"The Masked Messenger" in Lovecraft eZine #22

My Harrison Peel collaboration, written with John Goodrich, is now available to read online at Lovecarft eZine.

Better still, it is also available on Amazon as a Kindle edition or as a Podcast from the Lovecraft eZine site, read by Chaz Engan of Beyond the Mountains of Madness fame. The very cool image of the Masked Messenger is by Adam Baker. I hope you enjoy, and if you do drop a line on the story and I'll respond as soon as I can.

"The Masked Messenger" makes Ellen Datlow's Honourable Mention List

It may not be big news but its still good news, to make an international Honourable Mention in a Year's Best Anthology, in this case Ellen Datlow's Best Horror of the Year Volume 4.

The story in question was a collaboration with the very talented John Goodrich, "The Masked Messenger" appearing in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #52 edited by the equally talented David Kernot. The tale features another adventure of my ongoing character, Harrison Peel and is set in the Cthulhu Mythos cycle of stories

Here is a sample of the tale:

The Masked Messenger
David Conyers & John Goodrich

Harrison Peel counted the dead as more covered corpses rolled into the Marrakech morgue. They weren’t really humans, rather the dissected remains of their flesh, bloody in leaking body bags. The sharp, coppery smell of blood filled the room, reminding Peel of an abattoir.

Lounging next to Peel was Fabien Chemal, a spook with Morocco’s DST intelligence agency. Chemal mumbled something in Arabic about being inconvenienced by the gory spectacle. While he watched junior spooks and morgue attendants catalogue the grim remains, he offered Peel a cigarette. Peel refused, wishing instead for a good strong coffee.

“How many dead?” Peel wiped his sweaty hands on cotton pants. It should have been cold in this place. That’s how they would have done it back in the NSA. Cold to keep the body parts preserved for proper forensic analysis.

Chemal shrugged, lit his cigarette. “We don’t know yet. At least eighteen dead: five Americans, two Germans, one Spaniard. The rest were my people, but I guess your people won’t care about that.”

“I care.” Peel said as he stood. The smell of death and smoke felt constricting from his seat in a corner. “The NSA care, otherwise I wouldn’t be here.”

Chemal raised an eyebrow. “I get the impression, Mr. Peel, that you were a little eager to come in person, rather than send a subordinate?”

Peel didn’t know precisely what Chemal’s rank was in the murky hierarchy of the Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire. He did know that any time he didn’t spend with Chemal he would spend being tailed. They were controlling him, and this would make his job here more difficult than it needed to be.

The morgue was in the basement of Marrakech DST offices. At least one more level existed beneath their feet, reserved for DST’s prisoners and interrogation cells. In this building, the dead warranted more respect than detainees.

“Some personal reason perhaps, Mr. Peel?”

Peel ignored Chemal’s question. The Moroccan’s tone sounded too inquisitive, as if Peel were under interrogation. “You said you don’t know how many died in the blast? How’s that? And secondly I’m not sure it really was a blast. To me the bodies look like they’ve been sliced to pieces. Thousands of pieces?”

“They were ... They still will be?”

Peel’s stomach felt empty. He was confused, but then everything about yesterday’s terrorist bombing in Jemaa el-Fna square lacked any resemblance to sense. The blast had been invisible, soundless. People were shredded where they stood in the Marrakech market. Yet their clothes, wallets, purses, souvenirs and the pavement beneath them remained untouched. It was as if invisible demons had mutilated their victims with razor sharp teeth and claws.

“Do you know that some of the victims died before the blast occurred, hours, even days before?”

“I don’t understand?”

Chemal shrugged. “Neither do we ... really.” His burned-down cigarette hung precariously from his lip as he reached for another. Perhaps his need to smoke was only a need not to smell death. “Of the eighteen dead, two were market vendors who would have been in the square at the time of the blast, had they not been shredded three days earlier. The German pair were found in their homes two mornings ago in the same mutilated state.”

SF Crowsnest Reviews "The Masked Messenger"

Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, issue 52 edited by David Kernot got a great review on SF Crowsnest. Here is what reviewer Rod MacDonald said about John Goodrich and my collaboration, "The Masked Messenger", which is another tale in my Harrison Peel series:
   

"David Conyers and John Goodrich are the joint authors of ‘The Masked Messenger’ which features Harrison Peel in another Cthulhu Mythos story. The agent is in Morocco to investigate strange deaths where people end up being cut into thousands of pieces. Is this a conventional terrorist act or is it an act of a cult belonging to the Masked Messenger? There is a strange book, centuries old, which contains deadly secrets and there is also a portal in the Sahara Desert which leads on to another world completely different from our own. An excellent tale full of suspense and action, it's worth purchasing the magazine for this alone."

Extract from "The Masked Messenger"

This is an extract from my latest Harrison Peel tale, "The Masked Messenger" co-authored with John Goodrich and appearing in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #52.

The Masked Messenger

David Conyers & John Goodrich
 

Harrison Peel counted the dead as more covered corpses rolled into the Marrakech morgue. They weren’t really humans, rather the dissected remains of their flesh, bloody in leaking body bags. The sharp, coppery smell of blood filled the room, reminding Peel of an abattoir.

Lounging next to Peel was Fabien Chemal, a spook with Morocco’s DST intelligence agency. Chemal mumbled something in Arabic about being inconvenienced by the gory spectacle. While he watched junior spooks and morgue attendants catalogue the grim remains, he offered Peel a cigarette. Peel refused, wishing instead for a good strong coffee.

“How many dead?” Peel wiped his sweaty hands on cotton pants. It should have been cold in this place. That’s how they would have done it back in the NSA. Cold to keep the body parts preserved for proper forensic analysis.

Chemal shrugged, lit his cigarette. “We don’t know yet. At least eighteen dead: five Americans, two Germans, one Spaniard. The rest were my people, but I guess your people won’t care about that.”

“I care.” Peel said as he stood. The smell of death and smoke felt constricting from his seat in a corner. “The NSA care, otherwise I wouldn’t be here.”

Chemal raised an eyebrow. “I get the impression, Mr. Peel, that you were a little eager to come in person, rather than send a subordinate?”

Peel didn’t know precisely what Chemal’s rank was in the murky hierarchy of the Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire. He did know that any time he didn’t spend with Chemal he would spend being tailed. They were controlling him, and this would make his job here more difficult than it needed to be.

The morgue was in the basement of Marrakech DST offices. At least one more level existed beneath their feet, reserved for DST’s prisoners and interrogation cells. In this building, the dead warranted more respect than detainees.

“Some personal reason perhaps, Mr. Peel?”

Peel ignored Chemal’s question. The Moroccan’s tone sounded too inquisitive, as if Peel were under interrogation. “You said you don’t know how many died in the blast? How’s that? And secondly I’m not sure it really was a blast. To me the bodies look like they’ve been sliced to pieces. Thousands of pieces?”

“They were ... They still will be?”

Peel’s stomach felt empty. He was confused, but then everything about yesterday’s terrorist bombing in Jemaa el-Fna square lacked any resemblance to sense. The blast had been invisible, soundless. People were shredded where they stood in the Marrakech market. Yet their clothes, wallets, purses, souvenirs and the pavement beneath them remained untouched. It was as if invisible demons had mutilated their victims with razor sharp teeth and claws.

“Do you know that some of the victims died before the blast occurred, hours, even days before?”

“I don’t understand?”

Chemal shrugged. “Neither do we ... really.” His burned-down cigarette hung precariously from his lip as he reached for another. Perhaps his need to smoke was only a need not to smell death. “Of the eighteen dead, two were market vendors who would have been in the square at the time of the blast, had they not been shredded three days earlier. The German pair were found in their homes two mornings ago in the same mutilated state.”

Feeling anxious, Peel rubbed the back of his head where it itched. He saw a pattern now, and wished he didn’t. Yet he’d been right to come so far, these people needed to know what he knew, if only they would let him help. “There’s more, isn’t there Mr. Chemal?”

“Yes.” The Moroccan lit a new cigarette from the embers of the last one. “Three more have died in the twenty-four hours since. Same cause of death: spontaneous shredding.”
“And none were in the square at the time?”

“They were when the blast went off.” He caught Peel’s stare with a sardonic grin. “You came all this way Mr. Peel, all the way from Maryland, U.S.A. Can you tell me what it is that’s happened here?”

Peel wouldn’t catch his stare. “You said the bomber is still alive? I need to speak to her before I can give you definite answers ... if I can do even that.”

Andromeda Spaceways 52 is Released

Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine (ASIM) issue 52 is released.

David Kernot edited Issue 52 and amassed a collection of 19 modern Australian and overseas speculative fiction selections from the following authors: Sean Monaghan, Dominik J Parisien, Nicky Drayden, Kathleen Jennings, Brenda Anderson, Felicity Pulman, Liz Colter, Ray Tabler, Melanie Typaldos, Linda Jenner, Rachel Kolar, GR McLeod, LK Pinaire, Margaret Karmazin, Pam L Wallace, David Conyers and John Goodrich, Peter Cooper, Natalie Nikolovski, and Ken Liu.

Poetry is from Alexander Seidel and Jack Horne and artwork is from David Conyers, Kathleen Jennings and Olivia Kernot. I think the cover is fantastic.

My contribution in a new Harrison Peel tale, "The Masked Messenger", co-authored with John Goodrich.

More details and how to purchase issues are found here.

"The Masked Messenger" in Andromeda Spaceways 52

The Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, ASIM, Issue 52 is about to go to print.  It is edited by David Kernot and features a new Harrison Peel tale, "The Masked Messenger" co-authored with John Goodrich.

This tale takes Harrison Peel to Morocco investigating temporary improvised explosive devices, and an encounter with another well-known deity of the Cthulhu Mythos. As a bonus, I have an illustration included, but they will pale in comparison to the works of Olivia Kernot (who also did the very striking cover illustration) and Kathleen Jennings.

David Kernot is a very talented author and I had the priviedge of working with him on Midnight Echo 6: The Science Fiction Horror Special, so I'm looking forward to what he has come up with this issue.

The line up for Issue 52 is as follows:

Stories:

• A Routine Diplomatic Incident by Ray Tabler
• Eternal Youth by Melanie Typaldos
• First, Do No Harm (Unless They’re Zombies) by Rachel Kolar
• Golden Years in the Paleozoic by Ken Liu
• I am Nano by Sean Monaghan
• Love As You Find It by Margaret Karmazin 
• Midnight Rhino by Brenda Anderson
• Ronnie Linton, High School Flame by Dominik J. Parisien
• Taking Care by Pam L. Wallace
• Taking Over by Felicity Pulman
• The Last Resort by L.K. Pinaire 
• The Masked Messenger by David Conyers and John Goodrich
• The Speed of Darkness by G.R. McLeod
• The Undying Fans of an Unknown Cover Band by Nicky Drayden
• The Unseen Truths by Liz Colter
• Undine Love by Kathleen Jennings
• Vivienne by Natalie Nikolovski
• Wonder In Alice Land by Linda Jenner 
• Zombie Dreams by Peter Cooper

Poetry:

• Babylon by Alexandra Seidel
• Broken Towers by Alexandra Seidel
• City of Clay by Alexandra Seidel
• The Loneliness of the Long Distance Singer by Jack Horne

Non Fiction:

• (H)ER(G)E, Now and Forever by Jacob Edwards

Illustrations by:

• Olivia Kernot
• Kathleen Jennings
• David Conyers

The Eye of Infinity Reviewed on Horrorscope

The Eye of Infinity has just been reviewed by Shane Jiraiya Cummings on Horrorscope.com.au, the first review for my new Major Harrison Peel release, which should be back from the printers any day now:

The Eye of Infinity is a standalone novella and the latest in a series of Cthulhu Mythos-style adventures featuring protagonist Major Harrison Peel. In the novella, Peel has retired from the Australian armed forces (following the catastrophic events in The Spiraling Worm) and now works as a consultant for the USA's National Security Agency (NSA). He struggles to balance his home life with long-term girlfriend Nicola and his duties as a 'spook' on the frontline protecting mankind from alien incursions.

But The Eye of Infinity is no Men in Black pastiche, with cute aliens to befriend and singular enemies to defeat. David Conyers dredges up all the dark creations of cosmic dread spawned from H. P. Lovecraft's imagination and gives them a modern twist. Men and women like Harrison, Nicola, and NSA agent Jack Dixon fight the almost futile fight to keep shoggoths and star spawn from our door, and unfortunately for them, their victories are always Pyrrhic.


Central to The Eye of Infinity is the concept of subjective reality. Can we believe what we see in the deep, dark reaches of space? To a less indoctrinated mind, the vast expanse of stars and galaxies could be celestial dragons or roiling, living chaos. In the multi-dimensional adventure of The Eye of Infinity, this is exactly how reality is portrayed. Knowing that reality hinges on the fragility of the human mind - and that the horrors experienced by protagonist Harrison Peel could be wrought by his own mind - is a terrifying concept. What if malevolent alien wills were shaping the human race into their own dark image ... and we were convinced this was in our best interest? This is the question posed by Conyers - and it is a compelling one.


David Conyers has grappled with the true, terrifying nature of evil in his previous Mythos stories - most notably, The Spiraling Worm, his collaboration with John Sunseri - but in The Eye of Infinity, he has succeeded in showing the reader just how insignificant humanity is in the grand scheme of the universe. At the same time, Conyers' hero Harrison Peel has to contend with rogue elements in his own (adopted) government, which when contrasted with the scale of the forces threatening to engulf humanity, highlights the petty nature of humanity.


Conyers' interpretation of the Outer God Azathoth is revolutionary. In keeping with Lovecraftian tradition, Conyers manages to evoke cosmic horror on a grand scale, and yet, he simultaneously applies scientific principles by describing the god in terms of quantum physics as a force above and beyond nature.


While not the rollicking adventure of The Spiraling Worm, The Eye of Infinity is a well-crafted tale of espionage and counter-terrorism (of the alien, reality-warping kind) that is permeated by a sense of loneliness. Peel struggles against the threat of unimaginable forces, and he can't even open up to his girlfriend or accept the happiness of a mundane life.


Although the relationship between Peel and Nicola is critical to the story and Peel's motivations, the dialogue and emotions expressed felt stilted in places. While Conyers excels at making impossible dread possible, he needs to flex his authorial muscles more when it comes to romance and the nuances of relationships. Much of the interaction was good, but there were a few discordant notes in the dialogue and characters' actions that portrayed them as somewhat wooden.


However, the sense of loneliness came through strongest when Peel was travelling the cyclopean wastes of other worlds. It was fantastic to see the development of Harrison Peel's human side. Over the course of The Spiraling Worm, Conyers gave Peel a compelling character arc from naive but tough military man to a dying martyr filled with regret. Miraculously cured of his fatal disease at the end of The Spiraling Worm, Peel has become a more three dimensional character in The Eye of Infinity. Peel's inner struggles with his life's direction, his doubts, and more importantly, his fears (based on previous near-death experiences with shoggoths and other creatures) are the threads upon which the plot hangs, and as such, Conyers has moved beyond Lovecraftian tropes to ascend to the highest - and most captivating - form of storytelling: creating a character that the reader will genuinely care about.


The other downside, perhaps because of the use of recurring characters: much of the protagonist's backstory is filled in with chunks of exposition. While necessary in parts, this bogged the story's pace down somewhat.


Niggles aside, The Eye of Infinity is the epitome of modern Cthulhu Mythos fiction: tough, probing characters facing unfathomable beings and making impossible decisions. It's round two in the biggest fight we'll ever face - humanity vs. cosmic horror - and this time, no one is going to escape unscathed. David Conyers is the reigning king of the Cthulhu Mythos Down Under. With Conyers at the helm, you won't be disappointed by your journey.

This review was originally published here.

I've also included a reading list of Harrison Peel stoires in chronological story order, and where each story can be most easily found. Hopefully, there will be a second collection that captures these tales (fom "The Eye of Infinity" onwards):

• "Made of Meat" by David Conyers (The Spiraling Worm, Chaosium Inc. 2007)
• "To What Green Altar" by John Sunseri (The Spiraling Worm)
• "Impossible Object" by David Conyers (The Spiraling Worm)
• "False Containment" by David Conyers (Horrors Beyond, Elder Signs Press, 2005 and The Spiraling Worm)
• "Resurgence" by John Sunseri (The Spiraling Worm)
• "Weapon Grade" by David Conyers (The Spiraling Worm)
• "The Spiraling Worm" by David Conyers & John Sunseri (The Spiraling Worm)
• "The Eye of Infinity" by David Conyers (The Eye of Infinity, Perilous Press, 2011)
• "Not What One Does" by John Sunseri and C.J. Henderson (Lai Wan: The Dreamwalker, Mythos Books, 2007)
• "Stomach Acid" by David Conyers and Brian M. Sammons (Cthulhu Unbound 3, Permuted Press, 2008)
• "The Masked Messenger" by David Conyers and John Goodrich (Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine 52, forthcoming)
• "The R'lyeh Singularity" by David Conyers and Brian M. Sammons (Cthulhu Unbound 3, Permuted Press, forthcoming)

I'm working on several more Harrison Peel tales, which will fill in many of the gaps between "The Spiraling Worm" and "The R'lyeh Singularity".

Brian Keene Reviews Cthulhu's Dark Cults

Well the reviews keep coming. Two times Stoker Awarding winning horror author Brian Keene has placed Cthulhu's Dark Cults in his Top 10 read for 2010. He was particularly impressed with John Goodrich's tale:

In this Lovecraft-inspired anthology, editor David Conyers has done a commendable job of compiling a collection of first-rate tales by some lesser-known but certainly capable writers. Indeed, I was so impressed with most of the stories that after finishing the book, I had a list of new authors to Google. All of the tales deal with cults engaged in the worship of Cthulhu and other Lovecraftian deities. The stories run the gamut from literary to pure pulp (and I’m glad for that). While all of the tales are enjoyable, the stand-outs include “The Eternal Chinaman” by John Sunseri, “Perfect Skin” by David Witteveen, “The Devil’s Diamonds” by Cody Goodfellow, and “Captains of Industry” by John Goodrich (indeed, that last one is my favorite short story I’ve read this year). A worthwhile addition to any horror bookshelf.

"The Masked Messenger" A New Harrison Peel tale

I caught up with fellow speculative fiction writer and editor David Kernot on a recent trip to Adelaide for the Christmas holidays. We talked many things including issue 6 of Midnight Echo, the science fiction special we are editing for the Australian Horror Writers Association, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine where David is a co-op member and editor, and writing in general. David and I have been friends for some time and he is a very talented author, whom I'm certain we'll see more of his work out there in the future. David and I are working on two collaborations.

David's wife, Olivia Kernot, is a very talented photographer and offered to take some author photographs of myself, which I was very excited to see, especially compared to my ameuter self-portraits I've been using of late. More news (and images) when they are complete.

The great news David Kernot had for me was that my collaboration with John Goodrich, "The Masked Messenger" has been accepted for issue 52 of the Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine due out in Aug 2011. A very nice way to end the year, with a sale. "The Masked Messenger" is a new Harrison Peel tale set in Morocco and Algeria, part of an ongoing series. That's four Harrison Peel tales potential out next year.

Other exciting Harrison Peel news, publisher and editor of Perilous Press informs me that my Harrison Peel novella, The Eye Of Infinity, has been upgraded from a chapbook and will be out in trade paperback next month.

Matt Carpenter Amazon.com Review of Cthulhu's Dark Cults

Matthew T. Carpenter has given Cthulhu's Dark Cults a five star review over at Amazon.com. Matt's well known in Cthulhu Mythos circles as the man who reads and reviews everything in the genre. Here is what he said about the book:

On the whole I really enjoyed Cthulhu's Dark Cults and thought it was well worth the money; most of the stories were very good and I did not dislike anything ... While Goodrich, Witteveen, Conyers and Worthy particularly shine, pride of place has to go to The Whisper of Ancient Secrets by Penelope Love. I hope she writes more Cthulhu stories for us soon.

Here is what he said about my story, "Sister of the Sands":

I really like David Conyers; writing. Impossible Object, published in several places, is a brilliant little piece. Sister of the Sands is just great. An Australian intelligence officer based in Cairo assists a woman lost in the desert and becomes mixed up with the Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh. This was a bang up way to close a successful anthology.

The same review appears at alt.horror.cthulhu. Thanks to Jeff Edwards for the heads up.

Cthulhu’s Dark Cults: “Captains of Industry” by John Goodrich

Cthulhu’s Dark Cults has gone to print, scheduled for release on the 27 May 2010. I also noticed that the anthology reached #15 in the Horror Anthology best sellers on Amazon.com today.

Here is my first post on the various stories included in Cthulhu’s Dark Cults. This post focuses on “Captains of Industry”, an opening novella by John Goodrich.

John lives in the Green Mountains of Vermont, which he calls “the last remnant of true Lovecraft country”. He has published several Cthulhu Mythos stories, all of which reflect some aspect of his unsavory life-style. When not writing or reading tales of madness and horror, he divides his time between hepatomancy, fencing, Facebook, and an obsessive regimen of feline grooming. He regularly gets Honourable Mentions from Ellen Datlow in her Year's Best Horror summations. An exciting new voice in the Cthulhu Mythos sub-genre of horror, he's appeared in the anthologies Cthulhu Unbound 1, Tales Out of Miskatonic University, R'lyeh Rising and Arkham Tales.

I asked John to provide me with some information on his story, which is set in Boston, Massachusetts and features the Hermetic Order of the Silver Twilight from the first Call of Cthulhu role-playing game campaign, Shadows of Yog-Sothoth. In his tale union members of a washing machine manufacturing company wanting better work conditions, and so are forced to go up against a private detective agent in the pay of the company owner. The owner in turn is backed by a more sinister organisation.

John said about his story, “one of the major inspirations for “Captains of Industry” is the fiction of Robert Howard, specifically, his dichotomy between barbarism and civilization. For Howard, barbarian meant freedom, as opposed to the lockstep knuckling under required by civilization, and I wanted to explore those themes for myself.

“Just before writing this story, I had spent six months working in factories. I realized that it didn’t matter who you were when you worked on the line. You could be strong as a bear, swift as a panther, or as brilliant as Steven Hawking; to the guys upstairs, you were just a cog in the machine. I decided to write a story in which Conan was forced to get a factory job to feed his family, and the character of János was born. At the same time, I learned that my government was torturing people at Camp X-Ray, and the story came together.

“The story is intended to feel like a twenties-era Socialist protest story, in the tradition of Jack London and Upton Sinclair, while (hopefully) maintaining its readability for a modern audience.”

An extract from the story follows:

CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY

John Goodrich

Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 1921

The strikebreakers formed a grim skirmish line opposite the strikers. Whatever the color of their greatcoats, they looked grey against the gently falling Boston snow. Among the union men, an uneasy current of conversation sprang up, muffled by fear and snow. They held the bottleneck, the defensive ground just inside the black, wrought iron gates of Emerson’s washing machine factory. To break the line, or even get to the factory, the strikebreakers would have to physically smash their way through the striking workers.

“Come away.” Dimitri’s insistent hands plucked ineffectually at the threadbare cuffs of János’s woolen overcoat. “The strike is over.”

János looked down at the narrow shape at his elbow. Dimitri’s mouth was full of rotten teeth, and his small, delicate hands would not be much use in the battle with the strikebreakers. The pipestem Russian read books aloud on the factory floor, to keep the workers somewhat entertained. He had been a good friend to János, even if their countries had fought in the last war. There was something somehow refined about the small Russian, but János couldn’t say how the impression had wormed its way into his brain. While Dimitri had been a great supporter of the union and the strike, the fight with the strikebreakers was not going to be something he should be involved in. János placed a powerful, calloused hand on the Russian’s smaller one in a gesture meant to reassure his fellow striker.

“I owe it to the union. But you should go.”

“Little brother, they are from the Agency. They had coal miners hanged in Pennsylvania, and burned women and children who were hiding from their machine gun bullets in Colorado.” His clutch on János’s coat was hard with desperate strength. János watched the easy, familiar way that the strikebreakers held their long truncheons.

“It is 1921. Emerson cannot simply hire a gang of thugs to beat us into submission in the streets.” János knew how hollow his words sounded.

“You will get your head knocked in.” Dimitri’s voice was hard and angry, but it did not make him any less right. The Agency men weren’t here just to break the strike; they were here to break heads. Where anger had failed, Dimitri began to wheedle. “Who will look after your wife and beautiful baby?”

János’s face clouded, and he gave the little man a hard shove.

“Run while you can, Dimitri. This will get bad.”

To Collaborate or not to Collaborate

Through my writing career I’ve ended up collaborating with various authours, and while I’ve gained much from the experience, I know many authors out there are reluctant to do so. Not me it seems. I’ve worked with Brian M. Sammons (“Stomach Acid” and “Six-Legged Shadows”), John Goodrich (“The Masked Messenger”), David Witteveen (“Sweat as Decay”), John Sunseri (“The Spiraling Worm”) and John Kenny (an unpublished science fiction piece) and I’ve enjoyed what I’ve got out of each collaboration and the end story we’ve created. I’ve also discussed the possibility with other authors of doing collaborations, including with David Kernot and C.J. Henderson, if we can ever get the time.

What I find works well for me is what I have learnt from the experience. Brian is taught me how to really cut to the heart of story, John Goodrich on how to tell a story without explicitly telling it, David in writing sincint poetical scenes, John Sunseri how to make language and character create a style all of its own, and John Kenny the importance of pace and reflective prose. I’ve learnt much more from each of these authors than just what I’ve listed, here I’m illustrating particular elements of learning that were unexpected for me in the process. The end result is that I feel that I’m a better writer because of these experiences, and it also taught me how to be humble and not so hung up on the in’s and out’s of a particular story. Oh, and to let a story tell itself.

The other reason I like collaborating is because of the creativity it allows.

I’m currently writing another novella with Brian M. Sammons, which is the reason for this post. I’m finding that even before we’ve started ideas are just flowing all over the place and we feed off each other’s perspective, so much so that the tale just seems to write itself. We are both very excited about where it is headed.

Most of my collaborations have been with horror and dark fantasy writers, a genre that seems to bring authors together rather than creating a sometimes overly negative competitive environment that I’m finding in some speculative fiction ‘scenes’. From my experience horror and dark fantasy writers tend to get excited about what each other are writing, and want to share. How nice is that!

Collaboration can potentially create its own problems. For example my most successful series, the Harrison Peel spies versus the Cthulhu Mythos series (The Spiraling Worm) is not a sole-creation of my own, but one that had a genesis with John Sunseri and now with Brian M. Sammons, C.J. Henderson and John Goodrich. We’ve all agreed that our characters are our own (mine is Harrison Peel, John Sunseri’s in Jack Dixon, C.J. Henderson is Joan De Molina and Brian M. Sammons’ is Jordan - amongst others) and that we need to seek permission to use each other’s characters, but we also agree that we can each pretty much do whatever we like in this shared world setting. So what happens if I get a movie or game deal for The Spiraling Worm (not saying it is likely, but it is a possibility), what do we do then? Hopefully we’ll all get financial rewarded, and that’s what I’d like to see.

So leading on from this point, I’ve decided that some series I will collaborate on (such as the Harrison Peel series) and some I won’t which I want to hold complete control over (such as my Earth Central series for example featuring stories including “Black Water”, “Aftermath”, “The Entropy Collapse”, “Terraformer”, “The Octagon” and others). Of course stories that aren’t part of any series (“Sweat as Decay”) don’t really matter, they are stand alones, but fun to write nonetheless.

Fun times ahead, seeing where all this collaboration business goes.