'The Great Experiment' film is alive...

I've been dabbling with short films for a while now and have finally got round to completing a far more ambitious 25 minute documentary entitled VENTURE MAN: TEMPUS FUGIT. What we understand as television is changing at a ferocious rate. Soon it will be commonplace to select films from the Internet rather than simply accepting what the broadcasters offer. After all, when we visit the library we're not offered a choice of fifty books, we have thousands to pick from.

Anyhow, I've dived into this new metaphorical wave of TV, got soaking wet (that is, spent weeks script writing, filming, editing); the trailer can be viewed here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmWr6smHKHw
If the link is cranky simply search 'Simon Clark' at Youtube. VENTURE MAN is now showing at Amazon Unbox in the US; soon it should be global.

Ooops

Ooops, the most recent addition is a copy of my e-mail newsletter, which I should have pasted into MySpace. But while I'm here, I've just heard that Ellen Datlow is reprinting my story 'The Extraordinary Limits of Darkness' in this year's volume of Year's Best Fantasy and Horror. It'll be my first appearance in that anthology and I'm thrilled -- or as we might say here in Yorkshire 'Right chuffed!'
Best,
Simon

Tis' the season for shorts

SIMON CLARK IS PLEASED TO BE IN AMAZON SHORTS!> > No, that isn't a confession for an exotic taste in fashion. > Amazon.com is featuring my new short story 'They Will Not Rest' in > its Amazon Shorts program.> > At the moment this is only available in the United States. I'll be > dropping them hints to extend it to the rest of world ;--) If you > want to read the story, currently exclusive to Amazon, simply hit http://www.amazon.com/They-Will-Not-Rest/dp/B000MR96S8/ref=pd_ts_b_15/104-9839473-0297534?ie=UTF8&s=books > the Amazon US website, go to the Simon Clark book pages and there > will be a link to take you in. To download the story costs 49 cents, > and if you have a compatible phone or handheld device you can read > the story on the move (not while driving or flying a plane, I hasten > to add).> > 'They Will Not Rest' is a gruesome story of sleep deprivation, set in > the English coastal town of Whitby. This is a place that keeps > dragging me back to use as a setting. So far, Whitby has appeared as > a backdrop to 'The Hand of Glory, 'The Whitby Experience,' and > features in the Vampyrrhic novels, too. If you've never visited > Whitby are intrigued by my continued fascination with this haunting > town it appears in the first part of the 'Secret Realms, Haunted > Places' video that can be found at my website.> > To give you a flavor of 'They Will Not Rest' here are the opening lines:-> > 1. The Price of Sleep Debt. Cemetery Exodus. Sundry Vistas.> > How long can you stay awake? Twenty-four hours? Thirty-six? The fact > is, forty-eight hours without sleep brings headache, disorientation > and those first all-too corrosive hallucinations. A rat deprived of > sleep is dead within twenty-eight days. Human beings last a little > longer, although they lose their minds to full-blown psychosis long > before they lose their lives.> > And yet when the coffins started appearing in our streets and in our > yards and gardens the only way to save your life was to remain awake. > Because those long, muddy boxes full of rot and oozing bacteria soon > began to accumulate around your home. See the problem?> > * * *> > In closing, just a couple of extra items. Robert Hale Limited will be > publishing my short story collection Midnight's Bazaar. I'll post the > publication date on the site as soon as I know it. And recently I > wrote the introduction to a collection of formidable, and extremely > hard-hitting short stories, by Paul Finch. Stains is to be published > by Gray Friars Press, and is thoroughly recommended if you like your > horror at its most uncompromising.> > Until next time...> > All the best,> > Simon Clark> --

Confessions of the paperless writer

Writers and editors would often complain that they felt as if they were drowning in a sea of paper and an ocean of books. If you visit the office of an editor at a book publishers you'll see what I mean. Manuscripts form perilous looking towers, everywhere there are books; the desks are awash with sheets of paper, book covers, letters, faxed agents' reminders, royalty statements that will cause woe for the author, more manuscripts, and the editor with a desperate eye will indicate the hiker's rucksack they use as a briefcase which is weighed down with yet more manuscripts, and which is likely to cause them permanent spinal damage.

It seemed as if this is the way it would always be - paper by the pound - but more and more stories and articles exist only as electrons speeding along cables to computer screens.

So, at last, I've dipped my toe into the world of virtual print. Amazon Shorts have published my story THEY WILL NOT REST (it can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/They-Will-Not-Rest/dp/B000MR96S8/ref=pd_ts_b_15/104-9839473-0297534?ie=UTF8&s=books )
It doesn't exist on paper. It might never be enclosed by the covers of a book. Nevertheless it has been published (in the US only unfortunately). Is this the way to the future of writing and reading? Time will tell.

The story was inspired by a jet-lagged train journey back home. We'd taken a short break to New York and as I dozed on the train reality and dreams overlapped in a surreal way. At times I thought I was still back in the City Diner on Broadway ogling at my delicious cheesecake, at other times I looked at a house on a hillside as the train hummed by, then I'd fallen into a micro sleep again and dreamed the house had begun to glide across the landscape like ship. There's a short film I saw recently called Lovecraft's Pillow that hints that the master of cosmic horror drew his inspiration from dreams. Dreams are a great place to find story ideas. And if Jung is right we are all dreaming the same dreams, in a manner of speaking, the language and imagery might differ, but the story is universal to all humankind.

Until next time... when I should have news of a new venture in cyberspace...

Simon Clark - ventures in video

This site is under construction. I intend it to compliment the website that focusses on my novels and short stories.
They say the future is digital, so as well as committing fiction to paper I've begun to contribute stories to Amazon Shorts and taking an even bigger leap of producing experimental videos. Some of these can be found on Google video, including A Child's Dominion and Inspired.
For more information please drop by my website at www.bbr-online.com/nailed