Yay!

Yay!

The Bookseller

Gollancz signs two new novels by horror writer Jonathan Sims

Gollancz has signed world rights to two new novels by horror writer Jonathan Sims. 

The synopsis says: “It’s the hottest summer on record and London is dying. Prices are high, pay is low, and stressed commuters are packed on to London Underground trains again like the pandemic never happened. To add to the misery, the temperatures underground just keep climbing and climbing, the heat trapped in the clay with nowhere to go. 

“Five travellers on an unlucky tube carriage find themselves bound together one morning as witnesses to a single horrific event – an event they can’t quite seem to remember. They make an unlikely team: weary tube driver, a disillusioned civil servant, an ambitious city trader, an overwhelmed hotel worker and an unhoused young man just trying to get by – but now they must come together to confront what they have seen and stop it in its tracks. Because there’s something lurking in the stifling darkness and labyrinthine tunnels that run below London… something old, something vicious, and something very, very hungry.” 

I couldn't be more excited to be working with @jonnywaistcoat on his next two novels! This is just more of what he does best - pulling apart the very seams of society and giving me very specific new sleep paralysis demons, and somehow getting me to say thank you afterwards.

And if you're near London next month, why not pop along to Gollanczfest to hear him chat all things horror with Joe Hill and V. V. James? Tickets are still available:

Eventbrite

GollanczFest 2024

The UK’s premier Sci-fi, Fantasy & Horror book festival

Fiction podcasts: Among the Stars and Bones (Horror, Mystery, SF, Space): http://www.amongthestarsandbones.com/ Only 2 eps in, and I'm hooked. Ghost Wax (Horror, Mystery): https://www.tumblr.com/ghostwaxpod Almost caught up! Similar schtick as Magnus Archive, but done in a totally original way (The HORRORS can only be recorded onto special wax from special bees). Mansfield Mysteries (Mystery, Humor): https://mansfieldmysteries.podbean.com/ I generally bounce off of comedies, hard, but this one I am genuinely enjoying, possibly because I used to go to coffee with my grandma and her cronies, and the vibe here feels right for that. The Sheridan Tapes (Horror, Mystery): https://homesteadonthecorner.com/sheridantapes/ Anna Sheridan is missing, and has left behind a maddening set of self-recorded tapes. Series finale coming up soon!

If you listen to Travelling Light, can you please reblog this and tell me what other shows you like? Especially if they're on Tumblr! I want:

New shows to follow

New shows to listen to

Possible shows to see about doing some promo swaps with

And hey, if you make podcasts and want to do a promo swap, get in touch!

"Like colors, but if colors hated me."

color theory final

A very weird kid, indeed, me.

Neil my dude, after showing my mother season one of Good Omens and my dad seeing a bit of it I mentioned you also wrote Coraline and either my mom or dad (don't remember which one said it) said you must have been a weird kid.

Could you please confirm or deny whether or not you were a Weird Kid™?

I was a weird kid.

Got to The Thing in my Mothership RPG rec movies. It had been on my list for a while. Surprisingly good. The effects mostly hold up, though there's a noticeable reliance on jump-cuts. Nicely ambiguous in many many ways. Some gore, but because it's practical effects, these days that mostly makes me speculate on what it's made of.

Highly recommended. Oh, the vintage '80's vibes are most entertaining.

Mothership tropes: Paranoia, transformation, contagion

Magnus fears (top 3): Flesh, Lonely, Corruption

"Five thousand for justice."

One for sorrow Two for joy Three for a girl Four for a boy Five for silver Six for gold Seven for a secret never to be told

Eight for a wish Nine for a kiss Ten for a chance you must not miss Eleven for a wasp Twelve for a bee Thirteen for a coffee Fourteen for tea

Fifteen for a pencil Sixteen for a pen Seventeen to hear these options once again

Eighteen for pepper Nineteen for salt Twenty for an accident in which you were not at fault

Twenty one for Jerry Twenty two for Tom Twenty three - where are all these magpies coming from?

Twenty five no seriously Thirty this is weird Forty eight from where have all these magpies suddenly appeared?

Sixty two stop counting Seventy just run Ninety nine the revolution of the magpies has begun

Two hundred no more sorrow Five hundred no more fears One thousand for how long the empire of the magpies will last in years

(John Finnemore)