Cate Gardner's Blog, page 21

Damien Walter's SciF & Fantasy Hunt

A month or so ago Damien Walter (of The Guardian) invited authors to tell him about their books or books by other people as part of his great SciFi and Fantasy hunt. Someone kindly nominated my book, Theatre of Curious Acts (if I remember correctly it was The Bestwick - he shall be suitably thanked). After sifting through 800 or so, Damien has chosen his top five and I'm delighted to say he's included Theatre in the list.

Here's a taster of what he had to say about it...

"The Theatre of Curious Acts by Cate Gardner is a small but beautiful package of mystery and wonder disguised as a novel. Gardner begins her story in the trenches of the first world war, where Daniel Cole is doing his best to hide from the suffering and death around him..."

You can read the rest of his comments and check out the other four books here. This most definitely made my day.

Cereal Murder

Another Twisted Tales event last night. First one in awhile and a bit of a landmark as before snagging the Bestwick, I used to meet him for coffee in Liverpool before Twisted Tales events and then we'd go to the readings.

This time the guests were Adam Nevill (always charming), Stuart MacBride and Steve Mosby. The theme, as you can guess from the poster to the left, was serial killers. Each author read a piece from their books and then David McWilliam hosted a discussion on serial murder, crime and its connection to horror, before opening the questions for the audience to ask the authors.

I haven't read anything by Stuart MacBride or Steve Mosby before so I'm looking forward to checking out their books, especially as I haven't read any crime/thrillers in a wee while. Stares at to read pile. Falls over.

After the event, we went for a meal in China Town with several awesome people including Ramsey & Jenny Campbell, Marie O'Regan, Paul Kane, David McWilliam, Stuart MacBride, Adam Nevill and Glynn Morgan. Lovely food even if I did have a minor spat with the Bestwick over what I was eating because I couldn't make up my mind. I can be annoying. Also good to see Priya Sharma  and Roy Gray again. Hopefully, I haven't missed anyone out.

Actually, food caused me no end of problems yesterday including the death of my porridge. It went splat all over the work kitchen sink. Guess, I'm a cereal killer. You have permission to groan.

Not So Miserables

After waiting weeks (and part of last year) to see Les Misérables, I finally saw it today. Does a mad-dance-scream combo and grins madly. Love, love, loved it. Just resisted singing along during the movie, but I've spent the time since we left the cinema singing, skipping and being generally annoying. This is not unusual.

I want to see it again. NOW. In fact, I threatened to watch the 10th Anniversary Concert on DVD this evening but Mum has lent it to someone. Noooooooo! Maybe, I could watch 'Once More With Feeling' instead.

Skips some more.

Then, when we were leaving the cinema, I opened my Gmail and discovered to my unrestrained joy that I'd sold a short story to Daily Science Fiction. Look out for my story 'Puppet Man' sometime in the coming year. You can read my previous Daily Science Fiction stories here and here. And, if you're in the mind to submit something yourself then you'll find guidelines here.

Skips away.

Snow Business

Lots of goodness this week.

Received my contributors copy of 'Burning with Optimism's Flames' (edited by Jay Eales). It contains my story '...and from the tower she did fall.' All the stories are set in the Faction Paradox universe (an off-shoot of the Doctor Who universe). Mine is a dark little tale about ravens, men in terror-bird masks and a killer. You can also read a review over at Daniel Tessier's blog.

Issue 16 of Shimmer is now available to purchase. It contains my cake-filled story 'The Binding of Memories'.

Finished the first draft of my novella and the first draft of a short story, which makes this coming week 'second draft week'. I also have a clearer idea where my novel is going and am back at the excited stage. Keeping up with my steps (what do you mean you don't care about my steps! Pfft). 87,562 steps this week. Best week so far despite the snow.

I usually hate walking in the snow.

No, make that, I usually despise walking in the snow. Oh, how I moan.

Not this time though. It was after eleven at night, the lighting was glorious, very few people were about and the Bestwick and I got to trample through the virgin snow, holding hands and pelting each other with snow balls. Everything looked so pretty. Although, no snowmen were built. Shame on us.

I told you there was lots of goodness.

Did you hear? It snowed.

It snowed.

Only a little snow for Liverpool and Manchester but enough for me to finally get to wear my pink flowered Wellington boots. Possibility of my falling over in them is high. I am normally very steady on my feet. Honestly.

She lies.

Because I'm a wimp when walking in the snow (the Bestwick can confirm this) it put a dent in my steps this week. However, I did get my required 70,000 with 73,443 for the week. If someone could blow away the ice from my street for tomorrow morning I would be very grateful.

This Foolish & Harmful Delight is now at 14,490 words. Getting there. I also have a plan for another short story. Or rather, I have notes that will hopefully become a feasible plan when I type it up later. Bizarre prompts were supplied by the Bestwick. Really need to write a new short story not just plan on writing one.

Okay, back to the grindstone. Or rather, may cheat and read some blogs and make a lettuce sandwich. I'm so rock 'n'roll.

Ducks, Mud (but no wrestling) and Typewriters

So the photo of the week this time is of some wee ducks taken at Dunham Massey in Cheshire. The Bestwick and I had a delightful day sinking in mud, looking for a slaughter house and getting rather close to stags (thankfully of the animal variety and not the drunk variety). Or, as close as I needed to with my camera. Their antlers were huge. I may have annoyed one in particular by calling it Charlotte.

Continuing with my 70,000 steps a week challenge. This week I accumulated 84,771 steps. For the coming week, I'm still aiming for 70,000 steps but rather than building extra steps up by using a stepper of an evening I'm going to concentrate on the midriff section. I won't be bouncy at all soon. Who am I kidding?

My novella 'This Foolish & Harmful Delight' is now at 7,297 words. Not many words written this week but a new twist to the plot. Excited to see where it leads me. Still sorting out the future chapters of Last Seen Drowning. I also scratched out a 900 word plan for a new short story 'The Roar of the Beast at the Station at the End of the World', but I'll probably change that title as it reminds me too much of Rob Shearman's awesome 'The Dark Space in the House in the House in the Garden at the Centre of the World'. But it'll do for now.

Back to the typewriter... Only I don't use a typewriter.

I miss typewriters.

New Year Resolution

Having been rather neglectful of this blog lately, I thought it time to dust it off and attempt to keep it up to date. New Year resolution and all that. Which, of course, means I may neglect the blog again come February but the spirit is currently motivated.

I thought that each week I would add a photo of the week. Hence, the photo to the left. It was either this wild, magical tree or a steaming pile of horse dung. I think I made the right choice. It was taken on New Year's Day at Clifton Country Park. Please feel free to write a story about said tree. I may do so too. Eventually.

On the writing front I've been working on a commissioned novella 'This Foolish & Harmful Delight' and have completed 4361 words this week (up to Saturday). I'm rather foolishly delighted to be writing again. I appear to be back on track. Heck, I may even catch up with reading everyone's blogs soon. It's like a mini-miracle. I've also been reading through and editing the first 10,000 words of my novel 'Last Seen Drowning' before I move on to re-writing the next 50,000ish words.

I've also decided to walk 70,000 steps a week (averaging 10,000 a day - ooh, look I can do maths). Imagine my delight when I discovered that a bunch of people were doing the 'Million Steps Challenge'. We have a blog and everything. So far this week (1st to 5th Jan) I've walked 62,136 steps (easily within my 10,000 steps a day by 12,136 - ooh, more maths). I'm aiming for three and a half million steps by year end.

And that is that, for now...

This is Horror Awards 2012

My day took a delightful turn when I discovered that my novella, Theatre of Curious Acts, has been nominated for 'Short Fiction of the Year' in the This is Horror Awards 2012. Thank you to whoever nominated it - I'm blowing kisses in your direction. I wonder if the coming apocalypse this December 21st will be caused by my wanton kisses flying about the globe.

Shimmering

I may not have achieved much writing-wise this year, or have written anywhere near as much as I usually do, but I'm very proud to finally have a story in Shimmer Magazine. The issue is out in January and E. Catherine Tobler has built a rather pretty trailer for it:




 That be all.

Five Minutes

Jim McLeod kindly interviewed me for one of his Five Minutes slots over at his blog. Here there be talk of mud wrestling, World War One soldiers and ghosts.

And this may have just entered the category of shortest blog post ever... Although, possibly not.