'Samhain' published in Black Static
As we all know, Tyler is quite inarticulate, considering he lectures for a living - and all the more so when it comes to his own work. So we should have known better than to ask him to describe his new story, 'Samhain,' which appears in the most recent issue of horror magazine Black Static (44). Tyler mumbled something about the story being too disturbing to explain. Now this, we thought, is one we have to read. (Yes, we'll admit, we at his publicity team don't read all of his works - he has to tempt us just like any other reader). However, that didn't solve our problem of having to summarize the piece for this blog, but fortunately critic Gareth Jones at Dread Central has done a wonderful job of that in his review:
The final fiction entry in this issue comes in the form of Tyler Keevil’s Samhain, which sees American-born Tod, now living in England with his wife, lamenting the Brits’ lack of engagement with the US style of Halloween festivities. Driving back from the gym, he notes the lack of pumpkins, the drawn curtains and the general feeling of discontent within the population. Completely enamoured with all of the pizzazz surrounding trick or treating, Tod stops his car to shout his address to three teenage boys who he believes are having little luck in their quest for candy, hoping to increase footfall so that his annual efforts don’t go unnoticed. Something seems wrong about these boys, however… and later that evening, they do indeed pay Tod and his wife a visit – and they have a peculiarly old-school approach to the ancient traditions of Samhain.
It sounds creepy as hell to us, and you can read Jones's full review over at Dread Central. The story is accompanied by some evocative artwork by George Cotronis, a sample of which you can check out below. It appears alongside stories by Catherine Tobler, Simon Avery, and Pria Sharma, among others, and full details of the issue are available at TTA Press.