STEPHEN BACON

Finally got my contributor’s copies of CONE ZERO and I have to say it looks great. It’s a well-made book, quite heavy, with excellent production quality.

I’ve had a quick flick through the stories and it looks like the remit for submitting - loosely linked with the phrase ‘Cone Zero’ - has generated a wide variety of interpretation. I suspect there will be something for everyone in the tales; science fiction, horror, fantasy, and the blurred edges where genre overlaps.

Now I’ve seen the book, I have to say the price of £9 (including postage) is an absolute bargain. Click on the cover to the right to follow the link to purchase. You won’t regret it.

If you do buy a copy, I’d be delighted to hear your thoughts on the stories - including speculation towards which is mine.

Got my subscriber’s copy of this cracking horror magazine last week and I’m slowly working my way through it, savoring each word as I go.

I wanted to mention it because - as well as containing some of the best dark fiction currently being written, alongside great editorials and breathtaking artwork - as a subscriber I’m eligible to enter the competition to win FREE DVDS. A couple of months ago I won 28 Weeks Later. Yesterday I was informed I’d won a copy of Cloverfield.

If you haven’t read anything by TTA PRESS (Interzone and Crimewave), I’d recommend you pick up a copy. You can get more information here.

I’d heard many good things about this writer of supernatural stories, so I started his debut collection with a sense of cynicism and expectation. After the first few stories, I was positively hooked. Let me tell you, the praise he receives is well deserved.

These supernatural tales are rich in mood and style, evoking England of the past - although many are contemporary - in their telling. From seaside settings to threatrical activities, all the way through to scholars and antiquaries, the fifteen stories are reminiscent of the masters of the supernatural - Aickman, de la Mare, M R James - but are more than just pastiches. I would urge you to get a copy of this book if you come across it - it’s extremely rare, and prices are high on Ebay and other cyber stores, but I can tell you that’s is definitely worth the price.

D F Lewis has just posted the cover for Nemonymous 8: Cone Zero.

It’s apt for the title of the book, and very striking. It should be published at the beginning of July.

If you click here, you can order the book. It’s priced £9 including postage in the UK. A bargain for what promises to be a fantastic book. There is also an offer on getting previous copies of Nemonymous at a great rate (highly recommended!)

I’ve just heard from D F Lewis that the anthology in which I have a forthcoming story, Nemonymous 8: Cone Zero, should be published at the end of June. There is a special offer which you can find here about getting CONE ZERO for half price if you buy Nemonymous 7: Zencore! before the new book is out.

I’d highly recommend you pick up a copy. It’s packed with 17 astounding, genre-bending stories, one of which ‘England and Nowhere’ by Tim Nickels, has been picked by Ellen Datlow for the 21st edition of The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror. There’s not a poor story in the book, and the quality of the fiction in all previous Nemonymous issues is one of the reasons why I was so delighted to be contributing.

Sometimes you’ll read a book and enjoy it, and then weeks or months later it will begin to creep up on you, and you’ll slowly come to the conclusion that it was actually a fantastic book and that it’s one that will stay with you for many years, maybe forever. ‘The Road’ by Cormac McCarthy is not that type of book.

You know right from the start.

It is, without doubt, one of the most harrowing, brilliantly realised novels that I’ve ever read, filled with gorgeous poetic prose, haunting imagery, and heartbreaking dialogue. The Road tells the story of an unnamed man and his son, travelling a wasteland that may be America, in the aftermath of an apocalypse. Humanity has become almost feral, certainly cannibal, and the two travellers exist in a surreal pocket of normality. The novel has many constrasting themes, but the thread throughout the bleak story is the relationship between the father and son, and the purity of their love.

I believe this is an important book, and time will tell of its relevance in the world of literature. I can’t recommend it highly enough. If the 5 star rating I give in my reviews was multiplied by 10, this novel would deserve all fifty of them. Be prepared however, for the journey you take with the two characters might stay with you forever. *****

The Fix Online has posted a review of The Horror Library Vol II, in which my story THE TRAUMA STATEMENT was featured. Just click on this link.

The link below is a post on Wikipedia about Nemonymous, with a list of all the previous books, the story titles and the author’s bylines. It mentions Cone Zero, obviously without the authors attached.
You can see more here. As you can see, there are many great writers mentioned. I’m honoured to be contributing to the series.

I’m delighted to announce that I’ve sold a story to a forthcoming anthology called Nemonymous 8 (subtitled CONE ZERO). Due to contractual obligations I can’t for the moment reveal the name or length of the story - as I’ll come to in a minute - but I’m especially pleased as the book will be edited by the legendary DF Lewis, a favourite writer of mine for many years.

The Nemonymous books are unique in the publishing field because they don’t have the story name and the author by-line attached at the time of publication. The book simply lists the titles of the tales and a random order of authors and the reader is left to his own devices to decide which writer created which story. The first five editions of the anthology had the authors names ONLY revealed in the successive anthology.

This prevents any bias towards ‘name’ writers, and should mean the stories stand by merit. The tales (of which there will be 14 in CONE ZERO) will be correctly assigned to the respective author in approx 8 months time, and in the proposed Nemonymous 9. One other point to mention is that the only constraint in the guidelines was a preference for the story to be called CONE ZERO, but all other content to be the writer’s own.

Now that’s a loose theme, one that should guarantee a variety of stories. I’m very exited to be contributing to this.

You can find out more by going to www.nemonymous.com/

Just finished this doorstop of a novel. It’s a little daunting, weighing in at almost 600 pages, and the question is ‘is it worth investing my time in such a long book?’I wish someone had told me that back in February when I started reading it, because the honest answer is ‘no, not really’. The premise of the novel is quite straightforward - a serial killer is murdering people for the purpose of filming their deaths and incorporating the imagery into a new computer game that he’s creating. A local cop is assigned to the case, and he becomes romantically linked with a young expert on history who is asked to advise. Needless to say, things go bad, and I don’t think I’m giving too much away to say that this is standard thriller stuff - the literary equivalent of a Roland Emmerich film. It is, to its credit, incredibly readable; although some of the dialogue is appalling. It’s a thriller novel for people who don’t read many thriller novels. *****