Incantations [Paperback]

Maynard and Sims know the devil is in the details. They plant their devils cunningly, in carefully drawn characters and moody settings...

"For twenty-five years, Maynard and Sims have been visiting shadows. To the delight and appreciation of readers, they bring back souvenirs."

"Maynard & Sims write with a voice that is both uniquely entertaining and profoundly disturbing."

"Their fiction reflects classic old-school style themes told with a decidedly modern perspective."

"Like gentleman peddlers selling dark miracles, this long-time duet crafts fiction that reads like the secret geography of nightmare."

The third original collection from Maynard & Sims (following Shadows At Midnight & Echoes Of Darkness).
CONTENTS – running order of stories.
1. BEWARE THE BECKONING STRANGER
2. ROCK
3. SNOW BEETLES
4. THE PAIN COLLECTOR
5. DIGGING IN THE DUNES
6. SHADOW PLAY
7. WARM LIES COLD SECRETS
8. THE HUMIDOR
9. THE WEEPING STONES
10. THE NICE HOUSE
11. NAMES AND FACES
12. UNREASONABLE BEHAVIOUR
13. PILGRIMAGE TO OBLIVION
14. HOLDING DARKNESS WITHIN
15. THE BUSINESS OF BARBARIANS
EXCERPT – from Warm Lies, Cold Secrets.

"Charles let a strange expression settle on his face. Neither a smile nor a frown. It was the kind of expression that speaks of acceptance, of the end of resistance. He made a movement that looked as if he was scratching the back of his neck. Gradually the skin around his lips seemed to loosen. The folds of skin on his neck draped forward like a woman letting a silk nightdress slide to the floor. The shifting of his skin was accompanied by the most odd noise; the sound of wet tissue paper being folded. Very quiet, very soft. The skin on his head flopped forwards onto his chest. With imperceptible movements behind his back Charles continued to ripple his skin away from his body so that after a few moments it fell in rivulets from his waist. Still it continued to cascade away from him, the sound of faint tearing joined now by sighs of almost sensual pleasure. Chris realised the sounds were coming from both Charles and Marissa. As the skin finally peeled from the torso and dropped obscenely without a sound to the floor Chris was astounded when what had been his brother bent casually, picked it up like a discarded towel, and hung it from a hook on the wall."

Enter a world of witches and demons, creatures and beasts, but most horrifyingly of all are the people; real people with emotions, problems, and torments. Here is a new collection of diverse and intriguing supernatural stories that reveal the various arenas where good and evil do battle. Here is a new collection of stories that show the strength, depth and vision now emanating from this dual authorship.
This exciting new book contains secrets unravelled in Wales; the view from a New York analysts couch; theatrical dangers; fantasy and legend from Suffolk; witchcraft in America; haunted houses; teenage unhappiness; sexual allure; pain’s sweet taste; an unwelcome holiday souvenir from Gibraltar; echoes of death in Austria; stolen moments in Devon; disaster from divorce; a haunting of memory and fantasy.

The authors give us a book of supernatural horrors that linger long in the mind, that brings the shadowed terrors into the light. If you ever thought of these two writers simply in terms of traditional ghost stories – then think again – these are nightmares from a cracked modern landscape.

INCANTATIONS – credits history.
1. BEWARE THE BECKONING STRANGER previously appeared online at the Feo Amante website in 2000 as a Jobs In Hell competition winner, and also gained a Honourable Mention in Years Best Fantasy & Horror.
2. ROCK is original to this collection
3. SNOW BEETLES previously appeared in the French language magazine Tenebres in 2001.
4. THE PAIN COLLECTOR is original to this collection. (It is scheduled to appear in Oktobyr The Thyrd USA anthology from prime.)
5. DIGGING IN THE DUNES previously appeared in Unhinged in 1999 and again online in Crimson e-zine in USA in 2000
6. SHADOW PLAY is in the Dreaming Of Angels USA charity anthology from prime.
7. WARM LIES COLD SECRETS is original to this collection.
8. THE HUMIDOR is original to this collection. (It is scheduled to appear in Redsine USA anthology from prime.)
9. THE WEEPING STONES is original to this collection
10. THE NICE HOUSE previously appeared in the HWA anthology Bell, Book & Beyond in 2000. It was Stoker recommended and received a Honourable Mention
11. NAMES AND FACES previously appeared online at HorrorFind USA website in 2000.
12. UNREASONABLE BEHAVIOUR previously appeared in Deaths Door anthology in 1999 and again online in Terror Tales e-zine in 2000
13. PILGRIMAGE TO OBLIVION previously appeared in USA magazine Foxfire in 2001
14. HOLDING DARKNESS WITHIN is original to this collection
15. THE BUSINESS OF BARBARIANS is original to this collection

By the end of 2002 Len Maynard & Mick Sims will have produced 40 books in the genre, as well as having numerous stories published in other people’s books.2001 saw Moths, their novella, available in USA, and in 2002 the novella The Hidden Language Of Demons has been published. Also out in 2002 are two collections of their stories, essays and interviews, The Secret Geography Of Nightmare and Selling Dark Miracles, one introduced by Hugh Lamb and the other by Stephen Jones. As editors they produce Darkness Rising the USA anthology series, and have out in 2002 the retrospective anthology, Best Of Enigmatic Tales, and an original anthology, Cold Touch (with William Simmons). As publishers they ran Enigmatic Press in the UK, which produced Enigmatic Tales, and its sister titles. They co-edited and published F20 (with David Howe) for The British Fantasy Society. They are currently working on a horror novel, Shelter, and a crime novel, Mere Mortals.

EXCERPT – from Warm Lies, Cold Secrets.

"Charles let a strange expression settle on his face. Neither a smile nor a frown. It was the kind of expression that speaks of acceptance, of the end of resistance. He made a movement that looked as if he was scratching the back of his neck. Gradually the skin around his lips seemed to loosen. The folds of skin on his neck draped forward like a woman letting a silk nightdress slide to the floor. The shifting of his skin was accompanied by the most odd noise; the sound of wet tissue paper being folded. Very quiet, very soft. The skin on his head flopped forwards onto his chest. With imperceptible movements behind his back Charles continued to ripple his skin away from his body so that after a few moments it fell in rivulets from his waist. Still it continued to cascade away from him, the sound of faint tearing joined now by sighs of almost sensual pleasure. Chris realised the sounds were coming from both Charles and Marissa. As the skin finally peeled from the torso and dropped obscenely without a sound to the floor Chris was astounded when what had been his brother bent casually, picked it up like a discarded towel, and hung it from a hook on the wall."
EXCERPT – from The Business Of Barbarians
"They struggled to rise from the bed but their legs were trapped, as though someone had laid a great weight across them. The pain was excruciating. They stared into each other’s eyes and knew that Finlay Crawford had broken his word.
The air was filled with a crackling sound, like the sound of ice crunching underfoot, but the bed was anything but cold. Gradually the weight crept further up their bodies, pressing them down into the bed. As though the bed-covers were being pulled slowly up to their faces. But the covers didn’t feel soft, as they should do; they were hard, like metal.
It reached their thighs, crushed their genitals and crept on up to their bellies. They twisted and writhed as much as they could, but the bedclothes had them trapped. The sheets and blankets were turning to iron, crushing them with their weight and, as the weight reached their chests, squeezing the life out of them and suffocating them.
With his last ounce of strength Martin reached down and tried to push the bedclothes back from Narina’s body. He expected the covers to be hard, resistant, but his hand sunk into soft cotton and wool fibres, and within a split second was trapped as the fibres turned to steel. The bed was turning into a metal coffin that had them trapped. They were being crushed by a huge weight, yet the bed seemed as normal in appearance as it had before."
EXCERPT – from Pilgrimage To Oblivion
"Reid was less experienced than she, and she led him into what for him was an initiation. She sensed his lack of confidence and reassured and prompted him. Their lips formed a bud that burst into bloom, as her hands floated and danced like pollen over his body. He felt this was a moment in his personal history that he should treasure, but the emotions overwhelmed and consumed him so that the memory was fading before it had awoken.
The grass was damp beneath him as they lay together. There seemed to be clouds of moths circling their heads, as they moved and entranced one another. Reid was a man in the throes of unusual passion as spells and incantations exploded inside his head. The voice that had beckoned to him in the pub re-entered his thoughts, urging him to touch there, to linger a moment longer than he might have done.
‘Bloody hell, come and look at this everyone.’