It’s been a busy old year. New qualification, new direction, new job, new me (almost). But returning full-time to journalism hasn’t meant entirely abandoning the extra-curricular writing that’s always been the fun part of the job.
And so it’s been gratifying to be part of a bunch of projects either as contributor or supporter.
Son of Unsung Horrors was publisher Eric McNaughton’s follow-up to his earlier Unsung Horrors and boasted an array of essays, appreciations, reviews and critiques of oddities, peculiarities, forgotten whimsies and outright treasures from the worlds of horror, sci-fi and fantasy.
My chapter was an interview with director Paul Annett on Amicus’s The Beast Must Die.
I was also pleased to see Eric’s anthology 70s Monster Memories be rewarded with a second edition, partly to thwart the scalpers who continue to sell first editions at obscenely inflated prices online.
My chapters were on the horror film books of Alan Frank and the iconic ’70s magazine The House of Hammer as remembered by its creator, my pal Dez Skinn.
Beelzebub was Michael Armstrong’s unfilmed screen play for a film about a malevolent computer. Written in the 1980s it was a prescient tale that, had it been made, would have complemented the likes of The Terminator whilst channelling earlier films such as The Exorcist and The Possession of Joel Delaney.
I was thrilled to be invited to write the foreword. Thanks, Michael.
We are the Martians – The Legacy of Nigel Kneale came out in 2017 but this glorious slipcased set (with the teleplay for The Big, Big Giggle) was the one everyone waited for. Editor Neil Snowdon’s collection of essays, remembrances, reviews, overviews and interviews (including mine with Herbert Wise and Chris Burt, director and producer of TV’s The Woman in Black) was nominated for a 2017 Rondo Award as Book of the Year.
I saw my second piece of short fiction appear in Stories of the Dead, a tribute to the late, great George A. Romero. My tale ‘A&E’ is set in the back of an ambulance as an elderly woman wakes from the dead to attack the crew.
Literary Landscapes is another anthology, looking at the worlds of the imagination as created by writers such as Emily Bronte, Charles Dickens and Dylan Thomas. The latter was the focus of my chapter on his ‘play for voices’, Under Milk Wood.
It was great to finally see Chris Hoare’s biography of his father, legendary mercenary commander Colonel ‘Mad Mike’ Hoare. A book many years in the making, ‘Mad Mike’ Hoare – The Legend has emerged in Mike’s 100th year – he will reach his century on March 17, 2019. My contributor copy comes courtesy of Chris as reward for interviews I provided with film director Andrew V. McLaglen, actor John Kani and editor John Glen, all of whom shared memories of Colonel Hoare from the making of The Wild Geese, on which he was a consultant.
And finally… that majestic-looking A4 format tome taking centre stage is my thesis for my Masters in English by Research, completed at Sheffield Hallam University. In terms of all my work over the last 30-odd years it’s the piece that’s given me the most satisfaction. I graduated on November 12 this year.
So, all in all, that’ll be eight books for my personal “shelfie” this year. Not bad, even if I say so myself.
And in 2019 I’ll be finishing off Saxon, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll – The Real Spinal Tap with guitarists and all-round good guys Graham Oliver and Steve Dawson from Yorkshire rockers Saxon. Believe me, it’s a tale worth telling, with belly laughs on every page.
See you in 2019.
Funny what you find out there in Internetland.
Some thoughts on contributing to Literary Landscapes, and seeing how it’s promoted by the magic of reviewers via their blogs. This 
I asked Graham Oliver, guitarist with Saxon, for his memories of the very first Monsters of Rock in 1980 at Castle Donington. It makes for a fantastic chapter in the forthcoming Saxon, Drugs and Rock ‘N’ Roll – The Real Spinal Tap from Tomahawk Press.
Tony Earnshaw 