In brief: Bloody Parchment's Icy Sedgwick

Icy Sedgwick is a veteran of the SA Horrorfest Bloody Parchment short story competition with her particular brand of quirky gothic tales that dig deep into mythology and history, specifically with her love for ancient Egypt. Her story "Midnight Screams at Holborn" ask what happens if a brave young man decides to take up a bet to spend the night in a haunted train station.

If you're yet to pick up your copy of Bloody Parchment: Blue Honey and the Valley of Shadow, you can do so right here at Amazon. But, without further ado, let's chat with Icy...

What darkness lies at the heart of your story?
I've always been fascinated by abandoned or 'lost' tube stations, and the British Museum station is a particular favourite. After all, how many stations can boast a legend of an Egyptian princess ghost? I knew that a newspaper had offered a cash prize for anyone willing to spend the night in the station, so I decided to slam the legend and the truth together.

Essentially, I think it's about the power of curiosity and the lengths people will go to when they really want something. Not to mention the strange things that must lie beneath a city as old as London.

What do you love the most about writing?
Seeing the story come to life. It's one thing having a cool idea bouncing around inside your head, but it's quite another to see that actually appear on the page. Once you've got it out of your mind and turned it into something tangible, you can share it with other people.

Why does reading matter?
It's a great way to expand your horizons. Few forms of media really give you the opportunity to step into someone else's shoes. Video games are great at putting you into a situation, where your actions cause things to happen to you. Films let you see the world as another person. But films are quite passive and video games lay everything out for you. Books require you to use your imagination and I think it's the space between imagined experience and the story that helps to increase your empathy. Plus it's a better way to spend your time than endlessly scrolling through Facebook.

An excerpt from "Midnight Screams at Holborn"...

Marnie put the board on the bench beside her and then unscrewed the lid off her flask to pour herself a cup of coffee. Simon fished out his own flask and did the same.
“Here’s to a night of ghost hunting!” Marnie held up her cup.
Simon knocked his cup against hers, toasting the evening with coffee. He drank quickly, wrapping his fingers around the cup to steady his hands. He’d never spent a whole night with Marnie before. What would people say if they found out she was down here with him?
“What did anyone tell you about the ghosts?” she asked after she’d drained her cup.
“I was given this,” replied Simon, handing over the pamphlet, “but everyone just focuses on the Egyptian princess. How many ghosts are there?”
“Mostly people just talk about the princess, but I’ve heard all sorts of stories. Most stations have at least one ghost. Wouldn’t it be fun if they walk the tunnels at night, and pop up in each other’s stamping ground? I suppose they must get dreadfully bored otherwise. Wouldn’t you?” Marnie pouted.
“The pamphlet says you can hear the screams of the princess all the way down the tunnel at Holborn,” said Simon.

What other things have you written? 
I have two series on the go. The Grey O'Donnell Series are Westerns, though book 2 veers into weird Western territory. I tried to focus on the more pulp/adventure side of the genre. So the books are fun adventure romps, rather than Cormac McCarthy-style Westerns. Book 1 is The Guns of Retribution which you can buy here.

My second series is the Underground City books. The first one, The Necromancer's Apprentice, emerged after a throwaway comment; I wondered what The Sorcerer's Apprentice would look like with mummies instead of brooms! I'm hoping to get book 2, The Necromancer's Rogue, out by the end of 2017. You can buy book 1 here on Amazon or here for other retailers.

I also have a collection of short stories available for free on my website. The stories were all previously published elsewhere but I pulled them together for the Harbingers collection. We've got angry Greek goddesses, a steampunk revenge story, Resurrection men, and even the Black Death in there. You can get your copy here.

A few words with Elaine Dodge, SA Horrorfest Bloody Parchment finalist (2014)

A big welcome to Elaine Dodge, one of the finalists of the 2014 SA Horrorfest Bloody Parchment short story competition, who's here for a quick Q&A. If you've yet to pick up your copy of Bloody Parchment: Blue Honey and the Valley of Shadow, you have no excuse – go feed your Kindle app. 

What darkness lies at the heart of your story? 

Our actions have consequences and those consequences can open the door to events, people, or darkness which can result in our very souls being enslaved to an evil far greater than any we have ever imagined could possibly exist. And if you don’t know how to fight back, you’re lost.
         
What do you love the most about writing?

I love reading – moving into an alternative reality, fading into a time warp, coming face-to-face with people I’d never meet anywhere else, having adventures which I’d never be able to have any other way. Writing takes that one step further and instead of hoping someone else can provide that magic carpet for me, that door in the cupboard, I can create them myself.

Why does reading matter? 

They say that people who read are more empathetic. I think this is true. But I also believe it goes deeper than that. People who read are often more able to see behind the façade of the words people say, they can read between the lines and are sceptical about takings things at face value. Readers are often more open to new experiences, more ready to take risks, more able to see possibilities where others only see problems. And this is good. The world needs more people who can peel back the canvas, go through the wardrobe, fall through the mirror and come back out with new ideas, new solutions, new dreams and new insights.

An excerpt from "The Man with a House on his Back"

The fog has arrived. Silently, like the breath of the Scythe Man, it has surrounded the cabin and muffled the dogs. The evening meal finished, we sit silently in a half circle, like subjugated felons around the hearth. Even the fire is sullen. The meagre amount of warmth from the pale blue flames is hardly enough to keep the shadows in the corners of the cabin where they belong. My grandfather, Old Jack, sits, clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth. It’s a night for stories, for dreams of the past. He stirs.
“When I was a child,” he begins...

The forest was thicker. You could walk for days, weeks, without seeing its end. The trees were older and darker. You stayed on the path or you lost your way. And no one would search for you. There were tales of wild beasts, evil spirits and the heads of the dead. It rained. Not like now, but nearly all the time. Even on those strange, dry days the mist hung low in the air, coiled and sliding around the roots of the trees, masking the trails. Hiding the way out.

What other things have you written? 

I have written a variety of short stories of varying genres. Sticking to one genre seems so dull. All my short stories, some of which are my entries to the Writers Write 12 Short Stories in 12 Months Challenge and some are first chapters for future novels can all be read here.

My first novel, a historical romance adventure, Harcourt’s Mountain is set in 1867, in the mountainous wilderness of British Columbia. There’s Indians, bears, wolves, heroes, heroines, baddies, white water, kidnappings, gold, ships, caves and romance. The synopsis, reviews and a variety of buy-links can all be found here.

My second novel, The Device Hunter is my current WIP (work in progress) and I’m nearing the end. This is a steampunk novel and I’m having a lot of fun not just with the writing but with designing ingenious devices! It’s a good thing I have two friends who went to MIT who can advise me when my creations get too convoluted! You can find a ‘wishful thinking cover’ here.

Bloody Parchment finalist Dave de Burgh

A big welcome to one of the 2014 SA HorrorFest Bloody Parchment finalists Dave de Burgh. His short story "Exertion" made the pick during that year's contest.

Pick up your copy of Bloody Parchment: Blue Honey and The Valley of Shadow now, and discover the best of our annual competition's entrants in the dark SFF/H genres.

What darkness lies at the heart of your story?

It may sound trite, but I initially wrote this story after a breakup which I took very badly, so this story helped me to communicate some the anger, frustration and loneliness I was feeling at the time. I guess that’s the darkness at the heart of it – the shock of being betrayed, and how that can lead to anger and, in some cases, vengeance.

What do you love the most about writing?

The thing I love most is an aspect very few people can or even will understand – that ability (which isn’t controlled or focused, just allowed) to explore either the hidden or obvious aspects of what it means to be human: that which makes us act and think and feel the way we do. Creating worlds and writing battle scenes and all that other cool stuff is just a very enjoyable bonus.

Why does reading matter?

Reading matters for many important reasons, but the reasons that reading is so important to me are because I’ve been able to explore different religious and cultural points of view, and reading has also taught me the fact that I will never know enough, nor be an ‘expert’ at anything. Above and beyond the escapism inherent in reading (fiction, at least), reading is one of the most incredibly powerful tools for the advancement and understanding of knowledge which exists.

An excerpt...

When I end and it begins, there is darkness. I don’t know where I am in that darkness, whether I hang or float or stand or lie. I know that I am there and that it is here, behind my heart and eyes and breath.

What other things have you written? 

I’ve written two novels (epic fantasy): Betrayal’s Shadow and Conviction’s Pain, as well as a bunch of short stories. See Tales from the Lake Volume 3, and my story, "A Hand from the Depths" and
The Third Spectral Book of Horror Stories, and my tale, "Static"

Follow Dave-Brendon de Burgh on Twitter or see his website.

In discussion with Bloody Parchment's Matt Hayward

In the last of our interviews with SA HorrorFest Bloody Parchment finalists, we've got Matt Hayward stopping by my spot today. (BTW, if you're yet to purchase your copy of Bloody Parchment, it's over on Amazon, Kobo and Smashwords – do support our wonderful authors.)

Welcome, Matt. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I'm an author/musician living in the mountains of Wicklow, Ireland. My music career has been kind, and I've gotten to play and write with such people as Edie Brickell, Malfunkshun, Clannad, Nick Pollock (My Sister's Machine), and many others. My band Lace Weeper released our debut album in March of last year which featured Nirvana drummer Chad Channing on a couple of tracks and was nominated for album of the year.  I also put out my first solo EP in December and Alan M Clark, who did books covers for so many in the horror field, provided artwork for me. That was a huge honor.

What gives in your story? 

I wanted to write a story set in a time when Rock N Roll was something new and exciting. I included a lot of homages to tracks I enjoy, and scattered them throughout the tale like a soundtrack. I enjoy pulp for pulp's sake, it's what I like to read and what I enjoy writing, so a monster story with teenagers smoking cigarettes and driving fast cars in a small town is all I set out to do, just something entertaining, like a quick rock song.

Why do you love about reading and writing speculative fiction?

Mostly, I want characters that draw me in and stay with me long after the book's been put away. In terms of setting, I know a lot of people want to find the latest twist on old tropes, and that's great, but I really do enjoy the standard settings and creatures. Vampire in a small town? I'm in. Zombie apocalypse? Sure. As long as I connect with the characters and get to see them pull through.

Is there a novel or movie that you feel has been the most influential on you, that you keep coming back to? 

For writing, it's strange, I get influenced by different kinds of mediums. Comedians, for example. People like Bill Hicks, George Carlin, Doug Stanhope, they've all had a massive impact on what I write about, even though they themselves never touched horror fiction or horror. But I like their content, and I try to carry the torch (in my own way), talking about issues I feel are important but putting them into a horror setting. I like the pulpy b-rates when it comes to movies and that impacts my writing a lot. So yeah, social commentary mashed into a slab of b-rate gore.

How do you approach the writing process? 

Richard Laymon called it 'BIC' in his novel A Writer's Tale. Butt In Chair. I do one-thousand words a day, and edit on weekends. That's about it for me, no acts of voodoo or strange prayers, just four or five pages a day and leave the work at work as much as possible. I found Joe Lansdale and Joe Hill's tips on writing to help a lot.

Not content to conquer the rock music world via Lace Weeper and his own phenomenal solo work, Matt Hayward has now turned his attention to dark fiction, and how much richer we all are as a result. Brain Dead Blues is everything you’d expect from a rock star turned horror writer, documenting not only facets of the music world but also the darkness that can result from obsessions both creative and violent. I have long been a fan of both the music and the man behind it. Now I’m a fan of his writing too. - Kealan Patrick Burke, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of THE TURTLE BOY, KIN, and SOUR CANDY

Follow Matt on Twitter.

Bloody Parchment's Liam Kruger

If you're yet to pick up a copy of the current Bloody Parchment anthology, it's available on Amazon and Kobo, among other vendors. In the meanwhile, I have one of the contributors, none other than Liam Kruger, stopping by.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Well, I mean, I write, that's the main thing. Also variously read, run, and drink. I'm a recent graduate of the University of Cape Town's Masters in Creative Writing programme, with a handful of stories published in genre and literary publications around the country.

What gives in your story?

Not much, really? My stories are not, historically, overwhelmingly giving. It's a couple of ghost kids walking around, shooting the shit, coming to terms with their relatively new ghostly station. Sort of like if you saw the trailer for Ghost World and assumed because of the title that the protagonists were actual ghosts.

What do you love about reading and writing speculative fiction?

I mean - look, this notion of speculative fiction being qualitatively different to realist or literary fiction started off as a a marketing tool, and then got a bit out of hand. Good fiction, irrespective of genre identity, should be doing the same stuff in terms of being entertaining and instructive and unsettling. Maybe speculative fiction has a little more carte blanche about the tools that it uses in achieving that effect than the standard realist stuff does.

Is there a novel or movie that you feel has been the most influential on you, that you keep coming back to? 

Y'know, if there is, then my subconscious is probably doing me a favour by keeping me in the dark about it? A couple of years ago I published a story which, in hindsight, had a scene lifted almost whole cloth out of Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita - which is not an obscure book - and when a friend asked me about it, I had no idea what they were talking about. Probably there's another, even dumber source for all of my other work that I'm ignoring. Something like The Mighty Ducks 2.

How do you approach the writing process? 

Obliquely. I try and trick myself into writing longer things by writing a series of smaller things - vignettes, chains of dialogue, whatever - and then looking at them for a while to see how they fit together, if they fit together. The alternative - the one where you outline, try and storm the thing all at once - terrifies me.

liamkruger.com
twitter.com/liamkruger
Some books I'm in

Bloody Parchment 2014

The SA HorrorFest Bloody Parchment short story competition, event and anthology has been going for quite a while now. While not exclusively a horror-themed event, Bloody Parchment nevertheless gives precedence to horror and dark, speculative fiction. 

I'm also pleased to announce that the 2014 short story competition is now officially open, and if you fancy yourself a horror writer, then head over to the official Bloody Parchment blog for further information. 

We're busy pulling together the 2013 competition winners in an anthology we hope to release in time for the 2014 event. And, yes, I get this question often... "Can I enter more than one story?"

Yes, you can, but I'll be straight up and say, I'd rather see one faboo entry from each author than multiple shizzy ones. 

And that's pretty much it. Do show your appreciation for the past finalists, by picking up the previous volumes: 

1 (free download off Goodreads)

2 Lost Things, Hidden Things and Other Stories

3 The Root Cellar and Other Stories

PS, if you absolutely MUST ask me a question, you can email me at nerinedorman@gmail.com

Bloody Parchment launch and event October 30

Okay, I'm totally happy. This is what 100 copies of Bloody Parchment looks like...

With many thanks to Fahiema and Fourie over at Random House Struik, as well as the totally fabulous Louis Greenberg. Those of you who're in Cape Town this Halloween and who're horror fans, can dig the awesomeness that is the South African HorroFest (there are tons of awesome films and events related to this happening). GO CHECK IT OUT.

The Bloody Parchment event, of course, is part of this, and it's totally a huge amount of fun. This year we'll be launching our print version on the same night as the event, which is promising to be a blast. Go read more about the event here and RSVP over at Facebook.

But in the meanwhile, allow me to gloat happily over the awesomeness that is our dead-tree version of Bloody Parchment. I never get tired of a finished product.

Bloody Parchment: The Root Cellar in print

I interrupt your TV dinners tonight to bring you the absolutely brilliant news that Bloody Parchment: The Root Cellar is currently in print, and we'll be producing a limited run which (if all goes well) we'll launch at the Bloody Parchment event as part of the SA HorrorFest this year.

But here's the cover... And it was worth the wait to get none other than Thomas Dorman AKA the infamous Dr-Benway to weave his magic. If you're yet to read this wonderful little anthology of night terrors, it's available for Kindle and Kobo, among others.

Going another round: Crazy editor lady still at the helm of Bloody Parchment

So yeah, basically I'm doing this SA HorrorFest Bloody Parchment short story competition thing again this year. Why? This is my way of paying it forward to genre fiction authors who're looking to make a name for themselves. And hell, it's also about having a product that we can be proud of: the annual Bloody Parchment anthology which takes its name from the winning stories.

For two years running we've been blessed to have the support of eKhaya, the electronic imprint of Random House Struik. But now with the Penguin Random House merger, eKhaya is closing its doors. But not to worry. Dark Continents Publishing has stepped forward, and they'll be taking care of the admin.

So, what's in it for the finalists? All finalists receive a flat rate of $20 plus one paperback contributor copy of the anthology. We do not charge an entry fee. Money flows to the authors, not the other way round. In addition, the winner will receive a comprehensive round of edits on a novel-length work, as well as a manuscript assessment. The two runners-up will each receive a comprehensive round of edits on a first chapter of a novel or a short story.

Each year I also gather a panel of kick-ass judges. So, though I do the initial grading through the slush pile, the panel of judges (who are all involved in the publishing industry one way or another) will be the ones to rate and make the final selection.

Am I crazy to take this project on? Perhaps. But I find this far more exciting than watching TV, and it's ultimately so satisfying to unleash yet another kick-ass anthology out in the wilds. And I love my authors. You're all adorable and squishy, even if you're a pack of little divas at times. So, if you fancy you'd like to give this writing of horror a shot, go check out the submission guidelines here.

(Yes, I now I use the word kick-ass a lot. It happens.)

Five minutes with Glen Mehn, 2012 SA HorrorFest Bloody Parchment finalist #horror

Today's visitor is none other than Glen Mehn, a finalist from the 2012 SA HorrorFest Bloody Parchment short story competition. His story, The Next Big Thing, appears in this year's anthology, The Root Cellar and Other Stories, which you can find all the buy links your little black heart desires here.

So, Glen, what planted the seed for your story?

 I'm fascinated by the changing face(s) of cities - particularly the cool, quirky districts that start out dangerous and then turn into the poshest areas of the city, chasing out what made it cool in the first place. There's a vampiristic or general blood-sucking of the life of what you look for in a city that happens, and it's terrible. I've lived through it in certain areas in New Orleans, San Francisco, and London - there was even a sniff of it in part of Kampala that I lived in, as it was close-ish to the airport and a really old Buganda area that was dirt cheap, but as all the NGOs, international companies, and embassies made rents rise to near London-levels in the traditional expat areas, lots of people started moving in, and the crazy nightclubs started shifting.

What are some of the themes you treated in your tale?

The changing face of cities. Seduction, and what it means. The transience of friendship and what it means to be a friend, mostly. I was also interested in the idea of inevitability - people talk about cities changing and an early draft of the story was set up as a statement of fate and inevitability. I question whether you can't improve an area without killing it. I hope so.

What are the hallmarks of a great horror/dark fantasy author and story?

People. Get me inside their heads and I'll be terrified along with them. Make me feel the knife, touch the scar tissue, and make my heart skip a beat. The strange but just plausible. There's a story by Kaaron Warren in Stories of the Smoke where the ubiquity of the urban pigeon is suggested in terrifying ways. Make me see the corners of my mind that I don't pay attention to.

How do you approach your creative process?

I try to think a lot, and then get down and write, mostly early in the morning or after work, and I try to get words on the page (or screen - I go back and forth between long handed chicken scratch and typing into a computer) before I can stop thinking about them. Some of my best work has been writing longhand first thing in the morning, before having a wee, toothbrush, or anything. And it's come after writing over and over things like "I have nothing in my mind I am super tired I don't know what to say but I have promised to put down at least 1000 words before coffee so there's 25 there".

I also try to think a lot, and shove ideas into my head. I help people create start-ups for my day job and I think that real innovation happens between specific disciplines, in the places where you're not supposed to play.

What are you working on now?

A short which is about the earliest days of Jazz (and this almost-forgotten cornetist who probably invented Jazz music, which means he's the grandfather of hip hop, rock, and most of th emusic of the 20th century), as well as a couple of novels - both of which I don't want to talk too much about except that one is an inside-out love story and the other one is an attack on the chosen one.

If you're one them folks who hang out on Goodreads, be sure to add The Root Cellar and Other Stories on Goodreads. And, if you're looking to be part of the next anthology, go read our submission guidelines here.

Five minutes with Chris Limb, 2012 SA HorrorFest Bloody Parchment runner-up

A huge-ass welcome to Chris Limb, who's one of the runners-up in last year's SA HorrorFest Bloody Parchment short story competition. You can read his tale in The Root Cellar and Other Stories. Alibi freaked me out for a variety of reasons, the most hectic probably was the sense of how utterly bereft it made me feel by the

So, Chris, what planted the seed for your story?

One of my foibles is that I always sign up with a new social media service as soon as I hear about it just to see if they grab me. I tend to stick with those that work for me, one of which was Instagram. After using it for a while I found myself wondering how it “knew” where photos were originally taken, even if you posted them from elsewhere.

I then discovered EXIF data, which was the information embedded in photos, including the GPS location of where it was taken. After reading up on it, one the most interesting things for me was that it could be edited. You could embed lies in a photograph. I then wondered why someone would want a photograph to lie on his or her behalf, and the story grew from there.

What are some of the themes you treated in your tale? 

From the source of inspiration I suppose the theme of lying is central to the story.  From this comes morality – do the ends justify the means? Should some monsters just be killed or should a truly moral person seek another way? Things are never that simple and the experience of being human is always one of compromise, no matter the set of values to which we claim to adhere. I suppose there is also a theme of consequence – once we have decided upon a drastic course of action there will always be repercussions, even if they’re not the ones we expect. And things will never be the same again.

What are the hallmarks of a great horror/dark fantasy author and story? 

I think a great horror story should disturb. It should stick with you and bother you; particular turns of phrase from it echoing around your head for weeks afterwards.
It should make you afraid. If you wake at 3.45am you should find yourself getting scared because you just remembered the story you read the other day.  Of course you know that there are no ghosts but in the dead of night a good horror story should make you doubt this rational belief. So much so that you turn the light on.
Sometimes it should make you wish you’d never read it in the first place, but deep down you’re glad you did.

How do you approach your creative process? 

Inspiration does come from dreams I have, although often ideas seem to germinate in my mind whilst I’m awake. Something I see or hear will take root and start throwing out tendrils of “what if…”
A lot of the time these ideas will wash around in my head for ages before I write them down. I recently finished a short story the first few pages of which were in a file dated 2000!

However in recent years I have been forcing myself to write on a daily basis come what may. I have found that doing this does exercise the creative nodes and the fact of sitting down to write a story means that I have to come up with something. I started this daily writing in late 2010 in order to finish off a novel, Comeback, which I had been working on for several years – and I did so within a month or so.

During 2012’s NaNoWriMo I wrote half of the next novel in the series so this head-down-and-do-it approach does seem to work. I have to stop myself obsessing over the details and just get the writing done – I tell myself I can always fix them later.

I am an archaeologist rather than an architect when writing in that a lot of the time I don’t know what is going to happen next and so write in order to find out. However this approach doesn’t really work for short stories.

What are you working on now?

I am still submitting Comeback – which has now been through five or six revisions and is in its final form – to agents and publishers and in the meantime am working on finishing the first draft of the sequel, which is nominally called Ghostdance. Both are set in the music industry although have strong fantastical elements. I’ve also written the first couple of chapters of a SF novel dealing with parallel worlds and how we ended up in the wrong one.

I am continuing to write short stories and entering them for competitions and open calls. It is all good exercise unless it gets published and then it counts as work!

Twitter: @catmachine
Web: http://chrislimb.com
Holding page for Comeback: http://comeba.co.uk
Site for 80s pop memoir: http://toyah.org

Five minutes with Lee Mather, 2012 Bloody Parchment finalist

Lee Mather seems to be turning into regular for Bloody Parchment. This year his story, Jamie's Song, met with the judges' approval and I'm happy to have him over today to chat a little more about his contribution, and how he approaches the art of writing.

What planted the seed for your story?

As bizarre as this seems, Jamie's Song was inspired by Kate Bush! The video for her song Experiment IV had a profound effect on me when I was younger. So did Babooshka but for different reasons. With regard to inspiration, the notion of "a sound that could kill" stuck with me and I shaped it into something relevant to a music loving Mancunian.

What are some of the themes you treated in your tale?

Death. Grief. The influence of music.

What are the hallmarks of a great horror/dark fantasy author and story?

I wish I knew. Perhaps a question for Joe Hill.

How do you approach your creative process?

With a blank page and a flashing cursor. I write lots of notes, sometimes an outline. I'll read up on themes relevant to the piece and I try my hardest to evolve ideas into pulling together a world that, as a reader, I would want to be a part of.


What are you working on now?

Right now, these answers. Sometime soon, a debut novel. I've had some success with shorter fiction and I'd love to replicate that with something longer.

www.leemather.org.uk has it all. You can Tweet me, Friend me, and even buy my books from there. It hosts some free stuff too if you'd like to try before you buy.

Five minutes with Anna Reith, 2012 Bloody Parchment runner-up

I must admit I become a bit of a fangrrrl whenever I see anything with Anna Reith's name on it. She really is that good, and I just about faint when I see her submissions in my inbox. So it came to no surprise when she turned out to be a runner-up in last year's Bloody Parchment short story competition. So, a big welcome to Anna on my blog.

What planted the seed for your story?

Courting Seraphs is loosely inspired by the concepts found in On the Origin of the World, one of the Nag Hammadi scriptures, which presents a very different version of the creation story to that found in the Bible. I wanted to take some of those ideas and explore what happened if, not only were they true, but one person was caught up in them, holding secrets that can never be shared. So… a bit like a spy thriller, but with Gnostic philosophy instead of sensitive government information.

What are some of the themes you treated in your tale? 

There is plenty of material out there in fantasy, horror, and weird fiction in terms of immortality and timelessness. I wanted to touch on those things in Courting Seraphs, but from a slightly different angle. Today, we’re bombarded with a ridiculously huge volume of information, images, and experiences. Through technology, we have access to more information than we could assimilate in a lifetime, and I think that’s something that’s fundamentally overlooked in stories that deal with immortality. As human beings, do we have a finite limit for how much we can experience, and how much we can hold in our heads? And, if we cross that limit, how long will it be until we come apart at the seams?

What are the hallmarks of a great horror/dark fantasy author and story? 

What I love about horror and dark fantasy is the breadth of possibilities. We are very complex creatures and—in the right light—we’re capable of making almost anything macabre, just by the way we think about it. The shadows around the campfire, the knotted, finger-like twigs of trees against the window… these are all creations of the human mind. I think my favourite creepy tales are the ones that explore that potential within us, and let the strange and the unseen leach into the everyday. After all, what’s scarier than suddenly realising the malign in something mundane?

How do you approach your creative process? 

With coffee. No… well, yes. Ideas are a permanent swirl, and I am forever scribbling notes down on the backs of things, but as soon as I have the basic shape of a story—or at least a firm grasp on one scene that the rest of it will grow from—I like to sit down and beat it into shape. As I suffer from CFS/M.E., that can be quite laborious, but I think there’s no substitute for applying proverbial glue to the seat of the pants and getting on with it. I really only use outlines occasionally, preferring to let tales grow organically and, because so much of my work tends to involve strong characterisation, I often find that it’s the way people spark off each other that drives my stories forward.

What are you working on now? 

Right now, I’m working on a handful of very interesting projects, including a dark fantasy novel titled Making the Days, which—a little like Courting Seraphs—deals a lot with what’s real, what’s not real, and the places people fall in between. I’m also working on the first in a sci-fi series set in a large and complex universe; something of a labour of love, as the original unfinished manuscripts were left to me by my late cousin, who had been working on them for several years. I will have a poetry collection out later this year and, though it’s probably a bit early to really announce it, I have just started preliminary work on a sequel to my genre-bending glam-rock-paranormal-murder-mystery, Dead in Time, which is currently available to read for free on Wattpad, where I’ve been a featured author recently.

As ever, further details on what I’m up to can be found on my website, www.annareith.co.uk, where I have some further free reads available. Both Dead in Time and Black Ice: collected stories, a compendium of dark short fiction, are currently available in digital and print formats.

You can also find me on tumblr and Wattpad.

Toby Bennett, Bloody Parchment 2012 winner

Toby wowed the judges with the 2011 SA HorrorFest Bloody Parchment competition. It therefore comes as no surprise that he pulled out the stops and went on to win the 2012 competition. His creepy tales bear a creepy kind of whimsy that is inimitably Mr Bennett's, and he's definitely one worth watching out for. He entered two stories into the competition, and both made the final cut. That says something. (Buy links here...)

So, Toby what planted the seed for your tales?

It started with the thought of pale white fingers (white as worms) digging through someone’s wall and snow balled from there. I thought of somewhere dark and musty that might fit the fingers and The Root Cellar was born. So yeah in this case I literally did plant something in the earth – and it grew.

My second story, Wants and Needs really came out of an exercise in trying to make a new type of monster. I was enjoying playing with the different monster tropes but I didn't want to write a story about a ‘standardized’ monster. I also started asking myself ‘what really defines a monster?’ Observant readers may notice this as a kind of running theme through my work. I find it very simplistic to assume that the ugliest protagonist with the most claws is always going to be the real villain of the piece. I like to blur the lines between what’s horrific and what’s human.

What are some of the themes you treated in your tale?

Well I guess there’s the obvious theme of what happens when something sneaks through the wall to try and eat small children – and who hasn’t thought about that at some time? – but the deeper themes are about growing up and the endless cycle of change and corruption that we call daily life. Hopefully it will be apparent to the reader that this is about more than just the bogeyman; it’s about the monsters that shape us all. Oh and it’s about being scared and alone in the dark, which come to think of it, is a pretty good metaphor for life anyway.

In Wants and Needs I think one of the major theme’s I examine is how easily we can confuse our basic drives and also how selfish and cruel the ways we love can be. For an emotion that is supposed to be about others it’s amazing how many times what we call love turns out to be all about ourselves.

What are the hallmarks of a great horror/dark fantasy author and story?

A truly great horror story you say? Why anything that leaves its vict– woops! I mean reader– in a state of barely controlled panic for an hour or two after they’ve read it. If you’ve just read a story that makes you want to check under the bed or make sure the closet door is firmly shut, it’s probably a good one. I won’t define what that story should be about or how it should be written because that can be very subjective; that said, are you happy with your feet sticking out from under the covers like that? The dog’s been very quiet but that rustling in the ceiling keeps getting louder... Or is the sound coming from behind you? Stop reading and get out, get out now before… perhaps that sandwich was poisoned – it could be too late anyway so you might as well keep reading.

How do you approach your creative process? 

With flare and panache I hope (though before I get too full of myself I had to look up how to spell the word ‘panache’ … let’s hope it means what I think it means and isn’t some kind of stylised facial hair). For me the creative process doesn’t bare too much analysis (or to put it another way I don’t want to get too anal about it!) I just do what the voices tell me and they steer me right about seventy percent of the time… though I only have their word for that come to think of it.

What are you working on now? 

I’m quite excited about my current project, without giving too much away I am working on a serialised novel with my fellow author Benjamin Knox… Alright I’ll give it all away, it’s a futuristic dystopian setting where a large part of a mega city has succumbed to a plague that turns its victims into shambling distorted monsters and if early indications are anything to go by it’s going to kick gluteus than a low GI diet… what? Oh it’s gluten? Story’s still going to be cool though… the voices told me.

To date I have written seven novels and a collection of short stories check out the kindle store on Amazon to get your paws on my work.

Five Minutes with Zane Marc Gentis, Bloody Parchment 2012 finalist

There's no denying that Zane Marc Gentis has a way with words. Indeed, his short story, Heirloom, which appears in Bloody Parchment: The Root Cellar and Other Stories, he ventures forth into some truly unsettling territory indeed. So, Zane, what planted the seed for your story?


It’s probably a little creepy to say a story about a taxidermy girl was inspired by my girlfriend, so I’ll insinuate it instead. We were getting ready to go out, and she’d been working on her hair and said it had a ‘rag-doll’ quality to it. That set some of the creative cogs in motion. Cursed dolls and animated puppets are an old horror staple, so I knew there was something else I wanted to do with the concept, but wasn’t quite sure what yet. It wasn’t until I saw Coraline again and remembered that a taxidermist friend of mine uses buttons for eyes that all the pieces came together.

What are some of the themes you treated in your tale?


I wanted to write a story that was Lovecraftian in theme without being obvious. One of his central tropes is a distinguished family with a dark secret, Rats in the Walls being a good example. In this story that takes the shape of the deceased uncle with a collection of weird and eerie artefacts.

At the same time, I liked the juxtaposition of beauty and horror. Something that looks beautiful yet represents the monstrous is more interesting to me than straight-up frights. In this story’s case, what you see isn’t disturbing, it’s knowing what the object represents. Horror isn’t necessarily tied to external objects, but internal concepts or notions. True horror, in that sense, is something that we carry with us, and comes from inside.


What are the hallmarks of a great horror/dark fantasy author and story?


I’m biased in favour of body horror. The loss of control and subversion of normality really sell it to me. That’s probably a dead (ha) give-away that I’m a control freak and moving the sandwich meat out of alphabetical order scares me more than vampires ever will.

Part of the seduction of horror in general is that a happy ending isn’t assured. That means there’s the possibility for tragedy. If you have characters the reader can empathise with, the tragedy begins to matter. Their struggles and tension then become our struggles and tension, the frights and failures become that much more real.


How do you approach your creative process?


It generally starts with a single idea or question. This idea worms its way around in my head, and I play with it, adding more as the inspiration grows. Often I’ll cannibalize elements from my unpublished works.

At some point, the inspiration becomes too much and the idea needs to express itself. You feel like you’re going to explode if you can’t get it out with writing, or drawing, or…something. So I sit down and start writing until it’s done.

Typically the end of the story comes first in my head. Then I pick a beginning, and pin-point a few essentially landmark moments in the story. The rest of the plot writes itself as the writing veers between the landmarks. I like to give the piece the ability to surprise me, and find it comes out a lot stronger for it.

I wait between rewrites, giving myself emotional distance to be able to work out what’s good and what’s garbage in the current piece. Once something halfway decent has been achieved the rewrites stop and the edits begin.

I’d like to pretend I have a more sophisticated method, like something an intelligent person with seven middle names and twelve titles might have come up with. This is the method that’s worked so far, so I’m sticking by it.

What are you working on now?


The current WIP is a novel called Letters to Kitty. Our protagonist wakes up in a bathroom without any idea who he is, where he is, or whose blood is on his hands. He’s plagued by visions, and being hunted by beings who appear to be more than human. His quest for identity becomes a race for his survival as he puts together the pieces of his past, present and future. The reception from my beta readers so far has been overwhelmingly positive. It’s a stand
alone novel with the potential for two sequels and an expanded world, but right now I’m focussed on just finishing it before I plan too far ahead.

SA Partridge, Bloody Parchment 2012 finalist

SA Partridge needs very little introduction here on my blog. She is one of South Africa's best-known authors of YA fiction, and this is the second time that she's been a South African HorrorFest Bloody Parchment finalist. Her story, Jethro Mackenzie and the Devil is a somewhat tongue-in-cheek look at contemporary conspiracy theorists and blogging.

Over to you, Ms Partridge. What planted the seed for your story?

My story is about a conspiracy theorist blogger, so I guess the idea stemmed from my love of the X-Files, which is my favorite show ever. The story also features a personification of the Devil, which is my little imagining based on classic representations from film, like the forked tail. It's a fun little story that I enjoyed writing and I hope that carries across to the reader.


What are some of the themes you treated in your tale? 

Conspiracy theories, theology, the social media revolution and the changing face of the media itself. I think the three tie together so well. I wanted to write a story that captures the here and now.

Why a park bench?

A park bench seems like the logical place for the Devil to materialise. After all, in film, the park bench is the classic setting for espionage to take place.

What are the hallmarks of a great horror/dark fantasy author and story? 

The ability to create tension and fear without having to resort to body horror or cheap scare tactics. The name Lovecraft screams to mind, doesn't it?

How do you approach your creative process?

I just write. When a story grabs me I start writing and let the words guide me. I don't stop till it's done, and then I go back and rewrite until it shines. I heard an interesting theory that writers are mediums through which stories are born. I like that description a lot.

What are you working on now? 

I am currently working on a novel. I am always working on a novel. I have a new young adult book coming out in August called Sharp Edges, about six friends that go to a music festival but only five come back. I have two more waiting to be published. I'm pretty much a human production line.

LINKS
Find me on Twitter @sapartridge and Facebook
You can link to my blog via my website www.sapartridge.co.za

A Bloody Good Idea... #horror

In anticipation of the upcoming release of the next South African HorrorFest Bloody Parchment anthology, published in association with the uber-cool eKhaya, I'm going to give away three ecopies of last year's Bloody Parchment: Hidden Things, Lost Things and Other Stories to three lucky entrants. All you need to do is answer a simple question based on the blurb of this year's anthology.

This year's Bloody Parchment: The Root Cellar and Other Stories brings a fresh crop of horror and dark literature from the most recent South African HorrorFest Bloody Parchment short story competition. From dreary subterranean chambers and angelic visitations to the many-legged horrors of alien invaders and a meeting with the Devil himself, this collection of tales offers readers the opportunity to acquaint themselves with the likes of Toby Bennett (winner), and runners-up Anna Reith and Chris Limb. Finalists include Diane Awerbuck, Simon Dewar, Zane Marc Gentis, Stephen Hewitt, Benjamin Knox, Lee Mather, Glen Mehn, S.A. Partridge, and Icy Sedgwick.

So, now, for the big question, what is the title story of this year's anthology? (If you're sharp, you'll figure it out. If not, I suggest you ask Toby Bennett.) If you're a bright spark, you've got until midnight on May 24 to leave your answer, your name and an email address as a comment on this page.

Five Minutes with Stacey Larner #bloodyparchment

It's headed to that time of the year where we begin to get ready for the release of the next Bloody Parchment anthology. So, if you're looking for something dark and sometimes twisted to add to your reading pile, do give our existing anthologies a shot. Volume #1 is available as a free download off Goodreads, while Bloody Parchment: Hidden Things, Lost Things is available from such vendors as Amazon and Kobo. Limited edition print copies are available from the Book Lounge. 

In the meanwhile, I've been holding some of the author interviews on ice and have one of the 2011 finalists featuring here today. A big welcome to Stacey Larner, who wrote a rather disconcerting tale called Duck Creek Road. Welcome, Stacey! Tell us a little about yourself.

I have 3 children, the youngest is 6 months. I started writing after becoming a single parent in 2010, because I needed some way to purge my anger and grief. I had two short stories published last year (2011) and, apart from Duck Creek Road, one so far this year (2012) with three more due out later in the year. I live in Australia, in a place that's mostly warm and sunny, and spend the rest of my (sparse) free time knitting, sewing, reading and talking on social media.



Tell us a little about the background of your story. 

Well this kind of ties into the next question! There is an anecdote that goes with the setting and the predicament Holly and Rohan find themselves in. But the story is more about Holly's personal demons. It's about how abuse warps a person, makes it hard for them to break out of old patterns of thinking. It's not autobiographical, by the way! Originally I wanted her to have a chance at a happy ending, to defeat her demons, but it didn't quite work. I took on board some feedback and the rest is history.


Are there any interesting anecdotes relating to its creation? 

Duck Creek Road is a real road, and my partner and I got caught in the same way. I remember at the time we joked that I should write a story about it. We didn't have GPS though, just an old school refidex (Holly is like me in that respect). I have photos if you want proof!

What do you like about horror as a genre? I'm fairly new to horror. When I was about 11 my parents' friends put Cujo and Nightmare on Elm Street 3 on for me and they terrified me so thoroughly I avoided most horror as a rule. My partner is a big horror fan so we've been slowly watching a few classics. I love to write horror because it helps me explore darknes
s. The darkness in me and what I see in the world. Writing horror has made me braver when it comes to reading it too. I love that it makes me think, makes me uncomfortable, helps me to understand the monster. I'm not scared of ghosts but I'm terrified by the atrocities humans inflict on each other.

What scares you?


Acts of cruelty, normalised atrocities. I find serial killers more scary than demons. I'm also scared by the idea of losing the people I love. The two stories that have horrified me the most (so far) are Wives by the late Paul Haines and The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. It's no coincidence that they are both set in a dystopian future where people are desensitised to the horror of their cultural norms.

Where can people find you online?

I'm on twitter @StaceySarasvati and I have a blog at http://foregoreality.wordpress.com. I do have a demanding baby so I can be sporadic in my posting, but I do post!

Call for submissions: Bloody Parchment

One of the projects that have successfully kept me out of much mischief over the past few years has been Bloody Parchment, an event and short story competition/anthology brought out under the auspices of the South African HorrorFest.

This year we're once again being hosted by the Book Lounge, on October 26, and the brief that has gone out to the writers is "drabbles". If you don't know what a drabble is, then go read this... The evening looks to be fun, and I have some of South Africa's top genre fiction authors participating, including the likes of Sarah Lotz, Cat Hellisen and Louis Greenberg, among others. If you're a local author and would like to participate, mail me at nerinedorman@gmail.com

But the real reason I'm putting up this blog post is that I'd like to offer all aspiring and existing dark fantasy and horror authors a chance to be part of the Bloody Parchment short story competition. We're busy with the third one, and now have the backing of eKhaya, the digital imprint of Random House Struik. So yes, this is a big deal if you're looking to garner a publishing cred.

Our judges are all publishing professionals, either authors or editors, who have a love for dark fantasy and horror fiction, and if your story makes it into the list of finalists, it will be considered for the next anthology. But wait, there's more. The winner of the short story competition also receives a detailed assessment and round of content edits for a novella- or novel-length work.

VITAL DETAILS
What do you need to know? We're accepting short stories in the dark fantasy and horror genre of up to 3 500 words in length. The closing date is October 31, and if you need to know more, go check out the page on the Bloody Parchment blog or email me at nerinedorman@gmail.com 

Regression News

And, a little bit of news from my side. Just returned from a short trip up to Zambia to be dumped in the thick of things for the tail-end of the SA HORRORFEST, so I'm pretty tapped out until the end of the weekend. Just thought I'd share the success, since Regression has won the award for the "Best Local Short" for the 2010 SA HORRORFEST short film competition.

I hope to regain some semblance of normality from here on in until the BlackMilk crew shoots up to Johannesburg for the first-ever screenings on the other side of the Vaal River. As always, the crew keep me out of mischief, as chief sandwich-maker, bloodstain remover and writer of promotional stuffies.

* * * *

Regression, a BlackMilk Productions short horror film, won the award for “Best Local Short” at the 2010 SA HORRORFEST, one of the only local conventions supporting fringe arts culture in South Africa.

Said SA HORRORFEST organiser Paul Blom: “Each year the local short entries fluctuate – one year better, another less so; one year loads of entries, another just a handful. We want to spread the word that there is a legitimate and internationally recognised platform in the SA HORRORFEST to screen these movies, and lead to generating a huge stream of regular and high-quality short films, thus playing a role in developing an alternative film culture in SA diverting from all the obvious themes and styles.”

Ecstatic about this year’s win, BlackMilk co-director and co-scriptwriter Thomas Dorman added: “Competition was tough this year. I was massively impressed by the South African contribution to the SA HORRORFEST. Most of them stood heads above last year’s competitors and even gave the foreign short films a run for their money. The runner-up’s movie Kult Without a Name really stood out from the rest and I’m really looking forward to meeting the director in Johannesberg, where a joint screening of most of the BlackMilk films will take place on November 27 at CCHQ.”

When asked what made Regression this year’s winning local entrant, BlackMilk co-director and co-scriptwriter Ronnie Belcher said: “Regression is visually amazing, with eerie and epic sound design, and absolutely amazing performances by the cast. The brilliant art direction and production design also added to the surreal environment we needed. We also had a stunning crew that helped us create this. As with all BlackMilk films, we tell ‘normal’ stories in an ‘abnormal’ way, and I think this added to the success.”

See the SA HorrorFest website at www.horrorfest.info
Follow the BlackMilk Productions blog at www.blackmilkproductions.blogspot.com