Angela Slatter's Blog, page 49

Dreaming in the Dark is launched!

And so the Dreaming in the Dark anthology, the flagship publication of PS Australia, edited by the legendary Jack Dann has been launched.

Dymocks in the city have several signed copies, so if you couldn’t get along tonight you know where to find copies – and I imagine Pulp Fiction Press will get in a couple of the limited edition signed-by-all version that PS is producing as well for the serious collectors!

Madly signing the sheets for the super-duper limited edition.

Crowd!

Paul Brandon and Sarah Calderwood

Jack Dann and a tale of beagles and wombat poop.

Winter Children

The signing sheets arrived just this afternoon, so I’ve spent the last couple of hours 200 sheets for the limited edition Winter Children and Other Chilling Tales! They’ll be back to PS Publishing tomorrow via an especially fast pigeon in order to be tipped into books that will be sent out in time for Christmas or the non-denominational holiday of your choice!

Dreaming in the Dark: Brisbane Launch

Oh, poor neglected blog, don’t worry. I’m home now for months on end and I swear I’ll not neglect you for a long while.

Which brings me to: the Dreaming in the Dark launch! In Brisneyland!

This is PS Publishing’s first Australian imprint release, edited by the legendary Jack Dann.

The launch is on next week, Thursday 8 December at Dymocks in the City, from 6pm-8.30pm.

Welcome to the undiscovered worlds of some of the most talented authors working in Australia…authors who are making rules and breaking rules.

Garth Nix dishes up the dirt on those pesky super-heroes while Sean Williams shows you that matter transmission is more frightening than you ever thought possible.

Paul Brandon explains the nature of fallen angels and love while James Bradley dreams about Mars and the fate that awaits all cultures.

Discover hot new writer Rjuik Davidson’s world of ice and betrayal and Terry Dowling’s melding of graffito with the art of magic.

Lisa Hannett will give you a glimpse of the mating rituals taking place on an alien world, and Jason Nahrung will show you an Australia you’ve never even dreamed of; and in case you’re interested in discovering the shape of eternity, take a trip to Adam Browne’s “Liquid Palace” and the tiny eyeship sailing within.

And the fabulations by featured writers Kim Westwood, Sean McMullen, Angela Slatter, Richard Harland, Venero Armanno, Rosaleen Love, Alan Baxter, Anna Tambour, Janeen Webb, Kirstyn McDermott, Kim Wilkins and Simon Brown, all of whom will amaze you, terrify you, make you see the world under new lights, and carry you away to new realms of experience.

Books will be available to purchase on the night.

Re-opening of the Flensing Factory

So, I’m back in the flensing business.

My short story development service has re-opened. Details at the link above.

Winter Children – pre-order

And the pre-order page for Winter Children and Other Chilling Tales is up!

Go here for one of 200 limited edition signed copies.

Eleven reprints and one brand new story, “The Red Forest.”

Jodi Cleghorn: The Leaves No Longer Fall

Jodi Cleghorn (@jodicleghorn) is a Brisbane-based author, editor, poet and small press owner with a penchant for the dark vein of humanity.

 1. What inspired your At the Edge story?

The deciduous trees in my dad’s street in Ballarat had barely begun to drop their leaves when I was visiting in very late autumn 2013. Some were still laden with dark green leaves. It made me wonder, with global warming, would we reach a point where autumn no longer existed.  “Deciduous used to be a verb” was a line I carried for a while, waiting for the right story to speak to it.

I also wanted to write a story where the humanitarian crisis of refugees was an internal one. I wanted to create a setting where the ‘othering’ and ‘demonisation’ was of a country’s own citizens based on an unprecedented movement of the population south. The Australia of “The Leaves no Longer Fall” is an Australian were every mainland citizen is a ‘boatperson-in-waiting’—all trying to make it across Bass Strait to the cooler sanctuary of Tasmania.

The tech innovation of ‘living glass’, as an answer to the climate crisis, was almost an afterthought.

2. What appealed to you about this project?

I met Dan at Continuum in 2013 and it was a no brainer to want to be part of an anthology he was editing. His editing partnership with Lee reminded me of the one I’d had with Paul Anderson at the start of my editing career.

At the Edge offered an opportunity to spotlight the great dark SFF writing coming out of New Zealand and Australia. Who wouldn’t want to be part of that?

3. What do you love about short stories?

A short story is a literary TARDIS. I am both enamoured and fascinated with the way a simple idea can be captured, examined, perverted and reconstituted into something rich and complex, with the capacity to have lasting impact on the reader.

4. Can you remember the first thing you ever read that made you want to write?

Writing and the escape/transcendence it creates have always been my primary motivation since I was 10. For me, the feeling of ‘having written’ is a creative aphrodisiac. Questions like this used to perplex me.

Then a few years ago I was introduced to the work, first of Italo Calvino, and more recently, Jeanette Winterson. Reading their work made me want to write far outside my comfort zone. To want to play with the poetics and lyricisms of language, with the beauty inherent in style, in a way conceptual ideas and frameworks compelled me in the past.

5. What’s next for you?

In all honesty, most of my energy at the moment goes into supporting my son with reintegrate into mainstream schooling.

While that’s happening I have a collaborative novel with my writing partner Adam Byatt, and an old friend, Rus VanWestervelt slowly forming. The Heart is an Echo Chamber, a chapbook of flash fiction I edited, and a companion publication to No Need to Reply, is scheduled for release in August. When life opens again there are several novellas patiently waiting for attention: Twice Lost, a ghost story set on Moreton Bay and Encursion, the first in my birthpunk series.

 

Supanova in RAdelaide!!!

Woohoo! Supanova the Second – for me at least.

With my fellow authors (scribblers!) Maria Lewis, Jane Abbott, Alison Goodman and Alan Baxter, I’ll be at the SupaAuthors’ table, signing stuff, tallying redheads (Jane has a theory, we’re testing it), and squeeeeeing over amazing cosplay. Also, talking on panels, including the Book Club on Friday night right after the Opening Ceremony,

Dymocks are the bookseller there, they’ll have copies of Vigil – and I will have a very small supply of Black-Winged Angels, The Girl with No Hands and Other Tales, and Midnight and Moonshine for the hardcore amongst ye.

So, please come along and say ‘hi’, and do introduce yourself coz no one looks the same IRL as they do on the Internet and I might not recognise you – nor you me, for that matter.

We stay, we stand, we witness.

We stay, we stand, we witness.

We remain alert for more of this bullshit washing onto our shores. We combat the rot that is already here. We make sure to help those less fortunate, those whose rights might soon be eroded due to race, sexuality, religion, whatever – they will be our family, friends, strangers. We offer a hand and a meal and safety whenever we can.

We stay, we stand, we witness.

Dreaming in the Dark

While I’m bombarding you, I may as well mention the new Dreaming in the Dark anthology, edited by the delightful Jack Dann.

This is the first cab off the rank for PS Australia (PS Publishing’s arm here in Oz), and features myself, Garth Nix, Lisa L. Hannett, Kim Wilkins, Sean Williams, Rjurik Davidson, Alan Baxter, Jason Nahrung, Kirstyn McDermott, and a bunch of other Australian writers.

It can be pre-ordered here OR you can wait for the Brisbane and Melbourne launches in December (more details as they come to hand).

New Reprint Collection: Winter Children and Other Chilling Tales

And so here is the cover for my newest collection – my first “proper” horror collection, Winter Children and Other Chilling Tales. Eleven reprints together for the first time AND a brand new story, “The Red Forest”.

The lovely PS Publishing have done a great job of pulling together this limited edition with an amazing cover by Pedro Marques. Thanks to Conrad Williams for the Introduction.

Pre-order pages will be up at the PS website on Friday.

More details here.

‘Angela Slatter’s stories are enviably original, and told in prose as stylish as it’s precise. Not just disturbing but often touching, her work enriches and revives the tale of terror.’ ~ Ramsey Campbell, author of The Doll Who Ate His Mother, The Hungry Moon, and Told by the Dead