Mary Hooper: The Fever and the Flame

The Fever and the Flame anthologises two novels for younger readers, At the Sign of the Sugared Plum and Petals in the Ashes, set in and around Restoration London. The first volume recounts the adventures of Hannah, a young woman who travels to London to work with her sister Sarah in her confectioner’s shop in 1665. Through her outsider’s eyes we witness the spread of the plague as well as experience a first tentative romance with apothecary’s assistant Tom and explore the city. Eventually London becomes too dangerous for Hannah and Sarah and they’re able to flee, taking with them a child of a noblewoman to family in the relative safety of the countryside. In the second book, which directly continues Hannah’s story, after surviving being quarantined in a plague house, she eventually returns to London, this time with younger sister Anne, to re-open the shop and to find out if Tom survived the plague. He has, and is now performing in a travelling magic show. Their being reunited is threatened by a fire which soon overtakes the city. Again they are separated and Hannah must flee again, before being reunited with both Tom and the rest of her family.

     These are brisk books, setting up Restoration London and its pleasures (theatre, fashion, gallants) well and Hooper has a way with colourful supporting characters even if the plotting is sometimes reliant on coincidence (people have a habit of being in the right place at the right time). Nevertheless, there’s plenty of reliable period detail employed and it’s interesting to be able to see the ways she distinguishes the slow apocalypse of the plague from the speed of the fire. Decent use is made of straightforward sources (Pepys’ diaries are used for incidental detail throughout) and there’s some useful peritextial material: notes on both the plague and the fire, as well as on Hooper’s resources as well as a handful of period recipes and a glossary.

     I admit to wincing when a significant series of events was set during the Bartholomew Fair of 1666 (which didn’t take place either in ’65 or ’66 – they were cancelled for fear of the gatherings spreading the plague); in her notes, Hooper justifies her decision to use this, which is interesting to see, though it doesn’t make sense in the context of the drama to have done this. Mind you, the Fair is fascinating and I understand the temptation.

     That grumble aside, these are books which dramatise history well, which don’t talk down to the readership, and there’s a pleasing sense of danger evident too: Hooper isn’t afraid to make plain the dangers as well as some of the temptations of the era.

           

Hooper, Mary. 2003. At the Sign of the Sugared Plum (London: Bloomsbury), 160 pages, 978-0747586705

Hooper, Mary. 2004. Petals in the Ashes (London: Bloomsbury), 184 pages, 978-0747586705

Anthologised as The Fever and the Flame, 2006.

Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn: The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature

A collection of 21 essays on fantasy literature, divided into three sections. The first section, Histories, provides a nuanced companion to the genre overview given in earlier works by James and Mendlesohn; the second; Ways of Reading, offers a range of theoretical perspectives on fantasy writing (structuralist, postmodernist and psychoanalytical  as examples). The third section, Clusters, focuses on individual sub-genre questions (children’s fantasy, paranormal romance as examples) and also on issues such as the emergence of black writers of fantastic.  As with any collection, the reader will find that some essays appeal more than others, but whatever your interest is in the fantastic (there’s some weight to the writing, but the pitch isn’t too off-putting for non-academically minded genre enthusiasts) you’ll find a serious and informative examination of the genre contained here.  

James, Edward and Farah Mendlesohn. 2012. The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 268 pages, 978-1521728737

Harlequin / Mills and Boon So You Think You Can Write opportunity 2012

Harlequin / Mills and Boon's annual novel writing competition has been announced. So You Think You can Write is a worldwide trawl for new writers of romance fiction. Initially, writers will submit a single chapter plus a novel synopsis, with shortlisted writers being invited to send in a full manuscript. The closing date for initial entries is 13th October 2012. First prize is a novel contract with Harlequin / Mills and Boon. The competition press release is here. The competition homepage is here.    

Ten writing commandments

This is today's top ten. Nothing especially original, I know, but that's perhaps not necessarily a bad thing:

1.       Thou shalt write every day.
2.       For every hour thou writest, thou shall read an hour also.
3.       Thou shalt not edit until thy first draft be done.
4.       Then thou shalt edit.
5.       And thou shall edit again until thy work be right.
6.       Thou shalt see thy work for its imperfections and its possibilities.
7.       Thou shalt not kid thyself.
8.       Thou shalt take thy family and friends’ kind words as nought but well-meant platitudes.
9.       Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s work.
10.     Thou shalt submit to appropriate markets.

Robert Low: The Whale Road

Tenth century AD. Orm Ruriksson, fifteen, joins the crew of the Fjord Elk, a Viking raiding ship. He journeys from adolescence to manhood as the Elk’s crew undertake a mission which leads them, via a young woman allegedly possessed of magical powers of prophecy, to find Attila the Hun’s lost treasure and with it, the blade that killed the Christians’ god.

     The first of Robert Low’s Oathsworn books begins terrifically; you get a fantastic sense of what it would have been like, physically and psychologically, to have been a Norse raider. The detail and observation is convincing, as are the battle sequences and the descriptions of life on board. The first hundred pages are an exhilarating rush and though that level of pace and intensity of experience isn’t maintained once the plot kicks in (and we find ourselves in an oddly Indiana Jones-ish narrative, albeit one with more swearing, sex and blood than the good Doctor Jones ever had to endure), this is nevertheless a brisk, brutal and enjoyable read, though perhaps one that ends up being less serious a book than it promises in the first pages.    

Low, Robert. 2007. The Whale Road (London: Harper), 340 pages, 978-0007215300

Robert Harris: The Fear Index

Geneva, May 2010. Alex Hoffman is the head of a private company using sophisticated computer programming to predict stock market movements and so protect/enhance the wealth of those who speculate with the company he co-owns. He’s on the brink of unveiling a refined system to an invited cadre of key investors. Over one 24-hour period, Hoffman’s life is corrupted: at first the ripples are innocuous (a rare book is delivered to him), but then Hoffman’s home is broken into and Hoffman assaulted. Hoffman must manage the disruption to his home life while maintaining an even keel at work, but the new system he’s about to demonstrate threatens to destabilise his company as it behaves in ways Hoffman hadn’t intended.

     The Fear Index is a fast and generally persuasive read though the switch it pulls at about the midway point from high-stakes political/commercial thriller to something with more science fictional overtones might unsettle some readers. This slide is well-telegraphed from the off though it might well be off-putting for some. Also potentially off-putting is the idea of making the distasteful world of tax haven wealth sheltering the centre of the drama – the ethical dimensions of this aren’t really challenged throughout, some barbs from a down-at-heel detective notwithstanding. As such, it’s hard to feel much in the way of empathy for Hoffman as a character.

     Taken at the level of plot, though, The Fear Index fair scoots along. The compacted timeframe is well-handled and there’s some good use of the recent past being raided in both setting the drama up and in some of the details (the revelation of who’s committed the break-in, and why, for example). Ultimately more of a Michael Crichton book than a Robert Harris one, this is fun while it lasts and well-enough written to make it an engaging one-sitting read, particularly if you’re a little paranoid about technology, but the pleasures are in the incidentals rather than in the main thrust of the narrative, which is one that won’t be unfamiliar to those of an SF persuasion.       

   

Harris, Robert. 2012. The Fear Index (London: Arrow Books), 385 pages, 978-0099553267

Steven Pressfield: Turning Pro

A follow-up to Pressfield’s earlier The War of Art (and so some extent Do The Work), in Turning Pro the author expands on his approach to creative work. Where Pressfield defined the constraining forces preventing the production of creative work before under the umbrella name “Resistance”, here he develops his thesis into separating two approaches to creativity, that of the amateur and that of the professional.

     Basically, the professional shows up on time and does the work. Then they do some more. The amateur does none of these things. That hat-wearing person at that party who held forth at length about their never-ending novel-in-progress? Amateur. That person who stayed home instead and finished one? Professional.  

     Part autobiography, part manifesto, part call to arms, part self-help book, Turning Pro may be less essential than The War of Art, but if you buy into Pressfield’s gung-ho approach, plus if you’re in need of something of a kick up the arse then you’ll get a lot out of his words here.    

Pressfield, Steven. 2012. Turning Pro (New York: Black Irish Entertainment), 132 pages, 978-19368911030

Erin Morgenstern: The Night Circus

The United States and Europe, between 1873 and at least 1903. Two magicians enter into a wager; they are to train apprentices in magic and have them contest each other over time. The forum for the bet is to be a travelling fair, a circus that travels by train and arrives, unannounced, in the night. The neophytes, initially unaware that they are in competition with each other, begin to fall in love. A child, Bailey, becomes besotted with the circus and is desperate to find out more.

     The Night Circus has a certain kind of atmosphere going for it, a touch dreamlike, a little whimsical, at least initially intriguing. There are whiffs of Ray Bradbury, Susannah Clarke, Tim Burton and Neil Gaiman in the writing, plot and imagery, and for die-hard fans of magical fantasy there may be much that’s worthwhile here.

     For some, though, the touch may be too light. Not a great deal happens. The love story is obvious rather than inevitable, and there aren’t secrets worth finding out. Initial hints of darkness turn out to be shadows of the novel’s influences rather than those cast by The Night Circus instead. The period settings are background here; there’s nothing gained by the novel being set in the past (it probably loses by not having the magical elements being juxtaposed against the present day).

     It’s lightweight stuff then; a story for children stretched out over four hundred pages. The fault may well be with me – I like my meat rarer than this – but this is cotton candy; initially impressive, but sweet, cloying, insubstantial.           

Morgenstern, Erin. 2012. The Night Circus (London: Vintage), 496 pages, 978-0099554790

Emlyn Rees: Hunted

London, present day. Ex-forces independent security operative Danny Shanklin is set up, waking up in a hotel room with a corpse and a gun. A running game ensues; Shanklin thought he was meeting a potential client, but had been instead framed as the perpetrator of a terrorist attack. He runs, with his tech support guiding him through central London. Shanklin has to evade capture, solve the problem of who framed him, and clear his name. Now.

     For much of its length, Hunted is great, a real-time thriller with an ingenious series of set-pieces as Shanklin, on foot, is pursued by a tightening net of regular police and anti-terrorist units, monitored by high-tech surveillance and TV news crews throughout. There’s a keen sense of geography maintained throughout, and what feels like well-deployed research on technology, weaponry and police and military tactics. Once the running game is over, though, the pace perhaps inevitably drops; there’s an awkward though perhaps inevitable twist, and the climax is maybe too keen to leave matters open for Shanklin’s continuing adventures. There’s a feel that there’s one eye on a film/TV adaptation too (if you think of Hunted as 24 meets Crank you won’t be too far away). 

     That said, there’s plenty to enjoy here, especially if you read Hunted in one sitting, which I did, and if you’re a little paranoid about the surveillance potential of the digital technology incorporated into many people’s everyday lives.    

Rees, Emlyn. 2012. Hunted (London: Corsair), 424 pages, 978-1849018845

Michael Crichton and Richard Preston: Micro

Hawaii, present day. Seven doctoral students are approached by Nanigen, a high-tech company offering huge salaries and career opportunities. They agree to travel to the company’s Hawaii HQ. Nanigen’s business is in developing chemicals and pharmaceuticals from the natural world and they have devised a unique method of accessing new compounds; by using miniaturising technology to gather samples from nature. The students stumble into a corporate crisis; murders are commissioned and the students find themselves miniaturised and lost in the Hawaii rainforest. They have to find their way back to Nanigen HQ, stop corporate baddie Drake, all the while evading both the animal, insect and plant dangers, miniature killer robots and Nanigen’s hit-squads.

Crichton plots often feature two parallel concerns; the technology-oriented thriller element, usually a riff on the Frankenstein notion of not meddling with science that’s not fully understood, and a conservative cultural/political idea being explored alongside. In Rising Sun, for example, Crichton’s fears are surveillance technology and Japanese business overtaking US interests; in Disclosure, it’s computers and assertive women respectively; in Jurassic Park it’s genetic engineering and chaos theory; in State of Fear (an unintentionally funny steal from the early 80s nuclear terrorist paranoia flick Who Dares Wins) the worry is leftie climate change do-gooders. Here, it’s poststructuralism. One of the students is writing on scientific discourse and is along to snark and be snarked at as he misapplies a range of literary and cultural studies ideas.  It’s an odd thing indeed.

For once, Crichton, usually solid on his science-based fictions (we get a non-fiction introduction and an eight page bibliography grounding the story in some kind of evidence base) the miniaturising tech is somewhat fudged (it involves magnets); but Crichton is more concerned with rushing us along to the forest floor where our dwindling band of students can be picked off one by one in an extended Act Two which splices any number of jungle-set body count movies such as Southern Comfort or Predator and something approaching the homely wonder of Honey I Shrunk The Kids. We tick off spiders, wasps, birds, ants and so on before bumping into a Ben Gunn-ish marooned miniature person with a handy tiny warehouse of useful things.

Narrative complexity or political subtlety isn’t Crichton’s strong suit here (in fairness, Micro is the second of two novels published posthumously; this was finished by The Hot Zone author Richard Preston) and though the tiny-people action is mostly fun, because it’s being played straight-faced as potential science it’s much less convincing than if it was done on the level of science fantasy.  The sneering attitude on display at times doesn’t help either.             

Crichton, Michael and Richard Preston. 2012. Micro (London: Harper), 541 pages, 978-0007350001

Anachron Press: Crime Net Anthology

Anachron Press is searching for cyber-crime fiction submissions. Stories of between 4,000 and 8,000 words which straddle detective fiction, noir, cyberpunk, hard SF and hacking culture are the order of the day. See the site for full details of what they're after. 


There are modest cash rewards on offer, though the prize here is anthology publication in paperback. Submissions close 1st August 2012. Please follow the formatting guidelines given on the Anachron site, which you may find here. 

Near To The Knuckle: call for submissions

Near To The Knuckle is on the lookout for original short fiction. There's no restriction on theme or genre (or word count for that matter) though potential contributors are advised to check the site out before submitting. Keywords? Gritty. Interesting. Punchy. More details? Here. 

Paraxis 04: call for submissions

Paraxis is calling for original and previously unpublished short fiction of up to 3,500 words in which "windows, mirrors or walls are significant". The closing date for submissions is 25th August 2012. You're advised to check out back issues to see what kind of fiction stimulate the Paraxis hive-mind. More details are here. 

Choc Lit summer 2012 short story competition

Choc Lit is running another short story competition, with £200 and chocolates as the first prize. Stories should be no more than 1,500 and should use the competition theme of "chocolate in summer". The competition closes on 31st July 2012. Full details are available here.  

Wicked Young Writers' Award

This competition is for writers up to the age of 25. There's a range of age groups. Stories of up to 750 words are sought (prose, plays, poems are all welcome) are sought; especially ones which take an existing story and bring a new angle to it (the competition is in association with the long-running stage production of Wicked, the revisionist version of The Wizard of Oz). There's a range of prizes including anthology publication, tickets to the play and writing tutorials with published authors. The competition closes on the 22nd July 2012. Full details are on the competition website. 

Plymouth Proprietary Library short story competition

This short story competition is for pieces up to 1,500 words. Entries must contain the word "citadel" at least once, but may be on any theme. There's a first prize of £50 (£3 entry fee). The competition closes on 30th September 2012.  Entries should be posted. Contact details may be found here. 

Fantastic Books Publishing International Short Story Competition 2012

Fantastic Books Publishing is looking for SF and fantasy of between 750 and 1,500 words in this new competition. There's a range of prizes from £100 down, anthology publication and other prizes available to winning and shortlisted writers. The competition closes on 15th August 2012. Full details are available here. 

Erewash Writers' Group Open Short Story Competition (Summer 2012)

Erewash Writers' first open short story competition is for fiction up to 1,500 words in length. There's no restriction on style or genre. The competition closing date is 27th June 2012. There's a range of modest cash prizes, plus a chance for a charity nominated by an entrant to receive a donation. Full details are available here. 

Lancashire Authors' Association "Story in 100 Words" competition

This flash fiction competition is for stories of exactly 100 words. Simple as that! The competition is open until 31st October 2012 and there's a £250 first prize. More details? Here. 

Balsall Writers 2012 writing competitions

Midlands-based Balsall Writers has given out details of short story and poetry competitions with deadlines of 31st October 2012. Stories of up to 2,200 and poems of up to 42 lines on any theme may be entered. Each category offers a £100 first prize as well as runners-up awards. Full details and an entry form may be found here. 

Askance Publishing short story competition

Askance Publishing has unveiled details of a new short story competition. Stories, on any health-related theme, between 2,000 and 6,000 words may be entered before the closing date of 30th June 2012. Twenty stories will be published in an anthology and there are cash prizes up to £100. More details may be found here.     

The Asham Award 2012

The Asham Award is a short story competition open to women writers. Stories of up to 3,000 words on the theme of "journey" should be entered by 14th September 2012. There's a total prize fund of almost £3,000, plus publication opportunities with Virago. More details? The competition website is here. 

Wasafiri New Writing Prize 2012

From the competition organisers: "Wasafiri, the magazine of international writing, has been publishing quality creative works and critical pieces by writers from around the world since 1984. Previous contributors have included Brian Chikwava, Richard Ford, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Toby Litt, Jackie Kay, Ben Okri, Salman Rushdie, Caryl Phillips and Ahdaf Soueif, who have been featured alongside new up-and-coming writers whose work could make a significant impact on the international literary scene in years to come. Wasafiri was one of the first publications to feature Daljit Nagra and Amit Chaudhuri for example, before they went on to become award-winning authors, and more recently we published an extract from Christie Watson's then unpublished novel which later won the prestigious Costa First Novel Award. In this spirit, Wasafiri launched the New Writing Prize in 2009 and in its short four years, the prize has already helped the writing careers of previous winners like the Ireland-based Jaki McCarrick and the Saudi-born British poet Rowyda Amin. 


The details of the prize are as follows:


The competition is open to anyone worldwide who has not published a complete book and we are looking for creative submissions in one of three categories: POETRY, FICTION and LIFE WRITING. The fee for entry is varies depending on the number of categories you wish to enter and ranges from UK Sterling £6 to £15. The closing date is 5pm GMT on 27 July 2012. The winners will receive £300 each and their work will be published in Wasafiri. Further details can be found on our website  or  by email." 

Sentinel Literary Quarterly Short Story Competition

Previously unpublished stories of up to 1,500 words may be entered for this competition. There's no restriction on style or genre. The closing date is 20th June 2012. There's a £150 first prize, a range of runners-up awards, plus the winners plus highly commended stories will be published in print and ebook. Full details are available here. 

White Noise: The Light (2007, directed by (Patrick Lussier)

Five years ago (!) I wrote this for aintitcool.com - so it's here now for archiving purposes: the original is here: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/31178

WHITE NOISE: THE LIGHT (nope, there's no sequel number in the title over here in the UK) opened in cinemas Friday here in Britain. In the spirit of you-choose-a-movie-then-I-choose-a-movie-next-time, the good lady wife picked this out, cos she's a big fan of anything that's got spooks in it but ain't too scary, if you know what I mean, and I think you do. Spoilers, ahoy, so tread carefully.

In the first one, Michael Keaton picks up noises/ghosts/whatever from beyond the grave. This time round, it's Nathan Fillion. Fillion plays a dour-but-loving family man with one of those kinda jobs that means you get a big house, understanding colleagues and a corner office and can have loads of time off when the plot demands it. 

Anyways, he takes his wife and kid to a diner for a wedding anniversary breakfast just so that Craig Fairbrass (us Brits know him as a familiar TV face, but in the States he's the soccer-loving Cockney scumbag in CLIFFHANGER) can shoot the family before saying sorry and turning the gun on himself.

Fillion gets dourer (Is that even a word? More dour - downright gloomy, perhaps) and tries to check out in a pills-and-booze stylee. However, just as he's crashing on a gurney, and ascending to Heaven where we see his wifey and kid waiting for him, he's snatched back from the hereafter with a nifty spot of charging-two-hundred-shock-him-again action.

Fillion's mood doesn't improve as now he's seeing haloes round peoples' heads and the occasional jumpy-outy spook, as well as fritzing all manner of electrical equipment every time things get jittery. Dr Exposition walks on to explain to Fillion all about NDEs (Near Death Experiences) which he just happens to be researching with a big room full of monitors that handily go mad straightaway.

Anyways, from this point on it starts to get a tad farfetched. The still-glum Fillion works out that that the auras he can see are Fate's hand marking people out for death, so he starts going round saving them wherever possible, including hottie nurse Katie Sackoff (sp?) who seems to be channelling TRUE ROMANCE-era Patricia Arquette, which is no bad thing. Except there are consequences, or something.

There's investigations and stuff, and Biblical prophecies, and inverted crucifixes, badly-concealed twists convering someone Fillion assumed was dead but wasn't all along, death by grand piano, secret messages in the Book of Revelations, folks bursting out into Ancient Greek at the most inopportune moments, and the eventual working out that the film has bugger all to do with the first WHITE NOISE and is more like FINAL DESTINATION 4. 

Except it's FINAL DESTINATION 4 with a depressed lead actor, no wit, an almost complete absence of gore, horror, frights, or suspense, and lifts from every genre movie that director Patrick Lussier can remember from GHOSTBUSTERS 2 to DON'T LOOK NOW via various OMEN movies, SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, GHOST, American remakes of those lank-haired-teenager Japanese ghost flicks and POLTERGEIST II: THE OTHER SIDE.

In a word, arse. Rated 15 in the UK, but we're in bloodless PG-13 territory. Plenty of people walked out of the Saturday night showing I was at. A shame, as at least Fillion looks like he's trying to stretch his acting range. IMDB's not showing a US release date, so you might yet be spared.

Spooky Isles review: The Final Conflict (1981, directed by Graham Baker)

I've written a review of the third Omen film The Final Conflict for UK horror site The Spooky Isles. The review's here! 

Ilkley Literature Festival 2012 writing competitions

Ilkley Literature Festival is again running a series of writing competitions. Short stories of up to 3,000 words and poems of up to 30 lines may be entered. Each competition offers £200 as a first prize plus the chance to perform at the festival.  There are also separate competitions for younger writers. Competitions close on 1st August 2012. More details are at the festival website.