{Graveyard Shift} Author, production director, creative writing consultant & screenwriter Frank Duffy is this week's warden.
21st September 2020 Gavin Kendall Reviews Books, Kendall Reviews Feature 0
I want this to be a platform for EVERYONE within the horror community; authors, publishers, bloggers, reviewers, actors, directors, artists. I could go on, if you work in the genre then you are more than welcome to apply for the job.
The rules are quite simple…
You are invited to imagine yourselves as warden for an old graveyard, and choose eight books, preferably horror/dark genre, to take with you to cover your shift; here you can discuss why you chose the books.
As well as the books, wardens are allowed one song/album to listen to. Again, an explanation for this choice is required.
You must also discuss one luxury item you can bring, which must be inanimate and not allow communication.
If you'd like to take part in The Graveyard Shift then please submit an application to gavin@kendallreviews.com
A new shift is about to begin. The warden for the week's #GraveyardShift is…
Mr. Mole (Frank Duffy)
Paul Edwards. Frank Duffy. Night Voices.
Two writers. 12 Stories.
Personal experiences. Imaginations running riot. Horror explored and realised. Difficult and challenging. Interconnected but unconnected. Troubled families. Terrifying transformations. Ghostly wraths. Descent into madness and murder…
…these are the voices of the night.
You can buy Night Voices from Amazon UK & Amazon US
Different Seasons (The Body) by Stephen King – I remember reading this for the first time when I was about thirteen years old. It really changed me as a person. It shaped how I viewed friendships, and that I wasn't entirely alone in my childhood experiences. It helped me cope with a lot of things that were going on in my life at that time. I fell in love with the characters so much that I remember desperately trying to will them into existence. I guess I must have been quite lonely, despite having many real-life friends.
The Witnesses Are Gone by Joel Lane – Joel Lane was a remarkable writer. He was collectively respected and admired by fans and fellow authors alike. Two decades ago, he was a regular presence on the Ramsey Campbell message forum, where he often chatted with aspiring writers about their work and ideas. I'd even go so far as to say he was one of the central figures (along with Ramsey Campbell) who helped encourage a brand new generation of horror writers to get started during this period.
I got the chance to speak to him like any other writer posting on the forum, usually about books, films, and music. I can't say I ever knew him, and unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to meet him in real life. But he was still an inspirational person whose encouragement had a visible effect on everyone around him. He was the very first person to provide me with blurb for my debut book, which unfortunately the publisher somehow managed to misplace. When the book came out, I was much too embarrassed to mention its omission to him.
Joel Lane was someone with an enormous capacity for compassion, something I've always gravitated to in certain kinds of writers. This was clearly evident in his fiction. None more so than The Witnesses Are Gone. I read that book in a single sitting. And I'll never look at a video cassette in the same way ever again.
The Unblemished by Conrad Williams – One of the most frightening horror novels I've ever read. The immersive nature of this story saturates every single page. I felt completely drained by the end. At times it was like reading a modern-day Quatermass story told through the eyes of someone high on methamphetamines. Exquisite prose, believable characters, and an ending that's crying out for a follow-up.
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro – The central premise of this story is revealed in a kind of slow whispering horror that gradually pulls back the curtain on a world whose clinical indifference to scientific barbarity is chilling. And yet, Never Let Me Go is also bittersweet, heartfelt and ultimately tender.
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson – A tour de force, and often cited as the benchmark by which all other haunted house stories must be judged. The opening pages remain some of the finest examples of the storytelling craft at its most sophisticated. In terms of characterisation, Jackson was light years ahead of her contemporaries. In terms of story, she could dredge out every single particle of dread and foreboding from the simplest of details. I read it sometimes just to be awed.
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood – I read this at university in the mid-90s after a girlfriend recommended it, saying it was one of the most frightening books she'd ever read. She'd always had great taste in books, and I pretty much read everything she recommended. Despite her warning, I only wished she'd been a bit more forthcoming with the details at the time. The Handmaid's Tale gave me nightmares for days to come.
I'm a strange animal at times, cheerful, optimistic, yet instinctively cynical of humanity. This book only succeeded in confirming what I'd always suspected – we are but a heartbeat away from devouring ourselves.
The Room In The Tower and Other Stories (1912) by E.F. Benson – I spent a large part of my childhood visiting the local village library, and rarely came home without a collection of ghost stories. The eponymous story gave me nightmares, not for days, but for months. There was a period during autumn in high school that I dreamt of being stuck in that awful room in the tower. It almost happened to me every couple of days. There was one point when I was beginning to think I was a character in the story.
Demons by Daylight by Ramsey Campbell – I've written many times about the impact that this book has had on me. It quite literally changed my perspective on writing. I bought it at a second-hand bookstall in North Wales thirty-nine years ago. I read it on the beach while my family were playing in the sea. I learned so much from that book. It taught me that horror fiction was so much more than what I'd been led to believe. And to think Campbell was barely twenty years old when he completed writing it.
Fever To Tell by Yeah Yeah Yeahs – I first heard this album at a party in Zielona Gora (Poland). My fellow bandmate was playing it to some people in his bedroom while everyone else was partying elsewhere. The very next day I went to the local record store and bought a copy. I must have worn out that CD faster than any other. Some people have labelled it art-punk, some garage rock revival. I think it's one of the greatest records of the 21st century. I couldn't care less for its categorisation.
A telescope which allows me to peer way back into the past.
Night Voices
Frank Duffy
Frank Duffy is the author of five short story collections, Distant Frequencies (Demain Publishing), Night Voices (with Paul Edwards from Demain Publishing), Hungry Celluloid (Dark Minds Press), Unknown Causes (Gallows Press) and The Signal Block and Other Tales. He's also the author of a single volume of novellas, Mountains of Smoke (Gallows Press) and the chapbook, Photographs Showing TerribleThings (Sideshow Press). His upcoming novel The Resurrection Children is due out next year from Demain Press. At present he is a production director and creative writing consultant for a creative ad content team based in Poland. He has also worked as a screenwriter on an as yet unproduced TV show for American television for American film director, Blair Erickson. He lives in Poland with his wife Angelika and their beloved dog, Mr Mole.
Conrad Williams
Joel Lane
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