And presenting this week's newsletter . . .
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. . . a special event, courtesy of Neil Snowdon, editor in chief of our Midnight Movie Monographs series, part of the Electric Dreamhouse imprint, following Horrorthon 2018 in Dublin, scribbled while sitting in the airport at silly o'clock in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Take it away, Neil.
I had a wonderful time at FantasyCon 2018, and was absolutely delighted by the response to the books we launched there: Tim Major’s LES VAMPIRES, Tim Lucas’s SPIRITS OF THE DEAD, and John Connolly’s HORROR EXPRESS. Thanks to everyone who came to the PS Launch, to everyone who bought books or sought me out to chat about what we’re up to and what’s coming next, and to go check out Tim Major’s post-con blog about it for a lovely summing up, and his Fact File on LES VAMPIRES over at Ginger Nuts Of Horror
gingernutsofhorror.com/features/les-vampires
if you need further enticing to read his book . . .
So, had a chance to chance to catch your breath? Good. Let’s do it all again!
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For the Irish Film Institute’s annual Horrorthon weekend where they screened HORROR EXPRESS to coincide with the release of the awesome John Connolly’s Midnight Movie Monograph on the film, and what a fantastic weekend it was!
The Irish Film Institute is a fantastic venue on Eustace Street in Temple Bar. So it was a pleasure to discover the place on arrival. Not only that, but it has a fantastic shop attached, selling a superb range of Books, Blu-Rays and DVD’s.
It really is a film geeks paradise, and my heart leaped with glee . . . while my wallet screamed in pain.
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My thanks must go out to all the staff at the venue, but especially to Kevin Coyne, and Ed King, who programme the event, and Gerard Sweeney at the Filmshop.
They are exactly the kind of kindred spirits that meant Electric Dreamhouse fit right in, and they ensured I was well looked after and everything ran as smoothly as possible.
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So I took the opportunity to catch a film. In this case, NIGHTMARE CINEMA a new anthology film by festival Guest Of Honour, Mick Garris (CRITTERS 2, SLEEPWALKERS, MASTERS OF CINEMA et al) who produced, and co-directed along with Joe Dante (GREMLINS, MATINEE, THE HOWLING), Ryuhei Kitamura (Vs), David Slade (HARD CANDY, HANNIBAL, AMERICAN GODS), and Jorge Brugues (JUAN OF THE DEAD) . . . and who should I run into in the queue, but Swan River Press honcho Brian J. Showers.
The film was a lot of fun, and the crowd had a great time, but there was no doubt in my mind—and in Brian’s—that the standout episode came from David Slade, whose black & white episode ‘This Way To Egress’ based on a story by Lawrence C. Connolly (no relation) put us both in mind of Joel Lane or Gary McMahon. Meanwhile, I got a chance to talk briefly with Mick Garris himself, who lived up to his reputation not only as the ‘Peter Bogdanovich of Horror’ (he really does know EVERYONE!), but also one of the nicest men in the business. If you haven’t caught his many interviews with genre titans, pop over to mickgarris.com, or check out his Post Mortem Podcast. You won’t be disappointed.
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And so came Saturday and the HORROR EXPRESS screening . . .
. . . where John was, as ever, eloquent, and impassioned, and gave a great intro to the film that really set the scene for the 130 or so people who turned out to see it… a good half of whom had never seen the film before (take that, Stephen Volk! I told you it’s not THAT well known!).
The film went down well, and afterward books were bought and signed to the point where, by the time I left, there was only one left in the IFI Filmshop.
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Never fear, Dublin readers, they will have more soon!
After that… well after that I could relax, and relax I did, Dublin has a LOT of good places to eat and drink, and John knows the best of them. It also has some gems for book and music lovers (check out The Secret Book And Record Store), Gutter Books (who will also be stocking John’s HORROR EXPRESS), and Alan Hanna’s Bookshop if you’re ever in town.
Now I’m in the airport, heading back to Newcastle, suitably shattered, and ready for a day of rest. The film is flapping in the projector and the light is flickering out. See you soon!
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Thanks, Neil
For the uninitiated, we now have seven volumers in the MMM series: John Connolly’s HORROR EXPRESS; DEATH LINE by Sean Hogan; John Llewellyn Probert’s THEATRE OF BLOOD; MARTIN by Jez Winship; TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME by Maura McHugh; Tim Lucas’s SPIRITS OF THE DEAD; and Tim Major’s LES VAMPIRES, each priced at £20. As a special Hallowe’en treat, we’re offering all seven titles at £95 plus postage . . . a fantastic opportunity to jump on board the good ship Midnight Movie Monographs before it gets too expensive. Go for it, horror movie fans!
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And for those of you who've already ordered HORROR EXPRESS . . .
“Don’t panic,” says Nicky. We had a slight hiccup with our packaging suppliers and consequently loads of orders have been twiddling their thumbs on the counter waiting for the delivery. Anyway it’s all sorted now and loads of small but perfectly formed packages left the building yesterday evening.
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Julie C. Day dropped us a line to say that her recent reading went down a blast
And despite some microphone mayhem threatening a communication breakdown, the last week’s reading/ discussion with Paul Tremblay and Hillary Monahan was glitch free and is now online as part of a lecture forum:
forum-network.org/horror-and-dark-fantasy-reading
It’s a hoot and should be regarded as an object lesson in how to read short stories aloud to an attentive audience. While we’re on the subject of Julie, here’s this:
speculiction.blogspot.com/2018/10/review
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“UNCOMMON MIRACLES is a wonderful collection of short stories that will likely not be on many people’s radar but absolutely should be. Day has quietly but steadily built a small oeuvre of intelligent, quietly rebellious, and inclusive short fiction wholly deserving of a place on next year’s World Fantasy Award ballot, not to mention the shelves of discerning genre readers. The focus is never the fantastical—the wow factor many mainstream genre readers are looking for these days, rather, the supra-natural elements are used in more sophisticated, theme-informative, sometimes metaphorical fashion. There are witches, parallel universes, unicorns, etc. but the characters and the particulars of their lives—highs and lows, issues and discoveries, circumstances and transitions—are the focus, making for a dynamic yet cultured collection bolstered by vibrant, affecting bits of fantastika. Day’s range is truly superb. From the pitch-perfect cover, through the minimalist prose that etches meaning in incisive fashion, to the intellectual and emotional meaning nested inside every story (like a jade green deer lying down for the evening in the forest?), this collection is a real winner.”
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Almost finally . . .
The BIG news for this week is the long-awaited appearance at PS Towers of our deluxe edition of Stephen King’s NIGHT SHIFT, lavishly illustrated by Dave McKean. Copies will be sent out to the usual suspects (all twenty-six of ‘em—it’s a lettered edition, Myrtle).
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And absolutely finally
Here’s a brace of tasters of just two of the 40 illustrations that we’ve commissioned—five coloured pieces from Tomislav Tikulin (‘The Sound Of Summer Running’) and 35 black and whites from Glenn Chadbourne ('A Sound Of Thunder’)—for our upcoming lettered, traycased and SIGNED edition of Ray Bradbury’s R IS FOR ROCKET/S IS FOR SPACE (Ray’s last signing).
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Get ready for the full announcement and order page
The price—as was the case with SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES—will be £595 and priority will be given to customers of that book (you know who you are and what your letters are). For those who did not purchase SOMETHING WICKED and would now like to do so in a two-volume transaction to include ROCKET/SPACE), we have five letters still available—T, V, W, X and Z.
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Okay, genre fans, that’s about it for this week
I’m sure there’s more than enough there to get your Fangs into. So enjoy the weekend, look after each other and happy reading!
Pete
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