January

Happy New Year! We start as we mean to go on in 2012, with news that one of Marie’s stories – ‘Touch’ – is part of the line-up for an anthology launching at the World Horror Convention in March in Salt Lake City. Slices of Flesh edited by Stan Swanson and published by Dark Moon Books, also features tales by such writers as Ramsey Campbell, Simon Clark, Gary Braunbeck, Nancy Kilpatrick and Tim Lebbon, plus cover art by Mike Mignola, creator of Hellboy. For more about this, visit the Dark Moon site here.

Time for a few major Guest announcements for conventions where Marie is part of the organising committee. FantasyCon 2012 to begin with, which recently revealed its inaugural Guest of Honour as Joe R. Lansdale, author of such bestselling books as Act of Love, Dead in the West, Magic Wagon and The Nightrunners (above). FantasyCon’s first Special Guest is well-respected editor of The Fontana Book of Great Horror Stories series and author, Mary Danby. And the con’s MC is New York Times bestselling author of books such as The Everlasting, Fallen and the forthcoming Coldbrook, Tim Lebbon.

To find out more and book your place at the FantasyCon 2012 site, click here.

The first two Guests of Honour of the World Fantasy Convention 2013 have just been announced, as well. They are Richard Matheson and his son, Richard Christian Matheson. Below is the official press release:

“Richard Matheson is a master of modern science fiction, fantasy and horror, and Stephen King credits him with single-handedly regenerating a stagnant genre. His best known novels include the influential I Am Legend, The Shrinking Man, A Stir of Echoes, Hell House, The World Fantasy Award-winning Bid Time Return and What Dreams May Come, all of which have been turned into movies. His latest novel, Other Kingdoms (2011), is about witchcraft and fairies in a rural English village. Not only did Richard Matheson script fourteen episodes of Rod Serling’s iconic The Twilight Zone TV series (including the classic ‘Nightmare at 20,000 Feet’), but his produced movie scripts include The Fall of the House of Usher, Pit and the Pendulum, Tales of Terror, The Raven, The Comedy of Terrors, The Devil Rides Out (aka The Devil’s Bride), Duel, The Legend of Hell House, Somewhere in Time, Jaws 3-D and the two ‘Kolchak’ TV movies, The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler, amongst many other credits Richard Matheson was awarded the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1984 and the World Horror Convention’s Living Legend Award in 2000. In 2006 he was presented with The Legend Award by Ray Bradbury in Los Angeles.

Richard Christian Matheson began his career in the late 1970s. At twenty, he became the youngest writer ever signed to an overall deal with Universal Studios and he wrote scripts for a number on network TV shows. He moved quickly into feature film writing, working with Steven Spielberg on Harry and the Hendersons and Three O’Clock High. To date, he has written, co-written and sold over twelve spec screenplays – considered a record.

He has scripted three mini-series, including Sole Survivor for the Fox network, based on Dean Koontz’s best-selling novel; The Chronicles of Amber, for the Syfy Channel based on Roger Zelazny’s best-selling fantasy series, and the original Dragons, a six-hour for Matheson’s producing partner Bryan Singer and the Syfy Channel.  Richard Christian Matheson is considered a master of the short-short story and has published more than seventy stories of psychological horror in magazines and major anthologies. Thirty of his critically acclaimed stories are collected in Scars and Other Distinguishing Marks with a Foreword by Stephen King and an Introduction by Dennis Etchison. His second collection, Dystopia, gathers sixty stories with an Introduction by Richard Matheson and an Afterword by Peter Straub. The volume also includes tributes about RC’s writing from Clive Barker, Ellen Datlow, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Ray Bradbury, Stephen Jones, Ramsey Campbell and many others. Matheson’s debut novel, Created By, was a Bram Stoker Award nominee and his magic-realism novella, The Ritual of Illusion, will soon be available from PS Publishing.

For more information visit the WFC site here.

Produced in association with Derbyshire County Council and Writing East Midlands, Write Here, Write Now (above) features an abridged version of Paul and Marie’s workshop on Monsters, as well as fiction inspired after their visit.

For more information visit the WEM site here and the DCC literature site here.

Above and below are photos from the British Fantasy Society Christmas Open Night which Marie attended at the Mug House in London. Immediately below is Marie with Paul plus ‘Female Cenobite’ and Phobophobia contributor Barbie Wilde, there for the launch of the anthology all three are in.

The next event Marie will be at is the launch of Alison Littlewood’s A Cold Season (below) at Waterstone’s in Leeds. Published by Jo Fletcher Books. Alison’s debut novel is already a Richard & Judy Book choice here. There’ll be photos from this event next month, so check back then.