Macculloch
  • And Ashes in Her Hair by Simon Bestwick
  • The Pleasure Garden by Rosanne Rabinowitz
  • Joel Lane, Poet by Chris Morgan (Essay)
  • The Reach of Children by Mike Chinn
  • The Men Cast by Shadows by Mat Joiner
  • The Winter Garden by Pauline E. Dungate
  • Natural History by Allen Ashley
  • The Second Death by Ian Hunter
  • The Bright Exit by Sarah Doyle (Verse)
  • Blanche by Andrew Hook
  • The Body Static by Tom Johnstone
  • You Give Me Fever by Paul Edwards
  • The Other Side by Lynda E. Rucker
  • Of Loss and of Life: Joel Lane’s Essays on the Fantastic by Mark Valentine (Essay)
  • Shadows by Joe X Young
  • I Need Somewhere to Hide by Steven Savile
  • Coming to Life by John Howard
  • The Enemy Within by Steve Rasnic Tem
  • Afterword: The Whole of Joel by Ramsey Campbell (Essay)

All profits go to Diabetes UK, a disease from which Joel suffered.

Finally, I wrote this story in one sitting listening to one song seventy times on repeat: "The City Never Sleeps At Night" by Nancy Sinatra. Give it a listen. At least once.

Tuesday 20 September 2016

My FantasyCon Schedule


As most of you will be aware the British Fantasy Society's annual event, FantasyCon, will be taking place in Scarborough over this coming weekend, and I'll be in attendance and taking part in a variety of events. No doubt there'll be a gazillion interesting programme items, but the guide below is a handy reference to those which I will be a direct participant in. Hopefully, some of you will be interested, but it's a useful aide memoir for myself - if no-one else!
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Friday, September 23 @ 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Masterclass Room 108 (Grand Hotel)

Writing The Short Story: Character, Scene, Conflict - I'll be running this workshop and guarantee stories will be written following some simple - fun - guidelines

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Friday, September 23 @ 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Cocktail Bar (Grand Hotel)

Book launch - Midnight Street Press: "Ghost Highways". I have a short story, "White Matter", in this anthology and will be signing alongside Simon Clark, Ray Cluley, Neil Williamson and others

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Friday, September 23 @ 10:00 pm - 10:30 pm
Cocktail Bar (Grand Hotel)


Joint reading with myself and Adrian Tchaikovsky

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Saturday, September 24 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Main Ballroom (Grand Hotel)

Book launch - Alchemy Press: "Something Remains". I have a short story, "Blanche", in this anthology which is based on notes left behind by the much-missed Joel Lane. There will be a cavalcade of contributors at this event and the book should not be missed.

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Saturday, September 24 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Main Ballroom (Grand Hotel)

Book launch - Snowbooks - horror novellas. My novella, "The Greens", will be amongst the books launched at this event. Other attendees launching their novellas include Cate Gardner, Gary Fry, John Llewellyn Probert, Mark Morris and Ray Cluley. Come along!

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Saturday, September 24 @ 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Main Ballroom (Grand Hotel)

Book launch - NewCon Press: "Ten Tall Tales". I have a short story, "The Marble Orchard", in this anthology. Other attendees who should be present to sign include Ramsey Campbell, Edward Cox, Simon Clark, Paul Kane, Maura McHugh, Lynda E Rucker and Mark West

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Sunday, September 25 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Palm Court Ballroom (The Grand)

Gold: panel discussion. I will be taking part in this panel which is sub-headed "The Value of Genre Awards", with Marc Gascoigne (chair), Stan Nicholls, Donna Scott and Margret Helgadottir

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Quite a packed programme for me this year! At all other times I will either be asleep, eating, or in the bar...


Wednesday 14 September 2016

White Matter

My short story, "White Matter", will shortly be published in the anthology, "Ghost Highways", from Midnight Street Press, and as usual I'm blogging about how the story came about for those who might be interested. Beware: there will be spoilers.

When editor Trevor Denyer announced the guidelines for this anthology in October 2015 I was immediately interested, not simply because it was a strong paying market, but because Trevor had previously published many of my stories - including showcasing myself in one of his earliest magazines, Roadworks, way back in July 1999 - and I knew I could have a good stab at it. Of course, there were no guarantees, but I was hopeful. The remit was simple, the story had to have something to do with the anthology title and be at least 5000 words in length. Interpretation would be down to the author.

Although I had no immediate ideas I knew from the start that my story would be unlikely to feature a ghost and probably unlikely to feature a highway. At least, not in the traditional sense. I began to think around the concepts of ghosts and what could be construed as highways. I was increasingly drawn to the idea of neural pathways, and searching online around these topics I discovered 'ghost tumours' - which appear to be normal cerebral tumours but can subsequently disappear - and also the role of white matter within the brain which - to put it very simply - forms the highways for information to be passed by grey matter. In Alzheimer's, white matter is frequently damaged. The deterioration of white matter into a ghosted highway would form the crux of my tale.

Around the same time I had been thinking about dementia and the circumstances where sufferers appear to live in the past - where short-term memory disappears and long-term memory comes to the fore. I decided to write a character whose first husband died early and who then married again, but who always hankered after the first husband despite being perfectly satisfied with the remainder of her life. What if she looked forward to the possibility of Alzheimer's as a way of connecting to the past, what if she had made preparations? How would her new husband feel about this? What are memories anyway, other than ghosts? Suddenly I had my story.


Everyone talks about grey matter, he remembered the doctor saying, as though grey matter is the be all and end all. Our little grey cells, he had said, tapping the side of his head, channelling Hercule Poirot, that's what everyone thinks about. But the cells and other components of the brain can be classified as either grey or white matter, and these perform different functions. Grey matter consists mostly of neurons and some supporting brain cells. White matter allows messages to be sent between brain cells much faster, protecting the parts which make those connections. So when white matter is damaged, it can affect brain function.

Marshall's eyes wandered between his left hand, which rested on Anna's right shoulder as she sat on a chair in front of him, and the doctor's mouth. Afterwards he could remember nothing of the doctor other than that mouth, topped by a white-flecked moustache, as though the moustache itself was an extension of the white matter damaged by the leakage from his wife's blood vessels.

"Ghost Highways" also features stories by Ramsey Campbell, Simon Clark, Ralph Robert Moore, Ray Cluley, Gary Couzens, Thana Niveau, Neil Williamson, Terry Grimwood, Len Maynard & Mick Sims, Alexander Zelenyj, Ken Goldman, David Surface and David Turnbull, with an introduction by Paul Finch. It can be purchased here.

Finally, I wrote this story whilst listening to the CD, "Ghosts" (a soundtrack to the novels of John Connelly, Volume IV) including songs by XTC, Sun Kil Moon, Susanna, and Mogwai amongst others, on repeat.