Craig Laurance Gidney's Blog, page 7
September 16, 2021
FIYAHCON Schedule
I will be (virtually) appearing on the following panel with Zoraida Córdova, Sarah Mughal, Kiki Nguyen, Circe Moskowitz, Vita Ayala this Friday (September 17 at 1:40pm EST). Hope to see you there!
The Magic of Mess
August 20, 2021
SFWA Writing Date this Sunday!
On Sunday, I will be cohosting the SFWA write-in/writing date. First, we chat for a bit, then you work on your fiction. It’s a virtual coffeeshop session! More info here: http://events.sfwa.org
June 18, 2021
Flash Sale for A SPECTRAL HUE
Word Horde, the publisher of my novel, is having a flash sale celebrating the 2nd anniversary of the publication.
Book and marsh bell orchid
June 15, 2021
New Interview on YouTube
Mike Zipser of the Fast Forward: Contemporary Science Fiction cable show talked with me about my work and I even did a short reading. You can watch it on YouTube, Facebook and Twitch!
May 22, 2021
Gothic Revolution: Madame Two Swords by Tanith Lee
Nestled somewhere between magical realism and alternate history, this slim novella shows Tanith Lee working with the vast store of information she amassed about the French Revolution. She used most of the material for her lone historical novel THE GODS ARE THIRSTY. In many ways, MADAME TWO SWORDS is like a darker sister to that novel.
Set in an imaginary French city under English rule, the nameless narrator finds a slim book of poetry and essays in a used bookstore. Stuffed inside of the book is the miniature portrait of the book’s author, with whom she falls in love with. Lucien de Ceppays is a stand-in for the very real Camille Desmoulins (and the subject of TGAT), the doomed pamphleteer of the French Revolution. De Ceppays is a poet and author of the treatise on human rights in this alternate city, which also had a monarchy-ousting revolution that in turn inspired a rampage of political terror. Lee uses a series of Gothic tropes—ranging from spectral occurrences to the coincidences that happen in such fiction—to introduce a theme that one does not find in much of Lee’s fiction. Bryonic heroes, destitute heroines, mysterious crones are all in the service of a tale about the narrator’s awakening sense of Social Justice.
It’s all told in Lee’s trademark decadent, ominous prose, which creates an intriguing subgenre—woke goth? She manages to capture both the horrid employment conditions of women in the turn-of-century and the fickle nature of mob-led movements as acutely as she did in that epic historical novel.
I am in possession of a signed and illustrated (by Thomas Canty) copy of this novella, which has been reprinted by Immanion Press.
May 18, 2021
ONLINE EVENT- May 26
I’ll be on a panel put on by the Baltimore County Public Library with authors David R. Slayton (White Trash Warlock), Alex Jay Lore (Empire of Light), and Barbara Ann Wright (The Noble and the Nightingale) on May 26. You can sign up for the free event here.
May 13, 2021
PODCAST: WC Dunlap & Craig Laurance Gidney on the Outer Dark
Hear me read my Jean Cocteau meets Bats for Lashes inspired take on Beauty and the Beast, called Fur & Gold. I read along with WC Dunlap, who also has a serialized novel coming out on Broken Eye Books!
May 10, 2021
ONLINE EVENT: Beyond Afrofuturism — MAY 17
Join me and Black editors Eboni Dunbar (FIYAH Magazine), Brent Lambert (FIYAH Magazine), Chinelo Onwualu (Omenana/Anathema), and LaShawn Wanak (Giganotosaurus).
We’ll be discussing their journeys into editing and the role editors play in creating space for the voices of BIPOC communities in the speculative fiction field.
Moderated by Arley Sorg of Locus and Fantasy Magazine.
Further information and how to log on is here!
May 5, 2021
Queer Space Force Author Reading May 8th!
I will be participating in a group reading in celebration of the release of Queer Space Force (put out by Neon Hemlock), a zine of speculative fiction by DC based writers this Saturday! Join me and Rasha Abdulhadi, Marlena Chertock, & Rashid Darden.
Sign up for the event here!
May 1, 2021
Chapter 4 of “Hairsbreadth”
Chapter 4 of my serialized weird fairy tale novel, “Hairsbreadth” has now gone up at the Broken Eye Books/ Eyedolon Patreon. “Glamor Girl” is the chapter title. Sign up to get monthly installments!
