COME AND MEET SAM STONE

LINDUM BOOKS, Lincoln, 8th September 2018

Sam Stone will be signing copies of her latest novel, JINX BOUND, at this popular book store in the heart of Lincoln.

Date: Saturday 8th September 2018
Address: Lindum Books, 4 Bailgate, Lincoln LN1 3AE
Time: 11am-12pm

WRITING WORKSHOP AT GEDLING

I'll be in Gedling next Saturday to do my horror writing workshop for children. Start time 1pm-2.30pm. Bring paper and pens! 

Copies of ZENA THE ZOMBIE will also be on sale. As will my latest novel JINX BOUND. Other titles will be available too. 

So come and see me!

EM-CON NOTTINGHAM HERE WE COME

Pleased to say we'll be returning to Em-Con Nottingham this year!

Here's the details:

EM-CON, NOTTINGHAM  5th-6th May 2018

Sam Stone and David J Howe join the line-up of guests and this ever popular event. Copies of all of their latest titles will be available to purchase at the event, including Sam's new title POSING FOR PICASSO, published by Wordfire Press, and the regular edition of  the Doctor Who spin-off THE DÆMONSOF DEVIL'S END novelisation.

Date:Sunday 5-6th May 2018
Address: Motorpoint Arena Nottingham, Bolero Square, The Lace Market, Stoney St,
Nottingham, NG1 1LA
Time: 10am - 6pm

For Further Information:  Em-Con Nottingham

The Music of Words

When I was a child, about 8 years old, I was given extra reading classes at school. My teacher thought I couldn't read. The truth was, I didn't enjoy reading out loud. I wanted to keep the stories I was reading inside my head because when I did they lived. I'd invent dialogues in my imagination with characters, always with the right inflection that each of them had: their own soulful vocals would lend themselves to reveal their true nature.

I have always loved words - ever since I learnt to read. I wanted to absorb them. Feel them. Taste and smell them.  I wanted to hear them. Above all I wanted to hog them privately to myself - because that is the beauty of reading. It is a secret and personal joy. It is a lovely and amazing pastime. For a short time a story is yours and yours alone as you connect with it. This is why words are powerful, intimate, magical, poetic and incredibly musical.

When I'm working on a book or story I often think of music (my other passion). To me words are chords and notes. They are the beats that move a story in a certain rhythm. They flow with the energy of music and have their own melody. Writers, like musicians, can hear this flow and then they write the story that comes from their hearts. The story that just has to be told can then be shared.

Some of the greatest works out there have music in them. I refer to writers such as Tanith Lee - sadly missed - she was one of the greatest word musicians in the world.

Maybe you already understand what I mean about music in words ...?

We recognise the rhythm as poetry, poetic prose, a narrative voice: that is the skill of the writer. We label it as verbs, nouns, adjectives, similes and metaphors. It speaks in onomatopoeic tones, and personifies inanimate objects.

And what I feel about this is, that anyone can learn to write if they choose to, but not everyone can hear the music of words. Perhaps the tune is not always to their taste, or is discordant. Whatever it is, when the music is missing the rhythm just isn't there and can't be felt.

So when you are reading something new - perhaps if I'm lucky it will be one of my titles - look out for the music. It might be in the roll of the sea, the caw of a bird flying over a barren wasteland, or maybe it will be the cut-off cry of a victim silenced in the night.

GUEST BLOG - CHARLOTTE BOND

The Power and Lessons of Fear

by Charlotte Bond

Having kids can be a learning curve. For example, I never realised just how lucky I was to be able to sleep in until 10am every weekend. Before kids, I never really appreciated just how luxurious it can be to go to the toilet without an audience.

But being around kids – whether your own or other peoples’ – can make you look at mundane matters in a whole different light. They ask questions about the perfectly normal, but an answer of “just because” is not sufficient. You have to break down mundane matters to a level that they can understand and which you’ve never thought of before.

I have a regular horror movie evening with a female friend every couple of months. I mentioned this when walking home with my daughter and her friend, and her friend asked me: “Why do people watch horror movies?”

Without really thinking, I answered: “Because people like being scared.”

“Why? I don’t like being scared.”

And there he had me – why do we watch horror movies? Why do we enjoy being scared as adults, when it’s the worst possible experience to have as a child? It took a moment of thinking, but the answer I came up with was: because horror movies are safe, and because we learn from them. And then, because he was five, he asked me a question about something completely different.

Horror movies are just the latest extension of an age-old tradition of storytelling. Before we had written words, people used to gather around the fire and tell stories. Stories in those days had a purpose: to educate as much as entertain. This is perfectly illustrated with fairy tales, which are still around today. Fairy tales are stories with a moral message. What that message might be has been changed or interpreted differently over time. One of my favourite fairy tales is that of Little Red Riding Hood which is constantly being re-examined for both obvious and hidden meanings ranging from “don’t stray from the path” to an allegorical tale of a woman’s growing sexual awareness.

To quote the exceptional Roald Dahl, fairy tales today are very “soft and sappy”. As Dahl so accurately points out in his Revolting Rhymes book, fairy tales used to be filled with far more gore and terror than they are now. For example, the original tale of Rapunzel, as collected by the Grimm brothers, didn’t have Rapunzel being a witless dolt and saying to her captor: “Oh my, you weigh so much more than my fair prince!” What actually gave away their liaison was the fact that she fell pregnant with twins and her clothes stopped fitting as her belly grew. While these details were included in the first edition of the Grimms’ work, it was changed by the second edition when the Grimms decided that pre-marital pregnancy was too immoral for their audience.

One thing the brothers did keep in the stories however was the part about the prince falling down from the tower and being blinded when he fell into a rose bush. It is interesting to note that sex outside of marriage was seen as objectionable, while blinding someone or pushing an old woman into an oven was seen as acceptably necessary to the moral lesson. I have seen some modern children’s retellings retain the subplot of the prince being blinded, but it’s certainly not something that you would find in, for example, Disney’s “Tangled.”

An adult’s love for horror stories – whether in book or movie format – can grow out of a love of fairy tales, as there are many similar elements in evidence. There is gore. There are definite good guys and bad guys. Luck can play a strong role. And there’s always a moral message whether that’s something as simple as “don’t go into the cellar when you hear weird sounds” or something greater like “don’t fiddle with DNA and try to play God or your creation will try to eat you.”

In many modern horror movies and novels, we live vicariously through an experience and come out the wiser for it. We enjoy watching or reading about other people getting stalked by the monster because we learn what not to do in the same situation. At the same time, the story also validates the lessons we already know from the fairy tales of old: for goodness sake, Natalie Dormer, don’t go off the path in the suicide forest when you’ve been told not to and your sister is missing. We all know that you shouldn’t do something that stupid, and we enjoy being proved right, even as we root for Natalie to get out of it alive.

There are societal judgments involved in horror movies as well, some of which are receiving a backlash. The most notable one is the sexual transgression: you can pretty much guarantee that anyone who has sex in a horror movie is next in line for killing – we’re right back to Rapunzel’s pregnancy again. Whether it’s horror stories or fairy tales, you can’t have a woman survive and be the heroine if she’s had non-marital sex at any point in the narrative.

Horror stories, whether in the form of movies or books, fills a hole in our psyche. We want to be aware of the dangers in life – both real and imagined – and know how best to deal with them should we ever encounter them. We like to see others triumph, and watch while those we deem unworthy fall prey to whatever is hunting them. Horror is validating, it’s educational, it’s been around a very long time and, most likely, is here to stay.

About Charlotte Bond

Charlotte Bond is an author, ghostwriter, freelance editor, reviewer and podcaster. Under her own name she has written within the genres of horror and dark fantasy. As a ghostwriter, she's tackled everything from romance to cozy mystery stories and YA novels. She is a reviewer for the Ginger Nuts of Horror website, as well as the British Fantasy Society. She is a co-host of the podcast, Breaking the Glass Slipper.

Click to purchase her latest novel MONSTROUS  

To discover more about Charlotte Bond:

Visit Charlotte's: 

Website:

Facebook:

Twitter:

And Finally on The Daemons Tour ...

WHOOVERS MEET UP, DERBY, Friday 2nd February, 2017

Join Damaris Hayman, Keith Barnfather and some of the authors of THE DÆMONSOF DEVIL'S END Novelisation and screenplay.

With Sam Stone, David J Howe, Jan Edwards, Raven Dane and Debbie Bennett TBC

Date: Friday 2nd February 2018
Address:  The VoiceBox, Forman Street, Derby, DE1 1JQ
Time: 7.30pm

Hold onto your Christmas Vouchers

We'll be at ...

WATERSTONES, Birmingham Saturday 20th January 2018

Some of the authors of this amazing Doctor Who Spin off, will be in store to sign and promote THE DÆMONSOF DEVIL'S END Novelisation. This is a ticketed event with a talk and Q & A.

For further information and to book please contact Waterstones Birmingham 0121 633 4353.

Join Sam Stone, David J Howe, Debbie Bennett, Jan Edwards and Raven Dane

Date: Saturday 20th January 2018
Address:Waterstones Birmingham, 24-26 High St, Birmingham B4 7SL
Time: 6.30pm