And still MORE stories…

Firstly, Ellen Datlow’s Best Horror of the Year Volume 12 is now out in all formats, containing a (small) story by me, and a whole load of amazing authors. leaving me mildly shocked to be in their company. Remember that, in the current climate, independent bookshops, like all small businesses, are finding it tough going. If you have one near you, please use it. If you don’t, I might suggest www.bookshop.org as an alternative to… um, you know who. For the Datlow, that’s https://bookshop.org/books/the-best-horror-of-the-year-volume-twelve/9781597809733.

Secondly, a new story in Interzone, following my long piece in issue 287. “Cryptozoology” appears in issue 289, and it’s the story of a marriage… with monsters. “Like a collaboration between John Updike and Bernard Heuvelmans,” said no critic ever. It has a great illustration by Richard Wagner:

Plus, this rip-roaring cover by Warwick Fraser-Coombe:

Find that at https://shop.ttapress.com — you might want to consider a subscription to Interzone and Black Static, both of which publish some extraordinary work.

IT’S ALIVE!!!! – or, the most frightful and horripilating return of Frankenstein’s Prescription

Let’s forget about “art” and “literature” for a moment, shall we?

Most books fail. They don’t make you rich, they don’t make you famous, and they certainly don’t make you pretty. But now and then, a book finds a champion, and that’s a very special thing indeed. Sometimes, it even turns out to be a champion with benefits — and before you conjure up  some lewd scenario for that, let me explain…

There’s a new edition of Frankenstein’s Prescription out. It’s paperback, beautifully done, with a deliciously creepy cover, and it’s available here: https://brooliganpress.blogspot.com/2018/05/frankensteins-prescription.html

What’s the history? Well, the original book’s a few years old now. I wrote it pretty much headlong, in the space of maybe five or six months, which is fast for me. It was a very difficult period. My Dad was dying, my life was falling apart, and I was quietly losing my marbles. (OK. Sometimes, not so quietly.) All of this, one way or another, went into the book. Where my marbles got to is another matter.

The book came out from Tartarus Press, a very fine publisher specialising in beautiful hardback editions of classic horror – Machen, Walpole, Sarban, Aickman – as well as a number of contemporary writers. The reviews were enough to turn my poor head, but, like I say, fame, fortune and improved good looks weren’t in the package.

I was, however, pleasantly surprised to get a message from Stephen Gallagher, author of some amazing novels, including The Bedlam Detective, The Real William James, and the classic Chimera; plus TV shows like Bugs, The Eleventh Hour, and Dr. Who. We kept up an occasional correspondence over the years and shared silly jokes on Twitter. Then, he told me that he’d started his own publishing imprint, and was interested in putting out a paperback of Frankenstein’s Prescription.

Now, for those of you who want the deluxe hardback (and it really is a thing of beauty) or the e-book, those are still available from Tartarus at http://www.tartaruspress.com/lees-frankenstein-s-prescription.html. Take a look at their other stuff as well. You’ll find things you’ve heard of but never seen and things you’ve neither seen nor heard of, but want to know about – a perfect mix of old and new.

If, on the other hand, you prefer the paperback – go on. Treat yourself. I’m even going to give you the link again, because I’m generous like that:

https://brooliganpress.blogspot.com/2018/05/frankensteins-prescription.html

and, if you’re not already familiar with it, check out Stephen’s work, much of it available on the same site.

Enjoy!

Devil in the Wires

 

From Iraq to Paris, to London, to Chicago: the Devil’s in the wires, and Hell’s about to follow.

 

Frankenstein’s E-book

Frankensten’s Prescription is now available on e-book from Tartarus Press, and you can buy it directly from them, or on Amazon. It’s listed at $3.99 over here and I assume an equivalent price in the UK (about £2.50…?). What you miss, of course, are the beautiful Tartarus production values – their books are glorious as objects, never mind what’s written in them. But if you have an e-reader, and a few bucks or quid to spare, take a look. You can find more details of the book itself by clicking on the side-bar here, visiting the Tartarus Press website (http://freepages.pavilion.net/tartarus/fprescription.htm)  or simply chasing up some of the on-line reviews.

This is my second e-book in a couple of months (the story collection, News from Unknown Countries, is available on Amazon). Still new territory but, much as I love the feel of paper, I suspect it’s the way of the future – the equivalent of the paperback revolution of the ’50s and ’60s. It’s quick, cheap, portable, and can be bought wherever you can log in. Look, read, and most of all, enjoy.

Joel Lane, 1963-2013

Joel Lane died a couple of days ago. He was fifty. I never met him – and by all accounts, this is my loss – but I was always excited when I saw his stories in Black Static and elsewhere. Joel’s work was good, and utterly unique. Many of his tales were instant classics, yet even when a piece seemed slight, it left you with a sense that you had somehow failed the story, rather than the other way around; that you’d failed to find its core. Because the core was there, alright. The core was Joel himself, and his singular take on the world. His work was of a piece. It was “urban horror” in the sense that he took the landscapes of modern Britain and invested them with an anxiety and apprehension it was hard to shake off after reading. This was fiction of unease, its characters uneasy with themselves and with the world around. When the strange or supernatural intruded, as it usually did, it would seem to have come straight from the protagonist’s own psyche, a confrontation with his own repressed and damaged personality. In this, Joel epitomised the British “slipstream” movement, though his stories defied categorisation. As a result, perhaps, he failed to gain the wider readership he clearly deserved, though he was revered by his peers and twice won the British Fantasy Society Award. His death has been met with deep sadness by those who knew him, and those of us who only knew him through his writing are left poorer for his loss. RIP, Joel. And thanks.

News from Unknown Countries

Anyone with  a Kindle or Kindle app for phone, iPad etc, and in need of a little entertainment? I have a new collection of stories available on Amazon: sf, horror, and generally assorted weirdness. As the blurb puts it,

Inter-dimensional explorers go in search of God, but discover something else has got there first… A hapless academic believes his colleagues are transforming into animals… A woman struggles to survive in a world succumbing to the influence of a hostile alien realm, only to find her protectors far more dangerous than the enemy… A small boy witnesses his uncle’s bizarre efforts to maintain his marriage…
Here is a selection of Tim Lees’s acclaimed short fiction, where everyday reality is just a step from the strange, the sinister, the marvellous… Here is news from the unknown countries of the human soul.

For the US: http://www.amazon.com/News-Countries-Tim-Lees-ebook/dp/B00GM3DV9G/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1384738334&sr=1-1&keywords=lees+unknown+countries

And for Brits: http://www.amazon.co.uk/News-Countries-Tim-Lees-ebook/dp/B00GM3DV9G/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1384738334&sr=1-1&keywords=lees+unknown+countries

And, despite the blushes, I can’t resist adding this resounding tweet from TTA Press: Tim Lees is one of the greatest story writers on Earth. Please read this. 

Enjoy.