{"id":4105,"date":"2017-06-05T20:58:14","date_gmt":"2017-06-05T20:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/?p=4105"},"modified":"2017-08-22T12:00:20","modified_gmt":"2017-08-22T12:00:20","slug":"horror-linwood-tree-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/horror-linwood-tree-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Horror under the Linwood Tree Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Time for a quick projects update and to share some news of what’s to come. So in the next couple of days we’ll try to cover all the latest on Occult Detective Quarterly<\/em>, a forthcoming collection from Mr Linwood Grant – A Persistence of Geraniums<\/em>, the exciting ODQ Presents anthology, a further planned anthology of classic occult and psychic detectives, and more\u2026<\/p>\n

Linwood Nonsense<\/h1>\n

\"18817815_10154750981046491_481146435_o\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Let’s get a personal project out of the way first so we can move on\u00a0 \u2013 A Persistence of Geraniums<\/em>. I did writ enuff stories for a general collecshun, I did, too. But this isn’t it. This is fairly specific. It began as a chap-book centred on the titular story, and then got out of hand. Which happened because I realised that I had a range of peculiar tales which went together quite nicely, slightly separate from my main line of post-Carnacki and hoodoo stories. The latter follow a plan going into the 1930s so far; the collection is pure Edwardian.<\/p>\n

If you like strange and scary tales, this may suit you. It’s a sort of ‘Tales of the Last Edwardian’<\/em> branch line, a collection of John Linwood Grant’s<\/strong> tales of murder, madness, and sometimes the supernatural. The ‘sometimes’ is there because a few of the stories are ghost stories at heart, whilst others are tales of terrible crimes, including the work of Mr Edwin Dry, the so-called Deptford Assassin. Tales of loss, and occasional justice \u2013 of a sort. And it was nice to have an excuse to gather together the various stories and observations concerning the popular Mr Dry, as none of them have been in print before.<\/p>\n

In addition to Mr Dry, the collection includes two long, brand-new supernatural stories, notes on the period and the concepts, and has an introduction by Alan M Clark<\/strong>, a gifted writer who himself covers the late Victorian period on a regular basis. It also includes a very unusual Carnacki story, of which one reviewer kindly said:<\/p>\n

“…This is the first time I’ve read a true first person Carnacki tale. Not only does it succeed brilliantly but, for the first time, I got a sense of Carnacki himself as a fully developed character…”<\/em><\/p>\n

If that wasn’t enough, Paul ‘Mutartis’ Boswell<\/strong> provides not only a most excellent cover but perfectly nuanced interior illustrations as well. Interior design is by me, but you can’t win them all.<\/p>\n

\"contentsmock-1\"<\/a>A Persistence of Geraniums<\/em> should be out in print by the end of July, with luck, published by Electric Pentacle Press.<\/p>\n

Quarterly Occult Detecting<\/h1>\n

Down to business. Issue Two of Occult Detective Quarterly<\/em> is available to purchase now \u2013 and this time it’s on Amazon, to make availability and distribution easier. It’s a fantastic issue, and we’ve been really fortunate with both writers and artists again.<\/p>\n

\"ODQcov2final\"<\/a><\/p>\n

You can skip this chunk if you’ve already seen the contents list, but if you haven’t, check it out. Inside Issue Two, Steve Liskow<\/strong> brings us a Native American female cop on a nasty case, and Brandon Barrows<\/strong> conjures Carnacki the Ghost Finder, but this is a Carnacki early in his career\u2014and in Boston, USA. Kelly Harmon<\/strong> introduces us to a Catholic, demon-marked girl who takes down demons whilst having to work with a somewhat unusual ‘friend’, and Bruno Lombardi<\/strong> offers supernatural danger for two Fin de Siecle Parisian policemen.<\/p>\n

From Edward M Erdelac<\/strong> comes a tale of John Conquer, a cool black investigator in seventies Harlem, balanced by Tricia Owen’s<\/strong> story of a prejudiced American PI getting out of his depth in sixties Hong Kong. And Tim Waggoner’s<\/strong> psychologist-with-a-difference takes on the case of a young woman with nightmares.<\/p>\n

Finally for fiction, we present Mike Chinn’s<\/strong> occult adventurer between the wars, accompanied by Joshua M Reynolds’<\/strong> instalment of our Occult Legion series, set in haunted Scotland. This follows Willie Meikle’s<\/strong> previous tale ‘The Nest’, but is a wild ride in its own right.<\/p>\n

On the non-fiction front, we’re delighted to bring you an interview with British actor Dan Starkey<\/strong>, whose superb Carnacki audio was reviewed here last time. Tim Prasil<\/strong> returns, with a most diverting piece concerning the Occult Detective Physician in literature, and our counterpoint is Danyal Fryer’s<\/strong> perspective on the English roots of the comics character John Constantine. Plus we have reviews by Dave Brzeski<\/strong> and James Bojaciuk<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

And our artists have done us proud as well. Award-winning artist Alan M Clark<\/strong> provides our cover, plus we have the coolest interiors from ace illustrators Luke Spooner, Mutartis Boswell, Sebastian Cabrol, Russell Smeaton<\/strong> and Morgan Fitzsimons<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Moving Forward<\/h1>\n

\"ODQPOSTER3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We have a lot to do yet. Here are some of the tasks with which we need to wrestle:<\/p>\n