Imagine a twelve-year-old girl exiled to deepest, dankest Manchester, unknowingly about to be presented to endless relatives offering tinned salmon and peaches, existing instead on blackcurrant jam sandwiches…
Then imagine her in that foreign land, staying in a tiny bedroom, which was crammed full of books packed with the most wonderful things; especially a large compendium of horror stories. I took to horror like a vampire to biting necks.
Then I grew up and went to work. In Finance. Not that it was always boring, I met a fair number of criminals and shysters along the way, but there was always something bubbling underneath.
No. Not yet. It was the lure of art school. I went from chairing meetings to drawing naked men in the blink of an eye.
After a wonderful four oil-paint-covered years, reality bit and work was inevitable. But this time I’d found Social Media. And one day, then I read about the Create 50 Twisted 50 initiative.
Horror? HORROR?
Could I write horror? Of course I could!
Suppressed and revolting creative instincts began to ooze out of me. Every day.
“Too much?” I asked Chris Jones.
“Keep ’em coming,” he foolishly replied.
So I did. I wrote twenty-one stories for Twisted 50 Volume 2. Six were shortlisted and one chosen. One of the best experiences of my life.
So then what? I had all these stories needing a home. And I’d just met Elinor Perry-Smith.
“I can’t. Can I?”
“Yes, you can darling.”
I pulled out every story I’d ever written. Elinor gave me notes and picked out the most horrible ones. So I reworked revised and rewrote them until I had forty.
And guess what? I’ve just unleashed them on the world now and there’s no turning back…
Jane Badrock
Author
You can now support Jane AND gain 40 sleepless nights by buything the book on Amazon HERE.
