July

Marie thoroughly enjoyed her guest appearance at this year’s Alt. Fiction event, on Saturday June 12th at the Quad in Derby. As well as running a genre workshop with Paul Kane on the Saturday at 1pm, she was also on a panel called ‘Dark Fantasy vs. Horror with Paul, Tim Lebbon and moderator Kim Lakin-Smith. You can listen to a podcast of this by clicking here.

As a follow-up to last month’s upstate, about Hellbound Hearts, which appeared on the Honorable Mention listings for Ellen Datlow’s The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Two, the anthology has appeared on the BFS Awards shortlist, as well as the story ‘The Confessor’s Tale’ by Sarah Pinborough (below).

June

We begin this month with more details about Marie’s guest appearance at this year’s Alt. Fiction event on Saturday June 12th at the Quad in Derby. She will be doing a genre workshop with Paul Kane on the Saturday at 1pm, and other authors attending the event include Ramsey Campbell, Mike Carey, Chaz Brenchley, Paul Cornell, Sarah Pinborough, Mark Chadbourn, Juliet McKenna, Tim Lebbon and Steve Erikson among others, plus editors Stephen Jones of Mammoth Book of Year’s Best Horror fame, Marc Gascoigne and Lee Harris from Angry Robot, Jenni Hill from Abaddon/Solaris and Steve Tribe from BBC Books, as well as literary agents John Jarrold and John Berlyne. Above is the excellent event booklet, with cover art by the acclaimed Liam Sharp, which was typeset and designed by Marie. If you fancy coming along then visit the website here for more on how to book.

Marie was over the moon to learn that a number of the stories from the anthology she edited with Paul, Hellbound hearts, have appeared on the Honorable Mention listings for Ellen Datlow’s The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Two (above). These include ‘The Collector’ by Kelley Armstrong, ‘Prisoners of the Inferno’ by Peter Atkins, ‘Tis Pity He’s Ashore’ by Chaz Brenchley, ‘Our Lord of Quarters’ by Simon Clark, ‘The Promise’ by Nancy Kilpatrick and ‘Mother’s Ruin’ by Mark Morris. 

You can see the full list here and here.

May

Marie has just reviewed Plague of the Dead (above) – the first part of the Morningstar Saga – by Z.A. Recht for Total Sci-Fi. You’ll be able to read her thoughts about the novel, released by Pocket/Permuted Press when the review appears online at http://totalscifionline.com/

Here are just a few of the photos featuring Marie from March’s excellent World Horror Convention in Brighton, like the one above of her on the ‘What Not To Do: Tips for the First-Time Convention Attendee’ panel with Jo Fletcher (right) and Mike Wilmoth (left). Below you can see her chairing the ‘Deal or No Deal: How Do I Get An Agent?’ panel alongside agents John Berlyne (far left), Ian Drury (to Marie’s left) and Dorothy Lumley (on Marie’s right).

For more on the event, including pictures and a testimonial from Marie, visit the World Horror site here.

April

Above is the moment when James Herbert received his award for lifetime achievement in the horror field – just one of the highlights of The World Horror Convention which Marie attended last month (and was on the organising committee of). Coming soon are more photos from this fantastic event, including pictures of Marie on the panels ‘What Not To Do: Tips for the First-Time Convention Attendee’ and ‘Deal or No Deal: How Do I Get An Agent?’, which she also moderated. For now, though, here is a picture of Marie at the convention with Paul taken by Hellbound actress Barbie Wilde.

© Barbie Wilde

Marie also found time last month to update author Tony Richards’ site, with news about his new book from Screaming Dreams – Yuppieville – which launched at the Con (see below). You can find more details at http://www.richardsreality.com/

© Steve Upham

March

The first huge piece of news is Marie’s new non-fiction book. Compiled with Paul, Voices in the Dark is an interview book containing lengthy and informative conversations with some of the biggest stars of the horror genre: writers, directors and actors, including Clive (Books of Blood) Barker; Neil (Stardust) Gaiman; James (The Rats) Herbert; Sarah (Matter of Blood) Pinborough; Joe (Horns) Hill; Steve (30 Days of Night) Niles; John (The Fog) Carpenter; Stuart (Re-Animator) Gordon; Eric (The Hitcher) Red; Rob (Halloween) Zombie; Betsy (Friday 13th) Palmer and Ron (Hellboy) Perlman. The book also comes with an introduction from the author of the BFI Modern Classics’ The Thing, Anne Billson. Keep checking back for more details about this closer to the release date, but there will be pre-publicity for this at World Horror in Brighton.

Speaking of which, Marie was delighted to be asked to sit on two panels at WHC. The first is on the Thursday of the con, 4-5pm and is called ‘What Not To Do: Tips for the First-Time Convention Attendee’. The second, which she is also moderating, is on the Friday at 5-6pm and is entitled: ‘Deal or No Deal: How Do I Get An Agent?’

In terms of future appearances, Marie can finally announce that she will be part of the line-up at the Alt.Fiction convention in Derby on 12th June. She will be featuring alongside BBC Torchwood, Dr Who and Being Human authors, as well as bestselling authors such as Tim Lebbon, Chaz Brenchley, Peter Crowther and Mark Chadbourn, award-winning editor Stephen Jones and many others. For a full list of the line-up so far visit http://altfiction.co.uk/line-up.

Finally, in her capacity as webmistress for each, Marie has updated the websites for both Read-Us and Tony Richards. To check out both of these visit http://www.read-us.com and http://www.richardsreality.com/.

February

Marie has just done a review of The Dead That Walk (above), Stephen Jones’ new zombie anthology featuring stories from the likes of Stephen King, Clive Barker, Joe Hill, Richard Matheson, Ramsey Campbell, Harlan Ellison, Kim Newman and Michael Marshall Smith. You can see this on the Total Sci-Fi Online site in the very near future.

She has also recently updated artist Michelle Blessemaille’s site with more pictures in her capacity as webmistress. You can check this out at Michelle's website: www.michelleblessemaille.com

January

And a Happy New Year to all! Marie's year has got off to a good start with the publication of Darc Karnivale by Evil Nerd Empire. Edited by David Byron and Corey R. Scales, the anthology features Marie's short story 'Play Time.'

December saw the UK launch of Hellbound Hearts at the British Fantasy Society Open Night in London on 4th December. Below are a couple of photographs of the event, courtesy of Martin Roberts.

The book's editors, Paul and Marie, with friends Christopher Fowler and Dean M. Drinkel.