Carnival Archives -

June 20, 2015April 20, 2016

Revisited : The Noir Series

Weird Noir was one of our early titles, edited by K.A. Laity and it was so much fun we managed to persuade her back to do two more, Noir Carnival and Drag Noir. The idea was simply to throw another genre or trope that interested us in the mix with noir stylings and it resulted in some incredible stories and really superb anthologies.

‘On the gritty backstreets of a crumbling city, tough dames and dangerous men trade barbs, witticisms and a few gunshots. But there’s a new twist where

urban decay meets the eldritch borders of another world: WEIRD NOIR.

Featuring thugs who sprout claws and fangs, gangsters with tentacles and the occasional succubus siren. The ambience is pure noir but the characters aren’t just your average molls and mugs—the vamps might just be vamps. It’s Patricia Highsmith meets Shirley Jackson or Dashiell Hammett filtered through H. P. Lovecraft. Mad, bad and truly dangerous to know, but irresistible all the same.’

Dark’s Carnival has already left town, but it’s left a fetid seed behind. There’s a transgressive magic that spooks the carnies and unsettles the freaks. Beyond the barkers and the punters, behind the lights and tents where the macabre and the lost find refuge, there’s a deformity that has nothing to do with skin and bones. Where tragic players strut on a creaking stage, everybody’s going through changes. Jongleurs and musicians huddle in the back. It seems as if every one’s running, but is it toward something—or away?

The carnies bring you stories, a heady mix of shadows and candy floss, dreams gone sour and nights that go on too long. Let them lure you into the tent.

Carnival: whether you picture it as a traveling fair in the back roads of America or the hedonistic nights of the pre-Lenten festival where masks hide faces while the skin glories in its revelation, it’s about spectacle, artificiality and the things we hide behind the greasepaint or the tent flap. Let these writers lead you on a journey into that heart of blackened darkness and show you what’s behind the glitz.

Underneath, we’re all freaks after all…

We all went a little crazy at the Noir Carnival launch at Edge.Lit 2013

Jo Jo the Dog Faced boy and the bearded lady

and finally we closed off by taking a look at gender and sexuality in Drag Noir. K.A. Laity swears she won’t do any more, but we’ve heard that before.

DRAG NOIR: this is where glamour meets grit, where everyone’s wearing a disguise (whether they know it or not) and knowing the players takes a lot more than simply reading the score cards. Maybe everyone’s got something to hide, but they’ve got something to reveal, too. Scratch the surface and explore what secrets lie beneath — it’s bound to cost someone…a lot.

November 26, 2014November 22, 2014

European Monsters : Bringing the Cursed One to Life

Bringing the Cursed One to life

Icy Sedgwick

A perusal of any volume of folk tales will tell you that Europe has a lot of monsters. Originally I wanted to write about a monster native to the United Kingdom, and my home county of Northumberland has its fair share of faeries, wyrms and spectres. But there is one place in the world to which I’m repeatedly drawn, and that’s the enigmatic jewel of the Mediterranean – Venice.

Venice is a mysterious place, is it not? Canals divide its ancient streets, splitting the city into a series of small islands, linked by bridges and alleyways. Part labyrinth, part collective dream, Venice changes little as the years go by. True, it was once the capital of a powerful sea-based empire, embroiled in trade and commerce, until the rise of Portugal as a naval competitor in the seventeenth century. These days, it relies mostly on tourism and trade exports, particularly glass in Murano and lace in Burano. Yet still it captures the mind and imagination and, dare I say it, the heart.

I think part of Venice’s appeal lies within its canals, and what better to live in those waterways than some primal being? I’m fascinated by the Lovecraftian concept of Elder Gods, of ancient deities or beings who remain in the world, secreted away in darkness or the lost places that humans have either forgotten, or abandoned. I decided that mine would be seven in number, with the youngest being known as the Cursed One, yet perversely granted with the power to control its siblings. The canals became integral to its way of life, with the Cursed One only able to leave the water once a year.

What only occurs once a year in Venice? Why, the Carnival, of course! What better opportunity would a monster have to hide than a city-wide event in which everyone hides their true face? Indeed, many of the other Carnival revellers could be just as monstrous, yet hidden behind their bauta masks they’re simply people joining in with the fun. The Cursed One chooses a mask for itself from among the reflections it has stolen of those gazing into the canals at midnight, adding an extra layer to its monstrosity, and another facet to the mystery of Venice.

As befitting any ancient being, the Cursed One goes by many names – the protagonists refer to it as ‘Number Seven’, and La Musicale Morte, or the Musical Death. It’s given a name that humans can actually pronounce, and is so named for the music it sings in the mind when it is close at hand. To hear such music, based upon the notion of the banshee’s call, is to realise death is coming. The city of Vivaldi seemed like the ideal location for such a musical being, and wouldn’t music be the perfect non-verbal mode of communication? After all, for one character, the song of La Musicale Morte doesn’t spell death, but a form of rebirth into existence.

I chose to set the story in the eighteenth century, since it was outlawed in 1797 (it was reinstated in 1979) and the baroque setting of decadence and festivities seemed to suit the excesses of the creature. The fact that Venice has changed so little means the locations of the story still exist today! The eighteenth century also seemed to suit the concept of a shadowy organisation, known as the Order of the Sphinx, intent upon mysteries and the pursuit of both knowledge and power. Was that not the driving force behind the Renaissance, the period in which the Carnival became official?

So don your mask, and slip into the crowded piazzas and campos of Venezia, stroll across the bridges and marvel at the spectacle, and listen carefully for the siren song of La Musicale Morte…

Bio

Icy Sedgwick is a Gothic throwback, steeped in horror cinema and historical fiction. She teaches graphic design when she’s not writing, and plots world domination when no one is looking. She is also a knitter, a baker, and a jewellery maker.

Icy Sedgwick’s Cabinet of Curiosities – http://www.icysedgwick.com/

Twitter – http://twitter.com/IcySedgwick

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/miss.icy.sedgwick

Icy on Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4387348.Icy_Sedgwick

July 19, 2013April 20, 2016

Noir Carnival Teaser Day 4

I’m finally losing it. I’ve spent so long searching for clues

that I’m starting to make things up in my head. Why did it
have to happen? I think for the millionth time, tears pricking
at the corner of my eyes. I hurry back to my cold apartment,
where I dig into my coat pocket to find the keys. My fingers
rub against a scrap of paper and I pull it out. The paper
is thick and brown, the letters gilded: Invite to the Feast of
Fools. There’s no address. It’ll be some stupid street act, I
think, stuffing the paper back into my pocket and drawing
out the keys.
I sleep badly, disturbed by strange sounds. Someone outside
must be having a party. The noises seem to seep into the
room. They slide about the walls, scuttling into my ears and
around my brain.
I wake feeling fuzzy and dry-mouthed – the hint of a
hangover – and with a nagging thought: what if there was
something more to that grey figure? What if she was trying
to tell me something… about Stella? Come on, Tom, I scold
myself. She was just some crazy peddler.

From ‘Carne Levate’ by Emma Teichman

March 20, 2013April 20, 2016

Call for Stories: Noir Carnival

This is also up at awesome editor Kate Laity’s site

We are also planning on bringing Weird Noir cover artist S.L.Johnson back on for this project.

—-

A call for stories from Fox Spirit Books, publishers of Weird Noir and many more superb volumes.

Carnival: whether you picture it as a traveling fair in the back roads of America or the hedonistic nights of the pre-Lenten festival where masks hide faces while the skin glories in its revelation, it’s about spectacle, artificiality and the things we hide behind the greasepaint or the tent flap. Lead us on a journey into that heart of blackened darkness and show us what’s behind the glitz.

Touchstones (to give you a sense of the breadth of the net cast):

John Webster’s “skull beneath the skin” • Katherine Dunn’s Geek Love • Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus • Gargantua & Pantagruel • Pinocchio (the novel! Not the Disney atrocity) • Papa Lazarou • Doctor Lau • Ray Bradbury’sSomething Wicked This Way Comes • Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal • Leonor Fini

Surprise me, delight me, make me afraid of the shadows of a warm summer night, rip my guts out and stuff them back in again. Just don’t bore me. All editors have their tastes or quirks: if you want a clue to my sensibilities, check out my extensive bibliography and of course, read Weird Noir.

Stories should be:

Previously unpublished anywhere
Not submitted anywhere else
Length 3-8K
Formatted: Times New Roman, regular, 12 point. 1″ margins. 1 space after full stop. Spaced 1.5 lines. Use paragraph formatting to indent first line nottabs. No header/footer.
Identified with a title, your name (and pen name identified as such),working email address on the first page: file name should include your surname & title
Submitted in RTF format via email to katelaity at gmail with at least your name, the story title and total word count included in the body of the email; make sure the Subject line includes “Submission: Noir Carnival” + your name
Due by Walpurgisnacht

We will ask for world-wide print & ebook rights for a year and pay $10 via Paypal as an advance against the royalties to be split with the publisher. We plan to launch the book at EDGE-Lit in Derby in July 2013.