Joel Lane (1963 – 26 November 2013) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living wage, living writing novels and other fiction, while other ...

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...

writer,

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as Art criticism, art, Literary criticism, literature, Music journalism, music, Film criticism, cinema, Theater criticism, theater, Fas ...

and anthology editor.Chris Morgan, "Lane, Joel", in

David Pringle David Pringle (born 1 March 1950) is a Scottish science fiction editor and critic. Pringle served as the editor of '' Foundation'', an academic journal, from 1980 to 1986, during which time he became one of the prime movers of the collective whi ...

, ''St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost & Gothic Writers'' (London: St. James Press, 1998), pp. 345–46. He received the

World Fantasy Award The World Fantasy Awards are a set of awards given each year for the best fantasy fiction published during the previous calendar year. Organized and overseen by the World Fantasy Convention, the awards are given each year at the eponymous ann ...

in 2013 and the

British Fantasy Award The British Fantasy Awards (BFA) are awarded annually by the British Fantasy Society (BFS), first in 1976. Prior to that they were known as The August Derleth Fantasy Awards (see August Derleth Award). First awarded in 1972 (to ''The Knight of ...

twice.

Life

Born in

Exeter Exeter ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and the county town of Devon in South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter w ...

, he was the nephew of tenor saxophonist

Ronnie Scott Ronnie Scott Order of the British Empire, OBE (born Ronald Schatt; 28 January 1927 – 23 December 1996) was a British jazz Tenor saxophone, tenor saxophonist and jazz club owner. He co-founded Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London's Soho district ...

. At the time of his death, Lane was living in south

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, where he worked in health industry-related publishing. His location frequently provided settings for his fiction.

Works

The majority of Lane's short stories can be categorised as horror or

dark fantasy Dark fantasy, also called fantasy horror, is a subgenre of fantasy literary, artistic, and cinematic works that incorporates disturbing and frightening themes. The term is ambiguously used to describe stories that combine horror fiction, horror ...

, and he cited Robert Aickman,

Ramsey Campbell Ramsey Campbell (born 4 January 1946) is an English horror fiction writer, editor and critic who has been writing for well over fifty years. He is the author of over 30 novels and hundreds of short stories, many of them winners of literary awa ...

and M. John Harrison as influences on his fiction. His short stories were usually published in small-press books and magazines. Lane's work was also anthologized by both Karl Edward Wagner (in Wagner's ''The Year's Best Horror Stories'' series) and Stephen Jones (in Jones' ''Best New Horror'' series). Much of Lane's fiction is set in

and the

Black Country The Black Country is an area of England's West Midlands. It is mainly urban, covering most of the Dudley and Sandwell metropolitan boroughs, with the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall and the City of Wolverhampton. The road between Wolverhampto ...

. Nicholas Royle, "Joel Lane: The Conscience of the Circuit", '' Black Static'' 38, January/February 2014, pp. 4-9. Lane's novels are more overtly mainstream. ''From Blue to Black'' (2000) is a portrait of a disturbed

rock music Rock is a Music genre, genre of popular music that originated in the United States as "rock and roll" in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of styles from the mid-1960s, primarily in the United States and the United Kingdo ...

ian, whilst ''The Blue Mask'' (2003) follows the aftermath of a brutal and disfiguring attack. ''Something Remains'', edited by Peter Coleborn and Pauline E. Dungate (Alchemy Press, 2016), is a collection of stories by other hands "based on and inspired by the notes left by Joel Lane". ''This Spectacular Darkness'', edited by

Mark Valentine Mark Valentine is an English short story author, editor and essayist on book-collecting. Short stories Valentine's short stories have been published in a number of collections and in anthologies. ''The Collected Connoisseur'' (Tartarus Press, 201 ...

and John Howard (Tartarus Press, 2016), is a collection of his critical essays on fantasy and horror fiction, together with appreciations of his work.

Guest appearances

Lane addressed the Birmingham Science Fiction Group in March 2002. Together with his friend Steve Green, he was a guest speaker at

Microcon MicroCon is a biennial w:summit (meeting), summit or conference of micronation, micronationalists held in every other year since April 11, 2015. The event was created by Kevin Baugh of the Republic of Molossia, and every summit since has been h ...

30 at Exeter University in March 2010.

Politics

Lane was described in an obituary as "a passionate supporter of equality and a tireless scourge of fascism", was strongly left wing and opposed to the politics advocated by

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader ...

and

New Labour New Labour is the political philosophy that dominated the history of the British Labour Party from the mid-late 1990s to 2010 under the leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The term originated in a conference slogan first used by the ...

. He joined the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

in 2009 and contributed to its newspaper, '' The Socialist'', and its journal, ''Socialism Today''.Obituary: Joel Lane, 1963–2013
, ''The Socialist'', 11 December 2013. Retrieved 1 March 2014.

Partial bibliography

Novels

*''From Blue to Black'' (2000) *''The Blue Mask'' (2003)

Novella

*''The Witnesses Are Gone'' (2009)

Short story collections

*''The Earth Wire and Other Stories'' (1994) *''The Lost District and Other Stories'' (2006) *''The Terrible Changes'' (2009) *''Do Not Pass Go'' (booklet, 2011) *''Where Furnaces Burn'' (2012) *''Scar City'' (2015) *''The Anniversary of Never'' (2015)

Poetry

*''The Edge of the Screen'' (1998) *''Trouble in the Heartland'' (2004) *''The Autumn Myth'' (2010) *''Instinct'' (pamphlet, 2012)

Anthologies edited

*''Birmingham Noir: Urban Tales of Crime and Suspense'' (2002, co-edited with Steve Bishop) *''Beneath the Ground'' (2003) *''Never Again'' (2010, co-edited with Allyson Bird)

Awards

*1993: Eric Gregory Award (poetry) *1994:

, best anthology / collection, ''The Earth Wire and Other Stories'' *2008:

, best short story, ''My Stone Desire'' *2008:

Shirley Jackson Award The Shirley Jackson Awards are literary awards named after Shirley Jackson in recognition of her legacy in writing. These awards for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror and dark fantasy are presented at Rea ...

, novella finalist, ''The Witnesses are Gone'' *2013:

, best collection, ''Where Furnaces Burn'' (PS Publishing, 2012)

References

External links

Partial bibliography, including short story appearances
* *

by Joel Lane, ''Socialism Today'', October 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Lane, Joel 1963 births 2013 deaths British horror writers English fantasy writers English horror writers Science fiction editors World Fantasy Award–winning writers Socialist Party (England and Wales) members English anti-fascists British male poets English male short story writers English short story writers English male novelists 20th-century English poets 20th-century English novelists