Confessions of my Past, Present and Future
by
Calum Chambers
The Past
From a young age I suffered from an undiagnosed form of
narcolepsy; this would mean my days felt like I was walking through treacle as
my brain attempted to shut down. Doing anything at school was a challenge,
paying attention, a Herculean task. It was only when I got to go to bed that I
would get a burst of energy which would mean I would struggle to get to sleep.
But, I have to look at the positives, it was during this
time that I learnt to love horror. Now was the time I would sneak the spare TV
into my room to watch shows like Stephen Volk’s amazing Ghostwatch. I became schooled in late night TV and as a teenage boy
this didn’t mean flicking through channels for a bit of late night side boob.
Instead I was drawn to horror. Mostly, I seemed to be drawn to B-Movie horror, Them, Basket Case, Piranha, Frogs, these were my night time treats. Occasionally
at 3am BBC would put a re-run of M.R James’s Whistle and I'll Come to You. Those nights were the best.
When my Dad caught on and took back the spare TV I turned
to books. I was always a reader; my Mum drilled it into me from a very young
age that books are vital to a young mind. I had read things like Lord of the Rings and most of the Sherlock collection but these books
(love them as I did) were the books that my parents owned, they weren’t my
choice. Sure, I had other books; it wasn’t like I was left wanting. I owned the
entire run of Goosebumps and Point Horror, I had picked up every Dick
King-Smith book I could find, Roald Dahl overflowed from my shelves. But now,
now I had a taste for adult Horror.
I had some money left over from a birthday and with it I decided to venture to the nearest Waterstones and buy something that would scare me. I wanted to be afraid; I wanted to fear the darkness. This wasn’t like 1000 Leagues Under the Sea fear, no sea creatures could ever reach me in my bed; this was a fear of human nature, a fear of anything and everything in my daily life.
I picked up two books.
Shaun Hutson’s Slugs
and Richard Matheson’s I am Legend.
Now Slugs was
fantastic. It was B-movie, it was terrifyingly fun, it made me fall in love
with Shaun Hutson.
But what I really want to talk about is I am Legend.
Anyone who knows me has probably had me shove a copy in
their direction at some point; I must have bought this book nearly 30 times by
now, each one a replacement as I pass on my own to others as I try and invite
them to see what I truly love about horror. Even now, my heart is racing just
thinking back to the last time I read it.
Matheson wrote about the human condition, about
loneliness. Sure, the vampires were frightening but what really terrified me
was the nothingness, the monotony of his life. The fact that this was all he
had now, everything he had loved had been taken from him and forced him to live
out a hollow existence surrounded by people he once knew. People who wanted to
kill him. Ben Cortman, our hero’s
neighbour, taunts him from his front lawn, tempts him to come outside as women
flaunt themselves before him.
Robert Neville was human, he was everything I was and
this was his tale of how he struggled to survive. He wasn’t rich, he wasn’t
military, he wasn’t special, he wasn’t a gun toting hero, he was me. He fought
depression and battled against alcohol, he let it all get on top of him like a
normal person. Everything that was happening to him could happen to me.
There are three things about this book that every reader
should take from it. (Warning here be spoilers!)
1 – His relationship with his dog. Neville longed for companionship;
he spent his time slowly trying to befriend a stray dog in an attempt to give
him some sense of normality. Unfortunately, after all his hard work the dog
becomes infected and dies. This scene destroyed me, as I read it I felt that I
had befriended this dog, I had warmed to Neville so much that I wanted him to have this dog. Matheson
created this safe place, this familiarity; he toyed with Neville and readers
alike in such a beautifully manifested way that when it gets taken from us it
tears out a piece of the reader with it.
The dog was more than just a dog; Neville had created a
safe place; his home was where he had control. Beyond those walls he had some
reminiscence of control during the day but lacked it by night. It was his
daytime excursions that lead him into a false sense of security, it led him to
believe he had some essence of control. At least some of the time. By bringing
in this dog he proved himself wrong. The dog was infected, he couldn’t ever
have stopped it; but by having the dog die in his home meant he invited in
failure, invited in his lack of control.
2 – This is a non-violent novel. There is no real gore;
no cheap shots which would make the reader feel repulsed. Of course Neville is
killing vampires but it’s subtle, it’s efficient. Matheson takes the reader through
a realistic approach. Hollywood has tried (and in my eyes, failed) to replicate
this novel on the big screen. The fact is that this isn’t your typical blockbuster;
this is a story that eats away at you slowly. His life is stagnant, of course
it is, he can’t take risks like Will Smith does by launching a car around a
crumbling city. He has to take care of himself, he has to brush his teeth
because there are no dentists, he can’t take stupid risks. You put this on the
big screen and you have two hours of a man repairing his guttering. But you
keep it as a novel and you have something we can fall into, something we can
all relate to. If a story absorbs the reader, then the fear cuts much deeper.
3 – Neville’s weaknesses. As I have said before, Neville
is human, he is everyman. He isn’t a hero. Everything that has happened to him
has scarred him deeply, just like it would do to you or me. He has lost his
family, his world, his sense of purpose; this in turn drives him into
depression and to alcohol. He often thinks of ending it all, of walking out
among those he fights and becoming one of them. He longs to feel the touch of a
woman; despite their deformities (and longing to kill him) he wants to hold
these women who tease him by night as he watches through his peephole. It is
such a simple element, a man’s natural instinct, but it is so much more, it is
human nature fighting itself.
Richard Matheson was, in my eyes, the greatest writer of
our generation. He was prolific; he crossed so many mediums, from TV, to
Cinema, magazines, novels and short stories. I can’t honestly think of
something he wrote that I didn’t love. I have even tracked down copies of
Playboys from the 1950s that he featured in, stories I have read a hundred
times just seem so much richer from the original outlet.
The odds are you have seen or read something by Matheson
himself, if you haven’t, I suggest you start with I am Legend.
The Present
One name…Garth Ennis.
Garth Ennis has carved a nice little area for himself in
the comic book world. Usually when I say horror,
people do that eye roll and sigh. They give you that pitying look that makes
you feel ten inches tall. Most horror writers probably know the look; but
imagine that look, when you say horror
comic, yeah! That’s right, feel the contempt from everyone in the room;
women throw themselves onto couches in blubbering heaps as the locals gather
their pitchforks. (Ok, this may be a slight exaggeration but you get the
point).
But, you know what? Comics are awesome, horror is
awesome, you combine the two and you end up with the beautiful bastard child
that is Crossed.
I need to say it now, before we get into things, I am a
fan of the originals, I like Garth’s first outing with Crossed. Don’t get me wrong the others are good, but the originals
were just, just fucking horrific!
I don’t usually like gore, I prefer narrative, but Garth
Ennis gets it down perfectly. The story arc follows a group of survivors after
a global pandemic. A virus has infected the population and is driving them to
live out their violent tendencies as the infected (shown with a cross like rash
across their face) hunt down survivors in an attempt to kill all.
I won’t go too much into plot as you really do need to
get into this series, but rest assured what ensues is a frantic tale of
survival in a dying world. With characters such as Horsecock what’s not to love!?
Crossed is
illustrated by Jacen Burrows, quite possibly the only artist that manages to
mimic Garth Ennis’s passion and fury by creating a smorgasbord of chaos with
every pen stroke. I love covers, whether it be a book, CD, poster, comic, I
love the attention to detail that creates a story in one single frame. Crossed hit the nail on the head every
bloody time. Even with the variants they pulled out all the stops. (Hence why I
went to the effort of tracking down every single cover they did)
It is my love for Crossed
and my love for covers that drives me to make a cover that screams at
passers-by. I am currently taking submissions for an anthology I am editing,
this means that soon, very soon, I get to talk to people about designing a
cover. And to be honest, I’m pretty damned excited. I want to create something
that will do each of the authors proud, I want something that people want on
their shelves, something they want to pass around to their friends and say ‘I need that!’. Writing is a work of art
and each author is contributing a piece of their vision with every story, this
cover will need to echo their passion and I hope I can find someone who can
pull it off.
If you want to be a part of it, please give me a shout,
the call will be going up on www.horrortree.com
shortly, have a read and see if you can make it in our little town.
The Future
Well
the future is always tricky, on one hand I have what I want and on the other I
have what is realistic.
What
I want is a world full of novellas, little books that you can tuck into your
pocket and take with you. I’m not a fan of Kindles or tablets; I prefer to hold
a physical book, so travelling with a beefy novel is always an issue. Sure,
getting into a massive novel has its perks but I find most of my reading is
opportunistic at best, those five minutes before a doctor’s appointment or
whilst you wait for the wife (although to be fair I could probably read several
novels with that example).
As
I have mentioned before, I love covers, so I regularly pick up books that look good
on my bookshelf (of course I read them, but the cover is what draws me to it).
With a Kindle you lose that, it’s just an image on a screen that vanishes after
you buy it. There is just something that is impersonal about a Kindle. It’s not
that I hate them and everyone who publishes through them, far from it, but it
is just my opinion, my taste. I guess you could say I’m old fashioned. With my
photography, I held off for as long as I could using 35mm film, digital was
long established before I finally gave in. Although that was also in part to
35mm becoming redundant. Maybe that will be the realistic future, no more paper
books, but I will hold off until the end again.
With
the Vampire and Zombie market seemingly coming to a close my money is on the
Supernatural or more likely the Kaiju scene taking prime place. However, with
so many genre shifts I’m excited to see where we will be ending up in thirty
years. Wherever we end up, let’s keep the sparkling to a minimum.
Finally,
what is realistic? Come the future I may have finally finished my first solo
novel, something that I have completely re-written around five times in the
last three years, maybe another twenty years and I will be happy with it. I
will certainly not have finished writing; this is something I love, something
therapeutic that will keep me sane(ish). I just hope that my stories keep
enticing readers and there is still a demand for me.
You can read Confessions review of Death by Chocolate here:
You can buy any of Calum’s books here.
If you would like to help support Confessions of a
Reviewer, then please consider using the links below to buy any of the
books mentioned in this feature. This not only supports me but also lets
me know how many people actually like to buy books after reading my
reviews.
Thanks.
Calum
Chalmers is relatively new to the writing game and as such is featured in only
a few new anthologies; however, this is not to say he doesn’t have bigger
plans. More books are on the way, novellas and anthologies alike will soon be
hitting the shelves. He is a member of the newly formed Rebel Skulls, a writing
collective who are pooling their skills to help one another reach their full
potential and with it some new Rebel Skulls anthologies will follow.
Anthologies like the horrific take on the 12 days of Christmas (something he is
personally very excited about).
The
Rebel Skulls consist of;
James
Jobling (National
Emergency and the forthcoming ‘Devil Dogs’)
Charlie
Morgan (Cut and Run: Sticks and Stones 2)
Ezekiel
Jacobs
And
of course Calum Chalmers;
‘The Eater Egg’
Edited
by Matt Cash
KnightWatch
Press
‘The Change’
Edited
by Steve Shaw
Black
Shuck Books
‘Cosmic Unicorn Thunderfuck’
Edited
by Christine Morgan
Fossil
Lake Anthologies
And for more about Calum, visit his page or find him on
social media:
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