New Vampire Gene Book on the Brink of Conclusion.

Hi Guys,

Hateful Heart - Book 4 of The Vampire Gene Series looks set to reach conclusion in first draft format this week. After that I have a little bit of work to do in checking and editing myself until I'm happy that it's the best it can be. The book should then be wending it's way over to my editor and hopefully will be launched at The Asylum Steampunk weekend, in September. It will also be available to buy at my Halloween weekend signings in Bolton and Wrexham (as well as all of my other titles).

I'm more than a little excited as this book (without giving any spoilers) does indeed rock things up quite a bit in the seemingly idyllic life of my immortals.

If you want to know what it's about then this will give you something of a clue: The Da Vinci Code meets Raiders of the Lost Ark via Quantum Leap.

It's got conspiracies and action on every page!

More news to follow later this week.

Sam x

Back to my Roots ... and Other exciting news!

I'm really pleased to be returning to Bolton next Saturday, 2nd April as part of my Waterstones tour promoting the new book 'Zombies in New York and Other Bloody Jottings'.

Thanks to the Bolton Evening News for their great story this evening.

To purchase copies of 'Zombies in New York' click HERE

To purchase copies of 'The Vampire Gene Series' click HERE

If you are interested in meeting me then please check out the list of appearances on the right hand side of this page.

I'll be at Waterstones, Wrexham tomorrow with actor Frazer Hines.

Added to all this, the Literature Reviews Editor of Scream Magazine just shared a link on my facebook which I hope you can see. I've made the front cover which is pretty cool!

Here's the link Scream Magazine Cover

Hope to see you soon,

Sam x

Publishing Today - Writers' Extra Duties

The climate of publishing has changed dramatically in the last few years. Regular readers of my blog will recall me remarking on this before. I have a problem with the whole loss of the 'Net Book Agreement' - which was the start of the problems and has had a huge impact on the income of writers, making it incredibly difficult these days to actually make a living from writing. I have an even bigger problem with how few large publishing houses are giving new writers a chance becuase they constantly use the same ones over and over, and not because they are the best, merely because, in most cases, they are convenient.

J.K. Rowling didn't make it over night, I believe she was rejected by some 50 agents before it fell on the right person's desk. After that a whole lot of luck came into play.

I'm constantly being asked about publishing by aspiring writers.The truth is there is no one answer. If you are serious you sit down and write a book and then wonder how you're going to get it published. Not ask the question BEFORE you've ever written anything. 

Writing a book doesn't guarantee you overnight success, and certainly not fame and fortune. Even if you're lucky enough to get an agent or publisher, (although having an agent isn't a necessity anymore) there's no guarantee anyone will want to buy it. That's why I feel that you have a duty to your words once there are in print.

I know a few other writers who object to the idea of self-promotion, and that's fine if they think they don't need to. Personally I don't see any harm in reminding people that this is what you do and this is what you are about. (I will stress here that you should NEVER post a link to your event/book on someone else's page - frankly it's rude and you're likely to just get yourself deleted). However if you care about your writing, believe in your words and you want to share them, then by all means do so in the least offensive way that you can. It's your duty to yourself, your publisher and your book to let people know about it. Otherwise who is going to care if you don't?

There's a lot of pressure on writers now to achieve more and more. I know writers who can only make a living because they write 4-5 books a year. They don't have time in between to stop and think, nor to give any thought to promoting the new books, which I think might ultimately be the problem. Obviously your publisher should be supporting you as much as their budget allows. This will vary depending on the publishers. Major houses will have a specific budget to pour into the promotion of  books. The amount will vary depending on your level. Independent presses don't have much money so they won't necessarily have a promotional budget, but should still support the promotion where they can. For example by ensuring review copies are sent out where necessary, entries into competitions, online promotion such as posting up reviews on the publishers website, letting the readers know where you'll be appearing etc.But whatever the budget it's up to you to raise extra awareness and how you do that is up to you.

What you shouldn't do sit back and expect complete strangers to believe in you if you aren't prepared to put yourself behind your works or actually go out and meet the public because you think you should remain in an ivory tower and be illusive.

When you've got JK's millions you can be 'private' all you want, but these days you're never going to achieve that so you have to be prepared to work for it.

ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year 2010

I'm really excited to learn this evening that Demon Dance - Book 3 of The Vampire Gene Series - has made finalist for ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year Awards in the Best Horror Novel Category. This is one of the most prestiguous Independent Press awards in the USA.

Please check out the link below for further details.

BOTYA  

The Awards will be presented at ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans on 23rd-28th June 2011. The awards are judged by Librarians and Booksellers taken from the Magazine's Readership.
Demon Dance  was launched last September (2010) at FantasyCon in Nottingham following the nomination of Book 2, Futile Flame, for both ForeWord BOTYA and the British Fantasy Society Awards last September so this is a really pleasing result as being a finalist isw also a huge accolade.

I hope you'll join me in celebrating this fabulous news this week.

Sam x

Best Horror of the Year - Volume Three.

I've just had some really thrilling news that esteemed Anthology Editor Ellen Datlow has posted her list of honorable mentions due to be published in Best Horror of the Year Volume Three this year.

I'm delighted to tell you that my story 'Fool's Gold' is on the list.

'Fool's Gold' was first published by NewCon Press last year in their anthology The Bitten Word. If you haven't seen this incredible book and love vampire fiction, then I recommend you buy a copy as it includes such high caliber writers as Tanith Lee, Storm Constantine, Sarah Singleton, Jon Courtney Grimwood, Kelly Armstrong and many more.

You can read 'Fool's Gold', and many more of my short fiction and poetry, in my collection Zombies in New York and Other Bloody Jottings which recently hit the shelves when we had a hugely successful launch in LA at the end of February.

The collection is having a rather interesting time with a really positve response from reviewers so far and with the 'Zombies Tour' rapidly underway the book has already been entered its third print run.

Signed copies of the Zombies in New York... can be purchased from Telos Publishing or you can meet me personally at one of the Waterstones signings I'm doing this year (see list below).

Guest Blog from Fantasy & Magic Realism Writer - RHYS HUGHES

The Ultimate Existentialist Horror

 

I remember, when I was very small, watching a film called Night of the Demon. I didn't know until many years later that it was an adaptation of an M.R. James story, 'Casting the Runes'. The film impressed and scared me. At the climax, the demon of the title arrives to claim the body (and presumably the soul) of the man foolish enough to have been somehow responsible for conjuring the thing up. I forget the exact details of the plot. I can barely picture any of the scenes to myself. I just recall (or seem to recall) a gigantic monster looking something like a charred corpse looming high over a length of railway track at night.

Although this outcome frightened me, for I was at an impressionable age, I didn't have too much sympathy for the demon's victim. It seemed to me, even back then, that it was his own fault for meddling with the forces of darkness, for aligning himself with the Devil. I grew up as a Christian and I was a truly devout child, utterly convinced that God existed and that his power was without limit of any kind. I assumed that omnipotence meant power without a single restriction. I was blissfully ignorant of the clever arguments of philosophers such as Anselm and Leibniz, who showed there must be a logical limit even to God's power (God, for instance, can't reduce his own power; that option is denied to him). As far as I was concerned, God could snap his fingers, if he chose, and the Devil would vanish into nothingness instantly. God could make time run backwards, cancel out something that had already happened, violate logic in any way he liked. God could do anything.

Armed with my unshakeable faith, I felt only scorn for black magicians who summoned up a demon and then fell prey to it. It seemed obvious to me that one should always fight for God and against the Devil. God, after all, was invincible and always right. If you fought for God, God would look after you, even if the Devil or one of his minions ripped off your head. Work for God and you go to Heaven. Work for the Devil and you go to Hell. The equation was simple.  

I continued watching horror films throughout my childhood, and demons, vampires and werewolves, among other monsters, populated my dreams. But still I felt secure and safe under the protection of God. Even if one of those unholy abominations did get me, everything would be fine provided I didn't betray my allegiance to God. Better to be slsiced to little piece and go straight to heaven than to be a turncoat and remain whole, for human life is short but eternity is very long indeed.

I am no longer a Christian and haven't been for several decades, but I was recently filled with a feeling not dissimilar to that emotion I experienced as a child watching Night of the Demon. The object responsible was a book of short stories, John the Balladeer by Manly Wade Wellman, a collection of two-dozen tales and vignettes featuring Silver John, a sort of troubadour-hobo who aimlessly wanders the Appalachian Mountains with his silver-strung guitar, getting into all sorts of scrapes with hoodoo men, ghosts, fearsome critters, bigfoots (bigfeet?) and other supernatural or cryptozoological meanies.

The stories that detail his adventures are colourful and entertaining, but they aren't very scary. They lack tension. They lack tension because the main character, Silver John, quite rightly, is wholly devoted to the cause of good. He's God's man through and through. So evil can't touch him. All he has to do when confronted by an evil spirit is say a prayer and the evil spirit backs off. All attempts to bring him over to the Devil's side are doomed to failure, for John is no fool. He is immune to blandishments, threats and flattery. Even if a beautiful lady vampire sucks up to him, he'll always resist.

John the Balladeer is horror, but it isn't genuinely troubling horror. It's comfortable horror. The book would be troubling only to anyone who works for the Devil rather than for God, in which case it should serve as a timely reminder for that individual to come back over to God's side. After all, God is destined to win. Ultimately the Devil doesn't stand a chance. Why align yourself with the biggest loser in the universe? That's the message of this kind of horror. Work for God.

The same message is implicit in all supernatural horror, for in that kind of horror evil is a tangible force rather than simply an absence of good. And if evil is a genuine form of energy, good must also be a form of energy. If the Devil exists, God also exists. And God always rewards loyalty. Thus, although horrific on the surface, films such as The Exorcist or The Omen hammer home a reassuring message. The Devil exists and he's going to kill me in a horrible way because I refuse to submit to him? Great! I'm off for my first harp lesson beyond the Pearly Gates!

There is, of course, another kind of horror. A horror that not only doesn't make use of the supernatural but denies the supernatural. This other kind of horror may feature psychos, wife-beaters or crack addicts huddled under the glare of sodium lamps. It may be miserablist in nature, or it may be even more pessimistic and depressing than that. Some of this sort of horror might be characterised as existentialist. In other words, it is concerned with existence as it actually is (or seems to be), stripped of faith, hope and the consolations of metaphysics.

Existentialist horror is the kind of horror that is generated and propagated by atheism. Get your head ripped off by a demon and your soul will be fine (provided your allegiance is still to God), so that moment of bloody violence doesn't really matter. What are a few minutes of head ripping pain compared with the bliss of Paradise? But have your head removed by a psycho in a cosmos where God doesn't exist and you are in real trouble. You don't have a soul in such a scenario. So there's nothing better awaiting you after your head plops to the ground. You are dead. Just dead.

Because, let's face it, our main fear is the uncertainty of what happens to us after we die. That uncertainty is the horror locked away inside every instant of every hour of every day of our entire lives. That question. And there are two possible outcomes and both have their own terrors: eternal life is a daunting prospect. But eternal oblivion is worse. There's no point denying it. If we're going to be strictly honest with ourselves, endless oblivion is what we dread most. A cosmos where there is no afterlife, a purely mechanistic universe with no place for souls. The theory that our souls are purely by-products of our minds, and that our minds are merely by-products of our brains, is called epiphenomenalism. When our brain dies we have no more mind, and thus no more soul. We became nothing. Oblivion. Oblivion until the end of Time.

This is a hard prospect to swallow. The meaningless universe. Yet it takes only the appearance of a single ghost, vampire or demon to disprove it. The moment a supernatural representative of the force of evil turns up, it means there is hope again. If supernatural evil exists, then supernatural good must also exist, which means God exists, which means Heaven exists. Just one demon, however small, just one, and the afterlife is back on the agenda! So when an innocent character in a horror book or film is confronted with a genuine demon, he or she should fall to their knees and cry, “Thank you, thank you! You're my ticket to Heaven! I do have a soul after all. No eternal oblivion for me! The afterlife, here I come!”

There's a very cruel story by the French writer Villiers de L'Isle-Adam called 'Torture by Hope'. It's about a man imprisoned in a dungeon by the Spanish Inquisition. He is going to be tortured by them the following day. Then he notices that his cell door has been left unlocked. What a mistake by his jailers! Bursting with hope, he opens the door and creeps down the corridor towards the exit. He is almost free! Suddenly an inquisitor jumps out and cries, “Tricked you!” (I'm paraphrasing, please understand). It turns out that the prisoner had been allowed to escape that far, or rather that the illusion of escape was given to him as part of the torture, for to fill someone with false hope is the worst torment.

There is a television show that takes the concept of torture by hope to its ultimate limit. Frankly, it is the ultimate existentialist horror. The fact that it doesn't seem to be horrific makes it all the more horrible when one truly considers the implications of its core message. That core message is grim, soul-eroding and profoundly nihilistic.

The show in question adopts the format of the paranormal investigation. A group of characters set out to probe into hauntings. These characters include Fred, a typical alpha male; Daphne, a dumb but foxy redhead who is possibly Fred's lover; Velma, an intellectual (lesbian?) analyst; and a pair of pragmatic, hungry survivors, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo. The last character in this list lends his name to the show itself. Scooby-Doo.

Every episode of Scooby-Doo follows a highly formalised schematic. A ghost (or demon or other paranormal bugaboo) is reported in a lonely location. The investigators repair to the scene. They meet the ghost but fail to be deterred from the investigation by it. As they dig deeper into events, the workings of the atheistic clockwork slowly become apparent. There is no ghost (or demon, etc). It is merely an illusion, a man in a mask! The impostor is carted off to prison and the five heroes move on to the next case in a psychedelic van. Somewhere behind all this, in the furthest reaches of metaphor, an enormous Richard Dawkins must be rubbing his hands in glee, looming over the dénouement like the absolute antithesis of the demon in Night of the Demon.

Scooby-Doo offers false hope. A ghost, a demon. Supernatural horror! Therefore the afterlife is real! We won't cease to exist after our deaths!  We may even get to visit our loved ones who have passed on. God does exist after all! Everything really is right with the universe! There is no bleakness or despair woven into the fabric of reality. Take me into your arms, sweet Lord! Thank you, ghost! Thank you, demon! Give my regards to that sucker Satan as I preen my angel's wings…

Yes, Scooby-Doo offers that hope, the greatest hope that can ever be offered… and then snatches it away! Every single episode it does this. It is a staggeringly cruel thing to do. It is the ultimate existentialist horror. But people persist in regarding it as a comedy. And that only deepens the horror, the horror. Scooby-Dooby-Doo, where are you? Shuddering in the grip of angst, despair and abandonment, that's where!

 Copyright Rhys Hughes 08/03/11

 

Zombies Tour Update - NEW DATES ADDED

WATERSTONES, Llandudno, North Wales, 5th March 2011.

Zombies tour. Copies of Zombies in New York and Other Bloody Jottings and the Vampire Gene Series will be available to purchase at this popular North Wales store. All purchases will receive a bonus gift from the Sam Stone Merchandise range or a signed photograph.

Time: 12-4pm           Date: 5th March
Address: Waterstones, 37 Victoria Centre, Mostyn Centre, Llandudno, Conwy, LL30 2NG.

WATERSTONES, Bury, Lancashire, 12th March 2011 

Zombies Tour. Copies of Zombies in New York and Other Bloody Jottings and the Vampire Gene Series will be available to purchase at this popular Lancashire store. All purchases will receive a bonus gift from the Sam Stone Merchandise range or a signed photograph.

Time: 12pm Onwards    Date 12th March
Address:Waterstones, 4 Union Arcade, Bury, BL9 0QF

WATERSTONES, Chester, North Wales. 19th March 2011

Zombies tour. Copies of Zombies in New York and Other Bloody Jottings and the Vampire Gene Series will be available to purchase at this popular North Wales store. All purchases will receive a bonus gift from the Sam Stone Merchandise range or a signed photograph.

Time: 12-4pm          Date: 19th March
Address: Waterstones, 14 Eastgate Row, Chester, CH1 1LF

WATERSTONES, Wrexham, North Wales. 26th March 2011

Zombies tour. Copies of Zombies in New York and Other Bloody Jottings and the Vampire Gene Series will be available to purchase at this popular North Wales store. All purchases will receive a bonus gift from the Sam Stone Merchandise or a signed photograph.

Time: 12pm Onwards   Date: 26.03.11
ADDRESS: Waterstones, 9/11 Regent Street, Wrexham, LL11 1SG

WATERSTONES, Bolton, Lancashire. 2nd April 2011

Zombies tour. Copies of Zombies in New York and Other Bloody Jottings and the Vampire Gene Series will be available to purchase at this popular Lancashire store. All purchases will receive a bonus gift from the Sam Stone Merchandise range or a signed photograph.

Time: 12-4pm           Date: 2nd April.
Address:Waterstones, 32-36 Deansgate, Bolton, BL1 1BL

WATERSTONES, Liverpool One, 9th April 2011

Zombies tour. Copies of Zombies in New York and Other Bloody Jottings and the Vampire Gene Series will be available to purchase at this popular store. All purchases will receive a bonus gift from the Sam Stone Merchandise range or a signed photograph.

Time: 12-4pm           Date:  9th April
Address: Waterstone's Liverpool One, 12 College Lane, Liverpool, L1 3DL.

WATERSTONES, Arndale Centre, Manchester, 16th April 2011.

Zombies Tour. Copies of Zombies in New York and Other Bloody Jottings and the Vampire Gene Series will be available to purchase at this popular Merseyside store. All purchases will receive a bonus gift from the Sam Stone Merchandise range or a signed photograph. 

Time: 12pm-4pm      Date: 16th April.
Address: Waterstones Arndale Centre, Arndale Centre, Manchester, M4 3AQ

WATERSTONES, Southport, 23rd April 2011.

Zombies Tour. Copies of Zombies in New York and Other Bloody Jottings and the Vampire Gene Series will be available to purchase at this popular Merseyside store. All purchases will receive a bonus gift from the Sam Stone Merchandise range or a signed photograph.


Time: 12pm Onwards.  Date: 23.4.11
Address:  Waterstones, 367 Lord Street, Southport, PR8 1NH.

WATERSTONES, Altrincham, 30th April 2011

Zombies tour. Copies of Zombies in New York and Other Bloody Jottings and the Vampire Gene Series will be available to purchase at this popular store. All purchases will receive a bonus gift from the Sam Stone Merchandise range or a signed photograph.

Time: 12-4pm           Date: 30th April
Address: Waterstone's Altrincham, 33-35 George St, Altrincham, Cheshire, WA14 1RJ.

7th May - To be confirmed.

WATERSTONES, Peterborough,  14th May 2011

Zombies tour. Copies of Zombies in New York and Other Bloody Jottings and the Vampire Gene Series will be available to purchase at this popular store. All purchases will receive a bonus gift from the Sam Stone Merchandise range or a signed photograph.

Time: 12-4pm           Date: 14th May.
Address: Waterstone's Peterborough, 40 Bridge Street, Peterborough, PE1 1DT

WATERSTONES, Warrington, 21st May 2011

Zombies tour. Copies of Zombies in New York and Other Bloody Jottings and the Vampire Gene Series will be available to purchase at this popular store. All purchases will receive a bonus gift from the Sam Stone Merchandise range or a signed photograph.

Time: 12-4pm           Date: 21st May
Address: Waterstone's Warrington, 22 The Mall, Golden Square Shopping Centre, Warrington
WA1 1QP.

WATERSTONES, Wigan, 11th June 2011.

The Vampire Gene Series is the main focus of this visit, however copies of Zombies in New York will be also be available to purchase at this popular store. All purchases will receive a bonus gift from the Sam Stone Merchandise range or a signed photograph.

Time: 12-4pm           Date: 11th June

Address: Waterstone's Wigan, 61 The Grand Arcade, Wigan, WN1 1BH.

More dates to follow soon :)

Claudia Con - August 13th & 14th 2011

I'm delighted to announce that I have been invited as a guest to attend Claudia Con which is the convention to celebrate the birthday of the beautiful and successful actress, Claudia Christian.

This is a charity, fundraising event and all proceeds will be going to Claudia's three chosen charities (more info to follow on that).

I will be doing a talk, a reading and will be participating in photograph sessions.

Places are still available so book now in order to avoid disappointment.