Shadow Writer - The Official Paul Kane Website

A seasonal extra - Paul's story 'A Nightmare on 34th Street' has just been reprinted in the Christmas edition of Estronomicon magazine. To download this, just click here

Paul has also just given an interview to the UKSF BookNews.Net site about his Hellraiser book and you can find this here

News just in, you can read an exclusive interview with Paul about his Hellraiser book on the Hellbound Web site by clicking here

Reaction to The Hellraiser Films and Their Legacy has been beyond all of Paul’s expectations. The book (see last month’s news section) was introduced by Doug Bradley, above with Paul, and contains original sketches from Clive Barker, as well as many behind the scenes pictures. Already news has appeared on the Fangoria website here, Zone Horror (formerly The Horror Channel) and Gary J. Tunnicliffe’s site here. It has also gone on sale now at the Good Book Guide site here.

The book will receive an unofficial pre-publication launch at the British Fantasy Society’s Christmas Open Night on 8th December at Ye Olde Cock Tavern on Fleet Street, where copies will be available on the night.

The Hellraiser Films and Their Legacy will be on general sale on December 12th so keep checking back for any signings that have been set up. But you can also buy signed editions through the Shadow Writer site, to express interest please send a mail to the following address hellraiser@shadow-writer.co.uk

December 5th marks a very special event in genre circles, as it’s the release date of Thomas Harris’ new novel Hannibal Rising, a prequel to the famous books Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal, featuring everyone’s favourite cannibal, Dr Hannibal Lecter. The books were, of course, famously turned into movies – The Silence of the Lambs – sweeping the boards at the Oscars in 1991. This new instalment is due to come out as a movie in February next year.

Random House have given the Shadow Writer site permission to link to an appetite-whetting chapter from the book – you can even hear Thomas reading from the new novel. Just click here to read it, or visit the official Hannibal Rising site here

Last month Paul was involved in an online debate about genre comedy hosted by his Canadian publisher Pete Allen of Creative Guy Publishing. Also taking part was Gary K. Wolf, creator of Roger Rabbit (above), Adrienne Jones (author of Oral Vices), and Aurelio O’Brien (author of Eve).

Paul’s Dalton Quayle novella ‘Dalton Quayle and the Curse of King Tuti Fruiti’ is to be published in the third volume of Amityville House of Pancakes (above) alongside Gary’s ‘The UnHardy Boys in Outer Space’.

You can see a massive gallery of the Chillerfest pictures, including shots of stars like Joel Gretsch and Jacqueline McKenzie now online by clicking here.

A report with photos of the Stephen King event at the Battersea Events Area (above) – which Paul thoroughly enjoyed – will appear on the site next month, so watch out for that.

Finally, Paul would like to wish all the visitors a very merry Christmas and a happy and peaceful New Year. We’ll be back in 2007 with more news. Till then, have a good one.

The big news this month is about the imminent release of Paul’s book The Hellraiser Films and Their Legacy in hardback from McFarland in the states. The book covers all eight Hellraiser movies, beginning with the origins of Clive Barker’s original film, the production histories and themes (such as family horror and the malleability of the flesh), the comics and spin off merchandise. The tome also has a detailed notes and index section for easy reference, plus behind the scenes photographs and Clive Barker’s early Hellraiser sketches.

It comes complete with a brilliant introduction from the man who brought Pinhead to life, actor Doug Bradley, who comments, “It would be, perhaps, facile of me to say that Paul Kane has such sights to show you, but the simple fact is, he has…”

As well as being available from McFarland directly here it is also available through the following:

In addition, the book has an official entry on the Internet Movie Database as a resource for the Hellraiser films, which you can find by clicking here

Keep checking in for more Hellraiser news in the coming months, as not only is Clive penning the novella in which Harry D’Amour faces Pinhead, it has just been announced that he is also going to write a remake of the original movie. For more details, visit the Revelations site here

And to celebrate all this, the Shadow Writer site has an interview with Clive Barker now online. It was first published in the FantasyCon magazine for which Clive donated a first-look piece of artwork and for which Paul and Marie O’Regan contributed the cover design (below). To read the interview click here

As if all that little lot wasn’t enough, Paul is delighted to be giving readers of the SW site a taster of Stephen King’s excellent new book, Lisey’s Story (see October extra) courtesy of those nice people at Hodder. To read this superb extract, just click here. The book is available now at all good bookshops and the usual online stores.

Paul is delighted to announce that the workshops and readings for World Horror Day went very well on Friday October 13th.

Attending were Marie and Simon Clark (below). Everyone had a good time, especially when discussing all things terrifying, and there was some great feedback both on the day and afterwards. With thanks again to Alex Davis who helped to set all this up and Emma Jones for designing the flyers.

As promised, you can see a massive photo gallery from September’s FantasyCon, including pictures from Paul’s live interviews of Clive Barker and Neil Gaiman (above, with Paul). Just click here

On Thursday 26th October, Paul and Marie were in Derby at the haunted Ye Olde Dolphin Inne for an evening of ghost stories delivered by Sean O’Brien, Gail-Nina Anderson (immediately below) and Chaz Brenchley (below that).

A cracking time was had by all, and the food was delicious. Books of the ghostly readings, which take place periodically and are well worth catching, were also available with a bonus CD on the night.

Finally, over the weekend of October 28th – 29th Paul and Marie were at Chillerfest part of London Expo at London Excel. Paul got to meet Christopher Lee, there to promote his new CD (below), the 4400 and CSI cast, make-up supremo Tom Savini, editor of Gorezone Bryn Hammond, the people behind Revolt Films and StormRider Films and many other stars of the genre world, such as Simon Pegg, Brian Bolland and Matt Frewer.

Paul and Marie also interviewed the delightful Christa Campbell (below) star of The Wicker Man, 2001 Maniacs and the upcoming remake of Day of the Dead. With thanks to Hillary at Momentum Pictures.

A very special news extra now, the second this month. Stephen King will be in London, his first visit in almost ten years, for a one off talk and to give a reading from his new novel Lisey’s Story (below). The event will be held on Tuesday 7th November at Battersea Park Events Arena, Battersea Park, London SW11, and Paul will be there on the night to cover it. If you want to book tickets for this, they cost £15 each and the hotline is 08708 303 488. The doors will open at 5:30 with the event beginning at 7. Be sure not to miss out on this once in a lifetime event!

Paul is delighted to add a link to the site supporting 'When Evil Calls' the world’s first made-for-mobile horror series, with the intriguing tagline "This Halloween, evil has a new number."

As you can probably tell 'When Evil Calls' will launch at the end of October with a killer cast including Jennifer Lim, Dominique Pinon and Chris Barrie of Red Dwarf (below) .

Horror enthusiasts will be able to download this great horror series by texting the word "WISH" to 61616 where they will receive a WAP push with a WAP URL which will link them straight into the content. For further details on the 'When Evil Calls' series visit their website at www.whenevilcalls.tv

Paul is taking part in a couple of events to mark World Horror Day on Friday 13th October, supported by the Horror Writers Association, The Horror Channel, writers like Stephen King and Brian Knight, and sponsored by the new horror movie sequel SAW 3.

Along with Marie O’Regan and Simon Clark he will be running a workshop in the afternoon (Simon’s ‘Write for Life’ talk is 1:30-2:30 p.m, Marie and Paul’s ‘Elements of Horror Fiction’ is at 3-4 p.m, cost £1 each) and giving a reading at night (7:30-9 p.m., entry fee £2, refreshments included). The charge is to cover costs with any profits made going to charity. Both events will take place at Chesterfield Library, the afternoon sessions in the meeting room and the night session in the theatre.

But before that, Paul and Marie are introducing the new film version of Philip K. Dick’s dystopian nightmare A Scanner Darkly (starring Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder)at the Metro in Derby on 2nd October. They will be talking about and reading from the book, as well as discussing the movie’s production.

Paul was interviewed for BBC Radio 2 last month, with the broadcast going out on Friday 22nd at 10 p.m. during Matthew Wright’s ‘Weekender’ programme. In it he chatted about FantasyCon and his own work, before an extract from his story ‘Who’s Been’ was read out. Other contributing authors for the show were Marie, Mark Chadbourn, Juliet E. McKenna, Neil Gaiman and Christopher Fowler.

Talking of Christopher, Paul and Marie were invited to help celebrate the launch of his latest Bryant and May mystery Ten Second Staircase on Friday 8th September at an exclusive party in Foyles Bookshop, Charing Cross Road in London.

Also there were Michael Marshall Smith, Stephen Jones, Lucy Ramsey, Graham Joyce, the artist John Bolton and many more of Chris’ friends.

Paul had a wonderful time at FantasyCon 2006 in Nottingham on the weekend of 22nd –24th September. The hotel was heaving with attendees (over 400 in total) and the Guests of Honour – including Clive Barker – made it a once in a lifetime event. He particularly enjoyed interviewing Clive (above) and Neil Gaiman live on stage, and the Q&A with Simon Bamford on the Saturday night (below), plus catching up with friends like Stephen Jones, Joe Hill, Steve Upham, James Barclay, Simon Clark, Mark Morris, Sarah Pinborough, Tim Lebbon, Chaz Brenchley and many more. Pictures should be up on the site very soon. But you can find a transcript of Clive’s banquet speech at the Revelations site here, run by our very good friends Phil and Sarah Stokes.

Paul has donated a signed and framed caricature of those most famous Barker characters, the Hellraiser Cenobites, to a charity auction organised by Robin Miller. All the profits from this will go to a very worthy cause, Cancer Research UK.

The first prize winners of the Abaddon Book Competition can now be revealed as Shaun Jeffrey and Matthew Sheppard. Complete sets of the books are on their way to you. Many congratulations and thanks for entering.

Paul is delighted to welcome author of The Farm, Scott Nicholson to the Shadow Writer site this Halloween month as a Guest Writer. To read his gripping short ‘Eat Me’, simply click here.

He has also begun a Shadow Writer Journal. You can drop by and read his musings here

Finally, here is the last in the Abaddon Books extracts: Sniper Elite: Spear of Destiny by Jaspre Bark. Just click here to download.

In the third of our special Guest Writer slots for this month, Matthew Sprange, with an extract from his Abaddon book Death Hulk. To download this click here.

The winners of the Abaddon Books Competition will be informed next week and announced in October's update.

The second of our four Guest Writers for September is now online with a downloadable excerpt from his Abaddon novel, Dreams of Inan: A Kind of Peace. To read Andy Boot's fantasy fiction, just click here.

BFS Horror Calendar artist Paul Campion and producer Elizabeth Pinto have mailed with news of their film, Night of the Hell Hamsters. The tongue-in-cheek movie has the tagline 'Furry death on four tiny, stumpy feet' and had its premiere in London last week. But fear not, those who missed it - director Paul's short is part of the line-up for the film show at FantasyCon this year. For more info on the project, visit the site here.

Fans of Paul’s ‘Shadow’ stories will be interested to read that Screaming Dreams are publishing a Shadows Trilogy e-book containing three stories: the original ‘Shadow Writer’, ‘Blackout’ and a brand new tale, ‘The Convert’, all featuring The Order of the Shadows. The artwork will be by David A. Magitis and we’ll let you know as soon as it’s out. (Cover design may change.)

Extracts from Paul’s Signs of Life can also be found in the latest edition of Estronomicon from Screaming Dreams, which you can download here

The first of four Guest Writers this month is Simon Spurrier with an extract from The Afterblight Chronicles: The Culled, one of the Abaddon books from last month’s competition – which you still have time to enter. To download this, simply click here and the next extract will be posted soon, so keep checking back.

Paul is getting ready for FantasyCon 2006 which will be with us soon. Held in Nottingham on the weekend of 22nd-24th September at the Britannia Hotel, St James Street, it boasts as Guests of Honour: Clive Barker, Neil Gaiman, Raymond Feist, Ramsey Campbell and Juliet E. McKenna. As well as launching the BFS: A Celebration Book, Paul will be interviewing Clive and Neil on stage and also hosting a special Q&A session with Clive and Simon Bamford (Butterball Cenobite from Hellraiser and Ohnaka from Nightbreed – visit his website here). For more details and how to book, visit the FCon site here.

Paul and Marie O’Regan have just introduced the new ‘Members Only’ BFS paperback edition of Cinema Macabre which is being shipped out shortly. In it they talk about their experiences of writing essays on what they consider the best horror films around. The book was edited by Mark Morris and originally appeared as a PS Publishing book, featuring an introduction by Jonathan Ross and pieces by genre names like Simon Shaun of the Dead Pegg, Mark League of Gentlemen Gatiss, Neil Gaiman, Stephen Jones and many more (see previous news sections for details). This edition has a superb cover by Les Edwards.

Friend of the SW site and contributor to both the Green Knight and Horror calendars artist Lara Bandilla has written with news of two sites for you to check out. The first is the new ‘Strangemind Studio’ which you can find by clicking here. The second is Lara’s personal site at http://www.larabandilla.com. Visit them to see more of her unique art and sculpture.

Lastly, Paul was delighted to learn that he has reached the nominations stage of the British Fantasy Awards with his short story ‘Homeland’ and his novella ‘Signs of Life’. It’s a dream come true for him to get on the shortlist and a big thank you goes out to anyone who voted for him. The awards will be handed out at the banquet during FantasyCon.

In the meantime Paul and Marie will be at the BFS Open Night in London on Friday 1st September at the Devereux pub, so be sure to say hello if you’re attending.

Firstly this month, in conjunction with Abaddon Books (an imprint of those nice people at Rebellion who also own 2000 A.D.) the Shadow Writer site has a full set of each of their first four books to give away as first prizes for two lucky winners. These packs include Tomes of the Dead: Death Hulk by Matthew Sprange, Dreams of Inan: A Kind of Peace by Andy Boot, The Afterblight Chronicles: The Culled by Simon Spurrier, and Sniper Elite: Spear of Destiny by Jaspre Bark. Fifteen runners-up will each receive a sampler featuring fiction extracts from the books.

The new releases were recently spotlighted in SFX and Clive Barker has had this to say about the project: ‘Abaddon promises to deliver a whole new generation of dark fantastic fiction. Worlds of horror and fantasy where the old rules don’t apply, and genre fiction is kicked up to wild new heights of invention.’

The Shadow Writer site will be host to four Abaddon Guest Writers next month, but for the chance to win these books and the sampler just answer these simple questions:

1) What is the name of the hero-captain in Matthew Sprange’s novel, Death
Hulk?

2) How long have the nation states been at war for on the planet Inan in Dreams of Inan: A Kind of Peace?

3) Apart from being a writer for 2000 A.D. Abaddon and Black Flame, what other jobs has Simon Spurrier, author of The Afterblight Chronicles: The Culled done in the past.

Send all mails to competition@shadow-writer.co.uk with ‘Abaddon Books Competition’ in the title - don’t forget to include your full name and postal address within the body of the e-mail. All competition entries must be in by September 15th and no correspondence will be entered into.

With a huge thanks to Abaddon’s editor Jonathan Oliver for helping to set this up.

There’s also news about another excellent competition that’s being run by Revolver Entertainment and the BFS to mark the release of Terry Gilliam’s new movie Tideland on 11th August. You can win signed copies of the Tideland
Film Adaptation By Terry Gilliam and copies of the soundtrack. For details, click here.

Revolver are also running a competition on ‘The Dreamz’ website, to ask Terry a question, and he will answer the best 30. To go to this, click here

Sat 5 August
Terry Gilliam appearance and poster/book signing at Forbidden Planet on
Shaftesbury Avenue, W1. Start time: 1pm.

Tue 8 August
Tideland screening followed by Q&A with Terry at the Manchester Cornerhouse.

Thu 10 August
Tideland screening followed by Q&A at the Curzon Soho. The film will be shown
and a Q&A with Terry will follow.

Sun 13 August
Gilliam double bill at the Curzon Soho, Monty Python’s Meaning of Life, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, followed by Tideland .

Lastly, to read Paul and Marie O’Regan’s article on Terry and Tideland, featuring quotes from the director and others involved, just click here. This piece will also be included in an upcoming issue of Dark Horizons.

This month’s Guest Writer is multi-award winning author of White, Desolation and Dusk, Tim Lebbon, with one of his best ever short stories. To read the exceptional ‘The Empty Room’ just click here.

In July Paul and Marie met up with number one bestselling author Jeffery Deaver on a signing tour. The author of twenty novels of suspense including The Bone Collector (which was made into a movie starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie – below) was in Chesterfield on 22 nd July to sign copies of his latest Lincolm Rhyme novel The Cold Moon at the Peak Bookshop.

The couple had chance for a quick chat during which Jeffery told them the book was ‘Sick and twisted, but you two look like you can handle it.’

The latest issue of Dark Horizons has just been shipped out to members of the BFS. Edited by Marie O’Regan and Jenny Barber, Paul has served as fiction co-editor with Marie on this one. The stories included are: ‘Flowers in the Cellar’ by Lavie Tidhar, ‘Baby’ by Simon Messingham, ‘Masquerade’ by Debbie Bennett and the first original short story by Mark Chadbourn in six years, ‘The Ones We Leave Behind’. To join the BFS and receive DH please visit the site here

Speaking of Mark (contributor to the Green Knight Calendar and The BFS: A Celebration book, both edited by Paul and Marie), he has begun a new series of novels. Probably best known for his World’s End series, the bestselling author’s new sequence begins with the outstanding Jack of Ravens and to celebrate Mark has a new website about it all. To visit this and find out more information, just click here.

Meanwhile The BFS: A Celebration book has been gaining mentions on places like Clive Barker’s site and has gone up for pre-order on sites like Shocklines

It’s just been confirmed on the Alt.fiction blogspot that Paul and Marie will be doing a workshop again in Derby for the 2007 Alt.Fiction event. This year’s event which was held back in May was such a success that organiser Alex Davis is running it again. You can read more about it all by clicking here

Finally, previous Shadow Writer Steve Deighan has written to let us know about his new book, Things from the Past – with cover illustration from The Torturer and Signs of Life artist Ian Simmons.

You can find out more about this, his second collection, by visiting the author’s own site at http://www.stevendeighan.co.uk/ including pre-order details from places like Amazon and WH Smiths.co.uk

The first piece of exciting news this month is about a new project that has been under wraps for a while. Paul is delighted to reveal that along with co-editer Marie O’Regan they have been at work for over a year compiling a British Fantasy Society Celebration book. The anthology contains the very best in horror, fantasy and science fiction from some of the top award-winning and bestselling authors on the planet – mostly original and very rarely seen material. In addition, there are remembrances and ponderings about the unique organisation that is the BFS, from tales about FantasyCons gone by to how they first became members.

The book features fiction from such notable names as Clive Barker, Neil Gaiman, Ramsey Campbell, John Connolly, Peter Straub, Brian Aldiss, Robert Silverberg, Robert Holdstock, Christopher Fowler, Michael Marshall Smith, Mark Chadbourn, Juliet E. McKenna, Kim Newman, Mark Morris, Chaz Brenchley, Simon Clark, Peter Crowther, Richard Christian Matheson, Stephen Gallagher & Graham Joyce… And comes with a heartfelt introduction from multi-award winning editor and writer, BFS stalwart Stephen Jones.

The book also comes with original colour cover wraparound artwork by Dominic Harman who has painted covers for books like War of the Worlds, The Time Machine and did the movie poster artwork for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

All profits from the sale of this book will be split between supporting the BFS and The ‘Black Dust’ Noabakazulu Charity Project, one of the charities supported by 2006’s FantasyCon, and the trade paperback will be launched at that venue, where four of the contributors are Guests of Honour.

And one of the Guests mentioned above, Clive Barker has just given another interview for his official site, Revelations, where he mentions FantasyCon and Paul. The interview is in two parts and you can read them by clicking here.

When you’ve finished reading that excellent interview, there’s part two of the SW interview with Neil Gaiman – another FCon Guest - up now. To go straight to it, click here.

Paul is extremely pleased to welcome bestselling author Kelley Armstrong to the Shadow Writer website as Guest Writer for July. Kelley is the author of books like Bitten, Stolen and Haunted, and here you will find the first chapter of her new novel, Broken. Enjoy!

As promised last month, here you can find pictures from the Crystal Peaks event in Sheffield where characters from Dr. Who were present to raise money for charity. The event was organised by the Hyde Fundraisers and everyone in the shopping centre had a lot of fun.

Former Shadow Writer D. Harlan Wilson has mailed to let us know of a new anthology containing his fiction. The Bizarro Starter Kit is out now in paperback and can be ordered from here.

This from the blurb: ‘There’s a new genre rising from the underground. Its name: BIZARRO. For years, readers have been asking for a category of fiction dedicated to the weird, crazy, cult side of storytelling that has become a staple in the film industry (with directors such as David Lynch, Takashi Miike, Tim Burton, and even Lloyd Kaufman) but has been largely ignored in the literary world, until now. The Bizarro Starter Kit features short novels and story collections by ten of the leading authors in the bizarro genre: D. Harlan Wilson, Carlton Mellick III, Jeremy Robert Johnson, Kevin L Donihe, Gina Ranalli, Andre Duza, Vincent W. Sakowski, Steve Beard, John Edward Lawson, and Bruce Taylor.’

Pete Allen of Creative Guy Publishing, publisher of Paul’s ‘horredy’ book FunnyBones and his e-books Master of the White Worms and Dalton Quayle and the Temple of Deadly Danger, has been on the airwaves talking about his business and mentioning the books. Click here to listen to what he has to say online, including news about the new Amityville House of Pancakes anthology that Paul has written a novella for.

Finally, the British Fantasy Award recommendations have been posted up on the site and Paul is included in three categories: Best Short story, for ‘Homeland’; Best Novella for ‘Signs of Life’ and Best Collection for Signs of Life.

Homeland’, which appeared in the Assembly of Rogues anthology edited by John B. Ford and Martin Roberts, accompanied the DVD which Martin made interviewing some of the most notable writers in the genre. The anthology itself is also recommended, and you can read ‘Homeland’ by clicking here.

Also Shocklines have just stocked signed copies of Signs of Life, which you can now order here.

In the run up to FantasyCon 2006, the Shadow Writer site is presenting a two-part interview with Guest of Honour Neil Gaiman - first conducted in November 2005 and first printed in its entirety in Dark Horizons.

Guest Writer for the month of June is author of the phenomenal collection 20th Century Ghosts which everyone is talking about (if you haven't bought it yet, why not? Go do it now by clicking here. Joe's exceptional story is called 'Abraham's Boys' and you can read it by clicking here.

Pictures from the successful Derby Alt.Ficton launch and Alt.Fiction day, where both Signs of Life and Mirror Mere (see previous news sections) were launched can now be found in the events section of the site. To view them, simply click here.

Paul has been approached to donate signed books for a very worthy cause. Robin Miller is attempting to raise £4000 between now and September for 'Trek Peru' on behalf of Cancer Research UK. Other people backing this project are celebrities such as new Doctor Who David Tennant (above) Cat Deeley, James Blunt, Sean Bean, Robbie Coltrane, Anthony Stewart Head, Victoria Wood, Orlando Bloom, Kylie Minogue, Ewan McGregor (below) and many others. To find out more about Robin and the project click here, and to visit Cancer Research and donate money please click here.

Speaking of Dr. Who, Paul was also around at Crystal Peaks in Sheffield when characters from the BBC series invaded on Bank Holiday Monday, May 29th. As part of the Hyde Fundraisers' event (click here for their website), Daleks and Cybermen were on hand all day long to collect money. You can see more pictures from this next month.

Paul and Marie have just conducted an interview with the director of the independent zombie film Awaken the Dead, Jeffrey Brookshire, which will appear in Dark Horizons shortly. According to its director, the movie - which features Paul Dion Monte (cousin of Sylvester Stallone and star of Rocky Balboa) - is a new take on the zombie subgenre. For more information visit the official website by clicking here.

Finally, Paul will be at the BFS Open Night on 2nd June in London at the Deveraux pub. If you see him there, be sure to say hello.

First order of business this month is the re-release of Paul’s novella Signs of Life. As mentioned last month, this book will now be available as a trade paperback edition with internal illustrations from Rainfall Books. Details are in the Kanography section here, and if you would like a signed copy drop a line to this email address here.

The reissue was launched at the Voicebox event in Derby on Friday 28 th April and you can see pictures from that and from the Derby Alt.Fiction event this Saturday in next month’s news section.

Second piece of news from April is the release of Cinema Macabre edited by Mark Morris and with an introduction from Jonathan Ross (below). Details of the book, which has been produced by PS Publishing in deluxe slipcased hardcover (signed by all the contributors) and hardcover versions can be found here.

Alongside Paul’s piece about Hellraiser are contributions from such luminaries as Stephen Jones, Neil Gaiman, Peter Atkins, Brian Aldiss, Muriel Gray, Justina Robson, Michael Marshall Smith, Kim Newman, Christopher Fowler, Simon Clark, Les Edwards, Chaz Brenchley, Stephen Gallagher, Mark (League of Gentlemen and Dr Who) Gatiss and Simon (Shaun of the Dead) Pegg (both pictured below). For the full list of contributors click on the link above.

Paul is over the moon to welcome bestselling author F. Paul Wilson as his guest writer for May. F. Paul (pictured below) is probably best known for his ‘Repairman Jack’ novels including The Keep (which was turned into a movie by Michael - Collateral - Mann) and The Tomb. To read his excellent story ‘Cuts’ simply click here.

Paul’s Master of the White Worms collection has just received a four star review on the SF Reader website. To check this out just click here.

Paul and Marie O’Regan met up with bestselling author of Birdman, TheTreatment and Tokyo Mo Hayder when she came to Chesterfield to give a reading an interview in April. There to promote her new book Pig Island, Mo talked about all kinds of subjects and signed copies of her books. You can read a report of the evening - which will also be appearing in a future BFS magazine - by clicking here.

Last, but far from least, Paul has penned the introduction to a stunning new book from Marie (pictured below). Gathering together all of her short fiction so far, Mirror Mere is a tour-de-force of horror tales which writers such as Kelley (Bitten, Haunted) Armstrong and Muriel Gray are calling ‘A delicious batch of tightly written shivers-up-the-spine chillers’ and ‘deliciously, satisfyingly nasty’. To read more about the author, visit her website at http://www.marieoregan.net.

As mentioned in the news extra last month, bestselling author of the Abarat books Clive Barker is coming to the UK in September. Paul is scheduled to do a live onstage interview with Clive, and this month is also conducting an interview with him for the FCon magazine to coincide with this event.

But if you can’t wait that long, Paul’s friends Phil and Sarah Stokes at the Revelations site have just posted a new interview with Clive on their site where he mentions FCon. Just click here to go straight to it. For a link to the FCon site itself, which has just been updated, click here

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Graham Masterton, Manitou Blood

Paul is delighted to welcome a very special Guest Writer for April. Award-winning author Graham Masterton hits the Shadow Writer site with his superb short story ‘Camelot’ which you can read here.

Graham is of course the bestselling author of such famous books as The Manitou which was turned into a movie and has been released on DVD, and Manitou Blood. His new horror novel from Severn House is Descendant (below).

Descendant, Graham Masterton

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Paul Kane

Here are some pictures from the Birthday Celebrations Paul’s students laid on in February. One of his students – Jane Croft (pictured below left) – also had a birthday that week and so they shared the blowing out of the candles. Photos are courtesy of Sylvia and Len Reeve.

Paul Kane

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Paul’s novella Signs of Life is due to be released anytime now - as a trade paperback run with internal illustrations - through Rainfall Books. It was previously released last year in a limited ‘pocket book’ edition through Crystal Serenades and these rare books are now likely to become collector’s items. More details of this and another long-anticipated publication in the next update.

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Finally, one last reminder that Paul and Marie O’Regan will be reading from their new books and participating in a Q&A session on 28th April at the Voicebox on Forman Street in Derby from 7:30-9:30. On the following weekend, on May 6th, they will be presenting a workshop in which they’ll be giving pointers about how to write horror. This event will take place at Derby Assembly Rooms. For the full line-up and details of how to book visit http://www.derby.gov.uk/LeisureCulture/Altfiction.htm

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A major piece of recent news that demands an extra update is that Clive
Barker is now attending FantasyCon 2006 in Nottingham as a Guest of Honour.
Clive, as many will know, is the best-selling author of books such as The
Damnation Game, Everville, Weaveworld and Abarat. He is also an accomplished
director, playwright and artist. His work has had a massive impact on Paul's
life so it is with great pleasure that Paul relates he is conducting an
onstage live interview with the man himself as part of the weekend. Clive
very rarely makes appearances like these in Europe so it is worth booking
your place early. Other Guests include Neil Gaiman, Raymond E. Feist, Juliet
McKenna and Ramsey Campbell - quite a line-up. If you want more details and
infomation about how to book, please visit the website here

People have also been asking about the Derby event (see March news section
for more details) and how to book. The tickets are available from
www.assemblyrooms-derby.co.uk or from 01332 255800 and are priced at £18,
£15 concessions

Hot off the presses, Terror Tales #3 is now out edited by Paul and John B. Ford. The third edition in the popular anthology series this time contains stories by Stephen Laws, Richard Christian Matheson, Simon Clark, Peter Straub, Marie O’Regan, Jeffrey Thomas, Chaz Brenchley, Joel Lane, Stephen Deighan, Conrad Williams, John Travis, Jonathan Oliver, Vicki Yates, Mark Samuels, Kevin Anderson and Allen Ashley. There’s also a Kane’s Korner on werewolves and the usual book reviews, including publications by Christopher Fowler, Richard Matheson and Jack Finney. Miss it at your peril!

Guest writer for the month of March is none other than renowned editor, author and writer David Sutton with his superb story ‘Waking’. Click here to read his bio and the story.

David’s collection Clinically Dead and Other Tales of the Supernatural (above) is due for release by Crowswing Books in April 2006. It includes a superb mix of previously published and unpublished short stories, as well as an excellent novella – ‘In the Land of the Rainbow Snake’. The book also boasts an introduction by award-winning editor and writer Stephen Jones, afterword by Joel Lane, and stunning cover artwork by Harry O. Morris. It will be published initially in hardcover, plus a limited slipcased edition. For more details please visit the Crowswing site at http://crowswingbooks.co.uk

Announcing the winners of the FunnyBones competition which Creative Guy Publishing held to mark Paul’s birthday. Each will receive a copy of the book, now in its second printing. The lucky folk are: David Olson, Steven Deighan, CL Carnley, Phil Maud and Leonie Martin. Well done and a big thanks for entering.

A new interview with Paul has just been conducted by Screaming Dreams and published in Volume 2 of their e-zine Estronomicon, click here to download.

An excerpt from Paul’s Signs of Life book will be featured in Issue 4 of the magazine and an original story, ‘1, 2, 3…’ will be in Issue 6.

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British Fantasy Society Calendar 2006

Now for that TV news we promised. The British Fantasy Horror Calendar was featured in a television programme in the UK screened on Channel Five last month. The Gadget Show included a report which looked at the artwork from the calendar, edited by Paul and Marie O’Regan and featuring fiction contributions from the likes of Clive Barker, Neil Gaiman, Ramsey Campbell and John Connollly, as well as art from Lord of the Rings and Constantine matte artist Paul Campion – who provided the cover and a piece of internal work.

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Finally, Paul and his partner Marie O’Regan will be giving readings of their work and participating in a Q&A session on 28th April at the Voicebox on Forman Street in Derby from 7:30-9:30. This will mark the launch of Derby County Council’s Alternative Fiction celebration.

The following weekend, on May 6th, Paul and Marie will be hosting a workshop session in which they’ll be giving pointers about how to write horror. This event will take place at Derby Assembly Rooms and also giving talks and interviews on the day are such names as Storm Constantine, Simon Clark, Ramsey Campbell, Peter Crowther, Simon R. Green, John Jarrold, Mark Chadbourn, Chaz Brenchley, James Lovegrove, Stan Nicholls, James Barclay, Juliet McKenna, Mark Morris and Justina Robson.

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In January, Paul and Marie O’Regan attended Ramsey Campbell’s 60 th birthday party in Liverpool. The do was very well attended and took place at Ramsey’s haunted home – complete with a haunted bedroom and study to die for. A great time was had by all the attendees including Stephen Jones (pictured above with Ramsey), Mark Morris, Tim Lebbon, Joel Lane, Mike Chinn, Peter Crowther and Stephen Gallagher. To see pictures from the celebration just click here.

Speaking of Stephen Gallagher, the writer’s new Eleventh Hour TV series starring Patrick Stewart (of Star Trek: The Next Generation Fame) began its run in January - focussing on the exploits of Government Advisor Professor Ian Hood as he tackles disasters caused by modern science. His co-star is Ashley Jensen, who featured alongside Patrick before in Ricky Gervais’ comedy series Extras. The first episode aired (written by Stephen) involved human cloning experiments.

As regular visitors to the site will know, Stephen not only introduced Paul’s Signs of Life novella, he also contributed to the 2006 BFS Horror Calendar edited by Paul and Marie O’Regan.

For Paul’s birthday month, we have a very special Guest Writer, with a unique story. Simon Clark is someone who has helped Paul a lot over the years and he has very kindly let us use a story that he wrote as an experiment for SFX magazine. To read Simon’s introduction and the tale itself, just click here.

Which brings us to the final news item of this short month of February. As you probably read below, it’s Paul’s birthday so we hope you’ll all join us in wishing him Many Happy Returns!

To celebrate Paul's birthday next month, the publisher of his humorous horror collection FunnyBones Creative Guy Publishing, are giving away five copies of the book if you can answer a few simple questions by e-mail. For more details follow the link to their site here.

And for those wanting to know what they're letting themselves in for there are reviews of FunnyBones and Master of the White Worms (one of the novellas featured in the book) here and here. The competition closes on February 15th. Good luck!

Happy New Year to all! The first of a triple whammy for 2006, Signs of Life, the novella that was launched at the end of last year as a special edition is to go on general release in January. Details for ordering and availability will be posted here as and when, as will reviews. The book, published by CSP, contains the title novella – which involves characters based on star signs – a short novella called ‘The Bite’ (which has already been compared to early Barker by one reviewer) and ‘Who’s Been’, a modern reworking of the Goldilocks story. All this and gorgeous cover and internal artwork by British Fantasy Award nominee Ian Simmons.

Second piece of news this month is that the German translation of Touching the Flame, Schattentänzer Horrorerzählungen , is also available from Eloy Edictions, click here. The stunning cover artwork is provided this time by David Magitis, another BFS Award nominee.

As if that wasn’t enough, the Zombie anthology Paul co-edited with Walter Diociaiuti Albions Alpträume: Zombies has also been released by the same publisher. Featuring a Simon Clark introduction and stories by the likes of Christopher Fowler, John B. Ford, Tony Richards, Paul Finch, Maynard and Sims, Derek M. Fox, Mark West, Simon Bestwick and Tim Lebbon, this is one collector’s item not to be missed. Paul is hoping to bring out an English version of this anthology in the near future, so stayed tuned.

In the second of his Shadow Writer contributions, Peter Crowther kicks us off into the New Year in style with his chilling SF horror story ‘Late Night Pick Up’. Click here to read this gem.

And news from a former Shadow Writer Steven Deighan has reached us about his new collection, A Dead Calmness. This is taken from the press release: ‘A Dead Calmness is Edinburgh writer Steven Deighan’s first book. Available from January 2006, this collection of previously published and unpublished stories is a must-have for all horror fans! Already praised by leading writers and reviewers in the genre it contains 14 tales of grotesque madness, brutal betrayal and ungodly evil and is guaranteed to thrill and terrify.’ For more information visit http://www.stevendeighan.co.uk

Pictures from Paul and Marie O’Regan’s visit to the BFS Open Night on December 2 nd at the Devereux in London are now online in the events section. To go to them, just click here.

That’s it for this month, but keep checking back regularly for more announcements on some very exciting projects Paul has lined up for this year.