{"id":6938,"date":"2021-06-22T22:18:18","date_gmt":"2021-06-22T22:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/?p=6938"},"modified":"2021-06-22T22:18:18","modified_gmt":"2021-06-22T22:18:18","slug":"john-linwood-grant-is-not-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/john-linwood-grant-is-not-in\/","title":{"rendered":"JOHN LINWOOD GRANT IS NOT IN"},"content":{"rendered":"

Writing about Africa. Slightly psychotic ponies. Mythos fiction. Weird fictional roots. We are responsible for little of what follows \u2013 but it appears to include an awful lot of words from John Linwood Grant<\/strong>. For here at greydogtales<\/em> we find that even we are not immune to the latest fashions and trends. So today we welcome a guest interviewer \u2013 the handsome, intelligent, and adequately tall S. L. Edwards<\/strong> (er, we\u2019re not sure we wrote that line<\/em>). S. L. Edwards has conducted all sorts of interviews in the past, but this is his first time interviewing a fellow author. Well. Let\u2019s just see how he does\u2026<\/p>\n

THAT LINWOOD BLOKE<\/h2>\n

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

sam:<\/strong> <\/em>Thanks for being here, John. Your second collection Where All is Night, and Starless<\/em> is a bit of a departure from your first, A Persistence of Geraniums<\/em>. Some readers have no doubt come to identify you with your Edwardian stories and its mythology. What common DNA do you see across your two books?<\/p>\n

john:<\/strong> My late Victorian\/Edwardian tales interconnect more than most, and are well suited to hanging around with each other. Most of them belong in one way or another to my Last Edwardian cycle (like a real velocipede, but on paper). <\/em>Where All is Night is more eclectic, with quite a bit of what might be called \u2018contemporary weird\u2019 in it, and folk horror. As far as I\u2019m concerned, the stories in both are still about people dealing with odd or appalling situations; I find the Edwardian period fascinating, but the base elements of humanity are there in any period. Only the circumstances, sometimes more extreme in this new book, have changed. Less geraniums, though.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
art by alan m clarke<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

sam:<\/strong> <\/em>You and I have talked often, and one thing I absolutely envy is your ability to write so many different types of stories. You\u2019ve attributed this to being a \u201cjobbing\u201d writer, but I think there\u2019s more. You certainly don\u2019t get this good without practice. Tell us about this practice. How did a young John Linwood Grant become so interested in horror, humour, and Sherlock Holmes? What are some of the earliest stories you remember writing and where are they now?<\/p>\n

john:<\/strong> I had no practice in writing short stories, novelettes or novellas at all until I first tried writing them five or six years ago. I had, however, drafted chunks of some huge, over-complicated novels in the nineties, ploughing away at night after work. I\u2019m not even sure I understand them myself on the few occasions I glance at old chapters from them. They were a bit impenetrable, for the most part. But you might call those \u2018practice\u2019, in that I conjured an awful lots of words to no great purpose.<\/em><\/p>\n

The only real survivor of the early stuff is a partial work which inspired the Last Edwardian stories \u2013 and that sprang from years of being purely an avid reader of strange fiction in the seventies and eighties. I was a precocious youth and a fast reader, so devoured such stuff, especially when set from the 1880s to 1930s. Hence Conan Doyle, Algernon Blackwood and M R James influences, probably, but also William Hope Hodgson, who inspired my deeper interest in weird fiction. Add touches like the dry (or wry) humour of Jerome K Jerome, the Grossmiths, and Saki, and there I was. Doomed. It all sounds a bit British, doesn\u2019t it? Hmm.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
courtesy jerome k jerome society<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

sam:<\/strong><\/em> And the lurchers, John? What of the lurchers? What is it about those long, shaggy dogs that appeals to you so?<\/p>\n

john:<\/strong> I think it\u2019s a feeling that comes over you, or doesn\u2019t \u2013 something about them that makes certain people lifelong devotees or enthusiasts. I didn\u2019t know I was one of those people until our first lurcher, and getting more lurchers just made it worse (or even better, if you know what I mean). In practical terms, they\u2019re incredibly fast and amazing to watch when they run, but also terrific companion dogs, returning love for love. When they\u2019re not zooming, they can be very laid-back, and all ours have been been superb \u2018family\u2019 dogs. I wouldn’t be without them.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

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

sam:<\/strong> <\/em>Turning back to the book, you made the bold decision to include a comma in the title. Beyond that, you actually open the book with a selection of Mythos stories. Your experience with Lovecraft, if I recall correctly, is quite different than mine. Tell us about how you came to write mythos, when you yourself were not so interested in the mythos?<\/p>\n

john:<\/strong> I gripped that comma with the heart of a bitter and vengeful lover. But the Mythos\u2026 Lovecraft was never a primary interest for me (although by the end of my teens, I\u2019d read just about everything he produced). Even back then I preferred Hope Hodgson, as above, and perhaps Clark Ashton Smith as a \u2018weird\u2019 writer, but I was aware of HPL\u2019s impact on others, and acknowledged the power of some of his imagery and ideas. Only \u2018At the Mountains of Madness\u2019 really moved me, and the reason for that is something I finally got to cover in \u2018Strange Perfumes of a Polar Sun\u2019, which is in the collection.<\/em><\/p>\n

When I entered the writing market, as it were, I had only post-Hodgsonian roads planned, but then (as you might know) I saw Scott R Jones<\/strong>\u2019s Open Call for his <\/em>Cthulhusattva anthology. I knew next to nothing about Lovecraftian fiction written in the last two or three decades. Anyway, I read his book <\/em>When The Stars Are Right: Towards An Authentic R\u2019lyehian Spirituality, which suggested that he was interested in different approaches to Mythosian base concepts. So I wrote \u2018Messages\u2019, which he bought. <\/em><\/p>\n

That encouraged me to believe that it might be possible to work with the roots of Lovecraftian ideas. But not too often. I\u2019m not a great fan of mining the Mythos for mundane monsters, nor of Derlethian reworkings of the Mythos. All that Cthulhu versus The Baby Jesus, and ‘Guess which element I represent?’ doesn’t stand up well after a while. Use of Mythosian ‘gods’ and beings as monsters is fine if you enjoy that as a reader, but it eventually risks dragging them from the deeper point of it all, and they become just more godzillas. Or space godzillas.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

Occasionally someone does still manage something clever, so I haven’t jammed the door completely shut. There are talented writers re-inventing things all the time – but at its worst, it’s tarted-up science fiction\/horror without much originality. Cosmic horror itself \u2013 in the sense of a blind, uncaring cosmos and humanity\u2019s sense of unimportance \u2013 is interesting, of course. I’m more curious about the relationship between humanity and that monstrous void than I am with who steps on who. And there’s only so many times your protagonists can go mad before someone starts looking at their watch…
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Mind you, people pay you for it, which surprised me. Not that they’ll ever pay me again, not after saying the above…
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

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

sam:<\/strong> <\/em>We both like Nyarlathotep the most. What is it about the Crawling Chaos that speaks to you?<\/p>\n

john:<\/strong> Darn, my Mythosian weak spot. The great thing about Nyarlathotep is that he\u2019s both unknowable and oddly knowable \u2013he demonstrates intent at times, which gives you far more to play with. He intersects with and influences humanity in a way which other Mythosian figures do not. He may be mostly indifferent to this world, but he also toys with it. I get that.<\/em><\/p>\n

sam:<\/strong><\/em> I\u2019ll give you four favorites of mine. \u2018Messages,\u2019 \u2018Where All is Night, And Starless,\u2019 \u2018Marjorie Learns to Fly,\u2019 and \u2018For She is Falling. I\u2019ve read your author notes, cheeky as they are. \u2018Messages\u2019 and \u2018Where All Is Night, And Starless\u2019 are both Mythos stories, but the latter two are wholly original stories. What\u2019s more, \u2018For She is Falling,\u2019 appeared in Vastarien. Tell me a bit more about these stories.<\/p>\n

john:<\/strong> \u2018Marjorie Learns to Fly\u2019 has been oddly popular, though I don\u2019t know why. It\u2019s the story of a bored, underappreciated housewife (a totally deliberate old-style trope, yes), who finds herself being used \u2013 and doesn\u2019t do quite what you might expect as a result. One of my more \u2018English\u2019 stories, probably. It reminds me of the humdrum suburban life of the seventies and eighties, the dull routine for so many people until something unusual intrudes. Marjorie is many real people. Maybe that\u2019s the appeal?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018For She is Falling\u2019 is left open to anyone\u2019s interpretation, and avoids giving certain identity to the protagonist. It\u2019s potentially about mental ill health, and potentially about ecology, or about self-determination, or about the dwindling Hidden Folk. Or any and all of those. As I\u2019ve said elsewhere, I don\u2019t mind which people pick. It was very kind of Vastarien to publish that one, especially as I\u2019m not a very good Ligottian.<\/em><\/p>\n

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

sam:<\/strong><\/em> You once told me \u201cFor She is Falling\u201d is an \u201coptimistic story.\u201d But\u2026did I just read suicidal ideation into the story? Why is it \u201coptimistic?\u201d<\/p>\n

john:<\/strong> I had the same problem with my story \u2018Grey Dog\u2019, which was variously called depressing, just weird, or very moving and positive. That one was simply intended as a portrait of how things were. I work from the inside out, which means that my characters develop through their own choices. The choice made at the end of \u2018For She is Falling\u2019 may be an ending in terms of a life, or it may be an escape into new life and freedom. As I said above, the protagonist\u2019s very identity is left open. That lack of certainty was essential to me being able to feel the story myself, how it needed to end – on paper; further definition would have killed it. I can\u2019t write things I can\u2019t \u2018feel\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n

sam:<\/strong> <\/em>I also like the final story, which is decidedly NOT optimistic. \u201cAt Vrysfontein, Where the Earthwolf Prowls\u201d is very much the sort of story I like. You could remove the supernatural elements and still have a very real horror story about the Boer War and the origins of the practice of concentration camps. Why did you write this story?<\/p>\n

john:<\/strong> My period-set tales are often versions of real events, and this one, for me, is an encapsulation of everything that went wrong for everyone, on all sides, during the Boer Wars \u2013 a tale without any nice frills or soothing options. And also a portrait of a man, Redvers Blake, who features in other stories of mine, a look at what makes us how we are. In his case, atheistic, weary and cynical, with little faith in anyone, especially the Empire for which he fights. <\/em><\/p>\n

So it serves more than one purpose (if any of my tales can be said to have purpose). The supernatural allusions are only another symbol of the ghosts and fears that we pick up in life, that we carry with us. Blake is very real and down-to-earth, yet in his troubled humanity, I see him as closer to cosmic horror than many \u2018Mythos\u2019 figures.<\/em><\/p>\n

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

sam:<\/strong> <\/em>This is not the only story you write set in Africa. Coupled with \u2018With the Dark and the Storm,\u2019 you present stories that are very realistic about the looting of the continent. You portray colonizers who are obsessed with the concept of race, to the point where they shed any sort of pretence of \u201ccivilization.\u201d Both stories recall Heart of Darkness not just due to the Africa setting, but because they are very critical looks at colonization. Is it difficult to write about these subjects? If so, why is it important to you?<\/p>\n

john:<\/strong> Long answer. To start with, writing about Africa isn\u2019t easy. For one thing, in a sense there\u2019s no such place as Africa. There are disparate regions spread across a vast continent, isolated localities, areas of common language or religion, countries with artificial boundaries which were often created and enforced by colonialists \u2013 and so many more issues. I\u2019m just finishing another \u2018Africa\u2019 weird story, concerning Amazigh (Berber) women in Morocco, and French colonialism. No connection to either of the stories you mentioned (although I have at least been to Morocco). <\/em><\/p>\n

Along the same lines, it\u2019s incredibly easy to get wrong unless you come from\/have lived in the specific area or culture about which you\u2019re writing. In general, I\u2019d prefer African writers to do this stuff – I don\u2019t plan to make it a habit. For the reprint in this collection, I quickly ran \u2018With the Dark and the Storm\u2019 by Nigerian writer and serious talent Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki<\/strong> (also a fellow author in the recent SLAY anthology). He didn\u2019t explode, at least. You should check out his work.<\/em><\/p>\n

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

I should add that one of the tropes which most annoys me (and there are many) is the \u2018white saviour\u2019 one. When I was nine or ten, it seemed exciting. As an adult, that constant reinforcement of \u201cWhite guy connects with different culture, comes up with ideas they didn\u2019t have or whatever, and then helps or saves them\u2019\u2019, grates terribly. It denies people from other cultures true agency. Nor is its use dead \u2013 you only have to look at the film Avatar. \u2018With the Dark and Storm\u2019 was originally written as a rebuff to some of those adventure tales.<\/em><\/p>\n

Colonialism, though\u2026 one of the questions which interests me (and usually appals me) is what the process does to both sides. The fraying away of humanity, or the stripping away of it. Colonial powers don\u2019t \u2013 or won\u2019t \u2013 recognise that they themselves are changed by what they do. Both the United States and Imperial Britain, for example, were fuelled and formed through the blatant stealing and asset-stripping of other peoples\u2019s lives and lands, and a treatment of those peoples which was at best duplicitous, at worst \u2013 so often \u2013 venal and murderous. There\u2019s little point in feeling guilty as individuals \u2013 I\u2019m not sure guilt on its own is a very useful emotion, anyway \u2013 but we must acknowledge what was done and seek to understand its impact. To consider what that makes our societies today. And it\u2019s only proper that modern fiction should reflect those realities, if for no other reason than to counteract the bias, lies and obfuscation of generations of gung-ho pro-colonial literature. End of monologue.<\/em><\/p>\n

sam:<\/strong> <\/em>On social media, you often make Mr. Bubbles the horse seem like he\u2019s very evil. Yet in \u2018The Horse Road,\u2019 he seems quite the noble steed. Tell me about this horse and his origins. Does he have a code of honor?<\/p>\n

john:<\/strong> Haha. Gosh, I\u2019ve never thought of Mr Bubbles as at all evil. What might come over is his casual dismissal of things which annoy him. He can be judgemental, and occasionally brutal. Maybe he\u2019s that part of us which might remain when released from the \u2018burden\u2019 of most of society\u2019s rules for getting along with each other. Politeness, favours, common courtesies, layers of obligation \u2013 he\u2019s not very interested in those. His responses are visceral rather than intellectual (although he\u2019s smarter than most suspect). And on the plus side, he\u2019s a great egalitarian \u2013 he\u2019ll kick almost anyone \u2013 and has no time for other people\u2019s stupid prejudices.<\/em><\/p>\n

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

As for the character, he and Sandra sprang fully-formed from childhood memories of pony books, Enid Blyton, and \u2018chums\u2019 stories. With a touch of folk horror and the occasional prod at H P Lovecraft. That traditional pony book bond is there between them, but not much of the day-to-day sentimentality. The bedrock is her unconditional love for him, and his utter loyalty to her. So his code revolves around those, and if he has nobility, they are the source. Had he not been born in her particular barn, maybe things wouldn\u2019t have gone so well for anyone…<\/em><\/p>\n

sam:<\/strong> <\/em>What\u2019s next? I know you have a mountain of editorial work left to do, but once you\u2019re over that do you have any grand plans for a new work?<\/p>\n

john:<\/strong> Editing\u2026 bah! We have three issues of <\/em>Occult Detective Magazine to get out in succession with Dave Brzeski<\/strong> of Cathaven Press, then another volume of <\/em>Sherlock Holmes & the Occult Detectives and <\/em>The Book of Carnacki anthology for Belanger Books. Outside of and beyond those tasks, a lot of short stories to write.<\/em><\/p>\n

Despite toying occasionally with the idea of another novel, I remain fairly wedded to the shorter form \u2013 novellas at most. My previous work has come out in many unconnected venues, some obscure, some better known, so I\u2019m planning additional stories in the sub-genres where I already work, with the intent of putting out two, perhaps three or so further collections. These would gather the wayward kids, and add a substantial amount of new material.<\/em><\/p>\n

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

Studies in Grey should gather together the more interesting or unusual of my Sherlock Holmes stories, including aspects and characters from my Last Edwardian cycle such as Mr Dry and Redvers Blake and the occasional scary\/ab-natural element. <\/em>Ain\u2019t No Witch, if I do it, would be all the existing Mamma Lucy tales of a 1920s conjure-woman, plus new and unseen ones. Historical weird fiction or folk horror, I suppose you might call those.<\/em><\/p>\n

More ambitiously, I\u2019m working with a UK artist to see if a St Botolph collection (which would include some Mr Bubbles) is possible, and have been teased by a publisher about putting together a book of my gay weird fiction \u2013 another strand of mine. Plenty to do.<\/em><\/p>\n

sam:<\/strong> <\/em>Last question: is Yorkshire a real place? If so, how come I can\u2019t find it on my map?<\/p>\n

john:<\/strong> Yorkshire is a state of mind. And God\u2019s own country, naturally.<\/em><\/p>\n

sam:<\/strong><\/em> Thanks, John. I look forward to getting a physical copy of your book. It was an absolute pleasure to read.<\/p>\n

john:<\/strong> Thank you as well. It\u2019s been a draining imposition to be cross-questioned and interrogated in such a demanding manner, especially by a tall Texan, but at least you didn\u2019t get my rank or serial number.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"john<\/a>
cover in progress<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Where All is Night, and Starless, by John Linwood Grant, is due from Trepidatio on 7th<\/sup> July.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n
\n

Sam L Edwards’ new collection Death of an Author is out on 25th June.<\/h4>\n

https:\/\/journalstone.com\/bookstore\/the-death-of-an-author\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Writing about Africa. Slightly psychotic ponies. Mythos fiction. Weird fictional roots. We are responsible for little of what follows \u2013 but it appears to include an awful lot of words from John Linwood Grant. For here at greydogtales we find that even we are not immune to the latest fashions and trends. So today we … Continue reading JOHN LINWOOD GRANT IS NOT IN<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"iawp_total_views":1,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nJOHN LINWOOD GRANT IS NOT IN - greydogtales<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Author John Linwood Grant on writing about Africa, slightly psychotic ponies, mythos fiction, weird roots, and the new collection 'Where All is Night'.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/john-linwood-grant-is-not-in\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"JOHN LINWOOD GRANT IS NOT IN - 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