Angela Slatter's Blog, page 7
June 6, 2023
Brain Jar Press bundles …
In the lead-up to the release of my new short story collection, The Wrong Girl and Other Warnings… Did you know you can get two great Angela Slatter (Hi, it’s me, definitely the problem) short story collections as a bundle deal over at Brain Jar Press? Links below for Red New Day and Other Microfictions and Winter Children and Other Chilling Tales (and yes, I do like extravagantly long titles).And because Brain Jar prints in the country-of-order, you won’t end up having to pay unspeakable shipping costs from Australia …Sneak peek at the Wrong Girl cover (9 reprints and 3 new microfictions): 
June 4, 2023
The Book of Witches – pre-order
The Book of Witches, edited by the redoubtable Jonathan Strahan, is available for pre-order. The book is out on 1 August 2023 and contains many strange and wondrous stories, including one of mine,of which I’m particularly proud.
The ToC: Linda Addison, C.L. Clark, P Djeli Clark, Indrapramit Das, Amal El Mohtar, Andrea Hairston, Millie Ho, Saad Hossain, Kathleen Jennings, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Cassandra Khaw, Fonda Lee, Darcie Little Badger, Ken Liu, Usman T. Malik, Maureen F. McHugh, Premee Mohamed, Garth Nix, Tobi Ogundiran, Tochi Onyebuchi, Miyuki Jane Pinckard, Kelly Robson, Angela Slatter, Andrea Stewart, Emily Teng, Sheree Renée Thomas, Tade Thompson, and E. Lily Yu. It;s also illustrated by three-time Hugo award-nominated artist Alyssa Winans.
The anthology comes out on 1 August 2023, but you can preorder it now from all good book stores and sources, including:
HarperCollinsBarnes & NobleBookshop.org Books-A-MillionAmazon
June 3, 2023
The Aurealis Awards!
Last night the annual Aurealis Awards ceremony took place in Canberra and I’m honoured to say that The Path of Thorns won Best Fantasy Novel! Huge thanks to my dear editor Cath Trechman and the whole team at Titan for making this book sing – and for their patience because I was editing it right up until the night before we went to print (due to teaching commitments, illness and a perfect storm of other unfortunate events).
The shortlists are always amazing, representing the best in Australian fiction (speculative or otherwise) and a true honour to be included. Congrats to all the other finalists and winners – the full list is here – and a massive thanks to the judges and organisers who make everything go right on the night! And a huge thanks to Jo Anderton for delivering my acceptance speech and taking photos of the new shiny!
May 1, 2023
New collection from Brain Jar Press
From Brain Jar Press:It’s a pretty open secret that we’re gearing up to release a new Angela Slatter collection later this year. There’s news about that coming soon, but if you’re looking for some Angela Slatter fiction to slake your thirst in the meantime, might we suggest reading (or re-reading) the extraordinary Red New Day?It’s one of the first Angela Slatter books we published here at Brian Jar Press, and still one of our favourites!Find out more: https://www.brainjarpress.com/…/red-new-day-other…/Also, sign up for their newsletter for discounts on pre-orders and to learn more about The Wrong Girl and Other Warnings …
April 15, 2023
Free Book
Ghosts, brides, and vengeance! Angela Slatter’s ‘No Good Deed’ is FREE on all platforms, which means you can pick up it up for the low price of ZERO DOLLARS! If you’ve already read this one, perhaps consider spreading the word to a friend who’ll enjoy a slice of gothic fantasy.
Grab No Good Deed Today!
BLURB
Angela Slatter’s No Good Deed is a dark fantasy tale of magic, ghosts, and marriage set in her World Fantasy Award-winning Sourdough universe.
Isobel assumed her wedding would be the grandest day of her life, but when she wakes in a ghost-filled tomb still wearing her bridal veil, it’s clear events have taken an unexpected turn.
With the assistance of a vengeful spirit Isobel escapes her imprisonment, but her new husband Adolphus will not be pleased to discover his wife is alive. As Isobel comes to understand her husband’s darkest secret, the newlyweds begin a deadly dance that only one will survive.
This chapbook presents a stand-alone Sourdough story that does not appear in any of the three mosaic collections devoted to Slatter’s world of myth and magic, plus a chronology for all the publications that have appeared thus far.
January 16, 2023
BSFA Longlists
Longlists for the British Science Fiction Association Awards are out in the wild, and I’m delighted that The Path of Thorns is in the Best Novel category!
Here.
Dymocks 101 Voting
It’s time: the annual Dymocks Top 101 is open for voting … and The Path of Thorns is one of the books you can vote for … just so you know …
Go here!
January 1, 2023
Castle Full of Blackbirds Collection
In around about June of 2023 the four-issue Castle Full of Blackbirds series will be collected together in a single volume with this amazing cover by Wylie Beckert. Story by Mike Mignola and I, internal artwork by Valeria Burzo, colour by Michelle Madsen and lettering by Clem Robins.
Variant covers for the individual issues were by Vanesa Del Rey, Marianna Strychowska, Evangeline Gallagher, and A. H. Szabla.
December 30, 2022
2022 The Year in Review
Well, that was a year. Year Three of the Plague? Who counts anymore? What even is time?
At any rate, there were good friends and family around, and there were publications – even though as I contemplated making this post, it was with my usual “I did nothing” moroseness. But I did do things, quite a lot actually.
Novel:
The Path of Thorns (Titan Books) is my love letter to Jane Eyre, Frankenstein and Dark Shadows – and and it made the Oprah Daily Top 25 Best Fantasy Books for 2022.
Comic: 
I got to do something I never thought possible, and write a comic with Mike Mignola, set in the Hellboy Universe: Castle Full of Blackbirds (Dark Horse Comics). The internal artwork by Valeria Burzo and the covers by Wylie Beckert were incredible. We also had amazing variant covers by Vanesa Del Rey, Marianna Strychowska, Evangeline Gallagher, and A. H. Szabla. If I never get to do another comic again (but I really hope I do!) then I’ll be okay with that because I love this one so much, and it was a dream experience.
Novella:
The Bone Lantern (Absinthe Books) – thanks to Marie O’Regan for asking if I had anything for the 2022 Absinthe run! I got to put Selke in a wagon, travelling across the Sourdough world, meeting a werewolf, and telling tales Scheherazade-style to stay alive. It’s got a weird structure, and I’m working on the follow-up. The amazing cover is by the ever-amazing Daniele Serra.
Short Stories:
“Solivagant,” Isolation, Dan Coxon (ed.), Titan Books. Dan asked for a story about isolation – I gave him something weird and lonely. 
“Songs from Dark Annie’s Bower,” Gaslight Ghouls: Uneasy Tales of Sherlock Holmes, Monsters & Madmen, Charles Prepolec and Jeff Campbell (eds.), Belanger Books. I got another chance to bring Kit Caswell out to play with Holmes and Watson.
“The Woman Who Married the Minotaur,” Sunday Morning Transport Fran Wilde & Julian Yap (eds.). I was able to play with some favourite Greek mythology and write a sad love story.
Non-Fiction:
What To Do When You Don’t Have A Book Coming Out & Even More Sage Advice (Brain Jar Press). The Brain Jar collected a bunch more of my profanity-laden essays for your reading pleasure. As ever, apologies for the assumption that all writers drink – they don’t, but I do like to joke about it (and will continue to do so).
Translations:
It’s always a special delight to see your work getting translated into other 
languages. In 2022, Of Sorrow and Such (novella) was translated into Spanish by Duermevela Ediciones, and they produced a truly beautiful version.
All the Murmuring Bones will be translated into Czech, Hungarian, Italian, Turkish, Dutch, Bulgarian and Spanish.
And The Path of Thorns will be translated into Polish!
Award shortlistings are always fun and I had some great finalist berths this year:
2022 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel: All the Murmuring Bones
2022 World Fantasy Award for Best Collection: The Tallow-Wife and Other Tales
2022 Locus Award for Non-Fiction: You Are Not Your Writing & Other Sage Advice
2022 Aurealis Award for Best Collection: The Tallow-Wife and Other Tales
2022 Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Novel: All the Murmuring Bones
2022 Australian Shadows Award for Best Collected Work:The Tallow-Wife and Other Tales
I think the best “highlight finish” was the fact that David Samuels very kindly created a signature cocktail for The Path of Thorns, the Morwood!
And so to next year: in theory there will be a new short story collection (The Wrong Girl and Other Warnings – Brain Jar Press), and three short stories, including “Through the Woods, Due West” in Jonathan Strahan’s The Book of Witches and “The Tissot Family Circus” in Twice Cursed edited by Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane. I don’t think The Briar Book of the Dead (my next Sourdough novel) will make it out until 2024 (due to publishing schedules), but it’s almost finished, so it will be out. PS Publishing will bring out a paperback version of The Heart is a Mirror for Sinners, as well as a paperback of Black-Winged Angels.
I did a LOT of teaching and it wore me out, frankly, so any teaching
Art by Kathleen Jennings
activities for 2023 will be minimal: The Art of Writing in Feb (taking a deep dive into Character), and Hidden Nerve at MARION in May. That’s it.
And that’s all, folks. Thanks to everyone who’s stuck around and been a support, and thanks to all the readers who keep me going!
December 22, 2022
The Art of Writing: Brisbane
Art by Kathleen Jennings
One of my very few teaching appearances in 2023 will be at Lisa Clifford’s The Art of Writing in Brisbane next Feb! I’ll be doing a deep-dive into creating characters.
Lisa usually runs her workshops in Florence, Italy so it’s a treat to be able to attend much closer to home. Here are the details.
The speakers for this three-day event are:
Lisa Clifford
Laurel Cohn
Literary agent Alex Adsett
Angela Slatter, author
Tabitha Bird, author
