Angela Slatter's Blog, page 22

New Fiction: The Dark

The May issue of The Dark is out with new fiction by myself and Sara Saab, and awesome reprints by Georgina Bruce & Brenna Gomez.

I love, love, love the cover as it reminds me of illustrations for Poe’s “The Black Cat”.

“The Wilderling”

LP was in the kitchen, doing the dishes in desultory fashion, cursing Kurt’s refusal to shell out for a dishwasher (“Already got one and she cooks too,” accompanied by a slap on the ass was his standard reply), and staring at the overgrown foliage of the back yard; it tangled with the old growth woods their property bordered. It was the movement that caught her eye, slow but still kinda sharp, cautious and nervous, and pretty soon there was this kid creeping out of the trees and shrubs and long grass.

Danielle Kaheaku: In Extremis

Today, Danielle Kaheaku talks about her forthcoming novel, In Extremis, and other writerly stuff. An award-winning ghostwriter and editor, Danielle Kaheaku has worked in the entertainment industry for the past twelve years. She has active memberships in the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, the international Horror Writers Association, and the Romance Writers Association Published Author Network. An adjunct English professor at a local university, she is the co-founder and Training Director for the San Diego HWA Chapter and volunteers as a mentor within the main HWA.  

So, what do new readers need to know about Danielle Kaheaku?

Well, outside of my professional bio, there’s a lot most don’t know. My great aunt, Patricia Medina, worked in Hollywood for years and I knew from a young age I wanted in as well. My father never made it past tenth grade and wanted me to have an education, so he pushed me to go to school and I became the first (and only female) in all of my extended family to have a college degree. I started ghostwriting full time in 2008, in both film and publishing, and have written over 60 books for clients and myself have published six books and four anthologies. I currently teach college level English and creative writing, have a real estate broker’s license,am married, and have two kids. I hate top 40 music, love the ocean, have a soft spot for dogs, and am in a current state of grieving after a newly acquired allergy to capscium and MSG.

What was the inspiration behind your new novel, In Extremis?

As a child, my fondest memories of my father and grandfather were those made traveling with them up and down the west coast while they chased seasonal construction work. I remember the excitement I felt when we’d stop at some unknown truck stop and I’d get the green light to search the convenience store shelves for our next Louis L’Amour audio book to bide us over the next four to five hours of endless highway. We’d sit together, crammed in the single bench seat of their truck, listening to the clip-clop of a horse’s hooves or a ricocheting bullet through deserted canyons as we immersed ourselves in tales of the untamed west. Those stories both comfort and haunt me now, reminding me of good times had and opportunities lost, and prompting both acknowledgement and acceptance of the hard, dusty road ahead of each of us and the fragile line we walk between life and death. I still have them, all those cassettes, in one of those outdated zipper cases that lines them up, spine out, as if labeling the miles and years spent on the road like a map etched somewhere deep in my soul and my voice as a writer.

The story itself went through several changes during its conception, fluctuating between something reminiscent of a spaghetti western and a paranormal romance, it finally found its place somewhere in between in that quiet moment just between dusk and night, when the shadows coalesce into unknown forms and remind those willing to look just how small they are standing under the unfettered night sky.

How did you connect with OminiumGatherum?

Working with Kate Jonez and the OminumGatherum family has actually been a long-term goal of mine. I love the quality of work that OG puts out, and Kate is an absolute gem to work with. I’ve had interactions before with Kate via the San Diego and Los Angeles HWA chapters and events, but nothing much. We chatted a bit after the release of my latest anthology, California Screamin’, and she had noted she’d love for me to send something in the future. A few weeks later, I came across an old post of Kate’s saying she’s been searching forever for her western horror. I knew OG’s reading period was closed, but I sent her a message anyway, and she was happy to take a look.

What attracts you to the darker side of fiction?

The human element. I like stories that put characters into tough situations, not just physical but emotional and moral, forcing the protagonist to make choices that will ultimately change them in the end. Dark fiction examines human nature and allows readers to connect to the characters on a deeper level.

In general, who and/or what are your writing influences?

Most of my early writing influences came actually from science fiction and fantasy. C.J. Cherryh, C.S. Friedman, Terry Brooks… Character driven stories that pushed the hero’s journey. One of my uncles was the only reader in the family, and he supplied me with “age appropriate” books (without my father’s knowing) and introduced me to Anne Rice when I was ten. That was my first adventure into darker fiction, and I absolutely fell in love.

For this particular work, I went through my collection of Louis L’Amour novels as well as comparative books including The Gunsligner by Stephen King, Deadman’s Crossing by Joe R. Lansdale, and The Hardest Ride by Gordon Rottman to help me achieve that dusty western feel in a supernatural setting.

Who is your favourite villain in fiction?

That one is tough because there have been so many.I really love villains I can learn to love. While there are many “epic” monsters and cold-hearted killers, I tend to lean toward magnetic personalities (not necessarily their actions or motives) because of their charm or entertainment factor. Loki, Hans Gruber, Biff Tannen, Michael Corleone, Frank Costello, Vincent Vega… You can probably notice a trend here.

When did you first decide you wanted to be a writer?

I have actually always wanted to be a writer but had a rocky and unorthodox start. I hated school, being bored out of my mind, and pulled myself out of school upon graduation from middle school to homeschool myself (my parents, unfortunately, were not qualified to assist me in my studies) through high school. I found a program geared toward troubled teens on the other end of town, enrolled with my mother’s help, and found a mentor that really helped me grow my writing skills and introduced me to a few people in the industry. I moved to Hawaii when I was 19 to go to college, connected with my English professors who helped me edit and revise my first full-length novel, and then got me involved with the university press. I received my first ghostwriting contract during my senior year, and things just fell into place.

What scares you?

Honestly, I love watching and reading horror and not much scares me… except when kids are involved. As a parent, my biggest fear is something happening to one of them and my inability to do something about it. Doesn’t really matter what rhetorical situation you could throw at me, be it demons or the apocalypse, the only thing that really scares me is not being able to protect my kids from whatever hellish monstrosity comes our way. I think that’s why I connected to the character Catherine in my story with her drive to protect her younger siblings as the stand-in parent figure. The deep-rooted need to protect is something that drives whatever nightmares I may have.

Name five people, living or dead, you’d like to invite to dinner?

That’s easy. Bill Murray, Bill Burr, the Dalai Lama, Ellen DeGeneres, and Queen Elizabeth II. All at once.

What is next for Danielle Kaheaku?

While I have had a good run with ghostwriting over the past decade, I’m currently focusing more on my own work and teaching career. The second middle grade novel in my Axles and Allies trilogy is also set to be released late this summer after a publishing delay,and then of course I need to finish the draft of the final book at some point. I am currently working on a dark romance series, the first hopefully to be revealed later this year.

Awards Season

The art is by Kathleen Jennings and it’s here purely coz you should always look at at by Kathleen Jennings

Well, I guess it’s time to repost the post that upsets people: The Awards Don’t Matter Post. This was originally delivered as a keynote at GenreCon in 2017, and it remains good reading at a point in time when everyone’s either worrying about being on lists, not being on lists, and whether or not they’ll win or lose something. I have some awards; they are nice, they also gather dust.

Awards Don’t Matter

Good morning to you all, hungover or otherwise.

My name is, as you might have already heard, Angela Slatter.

I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of this land on which we stand, for they were this country’s first storytellers and we always walk in their footsteps, if not their shadows.

So, I’m here today to address an apparently controversial topic, which causes a great wailing and gnashing of teeth, the occasional beating of breasts, and the rubbing of ashes in the hair.

That topic is awards don’t matter.

So, who the hell am I to be telling you this horrible thing?

I thought I’d tell you about the milestones in my career as relate to awards so you can see my trajectory, not because I’m a narcissist, and I don’t believe in comparing yourself to anyone, but I also believe that in watching the steps others have taken – be they successful or otherwise – you can always learn something.

My caveat: you can’t recreate someone else’s career. You can try but it won’t work because the planets will be in a different alignment to what it was ten, twenty, thirty years ago. But you can learn strategies that can be applied to other situations.

I’ve scribbled all my life, but 13 years ago I made the decision to embrace poverty, self-doubt and a diet of 2 minute noodles and become a writer. I knew I needed training, particularly in matters of structure and building convincing characters, so I did a Grad Dip in Creative Writing … then to improve my work yet again I did a Masters (Research) in Creative Writing … then because I apparently am a glutton for punishment I did a PhD in, you guessed it, Creative Writing.

In those thirteen years since I’ve written and published eight short story collections (two co-written with Lisa L. Hannett), three novels (the third one is out next year), two novellas, over one and fifty short stories and articles about writing. I’ve was one of the inaugural Queensland Writer Fellows and the Established Writer in Residence at the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre in Perth. I have been awarded four Arts Queensland career development grants, one Copyright Council career development grant, one Copyright Council CREATE grant, and this year I got an Australia Council New Work grant. So please if you want to ask me about applying for grants over the weekend, please do so.

I have also won some awards.

So, what Happens When You Win an Award?

Firstly, Kelly Link, writer extraordinaire and international treasure, tries to kill you.*

Helen Marshall, another extraordinary writer, joins in – which is especially awful because she’s Canadian. I think she had her citizenship revoked for that one.**

So, for me, the awardening began with the shortlistening. The first story I had shortlisted for an Aurealis Award was “The Angel Wood” and that was in 2007, three years after I’d started writing for realsies.

I was shortlisted again in 2008 and 2009.

In 2010 I published my first two short story collections, The Girl with No Hands and Other Tales, and Sourdough and Other Stories. Both were shortlisted for the Aurealis Award, TGWNH won. Sourdough was a finalist for the World Fantasy Awards. That year I also won Best Fantasy Short Story with Lisa Hannett at the Aurealis Awards for “The February Dragon”.

In the time since I’ve had something shortlisted for the Aurealis Awards every year.  I’ve also won four more Aurealis Awards.

In 2012 I won a British Fantasy Award for Best Short Story for “The Coffin-Maker’s Daughter”. I was the first Australian to win this award; and that’s when the award-effect kicked in. There was a lot of print media coverage, the news made it to the radio and even the television. That’s when overseas publishers started looking for my name in earnest. That’s when I started getting emails about my novel – surely I was writing a novel? Wasn’t I? We’d love to see it when it’s done.

The BFA got me new readers both at home and overseas. I began to get requests for reprints from places like Russia and Bulgaria and Japan. So you can see that there was some effect.

It also brought me to the attention of Jo Fletcher of Jo Fletcher Books, part of Hachette International. She was one of those publishers asking where my novel was … ultimately she did end up as my publisher, and will hopefully remain so for some time!

In 2014, I won a World Fantasy Award for The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings, which is the prequel to the Sourdough collection, even though I wrote it afterwards … so perhaps Sourdough had prepared the way. I certainly knew I had readers out there who wanted more of that world.

In 2015 I won a Ditmar for Of Sorrow and Such.

In 2016, my debut novel Vigil was shortlisted for the Aurealis Awards, and also for the Locus Awards in the US – despite not having been released there – for best debut. This week, Vigil was longlisted for the Dublin Literary Prize.

It all seems so easy, doesn’t it?

None of this tells you how many words under the bridge, how many tears, how many times I’ve thrown myself on the eighteenth-century fainting couch and howled that I simply cannot go on any longer. It doesn’t reveal the financial distress, the broken relationship, the number of times I’ve neglected my family and friends because I was on deadlines. Because I was caught up in a story that bodily took me away from the living, breathing fleshy folk around me.

The groaning awards shelf or: the shelf of groaning awards

The lovely Dr Kim Wilkins launched my second novel in July this year and made a joke about my groaning awards shelf. She asked if I woke up in the morning, looked at it, and thought “Fuck, I’m awesome!”

The answer is no. The answer is that I have to dust the damned things.

But! Awards can do things for your career.

If there’s prize money attached – and we always live in hope – then there’s a chance that we can pay the rent for a while longer, buy a better bottle of whiskey, stock the pantry with more two minute noodles against the lean times, and just maybe buy a new pair of shoes or underpants before our old ones disintegrate.

There’s marketing value. It doesn’t hurt your bio to have the words ‘award-winning author’ in there, but please make sure you *are* actually an award-winner before you put that in your bio. Please remember that everything is googleable nowadays.

It can get you the attention of an agent or a publisher: at conventions or conferences where there are award ceremonies, these folk will appear in the bar with a bottle of Veuve Cliquot in hand if you’ve just won an award.

Maybe a boost in sales – awards garner media attention, especially if it’s a slow news day. Maybe nothing.

A word of warning: don’t tell a writer who’s won an award that they’re lucky.

There is a point to all of this!  There are three things I want you to take away from today.

Winning awards never makes you a better writer.

In fact, it can give you a complex. It can make you fearful that you will never write anything so good again.

Losing awards does not make you a worse writer.

I have lost awards and it’s never affected how or why I write.

Conversely, it may well drive you on to greater heights … but you should be striving to write better purely for the challenge of being a better writer – not because you’re craving external validation.

Awards can be useful marketing tools but your career will not die without them.

They are not and should not be your end game.

I said before don’t compare yourself to others. You are a different writer. You can’t be Neil Gaiman, because we’ve already got one and he’s rather good at being Neil Gaiman. Don’t be the next Neil Gaiman – be the first YOU.

Write the best thing you can. Write the words that make your heart sing – maybe someone else will like the tune. Maybe not. You are not owed an audience. You’re not owed awards.

You can’t influence the judging panels of awards; you don’t know what the competition is like. Sure you wrote the best book you could, but you know what? So did someone else.

At the end of the day, awards are basically Russian Roulette for the Soul. If you write in expectation of them you are setting yourself up for disappointment. Personally I think writing is such a hard endeavour anyway, why put a new obstacle in your path. The fact is that you might never be published let alone win an award.

So when I say awards don’t matter, what I’m trying to give you is perspective.

If you are writing to win awards, then you need to readjust your ideas or settle in for a lifetime of heartache over something you cannot control. Some of you are simply going to be folk who have that tendency anyway in all aspects of your life – good luck to you, I can offer nothing except the name of a couple of good therapists.

Concentrate on the important thing, the one true thing we have: our words. Write your stories. Write your books. If others want to come along for the ride, then that is wonderful – love that, enjoy that.

When you’re dead and dust, you won’t leave behind awards – because they’ll be buried in the mausoleum with you – and they can’t be studied or interpreted or enjoyed. They meant nothing to anyone but you for the brief span you were on the planet.

You’ll leave behind your books and that’s your legacy.

* Please note that Kelly Link did not *really* try to kill me.

** Please note that Helen Marshall is still a Canadian citizen ever though she *did* try to kill me.

Wonderland

I’m delighted to have a story in this new Alice anthology, Wonderland, edited by Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane (published by Titan Books).

The complete list of contributors also includes Alison Littlewood, Cat Rambo, Catriona Ward, Cavan Scott, Genevieve Cogman, George Mann, James Lovegrove, Jane Yolen, Jonathan Green, Juliet Marillier, L.L. McKinney, Laura Mauro, Lilith Saintcrow, M.R. Carey, Mark Chadbourn, Rio Youers, and Robert Shearman.

You can even pre-order.

Finding an Agent: the Ugly Truth

Art by Kathleen Jennings

Finding an Agent: the Ugly Truth

by Angela Slatter

Literary agents manage, in theory, all the business of a writer’s work. This includes the submission, sale, contracting, publication, translation, production and reproduction. They act as a conduit between authors and publishers (and sometimes editors). If a writer’s lucky, their agent is a proactive sword and shield, utterly loyal to their client’s interests (no pressure) … wait, that kind of makes them sound like feudal knights with a Lord or a Pope to answer to unquestioningly … so scratch that. Your agent is hopefully an intelligent, independent professional with your career’s best interests at heart. Yeah, let’s go with that.

They use their industry knowledge and contacts sell projects to book publishers, or television and film producers, sometimes bring business to your door, act as a gatekeeper and generally negotiate contracts for you to the best of their ability and professional competence.

They sound fabulous, don’t they? Would you like one? Who wouldn’t?

Well, unfortunately while it is a truth universally acknowledged, that a writer in possession of a good manuscript, must be in want of a literary agent, it is a fact less universally recognised that agents are a very difficult commodity to acquire. In Australia, there is a rather small number of working literary agents and a very large number of wannabe writers. The pool of agents does not seem to be growing, at least not at speed – possibly because, like pandas, they don’t breed in captivity – while the number of writers vying for attention is most certainly on the rise. Or perhaps (more reasonably) it’s because we have a smaller marketplace, smaller print runs, a smaller book-buying public, so the system does not lend itself to a growth in the agent population as the ecosystem can’t provide all  of them with a decent living.

So, how do you get an agent?

I always say that you need to be an informed writer: learn about all aspects of the business (writing, publishing, editing, marketing, sales, etc) because your job doesn’t end when you write “The End”. Be informed because you will sense something is wrong when someone tries to sell you a delightful piece of swampland or the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Join your local writers’ centre and go to their industry evenings; go to the business of writing panels at festivals; listen and learn. Your bullshit detector will be far more highly calibrated if you are an informed writer.

So, having become informed, put your best submission foot forward. Always remember that you are, until you become a mega-super-rich bestseller, the supplicant. You may well have an awesome product – your book – but no one knows that until they actually read it. Therefore, how do you get an agent to do that all important action, the “looking at of the book”? Here are the highlights:

Research your target, but not in a stalking kind of way. I mean establish which agents represent your genre because there’s no point in sending a bodice-ripping romance to someone who only represents espionage thrillers with explosions on every second page. Make sure you check and follow their submission guidelines to the letter; it’s not like the Pirates’ Code, you don’t get to pick and choose which bits you follow and which you don’t. Make sure you peruse their list of clients carefully. Do you recognise any of the names? Do the covers of those clients’ books look professionally produced? Do you know an existing client well enough to ask them about how they find their agent; are they happy together? Also, if you are writing very much like someone already on the existing list, why would they take you on? Can you offer something new? If not, then move on.
Write first, Agent second. By this I mean do not approach an agent before you’ve written anything. You’d be wasting their time and yours. You are meant to be presenting them with a product they can sell in order to (hopefully) make both of you an income for one cannot buy groceries with artistic integrity. Cafés take a very dim view of trying to swap a sonnet for smashed avocado on toast and a chai latte. Agents run a business: you and your book(s) are their stock-in-trade. No book = nothing to talk about.


Be polite to everyone. Always. In life and in writing and publishing. Agents talk to each other; they talk to publishers, editors, other writers, booksellers, marketing and sales people. If you get a reputation as someone who is unprofessional and unpleasant to deal with, the whole industry will eventually know. Similarly, if you’re creating an online platform, remember that someone is always watching/reading and search engines will find anything you’ve ever put into e-space, so be wary. If you’re rude and complaining about someone, it can and will come back to haunt you.
Write a cover letter that will get attention; make it succinct and relevant. A five page epistle will not help your cause. Introduce yourself in the first short paragraph, including any writing credits, awards or courses you may have done. If you have a particular area of expertise or experience in the subject you’re writing about, then say so: “As I was the captain of a pirate ship for fifteen years, I am eminently qualified to write a novel about a pirate captain”. The next paragraph should be about your novel: specify genre, length, target audience and a summary of the plot (a ‘blurb’) in one, two or three sentences – any further detail should be left for the synopsis. In the next paragraph, you may like to mention what inspired you to write the book, and note any authors whose work is similar to yours. As a courtesy, if you’re simultaneously submitting to other agents/publishers, mention that as well. Make sure you address your letter to the right person and do not, repeat do not, write “Dear Sir” when the recipient is female – or indeed, vice versa. If someone has a title, like “Dr”, then use it. Do not be over-familiar with someone you do not know; or indeed with someone you do.
Be able to summarise your novel in (a) a grab line, (b) a blurb (25 words or less), AND (c) a one to two page synopsis. If you cannot be succinct about the plot of your novel, you cannot grab someone’s attention. Think of it like this: you have a 60 second elevator ride with an agent and you need to tell them about your novel. A rambling ode will not cut it. Do not, repeat, do not hit the emergency stop button to gain more time.
And remember this: just because one agent says “No” doesn’t mean no agent will ever want to represent you. Another agent may well love your work, so you cannot take rejection personally. Persist. Behave like a professional because you should be dealing with professionals. Listen to the advice you are given, even when (or perhaps especially when) it’s from someone rejecting your manuscript because just maybe they are right and you can learn something new.

Things Not to Do

Don’t call an agent and demand that they take you on. Don’t tell them they’d be lucky to have you and they should really get onboard now! And yes, I know I already said this in a footnote, but I really, really mean it.
Should you, for some reason best known to you and the god of your choosing, decide to use a phone for its original and archaic purpose, i.e. phoning someone, then do not, for the love of all that’s holy, be rude to the receptionist. Do not then demand to speak to their boss, the real agent. You know what? Sometimes the person answering the phone is the agent, not a lackey – so, once again, be polite to everyone. Plus sometimes the agent will ask the receptionist what they thought of the person on the other end of the phone; so keep that in mind before you get snippy with the help.
In case of meeting an actual honest-to-goodness agent at a writers festival/cocktail party, etc, don’t thrust a manuscript under their nose or into their handbag or under the toilet door. It may seem like an opportunity, but it’s not. You can mention politely that you’re a writer and if they ask if you’ve got a manuscript and what it’s about, then feel free to give the blurb (elevator pitch). If the agent is interested they might ask to see said manuscript. They might even give you a business card. Also, they might not, and if they don’t then take the hint; do not insist. Please do not spend the entire function monopolising the agent – I know it’s exciting, a real live agent and not a blow-up one, however, they might want to talk to someone else, they might have friends there, or they might just want some quiet time hiding on a balcony drinking the festival’s horrible wine and having a sneaky cigarette before the fire alarm goes off.
Do not send gifts (or put glitter in envelopes as there’s a special Hell reserved for people who do that). They will not work. They count as forms of bribery, graft and corruption. You’re not an international arms dealer trying to make time with a Prime Minister, President or Secretary for Defence. You’re not trying to win favour with a difficult child. Just don’t.
If the agent’s website says you will pay a reading fee to get them to look at your manuscript, then quietly walk away. Better yet, run screaming and telling all the other writers you can find about this. An agent makes their money from the commission they take on the book deal they negotiate for you. Part of your agent research should be to check out sites like Preditors & Editors and Writer Beware (go on, do the Google) – there is a lot of info out there in Internetland that can be useful to an informed writer.
Be aware that there’s a bit of a Catch-22 with the “Do I approach an agent or a publisher first” question. You can approach publishers directly yourself (a lot have open submission periods once a week), but keep in mind that if you’ve already approached and been rejected by most of the publishers in Australia, then an agent cannot do much for you with a book that’s already been rejected (unless it’s had significant reworking and the agent can vouch for its improved condition).
Don’t ring after two weeks demanding to know why the agent hasn’t contacted you. You may have to wait for months – deal with it. They will probably have a note on their website telling you what the average response period is. Put a note in your diary; if you’ve not heard back by then, then send a polite enquiry via email. If you’ve not heard back by the end of a month (like a proper four-week month), then feel free to send another polite email which thanks them for their kind consideration but you are withdrawing the submission and sending it elsewhere. That’s all you need (indeed should) do; no fanfare, no huffing and puffing, no dramatic exiting stage left whilst trailing black veils behind you and shouting “I said Good Day, sir!”. This is not a calculated kick to the ego, it is not personal insult: just move on and do the productive, professional activities that progress your career.

Do You Need an Agent?

Opinions on the importance of agents vary, even (or especially) amongst established authors (possibly because if you’ve already got one, you can afford to feel a bit jaded/take things for granted). If you’ve been around long enough, published enough books, gone to enough conventions, been mostly polite and professional, you will probably find you know a lot of editors and publishers well enough to not only drink whiskey with them in convention hotel bars, but also to go to their homes and not be escorted out by the constabulary while someone shouts “The terms of the restraining order were very clear!”  You can send them emails and Christmas cards, or even *gasp* call them on the phone.

If you get to this point in your career, you might also be in a position where you don’t need an agent to pitch your next book to a publisher … you can do that yourself over a beverage. Having gained a publisher’s attention in a fashion that won’t lead to incarceration, some writers will then either negotiate contracts for themselves or hand the next stage of the process over to their agent.

So, some agents do everything for you; some agents only do the bits you don’t want to/are not sufficiently expert at doing. Some agents don’t do even the minimal things they should or have agreed to do in their agreement with you (more on that below). My point is this: what you think an agent is going to do for you and what they think they are going to do for you might well be two different things. Some literary agencies call themselves “full service agencies” – which makes me giggle because I am basically a teenage boy – but it actually means they manage all aspects of your career. But just make sure (a) you’re both clear on what those aspects are and (b) they do what they say they’re going to do. You will, as an informed writer, have a written and signed agreement with your agent (no handshakes, no gentlefolks’ agreements only WRITTEN, SIGNED, HARD COPIES KEPT IN YOUR FILING CABINET), which you will have read, understanding the print whether it be fine, gross or pleasingly plump. If you have not understood any part of your agreement, ask until you have an answer you understand and with which you concur. The agreement should set out things like the commission your agent earns, the services they will undertake for you, and a termination clause in case you part ways.

Some agents will look over your contract and advise on it for a fee without actually being your agent. If you don’t need an agent to agent for you, but you do need someone with specialised publishing contract knowledge, then this is the person for you. Like a Tinder date: some benefits, no real commitment.

Breaking Up Is Hard to Do

So, what if you’ve got an agent but you’re not happy with them? Now, this bit is hard, especially when you’ve taken so long to actually find an agent. You thought they would be your forever agent, but for one reason or another, things are not working out. Whether someone is failing to put the cap back on the literary toothpaste, refusing to put the toilet seat down in the dark of night whilst also failing to change the toilet roll, things are going south. Deals are not being made, contracts are falling through, terms are not what they promised, emails are not being answered, no one has time to discuss a strategy for moving forward.       This is a relationship like any other. For a while, you hang on. You tell yourself, “It’s still good! We can work through it. I can compromise!”

Until one day, you just can’t. Your nerves frayed, you’re grumpy all the time, you’re not getting answers and your needs are not getting met. You really don’t want to say “We need to talk” because you know that is the end of all relationships. Also, OMG you will then be AGENTLESS. *cue horrified screams* But here’s the thing: if the required work is not getting done, if you are stressed by the situation and nothing is being done to remedy the problem, if you and your agent are at odds and your differences are irreconcilable, then there is no point having this particular agent. You are wasting each other’s time and moving closer to a frustration-induced axe-murder scenario.

Having no agent is better than having a bad agent. Having no relationship is better than having a bad relationship.

Also keep in mind that maybe you were not the easiest client. Maybe you weren’t what they thought they were getting either. Maybe they lost faith in your writing just like you lost faith in their agenting. Also, you are not going to be their only client so you need to be patient and remember that you are not the centre of the universe – sometimes this is difficult because as writers we spend a lot of time alone and it makes us selfish and inward-looking with a tendency towards talking more to imaginary friends that actual ones. But still, learn to know when it’s time to move on (from all relationships, quite frankly).

Cut your losses and leave, then start again. Be polite. Write a polite break-up letter. Be professional. Don’t sledge the old agent in public. Remember: private fainting couch tantrum, public professional behaviour.

But do break up.

Habit is easy even when it’s injurious to us in some way, shape or form. Change is hard and it’s difficult to remember to do the different new thing instead of the habitual old thing. But only for a while. And a bad agent who’s not doing what they’ve agreed to do? They are not helping your cause or career. If they’re not actively hindering then the very least they are doing is keeping you in stasis, and there’s no progress in stasis. Quite frankly, the only good time to be in stasis is when you’re on a generation ship going to a new world many light years away, or being kept alive until they can find a cure for your terrible disease and/or upload your consciousness into a sexy robot body.

Remember this also: your agency agreement might specify a period during which you cannot sign with another agent – you need to observe this. Also be aware that an agent will continue to receive commission on future royalties on books for which they negotiated the deals.

In conclusion:

Ultimately, chances are that no one will manage your career in precisely the way you want them to, but if you make a point of setting expectations from the outset then you have a baseline to point to later on if things go off the rails. Key performance indicators can help in all aspects of life (or make it miserable, too).  You need to have that conversation about expectations and perceptions: if you don’t tell someone what you want, then they won’t know, and they probably don’t read minds. The corollary is this: if you do tell someone what you want and they are not willing to do it, and they repeatedly fail to deliver (especially when they say they will deliver), then it is time to consider your options. Otherwise, as with all relationships, the choice is remaining in a situation that just makes you unhappy and unsatisfied. And nobody wants that. Always have an escape plan; it’s what an informed writer would do.

So, that problem with a lack of Australian agents? How about an overseas agent? Follow the same steps as listed in this mind-numbingly long article, but be aware of the ‘portability’ of your work. By that I mean will your writing appeal to an overseas market? Will it be relevant and saleable in another locale? If not, then chances are an overseas agent won’t look at your work. Don’t self-reject, but do be aware of the possibility that the writing might not appeal elsewhere – but there are a lot of other markets, so persist.

An agent should have good contacts in the writing and publishing industry and a thorough knowledge of current industry trends and developments. They should know about copyright, contracts, overseas rights, subsidiary rights and other legal issues related to the sale of intellectual properties inside out. They should have contacts with agents in other countries just in case you’re lucky enough to sell foreign rights. They should be the sort of person you want to conduct your business for you. They don’t need to be your friend, but you do need to feel you can trust them.

You don’t need an agent, but they can be an invaluable part of your business team (and writing is a business). The agent is like the Kelly Bag of the literary world – nice to have but sometimes you have to do without. But you can increase your chances of getting one (and hopefully good one) if you follow the advice above.

Notes of the Foot

This article originally appeared in The Australian Writer’s Marketplace 2011/12 (August 2010), and has been updated based on a further eight-ish years of experiences, good and bad. Many thanks to Dennan Chew and Ron Serdiuk for their wise comments.

Just because you’ve finished the first draft does not mean it’s time to query: make sure you’ve revised and edited, had outside eyes on the manuscript, and polished the thing until it shines BEFORE you query. Do not, repeat, do not send your first draft.

Caveat the First: unless the rejection includes the words “This is the worst spelled, most grammatically incorrect manuscript I’ve ever seen, with unspeakable subject matter, and it was written in crayon” … then you need to reconsider your life choices.

Caveat the Second: Although do remember that if an agent rejects you, don’t argue and try to convince them you’d be great together. If you hear the words “Baby, I can change!” issue forth from your lips, just stop. Very bad tactic in all facets of life.

Don’t get me wrong: I love a good fit of histrionics. I can and will throw myself onto the fainting couch and wail BUT I do this in the privacy of my own home with only the dogs and housemates as witnesses.

Mythic Journeys: Retold Myths and Legends

Very happy to say I’ve got a reprint in this anthology, “Seeds”, written with Lisa L. Hannett for our mosaic novel Midnight and Moonshine. Mythic Journeys has a gorgeous cover and a most excellent ToC:

“Lost Lake” – Emma Straub and Peter Straub

“White Lines on a Green Field” – Catherynne M. Valente

“Trickster” – Steven Barnes and Tananarive Due

lander

“Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies” – Brooke Bolander

“Leda” – Mary Rickert

“Chivalry” – Neil Gaiman

“The God of Au” – Ann Leckie

“Faint Voices, Increasingly Desperate” – Anya Johanna DeNiro

“Ogres of East Africa” – Sofia Samatar

“Ys” – Aliette de Bodard

“The Gorgon” -Tanith Lee

“Dreams in the Mondream Wood.” – Charles de Lint

“Calypso in Berlin” – Elizabeth Hand

“Seeds” – Lisa Lisa L Hannett and Angela Slatter

“Wonder-Worker-of-the-World” – Nisi Shawl

“Thesea and Astaurius” – Priya Sharma

“Foxfire, Foxfire” – Yoon Ha Lee

“Owl vs. the Neighborhood Watch” – Darcie Little Badger

“How to Survive an Epic Journey” – Tansy Rayner Roberts

“Simargl and the Rowan Tree”- Ekaterina Sedia

“The Ten Suns” – Ken Liu

“Armless Maidens of the American West” – Genevieve Valentine

“Give Her Honey When You Hear Her Scream” – Maria Dahvana Headley

“Zhyuin” – John Shirley

“Immortal Snake” – Rachel Pollack

“A Wolf in Iceland Is the Child of a Lie” – Sonya Taaffe

A reprint anthology collecting classic myths and legends, retold by today’s top fantasy writers.

Myths and legends are the oldest of stories, part of our collective consciousness, and the source from which all fiction flows. Full of magic, supernatural powers, monsters, heroes, epic journeys, strange worlds, and vast imagination, they are fantasies so compelling we want to believe them true.

The authors of fantastic literature create new mythologies, heroes, and monsters. Retelling, reinventing, mixing the old with new insight and meaning. Their stories, like the ancient tales, entertain and often offer readers new ways to interpret and understand the world.

Drawn from diverse cultures, modern legends, and mythic tales are told in a variety of ways—amiable or acerbic, rollicking or reflective, charming or chilling—as they take us on new journeys along paths both fresh and familiar.

This new anthology compiles some of the best modern short mythic retellings and reinvention of legend from award-winning and bestselling authors, acclaimed storytellers, and exciting new talents in a captivating collection. Adventure with us on these Mythic Journeys…

Mythic Journeys: Myths & Legends Retold

ISBN: 9781597809580

Trade Paperback – $15.99

Forthcoming: 05/07/2019

Pre-order now at:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Powell’s

Or your favorite local bookstore

Next AWC courses

So, I’m teaching two Australian Writers’ Centre courses in March (then I’ll be on a little break for a bit due to an upcoming operation):

Creative Writing Stage 1 is on Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 March 2019, 10am–4pm

and

How to Write a Short Story in One Day is on Sunday 24 March 2019, 10am-4pm.

Hex Life: new cover!

There’s a new cover for HEX LIFE: Wicked New Tales of Witchery

Edited by Christopher Golden & Rachel Autumn Deering.

But it still contains stories by:

Theodora Goss

Kat Howard

Angela Slatter

Kelley Armstrong

Sarah Langan

Mary SanGiovanni

Rachel Caine

Jennifer McMahon

Kristin Dearborn

Hillary Monahan

Ania Ahlborn

Sherrilyn Kenyon

Tananarive Due

Amber Benson

Chesya Burke

Helen Marshall

Alma Katsu

In the mail: Gaslight Gothic

This lovely thing arrived yesterday! Gaslight Gothic: Strange Tales of Sherlock Holmes. My story features Kit Caswell from the novella “Ripper” (which appeared in Stephen Jones’ Horrorology: The Lexicon of Fear).

Cloaked in gothic shadows, soaked in blood, darkness descends on the world of Sherlock Holmes.

“I have heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold wickedness of the human heart.”

Vengeance from beyond, forbidden passions and sadistic cruelty draw the great detective and his faithful companions into storms of madness and otherworldly violence which threaten to cloud the clarity of logic. Facing the eldritch reach of ancient talismans and arcane science, from the streets of London and Paris to the loneliest of manor houses, the great detective battles the weird and uncanny. Can steadfast reason hold against unspeakable terror when Sherlock Holmes can no longer eliminate the impossible? Follow the great detective through ten new tales of terror as he doggedly pursues investigations leading him to the edge of reason and beyond!

With contributions by:

David Stuart Davies, Lyndsay Faye, Nancy Holder, Mark A. Latham, James Lovegrove, Mark Morris, Charles Prepolec, Josh Reynolds, Angela Slatter, Kevin P. Thornton, and Stephen Volk

Thanks to Charles Prepolec, J. R. Campbell and Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing.

S.P. Miskowski: The Worst is Yet to Come

S.P. Miskowski is a recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships. Her stories have been published in Supernatural Tales, Black Static, Identity Theory, Strange Aeons and Eyedolon Magazine as well as in the anthologies Haunted Nights, The Madness of Dr. Caligari, October Dreams 2, Autumn Cthulhu, Cassilda’s Song, The Hyde Hotel, Darker Companions: Celebrating 50 Years of Ramsey Campbell, Tales from a Talking Board, Looming Low and The Best Horror of the Year Volume Ten. Her second novel, I Wish I Was Like You, was named This Is Horror 2017 Novel of the Year. Her books have received three Shirley Jackson Award nominations and a Bram Stoker Award® nomination. Her M.F.A. is from the University of Washington. Her novels and novellas have been published by Omnium Gatherum, Dim Shores, Dunhams Manor Press and JournalStone/Trepidatio. She is represented by Danielle Svetcov at Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency

So, you’ve been here before but that was a while ago! What do new readers need to know about S.P. Miskowski?

Thank you for inviting me to visit again, Angela. I appreciate it.

I write fiction, and most of the stories I’ve written in the past eight years can best be described as horror or weird fiction. I’m proud of that, and happy to be a tiny part of a great genre. My stories have appeared in numerous anthologies, including Darker Companions: Celebrating 50 Years of Ramsey Campbell, The Madness of Dr. Caligari and The Best Horror of the Year Volume Ten edited by Ellen Datlow. My books are available from Omnium Gatherum and Journalstone/Trepidatio. Readers can find me at https://spmiskowski.wordpress.com and on Facebook and Twitter.

What was the inspiration behind The Worst is Yet to Come?

The book started as a 1,000-word story for a contest, the finalists to be judged by Megan Abbott. Almost as soon as I finished the first draft I began to see this wasn’t going to work as flash fiction. There was a complicated backstory I wanted to flesh out, and the relationships needed to develop over several chapters. More significantly, the story was set in Skillute, the fictional town portrayed in my first novel,Knock Knock, and three subsequent novellas (comprising the Skillute Cycle). The 1,000-word draft centered on one terrible event, with hints at all of these other possibilities. I knew there was more to this tale.

I wrote the book three times. The first version was a psychological thriller, half of it from the points of view of two teenage girls, and half from the POV of someone stalking their families. It lacked the suspense I wanted, so I broke the structure and alternated POV chapters throughout. While I was doing this I noticed a deeper and more intimate story was emerging in scenes from the past. In the third version, with the encouragement of my wonderful editor Jess Landry, at Trepidatio, I tackled that history and created what I hope is a more suspenseful, dark-edged, short novel in which nothing is quite what it seems.

It’s been a while since you finished the first installments of The Skillute Cycle ? what else has been taking up your time?

After a novel and three novellas I guess I needed a short break from small town history and atmosphere. I wrote a ghost story with an urban setting, I Wish I Was Like You. The ungrammatical title is a nod to Nirvana. The novel is set in Seattle, Washington in the early 1990s at one of the many small publications trying to capture the zeitgeist for profit.

And I’ve been writing short stories for anthologies. Several of these will be published sometime in 2019.

In general, who and/or what are your writing influences, classic and modern?

To name a few influences: Flannery O’Connor, Janet Malcolm, Daphne du Maurier, Alfred Hitchcock, Roald Dahl, David Lynch, Raymond Chandler, Takashi Miike, Shirley Jackson, Gillian Flynn, Jordan Peele, Sarah Pinborough…

What can you tell us about your second novel I Wish I Was Like You?

For a long time, I’ve wanted to use my brief foray into the world of weekly newspaper editing to create an urban backdrop. I used it a bit in the title story to my collection Strange is the Night, in which a snarky theatre critic hanging onto his print newspaper job (and the prestige he thinks it bestows) makes a habit of destroying young artists. He sees himself as the city’s final gatekeeper, maintaining a standard no one can attain. My experience as an artist, and (on the other side) as an editor trying to sell newspapers, came in handy. I was able to have more fun with the same backdrop, and the characters drawn to it, in I Wish I Was Like You.

Another thing I’ve wanted to do for a while is play around with the tropes of a murder mystery. I especially love a really twisted psychological story. I’ve long been a fan of Ruth Rendell’s short stories and novellas and I admire the new wave of psychological suspense from writers like Flynn, Abbott, Pinborough, and Alex Marwood. I wanted to marry the psychological and supernatural in a seamless way, if possible.

Cover art by Mikio Murakami

The writing tips I see quoted every day on social media prompted the ironic use of murder mystery conventions (and clichés) throughout the book. “Never open your story with a corpse” was one of my favorite tips. I decided my novel would be a tale recounted by a dead woman whose corpse is revealed in the first paragraph. I wanted very much for this story to be unsentimental, to have none of the melancholy sweetness of most literary ghost stories. My dead narrator would be a pain in the ass, with no insight into her own experience. We would see, through the juxtaposition of events and dialogue and her take on everything, that she’s both unreliable and misanthropic. These traits contributed to her demise, and they prevent her from being at peace. She haunts a city she hates, and anyone who encounters her is in peril.

What scares you?

I’m terrified by the insanity of world leaders, and the willful ignorance of people who serve them. Also spiders, but I’ve been reading a book about arachnids and I’m trying to conquer this one.

Can you remember the first story you ever actually finished writing?

Yes. I was eight years old. I drew the illustrations and made a book out of the story by stapling the edge and covering the staples with tape. In the story an eight-year-old murdered and ate her family. My parents found it incredibly funny, thus sealing my fate as a writer. It’s crazy fun to make your parents laugh out loud, when you’re a child.

You can take five books to a desert island with you: which ones make the cut? 

This decision would make me have a nervous breakdown.

Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights? Explain your choice.

Orlando. I need to look at history through a modern lens. Woolf tossed centuries of suffocating roles and ideas into the air and made it all seem new.

What is next for S.P. Miskowski?

The Worst Is Yet to Come is released February 22nd. In this book an urban dwelling family comes to live in Skillute, where secrets will not stay buried for long. And now I’m working on another novel and a novella. Fingers crossed.