TRYING TO BE SO QUIET
& OTHER HAUNTINGS
JAMES EVERINGTON
& OTHER HAUNTINGS
JAMES EVERINGTON
“A small, quiet, poignant novella about grief and significance. No noise, no fuss, just good, honest writing about the things that matter.”
— Gary McMahon on Trying To Be So Quiet
— Gary McMahon on Trying To Be So Quiet
The Sinister Horror Company are proud to reveal the cover of our forthcoming title Trying To Be So Quiet & Other Hauntings by James Everington which will be released on the 27th April 2019.
The Sinister Horror Company is committed to releasing genre-pushing horror fiction from all ranges of the horror spectrum. We originally came across James Everington’s Trying To Be So Quiet when it was name checked in the Ginger Nuts Of Horror’s review of our own Upon Waking by J. R. Park.
Intrigued by the recommendation, we obtained a copy of the book and fell in love with the wonderful writing and gentle melancholy of this ghost story, but were saddened to find its publisher had folded and the book was out of print from regular retail channels. Contacting James, he agreed that we could release it again, and so we are pleased to make this wonderful title available.
The re-release will feature two additional stories. These other hauntings are ‘The Second Wish’ and ‘Damage’, and like the titular tale, they’ll challenge your idea of what a haunting really is.
The Sinister Horror Company is committed to releasing genre-pushing horror fiction from all ranges of the horror spectrum. We originally came across James Everington’s Trying To Be So Quiet when it was name checked in the Ginger Nuts Of Horror’s review of our own Upon Waking by J. R. Park.
Intrigued by the recommendation, we obtained a copy of the book and fell in love with the wonderful writing and gentle melancholy of this ghost story, but were saddened to find its publisher had folded and the book was out of print from regular retail channels. Contacting James, he agreed that we could release it again, and so we are pleased to make this wonderful title available.
The re-release will feature two additional stories. These other hauntings are ‘The Second Wish’ and ‘Damage’, and like the titular tale, they’ll challenge your idea of what a haunting really is.
James has this to say about the new release:
“So.
This is meant to be an article where I persuade you to buy a copy of my new book (Trying To Be So Quiet & Other Hauntings from The Sinister Horror Company) but I’m not sure I’m going to be a very good salesman. I’m going to be talking about death quite a bit, you see. Your death. And the death of the ones you love, too.
Of course, as a horror fan you probably quite like reading about death. About that moment of violent and bloody death; your bookshelves are probably heaving with depictions of it. You’re down with the murderers and man-eating monsters and sacrifice-appreciating elder-gods and blood-thirsty phantoms and vampires with no appetite control. Maybe if I was writing about death in that way, this would be an okay sales pitch. Buy my book, kids—there’s lots of killings.
But. I didn’t want to write about death in that way in Trying To Be So Quiet. Not about the moment of death; not about that horror this time. I wanted to write about the horror that comes after. About those who are left.
Because, despite what all our horror stories tell us, most of us aren’t going to die ear-ly. Sorry, but it’s very unlikely you’ll be murdered by a cannibal clown. You’re not going to commit suicide because you caught a glimpse of The Things That Weren’t Meant To Be. You’re going to live, and the chances are you’ll live longer than 99.9% of the humans who’ve ever been born on this planet. Same goes for me, too. Hurrah—high five! (Now’s a good point to stop reading and buy just buy my book, as it’s going to be depressing as all hell from this point onwards.)
But.
We don’t get to live in a world where death can just be ignored, until our own. The price we pay for not dying is to live through the deaths of others, of those who are further down the road than us, or just unlucky.
Of those we love.
Death doesn’t just kill us, it breaks our heart a score of times beforehand. How do we cope with that, with that loss always to come? And how do we live after?
Such thoughts haunt me, and the things that haunt me I tend to try and exorcise in my writing. Each of the stories within TTBSQ deals with the theme of the supernatural as a mani-festation of grief. The people you’ll meet in its pages are struggling with the facts of death, with the fact that such loss removes not just a life from the world, but the meaning. For what means anything, if all is temporary? How can this world be realistic and solid, when it can give way so profoundly in a single moment; when in the very next second the voice you thrill to could be silenced, when the lips you long to kiss could exhale one last time?
So uh, yeah, buy my book. Seriously, some people have liked it—people like Tracy Fahey and Gary McMahon for starters (they’re going to die too, one day). And the good people at The Sinister Horror Company (also going to die too) would like you to buy a copy. It contains two extra stories for this reissue, each on the same theme, and comes with some wonderful cover art from Vincent Hunt (also… well, you get the idea). It may give you some solace in dark times, it might creep you out, and it has in at least one reported case reduced people to tears. And, if you’re haunted by the same fears I am, reading it might provide you with the same release that I felt writing it…. A temporary release, but hey, what isn’t in this world?
So yes please: buy my book.
Because one day, you won’t be able to.”
“So.
This is meant to be an article where I persuade you to buy a copy of my new book (Trying To Be So Quiet & Other Hauntings from The Sinister Horror Company) but I’m not sure I’m going to be a very good salesman. I’m going to be talking about death quite a bit, you see. Your death. And the death of the ones you love, too.
Of course, as a horror fan you probably quite like reading about death. About that moment of violent and bloody death; your bookshelves are probably heaving with depictions of it. You’re down with the murderers and man-eating monsters and sacrifice-appreciating elder-gods and blood-thirsty phantoms and vampires with no appetite control. Maybe if I was writing about death in that way, this would be an okay sales pitch. Buy my book, kids—there’s lots of killings.
But. I didn’t want to write about death in that way in Trying To Be So Quiet. Not about the moment of death; not about that horror this time. I wanted to write about the horror that comes after. About those who are left.
Because, despite what all our horror stories tell us, most of us aren’t going to die ear-ly. Sorry, but it’s very unlikely you’ll be murdered by a cannibal clown. You’re not going to commit suicide because you caught a glimpse of The Things That Weren’t Meant To Be. You’re going to live, and the chances are you’ll live longer than 99.9% of the humans who’ve ever been born on this planet. Same goes for me, too. Hurrah—high five! (Now’s a good point to stop reading and buy just buy my book, as it’s going to be depressing as all hell from this point onwards.)
But.
We don’t get to live in a world where death can just be ignored, until our own. The price we pay for not dying is to live through the deaths of others, of those who are further down the road than us, or just unlucky.
Of those we love.
Death doesn’t just kill us, it breaks our heart a score of times beforehand. How do we cope with that, with that loss always to come? And how do we live after?
Such thoughts haunt me, and the things that haunt me I tend to try and exorcise in my writing. Each of the stories within TTBSQ deals with the theme of the supernatural as a mani-festation of grief. The people you’ll meet in its pages are struggling with the facts of death, with the fact that such loss removes not just a life from the world, but the meaning. For what means anything, if all is temporary? How can this world be realistic and solid, when it can give way so profoundly in a single moment; when in the very next second the voice you thrill to could be silenced, when the lips you long to kiss could exhale one last time?
So uh, yeah, buy my book. Seriously, some people have liked it—people like Tracy Fahey and Gary McMahon for starters (they’re going to die too, one day). And the good people at The Sinister Horror Company (also going to die too) would like you to buy a copy. It contains two extra stories for this reissue, each on the same theme, and comes with some wonderful cover art from Vincent Hunt (also… well, you get the idea). It may give you some solace in dark times, it might creep you out, and it has in at least one reported case reduced people to tears. And, if you’re haunted by the same fears I am, reading it might provide you with the same release that I felt writing it…. A temporary release, but hey, what isn’t in this world?
So yes please: buy my book.
Because one day, you won’t be able to.”
Trying To Be So Quiet & Other Hauntings
Trying To Be So Quiet & Other Hauntings presents three stories about love, loss and the horror that comes when grief removes our reason for living from the world.
In ‘The Second Wish’, a son coping with the sudden death of his parents returns to his childhood home only to find that, despite everything being familiar, things inside seem increasingly unreal.
In ‘Damage’ a grieving lover loses all sensation of pain as she tries to make sense of her enduring grief.
The title story is a novella telling of a husband’s struggle with the reality of his wife’s death as he remembers their life together. Although haunted, he struggles to find the ghosts that assail him as meaningful as the bleak fact that he is now alone. But that doesn’t stop him seeing them…
"A hint of Robert Aickman in the slow accretion of off-kilter detail and shades of Christopher Priest [and] the metafictional conceits of Jorge Luis Borges.” - The Guardian
Trying To Be So Quiet & Other Hauntings will be available on Kindle and Paperback from Amazon and the Sinister Horror Company website from the 27th April 2019.
Pre-orders to follow shortly.
Cover art by the always wonderful Vincent Hunt
For any enquiries or further information visit:
SinisterHorrorCompany.com
In ‘The Second Wish’, a son coping with the sudden death of his parents returns to his childhood home only to find that, despite everything being familiar, things inside seem increasingly unreal.
In ‘Damage’ a grieving lover loses all sensation of pain as she tries to make sense of her enduring grief.
The title story is a novella telling of a husband’s struggle with the reality of his wife’s death as he remembers their life together. Although haunted, he struggles to find the ghosts that assail him as meaningful as the bleak fact that he is now alone. But that doesn’t stop him seeing them…
"A hint of Robert Aickman in the slow accretion of off-kilter detail and shades of Christopher Priest [and] the metafictional conceits of Jorge Luis Borges.” - The Guardian
Trying To Be So Quiet & Other Hauntings will be available on Kindle and Paperback from Amazon and the Sinister Horror Company website from the 27th April 2019.
Pre-orders to follow shortly.
Cover art by the always wonderful Vincent Hunt
For any enquiries or further information visit:
SinisterHorrorCompany.com
