When I was first asked to contribute to Exotic Gothic 3 (which was to feature Gothic-influenced stories in non-Gothic environments), I agreed without really thinking about it,", Unsworth explains, ",and then spent a long time struggling, trying to work out how, precisely, I was going to manage it or quite how to make a start. ",I knew what I wanted to do, sort of, but not exactly how to do it, so one day alarmingly close to the deadline I did a fun thing: I freewheeled through Google. Using a small document about Zambian myths and cultures I found online (I set the story in Zambia for no reason other than an old family friend lives there and it seemed exotic in Gothic terms), I used one Zambian word from it as a search term and read what came up, took one intriguing Zambian term from the search results and searched for that, etc, and disappeared into Google's merry depths. ",I ended up with an academic paper about a particular myth, a travel blog about a sort of beer made from corn and a weird little 'my God's better than your God' blog by a kid in Africa, and somewhere in the middle of that, the story appeared.
When I was first asked to contribute to Exotic Gothic 3 (which was to feature Gothic-influenced stories in non-Gothic environments), I agreed without really thinking about it," Unsworth explains, "and then spent a long time struggling, trying to work out how, precisely, I was going to manage it or quite how to make a start. "I knew what I wanted to do, sort of, but not exactly how to do it, so one day alarmingly close to the deadline I did a fun thing: I freewheeled through Google. Using a small document about Zambian myths and cultures I found online (I set the story in Zambia for no reason other than an old family friend lives there and it seemed exotic in Gothic terms), I used one Zambian word from it as a search term and read what came up, took one intriguing Zambian term from the search results and searched for that, etc, and disappeared into Google's merry depths. "I ended up with an academic paper about a particular myth, a travel blog about a sort of beer made from corn and a weird little 'my God's better than your God' blog by a kid in Africa, and somewhere in the middle of that, the story appeared.
Autorentext
Acclaimed author of supernatural fiction, Simon Kurt Unsworth was born in 1972 in Manchester, England, and despite extensive research he still hasn't found evidence of any mysterious signs or portents being seen on the day of his birth. He was educated at the Manchester Grammar School and the University of Dundee. A lifelong fan of dark fiction and horror, Simon honed his own style during long train commutes across the length and breadth of Great Britain. Some of his love of trains, and some of his hatred of trains, has made it into his work. Married and with a fantastic son, much of Simon's best work stems from the fears that every parent and spouse has, and their often futile attempts to protect those whom they love most from the harsher realities of the worlds beyond them. His first collection of short stories, Lost Places, was released by the Ash Tree Press in 2010, and was launched at then World Horror Convention in Brighton, and he has collections due out from Dark Continents in 2011 and PS Publishing in 2012 (Quiet Houses and Strange Gateways respectively).
