The Horror, the Horror

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.

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 struggling explorer 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.

lonely hollows pre-order uk

lonely hollows pre-order us

A whole MARGRAVE collection is also in the works from another publisher, with additional unpublished stories being finalised right now.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.

Full guidelines for this one are available here: http://greydogtales.com/blog/occult-detective-magazine/

Oh, and my last collection, Where All is Night, and Starless, ended up as a Shirley Jackson Award nominee, which was nice.