My Creative Year

This might be a bit self-indulgent but hey, it's my blog...

During 2013, I wrote 6 short stories, 60+ book reviews, half a dozen film reviews, designed several book covers and trailers (via Rude Dude) and created a dozen or more essays/articles for this blog.  I also finally managed to get my novel pitch sorted (with thanks to James A. Moore for the 'kick up the ass').

I had six short stories published:
* Jack In Irons in The Bestiarum Vocabulum: 2 (TRES LIBRORUM PROHIBITORUM), edited by Dean M. Drinkel (available from Amazon)
* The Bureau Of Lost Children in ill at ease 2, (available from Amazon)
* The Glamour Girl Murders in Anatomy of Death (available from Amazon)
* Mr Stix in For The Night Is Dark, edited by Ross Warren (available from Amazon)
* Falsche See, On the North German Plain in The Demonologia Biblica: 1 (TRES LIBRORUM PROHIBITORUM), edited by Dean M. Drinkel (available from Amazon)
 * The Witch House in Urban Occult, edited by Colin F. Barnes (available from Amazon)

Conjure was published in print and digital editions by Greyhart Press and is available from Amazon

Anatomy of Death, the PenthAnth anthology I edited for Hersham Horror Books, was well received and I was well served by my writers - Stephen Bacon, John Llewellyn Probert, Stephen Volk and Johnny Mains - who helped it to garner respectable sales and some great reviews.

ill at ease 2 finally appeared, the second 'co-operative' anthology from PenMan Press, adding new writers to the original trio - the newcomers were Shaun Hamilton, Rob Mammone, Val Walmsley and Sheri White.

PenMan Press also produced a 10th Anniversary Special Edition of my Strange Tales collection.

Fog On The Old Coast Road, which appeared in Ian Whates' Hauntings anthology in 2012, received an Honorable Mention from Ellen Datlow

What Gets Left Behind, my Spectral Press chapbook that was published last year, was nominated in the Preditors & Editors poll and came 2nd (to Stephen King & Joe Hill) in the This Is Horror Awards.

* * *

In his Ginger Nuts Of Horror Christmas Gift Guide, Jim Mcleod included Conjure in the readers "who love their horror with an emotional punch" section.  The site also awarded me with the "Best Legs In The Genre" prize.

In the second part of his "Best Of 2013" section (anthologies), Jim highlighted Anatomy of Death, making special mention of mine and Stephen Volk's entry

James Everington included The Bureau Of Lost Children, in his "Best Short Stories of 2013 (Somewhat Biased & Woefully Uncomprehensive) list"

Anthony Watson included both Anatomy of Death and ill at ease 2 in his 2013 review

Ross Warren included Anatomy of Death, Mr Stix and The Bureau Of Lost Children in his "Faves Of 2013" list

* * *

I attended two great Cons this year, the first was Andromeda One held at The Custard Factory in Birmingham (full report here) and the second was the mighty WFC, held in Brighton (full report here).

* * *

2013 has been a great year for me, creatively speaking, with fantastic projects and collaborators, not to mention the scores of wonderful people I met at the Cons, so 2014 has got its work cut out to top it.  But with two new novellas coming from Pendragon Press (Drive and The Lost Film), some new short stories, hopefully more on the novel pitch and projects I haven't even started working on yet, I have good feelings about it.

Year round-ups by others

It's that time of the year, when people start putting together blog posts proclaiming their favourite reads/films/songs of the year.  It's always nice to get a mention and, already, I'm in two.

First up with we have Jim Mcleod who runs The Ginger Nuts of Horror website, which is a great resource for genre fans and writers alike.  A long-standing supporter of my work, I'm always chuffed to see myself mentioned anywhere at all on the blog (Jim picked "The Mill" as 'one to read' last year) and this year I get two mentions.  One means a great deal to me indeed, the other I am equally thrilled with though I won it with what my mother gave me!

First up is "THE GINGER NUTS OF HORROR CHRISTMAS GIFT GUIDE" (which can be found at this link).

In the "FOR THOSE WHO LOVE THEIR HORROR WITH AN EMOTIONAL PUNCH" sub-section, he's chosen "Conjure" along with "Where You Live", by my friend Gary McMahon.  Really chuffed to see my book in there, really glad it worked for Jim and it's a thrill to be listed alongside Gary.  Great stuff!

Read the full list here

Secondly (and in a decidedly lighter mood), Jim presents "THE GINGER NUTS OF HORROR AWARDS 2013" (which can be found at this link)

Amongst various awards (including Willie Meikle winning for best beard, Gary for best ginger, the elegant John Llewellyn Probert picking up best use of a smoking jacket, in addition to sharing best couple with Thana Niveau, Simon Marshall-Jones (of Spectral Press) winning best bald head Best and Johnny Mains walking away with Genre Scotsman), I picked up "Best Legs in the genre".

Brilliant!

(this is the picture that clinched it - me, at Rushden transport museum in 2012, picture by Dude)




The next blog is James Everington's Scattershot Writing who, again, has been a great supporter of my work (and I got to spend a day hanging out with him this year at the Andromeda One convention (which I blogged about here)).

James is presenting his "Best Short Stories of 2013 (Somewhat Biased & Woefully Uncomprehensive)" list and includes my "The Bureau Of Lost Children", from "ill at ease 2".  I'm thrilled to be in such great company (including my "ill2" cohort Shaun Hamilton) and chuffed to be included.

Thanks Jim and James!

The story behind "Conjure"

“a couple, at the seaside and there’s a witch”

Newly pregnant, stuck in a job she doesn’t like and mourning the death of her cousin, Beth Hammond’s life isn’t working out the way she thought it would. So when her boyfriend wins a weekend away at the seaside resort of Heyton, Beth thinks this could be just what they need — to get away, relax, and make plans for the future.

But as they begin their weekend, a JCB driver accidentally damages a centuries-old memorial at the beach. He hopes no one will notice, but something has… a presence that was buried beneath the memorial, sealed in a stone tomb. Now that presence wants its revenge on the people of Heyton.

"A powerful and convincing piece of horror fiction.” 

- Gary McMahon, author of the Concrete Grove trilogy.

“Mark West is a talent to watch.”
- Peter Tennant, Black Static

“Mark West’s writing has a heart and soul that many writers would kill for.”
- Jim McLeod, Ginger Nuts of Horror

“Mark West’s stories have a well-crafted, slowly increasing tension and dread, sometimes with a hint of creepy paranoia.”
- Gene O’Neill, Bram Stoker Award winning author of The Burden of Indigo

"Conjure flaunts some genuinely spooky moments [and] the supernatural element works so well because the author merges it with fears we understand, such as abduction and infanticide."
- Matthew Fryer, The Hellforge

"Mark West has created a marvelously enjoyable short novel which captures some of that faded glory of the seaside resort.  It’s a strangely British tale and reminded me of something that may have been produced in the seventies by Hammer or part of Tales of the Unexpected but very much updated with modern quotas of brutality and gore."
- Colin Leslie, Highlander's Book Reviews

My short novel “Conjure” has just been re-published, in print and digital editions, by those good people at Greyhart Press and I thought it might be an idea to write this, an article about how the book came together.

Written under the working title “The Mystery Of The Witch’s Curse” (in honour of The Three Investigators), “Conjure” was started on December 20th 2003 with the fourth and final draft being completed on April 11th 2005. The first draft was 82,773 words long, the final published version was 54,318 words long.

It started with an email conversation I had with John B. Ford, whose Rainfall Books was just about to publish my debut collection “Strange Tales”.  In one missive, John wrote “If you have anything around 30,000 -- 40,000 (or if in future you write anything around that word count) I'll be eager to see it.”  To this day, I don’t know if he was serious or not but I took it as a sign and started to think about a story, having never written a novella before. No big deal, thought this fool.  I spent a couple of weeks trying to figure out what would have enough sweep to justify the length and what I could use as the driving force of the book, whilst two factors (a family event and the fact that the novel I’d just written was very gory) led me to aim for something quieter and more supernatural.

(original interior illustration)

For the location, since I’d used my main fictional town of Gaffney in the novel, I utilised another of my creations, the east coast resort of Heyton, that featured in my short story “Empty Souls, Drowning” (which appeared in the collection).  I love the British seaside and Heyton is essentially Great Yarmouth, a place I knew well - plus it had a funfair and a cinema called The Empire that I could use as key locations.

Thinking of the cinema reminded me of an incident from the mid-80s, when my best friend Nick & I went to see “Beetlejuice” there.  More than the film and the interior of the venue, my clearest recollection - and each time I see the image, I feel overwhelmingly sad - is a little girl, standing at the entrance, giving out pamphlets. She was obviously with the owners of the cinema and stood there whilst we all walked past her, with her little dress and cardi on, her blonde hair in bunches and a snotty nose. She didn’t look unhappy or unfed, but it just seemed like such a jarring thing to me, this little girl with a cold standing in the evening air, giving people pamphlets about coming attractions.  I never used any of that in the story, but I wanted to get some of that feeling, the quiet air of desperation, of trying to get the punters in and keep the business going.  As I was turning over the idea of the cinema in my mind, I suddenly got an image of Beth (my heroine) standing in a glamorous Art-Deco toilet, hearing something moving about but not being able to see it and then having everything disappear around her. I liked this and told Alison about it (who didn’t like it!) and realised I had my first set piece.

So what would be the supernatural menace?  I’d written plenty of ghost stories, I was then in the middle of co-writing a massive vampire novel (before they got all sparkly), but I’d never written about a witch before.  Not knowing much about them, I did some research and realised - with a wonderful sense of pieces falling into place - that the folklore around Norfolk is ripe with such tales and that county would be where Heyton existed.

Around about this time, I saw a picture of Monica Bellucci from her calendar, where she was lying on her side in some water and really fell for the concept of that.  That led me to the witch being a young woman, helping out at a farm perhaps. The farmer’s wife is pregnant, the witch and farmer have an affair, the baby is born deformed and the witch gets the blame for it. They test her in the sea, she’s exposed and killed and buried. Alison pointed out that she couldn’t be buried on the beach, so we agreed that it would be on the heath area. If that were the case, perhaps her grave could be disturbed if the council were building new coastal defences like they have at Morecombe Bay. I heard something else click into place.

In the summer of 2003, Alison and I went to Yarmouth with my sister-in-law Laura (‘Flo’s Diner’, in the book, comes from my nickname for her) and a child had disappeared a few days before. Whilst I didn’t want to go into that in any great detail, I thought it could be used as an element, that people’s worry and stress is feeding a negative energy into the town, perking up some of the town ghosts.

At the same time, I read an article about Albert of Monaco, which mentioned a curse put on the principality by someone who was raped. What if, my over-active imagination cried, my witch put a curse on Heyton - all this time, she’s been waiting for the opportunity to come back and wreak havoc on the township that killed her?  A priest condemns her body to the ground, her tomb is sealed and it’s not disturbed for several centuries, until that pesky coastal defence system is constructed.

At the Princess Louise pub in Holborn, London, I told John my ideas at the ‘official launch’ of “Strange Tales”, selling him the concept based on the Monica Bellucci picture (mocked up into a cover) and the synopsis “a couple, at the seaside and there’s a witch”. He liked it so I kept moving and whilst we were Christmas shopping, a week or so later, it suddenly occurred to me that Beth was pregnant - that linked her to the witch (by this time I had her name - Isabel Mundy), who was pregnant by the farmer and what if she told him, just before his wife gave birth to their still-born child?

(original interior illustration)

I decided I had enough at this stage, made a set of bullet points for the plot and a week later started writing.  169 days later (I’m an expert at procrastination plus I was doing three nights a week studying at college for my professional exams), the first draft was completed.  I wrote the second through July 2004, copies of which I gave to my pre-reading band and John and he wrote to me in late September, saying that he’d love to publish it - and also agreeing to me creating the cover art and interior illustrations.

I wrote two further drafts and finished the copy-edit and artwork glitches two days before my son was born, in late May 2005.  Since my sister Tracy passed away before I started writing it, I asked my parents if they would mind my dedicating the book to her and they were happy for me to do that.  My Dad built me a miniature of the memorial (see post here) for the artwork and Gary McMahon gave me a brilliant cover blurb.

As it was, it took another four years before the book was published, due to personal circumstances at Rainfall Books.  That edition sold well and the book got some nice reviews, which I was really pleased about.

In 2011, I was approached by Generation-Next with a view to them publishing an ebook version.  I agreed, it appeared, it was badly formatted and didn’t include the bonus short story my revised cover art said it would and I retracted it from them (several of my stable-mates withdrew their books too).

In 2012, my friend Tim C. Taylor (who runs Greyhart Press and is a colleague from the Northampton SF Writers Group) asked if he could publish it, having read the ebook.  I agreed - I like Tim and Greyhart books are wonderfully designed and produced - and designed a new cover for it (which, I happen to think, is the best one it’s had).  I pondered, for a while, over revising the text (it was completed before digital cameras were widespread) but decided, in the end, that those little touches (which, essentially, age it) were quite nice.

Purchase Details

Paperback pp188 amazon.co.uk RRP£6.50 | amazon.com RRP $9.95

Kindle amazon.com  | amazon.co.uk  RRP $2.99/ £1.99

ePuB Smashwords and coming soon to other retailers…

"Conjure" is here...

In a break from my holiday, I just wanted to pass on this news from those lovely people at Greyhart Press.

"Conjure" was originally published in a beautiful edition by John B. Ford & Steve Lines' Rainfall Books in 2009, then in an (ill-advised) ebook edition (that we won't discuss here).  I'm proud of this book and really pleased that it's having another shot for readers.

Newly pregnant, stuck in a job she doesn’t like and mourning the death of her cousin, Beth Hammond’s life isn’t working out the way she thought it would. So when her boyfriend wins a weekend away at the seaside resort of Heyton, Beth thinks this could be just what they need — to get away, relax, and make plans for the future.

But as they begin their weekend, a JCB driver accidentally damages a centuries-old memorial at the beach. He hopes no one will notice, but something has… a presence that was buried beneath the memorial, sealed in a stone tomb. Now that presence wants its revenge on the people of Heyton.

“Mark West is a talent to watch.” — Peter Tennant, Black Static

“Mark West’s writing has a heart and soul that many writers would kill for.” — Jim McLeod, Ginger Nuts of Horror

“Mark West’s stories have a well-crafted, slowly increasing tension and dread, sometimes with a hint of creepy paranoia.” — Gene O’Neill, Bram Stoker Award winning author of The Burden of Indigo

"A powerful and convincing piece of horror fiction.” — Gary McMahon, author of the Concrete Grove trilogy.

Paperback pp188 amazon.co.uk RRP£6.50 | amazon.com RRP $9.95

Kindle amazon.com  | amazon.co.uk  RRP $2.99/ £1.99

ePuB Smashwords and coming soon to other retailers…

Clicking this link will take you to a comprehensive, behind-the-scenes essay detailing how the book came about (hope you enjoy it)

Conjure artwork (the memorial miniature)

Conjure, my short novel, was sold to its original publisher with the pitch “A couple go to the seaside and there’s a witch…” so it’s not a spoiler to say that she is a major character in the book.  It’s also not a spoiler to say that there is a memorial, on the beach, which imprisons her but it gets damaged fairly early on.

The memorial was a key part of the book and when I was given the go-ahead to create interior illustrations, I knew I wanted to show it too.  The problem was, I’d made it up and - as far as I knew - nothing that looked like it existed in real life.

I whittled about it for a while and then had a Eureka! moment.  My Dad is an accomplished model-maker and when I asked him if he could help me out, he jumped at the chance. In fact, he said “let the art department worry about it” and that was it. He asked for a rough drawing (which I gave him, at the same time realising that I didn’t properly know how it should look) and he made it over the course of the week.

I was so impressed with it - still am, in fact, it takes pride of place on my bookcase - that the memorial in the text changed, to accommodate what Dad built for me.

This is the final composite image – much larger than it would normally be seen, as an element on a postcard.

This is not the original memorial photograph (which, due to not saving it as a different file name, I destroyed with the editing process), but it’s a test photo taken at the same time.  I shot it in our then back garden, to utilise natural light (a trick I learned from reading behind the scenes books on Industrial Light & Magic!).  You can get a sense of the scale from my hand and the chain-link around the small pillars is an old necklace of my Mum’s.

The grass comes from this photograph I took at Wicksteeds park, looking towards the lake from behind the rollercoaster compound. I had to dupe the picture, to make enough ground for the model to “fit”, which is why you see those same sets of shadows. I took the bush line, at the lake, as the natural line to cut the picture.

The sea comes from this picture of me, exploring some rocks near to Caernarvon in Wales. I erased myself (which is why there is a some blurring on the final shot) down to my waist and put the bush line from the grass picture over that part.

Conjure was re-published in both print and digital editions by Greyhart Press and more details can be found at the dedicated page here.

Conjure is coming...

Conjure, my short novel, is being re-published by those fine folks at Greyhart Press, in both print and digital editions.  It was originally published by Rainfall Books in 2009, an edition I was very pleased with and a press I'm proud to be associated with.  It was then released as an ebook, by a company which shall remain nameless and I got the rights back from them as soon as I was able.

Since the book has been difficult to get hold of since then, when Tim (Greyhart head honcho) asked me if he could publish it, I jumped at the chance.

I've designed a new cover for it and I also took the decision not to include the seven interior illustrations I produced for the Rainfall edition.  Having said that, I have re-used the postcard image though it's been updated (and now includes Dude!).

More details as and when I get them!

Conjure (redux)

Coming soon from Tim C Taylors Greyhart Press in print and digital editions.

More details to follow.

Really, really chuffed about this!

The Next Big Thing

THE NEXT BIG THING is a chain of book and author recommendations. The way it works is this, one author tags up to five others, who then each tag five others until the Elder Gods are satisfied that we are all hard at work telling their stories and you're all hard at work reading them. 

Stephen Bacon tagged me on his blog and now it's my turn.

1) What is the working title of your next book?

It doesn’t really have one, though I’ve referred to it as “Never Tear Us Apart” a few times (I’m a big INXS fan).

2) Where did the idea come from for the book?
As with most of my projects, it’s been rattling around in my head for years and was originally two completely separate stories before they started to entwine with each other.  It deals with a lot of things that I’ve been exploring over the past few years - an out-of-season British seaside town, grief, ghosts and a haunted place.  And love, always love.

3) What genre does your book fall under?

Horror!

4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

I haven’t thought about it, to be honest.  I very rarely do, for me the lead characters are more often than not me and my friends.  Though Isabel Mundy, in Conjure, was definitely Monica Bellucci and Saskia, in The Mill, was Esther Hall.

5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

A couple of lost, lonely people try to connect at an out-of-season seaside town and there’s a house that eats people.

6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
I haven’t even started it yet, though I can say with a good degree of certainty that it won’t be self-published.

7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

See the answer to question six.  If I’m looking at a full-length novel, the first draft would probably be written anywhere between six months and a year.  Hopefully quicker.

8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

There isn’t anything in particular that I’m using as a touchstone for this, to be honest, though that might change once I start writing.

9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?

It was a desire to write another novel, to be honest.  I started publishing in the small press in 1999 and worked my way up from short stories to a novel (In The Rain With TheDead) and a short novel (Conjure) and then I hit a writers block that took me out of action for a couple of years.  Since then, I’ve been slowly getting back into things, publishing short stories and novelettes and working my way up to novellas (two are due from Pendragon Press next year).  The next logical step seemed to be another novel and I wanted to write something dark and personal and bleak and scary and now seemed as good a time as any.  I’ve stripped back the premise of my novelette The Mill and used the spine of that for this, plus added in a ghoulish landlord, a man who has ‘the gift’ and a house that’s always hungry.

10) What else about the book might pique the reader's interest?

If you like haunted house stories, ghosts and frightening things, I would hope you’d like this.  If, like me, you have a thing about sad coastal towns, this could work for you and I hope the relationship angle would touch people too.

And now for the tagging... You can read their answers to the same questions on Wednesday 28th November.

Go for it, Andrew Murray, Neil Williams, Jay Eales, Steve Harris and David Price

More love for "Conjure"

The wonderful writer Greg James has just finished reading "Conjure" and left this mini-review on my Facebook wall. I'm really quite chuffed about it!

"What really worked for me about this novel was its evocation of the decaying resort towns along the coast of East Anglia that I grew up in as well as supernatural elements that were reminiscent of folktales from the same area. In this way, it is a very British story. Lastly, I would also like to comment on the writer's talent for smooth, naturalistic dialogue; never easy to pull off and always a joy to read."

Terror Scribes Gathering Chesterfield 2011

Terror Scribes Gathering
The Royal Oak - Chesterfield - 16th July 2011

The message came through from the Terror Scribes Facebook Group - a gathering was going to be held, at the Royal Oak in Chesterfield, on Saturday 16th July. Did I want to go?

A Terror Scribes gathering? Organised by the head honcho, John B Ford, himself? In the spiritual hometown of Chesterfield? Oh yes, I was definitely in.

I decided to catch the train up, for ease and as Alison & Dude waved me off from the platform, I put on my MP3 player, got out my book and settled in (then had to change at Leicester, for the train that would take me directly to Chesterfield). Due to a delay, it was a little after two when I arrived and met up with Steve Bacon. He & I have had a busy year since we last met up (for the first time) at FantasyCon in 2011 - we’ve each written a novella for a joint collection and devised, written and published “ill at ease” with Neil Williams. It was great to see him and we walked up towards the town, catching up (email is great, as is Facebook, but nothing beats chatting face-to-face). It took us a while to find the pub - we later realised we’d strolled right past it - and then we were in, pretty much the last of the bunch to arrive.

The Royal Oak was an old coach-house, very nicely restored and - probably - with a lot of its original features. It was the ideal place for a gathering except turnout had been good, so it was a little cramped. Steve & I made it through the door and that, pretty much, was where we stayed for the remainder of the afternoon. Paul Kane & Marie O’Regan were sitting at the nearest table, along with Jay Eales & Selina Lock (with whom - “roadtrip!” - I’m travelling down to Brighton in late September for FantasyCon 2011) and we caught up with them for a while. Moving away from us, deeper into the narrow room, were Sue & Morgan Philips (who’d done an excellent job, organising the last few gatherings in Leicester), Des Knight, the wonderful John B. Ford, Simon Clark, Paul & Coleen Bradshaw, Simon Bestwick and Derek Fox. The latter had also brought along a few folk - three nice ladies and a chap in a terrific hat - from his writing class. In addition, there were three people I’d never met before, a writer called Lee Wilson and a couple who sat by the door, a very shy lady (who was nice to chat to) and her partner. Later arrivals than us included Martin Roberts & Helen Hopley and Steve Lines & Loretta Mansell - and they had the best excuse, having travelled up from Calne in Wiltshire.

Me, Selina, Simon and Steve

There was a buffet and a well-staffed bar and conversations struck up immediately. Steve & I, along with Simon and Selina (who’d decided to stand by the door to get some fresh air), expounded upon just about everything - comics to horror, the News Of The World to politics in general, feminism and women in anthologies - and it was a genuine delight to stand for an hour or more, talking with like-minded folk.

As a little side-bar here, I have to say I have a deep affection for The Terror Scribes. Back when I first discovered the small press, I kept reading about gatherings and meet-ups and desperately wanted to get involved. My first gathering was in Sheffield, at the Howard, in July 2000 (the original con report is here if you’re interested) and the roll call of people I met that day was incredible, the bulk of whom I’m pleased to say I’m still friends with. It was also the first time I’d ever met a famous writer, in Simon Clark, who was very down-to-earth and approachable. People made the effort to talk to me, to include me and their generosity and friendship has really stuck with me,. I’ve tried to attend as many gatherings as I could in the intervening years (including the fantastic one in Birmingham in 2002) and I’ve yet to go along to one that I didn’t enjoy.

The raffle kicked off then, eventually raising £45 for Alzheimers Care and seeing just about everyone bag at least two prizes. As a nice surprise, Steve had brought along a couple of copies of “Conjure” - always a treat to see that cover! - and I was asked to sign them, which goes a long way to making a writers afternoon! I picked up a Leisure edition of Simon Clark’s “The Tower” and got him to sign it for me.

Unfortunately, some of the gathered had to leave for various reasons and we lost the members of Derek’s writing group and Steve Bacon. Good to see them all, though. The readings followed, a longstanding treat of the gatherings. Derek led, then Coleen, Simon (with an excerpt from “Angels Of The Silences”), Martin (with a story he’d only just written, apparently), John and Sue. I read the train chasing sequence from “What We Do Sometimes, Without Thinking” and Jay followed me. They all seemed to go down well, which is always reassuring.

Me, reading about train chasing. Selina tries not to nod off in the background

By then, time was creeping on so we headed out for the curry house and, watching everyone gathered outside the pub waiting for stragglers, it was good to see so many smiling faces. We made our way through the Shambles and into town - with Simon Clark peeling off to catch his train - to the Indian. Ushered upstairs, we took up a long table and two roundtables, which separated us unfortunately. However, I shared my table with Marie & Paul, Martin & Helen, Loretta & Steve and Jay & Selina and Des Knight, so conversation never flagged.

The curry is an integral part of a gathering and, unfortunately, mine wasn’t good. Since I had to catch a train home, I had my main when everyone else had their starters and it wasn’t particularly warm but it was particularly stodgy. Having eaten what I could, I held out as long as possible but the time had come, so I said my goodbyes, shook plenty of hands and headed off to the train station.

For some reason, the train home this time swapped at Leicester, where I had a 15 minute wait. I stood on the platform with my fellow evacuees, in the gathering twilight, listening to my MP3 player. “Everybody Hurts” came on and the sounds, combined with what I could see - a small station and a bridge, houses being built across the way, the bright shades of day fading to black in the sky - inspired me. I might not use the imagery or the feelings it conjured for a while but I know I will, one day, because that’s what I love about Terror Scribes gatherings (and FantasyCon). I adore being around other writers and creative types, listening to processes, discussing ideas and solutions and always come away feeling re-energised about my writing.

A great gathering and it was good to see everyone again. Now, roll on the next one!

Conjure - new review and now listed at GNP

Conjure is now listed up at the Generation Next Publications website and is still available for download from the following places:
Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
orSmashwords

The Amazon.com listing also features a new review, a four star one no less (and the reviewers gripe is one I’ve had before, that the book isn’t long enough).

I’m pleased with this and very glad that the novel is having the opportunity of another crack of the whip.

"Conjure" is now on Amazon (with a competition too!)

“Conjure”, as you’re probably aware by now, has just been published as an ebook by those nice folks at Generation Next Publications and is now available on Amazon, both the UK and US branches.

For a limited time only, GNP are running a competition. Here’re the details:

If you purchase this eBook version of Mark West's “Conjure”, you are eligible to win an autographed paperback copy of “In The Rain With The Dead”, a novel by Mark West (published by Pendragon Press and now out-of-print) along with a personal note from the author.

This eBook has a code in it that can be used to enter this contest.

Email this code to Stephen@generationnextpublications with ‘CONJURE CONTEST’ in the subject line to be entered to win.

Contest ends on March 31, 2011. The winner will be randomly drawn from all entries on April 4, 2011.The two novels are different beasts, certainly, but if you like one, you’re probably going to like the other. And hey, for a couple of quid (or dollars), why not take the chance to find out?Direct link to the Amazon UK “Conjure” page
Direct link to the Amazon US “Conjure” page

Good luck, if you choose to enter. And to try and further sway you, here’s a review of the print version of “Conjure”, which appeared at the Black Abyss site in 2009, where Colin called the book “a strangely British tale and reminded me of something that may have been produced in the seventies by Hammer or part of Tales of the Unexpected but very much updated with modern quotas of brutality and gore.” He gave it 4 out of 5 stars.

Conjure - The ebook edition

I’m really pleased to announce that my short novel “Conjure” has just been re-published as an ebook by those nice folks at Generation Next Publications. This edition features a new cover design by me, though none of the interior artwork from the book version but, to make up for that, it does include my short story “Empty Souls, Drowning”, which first appeared in my “Strange Tales” collection in 2003 and was the story that introduced my east coast seaside town of Heyton.

The book was first published in 2009 by Rainfall Books (thanks John!) and picked up some good reviews along the way but, through circumstances beyond anyone’s control, wasn’t as widely available as we’d hoped. Which is why I decided to approach Stephen James Price at Gen-Next, to see if he’d be interested - it’s a good story, I like to think it’s well told and it’ll be nice to see it have another crack of the whip. The decision to remove the interior artwork was one based on formatting, but it does add a uniqueness to the print version (which I like the idea of) and I like ‘bonus features’, so suggested we include “Empty Souls, Drowning”. Thankfully, Steve agreed and so this features a story that was first published in 2000, reprinted in my collection in 2003 and hasn’t been available since - a unique selling point for the ebook. Everyone wins.

There’s a dedicated page for the book on my website at here, which has a lengthy afterword, some teaser artwork and some behind-the-scenes info (on the illustrations and the memorial miniature my Dad made) and I’ll post the artwork up there in time.

The ebook version is available through Smashwords - direct link here - for the princely sum of $2.99 (or approx. £1.92 in “real money”) on a wide variety of formats (some of which offer a sample 20% of the text!).
There’s also a Facebook group for the novel, which can be found by clicking this link. Join up, say hello, have a look at the pics!

To further make up your mind, here’re some review highlights:

From Matthew Fryer’s review, at his Hellforge website
Mark excels at dialogue and characterisation [and] the setting is perfect, [it] reminded me of several faded resorts: old fashioned and hard-up, but soldiering on with a stiff but weary upper lip. I particularly enjoyed the gothic cinema; a wonderful place that I would love to visit, and now actually feel as though I have.

Conjure flaunts some genuinely spooky moments [and] the supernatural element works so well because the author merges it with fears we understand, such as abduction and infanticide.

This is a strong short novel that only loses points on a couple of issues. I noticed that while his prose is sharp, Mark has a jarring tendency to end sentences with a preposition. And while the plot is well executed, it is somewhat generic. That said, it avoids cheap twists and builds up to a finale that manages to feel classic yet original at the same time. It concludes with a tasty uppercut, just in case you’d forgotten who was in charge.Highlander’s Book Reviews (4 out of 5)
Mark West has created a marvelously enjoyable short novel which captures some of that faded glory of the seaside resort. Add to that the complex relationship of a young couple who are about to have their first child and all the stresses and joy that comes with it and you have a firm base for the tale. It’s a strangely British tale and reminded me of something that may have been produced in the seventies by Hammer or part of Tales of the Unexpected but very much updated with modern quotas of brutality and gore.

It’s the first I have read from Mark West but he is definitely a name I will be looking out for in the future.

Sam Haine’s bookshop - from the website:

I didn't get to meet Mark unfortunately as he was only at the Con for one day but everyone who mentioned him said he was a good bloke. His book, too, is a good, fast read - it could actually have done with being a bit longer in my opinion, but it's another good 'un.

Gary Greenwood - from his website:
It's a good, solid horror novel about revenge from beyond the grave affecting the lives of a young couple who have their own, more realistic worries having just discovered that Beth is pregnant. To be honest, the interaction and lives of the couple are the more interesting aspects of the book with the horror taking a bit of a back seat in places so that when it does intrude, it's something of a shock, obviously the intent.

Go on, give it a go.

It's the 100th post!

This is the 100th post here on the main section of the blog (plenty of posts in the other parts, folks) and I thought it might be nice to mark the occasion.

Since I started here, back in September 2009, quite a bit has happened (more than I’d thought, actually, writing this up though some appearances are long overdue). We’ve seen the publication of “Conjure” (which, thankfully, was a hit with those who found it and read it), my story “A Quiet Weekend Away” appeared in Terror Tales, the chapbook “Life Once Lived” showcased “Risen Wife” and “A Stirring” and, just recently, “The City In The Rain” appeared in “Where The Heart Is”, from Grey Friar Press.

On the writing front, ZoQuNo is definitely still on (and Matthew occasionally asks about the zombie story which has a hero called Matty) but another project has just sneaked in front of it. In conjunction with another writer whose work I like a lot, I’m involved in a “collaboration that isn’t” and I’m currently well into the noting process on that lost film novella idea I had a while back. Things are progressing well on it, I have some locations in mind and just this morning I made myself cringe at something one of the characters is going to do to himself. Lovely.

So there we have it, 100 posts young! And here’s the Dude, celebrating with an ice cream…

More "Conjure" goodness

I got an email today, from Andrew Murray, a very nice chap from Australia who read "Conjure" (in what must be a record time) and had this to say:

I loved it, an excellent, very well written supernatural thriller that had me hooked from the start [with] real three dimensional characters I cared for & whose relationship was honestly felt and one creepy little bastard like Steve who really got under my skin! Sequences...were quite disturbing & distressing at times [and] the intense ending had me reading at breakneck speed. A slow burn, realistic start with creepy macabre touches (Kathys suicide, crows nailed to a windmill!) is why i really love the supernatural/horror genre.

How cool is this? Thanks, Andrew!

I think "Conjure" is going to work out fine...

Another review for "Conjure", from Matt Fryer at Hellforge. He liked it. And I liked his review: http://matthewfryer.wordpress.com/2009/12/11/conjure-mark-west/

Someone got the Yarmouth references!

Another paying customer review and - wahey! - another positive one (posted at the Ramsey Campbell message-board)! Thanks a lot, Gary Cole-Wilkin!
http://www.knibbworld.com/campbelldiscuss/messages/1/2889.html?1258450888

More "Conjure"-y goodness

More review type goodness, this time from Sam Haine's Book Shop and they were nicely complimentary about me too:

I didn't get to meet Mark unfortunately as he was only at the Con for one day but everyone who mentioned him said he was a good bloke. His book, too, is a good, fast read - it could actually have done with being a bit longer in my opinion, but it's another good 'un.

http://samhainesbookshop.blogspot.com/2009/10/fantasycon-09.html

Highlander's Book Reviews have just reviewed "Conjure". And quite liked it, which is always nice. http://talesfromtheblackabyss.blogspot.com/2009/12/conjure-by-mark-west.html

Woo hoo!

More reviews!

A couple more reviews for “Conjure” this week, from paying customers - and both of them, I’m very happy to say, are positive. Firstly, Jamie - my fan from Tasmania - emailed me and wrote:

"The book's a fine achievement, Mark. It moves along at a crisp pace, has characters the reader can care about, and a nice climax."

That was very nice - then Kim wrote me a lovely long email that included the phrase “Good job, I enjoyed it”. She also posted the first review at Goodreads, which was very nice of her.
Kim’s review at Goodreads.com