Angela Slatter's Blog, page 63
January 27, 2016
And Then interviews: Kerry Greenwood and David Greagg
One last, almost lost but now found And Then! interview with Kerry Greenwood and David Greagg about their tale “Cruel Sister”.
Kerry Greenwood
What inspired your story/novelette?
We share a long-standing SF and fantasy habit and it seemed like a wonderful opportunity to combine the two. Putting traditional fantasy themes (shape-changing, sibling rivalry, human/animal companionship, quests and so forth) into space seemed like a natural thing to do. So we did it. We have invented some new SF ideas, but we did not want them to overwhelm the story, so they are backgrounded. We also decided that in deep space, people would revert more strongly towards their cultural roots as a reaction against the agoraphobia which would otherwise overwhelm humans genetically programmed to share a small planet circling an unregarded sun.
What appealed to you about this project?
The format we were given – an adventure story with two equal participants – struck us as at once timeless and contemporary. So we decided we needed a fairy tale, and the format proved to be ideal.
What advantages does a long-short form offer?
David Greagg
It is short enough to demand economy in painting scenes, while long enough to escape the constraints of enforced miniaturization. A short story can only be a cameo. Long-short gives you the opportunity for a polyptych.
The future of short fiction is …
Promising, especially with e-books. Short fiction is ideally suited for commuter travel where most people have devices. It is also ideal for holidays (to fill in the gap between beach and dinner), and bed-time. We have all ruined a good night’s sleep by not being able to put a full-length book down. A gripping short story is perfect for after you have switched off your machines, bedded down your children and furry animals and need to avoid thinking about the challenges that the morrow will bring. Switch off everything and take out a book! Nothing that hits your screen after 10pm is worth the bother. It can wait. Feed your dreams with fiction instead.
What’s next for you? 
More books!
Kerry Greenwood and David Greagg are a gestalt entity who read each other’s minds and cover each other’s linguistic and musical omissions. She does romance languages while he does Germanic and weird tongues. And she sings soprano so he doesn’t have to. She costumes and makes stuff, while he wears armour and hits people with sticks. They were raised in the forest by benevolent wood-elves and are co-curators of a Found Cats’ Home. They both write, and finish each other’s sentences.
January 26, 2016
Over at Dirge Magazine …
… Of Sorrow and Such gets an utterly gorgeous review!
This is why Of Sorrow and Such is an important tale of modern fantasy. It embraces the magic of the genre while giving it a necessary update, all the while maintaining gorgeous prose. Of Sorrow and Such evokes the bygone, the dark, and the mythical, but its strength lies in empowering characters once viewed as secondary.
The rest is here.
January 24, 2016
Galactic Suburbia New Year Special
In all the hustle and bustle of the Christmas/New Year period, I missed posting about this!
The superb culture producers/curators of Galactic Suburbia posted this special edition – go here.
Grab a cuppa and a handful of biscuits, sit back and enjoy.
January 21, 2016
Goodreads Giveaway: The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings
To celebrate the out-of-printness of the World Fantasy Award-winning The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings, I’m giving away a last limited edition hardcover over at Goodreads.
Go here to enter.
New Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2016
Woohoo! The new Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2016!
Made the cover on this one! And look at that ToC – another cracking volume from Paula Guran and Prime Books.
I love that “Ripper” is getting another outing – it’s one Kathleen Jennings and I have discussed doing as a limited edition illustrated novella at a later date.
“The Door” by Kelley Armstrong (Led Astray: The Best of Kelley Armstrong, Tachyon)
“Snow” by Dale Bailey (Nightmare, June 2015)
“1Up” by Holly Black (Press Start to Play, ed. Adams, Vintage)
“Seven Minutes in Heaven” by Nadia Bulkin (Aickman’s Heirs, ed. Strantzas, Undertow)
“The Glad Hosts” by Rebecca Campbell (Lackington’s #7)
“Hairwork” by Gemma Files (She Walks in Shadows, eds. Moreno-Garcia & Stiles, Innsmouth Free Press)
“Black Dog” by Neil Gaiman (Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances, William Morrow)
“A Shot of Salt Water” by Lisa L. Hannett (The Dark #8)
“The Scavenger’s Nursery” by Maria Dahvana Headley (Shimmer # 24)
“Daniel’s Theory About Dolls” by Stephen Graham Jones (The Doll Collection, ed. Datlow, Tor)
“The Cripple and Starfish” by Caítlin R. Kiernan (Sirenia Digest #108)
“The Absence of Words” by Swapna Kishore (Mythic Delirium #1.3)
“Corpsemouth” by John Langan (The Monstrous, ed. Datlow, Tachyon)
“Cassandra” by Ken Liu (Clarkesworld # 102)
“Street of the Dead House” by Robert Lopresti (nEvermore, ed. Kilpatrick, EDGE)
“Mary, Mary” by Kirstyn McDermott (Cranky Ladies of History, eds. Roberts & Wessely, Fablecroft)
“There is No Place for Sorrow in the Kingdom of the Cold” by Seanan McGuire, The Doll Collection, ed. Datlow, Tor)
“Below the Falls” by Daniel Mills (Nightscript 1, ed. Muller, Chthonic Matter)
“The Deepwater Bride” by Tamsyn Muir (F&SF Jul-Aug)
“The Greyness” by Kathryn Ptacek (Expiration Date, ed. Kilpatrick, EDGE)
“The Three Resurrections of Jessica Churchill” by Kelly Robson (Clarkesworld # 101)
“Those” by Sofia Samatar (Uncanny #3)
“Fabulous Beasts” by Priya Sharma (Tor.com)
“Windows Underwater” by John Shirley (Innsmouth Nightmares, ed. Gresh, PS Publishing)
“Ripper” by Angela Slatter (Horrorology, ed. Jones, Quercus)
“The Lily and the Horn” by Catherynne M. Valente (Fantasy #59)
“Sing Me Your Scars” by Damien Angelica Walters (Sing Me Your Scars, Apex)
“The Body Finder” by Kaaron Warren (Blurring the Line, ed. Young, Cohesion)
“The Devil Under the Maison Blue” by Michael Wehunt (The Dark #10)
“Kaiju maximus®: “So various, So Beautiful, So New” by Kai Ashante Wilson (Fantasy #59)
January 20, 2016
Bitterwood first edition out of print!
Well, that’s it. The beautiful hardcover limited edition of 
Bitterwood has sold out. You might find copies with a few booksellers, but there ain’t gonna be anymore produced.
Except the paperback version is on its way! This should be available from Tartarus Press around the end of January – more details to hand as I have them. And you can still buy the ebook here.
January 19, 2016
Bitterwood over at the Melbourne Review of Books
Chris Johnstone has posted a most gorgeous review of the World Fantasy Award-winning The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings, which he’s called ‘an unrelenting beauty of words’ over at the Melbourne Review of Books.
So exciting!
A little bird tells me that there will be a paperback edition of Bitterwood available towards the end of February from Tartarus – more details to hand as I have them.
Occasionally, when we are all very good, the story-gods are kind to us, and they send a writer whose voice and vision are so deeply felt, so confident and so intricately imagined, that the whole of their work is a wonderment from end to end. I experienced that electric wonder-shock to the senses on first reading Kelly Link’s Magic for Beginners (for example), or Susanna Clarke’s The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories (which I read before reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell for reasons that made sense at the time, but are now forgotten). And now, I find myself experiencing the feeling of wonder-shock anew. The author is Angela Slatter and the work, The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings. This collection of interwoven short-stories 
really is that good. I think even if I had only been allowed one page of this short story collection to use as the basis for my whole review, I’d still be recommending Angela Slatter unreservedly. The prose jumps off the page the way prose does when the person responsible is a master at their craft. Sometimes, you don’t need more than a sentence or two. Sometimes, you can just tell. But as it was, I had the luxury to be drawn in, and to step my way through all the tales within. And what tales they are.
The rest is here.
January 13, 2016
And Finnegan’s Field is out in the world …
Art by Greg Ruth
… and making people feel uncomfortable. It’s proper horror, folks.
Thanks to Ellen Datlow and Tor.com for loving it, and thanks to Irene Gallo for the superb Greg Ruth cover.
Read it here.
A Feast of Sorrows!
It’s official! My collection A Feast of Sorrow: Stories will be published by Prime Books this coming October! Thanks to Sean Wallace and Paula Guran for saying ‘yes’, and to Theodora Goss for agreeing to write the Introduction!
It’s made up mostly of reprints BUT there will be two brand spanking new, never before seen novellas in there too: “Darker Angels” and “The Tallow-Wife”.
And the cover is gorgeous – I remain very lucky with my covers!
Ze blurb:
A Feast of Sorrows—Angela Slatter’s first U.S. collection—features twelve of the World Fantasy and British Fantasy Award-winning Australian author’s finest, darkest fairy tales, and adds two new novellas to her marvelous cauldron of fiction. Stories peopled by women and girls—fearless, frightened, brave, bold, frail, and fantastical—who take the paths less traveled by, accept (and offer) poisoned apples, and embrace transformation in all its forms. Reminiscent of Angela Carter at her best, Slatter’s work is both timeless and fresh: fascinating new reflections from the enchanted mirrors of fairy tales and folklore.
January 12, 2016
Soooo …
If anyone’s been paying attention to the Prime Books “Forthcoming” section (which you should, always), they might have noticed something sneaking in right at the bottom.
Just saying. More details as they come to hand.
