Horror writer Benjamin Langley turned a lockdown hobby into something that attracts attention to his table at book fairs and markets. He tells us more about his linocuts.
Writing can be a lonely experience. We spend countless hours alone, typing away, exorcising these stories from our brains, but it’s not when we’re writing that it’s most lonely—no, when we’re writing we’re so lost in the moment it wouldn’t matter if we were secluded in a remote cabin on a distant mountain or in the middle of a circus with a lion tamer on one side and a troupe of clowns honking horns on the other. The most lonely experiences I’ve found are behind a trader’s table.
Promotion as an author is one of the single trickiest aspects, and more extroverted people who don’t choose hobbies that require hours of isolation will often tell you that you have to get yourself out there and network. Make small talk. Mingle.
I’m sure the very thought of it makes some of you throw up a tiny bit.
So when you do make the step and put yourself out there, it can be very disheartening when nobody wants to so much as talk to you about your book. Admittedly, I’ve chosen some pretty lousy locations to try to hawk my wares, but the raft of excuses I’ve heard why people won’t so much as look at my book, well, it could fill another book. My favourite will always be the woman who raised an arm as if to shield herself from me when I told her Dead Branches was what you’d call a ‘quiet horror’ novel.
(Pictured: Ben at his first trade table)
I’ve come a long way since my first event, sitting there with only a couple of books. If you were to see my table now, it’s certainly a lot more lively. Eclectic, some might say. Chaotic, more realistically.
So how did I go from writing fiction to puzzle books, linoprints and bunting?
From Lockdown Hobby to Actual Income
Like a lot of strange activities, I’m blaming lockdown. We all found ourselves doing strange things to fill the time, didn’t we? I thought I’d give drawing a go. And what did I choose to draw? Wrestlers from the late 80s/ early 90s. They were terrible. It was also around this time I started to play with the idea of an alternative history novel about the life of Guy Fawkes, something that became the Guy Fawkes: Demon Hunter trilogy. Given my publisher was looking to get each book out within five months of the previous, I had a pretty hectic writing schedule. But I needed to do something else to relax my brain between books.
I had the ridiculous idea of releasing an annual to accompany the Guy Fawkes series. I wrote a load of puzzles and drew images to accompany them. I enjoyed it so much I continued creating puzzles and after I’d finished the last Guy Fawkes: Demon Hunter book, A Diabolical Plot, I made a Nicolas Cage puzzle book and started sticking this out on my sales tables, too.
Stranglely, this seemed to make me come across as less of an eccentric, somebody who it was perhaps worth starting up a conversation with, even if only out of sheer curiosity. That’s when I realised that if I were to make attending events like these worthwhile, I had to make it all a little more eye-catching.
Bring On The Tentacles
I had an event coming up, The Innsmouth Literary Festival (every September in Bedford—come along). I started to wonder what more I could do to appeal to a general Lovecraft-appreciating crowd.
Tentacles are pretty easy to draw, and I had a couple of Lovecraft paperbacks around. I thought I could draw tentacles onto the pages, or put quotes on them. I tried stencils at first, but that didn’t work with the finer details. My wife, the professional chainsaw carver, Lisa Langley—whose work can be found here—not only has a flair for the artistic, she also absolutely abhors throwing anything away which could one day be useful. So of course she’d kept some old cutters and a bit of lino.
Together, we crafted our first bit of cut lino, an image from From Beyond. I guess it’s of no surprise, perhaps even a little cliche, to learn that with this act, I unleashed a monster, an unstoppable obsession that has led to countless hours hunting through charity shops, looking for books onto which I can print images.
(Pictured: Ben’s first lino print)
Some of my favourite and most popular prints have come after stumbling on a book, and realising it could make a great print. A second hand copy of Silence of the Lambs gave me the opportunity to carve a death’s head hawkmoth. Chancing on a copy of American Psycho meant I tried a face for the first time.
What I found really surprising about the whole process, however, was how relaxing and calming the carving of the lino is. Once you’ve transferred an image to the lino, you can lose time as you scrape away piece by piece to be left with something you can use again and again to reproduce prints. It’s something I often turn to when I need a break from writing when the words don’t come or I don’t quite know how to deal with the monster I’ve created. While carving away, often that eureka moment hits me.
Coming Soon To A Market Near You
As the prints were popular at that and other events, I eventually got around to setting up an Etsy Shop called LinocutHorror (which can he found here). I’ve just gone past 200 sales, which has frankly amazed me.
I’ve found I spend more time carving and printing now than I do writing, and it’s the prints that make doing events a little farther afield worthwhile. With those have come other strange notions which have expanded the range further. Of course people are going to want horror themed cardboard bunting!
(Pictured: Ben’s table is a little more diverse these days!)
As much as I love selling the prints, the bunting and the puzzle books, it still means more when someone picks up my fiction. While an original print can take hours and hours, the books are a product of a much more intense process, so I’m always glad to see them find a home with a keen reader.
I’ve found that sacrificing time to do one activity over the other takes away from neither experience. The two rather complement each other. The fact that they come together at events is just a bonus!
In 2025, I tried to get out to more events. Not all of them were successful. I’m still learning where a good place to sell my wares is and isn’t. In 2026, we’re going bigger still! I’m travelling farther and doing a number of multi-day events. In the first half of the year I’m going to be in Derby for Dracula’s Bazaar which is running alongside the UK Ghost Story Festival from 27 February (this weekend!). I’ll be at Horrified in Crawley on 28-29 March, then the Indie Horror Chapter 4 event in Liverpool on 11 April, Norwich Indie Book and Zine Fair on 16 May and Shed of Hell 2.0 in Rushden on 30 May. Still lining up plenty of events in the second half of the year, too.
If you’re at any of those events, come along and say hi and tell me about the crazy things you do to escape writing or what activities you’ve held on to since grasping for back in lockdown!
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