Imperial Stormtroopers

Alison & Matthew bought me a new camera for my birthday, for which I was really grateful (I love taking photographs and have long wanted one with a decent zoom).  This is just the ticket and I love it and so the first thing I did was, of course, to take pictures of some of my Stormtroopers.  And here they are:

 You know, I think that might be one of the droids we're looking for...

TK421, nobody gets on or off, okay?

The Glamour Girl Murders

Urban Occult - available for pre-order

features my story "The Witch House"

Urban Occult Limited Pre-Order

Limited to 50.

Behind urban life, weird and horrific things fester. 

The whispers and chills of things long gone… the promise of power from the darkness… the seduction of those that lie in the shadows… the occult is all around us: in town houses, in mansions, and in your very own street.

Editor Colin F. Barnes collected together fifteen stories by a cast of critically acclaimed authors from around the globe who look into the stygian gloom, explore the dark corners of our houses, and peer into the abyss of human temptation.

Featuring stories by: Gary McMahon, Ren Warom, Gary Fry, Mark West, K.T. Davies, Nerine Dorman, Alan Baxter, Adam Millard, Julie Travis, Jason Andrew, James Brogden, A.A Garrison, Jennifer Williams, Sarah Anne Langton, and Chris Barnham.

Special Pre-Order Edition Limited to 50.

This pre-order edition means you will get the book at least a week to two weeks ahead of general release and:

A FREE ebook version (for any eReader)

and A FREE ebook of Day of Demons. (eBooks will be emailed to you on the 4th of March).

Just £9.99 (+£2.99 shipping anywhere in the world).

Pre-Order here: http://www.anachronpress.com/product/anthologies/urban-occult-limited-pre-order/

Sleazy story is done...

I sent my sleaze story to Peter Mark May today - it’s called “The Glamour Girl Murders” and is set in London at the tail end of the 1976 heatwave.  There’s sex, violence, foot fetishism and something in the upstairs room and I’m really chuffed with it.  I’ve also read the Stephen Volk and Johnny Mains contributions and I think our “Anatomy Of Death” anthology could be very good indeed.

This marks the end of my short story writing commitments for the time being (unless someone else wants to ask, of course) and it’s time to look ahead at different things.  I’m keen to explore novellas still (I have two coming out, both from Pendragon Press - “Drive” this year and “The Lost Film” next year) and Pete, via Hersham Horror Books, has asked me to write one (to be published next year) for him.

I have an idea (a long gestating project some of you might remember, called “The Day It Rained”) which I’m going to pitch, but I’m thinking of something contemporary and dark and sexual for Hersham Horror.  I don’t have much in mind, but this is the part of a project I love, where everything is open and nothing is set and the sky, quite literally, is the limit.

King pips "What Gets Left Behind" at the post

Back in December, I posted that "What Gets Left Behind" had been nominated in the Short Fiction section for the This Is Horror 2012 Awards (post linked from here).  I was thrilled to be listed alongside such great writers as Stephen King & Joe Hill, Cate Gardner, Mike O'Driscoll (and his book was, for me, the winner on the list) and Gary Fry and realised that I had no chance.

Imagine my surprise, then, at the announcement of the awards this evening.  No, I didn't win - that'd be a real Hollywood ending, wouldn't it? - but I did place as runner-up to Messrs. King.

Amazed and chuffed, I'd just like to thank every who took the time to vote.  I appreciate it!

The Awards winners are listed here

Anatomy Of Death - coming soon...

Back in January last year, in this post, I mentioned that Peter Mark May, head honcho at Hersham Horror Books, had asked me if I'd like to project-lead a new anthology.  I jumped at the chance and, since I was free to come up with my own theme, decided to look back on the genre, to horror in the 70s.

Ah, horror in the 70s.  Slim paperback novels, full of sex and violence, death and intrigue and films such as those made by Amicus and Hammer and Pete Walker et al.  This collection takes those concepts and runs with them, fully embracing the era.

As project leader for "Anatomy Of Death - in five sleazy pieces", I'm really lucky - I got to write my story, about a foot fetishist photographer in London during the 1976 heatwave, using lessons learned from my sleazy horror reading over the past couple of years.  I have brand new stories from Stephen Bacon, Johnny Mains, Stephen Volk and Andrew Murray (who makes his debut with this collection).  I have cover art by the talented Neil Williams and I'm working in collaboration with Pete May.

More details as they emerge but, in the meantime, here's the teaser poster I've put together and which I posted to Facebook today.

Movie artistry - Matte Paintings

As you may or may not know, I'm a big fan of behind-the-scenes stuff to do with films.  I love special effects, I love make-up effects, I'm constantly amazed at the artistry of ILM and Derek Meddings et al and I will watch a film if I know that Rick Baker has designed or created the make-ups for it.

One of my fascinations is matte paintings and with some of the best in the business - names like Harrison Ellenshaw, Albert Whitlock, Les Bowie, Matthew Yuricich - you often didn't even realise you were watching something that literally wasn't really there.

Matte paintings are created on large sheets of glass - usually in oils or pastels - in order to integrate live-action footage (actors, some backgrounds, maybe traffic) into an environment that would be too expensive or dangerous to build, film on or visit.

The first known matte painting used in a film was for “Missions Of California” in 1907, where Norman Dawn (ASC) improvised the crumbling California Missions by painting them on glass.  Matte’s were used extensively for “The Wizard Of Oz” (especially in the approach to the Emerald City), throughout “Citizen Kane” (for Xanadu, obviously, but also in lots of little tricks shots too), most of Hitchcock’s work, throughout “Raiders Of The Lost Ark” but most especially in the final shot (a superb Michael Pangrazio painting) and - one of my favourites - the bottomless tractor beam in “Star Wars” that Obi-wan Kenobi negotiates around.

By the mid-80s, computer programmes were advanced enough to allow matte paintings to be created in the digital realm (something which ILM whole-heartedly embraced).  The first digital matte shot was the stained-glass window knight from “Young Sherlock Holmes” in 1985, painted by Chris Evans (using Lucasfilm’s Pixar system, which would later be sold on to Steve Jobs and create “Toy Story”).

A matte painting can make a scene great (you don't often get poor ones but when you do, they're immediately apparent) and the best ones are those you don't even realise are there.  Here are some of my favourites.

"The Birds" attack Bodega Bay, from Alfred Hitchcock's fantastic film.  

The painting is by Albert Whitlock

The final shot, of the government warehouse, in "Raiders Of The Lost Ark".

The painting is by Michael Pangrazio, the live-action element is the man with the crate and a bit of the walkway

Slave 1 at Bespin, from "The Empire Strikes Back", painted by Harrison Ellenshaw

There are too many great Star Wars matte paintings to list them all - click this Google search to have a look

The Pan Am clipper from "Raiders Of The Lost Ark" - even though the plane is real, it looks more of a fake in the (admittedly poor quality) screen cap on the right

Painting by Alan Maley

Matthew Yuricich works on a painting for "Blade Runner" (film image on top)

The tractor beam sequence from "Star Wars"

painting by Harrison Ellenshaw, credited as P. S. Ellenshaw (he was working for Disney at the time)

What brought all this on was a link I saw today, to two articles, listing the 50 greatest matte paintings ever.  Click the link and enjoy the art.

"What Gets Left Behind" marches on

My friend Jim Mcleod posted that his Ginger Nuts Of Horror website (a fantastic genre news and reviews resource) has been nominated in the latest Preditors & Editors Readers Poll.

I'd never heard of the award before, but whilst at the site I had a look around and discovered that "What Gets Left Behind" has been nominated (in the Best Novel category, though it's clearly a short story).  All the same, I was really chuffed - somebody, somewhere, thought enough of my story that they chose to nominate it.  Thank you, whoever you are, I really appreciate it.

The Demonologica Biblica

Dean M Drinkel has just announced details of his forthcoming anthology “The Demonologica Biblica”, from Western Legends Publishing and released the cover image.

Cool, eh?  Even better for me, the anthology contains my story “Falsche See, On the North German Plain (N is for Nickar)”, which I had great fun writing.  We were given a letter of the alphabet to work with and Nicholas Burman-Vince (fellow contributor and, get this, the Chatterer Cenobite from the first couple of “Hellraiser” films) sent out pages from a demonology encyclopaedia to help us out.  From there, we were left to our own devices.

Mine is based on a water demon - the Nickar - and features a couple who are just starting a love affair whilst at a works conference in Germany.  I’d love to say that it’s a happy, bright tale but hey, you know that wouldn’t be true.

I’m in sterling company and really looking forward to reading this.  These are the good folk I’m sharing space with:

Barbie Wilde, William Meikle, Emile-Louis Tomas Jouvet, Jan Edwards, John Palisano, Tracie McBride, D.T. Griffith, Kate Jonez, Simon Kurt Unsworth, Raven Dane, Jonathan Green, Lily Childs, Daniel I. Russell, Christine Dougherty, Magen Cubed, Colleen Anderson, Dave Jeffery, Nerine Dorman, Adrian Chamberlin, Sean Sweeney, Andy Taylor, Dean M Drinkel, Sam Stone, Sandra Norval and Nicholas Vince

More details as and when I have them.

Drive is coming...

My novella "Drive" is now, indeed, coming soon with Chris Teague at Pendragon Press announcing that it's scheduled to be launched in June 2013.

Chris said of the story that it's "a departure from Mark's horror writing, though still quite terrifying: a fast-paced thriller set in the darkness of Gaffney's streets."

I wrote the first draft of this in 2008, inspired by a drive I made heading for Luton airport at 3am and finding I was the only person on the M1 and Chris picked it up a year or so later.

I'm looking forward to doing another quick read-through (and polish) and getting re-acquainted with David & Nat and their night of hell.