Angela Slatter's Blog, page 62
March 15, 2016
The Female Factory …
… also gained praise from the delightful Peter Tennant in Black Static #51 (and yes, you should still subscribe).
Peter says of the titular story, “The Female Factory”:
Finally we have title story ‘The Female Factory’, which is set in an institution that is home to criminals, some of them no more than young children, all under the draconian rule of Matron Welles. While the staff jockey for position and pursue their own obsessions, including the doctor who experiments on corpses, a group of children combine to create a mother figure to head up their new family. This is a fascinating story, one that in its imagery touches on the Frankenstein archetype, and with the ups and downs of fortune that the characters experience is thoroughly engrossing. The Bridewell institution is a singularly minatory environment, a prison camp of sorts with its own 
unique logic, with rules and regulations that it can be fatal to break, but at the bottom of it all, for the young inmates, there remains a smidgen of hope, a feeling that only the irrational can provide when all else fails. Ultimately, it seems to say, gender identity is what we wish it to be, something summoned forth by our own implacable yearning, and the mothers of our own devising will sometimes have more to offer than those inflicted on us by the tyranny of biology and social constraints.
In Black Static #51 …
… Peter Tennant says lovely things about Of Sorrow and Such!
Of Sorrow and Such is a superb work of fiction, one that contains within its pages a gripping story, but at the same time has much to tell us about sexual politics and gender identity, and the ways in which bad people behave, the warped logic they use to justify doing so, and I loved every word of it. Without doubt, Slatter is at the top of her game in this story and fast carving out a reputation for herself as one of the most original and rewarding writers on the genre scene.
You can (and should) subscribe to Black Static!
Over at Cultured Vultures …
… I talk Networking.
Specifically, I offer my top five tips for navigating the minefield that is networking as a writer.
“Networking” isn’t a dirty word. Unfortunately, sometimes it feels dirty. Some writers will tell you that the entire idea of networking dilutes or sullies your art ? that you should get back to starving in your garret, producing a masterpiece that people will magically know about when it’s done.
The word has most certainly received a bad rap courtesy of all those movies about high finance, serial killers, and people who compare the size of their business cards. But it needn’t be a word to set you all aquiver in a bad way. Let’s reframe it as a useful word, a helpful word, a word that doesn’t make you think of some wanker in an expensive suit ahead of you in the queue ordering a half-caf decaf vanilla mocha frappuccino with a light sprinkling of lemongrass. So, here are five ideas to get you thinking differently about networking and to help you identify networking opportunities.
March 9, 2016
Five Misunderstood Witches
Over at the Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog I talk about my picks for the Most Misunderstood Witches in Fantasy.
Molly Weasley, in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series
Don’t, whatever you do, be fooled by Molly Weasley’s exterior. Sure, the cardigans (oh dear, the cardigans), the shapeless dresses, the temper, the hair that looks as though it hasn’t seen a brush since Methuselah was a boy, the complete lack of any acquaintance with colour co-ordination, are all things to make you think she’s harmless. Plus she behaves like someone’s potty mother. But that’s just camouflage: Molly’s blending in, sneaking under the radar. Everyone judges her on those surface elements and that means she’s perfectly placed to wrong foot folk at important moments. Failing to take her seriously is a very bad mistake: just ask Bellatrix Lestrange. Oh, that’s right. You can’t.
The rest is here!
March 8, 2016
The Rivers of London: Talking to Ben Aaronovitch
Oh, my poor neglected blog. I’ve been finishing Corpselight – which is done. An ugly first draft, but done. Editing begins next week.
But the important thing is that Contact 2016 is coming up AND I get to host the In Conversation event with author of the best-selling Rivers of London series, Ben Aaronovitch.
Huzzah! Details are here.
February 25, 2016
Seriously: Contact2016
Go, buy your ticket now. Come to Brisneyland, where the heat probably won’t kill you (although it will try), but it’s okay because we’ll be in the airconditioned Hotel Jen!
Watching Ben Aaronovitch, Keri Arthur, Maria Lewis and other people of awesomeness talk about the nerdy-geeky stuff we love. Not to mention that the Ditmars and the Aurealis Awards will be decided in a series of violent and bloody cage matches … What? They won’t? Oh. *puts away Nacho Libre costume, sulks*
February 18, 2016
Women in Horror
Simon Dewar has been running a great series of interviews with women in horror for Women in Horror Month (surprise, surprise!).
Today, Lisa and I get the treatment.
Check his site for interviews with luminaries such as Ellen Datlow, Kirstyn McDermott, Mercedes Murdock Yardley, Sarah Reed, Kirsti DeMeester, Karen Runge, and many more!
The Writer and the Critic goes Patreon …
dtct books
Stack of books
CREDIT: PHOTODISC
… which basically means you can pay Mondy to sing a song every podcast.
You know you want it. Go here, give money.
My point?
One of my fave podcasts, run by the award-winning and thoroughly superb Kirstyn McDermott (hereinafter referred to as “The Writer”) and Ian Mond (hereinafter referred to as “The Critic”), has started a Patreon page. There’s a range of excellent rewards, which do indeed include the vocal stylings of Mondy and Kirstyn’s crafty craftness (handmade voodoo dolls! Oh, no, wait. That was just my wishful thinking. *SIGH*), so you should go and fling some shekels at them.
They are smart, they are funny, they are well-informed, and they’re often angry and profane, which makes them funnier still. You can listen to them here, for free.
Give The Writer and the Critic money, you know it makes sense and will enrich your karma. I did – and it’s going straight to Mondy singing … also a voodoo doll, if I can persuade Kirstyn.
February 16, 2016
Aurealis Shortlists
The Aurealis Awards shortlists have been announced. Happy to note that “Ripper” and “Of Sorrow and Such” are both finalists (for Horror novella and Fantasy novella respectively). Sad to see the Horror Novel category apparently continues to be problematic. Not sure why. Happy to share the lists with a bunch of talented writer friends!
Here is the full listing.
February 15, 2016
Kickstarter: The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy & Horror #6
For the last five years, Ticonderoga Publications has produced a most excellent tome, The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy & Horror, an annual compendium of some of the finest short stories in Oz.
For #6, they could use a little help, so if you’ve got some spare shekels, please consider throwing them at the The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy & Horror #6 Kickstarter campaign.
