Halloween Launch For New Northland Horror Book

A new collection of highbrow horror launches in Whangārei on Halloween with an evening of storytelling at The Butter Factory pub.

The book, Bloodalcohol, is written by award-winning Northland writer Michael Botur.

The book is a collection of ten fresh tales and follows from the path blazed by The Devil Took Her, Botur’s 2022 collection which had two stories adapted into screenplays and was a finalist in multiple literary awards and screenplay competitions.

Botur said he worked with award-winning dramaturg Gregory King (The Justice of Bunny King) to make the stories as powerful as possible and prepare them for easier adaptation to film - as well as doubling down on evoking Northland and NZ settings “To show the world a more thrilling side of Aotearoa and its people.”

“I reckon film is the final frontier for serious fiction writers in New Zealand,” Botur said. “The Golden Age of NZ fiction book sales when you could actually make a living off being a fiction writer in this country is history now. Novels don’t sell much and short story collections do not sell - unless you’re selling individual horror stories to horror podcasts, which has been a successful niche for me and a couple other Kiwi writers. It’s important to sometimes treat writing as an art form rather than a money-making form, which is why I’m bringing back the old-fashioned art of reading stories to an audience while they eat, drink and listen.”

“Luckily we have new opportunities whereby film and TV production in NZ are pretty strong, so that’s become a great place to take my writing. It’s harder to turn a book or story into film, but I like the challenge.”

“The other element which is good news is that a lot of people are treating horror more seriously - which is why Bloodalcohol is marketed by my publisher as highbrow horror. Captivating and original plots, powerful narrative from marginalised people, lots of diversity in the characters, very strong evocation of a lot of settings, including Northland forests, Far North beaches and the ghostly highways of the South Island.”

“NZ audiences have had more than enough sheep and blood and funny zombies. Really it is time for NZ to move on from silly slapstick horror and produce more serious scary stuff, and that’s what this book brings people.”

The Whangārei Butter Factory reading begins 6pm Tuesday October 31.

Botur is also giving a story reading and author talk with creative writing advice on Saturday November 4 at Far North libraries.

Botur and his team of mentors offer year-round subsidised guidance to any aspiring Northland writer at CreativeWritingNorthland.com.

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