Russel D McLean/R.D. McLean

Absolutely SHATTERED after a brilliant @glasgowfilmfest.bsky.social this year -- saw some ace films, attended some superb industry events, & met inspiring filmmakers & associated professionals. Have pretty much lost my voice, though, but it'll come back and it was all worthwhile for an awesome time.

Final @glasgowfilmfest.bsky.social viewing this year was also first @frightfest.bsky.social film -- one shot horror BURY THE DEAD (2026, dir. Adam O'Brien) as a live-in carer realises her patient may just be possessed by something very dark indeed... great fun & so cleverly staged. Loved it!

The poster for THE HOME (2026) shows a woman's face struggling to emerge from hands holding her down.

More screenings at @glasgowfilmfest.bsky.social yesterday -- THE HOME (2026, dir. Mattias Johansson Skoglund) where a sman sends his elderly mother to a nursing home, unaware she is haunted by a familiar presence... A little close to home if you have experience of dementia, but really well done.

The cover of THE GOOD SON (from 2009) shows a line of skeletal trees disappearing into a white-out skyline

Seventeen years since the US hardbacl edition of my debut, THE GOOD SON, got a cover... Bloody gorgeous it was, too (pity about the distribution issues it had, but that's another story)...

It takes a surprisingly long time to write a newsletter, or at least it does for me. The next one will be out some time tomorrow, complete with exciting cover reveal! Sign up if you don't want to miss out... jamesoswald.co.uk?page_id=669

A photgraph of the book AMERICAN TABLOID by James Ellroy

Latest re-read was the blistering AMERICAN TABLOID by James Ellroy. Its scale, daring, & perversely punchy prose blew me away when I first read it, & its power is undimmed over the decades. Although, given the world we're in the sinful scandals of the 60s detailed here seem piously pure & innocent.

Sign saying ‘our bartenders are so light fingered they could be concert pianists’ Why, are they going to rob me?

I feel they have misunderstood this expression:

The @glasgowfilmtheatre.bsky.social completely reawakened my love for movies. It's a brilliant venue and well deserving of its placing here!

I can think of at least one genuine invitation I have failed to respond to because of this situation (Only found out much later about it being genuine) but frankly the volume of these solicitations, even for a wee nyaffy nobody like myself, is often overwhelming & getting worse.

The poster for DEAD MAN'S WIRE shows a man with one arm in a sling, carrying a long box under his other arm. He has an intense expression. The words, "His revolution was televised" are also on the poster.

DEAD MAN'S WIRE (2025, dir. Gus Van Sant) @glasgowfilmfest.bsky.social based on a real life hostage standoff from 1977. It's a tense, darkly amusing tale anchored by Bill Skarsgard's intense central performance. Al Pacino's southern accent's dodgy, but Colman Domingo steals the show as a local DJ.

A cracking book -- listen to the promos and get yersels a copy, folks! Creepy, compelling, chilling...

Being an author in 20026 means getting spam like this. Every day. Multiple times. All along similar lines. If we miss real emails or genuine offers, its likely because we have to sift through shite like this so much that even legit messages can get lost. But I have to wonder -- who falls for these?

Still tons of screenings to attend & industry things to see at @glasgowfilmfest.bsky.social -- but for this afternoon, need to take some time off to actually do some work... But have to say I am mightily impressed so far with the fest -- some genuine surprises & unexpected gems in this line up...

The poster for GOOD BOY shows a family -- mother, young son, father -- in a living room on a sofa eating popcorn. To their right sits a young man with his own bowl of popcorn, but he has a collar around his neck, attached by a metal chain to the ceiling.

This year's @glasgowfilmfest.bsky.social continues to deliver -- GOOD BOY (2025, dir. Jan Komasa) is a truly unsettling time with an incredible turn from Stephen Graham & Andrea Riseborough as a couple who kidnap a violent, directionless young man to "retrain" him. Unpredictable & unnerving!

The poster for MY DAUGHTER IS A ZOMBIE shows the five main cast members in exagerated poses against a blue background

Warm hearted and blood-spattered zom-com, MY DAUGHTER IS A ZOMBIE (2025, dir. Pil Gam-sung) was this afternoon's @glasgowfilmfest.bsky.social viewing. Great sight gags (the OAP zombie bite) and genuine humanity help it along even with a slightly overstretched final act. & extra points for the cat!

The poster for THE DUTCHMAN (2025) shows a black man's face bathed in green light and looking worried, and a white woman's faced bathed in red as she looks intensely towards us.

Tonight @glasgowfilmfest.bsky.social THE DUTCHMAN (2025, dir. Andre Gains) based on the 1964 play, the 1966 film and given a metaphysical update here that mostly works wonders (altho one thread still feels a little dated). Best to go in knowing as little as possible so it hits you hard as intended.

Don't fall for it!

The poster fot EAGLES OF THE REPUBLIC shows a man with a worried expression and a gun against his head.

More great viewing from @glasgowfilmfest.bsky.social -- EAGLES OF THE REPUBLIC
(Dir. Tarik Saleh) a political thriller & mild satire in which a movie star is blackmailed into creating a prooganda movie... but other sinister forces are at work. Darkly witty with some v unexpected twists. Loved it.

Two men in yellow fisherman's slickers stare at something off camera. One of them holds onto a chain that runs across the foreground of the photograph.

Think there's still at least one screening to go @glasgowfilmfest.bsky.social of ROSE OF NEVADA -- a hauntingly strange time travel /reverse ghost story from the director of BAIT. If you think film has stopped taking risks, this is one you need to see -- its beautiful, weird, emotionally resonant.

Great overview of Harriet's new novel. We're thrilled Harriet is our next @hullnoir.bsky.social guest at @hulllibraries.bsky.social, 18th March. We're completely sold out, but the free livestream is available.

It's been busy work-wise recently, so in downtime, re-reading an old favourite - James Ellroy's AMERICAN TABLOID. Dense, terrifying, more believable than ever in the current environment... but the man SWIIIINGS for the fences with his stylistic flourishes. Not to every taste, but loooove it.

Been meaning to say welcome to the broken nose club (I'm sure I've told you my accidentally-breaking-nose-during-the-one-and-only-time-I-played-golf story, & how I sort of reset it by falling on a vacuum). Altho my dad has us both beat; sliced the end off his nose walking through a kitchen door!

Giving Voice to Your Voice... A few thoughts on voice in fiction and what it means in your writing...

New post (after missing January) over on @dosomedamage.bsky.social with rambling thoughts on voice in fiction and how we find it: open.substack.com/pub/dosomeda...

Yeah, that's not helpful. Given I use a tame black hole as a filing system, I think I might just have burned everything down and run away to live in the woods...

More thoughts: part of the issue is a simplistic take on "show don't tell" where its interpreted as literally showing something. The interiority of the novel allows for "showing" (or "dramatising") sensations & internal conflict too. I no longer say "show don't tell" but "dramatise don't summarise".

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 16867:
Follow your own enthusiasms. Don't try to follow a trend. By the time a trend has been identified, it's nearly aways over by the time you've finished the book, and publishing has moved on to the next thing.

This is a superbly sharp read on why TV storytelling & prose storytelling have to use different techniques, but this para hits something on the head I see far too often in aspiring writers' manuscripts. Robert Olen Butler has a great piece about this in his how-to book, FROM WHERE YOU DREAM, too.

Unsolicited writing advice, no. 52;
Yes, you are a proper writer if you also have a day job. Nearly all writers have day jobs.

‘Don’t go to the US – not with Trump in charge’: the UK tourist with a valid visa detained by ICE for six weeks Karen Newton was in America on the trip of a lifetime when she was shackled, transported and held for weeks on end. With tourism to the US under increasing strain, she says, ‘If it can happen to me, i...

A British grandmother with a valid visa detained by ICE for 6 weeks.

"So why did ICE detain her, and keep her locked up for so long? ICE officers are paid a bonus every time they detain someone. 'Individual ICE agents get money per head that they detain – the guards told me that,' Karen says."

A brilliant book, folks. Utterly original, compelling and disturbing... If you ain't read it yet, get this paperback edition on your shelves ASAP!