Simon Strantzas

Nightingale Songs — Hardcovers SOLD OUT

2012-01-25T06:50:00.003-05:00

I'd like to thank everyone for making NIGHTINGALE SONGS such a success. Both hardcover editions — the slipcased, leatherbound and the limited hardcover — have now sold out. I suspect there are still a few floating around with dealers, for those interested, but the publisher no longer has any copies.I'm sure there are a few that, despite my best efforts, didn't know the book had been available, or perhaps have read some of the great reviews and are disappointed they missed their chance to read it. Fret not! I don't believe I'm out of turn by saying a trade paperback edition of the book is due soon from Dark Regions. More news as I have it, of course, but if you missed out I don't expect you'll have long to wait.

NS: Reviewed at Famous Monsters of Filmland

2012-01-17T09:34:00.000-05:00

The world's first monster fan magazine, Famous Monsters of Filmland, has reviewed NIGHTINGALE SONGS quite favourably. I'm quite proud to have my fiction held in high esteem by such an august publication. Here's a taste of the review, but please follow the link for more.

These stories are full of vividly disturbing images, bleak gloomy atmosphere and haunting prose. A perfect companion for a stormy cold winter’s night. This book will chill you to the bone and then some.

Interviewed at The Ginger Nuts of Horror

2012-01-14T08:29:00.000-05:00

Jim McLeod of the fantastic review site Ginger Nuts of Horror has recently posted an interview conducted with me over the course of several days. I think anyone who is curious to hear my thoughts about being a short story writer, or about the course my collections of fiction have taken over time, will find this required reading.

GINGER NUTS OF HORROR: An Interview with Simon Strantzas

Jim has also started a "real time" review of my latest collection, NIGHTINGALE SONGS. Check back on it often to see how he's progressing.

GINGER NUTS OF HORROR: Nightingale Songs

The Grimscribe's Puppets

2012-01-11T15:38:00.001-05:00

This announcement means almost as much to me as a collection of my own work does. Thomas Ligotti's fiction has been a great source of inspiration on my own, so when Joseph S Pulver, Sr approached me to pen a tale for his upcoming anthology, THE GRIMSCRIBE'S PUPPETS, I was more than thrilled to do so, and have provided a new tale titled, "By Invisible Hands". It's not the pastiche you might imagine, but I think the influence of this modern master is certainly felt. This book, like Joe's other anthology, A SEASON IN CARCOSA, is due this year from Miskatonic River Press, and the line-up of authors already associated with it is staggering. It's going to be an essential volume of weird fiction, in this author's humble opinion. Keep your eye out for it and its Daniele Sera cover.

The Year in Review 2011

2011-12-29T20:22:00.000-05:00

As is my annual tradition, I'd like to take a moment to reflect on the past year and review all the good times and hardships along the way.

In 2011 I attended more conventions and festivals than I care to admit, including the inaugural MythosCon in Arizona and the World Horror Convention in Texas. Both these events were marred only by the delayed and cancelled flights I had to deal with in both cases. Along with these I also attended ReaderCon in Massachusetts and Toronto's own Ad Astra, among others — all of which allowed me to meet up with a lot of old friends and make a lot of new ones as well. Enjoyable experiences all around.

Writing-wise I found myself invited to contribute to so many projects I had to put aside other plans to concentrate on them all. Some were successful, some were not as much, and some are still waiting to be revealed, but all taught me a valuable lesson about writing fiction: namely, that I prefer to not have deadlines. Nevertheless, I'm proud to have appeared this year in a number of new venues, including Phantasmagorium and CHILLING TALES, and major existing publications like Joshi's THE WEIRD FICTION REVIEW. Upcoming in the new year I'm very excited to be part of Joe Pulver's A SEASON IN CARCOSA, the bizarre and bound to be a classic AKLONOMICON, and the charity anthology SLICES OF FLESH. Lastly, this year I also managed to find my first foreign market reprint in Japan's Night Land. Look for that, too, in the coming year.

The biggest news, of course, is that just under the wire for this year my third collection of fiction, NIGHTINGALE SONGS, was released from Dark Regions Press. I hadn't had a new book published in almost three years, so to have something new drop was very exciting, especially considering the award-winning talent I had helping me. It's a beautiful book, and though the days are still young, so far word on it has been very, very good. I'm hopeful everyone who gets a chance to read it heartily agrees. As you may be aware, my first book, BENEATH THE SURFACE, is enjoying a healthy new lease on life, but sadly my second collection, COLD TO THE TOUCH, sold out at Tartarus earlier this year. Prices are already climbing for it, which leaves me both pleased and frustrated.

2012 will see me returning to those projects I put aside during 2011, as well as a few other things I have in the pipe. My work seems to be receiving an increased amount of notice as of late, which is thrilling, but the by-product is more demands are being placed on me and I've decided to try and slow things down in order to refocus on what I'd most like to do. That said, my next two years are pretty much booked up with some grand plans, and my excitement about the future grows daily.

I read (or started to read) a few books I enjoyed in 2011 — including Livia Llewellyn's ENGINES OF DESIRE, Daniel Mills's REVENANTS, Joseph S Pulver's THE ORPHAN PALACE, and Ian Rogers's BLACK EYED KIDS — but I'm much more interested in talking about what's coming up in 2012 that I'm eager to set my eyes upon. Books like John Langan's TECHNICOLOR, and Richard Gavin's AT FEAR'S ALTAR, both from Hippocampus. Or Ian Rogers's very first collection of fiction, EVERY HOUSE IS HAUNTED, from the ever-impressive ChiZine. Speaking of first collections, the list wouldn't be complete without a mention of Orrin Grey's NEVER BET THE DEVIL, a book that promises to put the young man on the map. Oh, and of course what promises to be the book of the year, Laird Barron's first novel, THE CRONING. All these projects and more all but guarantee 2012 will be another watershed year for the genre. I'm thrilled to be part of such exciting times as these.

I started writing seriously in 2002, so next year will be my ten-year anniversary in this field. Even in so short a time, I've seen things change dramatically, everything from the rise and fall of the small press to the exponential adoption of electronic books. But what excites me most is the wave after wave of talent entering the field, and ever-increasing number of writers foregoing the strains of "American" fiction that have dominated the horror genre for the past thirty years and instead exploring past masters from all around the world. There is such strong work being done now that I truly feel we are in the golden times, creatively speaking. Whether this ever translates into sales figures or even cultural acceptance is impossible to determine, but really that's all inconsequential. My peers are doing fabulous work, and I can't wait to see what the next ten years bring.

Merry Cthulhumas '11

2011-12-24T11:35:00.000-05:00

The holidays have arrived, so please stay warm wherever you are and go to sleep with sugar plums dancing in your head. I hope to see you all in the new year for more gruesome tales of terror.

A Season in Carcosa

2011-11-25T06:47:00.001-05:00

It's with great pleasure I say that my story, "Beyond the Banks of the River Seine", will be included in the upcoming anthology, A SEASON IN CARCOSA, edited by Joseph S Pulver, Sr, and due to be published by Miskatonic River Press in early 2012.Joe is perhaps the writer most dedicated to exploring Chambers's "The King in Yellow" mythology, and I'm immensely pleased he feels my small contribution to it is worthwhile. Look for the book soon, with a startlingly great cover by Daniele Sera.

NS: Reviewed at seattlepi.com

2011-11-22T20:22:00.001-05:00

It's not often I get a review that is as well written as the one for NIGHTINGALE SONGS, written by S. P. Miskowski for seattlepi.com. I am quite honoured to be on the receiving end of it. I could quote my favourite parts, but I'd simply be reproducing the entire review here. Instead, let me leave you as Ms Miskowski did with the following:

If you love good writing that challenges, enthralls, and offers no easy escape, read Simon Strantzas.

[Actually, let me leave you with one more link, this to Ms Miskowski's novel, KNOCK KNOCK (available, as far as I can tell, only on the Kindle). If it's half as good as this review ... ]

NS: Reviewed at The Speculative Fiction Junkie

2011-11-15T06:30:00.000-05:00

It seems advance reviews for NIGHTINGALE SONGS are starting to show up. The first is from the alway acute Speculative Fiction Junkie. You may recall the SFJ gave my 2009 collection, COLD TO THE TOUCH, a perfect 10/10 score, and ranked it the number one best read for that year. Well, I hope I'm not giving too much away to say that the new book has also been rated quite favourably, and I'm hopeful this is but the first in a long string of positive reviews for the volume.

[Strantzas] has perfected a voice and style of weird fiction that is all his own and has cemented his reputation as a modern master in a field already crowded with talent.

Nightingale Songs now available for pre-order

2011-11-14T22:07:00.001-05:00

The fine folks at Dark Regions Press have let Christmas come a little early this year and put NIGHTINGALE SONGS, my third collection of fiction, up for preorder. You have two flavours to choose from: the special leather-bound edition, signed by both me and cover artist Jason Van Hollander, or the trade hardcover signed by me alone. Either way, the contents of the book are the same.

I'm really very excited that this book is finally slipping into the world. It's been over two years since the last book saw print, and I think you are all about due for some new nightmares. Enjoy!

"Pinholes in Black Muslin" reviewed at Bloody Bookish

2011-10-28T22:55:00.000-04:00

The free chapbook TUNDRA that Ian Rogers, Richard Gavin, and I put together for ReaderCon in 2009 has been available for download from this site ever since, and though plenty of people have partaken of its nightmare-filled pages, it has never as far as I know been reviewed until now. Bloody Bookish has seen fit to read and report on the small volume, and likes very much what lies within the pages. Please head over to the site to see just how much.

Interviewed at The Man Eating Bookworm

2011-10-28T08:48:00.001-04:00

A new interview with me has been posted to The Man Eating Bookworm, where I get to discuss whether my fiction makes for good comics, and provide further information on my imminent third collection of fiction. I think it came out rather well, don't you?

Slices of Flesh

2011-09-26T08:42:00.001-04:00

SLICES OF FLESH is an upcoming volume of flash fiction put together by the fine folks at Dark Moon Books. Profits for the volume will be going to aid different charities, including the Literacy Project of America. The book already has some great names attached, including Tim Lebbon, Ramsey Campbell, Elizabeth Hand, and now includes my own name on the table of contents with a short piece entitled "Swallow". With cover art by Mike Mignola, this should be a great volume for a great cause. Look for its launch at the World Horror Convention in 2012 and be sure to nab yourself a copy.

Phantasmagorium

2011-09-02T15:24:00.003-04:00

It seems the cat is finally out of the bag elsewhere, so perhaps I ought to mention here that my tale, "Strong as a Rock", has been selected to appear in the premiere issue of Phastasmagorium. This new lit journal will be released in both electronic and print editions, and will be edited by none other than Weird fiction superstar Laird Barron. I'm very pleased to have one of my tales appear in a journal with such a pedigree, and based on the released list of contributors it promises to be a venture that won't escape the world's notice for long.

BTS: Reviewed in Black Static

2011-08-13T10:55:00.002-04:00

BENEATH THE SURFACE also gets a review by Peter Tennent in issue 24 of BLACK STATIC, the premiere UK horror magazine. There's isn't any choice quotes to pull, so you'll have to buy the magazine yourself to read more.

BTS: Reviewed at The Deepening World of Fiction

2011-08-13T10:43:00.001-04:00

I'm pleased to report another positive reviews of my first collection, BENEATH THE SURFACE, has appeared online, this time at The Deepening. Here's a taste of what reviewer Kim Morgan had to say:

Strantzas is undeniably one of the most talented poet authors I’ve read, which is saying something.

That's no slight compliment. Read the rest of the review for more of her thoughts.

Night Land

2011-07-25T20:51:00.000-04:00

I've just signed the paperwork, so it's my pleasure to mention to my Japanese fans that my British Fantasy Award-nominated tale, "Pinholes in Black Muslin", is scheduled to appear in a new magazine entitled Night Land in 2012. More information as it comes available, but it will be the first time a piece of mine has been translated into Japanese, so it should be an interesting experience. I hope those of you who can read the language make an effort to pickup a copy. By the sounds of it, this journal will be the place to watch for excellent fiction.

Chilling Tales, Volume 2

2011-06-27T20:35:00.004-04:00

It's with pleasure that I announce that my tale, "Dwelling on the Past", has been selected to appear in CHILLING TALES, VOL 2, from the fine folks at Edge Publications. Editor-extraordinare Michael Kelly put together a crackerjack first volume in this series of Canadian horror, and I fully expect the upcoming volume to be even better.

That said, if you haven't yet picked up your copy of the first volume, don't dally. It's well worth the meagre price.

READING: Chiaroscuro Reading Series

2011-06-13T20:42:00.003-04:00

Here's an amusing anecdote:

A few months ago, perhaps even so far as late last year, I was bemoaning to a fellow writer the fact that the horror fiction scene in Canada is booming right now with talent, and a good number of them are located in and about the Toronto area. Names like David Nickle, Gemma Files, Ian Rogers, Michael Kelly, Richard Gavin, Michael Colangelo, and so on all hail from this neck of the woods, and yet there is little done to really promote the names locally. "I've thought long and hard about this," I said to my friend. "And what we need, I think, is a reading series." You see, I recalled the Trampoline Theatre series the city used to host, a place in which literary writers such as Sheila Heti made a name for themselves. Toronto needed a genre-focused series, I believed — a regular gathering of names that would reach out to new readers in the area and show them what they were missing. "It's a perfect fit," I continued. "But who could organise such an event? Certainly not me." I pondered the idea for a few moments, then concluded: "You know who it should be? The folks over at ChiZine Publications. Their stable contains many of these authors, giving them the most to gain from such an event, but also because Brett and Sandra know everybody, and would be able to draw the best names forward." My friend agreed, then we both went about our business of writing, speaking nothing more of it.

Then, perhaps a month later, I received the first message from ChiZine Publications, announcing the Chiaroscuro Reading and Workshop Series. It seemed that independent of me, Brett, Sandra, and the gang reached the exact same conclusion, and started the series. Many fine folks have read at it since then, and the quality of fiction there grows exponentially.

I'm very proud and honoured, then, to announce that I'll be participating in the series this August, sharing the stage with my brothers in nightmare: Richard Gavin and Ian Rogers. We are billed as "The Unholy Three", and there's no more apt name I could conjure for own session on the Augusta House stage.

I know few of my readers are close to the Toronto area, but if you find yourself travelling close by, perhaps in the shadow of night, on that dark day, I urge you to visit the establishment for the last time, for when we are done it's unlikely there will be much left of the place.

I hope to see you there!

More information on NIGHTINGALE SONGS

2011-06-08T23:06:00.000-04:00

Once again, seeing as how the proofs of my third collection are about to be delivered, I thought the time was right to announce further details about the book.

NIGHTINGALE SONGS will be published early this autumn by the fine folks at Dark Regions Press. They did such a fantastic job with the reprint of BENEATH THE SURFACE that it only seemed right to team up with them once more. This book is a bit different than both the previous collections as it's in many ways a combination of the two. I'm hopeful this provides a range of tales for the interested reader, but also goes to show the direction my fiction is moving -- namely, an amalgamation of these different views into a unified outlook. I really think people will like this book best of the three.

The collection will sport as its cover a new piece of original artwork commissioned from World Fantasy Award-winning artist Jason Van Hollander, and believe me it's going to knock your socks off. Also, the book will contain a foreword written by the incomparable John Langan, a fabulous writer in his own right, and an afterword by yours truly. Between these two pieces will be twelve tales -- four of which are new to this collection. These stories are as follows:

Out of Touch
Her Father's Daughter
The Deafening Sound of Slumber
Unreasonable Doubt
Tend Your Own Garden
The Nightingale
Pale Light in the Jungle
An Indelible Stain on the Sky
Something New
Mr Kneale
Everything Floats
When Sorrows Come

The book will arrive in three editions: the first, a limited leather bound hardcover to match the reprint of BTS, designed for the true collectors among you; the second, a trade hardcover for those like me who want their books to last; finally, a trade paperback for the more price conscious among us. This last version will no doubt be the defacto standard edition of the book and will hopefully remain available for some time.

Now that COLD TO THE TOUCH is officially out of print, it will be good to get a new collection out in the world, giving readers more options regarding what they should buy. I of course recommend buying it all, but I suppose that's not practical. I suppose.

Please keep your eyes here in the coming days and weeks for more information about the book. We needn't wait too much longer now. I certainly hope the nightmares you shall endure will be worth it.

World Horror Convention 2011 schedule: ADDENDUM

2011-04-24T18:10:00.002-04:00

I'm pleased to report that I've an additional activity to add to my WHC itinerary. On Friday, April 29th, at 4:00PM, I'll be joining fellow author Jim Chambers at the Dark Regions table for a signing session in the dealer's room. Granted, the Saturday "mass signing" should give everyone an opportunity, should they want it, for a signature, but I'm hopeful my presence at the table is motivation for some new readers to pick up a copy of BTS, and for some existing readers to get their books signed early in order to make space in their packs for all the other books they'll be bringing the next night.

World Horror Convention 2011 schedule

2011-04-14T10:51:00.000-04:00

I'm pleased to report that I'm taking an active part in this year's World Horror Convention in Austin, Texas. I'll be there from Thursday, April 28th to Saturday, April 30th. On Sunday morning, I'll be on a plane homeward.

But while I'm there anyone interested should be able to catch me at the following events:

Reading - Simon Strantzas
11:30 AM Friday April 29 – Robertson

Book Launch – EDGE Books
2:00 – 4:00 PM, Friday, April 29 – Convention Suite

Join hosts Michael Kelly and Jaym Gates for the multi-author book launch of “Chilling Tales”, “Rigor Amortis”, and “Those Who Fight Monsters”. Plus get a special sneak peek of EDGE’s Fall Horror line up, including “EVOLVE Two: Vampire Stories of the Future Undead”, and “Gaslight Arcanum: Uncanny Tales of Sherlock Holmes.”

Commonwealth Horror
3:00 PM Saturday, April 30 – Dezavala
Simon Strantzas, Brett Savory, Allyson Bird, Gary McMahon (m), Simon Clark

Does horror from the nations of the Commonwealth of Nations—Great Britain, Canada, Australia, etc. —read differently from horror from the US, or other parts of the world? Is there such a thing as a Commonwealth aesthetic, and if so, what is it? Do the non-Anglophone members of the Commonwealth such as Cyprus or Jamaica have a commonwealth aesthetic?

MASS SIGNING!
7:30 – 10:00 PM Saturday, April 30 – Phoenix Central

As well as just wandering around the convention, checking out the dealer's room or attending panels.

This year, the convention has a healthy dose of Canadian and British horror authors attending, so if you are still on the fence you might want to finally send in your payment and attend. It promises to be a grand time. More about the programming can be found at the WHC 2011 Programming page.

The Weird Fiction Review

2011-04-14T02:15:00.000-04:00

I'm quite pleased to report that S. T. Joshi will be publishing my tale, "The Cornucopia", in the second issue of THE WEIRD FICTION REVIEW. Anyone who missed the first issue of this Joshi-edited journal really missed a beautiful treat — Centipede Press did a fantastic job — and I'm very proud to have had my work selected to appear within its pages. Look for the second issue this fall, again from Centipede Press.

COLD TO THE TOUCH: Out of Print

2011-04-12T10:08:00.000-04:00

I regret to inform everyone that COLD TO THE TOUCH is now out of print from Tartarus Press. Copies should still be available for the time being on the specialist market, however. You might try Realms of Fantasy Books, or your favourite dealer.

I thank everyone who bought a copy, and hope you enjoyed it. The next book is due later this year.

Cold to the Touch: Stock levels are very low

2011-04-11T13:43:00.001-04:00

Tartarus has announced, via their latest newsletter, that their stock level on COLD TO THE TOUCH is "very low", so I'd urge anyone interested in a copy to place an order right away to avoid losing out. Chances are, they'll be gone in the next week or so.

Tartarus Press: Cold to the Touch by Simon Strantzas

BTS: Reviewed at Grim Reviews

2011-04-03T11:40:00.001-04:00

One of my absolute favourite blogs on the internet is Grim Reviews. Filled with interesting news and commentary on the world of weird fiction, our intrepid mystery blogger proves his knowledge and insights are second-to-none. I heartily recommend the site to everyone who enjoys this sort of fiction.

For this reason, nothing pleases me more than to see my first collection, BENEATH THE SURFACE, receive a glowing review from the site. I've known for some time the book was in the queue, and have been eagerly anticipating the blogger's thoughts on it. I'm thrilled he was not disappointed.

Anyone who has ever worshiped at the altars of Lovecraft and Ligotti should get their hands on this book. So should wild eyed seekers after cerebral weird horror.

Review: Beneath the Surface by Simon Strantzas

Interviewed at The Black Abyss

2011-03-30T14:45:00.002-04:00

It appears I am the victim of The Inquisition at The Black Abyss website. Unlike the more famous like-named event, this one proved far less painful. Instead, here I was asked to answer a few short questions about my work and the genre as a whole. Please take a moment to stop by the site and take a gander.

Ad Astra schedule

2011-03-21T22:46:00.001-04:00

I'll be attending the annual Ad Astra convention in Toronto, Canada, again this year. I've gone for the past few years, but this time I'll be participating in the programming to a small degree. You can find me on the "Chilling Tales: A New Chapter in Canadian Horror and Dark Fantasy" panel scheduled for Saturday, April 9th at 11 A.M., where I'll be sharing the stage with many of the other contributors. Then, between 1 P.M and 3 P.M. that same day, I'll be joining the authors for a mass signing session to launch the book. I do hope anyone nearby can attend. This year's convention promises to have a great line-up, including Robert Shearman, Nancy Kilpatrick, Ellen Datlow, and Stephen Jones, as well as such Toronto-base luminaries as Michael Kelly, Richard Gavin, Ian Rogers, Gemma Files, and so on.

The Secret Life of Laird Barron

2011-03-16T06:15:00.003-04:00

There's been quite some talk as of late about the incomparable Laird Barron and the Hemmingwayesque life he's led. His own blog is a diary of sorts of these past adventures, but one thing that has always bothered me is how reticent he seems to be to reveal everything that he has done. I'm not sure if it's due to embarrassment or modesty but some times I find myself maddened by it. Well, no longer. I am privy to a bit of information about Mr Barron's past that, though I'm sure he'd not like spread, must nonetheless be repeated, if only so that the true scope of his accomplishments might be understood. Future generations will no doubt require this information if they are to have any hope of untangling just who this cyclopean monolith was. (read more)

We know Mr Barron once lived north of us all in the grand state of Alaska, and we know he raced dogs and these races last many harrowing days. But what you may not have heard was what sorts of things he experienced on the icy trails. Imagine it: snow so dense, so cold, that each flake is like a tiny razor on your skin, and imagine multitudinous flakes hurtling toward your face as a team of dogs pulled you forth across a barren wasteland. It is enough to transform the average man into a pile of mush. Yet Barron not only was undaunted on that day back in 1994, while racing his team in the Iditarod, but relished it. Face exposed to the cold, it's said his barrel laugh echoed across the tundra, and perhaps it was this laugh, so deep, so mesmerising, that beckoned that mighty polar bear forward, called him to where Barron and his trusted dogs were headed. We'll never know for certain. But come the giant bear did, its fur so white that it was invisible to all in the flurries, not much more than a Wendigo across the ice. It saw Barron frighteningly determined countenance, saw dogs with teeth barred and snarling like a band of psychopomps barrelling onward to take the bear to hell, and perhaps despite its dominance of world it surveyed that bear feared for its life, or perhaps it felt it could withstand the onslaught as it had so many before, or perhaps it was as all polar bears are and was mean and ornery and looking for trouble, but when Barron and his dogs were within range the mighty bear — nearly three times the size of a man — lashed out with bared claws and dove into the pack.

It's said even Barron was caught unaware by the violence, and the bear was able to take out two dogs before Barron had his feet beneath him. With preternatural stength Barron leapt forward and took the bear by the paw. He then delivered a punch that no one this side of the ancient temples of mystical Shangri-La had seen before (and even there, only its top masters were privy to such secrets). The bear's legs spun in the air as it toppled backward, yet Barron did not yield. Tearing his shirt from his body in an act of defiance of Anguta, the Northern god of the dead, he leapt upon the toppling bear's breast and began a barrage of punches that knocked the beast into a hazy delerium, and then into the blackest unconciousness.

Now, this is where the truly remarkable took place, the sort of thing about which legends are formed. When Barron's rage had subsided enough that he was no longer blinded, he wasted no time in lashing the bear's legs together, then to the sled he had been travelling upon. You see, Barron had a plan.

It took little time for Barron and his team to track the bear's movements. For one such as him, the land is a book as easily read as it is transversed. He found the bear's trail, and followed it back to the cave that the great beast called home. There he took the unconscious bear and, loading it upon his shoulders, carried it inside.

It's unclear how what happened next transpired, but that is part of the mystery of Laird Barron. For you see, when that giant bear finally opened its swollen eyes after the thrashing it had received, what it saw surely sent a chill through its heart of the sort that no creature can bear without a permanent scar being carved out. What that bear saw — that once proud warrior who due to its own hubris attacked that which it did not understand — was its own mate lying on the ground and a stripped Laird Barron standing above her, dogs in a circle at his feet as all loyal canines must. Barron had wasted no time in seducing the sow, and in doing so she let him in with pleasure, eager to please the true animal ruler of the North. Barron claimed his prize so that the defeated polar bear would know who it had dealt with. And know to whom it had lost everything. Barron's cold eye locked with the polar bear's own, and in that moment everything was clear. Barron's laugh, so deep, so mesmerising, echoed across the tundra.

BTS: Reviewed at PunkTowner

2011-02-19T21:18:00.001-05:00

It's quite an honour to report that author extraordinaire, Jeffery Thomas (he of the Punktown series), has read and enjoyed BENEATH THE SURFACE so much he has chosen to blog about it. That sort of publicity you can't buy. Please follow the link to read the review, and when you're done why not stick around and check out Mr Thomas's work? You shan't regret it.

Simon Strantzas delves BENEATH THE SURFACE

BTS: Reviewed by Peter Bell

2011-02-08T23:51:00.005-05:00

When my collection, BENEATH THE SURFACE, was scheduled for its first printing in 2008, my publisher, Humdrumming, sent advance reader copies of the book out to select places to help spread word. One of these copies was sent to Peter Bell, an extraordinary author whose work will soon be collected by Ash Tree Press. He was to review the book for one of our genre's premiere journals, and it was scheduled for that journal's next issue. Sadly, that issue has still not seen the light, and as one can imagine a review of a book that has long since sold out is no longer quite so helpful. I have spoken to Peter, who has graciously allowed me to publish the review here, finally, for the world to see.

Please remember that the edition of the book the following reviews is not the version currently available. Some stories are missing, some have been added. I'll also point out that is is a very thorough review of the collection, and many aspects of the stories are revealed herein. If you have not yet read the book, please consider yourself forewarned.

Here, then, is the review of BENEATH THE SURFACE (2008), by Peter Bell ...

— SS

Readers of ‘All Hallows’ and the Ash-Tree Press anthologies will already be aware of Simon Strantzas’ remarkable tales, which have appeared in other small presses, too, like Tartarus, Gray Friar, and the magazine ‘Supernatural Tales’. His supremely disturbing story ‘The Other Village’ was selected by Tartarus for their second Strange Tales anthology, in itself high acclaim; and it has deservedly received wider exposure in Stephen Jones’ The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror. When I first read in ‘All Hallows’ his tragic, enigmatic tale ‘Something New’ I was riveted: here was an occasion when, among many good quality tales, one just leapt out and left me amazed. For in this story I sensed a mind that moved within the same psychological territory as that incomparable master of the ‘strange tale’, Robert Aickman. I am not talking here of pastiche, but of something more skilful: an intuitive understanding of how Aickman and similar writers achieve enigmatic, deeply disturbing effects by subtlety, rather than overt horror; demonstrating the power of the supernatural narrative to express existential crisis. Ramsey Campbell, who has himself written potent tales in this vein—take, for example, ‘The Companion’ or ‘The Little Voice’—once remarked that the only authors writing with Aickman’s ambience were M. John Harrison and Terry Lamsley. To that list might be added Simon Strantzas. (read more)

This, however, is not to typecast him: for within Beneath the Surface readers will find a variety of styles, ideas and themes. Other writers whose style spring to mind are Thomas Ligotti, H. P. Lovecraft, Joyce Carol Oates, Franz Kafka, and Mark Samuels—the latter contributing an excellent introduction to the present book. We have Ligotti’s dream-like surrealism; Oates’ vision of the ‘grotesque’; Kafka’s alienation; the ‘strangeness’ of Lamsley, Harrison and Aickman; Lovecraft’s sense of adverse, awesome forces; and the urban nightmare of Campbell and his followers. All this adds up to a personal vision, which is uniquely Strantzas. His vision can be exceedingly bleak, but with a resonance that most of us will have been able to identify with at some point in our lives; and whilst depressing, nevertheless his work exalts by its pathos and the intellectual enjoyment of the translation of such angst into art. He can be tragically elegiac: certain tales are virtually prose-poems, fantasias on the melancholy of life. And he shows an instinctive understanding of the surreal as a voice of alienation, as the indirect method whereby we apprehend a still greater reality.

‘The Constant Encroaching of a Tumultuous Sea’ and ‘The Autumnal City’ are surreal, poetic, Ligotti-like perorations on loneliness and angst; impossible to summarise easily, they need to be read to grasp the nuance of the prose, and how it underpins the narrative. Though initially not seeming the most accessible, on re-reading, their subtle power and beauty are revealed. Both have an autumnal feel, autumn as metaphor for fading, linking them with similar visions in the writings of Ray Bradbury and William P. Simmons. There is, indeed, in these two tales a sense of what might be described as the ultimate autumn, the end of all things. We learn, for example, that ‘There are no trees in the autumnal city’—last thing convention would dictate, for trees are part of autumn. The opening paragraph of ‘Tumultuous Sea’ begins: ‘Strangely, the wind was far stronger in the city,’ and there was ‘a chill, far too unseasonable for the end of autumn,’ such that ‘the heavy coat I bore could not protect me from its bite’. There is a sense in these tales that even autumn’s melancholy consolation, its reassurance, by virtue of its glorious, falling leaves, has been denied. In Strantzas’ vision, there will be no spring.

Both tales engage with another dominant theme: individual alienation in the contemporary city, a world where crowds congregate for work or pleasure, yet nurturing at its heart wells of loneliness. In ‘Tumultuous Sea’ the wind ‘wrapped around tall skyscrapers, picking up speed as it gusted through the alleys of claustrophobic walls’. In ‘The Autumnal City’, ‘a sprawling maze of filthy stone and asphalt,’ automatons march towards ‘towers of brick and glass that scrape murky burnt amber from the sky’. The chilly maze of skyscrapers match another dark dimension of Strantzas’ city, the subterranean; and here he makes use of the real underground city existing in his home town, Toronto. This subterranean world is a perfect metaphor for the darkness of his urban vision. ‘It Runs Beneath the Surface’ portrays a tacky, urban Hades, a realm of vagrants and disillusioned charity workers. One, whose offices lie amidst sex shops, ‘its bricks stained by the filthy air,’ feels ‘soaked through with despair’. The down-pressed passengers on his underground commuter journey likewise repel him; he is ‘revolted by the filth that seeped from those around him and fouled everything they touched’; too late, he realises that ‘the pole he grasped for support was soiled by a murky slick film.’ This is all recognisably real to anyone forced to endure, for example, the London Tube; what Strantzas does is to turn the filth into a metaphor, with the story ending on a repulsively surreal note― a final terse sentence perfectly finesses the accumulating horror of his imagery. Subterranean horror, the big city as dystopia, the individual menaced by dark, incomprehensible force—this infuses, too, the equally bleak ‘You are Here’. Like in Film Noir, where lost souls flounder in seas of inscrutable anxiety, the dark city for Strantzas’ is a character in the drama. Strantzas uses Toronto as Ramsey Campbell does Merseyside, presenting the city as a stage for supernatural events that function equally as social realism.

There is something Campbell-esque in the plot of ‘A Thing of Love’, a writer stalled by the death of his mother, to whom he was rather over-attached, with an editor trying to galvanise him back into production. The ghastly, surreal developments render this story surely one of the most delightfully horrible efforts in the genre. Indeed, the tale is perhaps more akin to the darkest of Joyce Carol Oates, whose ‘tales of the grotesque’ perhaps offer a label that aptly suits Strantzas. There is a monster that rivals a creature of comparably symbolic import in Oates’ story ‘The Dream-Catcher’. Strantzas is not always a light read, but one cannot but admire his bold grotesquerie, bringing to mind, also, the shocking flights of another versatile imagination, Terry Lamsley. Monstrosity features in another unbearably grotesque tale, with shades of the movie ‘Alien’. ‘The Wound so Deep’ tells of a sound ‘of cracking, of snapping’ and ‘the wet noise of something at last awakening, pulling free from the empty shell of its old life, born naked into a new one.’ Things like this are, perhaps, an acquired taste―rather like David Lynch’s hideously-inspired ‘Eraserhead’, which left me feeling both revolted at its savagely realised nihilism and amazed at its artistic genius.

Two stories centre round distortions of reality caused, in one case by medical injection, in another by eye-drops intended to enable perception of true reality. In ‘Thoughtless’ a mental patient develops extraordinary perceptive powers which appear to expose reality as a sham; the story’s charm lies in the uncertainty whether the protagonist, Audrey, is experiencing madness, hallucination or truth. The search for a truth that turns out to be more horrible than ever conceived underpins ‘A Shadow in God’s Eye’. A spiritually disillusioned loner, Herbert, seeks salvation through a religious cult, which resides in one of Strantzas’ typically barren urban scenarios: down a long corridor that ‘seemed to take forever’ to walk along, cold and damp, with an odour he ‘knew at once’ as of ‘rodent-infested abandon’. Blinded by burning drops, his eyes recover to a new vision―of the truth behind the universe. Herbert’s hopes of finding God, however, are annihilated when he perceives ‘a perfect sun-like sphere set in a smudge of darkness’ which begins to ‘crawl across the sky’; but it is not a sphere: it is a mushroom-shaped creature trailing ‘long tentacles that branched and split over and over until the threads touched every figure on the ground’. ‘There is no God,’ he opines: ‘No. There is only the parasite,’ he is told. There is a resonance in this vision with that of Swedish Film Director, Ingmar Bergman, especially when he was exploring his own religious doubt; in the film ‘Through a Glass Darkly’ the disturbed protagonist experiences God as a vision of a large spider.

Strantzas, on the other hand, has a capacity to address existential angst in the elegiac, as much as the grotesque, mode; and it is here that he is closest to Aickman. There is, in Aickman, a profound, melancholy beauty; through the alchemy of imagery he transforms the base metals of angst and nihilism into the gold of artistic catharsis. Strantzas, in two stories here (and in several elsewhere) realises a similar vision. ‘Something New’ has as its protagonist a very Aickman-like character, the lonely, jilted Natalie, reluctantly attending the wedding of happy, socially-adjusted friends. Strantzas brilliantly orchestrates surreal events at the reception so that the reader empathises with Natalie’s angst and isolation. In the end, a ‘late autumn chill’ across her back, Natalie finds herself irrevocably exiled from the proceedings, ‘a woman walking through the dark alone’. I found this tale heart-breaking, poignant, and will continue to re-read it many times. ‘In the Air’ tells of another female protagonist, Maggie, mourning her husband, visiting the site of his death; like Aickman, Strantzas displays here the power of the strange tale to address the complexities of grief. The tale moves through surreal scenes, such as the bizarrely managed B & B where Maggie and her sister-in-law, Lynda, stay; but this tale ends with a kind of cosmic vision where Aickman-territory is departed, and Strantzas presents us with a vision that is truly his own.

‘Behind Glass’ is an image of contemporary alienation, concerning a man’s move to a new place of work following a takeover by a shadowy company. Strantzas conjures a Kafka-like world, in a mode reminiscent of Mark Samuels. He weaves in, too, a Lovecraftian dimension; a device which can so often become trite, even ridiculous, but which Strantzas handles with typical subtlety and skill. The collection’s final, ‘Drowned Deep Inside of Me’, conjures yet another existential odyssey, in which the sensitive and lonely strive for meaning in a universe which perhaps has no meaning. There is something extremely tragic in Strantzas’ vision, a projection of the dark side of things that lies within us all, which we desperately strive, not least through art, to overcome. These are tales of catharsis.

BTS: Reviewed at At Fear's Altar

2011-02-07T10:31:00.000-05:00

I doubt anyone reading these words is unfamiliar with the work of Richard Gavin, nor is unaware of the high esteem I hold his work in. Imagine, then, my immense pleasure to read Richard's review of my first collection at his blog, At Fear's Altar. Unlike many reviewers, Richard understands just what sort of thing I was attempting with BTS, and responds favourably to it. I urge you all to give the review a read, especially if you are on the fence as to whether the book is a worthy precursor to COLD TO THE TOUCH.

At Fear's Altar: BENEATH THE SURFACE by Simon Strantzas

Aklonomicon

2011-02-05T17:03:00.001-05:00

I'm absolutely thrilled to announce my story, "Captured in Oils", will be joining the table of contents of the new anthology, AKLONOMICON, edited by Joseph S Pulver, Sr., and Ivan McCann for their newly formed Aklo Press.

If you haven't heard about this book yet ... well, boy, you are missing out. The line-up is stellar, including such luminaries as Richard Gavin, Laird Barron, Joe Pulver, Livia Llewellyn, and the list goes on, not to mention artwork by geniuses such as David Carson and Ivan McCann (who incidentally shall be illustrating my tale). I urge you to keep your eyes out for this one. It'll change your life!

"Everything Floats" reviewed

2011-02-05T08:27:00.002-05:00

Michael Kelly's wonderful new journal, SHADOWS & TALL TREES, in which my story, "Everything Floats", was published receives a glowing review by Ray Cluley at his site, probablymonsters. Not much quotable regarding my contribution, but still he seemed to enjoy it. Readers here would no doubt enjoy it, too, along with the rest of the journal's contents. If anyone is still on the fence, numbers are dwindling fast. Act quickly!

Announcing ... NIGHTINGALE SONGS

2011-01-30T21:33:00.000-05:00

I'm delighted to officially announce that I'm in the final stages of my next collection of fiction, entitled NIGHTINGALE SONGS. The book will contain thirteen tales of the strange and bizarre, some of which will see print for the first time within the book's pages. There aren't many details I can offer at this early stage — including who might be publishing the volume — but I can say that the hope is to have it in print before the end of the year. Please stay tuned for further details when I am finally able to announce them.

BTS: Reviewed at Bookgeeks

2011-01-26T07:20:00.000-05:00

Mario Guslandi reviews the expanded reprint of BENEATH THE SURFACE for bookgeeks.co.uk and calls it "a remarkable debut" that "includes some very good, thought-provoking stories."

Interviewed at The Bones Remember Everything

2011-01-18T20:55:00.001-05:00

Have you read the wonderful work of Angela Slatter? You should, as she's being recognised increasingly so as a rising star. One of the great things about her is her willingness to share her webspace with other authors she ostensibly enjoys. As is no surprise (seeing as I'm posting this here) she has seen fit to interview me in her "Drive-By" series. Please follow the link below to read how I answer, among other things, the age old question: doughnuts or danishes?

The Cold Drive-By: Simon Strantzas

My MythosCon Schedule

2011-01-02T20:56:00.000-05:00

It's hard to believe that MythosCon is now just a few days away. For those who are travelling to the desert for this feast of all things Lovecraftian (and are interested in catching any of the events with which I'm involved) here is my schedule for the weekend:

Thursday, Jan. 6th, 10:00pm, Palm C-F Room - Reading. I will be giving a live reading of a brand new story (I hope!) thus far untitled

Saturday, Jan. 8th, 9pm, The Abbey - Booksigning. I will be taking part in the "Mass Autographing" session, during which the convention's legion of authors and book collectors will surely transform The Abbey into a delightful madhouse.

Sunday, Jan. 9th, 9am, Palm C-F Room - Panel: Contemporary Mythos Writing. Who else is keeping the Mythos alive with new perspectives?
Panelists: LOIS GRESH, SIMON STRANTZAS, RICHARD DAKAN, RICHARD GAVIN

Of course I'll be milling about the hotel for the entire weekend, so please do come up and introduce yourself. I'm looking forward to seeing old friends as well as forging new fellowships with those who've come to celebrate one of Horror's most monumental writers.

The Year in Review 2010

2010-12-30T09:22:00.002-05:00

It's been a tough year. There's no other way to put it. The writing of new material has taken a back seat this year as I tended to other things, and though I started a number of projects, none have really gotten off the ground. That said, I continue to chip away and hope to put things back on track in the coming months. In the mean time, I've been continuing with work I managed to complete last year, and hope to have news related to it in the coming months.

It's not all doom and gloom, of course, This year book sales continued strongly. COLD TO THE TOUCH received more rave reviews across the board, and ended up in the hands of many (including some of my personal heroes). Added to that was the re-release of my first collection, BENEATH THE SURFACE, and it proved my initial fears that there wouldn't be a new market for the book were grossly incorrect. If anything, I'd wager the book finally found its true audience with this release.

Furthering the trend, my fiction appeared in some high profile places such as Cemetery Dance and the latest MAMMOTH BOOK OF BEST NEW HORROR (for the third year running). Tales were also selected for the inaugural issues of Shadows & Tall Trees (which too received high praise from the industry) and will appear in next year's CHILLING TALES anthology, showcasing the growing amount of quality fiction being published in Canada right now.

I attended ReaderCon a second time with friends Ian Rogers and Richard Gavin, where I again met up with some of the best and brightest in the field. I was also invited to participate in the coming January's MythosCon, the first in a hopeful series of new Lovecraft conventions, and will also be joining the fun at the World Horror Convention in Austin, Texas, this April. After that, though, I think my convention going will slow to a crawl, at least until the World Fantasy Convention in Toronto in 2012.

For the same reasons I didn't manage much writing this year I also didn't manage much reading, but I still managed to find a bit of time to read (or partially read) the following:

THE DARKLY SPLENDID REALM by Richard Gavin
TEMPORARY MONSTERS by Ian Rogers
THE ASH ANGELS by Ian Rogers
PIECES OF MIDNIGHT by Gary McMahon
UNDERTOW by Michael Kelly
LOST PLACES by Simon Kurt Unsworth
PIECES FOR PUPPETS by D P Watt
FERAL COMPANIONS by Gary Fry and Simon Maginn
SIN & ASHES by Joseph S Pulver Sr
THE DESOLATE PRESENCE by Thomas Owen
THE MAN WHO COLLECTED MACHEN by Mark Samuels
DARK AWAKENINGS by Matt Cardin
SECRET HOURS by Michael Cisco

Now that the final curtain of 2010 is closing, I wish upon all reading these words only the best in the coming year. 2011 promises to be filled with much excitement and fun, and I'm glad I get to share it with all of you. See you on the other side!

Merry Cthulhumas '10

2010-12-24T11:10:00.002-05:00

Amid the snow and the ice and the tentacles rising from below, I'd like to wish you and yours the happiest of holidays wherever you are (even if there is no snow or ice around).

The invasion of reality

2010-12-23T09:05:00.001-05:00

A friend of mine once suggested that a horror writer ought to live his or her life as though embroiled in a horror story. It's amazing how many weird events happen to us in our daily lives that we ignore or rationalize away, so his thinking was that if we keep our eyes open to these events, we'll find an incredible amount of inspiration for our writing.

But there's a danger to incorporating real-life weird events into fiction: context. Or, rather, lack of context. Much of what makes the strange events in our lives strange is their randomness; we don't know why many of them happen, and we never will. Life is for all intents a purposes a series of random events, and there isn't a clear pattern except in retrospect. But fiction, most fiction, most good fiction, isn't like this. Good fiction, in general, tells us a story from beginning to end. Good fiction eliminates the inessential to present us with the tight, cohesive narrative. As readers, we like our authors to get to the point and stay on point, not ramble on about things that have no bearing on the story itself.

What mistake writers can make (and often do, as I've read a few like this) is take a real life strange event (or even a dream) and place it unedited into a story. After all, the author thinks, the event was so strange in reality that it will surely work in a piece of fiction. So, the author adds it, or builds a story around it, and sends it away, confident the strangeness translates. The problem is it won't, not if the author didn't provide some sort of context for the strangeness. A random event without meaning is a random event, and all it does is take up space in the work. In reality, things can be random, in fiction, there must be a purpose. It doesn't have to be an obvious purpose — the reasons can be clear to the author alone — but there must be a reason; the story must feel internally consistent. Otherwise, the reader is left at the end thinking "Why did all that other stuff happen?" Is there a greater crime than wasting your readers' time?

There's nothing wrong with incorporating those true events, but the writer must be prepared to alter them for the sake of the story. The reader doesn't care how "true" an event is; the reader only cares about how good the story is.

It astounds me when I see otherwise competent authors make this mistake. I'm even more befuddled when otherwise competent editors don't flag it before those stories see print. And I wonder if I'm crazy trying as hard as I do, trying when so many others just coast and garner the same results. I have to believe readers care about these sorts of things, even if they don't consciously realize it.

They do, don't they? Don't they?

MythosCon schedule update

2010-12-13T16:54:00.000-05:00

As the days fast count down to the new year, I thought it best to remind everyone that MythosCon is being held in Phoenix, Arizona during the first week of 2011 (more specifically, January 6th to 9th). MythosCon is devoted to the master of macabre fiction, H. P. Lovecraft, and promises to be quite the event. The guest list includes such noted luminaries as Ramsey Campbell, S. T. Joshi, W. H. Pugmire, Matt Cardin, Robert M. Price, Richard Gavin, and of course me.

What shall I be doing there you ask? Participating in the panel discussion "Contemporary Mythos Writing" on Sunday morning with Richard Gavin, Rick Dakan, and Lois Gresh. I'll also be doing a reading at some point during the weekend (time and date to be determined) and, lastly, I'll be part of the mass autographing session on Saturday evening. This, of course, will be the best place to find me should you bring copies of any of my books to sign, but as I said I'll be around the entire weekend (more or less) so by all means track me down on the floor and say "hello". I promise I'm not much of a biter. Or, at least, I'm trying to curb my inclinations to be such.

CTTT: Reviewed at Jildy Sauce

2010-11-27T08:58:00.003-05:00

The weblog Jildy Sauce, which reviews all manner of art, has seen fit to cover my collection, COLD TO THE TOUCH. Among other splendid things, the book is called "a fine collection of stories". Please, see the link below for more, and then head over to Tartarus Press for your copy. There are still some copies left, but the end of the line is coming soon.

Jildy Sauce: Cold to the Touch by Simon Strantzas

A bit about endings

2010-11-18T22:05:00.000-05:00

Every writer has his or her own process when it comes to writing, and no two processes are the same. I've often thought I'd like to start another blog based specifically upon process, asking the same group of questions to a variety of writers so as to display just how much we're all the same, and how much we all differ. Alas, that's the sort of project someone with free time can put together. Me, I'm a bit too preoccupied with other tasks. Still, process is of utmost fascination to me, just as it is to almost every writer I know.

I tend to write very linearly — I start at the beginning of a story and generally write to the end. I'm not the sort to write the scenes and moments that are most interesting, and worry about piecing the puzzle together later (though that's a method that works fine for others). What this means for me, though, is that endings are quite a ways away, and I have the entire time it takes me to get there (and believe me: sometimes it takes a while) to conjure up just what I want to do and determine how many of the dangling threads I can tie up by then. The prospect of the end is quite daunting for me, and I find as I approach the end run of my fiction I tend to want nothing more than to flee and not work. It's a defence mechanism, I imagine; something that kicks in to say, "The only way to not screw up is to not finish." Rationally, I know it's irrational, and luckily I've yet to give into that whispering voice with regards to my writing, but nonetheless I find writing the last section of any work difficult beyond belief.

How does one best conquer this fear? I can tell you what sometimes works for me: writing a shorter version of the ending. Sometimes the best way to cure myself of the fear of finishing a story is to just finish it very quickly. I aim to write a basic summary of "what happens next" so I can then call the draft complete. I always write this summary as prose, not as an outline, because once free of the pressures of ending a story well, invariably my muse kicks in while writing the summary and fills in gaps and holes and comes up with ideas that are new to me. Once the draft is complete and I start on the second, I'm better able to take those moments of summarisation and flesh them out, safe in the knowledge that should I need it, the first, shorter version will tell me exactly where the story needs to go.

Interviewed at Page Horrific

2010-11-01T20:36:00.002-04:00

David T Wilbanks's wonderful blog, Page Horrific, recently asked me to submit myself to their PH4Q feature, in which an author is asked four questions that get right to the heart of the matter. For those interested in my responses, please follow the link above.

Having the interview there, it occurred to me that it might be interesting to start a list for those curious on my thoughts. So, please, see above in the title bar for a link to the new page. Of course, the archives here are probably more informative that any of those interviews, but as time progresses and the person who wrote those old entries falls further and further from memory, these interviews will be the only record of where my head currently resides.

BTS: According to reports, trades are landing

2010-10-20T22:17:00.001-04:00

Trade paperback editions of BTS are already arriving in people's mailboxes I've been told; sometimes as early as four days after ordering. This is quite exciting, as it's been almost two years to the day that I found out the first edition's publisher had gone out of business.

For those who bought the leather-bound and lettered edition, fear not! I believe they are due at Dark Regions any day now. Once received, they will no doubt be shipped immediately out to be received by your greedy hands.

It's strange: this is the first time I've had two books available for interested parties to buy. It's still a bit surreal, strangely.

BENEATH THE SURFACE: Trade Paperback

2010-10-11T00:09:00.004-04:00

Today, Dark Regions has announced the trade paperback version of BENEATH THE SURFACE is in stock and available for purchase. The contents of this edition are the same as the now out-of-print hardback, and I have signed the first 100 copies of the new edition as added incentive.

One thing I've discovered from having books published is that not everyone has the money to spend on hardcovers, even nicely produced and beautiful hardcovers. I've found this has increasingly become an obstacle when trying to gain new readers, so when Dark Regions and I were discussing bringing BTS back into print, I insisted there be a less expensive edition so those readers who have thus far been on the fence no longer have a reason to dally.

So, if you've been waiting, please follow the link and place your order. The book awaits you.

CTTT: Reviewed at Biff Bam Pop!

2010-10-07T10:45:00.001-04:00

A regular idiot-savant when it comes to everything, Ian Rogers has written a very nice review of COLD TO THE TOUCH for the fine folks at Biff Bam Pop! Besides recapping some of his favourite tales, Rogers says:

"Strantzas uses his rich prose to imbue each of the thirteen stories in this collection with a malevolent intelligence that further cements his place as one of the best writers of the weird tale."

I'd suggest you follow his reviews regularly, and of course check out his fiction. His latest in the Black Lands series, ASH ANGELS, is available now.

(Ian, I was kidding about the "idiot" part. Well, half kidding, at least.)

BENEATH THE SURFACE - now sold out!

2010-10-05T22:04:00.002-04:00

I'd like to thank all of you who helped make the first Dark Regions edition of BENEATH THE SURFACE such a success. The book sold out very quickly, which is quite warming to see, especially considering the higher price for a leather-bound and lettered edition.

As the website suggests, Dark Regions will soon be announcing pre-orders for a trade paperback version of the book, one which I hope will be available for quite some time. I can tell you that I've signed a number of sheets already for this trade, so if you want a signed copy you'll need to make sure you get one of the first batch. Otherwise, you'll have to track me down at one of my infrequent appearances.

More news when it becomes available.

Some further details on BENEATH THE SURFACE

2010-09-16T21:00:00.001-04:00

I was in such a rush earlier this week to mention that the limited and lettered edition of BENEATH THE SURFACE was available now for pre-order that I neglected to answer some questions about it. Since they have subsequently come up, I suppose now is as good a time as any to answer them.

1) Are the contents the same as the first edition?

For the most part. I've removed one tale that I didn't feel fit well with the book, and added three more. Two of those have been previously published, and one is completely new. Other than those, the book has a new introduction, and a set of story notes at the back of the back. In addition, the book has gone through many sets of eyes to ensure all the spelling mistakes of the first edition have been fixed. While doing so, I also tightened up the language in places and plastered over some rough patches. And of course the cover is different. As I've said before, this book is the definitive version.

2) Did you want to make any more changes?

I dearly wanted to add a new scene to one story that I thought would really add to the events, but I refrained. Tightening language is fine, but I didn't feel comfortable making such a large change. I question that decision every day, however.

3) Will you tell us the story and the scene?

No.

4) Do you think reprinting the book with different material so soon after the first edition is fair to those who bought it two years ago?

My feeling is that the first printing only reached 100 readers, which I'm hoping is a number small enough to not be terribly affected by the reprint. Added to that was that I'd originally wanted to add two of these stories the first time but for reasons that have nothing to do with Humdrumming I didn't, and it's something I quickly regretted. Thankfully, I was able to correct that mis-step with the new edition. If someone bought the first, they are in no way obligated to buy the second, but my hope is that I've added enough new material to make the second purchase worthwhile for those who decide to spend the money.

5) Who has written the foreword for the reprint?

I was lucky enough to have author Matt Cardin write something about the book for me. Matt and I have been friends for a while, but even if we weren't I still could think of no one better for the task. Matt's work is absolutely stellar, and I'd be hard pressed to find his equal in the field today. I place him in the same exalted ranks as Mark Samuels, who was kind enough to write the foreword for the previous edition. I consider myself quite lucky to have my book so blessed by both men.

6) Who created the cover for the new volume, and why get rid of the old art?

The new cover was commissioned from David Gentry, best known I suspect as the genius behind the covers to BLACK STATIC magazine. He sent me about four different options, and frankly I loved them all so much it was hard to choose. This one, though, ultimately speaks most to me as a representation of the book's contents. I was interested in changing the original cover mainly to help give this edition a second chance. I feared if I used the original cover potential readers would believe the book was something they'd seen before and pass it over. This way, I hope, fresh eyes will give it a shot.

7) Will there be another edition like a trade paperback announced?

Dark Regions is going all out to make this reprint something special. As nice as my books have been until now, I've never had a leatherbound and slipcased version of anything. It's truly bound to be a thing of beauty. But, like the description suggests, this is a lettered edition hardcover, meaning only 26 copies will be printed. When those sell out (and I'm hopeful that that's sooner rather than later) I hope to have good news to share about a less expensive edition. But that won't be for some time. In the interim, this edition sports not only the features I've mentioned above, but will also be signed by David Gentry, Matt Cardin, and me — something no future version will have. Really, for those collectors among us, this lettered version is the one to own.

I believe this covers all the pressing question regarding the reprint (and a few not-so-pressing). I'm beginning to sound like a broken record, I'm aware of this, but I'm really very excited about this new edition, and I hope that gets into the hands of as many people as possible. I'm quite excited to see whether those that have been scouring the second-hand book sites for the past two years looking find this reprint worth the aggravation. If nothing else, I'm glad the book will finally get its chance on the market, and hope that those who've read and liked COLD TO THE TOUCH enough to buy this one find that it's a worthy companion piece.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've a third book that still needs to be written.

Announcing ... BENEATH THE SURFACE (version 2.0)

2010-09-13T12:58:00.001-04:00

I'm pleased to announce that as of today, the limited hardcover of BENEATH THE SURFACE is available for sale. This reprint is being issued by Dark Regions Press, one of the best publishers in the genre, and they've gone all-out in making this a book to cherish.

Listen to this!

Deluxe A-Z Lettered: 6''x9'', bound in leather, front cover stamped and spine stamped with the title and the author's name, includes artsy end papers, signature page which is signed by both author and artist, colored book ribbon with nice full colored header, 60lb. natural vellum stock, a beautiful slipcase and dust jacket.

How could you not want it? As well as the above, the book's contents are revised and new stories have been added to make this book worthy of the wait some of my readers have been subjected to.

Hurry! Only 26 copies are available. Sure, they're a bit more expensive, but far less so than the original book sells for on the secondary market. (But, if you miss out on this one due to cost, I suspect there will be some good news announced shortly.)

Due soon ... Shadows & Tall Trees

2010-08-20T06:11:00.000-04:00

I'm very pleased that my story, "Everything Floats", is part of the new literary journal, SHADOWS & TALL TREES, from editor Michael Kelly. Please follow this link to read more about it and the line-up (which happens to be stellar). The first issue is due within in the next couple of months, I believe, so keep your eye on the website. I don't know about you, but knowing Kelly's keen eye I'm ready to subscribe sight-unseen. (Having said that: look at the cover art! "Sight-seen" is even better!)

Cemetery Dance 64 now shipping

2010-08-12T18:04:00.002-04:00

For those who don't already subscribe (and why don't you?), issue 64 of CEMETERY DANCE, due to ship any day now, contains my story, "Out of Touch", a tale that I think is quite arguably the best thing I've written. Will you agree? Only one way to find out. Please follow the link to order a copy for yourself. And, perhaps, another for a friend. I'm eager to hear what people think of it.
As is clear from the cover art above, this issue is a special devoted to Bentley Little. Waste no time ordering.

Soon, It Shall Rise from Beneath the Surface

2010-07-31T09:58:00.000-04:00

Having just today handed in the final set of proofs, I thought I'd finally let the cat out of the bag and let the world know that my first collection, the impossible-to-find BENEATH THE SURFACE, will be republished soon in a revised and expanded edition from the fine folks over at Dark Regions Press.

I've been asked a lot about the book over the past two years — ever since Humdrumming folded — and I've never had any good news to impart. The closest anyone has come to seeing the book since the last copies disappeared has been those few paperback ARCs that I created to send around during award season, or the rare copy resold on the private market. In either situation, the books have sold for far more than they're worth, and as much as it hurt me at the time to see anyone buy them there was little I could do. Soon, thankfully, that will no longer be the case.

I've done a lot of work on the book in the months leading up to this announcement, and made some changes that I hope will allow it to appeal to both a new and an existing audience. There are more tales in this one, and those tales that were previously included are now in a revised order. A new introduction has been written, and a full set of story notes are finally included at the back. As well, the cover artwork has been passed from the hands of an amateur to those of a professional, and I think everyone will be very pleased with the results. I really wish I could go back in time and scrub away any memory of the book's first edition as this one is the definitive version — the version that should have always been. I don't mean to disparage what came before — Humdrumming did a fantastic job with BTS 1.0 — but I truly believe the changes to version 2.0 have made the book something special, something that is far greater than the sum of its parts. I'm terribly excited to have it born again into the world.

Details about the book will be revealed in due course. Please keep reading the blog and its various RSS feeds to keep up-to-date. I really hope this time the book gets a chance at a wider distribution, and that those who read it feel as strongly about it as I hope. Is it wrong to remind you that no less than Stephen Jones called the original: "One of the most important debut short story collections in the genre"? I hope this version puts that one to shame.

MythosCon 2011

2010-07-16T10:24:00.000-04:00

I'm proud to announce that I've been invited to join the program this January for the inaugural MythosCon convention, a major new convention pertaining to the works of H. P. Lovecraft. The subject of the panel I'll be part of, etc., shall remain a mystery for the time being, but please follow the link to the official website to see all the events that have been planned, and the roster of top-name guests one can rub shoulders with (incidentally, if my name is not yet there, do not fret; it will be soon). Frankly, I'd urge any of you with even the slightest interest in the "old gentleman" to attend MythosCon, as I think this convention will be one of the highlights of the year. Plus, being at the beginning of January, most of us could use a few days in sunny Arizona. Just don't forget your papers, as I hear their immigration laws have become pretty strict lately.

ReaderCon 21

2010-06-29T21:38:00.001-04:00

It occurs to me that I haven't yet made public my plans to attend ReaderCon in Burlington, Massachusetts this coming July 8th through 11th. As last year, I'll be attending the convention with my good friends and fellow scribes Richard Gavin and Ian Rogers, but also hope to run into more of our Canadian brethren there in the aisles of the bookstore or on the couches of the foyer. I know there is a strong influx of Canuck talent up for a Shirley Jackson award (the winners of which will be announced at the convention) so it should be a fun time. Last year's event was universally hailed (by Gavin, Rogers, and I, at least) as one of the most effectual conventions ever attended, so we're hopeful this year's results are ever better.

All this is a prelude to suggesting that should you be close by, or can find a way to be close by, it's in your best interest to attend the convention and rub noses with some of the brightest voices in speculative fiction. And, while you're there, why not say hello to the three of us as well? Lord knows we'd appreciate the attention. Any attention, really.

Richard Gavin's OMENS: a review

2010-06-05T13:50:00.004-04:00

Published by Mythos Books, 2007

Canada exists in that hazy place where England and America meet, and is constantly pulled by both of those powers — its nationality tied to the former, its geography tied to the latter. It is therefore somehow appropriate that Richard Gavin is Canadian, as his fictional world explores interstitial places, only his are blurred places between darkness and light, between wakefulness and sleep. Places where, for a brief moment, one might catch a glimpse past the mask of this world to the darkness that seethes beneath it.

These two worlds — the surface and the hidden, the reality and the sub-reality — exist at once, yet the nightmare landscape has no direct roots to any single place. Thus, though many of the tales included in OMENS take place ostensibly around Toronto, Canada, they in fact happen anywhere and everywhere. The real world signposts are merely decorative; the truth lies somewhere else.

This book marks Richard Gavin's second collection. The first, CHARNEL WINE, from Rainfall Books, was a sampling of the best of his early work, and though that volume was well-received, it still bore the marks of a voice still maturing, one still trying to pull itself out from beneath the shadow of its influences. OMENS, by contrast, is a much stronger, and much more cohesive, collection.

Gavin dedicates the book to J. P. Drapeau and Errol Undercliffe. If these names sound familiar to weird fiction aficionados, they should. The first is the name of the mysterious figure in Thomas Ligotti's "The Journal of J. P. Drapeau", the second, the writer who perishes in Ramsey Campbell's "The Franklyn Paragraphs". Right away, by suggesting the two greatest influences upon his work, Richard Gavin acknowledges his origins and his intentions to move past them. But these names specifically seem to have another meaning, one more in keeping with the themes central to OMENS: "There is a solitary truth," Ligotti's Drapeau narrates, "which, whether for good or ill I don't know, cannot yet be expressed on this earth." And Campbell's Undercliffe espouses a similar view when he leaves this life with the following: "No longer could I trust the surface of the world." In each case, we are shown the basic premise of Gavin's collection: that beneath this world lies another, truer, world. A world we might only see if we are extremely lucky . . . or, as is so often the case, extremely unlucky. (read more)

The book opens with a short essay from Richard Gavin entitled "Gnostic Nightmares, Haunted Dreams", where he lays out his feelings on the above. He is exploring the landscape of nightmares, often his own, where one may inexplicably sense innate truths. In these dreams, realities are weakened and merged and the interstitial places are emphasized. Richard Gavin is in fact consumed with dreams, something this introduction makes clear, and the surreal logic of the tales that follow it suggest many had their origins there.

He begins to explore this strange landscape with "In the Shadow of the Nodding God", a story of drugs and insomnia, where its narrator takes the paper history of his town and begins to reconfigure it in his scrapbook, re-envisioning reality as the nightmare he had always envisioned it to be. In this way, he is a stand-in for Gavin himself, though in the tale this documenting brings the narrator some unwanted attention. It is perhaps the most Ligottian tale in the book, as it fuses a mind-numbing factory job with a narrator intent on piecing the truth of things together. Yet there's more hope here than in Ligotti's work, even if that hope is very slight.

"The Pale Lover" follows, in which an occult shop begins to sell pornography, and a deep interest in a real "succubus" causes at least one man to leave for a trip around the world in search of her. But the desire that prompts him also feeds her, and as it makes her flesh and blood it also proceeds to consume everything in her wake. The story seems vast, yet its moral is quite simple: the supernatural is everywhere, surrounding us, just out of sight until it needs us most.

There are other oneiric writers besides Campbell and Ligotti for whom Gavin shows an affinity. "Strange Advances" is dedicated to the memory of Robert Aickman, something that is clear long before it is stated (his ghost haunts the tale as surely as does the Black Madonna). And yet, the story might just as well be dedicated to Elizabeth Jane Howard, as it brings echoes of "Three Miles Up" easily to mind when the character Nathaniel Price, after meeting a strange woman, finds he must follow her on a gondola trip through the city of Venice — a city where the division between land and water has become blurred. It is yet another interstitial place within which the inexplicable happens.

The dream world in "A Form of Hospice" differs from above in that it is less a hidden reality and more a reality created to hide what lies beneath it — perhaps a "dream within a dream" as its narrator suggests. In this sub-reality, horrible nightmares are fed and strengthened unknowingly by the terminally ill. Here we see more of Gavin's shading, painting his characters and settings with subtle nuances to evoke a place where everything seems to be one step removed from a dream.

In the penultimate story of the volume, retired couple Beth and Dennis received a letter meant for the recluse who lives across the street, and can't help their curiousity about opening it. This event initiates "Beneath the House of Life", a tale of Qabbalah and children's storybooks that is one of the highlights of OMENS. Mixing the concept of Da'at with Richard Gavin's own interest in the hidden world, he weaves an intricate tale of the thirst for knowledge taken too far, and the disastrous consequences for all involved. The narrative swings between Beth and Dennis as they each strive to learn the secret of their reclusive neighbour, all the while hiding their mutual fascination from each other.

These tales are merely a few that stood out upon reading the collection. Unlike many of his peers, Richard Gavin has managed to tell a group of stories that espouse a single Weltanschauung, yet remain varied enough to maintain the readers interest.

His prose is a baroque style reminiscent Ligotti by way of Poe and Kafka, which lends it an air of something slightly foreign — his characters feel more at home on the uneven stone streets of old Europe than the concrete sidewalks of Canada.

The following has been said in a number of places elsewhere, but I strongly agree that we are on the ground floor of a new movement, and Richard Gavin is a prime example of these new writers who have learned from a past that stretches beyond the last twenty years. I have great hope that this is the direction the genre is moving on the whole, and that we are on the cusp of another great age in "weird fiction". We are certainly due.

But, if this is not the case, then perhaps we can find solace in the idea that behind the fluff that currently dominates the market, there still exist writers like Richard Gavin, maintaining the quiet backbone of weird fiction, where the horrors do not span mere moments but entire lifetimes.

Shadows & Tall Trees

2010-05-30T20:11:00.001-04:00

More good news today. My short story "Everything Floats" is scheduled to appear in the inaugraul issue of SHADOWS & TALL TREES, the new literary journal of the weird from Michael Kelly, author extraordinaire and editor of no small talent. His latest anthology, APPARITIONS, has been nominated for no less than the Shirley Jackson Award. I anticipate great things for the journal, filling a much needed hole in contemporary strange fiction.

Best New Horror 21

2010-05-30T18:11:00.001-04:00

Pleased to announce the addition of my tale, "Cold to the Touch", to this year's contents for THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF BEST NEW HORROR (volume 21) edited by the incomparable Stephen Jones. What makes this an even more exciting treat is I get to share the pages with fellow Canadians Barbara Roden and Michael Kelly (who managed to sneak two pieces into the book). I say bravo to all!

Chilling Tales

2010-05-07T12:51:00.001-04:00

I'm pleased to mention that my tale "The Deafening Sound of Slumber" has been selected to appear in CHILLING TALES, an upcoming anthology of Canadian horror fiction edited by Michael Kelly (editor of this year's Jackson-nominated anthology APPARITIONS). I'd like to take this opportunity to say how honoured I am to share pages with many of my Canadian contemporaries.

An update from the wilds

2010-05-02T20:19:00.001-04:00

I've not been around much this year, I admit. Other than a few local outings, most specifically to the annual Ad Astra convention in Toronto, I've kept pretty much to myself. Why is a question that has no easy answer, or at least no answer that is worth discussing publicly, but an aspect of the answer is that I've been trying to focus on two or three other projects. One of these will be good news to some, but alas it's a bit premature to discuss yet. I know that sort of teaser gets on some people's nerves (like a certain Mr R) but that's how it goes. Keep watching and eventually all shall be revealed.

In the interim, I've been working on a novella I was commissioned to write. This tale had its origins in a piece that has been sitting on my hard drive for two years while I worked on other things, and I've only recently had a chance to return to it. At the moment, I find the work very challenging, but not because it's going poorly, but rather because I'm attempting to do something different from my usual work. I can't promise success, but I think things are coming together nicely, if slowly. Still, I find myself more excited about this piece than I've been in quite some time, and that's usually a good sign. But it's hard. Dear me, is it hard. Still, it's a challenge I've taken hold of with both hands, one inspired by reading the fiction of others. I'm looking forward to completing this long piece and seeing what the editor, and subsequently the world, thinks of it. It's good to feel excited again after so long without.

For those marking their calendars, I'll be attending ReaderCon in Burlington, Massachusetts again this year (my last con for 2010) where my friend Michael Kelly will be (I'm hopeful) picking up his Shirley Jackson Award for Best Anthology. I hope to see some of the readers of this blog there. Please do come and say "Hello".

"Her Father's Daughter" reviewed in Supernatural Tales

2010-04-25T12:07:00.001-04:00

SUPERNATURAL TALES, the wonderful journal edited by David Longhorn, has reviewed Tartarus Press's STRANGE TALES III in its 17th issue. Needless to say, the review is a good one, and among the comments on the tales is this:

Equally enigmatic is 'Her Father's Daughter' by Simon Strantzas. Here one of the standard tropes of the horror story — lone woman forced to seek shelter in lonely house — is used to original effect. Just when you think somebody can’t do it, it gets done. This is a somewhat gentler story that I’d expected from the preliminaries, and all the more haunting for that.

I imagine it's no surprise I recommend both the book and the journal heartily.

STRANGE TALES III from Tartarus Press
SUPERNATURAL TALES journal

BTS: Reviewed at "The Speculative Fiction Junkie"

2010-04-12T23:50:00.001-04:00

A copy of my first collection, BENEATH THE SURFACE was unearthed by the fine folks at the Speculative Fiction Junkie and reviewed in light of the wonderful comments the site had for my second. Among other flattering comments about my work, the review says:

"No one is better at writing compelling nightmares than [Simon] Strantzas."

Can you see me blushing?

I hope to one day have the book reprinted and back in the world, but in the interim it's nice knowing there are still copies being read, and enjoyed, by the world at large.

Honorable Mentions, 2009

2010-04-11T23:02:00.001-04:00

The talented Ms Ellen Datlow, editor of the BEST HORROR OF THE YEAR series, has just posted part one and part two of her full Honourable Mentions list. It's become a sort of tradition for writers to read the long list to see what Ellen though of their work. Only a handful of stories get picked for reprinting in the annual series, and less than fifty more are selected to appear in the HM list at the back of the book. The rest are posted to Ellen's LiveJournal blog.

For 2009, the following stories of mine were singled out for Honorable Mentions:

"A Seed on Barren Ground," Cold to the Touch (printed list)

"Cold to the Touch," Cold to the Touch
"Her Father's Daughter," Strange Tales III
"Here's to the Good Life," Cold to the Touch
"Like Falling Snow," Cold to the Touch
"The Sweetest Song," Cold to the Touch

It's no secret I'm proud to have so many listed, especially as I think they constitute virtually the entirety of my new output for 2009. I can only hope to impress Ms Datlow this much in the coming years.

For those who still haven't bought the book, I urge you to do so as soon as you can. You won't regret it.

CTTT: Reviewed in "Black Static"

2010-04-09T15:58:00.000-04:00

For those who subscribe — and for those that don't — the latest and 16th issue of Black Static magazine has a wonderful review by the esteemed Peter Tennant of my collection, COLD TO THE TOUCH.In conclusion to his review, Mr Tennant has this to say about the book:

"[O]ne of the best volumes of weird fiction to surface in recent years, and essential reading for all . . ."

He says many more wonderful things, so I urge you to pick up a copy of the magazine. Not only for the review, but because Black Static is one of the premiere genre magazines available. I'm certain once you've read an issue you'll become a subscriber.

Interviewed on "She Never Slept"

2010-03-31T22:17:00.000-04:00

For those interested, I once again find myself the subject of a short interview, this time at the blog, She Never Slept. Sarah L Covert has chosen me as the subject of her first author interview, something about which I'm deeply honoured. I only hope the readers of the blog are as interested in what I have to say as I most obviously am.

Burial

2010-03-22T21:41:00.001-04:00

The Horror Reanimated website has started a new series of articles, posted each Monday, where a simple question is put to a series of writers: "which book would you like to be buried with?" The series kicked off today with my rather predictable answer.

Advice: Your First Collection

2010-03-21T07:40:00.001-04:00

Currently, I'm juggling a few books in my reading pile, slowly chipping away at them between bouts of writing, and they have me thinking about collections in general. For young writers who work primarily in short story mode, there's an excitement in the idea that one day he or she might have written enough to collect into a book. The mistake these writers make, almost across the board, is making that move too soon.

It's hard to believe, especially for that young writer, that it matters, but the notion is true that "you only have one chance to make a first impression". A lot of people interested in reading more of an author's work will buy the first collection with his or her name on it, and if that book fails to live up to their expectations, they won't be back for another. Sometimes, even if the book has many good tales, but they're mixed with mediocre tales, the same thing will happen. The signal-to-noise ratio is simple far too low to make it worth their while.

What the young author ought to do is hold out. Just write and write until he or she has far more than is necessary, and then start to prune away any tale the author doesn't think of as A-Grade. It's a lot harder than it sounds, especially when the result is only a handful of tales are left out of dozens. Nonetheless, a first collection ought to hit the reader straight between the eyes with just how good it is. A strong start can do wonders for a career.

Another thing to keep in mind: in this writer's opinion, collections ought to be short, but not too short. There should be enough stories to satisfy the reader that buying the book was money well spent, but not so many that the author wears our his or her welcome. Anything between 50K-words and 80K-words should be enough for a collection of short stories. Too few and the reader feels cheated, or as though he or she hasn't had a fair cross-sampling of the author's work; too many and the chance of a story failing to connect is greater. The idea is to get in, wow the reader, and get out. Too much of a good thing leads to readers bored by work that should be exciting, but instead numbs due to repetition. Few writers are gifted enough to overcome this.

The last trick I'll offer has to do with sequencing. A good collection is laid out in a specific order to maximise reader interest. It should start with a very strong piece. This assures the reader, right off the bat, that he or she is in good hands. I think a second strong piece ought to follow, if only to solidify the feeling from the first. The end of the book is equally important, as it's what will leave the most indelible impression on the reader. Mirrored to the front of the book, it should end with two high quality tales, so the thing goes out with a bang, and reader is left with good emotions about the book overall. And though it might be argued differently elsewhere, I think the middle of the book ought to have another example of the author's A-Game. It acts as an oasis, reminding the reader why he or she should love what he or she is reading. Around these tent-poles, then, the rest of the stories flow. What should be kept in mind is that the work should be varied as much as possible to avoid the reader feeling the author is being repetitive. Tales that end similarly, or have similar messages, or are written in similar styles must be kept as far apart as possible.

It takes some monkeying with the list to find the right order for it to work, but eventually it will fall into place. Of course, many readers like to pick and choose what story they will read and when, creating their own order for book; no one can control that, so forget about it. Instead, count on the reader beginning on page one and following the book in the order the author has laid out.

There are of course a slew of other factors, including cover art and book design, that can affect the impact of first book, but I urge any young writers reading this to start with the suggestions above and to not be frightened if it consequently takes longer to get a book in front of people. If those readers are interested in your work, the wait will only drive up their desire. Then, when the book finally hits and is worth the wait, the real fun for the author begins.

SF Site's Best Books of the Year 2009

2010-03-16T20:42:00.001-04:00

Though it didn't make the top five of the SF Site's 13th annual Editors' Choice Best Books of the Year (2009), COLD TO THE TOUCH did manage to land a spot on the "Additional Recommendations" list. I consider that quite an accomplishment, and am thrilled to see it so well-received.

On Writing Horror . . .

2010-03-07T22:37:00.001-05:00

"The pay for fiction in general is a joke. And the solitude necessary to create that work is seldom as romantic as it may seem from the outside. But writers are incredibly lucky in one respect: they have the opportunity—if they're willing—to make this testament, this public testimony as to how it was to be alive on this planet at this point in time, what they saw and what they felt, but especially what they imagined, even if sometimes it meant imagining the worst."

— Steve Rasnic Tem, from the Night Shade Books forum, 2/26/03

Ellen Datlow on COLD TO THE TOUCH

2010-02-20T10:28:00.000-05:00

Though not official out until March, 2010, I've been able to see the contents of THE BEST HORROR OF THE YEAR VOLUME TWO, and in the summary Ms Datlow calls my second collection "quite powerful and dark".

For this, I thank her, and hope the next collection impresses her even more.

The book can be ordered from many retailers or from Night Shade Books directly. In it, along with the summary and some great stories, Ellen includes a short list of outstanding work that didn't quite make it into the pages (due to space or other considerations). I'll leave it to you, dear reader, to buy the book to see if one of my tales made the cut.

"Her Father's Daughter" reviewed once again

2010-02-18T20:04:00.002-05:00

In a new review of STRANGE TALES III (Tartarus Press) posted to the blog The Black Abyss, my tale was singled out as one of two stand-outs from the very strong anthology. CG Leslie called it "... an outstanding and brilliantly atmospheric tale" which is all one can hope for, I'd think. I hope anyone else who reads the story agrees.

CTTT: Reviewed at Publishers Weekly

2010-02-15T10:19:00.001-05:00

I'm happy to report that COLD TO THE TOUCH has received another great review, this time from Publishers Weekly.

Outcasts and disaffected loners find their alienated states of mind mirrored in eerie and inexplicable experiences in this noteworthy collection of thirteen weird tales . . . Readers who prefer subtlety to shocks and suggestion over explicitness in horror fiction will find much to enjoy.

I'm thrilled to see the book so well received at such an institution, and hope it motivates those still on the fence to give it a read.

Richard Gavin's THE DARKLY SPLENDID REALM: a review

2010-02-13T13:55:00.008-05:00

Published by Dark Regions Press

I should start this review with some honesty. In the spirit of full disclosure, Richard Gavin is a good friend of mine. Do our friendship and our discussions influence my opinion of his work? I suppose it's possible, but I don't believe it does so in a way that differs from how any of us treat our favourite authors. Should you enjoy the work of Thomas Ligotti, then you might come to a new collection of his with a pre-determined approval — an opinion that might change only after you've read it. I don't believe that's unnatural, and certainly describes how I come to THE DARKLY SPLENDID REALM. For, you see, I am a "Richard Gavin fan", and had been for some time before I met him. In fact — and this feels a bit embarrassing to admit — it's feasible the primary reason we became friends is because I launched a serious endeavour after meeting him a few years ago to make it happen. I chased him as a young school-boy might chase a beautiful girl, trying to tempt and woo her into being his. I assure you, though, it wasn't quite as creepy as it sounds, but the intent to win him over was there. Why? Because Richard's work, even from the beginning, seemed to be a dark mirror to my own, and subsequent discussions have only further cemented that belief. We are two different writers, of course, and use language in our way, but fundamentally, underneath it all, we share a view of the world based on liminal places, of nightmarish existence, and of things that live beyond the veil. I like to think this puts me in a unique position when it comes to reviewing Richard's work, one that might not be possible from other sources. True, my biases are set, and the fact that this review is posted means I enjoyed the work tremendously (as publishing a bad review of a friend's work can strain that friendship), but I believe, beneath it all, I can objectively express my thoughts in no more a compromised way than any other review you might read.

But enough justification as to why my opinion on the work can or cannot be trusted. What about the book itself? I'll be honest here: though it's only been two or three years since OMENS, in that time I've read virtually no work from Richard's pen, so in many way receiving THE DARKLY SPLENDID REALM was like discovering a friend of mine was a writer. Here was a fellow I'd spent a good amount of time talking to about nightmares and the way horror fiction works who had actually produced a volume of fiction. The Richard Gavin who wrote OMENS, after all, was a completely different fellow than the one who wrote this new book, one I'd met only once during a World Horror convention, but of whose work at that time I was already a large fan. How strange, I thought, it was going to be to read this new volume by an author I knew infinitely better than I was used to. It did not take long for that strangeness to wear away, replaced with that familiar sense of waking nightmare Richard so deftly delivers. (read more)

I've probably gone on too much in the past about the "different style" Richard is working in for this collection. The truth is, the fiction is very much the same Gavinistic fiction it's always been. Perhaps it's a bit more accessible to the layperson, but not much more. And what I mean by that is that it's not really language that proves a barrier but perception, or at least the willingness to perceive. Richard's work asks only that the reader put aside the glasses through which he or she sees the world and instead open his or her naked eyes to the truth. We all see the world through filters of some sort, but Richard's work is an attempt to by-pass them all. He deals in revelations. Is it his fault that truth is something that is so existentially terrifying?

There are many standout tales in THE DARKLY SPLENDID REALM, of which the following are just a sample:

"Where the Scarab Dwells" is a Campbellesque journey into a new housing project in which the loss of heritage that haunts a young man drives him to a fruitless search for absolution.

A paper dealer, a junkie, some greed, and a book of ciphers form the ingredients for "Phantom Passages", a tale that harkens back to earlier Gavin stories, and focuses on his strengths as a writer. A sense of gnostic mystery, of mysticism, and strange sects collide in a way we don't see enough of in fiction. Gavin's roots here are solidly in the weird, and prove his command of fiction's liminal spaces.

"Primeval Wood" is the longest piece in the book, a novella previously published by Burning Effigy Press. I've mentioned it before, but it's an extended journey into the darkness of loneliness and its outward manifestation in strange northern woods. Gavin makes good use of his Canadian heritage here, depicting the inherent eeriness of the country's boreal forests.

"Getting the Strap" exposes the ying-yang of strength and frailty in all of us through a rite of abuse. I can only come at fiction sometimes as a writer, and there is a small scene in this tale that I not only wish I'd written myself, but that I'd been able to think to write in the first place. The story in turn fills me with jealousy at and inspiration of what Richard is able to do.

I'd like to think that "Waterburns" is a tale I might have written (you're free to consider that a compliment or a criticism). Dream-like and metaphorical, it hints at the effects of existence on a soul without the use of standard tropes. The finale of the tale, the poetry of the outcome, will continue to haunt as all great stories should.

"The Bitter Taste of Dread-Moths" is perhaps the best story in this great collection. A familiar face (for us Gavin acolytes) returns to the life of a girl who is compelled to travel down the rabbit hole of her research. What she finds there is as bizarre and hallucinatory as one might expect from Gavin's pen. With secret cults and strange transformations, a tapestry that is so much greater than its sum is woven. An outstanding piece of work, and the climax of the collection.

And, as a fitting conclusion, "Following the Silent Hedges". Gavin shows his delicacy in describing the veil between worlds, and the passages through that liminal space from one to the other, though its never clear which direction the named you is travelling.

In the author's afterword, Richard explains his views on horror and its place in the modern world. Many writers are steeped in the factual background of the genre, but few are also equipped with an innate understanding of the intangible aspect of horror. Gavin here shows a perception for the emotion of horror, for the effect reliving nightmares in prose might have on a reader and on his world in general. An essay as fascinating as any fiction, and a great way to close out a singular experience.

What ties much of this collection together, as I've suggested earlier, is the concept of what lies beyond. Richard is fascinated with "the other side", with our travels there, and with what might return. Tales like "Following the Silent Hedges" and "The Astral Mask" are most obvious about it, but it also plays a bit in "Waterburns" and the wonderfully bizarre "Children of the Mound". Richard's work is concerned a great deal with this topic, and his use of mysticism to convey it is rare in today's fiction. It harkens back to masters such as Machen and Blackwood, and reminds me of tales like Lewis's "The Tower of Moab" which suggest a deeper, longer history to events than anyone is aware. As I've said, Richard's work and my own share a similar "dreamscape", but whereas I'm fascinated by the minutiae of the individual experience, he's fascinated by the history of that dark world's intrusions upon our own. I honestly believe there is no one writing like Richard Gavin today, and it's only a matter of time before his contributions to the field of the weird are recognised and given their due.

Author, critic, and intellectual curiosity Matt Cardin was the first to suggest to me that something interesting was happening in the sub-genre of weird fiction. There's a movement occurring, a wave of new talent that we haven't seen in some time. Laird Barron makes mention of the same phenomenon in the introduction to this book. We're seeing a renaissance in weird fiction, work by writers who have read beyond the work of the past twenty or thirty years, writers who are familiar with past-masters and are able to take these influences and weave them into something new. Writers like the aforementioned Barron and Cardin, like McMahon and Pugmire and Ballingrud. My own pet theory for why this has happened is focused primarily on the rise of small presses like Ash-Tree and Tartarus and Ghost Story Press, publisher who brought back into print a lot of work forgotten during the boom-bust the genre went through in the eighties and nineties. Young writers were exposed to these works and from them a new generation of literate writers was born. Richard Gavin is a prominent member of this movement, and if there's any justice this latest book will finally earn him the accolades his work so richly deserves.

CTTT: Reviewed in "Dead Reckonings"

2010-02-04T20:02:00.001-05:00

I'm pleased to mention my collection, COLD TO THE TOUCH, has been very favourably reviewed in the ST Joshi edited DEAD RECKONINGS 6. The reviewer says:

"...Strantzas succeeds in imbuing his strange tales with the sense of intellectual fear..."

DEAD RECKONINGS is fast growing to be my favourite source of reviews. Anyone who isn't a regular reader ought to investigate it further. After all, a subscription is only $15 . . .

"Her Father's Daughter" reviewed again

2010-01-29T07:03:00.001-05:00

Mario Guslandi has positively reviewed STRANGE TALES III for BookGeeks and singled out my contribution, "Her Father's Daughter", as "really excellent". He calls it "an elegant journey into the darkness."

Please visit BookGeeks.co.uk and read the entire review, then if you haven't, visit Tartarus Press to buy the volume.

Now Available for listening: Pseudopod

2010-01-29T02:40:00.001-05:00

A quick note to announce my story, "Fading Light", is now available for download/listening at Pseudopod.

It sounds great, doesn't it?

CTTT: Reviewed at "The Black Abyss"

2010-01-24T12:20:00.002-05:00

The new year brings a new review for my collection, COLD TO THE TOUCH, this time from author CG Leslie at his review-blog, The Black Abyss.

"Dark but with frequent glimpses of light and beauty creating a dazzling mix of heady highs and tragic lows. . . . A work of great quality."

I must admit I'm particularly pleased with the reception the book has been receiving, and only hope that some new readers have been introduced as a result to my brand of fiction.

"Her Father's Daughter" reviewed

2010-01-19T20:01:00.001-05:00

The Speculative Fiction Junkie has posted a review of STRANGE TALES III, the latest anthology from Tartarus Press, in which my story, "Her Father's Daughter" appears. Amongst the positive things said about the rest of the book's contents, the Junkie says about my contribution:

...my high opinion of this story should perhaps not be unexpected, but I was a little surprised that it stood out so much even among such worthy companions.

I urge you to read the rest of the review, then travel to Tartarus's website to procure yourself a copy of the volume. Everything I've read so far between its covers has been spectacular.

John Pelan on CTTT

2010-01-17T00:39:00.001-05:00

John Pelan — author, editor and publisher of much renown — has mentioned COLD TO THE TOUCH in a recent interview with the website Hyraxia. When discussing Pelan's dormant imprint, Silver Salamander, he said:

The concept was the same as with Axolotl, collections or novellas by authors on the way up that I felt deserving of the attention of a special edition; something that says "Hey, this is important work, you need to check it out." Quite frankly, there are other people doing the same thing and doing it well.... Just for fun I'll list some of my colleagues and give you a title out of their catalog that would fit the definition of the type of thing I'd characterize as a SSP book:

Ash-Tree Press - A Hazy Shade of Winter - Simon Bestwick
Cemetery Dance - Blue November Storms - Brian Freeman
Night Shade Books - The Imago Sequence - Laird Barron
PS Publishing - Glyphotech - Mark Samuels
Subterranean Press - Dreadful Skin - Cherie Priest
Tartarus Press - Cold to the Touch - Simon Strantzas

It's flattering to be in such good company.

The Year in Review 2009

2009-12-30T16:16:00.000-05:00

The past year, on the whole, has been a positive one. Great changes in my personal life — for the better, of course — but that's not what this blog is about. Instead, let's see just what happened over the previous twelve months in my writing life.

I sold a second story to Stephen Jones's MAMMOTH BOOK OF BEST NEW HORROR series, as well as STRANGE TALES III and PSEUDOPOD. My second collection of short stories, COLD TO THE TOUCH, saw print to rave reviews across the board. It also seemed to rank on a few "best of the year" lists, include those from The Speculative Fiction Junkie, and author Michael Kelly. Also last year my story "Pinholes in Black Muslin" was nominated for a British Fantasy Award. I attended ReaderCon 09 with fellow writers Richard Gavin and Ian Rogers, cementing two good friendships that will last I suspect a long time . . . or at least until one of us gets ridiculously famous and wealthy (I'm looking at you, Rogers). I met a good number of new people this year and I feel — even if it's not true — that my light shone brighter in the dark morass of struggling writers. I did my second-ever reading in front of people and I think it went over fairly well. I also somehow managed to find time to write seven or eight new short stories to fill my coffers with.

So, all in all, a good year. There were a few personality clashes that put a damper on things unfortunately, but overall I can't complain.

Next year, I have high hopes for even more good news. I intend to take a break from short fiction for a few months to try and tackle something larger and longer, if only to prove I can. I have nebulous plans to attend the World Fantasy Convention in Columbus, Ohio, in November, and a return trip to ReaderCon in Burlington, Massachusetts in July. By then, I'm hoping my story in Cemetery Dance, "Out of Touch", will have seen print, a tale which I think is arguably the best thing I've ever written. It's a going to be an eventful year, if nothing else, and I'm looking forward to what's coming down the pipe.

One of the things I didn't do enough of over the past year was read. I wanted to — oh, how I wanted to — but life kept conspiring to keep me from it. As a result, the list of what I finished is miserably small — too small to form a "best of" list as so many others are doing right now. Instead, I'll highlight some of what I read, or am still reading.

Ian Rogers TEMPORARY MONSTERS
Robert Shearman TINY DEATHS
Reggie Oliver MADDER MYSTERIES
Barbara Roden NORTHWEST PASSAGES
Joel Lane THE WITNESSES ARE GONE
Ramsey Campbell JUST BEHIND YOU
Richard Gavin PRIMEVAL WOOD
Peter Straub A SPECIAL PLACE
Terry Lamsley R.I.P.
RB Russell PUTTING THE PIECES INTO PLACE
Gary McMahon DIFFERENT SKINS
John L Probert THE CATACOMBS OF FEAR
Joel Lane THE TERRIBLE CHANGES
John Langan MR GAUNT
Stephen King "N."

And in the coming year, what am I looking forward to?

Richard Gavin THE DARKLY SPLEDID REALM
Peter Straub THE HEART OF THE MATTER/THE SKYLARK
Michael Kelly UNDERTOW AND OTHER LAMENTS
John Langan HOUSE OF WINDOWS
Matt Cardin DARK AWAKENINGS
Gary McMahon PIECES OF MIDNIGHT
Mark Samuels THE MAN WHO COLLECTED MACHEN
Simon K Unsworth LOST PLACES
Steve Duffy THE MOMENT OF PANIC
Rosalie Parker THE OLD KNOWLEDGE

And no doubt a whole lot more I don't ever remember at the moment. Frankly, it's getting harder and harder for me to keep up with all the fiction I enjoy, which I think is a great sign! We're enjoying a real renaissance right now and I can only hope it continues indefinitely.

Here's to a spectacular 2010 for one and all! Cheers!

Useless pretensions

2009-12-26T07:30:00.000-05:00

You know, I've always been irritated by authorial quirks like the one — the "big one" — outlined in this brilliant post from Laura Miller at Salon. I've worked hard myself on trying to strip the affectations from my own work, things that part of my mind thinks are clever but clearly aren't. It's pretension, top to bottom, and it's a failure in the writer when he leaves unnecessary obstacles between his work and his reader.

(Yeah, I said Cormac McCarthy has a failing. Deal with it.)

Merry Cthulhumas '09

2009-12-24T13:30:00.001-05:00

Once again, the festive days are upon us. For any readers still online instead of stuffing stockings with nasty surprises, let me be perhaps the last one to wish you all nightmarish holidays for the next week or so.

I hope the Mad Monk brings you all you hoped for.

BTS: Reviewed by Mark Leslie ... sort of

2009-12-19T18:08:00.001-05:00

Perhaps "review" is a bit misleading, but Canadian author Mark Leslie, as part of the Second Canadian Book Challenge, has read my first collection, BENEATH THE SURFACE and commented upon in at his blog. Of it, he says:

"The tales within this collection contain a disturbing undertone and read like literary tales that have been injected with a solid dose of the bizarre, disturbing and surreal. This certainly isn't one of those books that you rush through reading, but is rather one that you absorb and experience."

You can read more, plus what he thinks of the other books he's read, at his blog, but I have to say it's nice to see some people are still reading and enjoying the book, even if it's been out of print for over a year now.

A pleasant accolade

2009-12-19T10:02:00.001-05:00

I'm proud to announce that The Speculative Fiction Junkie has picked COLD TO THE TOUCH to top their "Top 5 Reads of 2009" list. It's nothing less than an honour when someone feels so strongly about one's work.

CTTT: Reviewed in "Flux Magazine"

2009-12-14T07:57:00.001-05:00

The latest issue of FLUX, the UK magazine of life, fashion, and mischief, contains a short review of COLD TO THE TOUCH that calls it...

"[a]n impressive collection of stories that subtly unsettles..."

CTTT: Reviewed at "A Blog of Mars"

2009-11-30T17:00:00.001-05:00

COLD TO THE TOUCH has been reviewed once again, this time by David T Wilbanks at his blog, A Blog of Mars. Among the quite astonishingly pleasant things he has to say is this:

"As your tour guide to nightmarish zones of mind and firmer terrain, he has done his job and done it very well. His brand of fear challenges your perceptions and might even prompt you to reconsider what you think you know about the universe, that perhaps the veil between delusions of safety and the terrible unknown is only as sheer as the page of a book. These stories stare cold, hard life and imminent death straight in the face without flinching, yet you’ll still find yourself reading on..."

Please follow the below link to read the rest, then be sure to check out the rest of the site's astute reviews.

A Blog of Mars Reviews: Cold to the Touch by Simon Strantzas

Evolving Style

2009-11-29T11:57:00.001-05:00

It's been a looong time since I promised this entry, but finally, for those waiting, here it is. Keep in mind, though, despite the lapse in time, my comments are just as ill-thought-out as ever.

In the wake of my announcement that my story, "Fading Light", has been sold to PSEUDOPOD, I find myself thinking once again about the metamorphosis of a writer over time as he refines his craft. When I wrote "Fading Light" it was really only the second tale I'd penned — at least, the second once I became serious about writing. As a result, the story reads differently than my later work. I was still trying to find my voice then for the most part and what this story has is a more clipped tone than what I do now. I think it makes it a perfect candidate for a reading, but I have to admit I feel distant from that sort of story, and not just because it's been seven years since I've really written one. If not for the strong reaction it's received over the years, I'd probably have retired the piece and chalked it up to youthful folly.

You see, the style of my fiction has changed over the years as I close in on just what my strengths are and how best to display them. I think we see this from most, if not all, writers. It's one of the explanations as to why we can like the early work of a writer and not the later. Time changes a writer, changes who he is and what he cares about, but also changes the tools he uses. Sometimes, to his fans' disappointment.

The same thing happens with music, of course, perhaps more dramatically as well. The band that played pop to great success at the beginning plays reggae-infused island pop at the end when nobody cares. It happens (though not always that drastically). The artist, he wants to change sometimes, needs to in order to keep his work refreshing and exciting and new. The reader, he's not bothered by all of that. What he wants is what he had before, just more of it. Or, rather, he wants what he thinks he had before, because getting what he had before will soon be boring. The reader expects something that will affect him like the work originally did, and that doesn't come from art staying the same or from deviating too far from its beginnings.

But, again, the changes in a writer's work come primarily from his or her endeavours to be "better", or if not better then to at least create a challenge — not to the reader but to the writer himself. After a while, one finds that writing the same sort of story over and over loses its lustre. Unless one gets very rich — rich enough that being repetitive is incentivised — most writers will long for something different. After all, the act of writing is a long process, and a lonely one. To spend that amount of energy on something one's heart isn't in is difficult, and it only leads to further problems with the work. So, the writers says to himself, "What can I do differently this time? What might be fun to try?" and that first step outside his box can lead him very quickly to a land none of his readers recognise. All because he followed his muse.

The reason I initially mentioned the changing styles of a writer was in reference to Richard Gavin's novella "Primeval Wood" (available on its own from Burning Effigy Press or in his new collection, THE DARKLY SPLENDID REALM). The tale seems a departure in style somewhat from anyone familiar with Gavin's work from his two previous collections. That departure, though, is in fact a natural progression of his work. I like to imagine his journey was similar to mine. My early work is coloured at times with an urge to show off. Imagery is bright, language purposefully florid, all in an attempt to say: "Look here! This is writing!". In the years since I've worked on removing the most egregious examples of this from my work, and perhaps Gavin's done something similar. Or perhaps as above he feels he's reached a comfort level with writing in that style and wants to push out in another. Will it lose him readers? It may, as people resist change, but I'm sure we can all agree that becoming stagnant will only lose an author more in the long run, whether by the reader becoming bored or the writer.

Because we're all book lovers here...

2009-11-29T06:42:00.000-05:00

A Ghost Story for Christmas

2009-11-26T12:55:00.001-05:00

I'll be taking part is a holiday reading in Toronto on December 27th. I hope anyone close by can come. I'll be selling copies of my collection there and maybe a few other things (if I can manage).

Pseudopod

2009-11-24T19:20:00.001-05:00

It's with great excitement that I announce my short story, "Fading Light", will be featured on the PSEUDOPOD podcast early next year. True, the tale is already available now (most specifically in my collection COLD TO THE TOUCH) but this will mark its first time in audio form. I couldn't be happier. The team at Pseudopod do a fantastic job with their readings — I was turned onto the podcast when fellow author Gary McMahon pointed me to a piece by Mort Castle they were featuring. I was very impressed with the voice work done, which made me immediately wonder what piece of my own would best translate to their style. Really, there wasn't any other option. "Fading Light" is an older tale of mine (one of my first sold — definitely the first for money) but the style of language is quite unique for my work, and a perfect fit for Pseudopod's style. I'm glad they feel the same way.

Subscribe now to the podcast so you'll be ready for mine when it finally appears. Happy listening!

The nature of fear

2009-11-22T10:16:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the newly designed website. It was with great trepidation that I changed the title from the beautiful "All Hail the New Madness" to something as boring as my own name, but it's a bit more descriptive now. (Those of you reading this on LiveJournal still get the wonderful "The Church of the Inner Sight" there, however.) The previous layout was beginning to grate on me; it was too cluttered. This site simplifies things and presents what I think is a cleaner, handsomer site. I do hope you all agree.

In the midst of working, I took time out to see the film "Paranormal Activity", which is this decade's "Blair Witch Project" it seems. Regardless of how one felt about it or about the Project before it, it did start me thinking on the nature of fear. Why are we frightened?

The nature of fear, especially in horror films. Where does fear come from? It's juxtaposition, of course — finding something where it shouldn't be — but this is the same for comedy as well. So, if both comedy and fear share juxtaposition, where does one end and the other begin? How do we know which to feel? What makes something frightening when it's juxtaposed? Dreams are juxtaposed, and what makes that juxtaposition so affecting is the fact that no one reacts to the mismatch — it's treated as fine. But even that... in comedy the same thing happens. So what else could it be? Perhaps it's based on how impossible it is. Something we can't comprehend. Comedy of juxtaposition comes from finding something where it's not supposed to be, but horror of juxtaposition is finding something where it cannot possibly be. The horror comes from the feeling of confusion and incomprehensibility evoked by seeing the impossible. It feels as though our minds are not big enough to grasp what we are seeing — something that shatters our world — and that shock evokes fear. We fear the threat of our reality being harmed.

This is much different from the fear of our merely physical harm, another fear exploited in the Horror genre, but the fear there is quite different. It's not a fear born of juxtaposition. The killer at the door does not have to arrive in surprise for fear to be instilled — it's not the killers arrival that evokes the fear, rather what that killer represents: a threat to the physical being. This threat, though more identifiable to people, is a much more limited threat — at least in terms of effect on the reader/viewer. In horror that strictly deals with this brand (and often we called these "thrillers" instead of "horror") the fear is felt, but when the covers are closed or curtain goes up for the most part these fears dissipate. Or do they?

Of course, the two can appear at once — the strange monster with the sharp teeth — but it's arguable which of the fears is the more central. Perhaps this dichotomy — mind fear vs body fear — is another example of extremes that one ought to try and plough the ground between when writing supernatural fiction.

These are the things on my mind as of late, so forgive me if they appear a bit jumbled as I work through them. Understanding our fears is perhaps the best way I can think of to imbue my work with that frisson required to make it touch the reader's core.

CTTT: Reviewed at "The Speculative Fiction Junkie"

2009-11-10T03:26:00.003-05:00

My latest collection receives another stellar review from "The Speculative Fiction Junkie", where a love for weird fiction is just starting to be born. Among other incredibly complimentary things is said:

"Cold to the Touch is easily one of the best books I have read this year."

I hope it doesn't spoil the surprise to say the book was rated 10/10.

The Speculative Fiction Junkie: Cold to the Touch Reviewed

On Blogging...

2009-10-18T15:30:00.003-04:00

Meanwhile, all those “writers” who spend countless hours and thousands of empty words talking about themselves and their “careers” on their blogs and websites might do themselves a favor and learn from H.P. Lovecraft’s mistakes. He spent so much time corresponding with friends and acquaintances that his own fiction suffered as a consequence. Rather than talking about themselves or pushing their half-formed “opinions” out to a disinterested world, they would do better to spend that otherwise wasted time working on their writing and honing their skills as an author. That way, they may actually accomplish something eventually and, more to the point, have something of interest to say. But, of course, it’s much easier to type a stream-of-consciousness rant than it is to craft a clever or empowering sentence.

— Stephen Jones, from an interview with Matt Cardin in Cemetery Dance #59

CTTT: Reviewed in "Supernatural Tales 16"

2009-10-14T12:34:00.002-04:00

Though I have yet to see my copy of the latest issue of David Longhorn's wonderful journal, SUPERNATURAL TALES, I've been forwarded a copy of his review of my latest collection, which concludes with the following:

"Overall, the thirteen stories in this collection offer the reader strange rewards. There are no easy explanations, which is realism of a sort. There are no simple payoffs or cheap twists. There are shadows everywhere, and few signposts that can be trusted. But there are moments of humour and humanity amid the darkness and decay."

Mr Longhorn was one of the first editors to champion my work, and for that I'm grateful. He has a keen eye for great stories, and anyone who doesn't already subscribe to ST really ought to think about doing so.

CTTT: Reviewed at "Grim Reviews"

2009-10-12T06:51:00.002-04:00

The mysterious "Grim Blogger" has struck again, this time with a well thought-out review of my collection, COLD TO THE TOUCH. Among other very nice things he (or is it she?) has to say, this particularly caught my eye:

Cold to the Touch is a formidable gift to the field of weird literature.

Anyone who isn't familiar with Grim Reviews in general ought to take some time to read through its archives. It's often a source of fascinating information about weird fiction and thematically related items from the news. I devotedly read the blog every day.

Simon Strantzas' Cold to the Touch Reviewed

Honourable Mentions, 2008

2009-10-03T14:50:00.002-04:00

Every year Ellen Datlow was editing the Horror section for THE YEAR'S BEST FANTASY & HORROR she would include her list of stories that, though not strong enough to be reprinted in the book, nevertheless should have attention called out to them. It's become a yearly tradition for writers, big and small, to scour the list to see if anything they did might have made her cut.

Alas, with the absence of YBF&H for this year and next, the new book Ellen has created for Nightshade, BEST HORROR OF THE YEAR, cannot contain more than the top fifty of her HM list. Instead of printing the full list, she has instead posted it to the Nightshade forums for all to see.

For those too lazy to follow the link, here's my standing for last year:

A Shadow in God's Eye, Beneath the Surface
Leather, Dark and Cold, Bound for Evil
Pinholes in Black Muslin, The Second Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories
Poor Stephanie, Supernatural Tales 14

and, as part of the "top fifty" printed in the book itself:

Under the Overpass, Shades of Darkness

I'm thrilled Ellen Datlow liked the above stories enough to single them out. Three of them can be found in my new collection, COLD TO THE TOUCH, which I hope is further incentive for anyone still on the fence about buying a copy.

CTTT: Reviewed at "She Never Slept"

2009-09-23T01:55:00.002-04:00

My new collection has received a wonderful review over at She Never Slept. I was especially pleased to read about someone's first exposure to the beauty of a Tartarus book, but I fear she's been spoiled now for other publishers.

You can go straight to the full review here (but I'd suggest looking farther when you're done):

She Never Slept: A Review of Cold to the Touch

British Fantasy Award FAIL

2009-09-21T19:29:00.000-04:00

The British Fantasy Awards were held this past weekend in Nottingham, England, and though I lost the award to Sarah Pinborough (next time it's mine, Sarah!) it was still an honour to be nominated. I only wish I could have been there. Since I couldn't, I'll have to settle for watching it unfold on YouTube. And now so can you.

Below is the announcement of the category for Best Short Fiction. If you listen closely you'll hear not only my name emphasised strangely by Christopher Fowler, but also hear him mispronounce the title of my story as "Pinholes in Black Muslim" — something that happens a fair bit yet never ceases to fill me with unease.

Enjoy the sound of applause in my honour, dear readers. I certainly do.

CTTT: Reviewed at "FearZone"

2009-09-18T05:16:00.001-04:00

Another great review, this time by author Michael Kelly for the website FearZone. I know from personal experience that Michael is as tough a critic as he is an insightful editor, so getting a response this strong from him is immensely gratifying.

FearZone Reviews: Cold to the Touch