Breakfast At Tiffany's, by Truman Capote - a review

cover scan of my copy - it looks a bit the worse for wear but I love the cover art

With her tousled blonde hair and upturned nose, dark glasses and chic black dresses, Holly Golightly is top notch in style and a sensation wherever she goes.  Her brownstone apartment vibrates with Martini-soaked parties as she plays hostess to millionaires and gangsters alike.  Yet Holly never loses sight of her ultimate goal - to find a real life place like Tiffany's that makes her feel at home.

I realise I'm very late to this party, since the novella was first published in November 1958 - it originally appeared in the magazine Esquire, before being collected with three short stories and published by Random House - but I thought I’d take some time to write about my thoughts on this, especially since a lot of older works are, I feel, under-represented with reviews on the Net.

 I’ve seen the film and enjoyed it and had wanted to read this for a while but we were like ships that passed in the night.  Late last year, though, I picked up a Penguin edition (which is undated - I bought it in a charity shop but it appears it might have been a promotional item) and having just read Stephen Volks’ “Leytonstone”, for a change of pace I decided to dip into it.  I’m so glad I did.


Opening in Autumn 1943, the unnamed narrator becomes friends with Holly Golighty, his downstairs neighbour in the Upper East Side brownstone they live in.  She is a charming woman, a society girl who manipulates the men around her to give her money and gifts, hoping to marry one of them one day.  As the friendship develops over the course of a year between the narrator and Holly - she calls him ‘Fred’ because he reminds her of her beloved brother - he finds himself falling under her spell and who wouldn’t - she fiesty and free-spirited, likes to shock people with revealing details of her personal life and sits out on the fire escape on summer evenings, playing the guitar as her hair dries.  ‘Fred’ is a writer, observing everything around him and although he’s inclined to want to protect Holly, she seems more than capable of doing so herself, until a family tragedy, a blast from the past and a betrayal by a friend turn things on their head.

A brisk read, this is full of life and even though there are dark aspects to the story and characters, they don’t overwhelm at any time (well, apart from perhaps the once).  War-time New York is seen and explored but always at a distance (at one point, ‘Fred’ worries about being drafted), with most of the story taking place either in the brownstone or at Joe Bell’s bar, where both of them are treated as friends.

The writing is deceptively simple, filled with beautifully constructed sentences and little throwaway lines that just build and build as the book goes on (“another night, deep in the summer, the heat of my room sent me out into the streets”).  The characterisation is equally wonderful, from Joe Bell and Mag Wildwood (the stuttering former socialite and model, who muscles in on Holly’s men), Rusty Trawler, O. J. Berman, “Sally Tomato” and Jose Ybarra-Jaeger, the men Holly charms (especially the latter) and poor Doc Golightly but the story, of course, stands on the two leads.  ‘Fred’ narrates and gives everything his personal spin but we never really get a sense of him from anyone else, so he effectively becomes the reader (as a male writer, that worked well for me) but Holly - oh, Holly.

A walking contradiction - an escapee of a terrible childhood but always full of ‘joie de vivre’ - she doesn’t set down roots (her cat has no name because it’s not hers to name - they met at the river) and her flat is barely furnished.  As ‘Fred’ finds out more about her, so her mystery seems to deepen and when bad things do happen (especially with the real Fred), it’s all the more shocking for it and we feel for her.  Naïve but tough, she knows what to say and how to act (Berman calls her a “phony, but a real phony”) and looks great, with her ever present smile, dark glasses (and their prescription lenses) and great clothes, facing a mans world and taking it on in her own way.

As wonderful as I think this is, it’s worth mentioning that there are some jarring elements for the modern reader, from the casual racism to issues with Holly’s age (she ran away from home a fourteen-year-old wife and tells ‘Fred’, on the subject of past lovers, that she’s “not counting anything that happened before I was thirteen…”).  Those niggles aside, this is a terrific book and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  It has a great pace, a wonderful atmosphere and a timeless feel to it, that draws you along.  Differing from the film (and ending with a sense of melancholy), this is remarkable piece of work.  If you haven’t read it before, then you really should and if you have, why not revisit it?

Very highly recommended.

Oh - and the title?  When Holly gets the "mean reds" (what 'Fred' identifies as angst) she's found that what "does the most good is just to get into a taxi and go to Tiffany's. It calms me down right away, the quietness and the proud look of it; nothing very bad could happen to you there, not with those kind men in their nice suits, and that lovely smell of silver and alligator wallets. If I could find a real-life place that made me feel like Tiffany's, then I'd buy some furniture and give the cat a name."


Truman Capote (Truman Strekfus Persons) was born in 30th September 1924.  An American author, screenwriter, playwright and actor, many of his short stories, novels, plays and non-fiction are regarded as literary classics, especially “Breakfast At Tiffany’s” and the true crime novel “In Cold Blood” (1966).  He died on 25th August 1984.  According to Random House, as of 2008, the book continued to sell about 30,000 copies a year.

Leytonstone, by Stephen Volk (a review)

In a new edition of the occasional series, I want to tell you about a book that I've read and loved, which I think adds to the horror genre and that I think you'll enjoy if you're a fan.

I came to this novella with high hopes.  I’ve long been a fan of Alfred Hitchcock - from the books to which he lent his name, to the masterful films that have thrilled and scared me over the years - and Stephen Volk’s previous novella, “Whitstable” (which I reviewed here), was one of my top reads of the year in 2012, a true five-star classic.

“Leytonstone” revolves around an anecdote Hitchcock told many times, that when he was seven his father had him locked away in the police cells with the warning “This is what happens to people who do bad things.”  The incident apparently left the great director with a morbid fear of the police and was also cited as the reason for his recurring use of “wrong man” themes in his films.  Volk takes this information and runs with it.

Fred Hitchcock is a chubby seven-year-old, who has friends but prefers time on his own and finds solace in lists - bus and train numbers, timetables - rather than the often unpredictable nature of the people around him.  His mother often seems poorly and he’s made to stand at the foot of her bed when he gets home from school, reciting what he’s learned that day whilst his greengrocer father is strict and distant.  A pupil at the local Catholic school, run with an iron-fist by the various priests and overseen by Father Mullins, Fred is only vaguely aware of girls, especially those in the school next door, apart from the one “with hair the colour of ripe bananas”.

When he is taken to the police station, we are introduced to Sergeant Stanley Sykes, a formidable presence with a Kitchener moustache, whose dark shadow hangs uneasily over the rest of the book.  He locks young Fred up and taunts him and the night spent behind bars is genuinely harrowing and unpleasant.  Released the next morning, the dynamics between Fred and his father (as well as those between his father and Sykes) are different, damaged in ways none of them really understand.  Following this event and the discovery of a peephole at the school, the tone of the book starts to grow darker.  After scaring the schoolgirls, Fred and his friends go to waste ground where there’s an abandoned, dilapidated house and there they try to kill a mouse - he doesn’t want to (he’s glad when it escapes), but he’s caught up in it.  Exploring the house later, he’s scared at first but also “tired of trying to imagine what fear is like all the time” and when he discovers a small cupboard, he realises he can do something about it.

Fred discovers the “girl with yellow hair” is called Olga Butterworth and she lives with her parents next to the railway.  They develop an uneasy acquaintance and when he decides to show her the old house, he sets into motion the last third of the book that will see everyone’s life change.

Set in 1906, an era Volk deftly captures of a changing (now largely gone) London, with the language, the dress, the rituals and customs (especially in the shops and pubs) vividly captured and brought to life.  The social mores, the confusion of young Fred, the overbearing nature of both the police (as typified by Sykes) and the harsher still priests and nuns, create an atmosphere that points to something awful happening.  And when that something happens it's shocking, with the fall-out of Fred’s action causing huge repercussions for everyone (especially his parents) apart from, it seems, himself, though perhaps this is addressed in the moving coda.

The characterisation, always difficult when dealing with real people, is something Volk does especially well (his version of Peter Cushing in “Whitstable” was a culmination of both everything you wanted him to be and everything he came across as in interviews) and here is no exception. Fred is a little boy, at once an innocent and a manipulator, at odds with his contemporaries and his parents and scared of people he sees from his bedroom window, being adults in the night and acting in ways he doesn’t - and shouldn’t - understand.  His parents often seem as confused but as the book gets darker they reveal heretofore hidden depths of love and understanding, which make the emotional impact all that much stronger.  The villain of the piece, the unpleasant, perhaps sadistic, sleazy policeman Sergeant Stanley Sykes is a real monster, at once dedicated to upholding the law whilst at the same time making sure that he picks up his own little perks.

As a Hitchcock fan, I loved finding the allusions to his later career - the poorly Mother, coddling her son; the concept of “the girl with the yellow hair”; the voyeurism of late night windows and Olga with her parents; the body in the bag of potatoes; the stuffed bird in Father Mullins office and I’m sure there were many more - but none of them felt shoehorned it, they had a place in the fabric of the story and they contributed to the weight of the tale.  And it is a weighty tale, sometimes innocent and charming, often darker and grittier, but never once putting a foot wrong.

Superbly written, atmospheric and tense, this is perfectly structured and never less than gripping.  A wonderful read and a worthy successor to the powerful “Whitstable”, I look forward to whichever master of British cinema Mr Volk chooses to write about next.  Very highly recommended.

More details on the book can be found at the Spectral Press site on this link

The Zabriskie Grimoire

I'm pleased to announce that the latest anthology edited by Dean M. Drinkel, "The Grimorium Verum", has just been published by Western Legends Press.  Amongst many others, it contains my story "The Zabriskie Grimoire".

Western Legends is excited to reveal the table of contents for our newest publication and third installment in the Tres Librorum Prohibitum series: The Grimorium Verum - a collection of 26 stories, edited by Dean M Drinkel.

Foreword – John Palisano

Introduction – Dean M. Drinkel

A Is For Annis – Tim Dry

B Is For Balefire – Raven Dane

C Is For Creature – Justin Miles

D Is For Drawing Down The Moon – Jan Edwards

E Is For Eihwaz – Adrian Chamberlin

F Is For Fury – Christine Morgan

G Is For Ghede – Emile-Louis Tomas Jouvet

H Is For Herb Law – Phil Sloman

I Is For Iya and Iktomi – Christopher Beck

J Is For Jimson Jane – Lily Childs

K Is For Krieg – Dan Russell

L Is For Legends – Amberle L. Husbands

M Is For Magic, Madness and Mayhem – Andrew Taylor

N Is For Nightmare – Sylvia Shults

O Is For Ordeal – Chris Dougherty

P Is For Poison – Tej Turner

Q Is For Quackery – Tracie McBride

R Is For Radix Omnium Malum – Mike Chinn

S Is For Slinky, Seedy & A Cool, Calming Womb – Martin Roberts

T Is For Transformation – D.T. Griffith

U Is For Umbilical – Anthony Cowin

V Is For Voudon – Lisa Jenkins

W Is For Writer’s Block – Barbie Wilde

X Is For Xaphan – John Gilbert

Y Is For Yearning – Amelia Mangan

Z Is For Zabriskie Grimoire – Mark West

The book is available, in print and digital editions, as follows:

Amazon UK 

Paperback 

Kindle

Amazon US 

Paperback

Kindle

CreateSpace eStore 

Paperback

My story features Mike Decker, who is hired to find the Zabriskie Grimoire, a “powerful text that allows the user to call up Lucifuge Rofocale, the devil himself.”

Decker, a hard-boiled character I loved writing, is an "acquirer" and this is how he describes himself: “I am an acquirer, a finder of items lost or hidden and although it’s an occasionally dirty job, I am well paid for it.  I take my job very seriously and I expect other people to do the same.  I once had a meeting with a dotcom hipster who compared me to a personal shopper and I’d broken his nose before he’d finished his first guffaw.”  I can imagine revisiting the character too, which is always a nice feeling to have.

It’s a dark, grim tale that takes you somewhere nasty (and then gets worse) and was the first story I wrote following my heart attack in August 2014.  It’s location was based on places I saw (mainly in Ffestiniog) when we were on holiday in Wales and the bookshop (where most of the action takes place) is an amalgamation of some of the wonderful secondhand emporiums I’ve whiled away hours in.

I enjoyed writing this and, as ever, I'm pleased to be involved in such a great project.

First sale of the year!

The Three Investigators look into The Goblin Glass - detail from the 1975 Collins hardback First Edition,
artwork by Roger Hall

I've just heard back from Alex Davis, my editor, that the first short story I wrote this year has also become my first sale of the year.

"The Goblin Glass" is a nasty little piece, featuring a man broken by the credit crunch and life in general, breaking into a house to steal the eponymous mirror.  What he finds isn't what he expects, from the filthy environment, the old man who lives there or what happens upstairs.

I really enjoyed writing it and, unusually for me, it came together fairly quickly.  I had the basic plot by the end of my daily commute (the day Alex emailed me), that evening's walk (around Rothwell, listening to Jean Michel Jarre) gave me the structure, storyline and most of the ending.  The next nights walk gave me the opening, motivation and idea of the mirror and the next night gave me the ending.

As the picture above would suggest, I homaged The Goblin Glass from "The Secret Of The Haunted Mirror" by M. V. Carey (which I wrote about here), though the stories bear no other comparison.

I don't think the anthology has been announced yet, so I won't spoil the fun here, but it's a collection of ten stories and I'm chuffed to be involved and will be sure to tell you more as soon as I'm able.

Thanks to Ian Regan for the artwork (you can see more at his excellent Three Investigators Cover Art database here)

Wear It! Beat It! Support Heart Research

Six months ago this past Wednesday, the acid-reflux I thought I’d been suffering from all weekend was getting almost too much to bear and Alison convinced me to go to Keydoc to try and get some prescription ant-acid. The service at Keydoc was, frankly, terrible but the doctor did one good thing, in telling me to go to the hospital for a ‘blood test’. Kettering General A&E had no idea what to do with me but, thankfully, they were helpful, effective and very thorough and by 2am I was in the Coronary Care Unit. I went into theatre the next morning, had an angioplasty to fit a stent and was released later that day.

Six months - where did that time go? I was lucky, in that it wasn’t a massive heart attack and I received excellent medical attention, so I listened to the advice the nurses gave me and made changes in my life. All changes for the better I’m glad to say (the hospital were so pleased with my progress, in fact, they discharged me after three months), making me fitter, happier and a lot lighter than I was.

This, therefore, is obviously very close to my (ahem) heart...


The British Heart foundation was founded in 1961 by a group of medical professionals, who were concerned about the increasing death rate from cardiovascular disease. They wanted to fund extra research into the causes, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of heart and circulatory disease.

It is a major funder and authority in cardiovascular research, education and care, and relies predominantly on voluntary donations to meet its aims. In order to increase income and maximise the impact of its work, it also works with other organisations to combat premature death and disability from cardiovascular disease.

From my point of view, the BHF and its nurses were brilliant and the gym - run by Iona and her colleagues at Kettering General Hospital - was a great way of getting me back into exercise and giving me the confidence that I could push myself physically and wouldn't drop down dead if I did so.

My condition is called a NSTEMI, which is classified as "a shorthand medical term for non-ST segment elevation myocardial infarction" and a stent was fitted to combat a flow limiting coronary artery.

"Drive" - free ebook (for a limited period)

Chris Teague, head honcho at Pendragon Press, has decided to make my novella "Drive" free to download (across ebook platforms) for today and tomorrow only.

So if you were waiting for a chance to read what Peter Tennant, in Black Static, called "a finely tuned tale that delivers all the thrills it says on the tin" (and a novella he included in his annual round-up of the year), here's your chance!

Download the Kindle ebook from Amazon UK here

Download the Kindle ebook from Amazon USA here

Download the Kindle ebook from Amazon Australia here

“Drive takes you for a journey down the darkest alleyways of human savagery.  

A fast paced, high tension thriller that delivers on all fronts....”

- Jim Mcleod, The Ginger Nuts Of Horror

"Drive is a gripping, tense urban noir with prose as tight as a snare drum..."
- Paul D. Brazill, Guns Of Brixton.

“Mark West writes the kind of fiction that gets under the skin where it lies dormant until you turn out the lights ...”

- Dave Jeffery, author of the Necropolis Rising series

"A crowd pleaser, a horror story set in the urban landscape and tapping into our fears of what could so easily go wrong in this setting, a finely tuned tale that delivers all the thrills it says on the tin..."
- Peter Tennant, Black Static magazine

Did I mention it was free...?

More information can be found at the dedicated "Drive" page on this link

King For A Year

Last April, I wrote a blog post called "From Little Acorns..." talking about a new project I was putting together.  At the time, Stephen King had been on my mind for a few weeks and I was having a Facebook discussion with Ross Warren, Anthony Cowin, Andrew Murray and Alison Littlewood and we started talking about our personal top 10 favourite King books.  Then I posted this...

Here's an idea - Ross, Anthony, Andrew, Alison - how about next year, we declare it a Stephen King year. Twelve of us, we each pick one book and then blog a review/essay on it and link back to each others blog.  What do you think?

They all thought it was a good idea, more and more people wanted to get involved, Ross suggested we set up a dedicated blog for it and Willie Meikle gave us the perfect title with "King For A Year".

Alison later tweeted me "from little acorns..." and the blog continued to pick up strength as 2014 wore on and last week, I filled the final - 52nd - slot which will be Dan Howarth writing about "Everything's Eventual".

The third review - Jenny Barber on "The Dark Tower VII" - was published today, following well received entries from Anthony Cowin (on "The Shining") and Stephen Bacon on the "Night Shift" collection.

For those who haven't checked out the blog yet, it has a very simple concept - the writer picks their favourite  King book (novel, novella, whatever) and writes a review of it.  52 writers, 52 reviews, all posted during 2015.

I haven't read any beyond the end of January (most - including my own review, of "Pet Sematary" - haven't been written yet) but I like what I've seen so far and I think there'll be plenty to entertain people over the year.

So if you're a King fan, enjoy his books (or like the writing of particular reviewers), I hope you'll dip in and see what people have to say.  Most of all, I hope the blog entertains you.

To whet your appetite, here's the list of confirmed reviewers:

Anthony Cowin, Stephen Bacon and Jenny Barber (all now published)
Wayne Parkin, Matthew Craig, Neil Williams, Donna Bond, Mihai Adascalitei, Willie Meikle, Dean M. Drinkel, Maura McHugh, Gary McMahon, Kevin Bufton, James Everington, Selina Lock, Kit Power, Rowan Coleman, Adele Wearing, John Llewellyn Probert, Lynda E. Rucker, Shaun Hamilton, Mark West, Kim Talbot Hoelzli, David T. Wilbanks, Jay Eales, Nadine Holmes, Thana Niveau, Alison Littlewood, Phil Sloman, Dave Jeffery, Steven Savile, Ray Cluley, Johnny Mains, Sharon Ring, Liz Barnsley, Jim Mcleod, James Bennett, Christian Saunders, Frazer Lee, Carole Johnstone, Andrew Murray, Cate Gardner, Conrad Williams, Robert Mammone, Ross Warren, Sheri White, Robert Spalding, Colin F. Barnes, Simon Bestwick, Charlene Cocrane, Edward Lorn, Dan Howarth


Check out the blog at this link

Random Happiness...

Post-Christmas, it's been chilly in England and Dude & I have made the most of it, exploring the winter wonderland of the Rec and Mounts.  Last weekend, he was thrilled to discover that some of the puddles there had frozen over and he had a fine old time, walking on the ice and breaking bits of it up with a stick.  I remember doing the same thing when I was a kid but this time - not wanting to slip on the ice (blimey, how old am I?) - I stood off to the side, watching him and it was great to vicariously enjoy his delight.

* * *
As regular readers of this blog will know, I value my friendships.  This week, there was a programme on BBC Radio 2 that featured Sir Roger Moore (one of my all-time heroes, as if you needed reminding) and I was touched by the fact that several people contacted me to let me know.

Equally heartening was the picture my friend Gard Goldsmith posted to Facebook, featuring himself pointing at a box of Mark West wine (yep, it's a real thing).

* * *
I got an email this week from an editor, inviting me to appear in a themed anthology he was putting together.  That's always a very nice thing to have happen and, since I intend to do a lot more writing this year than I did last year, I chose my element of the theme, thanked him profusely and then thought 'oh bugger, what if I can't think of a story?'

Almost as soon as I thought that, I got an initial image that steadily grew during the day and when I went out for my evening walk - bundled up against the cold, Jarre pounding through my headphones - the whole thing slotted together nicely over the 3 miles.  It's always lovely when that happens (I wish it did more often, truth be told), let's hope it translates to the page as well.

* * *
"Drive" continues to pick up good notices and mentions in Year End Reviews, which makes me very happy indeed.  I'm keeping the section in My Creative Year post updated with the news.

Movie miniatures, by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM)

As regular readers will know (from my previous miniatures post here, as well as other behind-the-scenes film posts which can be found here, here (about Return of the Jedi), here, here and here), I am fascinated by movie miniatures and how they can trick the viewer into completely believing the world the film-maker presents to them.

When I wrote my first miniatures post, I didn't want to talk about the ILM work on "Star Wars" as it's been so well documented in the past (though I couldn't resist one) but having enjoyed the process of researching and writing it, I realised I couldn't ignore ILM in this area.  So here then are some fantastic examples of miniature magic (most of which come from the 80s).

original ILM logo

Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) was founded in 1975 by George Lucas to produce the special effects shots for "Star Wars", since the major studios had closed their departments down.  Originally in Van Nuys, California, it moved to San Rafael during pre-production on "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) in 1978 before moving to the Letterman Digital Arts Center in the Presidio of San Francisco in 2005.  By this time, ILM was almost completely digital, having sold off its miniatures department - renamed the Kerner Optical company (after the building it was housed in) - though they continued a working relationship before Kerner went bankrupt.

ILM has won 15 Academy Awards (nominated 29 times) and 15 BAFTAs (nominated 17 times).

E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (1982, directed by Steven Spielberg)
Dennis Muren - visual effects supervisor

E.T.'s ship lands in the forest clearing

Poltergeist (1982, directed by Tobe Hooper)
Richard Edlund - visual effects supervisor

Building the Freeling's house, as used in the climax of the film

Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom (1984, directed by Steven Spielberg)
Dennis Muren - visual effects supervisor
Although some of the mine car sequence was shot full-size, the scope required by the film dictated it use miniatures.  Working backwards, from deciding the camera size (they used a regular Nikon still camera, adapted to shoot celluloid), Muren realised they could make the sets not only very small but also very cheaply - all of the rock formations are created by painting aluminium foil.

Putting together the set

Left - the converted Nikon and the miniature mine-cart
Right - Tom St. Amand stop-motion animates Indy, Willie and Short Round

Top - frame from the film, as Indy, Willie and Short Round investigate the caves (nicknamed the Jaws shot, for obvious reasons)
Bottom - combining a Frank Ordaz matte painting with a foreground miniature

Back To The Future (1985, directed by Robert Zemeckis)
Ken Ralston - visual effects supervisor

Steve Gawley (left) model-shop supervisor and Ira Keeler, with the miniature DeLorean used in the end sequence

Always (1989, directed by Steven Spielberg)
Bruce Nicholson - visual effects supervisor

Most of the aerial work and all of the fire effects were done in miniature.  Check out the camera car, something of an ILM stalwart!

Back To The Future 3 (1990, directed by Robert Zemeckis)
Scott Farrar - visual effects supervisor

Whilst the train sequences with the actors were filmed on full-sized props, most of the work was completed with miniatures.  And good use was made of the ILM car!

Star Wars: Special Edition (1997, directed by George Lucas)
visual effects supervised by John Dykstra (original credit)

Okay, so I couldn't resist one "Star Wars" entry...

Lorne Peterson brushes up the Sandcrawler miniature, re-furbished for the special edition

 And to finish (for now), here's George Lucas posing with some of the miniatures created for the original "Star Wars" trilogy, housed in the Lucasfilm Archives (c. 1983)

My Creative Year 2014

Making a tradition of something I started last year, here’s a look back at 2014 from a creative standpoint (and yes, it might be a bit self-indulgent but this is, after all, my blog…)

During 2014 I wrote 5 short stories, a novel pitch, a load of book reviews, created some book covers and trailers (via Rude Dude Films) and wrote a dozen or more essays/articles for this blog.  I also suffered a heart attack, which put paid to my creativity through the summer (we now refer to it in our house as being my “Fall Guy Summer”, since Dude & I worked our way through the first two series of that early 80s TV show whilst I recuperated).

I had 2 short stories published:
* The Ilizarov Apparatus in Voices From A Coma #1, edited by Shaun Hamilton from Imaginalis Publishing
* Rhytiphobia in Phobophobias, edited by Dean M. Drinkel, from Western Legends Publishing

My novella Drive was published in print and digital editions by Pendragon Press and is available from Amazon.  Thankfully, it was very well received (including an excellent review in Black Static).

The Bureau Of Lost Children, which appeared in last year’s ill at ease 2, received an Honorable mention from Ellen Datlow.

My novel pitch for “The Witch House” was rejected and I was gutted.  However, I’m pleased to say that I’m back working on it now.

* * *
James Everington included "The City In The Rain" and "A Quiet Weekend Away" (both from my collection Strange Tales) in his Favourite Short Stories of 2014 round-up.

Kit Power, in his "What Kind Of A Year Has It Been?" round-up, awarded "Drive" an honorable mention in the Novella Of The Year category (which was won by Stephen Volk's masterpiece "Whitstable", itself my top read in 2012).  He said "Recommended as a one sit read, this one grabs you by the scruff and drags you though the intense narrative at a breathless pace."

Jim Mcleod at The Ginger Nuts Of Horror included "Drive" in his annual "Best Horror Of 2014" post, saying "While this is strictly not horror, Drive...is still a brilliant tense and fast paced story of urban horror."

Matthew Fryer at Welcome To The Hellforge included "Drive" as one of his three top novellas 'that linger...' and says "A true edge-of-your-seat cinematic experience that doesn’t let you pause for breath."

Anthony Watson, in his annual "Dark Musings" round-up included "Drive" in his novellas category with "a tense, white-knuckle chase through darkened streets that will keep you gripped to the last page."

Peter Tennant, at Black Static, included "Drive" in his annual "Best In Class - 2014" round-up

* * *
I attended two great Cons this year, the first was Edge-Lit 3 in July, held at The Quad in Derby (full report here) and FantasyCon in September, held at The Royal York Hotel (full report here).  In addition, I was also involved in the Fox Spirit Writers Evening in November, held at Leicester Central Library (full report here).

top - at FantasyCon with Steven Chapman, Phil Sloman, Jim Mcleod, me, Sue Moorcroft, Neil Williams and Chris Teague
bottom - The Edge-Lit gang, aka The Derby Dhansak Daredevils with James Everington, Richard Farren Barber, Ross Warren, Chris Teague, John Travis, me, Paul M. Feeney and Steve Harris

* * *
Creatively speaking, 2014 hasn’t been bad at all, from the wonderful acclaim that Drive has attracted, the great projects and collaborators I’ve been involved with and the terrific Cons I’ve attended, though it was all tempered somewhat by my cardiac episode and the novel rejection.  Thankfully, 2015 is shaping up quite nicely with four short stories due for publication (as I write this) along with The Lost Film novellas (with Stephen Bacon) finally seeing the light of day and, as I mentioned before, I’m back working on the novel.

So all in all, a pretty good year and I’m feeling optimistic about 2015.  Thank you for your support in 2014, especially to those who bought, read and liked my work - I really do appreciate it.