Allyson Bird

[Allyson]

A new interview is up on this site...it was a pleasure to chat with Alan Kelly.

I've spotted a couple of errors which I've asked the proprieter to put right.

http://www.pretty-scary.net/content/...nd-rank-poison

My own web...
www.birdsnest.me.uk

[Allyson]

A much appreciated real-time review by Des Lewis, of BULL RUNNING FOR GIRLS, is here...

http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/bul...lyson_bird.htm

And there are various comments/reviews on the collection from Joe R. Lansdale, Joel Lane and Laird Barron (amongst others) on my website...

www.birdsnest.me.uk

[Allyson]

I've been so busy with the anthology that I've been neglecting WARP.

Dani Serra made me a new entrance site to my place which matches the collection :>).

http://www.birdsnest.me.uk/

Wine and Rank Poison will have the launch in England slightly before the American....at Fantasycon in September. Dark Regions are very kindly shipping over 50 books and Steve of Screaming Dreams has also kindly said that we can place them on his table.

The all singing dancing versions...26 Deluxe Lettered signed by myself, Joe R. Lansdale and Daniele Serra will be out slightly later...(the signing sheets are probably somewhere over the Bay of Naples right now) as will the 200 signed and numbered hardcovers (Joe and I).

I've been a pain...asked for Dani for the cover, special shipping to Fantasycon which will cost them a fortune, and they have done everything they can to make this special for me. Their promotional drive kicks in just after Fantasycon and involves a film trailer...of course I've suggested a few things for that...centaurs/mermaids/scenes in the Ukraine/Colchis....

If anyone wants me to put a tradeback copy on one side for them... Probably £10 please let me know here or email me behind the scenes. Or if you want to know details of the hardback etc...my email is on the bio page at the bottom of the above site.

A little of the introduction by Joe. R. Lansdale to WINE AND RANK POISON.....

'…She reminds me of a few writers, and it’s my guess that it’s coincidence, because the reminding is not due to style. But, she shares a way of thinking with such inventive writers as Philip Jose Farmer and Avram Davidson. Both could take simple ideas and turn them into unique stories that defied classification. They were brave…

It takes a certain knack partly learned, partly inborn, to write these kind of stories, these brave ventures into the dark lands where creeks of blood flow and bodies hang from trees. I’m speaking metaphorically, of course. Not about the content of Allyson’s, or anyone else’s stories. But it’s an attitude that can’t be faked, can’t be borrowed. It can only be stimulated by hard work.

So let me repeat: as a writer, Ms. Bird is her own thing. She has a kind of nuthouse sanity, if you will; she believes in her own writerly psychosis. She is a writer of organized chaos. Her work is Halloween candy with razor blades in it. Fairy Tales with the flesh and blood and bones and viscera in them. Her skill is sneaky and exciting, and everything a reader could want from a good story.

“The Twelfth Chair” and “Atalanta” will show you right off what I mean…

I envy you the reading of this book.

And I am honored to introduce it.

Joe R.Lansdale.'

[Allyson]

Dark Regions Press have announced WINE AND RANK POISON today. I'm delighted...very happy.

Introduction by Joe R. Lansdale.

Artwork by Dani Serra.

Hardback ...and paperback copies available eventually as per usual.

http://www.darkregions.com/products/...yson-Bird.html

[Allyson]

Jonathan Maberry has finished reviewing Wine and Rank Poison, and has very kindly made this comment:

"The stories in Allyson Bird's WINE AND RANK POISON draw us into a world of dark magic, infinite possibility and abiding terror; and she does it with a style reminiscent of Shirley Jackson and Robert Bloch. Highly recommended.” NY Times bestseller Jonathan Mayberry author of ROT & RUIN and THE DRAGON FACTORY

I've updated the news section with articles published on the TTA site, with Norm Partridge, another Q and A with Alan Kelly, and that WARP is now available in hardback with paperback to follow.Allyson Bird - Horror Author

[Allyson]

Great review in from Norm Partridge and the following blurb as a result. I'm really happy that he liked it.

"Allyson Bird's WINE AND RANK POISON is a potent brew indeed. It's a choice bottle aged with old gods and ghosts in a cellar long forgotten, and it's chilled by the expert hand of a writer who understands horror, and magic, and the dark tunnels that wait between. Watch out for this one. Savor it... and drain it dry at your own risk."

'Norman Partridge has published pair of critically acclaimed suspense novels featuring ex-boxer Jack Baddalach for Berkley Prime Crime (Saguaro Riptide and The Ten-Ounce Siesta), comics for Mojo and DC, and a series novel (The Crow: Wicked Prayer) which was adapted for the screen. His award-winning collections include Mr. Fox and Other Feral Tales and The Man with the Barbed-Wire Fists. Partridge’s novel, Dark Harvest, was chosen by Publishers Weekly as one of the 100 Best Books of 2006.'

www.birdsnest.me.uk

[Allyson]

Wonderful review

Thank you...Peter Mark May!

"If you haven’t read any Allyson Bird yet, catch her now, before she gets too big and boast to your friends that you were there at the start. Because Ally deserves a wider audience, in fact a ####ing huge fat publishing contract on both sides of the Atlantic if you ask me.

She writes like no one else, clever and intriguing, and does not just waft words around to look big and clever, every sentence has purpose and drive.

Atalanta is my personal favourite in this collection, only because I’m a sucker for Jason and the Argonauts and Greek myths.

Ally writes not fantasy nor horror, she write good, so check her out."

http://www.thenovelblog.com/

[Allyson]

Wine and Rank Poison is now out as a paperback.

http://www.darkregions.com/products/...yson-Bird.html

And there is a new review, by Joel Lane.

"Wine and Rank Poison shows Allyson Bird continuing to develop as a writer of dark fantasy and supernatural horror. The stories shift between realism, mythology, noir, the erotic and the weird. They are rooted in human feeling – passion, grief, jealousy and fear – but reach back to mythic archetypes and folk beliefs in order to clothe the violent emotions in strange flesh. In ‘The Legacy’, the ingrained violence of a culture triggers a brief and bleak apocalypse. In ‘For You, Faustine’, the mutual desire of mermaids and humans takes a deadly twist. Bird’s writing is idiosyncratic, offbeat and troubling, a personal take on the complex legacy of pulp fiction."

[Allyson]

Another positive review of Wine and Rank Poison.

http://exaggeratedpress.weebly.com/reviews.html

[Allyson]

It's my birthday and I'm really happy to say I've got a positive review, of Wine and Rank Poison, from one of our leading genre reviewers, Pete Tennant, of Black Static...

'Ilf and Petrov are referenced in second story ‘The Twelfth Chair’ (there seem to be links planted within several of these stories to other narratives within the book) and was an altogether more substantial outing. A man wanders the streets of Odessa in search of his estranged mail order bride, but as events become clearer, almost in direct opposition to the way in which Odessa is lost in sea fog, a picture of an abusive personality slowly emerges, seen in subtle comments about how thin he likes his women to be and his use of ‘glamour’ images. The end result is a creepy and atmospheric variation on spectral revenge reaching out from beyond the grave, with a feminist subtext that ground events in our present day.'

http://ttapress.com/


Laird Barron...'Here are twelve authors of horror, dark fantasy, and the weird who belong on all kinds of reading lists...'

http://imago1.livejournal.com/80455.html

Wine and Rank Poison by Allyson Bird is her sophomore collection and shows a maturation of style. Introduced by Joe Lansdale.

http://imago1.livejournal.com/80098.html


Lisa Tuttle...

"I've been very impressed by short stories by Allyson Bird, Nina Allan, Barbara Roden, Catherynne M. Valente and others whose names are now escaping..."

http://littlemisszombie.blogspot.com/2011/02/interview-with-lisa-tuttle.html


Good to hear which stories hit the mark for Slade Grayson and which didn't in WARP.

http://www.bookgasm.com/reviews/horr...st-of-shadows/


Women in Horror Month....

http://ttapress.com/1015/women-in-horror-recognition-month-black-static-21/0/5/