Just reading the proofs for my story which will be included in The Seventh Black Book of Horror, edited by Charles Black. Not sure exactly when the new Black Book of Horror will be released but this is a tremendously exciting prospect given the high quality and positive critiques of the last volumes. More to follow.
As its editor, Coral King says ‘TTMC has balls’. Originally, set up as a small press magazine for emerging female talent the girls were unfortunately a bit shy in their contributions, which is perhaps just as well for us blokes as those that did contribute were worryingly good at horrifying.
Issue 3 begins with Control a fairly hardcore SF short by Anna Stephens and a follow on from a previous Q tale that I rather liked. The protagonist is a HILDA -Hazardous Lifeforms Disposal Expert and believe me she disposes. ‘…the stairwell was momentarily tinted rose as minuscule scraps of flesh and blood hung in the still air.’ The ideas are interesting, it’s fast paced and energetic and the language is at times exciting and full of colour.
Solstice by Franklin Marsh is about young Carl who’s off to a festival at Stonehenge but you get the feeling he won’t be coming back. One of Marsh’s great strengths is his dark humour and perhaps I was expecting more of it here.
Beyond the Door by Bennedict Jones is the highlight of the magazine for me. It’s a story with minor faults – at times one feels the characters and situations are too much drawn from real life rather than utilised to further the plot – but this is only a pedantic quibble. The door, is real enough, terribly frightening and the story leaves a very bad aftertaste in the mind. In other words its a goodie.
David Karataš (his name has a wee symbol over the ’s’ which I can’t find on the computer) gives us the Strange Crucifixion where four pilgrims are off to solve the problems of good and evil. I’m afraid that good is going to be the loser. It’s not a story I especially enjoyed, and its not the best of his stories, but there is some eerie quality about Karataš’ work that defies analysis. I have seen many of his incipient tales on Filthy Creations writers workshop and every time I read one I get the sense that this writer is unique. I also find it incredible that a man can write in a language that is not his own and still achieve this credibility. Read it and see if it doesn’t somehow affect you.
Rubbish by Suzanne Jackson is an apparently mundane tale about the neighbour. It’s very short but extremely good and in the end it’s not mundane at all – its damned scary.
This edition features authoress, Sue Rule. Ghost is a story of a steady woman and her arty friend. It’s an extremely believable and poignant tale with an acerbic end. She Walked into the Night is another ghost story of equal merit. ‘Can you fall in love with a ghost?‘ Rule makes us believe you can in a plot that twists and turns.
Maidenhead by yours truly, Craig Herbertson is a sequel to Soap 7 published many years ago in ‘Works 7′. There’s a ship, a girl and a media virus to contend with.
Perhaps its the simple bloke mentality but I would rather the fonts changed less -aesthetically it looks great but it was at times a bit tough to read. At the risk of being lambasted for stereotyping, I’d like to bet that women wouldn’t have any problem with this.
Artwork by Karn Mcloud and Roger Pile and a bit of poetry make this absolutely sterling value for money.
The Thinking Man’s Crumpet is available at http://www.freewebs.com/thettmcmagazine/
As if the editor Rog Pile had nothing else to do but astound, this edition of Filthy Creations 6# begins the serialisation of two novels. Sendings by David A Riley and The Death Tableau by, yours truly, Craig Herbertson: Both ‘Pan Books of Horror’ authors. Both novels set up in the grim north. Both their first appearance in print. Both about to be serialized in full. There’s ominous signs in both tales already. Let’s see how they develop.
The issue is packed with poisoned goodies.
The Devil At Your Heels by Robert Mammone deals with that unconscious horror – the hit and run accident. Who is the victim here, the driver who was hit or the driver who ran? Mammome is a sharp writer with a strong style and a sound balance between the beauty of metaphor and the progression of story. He creates some lovely lines: ‘The engine’s dull throb matched his heart’s jerking rhythm,’ and he’s a writer who can draw you in and leaves you hurt: ‘A terrible truth flowered in Arthur’s mind. With sharp edged petal’s, this realisation scoured all other thoughts away and sent him staggering onto the road’
Mammone is one to watch.
In Easy Money by Penni McLaren Walker we move from a car to a house that has its own particular attitude to its incumbents. Penni is a well known song writer and I was gratified to see her talents in the field of horror. They are apparent. Penni writes more like a lady who has hundreds of stories under her belt rather than a couple. All the signs of a writer with a voice. More to come I hope.
D F Lewis has two short tales Rage and The Fat Shrike in here. Both betray the unmistakable marks of genius. Rage deals with the solution to a macabre jigsaw puzzle and the The Fat Shrike simply abounds with unforgettable lines some beginning in mildly prosaic observation before ending in a word feast carnival ‘Maternity in the old days, was a combination of mutual back-slapping and career gossiping: starting as soon as the womb could warm sufficient spaghetti connections into autonomous life and continuing until it was cold enough to keep plasma as well as pasta indefinitely.’ I ask myself who else could have written that?
We move to the face in Bad Manners by Colin Leslie. It’s a well told, enjoyable tale with a sinister theme that Ray Bradbury would have enjoyed writing and no doubt, reading.
There’s a Riot Going On by Franklin Marsh is short, sweet and wonderful. A touch of pathos a touch of humor as the old colonel goes down.
Grey by Charles Black takes residence at the beach but not for a suntan. It’s a dark almost Panesque tale of revenge with a woman at the heart of it but unfortunately, ‘her beauty had been long since vanquished.’ Good to see that the notorious editor of the Black Book of Horror has picked up the quill again.
Crocodile Tears by James Stanger, is a tale of an old demolition worker and a doctor who suffers his apparent hypochondria. But is it all in the old man’s mind or did something crawl up from the blitz-damaged London buildings? I think it might have but it’s not what you expect.
A Solace of Winter Rain by Stephen Bacon leaves us in the comfort of the Club’s leather chairs but we’re not comfortable for very long as Dr Trevelyan explores Mr Farnsworth’s ‘paralysing nightmare.’ I’m a sucker for a smoking room tale and this delivers the disquieting goods.
Night Tide by Rog Pile has a pilot survive his plane crash only to endure greater horrors from the past. It’s a story which balances realism with a shadow world of memory, containing believable characterization which makes you instantly empathetic and horror which battles with pathos. Rog Pile has also managed five interior illustrations and a cover. The illustrations are a high point of this edition of Filthy Creations. Rog Pile has slowly developed as a fine illustrator with an improving technique and that elusive – and often undiscovered in lesser artists – eye for perspective. His illustration of Easy Money in the two corbies in is a beauty.
Filthy Creations 6# is an incredible £2.25 including postage. For the small press it’s a plush looking little thing and, more importantly, it’s full of enjoyable stuff. Purchase it together with issue 4# of The Thinking Man’s Crumpet, edited by Coral King for just £3.50
School: The Seventh Silence (2005) Editor: Storm Constantine
The Heaven Maker (1988) Editor: Clarence Paget The 29th Pan Book of Horror,
Soap 7 (1991) Editor: Dave W Hughes Works 7
The Glowing Goblins (1992) Editor: Nik Morton Auguries 16
Under the Moons of Mars (1995) Editor: Frank Westwood Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs
Return to Greenwood (1997) Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs
Strange Fruit (2008) Editor: Rog Pile Filthy Creations 3
On the Couch (2008) Editor: Charles Black The Second Black Book of Horror
Synchronicity. (2008) Editor: Charles Black The Third Black Book of Horror
Soup (2009) Editor: Charles Black: The Fourth Black Book of Horror.
Leibniz’s Last Puzzle ( 2009) Editor: Charles Black The Fifth Black Book of Horror.
A Game of Billiards ( 2009) Editor: Benedict Jones Tales from the Smoking Room
Maidenhead ( 2009) The Thinking Man’s Crumpet
Spanish Suite (2010) Editor: Charles Black: The Sixth Black Book of Horror.
The Waiting Game (2010) Editor: John Mains Back from the Dead
Timeless Love (2008) Editor: Rog Pile Filthy Creations 2
A White Rabbit in Gent (2005) Editor: Storm Constantine ‘School: the Seventh Silence’
Candlelit Waltz (2009) Editor: Coral King The Thinking Man’s Crumpet
Articles
Tarzan, Nietzschian Superman? Editor: Frank Westwood Fantastic worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Rope Editor: Frank Westwood Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs
Dumarest: The Coming Event?, (2010) Editor:Stephen Theaker Dark Horizons 55#