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Connecting Nothing with Something
Connecting Nothing with Something explores the conflicted and shifting landscape of the south east English coast.
192 pages, Paperback
First published August 15, 2013
17 people want to read
About the author
Gary Budden
29 books80 followersGary Budden writes fiction and creative non-fiction about the intersections of British sub-culture, landscape, psychogeography, hidden history, nature, horror, weird fiction and more.
His collection of uncanny psychogeographies and landscape punk, HOLLOW SHORES, was published by Dead Ink Books in October 2017. His dark fiction novella JUDDERMAN (as D.A. Northwood) is published in 2018 by the Eden Book Society.
He was shortlisted for the 2015 London Short Story Award, and his story ‘Greenteeth’ was nominated for a 2017 British Fantasy Award and adapted into a short film by the filmmaker Adam Scovell.
His work has been published widely, including Black Static, Structo, Elsewhere, Unthology, The Lonely Crowd, Gorse, and Year’s Best Weird Fiction.
Praise for HOLLOW SHORES:
Here are punks, ghosts, vampire-hunters, ancient gods that hate to be neglected. Here is a country and a world teetering on the lip of apocalyptic void. And here are, too, insanities, desperate longings, great loves and rages and beauties. Completely absorbing.
— Niall Griffiths, author of Runt
I don't think I've ever read a collection of stories that fitted together so well before, with each one deepening the same themes to make a powerful reading experience about loss, and belonging, and growing.
– Aliya Whiteley, author of The Beauty
Quiet, unsettling, and at times, quite beautiful... The overall sense of dissatisfaction (though never angsty) and longing for an ineffable, unattainable ideal in our environmentally ravaged world was authentically and meticulously rendered.
– Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts
Budden’s writing is sparse, terse even, but perfectly suited to the landscapes of dislocation and alienation that are his natural milieu.
– Nina Allan, author of The Rift
Like some mythic counterculture coast; The Snow Goose on speed.
– Tony White, author of The Fountain in the Forest
His collection of uncanny psychogeographies and landscape punk, HOLLOW SHORES, was published by Dead Ink Books in October 2017. His dark fiction novella JUDDERMAN (as D.A. Northwood) is published in 2018 by the Eden Book Society.
He was shortlisted for the 2015 London Short Story Award, and his story ‘Greenteeth’ was nominated for a 2017 British Fantasy Award and adapted into a short film by the filmmaker Adam Scovell.
His work has been published widely, including Black Static, Structo, Elsewhere, Unthology, The Lonely Crowd, Gorse, and Year’s Best Weird Fiction.
Praise for HOLLOW SHORES:
Here are punks, ghosts, vampire-hunters, ancient gods that hate to be neglected. Here is a country and a world teetering on the lip of apocalyptic void. And here are, too, insanities, desperate longings, great loves and rages and beauties. Completely absorbing.
— Niall Griffiths, author of Runt
I don't think I've ever read a collection of stories that fitted together so well before, with each one deepening the same themes to make a powerful reading experience about loss, and belonging, and growing.
– Aliya Whiteley, author of The Beauty
Quiet, unsettling, and at times, quite beautiful... The overall sense of dissatisfaction (though never angsty) and longing for an ineffable, unattainable ideal in our environmentally ravaged world was authentically and meticulously rendered.
– Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts
Budden’s writing is sparse, terse even, but perfectly suited to the landscapes of dislocation and alienation that are his natural milieu.
– Nina Allan, author of The Rift
Like some mythic counterculture coast; The Snow Goose on speed.
– Tony White, author of The Fountain in the Forest
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 29, 2024
3 and a half stars...
I thought this story & poem anthology was great and disappointing in equal measure. The reminiscenses of coastal towns and their communities in SE England are vivid and highly atmospheric, and will stay with me. Some of the details and descriptions I absolutely loved. But the majority of the stories aren't really stories; they're more like vignettes, someone describing their homecoming to a childhood town, seeing how it's changed, recanting memories etc, and then leaving.
I found myself missing the "story" aspect with plot, growing tension, rising/falling action and a resolution. There's plenty of very good characterisation, but mostly each one feels like half a story; so it's a wide miss on the emotional impact side (maybe unless you grew up in the places being described).
The closing story (Enterprise Betise by Rowena Macdonald) is a notable exception; it's a proper story while still finding time to vividly capture the coastal, small town setting. It's pretty great actually. There were a couple of other good ones; it's surprising how much the presence of a plot elevates a story :)
For anyone looking mainly for an evocative sense of place with detailed and highly sensory descriptions that really convey you to the coastal settings - a real sense of the real - it's a 4-star book. As a collection of stories, though, it's more like 3 stars.
I thought this story & poem anthology was great and disappointing in equal measure. The reminiscenses of coastal towns and their communities in SE England are vivid and highly atmospheric, and will stay with me. Some of the details and descriptions I absolutely loved. But the majority of the stories aren't really stories; they're more like vignettes, someone describing their homecoming to a childhood town, seeing how it's changed, recanting memories etc, and then leaving.
I found myself missing the "story" aspect with plot, growing tension, rising/falling action and a resolution. There's plenty of very good characterisation, but mostly each one feels like half a story; so it's a wide miss on the emotional impact side (maybe unless you grew up in the places being described).
The closing story (Enterprise Betise by Rowena Macdonald) is a notable exception; it's a proper story while still finding time to vividly capture the coastal, small town setting. It's pretty great actually. There were a couple of other good ones; it's surprising how much the presence of a plot elevates a story :)
For anyone looking mainly for an evocative sense of place with detailed and highly sensory descriptions that really convey you to the coastal settings - a real sense of the real - it's a 4-star book. As a collection of stories, though, it's more like 3 stars.
Displaying 1 of 1 review