Marie O’Regan

Haven’t had a chance to post for a while - life suddenly went through one of those manic phases that doesn’t actually see you achieving as much as you think you should given the amount of activity involved - although I have to say a large part of the activity was family-related, hence the slow results workwise. Youngest (daughter), Jen, has been adjusting to the new, very large, world of secondary school, only a year after finding her perfect (very small) primary school when we moved from London to Derbyshire - and although she likes it there, I think the sheer size of the place is what she’s finding hard to adjust to. Next one up (youngest son), David, has just restarted sixth form in the same school as Jen after having to take the best part of a year out due to illness, so has had to make new friends and redo everything to do with settling in that he did last year, when we moved. And the oldest two boys (twins), Peter and Joe, have now started their second year at University, so the house is quieter than it’s been for a while. Funny how I hate the silence for a few days when they’ve all gone back to their various schools, and have to have music on until I’ve got used to it again. Still, not long till the Christmas holidays (good grief - where’s the year gone?).

On Friday 13th (when else) - Paul, Simon Clark and I ran a Horror Day event, which went very well. Simon did his Write For Life talk, full of anecdotes and advice on being a professional author, and Paul and I did a workshop on Elements of Horror Fiction. In the evening we did readings, followed by a Q and A session, which rapidly developed into swapping of personal odd experiences, both ours and those of the audience members. Good fun, and would love to do it again. Alex Davis, of Derby Alt Fiction fame, helped us set the event up.

We went to Derby on Thursday night to see our friends, Chaz Brenchley and Gail Nina Anderson, together with Sean O’Brien, read ghost stories at The Old Dolphin Inn, which is supposedly haunted. It was a fun night, very atmospheric, good company, good food. Nice to see another friend there, Sarah Pinborough, hadn’t seen her since FantasyCon. Chaz is doing it all over again at Christmas in Newcastle, details on his site soon, no doubt. We’ll have to see if we can escape the Christmas preparations long enough to go…

We got home on Friday evening, having spent a day wandering Derby (very nice place, lots of cool shopping including a Forbidden Planet, hence the wander), then early on Saturday morning it was off to London to attend Chillerfest, part of MCM Expo. Lots of anime fans dressed as very weird characters wandering around, some carrying placards offering free hugs (?), and loads of tables selling all things genre - figures, cards, books, DVDs… we were lucky enough to interview Christa Campbell, one of the stars of Momentum Pictures’ new movie, 2001 Maniacs, starring Robert Englund and directed by Tim Sullivan. She spent the weekend at the Gorezone/Momentum table, signing copies of Gorezone, which ran a feature on the film in the latest episode, alongside cast interviews. Also there were actors from Stargate, CSI, 4400, as well as legends Christopher Lee and Tom Savini.

I read an article on the BBC website about Saw III today, apparently people have been fainting at viewings of the film. See here for details. Can’t wait to see it…

And over on Neil Gaiman’s journal, some very sage advice for anyone who’s a writer/artist… As Neil says, please read and feel free to pass the information on.

Oh, and we’ve decided to take in World Horror Con, in Toronto, as part of our honeymoon next March. Can’t wait …

Currently reading Lisey’s Story, by Stephen King. Loving it. Before that it was The Secret of Crickley Hall, by James Herbert. One of his best, I think.