Angela Slatter's Blog, page 64
January 11, 2016
Best Books to Read Over Summer …
Of Sorrow and Such gets a gong and makes the SMH list!
Huzzah!
Ze rest is here, and includes work by the excellent Sean Williams, Sulari Gentill, Angela Savage and Emma Viskic.
January 8, 2016
January 7, 2016
In Your Face
One of the excellent FableCroft Publishing’s 2016 projects is the In Your Face anthology, a collection of original and reprinted provocative spec-fic stories. The pozible campaign has reached its original goal (very quickly!), but there are stretch goals, people, so throw some spare shekels here.
My “Home and Hearth” (originally published as a limited edition chapbook by Spectral Press in the UK) is one of the reprints. It’s a pretty confronting story and Tehani asked what was the genesis of the tale.
Original chapbook art
It began when Simon of Spectral asked if I’d write a ghost story for his chapbook range. I’d had some ideas floating around about very young murderers and I guess it was time to put those into print because I started seeing the protagonist Caroline in my head, and her dreadful son Simon, and the little Romany ghost-boy. I’ve always wondered about parents whose children kill: what do they do? Go to any lengths to protect their little monster, or decide they’re responsible for protecting the world. I wondered what it must do to you, to know that this is your baby, they come from you and yet they’ve done something dreadful that you’d never dream of doing … what does it to do your sense of self? I wondered about what the lives of such parents become.
And Home and Hearth was born.
January 5, 2016
Katharine Susannah Prichard Residency
Well, I guess I can announce this now: I’ve been selected as the Established Writer-in-Residence at KSP for 2016!
I’m pretty excited about this – two weeks in Perth from 25 June to 10 July.
Details are here.
January 4, 2016
In which accidental art causes happiness … and a book
Yesterday Kathleen Jennings and I had a work day out at UQ in Wordies cafe (trying a new venue for ease of travel for both of us without cars).
There was much talking and planning but not much actual work-work, yet it was still a Very Useful Day in terms of organisation and scheduling, synching our calendars for new and continuing projects.
One of the thing we did discuss was a new storybook, in a similar vein as Flight. So, Skin is next on the board. Kathleen’s first assay (above left) at a selkie came out as a glorious mix of a seal, the Lorax and Cookie Monster. I love her, but she’s Not Quite Right. 
But then last night I noticed on Facebook that Kathleen was experimenting with some new paints … and this was one of those experiments … and she is Perfect.
She is the selkie lady of Skin.
I was sixteen when he plucked me from the sea.
Caught in his fisherman’s net, I thought I would drown until he lifted me into the too-small boat and began to hack at the rough fibres to release me. I should have known then how soft his heart was, to see him ruining a net so, but I was terrified. In his haste he cut me, split the skin down by my tail a good eight inches and saw the two fine-boned ankles lying within. He sat back, astonished, and I fought my way free of the pelt until I was naked and shivering in my human skin, huddled at the bottom of that little, little boat.
His family told him to throw me back, to return my other skin and send me home. He refused.
More as both project and year progress.
December 30, 2015
2015 Rundown and highlights
Well, this post is only about six weeks late. Not too shabby. Not too shabby at all. I’ll mix the WFC post with a 2015 rundown post, methinks, and get it all out of the way in one fell swoop.
So, 2015: stuff happened.
My publishing output was quite low, with three short stories in English (“Bluebeard’s Daughter” in SQ Magazine; “Bearskin” in The Dark; and “Lavinia’s Wood” in She Walks in Shadows), one short story in Japanese (“The Heart is a Mirror for Sinners” in Night Land Quarterly) and two novellas (Of Sorrow and Such, one of the Tor.com inaugural new series; and Ripper in Stephen Jones’ Horrorology, with cover and internal art by Clive Barker). There were also eleven reprinted stories in a variety of domestic and international anthologies.
But: in April this year I signed a three book deal with 
Jo Fletcher Books (an imprint of Hachette International), brokered by my delightful International Literary Agent of Mystery, Ian Drury of Sheil Land. This means I am able to eat for three years and I get to work with an editor I’ve admired for a long while, Jo Fletcher herself. The first two books are Vigil and Corpselight, which follow my wise-cracking, cake-addicted heroine Verity Fassbinder as she tries to keep Brisbane safe from wayward Weyrd, murderous Normals, and all manner of strange occurrences. The third book might be Restoration, but in all honestly we’ll have to wait and see how well the series does (there’ll be a new post on that called “The Three Book Problem”, appearing next week, about the practicalities and challenges of surviving publishing).
Art by Greg Ruth
I sold an original novelette to Ellen Datlow for Tor.com, called “Finnegan’s Field”, which will be out in January 2016 (oh, hey, wait, tomorrow is January 2016). I’ve sold two short story collections to appear in 2016, one in the US and one in the UK, both mostly reprints but with a couple of new stories to spice things up. Official announcements when I’m allowed.
Kathleen Jennings and I turned in our story book for grown-ups, Flight, which should be out in February 2016 via Tiny Owl Workshop.
Photo by Lisa
In April I was fortunate enough to win three Aurealis Awards (Best Fantasy Short Story for “St Dymphna’s School for Poison Girls”, Best Horror Short for “Home and Hearth”, and Best Collection with Lisa L. Hannett for our Twelve Planets instalment, The Female Factory). That was nice, and we had a great trip to Canberra (one night only!) and got to catch up with friends, however briefly.
At BWF in September, I got to interview Kelly Link, and then to moderate a panel on folklore with her, Holly Black and Sjón Sigurðsson, which was excellent. Also I went to Adelaide in early October for the launch of Lisa’s debut novel, Lament for the Afterlife, and bonding with Garth Nix over doing dishes. In late October, Lisa came over here for GenreCon = big fun.
Photo by JS Breukelaar
My major trip this year was to World Fantasy in Saratoga Springs, NY. I was lucky (unlike poor Lisa — her tale of woe can be read here) and my flights from Bris-LA, the LA-NYC went smoothly. The long and tedious ride in the shared taxi was long and tedious (but at least not 20 hours unexpected stopover in Abu Dhabi tedious, so I no complain). I arrived at the hotel about 9pm on 3 November, ate much of the mini-bar for dinner and went to sleep. I spent pretty much all of 4 November asleep, then finally rose as the sun set (vampire-like) and set off for Times Square, where I met up with Dan Braum. The kind man got me coffee and dinner, then we headed to NYC’s only haunted house experience, The Kill Bar, just down the street from Times Square. It’s a great venue and a big thanks to Matt Kressel who stepped in to read with me as Lisa was still stuck in transit hell. The reading went really well, I met some lovely folk, and a big YAY to home-girl Jennifer Breukelaar, who was in NYC and came along, and to Alp Beck who took some great photos of the event.
Photo by Lisa
I’d been able to get a late checkout at the hotel and my travel agent at home changed our train tickets from the morning to the afternoon trip (no extra charge! Thanks, Ben!). An exhausted and bedraggled Brain turned about 10.30 the next morning (5 November), had a shower and then we walked around the corner to the French patisserie, which served good coffee and ever better pastries (and would become our breakfast home for the four days we returned to NYC after the con), and had a catch-up. In the afternoon we headed to Penn Station, armed with knowledge from Kathleen Jennings (who always goes before and sends helpful tips back) about the usefulness of Redcaps in guiding one to the train, and sat around for a bit waiting for our train. And yes, I was a wee bit disappointed to find that the Redcaps were not gnomes with actual red caps, but probably for the best that your luggage isn’t taken by a murderous goblin.
With the Sisters Marshall
Train trip was uneventful, although as we chugged into the mists coming off the Hudson, Lisa observed that we were either going into Tír na nÓg or a Stephen King novel. On arrival at our hotel in Saratoga Springs we found Haralambi Markov! Huzzah! A meeting in person at long last. 
And Nicole Korhner-Stace! And later on Cat Valente! And Helen and Laura Marshall and Chris Roberts and Garth Nix and Jonathan Strahan and Ellen Datlow and Gemma Files and Irene Gallo and Lee Harris and Kelly Link and Gavin Grant and John HS Stevens and Martin Cahill and Alyx Dellamonica and Kelly Robson and Michael Kelly and Marianne De Pierres and Delia Sherman and Ellen Kushner and Usman Tanveer Malik and Jeffrey Ford and Janeen Webb, and and and … a whirlwind of most excellent humans … and if I’ve forgotten you, I’m sorry, but I do love you!
What they want you to think happened
I won’t go into great detail about the next four days, mainly because it’s all a blur at this point, but Lisa’s post gives you some idea. I did a panel about ghosts with Helen Marshall, Sandra Kasturi, Stephanie Feldman and Kit Reed. I did a reading from Of Sorrow and Such, its first outing, which seemed to go well. Went to dinner with the lovely folk from Tor.com; collected Tremontaine cakes and went to buy a new suitcase with Kelly Robson; went to the Tremontaine launch party (plum brandy fountain! cakes!); had dinner with the lovely Jo Fletcher, Ian Drury, Lisa Hannett and Robert Jackson Bennett. Looked longingly at art, which I could not afford, bought books, talked until my throat was hoarse, caught up with friends, made new ones, ate food that didn’t come from mini-bars.
What really happened
The Big Thing was winning a World Fantasy Award for Best Collection for The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings. The really excellent thing was sharing the award with the fabulous Helen Marshall and her amazing collection Gifts for the One Who Comes After (you should go and buy it, really you should). It was a lovely surprise and a shock and an honour; then it got even better going out to dinner at an excellent Mexican restaurant with the Sisters Marshall, Lisa, Chris and friends!
Photo by Lisa
The next day it was back to NYC for more good coffee, pastries, hotdogs, pretzels, and culture! Over the next few days we went to the Tor.com offices in the Flatiron Building and recorded an interview, had lunch with the adorable Katharine Duckett, Mordicai Knode, and Lee Harris (and ran into Harry Markov, too!). We wandered along 5th Avenue (a heart-breaking juxtaposition of the homeless and the lost propped up against the ridiculous richness of shops like Prada and Versace and Apple) to Bill Shunn’s launch of The Accidental Terrorist. We raced around the Guggenheim in 25mins before it closed, we meandered through Central Park and then found the Met where we stuck our noses against the glass of the Medieval collections cases. We went out to The Cloisters for a morning and mourned that there was not more Cloisters (we loved The Cloisters, we want more Cloisters — although, having read John Connolly’s The Killing Kind, I couldn’t help but imagine Mickey Shine’s head on one of the candelabrum in a corner).
And on our last night in NYC we went to dinner at the amazing apartment of the amazing Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman. Gorgeous dinner, fabulous company, and we brought NZ wine (coz the Oz selection was shite) and French macarons. We left with heads spinning and hearts overflowing.
And then it was done. I went to the airport and got home without incident. Lisa had a few more hours to kill and did so at the Met once more. I got the great, big, ugly Howie head through security; I did get pulled aside in both JFK and LAX airports, but security staff were pretty impressed when they saw the damned thing and let me through with no further incidents. 
I had two days at home then David and I flew off to New Zealand for our first proper holiday in two years. Which was awesome! We love NZ. We saw stuff, drank wine, visited Hobbiton and the Weta Workshop coz, nerds. And then home. And back to edits on Vigil. And now I am madly trying to hit all of my March deadlines, all the while making noises like a boiling teakettle.
Those are pretty much the highlights.
So, 2016 for me looks like this on the publishing side:
1 x novel, Vigil
2 x short story collections
4 x original short stories in various anthologies
And writing-wise:
Deliver 1 x novel, Corpselight
Write 1x novel of some description
Write 1 x book of film crit on Hammer Horror’s Karnstein Trilogy
Write and deliver 7 original short stories
Deliver 1 x edited novella to Spectral Press
I’ll be at Contact 2016 (NatCon and Aurealis Awards) in March in Brisbane (which is highly convenient), but am not sure about my other travelling arrangements for this year. Probably no WFC for me as the cost is just huge coming from Australia. I’ve got a two week residency gig, but details aren’t yet available so let’s just pretend I didn’t say anything.
Have a Happy New Year, folks, stay safe.
December 27, 2015
Coming in January 2016 …
Art by Greg Ruth
… which is very, very close! “Finnegan’s Field” will be available soon – my horror novelette edited by the redoubtable Ellen Datlow for Tor.com.
Most excellent and disturbing cover by the mucho talented Greg Ruth.
You can pre-order it here.
In Irish lore, when children go under the hill they don’t come out again.
Ever.
When children go under the hill, they stay where they’re put.
Forever.
When children go under the hill, parents, though they pray and search, don’t truly think to see them anymore.
Never.
December 24, 2015
And Then interviews: Tansy Rayner Roberts
Clan Destine Press is bringing out a new anthology And Then, and you can read interviews with the authors here over the next few weeks. The indiegogo campaign might have ended, but you should still check out the authors and their stories.
And our final And Then interview is with the delightful Tansy Rayner Roberts.
What inspired your tale?
I’d been reading about the history of the circus, and there’s something about the community of misfits with crazy, unreal talents that sparked the part of my brain that also loves superhero stories. And dragons. I had this very clear idea about two assassins who are trying to escape their former life by creating new, civilian identities… but actual normal life isn’t going to be something they can manage. Moving into a dragon circus and protecting it from its enemies, though, that’s something they can do.
What appealed to you about this project?
The idea of stories revolving around pairs of heroes clicked immediately for me because I already had this circus idea burning a hole in my Scrivener file. I knew the story fit the concept, I knew it was going to be longer than a short story and crucially, the project gave me a deadline to make sure I got the story finished. 2015 has been a year of self-generated deadlines for me, so having an external date and someone waiting gave me the impetus I needed to dig in and write this particular novelette from beginning to end.
What advantages does a long-short form offer?
Oh I’m completely in love with the long-short form right now. I’ve always struggled to write at the short story length, and I’ve just come off writing the longest novel of my career – a book so long I had to divide it into two volumes. The story and character ideas I’ve been having lately are coming in character-rich scenarios that need at least 8-10 thousand words to explore and may well need multiple stories that connect to each other. And for getting published, there are a lot more opportunities at this length now (because of e-publishing) than there ever used to be. You get more character development in at the novelette-novella range, but without the need for a massive, all-encompassing plot structure. I’m actually starting a new podcast next year to publish serialised long-short stories (sometimes multiple stories with the same characters) because I like the form so much!
The future of short fiction is …
There’s always going to be a place for the anthology but I think more and more, the longer short story as an individual title (published electronically) is going to be key to authors building a reputation for themselves.
What’s next for you? 
I’m launching my new podcast around February, I have a Victorian fairy novel to finish writing, and I am waiting to hear if my Musketeer Space novel (now two novels) finds A Publisher other than my blog. I also have the next in my murder mystery series coming out from Twelfth Planet Press later next year: Keep Calm and Kill the Chef.
Tansy Rayner Roberts is the author of the Creature Court trilogy, Ink Black Magic and Love & Romanpunk, among many other SFF books. She is a Hugo-award winning blogger and podcaster, living in Tasmania with her family. You can find Tansy at her blog http://tansyrr.com/ and on Twitter @tansyrr. Tansy also writes cozy culinary murder mysteries under the name Livia Day.
December 23, 2015
In the afternoon mail …
… came this lovely thing: my contributor’s copy of The Night Land Quarterly, Volume 3.
Among other things, it contains my tale “The Heart is a Mirror for Sinner” in Japanese – the first time the story has ever appeared anywhere!
Seeing stories in translation never gets old for me – even if it’s languages I cannot read.
And Then interviews: Lucy Sussex
Clan Destine Press is bringing out a new anthology And Then, and you can read interviews with the authors here over the next few weeks. The indiegogo campaign might have ended, but you should still check out the authors and their stories.
Today, And Then author Lucy Sussex talks about “Batgirl in Borneo”.
What inspired “Batgirl in Borneo”?
Going to Borneo for a very inter-cultural wedding, and finding a fascinating diversity, of fauna, flora and people. And then missing an encounter with Islamic terrorists
by just two days.
What appealed to you about this project?
Rewriting the discourse of Borneo by writers like Agnes Keith, into
something that reflected the changes in the place, its complexity, and
its uncertain future.
What advantages does a long-short form offer?
Space, and narrative progression without a mass of wordage threatening
to collapse upon the reader.
The future of short fiction is …
Eternal.
What’s next for you?
Examining the hidden discourse of gay men around the time of the Oscar
Wilde trial.
Lucy Sussex was born in New Zealand. She has edited four anthologies, including She’s Fantastical (1995), shortlisted for the World Fantasy Award. Her award-winning fiction includes books for younger readers; and the novel, The Scarlet Rider (1996; reprinted 2015). She has five short story collections, My Lady Tongue, A Tour Guide in Utopia, Absolute Uncertainty, Matilda Told Such Dreadful Lies (a best of), and Thief of Lives. Her latest book is Blockbuster: Fergus Hume and The Mystery of a Hansom Cab (Text, 2015). It won the history section of the Victorian Community History Awards on Monday.
