Exotic horror and a brand new Apocalypse!

I’ve had quite a hectic schedule in the last few weeks. My announcement regarding THE NICE GUYS CLUB came at the end of several months of intense horse-trading, which is all now happily sorted. But that has kept me on my toes. In addition, there has been fresh work to do on the two movies I currently have on the go – DARK HOLLOW and THE DEVIL’S ROCK 2, plus, of course, I’ve been putting the final touches to TERROR TALES OF EAST ANGLIA, which we’re hoping to launch at the East Anglia Literary Festival in August.

Folks may recall that, a couple of weeks back, I posted some images on here to illustrate the subject-matter we’d be covering in this next TERROR TALES volume. In order of appearance, they were: Borley Rectory in Essex; an old wood-cut depicting Matthew Hopkins, the infamous Witchfinder-General who terrorised the eastern counties during the Civil War; and the now legendary photograph of the ghost of Fakenham Hall, Norfolk, taken back in the 1930s. Be assured, all will feature, in one form of another, in the TERROR TALES OF EAST ANGLIA.

Now onto a few other bits and pieces which are still in the offing. The various pictures this week illustrate a few other projects of mine.

First up, pictured above is the cover for ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE: FIGHTBACK, edited by the indefatigable Stephen Jones and due for launch at Fantasycon 2012, in Brighton (October). My contribution to that one is a cop novella entitled DEAD AIR, which I’m rather proud of (even if I do say so myself), but I'm not by any means alone in that one. There isn't a full TOC available yet, as far as I know, but suffice to say that Jones weaves together various essays, reports, letters, official documents and transcripts - courtesy of numerous writers well-known in the genre - to create a coherent and chilling mosaic novel (a sequel, of course, to his first in the series - ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE, which was such a hit back in 2010.

Secondly, pictured left is the cover for EXOTIC GOTHIC 4, edited by top US literary man, Danel Olson. My World War One-era short novella, OSCHAERT, will feature, along with cracking tales from such luminaries as Reggie Oliver, Stephen Volk, Simon Kurt Unsworth, Robert Hood and Anna Taborska. EG4 will be published later this month, and, dealing as it does with subtle chillers from all around the world, may be one for aficionados of intellectual horror.

Less intellectual, I’m sure you’ll agree – but pretty startling all this same (in fact 'eye-popping' would be another way to describe it) – is this last image, pictured below, which should give all you movie fans in the west a rare glimpse of the cover art to the new Japanese DVD edition of THE DEVIL’S ROCK.

I'm not sure what I feel about this one, to be honest. In this case, the distributors have clearly gone for that old ‘torture porn’ feel, which is not what the film is about at all, but who am I to tell industry professionals their business? I’m sure they know the audience they are targeting better than I do.

That’s it for now, but there is lots more interesting stuff on the horizon, so if you take my advice, you'll keep tuning in.