Autumnal Antics

My partner blogged our most recent literary outings on her Fur-Lined Ghettos website. With FantasyCon approaching tomorrow it seemed relevant for me to re-post that here with a few amendments to make it look like I wrote it:

We're spoilt here in the East. It feels as though there is something literary happening almost weekly, & it generally is! Here's a few nights we've attended recently:

Poetry Collective is a big supporter of everything poetic - writers / musicians / comedians etc. Here's regular Olly Watson doing something Sophie and I never could (read from memory!).

I was going to say that Café Writers is my favourite night but honestly I love them all. Definitely worth checking out, there is always a great headline act + open-mic.

Crime Scene was an event run by myself out of frustration at the lack of support for local genre novelists. We think it was a success, and hopefully the start of something new.

 

The Quiet Compère has a basic premise - ten poets read for ten minutes each. Sophie managed to get her name on the list, & despite being delayed (we hate cars) she had an enjoyable evening - if not a shaky one.

 

And so tomorrow is FantasyCon, the annual knees-up for the horror/fantasy community and all those inbetween. I'll be around chatting to old friends and making new ones, but there's also a few scheduled events we'll be attending.

Friday 23rd October at 8pm: Round-Robin poetry slam (where Sophie will be reading)

Saturday 24th October at 10am: launch of Creeping Crawlers edited by Allen Ashley which contains my short, "Us!".

Saturday 24th October at 4pm: I will be reading my short story, "Shipwrecked In The Heart Of The City".

Saturday 24th October at 6pm: I will be one of the panel members on "The Short Story: Short-Lived or Part of the Long Game?" with Nina Allan, Gary Couzens, Laura Mauro and Marie O'Regan (moderated by Allen Ashley).

Hope to see some of you there!

 

 

 

Old Factory Memories

My short story, "Old Factory Memories", has recently been published online in the seventh issue of Axolotl magazine and as usual I'm blogging a few lines as to how the story was written for those who might be interested. There will be spoilers. The story itself can be read here.

"Old Factory Memories" was the last of four stories that I wrote in quick succession. I had time to write another piece, but other than the title I had no ideas. The title itself is simply a pun on 'olfactory memories', but other than providing the title the wordplay actually has no bearing on the story itself. At the time of writing I'd had a few nights where I hadn't slept very well and I decided to do some research around that, whereupon I found the following snippet of information: "Chronic sleep-restricted states cause tiredness, clumsiness, a discordance between speech and action; but perversely there are also some cases where sleep deprivation leads to increased energy, alertness and enhanced moods." It was the latter half of that paragraph which I found interesting: could it be that sleep deprivation might lead to an enhanced state of being...? Further research led me to 'fatal familial insomnia', a rare disease of the brain which can lead to hallucinations, delirium and confusional states like that of dementia. Suddenly I had my story.

I created a near-future scenario where the occupants of a care home have become wistful about their days before retirement, where they worked in a factory which no longer existed because technological advances had meant much of the surrounding area had returned to grass (kind of an opposite to the usual, I remember when this was all fields situation). They are nostalgic for those factory days of old, and - gradually - as they start to slip away into dementia and delirium, they begin to recreate that factory through memory until it actually becomes a physical object. Or does it. As usual, my stories offer no hard and fast realities. Ultimately the story is about memory and the pending loss of self, about nostalgia and the desire for one last redemptive moment through a kind of collective consciousness.

We entered Carson’s meadow in various states of mind. Summer was leaving. The breeze had an edge to it. The ground was harder, pitted. Angelita fell heavily. I watched Attila help her rise with no trace of bitterness. The factory dominated the skyline. It commanded my view. I tried to imagine the time I believed I had spent inside, when the meadow was tarmac and white lines delineated the rectangular positions of parking spaces. Where the foyer was corporate and the interior working class. I could smell the grease they used on the cogs: a rich memory, a sensory awakening.

"Old Factory Memories" was written whilst listening to the album "Your Future Our Clutter" by The Fall on repeat.

Axolotl is an online magazine with a yearly print anthology. This issue also contains work by Michael Díaz Feito, Kodi Saylor, Joe P Squance, Trevor Shikaze, Kristín Eiríksdóttir, Robert Hamilton and Andrey Kuzmichev.

Tiny Iris

My short story, "Tiny Iris", has recently been published in the anthology, Slave Stories: Scenes From The Slave State edited by Chris Kelso for Omnium Gatherum. As usual I'm blogging about the genesis of the story and there may be spoilers. The book is a shared world anthology. The Slave State is a place located in the 4th dimension, a place where humans are forced to work extracting inessential minerals from mining enclaves until the end of their lives...

Chris approached me for a story for the anthology and I agreed to participate if I found something suitable. Whilst I do often write for themed anthologies, I've rarely done so for shared worlds and I wasn't quite sure whether it would be something I would go for. As it happened, when Chris emailed over the guidelines and other works written within the slave state mythos so I could get a feel for the subject, his email header stated 'stories for hank'. This got me thinking about Henry "Hank" Chinaski, the alter ego of the American writer Charles Bukowski, and I realised that Bukowski's gritty novels such as "Post Office" where individuals live disparate lives walking a tightrope between existence and desolation whilst working mundane jobs weren't a million miles away from the Slave State situation. As it happened, that email header had nothing to do with the book (Chris had forwarded something without changing a previous header), but serendipity led me to my story.

I'd had "Tiny Iris" as a title for a while, without knowing what it would relate to. Somehow it felt right for this piece, and the whole thing was written in a few hours from the title, the Bukowski vibe, and the slave state mythos I had read. I wrote "Tiny Iris" whilst listening to "Big Calm" by Morcheeba on repeat.

In Ersatz you needed to keep yourself to yourself, not deviate from your expected persona. Any diffraction was an aberration. Before you knew it you'd be transferred to the mining enclaves, pointlessly digging out nothing of any importance until the day you died. At least in the post office you could consider you had purpose. Not that Hank ever knew anyone who had actually received a letter. When he started on the mail run he only delivered to derelict properties.

"Slave Stories: Scenes From The Slave State" also contains fiction by Laura Lee Bahr, John Langan, Mary Turzillo, Simon Marshall-Jones, Gary J. Shipley, Mick Clocherty, Violet LeVoit, Shane Swank, Clive Tern, Preston Grassmann, Roger Lovelace, Dale McMullen, Rhys Hughes, Gregory L. Norris, Andrew Coulthard, Kris Saknussemm, P. R. Differ, Richard Thomas, Ian Welke, John Palisano, Beckett Warren, Tony Yanick, Love Kölle, Chris Kelso, Spike Marlowe, Seb Doubinsky, Michael Faun, Hal Duncan, Mitchel Rose and Gio Clairval.

Blood For Your Mother

My short story, "Blood For Your Mother", has recently been published in Black Static #48, and as usual I'm blogging a few words as to how the story came about. There will be spoilers for those who have yet to read it.

In this instance, the gestation of the story is a little difficult to remember. As always I start with a title. I 'think' Blood For Your Mother was a line which I pulled from a conversation completely out of context to how it was eventually used. Having had the title I then needed a story to fit it. The obvious choice would have been a vampire story, but I rarely write those and in any event the 'obvious choice' is a choice I rarely choose to make. I found myself considering the word 'mother' which by implication leads to a child which in turn implies pregnancy. What if the mother in my story came to crave blood during pregnancy - as some females crave coal, ice-cream, gherkins, etc - and what if following that pregnancy the craving failed to stop? What if the child became estranged through the parents need to protect it? What if the child felt rejected and unloved? How might she feel forty years hence?

Add to that a Kafkaesque-mutation situation and you have a piece which mixes a dying father, childhood trauma, family estrangement, redemption, resentment and coming to terms with even the strangest of realities.

Here's a bit of it: I look at the toilet and then at the wall opposite. When I was a child of a certain height, sitting on the toilet led my gaze to that wall, where, in a whorl combined of too thickly applied paint and indentations in the plaster I had discerned a face that I sometimes spoke to. A placebo of a God that I knew didn't exist, but which alleviated my complete belief in the unknown that I had always found such a crushing burden. Latterly I came to understand what pareidolia meant, but even so it remained a comfort. I sat on the toilet now, and angled my body to child-size in an attempt to see it again, but either my grown-up stature made it impossible or the re-painting of the bathroom had obliterated its traces. After a while I returned up the stairs, slowly and heavily, to the face that I couldn't avoid.

"Blood For Your Mother" was written in one sitting whilst listening to Bjork's "Vespertine" album on repeat.

Black Static #48 contains new novelettes and short stories by Jeffrey Thomas, Cate Gardner, Steven J. Dines, Andrew Hook, and Stephen Bacon. The cover art is by Martin Hanford, and interior illustrations are by Joachim Luetke, Tara Bush, and Richard Wagner. Features: Coffinmaker's Blues by Stephen Volk (comment); Notes From the Borderland by Lynda E. Rucker (comment); Case Notes by Peter Tennant (book reviews and an interview with Simon Kurt Unsworth); Blood Spectrum by Tony Lee (DVD/Blu-ray reviews). Buy it here.

Walcott

I consider myself lucky to live in Norwich: a reasonably-sized, something-for-everyone, arts-focussed city. Even better, the coast is only twenty minutes away. One of our favourite places is Walcott, with it's often deserted beaches, strolling waves, and amazing fish 'n' chip shop. There's nothing in Walcott itself other than the flat landscape of beach and sea but that's enough. It's provided the inspiration for a couple of short stories and is perfect for our three-year-old to make discoveries.

 

One afternoon - childfree - myself and my partner were wandering along the beach. It was an awesome day. The light was perfect and the sky was blue. It struck me at that moment that I would be happy should that day be repeated on a never-ending loop. Nothing else mattered at that juncture, I felt free to shed normal responsibilities and accept it as my personal heaven. Of course, a story came out of this - a love story, at heart, although of course such a heaven must always come at a cost. Whilst the story, "The First You & I", is currently unpublished, here's me reading it at a recent Poetry Collective event.

Inspiration at Walcott was also found for another story of mine, "The Caged Sea", simply from this photograph taken through the top grid of one of the metal steps that lead from the sea defences to the beach when the tide was in. Whilst the story itself bears no relation to Walcott other than the title - it's actually set in Japan, inland - it's another indication of how stories can develop from the simplest things.

Nothing to do with Walcott at all, this song, "Walcott", by Vampire Weekend is a favourite to sing along to whilst we're driving to Walcott.

Finally, here's another shot of one of our favourite places. There are few distractions here, maybe that's why we find it so special; whilst on the face of it nothing is here, in fact everything is here. The flat beach/sea landscape is perfect at every time of year.

Actual Cloud

As blog readers will be aware I'm now co-editor - with my partner, Sophie - of Salò Press. An independent publisher dedicated to showcase the best surreal/experimental poetry and fiction. Our first publication - a poetry collection titled "Actual Cloud" by Dalton Day - is now available and orders can be taken through our website (UK/ELSEWHERE) which will be fulfilled immediately (official publication date is 1st October for other outlets).

The blurb for the book is as follows:

Actual Cloud is a being in awe of its existence // is lightness  // is a vortex of movement // is a hello, you exist // is a mountain of a person declaring feel this.

In his first full length collection, Dalton Day presents a landscape of subtle purity cocooned in natural honesty where simplicity and raw emotion endures what it feels to be.

Dalton Day is a poet & literal dog-person living in Austin, Texas. He is the author of the chapbook Fake Knife, & his poems have been featured in Hobart, PANK, Everyday Genius, & Columbia Poetry Review, among others. He can be found at myshoesuntied.tumble.com and twitter.com/lilghosthands.

“Reading Actual Cloud is like tracking a mysterious animal through a wood of fog and feeling. Its body keeps changing, gaining fur, finding sorrow, leaving antlers, then paw prints, then hoof prints behind. The path the language takes is simple, declarative, but also full of gaps and quick swerves. It's clear this poet finds pleasure in leading the way, and it's a joy to wander in pursuit.” -  Heather Christle, author of Heliopause and What is Amazing

The great cover art is by Muxxi (www.muxxi.me)

We encourage you to buy direct from us and to support our fledgling press in addition to supporting Dalton's fantastic writing. We are also open to submissions for this project: "A Galaxy Of Starfish: An Anthology of Modern Surrealism". It's exciting times for us. We want to champion the best poetry/prose we can find and with this first collection we've set our standards high. Join us.

To whet your appetite here's an actual poem from Actual Cloud:

In Which I Am Bookended By Comedians

Whilst I haven't blogged much for July I haven't been resting on my laurels. Over the past couple of months I've attended various events promoting various books. Here's a round-up of my activities:

Friday 5th June - Double The Horror

This was an event at the Quad in Derby at which two books were being promoted, both edited by Johnny Mains. These were "Dead Funny", an anthology of horror stories written by comedians (co-edited with Robin Ince), and "Best British Horror 2015" (which, as it turns out, wasn't actually available on the day). I was reading from my short story, "Drowning In Air", which appears in the latter book, alongside Marie O'Regan who featured in Best British Horror 2014, and comedian Rufus Hound who appeared in the Dead Funny anthology.

We got to Derby early and had a bit of a stroll around before chatting with Johnny and organiser Alex Davis in the Quad bar before being joined by Marie and her partner, Paul Kane, together with writers Mark Morris and Robert Shearman. I spoke to Rob at length about being one of the World Fantasy judges this year - a role I had previously undertaken - and also the fact that Rufus Hound wasn't a real dog.

The readings seemed to go well, and Mark and Rob joined us on stage for a Q&A afterwards. Rufus seemed pleased as punch to be with literary folk and - unsurprisingly - his reading was quite a performance.

The following day was a Saturday and Sophie and I cycled the Monsal Trail in one of our favourite parts of the world, the Peak District.

Saturday 13th June - Book Signing

My neo-noir pulp crime novel, "Church Of Wire", was published earlier this year and I had arranged a book signing at the Diss Publishing Bookstore in Norfolk. The day didn't start well with torrential rain, the Diss one-way system, parking too far from the venue and having no change for the car park, and getting soaked going back and forth sorting it out. In contrast, the sales were good - it's surprising how many people don't flinch from paying £10 for a book by an unknown if they're interested in it. Big thanks to the store for putting on the event.

Saturday 11th July - Edge-Lit

Back at the Quad in Derby for Edge-Lit 2015. This is an annual event for writers, readers, and publishers with the emphasis on workshops and 'the business' of writing. We arrived on the Friday afternoon and had a bit of a stroll before a few drinks and then a meal with Terry Grimwood, Ray Cluley, and Ray's partner, Jess. It was a gorgeous evening, and Derby managed to pull off a Mediterranean vibe that was quite impressive.

On the Saturday we had a dealer's table for my books and Fur-Lined Ghettos and we sold steadily throughout the day. I ran a workshop titled "Creating The Short Story: Character, Scene, Conflict" whereby each participant writes separate characters, scenes, and conflicts on pieces of paper which are then all mixed together with each participant then receiving one of each and finding the story that links them. Usually I run this to groups of around 8-10 people, however an astonishing 23 signed up for the event (although 17 attended on time and some latecomers couldn't be accommodated as the task was underway). It seemed to be a success.

Later that afternoon I was also a guest on a panel discussing the short story with Alison Littlewood, Kim Lakin-Smith, and Gav Thorpe (chaired by Adele Waring) which was also quite entertaining.

As usual, I spoke to a host of friends new and old at the event, too many to list here (you know who you all are). And as usual it was fantastic to be surrounded by so many creative types.

Friday 17th July - Best British Horror launch

The official launch of Best British Horror 2015 was scheduled to take place at the Charing Cross Waterstones branch in London. As mentioned above, my story "Drowning In Air", is within the book, and whilst I was not reading this time around I still wanted to attend.

I arrived in London mid-afternoon and had a couple of leisurely drinks with Simon-Marshall Jones of Spectral Press, who is publishing my novella, "The Greens", next autumn. From there we wandered to the venue and chatted with Johnny Mains, Priya Sharma and her partner, Mark, and Victoria Leslie before the event began. The comedian Reece Shearsmith has a story in the book, but his reading consisted of a hilariously filthy reading of an abandoned League of Gentlemen script which included both genitalia and snails. As we lined up for the signing I found myself sitting next to Reece and recited the lyrics to The Resident's song, "Moisture", to him which were not dissimilar to his piece. We also chatted about the series "Inside No 9" (a third is being written as we speak). Charlie Higson also joined us and I mentioned his Norwich musical background (he doesn't get many requests to sing 'who stole my bongos' any more).

Best British Horror launch photos by Steve Shaw

After the signing session there were readings from Alison Moore, John Llewellyn Probert, Priya Sharma and Stephen Laws before the chance for more chat and drinks. Funnily enough there were no Edge-Lit overlaps among the writers present and again I had the chance to chat with friends old and new before heading for the train.

All four events reaffirmed my belief in the human race. And interesting these four were unusually - for me - bookended by comedians. I imagine my involvement in the world of comedy will end with this brief dalliance, but just in case I'm called upon here's my favourite joke:

Q: What did one snowman say to the other?

A: Can you smell carrot?

I'll get my coat.