“Clowns by Michael Kamp reminded me of a young adult version of IT, the film that turned me against clowns for life!
I must say that this is a really well-written book, a bit on the descriptive side so, if you don’t want horrible visions in your mind, don’t read it!
Although it is only a short story, Michael Kamp has managed to include quite a lot; we got the backstory quite neatly, along with the character development, which was good.
It is a little on the gory side, but that doesn’t detract from the story and the unique plot line. I didn’t like clowns before and I definitely still don’t, but for a younger adult who likes a good horror story that they can read in one sitting, this is ideal.
I liked the fact that Michael Kamp explained how things were done in Denmark at the end and how it tied in with his story – a few interesting facts there.”
Well, Clowns did not make the Final Ballot at the Bram Stoker Awards, but there was comfort at home.
The Danish version, Klovn, have just been named the best horror title for kids 2017.
Yes, I am pleased 🙂
The Top 10 list was:
(Translated from Danish by me)
10. “En Grum Fisk” (A Sinister Fish) by Henrik Einspor. It’s a classic Henrik Einspor. Great story, not too scary and the cover is really good.
9. “Zombie World” by Benni Bødker. Benni turns the zombie genre upside down and this series starts out with the main character becoming infected. Not too scary, but a thrilling story in a horror setting.
8. “Becca” by Petter Lidbeck. Good and spooky entertainment.
7. “Hvidslangen” (The White Snake) by Ã…sa Larsson. The 8th installment in the Pax series. Our main characters are in dire straits and the stakes a much greater than their lives.
6. “Varulvens Hemmelighed” (Secret of the Werewolf) by Kristina Ohlsson. The second installment in the series of Eldsala. Good scare factor and very high intensity.
5. “Skattekortet” (The Treasure Map) by Arne Svingen. A scary story where family members are not what they seem.
4. “NÃ¥r Lyset Slukkes” (When the Light goes Dark) by Kenneth Bøgh Andersen. Yet another high quality collection of horror short stories by the always amazing Kenneth Bøgh Andersen.
3. “Gys i Toscana” (Horror in Toscana) by Birgitte Lorentzen. A ghost story by Birgitte Lorentzen – something she is especially adept at. A haunting tale with a high scare factor.
2. “Dødt Kød – Dag 1” (Dead Meat – Day 1) by Nick Clausen. A new zombie series for kids from Nick Clausen. He’s a very competent writer at a level few can reach. Here he brings new blood to an old genre and writes a fantastic story at the same time.
1. “Klovn” (Clowns) by Michael Kamp is a personal favorite. Michael Kamp has mastered the art of writing truly uncomfortable scenes and when he decides to write about “killer clowns” it won’t be subtle. Here you will find horror, humor and all the gore you could ever want.
See the original Danish Top 10 version from Gladsaxe Library HERE.
I have a conflicted relationship with deadlines. I wrote my prize winner “Prank Call”, the day before the deadline and managed to just it in just in time. And it won.
I have had some trouble getting through to anthologies in English, but last week I saw a submission call with deadline the following day.
A Christmas story with the promt”Sleigh Bells” and a very specific word count on 666 words. Exactly.
It became “The Wild Hunt”, which is based on one of our own myths here in Scandinavia.
And it was accepted into the anthology.
The anthology is called “Shades of Santa” and no – it’s not porn.
It’s a charity anthology, so when I say ‘GO’, you buy until you barf, Mkay? 🙂
The anthology is published by Things in the Well, which can be found HERE.
The Danish Horror Society just held their general assembly 2017.
We chose to gather for the assembly on a castle. You know – as one does.
Vallø Slot (Valloe Castle) is located in the southern part of Sjælland (our main island) and since one of our members are living there, we could borrow the place.
The Danish Horror Society is fairly small.
It was founded in September 4th 2011 by eleven horror writers and one publisher. We aim to introduce horror as an adult genre to the public, since horror is usually considered to be YA literature here in Denmark.
Currently we are around 35 members which includes writers, publishers, journalists, librarians, bloggers and film makers. Everyone who is working with horror as a genre in one capacity or another. As a small genre in a small nation, we are fewer than our sister societies in other nations.
We arrange events and have a yearly award we give out in the spring to the best Danish title in the horror genre.
And once a year we meet to take care of the business side of things. Debating the issues that has appeared since our last meeting and such.
This is where it took place. Eight members had arrived and formed the cabal. Here we debated the Dark Art and which unholy pacts we should pledge our allegiance to.
And cookies.
We had cookies too.
Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures of the main areas. Vallø Slot is an amazing castle – not that I have great experience with castles – and I was more than a little envious on Anne-Marie for waking up in a castle every morning.
We unanimously voted Anne-Marie “most likely to survive a zombie apokalypse for a prolonged time”. She has a moat. A moat!
Those are getting rare.
Well, now I know where to go when the outbreak happens 🙂
SO tired. My feet are swollen, my back is aching and my arms are gorilla-like after hauling 20+ pounds of books from the Bella Center to my home town of Kirke Hyllinge. I just spent the entire weekend at Bogforum 2017 – The largest con by far for litterature in Denmark.
If you have never visited Bogforum, it might be hard to understand just HOW huge it is.
Three huge halls.
1,850 authors. 13 stages. Almost 35,000 paying visitors. It’s massive.
Here I am standing on the corner of ONE of the three main “highways” in the central hall. There was a separate, huge hall for children’s litterature and yet another huge area for micro publishers and self-publishing authors.
It’s Sunday afternoon and the visitors are thinning, but still going strong.
Let’s take a step back in time to Friday, where I had a signing session in the kids section at this wonderful cardboard table 🙂 I was peddling the Danish version of my novelette Clowns and my NekroMathias series.
This year my Publisher, Tellerup, had two stalls – a big one in the main hall and a smaller one in the kids section. More on the kid stuff later.
Hey kid! Do you want a balloon?
Tellerup had ordered 100 red balloons with promotional print as a gimmick giveaway, but they should have ordered 1,000. They were all gone within the first half hour, and they only barely saved one for me.
After the signing session I roamed the con for a while, meeting up with colleagues and looking around before returning to Tellerup’s backstage area at their main stall.
Their very pink backstage area.
I am an award-winning horror-writer. Peddler of Nightmares. Disciple of the Dark Arts. Prophet of the formless, gibbering beasts beyond the Void. And here I am sipping pink champagne on a pink chair in a pink backstage area 🙂
I hurried to the stall and was quite surprised to find only two people queuing up.
Just as I got in line and thought this would be quick, I heard a distinct cough behind me and looked over my shoulder.
Somehow I had missed the very long line of people following the wall behind me. I apologized and hurried down the end of the impressive queue.
I’m just getting used to people queuing up to see me, so it’s probably healthy to get chased to the back of the line from time to time. 🙂
Waiting patiently.
My turn at last.
I got my signing and happily went on my way.
Straight back to the backstage area.
Hall of giant faces.
A small tour of the backstage area. The ethereal sounds at the end is Danish. Yeah.
Saturday we held a gathering of the writers of Tellerup. We were spoiled.
There was cake.
And a group photo.
Regular readers of my blog will notice that there are considerably more colors on the writers of Tellerup than the official Rot Pack pictures of the horror-writers at the crime fiction con. 🙂
Sunday was enjoyed at a much slower pace with a cup of coffee permanently lodged in my hand. I had developed a sudden headache after the gathering the night before and was dead tired. Must be a virus.
There were fewer guests and I could spent more time just roaming around when I wasn’t lost in deep meditation on a pink chair.
So. Much. Paranormal. Romance.
Now – I want to lead you into the kids area and show you something very Danish. 🙂
The kids area had their own movie theater.
Where the kids were being entertained by the topless mermaids of the animated movie Bennys Badekar (Benny’s Bathtub) – a classic. That would probably not go down well in the US. 😀
A portal into a “magical school” at the kids area.
A tired warlock trying to teach the kids the Dark Arts.
The kids area is getting empty late Sunday.
Last performance on the Spot-scene and still a respectable number of guests show up.
All in all a great weekend, although I am now filled up with social gatherings and will stay inside for a month.
So – Sci-fi & Scary not only reviewed Clowns, they also interviewed me.
Let’s start with the review:
Clowns was well-written and perfect for anyone who loved the movie Killer Klownz from Outer Space. While it doesn’t quite achieve that level of camp, Kamp’s Clowns channels that same absurd-horror feel. There are a few scenes that are so well imagined that the [readers] can easily get a great mental picture of them. Michael Kamp has the ability to put his readers so neatly into the story that you can practically smell the forest and face paint.
The campaign for Clowns has been launched and it is FREE at Amazon for a few days.
Yes, free. I am totally unknown in the English market, so I need downloads to up the visibility of the title.
Clowns! Gore! Candyfloss! Dead Children!
The creepy clown epidemic began when I was 12 years old.
Creepy clowns roamed neighborhoods at night, terrifying the population. At first it was only in the U.S.
Soon it spread, turning into a global craze.
The wave of clown sightings even reached all the way to Denmark.
Every day, the papers ran stories about clowns scaring people.
Of course, the vast majority of creepy clowns were just pranksters in costumes.
But not all of them.
Not in Ullerup.
It’s good. It’s very good.
We’ve never had a five star book come across our desks, so it is my absolute pleasure to praise Kamp and give Bloody Good Horror Books its first five star review.
Ohh.
So it begins.
