Paul Haines ([info]paulhaines) wrote,
@ 2008-06-27 08:20:00
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Current music:Robert Forster "The Evangelist" (2008)
Entry tags:dark animus, writing

The Interferers in Dark Animus 10/11
The latest issue of Dark Animus is finally available in print. It is the best looking and most professional edition yet and weighs in at the size of most Australian anthologies. It contains work by Richard Harland, Cat Sparks, and best of all, has published the first of my Interferer tales. James Cain has always taken risks with my stories, Doof Doof Doof being the previous example of a story publishers didn't want to touch, though James took it with relish and it received an Aurealis Award nomination for Best Horror Short Story that year. The Interferers story, Necromancing The Bones is little more extreme than that, originally workshopped at Clarion South to great distaste, then reworked and doubled in length to a small novella. One colleague suggested if I were going to continue to write such filth then I do it under a pseudonym to protect my career and good name. I didn't.

The cover of the latest issue is from a scene in the story, though I don't think Herve, the artist, quite got what my characters were all about, depicting a more Robert E Howard version of one of my boys, rather than the distinctly Haines creature that he is. Dion Hammil, however, nails The Interferers with his internal illustration.

Horrorscope has reviewed the magazine favourably. The Interferers garnered this:

A very amusing and ribald tale poking serious fun at D&D gamers and the stories they create. It seems the adventurers in this world live interconnected lives, with “the good” guys very much in league with the perceived “bad” guys, in an eternal cycle of swindling the common folk out of their money. Filled with acts of bestiality, brotherly love, and profanity, it is a very funny romp through the product of some very twisted gamers’ imaginations.

A previous rejection for the story stated that the magic system wasn't original enough and was too reminiscent of D&D, which was exactly my point. Why does every fucking fantasy trilogy/novel try to create its own magic system? Enough is enough! It should be part of the Turkey City Lexicon. We don't bother to describe how a dragon can exist in a fantasy novel anymore, do we, people? No.

This story, as all Interferer stories are, is dedicated to Mike Dowman, long time friend and travelling buddy, on whom the disgraced knight Scwythe is based.


(4 comments) - (Post a new comment)


[info]alinta_thornton
2008-06-27 03:01 am UTC (link)
*grins* Trust James! The two of you should undergo some of the privations you write about, you disgusting boys.

*waggles finger*

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[info]rodneyjsmith
2008-06-27 04:37 am UTC (link)
This is a series/story name I've seen pop up in a few places before.

Looking forward to finally reading it.

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[info]macdibble
2008-06-27 11:09 am UTC (link)
Oh no! Who let the Interferers out?! Why didn't you dig that deep hole in the back garden and bury them like I suggested? Or at least publish them anonymously!

(Reply to this)

Interferers indeed
(Anonymous)
2008-07-29 01:48 am UTC (link)
Great to hear the interferers made it on the horizon and well received :-)

All conjoured up on the fact Paul were absolutely bemused by a crusty paint flecked sign on a rickty gate when wondering throught the Cotswald England. It stated. "Please don't interfere with the sheep!"
It was Pauls tenacity to conjure up a deep dark ole dirty charachter on the spot, with an ole English accent....'You don't want to be ou thare!....Tem in-er-firers be roam'n dees hills'
One of Pauls eyes bulging, the other squint while he says it. The typical ole drunken farm hand look. Paul wipes his face as if he'd skulled a pint.
I pissed myself silly listening to it!
So much I had to join in with the banter. We had just passed through one of the towns that sounded like Whynchcombe? It's on any Cotwald map....I played round with the words to come up with 'Scwythe Whynchcliff' as a character.
Paul ended up scripting the story in a matter of 1-2 hours walk from then on. Asking me what would we do now in the story? We bantered the plot, considering two twisted minds is better than one.... After all, we had been travelling day 3 and we were getting pretty bored with travelling at the time. Especially lugging packs through wet english country side that day.
From that Paul kept going on the subject until well 8 months later after settling back with Jules hads time to punch out 'The Interferers'
Well done Mr Haines! You do credit the initation and carrying it through to fruition.
Keep up the good work mate...imagination and the will to imagine and be creative will beat anything...if you get my drift.

.....10 days left in KZ before rotating out(with brass knobs). Heating up to 46 deg with wind factor applied....thank the lord for air-con! Ruski-Kazakh birds don't wear chador here....would show London birds a thing or two in dress sense too.

Sperm & Blood.
Deez

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