Great British Horror: Graeme Reynolds

I love the British. I have been an anglophile for as long as I can remember. A huge fan of British TV and movies and books. My sister and I got hung up on the Brits and those sexy accents when we were just kids, and every time I hear one I just get all wiggly.

Well, now I can enjoy both my love of horror and a love of the Brits with this new collection of shorts from Horrific Tales Publishing.

You can find it here for free!

To help celebrate the release of this fine collection, I have Graeme Reynolds with a guest blog post for us.


So without further ado, here is Mr. Reynolds with, What Scares Me.







What Scares Me
by Graeme Reynolds

I generally consider myself to be a fairly brave individual, or at least I did until I was asked to write this and had to sit down and think about it.
I started a few times. I'm not a fan of spiders, for example, ever since I woke up as a child one morning and found the crushed remains of a really big one in the bed with me (where had that BEEN during the night? WTF had it been DOING??). Heights also make me pretty nervous, and I do worry about gangs of chav teenagers with no moral values whatsoever breaking into my house and going all Clockwork Orange on me and my other half, which stems, oddly enough from a gang of chav kids beating me senseless and carving me up with a knife when I was 12 years old.
But then, the other day, while crawling around in the deepest, darkest part of my attic, I realised that there is one thing above all others that brings me out in a cold sweat and a barely contained wave of blind panic. Enclosed spaces. My name is Graeme Reynolds and I am claustrophobic.
The kernel of this fear may have begun as a child, when I got trapped while messing about in the elevators of the local concrete multi-storey flats, but I was 19 years old when I first realised that enclosed spaces and I really did not get on.
 I was in the military at the time, and my squad were off on what could loosely be termed "an outward bound" weekend.  Of course, because we were in the military, a fairly large amount of macho stupid shit occurred alongside the regular activities, such as jumping off large bridges into rivers when we were supposed to be kayaking under them. You get the idea.
Anyway, one of the weeks activities was caving. I'd never done it before, and I was quite looking forward to it. This was mostly because I thought it would be wandering around in large caverns, looking at interesting rock formations and the like. And that's exactly what it was for the first half an hour or so. Then we were brought to a halt before a small vertical hole in the rock and were told to get inside.
Now, I'm a fairly big bloke. At 19 I didn't have the beer belly, but I was still over six foot tall with broad shoulders, and getting into this little hole was a bit of a squeeze. Once inside it didn't get any better. I only just fit into the dark passage. There was not enough headroom for me to do anything but crawl forward. I couldn't lift my head, my shoulders were brushing against both side walls at the same time, and there were places that were narrower than that, where I had to try and wriggle through the gap. Two feet in front of my face were the boots of the man that went before me. Two feet behind me was the guy who came after. I started to think about the millions of tons of rock above my head, and how there didn't seem to be quite enough air. It started to occur to me that if I got stuck, then there would be no way out. There were twenty other blokes behind me, blocking that escape route. I could be trapped down there, unable to move, entombed in the earth forever. I started to hyperventilate, which made me feel dizzy and the air seemed even thinner as a result. There was no going back. I'd been in that tunnel for ten minutes. It took another hour before I finally emerged into a large cavern, pale, shaking with fear and absolutely relieved to be out of there.
Then the guide told us that we were going to do a harder one next. You can imagine my response to that, just as you can imagine how sympathetic my squad mates were to my new-found phobia.
The guide relented after I politely pointed out that I'd inflict bodily harm on anyone that tried to make me go down there. So I sat the next tunnel out, in the dark, on my own for another two hours before the squad emerged and we went back outside into the glorious open air. I swore never to go near another cave again, and hoped that would be the end of it.
If only.
The next day, we were at a training base in the Welsh mountains, doing an assault course. In the middle of the course there was a body of water. And by water I mean a five foot deep pool that every squadie that  passed through that camp seemed to have used as a toilet at one point or another. In the middle of that rank, stinking pond was a submerged corrugated metal tunnel that ran for about ten feet. There was just enough headroom to keep your eyes and nose above the water. I got into the pool, steeled myself and got into the tunnel. About half way through my newly acquired claustrophobia kicked in. And yes. I started hyperventilating.
Not one of my happiest memories, I have to say.
So, ever since then, I can't stand enclosed spaces or feeling trapped. When I watched The Descent it wasn't the cannibalistic mutant cave dwellers that freaked me out. It was the bloody cave. Even large crowds of people can bring on a wave of panic that takes every inch of my willpower to fight.
Let's just say that I'm one of the last people that you'd want to be trapped in an elevator with, and leave it at that.
****

Graeme Reynolds has been called many things over the years, most of which are unprintable. By day, he breaks computers for a living, but when the sun goes down he hunches over a laptop and thinks of new and interesting ways to offend people with delicate sensibilities. He lives somewhere in the wilds of Wales with an ever increasing menagerie of lunatic animals and a girlfriend that is beginning to suspect that there is something deeply wrong with him. He has over thirty short story publications to his name, and is a member of the Horror Writers Association and the British Fantasy Society. His werewolf series, High Moor and it's sequel Moonstruck have received critical acclaim, a fact that still surprises him.
http://www.graemereynolds.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Graeme-Reynolds/198605686853213
http://www.facebook.com/HighMoorNovel
http://www.amazon.com/Graeme-Reynolds/e/B00695L720/ 

 




Confessions of a Villainess

I am pleased to announce that I have lost my mind.

That is correct. I have gone crazy. As if I don't have enough on my plate, what with work and the books and Railroad! and my family, I have started yet another webserial. This one, however, is just for funsies. How does that differ from Railroad! you may ask. Well, for starters, this one won't have a set schedual. It will update whenever I feel like it. Or rather, whenever Sylvia feels like it. Allow me to introduce you to Sylvia Fowler's personal diary.
 



So, there we are. You can follow Sylvia's updates as she explains why she wants to rule the world. Let me know what you think, and where you would like to see the story go. Again, this one is just for shits and giggles. There is no real story arc or logic. Let's see where insanity takes us, shall we?

Later taters,
Tonia

Darlings of Decay: Dana Fredsti

I was recently invited to participate in an anthology of female authors who write zombie related material. A lot of great ladies are involved, thirty two in all, and the end product is just amazing. It is free from several places and only .99 cents on Amazon. Again, in case you missed it the first time, here is the skinny on it:


With over 325,000 words and featuring some of Amazon's Best Selling Female Authors of Horror, this is certainly not your typical anthology book!

Sit back as your favorite authors of zombie lit take you on a wild, horrifying ride that will leave you breathless. Come and meet the women who love to entertain you with their own unique versions of the zombie apocalypse.







 

The Darlings are all wonderful gals, but I must admit this next lady is a favorite of mine. I bring you the silly and seductive Dana Fredsti. 
 

1) What got you interested in writing about zombies?



I have always been a very morbid person, as well as pretty much interested in writing since I was old enough to string words together.  I grew up watching Saturday and Sunday creature feature type shows; culled the library for books (fiction and non-fiction)on vampires, werewolves, ghosts, anything scary; and was notorious at slumber parties for telling gruesome stories. My 7th grade English teacher would mark my creative writing efforts with big A's alongside notes that said things like, "Well written.  Try something less morbid next time."  My first date movie was Dawn of the Dead (the original) and it stuck with me. It was horrific and yet had humor, and something about walking corpses eating the living struck my morbid imagination and never let go.  My first published story (solo effort) was a zombie story written for John Skipp's anthology Mondo Zombie (which is reprinted in Darlings of Decay) and my second was in Danger City, a zombie noir tale called A Man's Gotta Eat What a Man's Gotta Eat (which will be available in the near future on Kindle in a longer version published by Titan Books). One of my editors at Ravenous Romance knew I was a zombieholic and a total pop culture nerdette and asked if I was interesting in developing and writing a trilogy that, in her words, would be a sort of "Buffy.  Except with Zombies.  But Different."  I said yes, the Ashley Parker series was sold to Titan Publishing, and I'm currently on the third book of the series, Plague World (the first two being Plague Town and Plague Nation).  Looking back at this chain of events, it makes perfect sense that I'd be writing about zombies, doncha think? 



2) Do you think books by women tend to carry distinctly feminine covers, regardless of the subject matter, or do you think the industry treats woman the same as male authors?
Re the covers, a lot of the times, yes.  The covers for the Ashley Parker books definitely have an urban fantasy/paranormal romance sort of vibe even though they're also hard-core zombie novels. I found out that a fellow author (male) to whom I'd given a copy of my book left it in his hotel room after last year's ComicCon, asking his roommate (a female) if she wanted it because he wasn't gonna read it (based on the cover).  She did, she read it, and said it was his loss.  This happens in so many genres - there's a great article where they did a gender reversal for the covers for books in the same genre by both male and female authors and it's both hilarious and kind of sad.  And while some people in the industry (publishing/readers/authors) ) are extremely fair, the industry overall most certainly treats women differently to some degree. I've been really fortunate in that  most of the people (male/female/transgender) in the industry that I've dealt with have been majorly supportive, but for instance, if my book and a zombie novel by a male author come out at roughly the same time, the odds are high that he'll get at least twice as many reviews on Amazon and Goodreads than my book will. 

3) Tell us a bit about your story in darlings of decay.

It's called You'll Never Be Lunch in This Town Again and is about a first time director trying to finish his film when the zombocalypse begins.  It's my ode to zombies and to my years working in low budget movies. 

 :-)
 
4) If you HAD to choose, which would you rather do: eat the entire F section of an encyclopedia, or lick a bus station bathroom floor from corner to corner? 
Now, has ANYone chosen licking the bus station bathroom floor?  No.  And they won't.  And if they do, I will make sure to stay VERY far away from them on any given social occasion.  F, please.  With salsa. 

5) What is your greatest fear?
Dying without making sure my cats and dog have a home after I'm gone.  The thought of them being turned into the SPCA or Humane Society and locked in cages makes me physically ill.  I am making sure that my friends and family's greatest fear is how thoroughly I will haunt them if this happens. 

***** 
Dana Fredsti is ex B-movie actress with a background in theatrical sword-fighting. Through seven plus years of volunteering at the Exotic Feline Breeding Facility/Feline Conservation Center (www.cathouse-fcc.org) in Rosamond, California, Dana’s had a full-grown leopard sit on her feet, been kissed by tigers, held baby jaguars and had her thumb sucked by an ocelot with nursing issues. She’s addicted to bad movies and any book or film, good or bad, which include zombies. Her other hobbies include surfing (badly), collecting beach glass (obsessively), and wine tasting (happily). Her other books include: Plague Town and Plague Nation (Titan Books, 2012 & 2013), touted as Buffy meets the Walking Dead, and a number of spicy genre romances written under the name Inara LaVey. Plague World will be out in April 2014.

Darlings of Decay: Lori R. Lopez

I was recently invited to participate in an anthology of female authors who write zombie related material. A lot of great ladies are involved, thirty two in all, and the end product is just amazing. It is free from several places and only .99 cents on Amazon. Again, in case you missed it the first time, here is the skinny on it:


With over 325,000 words and featuring some of Amazon's Best Selling Female Authors of Horror, this is certainly not your typical anthology book!

Sit back as your favorite authors of zombie lit take you on a wild, horrifying ride that will leave you breathless. Come and meet the women who love to entertain you with their own unique versions of the zombie apocalypse.







 

On this fine Saturday morning (where I am) I bring you the quirky Lori R. Lopez. 
 

1) What got you interested in writing about zombies?
I love Horror, and zombies are a big part of the scene. I will sometimes work them into my books and stories even when I am not writing specifically a zombie tale. In my fantasy-horror novel AN ILL WIND BLOWS, dead things crawl up out of the “ground”. I guess that I have loved the concept of the dead coming back to life since being fascinated by FRANKENSTEIN as both a book and movies. It is a very creepy premise. My first actual zombie story was “Heartbeat”, published in CHOCOLATE-COVERED EYES and THE MACABRE MIND OF LORI R. LOPEZ. But my two-part story “The Lycaning” presented a type of werewolf-zombie. My second work that I consider primarily zombie fiction is “The Fruit Of Thy Womb”, published in the fabulous DARLINGS OF DECAY anthology. I did create my own type of zombie, however, and my own unique doomsday scenario.


2) Do you think books by women tend to carry distinctly feminine covers, regardless of the subject matter, or do you think the industry treats woman the same as male authors?
I think Mary Shelley should have shattered any myths that women cannot write Horror as well as the guys. I do think there has been a barrier for us to overcome in terms of expectations and attitudes. I’m proud to be part of the DARLINGS anthology, as it contains a great deal of talent and is written solely by female horror authors. Also, I believe it will make more people realize that it doesn’t matter who wrote it, what counts is how good it is and whether you enjoy the story. As for covers, I’m an artist and create my own. I think they are rather different in style, like my writing. They are definitely not “distinctly feminine”.

3) Tell us a bit about your story in darlings of decay.
The first line goes: “The end of the world began with a rotten banana.” You can tell right away that this is not going to be the standard apocalypse. My stories can be quirky, and this one is no exception. Fruit flies mutate instead of being killed by a new pesticide. They attack someone, and from there a disease spreads to humans, then humans are infecting other humans. But at the heart of the story, there is a very tender plot about two people who have lost everything already.   
4) If you HAD to choose, which would you rather do: eat the entire F section of an encyclopedia, or lick a bus station bathroom floor from corner to corner? 
I’m a germaphobe, so the bathroom floor would be out. I guess I would hope that the pages of the encyclopedia tasted better and were less disgusting. I would probably read them first, however, unless I was really starving. Then I would only read snatches as I stuffed them into my mouth.

5) What is your greatest fear?
Well, there’s the germ thing and cancer and psychos. Public places and stage fright and the unknown. We all have fears. I have many, apparently. I could write a pretty long list. But the biggest, I’d have to say, might be remaining anonymous as an author. Never becoming widely known. All of my life I have believed I would be famous for at least one of my talents. Now that could be easier and harder than ever. There is more opportunity, but a LOT of competition. Oh wait, I forgot. I think my greatest fear is losing my memory. What was the question?

*****
Lori R. Lopez wears a lot of hats, literally and otherwise. An author as well as a musician, actress, activist and more . . . she writes short stories, novels, poetry, songs, and nonfiction along with a dark often-humorous column called "Poetic Reflections". Her books include AN ILL WIND BLOWS, CHOCOLATE-COVERED EYES, DANCE OF THE CHUPACABRAS, THE MACABRE MIND OF LORI R. LOPEZ, OUT-OF-MIND EXPERIENCES, and THE FAIRY FLY (ages twelve through adult). Her stories and verse appear in anthologies such as MIRAGES: TALES FROM AUTHORS OF THE MACABRE, MASTERS OF HORROR: DAMNED IF YOU DON’T, DARLINGS OF DECAY, I BELIEVE IN WEREWOLVES, SOUP OF SOULS, THIRSTY ARE THE DAMNED, and SCARE PACKAGE: 14 TALES OF TERROR. Fifteen of Lori’s poems were published for an anthology titled IN DARKNESS WE PLAY.

Darlings of Decay: Cynthia Melton

I was recently invited to participate in an anthology of female authors who write zombie related material. A lot of great ladies are involved, thirty two in all, and the end product is just amazing. It is free from several places and only .99 cents on Amazon. Again, in case you missed it the first time, here is the skinny on it:


With over 325,000 words and featuring some of Amazon's Best Selling Female Authors of Horror, this is certainly not your typical anthology book!

Sit back as your favorite authors of zombie lit take you on a wild, horrifying ride that will leave you breathless. Come and meet the women who love to entertain you with their own unique versions of the zombie apocalypse.







 

As I read the bios of these women, I realize how incredibly lucky a schmuck like me was allowed to share the table of contents with such superstars. Here we have our next lovely Darling, Cynthia Melton. 
 

1) What got you interested in writing about zombies?
After getting hooked on The Walking Dead, I thought it might be fun to write a zombie book that featured my son as one of the main characters. He plays the brother, Mychal. I had no idea the books would do as well as they are. I'm having a blast!

2) Do you think books by women tend to carry distinctly feminine covers, regardless of the subject matter, or do you think the industry treats woman the same as male authors?

Hmmm. I'm not sure about this. I don't think so. I know my book covers are definitely not "feminine" or romantic in any way. It's quite possible that readers will gravitate more toward male zombie writers, but I believe that is changing...and fast!

3) Tell us a bit about your story in darlings of decay.

I chose to write a prequel to my series to let the reader know how the virus was released. I hinted at it in the first novella, but made it personal in the prequel.
  
4) If you HAD to choose, which would you rather do: eat the entire F section of an encyclopedia, or lick a bus station bathroom floor from corner to corner? 
Is the floor covered in chocolate? Because that would definitely affect my answer.
 
(Just to clarify, no, it is not.)

5) What is your greatest fear?

Losing someone I love.

*****
Writing under the name Cynthia Melton for her general market and zombie books, Multi-published author Cynthia Hickey had three cozy mysteries published through Barbour Publishing, with a novella releasing in March 2013. Her first mystery, Fudge-Laced Felonies, won first place in the inspirational category of the Great Expectations contest in 2007. Her third cozy, Chocolate-Covered Crime, received a four-star review from Romantic Times. All three cozies have been re-released as ebooks through the MacGregor Literary Agency, along with a new cozy series. She has several historical romances releasing in 2013 and 2014 through Harlequin’s Heartsong Presents. She lives in Arizona with her husband, one of their seven children, two dogs and two cats. She has five grandchildren who keep her busy and tell everyone they know that “Nana is a writer”. Visit her website at www.cynthiahickey.com


Darlings of Decay: Suzi M

I was recently invited to participate in an anthology of female authors who write zombie related material. A lot of great ladies are involved, thirty two in all, and the end product is just amazing. It is free from several places and only .99 cents on Amazon. Again, in case you missed it the first time, here is the skinny on it:


With over 325,000 words and featuring some of Amazon's Best Selling Female Authors of Horror, this is certainly not your typical anthology book!

Sit back as your favorite authors of zombie lit take you on a wild, horrifying ride that will leave you breathless. Come and meet the women who love to entertain you with their own unique versions of the zombie apocalypse.







 

I have been lucky enough to chat with a few of these lovely ladies. Next up I bring you the talented Suzi M. 
 

1) What got you interested in writing about zombies?

It was just the one time, I swear. Okay, maybe two or three. There were so many stories about society fighting zombies that I wondered ‘How do the zombies feel about this?’ and I went from there.  

2) Do you think books by women tend to carry distinctly feminine covers, regardless of the subject matter, or do you think the industry treats woman the same as male authors?
I hadn’t really thought about it, to be honest. I go by descriptions of books and buy based on that. Thinking back on it, though, there are some feminine covers for female horror writers in the big publishing vaults.

3) Tell us a bit about your story in darlings of decay.
It hearkens back to question 1. The story was initially included in the Cover Stories Euphictional Anthology a couple of years ago, and the idea just popped into my head. A very what-if scenario with a lot of comedy thrown in. What if one day we woke up as a zombie and had no clue why. Then what? I’m a huge fan of Noir films, and my story idea grew into this role-reversed hard-boiled zombie short.
  
4) If you HAD to choose, which would you rather do: eat the entire F section of an encyclopedia, or lick a bus station bathroom floor from corner to corner? 
NO contest. The F section of an encyclopedia.

5) What is your greatest fear?
That’s easy. Giant alien spider clowns.

*****







Suzi M writes for fun and occasionally profit. She has many horror novels, collections, and short stories available in both print and electronic format, and she can be found on Twitter @xirconnia or at the Suzi M Facebook fan page at https://www.facebook.com/SuziMOfficial