See the black sun rise

The screenplay – Charcoal – continues to take shape. Given the general rule that one page of script equals one minute of film, I’m now 40 minutes in and less than halfway through my rough story. I feel on track despite my slow progress and continual referral to my format/technical notes. Back in the early 1990s, when I first began writing short stories, I didn’t think I’d make 3000 words without copious amounts of padding but it didn’t transpire that way and my stories became 8 – 10,000 words. Too long for most publications but that’s ok, some tales just take longer to tell. In the same way the script will be as long or short as it needs to be. I don’t want to be stifled by convention, even if it makes the script less likely to be made into a film, which would have a near-zero chance of doing so even if I was trying to write a commercial film. I’m not thinking that far ahead with any seriousness; to get a first complete draft script under my belt is what I’m aiming for.

I do have some exciting news on the music front. Andy Martin (The Apostles/Academy 23/Unit) is planning to commemorate the 20^th anniversary of the death of Coil’s Jhonn Balance by recording 3 or 4 tracks to be released either as an addition to the next Unit album or as a standalone EP. And he wants my sister, Yvette Haynes, and myself to fully collaborate on it. One of the tracks will be a cover of Coil’s Solar Lodge, from the band’s early Industrial/gothic phase. It’s a daunting prospect – I want to honour Balance and Coil’s memory – so I’m out of my comfort zone again, but it’s worth the challenge/risk. Yvette and I began work on the track at our first rehearsal, last weekend, at a studio on the edge of Penzance. We also spent time working on material of our own, under the name Brother Frank (Clive Barker fans should recognise the reference). The rough recordings we made have an air of post punk and ‘positive punk’/gothic as opposed to Goth) scenes of late 1970s/early 1980s England. The stark, razor sharp sound of early Siouxsie & The Banshees, Adam & The Antz, Theatre of Hate, Joy Division and Southern Death Cult, along with Death In June and Crisis, plus Sonic Youth cBad Moon Rising, are highly influencing my song writing, musically at any rate; lyrically I’m focussing on my horror writing for guidance. This time round – some forty years after I stopped playing music – I’m far more sure of what I want to do and, most importantly, how to go about achieving it. I’m hoping this project is not overwhelmingly nostalgic – the early punk movement is being re-examined by many of those involved, either as musicians, writers or fans and, inevitably, the recent deaths of some of the prominent protagonists has perhaps made many of us realise how important – and necessary – punk was and still is. We live in intense and dark times, even darker than when I was a teenager; nationally, people have been beaten down by years of austerity, the deliberate cruelty of the Government and its determination to make life unbearable for so many. Add to this the current conflicts abroad and the environmental nightmare we’ve created and it feels as if catastrophe is hurtling towards us. Does creativity matter at a time like this? It won’t stop atrocities from happening but it can express hope, anger, compassion. And inspire communication – perhaps the only way to escape this desperate mess we’re in.

31 Days of Haunting

Samantha L recently interviewed me for her 31 Days of Haunting project, which can be found at Haunted Trails. Many thanks to her for letting me take part.

Brother Frank resurrected

A long overdue update on various projects that I’ve been involved in over this cold summer.

On the writing front my script, Charcoal, is taking shape. Typing a rough story into an actual script is painstaking; it demands a very different approach technically to writing stories, but the idea is really coming to life now. I’m 25 minutes in to what I’m aiming to be a 90 – 120 minute film. As with story writing, the script will be as long as the tale takes to tell, but it’s useful to have a rough guide. Alongside this I’ve completed the first draft of a new story, The Ladder Acrobat’s Ascendancy To Heaven, a Surrealist fantasy that rather appeared out of the blue. It’s around the 10,000 word mark at the moment, although reading it through, it feels shorter.

I’m delighted to announce that I have a story close to publication. Around a year ago David Mathew, writer and editor at California’s Montag Press, asked me to submit a story for Time and Propinquity: An Anthology of Fiction and Philosophy. It seemed a daunting prospect as I’m no academic – but I had to hand a story, A Visit From Someone Dear, that appeared to fit very well. It was accepted and I checked the proofs this week. Publication date is uncertain but may be before the end of the year.

This year has also seen me returning to music. I’ve been increasingly listening to early punk; the Sex Pistols, the Raincoats, Crisis, Joy Division and Siouxsie & The Banshees and have had an overwhelming urge create more of my own. I stopped playing music in around 1986 or ’87, which feels like more than one lifetime ago. I’m proud of what my band achieved, but I lacked direction and confidence and I think it showed in the music I made, but now I’ve broken down what I love most about the bands listed above; a few chunky riffs, very ‘trebly’ distorted guitar and lots of space. Modern technology makes it possible and affordable to do this as a one person, home-studio project (although this gives me even less reason to be social, which is not necessarily a good thing). In July I bought a very cheap electric 6 string guitar and a practise amp. A reverb pedal completed the exact sound I was looking for and I’ve been writing songs since then. I thought it would be difficult to learn all over again but I’ve actually been amazed at how I’ve taken to it – I’m already a better musician than I was first time around. My original plan was just to mess about a bit, but I’ve quickly realised I can do more than that and am looking to buy a basic drum pad and 6 track recorder. My good friend Andy Martin, of avant-garde band UNIT has been very supportive of this and has asked me to co-write a couple of songs for his new album. We had a few technical issues to deal with – being 300 miles away from each other means sending files rather than rehearsing/recording in the same room – but they’ve now been resolved. I’ve been asked if I’m likely to be gigging, but I’d say the chances are close to zero. I’m a novice who doesn’t want to compromise (the UNIT project will be a one-off). Not a great combination, although two months of playing on cheap equipment before being asked to collaborate on an album is certainly very much a punk ethos.

A woman at the window

I’ve been cursed/blessed by supernatural experiences throughout my life and the one common factor in nearly all of them was that they were solitary experiences, easy to dismiss by others or even myself. But what happened last summer was entirely different.

I’d been living in my flat for three and a half years and felt very safe there, both on a physical and spiritual level. There were a few occasions where I’d caught sight of movement in my bedroom doorway that I’d put down to tiredness as I hadn’t got any ‘vibes’, good or bad, from them.. One night, in June 2022, I woke up to the sound – and the movement of the mattress being weighed down – of something climbing onto my bed behind me. My first thought was that I had an intruder, in which case I was in serious trouble. I was frozen in fear, but after a while I realised that whatever it was was too small to be a human and it eventually curled up by my back. I fell asleep and woke up in the morning, alone.

The general consensus was that it was the ghost of a dog or cat that felt safe enough with me to approach me. It was true that, despite my fear, I hadn’t felt any malevolent intent from Whatever It Was. I assumed the incident was a one-off but I was wrong; Whatever It Was began making frequent visits, always following the same routine. So I changed mine – I slept in a different position, put a night light on – and it kept the visitor at bay for a couple of days but then its manifestation escalated. It would now climb onto either side of the bed to curl up behind me and then it escalated further: I woke up to find a huge, black cat sitting on my chest looking down at me. I spoke to it and stroked it then fell asleep again.

I began dreading bedtime. I needed the ghost cat to leave. I burned white sage in my bedroom and instructed the cat to depart. It made no difference and I realised I needed to bring the big guns in, so I turned to two wise women from a nearby village. I’d interviewed the pair some years ago and they were well-known figures in the area, and I felt they could do the job compassionately. By the time they came to my home I’d been suffering the visitations for around six weeks and I was quite ragged.

After a chat, the women dowsed every room in the flat, finishing in the bedroom. They told me of their findings: a woman was standing at my bedroom window, looking out at the church next door, which she’d had strong links with during her life. She’d died in the house many, many years ago and had been at the window ever since. The cat was hers; she’d sent it to comfort me as I was grieving. This was very touching to learn but I couldn’t have them stay. Despite their benevolent intentions the visits were terrifying and disruptive. So the wise women performed a cleansing ritual in every room, using herbs, incense and blessed water. I was allowed to observe until they got to the bedroom. They shut the door and were in there for some time. I heard a voice but whose it was and what was being said wasn’t clear. When they emerged they explained they’d “had words” with the ghostly woman and had told her that her and the cat’s presence weren’t required. The woman had left the house and I was told that should the visitations resume a protective charm would be made to hang at my bedroom window.

It was a lot to process; I’d been sharing my home with a ghost for years, albeit a kind one, without being aware of it. The wise women had confirmed the haunting was real. I’d always believed in the existence of ghosts and to me this was absolute proof, both of this event and of all my previous experiences. I hadn’t spent my life inventing them. It was a huge moment.

Several months on, my home is still peaceful, although it took a while to relax enough to be able to sleep. I still wonder about the woman at the window. Had she been happy lingering? Or had she got stuck here somehow? I can only hope she knows I was grateful for her efforts and that she – and her cat – are at peace.

The Bee Keeper Edition

I’m delighted to say that I now have the Bee Keeper Edition of Contagious Magick Of The Super Abundance: The Art & Life Of Ian Johnstone. [For the back story regarding my friendship with Ian, refer to the Anshe-Goat Also page on this website.]

This amazing and extremely limited edition of 10 copies (mine being Wound 7) is described here (from the publisher’s Timeless Editions website):

 “Limited edition of 10 copies of which 8 are for sale.

The centre piece of this magickly charged special boxed edition is one original brass copy of one of “The 23 Stab Wounds of Julius Caesar” measuring 20 x 27 cm, handmade and initialled by Ian Johnstone himself.

In a dream Ark Todd instructed his late partner Mikel, who effectively created the edition under Ian’s guidance, to ceremoniously bury all of the “Brass Wounds” on the Winter Solstice of 2019 in the exact place where their apiary used to stand. The Spanish soil worked its magick on the resurrected Brass Wounds. The wooden box holding the Wound was handcrafted by Mikel using the actual wood, oak for the box and chestnut for the lid, of the apiary.

The book itself is contained within the box in a pouch handsewn using all IJ components, e.g. a rich dark green velvet from Ian’s curtains.

The final testament and a loving homage to a great artist and a special human, gone too soon.”

Along with the contributions I made to the book, the pouch contains a ‘zine with more of Ian’s art and a short tale (‘IIIII’) written by myself especially for this edition. The photos and description can’t really do justice to this gorgeous package, which is quite awe inspiring to handle. I’ve had many high points in my writing life, but this project tops the lot.

Tartan: review

Many thanks to Des Lewis for his review of Tartan. The grim humour in this tale has been noticed far more than I thought it might and feedback so far has been very positive.

I shall look into the eye of the storm

https://zen23.co.uk/podcast-julie-travis-horror-writer-interview/?fbclid=IwAR2gKsfjrMq-b1Ht4ejh3T1B1JTqwZ66UUGYei7YG4D2Iq6kgQzuu_Brv88

Yesterday I was interviewed by writer/musician Gerard Evans for his podcast. I first met Gerard in the early-mid 1980s when he was lead singer with Flowers In The Dustbin, a London anarcho/psychedelic punk band. We wrote many letters to each other and I went to at least a hundred of his gigs. We reconnected a few years ago via social media and we’re writing letters to each other again.

Gerard’s the author of several books about punk and wellbeing and writes for 3am Magazine as well as being founder and CEO of Abisti Web Design. Check out his work!

Publishing news: Theaker’s Quarterly Fiction

Very happy to announce that Theaker’s Quarterly Fiction #72 has now been published, including my story, Tartan. I’ve written about this tale before, but basically it’s one of the most symbolic stories I’ve ever written. I usually take care to give meaningful names to characters, titles, etc, however obscure the references; I doubt many people would be able to guess most of the references in this story! For instance, without giving too much away, the title itself is a reference to a particular photograph album owned by the person the story’s based on. TFQ is available from Amazon, in paperback or Kindle formats.

British Fantasy Society Awards 2022

I’m delighted to announce that my story, Sky Eyes, has been nominated in the Best Short Fiction category for the 2022 BFS Awards. The story appeared in Dreamland: Other Stories, which has been nominated in the Best Anthology category as well as C A Yates’ contribution to the anthology, Fill The Thickened Lung With Breath. Congratulations to all the nominees and many thanks to editor Sophie Essex and publisher Black Shuck Books for taking my story. The winners will be announced at Fantasy Con in mid-September.

Meanwhile, I’ve just finished a very rough first draft of my screenplay, Charcoal. I usually write in a mixture of longhand and typing up/editing. Due to my printer having given up the ghost, I’ve been writing purely in longhand for the last few months. As I now have a (fairly long) short story, Every Moment Is The Beginning Of Forever, nearing completion of its first draft, I have a lot of copy typing to do to catch up! But I’m happy with both projects.

Tartan

I’m delighted to announce that my short story Tartan will be published in the next issue of Theaker’s Quarterly Fiction, which should appear either later this month or in July. I’d been invited to submit a story by co-editor Stephen Theaker but had no idea what he’d make of this particular one. I’ve referred to the tale before on this site, (in this post from October 2020) but it bears repeating: the story is based on the public (at least here in the UK) perception of murderer Ian Brady, who, along with his then partner Myra Hindley, have been held up for the last half century as the epitome of evil. The Moors Murderers, as they were dubbed, tortured and killed five children in the early to mid-1960s, and narrowly missed being hanged for their crimes, as the death penalty had just been abolished. The public felt cheated of what many felt to be the only suitable punishment to fit the pair’s crimes. The public’s resentment and anger only increased over the years – during which two of the bodies were found, others weren’t where Brady or Hindley claimed (which involved both visiting Saddleworth Moor, near Manchester, with the police). During her decades in prison Hindley claimed she’d been coerced into kidnapping the children and hadn’t killed any of them; she wanted parole and had some high-profile people on her side. Brady – who never wanted to be released – died in 2017 still refusing to reveal where one victim was buried, a last act of cruelty to the victim’s family. It was not unusual to hear people wishing the most appalling deaths on the couple; the case deeply affected the country and continues to do so. I wasn’t born until the late ’60s but my parents were very aware of the case at the time and their anger never really left them. The murders left their mark on British culture, too, most famously in Manchester band The Smiths’ Suffer Little Children (and they’re also referred to in Reel Around The Fountain) but also in the anarchist band Crass’ Mother Earth. The Smiths’ tracks are deeply mournful whereas Mother Earth is aimed at the lurid tabloid press’ (and some of the public’s) desire for violent revenge, claiming such feelings make a person as bad as Hindley. Much as I love the song, it seems a bit of a stretch to compare justifiable anger with the deliberate cruelty of Hindley and Brady, but it’s an important aspect of the enduring feelings about the case.

Tartan is one of my most symbolic stories. I rarely pick characters’ names out of thin air, but almost all the names in this story relates to the Hindley/Brady case (most notably the central character Chrome), as does the title. It’s also set in Weston-super-Mare, which has a lot of occult connections but is also a traditional British seaside town that’s become known somewhat as a ‘dumping ground’ for people suffering mental illness.

In time, when those who were around in the early 60s are no longer with us, the horror of the Moors Murders will fade somewhat into history and, possibly folklore. After all, there are more contemporary monsters to replace them – Peter Sutcliffe/The Yorkshire Ripper, Dennis Nilsen, Fred and Rose West, Harold Shipman. And, we can grimly assume, there will be others.