Hello there.  Yes, it has been quiet here.  Getting close to halfway through 2008, and this is my first post.  Sorry about that.



Things have been busy, anyways.  The Ellen Datlow anthology ‘Inferno’ has been gathering plaudits since its publication, and a few complimentary words and phrases have come the way of my own contribution, ‘Hushabye’.



Release dates have been (I think) confirmed for two anthologies in which I have work appearing- first up, Gary McMahon’s ‘We Fade To Grey’, from Pendragon Press, has my novella ‘The Narrows’, which will be published alongside contributions from Paul Finch, Stuart Young, Mark West, and Gary himself.  All of these guys are great writers (Paul and Stuart both have multiple awards to their names) and very nice people (I know, sounds cheesy, but it’s actually true).  Mark also provides some gorgeous cover art.  Mark Morris provides an introduction, in which he describes ‘The Narrows’ as ‘a brooding, claustrophobic tale which accesses some of our most primal fears… It is rare, and oddly heartening, to find darkness this impenetrable even in modern horror fiction.’



The second anthology is ‘Houses On The Borderland’, edited by David Sutton, which includes my novella ‘The School House’.  Not seen the proof copies of this yet, but I have no doubt it’ll be a great collection.  I’m very proud of this particular piece, which I think is one of my darkest.  My schooldays were not happy, and writing ‘The School House’ was a rather intense refresher course in exactly why.  It was also written during a pretty grim and stressful period in my life. Painful to write at times- at one point I wondered if I was about to have a nervous breakdown- but I think it was worth it.  I hope you’ll all agree.



Both anthologies will be published in September, and launched at the Fantasycon in Nottingham.



Two things have taken up a lot of time recently- one has been the recording of two new half-hour episodes of ‘Map and Steads’, a decidedly surreal audio comedy-drama I write for Dark Smile Productions.  ‘The Calamari Ring’ and ‘Blood Wedding’ (that title is probably going to be changed…) are the seventh and eighth instalments, and also the longest- the first six episodes were about fifteen minutes apiece.  I directed both (assisted by Mike Clarke on ‘Calamari Ring’, as I also acted in it- move over Orson Welles!) and will soon be learning how to edit as well.  Pretty exhausting and demanding at times, but also a lot of fun- both plays involved working with a bunch of very talented people, who are also a joy to work with.



And the other?  Well, I’ve been working on something novel-related.  No news on that as yet, but watch this space and keep your fingers crossed, if you don’t mind so doing…



All the best,



Simon.