One of the great things about the horror community is that we all kind of know each other, and every now then and then you realise that you haven't actually sat down and interviewed on of the authors that you really admire, despite chatting at conventions, social media etc. With that it mind it was a great pleasure to finally sit down and have a chat with the wonderful Alison Littlewood.    

Alison Littlewood was raised in Penistone, South Yorkshire, and went on to attend the University of Northumbria at Newcastle (now Northumbria University). Originally she planned to study graphic design, but "missed the words too much" and switched to a joint English and History degree. She followed a career in marketing before developing her love of writing fiction. 

She now lives near Wakefield, West Yorkshire, with her partner Fergus.

A Cold Season, from Jo Fletcher Books, is Alison's first novel. It was inspired by her winter commute to snowy Saddleworth.

Alison's short stories have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, including Black Static, Crimewave and Not One Of Us, as well as the British Fantasy Society's Dark Horizons. Other stories have appeared in the charity anthology Never Again as well as Read by Dawn Volume 3, Festive Fear II and Midnight Lullabies. Her life writing has appeared in The Guardian.

Crowded Quarantine Press have been going from strength to strength lately, with a string of quality releases this year leading up to Rich Hawkin’s BFS ‘best horror novel’ award nomination for ‘The Last Plague’.

We figured it was past time we sat down with head honcho Adam Millard to talk about the 21st-century publishing game...

 

 

Matthew Warner’s publishing credits span a variety of formats, including novels, short stories, screenplays, and newspapers. His first novel, The Organ Donor (2003), garnered a 5-star review from critic Feo Amante, who labeled the book a “straight-on modern classic of horror.” Publishers Weekly described his second novel, Eyes Everywhere (2006), as “disturbing … compelling and insightful.” Dramatic works include films from Darkstone Entertainment based on his screenplays, plus a radio play and stage play premiered by theaters in central Virginia.

His opinion column, “Author’s Notes,” ran for five years at HorrorWorld.org and consisted of a blend of commentary, autobiography, and tutorials about the writing craft. Guide Dog Books collected the first three years of those columns into its debut non-fiction title, Horror Isn’t a 4-Letter Word: Essays on Writing & Appreciating the Genre (2008). Warner’s horror novel Blood Born (2011) is an apocalyptic monster tale set in the Washington, DC, area where he grew up. His first urban fantasy novel, The Seventh Equinox (2013), which Publishers Weekly calls “a world-shattering crisis acted out in small scale,” is set in a fictitious Shenandoah Valley town inspired by his current home of Staunton, Virginia. Warner’s latest book, Dominoes in Time (2015), reprints short stories published over a 16-year period.

Warner lives with his wife, the artist Deena Warner, and sons, Owen and Thomas. In 2007, they opened a print and website design business, Deena Warner Design LLC, serving publishers and authors. He holds memberships in the Horror Writers Association and Dramatists Guild of America.

Fresh from the recent broadcast of the critically acclaimed ITV mini-series Midwinter of the Spirit (which he adapted from the best-selling novel by Phil Rickman), and his Best Novella win at the British Fantasy Awards, Stephen Volk very kindly agreed to another in-depth interview, this time about the process of writing Midwinter for TV, the importance of the British Fantasy Awards and FantasyCon as an event, and a little about what the future has in store. But be warned! What follows contains substantial spoilers for Midwinter of the Spirit - so if for some unfathomable reason you missed it on transmission, I’d advise you to treat yourself to a copy of the DVD (available now) before reading further...

Beyond Lovecraft is a portmanteau horror story that draws directly on the works of H. P Lovecraft. Drawn by award winning artist Rob Moran and written by award winning writer Jasper Bark, it's a 96 page graphic novel featuring four stand alone tales and one on going story that links them all together. This is a grim and cosmic love letter to the mythos that means so much to the creators.

Andrew David Barker was born in Derby, England in 1975. He directed an independent feature film entitled A Reckoning in 2009 and has since written or co-written several screenplays. He has also had several short stories published. The Electric is his first novel.  His latest work Dead Leaves has just been released by Boo Books. 

www.andrewdavidbarker.com or loitering aroundwww.twitter.com/ADBarker

Matthew A. Brown's JULIA has been gaining rave reviews , it is a powerful film, one that is hard watch thanks to it's subject matter, but it is a film that Ginger Nuts of Horror highly recommends you watch. 

Rehab for anything can be a real bitch. Especially if an unorthodox treatment is sought but not followed to the letter. The result could well be psychological damage with horrific consequences. Enter Julia Shames (THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE (FIRST SEQUENCE) star Ashley C. Williams), a meek and mild clinician at a thriving plastic surgery business, who dates the wrong guy and ends up being drugged and gang-raped by his friends. Catatonic after suffering such brutal trauma she hears about a new kind of therapy being whispered about for her damaged condition as practised by the mysterious Dr. Sgundud. What that restorative cure entails takes Julia into a whole new shadowy area of her personality, one that teaches her how not to become a victim anymore and transforms her into an empowered Angel of Vengeance.

Kit Power should be no stranger to readers of Ginger Nuts. A rising new talent in horror fiction, he is also the author of numerous reviews, articles and the ongoing monthly series of columns, My Life In Horror. He's had a variety of short stories published in a number of anthologies and magazines such as At Hell's Gates 2, Widowmakers, Splatterpunk and, of course, the first volume of The Black Room Manuscripts from The Sinister Horror Company. His novella, Lifeline, was released in 2014 to some great reviews. And now, he is on the cusp of a much wider audience as he prepares to release a collection of short stories (albeit, one with a difference) and his debut novel, GodBomb! Is set to...*ahem*...explode onto the scene towards the end of September. That novel is also published by The Sinister Horror Company, and you can find my review of it here.

So with all this exciting stuff going on, I thought it was high time the man himself got grilled on the very site where he's grilled so many others ('grilled' is starting to take on a weird connotation in my head; let's not use it again...).

Rich Hawkins is a name that should by now, be a familiar one to many horror readers. With numerous short stories published in various anthologies, including Grindhouse and Tales For The Toilet, both from Crowded Quarantine Publications, Signals From The Void through Rainstorm Press and Black Chaos: Tales Of The Zombie from Exter Press, he quickly moved on to longer works with his debut novel - and BFS award nominated, but more on that later - The Last Plague, published with Crowded Quarantine Press. With a novella through April Moon Books, Black Star, Black Sun, further cementing his growing reputation as a proficient writer of bleak, cosmic horror, he is now set to release the sequel to The Last Plague, cunningly titled, The Last Outpost.

At 6 years old he began acting in commercials and has since transitioned into the world of film and television. His young career quickly took off, with guest appearances in Rookie Blue, Alphas, Against the wall, Flashpoint, The Listener, The Rick Mercer Show and television movies such as, "Mistletoe Over Manhattan", Disney's "Frenemies", "Home Alone 5", "Holidaze" and "Pete's Christmas".

Peter can also be seen in Darren Bousman's, "The Barrens" with Stephen Moyer and Mia Kirshner, Damian Lee's "A Dark Truth" with Andy Garcia, Forrest Whitaker and Eva Longoria, and Vincenzo Natali's "Haunter" with Abigail Breslin, Peter Outerbridge, Michelle Nolden and Stephen McHattie. In the last two years he had a leading role in Jordan Barker's "Torment" with Katherine Isabel and Robin Dunne, and a recurring role as Prince Charles of France, in the CW Network's series Reign.

Most recently, Peter filmed a pilot written by Ricky Blitt and Johnny Galecki; worked with veteran actor Christopher Plummer in the feature film "Remember"; and completed a leading role in the piece "The Box", directed by Jovanka Vuckovic, as part of the horror anthology XX.

"Hellions", with Chloe Rose and Robert Patrick and directed by Bruce Macdonald, is set to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2015.