Fantasycon 2024 Guest of Honour Interview

It was great to chat to Lauren McMenemy, PR, Marketing, and Online Content Officer at The British Fantasy Society.

BOUND IN BLOOD edited by Johnny Mains

Bound in Blood is out now from Titan.

You find it hidden in the dark corner of the bookstore; tucked away in a box in the attic, desperate to be read; lurking on your bookshelf, never seen before. Crack the spine, feel the ancient pages. Read it aloud, if you dare.

This anthology brings together horror’s best and brightest to delve into the pages of cursed books, Eldritch tomes and haunted bookstores. FROM TITAN

Short stories by Ramsey Campbell, A.G Slatter, Johnny Mains, Adam Cesare, Eric LaRocca, Charlie Higson, Nadia Bulkin, Kim Newman, Zin Rocklyn, Isy Suttie, Angeline Morrison, A.K. Benedict, Guy Adams, and Lucie McKnight Hardy.

Thanks for editor, Johnny Mains, for including my story, “The Witch’s Pillowbook”:

Estelle told me to write to myself, and to Ollie. She calls this the pillowbook exercise. I was doubtful at first, but she’s right. It’s helped me to order my thoughts.

I want to say to Ollie: How can I miss you when you’re right here?

We’ve fallen into routines. I thought moving would remedy that but we’re the same, just in a different town. Your hand reaching for me in the dark used to be a nuanced question. Now it means comfort, and I’m comforted, but I want more than absentminded affection.

It not about sex. I’m not wishing us young again. It’s about feeling alive. Keeping our demise at bay

From “The Witch’s Pillowbook”

FEARS: TALES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR Edited by Ellen Datlow

FEARS:TALES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR edited by Ellen Datow is out now from Tachyon.

Edited by Ellen Datlow, it contains stories by Simon Bestwick, Annie Neugebauer, Josh Malerman, Dale Bailey, Steve Duffy, Margo Lanagan, Bracken MacLeod, Tim Nickels, Stewart O’Nan, John Patrick Higgins, Livia Llewellyn, Laird Barron, Theresa DeLucci, Sharon Gosling, Joyce Carol Oates, Ray Cluley, Carole Johnstone, Hailey Piper, Charles Birkin, and Stephen Graham Jones. Thanks to Ellen Datlow for including my short story “My Mother’s Ghosts”.

This story originally appeared in Great British Horror 4: Dark and Stormy Nights, Ed. Steve J Shaw, Black Shuck Books (2019)

From “My Mother’s Ghosts”

RetroSpective Interviews

Thanks to Shaun McClure for including me in his RetroSpective Interview series, in chich he talks to illustrators, writers, actors, and games programmers.

Watch the interview here.

The Mad Butterfly’s Ball

“The Mad Butterfly’s Ball is an essential compendium of stories dedicated to the lurking horror and profound wonder of those that live, largely unseen, in the world around us—the enigmatic insect! Featuring original and new works by Clive Barker, Jeffrey Thomas, Kaaron Warren, Paul Di Filippo, Eugen Bacon, and many more, alongside classics of the subgenre, The Mad Butterfly’s Ball is the largest and most comprehensive anthology of its kind, with stunning illustrations by Richard Kirk and Yoshika Nagata. ” From PS Publishing.

I am thrilled to be included in this anthology, curated by Preston Grassman and Chris Kelso, out now from PS Publishing.

My story, “The Nature of Bees”, was originally published in 2010 by Albedo One.

Table of Contents:

CONTENTS  

HEAD  

• Insects and the Poetics of Estrangement – Preston Grassmann
• Hive Politics – Chris Kelso  

THORAX  

• Upon a Milk Warm Dawn – Clive Barker
• Hivehead – Paul Di Filippo
• The Wings of Mourning – Jeffrey Thomas
• The King’s Walkingstick – Richard A. Kirk
• Butterflies of Eastern Texas – Kij Johnson
• The Nature of Bees – Priya Sharma
• The Absent Swarm – Tom Over
• The Dream of Akinosuke — Lafciado Hearn
• The Man From Nowhere – Eugen Bacon  
• Lysergic is The Circle of My Secret – Joe Koch
• After the Flood – Anna Tambour
• Eejelé – Nuzo Onoh
• Possum – Matthew Holness
• Warning Wings – Arlton Eadie
• Scarabaeus – Rumi Kaneko (translated by Preston Grassmann)
• The Roaches – Thomas M. Disch
• The Ladybug – D.R.G. Sugawara  
• Mantis Wives – Kij Johnson
• Jenny Longlegs – Chris Kelso & Brian Evenson
• Not Just the Stars that They Devour – Matt Neil Hill
• Honeydew — Dempow Torishima
• The Empire of the Ants – H.G. Wells
• The Parliament of Wasps – Preston Grassmann
• Caterpillars – E.F. Benson
• The Ruins with a Spectator – Kaaron Warren
• The Hollow Electricity of Tiny Papery Wings or the Pinprick in the Powder — Christopher Young
• An Egyptian Hornet – Algernon Blackwood
• Wrapped Up — Ramsey Campbell
• Decomposer – Alvaro Zinos-Amaro
• Death is like the Insect – Emily Dickinson  

ABDOMEN  

• The Praying Mantis – Henri Fabre
• Entomophilia: A Case for the Defence – Preston Grassmann
• The Death of Conrad Unger – Gary J. Shipley
• Mimic and Starship Troopers: Us and Them – Jon Greenaway
• The Ancient Cockroach – Chris Kelso

The book is available as a trade paperback and as a limited signed hardcover edition.

Bound in Blood

Many thanks to Johnny Mains for including The Witch’s Pillowbook in this amazing line-up.

Out from Titan later this year.

Kayleigh Dobbs and Happy Goat Horror

Thanks to Kayleigh Dobbs for asking me to chat with her. Kayleigh explores all things horror for website Happy Goat Horror.

Kayleigh is a writer herself and her microcollection, The End, is available from Black Shuch Books.

Best Horror of the Year (Volume 16) edited by Ellen Datlow

Many thanks to Ellen Datlow for including Jack O’Dander in her annual horror anthology. It’s a stunning line-up, so I am delighted to be in there.

This story appeared on Reactor last year, with Ellen as the aquiring editor.

Table of Contents:

The Importance of a Tidy Home Christopher Golden / Dodger Carly Holmes / Rock Hopping Adam L.G. Nevill / That Maddening Heat Ray Cluley / Jack O’Dander Priya Sharma / The Assembled Ramsey Campbell / R is For Remains Steve Rasnic Tem / The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs E. Catherine Tobler / Return to Bear Creek Lodge Tananarive Due / The Enfilade Andrew Hook / Lover’s Lane Stephen Graham Jones / Hare Moon H.V. Patterson / Build Your Houses With Their Backs to the Sea Caitlín R. Kiernan / The Scare Groom Patrick Barb / The Teeth Brian Evenson / Nábrók Helen Grant / The Salted Bones Neil Williamson / Tell Me When I Disappear Glen Hirshberg / The Motley Charlie Hughes

Featured Writer at WritersMosaic

A huge thanks to John Siddique and the WritersMosaic team for including me as a featured writer.

I wrote three pieces for them, which are included in audio and text version: Medicine, Literature and Writing, My Favourite Book, and What Do You Value in the Natural World?

There’s also a conversation with John.

WritersMosaic, a division of the Royal Literary Fund, is an online magazine and developmental resource focused on UK writers of the global majority, reflecting the changing reality of contemporary Britain, from its past and into its future. 

From WritersMosaic

Read/listen here.

In Conversation

Thanks to the Carina Bissett, a very talented writer, who has included me in her series of interviews for Ginger Nuts of Horror’s Women in Horror Month celebration.

Read it here.