A book of horrors (new story by JAL)
Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2011 6:22 pm
From John Ajvide Lindqvist's site:
The cat is out of the box and I can tell you about a small project that has been secret until now.
I do not know how many people know about Stephen Jones, but he is a spider in the web in England with regard to most things concerning horror. Among others he has for years been editor of the anthology "Best New Horror" which has been published annually about the last twenty years, plus many other anthologies. "Best New Horror", though, brings together only stories that in most cases have been published elsewhere.
I've met Stephen a few times and he is a lovely, friendly, intelligent man who also happens to be a supporter of what I write.
So last autumn, Stephen got the opportunity and financial support to publish an anthology, with only newly written horror stories of some of the more widely read authors in the genre, something not done in a long time. To my great pride, he asked me if I wanted to contribute. I then knew that it was about to be assembled with the likes of Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell, and Lisa Tuttle, among others. I was also the only non-English-writing author who was asked.
With some trepidation, I set it up to write a story that I called "The Notes of Bengt Karlsson, Murderer". It was only the title I had in English, the rest I wrote in Swedish and it was translated later by the excellent Marlaine Delargy who had translated my previous stuff.
And the story was great! And scary as hell. Indeed I believe that it's the nastiest story I've written. At least one of the few where I was a bit reluctant to continue writing, even though I knew exactly what would happen. Or rather precisely because I knew what would happen. A key line that showed up one day when I stood and did the dishes were, "Dad, you know that a murderer used to live here before? He had his bed, where I have mine now."
The rest was the usual work. When it was finished I sent it to the translator and eventually heard of Stephen himself and said he wanted it included in the anthology, suggested amending the title of "The Music of Bengt Karlsson, Murderer."
Here is a link to the page where it is presented. Scroll down to the second title.
Coming in October. Lots going happy and proud I am.
Translated by Google Translate and metoo.
The cat is out of the box and I can tell you about a small project that has been secret until now.
I do not know how many people know about Stephen Jones, but he is a spider in the web in England with regard to most things concerning horror. Among others he has for years been editor of the anthology "Best New Horror" which has been published annually about the last twenty years, plus many other anthologies. "Best New Horror", though, brings together only stories that in most cases have been published elsewhere.
I've met Stephen a few times and he is a lovely, friendly, intelligent man who also happens to be a supporter of what I write.
So last autumn, Stephen got the opportunity and financial support to publish an anthology, with only newly written horror stories of some of the more widely read authors in the genre, something not done in a long time. To my great pride, he asked me if I wanted to contribute. I then knew that it was about to be assembled with the likes of Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell, and Lisa Tuttle, among others. I was also the only non-English-writing author who was asked.
With some trepidation, I set it up to write a story that I called "The Notes of Bengt Karlsson, Murderer". It was only the title I had in English, the rest I wrote in Swedish and it was translated later by the excellent Marlaine Delargy who had translated my previous stuff.
And the story was great! And scary as hell. Indeed I believe that it's the nastiest story I've written. At least one of the few where I was a bit reluctant to continue writing, even though I knew exactly what would happen. Or rather precisely because I knew what would happen. A key line that showed up one day when I stood and did the dishes were, "Dad, you know that a murderer used to live here before? He had his bed, where I have mine now."
The rest was the usual work. When it was finished I sent it to the translator and eventually heard of Stephen himself and said he wanted it included in the anthology, suggested amending the title of "The Music of Bengt Karlsson, Murderer."
Here is a link to the page where it is presented. Scroll down to the second title.
Coming in October. Lots going happy and proud I am.
Translated by Google Translate and metoo.
