Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Nightsiders

A few years ago I wrote a strange novella called THEY. I was never fully convinced by that title, and once the briliant French film Ils (AKA Them) came out, I was even less so.

The story started off as a kind of English variant on films like Last House on the Left or The Straw Dogs, but during the writing process a lot of metafictional elements started to creep in and it mutated into some unholy offspring of Craven's Last House and Haneke's Funny Games. I loved what I'd done, but knew immediately that I'd have problems finding a home for something that mixed a Grindhouse mentality with more experimental literary aspirations

I put the novella aside and wondered where the hell I might place such a beast. A couple of writer friends read it, and they thought it was one of the best things I'd written. One publisher knocked it back; they didn't seem to quite get what I was doing with the piece. I didn't send it anywhere else.

Cut to a few weeks ago. A US publisher approached me and asked if I might have anything to send them. I gave the novella an edit and emailed it across...and they loved it.

So the novella has undergone a title change. It's now called NIGHTSIDERS.

That's a better, more appropriate title, I think. It should be out early or mid 2013 in limited hardback and eBook editions. I'll post further details here when I have them.

2 comments:

Elizabeth said...

Fantastic news! Congrats!

Gary Mc said...

Thanks, Elizabeth!