So, the monstrous Editing Helm has been clamped to my head again, and as the rusted spikes dig in, here are three separate projects which are looking for submissions of weird and horror fiction: occult investigators, Edwardian weird, and strange tales of Europe during the Second World War. More about those in a moment.
This last twelve months has been a bit of a pain, literally, with more than one bout of COVID, then a long stretch of gastroenteritis, bronchitis, serious dental trouble — and a heart attack. Yet despite becoming a medical dictionary, I seem to be stumbling on. After all, I have Biscuit, our young and demanding Staffie-cross to think of, and a lot of vegetables to sow.
a Biscuit!
Meanwhile, in the odd world of writing and lag-time, I do have quite a lot of new fiction which I hope will be out this year, including:
THE BEASTS OF KEMBERDALE — Folk horror, another tale of Justin Margrave, my long-suffering gay art critic from the 1970s.
THE CITIES WE ONCE KNEW — Weirdness in the late 1920s, when a strugglingexplorer goes deep into the Brazilian Amazon in search of Percy Fawcett, who disappeared whilst seeking the legendary lost city of ‘Z’.
DECEMBER’S CHILDREN— More weirdness in a story of that peculiar, isolated hotel on the North Sea cliffs, the Langton.
THE SMOKE MARKET — Margrave again, this time amongst the Amazigh (Berber) women of Morocco, and a strange encounter in seventies Marrakesh.
A PROMISE OF BLADES— Catherine Weatherhead/Madame Rostov, from my novel The Assassin’s Coin, comes into reluctant contact with Mr Sherlock Holmes, as a dead artist and a Tarot pack are linked to a series of murders.
AT THE HOUR OF OUR DEATH — A Lovecraft-adjacent murder mystery set in 1930s Cambridge, with two very unusual investigators, deception and tragedy.
THE FOUR DETECTIVES — The sequel to a classic Father Brown story, involving, well – four detectives, in the end. And a wanderer from his usual Baker Street haunt may be one of them…
I’m pleased to say that the first of the above, ‘The Beasts of Kemberdale’ is in the forthcoming Lonely Hollows folk-horror anthology from Pavane Press, edited by Cliff Biggers and Charles R Rutledge — which is available for Kindle pre-order right now, and will also be in PB. And that cool cover may <cough> be related to my story.
A whole MARGRAVE collection is also in the works from another publisher, with additional unpublished stories being finalised right now. A blend of folk horror, weird fiction and supernatural horror themes, as the debonair, wine-loving ‘much put-upon old queen’ (his words) gets drawn into the most peculiar situations.
OPEN FOR BUSINESS
Now, a reminder of those open calls for submissions. I’m not exactly sure that I’m a horror writer myself; I like the mysterious and the inexplicable, tales which make you question some things — or doubt everything. When editing, I don’t tend to look for classic monster tropes. Werewolves are often so yesterday, vampires are rather overdone, and zombies dull or mishandled (but I can be surprised, of course). Mythic monstrosities from folklore and early cultures are a bit more appealing — better Hammurabi and ruined Babylon than Hammer Horror.
I’m not generally interested in there being lots of blood and hacking people up, unless there’s a more interesting thought behind it all. I can enjoy Mythos-adjacent works, but prefer subtlety, not caring overmuch for cthulhus lumbering around the house and tentacles cluttering the place up. I have enough vacuuming to do already. Kaiju leave me… kold.
What does excite me? Strange stories which get under your skin, literally or figuratively — characters with depth, settings with hints of menace, and ‘monsters’ (if used at all) which make you think and challenge existing approaches. The Normal subverted, or intruded upon; the Ab-Natural scratching at the back of your mind. The terms weird fiction, magical realism and folk horror all apply.
And I’m currently seeking cool stories for all three of the following…
1) ALONE ON THE BORDERLAND: Tales of Edwardian Dread is open until 30 JUNE 2023. An anthology of new weird fiction set between 1901 and 1919 – from the death of Queen Victoria to the immediate aftermath of the Great War and the Spanish Influenza epidemic. For Belanger Books.
2) A DARKER CONTINENT: Strange Tales of Europe at War is open until 31 AUGUST 2023. An anthology of weird and peculiar fiction set anywhere in Europe from 1938-1946, considering the impact and experiences of war on the people — soldiers or not — who had to deal with those dark times. For Belanger Books.
In both of these cases, preference is for weird fiction rather than straight horror — for disquiet, unease, and a questioning of the world we thought we knew (or the people we thought we were). Full guidelines for both are available here:http://greydogtales.com/blog/new-anthologies-of-the-weird/
3) OCCULT DETECTIVE MAGAZINE is open again, until 1ST AUGUST 2023. As usual, I and Dave Brzeski (the publisher) are seeking intriguing tales of those who investigate or explore the strange and unusual, be the circumstances paranormal, supernatural, occult horror, or just simply very odd. For this one, any and every period is open to be plundered — we’ve already published stories set in Roman, pre-Columbian and future times. For Cathaven Press.
Armoured Siberian trains, Portuguese madmen, and depressed American academics — today we review three new books to hit a range of audiences — two novels and a novella by Rhys Hughes, John Guy Collick, and Polly Schattel respectively.
As Banjo and Alexandra bicker, Perceval gets borne along by the tides, and Hetta grows resentful, we find intriguing protagonists, but, well, perhaps not exactly heroes. Not always, anyway…
The Star Tsar
First of all, here’s a novel which may surprise you. The Star Tsar appears, at first, to be offering an ‘alternate history’ tale involving the defeat of the White Russians in the far east of Russia, 1923, intermingled with the sort of folk-horror found around such figures as Baba Yaga and Koschei the Deathless. Monstrous factories, looming woods, freezing terrain, brutality and gigantic trains-of-war on endless rails; Banjo, a British soldier abandoned by the retreating forces, and two Red Russian women, Alexandra and Ekaterina, on the hunt for an unfaithful lover — one out of duty, one with both malice and romance in mind.
However, weaving in and out of the story are references to the only book the British chap has with him — Edgar Rice Burroughs ‘Princess of Mars’ — which is his sole comfort. And this battered volume proves to be both a clue and a wry nod to the larger plot of John Guy Collick’s novel. It’s a little hard to review the work without spoilers, but the planet Mars does eventually play a part in what turns out to be a helter skelter struggle to survive for Banjo and the two Russians. Ekaterina is a drug-addicted singer and a touch lunatic; Alexandra is an earnest politico-scientist who believes in the Red cause:
“Once we educate the people in the liberating ideals of Soviet science they’ll break the chains of ignorance by themselves,” she said.
The fractious, adversarial relationship between the cynical, plebeian Banjo and the idealistic Katerina forms the core of the narrative, as they face weary treks, monstrosities, betrayal, horrendous conditions beneath and inside forbidding mountains, and science beyond anything either of them could have dreamed of:
The glass-sided cabinet stood on three rubber tired wheels with thin steel spokes. Articulated arms like parts of a dentist’s drill stuck out at random intervals from the lower half of the case, which looked as if it was moulded out of Bakelite reinforced with copper strips. Alexandra read the number 339 in faded script on the plastic. Oily liquid filled the inside of the iron-framed tank, staining the corpse a greasy yellow. The corpse was bald and thankfully her eyes were closed, turning her into the grotesque echo of a sleeping baby. Her forearms ended in metal and canvas sheaths curving into the bottom of the artefact. More tubes snaked from the side of her skull, neck and from underneath her breasts. Shreds of skin, peeled loose by time, decay or mishandling, floated in the preservative.
As Banjo struggles simply to survive and Alexandra has many of her ideals stripped away, we are teased with the vaster implications of what they encounter. Collick’s descriptive powers, his attention to historical detail, and his interweaving of bizarre and diverse elements all stand the reader in good stead. An intelligent speculative romp with an unusual setting, this is Book One of a planned series. We look forward to Book Two…
Rhys Hughes is a curious beast. Hugely inventive, he straddles lines of magical realism, classicism, parody, and whimsy, and we confess we’re not always sure what to make of his work. The Wistful Wanderings of Perceval Pitthelm is a fine example of his non-genre explorations — a book-length meditation on the nature of saudade (Portuguese: “an emotional state of melancholic or profoundly nostalgic longing for a beloved yet absent something or someone”), a satisfactorily bizarre adventure novel, and a complex construct of unlikelihoods, which also weaves a few true histories into its web.
Perceval Pitthelm, its ‘hero’, is an English adventure novelist who moves to Portugal to provide the tranquillity he needs for his work — and there encounters a rather peculiar house. Everything pretty much springs from that, and involves continent-hopping (literally) and various ‘Arabian Nights’ sub-tales, all of which have bearing on Pitthelm’s progress. In Portugal he meets the house’s owner, Old Rogerio, who tells him of certain incidents in colonial Eastern Africa…
“It goes without saying (remarked Old Rogerio) that our situation had an adverse psychological effect on the inhabitants of Kionga. People began to argue, to fall in love inappropriately, to cheat at cards, to wear clothes made from dried cod or fruit skins, to part their hair differently, to shave under their arms, to mix white and red wines, to learn foreign languages.”
The protagonist’s name may itself be a complex joke. Wagner chose a discredited origin for the name Parsifal (the title of his 1882 opera) as being from Persian for ‘pure fool’; in the Twelfth Century, Chrétien de Troyes had Perceval (‘Vale-piercer?’) as a hero of the Arthurian search for the Holy Grail, a hero who has to prove his worthiness. And ‘Pitthelm’ immediately brings to mind the pith helmet of classic ‘Empire’ adventure stories.
The book is also in the grand tradition of the absurd. Hughes’s style is part of the book’s charm — both wise and naive. You feel that if horse-drawn carriages carrying the notebooks of Rabelais, Cervantes, Jerome K Jerome, Borges, and Flann O’Brien were to have collided in some crowded market town, the resultant flutter of papers might have inspired this piece. With a touch of the unreliable travel writing of Sir John Mandeville and a few others. And the absurdity of the main story is reflected in a ‘review’ of the other books of Perceval Pitthelm at the end of the book, a review which seems laced with Hughes’ own autobiographical murmurings on life, writing, reviews and critics. To make matters worse, we kept being reminded of Sterne’s The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman.
With a beautiful Fado singer who has artificial organs, a vengeful Muslim inventor, cheek trees, and a rogue Brazilian submarine along the lines of the Nautilus, The Wistful Wanderings of Perceval Pitthelm is an at times wise, at times ludicrous, book, which is basically… immensely readable, and enjoyable. We have no idea where it would be shelved in a bookshop though. None at all.
The Wistful Wanderings of Perceval Pitthelm is available for pre-order and will be released in Kindle format on 23rd March:
Finally, quick mention of a new novella by Polly Schattel, author of the novel The Occultists and Shadowdays. 8:59:29 is an entirely different piece of work from those, a contemporary horror story set in a small college, where a struggling adjunct professor in Film Studies decides to seek an unexpected way out of her problems. Hetta, the academic in question, is not without her flaws, and not even always a totally sympathetic character, though she is very human; rather than do something constructive about her tenuous career, she decides to focus her various resentments on her superior.
And so, when a disaffected ex-student, Tanner, comes up with a novel way to create a short video which could make a difference, she takes it on board with the confused enthusiasm of a woman who can’t think of what the heck else to do. Of course, after going through many options, they decide to make a horror movie…
Becoming absorbed in their film project, which is either utterly pointless or highly dangerous, Hetta eventually finds that — as with all classic deals — you rarely get what you wish for in the way you wanted it. Especially if you rely on obscure rituals from the Internet. A quick, crisply-written read for the horror enthusiasts, with some intriguing film-making lore along the way.
8:59:29 is available now in Kindle format and paperback:
All today’s reviews were written by an unreliable old man and his dog, so can be taken either as wise gospel or the ramblings of mad folk. The old man’s latest collection (with very little dog in it) is here:
AVAILABLE NOW THROUGH AMAZON UK & US, AND THROUGH THE PUBLISHER, JOURNALSTONE
Today, in a desperate attempt to look like we know what’s going on in weird and horror fiction, we are relieved to have guest reviewer Dave Brzeski with us to cover a range of slimmer book releases. So we will hand you over immediately, and scurry off to find out what we did with all those other books we were sent…
SIZE ISN’T EVERYTHING
Reviews by Dave Brzeski
My favourite format to read these days tends to be the novella. They’re long enough to get your teeth into, but not so long that you can’t finish them in one, or two sittings. Having said that, reviewing them does have its issues. It’s much more difficult to find a lot to say about a novella, especially what the story is about, without risking spoilers. Some of the books below are very new; some not so much (I can’t deny that the older ones may well have been books I picked up to review when they came out, but simply didn’t manage to get to at the time).
Title: THE PICK (2021)
Author: Scott MacKillican – Illustrated by Mutartis Boswell
Publisher: Backwaters Press
Format: Paperback
I have to confess that it was the illustrator, not the author that drew me to this slim volume. I’ve worked with Paul ‘Mutartis’ Boswell in the past, and he kindly sent me a copy of this signed, limited edition paperback for review, since he is also the publisher.
I’d not come across MacKillican before, and the only other story of his I’ve managed to track down so far is another, now out of print, illustrated slim volume from Backwaters Press.
The story is very much in the folk horror subgenre. It tells the misadventures of three lads, Adam, Dave and Steve, as they take a trip to Wales, where they know of a really good place to pick magic mushrooms – which they plan on selling to keep themselves in their happy, stoner lifestyle for a good while. As is the way of these things, they encounter a fairly weird old hippy in a pub who, out of the kindness in his heart, tips them off to a place where the pickings will be richer than they have ever dreamed of. Spoiler: This does not end well!
c. Mutartis Boswell 2023
It would be remiss of me if I failed to give some warnings here. Yes, it’s folk horror, with a bit of a Lovecraftian feel, but it’s also extreme horror, which trips over into body horror. If you don’t have a fairly strong stomach, you may want to leave it alone. I’m not generally a huge fan of the stomach turning stuff myself, but I did really enjoy this story, and would certainly read more by MacKillican.
There are a lot of illustrations by Boswell, and they are of a very high standard indeed. I suspect that the story may have been more in service of the art than vice versa, but that’s to be expected when the artist is much better known than the author. The book itself is a beautiful thing, printed on heavy stock throughout. This is also in service of the art, obviously, but it did come with some minor problems. The text does come a little too close to the gutter, making it slightly difficult to hold the book open enough to read comfortably with pages that do not bend easily. A nice bonus is that you get a high quality A5 print of one of the best illustrations in the book.
c. Mutartis Boswell 2023
I should also mention that it’s limited to just 100 copies, and I doubt there’s very many left, albeit the publisher does still have it available at time of writing.
I first became aware of this one when it was mentioned on one of Thomas Wagner’s Monday Mailbag videos that he posts as SFF180 on YouTube. The blurb intrigued me, and since I had already decided to put together a collection of reviews of shorter work, I contacted the publisher for a review copy.
I’m so glad I did, as this one is a bit special in a number of ways. Firstly, it’s literary in a way that recalls past writers, such as Algernon Blackwood, but it combines this beautiful prose (which I must stress for those who are turned off by the word ‘literary’ is very easy to read) with a very disturbing story, which could also be described as extreme, or body horror. As I said above, I myself, am not a fan of the gross-out type of horror, but I make a very definite exception for this remarkable book. Not a single word here is in any way gratuitous. It’s all necessary to the story Ruthnum is telling.
Literary horror… body horror… this is also very much weird fiction. Louise Wilk is looking after her husband, Edward, who is suffering from a very nasty wasting disease that some doctors have wrongly diagnosed as syphilis. Those doctors who accept that he doesn’t have syphilis, and can’t offer an alternative diagnosis, simply say they don’t know and run away.
Edward is not a good husband. He’s an incurable sex addict who is constantly seeking out new thrills outside of his marital bed. His wife is aware of this, knows that nothing will change his nature, and loves him anyway. The sheer horror in the way his body is failing him would be enough to drive away any wife, irrespective of how faithful their husband was, but Louise is a devoted nurse to the end. Edward knows that it was one of his sexual encounters that led to his current condition… and he knows that ‘she’ will eventually come for him, to take back what was left inside him.
From there it just gets weirder. Very highly recommended.
Title: THE DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD: A TALE OF THE FALLEN HERO (2023)
Author: Ian Whates
Publisher: NewCon Press
Format: Paperback, hardback
“Fantasy / Grimdark / Sword and Sorcery” is the claim made on the back cover, and it’s pretty accurate. The unnamed hero (anti-hero?) of this short novella doesn’t know much about sorcery, and pretty much doesn’t believe in it… albeit he has a suspicion that the leader of his former band of swords for hire could have had some sort of supernatural charm, which might explain his success with the ladies. Apart from that, the story involves a very rare, supposedly magical gem, but no real evidence is offered to support that supposition.
In some ways, the protagonist reminds me of Robert E. Howard’s Conan, in that he’s something of a cynical pragmatist — he’s neither bad, nor good, just a fighting man who does whatever is necessary to ensure his survival.
The first chapter was originally published in Afterburn SF in 2006, and while it does work as a stand alone story, with a satisfying ending, it also works very well as the opening chapter in a continuing saga, albeit this expanded version still only runs to 72 pages of story.
It’s told with a wry humour that makes it a true pleasure to read, and while the ending is very satisfactory, it leaves the reader wanting more. There are enough hints of future possibilities that I feel almost sure Whates will feed that desire at some point.
Let me begin by stating that I am a huge fan of Simon Avery’s work. I first came across him, when he submitted a story to Occult Detective Quarterly #4, which I really liked, and it seemed he’d written connected stories which had appeared in Black Static, that I immediately went in search of. I even went to the effort of bringing his name up in an email to one of the best UK independent publishers, as someone they should watch. They haven’t snapped him up as yet, which is something Black Shuck Books has reason to be grateful for…
Sorrowmouth is frankly an amazing piece of work. I know nothing of Avery’s personal life, but it seems evident to me that he knows much of emotional suffering. Underhill certainly knows all about such things – having survived an abusive father, and the suicide of his mother. Now, he is accompanied wherever he goes by Sorrowmouth, a thing that took its shape from a William Blake painting – The Ghost of a Flea.
Avery states, on the back cover, that this novella was pulled together from several separate ideas in his notebook, when he realised that they actually shared common ground. He goes on to admit that all these disparate elements were actually about him looking for some truths about his own life, and that of people he has known. It certainly makes for a powerful, and moving piece of work.
In lesser hands the creature, Sorrowmouth, would have been the instigator of his problems, the cause, but we, and he gradually discover the truth.
Very highly recommended with one caveat… it may well make you cry.
EDITOR’S NOTE: We’re pleased to add that more of Simon Avery’s work will be one of the main features in Occult Detective Magazine #10, with a brand new 12,000 word novelette. Due this Summer!
Title: A SMALL THING FOR YOLANDA (2020)
Author: Jan Edwards
Publisher: Alchemy Press
Format: Paperback
This short novella (just under 80 pages) was originally published by Lycopolis Press in 2018, in Into the Night Eternal: Tales of French Folk Horror, an anthology of four novellas. For this reason, this Alchemy Press novella is marked as the second edition, albeit it is the first in this standalone format.
Set in Paris, the story involves Laeticia Toureaux, an Italian ex-pat widow to a French husband, who occasionally performs dubious information gathering jobs for the French authorities under her nom-de-plume of Yolanda. These jobs usually entail getting ‘close’ to various men, to extract information.
Her handler, Georges Rouffignac, of Agence Rouff, has a job for her, but the men she’ll be working for will not tell her exactly what they are trying to find out. Coupled with the feeling that she has been followed, this does not fill her with enthusiasm, but the money is very good. It’s not long before she’s not so sure it’s anywhere near good enough!
Yolanda is an entertaining character, and I soon found myself caught up in the story, as it goes from one bad situation to worse. From the date, it’s not unexpected that Nazis are involved, and the original anthology title gives away the supernatural element. It’s a fun short read, and it left me hoping for more tales of Yolanda, and Agence Rouff.
Finally for this session, a slim collection which seemed to fit the review theme:
Title: STONE BABY AND OTHER STRANGE TALES (2021)
Author: Nikki Nelson-Hicks
Publisher: Third Crow Press
Format: Paperback, ebook
This entire book runs to just 114 pages, but includes a dozen short stories, so none are long ones, and it opens with ‘Coon Hunt’, which at just under three pages is one of the shortest. This was something of a lesson for me that I should not read ‘just one more story’ very late at night, when I am way too tired to read much of anything. It wasn’t until I reread it a couple of days later that it made sense. Some words have more than one meaning… Clever.
‘Clever’ is a word that came up again, when I read, ‘A Very Good Year’. Fifty year old Jackie decides to follow up on the invitation for a luxurious spa treatment that arrived, unbidden in her mailbox. The innocent phrase, ‘It’s going to be a bumper crop this year’ soon takes on a more insidious meaning.
‘The Tipping Point’ tells the story of Shane – a gay single father. His partner bailed after deciding he didn’t want to be doing with all that parenthood nonsense after all. Shane fell apart after that. He started drinking for a while, was forced to move to a much less comfortable house with his son, Kyle. He has a job interview… a really good opportunity, but having ruled out his waste-of-space wreck of a homophobic mother, he’s out of options for a babysitter. All of which becomes moot when he finds out why Kyle always wants to sleep in his bed. This is a really good variant on the thing under the bed (in the closet in this case) trope that really should have been considered for a ‘Best Horror of the Year’ anthology.
The high quality, and originality continues with, ‘The Cleaner’, a very different look at a haunted house (in that the house has already been burned to the ground at the beginning of the story). It’s presented as a sort of one-sided conversation with the Cleaner’s client, after the fact. I’m a little disappointed that this one wasn’t submitted to Occult Detective Magazine. There is potential, though, for more featuring the same unnamed protagonist.
‘Reginald’, is the second shortest tale in the book, being just a single line of text longer than ‘Coon Hunt’. A discussion on the subject of cross-breeding with animals, it can be added to my list of things that made me go ‘hmm.’… in a good way… I think.
In 1935 a man sits in a phone booth, his life ebbing away from gunshot wounds. If only his friend would call back. Many decades later, long after the phone booth is history, that return call still rings, in ‘The Unanswered Call’.
As if in answer to my prayers, ‘What the Armless Guy Said’ features the return of the nameless protagonist from ‘The Cleaner’, except he now has a name – Travis Dare. This time, he’s camped out in the wilderness, waiting for the ghost of a young hero – at least that’s what the papers called him – to show up. It’s another fun story, full of wry humour. I most definitely want to see more of this character.
There’s a theory that ghosts are actually psychic impressions that can be imprinted on a place, or an object when someone dies in particularly stressful circumstances. In ‘Thumb Drive’, Lanie tries to record a nice, sexy video to surprise her husband, Mark, while on his business trip, to make up for the fact that he wouldn’t let her come with him. He’d walked in on her, and laughed at her. She thought she’d turned the webcam off, but she’d only minimised it… and it kept recording.
‘The Answer Bell’ was, for me, the weakest tale in the book. It did, however, introduce us to another of Nikki Nelson-Hicks’ occult detective characters, one Todd ‘Ghoul’ Gould of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations: Occult Crime Division. Division is something of an overstatement, since Todd is the only agent. It’s a Cthulhu Mythos story, which would have been fairly obvious, even without the inclusion of Der Vermis Mysteriis, one of the well-known tomes of the mythos. It’s Mythos, so it doesn’t end well. It’s not bad, just not as good as the other stories in this book. I would like to read more about Mr Gould, though.
‘Stone Baby: A Southern Gothic Tryptych’ is the title story of this collection, and so my expectations were high. In his back cover quote, fellow author Paul Bishop describes Nikki Nelson-Hicks as “the |undisputed queen of the warped and the weird”. Nowhere is that claim more borne out than in this story. My initial thought on finishing it was, “Nikki, that’s just nasty. Bloody strange, but nasty!” Told from the viewpoint of three characters, it slides gradually into areas most author don’t realise exist, let alone go to.
The tone is lightened with the final story, ‘The Five Stages of Sleep’, which is presented as an apology from the monster under the bed. When he did what he did, which made his charge do what he did, which caused the poor guy to end up where he ended up, he was trying to be helpful, honestly he was.
I have worked with this author in the past, and edited a few of her stories, so my expectations were already quite high, but she genuinely surprised me here with the breadth of her imagination. I found myself appreciating her keeper husband, Brian, for the sacrifices he has made in keeping us all safe from what I now see as a clear, and present danger to all our immortal souls.
Next time… goodness knows. But we’re hoping to get back on schedule this month! In the meantime, why not indulge yourself with some classically-set mysteries and horrors, edited by JLG for Belanger Books and all available now…
Great excitement in the kennels, as we announce TWO new anthologies of weird fiction opening for submissions this year and due in 2024 from Belanger Books. Both are being edited by John Linwood Grant, whose previous editorial work for Belanger includes four volumes in the popular Sherlock Holmes & the Occult Detectives anthology series, and The Book of Carnacki.
The short version is that Alone on the Borderland: Tales of Edwardian Dread will open for submissions on 1 February 2023. A Darker Continent: Strange Tales of Europe at War will NOT open until 2 April 2023, and earlier submissions are unlikely to be read. Detailed guidelines for both are given in separate sections below. PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES CAREFULLY. They exist to encourage submissions which are already, to some degree or other, a fit with what we’re seeking in the final anthology, and thus to help you. If you follow them, you are FAR more likely to have your story shortlisted. If you don’t follow them, well, we did warn you…
ALONE ON THE BORDERLAND
Tales of Edwardian Dread
SUBMISSION PERIOD: 1 FEBRUARY 2023 – 30 JUNE 2023 inclusive. GMT.
CORE CONCEPT: An anthology of new weird and strange fiction set between 1901 and 1919 – from the death of Queen Victoria to the immediate aftermath of the Great War and the Spanish Influenza epidemic. Weird fiction is a mode of writing which includes the subversion of many standard tropes, or more imaginative interpretations, and has a strong psychological component, so please bear that in mind.
“There are millions and millions and millions… with their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness, all intertwined with our lives, and what we think and say and do. We don’t live alone. We are members of one body. We are responsible for each other. And I tell you that the time will soon come when, if men will not learn that lesson, then they well be taught it in fire and bloody and anguish.”
An Inspector Calls, J B Priestley (set in 1912)
SETTING: The broad Edwardian period was a time of huge changes in society, including developments in science, religion, psychiatry, suffrage, class roles, labour, and the nature of warfare. Consider desperate attempts to cling to outdated ‘Victorian’ values, or a blind rejection of change — even an eager embrace of new concepts, with worrying results. Consider the worm inside this last ‘summer’ apple of grand houses and disenfranchised masses in Britain; remember the industrialisation of Japan and the growing revolutions in Russia. Hint at war to come, if you wish, or explore the weird through a war which changed many societies forever (please note, though, this is NOT a book of war stories, just that the setting may be relevant for a few.) Stories may occur anywhere in the world as long as the events fall within this period — do not feel confined to Western Europe.
You might also find this short piece by Lucy Burgess relevant in terms of broad background:
APPROACH: In specifying ‘weird and strange fiction’, we are seeking stories which are disquieting and disturbing — tales of troubled minds and disjointed or illogical events. The psychological, the ab-natural, and even outright horror, but not blunt gore or shock horror. We are certainly interested in Cosmic Horror — the realisation that we are potentially insignificant in the cosmos, that our understanding of the world around us may be at best partially, and even entirely, wrong. Some aspects of Folk Horror — the insidious blend of landscape and isolation — may also work. Try to be original in your voice where possible, rather than employing simply pastiche.
As H P Lovecraft’s themes and the subsequently developed ‘Cthulhu Mythos’ are obviously a major element of weird fiction and Cosmic Horror in literary history, Mythos-adjacent stories are welcome, but we do NOT want stories simply of Mythos monsters raging around. References to or derivations from the Mythos, if used, should be subtle — go for mood and philosophic dread. Think more ‘The King in Yellow’, ‘The House on the Borderland’ and ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ than ‘Call of Cthulhu’, more Algernon Blackwood in weird ‘tone’ than August Derleth.
Subtle and insidious would be good watch-words. If you’re interested in matters Hodgsonian, which are relevant to the background of this anthology and to the roots of weird fiction, there’s a partial index of articles and snippets we’ve published here:
WHAT WE DON’T WANT: We do NOT want the usual vampires, zombies, werewolves, or tentacles and mad cultists, nor do we want simplistic period ghost stories. NO glorifications of war; no espousing Imperialism or colonialism. No steampunk, or alternative histories — twist the existing historical world to disturb us. Time travel will be a hard sell. No Sherlock Holmes or Thomas Carnacki for this particular volume, please. And absolutely NO Jack the Ripper sequels.
Sexual violence, violence against children and so on are out, unless you have an excellent contextual reason for alluding to them.
Personal Note: The editor has taken in rescue dogs for many years, and is unlikely to accept anything which includes serious on-stage harm occurring to dogs.
INCLUSIVITY: We actively encourage contributors from traditionally less-published backgrounds of any nature. Non-white characters and settings are very welcome, as are stories with LGBTQ+ characters, and those with differing levels of physical ability. If you are writing about Britain, for example, there were plenty of Black and other non-white people in the country during this period, working or studying, especially in the larger cities. And despite draconian official laws, there were plenty of people who were LGBTQ+. Whilst limited situational discrimination may occasionally be relevant in the context of the period – in order to reflect characters’ life histories and the prevailing social standards – sexism, homophobia, racism etc. in general will result in immediate rejection.
TECHNICAL STUFF: Stories should be between 5,000 and 10,000 words. These are FIRM LENGTHS. Use any standard 12 point font. Indents by style, NOT Tab or Space-bar. Submit in .doc or .odt format, attached to your email, not pasted in it. NO .pdfs, Google Docs links or anything like that. Brief cover note only — no need for bios or achievements – open with ‘Hi’ or ‘John’.
Submissions must have the subject line Borderland-Story title-Author’s name. You can trim your story title down if it’s rather long.
NO REPRINTS; simultaneous submissions aren’t ideal, but are acceptable if you must. Please inform us immediately if your story sells elsewhere.
If you do not think your submission got through, query the same email address. If you have had no response within a week, please contact John Linwood Grant on Messenger. Do NOT send stories to Belanger Books, as they would have to be re-routed, and may go astray.
PAYMENT: Authors shall receive a percentage of the Kickstarter net profits, a percentage of first year royalties (percentage determined by number of contributing authors), and a paperback copy of the anthology. Belanger Books have an excellent long-term track record with Kickstarters, and with decent remuneration for their writers. Publication of the final book is expected Spring 2024.
A DARKER CONTINENT: Strange Tales of Europe at War
SUBMISSION PERIOD: 2 APRIL 2023 – 31AUGUST 2023 inclusive. GMT.
CORE CONCEPT: An anthology of new, original weird and strange fiction set between 1938 and 1946 – from (and including) the Spanish Civil War to the immediate winding down of conflicts after World War Two. Weird fiction is a mode of writing which includes the subversion of many standard tropes, or more imaginative interpretations, and has a strong psychological component, so please bear that in mind.
SETTING: Geographically, stories should fall in the zone from Ireland to Russia, the Arctic Circle to the Mediterranean shores. Stories can be set during direct military conflicts or far from battle, where distant wars have local repercussions for society or individuals. We’re not looking for ‘war stories’ so much as stories set DURING the war across Europe and showing some awareness of its impact. This was a bleak time for most. Go inventive with this one, such as (a few throwaway illustrations):
Something unnatural walking through the fires of the London Blitz
German occupiers learning terror in an isolated Norwegian village
Dread and disquiet amongst the Free French in Tunisia
US troops lost in the Ardennes
Families in Britain sensing a wrongness about returnees
Torn loyalties and minds in Ireland
Horror in the snows of the Eastern Front
An Italian soldier dealing with fear by disassociating from reality
Balkan partisans trapped in the mountains
Communities trying to pretend that there is no war
APPROACH: Submissions could cover themes such as the intrusion of the ab-natural into the natural, the changing nature of society, and psychosocial issues at any level. Cosmic Horror is very relevant — explore the realisation that we are potentially insignificant in the cosmos, and that our understanding of the world around us may be at best partially, and even entirely, wrong. Mythos-rooted stories are possible, but should be subtle or different. Folk Horror stories, if affected by or affecting the wars, are also possible, as is dark Magical Realism. Submissions which focus only on the fighting itself are less likely to be of interest, unless the circumstances of combat are unusual and unnerving, or the participants themselves bring something disquieting to the events.
WHAT WE DON’T WANT: We do NOT want the usual vampires, zombies, werewolves, or tentacles and mad cultists, nor do we want simplistic ghost stories. NO gung ho war stories full of brave GIs battling horrid Nazis, ‘Boy’s Own’ battle tales, or glorifications of war; NO espousing Imperialism or colonialism; NO ‘Tom Clancy’ lists of weapon calibres or military specifications (unless your protagonist has become obsessed with them!). NO steampunk or alternative histories — twist the existing historical world to disturb us. Time travel will be a hard sell.
Sexual violence, violence against children and so on are out, unless you have a strong contextual reason for alluding to them.
Personal Note: The editor has taken in rescue dogs for many years, and is unlikely to accept anything which includes serious on-stage harm occurring to dogs.
INCLUSIVITY: We actively encourage contributors from traditionally less-published backgrounds of any nature. Non-white characters and settings are very welcome, as are stories with LGBTQ+ characters, and those with differing levels of physical ability. Remember, for example, that large numbers of Black, Asian sub-continent and North African personnel fought in Europe. Whilst limited situational discrimination may occasionally be relevant in the context of the period – in order to reflect characters’ life histories or period attitudes – sexism, homophobia, racism etc. in general will result in immediate rejection.
TECHNICAL STUFF: Stories should be between 5,000 and 10,000 words. These are FIRM LENGTHS. Use any standard 12 point font. Indents by style, NOT Tab or Space-bar. Submit in .doc or .odt format, attached to your email, not pasted in it. NO .pdfs, Google Docs links or anything like that. Brief cover note only — no need for bios or achievements – open with ‘Hi’ or ‘John’.
Submissions must have the subject line Darker Continent-Story title-Author’s name. If you do not adhere to this, we may misplace your submission. You can trim your story title down if it’s rather long.
NO reprints; simultaneous submissions aren’t ideal, but are acceptable if you must. Please inform us immediately if your story sells elsewhere.
If you do not think your submission got through, query the same email address. If you have had no response within a week, please contact John Linwood Grant on Messenger. Do NOT send stories to Belanger Books, as they would have to be re-routed, and may go astray.
PAYMENT: Authors shall receive a percentage of the Kickstarter net profits, a percentage of first year royalties (percentage determined by number of contributing authors), and a paperback copy of the anthology. Belanger Books have an excellent long-term track record with Kickstarters, and with decent remuneration for their writers. Publication of the final book is expected Fall 2024.
PHEW!
John Linwood Grant’s own recent second collection is Where All is Night, and Starless (Trepidatio). It’s not bad.
AVAILABLE NOW THROUGH AMAZON UK & US, AND THROUGH THE PUBLISHER, JOURNALSTONE
