Dark bleatings, beautiful tribe. Dani Brown, undisputed Queen of Filth, has unleashed a new, mind-shattering story into the world, and I’m here to spread the word about it. Like horror? Like bizarro undertones? Then this might be one for your TBR…
For those who might be new to the gloriously sick work of Dani Brown, here’s a little bit about her to whet your whistle:
Suitably labelled “The Queen of Filth”, extremist author Dani
Brown’s style of dark and twisted writing and deeply disturbing
stories has amassed a worrying sized cult following featuring
horrifying tales such as “Ghetto Super Skank”, “56 Seconds”,
“Name Dropping With Hayden” and the hugely popular
“Ketamine Addicted Pandas”. Merging eroticism with
horror, torture and other areas that most authors wouldn’t dare,
each of Dani’s titles will crawl under your skin, burrow inside
you, and make you question why you are coming back for
more.
And here’s a little about the new book:
Set on the sprawling Crowfield council estate, located beyond
the motorway bridge. The estate swallows the residents’ faces
and identities. No one can come in; no one can go out.
Nigel’s different. He was there during the ribbon cutting
ceremony, filming a segment for the news. He wandered off,
seduced by an ancient evil on the estate. Nine months later, a
baby is dropped on his doorstep. He returns to Crowfield to
drown it.
40 years later, Nigel receives phone calls from the only phone
that can dial out of Crowfield. He makes a final return to
Crowfield.
And if that isn’t already enough to pique your interest, The Queen herself has given us some extra incentive…
Ten-ish Reasons You Should Read ‘Crowfield’
- It is set on a council estate. Dani lived on a council
estate in her teens and early twenties in the South East, the
neighbours had a pony tied up on the green, the council
made them get rid of the pony. Sadly, Crowfield lacks in
ponies. - There’s crows and lots of them. Dani has yet to befriend
the crows she sees on her way to work. She has befriended
pigeons but doesn’t know how well they’d do in a fight. - Bog mummies and lots of them. These aren’t just your
typical Angolo-Saxon bog mummies either; there’s Latin
speaking Roman soldiers, vloggers and builders. And they
all expel death with their breath and frost through their
touch. They have a taste for rats and eat mutant
cockroaches like they’re brightly coloured sweets. - The Scarecrow is familiar. Really pay attention to
him and his tattoos. He sees everything that goes on in that
estate. - Dani now knows more about BBC News and Sky
Television than she ever wanted to. Mainly just the names
and branding over the years. She didn’t want to know
this information but it was necessary to show how the years
changed in a relatable way that did not just say 1980s,
present day, etc, especially when a phone call is happening
in the present day at one end and the 1980s on the other.
And no one really knows when Joyce came into being, but it
was before the dinosaurs. - The sensual toad eating came when a beta reader
suggested expanding some of the scenes. The
story didn’t start out as a gross-out, but Dani thought that
would be a nice touch, especially to emphasise that Joyce is
an ancient evil, so she isn’t going to eat normal food. A normal seductress might use an ice lolly in the same way Joyce eats that toad. And where’s Joyce going to get an ice lolly anyways? - Dani likes to include at least one really gross, disgusting thing in each story as a tribute to her early writing.
- Crowfield was visualised from above, as a crow might
see it. Dani thinks through images rather than words. To get
this point of view right and how it shifted as crows flew
through the estate, she would start her mornings by watching
the Game of Thrones opening credits on YouTube. - The most difficult scene to write was Joyce calling
Beorhtric out of the cat. It was way more difficult that
explaining why signal doesn’t work on Crowfield but the
residents have Sky Q (only a limited version of it) and tablet
computers. - The first draft of Crowfield was much longer. Dani
thought it easier to explain why people couldn’t go to
Crowfield than police procedure, hence cutting it down. And
the scenes with the police became very confusing very
quickly, plus there were too many bog mummies going after
that many cops. What you have here is a
condensed, fun and weird version that isn’t all that much
different from the first draft, just shorter and lacking in the
police. That first draft should be killed with fire (oh
sorry, can’t say that, a black metal band should be told it is a
church). - Ten already? Dani says you should buy her
margaritas and tacos. She writes much better when being
fed margaritas and tacos and her favourite margarita and
taco popup is shut for the winter (but they promise to be
back). She’ll even add in an extra disgusting scene
regardless of the genre just for you.
There you have it, folks! If you’d like to check out the book, watch a video of the Queen talking about/reading a little from ‘Crowfield’, or find Dani on the ole socials, I’ve popped some links below for you:
Bleeeeat!
Happy Goat Horror 
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