http://www.amazon.co.uk/Weird-Noir-ebook/dp/B009YYF38M/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1351686365&sr=8-2
Hurray! Weird Noir is available on Amazon.co.uk. Go on, treat yourself. You won't regret it ...
Wednesday, 31 October 2012
Tuesday, 30 October 2012
HALLOWEEN APPROACHES, WEIRD NOIR IS COMING!
Halloween is nearly here - my favourite time of the year. It's the real new year, baby. The veil between the worlds is at its thinnest and it's the time to remember those who've gone before, to remember what we have and to marshal hope for the future. It's also become a time to let your imagination run wild and what better to assist you in this spooktacular endeavour than pointing you in the direction of some right good reads.
Fox Spirit is once again flexing its increasingly mighty wings and this Halloween the good folks there bring you the delectable oddness that is Weird Noir. Presented and edited by Kate Laity, that woman of many wonders, it's a trove of harebrained schemes, insidious otherness and black humoured fatalism. My story "A Kick in the Head" is first up - and it's my first paid story. So do a fledgling writer a solid and avail yourself of a little Weird Noir, if you're of a mind. You'll find many more reasons to read on once you've done your favour to me. Trust.
http://www.foxspirit.co.uk/?p=297
Brightest blessings sweetlings. Don't let the bed bugs bite.
Fox Spirit is once again flexing its increasingly mighty wings and this Halloween the good folks there bring you the delectable oddness that is Weird Noir. Presented and edited by Kate Laity, that woman of many wonders, it's a trove of harebrained schemes, insidious otherness and black humoured fatalism. My story "A Kick in the Head" is first up - and it's my first paid story. So do a fledgling writer a solid and avail yourself of a little Weird Noir, if you're of a mind. You'll find many more reasons to read on once you've done your favour to me. Trust.
http://www.foxspirit.co.uk/?p=297
Brightest blessings sweetlings. Don't let the bed bugs bite.
Thursday, 18 October 2012
Meet some of Weird Noir
As the dark nights draw ever in, there is a light upon the horizon: Fox Spirit Books will soon be releasing Weird Noir, of which one of my stories is a part. To meet some of the gang, check out the link below (my little snozzle about how I wrote the story is first)
http://aknifeandaquill.wordpress.com/2012/10/18/weird-noir-tentacles-ho/
It is going to be an Ebook first but depending on demand there might be some lovely pages to touch at some point. Tell them you want it in your hands, that you want to kiss my name and smell its print ... or some such. Get on it, troops!
http://aknifeandaquill.wordpress.com/2012/10/18/weird-noir-tentacles-ho/
It is going to be an Ebook first but depending on demand there might be some lovely pages to touch at some point. Tell them you want it in your hands, that you want to kiss my name and smell its print ... or some such. Get on it, troops!
Monday, 8 October 2012
Weird Noir: A Kick in the Head
I have more news! I'm so chuffed I've even missed the start of University Challenge! My story "A Kick in the Head" will be featured in the upcoming anthology from Fox Spirit Press, "Weird Noir". It's an honest to goodness book you'll be able to order and buy! For reals! See the cover art, by the inestimable Stephanie Johnson below - you can check out her stuff at http://sljohnsonimages.com/ and Fox Spirit lives, of course, at www.foxspirit.co.uk Fill your Halloween this year with odd goodness.
Friday, 5 October 2012
Leave the Pistol Behind
It's been awhile. I need to be a bit more disciplined with the bloggage, I guess. Still, here I am now with the exciting news that my story "Leave the Pistol Behind" (it's flash fiction so it's not terribly long or tiring for you to digest) was selected as one of the winners of Fox Spirit's (www.foxspirit.co.uk) International Talk Like a Pirate Day competition.
You can find the story here - http://www.foxspirit.co.uk/?p=249 Please read it and share it. Feedback is always appreciated by a not terribly confident writer.
Thank you!
You can find the story here - http://www.foxspirit.co.uk/?p=249 Please read it and share it. Feedback is always appreciated by a not terribly confident writer.
Thank you!
Monday, 10 September 2012
Things that go bump in my head
I've been trying to get to grips with an idea for a novel that is possibly serious. I've been scribbling notes but it's still early days and it's all a bit up in the air for me. However, ideas for other stories keep on coming, ideas that I'm not sure at all what to do with. My favourite so far is "One Tonne Marlene and the Bat from Hell". These are the things that wake me from my slumber.
Wednesday, 11 July 2012
Queued The Raven, "Nevermore".
*I've tried to avoid spoilers but be aware that I do talk about the film*
I went to see The Raven at the NIFFF (Neuchatel International Fantastic Film Festival) last night. That famous Swiss punctuality hit the wall right off the bat. They made us wait outside 15 minutes past entry time - in any other country that might seem a sniffle of a complaint, but in Switzerland you get used to things happening when people say they will. Freakish, but true. It would have been fine but had the film run over we might have missed our train home. I digress. The other problem with being made to wait outside was the queuing.
Look, I know I'm English/British, whatever, and I know that makes some of my behaviours a little different from my fellow human beings, but for fuck's sake, how hard is it to fucking QUEUE?! It's a basic question of manners. I hope that the little pushing-in beardy ballbag and the tiny woman behind me who apparently couldn't see the large lady in a BRIGHT RED COAT STANDING DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF HER and consequently kept seeming surprised that when she tried she couldn't actually walk through me, get giant fucking piles. I hope they are primo with the itchy too. And those two are just the top of the list. Pfft.
Anyway, we finally got in and after more waiting around for someone to scratch their ever-loving balls or wotnot, the film began. Apart from the stalwart cast of British actors - all of whom were excellent - and the fine costumes, it was a bit ... shit. It wasn't terrible, I don't mean that, it was just a bit ... well, shit. Giant plot wank aside - and some of the holes, confusion and obviousness were resplendent with the seminal fluid - John Cusack was like a twitching Nic Cage pastiche or, indeed, a pastiche of himself at his most manic. His hair was worrisome. Black is not his colour - it doesn't hide the fact that he no longer has that plush quiffy goodness that used to serve him so well. I love Cusack. I'll watch anything with him in it but his performance was too bombastic, separating him from the rest of proceedings with an uncomfortable "elephant in the room" distance. At times I wondered if it was supposed to be a comedy - Cusack seemed almost like he was playing for laughs, but his enduring seriousness would suggest otherwise.
The whole "meta" thing was jarring too. The references to how only people like Poe and the murderer would appreciate such horrific stories because they're "like proper weird and shit" lacked only a turn to camera and a wink. Enough already. I know I like horror, big fucking deal. Save the Scary Movie shitdickery to the Scary Movie franchise. It belongs where I won't see it.
Possible *SPOILER* - the clue for who the murderer is comes not long into the film and if you've got half your brain switched on, it's very hard to miss. I fell down the plot hole and didn't feel much like coming out.
All that said, it was a fairly good watch. I sound like a ballbag after bleating on, but it didn't bore me - as the Mister said last night, directors shouldn't be afraid to keep the running time down, and McTeigue didn't (although he probably could have cut another few minutes out here and there) Luke Evans in a frock coat was a lovely sight to behold. His carved granite face can be uber-serious (I find myself frowning along with him) but I always find him engaging, and he was none the less so in this. As I've already said, the rest of the cast were great and kept it together against the odds of Cusack's mummery. It could have been a much better film with more attention to the kind of plots Poe can fuck you up with and if someone else had played him. I give it 5/10
I went to see The Raven at the NIFFF (Neuchatel International Fantastic Film Festival) last night. That famous Swiss punctuality hit the wall right off the bat. They made us wait outside 15 minutes past entry time - in any other country that might seem a sniffle of a complaint, but in Switzerland you get used to things happening when people say they will. Freakish, but true. It would have been fine but had the film run over we might have missed our train home. I digress. The other problem with being made to wait outside was the queuing.
Look, I know I'm English/British, whatever, and I know that makes some of my behaviours a little different from my fellow human beings, but for fuck's sake, how hard is it to fucking QUEUE?! It's a basic question of manners. I hope that the little pushing-in beardy ballbag and the tiny woman behind me who apparently couldn't see the large lady in a BRIGHT RED COAT STANDING DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF HER and consequently kept seeming surprised that when she tried she couldn't actually walk through me, get giant fucking piles. I hope they are primo with the itchy too. And those two are just the top of the list. Pfft.
Anyway, we finally got in and after more waiting around for someone to scratch their ever-loving balls or wotnot, the film began. Apart from the stalwart cast of British actors - all of whom were excellent - and the fine costumes, it was a bit ... shit. It wasn't terrible, I don't mean that, it was just a bit ... well, shit. Giant plot wank aside - and some of the holes, confusion and obviousness were resplendent with the seminal fluid - John Cusack was like a twitching Nic Cage pastiche or, indeed, a pastiche of himself at his most manic. His hair was worrisome. Black is not his colour - it doesn't hide the fact that he no longer has that plush quiffy goodness that used to serve him so well. I love Cusack. I'll watch anything with him in it but his performance was too bombastic, separating him from the rest of proceedings with an uncomfortable "elephant in the room" distance. At times I wondered if it was supposed to be a comedy - Cusack seemed almost like he was playing for laughs, but his enduring seriousness would suggest otherwise.
The whole "meta" thing was jarring too. The references to how only people like Poe and the murderer would appreciate such horrific stories because they're "like proper weird and shit" lacked only a turn to camera and a wink. Enough already. I know I like horror, big fucking deal. Save the Scary Movie shitdickery to the Scary Movie franchise. It belongs where I won't see it.
Possible *SPOILER* - the clue for who the murderer is comes not long into the film and if you've got half your brain switched on, it's very hard to miss. I fell down the plot hole and didn't feel much like coming out.
All that said, it was a fairly good watch. I sound like a ballbag after bleating on, but it didn't bore me - as the Mister said last night, directors shouldn't be afraid to keep the running time down, and McTeigue didn't (although he probably could have cut another few minutes out here and there) Luke Evans in a frock coat was a lovely sight to behold. His carved granite face can be uber-serious (I find myself frowning along with him) but I always find him engaging, and he was none the less so in this. As I've already said, the rest of the cast were great and kept it together against the odds of Cusack's mummery. It could have been a much better film with more attention to the kind of plots Poe can fuck you up with and if someone else had played him. I give it 5/10
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)