A new small bit of flash-fiction from me published today: 'Reflections' appears in the latest issue of The Sirens Call. You can download it (for free) and have a gander here.
James Everington - Scattershot Writing
"The triumph of Everington’s first novel is that, while hinting at lofty literary precedents, it cumulatively takes on an unsettling voice all of its own." The Guardian
Saturday 27 April 2024
Saturday 2 March 2024
For Tomorrow
I'm sure we all remember where we were when we heard the news about Wellbrook High; I know I do, much as I might want to forget some of the images from the TV news that night.
Now, over 30 years later, Dan Coxon has put together an anthology of stories about what happened after.
My story, 'Comments On This Video Have Been Disabled' is one of them, and I'm very proud of it, and that its alongside pieces from many other fine writers. But, given the situation, this isn't one I'll boast about too much; that doesn't feel proper.
“We all live in the shadow of Wellbrook High – it’s been called the tragedy that defined a generation… That’s why this book feels so important, and so long overdue – as we go back to Wellbrook, and pay witness to those who had the courage and the strength and, yes, the simple luck to pull through. A timely work, and an urgent one.”
—Robert Shearman
You can pre-order For Tomorrow from Black Shuck Books here.
Also features stories by C.C. Adams, Charlotte Bond, Phil Sloman, Lucie McKnight Hardy, Malcolm Devlin & Helen Marshall, Verity Holloway, Ray Cluley, Polis Loizou, Ashley Stokes, Daniel Carpenter & Penny Jones.
#wewillremember93
Thursday 28 December 2023
Favourite Short Stories 2023
Another year done, another of my annual favourite short stories of the year posts. Same 'rules' as before (you can find links to lists from previous years here). For each story, I've linked to the publication where I read the story, which isn't always where they were first published.
Saturday 25 November 2023
"The Sinister Horror Company"
Some years back, while leading up to Trying To Be So Quiet being published by The Sinister Horror Company, I for some reason wrote a story called 'The Sinister Horror Company'. It was a small piece with a tone different to most of what I write, and it was about, well, a sinister horror company taking over the world...
It's been homeless since then, not really fitting anywhere, but with the recent sad news that the real Sinister Horror Company is winding up shop, I'm pleased to say that this fictional* 'Sinister Horror Company' has now been published over at the brilliant yet sinister HAPPY GOAT HORROR run by the also brilliant/sinister Kayleigh Dobbs. Anyway, here it is.
* honest, fictional. **
** THEY MADE ME SAY THAT
Thursday 12 October 2023
Darkest Nights
Pleased to say I'll be be taking part in Darkest Nights writing school, running one of the online sessions along with some fantastic authors, as you can see below:
Details & tickets here
Friday 26 May 2023
'The Switch' to appear in Uncertainties 6
I'm pleased as punch to say my story 'The Switch' is to be appear in the forthcoming anthology Uncertainties 6 from the mighty Swan River Press.
“Ghost stories,” as Elizabeth Bowen observed, “are not easy to write—least easy now, for they involve more than they did.” But these eleven writers take up the challenge, each in their own way, with expert awareness of the genre’s limitless possibilities.
Uncertainties is an anthology series—featuring authors from Ireland, France, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom—each exploring the concept of increasingly fragmented senses of reality. These types of short stories were termed “strange tales” by Robert Aickman, called “tales of the unexpected” by Roald Dahl, and known to Shakespeare’s ill-fated Prince Mamillius as “winter’s tales”. But these are no mere ghost stories. These tales of the uncanny grapple with existential epiphanies of the modern day, when otherwise familiar landscapes become sinister and something decidedly less than certain . . .
Readers of my fiction, or of this blog in general, will no doubt recognise why this chimes with me so, and why I'm excited to have a story in this latest volume, alongside some absolutely fantastic authors.
You should never trust a writer's own opinion of their work, but I've always considered 'The Switch' to be a very me story, a very Everington story. A writer friend who read a draft of it said "only send this one to the best places" and, with Uncertainties 6, I certainly obeyed.
You can read more about the anthology and pre-ordered it here.
Sunday 1 January 2023
Favourite Short Stories: 2022
A bit delayed posting this due to Covid, but here's my annual favourite short stories of the year' post. Same 'rules' as before (you can find links to lists from previous years here). For each story, I've linked to the publication where I read the story, which isn't always where they were first published.
Charles L. Grant: Out There (Cutting Edge, Guild)
Andrew Hook: Beyond Each Blue Horizon (Never Again, Grey Friar Press)
Miyuki Jane Pinckard: A House Full of Voices Is Never Empty (Uncanny #38)
Teika Marija Smits: Absinthiana (Fairlight Stories)
Peter Straub: Blue Rose (Cutting Edge, Guild)
Charlotte Turnbull: Eventually, The Body Will Reject A Hostile Object Of Its Own Accord (Splonk #6)
Catriana Ward: Once We Lived Beside A Lake (Rawblood bonus content, Gollancz)
Gordon B. White: The Roast (author's website)
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro: Lapses (Cutting Edge, Guild)