BBC7 Airs “Blood Lines”

“BLOOD LINES” – a dark and gripping collection of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror readings that showcases new and emerging short story writers. To launch the series, a brand new story written especially for the 7th Dimension by award-winning author, Susanna Clarke will be presented.

During this two week series, listen out for intriguing conversations with mythical beasts; haunting tales of lost souls; dystopian visions of a future that’s just around the corner and demonic goings-on in internet chat rooms.

Blood Lines is being broadcast on BBC7 in the 7th Dimension slot between Monday 26th February — Friday 9th March, 2007 at 1830 (repeated at midnight-thirty).

Programmes become available online from the first date of transmission. For further information log on to: BBC7

WEEK ONE

26/2/07: “The Dweller In High Places” by Susanna Clarke
Across the water, the Napoleonic Wars rage but a young girl discovers a danger much closer to home when she encounters a mysterious visitor from Ancient Greece who has taken up residence in the attic of her London boarding school.

Reader: Georgina Hagen

Neil Gaiman writes of Susanna Clarke’s Hugo award-winning novel: “‘Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell’ is unquestionably the finest English novel of the fantastic written in the last seventy years … Closing it after 800 pages, my only regret was that it wasn’t twice the length.” A new collection of fantasy short stories, “The Ladies of Grace Adieu” was published to critical acclaim in Autumn 2006.

27/2/07: “Ghost In The Mechanic” by Sarah Dobbs
A tragic accident atop Cherrybrook Hill leaves car-mechanic, Mickey-Joe, devastated. Unable to face up to his guilt he retreats into a world of rituals and habits as a way of keeping his emotions in check. When his dog dies during a dust storm, the memories come flooding back and Mickey-Joe finally goes to meet the ghost that calls out to him from the top of Cherrybrook Hill.

Reader: Clare Lawrence

Sarah Dobbs has just graduated from Lancaster University with a Distinction in Creative Writing. Her short stories can be found in print and online and her first novel “Game, Set, Love-Match” is available from Amazon.com.

28/2/07: “ID” by Phil Emery
Terror grips a man as he regains consciousness and discovers he’s lost his identity card. He’s lying in a deserted alleyway in the middle of a city with no memory of who he is. His only clue is a name and address on a scrap of paper in his pocket. He sets out to find this person, all the time, consumed by a fear that unless he tracks down his card, his very life is in danger.

Reader: Sam Dale

Phil Emery works as a writer and lecturer and teaches creative writing at Keele University. His work has been published in the UK, USA and Canada, including the novel, “Necromantra”, published by Immanion Press. In 2003, he was awarded a script development grant from the PAWS Drama Fund. His jazz-drama “Sirens” was performed in 2006 at Coventry and Staffordshire universities.

01/3/07: “Conviction” by Kate Scott
The UK in the near future. The population is divided into the privileged that live in a sanitised “perfect” environment and the workers who live in polluted shanty towns, performing the menial jobs that sustain the lifestyles of the privileged. A runner, uneasy about his so-called “perfect” existence, likes to escape from his world and each day run through these off-limit shanty towns. When, on his run, he encounters a young boy scarred from polluted water, he’s forced to confront what is wrong with his way of life.

Reader: Anthony Glennon

Kate Scott’s first poetry collection, “Stitches”, was published by Peterloo Poets. Poems from the collection have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and in the USA. She has won prizes for her poetry and short fiction and has recently written a radio play.

02/3/07: “Expecting” by Catherine Mant
Pregnant and abandoned by her boyfriend, a young woman moves into a semi-derelict Georgian house in Whitechapel to housesit for friends. She starts hearing running feet and a baby crying and becomes obsessed with finding out whether in the past, a baby has died in the house. All she can think about is finding a way to stop the crying. Out of desperation, she triggers off a series of events that puts her own baby at risk.

Reader: Emma Noakes

Catherine Mant was born in Sussex. After some years as Assistant Editor of The Good Food Guide she went as a mature student to Sussex University where her doctoral work concerned young children’s understanding of commitment. This was followed by a spell of teaching and occasional food writing. Writing stories is a new direction.

WEEK TWO

5/3/07: “Cthul-You” by Damien G. Walter
An occultist signs up to the website “Cthul-You” in the hope of meeting like-minded people. This is a demonic version of “My Space” where instead of attracting fellow humans, the desired outcome is to attract demons. Just who exactly is “Mark” who answers this lonely occultist’s call and what plans does he have for his new devotee?

Reader: Adam Sims

Damien G Walter writes alternative fiction that ranges from the utterly mundane to the totally fantastic, and claims to be the only writer to have documented conversations between Joseph Stalin and Jesus Christ. His short stories have been published widely and even nominated for the Douglas Coupland Award.

6/3/07: “The Quick and The Dead” by Nick Moulton
The setting is Victorian London and a scientist has just discovered how to keep death at bay. The dead are brought to the Asylum of The Deceased where they are resurrected. An illicit romance begins to blossom between one of the new inmates and a young doctor. The plight of being brought back to life and forced to live in limbo is explored in all its complexity.

Reader: Christine Kavanagh

Nick Moulton works in London as a copywriter and editor, and also writes science fiction, fantasy and horror. Nick is currently working on a science-fiction thriller for children.

7/3/07: “Elegy Underground” by Fiona McFarlane
Angels arrive on Earth with an important message to impart, only to find that no-one knows who they are and what they represent. The world is greatly changed and humankind’s collective memory is failing. Death is no longer officially recognised, forcing it to go underground — travelling cemeteries arrive in the middle of the night to take away the dead and a thriving market in illegal elegy smuggling has emerged. Lachrimae Bird, circus performer and chief elegy writer, is the only one to remember angels and she wonders why they have chosen to make their presence felt now.

Suggested reader: Bethan Walker

Fiona McFarlane is an Australian writer. She is currently a Fiction Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where she is working on her first novel.

8/3/07: “A Lasting Impression” by Alexandra Bayliss
In a last ditched attempt to save their relationship a young woman persuades her boyfriend to come on holiday with her to Canada. Things get off to a bad start — they have a terrible row as soon as they book into the hotel. He storms off and she is left to contemplate her disastrous love life. Suddenly the ghostly apparition of a woman with half a face missing appears in the room. She has a chilling message for the young tourist.

Reader: Rachel Bavidge

Alexandra Bayliss is a writer of fiction of various genres as well as travel literature. She is currently completing two novels: an action story for young teens, set in a dangerous London ravaged by sudden social and political changes; and a tale, set in a Scottish fishing village, of love and the overwhelming power of a family’s traditions. Her writing usually contains an element of the magic that can be witnessed in the most real of lives.

9/3/07: “Father’s Day” by Ian Dudley
The UK in the near future. This is a forbidding place where individuality is frowned upon and in extreme cases punished. Following the death of her mother, a young woman becomes estranged from her father. He unquestioningly embraces the new world order, whereas she remains stubbornly defiant, only just living on the right side of the law. He even undergoes a medical procedure to cut her out of his life. The daughter comes home one night to be greeted by a sinister official calling himself “Truth”. It would seem any hope of reconciliation between father and daughter is fading fast.

Reader: Jasmine Callan

Ian Dudley has a degree in zoology, did research in molecular genetics, and now works in IT. He recently started writing fiction and his short story Tierra Del Fuego was broadcast in the Radio 4 Opening Lines series in 2006. He is currently working on a collection of SF stories. In a parallel universe he would like to have been Charles Darwin or Sherlock Holmes.

(Series Producer: Gemma Jenkins)