Carrie At 40

As astonishing as it might sound, Saturday 5th April marked the 40th anniversary of Stephen King's debut novel "Carrie" being published.  NSFWG member Mark West, a longtime fan of the writer, was approached by the review site readerdad.co.uk to take part in their Carrie At 40 celebrations.

You can read his article and review on this link.

As a kid of the ‘70s and ‘80s, I grew up with Stephen King and was aware of him – and a certain book – before I really knew who he was or what he did. During the ‘70s, my Dad was a fan of paperback horror and he had a small bookcase in his and my Mum’s bedroom. Sometimes – not often – I’d go in and look at the spines on the shelves, daring myself to look at the gloriously gruesome images that adorned the covers. One book that killed me was The Fog by James Herbert – the hand holding the woman’s head – but the cover that got me every time I looked at it (and it still has the power to unsettle, since my own 8-year-old son doesn’t like it either) was the New English Library edition of “Carrie”. I have the 1986 ‘sixteenth impression’ so mine has “author of Christine and Pet Sematary” on it but otherwise the image is the same – a well painted portrait of a young woman with wide, staring eyes, a snub nose and a small mouth, opened slightly to show her incisors. Blood seems to run from her hairline, making trails down her face to drip off her chin. I was too young to appreciate it properly, too young to read it but that image succeeded in scaring the crap out of me.

...read on at this link

An Easter break

With Eastercon just winding down, we thought we'd take this opportunity to wish readers of the blog a Happy Easter.

In our own inimitable style...

New from Newcon Press

Newcon Press, the imprint run by NSFWG co-chairman Ian Whates, has two new anthologies out, filled with excellent writers.

Both books will be launched on Friday evening at this year's Eastercon in Glasgow, 6.00 pm on April 18th, unveiled at a launch party which will also see the release of a new collection from Eric Brown and The Moon King, Neil Williamson's debut novel.

A mysterious disappearance in the closed confines of the lunar colony, a man who claims to see a biblical reference made reality, a vital message carved into a piece of decaying skin, a powerful woman’s sage advice to her granddaughter, an artist determined to create the ultimate work of art whatever the cost, the dangerous search for a very special book, a future metropolis terrorised by an enigmatic serial killer, a man caught in a dark spiral of revenge…

Open the covers at your peril.

1. Introduction -- Ian Whates
2. E.J. Swift – The Crepuscular Hunter
3. Adam Roberts – Gross Thousand
4. Donna Scott – The Grimoire
5. Emma Coleman – The Treehouse
6. Paula Wakefield – Red in Tooth and Claw
7. Simon Kurt Unsworth – Private Ambulance
8. Jay Caselberg – Bite Marks
9. Marie O’Regan – Inspiration Point
10. Paul Graham Raven – The Boardinghouse Heart
11. Simon Morden – Entr’acte
12. James Worrad – Silent in Her Vastness
13. Paul Kane – Grief Stricken
14. Alex Dally McFarlane – The (De)Composition of Evidence

Paperback - £9.99 / Hardback - £15.99

order from Space Witch here

Quantum mysteries, explosions with no apparent source, wartime code-breaking, artificial intelligence cloaked in the sweetest of forms, enchantments undertaken on a whim, a fetish convention at a small town hotel, a faithful pet’s ghost that won’t let go, a surgeon forced to operate at gunpoint, a future London where fate rests on the choice of dishes selected at a meal… All this and more.

1. Introduction -- Ian Whates

2. Stephen Palmer – Palestinian Sweets

3. Frances Hardinge – Slink-Thinking                   

4. Storm Constantine – A Winter Bewitchment

5. Andrew Hook – Softwood

6. Adele Kirby – Soleil

7. Stewart Hotston – Haecceity

8. John Llewellyn Probert – The Girl with No Face

9. Jonathan Oliver – High Church

10. Maura McHugh – Valerie

11. Holly Ice – Trysting Antlers

12. Ruth E.J. Booth – The Honey Trap

13. Benjanun Sriduangkaew – Elision

Paperback - £9.99 / Hardback - £15.99

order from Space Witch here

Also, available from Space Witch, is "The Newcon Press Little Black Box" which contains

Hardback copies of both volumes of the duo anthology

La Femme

And Noir

An envelope filled with a quartet of sheets signed by all the contributing authors

A black tea-light candle shot through with silver, couched within a purple organza bag woven from the wings of dark fairies. The two books will be bound together with ribbon to protect the unwary reader, the inside of the box lined with black as an added precaution:

The NewCon Press Little Black Box is strictly limited, with only 100 available, each box individually numbered. When they’re gone, they’re gone…

Price: £39.99

NSFWG member Paul Melhuish interviewed...

...online at Jim Mcleod's excellent horror resource "The Ginger Nuts Of Horror".

Great interview and some nice mentions for the group.

To read the review at the Ginger Nuts site, click here.