F.G. Cottam

Isn't it a great joy to discover a new writer?  The pleasure of the connection when the music of the story telling resonates in the bones, is one of the most wonderful things about reading.

I stumbled across a novel called The Waiting Room by F.G. Cottam last week.  It is a chiller in a gothic style that pays homage to Chesterton, Wells and Conan Doyle.  My favourite war poet Wilfred Owen is in here, and Francis gives us a little taste of Yeat's The Second Coming for good measure.  The book's atmosphere is one of creeping dread and gave me my first nightmare in years brought on by something other than cheese before bed or an overheated room.  I love a spooky story that doesn't rely on gore and blood letting for its chills.  I am not a fan of splatterpunk.  Unnerving tales that make the hair rise on the back of one's neck are much more interesting to me. 

I've moved on to Cottam's The House of Lost Souls and the chills work right from the start.  He mentions the Green Man, Hieronymous Bosch and The Old Grey Whistle Test in chapter three.  I love this man!  As well as the one that I'm reading now, I've ordered three more of his from my favourite genre bookshop Alien8,  Dark Echo, The Magdalena Curse and Brodmaw Bay.  I recommend his work highly.  Fans of a chill, seek him out!

Story is king.  Reading it and writing it.  That's so important to me.  I have my mother to thank for that and everything else, as always.  Thank you Francis Cottam for the nightmare that lingered.  I'll put that chill into a story.