Friday 31 August 2012

The cover for "What Gets Left Behind"

With the chapbook due in September, the cover art for "What Gets Left Behind" has just been released. Designed and created by the brilliant Neil Williams, I'm absolutely chuffed to bits with it - he's exceeded my expectations by a long, long way!


And here's the full wrap-around (without blurbage)

Wednesday 29 August 2012

What Gets Left Behind, Darker Minds, London and Exmoor (a round-up)

It’s been a while, sorry about that, so here’s an update.

Thoroughly enjoyed the Olympics, a superb display of both athletic prowess and behind-the-scenes organisation. Watching Jessica Ennis, Bradley Wiggins, Greg Rutherford, Mo Farrah and everyone else push themselves to their limits, speak frankly and honestly about their perceived forthcomings and deal with the whole experience with a sense of fairplay and good sportsmanship was wonderful. Dude & I watched the early evening show most nights and he loved the swimming and the cycling, especially since we’re biking a lot more now and swimming too. Great stuff.

me & Dude - astronuts!

Had our family holiday - a week of day trips which included the excellent National Space Centre in Leicester (which is well worth a visit) and a day in London where Dude pronounced the Shaftesbury Avenue Forbidden Planet as the “best shop ever”. Not because I did a signing in there, oh no, but because he picked up a handbook with full details of 640 Pokemon characters!

In Covent Garden

We spent a week at Doniford Bay, just down the road from lovely Watchet and the beautiful town of Minehead (if you go, try Mullions restaurant, we had a fantastic meal there). We all loved it there and made regular trips across Exmoor (Lynmouth was another West family favourite - both Dude & I loved the funicular railway) - I think, if I write any more seaside based tales, I will be using Minehead as the basis.

On Exmoor

In writing news, the Darker Minds anthology - edited by Ross Anthony Warren and Anthony Watson - has been published and it looks fantastic. A great Ben Baldwin cover, crisp design and beautiful production, it’s a real treat to be included in the ToC (with my story “Looking At Me, Seeing You”). The inestimable Jim Mcleod is ‘real-time reviewing’ it and has these kind words to say about my tale - “I love Mark West's writing, especially when he is writing stories like this. Where Gary [McMahon] is a master of brutal dark brutal horror, Mark is a master if quite soulful, and heartbreaking horror.”


In addition, I’ve been asked to contribute to an anthology (this one about demons) and have signed a contract for another (about things in the dark) and I’m still trying to work up my pitch for a new novel. Plus, of course, there’s the little matter of my Spectral Press chapbook - What Gets Left Behind - being published in September (and it’s been sold out for months - wahey!)

Thursday 2 August 2012

Alt-Zombie review



Jim McLeod, over at the Ginger Nuts Of Horror website, has reviewed Alt-Zombie, the latest offering from Herhsam Horror Books. He has nice things to say about my story, In Cars, "a punchy little story...a cracking read" and also says this, "A shout out has to be given to Mark West, yet again he has produced a really good looking book".

Check out the review here

Cheers, Jim!

And if this has whetted your appetite, the book is available from Amazon as a print edition (click here) or on Kindle (click here).