A perfect Sunday with...Gemma Amor
Delinquent salmon, winsome heroines and podcast gluttony.
Every week, a top writer, artist or creator reveals how they’d fill their perfect Sunday, sharing their favourite comfort reads, movies, food… anything that would make their weekend great.
Today it’s the turn of All Who Wander Are Lost author Gemma Amor.
Gemma’s perfect Sunday… brunch
My favourite breakfast, and one I order in the cafe I often work in, because they do it so well, is simple: two poached eggs wobbling away on top of perfectly toasted and buttered brown bread, preferably seeded. If I'm feeling particularly delinquent I might add salmon or avocado or even both, and it has to come with a flat white on the side. The yolk has to be dippable-to-runny, this is non-negotiable. If it isn't, the entire meal is a crushing disappointment.
Gemma’s perfect Sunday… read
I am on a journey with Otessa Mosfegh at the moment. In recent years I have returned to women's literature with a vengeance, but Mosfegh is particularly readable and thought-provoking. Otherwise, Angela Carter, any of Daphne duMaurier's short stories from her incredible collections, or Jeff VanDermeer, especially if you are looking to lose all sense of time and place for an hour or two.
Gemma’s perfect Sunday… comic
Sadly, I do not read as many comics as I aught. I was rather fond of the Walking Dead compendiums but they aren't terribly fitting with a Sunday mood. My kid has a subscription to a weekly comic compilation called The Phoenix, which is brilliant- I quite often read those for fun, with him and without.
Gemma’s perfect Sunday… movie
I have so many moods, all of which I find comfort in. Horror is usually my first calling point for a comfort watch, but mostly 90's horror, pulpy, predictable slashers that aren't too traumatising. After that it would be LOTR, and after that, any obscure 80's adaptation of a Catherine Cookson bodice-ripper, made for TV only, or Barbara Taylor Bradford, or The Thornbirds...soft-focus filters, winsome heroines, over-blown acting, famous movie stars at the very start of their acting journey, I love it all.
Gemma’s perfect Sunday... TV binge
I highly recommend bingeing A Touch of Frost with David Jason if you can. Dated but excellent crime detective TV. Poirot too, with David Suchet.
Gemma’s perfect Sunday… podcast
I have so many. So, so many. Current favourites are Talking Scared, the NoSleep Podcast, The Opportunist, Morbid, Knifepoint, Drunk Women Solving Crime...I could go on all day. I am a podcast glutton.
Gemma's perfect Sunday… album
Currently falling back in love with Elbow, but the best Sunday vibes come from Zero 7's incredible Simple Things, or When it Falls. Blissful.
Gemma’s perfect Sunday… treat
It has to be a long, sun-drenched, sweaty hike anywhere in the Quantocks, through the mountains in Wales, along the coast in Pembrokeshire or Cornwall or Devon, followed by a superb pub meal and a glass of fizz. If I can squeeze a swim in at any point I'm happy too.
All Who Wander Are Lost by Gemma Amor is out now from Cemetery Gates Media.
First Landing State Park. Antarctica. Mongolia. France. Norway. Ireland. Somerset. Egypt. A giant glacier in an unnamed land.
What do all these places have in common?
They’re the perfect place to set a horror story, is what. In this brand new collection of destination-based tales of terror, Bram Stoker and British Fantasy Award-nominated author Gemma Amor (The Folly, Full Immersion, Six Rooms, Dear Laura) takes us on a series of adventures through the weird and the wonderful, the strange and the unexplainable, across the remotest, wildest parts of this world, and through lands yet to be discovered. Expect dark and deranged encounters, beautiful vistas, old gods, ghosts, peculiar creatures, vampires, and that most terrifying of all monsters: mankind.
GEMMA AMOR is a Bram Stoker Award Nominated horror author, illustrator, amateur voice actor and podcaster, published independently and on Amazon. Gemma likes genre-fluid, emotional and character-driven horror, and tries to reflect this in her work.