#Abarat News

[bracketsoffear]

Dark Leitner Reading List

The full list of submissions for the Dark Leitner bracket. Bold titles are ones which were accepted to appear in the bracket. Synopses and propaganda can be found below the cut. Be warned, however, that these may contain spoilers!

Andersen, Hans Christian: The Shadow Asimov, Isaac: Nightfall

Barker, Clive: Abarat Barnes, S.A.: Dead Silence Baxendale, Trevor: Fear of the Dark Brennan, Joseph Payne: Slime Brontë, Charlotte: Jane Eyre

Chukovsky, Korney: Stolen Sun Cortázar, Julio: Casa tomada (House taken over) Coville, Bruce: The Shadow Wood

Dean, Benjamin Appleby: Lamplight Dukaj, Jacek: Ice

Enríquez, Mariana: Nuestra parte de noche (Our share of the night) Enríquez, Mariana: Bajo el agua negra (Under dark waters)

Halpern, Jake & Peter Kujawinski: Nightfall Hesse, Hermann: Demian Hodgson, William Hope: The Night Land

King, Stephen: IT King, Stephen: The Mist Kirby, Todd: No Power Kristoff, Jay: Empire of the Vampire

Leroux, Gaston: The Phantom of the Opera Lord Byron: Darkness Lovecraft, H.P.: The Haunter of the Dark

Milton, John: Paradise Lost

Poe, Edgar Allan: The Pit and the Pendulum Pronzini, Bill: Peekaboo

Robertson, M.P.: The Moon in Swampland

Schwartz, Alvin, ill. Stephen Gammell: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark Sheckley, Robert: Ghost V Smith, Clark Ashton: The Double Shadow Snicket, Lemony: The Dark Snicket, Lemony: The Ersatz Elevator Stine, R.L.: Revenge of the Shadow People Stover, Matt: Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor

Tolkien, J. R. R.: Shadow-Bride

Weir, Andy: Project Hail Mary Wilson, F. Paul: Nightworld

Andersen, Hans Christian: The Shadow

The story follows a Learned Man on a voyage south from northern Europe. One evening as he sits by a fire, he amusedly observes his shadow dancing and imitating his movements in the light of the flames, and thinks that it would be funny if it was a creature with a will of its own. The next morning, he awakes and finds to his surprise that his shadow has disappeared overnight. But as a new shadow slowly grows back from the tip of his toes, the Learned Man does not give the incident another thought, and soon thereafter goes home to northern Europe. One evening several years later, however, he hears a knock on his door. It is his shadow, the one he lost years before during his journey, now standing upon his doorstep, almost completely human in appearance. Intrigued, the Learned Man invites the Shadow inside, where the two sit down and talk about the Shadow's experiences during its travels and how it came to take the form of a human.

During the conversation, the subject turns to the Learned Man's rather unsuccessful writing career. The Learned Man values the good, the true, and the beautiful in the world, and writes about it often, but his writing seems to garner little to no interest with the public. The Shadow declares that the Learned Man is too much of an idealist, and his view of the world is flawed. The Shadow claims that he, unlike his master, understands the world, that he has seen it as truly is, and knows how evil some men really can be. They soon part ways once again.

The Shadow goes on to make itself quite wealthy, even as the Learned Man barely manages to survive. He eventually grows very ill, and so the Shadow proposes they travel to a health resort. The Shadow will fund the trip, on the condition that the Learned Man pretend to be its shadow instead of the other way around. Absurd as the suggestion sounds, the Learned Man ultimately agrees and they undertake the trip, with the Shadow as his master.

On the trip, the Shadow meets and woos a Princess. When the pair are about to be married, the Shadow asks the Learned Man to remain as its shadow permanently, in exchange for a good life with them. The Learned Man refuses and threatens to reveal the truth to the Princess. Thus, the Shadow has him arrested and ultimately executed, and goes on to live a happy life with the Princess.

Asimov, Isaac: Nightfall

"Nightfall" is a 1941 science fiction short story by the American writer Isaac Asimov about the coming of darkness to the people of a planet ordinarily illuminated by sunlight at all times.

link

Barker, Clive: Abarat

"Candy lives in Chickentown USA: the most boring place in the world, her heart bursting for some clue as to what her future may hold. She is soon to find out: swept out of our world by a giant wave, she finds herself in another place entirely... The Abarat: a vast archipelago where every island is a different hour of the day, from the sunlit wonders of Three in the Afternoon, where dragons roam, to the dark terrors of the island of Midnight, ruled by Christopher Carrion. (...)"

Half of the islands in Abarat are night islands and most of the main bad guys work for forces of darkness trying to bring eternal monstrous darkness to all islands.

Spoilers: Can't speak of it in detail cuz I have not read that part yet, but the bad guys apparently succeeded in bringing forces of darkness to the islands.

Barnes, S.A.: Dead Silence

A GHOST SHIP. A SALVAGE CREW. UNSPEAKABLE HORRORS.

Claire Kovalik is days away from being unemployed—made obsolete—when her beacon repair crew picks up a strange distress signal. With nothing to lose and no desire to return to Earth, Claire and her team decide to investigate.

What they find at the other end of the signal is a shock: the Aurora, a famous luxury space-liner that vanished on its maiden tour of the solar system more than twenty years ago. A salvage claim like this could set Claire and her crew up for life. But a quick trip through the Aurora reveals something isn’t right.

Whispers in the dark. Flickers of movement. Words scrawled in blood. Claire must fight to hold onto her sanity and find out what really happened on the Aurora, before she and her crew meet the same ghastly fate.

Baxendale, Trevor: Fear of the Dark

Synopsis: "On the very edge of the galaxy lies Akoshemon: a putrefied world of legendary evil.

In the year 2382 archaeologists land on Akoshemon's only moon, searching for evidence of the planet's infamous past. But when the Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa are drawn into the lunar caverns they find more than a team of academics — and help uncover much more than ancient history.

Something is lying in wait, deep inside the labyrinth of caves: something that remembers the spiral of war, pestilence and deprivation that ruined Akoshemon. Something that rejoiced in every kind of horror and destruction.

An age-old terror is about to be reborn. But what is the hideous secret of the Bloodhunter? And why does Nyssa feel that her thoughts are no longer her own? Forced to confront his own worst fears, even the Doctor will be pushed to breaking point — and beyond."

Why it's Dark: The Doctor does battle with the literal embodiment of darkness and evil, as unseen monsters in the dark pick off crewmembers one by one. Even by the standards of this series, this book is incredibly grim.

Brennan, Joseph Payne: Slime

Originally published in the March 1953 issue of Weird Tales. The title creature is a black, amorphous blob from the bottom of the sea. In fact, it's so black that it's all but invisible at night; witnesses to its attacks pretty much see their friends and loved ones "taken by the darkness", as though the dark itself were alive and hungry.

Brontë, Charlotte: Jane Eyre

As you read, the shadows get deeper and darker, and you start hearing noises from overhead. It sounds like it's coming from the attic? Do you have an attic? Why would anyone be up there if you did? No, you can't look! It's my attic! Anyway, secrets and shadows and the unknown.

Chukovsky, Korney: Stolen Sun

A Russian children's poem that narrates how the crocodile consumed the Sun and how the bear gave him a proper pummeling and forced him to release the star back into the sky. No, it doesn't make sense in context either, but it does take on the motifs of Slavic myths about a dragon stealing the Sun and imprisoning it for thirty-three years, cueing global night and cold.

Cortázar, Julio: Casa tomada (House taken over)

It tells the story of a brother and sister living together in their ancestral home which is being "taken over" by unknown entities. The mystery that revolves around what those entities are is largely left up to interpretation, allowing the genre of the story to vary from fantasy to psychological fiction to magic realism to political fiction, among others.

Coville, Bruce: The Shadow Wood

The hero faces down and defeats an army of living shadows with a magic candle... until his own shadow rises up and blows it out.

Dean, Benjamin Appleby: Lamplight

Standard sort of evil shadow monsters made interesting by the fact that the only way to stay safe from them is to be in pitch blackness -- no light, no shadows.

Dukaj, Jacek: Ice

The story of the book takes place in an alternate universe where the First World War never occurred and Poland is still under Russian rule. Following the Tunguska event, the Ice, a mysterious form of matter, has covered parts of Siberia in the Russian Empire and started expanding outwards, reaching Warsaw. The appearance of Ice results in extreme decrease of temperature, putting the whole continent under constant winter, and is accompanied by Lute, angels of Frost, a strange form of being which seems to be a native inhabitant of Ice. Ice freezes history and philosophy, preserving the old political regime, affecting human psychology and changing the laws of logic from many-valued logic of "Summer" to two-valued logic of "Winter" with no intermediate steps between true and false. It can also be used to create candles that cast shadows instead of light. This isn't normal darkness, but rather a sort of "anti-light", which can make people and objects in its radius cast "anti-shadows" made up of non-darkened areas, and seems to have an odd effect on the minds of people who spend a lot of time exposed to it.

Enríquez, Mariana: Our Share of Night

This is like a chronicle of some alternate universe People’s Church of the Divine Host. It centres on a cult devoted to a menacing entity that possesses appropriate hosts, manifesting in rituals that summon a devouring darkness that leaves devotees scarred and maimed. There’s also an abandoned house that may exist in many places at once and is brimming with unnatural darkness that acts as a conduit to either the entity itself or its native realm. Beyond the more straightforward darkness, the book’s themes related to obscured knowledge—the central relationship is between one of the darknesses’s hosts and his son, anticipated to inherit his father’s abilities. We see again and again how Juan works to hide his son’s abilities from the cult and also hide knowledge of the cult and the world that he inhabits from his son, even to the point of hurting him very badly with zero explanation in an attempt to keep him safe when he’s gone.

Enríquez, Mariana: Nuestra parte de noche (Our share of the night)

A woman’s mysterious death puts her husband and son on a collision course with her demonic family.

A young father and son set out on a road trip, devastated by the death of the wife and mother they both loved. United in grief, the pair travel to her ancestral home, where they must confront the terrifying legacy she has bequeathed: a family called the Order that commits unspeakable acts in search of immortality.

For Gaspar, the son, this maniacal cult is his destiny. As the Order tries to pull him into their evil, he and his father take flight, attempting to outrun a powerful clan that will do anything to ensure its own survival. But how far will Gaspar’s father go to protect his child? And can anyone escape their fate?

Enríquez, Mariana: Bajo el agua negra (Under dark waters)

In this short story, a detective called Marina goes to a town to investigate some strange murders. There, she finds a cult that adores something that lives under the black water of the polluted lake.

Halpern, Jake & Peter Kujawinski: Nightfall

On Marin’s island, sunrise doesn’t come every twenty-four hours—it comes every twenty-eight years. Now the sun is just a sliver of light on the horizon. The weather is turning cold and the shadows are growing long.

Because sunset triggers the tide to roll out hundreds of miles, the islanders are frantically preparing to sail south, where they will wait out the long Night.

Marin and her twin brother, Kana, help their anxious parents ready the house for departure. Locks must be taken off doors. Furniture must be arranged. Tables must be set. The rituals are puzzling—bizarre, even—but none of the adults in town will discuss why it has to be done this way.

Just as the ships are about to sail, a teenage boy goes missing—the twins’ friend Line. Marin and Kana are the only ones who know the truth about where Line’s gone, and the only way to rescue him is by doing it themselves.

But Night is falling. Their island is changing. And it may already be too late.

Hesse, Hermann: Demian

Religious imagery, seen very often w/ the Dark (i.e. Hither Green Chapel, Montauk's cult that I forgot the name of, etc), especially blasphemy (seen most clearly in Manuela Dominguez's statement). Max Demian of Demian fame would be an avatar of the dark I think. There *is* a hint of the End in there but not enough to qualify it

Hodgson, William Hope: The Night Land

The Sun has gone out and the Earth is lit only by the glow of residual vulcanism. The last few millions of the human race are gathered together in the Last Redoubt, a gigantic metal pyramid, nearly eight miles high, which is under siege from unknown forces and Powers outside in the dark. These are held back by a shield known as the "air clog", powered from a subterranean energy source called the "Earth Current". For thousands of years vast living shapes known as the Watchers have waited in the darkness near the pyramid. It is thought that they are waiting for the inevitable time when the Circle's power finally weakens and dies. Other living things have been seen in the darkness, some of unknown origins, and others that may once have been human.

King, Stephen: IT

Pennywise is the boogeyman, the monster under the bed, the shapeless fear in the dark.

King, Stephen: The Mist

In the wake of a summer storm, terror descends...David Drayton, his son Billy, and their neighbor Brent Norton join dozens of others and head to the local grocery store to replenish supplies following a freak storm. Once there, they become trapped by a strange mist that has enveloped the town. As the confinement takes its toll on their nerves, a religious zealot, Mrs. Carmody, begins to play on their fears to convince them that this is God’s vengeance for their sins. She insists a sacrifice must be made and two groups—those for and those against—are aligned. Clearly, staying in the store may prove fatal, and the Draytons, along with store employee Ollie Weeks, Amanda Dumfries, Irene Reppler, and Dan Miller, attempt to make their escape. But what’s out there may be worse than what they left behind.

This exhilarating novella explores the horror in both the enemy you know—and the one you can only imagine.

Kirby, Todd: No Power

A blackout. A bloodthirsty beast. The Bronx. This is not how Tom pictured his 17th birthday... His plan was far more bleak. When Manhattanite Tom Walton wakes up from a suicide attempt, he finds himself in a Bronx hospital being attacked by an ancient, savage creature that thrives in the darkness of a summer blackout. Tom, the son of a rich and racist New York politician, teams up with his fellow patients — a diverse group of Bronx natives — in an attempt to fight back. As Tom falls helplessly in love with Kiki, a badass teenage patient, he gains a deeper understanding of the source of his pain and reconsiders his stance on life. But when Tom’s true identity is revealed to the crew, he must work to unify the group and escape the hospital… or be eaten alive.

Kristoff, Jay: Empire of the Vampire

Daysdeath is the term used to describe the sudden shroud of ash and smoke which rose into the sky twenty-seven years prior to the beginning of the story. The exact cause remains unknown, though most people suspect a falling star which crashed into the earth with enough force to send tons of debris into the lower atmosphere, blanketing the skies and preventing more than a smidgen of sunlight from passing through the shroud. The shroud has not abated in strength over the following decades, and the results have been devastating - repeated crop failure and abysmal harvests, the withering of forests and other natural greenery and the resulting food and material shortages, but perhaps worst of all, the undead no longer being constrained be the daily need to hide from the sun, their numbers quickly multiplying as the lesser vampires were no longer destroyed by the sunlight. The ancien vampires soon realized the opportunity this afforded, and not only have they embarked on a campaign of global conquest, they actively work to eliminate any chances of mankind dispelling the shroud through artificial means.

Leroux, Gaston: The Phantom of the Opera

Everything revolves around the hidden and unseen opera ghost -- the lights are harsh and the dark is a refuge for him, one that he tries to tempt Christine into.

Lord Byron: Darkness

Written in the 'Year without a Summer' of 1816, Byron was inspired by the ashen darkness to compose this poem about the end of the world, and the gloom that would accompany it.

Lovecraft, H.P.: The Haunter of the Dark

The main character, Blake, inadvertently summons an eldritch being into his local church. The being can only go abroad in darkness, and is hence constrained to the tower at night by the presence of the lights of the city. However, when the city's electrical power is weakened during a thunderstorm, the local people are terrified by the sounds coming from the church and call on their Catholic priests to lead prayers against the demon. Blake, aware of what he has let loose, also prays for the power to remain on. However, an outage occurs and the being flies towards Blake's quarters. He is subsequently found dead, staring out of his window at the church with a look of horror on his face.

Milton, John: Paradise Lost

The primary imagery for Satan and other demons is unadulterated darkness. "No light, but rather darkness visible."

Poe, Edgar Allan: The Pit and the Pendulum

The protagonist describes the horror and uncertainty he feels in stumbling through his darkened enclosure, only able to feel around for the instruments of his destruction.

Pronzini, Bill: Peekaboo

From TV Tropes: The only character in the story is a career criminal pretending to be a reclusive writer hiding out in a rented house a good distance away from the closest town. One night he thinks he hears an intruder in the house and decides to investigate while armed. While he's searching his suddenly creepy hideout, he can't help but reminisce on the games of Peekaboo he used to play when he was a kid, as well as the old rumors of occult worship and paranormal activities surrounding the house. He's a nervous wreck by the end of the story, and when he finally reaches the basement after finding nothing in the rest of the house he giggles in relief. There's nothing there after all, it's just him, all alone, hiding under the stairs.

"Peekaboo," a voice behind him said.

Robertson, M.P.: The Moon in Swampland

Hidden in the dark, marshy bogs of Swampland, the wicked and mischievous bogles hide from the Moon, and lie in wait for travellers. Anyone who wanders too close to the edge will feel clammy fingers dragging them beneath the murky water. When the Moon saves a young boy called Thomas, she gets captured by the bogles, and Thomas must set out to save her. Can he end the bogles' reign of terror?

Schwartz, Alvin, ill. Stephen Gammell: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is a collection of short stories, written for children. The stories themselves are pretty standard stories that are just spooky enough for kids, but the illustrations are what most people remember. Each story is accompanied by a picture that are still unnerving to look at as adults, let alone as kids. Growing up with this book, it felt like a test of bravery just to turn the page. It reminds me a lot of the Season 4 TMA episode, in Callum Brodie's domain - an avatar of The Dark planting images of monsters in kids' heads and letting their imaginations do the rest of the work in scaring them.

Sheckley, Robert: Ghost V

The protagonists visit a planet with an atmosphere full of a drug bringing out hallucinations of their childhood bogeymen, potentially lethal as if you think you're dead, you are. They take out a couple of monsters with a magic word and a water pistol, but the last bogeyman is absolutely invincible. It's also capable of getting past any lock and door.

(Spoilers) They do manage to beat it with a security blanket. But hey, Leitners do tend to twist their tales -- it could just as easily finish off with 'the blanket never did anything'.

Smith, Clark Ashton: The Double Shadow

The titular shadow arrives after a master wizard attempts an ancient and unknown summoning spell. It does nothing except approach the casters one by one, very slowly, ignoring every method they use to flee or fight it, until it touches and merges with their own shadow, forcing them into a hideous transformation.

Snicket, Lemony: The Dark

The Dark is about a young lad named Lazslo, who is terrified of the dark. He avoids “the dark” as it mainly hangs out in the basement. Then, one night “the dark” is in his room as his nightlight bulb loses its spark. Lazslo, the young lad, must come face-to-face with his fears of “the dark”.

Snicket, Lemony: The Ersatz Elevator

I actually don't think the whole book is cursed, I'm thinking specifically of those pages that are fully blacked out when they're in the elevator shaft

Stine, R.L.: Revenge of the Shadow People

Afraid of your own shadow? Vinny Salvo is. Lately weird things have been happening to his shadow. It's grown horns. And claws. And big sharp teeth! Now it's coming after him! Vinny needs someplace to hide -- and quick. But where can you hide from your own shadow?

Stover, Matt: Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor

The villain, Lord Shadowspawn, is a Force-user who has a different view of the Force than that of Jedi or Sith; he believes that the Force is the Dark, which is basically destruction and entropy; he induces visions of the Dark — of being alive in the eons after all the stars burn out — to cause despair that he can then use. On a metaphorical mind-battly level, his ultimate technique is to become a black hole, which makes sense in story.

Tolkien, J. R. R.: Shadow-Bride

This macabre poem is about a man with no shadow who sits like a statue until a woman passes by. Then he wraps her shadow around them both and forces her to dance with him forever, casting a single shadow...

Weir, Andy: Project Hail Mary

The book is about alien microbes extinguishing the sun by siphoning off its light energy to fuel their own metabolism. The book follows the amnesiac protagonist, sent far off into the depths of space to the origin of said microbes to save the world before everything gets too dark and too cold. Basically, the sun is dying.

Wilson, F. Paul: Nightworld

At the start of Nightworld the sun rises five minutes too late. Repairman Jack can't understand why the scientists are so disturbed by this, but when portals to Another Dimension open all over the world, spewing a horde of Eldritch Abominations every night, the fact that every day the sun inexplicably rises later and sets earlier than the last becomes a reason for serious panic.

[ligbi]

new jenny nicholson video on a disney park activity.

so here's a collection of links I have found for the abarat theme park and disney deal that's been dead two decades

1998 https://www.clivebarker.info/abaratbarker.html

There's a huge new illustrated book for children with 200 oil paintings and 25 stories, which I am in the midst of creating. "I love writing for children. There's this huge project I was talking of a little earlier, with many short stories and illustrations, which will be called Clive Barker's Book of Hours.

00 The Disney project Abarat, the HarperCollins Disney project. We are at the very beginning of a journey here. It will be 5 years before the theme park is up and running

April 00 https://web.archive.org/web/20030317071828/http://www.bookzonepro.com/newswire/showwire.cfm?wirenum=88

Disney has dished out $8 million for the rights to the author’s upcoming series of fantasy adventure novels. According to E! Online, The Abarat Quartet stories will focus on a 16-year-old girl and her otherworldly adventures. HarperCollins is expected to publish the first book in the fall of 2001, and three others will follow in 9-month intervals. Meanwhile, Disney has plans to develop movies, TV series, theme-park rides, video games and various other licensed products based on the series.

Feb 01 https://www.clivebarker.info/abaratbarker.html

"I'm writing four novels and we don't yet know what kind of movies we're making… My job is to write the novel and paint the pictures. "[Candy Quackenbush] begins as a 16 year-old. She ends as an 18-and-a-half year-old. And she discovers her sexuality. That's very much a piece of it…

Nov 01 https://web.archive.org/web/20040410205450/http://www.theonionavclub.com/avclub3741/avfeature_3741.html

Clive Barker: Two things. Abarat, which is the book which comes out next year, which I've just turned in to my publishers, which is the first book of a quartet of fantasy books for children and adults, which is not just text, but is also associated with about 400 oil paintings that I've done O: You've had a lot of problems with studio censorship of your films. What's it like working with Disney on Abarat? Disney is an incredibly image-conscious company.

CB: Yes, no question. But they have been wonderful. They know what the rest of my life is like. They know I pose naked for photographs. Disney's been very cool about it. They understand that Barker is more than one person. I have an identity as somebody who writes for children, I have an identity as someone who writes very graphic horror novels. They know that's who I am, and I think they're fine with it. They've understood that from the beginning. I think, in a curious kind of way, they feel as though that's what makes me interesting as a potential working colleague. I'm not someone who has just made safe work throughout my life.

Feb 02 https://www.clivebarker.com/html/visions/confess/ls/confess19.htm

A lot of stuff is gonna be coming out, films will be made, and the Disney deals moving a long very swiftly

Oct 02 https://ew.com/article/2002/10/04/master-horror-clive-barker-pens-kids-book/

”I’m crazy for the possibilities,” says Thomas Schumacher, president of Disney’s animation division. ”Did you see the guy whose seven brothers live on the antlers on his head? This thing’s ripe.”

April 04 https://www.clivebarker.info/filmsold.html

"That man [John Harrison] is writing Abarat, the screenplay, right now, for Disney. And one of the things that made me want to do the deal with Disney was they said, 'We really are excited about it and, by the way, we have an island we could give you...' and I said, 'You're on!' So we are going to create the theme park at some point - Babilonium - party on, man!... "My hope, honestly, would be that it'll be a mingling of the best [of live action and CGI] - I think we're finding CGI can do more and more, I just don't want it to be dominated by CGI"

Barnes and Noble Stage Presentation

By Brein Lopez, LA Festival of Books, 25 April 2004

2004 https://dvdizzy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=73283

John Harrison, who I respect enormously and who has been very respectful of my desires where the book is concerned and he tells me the script is loyal to the books and I'm delighted that's so.

Jan 05 https://www.horror-asylum.com/news/screenwriter-talks-barker%EF%BF%BFs-abarat-movie/

‘We￿re taking the first two books [ABARAT and DAYS OF MAGIC, NIGHTS OF WAR] and adapting them into one movie,’ Harrison reveals. ‘The screenplay will go in in the next couple of weeks, and we￿ll see what happens. I don￿t know what the publication schedule is for Clive￿s next two books in the series, but I hope Disney will go forward quickly with the film.

jan 05 https://www.clivebarker.info/abarat2barker.html

(it's obvious why Disney has picked up the rights to Abarat), we can be sure there are more adventures for Candy and her friends to come."

Days of Magic, Nights of War

By Barbara Davies, Starburst, No 318, January 2005

feb 05 https://www.clivebarker.info/intsrevel8.html

I feel as though, 'Let Disney do what they need to do with it and then show it to me,' I think it's hard for people like John Harrison, who is a very, very smart and very respectful man, respectful of the books and of me and I am equally respectful of him.

aug sept 06 https://www.clivebarker.info/intsrevel14.html

I am fighting very hard for them not to try making it too soon. We are no longer making Abarat with Disney, that is now official, the work is back in my hands and my ownership, I owe them nothing. I suppose you could say there were creative differences, I don't know. Certainly the way they wanted to do it was not the way I wanted to do it. I realised a short while after getting into the deal with Disney and I'm glad it's come to this conclusion where we can make this movie.

nov 07 https://www.clivebarker.info/filmsold.html

"I pulled it away from Disney because to be very honest I did that deal because I was working with two men who I liked immensely and they swore to me they were not going anywhere and of course two months later they were gone.** I watched as the Disney organisation plodded its way through bouncing this thing back and forth not knowing what to do with it. Meanwhile I turned in a second book, which only confused them even more. "There just came a point where last September their time was up with the option and it was time for them to come up with a number on the table to keep the material for a decent amount of time. Their lawyer came to us and said 'We're Disney, Clive's very lucky to be with us and here is what we propose: rather than paying you x amount and keeping the material for another two years we keep it for four years and pay you nothing'. And I said 'Go fuck yourself.'

08 https://web.archive.org/web/20080219101456/http://www.clivebarker.info/yaabarat12.html

Abarat In Disneyland...

Even though he'd not even started writing the first book, the big news in April of 2000 was that Disney wanted to make a movie of the Abarat story and Clive agreed to sell them the rights! Talking with Fangoria, he explained:

"I shall write four novels, as I am contracted to do, which will constitute the first arc - if this was Star Wars, it would be the first three movies - and Disney will take from those four books the material to make three movies. They may also take material to do TV, games, what have you. "What they've done is something they've never done before: they've bought a world from the inside out. They came out and saw a house full of paintings, and heard me talk about the world and the characters and the philosophies, and they said, 'We want to exploit this material in every medium we're in, from theatre through parks, through toys, whatever.' And that was my dream for this material. It's a wonderful marriage."

Where's The Disney Movie Gone?

"Abarat will be a movie but I am fighting very hard for them not to try making it too soon. We are no longer making Abarat with Disney, that is now official, the work is back in my hands and my ownership, I owe them nothing. I suppose you could say there were creative differences, I don't know. Certainly the way they wanted to do it was not the way I wanted to do it. I realised a short while after getting into the deal with Disney and I'm glad it's come to this conclusion where we can make this movie... "My thing to the filmmakers is, 'Wait until I've written Book 5 and I've delivered everything and then make your movie.' The reason I say that is because Candy doesn't age significantly - she ages maybe three years across the five books and if you're going to do this properly then the actress can't age overmuch either and you've got to have all the books written and all the screenplays written before you start."

08 https://web.archive.org/web/20080215090721/http://www.clivebarker.info/youngfaq.html

Will Abarat be made into a film? - A script has been written from the first two Abarat books but there is unlikely to be a film made until the books have all been written. Disney were originally going to make the Abarat movies but they won't now be doing that.

April 20 https://www.ilcineocchio.it/cinema/dossier-abarat-di-clive-barker-quando-la-disney/

The writer revealed in an interview in 2002 at the Los Angeles Book Festival that he would be inspired by Babilonium,

** https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_management_of_The_Walt_Disney_Company man i cannot parse disney changes to figure out who barker was getting dicked over by

[barkercast]

443 : 31 Projects

Welcome to Episode 443 of the Clive Barker Podcast.  The Only Podcast dedicated to the imagination of Clive Barker.  I was going to take a vacation, but this news popped up, and it couldn't wait two weeks, so we hopped on Zoom and made a mostly un-edited news episode.  In this episode we discuss Clive's recent announcements with Bloody Disgusting, as well as Nightbreed and Peter Atkins updates.  Also, do you remember the Poe Project?

Sponsor : Don Bertram's Celebrate Imagination | ETSY Store

Just 2 days ago, The Nibbler was revealed on Facebook.  Not on the Etsy Shop. 

There are some new paintings on his Etsy shop to check out. Mother and Child II, The Star Gazer, The Folk Singer, The Pearl, Top of the World.  And don't forget about is books, The Chimney Sweep's Tale and Celebrate Imagination

News From the Reef

Moontown by Peter Atkins now on Audiobook from Encyclopocalypse

Nightbreed Extended Soundtrack Update

Bloody Disgusting Interview With Clive

Stopping public events, conventions, signings

31 Projects in the works!

Abarat 4 & 5

Book 3 of the Art

Sequel to The Thief of Always

Surprise return visits to characters

“These final convention appearances begin with Days of the Dead Chicago”

Discussion:

The Poe Project that almost was

  Patreon Members Shout-Out (Become a Patron)

David Anderson

Erik Van T' Holt

Returning Sponsor: Don Bertram's Celebrate Imagination

Coming Next

Dead Pit

Hellraiser Quartet of Torment Coverage

News Episodes

Jericho Squad 77 Returns

A-Z Commentaries Z for Zombies: Evil Dead 2

More Boom Hellraiser comics discussion

And this podcast, having no beginning will have no end.

web www.clivebarkercast.com

iOS App| Android App, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Android, Stitcher, Spotify, Pandora, Libsyn, Tunein, iHeart Radio, Pocket Casts, Google Play, Radio.com, DoubleTwist and YouTube and Join the Occupy Midian group

Discord Community

Twitter: @BarkerCast| @OccupyMidian

Buy Our Book: The BarkerCast Interviews Occupy Midian | Hardcover | Kindle | Apple

Become a Patreon Patron

Support the show, Buy a T-Shirt

Opening Music is by Ray Norrish

End Credits Music by Matt Furniss

  All Links and show notes in their Entirety can be found at http://www.clivebarkercast.com

New episode of the Clive Barker Podcast

[silverspleen]

HEY SO apparently I never posted (or forgot I posted?) my Lanard Xenomorph collection here. But had something fun happen two weekends ago sO.

The green warrior and bronze runner were gifts from @sonohtigris​ and @abarateal​ respectively. I’ve had the giant purple queen for a while after I immediately fell in love with it on a Walmart run. Lanard sells toys exclusively through Walmart, which means they’re always fairly cheap but become an absolute bitch to find once they go out of stores. Their Jurassic Clash and Star Troopers original lines are moderately pricey on ebay for Walmart toys. I picked the white drone up from ebay myself! (along with a nice Dante from Dante’s Inferno (2010) Xbox 360 action figure)

These are the 6in 1:12 scale ones, they also have a smaller 1:18 range (think like... old GI Joes/small Star Wars figures) that comes with guys and vehicles. I don’t have any but I do know that there’s a MUSTARD YELLOW XENOMORPH which fills me with deep, deep delight.

I love them, honestly more that any of the realistic xenomorph action figures I’ve seen. The sculpt is good, there’s so much texture and a few nice differences between the figures (the hands, head, and forearms of the drone and warrior are different). And god bless but the colors are so so much fun. Since they’re proper toys they’re beefier and sturdier than smaller figures and I don’t feel nervous posing them. Just good toys tbh.

Anyway, two weeks ago I needed to kill time during my work trip so I swung by Walmart to buy a new bathing suit and you will not believe who I found!

It wasn’t even seven dollars... IT WAS FOUR.

Absolutely bought it. I had waffled on which drone to get from ebay and settled for the white, but god damn do I love the.... idk what to call this. Neon red? Neon red drone. Atrocious. 10/10

That means I own the full second set! First set has realistically colored facehuggers (with the white drone), second set has GITD (glow in the dark). The first set warrior is blue. Boring. Don’t need it. And the runner is like... A slightly uglier metallic, the bronze is superior.

Anyway. Really happy about that.

I just need to pull the trigger on some old 2018 Jurassic Clash dino rider toys and I’ll basically be set for my Lanard collection, unless I want to bite on a Star Troopers set because the bugs are really cool.

[sleepyowlwrites]

Happy STS, Sleepy! What’s the story that has influenced your writing craft the most? Whether it made some element of storytelling ‘click’ for you, or served as an example of how not to do things, which story has taught you the most?

originally sent November, 2023.

it's hard to pinpoint a single story, really, mostly because I read SO MUCH as a child, and pretty diversely. The Hobbit started my love for dragons and fantasy in general. Redwall taught me about several varieties of close-knit relationships, from mentorships to reluctant allies, to best friends who would die for each other. I learned about the power of an unlikeable protagonist from classic lit like The Three Musketeers and Robinson Crusoe. I devoured every version of Robin Hood and King Arthur that I could get my hands on, realizing that I don't mind reading what is essentially the same story over and over as long as a different person was telling it each time, with new asides and character arcs and settings.

I don't even remember what book I reread the most, because there were just so many of them that I would return to over and over. I can't pick just one. And I never relied on just one, or revered just one over all the others. people who ask me for book recommendations never get a single book for each genre. I give them HEAPS, because there's too much good out there to not indulge in.

how about this. I don't remember how old I was, maybe fifteen, but I got The Alchemist from the library - I read almost exclusively from the library at the time - and read it in pretty much one day, and when I finished, I said "nope." something about it, something about the subject matter, felt too much like a dark forest I didn't want to get lost in. it was well-written and super engaging, I remember, but I finished it and felt kinda, idk, itchy. a similar thing happened with Abarat, a book that came with a bunch of disturbing (for me) illustrations. the vibes were just off. it was interesting! but again, it was a dark forest I wanted to avoid.

I wasn't really reading stories in the mind of a writer at this point, even though I was writing, so everything was about my reader experience. and looking back, I remember these particular experiences because they had a visceral effect on me. it showed me that it wasn't that hard to create a fantastical world that slowly tipped the reader over the edge into something more sinister. nothing had really had that affect on me before, even books that did have dark parts to them. the writing style was just casual enough that it snuck past me at first, and jumpscared me later.

anyway, a lot of books have influenced and encouraged and made me critically think about my writing, and I can't pick just one, not one that was the most positive or one that was the most negative. everything is across a spectrum for me.

thanks for asking, Verdance

[ariendiel]

Noah's reading recommendations

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

Abarat - Clive Barker

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou

Rosemary's Baby - Ira Levin

Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

Hyperion - Dan Simmons

The Book of the New Sun - Gene Wolfe

The Trial - Franz Kafka

The Broken Earth Trilogy - N. K. Jemisin

The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov

Northanger Abby - Jane Austen

The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien

The Color Purple - Alice Walker

The Road - Cormac McCarthy

Matilda - Roald Dahl

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick

The Dispossessed - Ursula K. Le Guin

[addictsitter]

Book ask: 3, 16

3: What were your top five books of the year? mm, so, not going to lie, #1 was red white and royal blue because a: it was a new book that i sat down and read, beginning to end, in less than a couple of days. aside from that, 2: lady knight by tamora pierce (again), 3: once and future king by th white, 4: clive barker's dark worlds which was a fascinating read, 5: abarat by clive barker

16: What is the most over-hyped book you read this year? lol probably rwrb but i enjoyed the shit out of it. sometimes u just want to read cheesy romcom stories, you know?

[frogsandfries]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....!!

My first time sleeping in a bed since May.

My first time sleeping on a decent mattress since 2020.

My first time sleeping with brand new pillows in a looooonnnnngggggg time. I'm gonna level with you, even though I love to use pillow cases, it was really hard not to think about how absolutely biohazardous my ex's pillows were. These pillows are so fresh, so fluffy! Mmmm!! I am so comfy right now.

I also got a body pillow. It was supposed to just be for the wall, but ohhhhhhh god it's so nice to rest my body on.

I've been hunting down more fan typesets today--I found a couple of illustrated typesets of Manacled, plus some other DraMione fanfic typesets. Obviously I'm just going to work on one at a time, but I'd like to find some other fanfics that I would actually read to couch this mild obsession in.

Did you know, there are fanfics for Abarat, Amelia Bedelia and Aenid? Like, why bother writing fanfic for the Aenid; just write your thing and pretend it isn't fanfic, at that rate. The American Girl stories (yes, like the dolls) each have their own sub-class by girl.

I got distracted working on end pages and my cover cut outs, so I didn't even get through the A's on Ao3, but it was definitely its own fun.

Ugh tired. Why do my neighbors have to have their TV out music or whatever so loud literally all the time.......

I am dying to get my paper tomorrow. I'm so excited to have proper binding tape. I'm so excited. I've been borderline obsessed so far this week; I love bookbinding, and I know it's not like, perfectly exactly the same thing, but I'm really looking forward to dipping my toe into the world of archiving the internet.

Maybe one day, I need to preserve my Tumblr or something....... it's just hard to even think of archiving an as-yet living document, but as with my photo archive, I know all too well the consequences of waiting too long........

[petnews2day]

Hey Pandas, What Are Some Good Male Or Unisex Cat Names?

New Post has been published on https://petnews2day.com/pet-news/cat-news/hey-pandas-what-are-some-good-male-or-unisex-cat-names/

Hey Pandas, What Are Some Good Male Or Unisex Cat Names?

I’m looking for ideas on what to name a new cat. He’s male, 2 years old. He’s a ginger, white with a few large orange patches. I’m still not sure about his true personality, was thinking of a name that matches his personality. His previous owners, my neighbors from across the street were neglectful, throwing him out all night in the cold crying, and they were always screaming, so this cat is skittish, but definitely not aggressive. He’s gentle, and I have a feeling he’s a sweet boy. Anyway, I’d love some ideas! I don’t know what the previous owners called him, usually just “pain in the a**!”

If i had a ginger cat i’d call them Ginger Ninja 😄🐈

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I have always loved the name Jiggles or Noodles for a cat

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Samson, Dragon, Sir Richard the Lion-Hearted, Bean, Toast, Mango, Willie, Noodle, Boris, Bumpus, Franklin, Milo, Hugo. Tell us which one you pick, or if you did something that’s not on this post!!

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if its a black cat with green eyes the call it Loki if blonde with blur eyes then call it Odinson it will be cool if you have two cats of the above description cand call them Loki and Odinson(thor)

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if its grey call it mjolnir or mew-noir for black

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if its chocolate brown or mud colour then call it belgie(belgian chocolate)

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if its whitish pinkish or creamish the call it onion

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as you said, “He’s a ginger, white with a few large orange patches.”… I’ll say : Winnie the Pooh or (Pooh for short) or TWEETY for a girl anyone wondering; Tweety is a yellow canary in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes i had a soft toy of her when i was a child and absolutely love it

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Based on his colors call him Julius for the orange Julius drink. Lots of good nicknames from that too Jules, Julie, OJ, JJ, JuJu, etc.

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Mittens Alex Fluffy Cheeto

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Since you said, “He’s a ginger, white with a few large orange patches.”… I’ll say the obvious: Ginger 😸

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I always name my pets after characters I like. Based on your description I would name him Malingo. It comes from Clive Barker’s Abarat series. But Malingo is a character introduced as a victim, escapes with the main character from this situation, and is really kind/loyal despite lacking some confidence. (He’s also conveniently orange!)

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Our first male cat was Vergil, but he died very soon. Long story short, eventually we got two new kittens, girl Rikku and boy Dante. Yep, all names are from video games, my husband is a nerd (FF10 and DMC4).

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Ginger bread or cookie. I think they are good names.

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Potato! Works best if he’s a bit on the chubby side. I’ve also always thought that Miso would be a lovely name on a ginger cat.

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I named my cat Fatso Franko. My old cat was a ginger called Meat, short for Meat-Head. My mom had two tuxedo males I called Dingle and Mr. Burt. Mr. Burt had a brother who was all white, I called him Ding-Dong. Cat names really depend on their personality.

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Coco is amazing. Or Shadow. Or Ninja and Midnight

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Jasper. It’s the name of a dragon in a book I just read and the stone matches the cat

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I always thought Linus would be a good name for a ginger cat! My dear departed fluffy ginge was W***y Fabian, aka Pooh Bear or Puddin

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Sammy, Twitch (named after a character in the movie Hoodwinked).

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[abaratabridged]

An interview with Clive Barker, (The Thirty-Fifth Revelatory Interview By Phil & Sarah Stokes, 10 November 2020) reveals some fun info about Abarat (and a wealth of other things C. Barker is working on!)

Read it here on the official Clive Website: “On The Way To Heaven, We Had A Picnic Of Ideas...”

Some highlights I thought were interesting, more below the Read More:

- The Commexo Kid has his roots from a short story of Barker’s which appeared in his papers/notes in the late 1990′s. It’s interesting how elements from different stories find their way into different narratives over time!

- The picture I’m using is all of the notes (or most of them) for book four, Kry Rising. I’m very excited to see what comes of it - but I especially love the colorful oxen creature. I’ve always enjoyed the colors that go into the Abarat!

- This very fun “VITAL” note:

- The stairs in Barker’s studio were specifically built for an Abarat painting. How fun is that?

- On a more serious note, apparently there were some sales of his paintings he was unaware of. 40 something paintings were sold and there is no paper trail to follow. The paintings appear in the interview at the bottom. It’s such a shame this happened - and I doubt anyone on this blog has any info, but anything to spread the word: if you happen to know anything about those paintings contact philandsarah@clivebarker.info about it. Thank you.

- This is more of an observation, if anything, but I think it’s important to keep notes and write down any silly ideas you have, for anything! This is touch upon in the interview, as well. Who knows, it may seem unimportant now - but you might just be able to use it in the future!

Anyhow, thanks for tuning in!

[avantegarda]

craft project idea:

make millions of weird, vaguely person-shaped dolls out of scraps

fill them with living mud you got from a bad neighborhood

give them names like "scrax"

use them to destroy galaxy

chill

[fallingthruspace]

you know those “__ Characters as Vines” videos that are all over youtube?

can someone PLEASE do that for Abarat??? I would but I don’t have any video editing software and I can’t replace my shitty laptop until next year

[barkercast]

440 : What News?

In Epiosde 440 of the Clive Barker Podcast, Jose and Ryan talk about the 34th anniversary of Nightbreed, and then we bring back some old upcoming releases we would like there to be news about.  Plus our book has begin to ship!  If you get a copy before us, we will try not to hold it against you. 

News from The Reef

Nightbreed Turns 34 (Feb 16)

Discussion: News we’re hoping to see this year

Deep Hill

Fear Eternal

Abarat 4

Play Books

The Presence of This Breath

TV Series w/ Mick Garris Theater of Blood / London Voodoo

Show Notes

The Presence of This Breath (Video)

Deep Hill Interview (2019, Bloody Disgusting)

Interview Book Update

Patreon Members Shout-Out (Become a Patron)

David Anderson

Coming Next

Hellraiser Quartet of Torment Coverage and Interview

Jericho Squad 77 Returns

Commentary: The Dead Pit

A-Z Commentaries Z for Zombies: Evil Dead II Dead By Dawn

More Boom Hellraiser comics discussion 

And this podcast, having no beginning will have no end. 

web www.clivebarkercast.com

iOS App| Android App, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Android, Stitcher, Spotify, Pandora, Libsyn, Tunein, iHeart Radio, Pocket Casts, Google Play, Radio.com, DoubleTwist and YouTube and Join the Occupy Midian group

Discord Community

Twitter: @BarkerCast| @OccupyMidian 

Buy Our Book: The BarkerCast Interviews Occupy Midian | Hardcover | Kindle | Apple

Become a Patreon Patron

Support the show, Buy a T-Shirt

Opening Music is by Ray Norrish

End Credits Music by Matt Furniss

            New episode of the Clive Barker Podcast

[welcometotheabarat]

Clive : "I'm better than I was... it's taken three years for me to get better but I am getting better. "I can't get to people right now but I don't want them to think I've gone anywhere... I want to be able to talk at conventions and things like that and not have people worry about me, because these are nice folks and they do worry about me. "The thing I would love to let everyone know is that I'm working hard and that, even though I'm not as public as I was, it means zero in terms of my commitment to the work which remains as strong - as you both know - as it ever was. Physically I'm not at present able to paint the big paintings but I'll get there, and in the meantime, yeah, there's literary stuff going on. "Abarat 4 is almost finished and Abarat 5 has been plotted. But..., because there are so many illustrations in the books and they're all painted, it takes a hell of a long time to produce those books. They won't be out 'soon.' There's a lot of publishing work to do - you know, which picture goes where and we've got design issues and so on..."

Revelations Interview with Clive Barker

[tatteredgod]

starting to think i just dreamed Kry Rising and clive just decided to end his amazing Abarat series with the 2 mains literally falling off the world into infinity and that Was it, They Dead. The End. 

Like. If he even just made a throwaway post EXPLAINING why KR wasn’t coming out, for whatever reason. I’d be happy with that. Like some acknowledgement he was working on it and hadn’t, you know, COMPLETELY ABANDONED HIS FANS. even if he just said “Sorry this won’t be released til next year” I’d be FINE. We’d have a tentative date at least. But no.

But Clive apparently has time to churn out loads of other projects, or re-release old ones...but not work on Abarat?? Or even mention he’s working on Abarat? But he apparently will release ABARAT RELATED SIDE PROJECTS in the future....but not give news on the main series itself? Like, he can’t work on Abarat all the time, fair enough, he still needs to make money so he puts out smaller projects, I get it...but...it’s been...years??? 

I know he’s releasing his Scarebaby poem sometime next year and I’m kinda hoping that’s a little taster for the main event, the new book launch, but I’m not optimistic... ;n; 

[alystar00]

I'M SORRY ARE THESE ACTUAL NEW INFORMATIONS ABOUT ABARAT BOOKS 4 AND 5?!

I HOPE SO BECAUSE THEY LOOK VEEEERY INTERESTING