Horror Writer ADAM NEVILL'S Year End Newsletter

Well, another year ends and in some respects in the bigger picture, it's a year that needed to be put out of its misery ... but as a horror writer it would be remiss of me to not at least propose and suggest an idea that the real horror is only gaining momentum ... It's the first time in my adult life when the news has become too stressful to watch, particularly about the most important issue facing mankind, civilisation and life on the actual planet: the climate. I could go on. I won't. I'm going to stick to another kind of horror and the only one that's weirdly comforting in such a time as this. Professionally, as I've alluded to before, 2019 has been the most intense year I've had since 2016. That was the year I created Ritual Limited and published Some Will Not Sleep, started this newsletter and produced the free eBooks, Cries from the Crypt and Before You Sleep. Back then, I was retraining, changing things up and there was much crawling around in the dark, weeping and clawing at my skull. Four years on, I'm really glad I set that more independent course as a writer. Publishing three editions of The Reddening, launching the book myself and fulfilling the hardback orders has been arduous and accounted for half of my working year (and much of my wife's), but it has been wonderful to see the book appreciated so widely. I'd have to look all the way back to House of Small Shadows in 2013 (a book supported by a big publisher with a London Underground marketing campaign, stocked in supermarkets and placed in the WH Smiths chart), to find a book of mine that attained a similar momentum. The pre-orders and then the weekly appetite for The Reddening have taken us by surprise and the book has also been blessed with inclusions on a few interesting year's best book lists: Night Worms Horror DNA The Quietus The Lonely Crowd  Primary to this book's life is you guys: the readers. And the most important people in the whole equation. So I want to thank you all, heartily and sincerely and assure you, that down here where I dwell, the pyre is high, the piping loud and that the old songs of the west are being sung in your honour. The "Red" is abiding and I salute you for acquiring this book, for reviewing it, for boosting its signal, for giving it your eyes and time and thoughts. A great privilege for me as an author to see and something I never take for granted. You keep me going. Elsewhere this year, I've done four events to support the book, culminating in the excellent Ghost Story Festival in Derby, where I manifested as guest author on the Friday night. I've also been working intensely on a few film projects, currently in development, that have consumed most of the remainder of 2019. If something happens on that front and "gets the trigger", you'll be the first to know. Regarding books, one downside to working across several fields in 2019, is that I didn't have the capacity to write any new fiction between February and November. At the very beginning of the year, however, I finished a new collection of horror stories that I hope to publish in April 2020 (that's only four months away! Better pull my hoof out!). I'll say more about this book next year and stay tuned for news on the limited edition hardback. It's going to be special. In November, I finally did return to writing new fiction and began the first draft of a new novel. I hope this book will dig itself out of the earth and appear before you, like some ghastly revenant, sometime in 2021. Writing this book is involving a new approach for me too, and I'll tell you more about that when the time comes. Buy paperback now from Amazon UK Buy paperback now from Amazon US Buy ebook now from Amazon UK

Buy ebook now from Amazon US A View from a Hill I haven't been so impossibly busy to prevent myself watching some fabulous dramas and films in 2019, though, and nor have I forsaken reading for pleasure. So, I'd like to share a few recommendations of works I enjoyed in 2019 that often rang my horror bells, deep and loud. On television, I heartily recommend: Too Old to Die Young; Succession Series 2; The Handmaid's Tale Series 3; Billions Series 3; The Watchmen; The Boys; The Kingdom. And my two favourite TV series of 2019 were Chernobyl and The Terror. At the cinema my favourite films of 2019 were The Joker, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Doctor Sleep, with Midsommar being my film of the year. I caught an early screening in London, then watched it again, twice ... and it really disturbs me. The most disturbing film for me since Aster's debut, Hereditary. On television streaming I really enjoyed the new horror films The Influence and Wounds, each adapted from excellent stories from writers I'm lucky to count as friends. And I also recommend watching Terrified; Killing Ground; The Dyatlov Pass Incident; May the Devil Take You; The Devil's Doorway; The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh; Mon Mon Mon Monsters; The Witch in the Window. In music, my favourite new albums of 2019 were: Heretics by Rotting Christ; In Cauda Venenum by Opeth; Never is Now by Skold; The Repentless Killology by Slayer. In horror and the weird fiction, in no particular order, I really enjoyed: The Wise Friend by Ramsey Campbell (published April 2020); Hollow Shores by Gary Budden; Wounds by Nathan Ballingrud; The Delicate Shore Beckons Us by Jonathan Wood; Children of the Crimson Sun by Karim Ghahwagi; The Bellboy by Rebecca Lloyd; The Ballet of Doctor Caligari and Madder Mysteries by Reggie Oliver; The Book of Bones by John Connolly; The Immeasurable Corpse of Nature by Christopher Slatsky (published 2020); Wakenhyrst by Michelle Paver; Mothlight by Adam Scovall. Other fiction I recommend: Dodgers by Bill Beverly; Stoneburner & Time Done Been Won't Be No More both by William Gay; Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan; The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters. In Non-fiction, my favourite reads were: The Weird & the Eerie by Mark Fisher (Lit' Criticism); Sleeping with Lights On by Darryl Jones (Lit' Criticism); Folk Horror by Adam Scovall (Lit' Criticism & more); Millennium by Tom Holland (History); Underland by Robert Macfarlane (Nature Writing); Wilding by Isabella Tree (Nature Writing); The Moor by William Atkins (Nature Writing); The Rings of Saturn by W. G. Sebald (Memoir); Waterlog by Roger Deakin (Memoir)  I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara (True Crime); All the Devils Are Here by David Seabrook (True Crime). I'm finally done and this has been a long letter . . . so I am going to let you go. So, finally, let me wish you all the best for 2020 and thank you again for your patronage, time and support. You rock. And until next time, keep those horns raised ... Manes exite paterni Adam