Aliya Whiteley's Blog, page 2

Keys to the City

It’s publication day for City of All Seasons, and I’m suitably feeling divided on the subject. I’m sad that this particular writing adventure is over, but very happy that it’s resulted in a book that I really can still enjoy, both in terms of the experience and the end result. It was a brilliant process and a huge amount of fun to craft with Oliver Langmead. He’s such a good writer. Do check out his other books, particularly the wonderful epic space poem Calypso, which is up for a Hugo award this year.

Here are a few links to reviews and interviews about City, if you’d like a bit more info:

The Guardian’s Best SF/Fantasy of April 2025

New Scientist’s Best SF Books of April 2025

Reviews in Booklist, Library Journal and Publishers’ Weekly

In-depth reviews at Ancillary Review of Books and Nerds of a Feather

A video interview about the collaborative writing process over at FanFiAddict

Thanks to everyone who has read or reviewed it already! Here’s to further adventures in the spirit of mad inventions that unexpectedly lead to surprising outcomes.

(Our beautiful book! Extra thank you to Titan Books, who have put it into the world with such enthusiasm and commitment.)

Three Eight Wha Cha

This weekend’s proof that the world is an incredibly strange place right now comes from Eastercon, the annual sci-fi convention held by the British Science Fiction Association. The BSFA awards were announced last night, and… Three Eight One got the most votes in the Best Novel category, so I’m amazed and completely beside myself and I won’t actually believe it until I have the award in my hands, but for now, here’s a long distance picture of said award:

Thanks very much to Amy Borsuk from Solaris, who was kind enough to pick up the award for me and give my speech. (I’ll just thank some people again here, from David Thomas Moore to Tim Stretton, from George Sandison to Christopher Priest, from Max Edwards to my family to Solaris people to everyone at Eastercon and elsewhere who have read Three Eight One, or any of the listed works this year: thank you. I was in great company, particularly all the other works on the Best Novel shortlist. What a year. )

I’ll put up another picture once the award arrives. I have to choose an appropriate place to put it. If I had a hot tub, it would go there. I’ll think about it.

Super Relaxed and Comedic City

Not long now until City of All Seasons is published, and over the next month or so Ollie and I will be appearing in a few places to chat about it and possibly squabble about who came up with what. If you’d like to see that, you can find us at…

Super Relaxed Fantasy Club! Here’s the info:

Come and meet the multi-Award nominated Oliver K Langmead and Aliya Whiteley, who will be talking about their new co-written novel and their solo work. 

Tuesday 13 May 2025 at 7pm, upstairs at The Star of Kings, York Way, London N1.

For readings, Q&A, and book talk with book people like you. As ever, everyone is welcome and we love to see new faces, so come along and get relaxed about fantasy, science fiction, horror. Indeed anything in books, films, knitting or whatever. The event is as much about the authors as attendees. So we welcome readers, writers or anyone involved in publishing and bookish things.

There is no ticket or entrance fee required, although we do ask for a £5 voluntary donation to cover accommodation costs. Do not be afraid to decline payment as we do not want cost to be a reason for missing the evening.

We will start soon after 6:45pm upstairs and usually finish at 9:30pm or a little bit later. All are welcome to stay later and socialise after the event.

Our friends from The All Good Bookshop will be available for you to buy a book for signing.

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Or we will be at MCM Comic-Con on the Friday, which is May 23, for a fantasy panel followed by a signing at about midday. Lots of great authors, actors and guests will be there. Here’s a look at the literary list of guests, but there are also comic, entertainment and gaming guests, loads to do, so many things to attend. It runs over the whole weekend but you can only catch us on the Friday.

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Many Passengers, Three Lobes, One Le Guin

The first time I read Le Guin’s The Tombs of Atuan I was in my twenties, on a lazy beach holiday with nothing to do but read; the sun was punishing and the room was a dark cave. I moved from balcony to bed, straining in either situation to see the pages. It was one of those perfect collusions of book, time and place. I read it three times that week. Through that, I moved on to The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness, her wonderful novellas, and many more of her works. I see her influence in pretty much everything I write.

I’m not alone in feeling the strength of her influence, and the anthology Revolution in the Heart proves that. Lots of amazing authors have contributed stories in which we try to do justice to her reach. Well, that’s probably impossible, but it was great to try, and I’m really pleased to have contributed a story to this. It’s available to pre-order now, but it’ll be published towards the end of this year. Revolution in The Heart: Stories Inspired by Ursula K. Le Guin, edited by Jonathan Strahan and published by Titan Books.

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But much sooner than that! I’ve got a new story in the latest edition of Three-Lobed Burning Eye. I think it’ll be available to read on the website as from tomorrow, and it’s a bit of SF horror called The Thing That Ate Itself. It’s great to be back in Three-Lobed Burning Eye, which is always a place to find brilliant voices telling surprising stories. If you’re a Patreon follower of 3LBE, I think there will also be a Q&A with me about the story available to subscribers.

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And a big thank you to Rachel Knightley for asking me along to the Writers’ Gym podcast to talk about subjects such as the difficulty of freeing up the mind to write whatever comes along, which led to a lot of wandering talk of buses and passengers and refusing to be an expert. You can listen to that conversation – and lots of other conversations that’ll cover pretty much all writing experiences – here. It’s a great resource. Thanks Rachel!

Sci Fi shortlist loveliness

Woo hoo! I’m over the moon with the announcement of the British Science Fiction Association’s award shortlists this year. There is a lot of brilliant work on show here, and I get to be part of this in two categories: Three Eight One (published by Solaris) is shortlisted for Best Novel, and Intrinsic -Extrinsic – Terrific is shortlisted for best short story. That’s so lovely because hopefully more people will read the anthology that contains the story – it’s got lots of great work in it. It’s called The Utopia of Us, edited by Teika Marija Smits and published by Luna Press.

Huge congratulations to all the shortlisted writers, publishers, and artists!

I’m going to use this as an excuse to show off some covers again.

Start creating

The Creator is now available to pre-order through the NewCon Press website, and here’s a look at the cover! I love that lurid green.

This novella was a huge amount of fun to write. Horror novellas can be that perfect mix of short, sharp shocks and skewered meanings, and that is so exciting to try to get right. And this one owes a debt to one of my all time favourite horror films, too, which gives me another reason to love it. Here’s a bit more information about The Creator:

“Reynold was quite brilliant: the unparalleled inventor, creator, and scientific mind of our time. This is the story of Reynold’s wife, and my dear friend, Patricia.”

Phillip has always been a little in awe of his brother, Reynold – the genius behind ThinkBulb, the invention that changed the world. When he receives a distraught call from his sister-in-law, Patricia, to say that Reynold is dead, he doesn’t hesitate in dashing to her side. Little does he imagine the tragedy and horror that awaits, as he uncovers what really happened to his brother – and where Reynold’s latest obsession has led.

There are a few formats available including a small amount of A5 signed hardbacks. It’ll be lovely to see this dark creation out in the world shortly.

Incoming giant Achoo

Pollen! Not the annoying substance that will soon be making me cry, but the novel by Jeff Noon. It’s set in the Vurt universe, it’s brilliant, it’s being reissued by Angry Robot in December 2025 for its thirtieth anniversary, and this new edition will contain a foreword by me, and an afterword by Jeff Noon.

I had the best time reading this novel and getting to write about it, and hopefully I’ll infect people with my enthusiasm for Noon’s wild and spectacular vision of future Manchester with lots of zombies, taxis, and sneezing.

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Before we get to December, there’s a whole floral spring to gambol through:

A new SF/horror short story of mine will be published in issue 44 of Three-Lobed Burning Eye on March 18. This will feature six new stories by great writers, as part of their recent successful fundraising (hurray!) and I’ll put up a link soon.

City of All Seasons in April! It recently had a starred review from Library Journal. Both Ollie and I are keen to see it out in the world. Exciting.

The Creator, my fun 1950s horror film homage mutation novella, follows soon after from NewCon Press. I should be able to put up a cover and some further details shortly.

And Calque Press will publish a collection of my Interzone columns about SF ideas of time, called Glass Case Futures! That’ll be in May.

Busy. Primed to explode. Achoo. Hope you’re seeing signs of spring.

381 Spines

Three Eight One is out there in paperback! If you want a version that’s easier to flick through to follow footnotes, this might be your best option. Also, the paperback spine has a lovely cha on it. Or possibly a pig.

Right, onwards. To something without footnotes.

Creating cities

Review copies of City of All Seasons are out in the world, and people have already been saying good things about it (thank you!). Here’s a link to a few of them, and also here’s a link to the Publishers Weekly review, which has been making me smile whenever I think about it. City will be published in April 2025, and both Ollie and I are looking forward to seeing it out there. (The book has illustrations. It’s gorgeous.)

Also, a little bit of news: NewCon Press will be publishing my new novella in 2025. It’s called The Creator, it’s influenced by my love of certain 1950s horror movies, and – I’m not going to say anything more about it now except I’m excited to see it out there. I love a novella.

Glass Cases and Junkyards

I really enjoy writing my odd almost-non-fiction essays for Interzone, and issue 301 is now available, containing a mix of great stories, articles and reviews, including an article about Ursula Le Guin by the wonderful Una McCormack.

The cover art is Orange Slab by Emma Howitt.

My piece in 301 is about weird fiction and how it plays a role in our perception of the contemporary world, with that perception changing over time, so there are thoughts about stories by William Hope Hodgson and M John Harrison in there too. It’s called ‘I Think I Remember That Tongue-Filled Junkyard’.

Calque Press has collected some of my IZ pieces that deal with time and how we perceive it to create a pamphlet that will be published in April. It’s called ‘Glass Case Futures’ and it’s available to preorder now. Here’s a bit of information about it:

We spend most of our lives trapped in time: it is easy to believe that our conception of a world divided into minutes and seconds is in some way absolute, the right way of thinking about existence. In these four brief, brilliant essays, Aliya Whiteley unravels this idea with patience and good humour, allowing us to see other times: environments that at first sight might seem to be beyond the realms of human experience, but which Whiteley reveals to be as valid a set of ways of viewing the world as any life dictated by the second hand of a wristwatch. From the ancient artifacts of the Louvre to the wild coasts of Utopia, Whiteley offers us new ways of seeing.