Following on from March’s release of A Fragile Thing (which has yielded some excellent reviews, including in Phantasmagoria, and a wonderful write up here NOTABLE WORKS REVIEW: A Fragile Thing by Stephanie Ellis), I conscientiously started my next work, wrote a chapter, and then stopped. Procrastination kicked in as I looked at my short stories folder which had become distinctly unorganised. Of course it demanded immediate attention. Cue a day or two of setting up a spreadsheet, entering each published story in it and their contract status. I discovered that I have had well over a hundred stories published! Apart from those I wrote which I self-published in my collections, that still left a hundred odd which have been sold over the years. And I have never resold the vast majority of these as reprints either, so it looks like I have a bit of an untapped reserve there. Finding reprint opportunities for a number of these is looking like a ‘thing’ for this year.
So what was this new work I began? Two actually. The first chapter of cosy crime set against a folkloric/rural heritage background which I have a strange feeling will veer into folk horror a little if I’m not careful. And the other was that for Genesis, the demonic entity behind Isaac Bercow’s downfall in A Fragile Thing and who lurks in the mists of novelettes Asylum of Shadows and Correctional (both ebooks are £1.99 via my own payhip shop if you don’t want to go to amazon).
Whilst Genesis is very much the puppeteer in these books, he comes much more to the fore in Correctional if you want more of a taste of his character:
Blurb: In the poverty-stricken East End of London, it is hard to survive. Young Henry Collins is determined to escape and steals from Genesis Caul, a man whose demonic presence casts a shadow over the city as thick as the fog which cloaks it. Henry’s punishment is to first trawl the Thames for the body of a missing man, and then to serve a sentence on the infamous treadwheel in The Steel – the House of Correction in which his father is currently interred. When Caul offers him an alternative, he has to choose: between the life he had wanted to escape, or an eternity on the wheel.
And as usual, I have used the names of my ancestors from that time who lived in that part of the world. Henry Collins was my 3x great grandfather (1817-1882) of Bethnal Green and Shoreditch, as were his children and other relatives, who also were to be found in Spitalfields and Stepney.
Charles Booth’s Poverty Maps (1886-1903) show how poor such places were and, together with his notebooks, have formed the basis of both my writing and genealogical research. These, and Henry Mayhew’s books from that time are the best resource to develop atmosphere and authenticity to work written in that time and era.
Research revealed The Steel to be a horror in its own right.
Having done so much investigation into this era, both for my degree, my genealogical endeavours, and those stories, it is a period and place in history that feels like home. When it comes to Genesis, it will be a challenge as his life will span the reign of Victoria. He is the Industrial Revolution and the evils it spawned personified. I do not completely condemn that time, however, for all its ills. We needed it to make the technological and scientific progress that has got us to the present day. With history, context is always always key.
But, am I currently writing either of those aforementioned projects? No. Because I have been diverted as I turn a short story into a novella for a submission call which finishes at the end of the month. I had intended to transform this story anyway, but the call appeared and I thought why not. This one is sooner rather than later. This particular novella, Failsafe, is very much an exploration of how, in a difficult dystopian future, a Synth/AI partnership can backfire – even with a failsafe built in.
No news yet on my 1016 Anglo-Saxon/Norse myth/Historical mashup, Sermon of the Wolf which is currently out on sub. The waits are always horrible but all you can do is forget and carry on working.
Real life events. I’d hoped to go to the Indie Horror Chapter on Saturday. Got bag ready and everything and then promptly put my back out. Spent the day sat on the sofa with a hot water bottle instead! It’s better now though. But I have got tickets for Edge-Lit and Glasgow Fantasy Con. It’ll be nice to catch up with people then.
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