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.

Bloody Parchment: Meet E Garcia

I've got E Garcia, one of the SA HorrorFest Bloody Parchment short story competition winners here today, chatting about her story, "Get out of Death Free?" that appears in our Blue Honey and The Valley of Shadow anthology that was recently released. For those of you wondering about the 2017 competition, we are now officially open and accepting submissions. Go see our blog for all the details.

So, without further ado, let's get on with our chat.

What darkness lies at the heart of your story? 
Though this story is more quirky than dark, the theme that I wanted to touch on about being unprepared for Death is not exactly light either. Most of us avoid thinking about our mortality on a day to day basis, and there is little connection with our dead. Funeral homes prepare bodies and not many people spend time with the corpse of a loved one to come to terms with the loss like we used to. The idea of not being ready for Death on both sides of the afterlife is an unsettling thought to me. What if we end up walking in Limbo for eons, never to see our loved ones again, just because our culture no longer had rituals to break ties and prepare everyone for the end?

What do you love the most about writing?
Writing lets me get all the stories out of my head and un-jumble them into some sort of order. It keeps a measure of structure in my brain. Also, I get to escape real life for a while to explore the characters and worlds that spawn from things I read, people I meet, and dreams I have.

Why does reading matter? 
You can’t create in a vacuum. Everything you read impacts how you improve as a writer, gives you new ideas, and pushes you to keep creating. Without reading, I would have no reason to write.

An excerpt...

“I have a coupon.”
Death stared at me. Or at least, I assumed that was what he was doing during the prolonged silence. It difficult to tell what his facial expression was beneath the hood of his blue DO I LOOK LIKE A PEOPLE PERSON? sweatshirt.
 “A coupon.” His voice didn’t come from his chest, but seemed to rise up from all around us, the deep notes reverberating in my bones.
“Yep.” I flipped through the mass of receipts in my wallet and found the ragged square of paper my young niece had given me. “Here. Get out of Death Free.”
Accepting the paper, he inspected it from all angles. Even two years later, I was amazed by the level of detail the then seven-year-old had put on it. It even had fine print.
PRICES AND PARTICIPATION MAY VARY. LIMIT ONE COUPON PER CUSTOMER. NO TAKE BACKSIES.

What other things have you written?
I have one work in progress that is being edited for publication. It is an urban fantasy novel that involves magic, corgis, and more Blues Brothers references than I can count.

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's Icy Sedgwick

Today another Bloody Parchment veteran, Icy Sedgwick, stops by to chat a little more about herself and her writing. Welcome, Icy!

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I'm a Geordie born and bred, and I live and work in Newcastle. By day I teach graphic design, and by night I'm either working on fiction, or working on my PhD, which looks at set design in contemporary haunted house films. If I'm not doing that I'm knitting or crocheting. People laugh at me but hey, can their hobbies turn string into clothing using just two sticks?

What gives in your story? 

I've got a lifelong fascination with mummies, and I wanted an excuse to work one into a story! I'd had the title in mind for ages, and I never really knew what to do with it, so I just sat down and started writing. It ended up turning into a story about an evacuee, sent to an isolated country house (because it has to be isolated, or it's not Gothic) to stay with her aunt, but all is not as it seems, especially since she's acquired a mummy in a case, and something keeps talking to her when it's quiet...

What do you love about reading and writing speculative fiction?

I love the ease with which you can just dive into the unknown. It's the 'what if?' nature of speculative fiction. But then it's not just plot-driven, or escapist - speculative fiction can deal with huge themes and really important issues, but it does so in such a way that you actually find yourself invested in them, while more literary forms can sometimes make you feel patronised or preached at.

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

I can't think of a specific singular book or film, it's more been about genres or authors, but I do think Neverwhere would be an influence. I love the way Neil Gaiman used real parts of London, and I won't lie, I did used to hope I'd stumble across the entrance to London Below when I lived in the capital. As far as I know, I never did.

How do you approach the writing process?

From an angle ;-) In all seriousness, I try to approach it with a sense of whimsy because when you look at it, the whole process is slightly silly. You're essentially making things up - there are few other times in life with doing that is acceptable, unless you're a politician. So I have my idea, which either comes from something I've (often) misheard, or a 'what if?', and then it's a question of following the rabbit hole to see how far it goes.

LINKS
Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, The Guns of Retribution, The Necromancer's Apprentice.

Bloody Parchment's Chris Limb #interview

The SA HorrorFest Bloody Parchment anthologies have a few veterans who've appeared among the finalists regularly, and one of these is Chris Limb, who needs very little by way of introduction here on my blog. His tale appears in the most recent Bloody Parchment anthology: Beachfront Start Home, Good Bones and Other Stories, and without any further ado, I hand over my blog to him.

Welcome, Chris, and for those readers who haven't met you before, tell us a little bit about yourself.

I live by the sea in the UK. I left my day job and have been working as a freelance web developer and graphic designer for the past year or so which has been simultaneously liberating and isolating. Luckily I have my twin passions of writing and music to keep me busy and entertained.

I'm the bass player in a band called Das Flüff who play "sexistential electro post-punk twisted disco cyber filth"! The only thing better than going to a gig is playing one, although I still love both.
I've been writing on a more regular basis since 2007 but my first break came when my story Alibi was published in the Bloody Parchment 2012 anthology. Since then I've had a few more stories published in anthologies and online magazines.

I also have two complete novels I am continuing to try and find homes for...

What gives in your story?

I am a social media junkie and find the way it all works and add an extra dimension to human existence fascinating. Twitter is my medium of choice so I suppose it was only a matter of time before I decided to explore it in fiction.

The seed of the story itself came from an article I read on cyber-bullying the details of which I won't share here for fear of spoiling the story. I was also inspired by the discovery of a Twitter account that I imagined looked as if it had been set up just to follow me. Just like the account in the story, it followed me plus a selection of celebrities and information services. Plus one other account I suspected of being the primary account of the person who had set it up. Its timeline consisted entirely of retweets.

All in all it was a very strange set-up. Why not just follow me from the primary account? Twitter is by its very nature a bit stalkery.

In reality I was probably imagining the more sinister implications and it was all a coincidence. The human brain is very good at looking for patterns and worrying about any potential danger they may present.

Either way, the idea for the story came to me fairly quickly after that.

Why do you love about reading and writing speculative fiction?

I love the sense that anything can happen. Things can genuinely surprise the reader because normal rules don't apply. I love the "what-if" of speculative fiction, stepping outside the mundane.

As I get older it seems as if the world is becoming increasingly unimaginative in what is permitted. Reality is being reduced to the lowest common denominator.  For example, back in the early nineties I was certain that by 2016 space travel would be commonplace, that we'd have already established a Moon base and have landed on Mars. Instead these fantastical dreams are retreating before us like desert mirages.

When I was growing up there were often documentaries on TV about the paranormal and the strange; as a child these indicated to me that the world could be exciting and unknown. Now the discussion of such things in the respectable media is almost taboo.

For me, writing and reading speculative fiction captures the excitement of when the world was a more interesting place full of potential and mystery. A way of returning to youth, however temporarily.

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

I can't think of any one novel or movie that looms large enough to say is the most influential.
However, there are a number of writers I really enjoy and find inspiring in that after I finish reading one of their novels I want to write something of my own.

Michael Marshall Smith is one of them – when I read his first novel I was astonished that there was someone out there who seemed to be writing in what up until that point I had assumed was my own inner voice...

William Gibson is another. He seems to be able to get ideas and emotions across with a surprising economy of words. Mona Lisa Overdrive is one of my favourite novels and yet despite its scope and how embedded its world I felt, it's only just over 80 000 words long.

In general though I find discovering new novels more exciting and inspiring than revisiting old favourites - over the past couple of years I have enjoyed and been inspired by novels by Claire North, Ramez Naam, Emmi Itäranta, Sarah Pinborough and Ben Aaronovitch.

How do you approach the writing process?

With short stories what tends to happen is that I will get the germ of an idea that I will make a note of on my phone (it's usually when I am out and about). Occasionally these are a bit too cryptic and I forget what the idea was!

Part of my daily routine for the past six years has been writing every morning using the online service at 750 Words. If one of the story ideas I've made a note of is nagging at me I will start it during this session and then keep writing approximately seven hundred and fifty words or more a day until a very rough draft is finished.

I then leave it a few days and go back and start severely editing it. After a while - and often it can now be half the length of the rough draft - I am satisfied and so I look for somewhere to submit it on Duotrope. With the last novel it was more or less the same process but much longer; a case of keeping going until I'd finished and only then going back and editing it.

Links/URLs
Web page, Das Fluff, Twitter, International kindle links for non fiction 80s pop memoir.

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 Stephen Hewitt, 2012 Bloody Parchment finalist

A big welcome to Stephen Hewitt, whose story Kiss the Butcher's Daughter unsettled me quite a bit, which is why I reckon it deserved to be included in this year's SA HorrorFest Bloody Parchment anthology. But I'll leave it up to him to tell us a little more. 

What planted the seed for your story?

A deep love of bacon.
That, or the needle-like abdomen of a brain-injecting, story wasp.

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

Those themes that affected my dimly remembered school days: of boys generally regarding girls as silly one day, and rather more interesting the next; the sudden jump in sophistication and maturity that girls seem to show in advance of boys; and the general cruelty of schoolyard rumour, naivety and youth. Damn it, yeah, I was so bullied (sob). I still have no idea what girls think of boys. Should I ever find out, I know you will have me silenced…

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

An aquiline profile, a ‘tache and the ability to look good smoking a pipe on the dust jacket. And that’s just La Femme Horrotica. Failing that, a great author can write something that’s about people first, and parasitical, blood-sucking tentacle-ness, second. I love a twist on reality. I’m not interested in brains exploding – unless it’s about to be my own.
…
It’s not about to be my own, is it?

How do you approach your creative process? 

Firstly I partake of the black lotus, Chimerae, Lovecraftia, that grows exclusively on those tundrous and necrotic slopes of The Mountains of Madness. Or, eschewing effusive adjectiva, I start off with as random a prompt as I can come up with. Then, I try and sit beside you as you read, and write as quickly, and as much off the top of my head, as I can. If I’m lucky, I get that feeling of reading a story as I write, and I’ll finish just before you do. In essence, I’m a reader in charge of the story factory. What fun. When it clicks, it’s 10% writing and then 90% editing. When it doesn’t click it’s 90% writing and then 90% editing.  

What are you working on now?

I’ve spent a while doing flash fiction, short stories and writing for computer games. I’m now trying to plan a novel, which feels like I’m stuffing a 40lb octopus into a ukulele case. Or reconstructing a Boeing 707 from a crash site: I have all these bits and no idea what happened, with enough junk left over for four other planes...

And a combine harvester.

And a tandem bicycle.

And a small collection of fondue forks.

(Yeah, like most of my fiction, it was a weird accident.)

Planning ‘large writing’ feels about as far from writing as I can imagine. I have multiple works in the offing to prevent my reader’s soul weeping thick, black tears of printer’s ink. Or is that Kindle pixels?
Ta, da.


Enough, already, I’m off for a bacon roll.

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.

Simon Dewar, 2012 SA HorrorFest Bloody Parchment finalist

Simon Dewar started stalking following me on Twitter a while back. He was one of THOSE guys who doesn't stop asking questions. I also suspect he might be one of THOSE guys who're worth keeping an eye on because he's going to end up doing something really exciting soon. You have been warned. His short story, The Kettle, which appears in this year's Bloody Parchment: The Root Cellar, really creeps me out because it makes me consider how we fall into a routine... and how that routine is a unique brand of hell in itself.

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

The seed for my story was definitely the birth of my daughter a couple of months earlier.  I honestly felt that for about two months I'd lived on no sleep and far too much coffee and that I was just stumbling from day to day, event to event in some kinda of weird haze of caffeine induced insomnia, dirty nappies and work! As joyous a time as it was, it was also a huge and emotional life adjustment to be made. All of a sudden you can't just sleep in because a baby need to a bottle at 2am or you can't take a day off work because of all the new extra baby expenses and there's no time for holidays or date nights with the Mrs.  RESPONSIBILITY --- EEK!  I tried to capture some of these feelings and I applied the obligatory "What's the worst that could happen" or a "How can I make this sound *even* worse/harder than it already is?!"

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

I guess the themes that I touched on were probably male postnatal depression, caffeine addiction/sleep deprivation and that overwhelming feeling of just barely keeping your head above water as you plow through the drudgery of every day life.

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

Hallmarks for a great horror author is someone who can take something that we all deal with or all understand or have all experience and really bring out that which is scary or terrible about it.  Even if its a good experience, they show you it from an angle that freaks you out or they invert the whole thing and what should be good, becomes blasphemous. From a technical perspective they understand the nuts and bolts of what inspires fear and terror and can artfully use it to instill in the reader that emotion.  I read and write horror because basically... I'm shit scared of everything.. When I read a scary book or scary movie, I face those fears and I win, in the process I learn about myself, fellow man and the human condition. The great horror author can provide this experience.

Hallmarks for a great horror story for me are, basically, whether they really made me genuinely fearful.

Did my heart race, or did I get sweaty palms?
Did I sit there and think "I don't like where this is headed..." ?
Did I think "Holy shit... I wonder what is going to happen next" ?
Did I think "Noooo, dont go into the cellar... NEVER GO INTO THE CELLAR!"
or maybe: "Oh. My. God.  I bet that hurt!"  or "What the ACTUAL fuck ?!?"

If you made me think some these kind of things, you've written a good horror tale.  Above all, what I love the most is when a writer builds up tension to a fever pitch and send you out with a bang.  Recent examples of stories I've read that did this for me was Hide and Seek by Jack Ketchum, Hell House by Richard Matheson. The Books of Blood by Clive Barker were pretty decent as well.

How do you approach your creative process? 

I wish I knew a real answer to this question. Some writers put everything they think of down in a notebook they carry with them.  Stephen King once said that this was the best way to immortalise bad ideas and I COMPLETELY agree with him.  I tried doing this and I just end up with scribbles of bullshit ideas.  Every story that I've written that I've finished, seriously enjoyed writing and hasn't totally sucked was something that came on me like a bolt of lightning when I was having a shower or something mundane.  One idea that I have for a novel came to me when I was standing in line at a cafe reading a tweet by John Scalzi.  BOOM! All of a sudden I have an image of the protagonist in my head, his predicament and a fair idea about something terrible that's going to happen to him.

What are you working on now?

I've just finished a horror tale called the House of Waite which I submitted to the Fearful Symmetries anthology being edited by the illustrious Ellen Datlow.

I'm working on a pirate tale which I describe as "part Final Destination, part Pirates of the Caribbean, part Happy Feet".  Hopefully I finish it shortly and submit it to "The Sea" anthology being put out Dark Continents Publishing.  I've also started on the first few chapters of my first novel.

You can catch me on twitter:  @herodfel

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.

Icy Sedgwick, Bloody Parchment 2012 finalist

The talented Icy Sedgwick is not only drop-dead gorgeous, but she writes some of the most charming, inventive and enthralling stories I've encountered in ages. She's a regularly contributor to the #FridayFlash phenomenon, and I'm overjoyed that she submitted her story, Protection, to the Bloody Parchment short story competition, and that it was well received by the judges. Welcome, Icy! What planted the seed for your story?

I was listening to a piece by Mussorgsky and it ended with a tolling bell. I just sat back and listened, and the mental image I got was of a small village, besieged by some menace, and the bell was a warning that trouble was coming. The rest of it just sprang from that! I'm not particularly musical but sound has a very specific way of generating images in my head that I can turn into stories.

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

I don't specifically think about themes while I'm writing, but looking back on the story, I suppose my biggest concern was that of the outsider, and how they can be treated by their society – until their unique skillset is required by that society, and the community expect help. Should the outsider get involved anyway, or refuse the help that they never had?

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

I think imagination is key to dark fantasy, and a good story should take you somewhere that you've never been before. Horror should be something that above all horrifies. Some people seem to think that means being gory or explicit, and while that's part of horror, that's also the kind of thing to which you can become desensitised, so I feel that telling a chilling story is harder. Not everyone is going to be grossed out by something gory, so you need to find that key to tapping into what freaks someone out.

How do you approach your creative process? 

It depends on what I'm doing, really! But nine times out of ten, I'll come up with an idea, roughly sketch out the beginning, middle and end, and then just go for it. I let it all splurge out, and then I go back and tidy it up. I've tried outlining my work but I get so tied up in knots over it that I end up writing nothing at all, so it's better for me to just have a rough idea where I want to go.

What are you working on now? 



I'm in the last edits stage of a dark fantasy novella called The Necromancer's Apprentice, which is essentially what might have happened if Disney had swapped their sorceror for a necromancer, and the helpful brooms for bloodthirsty mummies!

You can follow me on Twitter @icypop, and both my pulp Western novella, The Guns of Retribution, and my collection of shourt stories, Checkmate & Other Stories, are available for Kindle from Amazon.

Five minutes with Diane Awerbuck, Bloody Parchment 2012 finalist

Diane Awerbuck is well known in South African literary circles, and I was overjoyed when she entered our competition last year. Her story, which appears in Bloody Parchment: The Root Cellar and Other Stories, is visceral and rather unsettling. A big welcome to Diane.

What planted the seed for your story?

I knew someone who'd had mouth cancer. They really did cut off her tongue – or the front part. It seemed...atrocious; Biblical; ultimately useless.

Most of the Obs details in the story are real: I just saw or heard them because I walked up and down that road a lot. (I've only recently bought a car.)

The Viola character is also the woman in my novel, Home Remedies, which is the story of her crazy middle age. Duiweltjie is about her later infirmity: the injury to her mouth is significant.

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

The disempowerment of disease; the surge of power you feel as a young person in the face of someone decrepit; the comfort of birds when you are confined; revenge; cruelty; helplesssness; memory; our inability – as Hirst has already said – to really conceptualise death.

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

An image that resonates, so that when you yourself visit the place you remember the narrative. The story overlays the ordinary reality with the surreal or hyper-real. This is not to say that banality is not horrific: of course it is.

How do you approach your creative process?

I'm dormant in summer. In autumn I get lazy. In winter I get so irritable I churn out a book that purges the me-grims.

What are you working on now?


A novel called The Little People, about a cameraman in the film industry and a psychic. They are filming a documentary about the alleged possession of Matric girls in a Kimberley boarding school. It's also to do with the water crisis that happened there last year, and the disused mines, the weirdness of the Northern Cape, like Area 52. But in a fun, happy way.

Short Story Day Africa is also coming up in June, and I'm involved there