Aliya Whiteley's Blog, page 5

Missing May Day Missives?

It’s the first of May, which is the day when I remind everyone to read/reread The Arrival of Missives! Here’s a picture of the UK/US and Italian versions in the sunshine, surrounded by daisies, looking brief and sweet and healthy.

A bit of a twist this year: the UK version is no longer available, due to the sad closure of Unsung Stories, but hurray for my wonderful new home Solaris. The Arrival of Missives will make up the second half of the tenth anniversary special edition of The Beauty, with an introduction by MR Carey, and that will be published in the summer.

I’m really glad that both books will be back out in the UK shortly, with The Loosening Skin and Greensmith to follow. But, for now, if you do have time for a spring sunshine novella about a precocious teenager, her wounded teacher, and the way fates wind together like maypole ribbons, then please do revisit The Arrival of Missives. Have a great start to May. Thanks.

We catch-up in a future parsec

I’ve just been off riding rollercoasters, screaming out my lungs while taking steep drops and swift turns, and this isn’t even a metaphor. I was taking a holiday from metaphors.

Anyway, I got back to find that ParSec magazine is having a promotion – you can get the details here – and there’s a lovely review of issue 2 by Jonathan Thornton, over at the Fantasy Hive. That was the Christmas issue, and my story involved some elves and a death-defying drop into the unknown. Thanks to Jonathan for the review.

Pre-orders are now open for The Utopia of Us, a brilliantly-titled anthology of stories based on Zamyatin’s ‘We’. All the writers involved have written short introductions to their stories and these will be appearing on the Luna Press blog. The brilliant Anne Charnock has kicked them off, and it’s a really interesting read about the influence ‘We’ has had on her own work. My piece will be at the end of May, just before the book is launched, and there will be other events planned around this. I’ll keep you posted.

Also, a big thank you to Rachel Knightley for turning parts of my essay in Writing the Future into handy shareable advice, and writing about her own experience when it comes to research and confidence here. Writing the Future is such a readable and fascinating book that manages to show how wide-ranging and strange science fiction can be – as a form, as an inspiration, as an excuse to go free on the page. There’s no one approach to anything, and certainly not to SF. I like going off the rails a bit, sometimes. But maybe not while I’m on a rollercoaster.

Right, back to the metaphors.

(Not a rollercoaster in the picture but a funicular from my travels. Straight up and down.)

Speeding

It’s here! Published today:

It’s a very strange collection of stories about leaving, arriving, and the bit in the middle. The photo above shows it pulling up on my bookshelf. It’s been a journey.

A huge thank you to Ian Whates and Donna Scott for publishing it and getting it into aerodynamic shape. A wave to all the other Polestars; what a brilliant collection of work. Check out the NewCon Press website to see the authors involved.

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Drive or be Driven

It was a path from the place of stories, travelling nowhere and everywhere, as stories do. In one of my childhood night-time travels I found the sudden smoothness of it underfoot, and the trees shrank back, and I had the sense of being open, aware of their approach.

It wasn’t a sound. It was the smell – on the breeze – the smell of the turning of pages of old books. Age, and crumbling pages, from which the monsters had slipped free.

“There are no misfires here; readers will think they’ve hit the standout story of the collection, only to turn the page and find another contender. It’s a marvel.” – Publishers Weekly

“This latest collection stirs echoes of Franz Kafka, Angela Carter, Ursula LeGuin. I don’t know any higher praise that that.” M.R. Carey

Utopian currency

It’s brilliant to be part of a new anthology that’ll be published by Luna Press in May:

The Utopia of Us is an anthology for Ukrainian charities, celebrating 100 years since the first publication of We, Yevgeny Zamyatin’s vision of a numbered and ordered future. My story is called Intrinsic – Extrinsic – Terrific and it’ll sit alongside work by very talented writers (you can see a list of their names in the picture above!). I’m looking forward to seeing what they took from the book, and how it has shaped our stories.

Speaking of numbered things, it was lovely to find out Five Books had recommended Three Eight One as one of its popular fiction highlights of the year so far. Go have a read over here.

298th gear

Quick, get in the car.

My copies of Drive or Be Driven have sped across the country to reach me, and I’m so pleased with how they look, both in paperback and hardcover. They’ll be published in less than a month, and NewCon press will have some signed copies available – you can pre-order directly from them.

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Also, Interzone issue no. 298 is now available. Interzone is digital only now, but that means it has become a monthly magazine and I’m continuing to write my Climbing Stories column. This month’s column is called Help! Elves are Dancing on my Meteorite. I think this might be my twentieth Climbing Stories. It’s been a great journey so far. As the first story in Drive or be Driven states: Stay in the car, okay? Just stay in the car.

Ten years on, a beautiful missive

It’s a busy writing year for me, with the publication of Drive or be Driven drawing closer and lots more lined up, but one of the highlights will definitely be the Tenth Anniversary edition of The Beauty:

Ten years since Unsung Stories published it, and about thirteen years since I wrote it, I think. This edition (published by Solaris and with a new cover to match Skyward Inn and Three Eight One) includes a great introduction by the marvellous Mike Carey, and it also includes The Arrival of Missives! It’s probably the ninth anniversary of that one, and it’s pretty cool to have both of those novellas of fate, change and possibility together in this hardback.

It’ll be published in June 2024.

Just Keep Driving

My short story collection ‘Drive or be Driven’ won’t be out until April, so this review in Publishers Weekly was a fantastic surprise this morning. If you’re thinking of pre-ordering, you can do so via the NewCon Press website, and thank you if you are; it would be a great start for my tales of travel.

Drive or be Driven: ETA

Drive or be Driven! I’m so pleased that my latest short story collection will be published by NewCon Press in April this year as part of their Polestars series, which has already included many wonderful authors; I’m feeling very lucky to be one of them. Drive or be Driven will be number six in the series – go check out the first five on the NewCon Press website.

A lot of the stories in this collection are brand new, and all are linked by the theme of travel. A huge thank you to MR Carey for giving this collection an early read:

“When I read Whiteley’s short stories I think of Japanese netsuke – magnificent miniatures, perfect in every detail. This latest collection stirs echoes of Franz Kafka, Angela Carter, Ursula LeGuin. I don’t know any higher praise than that.” – M.R. Carey

You can pre-order the collection here.

Small Slice of Cha

If you’d like a sneaky look at a small excerpt of Three Eight One you can find one over at Nerd Daily, where the early days of the quest are taking their toll psychologically on keen young adventurer, Fairly.*

*Along with a few footnotes from keen young archivist of the future, Rowena.**

**Also, a quick reminder of the Waterstones event on February 16th where I’ll be speaking to Martin MacInnes – it is a ticketed event, so reserve your space over at the Waterstones website.

Evening Out/In Rising

This is going to be a very exciting event for me, so let’s hope I manage to talk about the things that have been buzzing through my brain since reading the remarkable In Ascension over Christmas. I’ll be in conversation with Martin MacInnes at Waterstones London – Trafalgar Square on Friday 16th February from 7-9pm.

It’s a ticketed event, so if you want to come along I think you need to visit the website here. There will be time for a Q&A with members of the audience, and a signing session.

I’d better write down these questions.