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Post by paulfinch on Dec 13, 2015 11:32:32 GMT
Great stuff, Tony.
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Post by paulfinch on Aug 9, 2015 8:37:49 GMT
If people don't want to leave reviews, D, or have good reasons not to you - as you do - that's entirely understandable. I'd never want to try and blackmail anyone into doing something they weren't comfortable with.
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Post by paulfinch on Aug 8, 2015 11:11:25 GMT
At the risk of sounding like an ad man, there is talk at Gray Friar that some reduced-price packages may be available during the run-in to Christmas for those who buy Terror Tales of the Ocean. Can't guarantee this as it won't be my decision, but it sounds likely. And I'm going to break one of my own rules here, and reveal the cover art for Ocean, though it's best not to run a separate thread on this yet, D, as it's likely to be late autumn before it's avaialable.
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Post by paulfinch on Aug 8, 2015 8:04:25 GMT
Thanks for these kind words, guys. Craig ... that review is much appreciated. I hate saying this because it sounds like I'm fishing for compliments, but the more positive reviews that get left on Amazon, the better for the series. I have it from the marketing people at HarperCollins who deal with my Heck novels that it really does make a difference - the more reviews, the more sales.
Demonik ... glad you like the snippets of 'fact'. They are a lot of fun to do, and yes, I research and write them all myself. When the series started, I made a decision to consciously avoid any of those that had already been covered in the Fontana series. However, I soon realised that this would mean the new books might miss out on some good stuff, and there was no guarantee a new readership had read the originals anyway, so it seemed like I was cutting off my nose to spite my face. My solution now is to research and write the anecdotal material as I please, without checking with the originals ... in other words, if Ron covered it back in the 1970s, fine and unavoidable, but this new write-up would be different and in my own words.
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Post by paulfinch on Aug 2, 2015 21:57:50 GMT
It exists at the planning stage. But again, we don't want to run before the horse to market. Putting out a full-fleshed plan of action would be an error at this stage, I feel.
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Post by paulfinch on Aug 2, 2015 16:15:41 GMT
Interesting stuff, D. I agree, There You'll Be has got Years' Best Horror written all over it. I hope so anyway, as I don't think a volume has come out yet that hasn't seen at least a couple of selections for Year's Best anthologies. Re, the other thing, you might be interested to know that one of my original aims was to include wonderfully chilling novella, Beliah, by the late George MacKay Brown, the legendary Bard of Orkney. But though some of his representatives were very keen to see his work find a new audience, whoever it is that controls the estate was completely uninterested - I tried to persuade them otherwise, but failed. Shame. It would have suited TTs of the Highlands superbly. All that said, we'll be starting on Terror Tales of the Lowlands in due course - not just yet, but I've already gathered the anecdotal material, and I can certify that there is some seriously disturbing stuff there.
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Post by paulfinch on Aug 2, 2015 11:11:53 GMT
Thanks for that, Ripper. We aim to please. Demonik ... the blackhouses were Hebridean homes built in a traditional island style with one floor, dry-stone walling etc. I think they need to be about a century old to qualify as blackhouses, but there's probably a bit of local pride involved as well. The name is also used to distinguish older buildings from newer properties, which tend to be built from much paler stone.
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Post by paulfinch on Jul 21, 2015 10:00:28 GMT
Sorry folks ... at the risk of blowing my own trumpet, TERROR TALES OF WALES has just been nominated for a British Fantasy Award in the category of Best Anthology. Still only a nomination, but you've got to be in it to win it, as they say, and a nice bit of recognition for all the hard work put in by the various guys and girls.
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Post by paulfinch on Jul 20, 2015 13:16:30 GMT
I remember thinking The Green Boy was very unsettling. Years ago, when I unsuccessfully pitched an idea for a dramatised TV anthology series of classic but lesser known horror stories, that was one of my first choice six.
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Post by paulfinch on Dec 23, 2014 8:49:26 GMT
Thanks for this, D ... hope folks enjoy it. But just for the sake of clarity, this first appeared in the Unreal Dreams edited by Simon Bestwick rather than the one edited by Rick Kennet. Sorry about that ... my original information was bumph.
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Post by paulfinch on Dec 6, 2014 12:35:37 GMT
Another cracking illustration by Chrissie.
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Post by paulfinch on Nov 10, 2014 9:16:53 GMT
Learning that In The Bag didn't make the final cut set me against this anthology from the start. Having read the book twice now, I see no reason to change that viewpoint. A Doll Named Silvio is an exceptional horror tale, and I remember Sea Voices being pretty good too, but IMO, none of the others eclipse Ramsey's offering. There is no good reason to my mind why it wasn't included.
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Post by paulfinch on Aug 23, 2014 14:56:34 GMT
Paul Finch [ed.] - Terror Tales Of Yorkshire (Gray Friar Press, Sept. 2014) Neil Williams Behold ... the next volume in the Terror Tales anthology series. This is TERROR TALES OF YORKSHIRE. We very strongly hope it will be available for perusal and purchase at FantasyCon in York in September. From that point on, it will also be obtainable by all the usual online retail outlets, including Gray Friar Press, HERE. Lots more detail on my blog, HERE. In the meantime, here is the back cover blurb and the Table of contents: Yorkshire – a rolling landscape of verdant dales and quaint country towns. But where industrial fires left hideous scars, forlorn ruins echo the shrieks of forgotten wars, and depraved killers evoke nightmare tales of ogres, trolls and wild moorland boggarts...
The stalking devil of Boroughbridge The murder machine at Halifax The hooded horror of Pontefract The bloody meadow at Towton The black tunnel of Renfield The evil trickster of Spaldington The shadow forms at Silverwood
And many more chilling tales by Alison Littlewood, Mark Morris, Stephen Laws, Simon Clark, Mark Chadbourn, and other award-winning masters and mistresses of the macabre. In October We Buried The Monsters by Simon Avery; The Decapitation Device; The Coat Off His Back by Keris McDonald; Haunting Memories of the Past; They Walk As Men by Mark Morris; The Yorkshire Witches; On Ilkley Moor by Alison Littlewood; The Black Monk of Pontefract; The Crawl by Stephen Laws; The Woman in the Rain; Ragged by Gary McMahon; The Hobman; A True Yorkshireman by Christopher Harman; The Town Where Darkness Was Born; All Things Considered, I’d Rather Be In Hell by Mark Chadbourn; A Feast For Crows; The Demon of Flowers by Chico Kidd; City of the Dead; The Summer of Bradbury by Stephen Bacon; Radiant Beings; Random Flight by Rosalie Parker; Death in the Harrying; The Rhubarb Festival by Simon Clark; The Alien; The Crack by Gary Fry; The Boggart of Bunting Nook; A Story From When We Had Nothing by Jason Gould.
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Post by paulfinch on Jul 31, 2014 18:26:02 GMT
Here's another scoop, FWIW ... from now on, every five books or so, we'll probably do a volume that is not geography-specific. So there will be books exploring other realms of horror along similar lines to Gaslight, Sea, Outer Space, etc (Seaside was probably the first of those), just to freshen things up. But we'll be sticking rigidly to the current format: items of relevant 'true' terror interspersing all the fictional tales. That will make life a bit harder for me, but hey, I like a challenge.
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Post by paulfinch on Jul 30, 2014 23:01:47 GMT
VERY interesting stuff there, D. When I first started with this series, I was determined to avoid anything that might clash with any of Ron's books, but it soon became apparent that would be difficult, the great minds of authors past and present thinking alike and so on.
The first real risk of this happening was with TERROR TALES OF LONDON in 2013, Ron and Mary having done LONDON TALES OF TERROR in 1972. I thought, if nothing else, I'll make sure I avoid any of the 'true horror' bits clashing, and though for the most part I think I was successful there, again it was difficult. When I was compiling TERROR TALES OF WALES a year later, that was another possible clash, and by this time I'd given up trying to avoid duplication. I thought the best policy was simply not to look at Ron's original (having last read it about 20 years earlier), and just seeing what the modern guys came up with. Steve Lockley's story, DON'T LEAVE ME DOWN HERE, is an excellent case in point. I remembered THE BLACK GODDESS well, and it struck me there was a strong similarity in tone, even though Steve's story is set in a drift mine rather than a deep-level coal mine, but I still thought what the hell ... there was no way we could tackle Wales, even in the 21st century, without a mining story. Plus I'd already told the artist what I wanted for the book's cover. It was an iconic Welsh horror image I had in my mind's eye - I just didn't want anything else.
Glad you think the books complement each other. That was always my hope. I've never attempted to hide that Ron and Mary's series was the original inspiration behind the TERROR TALES books. Even so, it was my firm intention to avoid the areas the TALES OF TERROR books covered until much later on in the series, but LONDON and THE SEASIDE were done specifically for World Fantasy year at Brighton, and two years ago, a chat with Johnny Mains and Bryn Fortey, with a few words of advice from Mary Danby herself, convinced me that Wales had to be fast-tracked forward. It wouldn't do if we concentrated on English locations alone for the first God knows how many locations. Hence, next year - whether they're still part of the UK or not - we're going north to the Scottish Highlands.
Paul
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