In a tragic moment of weakness, more musings drawn from writing and editing, in case they might be of use or interest, especially to people just getting into the Dreadful Game (ie. writing). Last time we discussed the Covering Letter and the general form of the Submission. This time we ponder three different aspects of The Writing itself, which is bound to be more contentious. So I’ll stop there… no, it’s too late.
Are you young and ambitious? Then take heed. I had to ponder this week, and work out if anything I’d done in the last year was a Good Idea. Mainly because it’s been an entirely different year from the one before, when I wrote not a word. The garden is an utter disaster, the pond is a strange colour, and I still haven’t mended the toaster. And writing is to blame. Lots of writing, endless writing, and then the reading in between to find out what other people were writing, or to be able to interview them, have conversations which sounded even vaguely informed, and so on.
A sense of place is a wonderful thing when it comes to weird fiction and folk horror. A sense of plaice, on the other hand, is an underlying fear that flat-fish have developed an obsession with you. We’ll go with the first one today. Two contemporary authors who have done much to burrow into strange places are Matthew M Bartlett and Tom Breen, with their tales of Leeds, Massachusetts and Orford Parish respectively.
Continue reading Tag Team Horror: Matthew M Bartlett and Tom Breen Exposed!
The sullen, lead-coloured weight of the North Sea and the strangenesses of the Yorkshire Wolds still press on me every so often. And when it comes to writing there are at least three sides to every coin. So I have a number of strands when I write about the land of my largely miss-spent youth. Why you should care, I don’t know, but some people rather like the stuff, so what the heck – the pictures are nice, anyway…
