Angela Slatter's Blog, page 68
October 26, 2015
Post at Tor.com: Five Books Containing Traces of Witches
Over at Tor.com I talk about five books containing traces of witches, specifically some magnificent works by Margo Lanagan, Juliet Marillier, Tanith Lee, Diana L. Paxson, and Emma Donoghue. Note: Seahearts was published as The Brides of Rollrock Island in the US.
Witches come in all shapes and sizes, ages, races, abilities and skills. The thing they have in common? Whether they’re ‘white’ or ‘black’, they excite fear because they’re powerful; they’re not obedient or biddable. A wicked witch is kind of boring, however, so when I wrote Of Sorrow and Such I wanted Patience to be someone who’s neither entirely good nor evil, but a human being in full. Following on from that idea, here are some witches who are more than the cardboard cut-outs you put on your house for Halloween.
The rest is here.
October 23, 2015
Dead Letters Cover
The cover for Dead Letters, the anthology edited by Conrad Williams and published by Titan Books, has been revealed! All of the contributors are on the cover, so huzzah! I’ve got a weird and nasty story in this one.
October 22, 2015
Last “Flight” postcards
The last of the lovely Flight postcards have arrived, so we’ll be packing them to take to WFC and leave in strategic locations around the con hotel – collect the whole set! Thanks to Sue at Tiny Owl Workshop for organising this and to Kathleen for putting such gorgeous art with my words.
October 21, 2015
Horrorology in my hot little hands!
It’s arrived! Horrorology: The Lexicon of Fear, Stephen Jones’ new anthology, out via the delightful Jo Fletcher Books, with artwork (and a new story!) by Clive Barker. Look at that ToC!
October 20, 2015
Flight collateral
Kathleen and I will be taking some of these Flight coasters and postcards with us to WFC! Thanks to Sue of Tiny Owl Workshop.
Powerful What-ifs: Kim Newman’s Red Reign
Over at Tor.com I talk about Kim Newman’s Red Reign and all the things I learned from it.
As both a writer and reader I think it’s safe to say that I’ve always learned the most from the books I’ve hated on first reading. Sometimes that lesson has been to avoid a particular author ever after. Other times—and these are the more valuable incidents—I’ve realised I must go back to certain books and read them again. Something, some internal voice far wiser than I, insists, nagging at me until I obey.
These books invariably have one thing in common: they leave a trace in my brain, a hook 
I simply can’t forget or remove. Something that makes me return to try to figure out what it was that annoyed me so much in the first place. Invariably, again, what I discover is that these books have challenged what I think I know; they shake my long-held beliefs about writing, about history, about literature, about the things I consider to be set in stone. They are tomes that buck the system, flip the bird to my preconceptions, and make me ponder more deeply. They crack open my skull and let light in, they change the way I think—and change is always painful and difficult to accept.
And yet…
The rest is here.
GenreCon 2015 – You Really, Really Need To Be There
There are still a few registrations left for GenreCon – they do close on 25 October, however, so if you’ve been wavering might I suggest you get your butt into gear?
Now, let me be clear: this isn’t a ‘con’ in the sense of a fan-run event. The point isn’t to discuss how much we love Doctor Who (even though we do) or to discuss the finer points of an Astro Boy-meets-Wolverine cosplay (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
No, the point is to come along and be a professional, or learn how to be a professional writer. Or, as it says in the brochure: From the catered meals through to discussion panels through to the the Glamour and Grunge Banquet, GenreCon is designed to give attendees the chance to meet and make real connections with other writers, editors, and established professionals.
If you’ve been wondering what you’ve been doing wrong all these years, how you can possibly translate your love of writing into something that might one day resemble a career, then this is the place to be. I cannot recommend this professional gathering highly enough.
Details are here.
October 19, 2015
Bitterwood cards!
We used some of Kathleen’s beautiful illustrations for Bitterwood to make these lovely cards. Thanks, Moo.com for the lovely finished product!
WFC Schedule updates
A few updates to my WFC schedule: the Thursday panel is now at 4pm, and Helen Marshall has been added to the Friday panel – Helen Marshall should always be added to everything!! The whole thing is here.
My appearances:
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5 @ 4.00pm in CC2B
Monsters as Devourers
Our cherished monsters, be they vampire, werewolf, or zombie, are driven by an insatiable appetite to devour what they once were, namely us. Is there a sacrificial/sacramental aspect to this hunger or is it firmly rooted in a psycho-sexual fixation. Perhaps it is simply the yearning to recover a lost humanity?
Nina K. Hoffman (mod.), Frederic Durbin, Nancy Kilpatrick, Angela Slatter, John Wiswell
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6 @ 2.00pm in CC2B
Darkened Rooms, Newly Tenanted
Over the past decade or so, the ghost novel has returned to the literary mainstream with a vigor not seen in nearly a century. Consider such fine works as Dennis McFarland’s A Face at the Window, Helen Oyeyemi’s The Icarus Girl, and Arthur Phillips’ Angelica, to name but a few. Is this a passing shadow, or a renewed presence?
Sandra Kasturi (mod.), Ramsey Campbell, Stephanie Feldman, Helen Marshall, Kit Reed, Angela Slatter
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7 @ 1.30 in Broadway 1
Reading
• Angela Slatter (right after Charles de Lint! Eeeek!)
October 18, 2015
Focus 2014 Interviews: Kaaron Warren
Photo credit Andrew Sikorski
Today the wonderful Kaaron Warren talks Focus 2014 from Fablecroft.
What was the inspiration for your story, “Death’s Door Cafe”?
This story was inspired a visit to the National Museum, where they had an exhibit of items relating to Ben Hall and his gang. There was a large door in the middle of the room, filled with bullet-holes. This was where one of the men was shot; you could probably remove DNA samples from the holes if you wanted to. It struck me that many doors have deaths behind or in front of them, and I wondered what it would be like to gather a lot of these doors in one place.
What should new readers know about you?
I’m afraid of the dark, large crowds, mold spores, confined spaces, violence, unpredictability, loss, viciousness, a lack of kindness. I’m afraid of the world my children will have to live with.
Some people say to write about the dark side of life you need to be immune to it.
I say the opposite. It’s only by being deeply affected by the world around me that I can write stories that have any value.
Can you remember the first story you read that made you want to be a writer? 
Two anthologies I read at the same time did this. I think I was about ten when I read them.
Ten Tales, edited by A.A. Phillips, had three stories that remain among my favourites.
“The Bottle Imp” R.L. Stevenson
“Exit” Harry Farjeon
“The Truth about Pyecraft” H.G. Wells.
Stories of Suspense, edited by Mary E. MacEwen
I could easily give you the whole table of contents; it’s a brilliant book. But there were two in particular that I read and re-read.
“The Birds” Daphne du Maurier
“Flowers for Algernon” Daniel Keyes
Name your top five favourite authors.
Yeah, too hard! I’ll give you some authors I love this week!
William Vollman
Lisa Tuttle
Norman Prentiss
And I’m going to cheat and name two non-fiction writers, because they inspire and inform my own fiction
David Grann
Rebecca Solnit
The future of Australian spec-fic is …?
Brave.
Bram Stoker , twice-World Fantasy Award Nominee and Shirley Jackson Award winner Kaaron Warren has lived in Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and Fiji. She’s sold almost 200 short stories, three novels (the multi-award-winning Slights, Walking the Tree and Mistification) and five short story collections including the multi-award-winning Through Splintered Walls. Her latest short story collection is Cemetery Dance Select: Kaaron Warren. Kaaron is a guest at GenreCon this year.
You can find her at http://kaaronwarren.wordpress.com/ and she Tweets @KaaronWarren
