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Blackout
A terrifying journey through time, from a master horror writerIn a hunting lodge in the remote American Midwest, a family prepares to sit out a devastating storm. In the morning the hut is still standing, but has deteriorated, and is filled with a dreadful, pervasive stench. Outside their station wagon has corroded, the tyres have rotted. And the trees in the forest have withered with age . . .
- GenresHorror
198 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
About the author
Guy N. Smith
176 books304 followersI was born on November 21, 1939, in the small village of Hopwas, near Tamworth, Staffordshire, England. My mother was a pre-war historical novelist (E. M. Weale) and she always encouraged me to write.
I was first published at the age of 12 in The Tettenhall Observer, a local weekly newspaper. Between 1952-57 I wrote 56 stories for them, many serialized. In 1990 I collated these into a book entitled Fifty Tales from the Fifties.
My father was a dedicated bank manager and I was destined for banking from birth. I accepted it but never found it very interesting. During the early years when I was working in Birmingham, I spent most of my lunch hours in the Birmingham gun quarter. I would have loved to have served an apprenticeship in the gun trade but my father would not hear of it.
Shooting (hunting) was my first love, and all my spare time was spent in this way. In 1961 I designed and made a 12-bore shotgun, intending to follow it up with six more, but I did not have the money to do this. I still use the Guy N. Smith short-barrelled magnum. During 1960-67 I operated a small shotgun cartridge loading business but this finished when my components suppliers closed down and I could no longer obtain components at competitive prices.
My writing in those days only concerned shooting. I wrote regularly for most of the sporting magazines, interspersed with fiction for such magazines as the legendary London Mystery Selection, a quarterly anthology for which I contributed 18 stories between 1972-82.
In 1972 I launched my second hand bookselling business which eventually became Black Hill Books. Originally my intention was to concentrate on this and maybe build it up to a full-time business which would enable me to leave banking. Although we still have this business, writing came along and this proved to be the vehicle which gave me my freedom.
I wrote a horror novel for the New English Library in 1974 entitled Werewolf by Moonlight. This was followed by a couple more, but it was Night of the Crabs in 1976 which really launched me as a writer. It was a bestseller, spawning five sequels, and was followed by another 60 or so horror novels through to the mid-1990's. Amicus bought the film rights to Crabs in 1976 and this gave me the chance to leave banking and by my own place, including my shoot, on the Black Hill.
The Guy N. Smith Fan Club was formed in 1990 and still has an active membership. We hold a convention every year at my home which is always well attended.
Around this time I became Poland's best-selling author. Phantom Press published two GNS books each month, mostly with print runs of around 100,000.
I have written much, much more than just horror; crime and mystery (as Gavin Newman), and children's animal novels (as Jonathan Guy). I have written a dozen or so shooting and countryside books, a book on Writing Horror Fiction (A. & C. Black). In 1997 my first full length western novel, The Pony Riders was published by Pinnacle in the States.
With 100-plus books to my credit, I was looking for new challenges. In 1999 I formed my own publishing company and began to publish my own books. They did rather well and gave me a lot of satisfaction. We plan to publish one or two every year.
Still regretting that I had not served an apprenticeship in the gun trade, the best job of my life dropped into my lap in 1999 when I was offered the post of Gun Editor of The Countryman's Weekly, a weekly magazine which covers all field sports. This entails my writing five illustrated feature articles a week on guns, cartridges, deer stalking, big game hunting etc.
Alongside this we have expanded our mail order second hand crime fiction business, still publish a few books, and I find as much time as possible for shooting.
Jean, my wife, helps with the business. Our four children, Rowan, Tara, Gavin and Angus have all moved away from home but they visit on a regular basis.
I would not want to live anywhere other than m
I was first published at the age of 12 in The Tettenhall Observer, a local weekly newspaper. Between 1952-57 I wrote 56 stories for them, many serialized. In 1990 I collated these into a book entitled Fifty Tales from the Fifties.
My father was a dedicated bank manager and I was destined for banking from birth. I accepted it but never found it very interesting. During the early years when I was working in Birmingham, I spent most of my lunch hours in the Birmingham gun quarter. I would have loved to have served an apprenticeship in the gun trade but my father would not hear of it.
Shooting (hunting) was my first love, and all my spare time was spent in this way. In 1961 I designed and made a 12-bore shotgun, intending to follow it up with six more, but I did not have the money to do this. I still use the Guy N. Smith short-barrelled magnum. During 1960-67 I operated a small shotgun cartridge loading business but this finished when my components suppliers closed down and I could no longer obtain components at competitive prices.
My writing in those days only concerned shooting. I wrote regularly for most of the sporting magazines, interspersed with fiction for such magazines as the legendary London Mystery Selection, a quarterly anthology for which I contributed 18 stories between 1972-82.
In 1972 I launched my second hand bookselling business which eventually became Black Hill Books. Originally my intention was to concentrate on this and maybe build it up to a full-time business which would enable me to leave banking. Although we still have this business, writing came along and this proved to be the vehicle which gave me my freedom.
I wrote a horror novel for the New English Library in 1974 entitled Werewolf by Moonlight. This was followed by a couple more, but it was Night of the Crabs in 1976 which really launched me as a writer. It was a bestseller, spawning five sequels, and was followed by another 60 or so horror novels through to the mid-1990's. Amicus bought the film rights to Crabs in 1976 and this gave me the chance to leave banking and by my own place, including my shoot, on the Black Hill.
The Guy N. Smith Fan Club was formed in 1990 and still has an active membership. We hold a convention every year at my home which is always well attended.
Around this time I became Poland's best-selling author. Phantom Press published two GNS books each month, mostly with print runs of around 100,000.
I have written much, much more than just horror; crime and mystery (as Gavin Newman), and children's animal novels (as Jonathan Guy). I have written a dozen or so shooting and countryside books, a book on Writing Horror Fiction (A. & C. Black). In 1997 my first full length western novel, The Pony Riders was published by Pinnacle in the States.
With 100-plus books to my credit, I was looking for new challenges. In 1999 I formed my own publishing company and began to publish my own books. They did rather well and gave me a lot of satisfaction. We plan to publish one or two every year.
Still regretting that I had not served an apprenticeship in the gun trade, the best job of my life dropped into my lap in 1999 when I was offered the post of Gun Editor of The Countryman's Weekly, a weekly magazine which covers all field sports. This entails my writing five illustrated feature articles a week on guns, cartridges, deer stalking, big game hunting etc.
Alongside this we have expanded our mail order second hand crime fiction business, still publish a few books, and I find as much time as possible for shooting.
Jean, my wife, helps with the business. Our four children, Rowan, Tara, Gavin and Angus have all moved away from home but they visit on a regular basis.
I would not want to live anywhere other than m
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 3, 2009
In the name of ceiling-cat and Patsy Cline DO NOT read this book. Occasionally in the publishing world, a British book gets printed that is, well, completely off-base with US geography. Mr. Smith has Wyoming close to New York, for one thing. Oregon has a desert. I was hoping this was alternate reality. Sadly, it was not so.
And the inaccuracies and muck and mire continued and continued...I finally just gave up and skimmed to the end. The book is clearly in the horror genre and the only credit I can give to Mr. Smith is that it ended on the appropriately ambiguous note.
Just goes to prove: Only write about what you know!
And the inaccuracies and muck and mire continued and continued...I finally just gave up and skimmed to the end. The book is clearly in the horror genre and the only credit I can give to Mr. Smith is that it ended on the appropriately ambiguous note.
Just goes to prove: Only write about what you know!
July 31, 2022
Amusing at times as the author appears to know nothing of the United States except for what he's seen on tv. About on par with the previous book I read by this author - gore, flat characters, more gore - made worse (although more amusing) by trying to write about a place he doesn't know without doing any research.
The Lund family decided to forego their normal vacation in Fort Lauderdale to have a rustic cabin hunting/fishing trip in Wyoming. Doctor dad (Blair) was suicidal from stress but being in the outdoors cleared that up almost immediately. Mom (Adele) is jumpy right from the beginning of the book. 12 year old Ben is obsessed with "mountain men" stories and 9 year Nicola has "indoctrinated idealism" from her teacher against meat and ...smoking.
In addition to celebrating Boxing Day and mom offering to "do a fry up" we also get dad saying "I don't rightly know" "buggered" "bloody" and "put paid to that" in between a few shaddups, reckons, "plumb crazy", "big feller", and "outa here" and then back to "Any of you lot fancy some, just help yourselves". They mainly seem to eat hamburgers and beans and drink an absolute river of instant coffee.
Everything goes wrong when a hurricane sweeps over Wyoming during their Spring trip and they are transported to somewhen else. Dad doctor says things will be just fine because "hurricanes travel fast". "I'd say the eye passed this way but the valley sheltered us." They were lucky because a hurricane "...two years ago, wreaked havoc in the Yellowstone National Park" and "a guy played down severe gales and a twister cut a swathe through half a state." This entire paragraph I just typed out is ridiculous and while I don't expect everyone to know the ins and outs of hurricanes I would think maybe a quick encyclopedia check for the entry 'hurricane' might be a good idea for someone writing it as a plot point.
Anyway, the plot revolves around evil "Injuns". And yes, they all repeatedly call them injuns, savages and redskins. I kept checking the date on the book but yes, this was written at a time when people from NYC were highly unlikely to be using such terminology. "...a painted wooden totem mask whose malevolence had given it life." I don't feel a need to remark any more on that.
One of my favorite parts is when these modern Americans are puzzled by jerky. Dried strips of meat? Who still eats that?
"I know that witchcraft has been a growing menace in the States for a long time..."
"...they're all...dead but still living. What they call in the movies...the living dead!"
Also, rape attempt alert just in case anyone ever thinks of reading this book and is sensitive to that.
The Lund family decided to forego their normal vacation in Fort Lauderdale to have a rustic cabin hunting/fishing trip in Wyoming. Doctor dad (Blair) was suicidal from stress but being in the outdoors cleared that up almost immediately. Mom (Adele) is jumpy right from the beginning of the book. 12 year old Ben is obsessed with "mountain men" stories and 9 year Nicola has "indoctrinated idealism" from her teacher against meat and ...smoking.
In addition to celebrating Boxing Day and mom offering to "do a fry up" we also get dad saying "I don't rightly know" "buggered" "bloody" and "put paid to that" in between a few shaddups, reckons, "plumb crazy", "big feller", and "outa here" and then back to "Any of you lot fancy some, just help yourselves". They mainly seem to eat hamburgers and beans and drink an absolute river of instant coffee.
Everything goes wrong when a hurricane sweeps over Wyoming during their Spring trip and they are transported to somewhen else. Dad doctor says things will be just fine because "hurricanes travel fast". "I'd say the eye passed this way but the valley sheltered us." They were lucky because a hurricane "...two years ago, wreaked havoc in the Yellowstone National Park" and "a guy played down severe gales and a twister cut a swathe through half a state." This entire paragraph I just typed out is ridiculous and while I don't expect everyone to know the ins and outs of hurricanes I would think maybe a quick encyclopedia check for the entry 'hurricane' might be a good idea for someone writing it as a plot point.
Anyway, the plot revolves around evil "Injuns". And yes, they all repeatedly call them injuns, savages and redskins. I kept checking the date on the book but yes, this was written at a time when people from NYC were highly unlikely to be using such terminology. "...a painted wooden totem mask whose malevolence had given it life." I don't feel a need to remark any more on that.
One of my favorite parts is when these modern Americans are puzzled by jerky. Dried strips of meat? Who still eats that?
"I know that witchcraft has been a growing menace in the States for a long time..."
"...they're all...dead but still living. What they call in the movies...the living dead!"
Also, rape attempt alert just in case anyone ever thinks of reading this book and is sensitive to that.
October 19, 2013
Omg, it's as awful and laughable as the other review here says. You see, the plot is, this family is vacationing in Montana when a hurricane comes, and.... Yes, a hurricane in Montana, lol. I did read half of it to keep laughing at the ridiculous British speech of these American characters (who have come unstuck in America's class system, as well). "Bloody" entertaining for awhile, but it does wear on one eventually. If there's a bit of science to be looked up here, the author did not look it up. He never watched a US-made movie or TV show to pick up the speech of the nation in which he set this novel, "I'll warrant." So I'll move on now (and before picking up the next book, "do a fry up," as all we Americans do when we're hungry. 8-p)
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews