Book launch bonanza on 4 July

Get ready for a fantastical ride at Slipstream Journeys, a major book launch event featuring five books from three independent presses – Eibonvale, Chomu and PS Publishing. There will be readings, wine and a chance to buy signed copies and meet the authors. Explore the exceptional literature that emerges from between the cracks of horror, fantasy and SF! And no doubt there’ll be more socialising and conviviality in the pub afterwards…

This is especially exciting for me because this will be the launch for Helen’s Story and the event will also launch  Rustblind and Silverbright: Slipstream Journeys of the Railway – which includes “The Turning Track”, a collaboration between myself and Mat Joiner. Other books on hand will be: Stardust by Nina Allan, Defeated Dogs by Quentin S Crisp  and Jane by PF Jeffery.

Hope to see you there!

Thursday 4 July, 7-9pm
Review Bookshop, 131 Bellenden Road SE15 4QY
Peckham, London

Horror Without Victims

Good news! My story “Lambeth North” will appear in the new anthology from Megazanthus Press, Horror Without Victims.

So what is meant by ‘horror without victims’? Along with a few other writers, I was scratching my head for a long time as I turned the concept over in my mind… Initially, I came up with a satire on ‘positive thinking’ and psychobabble. In this regime,  someone who gets critical, angry or even mildly distressed will often be damned for not being ‘proactive’ and for playing the ‘victim’.

I discussed this idea with my “Turning Track” collaborator Mat Joiner, and we conceived a story based around an enforced job-seeker’s workshop. Within the context of claimant compulsion and the welfare-to-work racket, the ideology of ‘positive thinking’ has been assuming sinister and invasive – as well as laughable – aspects. See here for an account of this at a workshop run by poverty profiteering multinational A4e, and here for an example of compulsory and  nonsensical psychometric testing for JSA claimants.

Other online discussions suggested that ‘horror without victims’ could be found in any story that summons feelings of unease, dread or darkness, accompanied by a low or non-existent body count.  Work from writers such as Aickman was mentioned, or classic stories like Algernon Blackwood’s “The Willows”.

Well, in the end I submitted a totally different story than the one I started with Mat. “Lambeth North” was partly inspired by one of Arthur Machen’s less known stories, “N”. However, the locale is moved to South London, an area that Mr Machen apparently held in some disdain.

My collaboration with Mat will still go ahead, but we’ve come to realise that under the circumstances, we might really want to have some  &%!! victims in this particular story after all!

ToC

My story “Lambeth North” will appear in the new anthology from Megazanthus Press, Horror Without Victims. The full table of contents appears above.  I’ll be writing some more about what ‘horror without victims” might mean, in case you’re wondering…

Fresh Fictions

Tony Lovell’s cover:

Twenty-five Horror Stories written independently by twenty-five different authors
who responded to the theme ‘Horror Without Victims’. Their serendipitous gestalt
seems to aspire towards a curative force for all of us.

The order of contents in HORROR WITHOUT VICTIMS due to be published in 2013:

EMBRACE THE FALL OF NIGHT – John Howard

THE HORROR – Gary McMahon

CLOUDS – Eric Ian Steele

THE CARPET SELLER’S RECOMMENDATION – Alistair Rennie

WAITING ROOM – Aliya Whiteley

FOR AGES AND EVER – Patricia Russo

NIGHT IN THE PINK HOUSE – Charles Wilkinson

POINT AND STICK – Mark Patrick Lynch

THE BLUE UMBRELLA – Mark Valentine

LAMBETH NORTH – Rosanne Rabinowitz

THE CURE – John Travis

WE DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY HERE – David Murphy

LORD OF PIGS – DeAnna Knippling

LIKE NOTHING ELSE – Christopher Morris

IN THE EARTH – Rog Pile

SCREE – Caleb Wilson

THE WEEK OF FOUR THURSDAYS –…

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Rustblind and Silverbright cover

Here’s a quick preview of the cover for Rustblind and Silverbright, which includes a story collaboration between me and Mat Joiner.

Mark a date in your diary for 4 July, when Rustblind launches along with Helen’s Story (a  double launch for me:), Nina Alan’s Stardust, Quentin Crisp’s collection Defeated Dogs  and PF Jeffreys’ Jane. There will be readings, Q&A and drinks. Details are here:

Slipstream Journeys
Thursday 4 July, 7-9pm
Review Bookshop 131 Bellenden Road
Peckham, London