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Post by Johnlprobert on Jul 10, 2011 17:23:52 GMT
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Post by dem bones on Jul 10, 2011 18:54:35 GMT
got a press release for this earlier, and it looks like jolly good fun. am i right in saying that this is the second time both yourself and the queen of our nations hearts have each had a story included in the same anthology, or have you bashed out a few more since Seventh Black Book of Horror? Here's the details - wouldn't want our more bewildered members exhausting themselves by doing something as strenuous as pressing on a link. well done to all involved. Gary Fry (compiler) - Death Rattles (Gray Friar Press, July 2011) Stephen Volk - Rattling Cages: an Introduction
*Episode 1*: Scattered Ashes - *John Llewellyn Probert* *Episode 2*: Seen And Not Heard - *Gary Fry* *Episode 3*: Antlers - *Thana Niveau* *Episode 4*: The Children of Moloch - *Simon Bestwick* *Episode 5*: Cow Castle - *Paul Finch* *Episode 6*: His Father's Son - *Gary McMahon*Blurb DEATH RATTLES
Do you remember? And were you afraid?
Back in the mid-80s, a UK genre television show was aired on Channel 4 that pushed the boundaries of accepted broadcasting standards. As far as can be established, only six episodes were ever shown, but hardly anybody can remember seeing them.
Official records offer scant information, and no recordings of the episodes seem to exist. Rumours abound about brief clips on Youtube and water-damaged master tapes found in a media vault, but nobody has stepped forward with anything more solid than hearsay.
But six authors do remember watching the series, and their imperfect recollections form the basis of the stories in this book . . . You'll almost certainly never get to see the show in its original form, so this may be your only chance to experience . . .
DEATH RATTLES
. . . the notorious lost TV series.*IN STOCK AND SHIPPING!!!* UK *£7.99* + £1.50 P&P / US *$14* + $5 P&P ORDER NOW from Gray Friar Press.
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Post by Dr Terror on Jul 10, 2011 20:28:05 GMT
This does look good; I'll certainly be getting one.
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Post by Johnlprobert on Jul 10, 2011 20:31:00 GMT
am i right in saying that this is the second time both yourself and the queen of our nations hearts have each had a story included in the same anthology, or have you bashed out a few more since Seventh Black Book of Horror? No- that is indeed our second antho appearance together. The third will be Black Book 8!
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Post by The Lurker In The Shadows on Jul 31, 2011 18:56:50 GMT
My copy arrived yesterday, so I'm rushing through my current reading matter so I can delve into it as soon as possible.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2011 20:20:54 GMT
Yup, mine landed this morning too. Shall probably bump it up the reading list on account of its brevity!
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Post by Johnlprobert on Aug 4, 2011 20:19:50 GMT
Good stuff chaps and many thanks for picking it up! Her Ladyship & I sincerely hope you enjoy our contributions.
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Post by dem bones on Sept 30, 2011 13:03:10 GMT
Three anthologies on the go just now and all of 'em published recently - i can't remember the last time that happened. Still to start Tales Of Terror From The Lake District but that's mainly because i've been tearing through Death Rattles and Best New Horror 22 (lots more on which later!)
Six of the seven contributors to Death Rattles are familiar from The Black Books of Horror and it shows. Swell Head (Seventh Black Book), written by top hoax bloke Stephen Ghost Watch Volk, is singled out by Stephen Jones as "a particularly unpleasant tale" in aforementioned Best New Horror 22 and as luck would have it, Mr. Volk appears to have instigated the Death Rattles project, and shows up here to provide an amusing introduction, before the ever reliable Lord P gets things off to an unpleasant start.
John Llewellyn Probert - Scattered Ashes: Bristol. Private Eye Mark Carstairs is approached by upper-class cads Philip Spencer and Robert Broughton who offer him an exorbitant sum merely to visit certain of their acquaintances and ask if anything peculiar has happened in their lives of late. It transpires that Spencer, Broughton and chums are Hellfire Club revivalists who once slowly tortured a girl to death for the sheer beastliness of it. Now the reanimated remains of their victim are on the warpath, which might sound a bit business as usual but .... imagine what's left of Mary Tamm climbing from the dinner table at close of Tales That Witness Madness.
Gary Fry - Seen And Not Heard: Yorkshire Dales. Retired headmaster Dennis has one indelible blemish on his otherwise spotless career. He let school bully Mark Bristow so get under his skin that he struck the boy then - with the unanimous backing of his pupils - lied about the incident. Bristow was duly expelled to form his own biker gang. Now Dennis's own son is proving a handful for his teachers, but his fathers mind is elsewhere. He's recently learned that Bristow and his three henchmen were killed in a road accident, so who are the four leather-clad tearaway s visiting silent terror on his neighbourhood?
Thana Niveau - Antlers: After her fathers death, Sophie realises she's in no financial position to hold onto the family home and sets about finding a flat. Just her luck that the first she tries is as unkempt and depressing as the tall, emaciated youth who shows her around. Sophie is trying to make her excuses - the guy is getting ever more disturbing by the second - when a deer ambles into the bedroom. To tell you what happens next would be so unforgivable i'm tempted to do just that, but .... it isn't very nice!
Simon Bestwick - The Children of Moloch: Hillview, a care home for problem orphans, craftily tucked away on the edge of the moors so the vile Brownlow and Ronnie can get on with their paedophilia in comfort. Narrator Tinny is bullied by staff and kids alike but he has one ally, the feisty Scabs (you really don't wanna know how she got her nickname). Every night Scabs sneaks into the attic to attempt the ritual that will summon the Krail, ghostly children with strange powers who will burn Hillview to ashes. Their arrival is spectacular indeed and sure enough, the guilty are punished, but the ending is so desperately, magnificently anti-heartwarming it makes Antlers seem almost upbeat in comparison.
To be continued - just two to go ....
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Post by dem bones on Oct 1, 2011 13:01:48 GMT
Paul Finch - Cow Castle: Jake Carlson, a young, wealthy wine importer, persuades his "hot stuff" wife Stacy to indulge his fantasies and sleep with another man while he watches. Unfortunately, the person they choose for the experiment is Jake's lecher of an uncle Ronnie, the sixty-year-old sex machine who has been lodging with them for several weeks. To get their marriage back on track after the unhappy business, Jake books them a week away at a remote hotel on Exmoor. In October. The slightly sinister, all female staff at The Ram's Horn seem inordinately keen that they visit the ruins of Cow Castle, reputedly built by the fairy queen "as protection for her maidens against the wiles and lusts of the Earth spirits." These Earth spirits, celebrated locally as the spriggens, are the randy Uncle Ronnie's of the fairy kingdom or, as one red bearded yokel chortles, they "Did an awful lot of shagging in their time." Jake sneers that, yes, he's read plenty of Enid Blyton too, but, by buggery, soon has every reason for fearing the little people! Gary McMahon - His Father's Son: Tom Sheen has been having it off with Jo the office nympho behind doting wife Paula's back. Driving home from a late night "business conference" with Jo working away busily in his lap, their car is near driven off the road by a gold-toothed grinning maniac who, it transpires, is Art Ketchum, the natural father of their three year old adopted son, Adam. Or so he claims. Ketchum, who gives every indication that he's a child molester, wants a piece of Adam's life and he's more than happy to blackmail Sheen into agreeing to his demands. You see, he carries a camera with him at all times and those fuzzy snaps of Jo with a slobbery mouthful .... Sheen drives after Ketchum, determined to warn him off and put a stop to this deplorable business. He hasn't a hope. And, almost before it's begun, this celebration of the best supernatural horror TV show you never saw is over. Must say, i enjoyed it! Gray Friars would not normally be the first place i'd look to find pulp horror fiction, but Death Rattles is crude as any later entry in The Pan Book Of Horror Stories and gives every impression that it was conceived, written and published at breakneck speed (though that probably isn't the case at all). Every story is properly horrible. There's mindless violence aplenty, between them, Messrs McMahon and Bestwick damn near wreck the swear-o-meter - we even get some classy, GNS-style bad sex interludes. It is to be hoped that Mr. Volk and friends will one day recall vague details of the programme's rumoured season two! Now for Terror Tales Of The Lake District.
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Post by corpsecandle on Oct 24, 2011 23:26:20 GMT
I learned about this book via it's wikipedia entry in the Horror T.V Series section. It's an inspired idea for antholigy in a market where almost every idea has been thought up and used.
I was hooked by the notion of the "series" being near the knuckle to the point it rattled cages and the fact that all the tapes could be wiped hence the stories may be the only source to what the episodes were about.
I know a number of people who would be interested in this title, good work to all involved.
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Post by dem bones on Oct 25, 2011 7:06:22 GMT
Ah yes, the ever 100% reliable Wikipedia entry ...
Glad you had a good time with it, corpsie. not sure if every contributors would take this as the compliment intended but, for me at least, Death Rattles has moments that recall the golden age of slime and chainsaws - in fact, it's tempting to nail the book as the Hamlyn Book Of Horror Stories we never had, though that would be pushing it.
Have since asked Mr. Fry if i was correct in attributing him as editor, and he suggests, in this case his role would more accurately be described as compiler, hence amendment of second post down.
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Post by corpsecandle on Oct 25, 2011 21:00:09 GMT
Ah yes, the ever 100% reliable Wikipedia entry ... Glad you had a good time with it, corpsie. not sure if every contributors would take this as the compliment intended but, for me at least, Death Rattles has moments that recall the golden age of slime and chainsaws - in fact, it's tempting to nail the book as the Hamlyn Book Of Horror Stories we never had, though that would be pushing it. Have since asked Mr. Fry if i was correct in attributing him as editor, and he suggests, in this case his role would more accurately be described as compiler, hence amendment of second post down. I think if you write extreme horror you have to understand that what you are writing will be seen as just that. Sounds a bit dumb but the reaction a person gets from writing something that could cause negative responses even within the horror community is something some may take into account. As an example I am really unsure about writing another extreme horror story after the response to Bernard Bought The Farm. That story has actually prevented me from submitting other stories because I am not sure what people think of me as a writer. However I am sure that the writers in this volume are more experenced and have grown thicker skin than I have about this issue so would have thought that would be okay with what you sad
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Oct 26, 2011 9:34:59 GMT
Critics be damned I say. keep submitting and write what you feel you want to write. Posterity will be your judge not us lot.
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Post by noose on Oct 26, 2011 10:41:50 GMT
As an example I am really unsure about writing another extreme horror story after the response to Bernard Bought The Farm. I FINALLY got round to reading it last night - your post prompted me to, in all honestly - and I don't see what the hoo-ha is all about. A perfectly good, disgusting, ticks the boxes and then some tale that leaves you thinking long after you've read it. And if that's not the mark of a quality tale, then fuck the lot of them! I'm putting a book together for Screaming Dreams at the moment, and I would certainly look at any stories you have. screamingsubmissionsATgmailDOTcom
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Post by David A. Riley on Oct 26, 2011 10:43:19 GMT
Critics be damned I say. keep submitting and write what you feel you want to write. Posterity will be your judge not us lot. I agree, Craig. It was a well written if horrific story. It achieved what it set out to do. The only problem is that a lot of people get much more upset about animal cruelty than what happens to people. Dangerous ground.
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