Shelled and chaotic fantasies

I wrote Dark Shells, a story about an older woman who tells secrets to the river that runs through her Lincolnshire village, for the Unsung Stories anthology This Dreaming Isle, and I got to read a little bit of it aloud at the launch party at the start of this year, which was a lot of fun. I’m blown away by the thought that it might find a new audience through NewCon Press’ Best of British Fantasy 2019. You can find the full table of staggeringly good contents here. Go look at it.

It’s worth keeping an eye on the Best of British Fantasy website in general because they will also be running a series of articles on the favourite fantasy novels of a number of authors. I wrote a piece about one of my favourites. I’ll put up a link when it’s live, but I’m looking forward to seeing what other people have chosen too.

Hurray for the Subjective Chaos Awards! A group of bloggers with a determination to create strong, thoughtful reviews on current writing have created these awards, and The Loosening Skin is shortlisted for Best Fantasy this year, which is an extremely tough category. Go check out the shortlist if you don’t believe me. There’s more info about the shortlists and timings here – while you’re clicking, I’d recommend looking through the existing reviews on all the sites involved for a good read.

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