New Genre Webzine: Three Crow Press

Stumbled across a new webzine the other day that looks rather interesting. It's called Three Crow Press and it's produced by relatively new independent genre publisher Morrigan Books.

Issue one of the 'zine is online now and features seven pieces of short fiction - by Francesca Forrest, Mark Rossmore, F.R.R. Mallory, Klaudia Bara, Alice Godwin, George Rizen and Catherine J. Gardner - as well as an interview with author Elaine Cunningham, a feature on the work of fantasy artist Ursula Vernon and a few book reviews and articles.

You can also follow their updates on Twitter, if you're that way inclined.

December 24, 2008 | Filed Under Online Finds | 1 Comment

Recommended reading: 'Unbecoming' by Mike O'Driscoll

Unbecoming and Other Tales of Horror is a rather excellent collection of thirteen short pieces linked by common themes - loss, decay, trauma, collapse - and a very definite common atmosphere - worry, unease, imbalance, dread - that makes for an entirely disturbing few hours' reading.

The fact that my few hours were split over a plane trip to and from Northern Ireland and a series of staccato sessions since has done nothing to lessen the powerfully unnerving impression the collection had on me. Personal favourites included the artfully crafted 'We Will Not Be Here Yesterday', the simple but powerful 'Shadows' and 'Sounds Like', which struck a note of sympathetic resonance... until the denouement.

These stories - indeed all the stories in Unbecoming - are crafted with the intention of unsettling rather than scaring the reader. They're not so much supernatural as unnatural, but they are no less 'horrorful' than a legion of lurching zombies or any number of eldritch monstrosities lurking in dark, dank cellars. You might not feel the urge to look over your shoulder or hide behind the sofa as you read, but you'll probably start wondering just what is going on in the deepest, darkest minds of your friends, neighbours, co-workers, family members...

I fully agree with the prevailing opinion that horror's most natural form of expression is the short story. Mike O'Driscoll - an otherwise quite charming and pleasant chap who lives an almost entirely psychosis-free life in rural Wales, I should point out - is one of the most natural and expressive exponents of that form who is writing in the UK today.

Fans of Ramsey Campbell, Conrad Williams, Nicholas Royle, Michael Marshall Smith et. al. take note: if you haven't got a copy of Unbecoming on your shelf then you've got a gap in your collection. Get in touch with Elastic Press, pronto, and they'll sort you out with a very reasonably-priced (Â£6.00 plus Â£1.50 p&p) patch.

May 16, 2007 | Filed Under Books | Leave a Comment

2007 - The Year of the Short Story?

I'm anticipating a significant up-turn in the amount of reading time I have available as of the start of 2007. The year-long decorating project is almost done (short version: we had a major house extension built between July '05 to Feb '06 and have been painting over bare plaster ever since...) and that should give me my Sunday afternoons back, for reading, blogging, computer gaming, etc. (cue my lovely wife, Jo, muttering something along the lines of "nice try, mister..." as she dusts off the list marked 'additional chores: urgent'...)

So anyway, I'm hoping to read a lot more short fiction next year.

I know from long experience, both as a bookseller and, latterly, a review 'zine editor, that short fiction as a general form does have its detractors. Mostly they're folks who say that they prefer to invest longer amounts of time in the fiction they read; that they like to get involved in a fulll-length novel and really connect with the characters, plots and situations; or, rather typically, that they "don't like the way short stories always seem to stop just as they're getting interesting".

Well, I agree with the first few sentiments expressed, but I agree more with the countless commentators (I'm really not going to try to claim credit for this as any sort of original thought on my part) who point out that these folks have rather missed the point of good short fiction with that last objection.

A good short story delivers a short, sharp, hit - in what could be either or both of the narcotic and pugilistic senses - of, well, something. Catharsis, revelation, speculation, imagery, intrigue, bafflement... something. And if that means that they do stop "just as they're getting interesting", well, perhaps that was the whole point of the story; perhaps the writer fully intended to leave the reader hanging, suspended in a moment of contemplation, intrigued and desiring further resolution. That's often how and why some short stories stay with you long after you've read them, a pin-prick of bright memory amidst the bulk of dull, grey matter, and so forth.

Fair enough, if that's not your cup of tea - if, say, you'd generally rather listen to a two-hour concept album than a compilation mix-CD - then that's fine, of course. But personally, I love that hit of... whatever... and as I am rather hopelessly addicted to variety in both literature and music, and short fiction surely seems the best way to satisfy the former craving.

And I reckon there are enough good writers out there - and enough publishers with the good sense to make sure that their work sees the light of day - to keep me well-stocked with premium material pretty much all year round, if I wanted to. I know I've got any number of anthologies and collections on the shelves that I've yet to dive into.

I'm reading the latest two issues of PS Publishing's always excellent (and multiple award-winning) Postscripts magazine at the moment [declaration of possible bias: I'm a PS staffer, having run the PS website for a number of years, but hey, ask anyone how good Postscripts is and you'll hear the same thing, and anyway, why the hell haven't you subscribed yet..?] and then I've got five issues of D.F. Lewis's Nemonymous lined up as well. And I'm thinking of trying to pick up pretty much one of everything published by Andrew Hook's Elastic Press - although I can already make a start on Mike O'Driscoll's The Unbecoming, which I snapped up in the Fantasycon dealers' room - and then Chris Teague's Pendragon Press will most likely be raided as well.

Not that I'll be giving up on novels entirely of course. There's just far too much must-read meterial already on the shelf, and a whole stack of potentially great stuff lined up for next year. But I would like to broaden my horizons - horribly cramped as they've become due to the lack of commuter reading-time since May and the aforementioned self-inflicted slave labour - and what better way to satiate my fiction-flavoured cravings than with a whole series of short, sharp hits?

Feel free to recommend particulalry strong collections and / or anthologies in the comments there, folks (and yes, I have already read Joe Hill's Twentieth Century Ghosts, and yes, it was bloody marvellous...)