Angela Slatter's Blog, page 26
August 2, 2018
Cover reveal: Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2018
Happy to see the cover for the latest Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror from Paula Guran and Prime Books!
“Sunflower Junction,” Simon Avery (Black Static #57)
“Swift to Chase,” Laird Barron (Adam’s Ladder: An Anthology of Dark Science Fiction)
“Fallow,” Ashley Blooms (Shimmer #37)
“Children of Thorns, Children of Water,” Aliette de Bodard (Exclusive for The House of Binding Thorns preorders/Uncanny #17)
“On Highway 18,” Rebecca Campbell (F&SF 9-10/17)
“Witch Hazel,” Jeffrey Ford (Haunted Nights, eds. Ellen Datlow & Lisa Morton)
“The Bride in Sea-Green Velvet,” Robin Furth (F&SF 7-8/17)
“Little Digs,” Lisa L. Hannett (The Dark #20)
“The Thule Stowaway,” Maria Dahvana Headley (Uncanny #14)
“The Eyes Are White and Quiet,” Carole Johnstone (New Fears, ed. Mark Morris)
Mapping the Interior, Stephen Graham Jones (Tor.com)
“Don’t Turn on the Lights,” Cassandra Khaw (Nightmare #61)
“The Dinosaur Tourist,” Caitlín R. Kiernan (Sirenia Digest #139)
“Survival Strategies,” Helen Marshall (Black Static #60)
“Red Bark and Ambergris,” Kate Marshall (Beneath Ceaseless Skies #232)
“Skins Smooth as Plantain, Hearts Soft as Mango,” Ian Muneshwar (The Dark #27)
“Everything Beautiful Is Terrifying,” M. Rickert (Shadows & Tall Trees, ed. Michael Kelly)
“Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience
,” Rebecca Roanhorse (Apex #99)
“Graverobbing Negress Seeks Employment,” Eden Royce (Fiyah #2)
“Moon Blood-Red, Tide Turning,” Mark Samuels (Terror Tales of Cornwall, ed. Paul Finch)
“The Crow Palace,” Priya Sharma (Black Feathers, ed. Ellen Datlow)
“The Swimming Pool Party,” Robert Shearman (Shadows & Tall Trees 7, ed. Michael Kelly)
“The Little Mermaid, in Passing,” Angela Slatter (Review of Australian Fiction, Vol.22, #1)
“Secret Keeper,” Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam (Nightmare #61)
“The Long Fade into Evening Steve,” Steve Rasnic Tem (Darker Companions, eds. Scott David Aniolowski & Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.)
“Moon and Memory and Muchness,” Katherine Vaz (Mad Hatters and March Hares, ed. Ellen Datlow)
“Exceeding Bitter,” Kaaron Warren (Evil Is a Matter of Perspective, eds Adrian Collins & Mike Myers)
“Succulents,” Conrad Williams (New Fears, ed. Mark Morris)
“The Lamentation of Their Women,” Kai Ashante Wilson (Tor.com 8.24.17)
The Flensing Factory
Just a heads-up, folks, that the Flensing Factory fees are going to go up at the end of August.
I haven’t done this for several years, so it’s well and truly time to give myself a pay rise!
Any work booked in now will be at the current rates (or if I’ve recently given you a quote, said quote will be honoured), but after 1 September there will be a new pricing structure.
August 1, 2018
Restoration …
OMG looks like the rumours are true and it’s a real book! Reviewers like Liz Barnsley have got copies of my baby!
July 31, 2018
Phantoms!
Very excited to be going over the proofs for this next anthology from Titan Books, Phantoms, edited by the wonderful Marie O’Regan. Four reprints and fourteen originals, including my “When We Fall, We Forget”.
When We Fall, We Forget – Angela Slatter
Tom is in the Attic – Robert Shearman
20th Century Ghost – Joe Hill
A Man Walking His Dog – Tim Lebbon
Cameo– Laura Purcell
Lula-Belle – Catriona Ward
Front Row Rider – Muriel Gray
A Haunting– John Connolly
My Life in Politics – M.R. Carey
Frank, Hide – Josh Malerman
The Chain Walk– Helen Grant
The Adjoining Room – A.K. Benedict
The Ghost in the Glade – Kelley Armstrong
The Restoration – George Mann
One New Follower – Mark A. Latham
A Haunted House is a Wheel Upon Which Some are Broken – Paul Tremblay
Halloo – Gemma Files
The Marvellous Talking Machine – Alison Littlewood
He’s here!
Back home at last, to find Himself had arrived a few weeks ago and has been waiting patiently in the pile of mail.
Soon he’ll be on the shelf with HP Lovecraft, and I shall make them stare at each other for eternity.
July 28, 2018
The Tommyknockers
High-pitched noises: @pspublishinguk is getting ready to send these babies out. The Tommyknockers by Mr Stephen King, artwork by the amazing @daniele_serra_art and an introduction written by me. 
??
So much excitement!
July 25, 2018
Suspended in Dusk II: Stephen Graham Jones
Today’s SiD2 guest is Mr Stephen Graham Jones.
1. What was the inspiration for your SiD2 story, “Love is a Cavity I Can’t Stop Touching”?
Being fourteen and in love, pretty much.? And then being fifteen and in love. And sixteen. On down the line, through the years.
?2. Who are your top five horror-writing inspirations?
?All five are some version of every time I turn the light off, and the darkness populates with teeth.?
3. You get to choose one book for a desert island exile (yes, you did something terrible): what is it?
?Hm. Something I haven’t read yet but want to, and could probably reread a lot and gt more each time. So . . . Alan Moore’s Jerusalem, maybe.?
4. What’s your favourite trope in horror?
?Killer or monster or bad guy or whatever isn’t actually as dead as you thought.?
5. What’s next for you? 
?Slashers, and slashers, and then some more slashers. Second slasher on the left, and straight on till morning.
Bio:
Stephen Graham Jones is the author of sixteen novels, six story collections, and, so far, one comic book. Stephen’s been an NEA recipient, has won the Texas Institute of Letters Award for Fiction, the Independent Publishers Award for Multicultural Fiction, a Bram Stoker Award, four This is Horror Awards, and he’s been a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award a few times. He’s also made Bloody Disgusting’s Top Ten Horror Novels. Stephen lives in Boulder, Colorado.
July 17, 2018
Suspended in Dusk II: Alan Baxter
Today’s SiD2 guest at the blog is the inimitable Alan Baxter.
1. What was the inspiration for your SiD2 story, “Crying Demon”?
Two things. The first was that I wanted to address some aspects of bullying. I was relentlessly bullied as a kid, a lot of modern politics is fundamentally bullying on a national scale, and I wanted to explore that. The second was a thing going around the internet a few years ago about a secret video game on the dark web and its creepy effect on people. I took that idea and ran with it.
2. Who are your top five horror-writing inspirations?
Man, this is so hard to answer! Definitely Clive Barker, he’s been more of an influence on me than anyone else, I think. H P Lovecraft has to get a mention, as a lot of my stuff plays with cosmic horror. I’ve never written actual HPL mythos, but I love the concepts and explore my own version of them. Shirley Jackson, for her ability to maintain subtle, creeping dread and discomfort. Kaaron Warren, for much the same reason as Shirley Jackson. Stephen King, particularly for his amazing ability with characterisation. Oh, that’s five already. I could go on and on!
3. You get to choose one book for a desert island exile (yes, you did something terrible): what is it?
Holy crap. Probably The Great And Secret Show by Clive Barker. That’s a horrible question!
4. What’s your favourite trope in horror?
Consequences. I love to explore the nature of consequence, when someone has done something deliberately wrong, or even just inadvertently stupid, and the sequence of events that spiral away from that. I think some of the best stories are the ones that follow consequences all the way down.
5. What’s next for you?
My supernatural noir novella, Manifest Recall, has just come out from Grey Matter Press. And that same wonderful publisher is releasing my new urban horror novel, Devouring Dark, in November. Devouring Dark is like Lock, Stock, and Two Supernatural Assassins. Crime, gangsters, dark supernatural abilities, the consequences of guilt and anger, all set in London (my old stomping ground). Following that, who knows! But I did just send my latest novel, a kind of folk horror tale, to my agent, so fingers crossed there.
Bio: Alan Baxter is a British-Australian author who writes supernatural thrillers and urban horror, rides a motorcycle and loves his dogs. He also teaches Kung Fu. He lives among dairy paddocks on the beautiful south coast of NSW, Australia, with his wife, son, dogs and cat. He’s the multi-award-winning author of several novels and over seventy short stories and novellas. So far. Read extracts from his novels, a novella and short stories at his website – www.warriorscribe.com – or find him on Twitter @AlanBaxter and Facebook, and feel free to tell him what you think. About anything.
July 12, 2018
Book for the Restoration launch!
Okay, we’ll be launching Restoration, the last book in the Verity Fassbinder trilogy!
Kim Wilkins and I will talk, my parents will object to how much we swear, and then everyone will have cupcakes!
We’ll be at the Brisbane Square Library on Friday 17 August for a 6.30 start. It’s free but you need to book your ticket!
You can book online here.
Walking between the worlds has always been dangerous – but this time V’s facing the loss of all she holds dear. Verity Fassbinder thought no boss could be worse than her perfectionist ex-boyfriend – until she grudgingly agreed to work for a psychotic fallen angel. Dealing with a career change not entirely of her own choosing is doing nothing to improve V’s already fractious temper. The angel is a jealous – and violent – employer, so she’s quit working for the Weyrd Council and sent her family away, for their own safety. Instead of indulging in domestic bliss, she’s got to play BFFs with the angel’s little spy, Joyce the kitsune assassin… and Joyce comes with her own murderous problems.
July 11, 2018
Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2018 ToC
Mermaid from one of Kathleen Jennings’ calendars
I’m delighted to announce that “The Little Mermaid, in Passing” has scored a berth in Paula Guran’s Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2018 from Prime Books!
The ToC is amazing …
“Sunflower Junction,” Simon Avery (Black Static #57)
“Swift to Chase,” Laird Barron (Adam’s Ladder: An Anthology of Dark Science Fiction)
“Fallow,” Ashley Blooms (Shimmer #37)
“Children of Thorns, Children of Water,” Aliette de Bodard (Exclusive for The House of Binding Thorns preorders/Uncanny #17)
“On Highway 18,” Rebecca Campbell (F&SF 9-10/17)
“Witch Hazel,” Jeffrey Ford (Haunted Nights, eds. Ellen Datlow & Lisa Morton)
“The Bride in Sea-Green Velvet,” Robin Furth (F&SF 7-8/17)
“Little Digs,” Lisa L. Hannett (The Dark #20)
“The Thule Stowaway,” Maria Dahvana Headley (Uncanny #14)
“The Eyes Are White and Quiet,” Carole Johnstone (New Fears, ed. Mark Morris)
Mapping the Interior, Stephen Graham Jones (Tor.com)
“Don’t Turn on the Lights,” Cassandra Khaw (Nightmare #61)
“The Dinosaur Tourist,” Caitlín R. Kiernan (Sirenia Digest #139)
“Survival Strategies,” Helen Marshall (Black Static #60)
“Red Bark and Ambergris,” Kate Marshall (Beneath Ceaseless Skies #232)
“Skins Smooth as Plantain, Hearts Soft as Mango,” Ian Muneshwar (The Dark #27)
“Everything Beautiful Is Terrifying,” M. Rickert (Shadows & Tall Trees, ed. Michael Kelly)
“Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience,” Rebecca Roanhorse (Apex #99)
“Graverobbing Negress Seeks Employment,” Eden Royce (Fiyah #2)
“Moon Blood-Red, Tide Turning,” Mark Samuels (Terror Tales of Cornwall, ed. Paul Finch)
“The Crow Palace,” Priya Sharma (Black Feathers, ed. Ellen Datlow)
“The Swimming Pool Party,” Robert Shearman (Shadows & Tall Trees 7, ed. Michael Kelly)
“The Little Mermaid, in Passing,” Angela Slatter (Review of Australian Fiction, Vol.22, #1)
“Secret Keeper,” Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam (Nightmare #61)
“The Long Fade into Evening Steve,” Steve Rasnic Tem (Darker Companions, eds. Scott David Aniolowski & Joseph S. Pulver, Sr.)
“Moon and Memory and Muchness,” Katherine Vaz (Mad Hatters and March Hares, ed. Ellen Datlow)
“Exceeding Bitter,” Kaaron Warren (Evil Is a Matter of Perspective, eds Adrian Collins & Mike Myers)
“Succulents,” Conrad Williams (New Fears, ed. Mark Morris)
“The Lamentation of Their Women,” Kai Ashante Wilson (Tor.com 8.24.17)
