Angela Slatter's Blog, page 69

Midnight in Karachi

Last week I had a chat with the lovely Mahvesh Murad of Midnight in Karachi, who’s an excellent interviewer!

You can list to this Tor.com podcast here. Witches! Stevie Nicks! Kate Bush! Fairy tales! Genre ghetto!

Focus 2014 Interviews: Cat Sparks

Today, Cat Sparks talks “The Seventh Relice” for the Focus 2014 interviews.

What was the inspiration for your story, The Seventh Relic?

I was researching the history of Buddhism as background for another story when the idea for this one popped into my head. That happens so often – research leads to research leads to research and stories fall out of your head whether you want them or not.

Walking up and down the hills behind our house one day, I was struck by the view across low lying suburbs; a splash of light falling on the Nan Tien Buddhist temple, reputedly the largest of its kind in the southern hemisphere. I’d visited the temple a couple of times and been amused by the horrible gaudy statues scattered about the otherwise quite beautiful gardens.

Seventh Relic is a mishmash of many ideas and impressions. People I’ve interacted with, details I have parsed, particularly from 15 years ago when I lived in Sydney and worked in boring office jobs. I used to take a lot of classes — dance classes mostly. I used to meet a lot of women, some of them cool and interesting, others less so. Danielle is a pastiche of some of those women mixed in with some of me. I wanted to write a character so shallow, so vacuous and hollow that her lack of content almost becomes a transcendental force in itself.

What should new readers know about you?

A few things: that I do not write consolatory or comfortable fiction. That,one way or another, all of my stories are themed commentaries on society. That most of my stories are dark, although I do live in hope that this may not always prove to be the case. That studying climate change and climate fiction has utterly altered the way I see the world — and the world is reflected in every word I write.

Can you remember the first story you read that made you want to be a writer?

Not as such. The process didn’t work that way for me. Rather what happened was that I became so much of a fan, so serious about my love of particular genres that I wanted to crawl inside the fiction, to live inside of it. The only way to achieve this was to become a storyteller myself. Something like that anyway.

I do recall buying a collection of Patricia Highsmith short stories before embarking on a long and tedious coach trip nearly 20 years ago – I can’t remember when or where – only that the book cost one dollar and that the stories freaked me out completely and made me wonder how the hell do you do this? The stories were so unusual and clever. Tales Of Natural And Unnatural Catastrophes the collection was called. (I just Googled to make sure I got the title right but I didn’t need to – some things once embedded in your head remain there).

Name your top five favourite authors.

I’m not sure I can name my top five authors – such a list is in a constant state of flux but I can definitely name my top two of the moment. Kim Stanley Robinson and David Mitchell. Robinson for his deep concerns for our world, its future fate and continuing existence. The way he uses science to enhance and illuminate human condition(s), despite consistently referring to himself as ‘merely an arts major’. My love affair with his work began with Red Mars, a novel so detailed, so intricate, that I couldn’t help but believe every bit of it. When I am 100 years old and barking mad, I reckon I’ll remember myself as one of the first 100 Martian colonists, because it certainly feels like I was one of them. But Robinson didn’t stop at Mars. 2312 was the text that altered my perspective on gender fluidity forever and Aurora… Just go read it. Read all of his books.

And as for Mitchell … Where do I even start? His wordsmithery is beyond compare. Crispin Hershey, aside from being a rollicking good read, contains some of the most sophisticated deep time wingnut fantasy conspiracy theory conceits that I have ever come across – plus the utterly adorable Crispin Hershey, the offensive writer to trump all offensive writers everywhere. Were I to write a novel as deeply layered and engaging as this one, I would probably lay down quietly and die when I got to the end, my work on this planet done. But not Mitchell. Oh no. Only one year on and he has already banged out another book. I’m too scared to read it in case my head explodes. I thought The Bone Clocks was better than Cloud Atlas. I want to go back and read again, even though it’s bigger than the Bible.

The future of Australian spec-ficis …?

We are definitely getting sharper and smarter. More of us are doing it better, transcending our borders and finding homes for our stories in big classy foreign publications. Our landscapes and cultures are becoming more familiar to overseas readers. I think the days of fictional cultural cringe are now firmly behind us.

Cat Sparks is a multi-award-winning author, editor and artist whose former employment has included: media monitor, political and archaeological photographer, graphic designer and manager of Agog! Press amongst other (much less interesting) things. She’s currently fiction editor of Cosmos Magazine while simultaneously grappling with a PhD on YA climate change fiction.Her debut novel, Lotus Blue, is forthcoming from Skyhorse Publications.

 

 

Focus 2014 Interviews: Kathleen Jennings

Today our cover artist, Kathleen Jennings, weighs in on Focus 2014.

What was the inspiration for the cover art for Focus 2014?

Cranky Ladies! This was one of the early sketches for Cranky Ladies of History (Fablecroft). We hadn’t worked out yet which ladies would be in the book or on the cover, so I was trying out some of them in pen and ink, then messed around with it on the computer. The more I read history, the more I wonder whether there are any ladies in history who *weren’t* cranky in one way or another. Even the demure little wives seem to have weaponised that trait fairly consistently.

You’re a writer as well as an artist – what should new readers know about you?

I love pulling apart old stories and putting them back together at odd angles. Also, I’m rarely happy with my own illustrations for and of my own stories. I think they come from the same storytelling place but reach the world by different paths.

Can you remember the first story you read that made you want to be a writer, and the first piece of artwork that made you want to be an artist?

My initial thought is Narnia x 2 (Lewis and Baynes). But in fact it probably goes back to Little Red Riding Hood, which I made my father read 76 times before he broke and found Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books to read instead, and Garth Williams’ soft, rounded illustrations for those often harsh stories: the flowers on the cover of On The Banks of Plum Creek, perhaps, or the cousins’ boots in Little House in the Big Woods. Elements of both the fairytale and Wilder’s stories had a lot of resonance with parts of my childhood, and I do love to combine the terrible and strange with the beautiful and homely. However, Pauline Baynes’ illustrations for the Chronicles of Narnia definitely crystallised the narrative illustration style I love. And then I found Alan Lee’s window on Middle Earth. Lately I’ve been coming to appreciate more the artists who have a narrative/visual shorthand, e.g. Ardizzone and Blake and Oslo.

Name your top five favourite authors and top five artists.

Today it is:

Authors: Diana Wynne Jones. Dorothy Sayers. Georgette Heyer. Charles Dickens. G K Chesterton. (A more recent selection of people whose books I have clutched to my chest? Angela Slatter, Catherynne M Valente, Delia Sherman, Ellen Kushner, Kelly Link)

Illustrators: Pauline Baynes. M. M. Kaye. Margaret Horder. Thea Proctor. Arthur Rackham. (More recent: Rovina Cai, the Balbussos, Charles Vess, Shaun Tan, Kali Ciesemier, this is really hard)

The future of Australian spec-fic is …?

Vigorous, beautiful and hopeful. Good directions are as important as dire warnings.

Kathleen Jennings is a World Fantasy Award nominated, Ditmar Award winning illustrator and writer from Queensland, Australia. Her latest illustrations are for the covers of Tremontaine[http://www.tor.com/2015/10/07/revealing-kathleen-jennings-cover-art-for-tremontaine/], the prequel to Ellen Kushner’s Riverside novels, from Serial Box Publishing, but very soon you will get to see her illustrations for Angela Slatter’s Flight. She is most frequently online at http://tanaudel.wordpress.com

Worldbuilding in the Sourdough Universe

So, today is the actual book day for Of Sorrow and Such in the US. I celebrated early, then while I was sleeping the book was born! Easiest. Birth. Ever.

Over at Tor.com I talk about the building of the world in the Sourdough stories. Kathleen Jennings beta read it for me, then turned in some illustrations just for fun coz she’s nice like that.

Amongst the sweetest phrases I’ve ever heard from my mother’s lips are “I love you,” “I’ve made lemon meringue pie” (those two meaning, essentially, the same thing), and “Once upon a time.” All three still fill me with roughly the same degree of happiness, but I don’t hear that last one anymore. It’s not for lack of trying; I do keep asking.

“Tell me a story?”

“You’re forty-eight years old.”

“And you’re seventy-one, so tell me a story before you forget how!”

So far no luck. Come to think of it, the lemon meringues have been a bit thin on the ground, too. Hmmm.

Nevertheless, the thrill of “Once upon a time” never leaves me, never dims. It’s the story addict’s equivalent of a ringing bell and the response is equally Pavlovian. I know, when I hear those words, that I will be transported. That the room or train carriage or café or bus in which I’m sitting is about to disappear; I will be elsewhere. It might be familiar, a beloved territory visited over and again, or a place unexpectedly remade and strange. It can be as static as my memory chooses or as mutable, sometimes with just small details tweaked or enlarged, a colour shaded from pale pink to blood red, with snow-white sequins or wings as black as ebony added in for good measure.

The once-upon-a-time world is one I’m (mostly) in charge of, so when I decided to write it should have been the easiest thing on the planet to do the worldbuilding, right?

Apparently not.

The rest is here.

Focus 2014 Interviews: Tehani Wessely

Our fearless editor, Tehani Wessely talks about Fablecroft and what on earth possessed her to start the Focus series.

What was the inspiration for the Focus volumes?

The inspiration lies squarely at the feet of Deborah Biancotti. Several of us were having a discussion about some ToCs that had been recently announced, and noting how few award winners were appearing in Year’s Best anthologies. Deb said something along the lines of “Wouldn’t it be great if someone would put together 8 or 10 award winners in a well-priced ebook? I’d buy that.” And well, the rest is history…

What should new readers know about Fablecroft?

That the editor is sometimes really slow at responding to emails but will always, ALWAYS get back to you… Also that we work really hard to promote and showcase our contributors as far and wide as we can, whether they are novelists, short story writers, essayists, poets or artists. The charter of the press is always to support emerging and established Australian authors (though we love our international contributors equally!) – we’re extraordinarily proud of the work we publish and want as many readers as possible to get their hands on it too.

Can you remember the first story you read that really made an impression on  you?

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell. Truth! I think it’s the point when I feel in love with character-based storytelling as well, which is still my favourite type. I went through a long phase that lasted well into my teens reading almost exclusively horse books… Possibly also why I’m a big fan of dragons, it has been suggested!

Name your top five favourite authors.

Angela, that’s like asking me which is my favourite child! I am only going to name international authors, because I love too many Aussie ones to make so short a list.

Lois McMaster Bujold

Anne McCaffrey

Robin Hobb

Martha Wells

JD Robb

But if you asked me again tomorrow, I’d probably give you five different ones. And five more again the next day! In fact, that’s a good idea – maybe I’ll tweet that…

The future of Australian spec-fic is …

…full of possibility. We are able to do so many things now that we couldn’t do two, five, ten years ago. Who KNOWS where we’ll be in another two, five or ten years. I can’t wait to find out!

Tehani Wessely was a founding member of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine in 2001 and started her own boutique publishing house, FableCroft Publishing, in 2010. Now firmly entrenched in Australian speculative fiction and independent press, she has judged for several national literary awards and reads far more in one genre than is healthy. Find her online at fablecroft.com.au and @fablecroft or @editormum75 on Twitter.

 

 

Reading in New York City

So, on 4 November Lisa L. Hannett and I will be doing readings at the Kill Bar in NYC – inside the Times Scare Haunted House Attraction in Times Square New York (SQUEEEE!). Just like real writers!

It’s part of the Night Time Logic series and the details are here – if you’ve not already headed off to Saratoga Springs then come along. And if you have already headed off to WFC, we’re both giving readings there.

 

Showcasing Real, Fantastical Women: Angela Slatter’s Of Sorrow and Such

The lovely Melissa Ann Singer talks about the women in Of Sorrow and Such here.

I often complain about how rare it is to have a book, TV show, or film be driven by relationships between women. Stories seem to me to be primarily driven by relationships between men or between men and women. Often there’s only one woman in the story in the first place, or, if there’s more than one, they never meet. When relationships between women are seen, they are often framed in the context of each woman’s relationship to a man who knows them both (for instance, a wife and her mother-in-law); or the women are portrayed competitors.

To me, that doesn’t reflect the real world, where my relationships with women are as varied and complex as the women I know. Sometimes people say I’m reading the “wrong kind” of books, that there’s plenty of what I want in women’s fiction. While that’s true to a degree—I read women’s fiction too—I love category fiction. SF/F, horror/UF, mystery/suspense/thriller are my go-tos. And if there’s room in those stories for all kinds of male relationships, there’s room for all kinds of female relationships too.

Which is part of why Of Sorrow and Such by Angela Slatter made me so happy. In this slim volume of fantasy there are a wealth of women’s relationships, which both spoke to me and propelled the story.

World Fantasy 2015 Schedule

Got my WFC schedule all sorted! The whole thing is here.

My appearances:

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5 @ 6.00pm 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, Kit Reed, Angela Slatter

 

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7 @ 1.30 in Broadway 1

Reading

• Angela Slatter (right after Charles de Lint! Eeeek!)

 

 

Of Sorrow and Such … almost there!

So, Of Sorrow and Such launches on 13 October … due to the vagaries of time travel, it’s already 13 October in Oz … but not in the US … so still a few hours to go!

But you can read an excerpt here or listen to an excerpt from the audiobook here – read by Marisa Calin, who does such a superb job I’m never going to be able to do a public reading of this story! – or even go and pre-order it here.

I’ve been so lucky with this novella and with Tor.com and all the love they’ve heaped upon it!

To celebrate, I’ve eaten leftover lemon meringue pie for breakfast and torn up a piece of paper to give myself a ticker tape parade. Yes, authors are sad.

Focus 2014 Interviews: Charlotte Nash

Portrait of Author Charlotte Nash

Today, the multi-talented Charlotte Nash (brain the size of a planet) talks about her tale in Focus 2014.

What was the inspiration for your story “The Ghost of Hephaestus”?

A mash together of two things – firstly, what might have happened to all those Greek gods after the ancient era?; and secondly, a steampunk cyborg. I thought that could be cool.

What should new readers know about you?

I always like to read stories without knowing much about the writer first. But to give you an answer, I’d say that I’m still exploring around with genre, so my back-catalogue is somewhat … eclectic. A bit like my whole work career, really. I blame being a Gemini. And the rational part of my mind groaned when I wrote that.

Can you remember the first story you read that made you want to be a writer?

Jurassic Park.

Name your top five favourite authors.

Neal Stephenson

Ted Chiang

Michael Crichton

Jilly Cooper

Liane Moriarty

The future of Australian spec-fic is …?

Just around the corner.