Angela Slatter's Blog, page 34

Conflux: A Grimm Tales Report

Ellen Datlow, Kaaron Warren, Angela Slatter at Muse. Photo by Cat Sparks

So the title is so misleading!

It was great! Grimm but great!  But not grim.

As some of you’ll know from my constant stream of selfies (sorry!) I spent this past weekend in our nation’s capital for Conflux! That’s the annual Canberra speculative fiction convention.

The lovely Leife Shallcross collected me  from the airport and schlepped me the 100 metres to the Vibe Hotel (excellent planning). In the carpark, Nuke and Elizabeth (of Antipodean SF fame) spotted me, or rather my Verity Fassbinder boots. I got checked-in, then Leife helped me open the box of Tallow-Wife limited editions (from Tehani at the briefly de-hibernated FableCroft Press).

Then I had a nap until it was time to head over to Muse for the wonderful Alice in  Wonderland event organised by Kaaron Warren. She and Ellen Datlow and I talked about the new anthology Ellen’s edited, Mad Hatters and March Hares, which reimagines Alice and her world. Kaaron and I both have fairly nasty stories in there, which we got to read from for the delight/terrorfication of the audience! Then we signed some books, met some lovely folks (hello, BookishBron and ProperMadeleine), then had a delightful dinner. Many thanks to Muse for hosting us.

Evidentiary photo by Leife Shallcross

Day 1 included panels on Magic Schools, the WorldCon Wrap-up, Fairy Tales with Teeth and Claws, Beastly Transformations, and then the Opening Ceremony with Kaaron Warren as our MC! And this is the sort of professional behaviour you get from me. I think we can all agree it’s a good thing Ellen was there to keep things on an even keel. A few whiskeys in the bar with Jen Breukelaar, Simon Dewar, Aaron Dries and Myrtle completed the evening.

Day 2’s panels: Q&A: the Road to Getting Published, Not for Children, Kaffeeklatsch the First, To PhD or Not to PhD, and the Banquet (highlight = the golden egg panna cotta desserty thingy).

Thanks to Kathleen Jennings for capturing the moment I went all sprinkler.

Day 3: A GoH breakfast at which I failed to show as I discovered that my intense dislike for raw red onion is actually now an allergy. But I made it upright for the panels! Beyond Wicked Witches, Femme Fatales and Evil Stepmothers, then Deadly Dance, and then my GoH spot. Big thanks to Liz Grzyb for being my interviewer even though she was very jetlagged after flying in from Singapore! Thanks to Elanor for helping Kathleen and I with the books at the end, for being our merchant princess so we could sign The Tallow-Wife! And after that a chat with the Canberra Fairy Tale Ring about the Armless Maiden tale. Then I finished the day with dinner with my dear friend Angie Rega! Always a wonderful comforting experience to chat with her.

Day 4: By this point I have devolved to jeans and a t-shirt. Kirstyn McDermott and I are comparing Docs whilst talking Reinventing the Myth. Kaffeeklatsch the Second occurred, again very good fun. Then I had to run back upstairs, grab my stuff, pressgang Kathleen into helping me schlep to the airport, checked-in, then we ran (“ran” is a very strong word … meandered) back to the Vibe and had a lovely lunch before the Closing Ceremony.

Ellen and I both got these magnificent GoH gifts, made by the Most Excellent Spike Deane. (She’s a Seriously Big Deal.)

And then I flew home.

A Kathleen Jennings original – I talked about Tatterhood and Mike Mignola’s version (The Troll Witch)

A huge thanks to Leife and the Conflux con committee for inviting me – it was my very first GoH gig and I had a ball. A newbie couldn’t have a better fellow GoH than Ellen Datlow, nor a more delightful MC than Kaaron Warren. I do hope that I managed not only to entertain with my goofy stories, but also to impart some useful information!

And I’m both proud and ashamed that I’ve managed to do this con report before I’ve done the Helsinki WorldCon75 one!

Hellboy in da house

Kinda literally, but kinda figuratively.

Technically, it’s the new Hellboy prose anthology (via Dark Horse Comics), An Assortment of Horrors, edited by Christopher Golden and artified exquisitely (as always) by Mike Mignola.

So, yeah, if your dog went nuts a day or so ago, it’s coz I was making a noise so high-pitched only the four-legged muttly types could hear it.

Delighted to appear in a ToC with so many amazing writers and friends.

Christopher Golden, Jonathan Maberry, Michael Rowe, Seanan McGuire, Paul Tremblay, Laird Barron, Chris Priestley, Chelsea Cain, E. Lily Yu, Chris Roberson, Kealan Patrick Burke, Richard Kadrey, Weston Ochse, Delilah Dawson, Angela Slatter, Rio Youers, Nathan Ballingrud.

Poetry

White fox by Kathleen Jennings (not a puppy)

For whatever reason, I’ve been writing poetry lately.

I’m finding it a good way to work stuff out of my head and also to limber up the writing muscles before I hit the prose.

Crap at finding titles, though.

 

 

 

 

He finishes with

How are you?

every time.

 

Sometimes

I make the mistake

of thinking the question

means something.

 

But really

I know it’s just the

thing he’s picked up

from watching

the humans.

 

That he’s trying,

but misses the point

of the exchange

which is listening

and remembering.

 

So

I remind myself to

feel as if I’m

talking to an

enthusiastic, clueless,

adorable

puppy

I’ve met on the street.

 

I give him a pat

then walk away.

 

Five Books That Taste Great by Cassandra Khaw

Few things warm my cold, cold heart more than the words “We read your stories in class.”

One of the things that sets said chill heart to “positively toasty” is articles like this by the multi-talented Cassandra Khaw, who’s kindly put my The Girl With No Hands and Other Tales in such excellent company with:

The Breaker Queen by C.S.E. Cooney
Southern Gods by John Hornor Jacobs
The Least of My Scars by Stephen Graham Jones
The End of the Sentence by Kat Howard & Maria Dahvana Headley

Tastes like tamed and trained hemlock? I’ll take that with glee.

Modern Literary Witches Go Beyond Maiden, Mother, and Crone

Over at Tor.com Natalie Zutter examines breaking out of the Maiden, Mother, Crone Bermuda Triangle!

Partway through Deborah Harkness’ A Discovery of Witches, scholar-turned-witch Diana Bishop encounters a trio of familiar figures: a maiden, a mother, and a crone. These three archetypes are the aspects of the goddess Hecate, appearing as sisters. This triad has resurfaced in everything from Discworld to A Song of Ice and Fire, representing both one woman going through different phases of life and a functional coven of witches, each bringing a different perspective to the magic.

The Hecate Sisters are a useful lens through which to examine the current state of witches in literature—modern takes on a timeless figure, with witches’ conflicts and wants changing with the generations.

In the past few years, the young adult genre has made renewed explorations into witch stories, tapping into themes of feeling set apart from other adolescents as well as growing into your powers. It’s no surprise, then, that Blue Sargent (Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Boys and the entire Raven Cycle) and Nathan Byrn (Sally Green’s Half Bad) stand in for the maiden—who is also depicted as a huntress, which more matches Nathan’s place in his magical society.

In A Discovery of Witches, Diana Bishop recognizes that she, with her ability to give  supernatural life through her blood, represents the mother figure. Katherine van Wyler, the ancient witch holding a town captive in Thomas Olde Heuvelt’s HEX, met her supernatural fate when her children were taken from her. And while she doesn’t have any children, Patience Gideon is undoubtedly maternal, taking care of the locals of Edda’s Meadow with her herbal remedies—and much more powerful cures—in Angela Slatter’s Of Sorrow and Such.

The rest is here.

 

On Reading

Specifically, on the reading you need to do when you’re a writer.

Reading out loud.

In front of an audience.

This is terrifying enough on its own, but you can manage it. Here are a few hints that I find useful:

Practise your reading before you turn up at the place of the reading.
Practise it more than once. More than twice. Go up to five times (after that you’ll freak yourself out).
Time it – the average reading should go for between 3-5 minutes coz that’s generally all the attention span the audience can bear (unless you’re an awesome storyteller who can hold people’s hearts and minds and ears in the palm of your hand).
Be aware that what’s written on the page, what looks wondrous to the eye, is not necessarily going to do the tongue and ears any favours. When you read aloud in the privacy of your own lounge room, bedroom, kitchen, gazebo, panic room, listen carefully. Are you breathless? More so than nerves can explain? Then that lovely long sentence you slaved over needs to be read differently. Cut in two or three, pauses added so you can breathe and the listener can enjoy your words. That huge passage of description? Do you really need it all? Is some of that already covered by other lines, and you were just making a point in print? Cut it back, or out entirely (NB: be careful not to take out a salient point or something that gives the story meaning.)
This is entirely personal, but my rule is don’t drink before you read. You might think it soothes your nerves, coats your tongue with silver, but a nervous person tends to be a gulper and before you know it, you’ve had two or three, your cheeks are red and you’re laughing uncontrollably, falling over your own feet and impaling yourself on the mic stand (if you’re luck – then you can be carted off to hospital and avoid the reading). Trust me, no one will talk about the awesome reading.

So, to illustrate the flensing technique, here are the first two pages of the story I read at Muse in Canberra last Thursday night before Conflux started. Kaaron Warren, Ellen Datlow and I all went along and chatted to a full house about Alice in Wonderful, and Ellen’s new anthology Mad Hatters and March Hares, in which Kaaron and I both have stories. You can see what I took out and what I left in.

Conflux, The Tallow-Wife and a Dress with Pockets

Greetings from the much neglected blog!

I’m at Conflux this weekend, in our nation’s lovely capital of Canberra!

If you’re here, please come up and say ‘hi’! I look something like this (dress has pockets). Tomorrow I will look different.

Also, if you pre-ordered The Tallow-Wife limited edition novella, feel free to sidle up to me and ask for it nicely – we will make arrangements and assignations. If you’d like to buy one of the remaining copies, the in the 15 mins after my GoH spot on Sunday, Kathleen Jennings and I will be signing and Eleanor will be selling!

Broad Knowledge: 35 Women Up To No Good

White fox by Kathleen Jennings

I’m delighted to be in an anthology with the words “up to no good” in its title!

Upper Rubber Boot is  producing Broad Knowledge: 35 Women Up To No Good, a feminist anthology of dark fiction and darker knowledge, edited by Joanne Merriam. Containing 35 stories of “bad” women, and “good” women who just haven’t been caught yet, it features 35 fearless women writers. It’s the second in the Women Up To No Good series, and is forthcoming in spring 2018.

“The Song of Sighs” is getting an outing here, in an impressive ToC!

Charlotte Ashley, “She Falls”
R. S. Benedict, “Clara Vox”
Megan Chaudhuri, “First mouse model of Innsmouth Fish-man Syndrome draft 2 USE THIS VERSION – edits by MK.doc”
Autumn Christian, “Flowers for Dogman”
Vida Cruz, “Blushing Blue”
Christina Dalcher, “Vox”
Sarina Dorie, “The Visitations of Seraphim by Biblical Scholar Father Anthony Maguire”
L. Timmel Duchamp, “The Forbidden Words of Margaret A.”
A. T. Greenblatt, “Five Meters Ahead, Two Centuries Away”
Claudine Griggs, “The Cold Waters of Europa”
Audrey R. Hollis, “Your Life Will Look Perfect From Afar”
Joanna Michal Hoyt, “Taking It Back”
Rebecca Jones-Howe, “Election Season”
Ezzy G. Languzzi, “Viva La Muñeca”
Maggie Maxwell, “Like I Need a Hole in the Head”
Rati Mehrotra, “Make Pretty”
Teresa P. Mira de Echeverría, “Liquid Glass” (trans. Lawrence Schimel)
Premee Mohamed, “Below the Kirk, Below the Hill”
Wendy Nikel, “Maidens of the Sea”
Julie Nováková, “Frankenstein Sonata”
Aimee Ogden, “Matched Set”
Therese Pieczynski, “Three Days, Two Nights”
Laura E. Price, “Mary in the Looking Glass”
Clarice Radrick, “The Red”
Estíbaliz Espinosa, “:: 23 commuter line chromosomes ::”
Tabitha Sin, “The Donor”
Angela Slatter, “The Song of Sighs”
D.A. Xiaolin Spires, “Sunbasker”
Priya Sridhar, “Tidal Bloom”
Julie Steinbacher, “Blood Sausage”
Sonya Taaffe, “Like Milkweed”
Liz Ulin, “Profanity”
Marie Vibbert, “Infinite Boyfriends”
Mingzhao Xu, “Think, Baby Turtle”
Xin Niu Zhang, “The Ladies in the Moon”

Muse Canberra: Mad Hatters and March Hares

So the night before Conflux, Muse will be hosting myself, Kaaron Warren and Ellen Datlow to talk about the new anthology Ellen’s edited, Mad Hatters and March Hares.

Both Kaaren and I have stories in there, and we’ll be doing readings as well as chatting about the influence of the Alice tales … and how easily they might be turned to the purposes of horror.

Booking details are here.

Suspended in Dusk II

For horror aficionados comes Suspended in Dusk II, edited by Simon Dewar and published by Grey Matter Press.

Oh, and with an Introduction by me.

Coming soon for pre-order here.

ToC:

Introduction – Angela Slatter

Love is a Cavity I Can’t Stop Touching – Stephen Graham Jones

The Sundowners – Damien Angelica Walters

Crying Demon – Alan Baxter

Still Life with Natalie – Sarah Read

That Damned Cat – Nerine Dorman

The Immortal Dead – JC Michael

Mother of Shadows – Benjamin Knox

There’s No Light Between Floors – Paul Tremblay

Another World – Ramsey Campbell

The Mournful Cry of Owls – Christopher Golden

Riptide – Dan Rabarts

Dealing in Shadows – Annie Neugebauer

Angeline – Karen Runge

The Hopeless People in the Uninhabitable Places – Letitia Trent

Wants and Needs – Paul Michael Anderson

An Elegy to Childhood Monsters – Gwendolyn Kiste

Lying in the Sun on a Fairytale Day – Bracken MacLeod

Most excellent cover by Dean Samed.