Angela Slatter's Blog, page 4

The Secret Romantic’s Book of Magic

So very excited to have a story in this amazing anthology!!!

Reactor Magazine @reactormag has revealed the cover of THE SECRET ROMANTIC’S BOOK OF MAGIC!

12 addictive Romantasy tales, edited by @Marie_O_Regan & @PaulKaneShadow, out June 2025

Read an excerpt from @tashadrinkstea’s story, The King’s Witch: tinyurl.com/mr4yya4p The ToC:

Olivie Blake
Kelley Armstrong
Katherine Arden
Hannah Nicole Maehrer
Tasha Suri
Melissa Marr
Megan Bannen
A. G. Slatter
A. C. Wise
Kelly Andrew
Kamilah Cole
Eliza Chan

And you can pre-order from here https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-... or your site/bookseller of preference.

 

The Crimson Road ARC

So very excited last week to receive an ARC of The Crimson Road! These babies should be making their appearance around the world soon!

The real baby? She’ll be launched next in February some time – date to be confirmed. Stay tuned to the socials for beagle pictures, food photos and launch dates!

 

 

New Audiobooks!

I’m delighted to say that all the Verity Fassbinder books are now available as audiobooks! Thanks to WF Howse for making this possible.

 

And just in time for the urban fantasy comeback!

 

You can listen to Taryn Ryan reading Verity’s urban fantasy/supernatural crime tales of Brisneyland and its Weyrd population in Vigil, Corpselight and Restoration.

Winter Children and Other Chilling Tales

When dating the living doesn’t work out, Melanie invests in an EZ-Boyfriend: loyal, obedient, just a little bit undead. This is just a taste of the Dead Ones Don’t Hurt You, one of 12 incredible horror and fantasy tales from World Fantasy Award winner Angela Slatter. What’s your favourite story in the collection? https://www.brainjarpress.com/…/winter-children-and…/

No Good Deed countdown…

LAST MONTH TO GET NO GOOD DEED FREE

Have you been putting off downloading a copy of Angela Slatter’s No Good Deed? This delicious slice of gothic fantasy is free to download at all good digital bookstores, but time is running out to get your copy.

The last day to get a free digital copy will be September 30, 2024, as we’re currently laying the groundwork for a special edition release next year.

Grab No Good Deed Today!

Brain Jar Press Store: https://www.brainjarpress.com/…/no-good-deed-a…/

BLURB

Angela Slatter’s No Good Deed is a dark fantasy tale of magic, ghosts, and marriage set in her World Fantasy Award-winning Sourdough universe.

Isobel assumed her wedding would be the grandest day of her life, but when she wakes in a ghost-filled tomb still wearing her bridal veil, it’s clear events have taken an unexpected turn.

With the assistance of a vengeful spirit Isobel escapes her imprisonment, but her new husband Adolphus will not be pleased to discover his wife is alive. As Isobel comes to understand her husband’s darkest secret, the newlyweds begin a deadly dance that only one will survive.

This chapbook presents a stand-alone Sourdough story that does not appear in any of the three mosaic collections devoted to Slatter’s world of myth and magic, plus a chronology for all the publications that have appeared thus far

WorldCon 2024

I’m going to try and make this post not too long, but this trip was the first time I’ve been overseas since 2017 (Helsinki WorldCon) so there was a lot going on! I’ll try to be succinct.

 

Celsius 232, Aviles Spain

Aviles

I started off in Aviles in Spain as a guest of the Celsius 232 speculative fiction festival – my first trip to Spain and my first time at this festival and it was absolutely incredible. Honestly, I’ve never been treated so well by any festival ever in my 20 year career! The organisers, Cristina, Jorge Ivan and Diego were just amazing, terrific hosts, and they pulled together the most enjoyable and jaw-dropping program. Other guests included but were not limited to Holly Black and Cassie Clare, Adrian Tchaikovsky and Travis Baldree, Barbara Hambly and Eileen Gunn, and many many more. I did two solo signings of about 2 hours each and the readers were so warm and lovely and it was an absolute joy to interact with them. I was also fortunate to have an author interview in the auditorium, do a breakfast table talk with 12 readers, get to spend time with one of my Spanish publishers (Duermevela), and to eat a lot of phenomenal food. Oh, and get an award from the Director, and got to spend bonus time with the excellent Cat Sparks!

 

Research & Writing Retreat, Chagford Dartmoor

Next, I headed to the UK, met up with artist and author Kathleen Jennings, and we drove to the village of Chagford in Devon for a research and writing retreat. I’m working on two novels at the moment, A Forest Darkly and A Book for the End of the World, both of which deal with women of a certain age, witches in the woods, menopause, homelessness and finding a new life – all mingled with the folklore of a very specific place: Dartmoor. So the time spent in the village involved researching local folklore, exploring various locations such as Wistmans Wood, the Boscastle Witch Museum, Jamaica Inn, and talking with local folklorists and storytellers; we also visited the grave of noted folklorist Sabine Baring-Gould, and met author Lucy Holland. I was able to get a lot of words on the page and also was able to work out the structure for both novels, and got them both started. I was also very fortunate to meet and spend some time with writers and artists: Terri Windling, Alan and Virginia Lee, Wendy and Brian Froud, William Todd-Jones and the amazing Elizabeth-Jane Baldry. An amazingly productive time was had, and Kathleen and I also got to discuss some future projects to work on together.

Kathleen Jennings

Lucy Holland

We then drove up to Glasgow over the next week, stopping in at Stourport-on-Severn and Brough in Cumbria – the highlight of that being meeting with Dr Shaton Blackie, psychology and folklorist who uses storytelling in her practice.

Elizabeth-Jane

Glasgow WorldCon

Glasgow WorldCon was huge, a really big event and over 6000 people in attendance. It was pretty overwhelming after not going to any major cons since 2017! I was fortunate enough to appear on a panel Don’t Go Into the Woods: Monsters and Feminism with Juliet E McKenna, Genoveva Dimova, Rivers Solomon and V. Castro. It was a great discussion and such a pleasure to chat with the other panel members, all amazing writers! I also saw some fascinating panels. I got to finally meet my agent and publisher face-to-face – pandemic has interfered with many things! – Carina Bissett, Vida Cruz Borja, Cass Khaw, Joyce Chng, Rina Wiseman, Jaymee Goh, Sarah Marie Brennan as well as catching up with Ellen Kushner, Delia Sherman, Alyx Dellamonica, Kelly Robson, Haralambi Markov, Jonathan Strahan, Kate Forsyth, Alex Pierce, Ellen Datlow, George Sandison, and so many others. I also missed a bunch of people! That’s just the nature of this sort of event. I got to go out to Glasgow Uni and chat with Dr Dimitra Fimi about the workings of the Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic.

Photo by Cat Sparks

Don’t Go Into the Woods: Juliet McKenna, V Castro, Genoveva Dimova, me, Rivers Solomon

London

After WorldCon, I flew to London for a few days to do some publicity stuff. Tuesday night I went to the Super Relaxed Fantasy Club and did a reading from The Briar Book of the Dead and answered a bunch of questions about inspiration and writing and reading and fairy tales. A great crowd, really engaged and hopefully I didn’t traumatise anyone too much with the graveyard scene.

Titan haul

On Wednesday, I went to Titan House and met with my editor and some of the excellent publicists with Titan Books. Had a very productive conversation and also took away a LOT of books. The next day I was meant to meet Ally Wilkes and go to the British Museum to stare into John Dee’s scrying mirror… but unfortunately that was when I tested positive for my very first dose of covid. I was fortunate because it was a very mild case, but still: not really a fun way to finish such a big trip.

 

Acknowledgements

Huge thanks to Kathleen Jennings for doing so much driving during the trip; to Elizabeth-Jane Baldry for taking care of us in Chagford; to the Celsius 232 team for making my first Spanish festival an amazing experience; to Cath and Bahar at Titan Books for helping make my books beautiful; to Meg and Fab at Ki Agency for looking out for me and my career; and many thanks for Creative Australia for an Writers and Artists International Travel Grant  which helped with some of the costs of this enormous trip and helped me develop my audience and keep in touch with readers and publishers.

 

Cover reveal: The Crimson Road

Belatedly (because I am all over the place like a mad dog’s breakfast, or just everything everywhere all-at-onceing), here is the cover reveal for The Crimson Road and the opening chapter! Very kindly hosted by Reactor – thank you, Reactor! And thanks to Titan and my editor Cath Trechman for helping to craft another novel, and thanks to Natasha MacKenzie for that amazing cover!  

“A tale of vampires, assassins, ancient witches and broken promises…”

The fabulous Ally Wilkes (the Arctic Horror Queen herself) said: “…another STONE COLD BANGER from the absolute queen of cosydark fairytale gothic. It’s giving Buffy, it’s giving cottagegore, it’s giving found family. Utterly delicious & blood-soaked, plus a Greatest Hits of AG’s fantastic heroines.”

Witchy Packs…

Now that the copy edits are in for The Crimson Road, I can start ticking other things off the very long catch-up list.

For example, writing the next newsletter and organising a giveaway of two witchy packs… Each contains a copy of The Briar Book of the Dead novel (@titanbooks), the novella Of Sorrow and Such (@tordotcompub), and the No Good Deed chapbook (@brainjarpress)… Oh, and a bone pen.

Please stand by as I get my ducks, owls, bats and cats in a row…

Also, to be in the running, sign up for the newsletter at my website – oh, that’s here! A little pinned banner thingy should drop down when you hit my site and allow you to do the thing!

 

Some love over at The Conversation

I’m both delighted and deeply grateful to see Sourdough and Other Stories on this list over at The Conversation – named as one of the best Australian books of the 21st century. Thank you, Dr Danielle Wood!

 

The original edition of this mosaic collection was published by Tartarus Press. It’s currently out of print until June 2026, when Titan Books will re-release it with the other Sourdough world mosaics, The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings and The Tallow-Wife and Other Tales.

The Sourdough Universe Letters

Greetings, readers and friends of the Sourdough Universe!

I’m offering ten (10) of these “things”.

Each artefact has original art by Kathleen Jennings – marginalia, sort of – let’s call it “Jenningsalia”.

And there will be a micro-fiction or letter or shopping list or ransom demand or diary entry or recipe for a spell written by me at your request.

Want a letter from one of my characters in either of the gothic fantasy novels, All the Murmuring Bones, The Path of Thorns, or The Briar Book of the Dead? Or even the forthcoming The Crimson Road?

Want to know what happened to an obscure character in the mosaic collections Sourdough and Other Stories, The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings, or The Tallow-Wife and Other Tales?

Want to know something more about Patience Gideon from the novella Of Sorrow and Such? Or Selke from The Bone Lantern novella?

Want a folktale about mer-queens, wolf-wives, leech lords, shifters, trolls, or the Briar Witches and all their sins?

The true history of the dead bride in “No Good Deed”? Or what might happen to summer husbands left to roam too long in the forest?

 

Well, these little things your heart desires can be yours. Email me at me@angelaslatter.com to discuss the price, etc, and what you’d like created for you and who you’d most like to hear from in the Sourdough Universe.

 

And yes, there are better photos of individual images over at instagram…