Confessions of my Past, Present and Future
by
Matthew Cash
The Past
From the moment I was born I was destined to be a horror
fanatic. The night my mother went into labour, the stars had aligned like in
that bit in Omen III: The Final Conflict,
horses curdled and milk did sweat.
My mother was a massive, massive Hammer Horror (and others of that era) fan, and was an avid
collector of regional ghost books, so that genre had always been loitering
around me like a weird, sinister, lunatic uncle.
I've read books pretty much constantly since I learnt how to read. I was one of
those kids who favoured books over toys.
I have also written stories since I was old enough to
write, before I could write I used to dictate to my father.
My first recollection of a book so horrific that I had to
stop reading was Roald Dahl’s The Witches.
I remember it went into horrific detail about what your typical witch would do
to a captured child and it scared the hell out of me. But...once I had put it
down I couldn't help but be lured into reading more. It had to be finished.
Once I discovered that I kind of equally liked, and loathed being scared pooless by a good yarn, I would pick up some of my mother's books or swipe unwanted presents off my older siblings.
My sister had a few of the old Pan Horror omnibuses and
from there it escalated quickly into the likes of James Herbert and Stephen
King.
Jay Anson’s Amityville Horror was the
first book I read that kept me awake at night, I was too young, I believed in
the fact that if something said it was true then it was, and I was bloody
petrified.
As a teenager I developed a love for the British
equivalents to Stephen King, I wanted to read about horrific things in places
that were more familiar to me. I fell in love with Stephen Laws and Joe
Donnelly, Stephen Law’s The Frighteners
was the first thing I had read by him and I was hooked.
With Joe Donnelly I loved the Scottish surroundings and
takes on old legends, Still Life, Incubus and Shrike are well overdue a reread.
My first glimpse of extreme horror was Richard Laymon’s Endless Night. That book had me glued
from the very beginning. It's around the four or five-hundred-page mark and I
remember sitting in my chair and not being able to do anything until I had
finished it. A quote which appeared on a few of his books, "like Stephen
King without a conscience" was what attracted me to his work.
The Present
Ever to be one to be the last on the bandwagon I've
recently discovered Brian Lumley’s Necroscope
series. I was always put off in the nineties by the trashy book covers, skulls
and stuff, I still really hate book covers that look like they should be the
cover on a heavy metal album (not that I have any issues with metal \m/ ) I
loved his take on the vampire Mythos and the whole espionage, or ESPionage as
they refer to it, spies with telekinetic powers, kinda like a horror X-Men.
My favourite horror authors at the moment are Adam Nevill,
F R Tallis, John Adjvide Lindqvist, they are the main ones who I have to buy when their books come out. I
like books that can take me to foreign places like the scenery and cultural
differences in Lindqvist’s books.
Currently I'm going through an Irvine Welsh stint. He has
always been one of my favourite authors, for everyday horror too. He has that
warped sense of humour and is one of the few writers who can gross me out and
make me chuckle simultaneously.
There are loads of writers whose books float my boat nowadays. I'm fortunate
enough to even be friends with some of them on social media, I love what I've
read from Gary Fry and Paul Finch and have just rekindled my love for the local
legends by reading one of their Terror Tales
Of... series. These wonderful books with snippets of actual legend from
different areas of the UK, intermingled with short stories by some great
authors that slip in place wonderfully.
The Future
I've never ever stuck to one particular genre, but horror
has been the most predominant. I want to go back to catching up on my Haruki Murakami,
read more of the older stuff I've missed out on. Investigate authors I've never
read: Peter Straub, Shirley Jackson.
There isn't a genre I haven't read and it would be hard
to find something out of my comfort zone. I have always been attracted to the
weird, offensive, satirical and horrific but also like the odd feel good,
inspiring stories.
Watch out for a review of Ankle Biters coming tomorrow night!
You can buy Ankle
Biters here:
You can buy any of Matthew’s other 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.
Matthew Cash, or Matty-Bob Cash as he is known to most, was
born and raised in in Suffolk; which is the setting for his forthcoming full
length novel Pinprick which is due
for publication with Knightswatch Press in 2016.
He has always written stories since he first learnt to
write and most, although not all, tend to slip into the many layered murky
depths of the Horror genre.
His influences, from his early reading, to present day
are, to name but a select few; Roald Dahl, James Herbert, Clive Barker, Stephen
King, Stephen Laws, and more recently he enjoys Adam Nevill, F.R Tallis,
Michael Bray, William Meikle and Iain Rob Wright (who featured Matty-Bob in his
famous A-Z of Horror title M is For Matty-Bob, plus Matthew wrote his own
version of events which was included as a bonus).
He is a father of two and a husband of one.
And for more about Matthew, you can find him on social
media:
Facebook - Twitter - Goodreads - Amazon Page
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