Author Archive
I have been a fan of Mark Gatiss’ work for many years. In an age of bland sitcoms Gatiss, as part of The League of Gentlemen, brought us innovative and darkly surreal comedy. In recent years he has written and starred in Doctor Who, bringing his trademark wit to a programme he has held close to his heart since childhood. He has also enjoyed success with his gentleman adventurer, Lucifer Box, in a trilogy of novels that have leapt from Edwardian Sherlockiana to the ’20s of Bulldog Drummond and, most recently, 50s Fleming.
Now Gatiss has dipped his toe into the world of MR James with a trilogy of ghost stories to be shown from Monday 22nd Dec on BBC Four. Reflecting the portmanteau feel of Crooked House, this interview will run over three consecutive days and encompass Gatiss’ love of MR James, Amicus movies, the renaissance of horror and sci-fi on TV, his new modern day take on Sherlock Holmes written in partnership with Steven Moffat and… oh, yes, his thoughts on the new Doctor Who…
Bill Hussey: Mr Gatiss, can I just say it’s a real honour to speak to you today.
Mark Gatiss: That’s what you think. Wait ’til I leave you screaming on the floor with frustration! No, nice to speak to you as well.
BH: I’ve been a really big fan for many years.
MG: Thank you. Since the radio series you said.
BH: Absolutely. I’ve made pilgrimages to Hadfield [the filming location for The League of Gentlemen's Royston Vasey] and everything. I’m hoping I’m not coming across as a stalker!
MG: Too late for that! No, it’s very kind of you, thank you.
BH: I’d like to start by asking if you could give us an introduction to the story of Crooked House.
MG: Well, Lee Ingleby plays a teacher who has found an ancient door knocker in his garden. He takes it to a local museum to be identified by me. That’s where we pick up the story. I tell him that it comes from a house near here that had an interesting reputation. I then tell him three stories about the strange things that went on there. The first story is Georgian, the second set in the Twenties. The third concerns Lee’s character today.
BH: It strikes me that it’s a cross between the old BBC MR James Ghost Story for Christmas and the Amicus portmanteau horror movies of the ’70s…
MG: You’ve put your finger precisely upon it! It’s a fantastic accident because originally I was going to do one story last year, which is actually now the third story called The Knocker, and it didn’t happen. We ran out of time. So I got the project going again early this year. BBC Four said they would like more of an event because they were worried that one story might get a bit lost in the Christmas schedule. So I said: WELL HERE’S THREE! I thought we could show them on separate nights concurrently and then we’d put them together into a ninety minute film as well. Which is actually what happened. A fantastically rare thing, for it to happen exactly the way you wanted it. It is a portmanteau by the virtue of being put together, but it also exists separately as individual ghost stories. So it’s on the 22nd, 23rd, 24th December as separate half hours then on Saturday 27th as the ninety minute version.
BH: It seems to me you have a great affection for these portmanteau movies…
MG: Oh God, they are my favourites. The funny thing is, they are not by any means the greatest horror films in the world. There’s usually one or two good stories and then a lot of bad ones. But the actual form, I love it. If all other horror films fell into a black hole and the only thing I could watch on a Friday night was a portmanteau, I’d be very happy. I love the mischief of them. The idea that, once upon a time at Pinewood, Nigel Patrick and Ralph Richardson and Joan Collins and Nigel Green were all standing in the same set. It’s just a lovely Friday night kind of thrill. So I was delighted to have my go at it.
BH: My favourite was Asylum, I think.
MG: Mine was From Beyond the Grave.
BH: You can just imagine these writers racking their brains to come up with a new framing device.
MG: I know. I used to think it would be fun to do one set in a swimming pool with an attendant. Someone would come in, they’d bomb in the pool, and the attendant would exact a terrible revenge. And then someone would be snogging – he exacts another terrible revenge! Everything you’re not allowed to do in a swimming pool ends in death. Because, of course, in the EC tradition a terrible punishment was exacted for stealing twenty quid or something like that! But yeah, I love Asylum as well.
BH: It’s something you’ve affectionately parodied before in The League of Gentlemen Christmas Special…
MG: We’ve always loved them, and the notion of tying stories together like that is so exciting.
BH: The other element to Crooked House is the MR James theme. What is your favourite of the old Lawrence Gordon Clark adaptations?
MG: Probably Lost Hearts. I think because it’s the one that scared me the most as a kid. The hurdy gurdy sound and the fingernails on the children. But particularly that bit when he lifts his hands up and there’s the hole in his chest. Absolutely terrifying! I think the standouts are still The Stalls of Barchester, A Warning to the Curious and The Signalman. And I absolutely love The Treasure of Abbot Thomas. That moment when Michael Bryant has found the treasure and he won’t come out of his room. A friend comes round to see him and the charlady is scrubbing something off the stairs which has just appeared in the night. A trail of something. [Bryant] is obviously losing his wits and he just says, rationally, ‘It is a thing of slime, I think. Darkness and slime…’
BH: Wonderful bit of dialogue. There’s also that bizarre scene near the end with the gloopy stuff coming out of the catacomb…
MG: Yes, and then there’s also the fantastic scene where he thinks he’s got away with it by putting the treasure back. The doctor is heading up the drive, and he can’t quite see him in the sunlight. Then it pauses to that amazing crane shot… Very spooky.
BH: I think my favourite is A Warning to the Curious because you get that sudden burst of violence which you don’t really expect in an MR James story.
MG: Yes, and it’s so sweaty. That bit when he finds the crown and just flees! And again the brilliant bit when he sees the peasant in front of him and immediately when he turns around that thing is following him… Brilliantly made! Crooked House, though, is not really an homage [to the MR James adaptations] because I wanted to do original stories. But it is in the spirit of those stories and what they represented to me, and the fact that Christmas and ghosts go together so perfectly.
BH: I want to come back to that, but I wanted to ask you about how you went about writing Crooked House. I know you’re a fan of Robert Aickman. Aickman thought the ghost story wasn’t a conscious construction and that his ideas came to him as if dictated. Was that anything like your experience of coming up with ideas for Crooked House?
MG: Well, as soon as I realised I was going to be allowed to do three, I felt what I needed to do was tell three different types of ghost story. I already had the idea about the knocker being found and I thought that’s very Jamesian. It’s the antiquarian angle, discovering something buried. With the first story, called The Wainscoting, the Georgian story, I went straight to what frightens me. When I was a kid what really petrified me was The Haunting. I wanted to do a story about something in the walls. In fact, there’s a line in my first Doctor Who which wasn’t actually shot the way it was supposed to be, but that’s another story! I had originally imagined this trailer moment where the Doctor puts his ear to the wall and he can hear the Gelth whispering around in the pipes and the Doctor says ‘There’s something in the walls!’ I love that idea, and this is what The Wainscoting is about. It is a kind of aural ghost, it’s just sounds. I find that really frightening because you can build it up so well.
BH: Absolutely. And The Haunting works really well on that level because Robert Wise [the director] used so few special effects.
MG: Yes, but he did have the bending effect with the door. He did show something, it wasn’t all suggestive. But the thing is, by the time you get there you’ve got such an amazing build up of atmosphere and real terror you’re ready for it, and it only needs that effect… With the second Crooked House story, which is called Something Old, I wanted to go for a proper spook, and ghostly brides did it for me! I loved the idea of going for a proper physical presence. The third story, the modern one, is really a time travel story. So I’ve got three distinct types of story there.
BH: And the best of those Amicus movies certainly had distinctive stories, didn’t they?
MG: Yes, absolutely.
BH: You have a great cast for this as well…
TOMORROW: PART TWO: Mark discusses the cast of Crooked House, his own take on things that go bump in the night, the tradition of the Ghost Story for Christmas, Nigel Kneale, Quatermass and we hear his thoughts on the renaissance of sci-fi and horror on TV, beginning with a certain Gallifreyan exile…
(Picture credit: TIGER ASPECT/ED MILLER)
December 18th, 2008
I’ve just been informed that ‘Through A Glass, Darkly’ has made it to no. 2 of Speculative Fiction Junkie’s Top 5 Reads of 2008! It’s a real honour to be in a list that includes ‘The Shadow of the Wind’ by Carlos Ruiz Zafon and Jack O’Connell’s ‘The Resurrectionist’ – an author who shares my passion for comic books. You can find the Junkie’s original review of TAGD here.
December 17th, 2008
While we’re waiting for the BIG HORROR REANIMATED EXCLUSIVE (coming as soon as the piece has been okayed by our star interviewee!) I thought I’d be a pal and give you guys a rundown of the televisual and radio treats on offer over the Christmas holidays (applies only to the UK I’m afraid… sorry visitors from overseas!). Of course, being Horror Reanimated, you might notice a rather ghoulish slant…
1. Jonathan Creek (New Year’s Day BBC1) After four years off our screens the illusionist/detective returns with a hot new sidekick in the form of Sheridan Smith (Paul McGann’s companion in the latest Big Finish Doctor Who audio adventures). The pair investigate a supposedly haunted house in which numerous people have disappeared…
2. Affinity (26th December ITV) The ever-reliable Andrew Davies adapts Sarah Walters’ novel that centres on Victorian spiritualism and repressed sexuality. Davies has cited MR James as an influence.
3. Duel (20th December ITV) One of my favourite Speilberg movies. Incredible to believe that this taut thriller was crafted by a 25-year-old. Just magic. And did you know the tanker’s death cry was used again for the climatic scene in Jaws?
4. Crooked House (22nd, 23rd, 24th Dec BBC 4) Similar Jamesian influences are at work in Mark Gatiss’ seasonal portmateau spookfest. When teacher Lee Ingleby finds an antique knocker in his garden a series of macabre tales begin to unfold…
5. The Devil’s Christmas (21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th Dec BBC Radio 2) Christopher Eccleston reads four ghost stories for Christmas. He begins in traditional territory with Dickens’ ‘The Signalman’ before finishing up joyously left-of-field with Saki’s ‘The She-Wolf’
6. Black Christmas (24th Dec Channel 4) A nice bit of vintage slash ‘em up with a festive slant. The delectable Olivia Hussey (no relation) encounters a shaky POV killer stalking a sorority house. What’s not to love?
7. Pan’s Labyrinth ( 22nd Dec Film4) Del Toro’s grim fairytale is an instant classic. Apparently Stephen King and Joe Hill were squirming in their seats! Can there be any higher recommendation?
8. A Christmas Carol (BBC Radio 4 over 10 nights). Well, it wouldn’t be Christmas without this, would it? Forget ludicrous adaptations with that slaphead from Stark Trek or Albert Finney croaking his way through showtunes. Get your proper Dickens fix with this unabridged version read by David Jason.
9. Young Frankenstein (New Year’s Eve BBC4). Puttin’ on the Ritz! Fronkensteeen! I Ain’t Got No Body! Abby Normal! Fancy a Mel Brooks classic? Then walk this way…
10. High School Musical (24th Dec BBC 1) Surely the scariest thing on the list!
Spotted any other scary Christmas treats on your telly box? Drop us a line…
December 10th, 2008
An extremely early mini-review of ‘The Absence’ has appeared online! With a little under five months to go until publication I was really surprised to find this review appearing on the Waterstones website. Steve Birt reviewed ‘Through A Glass, Darkly’ earlier this year (‘a great debut novel’) and was kind enough to give it 4 stars. He’s now boosted ‘The Absence’ with a 5 star review saying ‘Bill Hussey just gets better and is in my new all time favourite horror authors list.’
Check out the full review at the website.
November 26th, 2008
Joseph and I have agreed that we will rarely, if ever, write book reviews for Horror Reanimated. We’ll leave such back breaking labour to Mathew. From my point of view, the decision is because I would feel uncomfortable writing reviews of books whose authors I might meet up with at a convention or on a panel in the not too distant future. I’m just cowardly that way! That said, I have felt compelled to tap out a little piece about a book I have just finished. Put simply, it is possibly the best children’s ghost story I have ever read. Actually, let’s not be mealy-mouthed: it is one of the best children’s stories I have ever read full stop.
I’ve been reading quite a bit of YA (Young Adult) fiction over the past few months. I’ve gobbled down all of Darren Shan’s Demonata series (great fun and bloody scary in places – check out the family torture scene in Lord Loss. Reads like Saw for kids!); Anthony Horowitz’s Power of Five saga (Book One – Ravens Gate – reminded me a lot of that brilliant BBC Children’s TV series Century Falls crossed with Dennis Wheatley); Linda Buckley-Archer’s Gideon the Cutpurse and FE Higgins’ The Black Book of Secrets. All of these have shown the remarkable imagination and skill on display in modern children’s fiction. By far the best of the crop, however, has been Breathe: a ghost story by Cliff McNish.
Briefly, Breathe is about Jack, a young asthmatic boy grieving over the death of his father. Hoping to help her son come to terms with the loss, Jack’s mother moves them to an old house full of memories. Jack is what is known in the dark fiction trade as a touch-know: someone who can pick up on the vibrations of the past by touch. As Jack and his mother arrive at the house they are watched by the ghost children who have been trapped here for years. Soon Jack will encounter their captor – a tortured figure known only as the Ghost Mother.
This is creepy stuff. McNish has written one of the purest ghost stories I have ever read. In a sense, this is MR James for kids – spellbinding, ethereal, with a pitch-black tone. There really has been nothing like it for years. In those YA novels I mentioned earlier, the horror of demons and Lovecraftian gods is fantastical but, in a sense, tangible. What Jack encounters in Breathe is a menace made all the more frightening by the fact that it can’t really be seen or touched. Also impressive is the fact that, by turns, we find ourselves sympathising with, and then abhorring, the villain of the piece. One moment she is tugging at our heartstrings, the next we are terrified by her inhumanity. Such complex characterisation in a children’s book is a rare and wonderful thing.
I’m not going to say much more. I don’t want to spoil this for you. But, oh, the Ghost Mother’s kiss! And the horror of the Nightmare Passage! Breathe is not only a cracking story, with brilliantly inventive and realised fantasy concepts, but a book that has real heart. Buy it and enjoy.
November 24th, 2008
Sarah Pinborough is a horror and thriller writer with a string of successful novels.
Her titles include The Taken (‘Her writing is full of dread and passion’, Christopher Golden) and Breeding Ground (‘… beautifully wrought by an author with an unflinching eye and a steady hand. This is scary stuff’, Creature Feature). Seek Sarah out at her website…
BILL HUSSEY: So, Sarah, it seems to me that horror writers, perhaps more than any other genre practitioners, are heavily influenced by their early exposure to the form. What are your earliest memories of horror fiction?
SARAH PINBOROUGH: When I was at boarding school there were lots of tatty 70s Pan style horror anthologies on the shelves of the boarding house and I read a lot of those. My first real horror memory though, and I do think this really did unlock that part of my imagination, was of going to see Dracula as a school play when I was five…
SP (cont.): I was at an American School in Damascus and it was probably a pretty average High School play, but all I remember is seeing French windows blowing open, a red light glowing, and a shadowy man on the other side spreading his cloak wide. I don’t remember a single thing else from the play apart from that image, but I didn’t sleep with a window open from then until I was about 22. Honest. I was completely terrified. Admittedly, it still doesn’t take much to scare me..I watched the Doctor Who episode ‘Blink’ last year and had to sleep with the hall light on.
BH: Which new writers push your horror button?
SP: I have to give it up for the girls here, I think. Alexandra Sokoloff and Sarah Langan both rock. Also, although he’s not really a “new” writer per se, Mark Samuels’ collection really blew me away as did Paul Meloy’s ‘Islington Crocodiles.’ If I’m honest, as a reader I prefer horror in short story form rather than novels. Which is odd, because I find writing short stories really, really hard.
BH: How did you start writing, and did you begin with dark fiction?
SP: I started writing- like most people that grow up to be writers -at some ridiculously young age and spent my teens churning out 40 pages or so of various ‘other book’ rip-offs. I took creative writing as a module of my English degree but my late-teens and early-twenties were far too exciting to really do any writing (I think I wrote maybe for or five bad short stories in that time) and then when I hit about 28 I started having a go at short stories more seriously. I always veered towards dark fiction (whether horror, sci-fi or fantasy) because I’d grown up on a diet of King and Herbert who I devoured – much the same as any other horror fan of my age, and I was always scared of what might be behind the shower curtain or what might come in through the open window…and in my imagination they were rarely ordinary burglars or murderers!
BH: Give us an outline of your typical writing day.
SP: My writing day has changed since I’ve started my year out of teaching. I used to get up at half-five and do an hour before school, then try and do a thousand words in the evening. This wasn’t always successful!! Now, I get up about 8, grab a cup of tea, check my emails and potter till about 8.45. Then I’ll do 2 hours writing before going to the gym, walking the dog and then back for lunch and 2 more hours. I might do more in the evening or plan out where I’m going next with the story etc. I’m still finding my full-time feet really. But ideally, I am at 2,000 words a day. Sometimes its more, and sometimes life gets in the way and its less. But if I do less I try and make it up the next day.
BH: How important do you think discipline is for a successful writer?
SP: If you mean successful as in making a career out of writing then discipline, along with a thick skin, is about the most important thing. I’d put it above talent in many ways. If you sit around waiting for a muse to tap on your shoulder, then you can sit around for an awfully long time, especially as writing is hard work and there are always more interesting things to do, like drink tea, make toast, watch rubbish TV. There are days when the words just flow, and there are others when it’s like drawing teeth and I seem to be constantly checking my word count to see if I’m nearly at 2,000 words. There are a lot of people that ‘talk’ about being writers. Writers write. End of. And that takes discipline. But its like most jobs, once you sit down and get started it’s never so bad.
BH: Joseph and I have recently blogged about ‘The Idea’. I know from my own experience how irritating it is to be asked this question, but I’m going to pose it anyway: where do you get your ideas?
SP: God knows. Can anybody answer this one? The only thing I would say about it, is that the more you write, the more you train your mind to keep an eye and ear open for ‘interesting’ things, either on the news, or something you overhear etc. I constantly jot things down that I may never use, but they always come in handy for pushing the ‘what if..’ button in my head when someone emails and asks for a short story or something.
BH: Do you plan your novels out before you start writing or do you begin with the germ of an idea and see where it takes you?
SP: Unfortunately, I’m at the stage in my career where you have to plan them out to some degree, because the publisher wants to know what they’re paying you for. I’ve always been a bit of a planner in that I know where I’m starting and where I’m ending and the rest is normally a lot of squiggled notes with question marks next to them that get added to or crossed off as I go. Now that I have to submit outlines, I try and stay close to them. Feeding Ground is so far on plan, although when I wrote Tower Hill, my editor emailed me to say they were doing the cover art, and were there any changes he should know about. I said, no, very casually, then went back to the outline that I hadn’t looked at in months to discover that a) the book was no longer set in the UK but in America b) half the characters had changed completely and c) there were no aliens…..
My editor was slightly apoplectic but luckily was very happy with the final book…phew…I now keep the outline close by when I’m writing!
BH: I would say that one of your strengths as a writer is your ability to write a well-rounded, multi-layered character. It certainly adds to the horror when something nasty happens to a character that we have come to care about. How do you go about building up a character?
SP: Honestly? I don’t really think about it. I have a vague idea of what they’re like when I start out, probably more so now that I write to a one or two page plan so I can see where they’re ending up, but I just see where it goes..One of the characters in Feeding Ground just became gay. I mean, he didn’t just leap out of the closet or anything, but I suddenly realised that it made perfect sense for him and the way he felt about another character. I just let them be themselves and see where that goes. I know some people spend ages sketching out their characters and creating character files etc or collages, but frankly I’m too lazy for that. I just ‘see’ them in my head, chuck them into a situation and see what happens.
BH: Ghost stories are often a metaphor for the sins of the past coming back to haunt the present. This is certainly the case in your excellent novel ‘The Taken’. I’ve also noticed the themes of collective guilt and folklore running through your work. Is this correct, and what other themes do you notice cropping up in your writing?
SP: I think there are also a lot of ‘loss of innocence’ or the power of your childhood themes in some of my books. I hadn’t even realised it until a reader mentioned it in a forum. The Reckoning is about how the events of our childhood shape our future – even if our understanding of them is skewed. The Hidden has a damaged child grown into a damaged adult, The Taken has a ghostly child, and even in Breeding Ground a little girl dies quite nastily. I think though, that using children in horror is pretty commonplace – we’re most afraid of the supernatural when we’re children so it makes it easy to tap into that if you can take the reader back through the eyes of a young character. Guilt and folklore too, yes. I think that in the main (and I exclude Breeding Ground and Feeding Ground from this because I intended both those to be just a good fun, slightly squeamish creature feature romp) I like to have some mystery at the heart of the story. I don’t think horror is enough in itself.
BH: Your books have a variety of settings. You seem equally comfortable in the rural England of ‘The Taken’ as in the New England small town of ‘Tower Hill’? How do you go about researching books set in foreign locales?
SP: My editor did freak when he realised I’d set Tower Hill in America and it took a lot of convincing to let me run with it. I had to promise him that I’d let Chris Golden scan it for any dodgy non-americanisms. And I can understand his concern, but I think that in the UK we’re so over-dosed with American TV and movies, on top of the books that I read that are predominantly set in America that it makes it easy for us to slip into their writing style. Probably much easier than for an American writer trying to set a story in the UK with British characters. Also, there is the beauty of the internet for researching store names and food brands etc. I think I did okay..But my next few books are all planned to be set in the UK. Unless I feel inspired during my 6 weeks in North Carolina in the New Year.
BH: What demands are made on English writers writing for a US market? Keeping your American reader in mind, have you ever needed to adapt/change something so that it is more US-friendly?
SP: When I first started writing I didn’t think about it at all, but now, if I’m writing for Leisure I might think about the odd phrase and whether Americans are going to get it. They change ‘gots’ to ‘gottens’ which I’m never sure about because I think it then jars slightly if the rest of the book is very English. I used the phrase ‘This is a turn up for the books’ once..that totally flummoxed them. I don’t think about it too much, though. Feeding Ground takes places mainly in a Newham estate in London with a lot of very East End gansta types. There’s only so much you can change their speech patterns without making it sound stupid. Although I am rather concerned that while writing the book I’ve watched all five series of The Wire, so they may sound a little more Baltimore than Newham in places! You feel me?
BH: We’ve spoken before about the misconception many people have about published novelists. They think that when you get a publishing deal you can chuck in your job and devote yourself to writing. The reality is most published writers need to work and write. I know that you’ve recently gone ‘full time’. Was that a difficult decision to make? What sacrifices and what freedoms does such a step entail?
SP: I don’t even think of it as full-time… more a sabbatical. I saved up, marked a lot of exams papers, signed up for some writing for hire, and more importantly made sure I had ‘a plan.’ A lot of writers don’t have career plans, but I figure if you don’t have a good idea of where you want to get to, it’s too easy to get distracted. Luckily, it seems my plan is working out..for now. It’s great that I now have time to see my friends and have more of a social life etc, but it is very strange with writing now my actual job. I miss the salary coming in, but since going full time (Aug) I’ve written a Torchwood novel and I’m over half-way through Feeding Ground. I’d never have got so much done with teaching as well. It’s great having nothing else to think about but story etc, but it’s also strange stepping outside of the normal world. I’m enjoying it, but I’m sure that I’ll have to go back to doing occassional supply at some point!
BH: You’re a female writer working in a genre that many ‘outsiders’ would imagine to be pretty male dominated. My own opinion is that this is something of a misrepresentation of horror – we’ve got brilliant female horror writers like Shirley Jackson and, more recently, Sarah Langan. What have been your experiences when you tell people you write horror?
SP: It’s quite strange, I very rarely tell people I write at all. If people ask me what I do, I tell them I’m a teacher. I don’t know why, but talking about writing with people outside the community brings me out in hives. I suppose its because it’s a bit like talking about your feelings to people that matter to you, and I just don’t do that either! I blame something in my childhood..;-). However, if it does come up in conversation with relative strangers then they normally look shocked and ask why I’m not writing chick lit. I smile sweetly and then lace their drink with crushed glass..they don’t ask again..
Seriously, I think it says more about how horror is perceived than women. Horror’s booming in the cinema, but less so in books.
BH: Horror has had a bit of a rough ride over the past few years. Many are now saying that we are on the cusp of a renaissance in the form, especially with new UK imprints coming out all the time. What are your thoughts?
SP: I think things are looking positive, but it’s still early days. I’m sure horror will have it’s day again, and I think with the global recession horror is more likely to fill up a little more space on the book shelves, but I think we’re a long way from the glory days of the eighties and nineties. But we’ll see! Things are looking up a bit, and lets hope they keep going in that direction.
BH: Writers these days have to do so much more than simply get a publishing deal. I know you are heavily involved in promoting your books at fantasy conventions etc. Do you enjoy the actual business side of writing?
SP: Actually, I’m completely rubbish at promoting my books. I tend to go to conventions and not talk about writing at all, but focus instead on meeting people who may then, when everyone’s home and settled, lead into some possible work. I hate the business side of writing, but then I think that’s a British thing. We pour scorn on people that say ‘I’ve worked really hard on this and I think it’s brill. You should too!’ I think all Brits should go to an American convention to see how celebratory they are of their work and how they’re not ashamed to self-promote. It’s a tough business, publishing, and if you don’t push yourself then no one else will. But I prefer the softly, softly approach of just making contacts and friends and then seeing where they will lead rather than sticking an A-board on and saying ‘Read my Book!’. However, that’s not to say the second way is wrong. It’s just not in my make-up.
BH: Tell us something about your future projects.
SP: I’ve got a novella coming out from PS Publishing in July called ‘The Language of Dying’ which isn’t a horror story – more magical realism, and is the closest to ‘literature’ that I’ve ever written. ‘Feeding Ground’ is out in October, and my agent is just finalising a three book supernatural thriller trilogy deal with on of the UK’s leading publishing houses – which is a massive step up for me and I’m very excited about it. I’ve also just given my agent a children’s fantasy novel, so I’m hoping that she sells that too. I’d like to write one adult novel and one children’s novel a year, ideally. But that could still be a long way off…
BH: There are a lot of writers out there trying to get a publishing deal. What single piece of advice would you give them?
SP: Learn to take criticism and develop a thick skin. This business is all about constantly being told you’re not good enough. Number one: you have to believe you are, or will be, good enough. Number two: a rejection (or in fact a bad review)is professional – nothing worse than a writer who takes it personally. Number three: if enough rejections make the same criticisms of your work then take them on board. Don’t be too proud to change your manuscript. It might make it better.
Oh – and if you’re writing for the money, then get out now. You have to be writing because the idea of not writing doesn’t compute.
BH: Okay, stock Horror Reanimated question time: it is within your power to award the Sword of Ultimate Darkness to one piece of outstanding horror fiction, be it film, TV, a book or short story.
SP: The Mist by Stephen King. Not the film with crass ending but the original novella.
BH: Now you must consign the worst example of horror you have ever come across to the accursed Plague Pits where it will fester for all eternity!
SP: Now this is where I get shot down in flames… The Wicker Man. Yes, the original… I’ve watched it four times now because people keep telling me its a classic. It just makes me giggle…
Sorry.
You can see why I’m moving into dark thrillers…
BH: Sacrilege! I can’t believe I’m about to put the official HR stamp on this application, but Sarah’s the boss. Into the Plague Pits goes… The Wicker Man! (not even the Neil LaBute remake, but the original! G’ah!). I’d like to thank the lovely (and very twisted) Miss Pinborough for taking the time to visit us at HR HQ and we wish her well with her exciting future projects. Don’t forget to keep checking back – other interviews are in the works…
November 20th, 2008
NEWS FLASH: Scanning through my Sky+ programme listings (we have all the mod cons here at the 
ol’ Hussey homestead) I noticed that Joe Ahearne’s new supernatural drama Apparitions starts tonight on BBC One at 9pm. This six-part series from the writer/director of, among many other televisual treats, Ultraviolet and Doctor Who,follows Father Jacob, played by the gruff and barky Martin Shaw (pictured right), an exorcist in the Roman Catholic church. The opener finds Jacob being approached by a young girl who believes her father is possessed by the devil. Ignoring the misgivings of his colleagues, Jacob is forced to stage an elaborate exorcism to keep the girl safe…
Sounds like intriguing, exciting stuff! And, although I’ve yet to be convinced by Shaw in any role except for that of Cecil Rhodes, a part he played brilliantly in the late ’90s, I’m looking forward to this series. Joe Ahearne has an excellent genre pedigree. Apart from anything else, how great is it to see a new supernatural series on the Beeb? I thought they’d given up after messing about shamessly with the excellent Sea of Souls. One thing strikes me, however, and tempers my enthusiasm: why haven’t I seen any trailers? Why have the Beeb not given Apparitions its own web presence? Maybe I’ve missed all the hype – I have had my head down editing – but I’m hoping that the apparent lack of advertising etc simply means that it has all just passed me by. I think I’m right in saying that the Beeb were so impressed with the show that the original plan for a two-parter was expanded to six, so that at least bodes well.
Anway, good old Sky+ is series linked in anticipation of something special…
November 13th, 2008
A fascinating and entertaining article has appeared on the Guardian website. Penned by comedy actor and writer Simon Pegg - of Shaun of the Dead fame - it is, in part, a review of last week’s E4 zom-com Dead Set.
As evidenced by his and Jessica Stevenson’s superlative sitcom Spaced, Pegg is a geek of many colours; a lover of comic books and Playstation games, horror and sci-fi movies (just don’t mention those Star Wars prequels! Even though long-time collaborator Peter Serafinowicz provided the voice for Darth Maul, Pegg is not exactly a fan of ‘Vader: the early years’). Pegg’s passion for zombie films is obvious from his work on the lovingly-crafted homage that is Shaun. I’ll never forget laughing like a nitrous oxide doped hyena during the scene in which Nick Frost’s Ed shouts down the phone ‘We’re coming to get you, Barbara!’ – a wicked little Romero in-joke. Pegg has also written a cover quote for Max Brooks’ excellent zombie holocaust novel World War Z . I was interested, then, to read his take on Dead Set.
I won’t reprint Pegg’s views here but let’s just say he liked Charlie Brooker’s series. Liked it to the point of loving it. What stuck in Pegg’s craw was the fact that, as with many recent takes on the zombie mythos, these shambling cadavers did not… well… shamble. They ran. Not just ran, but belted about like Paula Radcliffe in search of the nearest kerb-side drain. My own view of Dead Set is that it was good – very good – but somehow lacking. I couldn’t quite place my finger on exactly what was wrong with it – Brooker is a brilliant and witty writer – until I read Pegg’s article. The problem was with the running. For a zombie movie, a running corpse destroys so much of what is special about the entire concept . Put simply, shambling = pathos and heart. Read Pegg’s article for a more eloquent explanation of what I mean.
Dead Set didn’t quite work because a primary rule had been broken. That got me thinking. Are there any other monster rules that should never be overthrown? In the article, Pegg states that werewolves shouldn’t fly. I think we can all agree on that, but should our hairy, toothsome friends always be vulnerable to silver bullets? Should they be slaves to the cycles of the moon or be free to transform at will? Can we have werewolves that don’t transform at all, but become hairy only on the inside? Are these facets of the myth so central that to write a story or produce a film without them somehow detracts from the entire exercise? (As a side note, I for one am really looking forward to Benicio Del Toro’s forthcoming Wolf Man, in which all the old rules will surely be obeyed).
The vampire has a been a prime candidate for rule revision. That’s possibly because there is such an abundance of mythos that has been attached to the creature over the years: the stake through the heart, the trouble with mirrors, the necessity to sleep upon a layer of its native soil, the ability to turn into a bat, a wolf, mist etc, aversion to sunlight, garlic, holy water, the crucifix and, like its hirsute cousin the werewolf, silver. In some legends we have the vampire unable to cross running water or to enter a house uninvited. Sometimes he’s obsessive-compulsive when it comes to counting pebbles or grains of rice. Occasionally he doesn’t even have fangs and seems to have forgotten his lust for blood. Lots of these bits and pieces have been discarded, adapted and even added to by writers. But again I ask, are there some elements of the vampire myth that should never be tampered with? I remember watching some Eddie Izzard stand-up a few years back in which the comic was appalled by the fact that, in Francis Ford Coppola’s take on Dracula, the Count was allowed to roam around in daylight. Actually Bram Stoker does allow Dracula to walk about during the day, but in the public consciousness, as well as in most pre-Stoker myths, the vampire is vulnerable to sunlight. Although I’m an atheist through-and-through, I’m also a little dismayed by this modern trend of having vampires sneering at the cross and idly tossing crucifixes into corners. It’s always struck me that a creature so encompassed by death should be a little afraid of the possibility of judgment and damnation. As I say, I’m an atheist, and that possibility still scares the be-jesus out of me!
So, over to you: any vampire/werewolf/zombie rules you think ought to be sacrosanct? What other monsters have inviolable rules? Most importantly, should zombies run?
November 12th, 2008
Well, after blogging about the importance of the cover, I’m happy to give HR a first proper glimpse at the cover design for my second horror novel, ‘The Absence’. I’m absolutely thrilled with the artwork, which conveys just the mood I have tried to capture in the book. As with the subtle design of ‘Through A Glass, Darkly’, I hope you will agree that the artwork is sombre and menacing without being a traditional in-your-face horror cover. Anyway, over to you – what do you think?
November 6th, 2008
Hi All
Just popping by to say I’ll be appearing at the Whitby Goth Weekend this Friday (31st Oct – Halloween in Dracula country!). I’ve been invited to come along and talk about Through A Glass, Darkly and horror writing in general by the good people at The Whitby Bookshop (88 Church Street, Whitby, North Yorkshire YO22 4BH tel. 01947 606202). I’ll be there from 7pm, chatting, signing books and doing a reading. Be there or be pumpkin-shaped!
October 29th, 2008
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