| Author | Message | ||
     Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.99.155 |
Seeing as Gary M is too busy bragging about his recent successes to promote the WE FADE TO GREY anthology I suppose I'll have to do it. (Bloody McMahon, you can't trust him. Wants to be in charge of a project but as soon as he hits the big time he forgets all about the struggling writers still waiting to receive their big break.)  Anyway, WE FADE TO GREY. Five novellas by Paul Finch, Stuart Young, Gary McMahon, Mark West, and Simon Bestwick. Intro by Mark Morris. The book is being launched at FantasyCon on Saturday at 15.00. Or you can order a copy at http://www.pendragonpress.net/books/fade2grey/ | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
Cheeky, bugger. ;-) I put something about WFTG on my blog weeks ago. There's also something going up on Martin Roberts' FCon 2008 blog. See, I can do PR with the best of them - I can even spell it. :-) | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.99.155 |
Don't give me that. Chris sorted out the plug on the FCon blog. You were too busy deciding which outfit to wear for the Best New Horror signing. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
:-) I'm going with a silver boob tube and a pair of Jimmy Choos. Nothing on the bottom. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.114.237 |
Ooooer - see you at the event! Goodluck to Stu and Gary and everyone in it! | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.114.237 |
Isn't Mark in it too - congrats! Oh dear I just had an image of you all in different coloured boob tubes! | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.196.181 |
Sounds good (the book, not the guys in boob tubes). | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.239.122 |
Steve Strange admitted that the NOT THE NINE O'CLOCK NEWS spoof 'Nice Video (Shame About the Song)' had killed Visage stone dead. Have you considered doing an audiovisual presentation at Fantasycon called 'Nice Strip Show, Shame about the Book'? (I am of course kidding.) BTW why does our emoticon pallette include an inverted pink triangle? It starts off a whole chain of associations for me: Clause 28, the eighties, the Communards... Maybe we could combine the WE FADE TO GREY launch with a 'Stop the List Comma' demo. What do you think? | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.96.230 |
>>I'm going with a silver boob tube and a pair of Jimmy Choos. Nothing on the bottom. Gary, I know you like to scare people but you can take these things too far. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.97.84 |
Scared? I cannot get that single image out of head. Blood terrified - more like :>) Stalker, stalker - soon to be a New Yorker. How are the plans going for the big birthday bash next year Gary? | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.97.84 |
Blood terrified? The school hols are really driving me mad. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.5.15.13 |
"Blood terrified"... what a great term.... It's used to denote those with a morbidly-extreme fear of blood. A man with a morbidly-extreme fear of blood. Or woman - not as effective if it's a woman protag. I mean, in terms of story... this screams out for a story.... | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.97.84 |
Go someone...Go someone... | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
Not me. I'm currently writing a tale called "The Chair", inspired by an old dining chair I saw outside a neighbour's gate late on Friday night, when I was unable to sleep and simply watching the street through our bedroom window. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.97.84 |
Peekers - know the feeling. Is it that, all horror writers have insomnia? | ||
| Mark West (Mark_west) Username: Mark_west Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.39.177.173 |
Thanks Ally. I think I'll pass on the boob-tube though, that wouldn't be nice for anyone! | ||
| Albie (Albie) Username: Albie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 87.102.45.220 |
Either you are all mad, or I am still drunk from last night. Will someone PLEASE decide for me, as I am still too drunk... | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.236.145 |
...ah, I recognize it... he's "blood terrified".... ... don't worry, Albie... you'll just feel a little prick... and then... your red nightmares will begi-- END! End, that's it, end. (Whew! That was close!) | ||
| Albie (Albie) Username: Albie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 87.102.45.220 |
I feel like I'm falling asleep and waking up AT THE SAME TIME! My prick is even smaller in my dreams. As everything is a symbol. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.110.12 |
Chris Teague has just pointed me towards We Fade to Grey's first review at http://www.horrorworld.org/reviews.htm Scroll about halfway down the page for Mario Guslandi's comments on the book. | ||
| Mark West (Mark_west) Username: Mark_west Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.39.177.173 |
Thanks for posting that, Stu, it's not a bad review at all is it (though he's a bit harsh on Simon, I thought). | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
I must admit I disagree with his verdict of Simon's tale - it was the best story I read last year. I think he missed the point of mine, too - the Hexham heads/Nigel Kneale's Beasts/early 1970s TV horror. Hopefully British readers will gain more from it. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.110.12 |
I think Mario's one of those people who once he's decided what his favourite stories are by a particular author he expects everything else that author does to be equally good and can be quite critical if he feels they fall short. (To be fair, I'm like that myself.) And every time I've seen Mario tear into an author he normally likes he does make a point of mentioning that he feels the author has done better work elsewhere -- it's not like he completely disowns them. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.110.12 |
I just realised the nastiest thing that Mario did to Simon in that review was not the comment on his story but the fact that HE SPELLED HIS NAME WRONG!!!!! Bestwich indeed.  | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.103.246 |
More comments on We Fade to Grey: "Gary McMahon signally fails to keep the unpleasant and horrifying tendencies of his contributors in check in this maelstrom of evil curses, sickening violence, inevitable death, bereavement and the end of the world." Nicholas Royle "I picked up WE FADE TO GREY last night and was kept reading way beyond any reasonable hour. As strong a collection of solid horror tales as I've read in a long time, and a great reminder of the unique qualities that British writers can bring to the field." Stephen Gallagher | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.237.56 |
I'm willing to give this a try. Is it readily available? Waterstone's, maybe? (Yes, it's Nicholas Royle's comment which finally won me over.) | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
Hubert - direct from the publisher is your best bet. Especially if you want a hard cover. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.103.246 |
Chris did start getting some Pendragon titles stocked in Waterstones but I honestly don't know what the situation is with WFtG. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.111.117 |
Some quick comments from Mark Morris's intro to We Fade to Grey: 'The Pumping Station' by Paul Finch -- "a tough and uncompromising tale." 'Bliss' by Stuart Young -- "a fast-paced romp that manages to walk a fine line between gruesomely shocking and blackly funny." 'Heads' by Gary McMahon -- "a well-constructed and satisfying tale." 'The Mill' by Mark West -- "a beautiful story" 'The Narrows' by Simon Bestwick -- "a brooding, claustrophobic tale which accesses some of our most primal fears" | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.109.154 |
>>Is it readily available? Waterstone's, maybe? Just heard back from Chris. Apparently Waterstones aren't going to stock WFtG as, "Short stories don't sell." Well, they don't if you don't bloody stock them. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
Prickholes. They stopped being booksellers years ago: they're media retailers. Sadly, we can't boycott them and go to independent booksellers, because – guess what? – they aggressively bought up and shut down all the competition years ago, and the few specialist booksellers that survived have been destroyed by Amazon. A crucial part of the infrastructure of literary culture has been shattered in less than a decade. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.78.41.37 |
Too true Joel. It is terrible. Both outlets ask for around 57.5% discount of a book from the publisher. That is why mine isn't with them at the moment. I'm selling but how do you get to a wider audience I ask myself. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
The simple answer, Ally, is that you don't. The small press will remain small for a number of factors, one of them being that it's virtually impossible for a small press publisher to get their books "out there" where they might find an audience. Writing for the small press is like screeeching to the converted. (Oh, I'm so clever. Oh, yes I am.) | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
Some big bookstores will stock local authors and request resonable discount rates - manager's discretion and all that. But it's hardly the same as giving a small-press book a decent nationwide profile, is it? | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
The only way to do is to take a massive risk, get a printer to put out a few thousands copies for cheap, and that try and hawk the buggers. I believe that's how the Shadowmancer guy broke through - Taylor or whatever he's called. But it's all such a collosal, soul-destroying effort. | ||
| Lincoln_brown (Lincoln_brown) Username: Lincoln_brown Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 121.219.157.75 |
I e-mailed a UK based small press, ordering 5 of their titles. The reply was: would be best to buy through Amazon. Must require more work to post something to Australia. I've never used Amazon - wouldn't I be buying a book that was already sold, as far as the publisher is concerned? Not a great way to promote your authors - I haven't picked the books up anywhere else, and probably won't. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
It doesn't, Lincoln. It involves putting the book in a packet and going to the Post Office. Bit complicated I guess for some. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.78.41.37 |
Amazon can ask for as high as 60% from the small press and I'll bet that mainstream publishers aren't asked for that or are they? My book is doing well already but I'm sure everyone dreams of that wider audience (40,000 sales a week for The Lovely Bones for Alice Sebold). | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.78.41.37 |
'Best to buy from Amazon' They must be mad Lincoln, to turn down sales - bonkers. | ||
| Lincoln_brown (Lincoln_brown) Username: Lincoln_brown Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 121.219.157.75 |
I have had several experiences like this. Sometimes I don't even receive a reply to my enquiry. On the flip side there are publishers like GFP and Mortbury - fantastic & friendly service, no fuss, no problems. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.78.41.37 |
I've never actually gone through this process with Amazon. I don't need to at the moment. Can anyone tell me if I'm dreaming about this high discount? | ||
| Mark West (Mark_west) Username: Mark_west Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.39.177.173 |
I couldn't say for sure, Ally, but John Ford put my collection on Amazon and in addition to charging him the discount (which he said was considerable), they then put on a 'finders fee' (or some such) on top. Chris Teague has also mentioned in the past about the high cost of dealing with Amazon though. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
Yep, they'll screw you. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.78.41.37 |
Thanks Mark - Besides the wider audience thing I can see the point that making it visible on Amazon (persuades the average man/woman on the street that it 'exists' besides it actually being available at the publisher. Gives it some sort of validation. Such is the power of monopoly - the end result is that it can put the small press out of business. Terrible. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
One alternative is Lightning Source which allows you for an annual fee of £9 to make the books available via Amazon for 30% discount. But using Lightning Source, I'm slowly discovering, is like supping with the devil. Print-on-demand - how ignoble! Frankly, I'm beginning to suspect that some people in this field will only take a publisher seriously is s/he's willing to risk bankruptcy. Despite the fact that Lightning Source books costs 3x more to print than the sainted Biddles, so one's profit is screwed before you even start. Example: hardback via LS = £8. Via Biddles = £3. Now tell me who's taking the greater risk? This is not very well understood by the bleaters. Rant over. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.78.41.37 |
Crossed posts there. Indeed Gary,indeed. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
The one redeeming feature of LS is the fact that I don't have to post books in bulk to the US dealers. If I'm sending 30 books to the States from the UK, it could cost £75 a shot just for postage! Via the US distributor, it's far easier and cheaper, and the dealers (and customers) benefit. And I don't have to risk postal damage and an initial outlay of all that money. That's the ONLY redeeming factor. Not that anyone understands that. Oh, listen to me, getting all pissy. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
Sorry, this is a just a letting-off-steam exercise aimed at some other people. Just ignore me, good folks. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
Put your book on Amazon! Then a bunch of emotionally stunted, functionally illiterate morons can piss all over it. They call that Customer Reviews, it's great. You'll never need to expose yourself to physical danger in order to research the lower depths of humanity again. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.78.41.37 |
Yeah - but with our chatting I just found out that I am on Amazon. How did that happen I wonder - it must be the ISBN and the people who buy the book on Amazone can put it with another book now to get an order over £15 and get shipping free. I'm actually dumb struck. I thought that you had to register. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.78.41.37 |
The reason I was thinking about it is that I'm in a few newspapers in the next few weeks and one of the things a reporter says sometimes is are you on Amazon? | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
Put 'Amazon wiki' into Google and you'll get: Amazon.com Amazon - river In that order. I'll leave it for readers to decide what that signifies. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
For people who use the Internet, the Internet itself is more important than the world. That shouldn't surprise anyone.  | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
Baudrillard doesn't seem quite so crackers now. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.156.32.207 |
Isn't the internet the world itself, rather than being more or less important than it? | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.185.48 |
I searched 'amazon' on Wikipedia, and the river (as well as several other meanings/usages) appears before the company. Anyone with half a brain knows that the word 'amazon' was not invented by an online store. I think it's hardly surprising that a lot of people would think of amazon.com first, given how central the internet has become to most of our lives. Surely the internet mirrors the world today, rather than being more or less 'important' than it. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.156.32.207 |
It's whether the world is more or less important than the internet, not the other way round. The internet has become the benchmark or yardstick. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.23.229.250 |
The internet is, in a weird way, an x ray of the world's soul. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.23.229.250 |
Gary - it means that most people look up Amazon the shop than the river. It's just like saying more people go shopping than visit South America. I get your point, though. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
I never suggested that it was surprising. It just seemed like one of those telling little observations that say something pertinent about the world. Like the words that have made it into MS Word's spellcheck dictionary, and those that haven't. Little betrayals of truth in unsuspected places. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.235.60 |
No, no, no, it isn't 'the world' or 'a mirror of the world'. The Internet is a technological gimmick that means a lot to a few thousand people and fuck all to the rest of the world. Most people don't have access to it, and if they were given a computer would sell it to buy food and clothes and toilet paper. The Internet is largely irrelevant and, when relevant at all, simply mimics information systems that existed before. Des, the Internet is nothing. Yes, here we are using it to chat, but so what? We could meet up or phone each other or exchange letters or whatever. Fuck the Internet. It's destroying real, valuable and durable cultural structures. It's not only a bad thing, it's a catastrophe. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 212.183.134.208 |
Surely amazon.com comes first because amazon the company pays more money to come first? I suspect the river is too busy flowing and being full of piranhas to keep up its google hit subscription or whatever the fuck it is that dictates these orders | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.129.151.24 |
Joel - not saying I like the net, which I do in a way. In many ways it's eating up life, yes, but there is a sense of thought being carried round the world - though to put it like that makes it sound like nothing more than a posh party-line phone. Yes, maybe it is a dead end, the glass we are bashing our heads against, a bell jar we have lowered over our lives. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.129.151.24 |
I used to like the net when you tapped in something and up came some bloke from Cheshire who collected old teapots. Where did all those sort of sites go? They used to feel all cottagey and cosy. Now, yes, it's just shops. Sad, that. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.129.151.24 |
Have I said I'm seeing Nicholas Roeg tomorrow? | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
Come on, Joel, don't neat around the bush: say what you really feel about the Net. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.156.32.207 |
It all depends whether one is conservative or not. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.191.50 |
Joel - a few thousand people?! Try hundreds of millions. This might be useful:http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm World Internet Usage Statistics News and World Population Stats The percentage of people using the internet varies from country to country, continent to continent. Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of users are in the US and Europe (with over six hundred million users between them) and Asia (nearly six hundred million). Even in Africa, usage amounts to fifty-one million. I'm not saying the internet is all good, but come on! Let's keep it in perspective: the internet has changed modern life, in some ways for the better, in some ways for worse. I don't see the benefit of blanket statements like this, which basically amounts to "the internet is evil." | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.23.233.246 |
I must admit, i was in the bath this morning listening to the rain outside the window while everyone else slept. I didn't put the lights on and it felt ... peaceful. I had this sudden flashback to the seventies when there was no 'buzz' of technology, a sort of calm. I had the realisation that I really missed it, and realised also it might have been more condusive to creativity and my personality. I know i could get that calm back but I'm too weak; I like talking here, even if it does take over. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.191.50 |
I miss the world before the internet too, sometimes. If nothing else, though, it's helped me make a handful of really good friends. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
Useful stats, Huw. And still nobody emails me. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
The growth of usage 2000-8 column is interesting and revealing. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.234.223 |
The Internet has become a means of collective avoidance of reality. Even, or perhaps especially, when it pretends to be dealing with 'issues'. Tropes replace experience, verbal equivalence replaces historical perspective, scribble replaces culture. It's a factory of mass forgetting. The more ubiquitous it is, the more destructive its irrelevance becomes. No, it's not evil, any more than MRSA is evil. But it corrodes and dilutes and falsifies and spoils. Don't imagine otherwise. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.156.32.207 |
The power of imagination is all-powerful. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.199.198 |
I miss the world before the internet too, sometimes. If nothing else, though, it's helped me make a handful of really good friends. I've learned the hard way that if you've met them in person and get on with them in person, then they're friends. Otherwise, it's not real friendship. It's friendship on tap. David Mitchell described MySpace as the industrialisation of friendship. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.156.32.207 |
I've made some real friends from the internet. But I've also made some real friends from real life. But now I'm getting old... | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.204.20 |
I've come to the conclusion that if you've only met someone on the internet, you can't call them a friend. It takes more than passing the Turing test for that. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.156.32.207 |
What I mean is - I've met people initially on the internet then, as a result, they've become friends in real life. Equally, I've had friends in real life whose friendship was later harmed by contact on the internet! :-( | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
We probably haven't evolved to interact with the kind of 'psychic' relationship an Internet engagement allows. We need the intervention of the body, which signifies subconsciously, and thus shapes a friendship steadily. E-relations can involve faux intimacy, boundary-less engagement. It's a bit like becoming friends while permanently drunk. And a subsequent meeting in the flesh can be most sobering. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.3.65.135 |
>>>David Mitchell described MySpace as the industrialisation of friendship. I love that Joel Lane story in an early issue of Here and Now in which the characters buy and sell gestures in relation to one another. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.108.5.152 |
The basis of that was that if people will pay for sex, why shouldn't they be willing to pay for flirtation and friendship? So you charge by the smile, the handshake, the expression of support. It was written during my 'sick with rage' phase, before I just gave up. I'm going to stay away from here for a few weeks or months until my mood improves. I'll see some of you at Fantasycon. Take care. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.156.32.207 |
I'll be too old to post anything by then. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.156.32.207 |
btw, sadly (for me), I won't be at fantasycon this year. Can someone please pick up the prize for Zencore, in the unlikely event it wins. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.154.242.64 |
I've met people initially on the internet then, as a result, they've become friends in real life. Me too! Except for that swine gcw, though...  | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.181.152 |
I've had the same experience. A few of my closest friends are people I first met on the net. Joel, take care. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.152.205.160 |
I'm looking for somewhere to live. The photos of places online are interesting. How wrong is this kitchen?  | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.191.35 |
Ugh! I suppose if you were a mass murderer or vampire the colour scheme would be handy... | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.16.86.121 |
I'm going to stay away from here for a few weeks or months until my mood improves.... For reals?... I don't think the internet always "corrodes and dilutes and falsifies and spoils," Joel. You're essentially just a string of sentences to my reality - ipso facto? yeah, sure - but this whole world here of sentences-realities at RC-central... which I find greatly warm, familial, and comforting (and vexing too), in its own strange, abstracted way... can only be severely diminished without you.... (Don't you even want to lash out at my Oxford comma?...) | ||
| Gcw (Gcw) Username: Gcw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.170.200.175 |
"Me too! Except for that swine gcw, though..." He loves me really...! gcw | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.154.242.64 |
He loves me really...! Hence the smiley that's winking and blowing a kiss! | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.99.168 |
Apparently the We Fade to Grey launch has been rescheduled for 1600 on the Saturday. Just thought I'd mention it because I know you'd all be distraught if you missed the launch. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.177.202 |
That's an hour before my reading. Time enough for you all to arrange alien abductions that account for your temporary absence from the hotel before returning for a fun-packed evening. "I don't know how I got here" is a great Fantasycon chat-up line. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.203.130.165 |
Where's the bloody rota for these readings and book launches? I'm going to miss things at this rate. (That's my excuse anyway). Are you at 5pm then Joel? I've made a note of that. Still haven't decided what I'm going to read. Would RCMBrs who are going prefer a nasty one or a funny one with comedy old lady voices? | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.154.242.64 |
Would RCMBrs who are going prefer a nasty one or a funny one with comedy old lady voices? Well, my vote's for the latter! | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.253.167 |
A grim one. Dark and disturbing. With extra terror and a side order of panic, hold the laughter. The only laughter we want is slaughter. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.78.16.47 |
I've been asked to provide a little slaughter at 9p.m. which will be the time everyone will be going for a curry. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.154.242.64 |
Can't you give your reading in the restaurant then, Ally? | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.78.16.47 |
Could do it in a pub called The Slaughtered Lamb :>) | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.78.16.47 |
My reading is now at 10.30a.m Saturday which means that I will have to behave on Friday night this year :>) | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.154.242.64 |
You'll still be up from friday night, Ally! | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.78.16.47 |
We so know that - don't we Mick :>( 4 days to go before I see you and Debs again! Toronto seems years ago :>) | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.154.242.64 |
It does, doesn't it? A year and a half ago... | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.105.209 |
Received my copy of WE FADE TO GREY yesterday. See everyone at FCon. | ||
| Mark West (Mark_west) Username: Mark_west Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.39.177.173 |
Ally, I won't get there in time to hear your reading, so good luck with it, I'm sure you'll knock everyone dead. In a manner of speaking, of course! Stu, are you sure we aren't at 3? The paperback WFTG is a gorgeous beast, I'm really looking forward to seeing the hardcover version! | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
4 - 4:45, mate. It got changed. It is a lovely looking book, isn't it? | ||
| Mark West (Mark_west) Username: Mark_west Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.39.177.173 |
Cheers, Gary, I just found the update on the FB site! Hopefully I'll get there for your reading, if you're still on for 11am? | ||
| Stevebacon (Stevebacon) Username: Stevebacon Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 90.211.103.112 |
I can't wait to get my signed copy of We Fade To Grey - I won the Pendragon competition that Chris and Mark devised (or rather, I was a winner, alongside Dan Waters). I was gonna plump for the softcover, but now I get the better version. Wahey! | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.102.160 |
Steve, I hope you enjoy the book. The launch went well. Even though Gary and Chris decided not to tell any of us that we were going to have to give presentations about our individual stories -- and then picked me to go first even though they know I hate speaking in public. Bastards. Anyway, just a reminder that the Horror World review has been archived at www.horrorworld.org/september_2008.htm | ||
| Lincoln Brown (Lincoln_brown) Username: Lincoln_brown Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 58.165.54.252 |
Read 'The Narrows' last night, in one sitting. Fucking devastating. Fucking brilliant. | ||
| Simon_b (Simon_b) Username: Simon_b Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 86.24.165.182 |
Lincoln- thank you. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.11.219 |
I have to agree about The Narrows there Lincoln. A brilliant story - gripping,tense and very dark - I couldn't put it down either. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
My favourite story of the year. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.103.146 |
Review of the book up at http://matthewfryer.wordpress.com/2008/11/15/we-fade-to-grey-anthology/ | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.11.219 |
Mathew bought the book at the ghost story evening readings I did with John Travis and Gary. Just shows you the importance of getting out and about. Shall we do another in the deep dark month of January - Gary? Somewhere else this time. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.11.219 |
Actually - why don't you all take We Fade to Grey on tour around the country - perhaps library readings or pubs? Simon lives in Salford...Gary in Leeds...could be fun for you all and worthwhile... | ||
| Simon Bestwick (Simon_b) Username: Simon_b Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 86.24.165.182 |
I rather like the sound of that... | ||
| Mark West (Mark_west) Username: Mark_west Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.39.177.173 |
I'd be up for that, though I'd have to combine with Stu I would think. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.104.141 |
You'd have to turn into a Stu/Mark hybrid monster just so you could do a book tour? You're taking this horror writer image of yours waaaay too seriously. | ||
| Mark West (Mark_west) Username: Mark_west Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.39.177.173 |
I was thinking more of a geographical idea, but we could do a two-headed monster. Like the Eborsisk in "Willow", or something? | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.103.6 |
Just heard that the paperback edition of We Fade to Grey has sold out. A second print run is due in the New Year. Obviously everyone is rushing to buy the book 'cos I'm in it. Blimey, I managed to say that with a straight face ... | ||
| Nathaniel Tapley (Natt) Username: Natt Registered: 11-2009 Posted From: 78.146.249.100 |
For those who like your news and reviews a couple of years old, there's a review of We Fade To Grey up at the In The Gloaming website: http://inthegloamingpodcasts.wordpress.com/2010/05/18/gr7-we-fade-to-grey-ed-gar y-mcmahon/ | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
It’s a book, sodden with grey pizzle That might just be the single greatest cover quote of all time.  Thanks, Nathaniel. Your review is much appreciated. | ||
| Kate (Kathleen) Username: Kathleen Registered: 09-2009 Posted From: 213.122.209.76 |
It's next in my TBR stack, just after Chris Fowler's Darkest Day, which I'm already racing through. Thanks a lot, Nat: your enthusiasm will keep me up all night reading, now even more excited about getting to all that grim British bleakness!  | ||
| Mark West (Mark_west) Username: Mark_west Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.39.177.173 |
Great review, Nat, thanks for keeping the 'collection' out there (I hope you enjoyed "The Mill"). Looking forward to hearing your thoughts too, Kate. |