The Sinister Horror Company are proud to reveal the cover of our forthcoming title John McNee’s Doom Cabaret by John McNee which will be released on the 24th April 2020, with an early release at StokerCon UK in Scarborough over the weekend of 16th – 19th April 2020.
 
John McNee featured in our very own The Black Room Manuscripts Volume Four with his story Tears of Honey.  Doom Cabaret marks his debut solo horror collection featuring 8 stories: Bebbel, Dead Deanna, Man Holding Razor Blade, Slaughterhouse Sweetheart, Skunk Jr, Repulsive Glamour, The Lullaby Man and Midnight at the Doom Cabaret.
 
The striking cover, revealed below, was created by Allan Black.

John McNee has this to say about the new release:
 
“For as long as I can remember, I have dreamed of the Doom Cabaret, a place encapsulating everything that intrigues me about horror.
 
It is a world of dark theatrics, lurid oil paintings, grotesquely beautiful freak shows and weaponised sexuality. Its characters are artists, musicians, illusionists and gourmets, haunted by dangerous obsessions, dancing along the edge of a seductive abyss.
 
I'm so glad to be working with Sinister Horror Company, a press for which I have tremendous affection and respect. They're dedicated to providing readers with original, exciting, uncompromising tales of terror, which is what the Doom Cabaret is all about.”

 John McNee is the author of numerous strange and disturbing horror stories published in a variety of strange and disturbing places, as well as the novel “Prince of Nightmares”.
He is also the creator of Grudgehaven and author of the “GrudgePunk” series, chronicling the lives of its deranged inhabitants.
He lives in Scotland, where he is employed as a journalist.
 
John McNee’s Doom Cabaret will be available on Kindle and Paperback from Amazon and the Sinister Horror Company website from the 24th April 2020.
An early release launch party will be happening at StokerCon UK between 16th – 19th April 2020.
 
Pre-orders to go live on Amazon and the Sinister website in due course.
 
Cover art by Allan Black.
 

I’ve suffered from anxiety and depression for more than a decade now.  It all started with a panic attack that I thought was a heart attack and led to an interesting ten years or so finding the balance of medication and lifestyle that kept the panic attacks and resultant mood issues under control. Now, apart from the odd burst of impostor syndrome – that I’m sure affects us all – the chemical balance of my brain is mostly stable.

It wasn’t an easy journey – my mother died back in 2010 when I was at my most imbalanced, and the chemical fog of (not yet accurately prescribed) antidepressants levelled out all feelings to a neutral state. Incapable of properly expressing any feelings, I never properly felt the depth of emotion that I should have at her passing, and thus was incapable of grieving at the time. Her death and funeral felt as though they didn’t take place, but in a realm removed from ours – perhaps a fictional one, perhaps a parallel realm of some sort which was the only one where my dad could cry.

This article will undoubtedly have writings from those far more eloquent than myself, and those who have suffered depression way worse or for much longer, but for what it’s worth – here’s my two Penn ‘Orth.

The tip I’ll give is less about following any particular piece of advice, but more about ignoring one – I’ll explain.

It’s a common trope, and one you’ll find across a million interviews with writers – it’s basically a stock answer, one that a writer can spit out by default without even thinking about it. I’m even guilty of giving this advice myself on more than one occasion. It’s writ large in sixty foot tall concrete letters across countless guides to writing, probably inscribed on a thousand crib cards and noticeboards and has been scrawled in biro across dozens of arms and wrists.

That advice?
Write. Write. Write.
And my well-researched counter-advice?
Fuck that for a game of soldiers.

As writers, we’re encouraged to spend every waking moment either writing, thinking about writing, or researching what we’re working on or what we’re going to be writing next. And for many of us not gifted with a tireless publisher or agent, we’ll spend a formidable amount of time promoting our writing.

The argument is, is that writing is like a muscle. The more you exercise it, the stronger it gets.  You’ll only get better the more you persist at it, and to a great extent, that statement is entirely accurate. But if we’ll take that analogy to its logical conclusion, there are sometimes when you just need to rest a muscle.

There is nothing wrong with lounging in bed binging on a Battlestar Galactica Box set (avoid the “Black Market” episode though. You’ll thank me). There’s no guilt to be had with playing FIFA 20 on the PS4 in your pants (for those of us gifted enough to have a PS4 in our pants).  There’s no shame in spending your thyme arranging the contents of your spice drawer into alphabetic order. Whatever floats your boat.

A bus driver is still a bus driver when he’s not sitting at the steering wheel. Just because a premiership footballer isn’t in training or playing a match, he continues to be a premiership footballer. You’ve ever done any writing? Just because you’re not writing at this very moment – or even doing anything to further your writing – you remain a writer.

I used to feel bad for doing anything in my spare time that wasn’t writing related, but it ultimately didn’t help. If you don’t want to write, then feeling guilty doesn’t drive you into doing it - but it will make you feel persistently bad about your constant failings. And starts making you resent doing the leisure activities that you used to enjoy.

And really fucks with your FIFA 20 “A” game.

I’m guessing that you write because you want to write, because either you feel you have something important to say, or that there’s something inside you urging to be transposed as the written word.  If you start making your writing into a chore – or, at worst, something you loathe, then it’s time to give pause. Your point is still equally as valid, even if not written down – and your urges can wait until you’ve had a bit of a rest.

I did eventually find the right balance of antidepressants and did eventually come to properly grieve. And I write when I damn well want to write. And, apart from what some of my critics would have you believe, I remain a writer.

​
David Court is a short story author and novelist, whose works have appeared in over a dozen venues including Tales to Terrify, StarShipSofa, Visions from the Void, Fear’s Accomplice and The Voices Within. Whilst primarily a horror writer, he also writes science fiction, poetry and satire. His last collection, Scenes of Mild Peril, was re-released in 2020 and his debut comic writing has just featured in Tpub’s The Theory (Twisted Sci-Fi). As well as writing, David works as a Software Developer and lives in Coventry with his wife, three cats and an ever-growing beard. David’s wife once asked him if he’d write about how great she was. David replied that he would, because he specialized in short fiction. Despite that, they are still married.
 
Website: www.davidjcourt.co.uk
Twitter: @DavidJCourt