Angela Slatter's Blog, page 9

Goal Setting (Literally)

I just wanted to give a shout-out to this wee book, Goal Setting (Literally), from Brain Jar’s Writer Chaps series (you can get it in ebook form or hard copy – and Brain Jar Press generally prints in your country so the postal costs are not huuuuuuuge).

Lee Murray has pulled together some very good, very succinct advice for writers at every point in their career. Lee was kind enough to answer some of my questions …

What can you tell us about Goal Setting (Literally): A Writer’s Guide?

I can tell you that I wrote this little chapbook in a strange ‘break’ between variants, when New Zealanders were able to travel and meet with friends. We went to Matamata (the Hobbits’ hometown for international readers) to a fabulous, rented farmhouse, ten speculative writer colleagues from all over the country gathering for a long-awaited writing retreat. It was idyllic. We walked up a mountain, sat around a campfire, ate too much, talked a lot, and in between we set down some words. And because writing retreats are all about reconnecting with like-minded people, about refreshing the well and asking where-to-from-here, I was thinking again about my own writing goals and my personal next steps. And as I listened to the conversations going on around me, it occurred to me that other writers might find my goal setting process useful. And that’s how Goal Setting (Literally) came about. Then the wonderful team at Australia’s Brain Jar Press came along and created the perfect little pocket-sized book that you can slip into your bag (or your pocket!), so you can remind yourself of those goals anywhere. I couldn’t be happier.

How has your own career fed into the writing of this chapbook?

This book is entirely based on my own writing career and the steps I took to become the writer I am today. Of course, I can only tell people what has worked (and not worked) for me, and everyone’s experience will be different, but I hope writers will find something of value in it. The goal setting exercises take less than an hour, but it just could be the most useful hour a writer spends all year.

What are the three big takeaways for writers from Goal Setting?

Three takeaways:

Success can look different, depending on where you are in your writing career and your personal motivation for writing.Goals change, so flexibility is key.I include a simple shortcut to help writers make rapid decisions about which tasks and projects to pursue in order to achieve their goals. We all like shortcuts, right?What inspires you as a writer?

Lately, looking at what’s happening around the globe—war, environmental disasters, food shortages, lack of healthcare, persecution, otherness—I’m finding fear and fury are great motivators. There’ s plenty to mine through prose, poetry, and essay. Speculative futures are closer than we think.

What’s next for Lee Murray?

I’m excited for the February 2023 release of Unquiet Spirits: Essays by Asian Women in Horror (co-edited with Angela Yuriko Smith, foreword by Lisa Kröger) which is exactly what it says on the box but is so so much more than that. The book picks up from my Bram Stoker Award-winning titles Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women, and Tortured Willows: Bent, Bowed, Unbroken, but rather than short stories or poetry, it includes 21 ‘messays’ from women of Asian descent, this time addressing the role of spirits and the supernatural in their lives. The result is wonderful and unexpected. I couldn’t be prouder. The messay format provides writers with a lot of freedom: it’s a meandering personal storytelling form, which draws on academic and popular sources as well as fiction and poetry excerpts to create richly woven narratives, full of nuance and candour. I can’t wait to share this empowering book with the world.

Lately, I’ve been working on several scripts. One of my goals over the past year has been expand my knowledge of scriptwriting. Happily, not only have I been fortunate enough to be involved in co-writing a horror feature script (based on someone else’s story idea) which will go into production next year, I have also had my head down writing the script for Hounds of the Underworld together with my Kiwi partner in darkness, co-author Dan Rabarts. Over the years since the Path of Ra series release, we’ve received a number of queries about film rights, so we’ve finally decided to bite the bullet and adapt the works ourselves. It’s great to be working with Dan again, and with characters we both know and love. Of course, film projects are even slower than publishing projects to come to fruition, so my newest goal should probably be a course in patience…

Lee Murray is a writer, editor, screenwriter, and poet from Aotearoa-New Zealand. She is a four-time Bram Stoker Awards® winner, Shirley Jackson Award winner, and a USA Today Bestselling author. Read more at  https://www.leemurray.info/

Hellboy: Castle Full of Blackbirds – all covers

I’m just blown away by these four covers by Wylie Beckert for the Hellboy: Castle Full of Blackbirds limited series! Story by myself and Mike Mignola, internal artwork by Valeria Burzo, colour by Michelle Madsen and lettering by Clem Robins.

Issue 1 is out now. You can order online from Comics Etc in Brisbane or Kings Comics in Sydney.

Of Sorrow and Such – Spanish Translation

I’m delighted to say that Duermevela Ediciones are publishing the Spanish translation of my novella, Of Sorrow and Such, which originally came out in English in 2015 via Tor.com. This beautiful cover is by the amazing Lilaeh.

Of Sorrow and Such is set in the world of the Sourdough, Bitterwood and Tallow-Wife collections from Tartarus Press. In Sourdough and Other Stories, we meet Patience Sykes in her youth and later her old age – this is a tale of her middle life, trying to survive the world, the god-hounds, and other witches.

And some of the events in Of Sorrow and Such influence the plot of my next novel, The Briar Book of the Dead.

Castle Full of Blackbirds …

Issue 1 of Castle Full of Blackbirds is out next week on 14 Sept. *inarticulate screaming*

Meanwhile, I’ve been talking about it in a variety of places (and trying to say different things!), so here’s a list of the current interviews:

Newsarama

Geek Vibes Nation

AIPT

And BuzzComics has some extra sneak peeks of the artwork by the amazing Valeria Burzo from Issue 1. We’ve also got stunning cover art by the incredible Wylie Beckert.

Twice Cursed Anthology

Twice Cursed is the newest anthology edited by Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane (out from Titan Books in April next year). You can pre-order it here.

There are stories from:Joanne HarrisNeil GaimanAngela Slatter (that’s me!)MR CareySarah PinboroughMark ChadbournLaura PurcellChristina HenryKatherine ArdenAdam NevillHelen GrantJoe HillA. C. WiseKelley ArmstrongA.K. BenedictL.L. McKinney

Pretty Things!

The wonderful Kathleen Jennings has created these glorious bookplates for me – tiny little hind-girls from my Sourdough world.

Books on Magic!

I had a lovely time tonight chatting with the wonderful Juliet Marillier about folk and fairy tales, magic and witches and writing for WA Libraries.

A few people wanted to know which books to read about magic. The ones I started with are generally old ones, but that’s what I prefer to get the right feel for my stories. So, here are some of the main ones:

Witch Stories, E. Lynn Linton

The Penguin Book of Witches

The History of Demonology a& Witchcraft, Montague Summers

Witchcraft & Black Magic, Montague Summers

A History of Magic and the Occult, D.K.

The Land Beyond the Forest, Emily Gerard

In general, read books about witch trials because they often contain purported magic spells, etc. (and you can see how ridiculous those accusations were). Some of the older texts, like the Summers above, can be a bit difficult to get so try Project Gutenberg first off. The Gerard is interesting because you can find little spells and superstitions embedded in her ‘travel narrative’ – like if someone can’t sleep, but a little pouch of grave dirt beneath their pillow!

In terms of herbcraft and ‘old’ medicine, I’ve got a copy of Culpeper’s Complete Herbal on my shelf. Nerys Purchon’s Book of Herbs, the Wordsworth Guide to Poisons and Antidotes, and Sandra Lawrence’s The Witch’s Garden Plants in Folklore, Magic and Traditional Medicine.

World Fantasy Awards!

I’m utterly delighted to see that The Tallow-Wife and Other Tales has made the shortlist for the World Fantasy Award for Best Collection! Once again with gorgeous illustrations by Kathleen Jennings.

This is my third WFA shortlisting in this category and all for the Sourdough world mosaic collections from Tartarus Press (The Bitterwood Bible won in 2014).

Extra delight comes from seeing the other finalists, who are amazing friends and colleagues!

COLLECTION

Tales the Devil Told Me by Jen Fawkes (Press 53)Big Dark Hole: Stories by Jeffrey Ford (Small Beer Press)Midnight Doorways: Fables from Pakistan by Usman T. Malik (Kitab)The Tallow-Wife and Other Tales by Angela Slatter (Tartarus Press)The Ghost Sequences by A. C. Wise (Undertow Publications)Never Have I Ever: Stories by Isabel Yap (Small Beer Press)

The rest of the shortlists are here.

Narrative Species: The Path of Thorns

I was fortunate enough to have a lovely chat with Rick Kleffel over at Narrative Species about my new novel, The Path of Thorns.

Over here!

Avid Reader Event: The Path of Thorns

Hey, folks. If you missed the function a fortnight ago for The Path of Thorns ,despair not. The fab Avid Reader is hosting an in-conversation next week betwixt myself and the lovely @trentonomicon.In-face or en Zoom Tues 12 July, book here
https://avidreader.com.au/events/a-g-slatter-the-path-of-thorns