Guten tag! It’s freezing here and snow is covering the ground like pretty little drops of frozen water.
My short story Fingerprints on the Blind Tour is available to pre-order through issue #1 of Clash Magazine, have a peek and get yours!
Here’s a little video of updates, including some very good news I got yesterday. Hurrah!
Hello my little shots of non-alcoholic sparkling apple juice!
Just a quick pop in to say you can pre-order my collection Fortune Box (Eraserhead Press) now: “No one knows where or what Tower Ltd Surprise Packages is or why it’s sending gifts to complete strangers across The City. All they know is that each package is the best thing that’s ever happened to them…or the worst.”
It’s been described as being like a ‘season of The Twilight Zone’ which I was really pleased about. So don’t delay, pre-order today!
I upload regularly on my YouTube and my Twitter, come and find me.
Good evening!
I read a bunch of all new weird fiction and bizarro books and pondered what it meant to write weird fiction in the increasingly strange times we live. Next week I’ll be discussing the oldest weird fiction.
Books mentioned:
Year’s Best Weird Fiction Vol. 4 (various)
More Bizarro Than Bizarro (various)
Who Cares, Nothing Matters (Julia Platz-Halter)
Lovecraftian Micro Fiction/Challenge From Beyond (various)
Welcome To Night Vale: It Devours (Joseph Fink/Jeffrey Cranor)
Hello! I have returned! Well, I’ve been back since the very end of November but shhh.
I did lots of things including Bizarrocon (bizarro fiction convention in case you didn’t know), the Peculiarium, the Lovecraft Bar, Voodoo and Pips donuts, Powell’s Books (the biggest used and new book shop IN THE WORLD) and the creepy clown room at the Funhouse Lounge.
I also met some really great creative people, listened to fantastic stories and was overwhelmed by the response to my own reading, from the book I can officially announce is out next year: Fortune Box, with Eraserhead Press. I took part in a panel and learned from the others, and it’s all below! Enjoy.
Bizarrocon 2017:
Portland:
Fortune Box reading:
The Weird In A Post Weird World, Author Panel:
They’re here!
Merry Halloween my little apple carts, may all your disturbing dreams come true and your stomachs explode with sugary delights. I asked people to send me their own crappypastas, which are terribly written internet horror stories. Enjoy!
The writers are:
Merry afternoon to you, or whatever time you exist in. I continued my experiment with mouth noises by talking about weird and interesting books I’ve read.
Everything mentioned:
Laura Lee Bahr, Angel Meat
Matt Payne, Robot God/Hybrid Brain
Andrew J Lambie, Carnival Of The Flesh
Junji Ito, Snow White
Bonjour! Here are a couple of videos I worked my little socks off for. The first is an expedition to find the places in A Curious Guide To London by Simon Leyland, including the possible real life inspiration for Miss Havisham.
The next is a reading of my bizarro fiction novella at the Big Green Book Shop with Chris Meekings hosted by award winning author Laura Lee Bahr. It was amazing and I hope you like it too.
Hello popsicle sticks! I read my own work to an audience of complete strangers for the first time in my life, my new bizarro book 4 Rooms In A Semi Detached House, for the 2017 Brighton Fringe Festival. My hands were shaking, I was terrified.
Brighton has a lot of cool stuff in it so I made a little backstage video as well as filming the first reading (which has an impromptu Q&A at the end), and I also offer advice to any live reading newbies such as myself. My boyfriend Bill, who does my book covers, and our friend Steve had art showing in a gallery at the same time and I added clips of them discussing their work below.
Ta dah!
Fun times around Brighton, including books, rainbows and lots of tea:
The first reading, 11 am, at Made Cafe:
Bill discussing his work at The Round Georges:
Stephen Waring (LoFiGuy) discussing his work:
Ta dah! Novella number 2 is out on the town, dancing fancy free in all the speakeasies, with Strange House Books.
Cover (by my love mump Bill Purnell):
Blurb: “Aisha’s front room doubles as a depression-era cinema, her bedroom a Parisian salon and her study a book shop from the psychedelic Sixties. Lately, though, something dark and menacing has been changing the landscapes and the people in them, leading Aisha to question whether she may be the cause.”
Trailer (written by me and animated by Bill):
Get your copy here! As soon as I discovered it was live I had a panic attack, but the panic was tinged with excitement so it wasn’t all bad.
The publisher posted a fun little interview in which you find out which Mighty Boosh character I’d be so have a read of that.
Also on May 14th I’ll be reading from it *in front of people* for the Brighton Fringe Festival which is mildly terrifying. Last Sunday I went with Bill and our friend Steve to put up posters for it and take their artwork to a gallery. Have a peek at our gaffes and hi-jinks in the very short video below.
Hello my little sugar cubes dangled over a glass of absinthe. My friend Steve and I have once again created our own writer and artist’s retreat as we have strict deadlines to get things finished, but I have still managed to read some peculiar books.
Cartoons In The Suicide Forest by Leza Cantoral
This is a bizarre and beautifully poetic book about some dark things. Leza takes inspiration from same sex Russian marriage, Jean Cocteau’s beauty and the beast, Mexican folklore and underground sex slave cults among other things and gives them an erotically feminine fairy tale twist. I enjoyed the ‘real world’ stories as much as the surreal, a good example being a relationship failing amidst heroine dependence. Pretty!
Cartoons In The Suicide Forest book trailer
This fun book is a kind of YA twist on the bizarro genre. When youngsters reach a certain age they are forcibly turned into marionette puppets with strings that reach far into the sky. No one knows what’s up there, or why they have to do it, but one young girl decides to rebel just as something strange starts happening to the puppets .
I liked the way the teens actually do things teens do like smoke and skip school. In fact this could be an allegory for ‘responsible’ rebellion and why it’s necessary to look beyond your situation and not always do as you’re told.
Puppet Skin book trailer
Like Jagged Teeth by Betty Rocksteady
The story starts with immediate tension and continues throughout. A girl is walking home from a night out followed by boys when, just in time, she’s picked up by her grandfather – who’s been dead for several years. When she arrives back at his place joy turns to fear as she realises something isn’t right.
As the character lurches from room to room the story becomes progressively darker and the effect is disorientating, but it deals with shame and guilt and love and is more than mere gross out stuff.
Betty on the This Is Horror podcast Original post
The head of a large corporation in a futuristic world is in hospital and his son is missing, along with millions of dollars. Add to that an estranged son with questionable motives and a daughter who has to go on the run and you’ve got an enjoyable read that reminded me of classic action science fiction films. The gadgets aren’t always immediately described which can seem confusing at first, but I’d much rather that than reams of explanation.
K. Ceres Wright reading a section (NSFW)
Good day, hope you enjoy these if you decide to purchase, toodle pip!
Madeleine Swann 