I haven’t played videogames in many years. Now, before the pitchforks come out and you all take to Google Maps to figure out where I live so that you can set fire to my house and murder my chickens, let me explain why. I have several other hobbies which take up all of my time. When I’m not writing or reading, I’m training at the gym, and when I’m not doing those three things, I’m trying to keep my son fed and watered and occasionally bathed. There just aren’t enough hours in the day. However, it wasn’t always like this. As a child, and as a spotty teenager, I was a rabid—if not competent—gamer. Many hours were spent steering a mutant blue hedgehog through Green Hill Zone. I could batter the shit out of Dr Robotnik all day long, and Bowser took a pasting just as often. Growing up, console graphics were like modern-day glitches; if a fifteen-year-old was gifted a Frogger cartridge nowadays, and the console upon which to play it, there would be hell to pay. Childline would get involved, there would be lawyers, parents would end up serving ten-to-life in Sing Sing. My brother and I were fortunate. Over the course of our childhood, we sampled many of the computers and consoles available at the time. Our screeching ZX Spectrum (48KB Ram! That’s less memory than your average garden hose) kept us entertained for years. We made our own games using the three-hundred-page program book which came with the computer, games which turned out to be nothing more than a rudimentary clock slowly ticking around the monitor, or an extremely basic choose-your-own-adventure RPG. So not only were the graphics shit, but you were the one responsible for putting them there in the first place. There was something almost masochistic about that, which is probably why I’m on so much medication as an adult. Thanks, Clive Sinclair. Things got slightly better with the NES, and then the SNES—which was our main console throughout our entire childhood—but Photoshop was still many years off. Thankfully, we had Mario Paint, a basic drawing utility whose only redeeming feature was its built-in fly-swatting game, Gnat Attack. With Mario Paint, I created many awful 6fps B-movies, which were saved by hooking the whole thing up to a VHS and hitting record.
Still think you’ve got it tough, millennials? When we weren’t creating our own Mario-themed texture stamps in Mario Paint, my brother and I would spend hour upon hour working our way through Super Mario All-Stars (1993), leading Link upon ridiculously tedious quests in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1992), kicking seven shades of shit out of each other in Super Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (1992), and steering an anthropomorphic fox through the galaxy in Starfox (1993). Other games came and went--F-Zero, Sim-City, Kid Klown in Crazy Chase, Streets of Rage—but those were our mainstays, the ones I always remember playing, and the ones I would happily return to now. If only the kid, whatshisname, didn’t need a bath once a week. The Bad Game is out now from The Sinister Horror Company. YOU DON'T PLAY IT... IT PLAYS YOU. Hemsby is thriving; a seaside town on the up. The holidaymakers are flooding in, and so is the money. For the majority of those who live there, the resort is idyllic. But not for Jamie Garrett. Fifteen years old and bored to tears, Hemsby is the last place he wants to be. Aside from the occasional sea rescue, nothing exciting ever happens. That's about to change as a mysterious new game arrives at the beach-front arcade. No one knows of its origin, or the rules of the game, but soon it is the talk of the resort, attracting children far and wide with its complex gameplay and surreal graphics. When the children of the resort become the perpetrators of uncharacteristic and brutal violence, Jamie realises that it is a side-effect of the game, and sets out to pull the plug on the machine before it is too late. Dare you play THE BAD GAME? Amazon UK Amazon US
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![]() The Bad Game, published by those wonderful people at The Sinister Horror Company, is released today. The novel is available as a Kindle book as well as a paperback. YOU DON'T PLAY IT... IT PLAYS YOU. Hemsby is thriving; a seaside town on the up. The holidaymakers are flooding in, and so is the money. For the majority of those who live there, the resort is idyllic. But not for Jamie Garrett. Fifteen years old and bored to tears, Hemsby is the last place he wants to be. Aside from the occasional sea rescue, nothing exciting ever happens. That's about to change as a mysterious new game arrives at the beach-front arcade. No one knows of its origin, or the rules of the game, but soon it is the talk of the resort, attracting children far and wide with its complex gameplay and surreal graphics. When the children of the resort become the perpetrators of uncharacteristic and brutal violence, Jamie realises that it is a side-effect of the game, and sets out to pull the plug on the machine before it is too late. Dare you play THE BAD GAME? Amazon UK Amazon US Waterstones Barnes & Noble I will be teaching a six-week course covering the basics of creative writing at Southcart Books, Walsall. The course begins on Thursday 25th February, and will run every Thursday between 7pm and 9pm. For more information on how to book securely via PayPal to confirm your place on the course, please visit www.creativewritingwalsall.co.uk.
![]() Whether you like them or not, it seems that found footage films are here to stay. But instead of sticking to the same formulaic and often tedious approach (documentary crew head off into the middle of nowhere in search of witches/ghosts/mythological beasties), filmmakers are finally coming up with new and inventive ways to approach the subgenre, and Adam Green is one such director. In meta-documentary Digging up the Marrow, Green plays himself, and it’s a shrewd bit of casting as he looks and sounds just like himself. After a brief introduction in which various well-known members of the horror community are asked about their thoughts on monsters, Green is interviewed in his office about a strange piece of fan mail he recently received from a man called William Dekker. According to the missive, monsters are very real. Not only that, but they are living in the ground beneath us in a place the letter’s author has christened ‘The Marrow’. Intrigued, and more than a little pleased that Dekker has chosen him to expose the world of The Marrow and the creatures therein, Green sets off with his trusty crew (also playing themselves) to investigate. Dekker (a great tongue-in-cheek performance by Ray Wise) has some secrets of his own, though, and the further Green and his crew, ahem, dig, the more they start to doubt this strange man’s intentions. Digging up the Marrow is a lot of fun, and should appeal to fans of Holliston and the Hatchet movies, despite being something of a departure for Green. The creature effects (based on the artwork of Alex Pardee) are strong, and Green’s motives (“I’ve always wanted to believe in monsters, ever since I was a kid.”) are plausible, but what really pushes this film up a notch is genre veteran, Ray Wise, who was given plenty of room to improvise, according to a recent magazine interview. Throw in cameos by Kane Hodder, Tom Holland, and Mick Garris, and you’ve got yourself a fun little movie. And if you enjoy it - though it appears to be dividing opinion amongst genre fans - there just might be more to come, perhaps in the form of a TV series. I, for one, would welcome it with open arms. Dir: Adam Green Starring: Adam Green, Ray Wise, Kane Hodder DVD Released: 22 June 2015 Classification: 15 I am beyond thrilled to reveal the cover artwork for my forthcoming novel, Wanderlust, released on June 9th by Steamworks Ink. This stunning piece is all down to the magnificent Martin Hanford, whose work has featured on T-shirts, heavy metal album covers, Interzone Magazine, Games Workshop novels, and loads more.
London 1902. Renowned art thief and cat-burglar, Abigale Egars, is good at her job. Assisted by contraptions created by her tinkerer and mentor, Octavius Knight, she is a ghost, evading the Met. at every turn. Unceremoniously abducted from her bed in the dead of night, Abigale learns that The Guild, an insidious and powerful organisation, has implanted a device in her head, a contraption that will administer poison directly into her system at the flick of a switch if she doesn't do what they say. Blackmailed into stealing three priceless artefacts by The Guild, Abigale must avoid being captured by her arch-nemesis, Detective John Wesley Alcorn, but he's the least of her troubles. Wizards, magic, necromancers, it's all very real, and Abigale is soon up to her eyeballs in it. Can she survive London, Saint Petersburg and Paris in one piece, steal the triptych and return it to The Guild before the wizards take it from her? Can she stay alive long enough to save the world? For review copies, interview requests, and other media enquiries, please contact Adam directly at adammillard@outlook.com or Catherine Stovall at cstovall@steamworksink.com. The Dead 1: Todeszellen, the German-language edition of Dead Cells, is released in Germany today. This is the first of many works Voodoo Press will be translating and releasing in the coming months, and I'm thrilled to be working with such a fantastic publisher.
As a prisoner in one of the most brutal facilities imaginable, Shane Bridge thought that he'd seen it all. Surrounded by murderers, rapists, gangsters and paedophiles, Shane had managed to survive his three years in one piece. With parole just around the corner, and his wife and daughter at home awaiting his return, Shane has high-hopes for the future. When a new inmate is brought in, carrying with him a deadly virus, Shane soon realises that his plans, his release, and his very survival are in jeopardy. With the virus spreading, turning guards and inmates into flesh-eating zombies, it's up to a few survivors to figure out how to escape the facility, how to get along... ...and how to stay alive. Als Häftling eines der schlimmsten Gefängnisse das man sich vorstellen kann, denkt Shane Bridge, dass er bereits alles gesehen hat. Umgeben von Mördern, Vergewaltigern, Gangstern und Pädophilen, hat Shane drei Jahre lang überlebt. Mit der Aussicht auf seine baldige vorzeitige Entlassung, steckt er große Hoffnung in seine Zukunft zusammen mit seiner Frau und seiner Tochter, die ihn zu Hause bereits sehnsüchtig erwarten. Doch als ein neuer Häftling ankommt, der einen tödlichen Virus mit sich trägt, erkennt Shane schon bald, dass er seine Pläne zu überdenken hat und er von nun an um sein Überleben kämpfen muss. Kaum hat sich der Virus ausgebreitet, verwandeln sich sowohl die Wachen, als auch die Insassen zu fleischfressenden Monstern. Nur wenige haben überlebt, zusammen überlegen sie, wie sie hier herauskommen … … und wie sie am Leben bleiben können. Amazon.de This Saturday, the 8th of November, Autumn: Horror in the East returns to Lowestoft. Now in its third year, Autumn has a brand spanking new venue - The Marina Theatre - and will run alongside the Horror-on-Sea East Film Festival. I will be there, along such talented authors as David Moody, Iain McKinnon, Andrew Hook, Craig Saunders, Rich Hawkins, Paul S. Huggins, and Darren Barker, with more to be confirmed. If you're not quite ready to let Halloween go this year, Jenny Jackson's Murderous Makeup will be on hand to gore you up to your heart's content.
There will be four panels: The Apocalypse for Dummies, Ghosts and Why They Interest Us, Cryptids and Creatures, and Putting Pen to Paper, so there will be plenty going on throughout the day. So come along and get some books signed, meet a horde of great writers, and slather yourself in blood and guts (some of which might be real, if previous years are anything to go by). The event is completely FREE and kicks of at 10am. The results are in. The winners of a The Human Santapede signed paperback and a pack of 5 limited edition The Human Santapede Christmas cards are Dale Talbot, Colin Buckland, and Deborah Hart. The correct answer was of course B) Knecht Ruprecht. Thank you to everyone that entered. Stay tuned for more competitions soon.
The Human Santapede is released on November 15th and is available to preorder now. AMAZON UK AMAZON US |
Adam MillardWriter of bestselling "The Dead" Series. Author of paranormal novels, The Susceptibles and Deathdealers, and bizarro novellas Larry, Hamsterdamned!, Vinyl Destination, and The Human Santapede. Archives
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