Moving into 2011

I have looked back at 2010 this week, now I want to look forward to 2011, which holds the promise of being an excellent year for Un:Bound.

Many of you are used to coming directly to the blog to read our latest posts. As Un:Bound is developing, I’d recommend you occasionally check the home page for new content.

We are kicking off the year by appearing on Functional Nerds in January, which I will post about when it goes up. It was a lot of fun to do, even though my Nerd credentials will forever be diminished by my lack of technical knowledge.

The awesome Alasdair Stuart is joining the team and will be posting occasionally on Un:Bound. I know, after his involvement with UBVE it was fairly inevitable he’d get sucked in, but now I can make it official. Alasdair will be known to many of you as the Editor of Hub, a blogger for SFX, host of PseudoPod and review editor for EscapePod, along with the other three million things he does each week to help keep the genre world informed and semi functional.

The occasional ad hoc podcasts and audio interviews are going to take on a more regular schedule and I have a co host, someone entirely new to Un:Bound but well known to all of you. We will be staying away from reviews on the podcasts and are expecting to produce them every two months. The structure is being agreed at the moment but I think it is past time we made them a more regular and formal feature. I am delighted then to welcome Gav previously of Nextread and now part of the review team for My Favourite Books, on board for Un:Bound Audio which we hope to pilot in January.

I mentioned in the round up post that we will be podcasting at the Alt.Fiction festival, once again with a live audience. I am looking forward to finding out who our guests will be and what topics will be up for discussion. You can listen to last year’s podcast stream on the Alt.Fiction Audio page here on the site. Un:Bound will also be working with Alt.Fiction to record and archive events through the year on a mix of video and audio so you can expect much more from our collaboration with the Writing East Midlands event brand.

Un:Bound has been invited to record this years Fantasy Con awards so we will see you in Brighton (not that we’d have missed it anyway). I expect you will see various members of the team at a good variety of events again this year, usually in the bar, possibly all night long.

Our Manga/Anime expert, MangaCat who is also our UBVE presenter Kat, is going to be moving into video for the manga reviews. Both the nature of the books and her hectic timetable lend themselves better to this way of working and I am looking forward to those beginning. As reviews the video will be posted on the main blog, via the unboundblogzine youtube channel.

There will be plenty more of all the things you are used to finding here, reviews, interviews, visiting writers and although we are going multi media in a much bigger way in the new year, the blog will still run very much as usual. Ravenous Wednesday will be back later in January along with other regular features.

Discussions are beginning on Video Editions #2 and the team are hoping to deliver three episodes in 2011, under the direction of Vincent Holland-Keen. We can’t reveal details at the moment as we are awaiting confirmations but more information when we get it. There is going to be some fun additional material coming too from various sources. We have a retrospective review of Wyndham’s ‘The Kraken Wakes’ and the Zombie special coming up over the next few weeks. We are also going to be working on the guidelines for contributions which we are determined to get out to you all before the Con season starts so UBVE can go global, with a crack international team of correspondents.

No New Year resolutions for me this year, I am going to be far too busy to worry about them, which is how I like it!

All that remains then is to wish you all a Happy New Year and a kick ass 2011.

Considering 2010

The other day on twitter I described 2010 as one of the hardest years of my life and also one of the most rewarding. This is starting as a somewhat personal post and this being a book blog I will take no offense if you skip straight to the bottom where I run through a few of the changes to the blog over the last year and focus on the bookish stuff.

http://www.marvelouskreations.com

So this year my marriage fell apart. See, I told you it was personal. It wasn’t anyone’s fault, the timing was off or outside influences brought things to a head instead of letting them grow out over the years, or maybe we were just too quick to say ‘yes, this is for us’ when we met. Regardless it was an amicable split, we remain friends. I am returning to using my maiden name Wearing, we lunch on sundays if we are both home and there are no hard feelings. The year running up to the split though has in many ways been hellish.

 

As a result I’ve read dramatically less than last year, relied far more heavily on the team, and indeed increased it’s size, to keep things moving on Un:Bound and I got away as much as possible. That's a salient point, I promise.

So how exactly has dealing with the stress and unhappiness at home and the additional pressures of endless reviews at work turned out to be a good thing? Well, for starters I finally began to take control of my life, I’m ending 2010 on my own and the happiest and healthiest I have been for many years. I have to put this in the win column. Frankly just the fact that I continued to get out of bed and go to work every day would go in the win column. 

Also, I really threw myself into the blog. I was struggling to focus on reading but there were plenty of other things I could be doing. I attended numerous events this year, throwing myself into the Con circuit and getting Un:Bound closely involved in Alt.Fiction. I met some incredible people and developed some wonderful friendships.I said yes to every invitation to guest blog, podcast or record for archives that came my way and dragged other people into the chaos with me.

The site has grown, the team has grown and my life is inarguably richer for it. 2010, for all that is has been a bitch of a year has seen the set up for some really exciting times ahead. I have to say a huge thanks to all the people who have listened and supported and forgiven and just been there over the last year, the genre world is full of incredible, supportive people (you know who you are) and I’m proud to be a part of it. I’m also endlessly proud of and grateful for the awesome Un:Bound team for all their efforts keeping me and the site running over this last year. I absolutely could not do any of this without them and they push me constantly to keep trying new things and moving forward with the site.

So focussing on the book stuff, what have we been up to this year.

Well, the team has expanded somewhat over the year with people being press ganged into service after making the mistake of having a conversation with me or being volunteered by other people who thought I could make use of them. Un:Bound sometimes has a slight Tar Pit effect, it doesn’t matter how much you struggle once you’ve dipped a toe you are never getting free! The team page will tell you who we all are and where else you can find us.

We started working with Alt.Fiction this year, doing an eight hour podcastathon at the festival and continuing on with them after that. In fact we are so involved we have given them their own page on Un:Bound. You will also notice Podcasts are on the flyers already for the 2011 main event and yup, that’s us again. I'm really excited about having the podcasting stream again.

We also did our first video interview, with the brilliant Rob Shearman, and then ended up recording the BFS awards ceremony, which led in a winding way to the creation of Video Editions which is a hugely exciting project for us. UBVE #1 went live in December and although the full episodes will be roughly quarterly there will be plenty of additional content available during the course of the year through the UBVE site.

The video archive will include everything posted on our the unboundblogzine youtube channel in addition to the actual show footage so you can find the 2010 BFS awards there too.

Young & Un:Bound got a new look and a few more reviewers and books also went

out to the Wave reporters through Citizens Eye. When reviews start coming in

from the group of 14 – 25yr olds who produce the Wave youth newspaper with the

Leicester Mercury it’s going to be an exciting development stage for Un:Bound’s

youth site.

Events wise we attended a fair few and rounded up coverage of more, all of which you can find on our Events page. If you have covered an event we don’t have listed let us know, we are seeking to develop this side of the site and link to bloggers internationally so fans can explore the Con circuit worldwide.

We’ve had the usual round of articles and guest posts and the various regular or semi regular items: Ravenous Wednesday’s, Writer Wednesday’s, Uncovered and Writers Reading all of which are set to continue in 2011. Of course we have continued our regular interviews and there will be no change to that, we love chatting to people about their books and whatever else pops into my head so look out for those, there will be more of a mix of written, audio and video interviews in the coming year than

ever before.

So a big year for us as a site and for the blogosphere as a whole, everyone seems to be changing, numerous bloggers branching out and taking on new challenges.

Sharon Ring of Dark Fiction Review and Del Lakin Smith of Wordpunk have combined forces (of evil) to produce Dark Fiction Magazine, an anthology of short stories from wonderful writers and delivered by fantastic readers. Sharon has also become an agent. Meanwhile The Tattooed Head, Simon Marshall Jones has launched Spectral Press offering novella’s from the likes of Gary McMahon. Angry Robot have launched a short story site, perfect for those of us who never go any where without an iphone and Alt.Fiction has moved to a year round programme of genre fic events including story performances and writing weekends.

Gav of Nextread has closed his doors and now reviews for My Favourite Books and no doubt we will see him turning up around and about over the next year or so. Escape Pod is under the new management of the mighty Mur Lafferty and Alasdair Stuart has taken over the editing the reviews. Several bloggers are working officially in the publishing industry now, including James from Speculative Horizons (also closed, remaining as an archive) and Amanda from Floor to Ceiling Books. The genre blogosphere is stretching out and seeing what it can do, I suspect 2011 will be an exciting year as more of us experiment and get involved in new projects.

I’ve probably missed a lot of exciting stuff that has happened over the year, so please add your own highlights from 2010 and your news in the comments and well done if you made it this far, I have rambled on rather.

Silver Borne | Patricia Briggs

Silver Born
by Patricia Briggs
Pub: Orbit

Sliver Borne is the 5th book in Patricia Briggs' well known werewolf series.

Mercy is shapeshifter, a coyote raised mainly within a werewolf pack and now dating the Alpha of a local pack, running a garage and trying not to draw too much attention to herself. Unfortunately she may have something that a Fae of unknown power is after. To make matters worse there is dissent within the pack and someone is deliberately using the pack bonds to mess with Mercy and Adam.

Mercy is a fantastic heroine, as a coyote in a world of wolves, vampires and all kinds of fae she is punching well below her weight and has to be smarter and trust her friends to get through the various trials of the books. She obviously has an element of kick ass but it's not as prominant as with many urban fantasy leads and she doesn't get a useful magical 'power up' everytime she is outclassed by her foe.

Patricia Briggs has created such a detailed and solid world that she is able to run two series of books, with overlapping characters but very different tones, effectively and brilliantly. Both the Mercy Thompson series and the Alpha and Omega series are consistant, well plotted, brilliantly written and throughly enjoyable UF.

Silver Borne is another excellent book in a really superb series.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

Happy Christmas in whatever way you celebrate the time of year!

We will be back in a few days.

Also, Vince has posted a short story on his own blog, check it out and make Christmas last a little longer.

Writer Wednesday | Flash Fiction by Paul Jessup

For this Writers Wednesday we have Flash Fiction from Paul Jessup who we recently reviewed and interviewed. Enjoy.

---------------------------------------

Jill dreamt of days with rain. She dreamt of hours with water falling from the sky. She dreamt of soaked skins and wet bones beneath, her clothes stuck tight and mouth open wide. A big fish mouth, trying to swallow the whole world.

In her dreams the sky water tasted like cinnamon.

In her dreams the oceans were not dry

In her dreams dust did not run from the faucets.

In her dreams she was never thirsty.

Mack was her best friend. He was a water finder. A dowser. He carried a sack full of sticks that rattled like bones. Each stick was shaped like a Y, and cut from ash trees when the ash trees still grew and shaded the earth with their branches. Now the only shade is from the ruins of skyscrapers, empty iron skeletons rusting in the pale red sun.

Jill’s parents had adopted Mack when he was six, and his parents took to the fever and were cast into the shadows. He says he can still see them, hiding in the shadows. They carry dead animals in their hands, and they howl and scream his name.

He picked up the dowsing pretty quick. Some days he didn’t even need the rods, he could just hold his hands out and the little specks would call out to him, sing to him from beneath the rotten earth.

He was the most important person in Jill’s tribe.

The second most important was the rain caller.

Her name was Marybeth. She taught Jill her trade in the off hours, in the hours when traveling was light and the sun did not bake. There were dances involved. Singing, chanting. Sexual things she could not speak to the others. They would not understand. They could not understand what the rain wanted.

But Jill understood.

It was her calling.

It was why she had dreamt of rain.

Interview | Cavan Scott

Cavan Scott has an extensive background in magazine editing and audio production, he has also written numerous short stories one of which is appearing in a new charity ebook anthology in April 2011.


Cavan's comment on the book.
'Voices from the Past, published by H&H books features stories from a number of the people found in the Obverse Book of Ghosts - namely myself, George Mann, Stuart Douglas, Paul Magrs and Thomas Fletcher - alongside such names as Alastair Reynolds, Paul Cornell, Johnny Mains and Jasper Fforde.
It's a great collection that costs that 59p and all proceeds will be going to Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital. Even the website and web hosting has been donated. I'm very excited to be involved in this project with all monies going to such a great cause.'

Visit http://www.hhbooks.org/

Check out The Obverse Book of Ghosts

HR: First of all can you tell me how the Obverse Book of Ghosts came about and where that name came from?


CS: The book was my tribute to those old ghost books of yore - The Fontana Book of Ghosts, The Pan Ghost Book and so on. I loved these spooky little tomes when I was a kid with their strange photographic covers and lurid little stories. My Grandparents used to live in a flat in this old gothic house in the centre of Bristol and I used to get as many of these scary little adventures and read them in the middle of the night in this fantastic spooky building. It was perfect.


I've always wanted to produce a modern equivalent and so when Stuart Douglas, the publisher at Obverse Books, was looking for ideas for short story collections I barraged him with emails about a ghost book until he gave in.


As for the name, again it was a case of following the old traditions of Pan and Fontana. If including their name in the title of their ghost books was good enough for them, it was good enough for us.


HR: so what do you look for in a ghost story, is it the bit of mystery or something more visceral? What makes it one to read under the covers by torchlight?


CS: A good ghost story makes you start to doubt the shadows. There's a great line in a Christmas Carol - my favourite novel - when the Narrator says Scrooge "found himself face to face with the unearthly visitor who drew them: as close as I am now to you, and I am standing in the spirit at your elbow..."
My favourite kind of ghost stories make you feel that someone - something - is standing right next to you but you can never see you it is. There can be physical elements to an haunting of course, but in essence they should unnerve you when you're on your own, or at least when you think you're on your own...


HR: So a collection aimed to unnerve and chill. When and in what formats is the Obverse Books of Ghosts being released and can we expect to see more Obverse book of X titles?


CS: At the moment the Book of Ghosts is available in a lovely hardback edition. Stuart does such a lovely job with his books. They just feel lovely when you first lay your hands on them.
As for the future, I hope that if this first volume of ghost stories sells then others will follow.


Obverse also publishes short story collections based around the character of Iris Wildthyme - a character created by Paul Magrs who previously appeared in Doctor Who audios and novels as well as her own line of audio dramas from Big Finish. But while the heroic Doctor travels with attractive young companions in a time-travelling Police Box, the often gin-soaked Iris travels in a time-travelling London Bus with a snooty sentient toy Panda. The world of Iris is a bit bonkers.


The Book of Ghosts is the first non-Iris book that Obverse has produced and won't be the last. They have a short story collection by Johnny Mains out soon and lots of top-secret projects waiting in the wings.


HR: You have an excellently creepy little story in the Obverse book of Ghosts, but can you tell me a bit more about your other fiction writing?


CS: Well I'm glad you found it creepy. It totally creeped me out when I was writing it. I suppose I'm best known for the work I've done with my sometime partner-in-crime, Mark Wright. Together we've written a number of Doctor Who audio dramas for Big Finish, as well as audio books based on such franchises as Highlander and The Sarah Jane Adventures.
My solo work includes Judge Dredd and The Tomorrow People audio dramas, the odd comic strip here and there and short stories that pop up in small press anthologies. I'm hoping that the next year will see me writing more of my own stuff rather than tie-in fiction. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy writing franchise material - it's always great to have someone let you play in their sandpit - but it's time I started building my own worlds, if that doesn't sound too pompous.


HR: I think from that description Iris may be my new hero and I will be seeking some of those out.


So lots of good stuff from you and Obverse for everyone to look out for and enjoy and good stuff coming. And no it doesn't sound too pompous, I shall look forward to seeing what you create in your own sandpit.


You also do some non fiction writing *barely contained squeeing*. Can you tell us how you came to be writing for the awesome Countryfile?


CS: In my other life I'm a magazine editor and journalist. About three years ago I was fortunate enough to be asked to launch a brand new magazine based on Countryfile, which I must admit was a dream job. I edited the mag for two years, before leaving last November to pursue a freelance career. But Countryfile has stayed with me. Earlier this year my first Countryfile book -Perfect Days Out - was published by BBC Books and I have worked with the legendary John Craven and TV farmer Adam Henson on two more.


I must admit I like having fingers in a lot of pies. Variety is the spice of life and all that. My next non-fiction book is about dinosaurs which again a little bit different to Countryfile!


HR: Is there anything you've wanted to try your hand at that you haven't had the chance yet?


CS: Oh so, so many, many things. I'm definitely a fan of monsters of all kinds, so I'm thinking that my next project will be monster related. The Obverse Book of Monsters? Hmmmm. That has a ring to it - I must mention it to Stuart. Everyone loves a good monster don't they?


HR: We like to do a few frivolous questions on Un:Bound and after hearing about Iris Wildtyme it's almost too easy. If you were a sentient stuffed toy companion what animal would you want to be?


CS: Now that's a question. I think I'd be a cuddly mongoose that is harbouring a dark, dark secret. Or an owl with a former crack habit. Or a paranoid frog.


None of these are putting me in a good light are they?


HR: Which bit of iconic british streetscape would you have as your time machine?


CS: An Ice-cream van. It means that I'd always have a supply of cornettos to hand while adventuring in time and space.


HR: I'm voting for the coked up owl!! No question and an ice cream van is a superb idea, especially for a recovering addict. ;)


Last one then ... in monster stories who are you rooting for?


CS: I'm supposed to say the hero aren't I? But you can't help rooting for the monster a bit can you.There only usually doing what comes naturally after all. And, of course, the best monsters always come back.

What is in a name, if nothing but power

Some novelists can never really ever live up to their own personal high point. There are few I can think of who, across the whole of their career, have produced constantly excellent work. Sometimes it is all downhill from a stunning debut, sometimes you can see the promise and they hit their stride decades after their first fumbling steps. A consequence of being human, and the consequence of humans reading your work. Everything is context, a time and a place, and the time and a place where I read something that means the world to me could be plain and mediocre to you, in your time and your place.

It probably helps if you keep the output small (cf my beloved Marcel, though I am not sure you could call that a piffling output), or don't pretend to be anything more than fodder for the masses. Which serves a purpose in and of itself. I mean, if the masses wanted worthy and literary, the Harry Potter series would never have sold. I mean, if the masses wanted meaning and well-written, the Millennium trilogy never would have sold.

Contrast with the few novels of John Kennedy Toole (I recommend 'A Confederacy of Dunces', this isn't a review of that) or indeed Katherine Dunn, whose latest novel I have been waiting for since...a decade? More? I also heartily recommend 'Geek Love', a wrenching novel...which leads me to change my pace here.

This post was originally going to be a short retrospective of the work of Paul Auster, culminating in his latest works. As he has released two books in quick, by his standards, succession. It no longer is. I am going to ponder on Ms Dunn's novel, which I first read in 1990, at a guess. Maybe a year or two earlier, and re-read again this year. It isn't High Literature, but it is certainly startling and shocking. For some context, I read it more-or-less at the same time as Brett Easton Ellis' debut (not his third novel, which was shocking in a different, slapstick way) was released, which was also startling and shocking. I must re-read that to see what the impact is.

'Geek Love' is still shocking, decades later. Not quite so to me, but certainly to a few others to whom I lent it. I guess I forgot. Why so? The content? Sure, but that isn't it. Is it shocking to be told of giving your pregnant wife mercury, to make sure the child is deformed? Is it shocking to spy on your mother, or your daughter, with an eye on murder? Is it shocking to prostitute yourself (and your Siamese twin sister, who isn't always in to it), to trample the dreams of others for your own benefit, to cheat, lie and use?

It is, but that is the staple of trashy novels since the beginning of trashy novels, which is pretty much the same length of time the novel has been around. The shocking thing is to be reminded of how we define the normality of the world in our own terms. There is no quarter given here to the misfits, the dwarves, the albinos, the freaks. It is their voice you hear, through the narration by one of them. And by finishing that last sentence as I did, you get the otherness I mean. How can I, who could quite rightly be seen as others as The Man (oh how that makes me laugh), hope to understand the world apart? And that is what makes this a great novel.

There is no pitying tone. There is no woe-is-us. There is only celebration of themselves. Similar to Ellis' third novel, the end is a spiralling dreamscape, though more drenched in reality than his. The events happen, contrary to the way you imagine, but wholly in the way the narrator expects it. There is no cop out for our feelings, this is their world, seen in their way.

The story of their lives, twined with plans of world domination, cultish personalities, trying to keep the Old Way of Life alive, anecdotes and love. For it is a story of the triumph of love, but their love, Geek Love. The writing flows, the story accelerates, it is, after all, a novel. Not hard, not difficult, but hard, and difficult. Funny, touching, shocking, but only as we aren't them. Our funny, our touching, our shocking lie in realising that it is orthogonal to theirs, and the glimpse into their world, their thinking, is funny, touching and shocking.

There is the analogy to Auster (which caused me to change tack) of his use of names, and Dunn's use of family relations, though I would need longer to explain that, and I have been tangential enough in this non-review.

Apologies for not reviewing what I started out, but that is the thing with words, once released, you don't, and can't, control them. Maybe at some point I will review the works of Auster.

As ever, the photographs are my own, nothing to do with the review and/or book (as sometimes my reviews have nothing to do with the book), and the original links are: Raptor dance, Singe and Back to back

Obverse Book of Ghosts | edited by Cavan Scott

(apologies to anyone who has already read this review and been confused, blogger seems to have eaten the long section about Wolfsbane and Mistletoe so that will now be posted separately)

Obverse Book of Ghosts
edited by Cavan Scott

I always enjoy a good ghost story so dipped into a few of these quickly.

Down to the Very Last Drop by Guy Adams was a creepy and suitably cynical tale of a retirement home and an alcoholic medic. I always enjoy Guy's writing and while it may not be the most chilling story in the collection it's tight, entertaining and a little unpredictable, all the things I expect from this author.

Facebook of the Dead by Paul Magrs focusses on a scatty psychic and a stolen laptop, suitably unresolved and creepy I will be looking for more work by Magrs because this was a really promising introduction.

Missed Calls by Cavan Scott, well it's practically compulsory to read the editors story and again this is the first thing by Cavan that i've read. The story successfully conveyed the frustration and annoyance of the lead at the mysterious phone calls and the alarm his ex feels at the harrassment she receives in response. The ending while not entirely unexpected delivers an effective chill.

So at first exploration this seems a well chosen, cohesive anthology delivering a selection of well written, varied and entertaining tales on it's theme. I shall enjoy dipping in and out over the coming weeks and would recommend it to horror fans.

Roundup September to mid December

Just realised I haven't done a catch up post since 29th August. Ooops. So here we go the highlights for the last few months.

Reviews
Geek Monkey reviewed Vernor Vinge's 'A Fire Upon the Deep'
Kerl took a look at 'Black Lung Captain'  by Chris Wooding
MangaCat introduced us to Manga Shakespeare's 'Much Ado About Nothing' & Emma Vieceli's 'Dragon Heir'
I did something a little different and looked at a Jordan Reyne album 'How the Dead Live' and reviewed K.A.Laity's 'Peltzmantel' and Sarah Silverwood's 'The Double Edged Sword'
Chris Winterton reviewed 'Defoe 1666' by Mills and Gallagher and the somewhat silly 'Bear'
Stray Taoist talked about Modesty Blaise

Interviews
Tom Lloyd chatted to me about The Twilight Reign books.
Artist Daniele Serra came to talk to us about his work.
Joan De La Haye talked to us about writing and Rebel e Publisher
We got a video interview with the hilarious and brilliant Robert Shearman
Zombie author David Moody came to play
Paul Jessup author of Werewolves talked to me about short fiction and werewolves

Other Stuff
Un:Bound Video Editions finally launched!
We went to Fantasy Con which led to audio and video
Paul Kane and Senny Dreadful/Jennifer Williams let us post some of their short fiction.
Paul also appeared on Writers Reading ,
Vincent asked Why Write?
Kit Marlowe visited Ravenous Wednesday as did Un:Bound uberfan Jack C Young  and Kristabel Reed. I also interviewed David Fitzgerald for  the Ravenous slot.
Dark Fiction Magazine launched
October saw a fantastic set of guest posts over at Everybody's Reading for the festival.
The launch date for Un:Bound Video Editions was released
MangaCat visited MCM and brought us lots of great pictures!
K.A.Laity brings us Zombies on Writer's Wednesday and Paul Byers posted on book signings.
Spectral Press Launched

Obviously that's not all there has been, i've missed loads of reviews and various other bits, but these were some of my favourite bits.

Writer Wednesday | K.A. Laity

Every other Wednesday we open up Un:Bound to any writer who wants to come and talk about something. This week the awesome and lovely K.A.Laity has coem to tell us about the origin of her short Zombie story and share a little of it with us. If you'd like to take part in Writer Wednesday with a blog post, short story, flash fiction, poetry or anything else please contact Adele at unbound (@) unboundblogzine (dot) com


Linkage: http://www.pillhillpress.com/

Background: The story has a funny history, having been written at the last
minute as I headed off to Trinoc-con one year and hated everything I'd ever
written (it happens) and so started writing something just for fun. It was a
big hit, with one exception: I'd only got half the story written. People
were ready to kill me for stopping in the middle, but that's all I had. I
finished (and read the rest the following year at Trinoc-con) and sold it to
an anthology, who then proceeded to slowly reel out the days while
contributors waited, and waited, and were reassured that it was coming, it
was coming -- and then after two years, they just stopped responding. Sigh.
Unfortunately, that's the life of small publishers. I'm glad this story has
got a home at last.

Excerpt:

As another bottle went whizzing by my head I knew that I had made some
serious miscalculations. I knew too that Jim was like to kill me because of
those miscalculations, but at the moment the shambling wreck of a corpse was
a much more pressing issue. I had unloaded most of my pistol into it already
when Jim shouted that I should quit wasting bullets like they were made of
manure and throw something more substantial, but somehow guns still seemed
like a good idea. Cursing his illustrious forebears, I finally holstered my
beloved pearl-handled Colts and looked around for something heftier. The
dead guy continued his staggering plunge toward me, so I grabbed a chair and
flung it wildly across the room. It fetched up a glancing blow on his
shoulder, which spun him around to the left. Jim took advantage of this
momentary turn in events and hefted up another chair, bringing it down with
a little more venom on the old guy¹s noggin. He crashed to the floor with
the splitting wood and lay there twitching and broken, but at least no
longer mobile. Jim muttered something under his breath that could have
easily been ³stupid fucking white man,² but I tried to believe that it was
aimed at the corpse and not me.

³Well, that don¹t happen every day,² I said needlessly.

Jim just stared at me and wiped some of the blood away from his mouth. His
name wasn¹t really Jim. It was just I could never quite get my mouth around
his real name without calling up a cough and he somewhat pityingly told me
to stick with Jim. It wasn¹t that I meant any disrespect‹I¹m not the
sharpest tool in the shed, I know, as my pop always told me‹but that Navajo
is a twisty language that leaves my tongue twitching in pain whenever I try
to repeat the things he says.

³It¹s still wiggling,² Jim cautioned as I stepped forward to take a look.

³I know, I know, I ain¹t an idjit.²  Sure enough, the old man was jerking
around like a fish on the end of a line, his sightless white eyes rolling
around, but his limbs seemed to convulse uselessly now. Not like before.
³What do you suppose he¹s got?²

Jim moved warily toward the too-lively body. ³Whatever he has, we don¹t want
to catch it.²

³Damn! You don¹t suppose it¹s catching!?² I took a quick two-step back.

³Maybe it is, maybe it isn¹t,² Jim replied evenly, gazing closely at the old
man¹s face. ³Best to be careful.²

³Well, hell.²  No arguing with that. ³You ever seen anything like this?²

³No.²  Jim picked up a broken chair leg and poked at the guy¹s shoulder. He
made a sort of wheezing sound and tried to attack the chair leg. He didn¹t
have much luck because both his arms seemed to be broken, in fact the jagged
end of one bone poked up through the graying skin I could see now as he
rolled over weakly. It was a peculiar sight.

³I think we better dismember the body,² Jim said after we¹d watched the old
guy struggle aimlessly for a time.

³You mean chop it up?²

³That would be the gist of it in words of one syllable,² Jim said. If you
didn¹t know him, you might not have realized that he was being sarcastic. It
took me a couple of months of riding with him to realize that sometimes he
was being funny. Me, I tell you when I¹m making a joke. Jim just figures
you¹ll find it out somehow. Inefficient, I call it.

³Why you want to chop him up?²

³Well, he¹s dead, yes?²

³Yes.²

³But he¹s still moving, yes?²

³Yeah,² I said, ³obviously.²

³Well, if we chop him to pieces, maybe he will stop and be all dead.²

³And if he¹s not?²

³You have a better idea?²

Well, the only thing we could find was a shovel. You¹d think in a house like
this, so far from other folks, there¹d be plenty of useful things like big
butchering knives or a saw for firewood, but we sure as hell couldn¹t find
them. Guess he was a little too much on his own out here. Town looked to be
within a morning¹s ride, but it wasn¹t like he wanted neighbors. Maybe this
was why.

³You think he¹s been like this a while?² I asked Jim as I brought the
shovel¹s blade down on his neck. The neckbone was a tough thing to chop
through all right. Those thigh bones weren¹t going to be much better...

Interview | David Moody

I had the huge pleasure of meeting David Moody in November at a signing in Leicester. He was extremely generous with his time both for the Un:Bound Video Editions Zombie Special, due for release in January, and with the other fans who attended. I am very pleased to be able to welcome David to Un:Bound for an interview.
____________________________________
HR: The Autumn series has had a pretty solid cult following since you first published it. Is it strange now seeing it re released through Gollancz and having to go back to those earlier books while working on the newer series?

DM: I think strange is a good word to use! It's no exaggeration to say that, over the years, I poured my heart and soul into the Autumn books, and every aspect of every one of the stories was intensely personal and important to me. The decision to sell the books to Thomas Dunne Books in the US was not an easy one to take. Although I knew it would mean the books would probably reach a much larger audience, I also knew there'd be a long period of time when the series would be unavailable. That turned out to be just over two years, and I'm glad that the wait is finally over. It's still really bizarre to think that the same book I initially gave away as a pdf all those years ago has become this 'monster' (for want of a better word): half a million downloads, a movie, re-publication by major publishing houses - the gamble of giving the book away has finally paid off! I was worried that I wouldn't enjoy the books as much when I finally went back to them, but I've actually had a great time reading (and re-reading, and re-re-reading) them again. Because I've been editing them for the US and UK at the same time, I've had to read each volume about 6 times, but rather than becoming a drag, it's actually fired me up! I'll be starting work on the final book in the series early next year, and a new website will be launched very shortly which will become home to more than 100,000 words of free zombie fiction over the coming months.

HR: You are also writing another series for Gollancz, which started with Haters and since then Dog Blood has been released. Can you tell me a bit about the new series and what it's like moving between that and the Autumn books?

DM: Although the Hater novels are frequently called zombie stories, they're not! There are some similarities, in that Hater deals with the sudden splitting of society into 'us' and 'them' as do all zombie tales. The basic premise is simple: something happens which turns people against each other - no-one knows what's causing it or why and, to be honest, they're all too busy dealing with the fall out to give a damn! We're used to living in a world which divides itself up according to as many different criteria as we can find - age, sex, race, beliefs, sexual orientation, eye colour... the list goes on. In Hater, the arrival of this new division immediately negates all other differences. To make matters worse, people on both sides of the divide have an insatiable, instinctive urge to kill the others... It sounds pretty formulaic, but it's not! The books follow an incredibly ordinary, unsuspecting character as his world falls apart around him, and it takes a lot of twists and turns that you probably wouldn't expect. It's pretty nasty, violent, uncomfortable reading, but I think the series says a lot about the kind of times we're living in right now. For zombie stories, the Autumn books are pretty light on gore (initially, that is) and with Hater, Dog Blood and Them or Us (the final book - due out in 2011), I've gone to the other extreme. But this definitely isn't torture porn - although unpleasant, the violence is an integral part of the ongoing story.

HR: What is it about society and present issues that you reflect in the Hater novels and was it something you set out to do or something that grew from the story?

DM: I think it's a bit of both - I always intended to make some comment on society with the books, but I didn't imagine the series would give me such a base to say so much! I mentioned that the premise of the story is a new divide which splits people from one another: it causes divisions within families, between parents and children, between lovers, teachers and pupils, employers and employees and so on. I struggled initially to settle upon what 'the change' would actually be. When suicide bombers struck London in July 2005, like the rest of the world I was completely horrified and appalled. But there was one thing that stuck in my mind and really disturbed me. One of the bombers was actually employed as a classroom assistant in a primary school, and the news programmes showed footage of him working with young kids in class. I found it incredible to believe that something could happen which would make anyone go from helping kids to grow one week, to carrying a rucksack full of explosives onto a tube train the next, with the sole aim of killing as many people as possible. That apparent 'switch' became a key part of the Hater story. The world's full of people who think they're right and everyone else is wrong (I think that, to an extent, everyone does it every day). The Hater books have enabled me to take these situations to the extreme and imagine an ultimate conclusion. I think the most frightening aspect of writing the books is that I come up with these horrific scenes of violence and complete disregard for human life, then I switch on the TV and usually see that worse stuff is already happening out in the real world.

HR: Wow, so some very serious issues that we are all facing. Is there still a focus with the characters on approaching this extreme situation with a strong sense of realism as with Autumn?

DM: I think that when you're writing this kind of horror, it's important to try and keep it realistic (or as realistic as you can make it when you're writing about dead bodies walking around and the like!). I think it makes the story (and the scares) far more intense if you root the characters and situations in reality. Personally I find it hard to relate to 'typical' heroes who are blessed with incredible skills, strength or intelligence, and I'm far more interested in looking at how the man or woman in the street would deal with the kind of huge events I write about. With the Hater books I tried to make the lead character Danny as initially unremarkable as I could. He's an underpaid, downtrodden guy, stuck in the rat race, going home each night to a small house and too many kids! Through the course of the series he goes through a massive transformation of his life on every level, and starting him at rock bottom has, I hope, made his story that bit more interesting.

HR: And on a lighter note. Come the Zompoc what will be your weapon of choice?

DM: My weapon of choice come the Zompoc? That's an easy one. I'd steer away from any kind of gun (too noisy and you need a constant supply of ammo - also, when it's one bullet per corpse, it's going to take forever to wipe out thousands of them...). I like the idea of a crossbow because it's quiet and deadly, but you've still got issues with keeping stocks of ammunition. For my money I'd always go for a sword. Silent, deadly, never needs reloading... I know you'd have to get close to the dead to dispose of them, but you're going to look damn cool doing it!

HR: What kind of stories can still scare you now?

DM: I don't believe in any religion or other superstition, so ghosts, demons, possessions, the occult etc. etc. all just leaves me cold. I get most scared by the kind of stories I write - usually about the end of the world happening in one way or another. We live in such precarious circumstances, and yet people take everything they have for granted and just assume that what's here today will still be here tomorrow. That's not always going to be the case and, as a husband and a dad, that scares the hell out of me! Seriously though, I don't think there's any fiction around which can match up to the horror of our reality today. The world is becoming increasingly fucked up on numerous levels, and everything is under the control of a close-knit web of self-serving officials who generally couldn't give a damn about anything or anyone but themselves. We have zombie-like kids who live their lives through Facebook or their games consoles, priests who molest children without regret or punishment, a world where people become celebrities just because they're on TV, a world where people think the contestants on X-Factor are talented musicians, moronic idiots getting paid £100,000 a week to play football, bankers who screw up the economy and countless lives and then get paid massive bonuses for doing it... seriously, I'd struggle to come up with anything as frightening as what's going on out there right now!

HR: And finally, just for fun, if you were zapped into a computer game which one would you want it to be?

DM: This will take you back. If I was to be zapped into a computer game, I think I'd like to go into either Manic Miner or the sequel, Jet Set Willy. Remember those? Both games for the ZX Spectrum from my childhood, about 25 years old incredibly (now that's really scary!). If the incessant music didn't finish me off, I think I'd have a great time running and jumping around mine shafts and mansions, dodging monsters, mutant penguins and telephones! It's either that or a racing game like Forza, Dirt or Project Gotham. I'd like to just be able to drive and take out my frustrations on the track. Because, looking back at my last answer, I think I need it!

Thanks again to David for joining us here on Un:Bound and look out for more appearances in 2011.

Diana Wynne Jones | The House of Many Ways & Deep Secret

The House of Many Ways & Deep Secret
by Diana Wynne Jones

After I was introduced to the anime of Howl's Moving Castle I needed to read the book. Having read the book and loved it, I then needed to read more Diana Wynne Jones.

I started this exploration with 'The House of Many Ways' set in the same world as Howl and featuring him briefly.

A somewhat sheltered bookworm is sent to take care of her great great uncle's house while he is being treated for a medical problem. The situation is a little unusual because the Uncle is a wizard and the treatment is being carried out by elves. While he is away Charmain finds herself a little over whelmed by the tasks that face her and then to top it off a young apprentice Wizard turns up expecting her uncle to be around to train him. Charmain manages to get taken on to help the king catalogue his library and finds that all is not well in the kingdom. The two youngsters find themselves being drawn into a situation neither of them is ready for but the kingdom, not to mention Sophie and Howl are going to need their help to put things right.

Howl is exceptional and The House of Many Ways doesn't quite live up to that standard, but it's still an excellent story of magic and mystery. The characters are a delight to read and there is plenty of chaos and magical mayhem to entertain the reader.

Deep Secret
by Diane Wynne Jones

This is a little different from the Howl books. Set here on earth primarily but visiting several of the infinite alternate universes, the book focusses around a slightly officious Magid, his search for a new magid and the authorised collapse of a world. It has computer geekery, betrayal, mystery, nursery rhymes, blasters, centaurs and a car bound ghost. Huge fun and plenty of twists and turns to entertain.

Rupert is a little too pleased with himself and not really as good a magid as he'd like to think, Maree is brash and irritating, hostile to the world and Nick is utterly selfish. The three of them are tied up in the fate of a world that none of the really knows.

Once again Diana Wynne Jones doesn't start out with especially likeable leads, setting up instead realistic and entertaining flawed characters in a way that makes slightly outrageous coincidences and claims entirely acceptable. I was once again charmed, enchanted and entertained.


The author somehow manages to make you feel as though you are listening to friends talking and telling stories rather than reading and this as much as anything sets her as writer to be enjoyed at any age. Regardless of which are your favourite worlds and characters Diana Wynne Jones' books are a joy to curl up with. I tore through them just for the pleasure of it.

Dark Matters | Bruce Boston

Dark Matters
by Bruce Boston
Art by Daniele Serra
Published by Bad Moon Books

Poetry is something of a personal experience and I was surprised and pleased to find this volume among the review copies.  Dark Matters is an unusual collection featuring demons, robots, ghosts and curses and is a great selection for genre fans.

'The Final Word in the Shadow City' made me shiver a little with the remembered horrors of Farenheit 451, while 'Arrive on Time' had a fabulous rhythm, moved between the day to day ordinary and the strange and ended on a thoughtful note. 'Robovamp' is an odd little sci fi moment that asks a poignant question.

It's an excellent book to dip in and out of when you need a dark little moment to yourself. Well titled, they are indeed dark matters here and Serra's typically beautiful and unsettling imagery adds perfectly to the overall feel.

Spectral Press | Press Release

Spectral Press is a brand new imprint, inspired in part by a love of good, well-told stories, also by the idea that books are very much worthy objects in themselves, indeed items very much to be cherished. Spectral is also inspired by the classic ghost/horror stories written by some of the great late 19th/early 20th century practitioners of the art, people like Algernon Blackwood, Arthur Machen, MR James, HP Lovecraft, and Edgar Allan Poe. Consequently, Spectral Press will be devoted to presenting single-story chapbooks, in the ghostly/supernatural vein, in a high-quality but very classic format. Each will be in strictly limited quantities of 100 only, signed and numbered by the author. There will be some familiar names, others not so familiar: but they all have great storytelling in common and are very much in the vanguard of the modern genre scene - people such as Gary McMahon, Gary Fry, Cate Gardner, Paul Finch, Simon Kurt Unsworth, Alison Littlewood, Thana Niveau and a host of others.

So, why launch yet another small-press imprint? Well, we here at Spectral Press believe there’s always room for another quality premium press out there, one that presents brilliant short ghostly/supernatural story writing in the classic vein in a stylish package. Buying a Spectral Press chapbook won’t break the bank either, whilst simultaneously being uncompromising on that all-important watchword of QUALITY. Atmospheric covers and clear printing, allied to some of the best genre writing around today, combine to make Spectral a very special and must-have library of the macabre and spooky indeed.

Each of these little gems will retail at a mere £3 each (plus 50p p+p) and can be bought either singly or, alternatively, through a yearly subscription of just £10 (three issues–inclusive of postage). The very first chapbook, Gary McMahon’s What They Hear in the Dark, is already well on its way and will be ready in January, with Gary Fry’s The Abolisher of Roses to follow in May.

For further details about Spectral Press, like what’s due in 2011 and 2012, or to order chapbooks or a subscription, visit spectralpress.wordpress.com or contact the Grand Poobah himself, Simon Marshall-Jones, at spectralpress@gmail.com.

"Spectral Press is a fresh, exciting new venture with a focus on quality and attention to detail. Great writers, top-notch design, a serious approach to delivering a beautiful final product: it all adds up to something worth supporting. I'm proud to have my story "What They Hear in the Dark" kick things off as the imprint's initial release, and hope this is the start of big things for Spectral." Gary McMahon
‎"An exciting new venture that I'm proud to be a part of." Simon Kurt Unsworth.
“It's not every day that a new small press imprint has the potential to excite - but with the range of names attached to Spectral Press, good times are ahead.” – Johnny Mains
‎"Some great names, some top quality fiction, this could be the line to get into!" Mark West
""It's always nice to see a new imprint concerned with both style and substance. One to watch." Willie Meikle
And, to kick things off, the first volume in the Spectral library is....
WHAT THEY HEAR IN THE DARK – Gary McMahon
“An absence is more terrifying than a presence…
Rob and Becky bought the old place after the death of their son, to repair and renovate – to patch things up and make the building habitable.
They both knew that they were trying to fix more than the house, but the cracks in their marriage could not be papered over.
Then they found the Quiet Room.”
“Gary McMahon’s horror is heartfelt...” –Tim Lebbon
Available for £3 (+ 50p p&p) direct from the publisher – for details: spectralpress@gmail.com.

A little Cat... Connor.

I's only a tiny pic, but it pleased me so much I kind of had to share. Un:Bound regular stalkee Cat Connor giving in to her fate.She belongs to us now!!

And yes, our logo does look gorgeous on a t shirt, thank you. ;p

The Blue Girl | Charles De Lint

The Blue Girl
by Charles De Lint
This was one of those accidental discoveries. People had mentioned De Lint to me in the past but failed to interest me and then, searching someone else's shelves for something to read I was drawn to this.

When Imogene starts a new school she determines to avoid the sort of trouble that dogged her past, befriends Maxine and although still definitely odd, she starts to turn her life around. Of course it's never that simple and Imogene shines. Having befriended the schools resident ghost and investigating dreams her childhood imaginary friend is warning her to ignore, it seems trouble is determined to find her in her new life.

The protagonists are about seventeen so this would work well as young adult or adult urban fantasy. Imogene and Maxine are both wonderfully strong characters, very different but the appeal of the friendship is obvious. The book is as much about the way the girls interact and change each others lives, as it is fairies and monsters in the dark and De Lint does it superbly. The Blue Girl stands out amongst urban fantasy novels featuring school age leads in the balance of real life and the problems of school and being a teen, against the fantasy elements.

There is warmth and humour in the writing alongside great story telling and endearing characters that makes this a great read and not just for UF fans.

Press Release | Sharon Ring and Gary McMahon

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Gary McMahon and Sharon Ring sign author/agent contract.

UK, December 10th 2010 – Picture the scene. Gary McMahon arrives at the crossroads in
Manchester to meet with Sharon Ring, who might just make him the best guitar player in
the world is acting as Gary’s agent in regard to two titles, The Quiet Room and Rain Dogs.

Gary is widely acknowledged as a powerful, new talent in British horror fiction. He received
a British Fantasy Society nomination in 2009 for his first novel, Rain Dogs, and his short
fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies, including The Mammoth Book of Best New
Horror Vols. 19 & 20 (ed. by Stephen Jones). Tim Lebbon calls him a “bloody good writer
indeed... heartfelt, talented, soulful... serious and mature.” Conrad Williams describes Gary
as “a skilful writer... an able cartographer of these badlands.” With three novels already
under his belt, plus two more mass market titles confirmed for release in 2011, Gary is set
to reach a wider genre-loving audience.

On the subject of his new author/agent contract with Sharon, Gary was heard to say, “I’m
hoping to learn some mighty guitar riffs and take the rock world by storm but, if she can get
me a handsome deal on these two titles, then I guess that’ll do just as nicely. The only thing
I’m worried about is that thing about signing the contract in blood whilst walking naked in a
circle near a gibbet at a crossroads.”

Sharon’s reply to this was, “I really don’t know what all this guitar business is about; I just
want to get the best deal possible for this author and his outstanding horror fiction. Guitars
have got nothing to do with it.”

A full list of Gary’s published work can be found at http://www.garymcmahon.com/2008/04/
publications.html.

All enquiries regarding this deal should be directed to Sharon Ring: sharonlring@gmail.com.