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There is a long tradition of Folk Horror in the UK, but plenty of other countries bring their own flavour to the genre. American Gothic has all the trappings of classic Folk Horror, but has that distinct US flavour. The woods out there seem different, ancient landscapes unused to the people that...
Cozy crime comes in all sizes, but it still has an odd name. The characters may be eccentric, the setting twee, but when it comes down to it, there is still a dead person lying on the carpet. Marple had her village with its higher crime rate than Gotham, Poirot had various summer vacation spots,...
When it comes to vampires, I understand that there is a rich tapestry of versions you can now read about, but I like mine to have that old fashioned appeal. The type of vampire that does not want to talk about their feelings or act like the average tween, but instead wants to wear lace frills...
What makes a good folk horror story? It is not just the tension and gruesome moments, but the feeling. You need to get the tone right. A visitor to a new place that is familiar in some ways, but alien in others. You can experience some of this unease yourself just by travelling to somewhere...
When asked, "How do you write?" I invariably answer, "one word at a time."
Despite repeated and continued efforts by the UK government (amongst others) of turning it into a reality, I still enjoy the odd dystopian fiction. More and more often though it does feel like things that will be rather than things that may. 84K is a good example. Set in a future where the...
There are all types of fantasy from the high to the low, but for some fans it can be tricky to enjoy one type or the other. For someone interested in starting to read low fantasy they may be turned off by the violence and darkness that this part of the genre emits. On the other hand, high...
What is the fantasy genre? It is not just one thing. You can have elves and orcs battling against the backdrop of high wizardry, but you can also write something simpler. Low fantasy is getting so low that it starts to feel like alternative medieval history. Like why write about real history...
You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain. Peter Pan is cheeky, certainly a hero, but he was also annoying and domineering. Did the Lost Boys want to stay on the island, or did Peter force them? On reflection, Peter Pan had some issues, but Disney put an...
Before a drug is allowed onto the marketplace, it must undergo rigorous tests. Firstly on animals and then eventually on humans. These tests will determine what side effects there are, and in many cases, there will be side effects. Do the positives outweigh the negatives? If a wonder drug saves...
I am not someone that goes in for Conspiracy Theories, I just don’t have the energy for them. Take for example the idea that nanobots are being injected into people so that the Deep State can track our every move. Why would they spend trillions of pounds on such technology when we...
As a child you read books and imagine that you may be that child who is whisked away on an adventure. Perhaps you will be the chosen one to be taken through a magical wardrobe or told you are a wizard. By the time you are studying for a PhD such flippancy is no longer part of your character, so...
A person brings a piece of themselves with them when they read a book. Your background, beliefs and current situation can all inform the story. There are books where it does not really matter who you are, but some books will hit home harder for those who feel a connection. A Better World by...
I have a soft spot for cyberpunk, the gritty noir feel mixed with high end science fiction. Like many subgenres it can be dismissed as a passing phase, in this case from the 80s, but fans know that there are still exceptional stories out there written today about crying androids or buildings...
Some of the best speculative fiction starts with an idea that is not far removed from the normal, a simple nudge to reality can lead to many places. In the case of J. Michael Straczynski’s The Glass Box, this place is a psychiatric hospital. The reason for being sent there? New government...
Experience is not what happens to you; it's what you do with what happens to you.
Like many science fiction fans, I have been swept away by the recent influx of Chinese writers that have been translated. Many of these writers are only new to us but have established careers back in China. The most prominent is the Hugo Award winning Cixin Liu. I have enjoyed the style...
As Star Wars fans we take the lore for granted. We know our Wookie from our Ewok, but to the casual person they are just two different types of furry alien. Take a step back and it is a complex universe, full of planets and species. It was tricky enough with just the three films, but six films...
When I finally get around to building that time machine, I made a note not to visit 14th century Europe. The continent was a hodgepodge of wars and battles. Even during times of peace you could still stumble across the wrong village, and they would kill you for your shoes. Not a century for...
When you enter midlife, you must watch out that you do not get lost in the past. Past glories that may have been, lovers that were or could have been. There is a reason that some people drift into a crisis, seeing the grass could have been greener had they picked a different path. When you are...
The world will not die with a bang, but with a whimper. Similarly, it won’t be the robots that uprise and destroy humans, but our own incompetence when it comes to programming. Build and programme things correctly and everything should be fine, but this is modern life and doing things...
The horror genre has taught me how to deal with events that happened in my childhood. If you and a bunch of friends accidently run over a homeless person or set fire to a witch, the best thing is just to admit it without delay and take your lumps. You see, no matter how many years pass, they...
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