Something I've written and something I've read

Hulloh

Just a quick one this time. Firstly to let you know about a new short story of mine which is being published. You will be able to find my ghost story 'Don't You like the Bird Man?' in the latest British Fantasy Society Journal.

The British Fantasy Society is a marvelous organisation and it's an honour to be in one of their publications.

Secondly,  I want to tell you about a rather marvelous book I had the privilege to read an advance copy of. It's called Fizzlebert Stump: The Boy Who Ran Away from the Circus (and Joined the Library) by the brilliant A.F. Harrold. I've known Ashley for a long time now (he compered my first ever go at stand-up) and he's a dazzlingly talented performance poet. I urge you to seek out his live work and get hold of his beautiful collections. But most of all I urge you to pre-order this massively entertaining book.

Anyway, that is all. Next week, the oft-promised and yet to be delivered blog on Ramsey Campbell.

A love supreme does not come with caveats

As you probably have already figured out if you've been reading this blog, or if you know me out there in the real world, I am a Christian. I was raised a Christian and faith has continued to be a hugely important part of my life. We go to church pretty regularly, my wife and I had a church wedding and our daughter was baptised (rather nicely by my father who is an Anglican priest). However, I'm not one of those dinosaur disbelieving, evolution denying, climate change nay-saying, gay-hating Christians so beloved of the media. Which really brings me onto what this post is about: the issue of homosexuality and the church.

This is an issue that continually drives me up the bloody wall, mainly because the Church (and when I use the capital C I'm mainly talking about the Anglicans here, as that's my own backround) should have far weightier concerns on its mind than sexual preference. Quite why some people of faith get so hung up about sexual orientation is quite beyond me. I believe that God is love. Remember that bit about him so loving the world? Well, guess what, that includes everybody! It isn't a case of our Lord is an all-loving God, apart from this here list of people we've put together.

Also, what the church and those of faith (of whatever denomination) should be celebrating and trying to bring to everybody is this idea of the love supreme. Christians should be at the forefront of campaigning for gay weddings in church, as love between two people (of whatever gender or sexual preference) and the commitment that a marriage brings should be seen as something to treasure and encourage. To not celebrate this all-encompassing love of God would appear to suggest that there is something missing from a life of faith.

So, when there is conflict in the middle-east, issues of climate change, not to mention the many issues of justice and social rights in this country that we all face, it seems to me that the Church should be focusing its energies on fighting the good fight while opening up faith and spreading a message of love and tolerance.

Anyway, that maybe wishful thinking, but I just thought I'd let you know where I stand.

Big Black Cloud Comes

Hello

So, rather than being a hub of exciting media insight and personal updates my blog has become somewhat silent of late. And what better way to ressurect this place than a chucklesome entry on depression? You see, the reason I've not been blogging is because not only have I been massively busy at work but I've also been through the worst bought of depression I've had in 15 years. Don't worry, I'm coming out of the black cloud a bit now and I've decided to take a course of therapy. But, I thought I'd blog about what depression does to me and what I find helpful in learning to cope with anxiety and the arrival of the black dog. Lots of people suffer from depression and sharing experiences and stories from within can be helpful.

The first time I was hit hard with depression I was 16, almost 17, facing A-levels and living in Kent with my family. That time it was anxiety that was at the forefront, manifesting itself in panic attacks and moments where I was fairly convinced I was going mad. My parents were massively supportive and understanding and I was soon sourced a very good therapist who helped me to put my fears into perspective. I managed to thus start universety in a much better place than I had been before my A-levels. Since then I've suffered from the odd bout of depression but nothing so bad that it's made me seek out help.

Towards the end of last year I wasn't in a brilliant place. The black dog was back, and with a vengeance. This time depression manifested itself as a crushing sense of self-doubt. I'd turn up for work convinced I was utterly useless. In meetings I'd be constantly worrying that I was coming across as a moron and I had the fear that I didn't really know what I was doing after all, and that people would realise I was usesless. Of course, this was the depression speaking. What depression was like for me this time round was having the demon of doubt sitting on my shoulder without the angel on the other side to balance things out. I got increasingly agitated. In the moments when I wasn't morosely silent, I was snappy and unpleasent to be around. Around Christmas time I realised (and prompted by my ever patient and wonderful wife) that I really needed to seek help. So, I went to GP, who told me that there's a six month waiting list for therapy on the NHS but in the meantime I could try out this online Cognitive Behavioural Therapy course called Beating the Blues.

Beating the Blues is actually pretty good and what it's brilliant at is outlining the common symptoms of depression and anxiety and making you realise that they are just that, common, and there are ways of coping with them. Where Beating the Blues doesn't quite work for me is that it sets you homework, like two or three hours homework a week, which I really can't fit in. So I've not yet completed the course, though I really should do and I do intend to get back to it in time. In the meantime I've booked some proper face-to-face therapy.

All through this Alison and Maia (my wife and daughter respectively) have been bastions of patience, compassion and joy. They make me realise how blessed I am and they really do help put perspective on things. Living with someone who occasionally suffers from accute depression must be exhausting and utterly maddening at times. When you suffer from depression you do become something of an irrational person and trying to cope with someone whose mindset can be so contradictory must be very trying. But my family has been incredible and I really couldn't be more lucky than I am to be part of these people's lives.

And working in the creative industries means I have a lot of friends and colleagues who understand depression and who have been there themeselves. To everybody who has offered help and advice and support, I can't thank you enough.

So, that's where I've been and the thing with depression is you just can't predict when it will strike. Oh sometimes I'll have a fairly good idea. Sometimes I'll hear the door go behind me and hear the pad of paws that means the black dog is in the room. Sometimes, though, it's like a tidal wave and it just thunders over you covering everything in, well, black. Each time the dog buggers off or the tide retreats though, I'm learning to cope a little more.

At the risk of this getting all melodramtic, I'm off to bed now. But, I just thought I'd let you know what all the radio silence has partly been about. Soon I shall be off and blogging again, bringing you more exciting Jon news (All Jon. All the time). The oft promised and never delivered  Ramsey Campbell blog post will materialise and I may even blog about gay rights and the Church. Just for fun.

Anyhew, until next time.

Two new things - one with tentacles, one without

Hello. Yes, okay okay, I promised you a post on Ramsey Campbell and then failed to deliver it. So, while you wait for wisdom to drip slowly from my brain into this blog like a leak from a dodgy tap, here's two anthologies what I'm editing this year.

First up is World War Cthulhu, which I will be editing with Sarah Newton. We will confirm the full line-up and date soon, but for now here is the cover:

Next up, over at Solaris, and due for release this winter, is Magic (full line-up and release dates to be announced soon):

So there's your eye candy. More comprehensive blogging when my brain works again.

Dragons and Orcs and Elves and Dwarves and Magic!

Yes, it is finally here!

My second novel and the follow up to Twilight of Kerberos: The Wrath of Kerberos is now available to buy as an e-book. Head over the Rebellion Store to get your copy. And if you want to know something about the process of writing the book check out my blog at the Abaddon site.

In other writing news, work is almost complete on my new on-spec story, Baby #17, which is a near future tale about religion and redemption. So once that baby is done, I shall be seeking a home for it. The River, my weird fantasy, is going to be doing the rounds soon too. So hope to have more news for you soon.

All aboard the Hell Train!

Okay, okay so I was supposed to blog about Ramsey Campbell a few weeks ago, and then I went all silent for a period. Not only has work been very very busy, but our daughter has now started crawling, so we're in a new and terrifying phase of parenthood. Anyway, while you bide your time between my gems of wisdom and wit (no laughing at the back!) here's something you may well be interested in.

This Thursday (Jan 19th) sees the brilliant Christopher Fowler in conversation with my good self at Foyles Bookshop on Charring Cross Road from around 6.30pm. We shall be discussing his horror novel Hell Train and the ins and outs of supernatural fiction and film. It is a ticketed event, but tickets are free and can be obtained from the Foyles website. So join us for an evening of witty banter and insight.

In other news, I'm delighted to announce that Solaris/Abaddon (the two imprints what I'm Editor in Chief of) has won the This is Horror Award for best publisher 2011. Many thanks to Michael and the team and all who voted. Congratulations are also due to Gary McMahon, for winning for Best Novel with the brilliant Concrete Grove.

Right, away with you. Later this week I will definitely say something wise about the work of Ramsey Campbell. So check back soon.

Pandemonium: Stories of the Apocalypse - Review

Firstly, before I start this review, I'm just going to assure you that I'm not about to review my own story in this anthology. I've mentioned 'The Day or the Hour' below, so that's going to be missing from my comments on the stories here.

Anne Perry and Jared Shurin have done something rather brave and marvelous with their debut anthology; they've tied this book in with a public art event (the exhibition of John Martin's paintings at the Tate) and in doing so have achieved a culture outreach between the world of genre and the art world itself. It's a move that they pulled off to great success. There was a launch event for Pandemonium at the Tate (which I was sadly unable to attend) and the Tate are stocking a limited hardback run of this anthology in their shop. (Which obviously makes a perfect Christmas gift for those looking for last-minute pressies).

Being an anthology of apocalyptic stories, the tales herein are on something of a 'large' scale. Not all of them directly reference the works of Martin, but most of the stories link in with the themes of big things happening to little people. The first story in the anthology, 'The Architect of Hell' by David Bryher does indeed reference Martin, as it features a demon corresponding with the artist himself on a 'home improvement' project for Hell. It's a nice conceit and Bryher pulls it off marvelously, marking a strong opener for the collection. Following this we have Lauren Beukes' 'Chislehurst Messiah'. Beukes is the author of the hit novel Zoo City (which is brilliant, by the way, so go check it out), so I was expected her story to be rooted in South Africa. It's not, but Lauren still writes convincingly of a London gone to Hell and a misguided individual who would be King. Lauren again shows a mastery of dialogue and pace in her work, which is just one of the reasons she's fast becoming one of genre's most exciting new voices.

Next up we have John Courtenay Grimwood's 'The Last Man'. I loved Grimwood's Effendi series, and here the author shows the same knack with a complex narrative and innovative prose. This is the most science-fictional of the pieces on display and makes a great tone change, while enriching the anthology overall.

Some may say that we have already seen hints of the apocalypse in our society with the riots that erupted over the country this Summer, and certainly the news images of such chaos were very frightening indeed. With 'OMG GTFO' S.L. Grey takes some of those images of rioters and mixes it into a story about the denizens of Hell revealing a horrible truth. It's a funny and dark tale and its mix of Tweets and reportage is ably handled.

Things get even darker with Archie Black's 'Sadak in Search of the Waters of Oblivion', the only title in the anthology that's also one of the names of Martin's paintings. This story of a trek to find either redemption or, indeed, oblivion is extremely visceral. You feel the pain of the characters as they trek their way across a truly miserable landscape. Black's descriptions of the dissolution of the characters health is convincingly portrayed and marks a writer in control of her descriptive prose. It's just a short story, but Black manages to make it feel like an epic story. Black is certainly an author worth watching.

A change of tone for the next story with 'Another Abyss' by Magnus Anderson, in which a group of middle-aged, middle-class friends wine and dine while trying to ignore the apocalypse happening all around them. It's a piece that feels theatrical in the sense of a Mike Leigh or Alan Ayckbourn play and Anderson's dialogue is funny while also being desperately sad. A tragi-comedy that makes for a great addition to this collection.

We're back to more recognisable Martin territory with Tom Pollock's 'Evacuation' in which an angel searches for the very last survivors of the human race. I've not read Pollock before but this story really makes me look forward to his forthcoming novel. The story clips along at a terrific pace while still having a real emotional core. Angels aren't always the easiest creatures to write about, but Pollock handles the winged beings admirably.

Scott Andrews ventures back into riot territory with 'A Private Viewing' which features Martin's paintings themselves, here used to torture a rioter imprisoned by an embittered gallery security guard. Anybody who has read Scott's St Marks Trilogy for Abaddon Books, knows that he does cruel oh so very well. He does sympathetic characters well too, but that's not what this story is about. This is a real howl of rage and incomprehension at a world falling apart. It's a deeply chilling and deeply convincing story and reminds readers why Andrews is an author very worthy of your time.

Next we have Andy Remic's contribution and I can't actually type the title of the story on this blog, as I don't have access to the characters required. We're venturing back into Hell here and Remic's story entertainingly portrays a moral dilemma with a truly gruesome conclusion.

Ogood Vance takes us to a baseball game at the end of the world with 'Closer'. The prose here is great and Vance draws you into the story immediately with a strong authorial voice. The thing with this tale, however, is that I know utterly nothing about baseball so pretty much all of the sports stuff was over my head. It is, though, a very well written tale and makes for a great addition to Pandemonium.

Lou Morgan - author of the forthcoming Blood & Feathers, which features Hell very prominently - takes us all to the pub for the end of the world with 'At the Sign of the Black Dove.' And where better to be than in a pub when it all goes tits up?' Except the Black Dove is exactly where you don't want to be. Lou's characterisation is as brilliant as ever, and she demonstrates here why she is one of the most exciting new writers in genre.

'Deluge' by Kim Lakin-Smith is bulging with ideas and images and poetry and, well... everything. That Lakin-Smith is a writer interested in narrative complexity and big canvas ideas is obvious, but there's so much in 'Deluge' that it feels a bit crowded. There is striking imagery, but it feels a bit like the story needed more room to move. Nevertheless, an interesting read.

Next we have me with 'The Day or The Hour' and for more on that see a few posts below this one.

With 'The End of the World' by Den Patrick we essentially have an argument between demons and their master outside a pub. It's a funny story, with a rather touching tale of love woven into the narrative. Patrick shows that the denizens of Hell can't be all bad.

'The Immaculate Particle' by Charlie Human has to be a play on the idea of 'The God Particle' that has been brought into public consciousness by the experimentation at CERN. Human ably plunges us into a dark and complex world and explores the idea of an extreme faith having risen from a mix of scientific speculation and skewed theological thinking. I've not read Human's work before, but this makes me think that we'll be sure to see much more of him in the near future.

'The Harvest' by Chrysanthy Balis is a nice response to those rapture novels so beloved of the Christian Right. The idea that one can entirely know God is in itself fairly comic, but Balis's story doesn't concern itself with just that, and the pay-off is both cruel and funny.

Sam Wilson's 'Postapocalypse' takes the form of a theological and scientific discussion. It's packed full of complex ideas but Wilson's gift is in making those ideas clear to the reader while also challenging them at the same time. This is challenging in the way that good hard SF can be, though this story is much more than that, and the debate that this story raises is a fascinating one.

Closing the collection we have Sophia McDougall's utterly brilliant 'Not The End of the World.' McDougall writes beautifully and hauntingly. This story, set in a tenement building in Germany during the Second World War, reminds me of the work of Jonathan Carroll, yet McDougall has a strong authorial voice of her own. It's a moving story about love and letting go, and the complexities of existence. There are big things going on here, but in small quiet ways. It's a stunning closer to the collection and a story that I'd love to see in next year's Best Of collections.

Pandemonium is an exciting debut from those genre philanthropists that bring you the brilliant Pornokitsch, and shows why Anne and Jared are establishing themselves as editors and bloggers who understand the best of genre and celebrate it on every level.

You can get your copy of Pandemonium here or here or here