Sunday, April 18, 2010

This, that and t'other

I was having a browse through the charity shop yesterday, and picked up:
The Black Druid - Frank Belknap Long (Panther 1975)
The Taste of Fear - Edited by Hugh Lamb (Coronet 1977)
A Wave of Fear - Edited by Hugh Lamb (Coronet 1976)
Weird Tales - Selected and Introduced by Peter Haining (Sphere 1978)
More Weird Tales - Selected and Introduced by Peter Haining (Sphere 1978)
The Blockhouse - Jean-Paul Clebert (Ace Books 1960)

There are some real gems out there waiting to be unearthed.

Talking of books, I don’t know whether it’s just me, but I’ve been pretty disillusioned with what I’ve been reading lately. Nothing seems to have grabbed me, and I find that after struggling through a number of pages, I abandon the story. Still, I’ve got plenty of unread books to have a go at, and I’m sure there must be something among them that keeps my interest.

As for my own writing, I’m nearing the end of another novel featuring the protagonist from The Kult, Prosper Snow. I’ve put him through the grinder again, but then if I didn’t, it wouldn’t make for much of a story, would it.

There’s also progress on The Kult film too, and casting calls have been set for May 16th and 23rd. It will be a real revelation seeing my story translated to film. The director, Kip Shelton has been seeking some unsigned metal bands for the project, and I believe he’s approached a few to see whether he can acquire their work. The film is going to rock in more ways than one.

In other news, the first review of my latest book, Deadfall was a good one: http://www.darkscribemagazine.com/reviews/deadfall-shaun-jeffrey.html

And in a scenario straight out of a novel, it will be interesting to see the long term repercussions of the Icelandic volcano. We take so much for granted nowadays, and we don’t realise that so many things enter the country via the airports. One thing that immediately springs to mind is airmail postage. Then there’s food that’s now rotting in warehouses that was destined for these shores. If the situation continues, then I think food shortages are certain to happen, and as of yet, no one knows how long the ash will leave us a no fly zone. For the first time in ages, we can see how small an island we are, but more importantly, how reliant we are on international trade.

2 comments:

maelle said...

hi, my name is maelle and i'm french. I've read The Black Druid long time ago and I've always wondering how the translation has been made in the short-story about Hassin Ali's coal's bag because it's pretty strange to mix coal and goule (in french it's houille and goule) so I was thinking maybe it's never been a "coal's bag" but the translator uses it because it was the better sound near "goule". I's just curiosity but I can't find in internet any description of the novel to know the original text.
thanks a lot if you can answer.

Shaun said...

I haven't had chance to read the book yet, but when I do I'll check.