Storytelling at the Gladstone Museum

Storytelling – at the Gladstone Museum

The Penkhull Press

With writers from Penkhull Press and others

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People Are Watching… #authorselectric

Today I am blogging over at Authors Electric about who notices us (in a non-conspiracy sense 🙂  )

Eyes Are Always On You by Jan Edwards

If you ask writers why they write most will say tell you it is a compulsion, or, as Terry Pratchett once said, ‘writing is the most fun you can have by yourself.’ If we manage to make a few bucks in the process all the better. If we come to be recognised as a writer of some merit, better still, but to do that the writing needs a reader.  So how do we get noticed?… To read the rest click here.

 

Friday Favourites: Fables and Fabrications by Jan Edwards

Misha Herwin

I love spooky stories, the shiver that slides up my back at any hint of the supernatural, the feeling of unease that lingers long after the film is over, or the book has been closed. Given the popularity of the genre, I know I am not alone, but it sometimes hard to find a good anthology of ghost/weird tales, which is why “Fables and Fabrications” by Jan Edwards, is one my favourite collections.

Jan is a subtle writer. No sudden shock horror in her books, just a gradual built up of tension that leads, inevitably, to an ending that might surprise, but which always feels right. Her stories often have an undertone of myth or legend that add depth to the narrative. Norse, in the case of “Grey Magic for Cat Lovers,” Classical, for “Mayday Come Askew,” and Celtic in “Winter Eve.”

My favourite story in the collection, however, references…

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Alchemy Press Book of Horrors window opening soon

Source: Alchemy Press Book of Horrors

Fables and Fabrications – October eBargain at 99p #kindlebargain #specialoffer

Fables and Fabrications  will be available for just just 99p through October – all the way up to Halloween 2017!  HERE

Fourteen tales of mystery, mirth and the macabre. From the arctic wastes of Norway to a fun laden evening at the fair, Fables and Fabrications leads you through a world where nothing is as it seems. Shape changers and ancient spirits roam and cats play a crucial part in stories that unsettle and disturb the reader’s perception. Chosen from my back catalogue of horror and dark fantasy these stories leavened by a sprinkle of verse have been collected for the first time in one volume.

Contents:
‘A Taste of Culture’, Mammoth Book of Dracula, Robinson Press 1997
‘City Canal’ (Villanelle), Whispers in the Wind, Anchor Press 2001
‘Corinna’s Reply’, Salvo 7, CHWG 2003
‘Damnation Seize My Soul’, Dark Currents, Newcon Press 2012
‘Drawing Down the Moon’, Grimorium Verum, Western Leg. 2015
‘Gallery Green’, Terror Scribes, Dog Horn Publishing 2012
‘Green Tea’, Salvo 8, CHWG 2015
‘Grey Magic for Cat Lovers’, New Horizons, BFS 2011
‘Jack Jumps Out of the Box’, Father Grimm’s Story Book, 2012
‘Mayday Springs Askew’, Tales from the Greenmantle 2011
‘Midnight Twilight’, Alt-Zombie, Hersham Horror 2012
‘Old Hat’, Salvo 6 CHWG, 2000
‘Pet Therapy’, Demonologia Biblica, Western Legends 2013
‘Princess Born’, Grimm and Grimmer 1, Fringe Works 2013
‘Thirteenth Day’, Estronomicon, Screaming Dreams 2011
‘Time’s Excuses’, Through Clouds of Despair. Triumph House 2001
‘Wind Blows the Oaks’ Salvo 7, CHWG 2003
‘Winter Eve’, Ethereal Tales 9, Ethereal Tales 2010
‘You And Me Pop’, public performance, Dysprosium, April 2015

Plus seven haiku verses – all new to this volume

Friday Favourites: The Lost Words

Looks like a book to have whatever the age.

Misha Herwin

This is one of the most beautiful and magical books I have seen. Working from the premise that children, in our increasingly urbanised, society are losing the words for birds and plants, Robert Macfarlane has conjured up a book of spells to find and restore the lost words.

Although he says that he is not a poet, the language is lyrical and compelling. My favourite being the song of the Willow which is both mesmerising and sinister. The writer asks,

“Willow, when the wind blows so your branches billow

O will you whisper while we listen so we learn what

Words your long leaves loosen?”

The Willow however, replies

“You will never know a word of willow for we are willow

And you are not.”

Nature may be beautiful but it has and will keep its secrets.

Illustrated on the next page, the darkness of the trees, the uneasy sky…

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Thank You! – Karl Edward Wagner Award 2017

For those who where in the banquet room and wondered at my tongue-tied floundering, believe me when I say that I was so totally unprepared for it all that my mind was, at that moment, a total blank! Stunned, bewildered and just plain gobsmacked only begins to describe my winning the Karl Edward Wagner Award from the British Fantasy Society; truly, it came totally out of the blue.

So many people were crammed in to watch the awards ceremony that, despite extra chairs being parachuted in, it was standing room only at the back. Suffering lack of sleep, as you do at these convention weekends, and knowing my poor old knees where not going to survive that long on my feet, I had elected to sit in the bar, (which was close enough to hear the applause). Besides, I knew that all the details would reach us bar flies soon enough along the con-telegraph.

When the announcement was made, I am told that somebody shouted out ‘She’s in the bar!’, which was greeted with tolerant laughter. Karl would have been proud of me.

The first I knew, however, was Pauline Morgan hoving into view shouting, ‘Oi, you – get in there! Pronto!’

Now, when Pauline tells you to move you don’t ask questions, so as I hurried into the banqueting room, I was totally unprepared for what was to come. I paused for a moment, realising by the way everyone was looking in my direction, that something was afoot.

I hadn’t any pre-composed speech (well, why would I?) nor had even time to think far beyond the instant.

‘Get to the platform,’ Pauline hissed from behind me. I took several bows to cover my confusion and raced on, arriving at the podium to broad grins from Ramsey Campbell and Phil Lunt. Still totally at sea I whispered to Phil, ‘What’s going on?’

‘You have an award,’ he whispered back.

‘Me? What award? What for?’

‘It’s the Karl Edward Wagner Award…’

I hadn’t any pre-composed speech (well, why would I?) nor even time to think far beyond the instant. I ‘believe’ I managed to stammer something along the lines of ‘Gosh… Thank you…’ before reeling away, beaming, bemused and bewildered beyond mere words.

All of the above aside, let me take the time now to say a proper thank you to the British Fantasy Society and the Fantasycon committees.

To receive the Karl Edward Wagner Award is an honour that I am still not convinced I deserve, but I accept it with humble thanks. I have been around long enough to recall Karl and his unstinting support of Fantasycon and the BFS. His imposing presence and impeccable Southern manners were always a delight, as was his impish sense of humour. (And as I have already said he would have been highly amused by the above events.) As a writer of fantasy fiction and editor of so many fine anthologies, promoting and supporting writers along the way, his passing was and still is keenly felt, which for me, at least, makes the award all the more poignant.

So, once again, my heartfelt thanks to all of those responsible for the honour and privilege of having a British Fantasy Karl Edward Wagner Award – and indeed, my heartiest congratulations to all of this years’ recipients of various British Fantasy Awards. (pics to follow