Bluegrass Symphony launch: In Which I Gush and Share Photos
Sometimes I feel soooooooo lucky, and last night was definitely one of those times.
It’s actually hard to describe how awesome everthing was at the Bluegrass Symphony launch. Jude at the SA Writers Centre was incredibly lovely, and helped to make sure the atrium was ready for the event to kick off at 7pm — and what a space! We are so fortunate to have such a gorgeous Writers Centre here in Adelaide, with such a great venue for book launches. Thanks to Dr Chad, Brain and Badger, the wine flowed all evening, the sushi platters were never empty, and the festivities were photographed for posterity — if it hadn’t been for these three, I would’ve been a giant ball of stress all night. Instead, I was a butterfly, flitting from group to group, chatting, laughing, and feeling so special. (Thank you so much, Angela, Chad, and David!!)
Russ came all the way from Perth to sell books (thanks again, Russ!!) and the wonderful crowd kept him busy all evening — by the end of the night he’d sold all the hardcovers he’d shlepped to Adelaide, plus most of the paperbacks he’d mailed ahead of time. SO COOL! And between sales, Russ acted as MC. He got the proceedings under way by giving a lovely speech before introducing the incredible Sean Williams, who launched the book. And when I say launched the book, what I really mean is gave the most unbelievably thoughtful, generous, flattering, mind-blowingly perfect speech ever in the history of book launches. Ever. From now on, any time I feel like my writing is crap, I’m going to relive all the perfect moments from Sean’s speech… And I keep saying perfect because, frankly, it was. Sean captured the essence of Bluegrass Symphony so beautifully in his descriptions, and this was nowhere clearer than when he compared the ‘vibe’ of the stories in my collection to Johnny Cash’s song, ‘The Long Black Veil’ (the lyrics of which he read out, like a poem, and I had goosebumps the whole time!):
Ten years ago on a cold dark night,
someone was killed ‘neath the town hall lights.
There were few at the scene, but they all agreed,
that the man who ran looked a lot like me.
Chorus ~ She walks these hills, in a long black veil.
She visits my grave, when the night winds wail.
Nobody knows, nobody sees, nobody knows, but me
The Judge said son, what is your alibi,
if you were somewhere else, then you won’t have to die.
I spoke not a word, though it meant my life,
for i’d been in the arms of my best friends wife.
Chorus*
Now the scaffold is high, and eternity’s near.
She stood in the crowd, and shed not a tear.
But some times at night, when the cold wind moans
In a long black veil, she cries over my bones
Chorus ~ She walks these hills, in a long black veil.
When the cold winds blow, and the night winds wail.
No body knows, no body sees.
No body knows, but me.
Oooooooh, reading the lyrics again just now gives me shivers! Thanks so much, Sean! (and Johnny!)
So, I was gobsmacked after hearing Sean speak — so much so that I pretty much lost the ability to string coherent thoughts together — which meant that my list of ‘Thank yous’ was somewhat abbreviated… Really, I wanted to thank everyone, and I did thank them all (you all) in a rambling sort of way… but by the time I got up to the lectern, I was just so overwhelmed and happy that I managed about half a dozen official thank yous before I went into general ‘gush’ mode. Even so, I somehow managed to maintain my composure long enough to read the opening of ‘The Short Go: A Future in Eight Seconds’ (which you can listen to here) and then basically spent the rest of the evening, smiling, hugging dear friends, having great wine, and signing books.
I think I can safely say that last night wins the prize for Most Awesome First Book Launch EVER.
Without further ado, photographic evidence of the awesomeness that was:
Beauty shot: Bluegrass display (photo by David Pollitt)
Russ selling books... (Photo by David Pollitt)
...and doing introductions. (Photo by Alex Hender)
Sean speaks brilliantly... (Photo by Alex Hender)
...while the crowd looks on. (Photo by Alex Hender)
Signing! (Photo by David Pollitt)
More signing (and pretty hairband!) (Photo by Tully Barnett)
Gloating with Jason and Brain! First ones to receive our contributors' copies to the Year's Best 2010! (Photo by David Pollitt)
Clickety click!
Today has been a hodgepodge of crazy busy-ness, so it somehow seems fitting to post a hodgepodge of links in the hope that, in your own crazy busy days, you might find a moment to clickety click:
- Support ChiZine: “ChiZine.com has been free to readers since its inception in 1997. We want to keep paying our writers pro rates, and we want to keep ChiZine free and accessible to everyone who wants to read it. No donation too small! (Or too big.)” The uber-mega-huge-all-proceeds-go-to-ChiZine Volume 47 includes my story ‘Tiny Drops’, which was first published in Midnight Echo 4. Read, enjoy, donate!
- Shimmer‘s Issue 13 Reader’s Choice Poll is online! Whichever story gets the most votes will be published online so that everyone can read it. As the folks at Shimmer have put it: “Help your favorite author get his or her story the readership it deserves!” *Ahem* my Issue 13 story is called ‘Gutted’ *cough, cough* Shimmer will also randomly select one responder to get a free copy of the issue of their choice — just give them your email address in the last question so they can get in touch with you if you’re the lucky winner. Votes accepted until June 30. (So, that’s ‘Gutted’, by L.L. Hannett…)
- Electric Velocipede has a new website and it rocks! Check it out for yourselves.
- She Never Slept.com has posted a lovely review of Scary Kisses, in which Heather Royston waxes poetic about ‘The February Dragon’ (and also has some excellent things to say about Felicity Dowker’s ‘Bread and Circuses’ and Kyla Ward’s ‘Cursebreaker’). Huzzah!
- And last, but certainly not least, dear Brain (known ’round the traps as Angela Slatter) has some excellent news involving a monumental ToC in a monumental book of horror published by a monumental editor. Congratulations! Can’t wait to read this book!
So much fun, I lost my voice
I arrived in Sydney late on Friday evening after a full day’s work — a full week’s, really — ready for a weekend of fun, friends and celebration. This was my third Aurealis Awards, but the first time I’d been nominated, so I was pretty excited. Angela (aka Brain) had a barrowload of nominations this year too, and we’d both celebrated our birthdays last week, so we decided to splash out and treat ourselves to a swanky weekend at the Marriott in Circular Quay. What a brilliant decision on our parts, if I do say so myself. I took stacks of pictures of our lovely room, the awesome bedside reading lights, our decadent room service breakfasts, the incredible city view from our 21st-floor window… but you’ll have to imagine what it all looked like, unfortunately, since my computer and phone are currently not on speaking terms. Stoopid technology.
Saturday m
orning, we went for a walk down Pitt Street to window-shop. Well, I say window-shop, but instead it turned into a bit of a splurge… After showing incredible self-restraint by not going into Kinokuniya; and by not buying the beautiful dandelion paperweight that I really had no use for but was so so pretty I wanted it, precioussss; and by doing nothing but admiring the incredible antique jewellery calling out to me from every shop window (every one, I tells ya!) I happened to look across the mall we were in and see a papierie. ‘Let’s go there,’ I said, wiping the drool from my chin. It looked so much like a shop I remember visiting in Florence years ago in which all the most beautiful handmade leather books and journals were sold, all of which I had no hope in hell of affording at the time.
Long story short: we went to the shop, which just happened to be called Florentine and sold handmade leather books and journals (and what Laura Goodin so accurately dubbed ‘pen porn’)…. And after speaking to the sweet shop assistant for nearly a half hour, walked out with a birthday present for myself (pictured left), a couple of bookmarks, a handpainted card which is destined to be framed and hung on my study wall. It’s probably very good for my bank account that I don’t live in the same city as this shop!
Treasures in tow, we meandered over to Circular Quay for a bit of a wander. I’d only been to Sydney briefly before — an evening boat tour ten years ago; a couple of conferences at Sydney Uni — so I’d never had a chance to see the sights. The weather was perfect on Saturday, so the walk around The Rocks was filled with tourists and buskers and general hubbub. Angela played tour guide as I gaped and took photos, then we headed back to the hotel for some lunch. We’d gone back intending to laze for the afternoon, but instead wound up being quite productive: brainstormed more ideas and plots for Midnight and Moonshine and I may or may not have giggled and clapped my hands with glee as we plotted. We’re only three stories in, but already I love this world, these characters, these tales!
Photo by Cat Sparks
Then in typical Brains fashion, we primped and hair-straightened and bejewelled before heading to the Independent Theatre for the ceremony. Ubiquitous photographer extraordinaire Cat Sparks nabbed a bunch of excellent shots of the attendees before everyone melted (it was, ahem, a tad warm in the venue for one with Northern blood), and you can check out her Flickr stream here. The awards ceremony went off without a hitch: huge congratulations to Specfaction for all their hard work! Garth Nix was a charming MC, the theatre added the right amount of special to the occasion, and the slideshow (designed by Cat and, if I’m not mistaken, brought to life on the night by Rob Hood) was so well-designed — and so funny! — that it was a delight getting to see it in person. (Loved the dancing skeleton!!) Of course, the night got even more delightful when Angela’s The Girl With No Hands won for Best Collection, and then even more exciting when our ‘February Dragon’ tied with the lovely Thoraiya Dyer’s ‘Yowie’ for Best Fantasy Short Story! I was so shocked that I rambled something I hope resembled thankful sentiments and was back in my seat with a nice chunky award in my lap before I’d fully realised what had happened! Throughout it all we got Twitter updates c/o Alan Baxter, so we got to enjoy the ceremony live and online simultaneously which was a first for me. Man, it’s cool living in the future!
Most of you know the full list of winners by now, but here ’tis anyway:
Best Children’s Fiction(told primarily through pictures): The Boy and the Toy, Sonya Hartnett (writer) & Lucia Masciullo (illustrator)
Best Children’s Fiction (told primarily through words): The Keepers, Lian Tanner
Best Young Adult Novel: Guardian of the Dead, Karen Healey
Best Young Adult Short Story: “A Thousand Flowers”, Margo Lanagan
Best Illustrated Book / Graphic Novel: Changing Ways: Book 1, Justin RandallBest Horror Novel: Madigan Mine, Kirstyn McDermott
Best Horror Short Story: “The Fear”, Richard Harland
Best Anthology: Wings of Fire, Edited by Jonathan Strahan and Marianne S Jablon
Best Collection: The Girl With No Hands and other tales, Angela SlatterBest Fantasy Novel: Power and Majesty, Tansy Rayner Roberts
Best Fantasy Short Story: “The February Dragon”, Lisa L Hannett & Angela Slatter and “Yowie”, Thoraiya Dyer
Best Science Fiction Novel: Transformation Space, Marianne de Pierres
Best Science Fiction Short Story: “The Heart of a Mouse”, K.J. Bishop
Peter McNamara Convenors’ Award: Helen Merrick
Kris Hembury Encouragement Award: Jodi Cleghorn
Photo by Tehani Wessely
Congratulations to all the winners!!
And thank you to all the judges!
Buoyed on adrenaline and waves of incredulity, I floated through the post-ceremony cocktail party. I quickly texted the good news to my family and friends (someone snapped a photo of the ‘texting corner’ as Kate Eltham, Angela, myself and a couple of other people huddled near the bar to send messages) and downed a couple glasses of champagne. Managed to catch up with a bunch of friends — and, happily, to congratulate many of them for their wins! — before we headed over to the after party at Ridges. By the time we got there, I could feel my voice going… It’s amazing what incessant squeeing can do to your vocal chords! As always, it’s so lovely to chat with Kirstyn (CONGRATS again, K!!), Jason, Rob and Kate; I got a chance to meet with Talie in 3D instead of just on FB, which was also a treat; and for the first time in, well, ever, I got a chance to chat with Tansy and to congratulate her on her Best Novel success. (Note: I’m reading Power and Majesty as we speak and really enjoying it!! Wondering how quickly I can get my hands on Book II…) Shared squeeeees with Angie Rega, Helen Merrick, Jason Fischer (and his lovely wife, Kate), Sean, and Cat before my voice up and left me — so Tehani snapped one post-melt shot of the Brains before we snuck away before midnight. And, as is our wont, we ordered late-night room service to cap off our Aurealis Awards weekend!
Angela’s flight left early on Sunday, but mine wasn’t until last night. We had one more morning of decadence (mmmm, French toast!) and then the Brains were separated 
once more. Once Angela was safely on her way to the airport, I strolled back down to Circular Quay and whiled the morning away walking. I headed over to the Art Gallery of NSW and spent hours delighting in the 19thC European and Australian paintings. Said hello to Rupert Bunny’s work, which I fell in love with last year when his exhibit came to the Art Gallery of SA; visited the pre-Raphaelites, which I do without fail any time I enter an art gallery; wandered to the contemporary Australian galleries to pay my respects to Nolan and Boyd and Gleeson; then traipsed downstairs only to find that the gallery had commissioned a new installation piece by Richard Long, which made me so very happy. I missed out on the Archibald Prize exhibit because the line was sooooooooo long and my feet were sooooooo sore, I decided to pass on it. From there, I took my time walking through the Domain and over to the Botanic Gardens, where I had lunch with a greedy miner bird. I spent the rest of the afternoon walking walking walking (in homage to Richard Long) and then caught a cab to the airport. Ensconced at my gate, I powered through 2/3 of Power and Majesty before dozing on the plane home.
Until next time, it’s back to reality.
Got to give my voice a chance to recover…
Fairy Tale Girls Should Always and Never Do What They’re Told
Lately, I’ve been thinking about fairy tales.
There was a fantastic panel at Swancon – with Ellen Datlow, Richard Harland, Jenny Blackford, Amanda Pillar, and Brain (aka Angela Slatter) – in which the panelists were kicking around many ideas about fairy tales: the evolution of the form; classics and modern retellings; questioning the theory that these tales are intended to be cautionary. This last point got me thinking about the lessons such narratives were supposed to impart, and to whom they were meant to be addressed. I asked a question of the panel about the irony of women’s roles in these stories, but since my thoughts weren’t fully formed on the matter I couldn’t articulate what I meant clearly – not to mention the fact that it was getting on in the day, I hadn’t consumed nearly enough coffee, and I’d spent all my energies being articulate on the Steampunk panel immediately before the fairy tale session. So I began a train of thought, but it was not quite resolved that day.
This post is a lengthier musing on this issue of the ‘cautionary tale’ – still not completely formed – in which I realise that fairy tale girls are stuck in a paradox that most can do nothing to escape. This discussion clearly sprouts from my interest in fantasy world-building, particularly in making sure the logic of the fantasy world works. My thoughts have evolved in a couple of steps:
(a) Fairy tales may or may not be cautionary tales for readers/listeners;
(b) Any lessons these stories contain reflect the social and moral worldview of the tellers, so we’d expect ‘lessons’ geared toward 18th century children to be different from those directed at 21st century children;
(c) If the fairy tale world is to function logically, it should also be evident that the characters within the story are also being ‘cautioned’ in some way. There must be a cost for the fictional characters’ actions, otherwise the lessons for children in the real world will not have any effect. In other words, the characters have to follow the fairy tale’s rules – or obviously break them – if the ‘lesson’ is to be made clear to the readers.
This last point got me thinking that, in so many cases, the girls in traditional fairy tales have little hope of becoming anything but objects in a lesson. This is not a new idea; not by a long shot. Anyone who has read Angela Carter or the collections of fairy tale retellings Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling have edited will know I’m not blazing any new trails here. But what strikes me is that, within the logic of their own worlds, it remains pretty clear that even if girls triumph over whatever challenges the tale-teller sets for them while the story is being told, they’re still ultimately doomed to fail in the future.
Clever girls, beautiful girls, law-abiding girls will inevitably become angry, vain, greedy women; and if they don’t, if they try to be independent, they’ll die.
Let me clarify what I mean with a couple of examples.
Let’s say there are a few ‘lessons’ children are meant to learn from ‘Red Riding Hood’: don’t stray from the path; don’t listen to strangers; be smart and pay attention; think before you act; and so on. For the sake of brevity, I’m going to simplify things here because there’s no space to discuss the various incarnations of this tale over the years in a post like this one. But in many versions, Little Red meets the wolf who has eaten her grandmother; she manages, due to her cleverness, to get out alive. That’s all well and good, until we start thinking about poor Granny. Granny is a great role model for lively girls like Little Red. Granny is an independent woman who’s obviously had children, and is now living it up in her little cottage on the other side of the woods. She doesn’t need Grandpa – there’s no mention of him – all she needs is a bit of company every now and again and she’s content. We can imagine that Little Red will turn out to be like her Granny: she hasn’t strayed from the path; she’s a survivor; she’s going to wind up independent and happy. Except, according to the world’s logic, by living alone (i.e. without men) Granny has strayed from the path; by being a clever girl Little Red has also strayed from the conventional narrative path in which damsels in distress are rescued by men. What the story seems to be telling us is that if Little Red grows up and decided to live without a man, as Granny did, then she’ll get eaten sooner or later. (Was Granny so desperate for male companionship that she opened the cottage door to a wolf? Or was she vulnerable because there was no man around?)
If we think of Snow White, another unsettling idea emerges. ‘Purity and truth will make you beautiful’ says the teller of this tale. ‘And these traits will also bag you a Prince.’ Poor Snow White is beguiled by her stepmother’s magic; she’s forced out of civilisation and into the woods; she needs the hunter’s help, she needs a prince’s kiss – but as long as she’s beautiful and pure, she won’t need intelligence. (Is Little Red uglier than Snow White, I wonder?) Snow White will succeed because of her looks and her true heart, and she and her Prince will live happily ever after.
But what about her ‘evil’ stepmother?
She must have been a girl once. And with her obsession with ‘Who is the fairest’ I’d wager she must have been quite the looker in her time. She managed to nab herself not just a Prince, but a King – and if magic was involved in this transaction, why couldn’t it have been the ‘magic’ of her beauty? The logic of this world tells us that a woman’s appearance can entrance, enchant, and act to save her life – why couldn’t it help a mature woman to attract a King? Stepmother could have been just as pure and true as Snow White when she was a girl; when she was lovely; when she earned a powerful man’s love. So I can’t help but think that, actually, in this world – where beauty leads to marriage, and women are stripped of their names (I’d be bitter if I was only called Stepmother, and Snow White is a description not a name) – the ‘evil’ stepmother is really just Snow White twenty-five years in the future. Remarried (her dashing Prince killed in the wars, perhaps, or gored on a boar’s tusk); no longer pure (or so speaks the squalling brood of heirs she’s produced); and her looks fading, more wrinkles appearing every time she looks in a mirror to ask, ‘Who is the fairest?’
As far as I can tell, the moral of these stories is: do what you’re told, girls, and you’ll serve a purpose in the short-term but ultimately you’ll die a crone; don’t do what you’re told, and you’ll die sooner. Either way — and this is imperative — don’t you dare get old.
We’ve already got enough imperfect women in our world.
Loves, New and Old
1) Podcasts
So, I’d listened to the first two episodes of ‘The Writer and the Critic’ (aka Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond sharing news, opinions and reviews about mostly-speculative-fiction books) and then in the madness of finishing the PhD of Doom I apparently forgot about anything that wasn’t directly related to medieval Icelandic literature.
However.
Going to Swancon last week and attending a great session about podcasts (with Kirstyn, Helen Merrick and Jonathan Strahan) reminded me how many awesome Aussie podcasts there are at the moment! As soon as I got back home I had a little look-see on iTunes, downloaded the remaining W&tC episodes that I’d missed (and, Kirstyn, your “Hello future people” comments were eerily accurate!), along with a bunch of Galactic Suburbia shows, some Coode Street episodes with Jonathan Strahan and Gary Wolfe, and Helen and Tama’s Pangalactic Interwebs. It is a teensy bit weird listening to them out of sequence, and listening to the news updates after the fact – but, all in all, I am SO HAPPY these creative and intelligent people are casting such amazing pods for our edjamucation! Kirstyn & Ian make me laugh out loud – so much so that I had to stop listening to them while at work because I was giggling like a loonie at my desk – and I’ve now got so many novel recommendations from GS that I fear my poor bedside table is going to collapse under the weight of all the new books I have to get. (Yes, *have* to get.)
Three cheers for great specfic discussions!
2) Being PhD free (aka Getting My Life Back)
Sure, I still have to officially submit the thesis for examination. But as far as I’m concerned, the writing – the hard slog, the tears, the agony – is finished. Which means, of course, that all that time I previously devoted to researching, thinking, agonising, and eventually writing the thesis can now be dedicated to other, much more enjoyable things. Like reading! In anticipation of the ‘Game of Thrones’ series, I’ve been re-reading George R.R. Martin’s series, and it’s a joy to just read something for fun! I also stocked up on Aussie independent press books while in Perth, and am now working my way through Dead Red Heart, Scenes from the Second Storey, More Scary Kisses and also the first two books in the Twelve Planets series. Well, I started that one with the second book, I admit: Tansy Rayner Roberts’ Love and Romanpunk accompanied me on the plane home from the convention, and it was delightful! I can’t wait to read Sue Isle’s book (#1 in the series), which is currently top of the teetering pile of books on the abovementioned overloaded bedside table. I’m also reading a fabulous collection of short stories (not speculative fiction) by Simon van Booy called Love Begins in Winter; I’m only one story in but already there have been some devastatingly beautiful phrases that have made me sigh with happiness (unlike the sighs of angst, woe, and omgihatemythesis that accompanied the reading I was doing earlier this year for research purposes…) Being sans PhD has also opened up waaaaaaaaaay more time for me to hide away in:
3) The Writing Oubliette
As I mentioned in my post-Swancon post, Angela and I have started working on Midnight and Moonshine, our joint collection. We are really excited about this book and, at some point in the near future, we intend to do some joint blog posts about the collaborative experience of writing short stories… But for now, I just want to revel in the fact that I actually have a bit of time to dedicate to this project, and working on it doesn’t make me feel guilty about procrastinating because there ain’t no more stooopid thesis to drag me down! Obviously I’m still getting accustomed to this – it still doesn’t seem entirely real that I really, really, really do have some time now – and so I have to keep saying it aloud (or, in writing, as the case may be) to convince myself that it’s true.
I also have to get used to writing like a writer again, instead of writing like an academic. This wasn’t a problem for me while I was in the “I’ll be done the thesis one day” stage; for the past two years I’ve been writing and publishing stories and working on drafts of my thesis chapters without one feeding too much into the other. But since January – the month in which I did nothing (nothing) but work on the thesis – I’ve been so focused on finishing this massive research project that any time I went to work on a story the prose sounded like a research paper. (Ask Brain: she’ll vouch for this fact. Dry, dry, dry!) I was still getting loads of fun ideas for short stories, but my brain was in a completely different space in terms of making these ideas into stories. And, to be honest, since it has taken me until, well, now to finally get rid of the research I have only recently been able to start writing like a writer again.
So starting to work on ‘Wyrmwood’, which is going to appear about halfway through Midnight and Moonshine, has been an excellent way to get my story-writer head back on straight.
The words are back!
The author sighs in relief.
Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2010
Liz Grzyb and Talie Helene, editors of the inaugural Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror anthology, have just announced the table of contents — and, I’ve got to say, I’m squeeeeeeeeeeeeing over how many awesome stories are in this book! And squeeing over how lucky I feel! (And how gorgeous is this cover?!?!)
RJ Astruc: “Johnny and Babushka”
Peter M Ball: “L’esprit de L’escalier”
Alan Baxter: “The King’s Accord”
Jenny Blackford: “Mirror”
Gitte Christensen: “A Sweet Story”
Matthew Chrulew: “Schubert By Candlelight”
Bill Congreve: “Ghia Likes Food”
Rjurik Davidson: “Lovers In Caeli-Amur”
Felicity Dowker: “After the Jump”
Dale Elvy: “Night Shift”
Jason Fischer: “The School Bus”
Dirk Flinthart: “Walker”
Bob Franklin: “Children’s Story”
Christopher Green: “Where We Go To Be Made Lighter”
Paul Haines: “High Tide At Hot Water Beach”
L.L. Hannett: “Soil From My Fingers”
Stephen Irwin: “Hive”
Gary Kemble: “Feast Or Famine”
Pete Kempshall: “Brave Face”
Tessa Kum: “Acception”
Martin Livings: “Home”
Maxine McArthur: “A Pearling Tale”
Kirstyn McDermott: “She Said”
Andrew McKiernan: “The Memory Of Water”
Ben Peek: “White Crocodile Jazz”
Simon Petrie: “Dark Rendezvous”
Lezli Robyn: “Anne-droid of Green Gables”
Angela Rega: “Slow Cookin’ “
Angela Slatter: “The Bone Mother”
Angela Slatter & LL Hannett: “The February Dragon”
Grant Stone: “Wood”
Kaaron Warren: “That Girl”
Janeen Webb: “Manifest Destiny”
The editors will soon begin reading for the second volume of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror — visit the Ticonderoga Publications website for more details. The anthology is scheduled for publication in June 2011 and will be available in hardcover, ebook and trade editions. You can pre-order this book at http://indiebooksonline.com.
Aussie Author Month! Or, What DIMIA *should* have asked…
Last year, as many of you know, I became an Australian citizen. For five years I had to jump through all of Immigration’s hoops in order to prove I was fit to stay here: criminal background checks, character checks, interviews, blood tests, chest x-rays, mugshots… You name it. They’ve got copies of my mail, family photographs, passports. They’ve got statutory declarations from my bosses, my PhD supervisor, my friends. Honestly, I am so on the grid in this country, it’s not even funny. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Immigration has recordings of my weird sneezing habits (I sneeze a lot. Usually in series of 3, 5 or 7. I’m sure if you ask the folks at DIMIA they’ll play you the tapes – after you’ve filled out at least seven hundred forms, and paid a substantial fee.)
But after all the testing – including the multiple choice “Become an Australian Citizen” quiz I had to take last year to finalise the process – there is one thing those wily folks at 55 Currie Street neglected to ask me. And, frankly, this question should’ve weighed heavily on their list:
Who are some excellent Aussie authors?
(Take note, DIMIA. This question is so much more insightful than, “What is Australia’s official language?” or “In this country, do we vote by raising our hands?” How is that supposed to determine whether or not I’m suitable for citizenship?? Err, sorry. That’s a rant for another day.)
Ahem.
April is Aussie Author Month, a cross-genre collaboration that aims to support and promote Australian writing and raise funds for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation* (click here to make a donation to the ILF). It’s such a worthwhile cause, I wanted to be a part of it.
So, in honour of Aussie Author Month, I’m going to answer Immigration’s unasked question and gush a bit about some of the Australian authors that inspire me and make me proud to be among their company. (This isn’t a complete list; it’s an indicative one. I’m bound to add to it as soon as I click ‘publish’ on this post because that’s when I’ll realise I forgot this one and that one and, crap! That one too! Still, here goes.)
All-time fave:
- David Malouf, Complete Short Stories, Ransom, and An Imaginary Life. I love Malouf’s writing with a white hot passion. LOVE. I know I’ve just elicited a round of groans from everyone who was force-fed Fly Away Peter in high school. But I read Malouf by choice; I’d never heard of Malouf until I moved here (which is more a comment on my reading habits at the time than on Malouf’s international celebrity) but I have adored every word of his that I’ve read since. An Imaginary Life changed the way I think about characters – forever – and Ransom is so beautiful it made me sob. And his short stories are superb. Every single last one of them.
Yeah, it’s personal…
- This whole exercise is completely subjective, so it will come as no surprise that Angela Slatter appears on this list. Why try to hide it? Why shuffle her down to, say, #8 or #10, as though to pretend I am more blasé about her writing simply because she’s my dear friend? I mean, sure, we share a Brain and all. But the long and short of it is: her writing rocks. You should all know this by now. And if you don’t, then visit her website poste-haste. Get your hands on her stories. Experience the magic of her worlds, her lovely turns of phrase, her amazing characters all for yourselves. Go’on now: the list will wait.
- While I’m at it, let’s lay all the cards on the table. I’m a fan of Peter M. Ball’s short stories. Horn and Bleed are fantastic novellas, but for me Peter’s shorter pieces are precisely to my taste. Reading ‘On the Destruction of Copenhagen by the War Machines of the Merfolk’ or ‘Saturday Night, with Angel’, or ‘To Dream of Stars: An Astronomer’s Lament’ … Well, it’s like Pete crawled into my head; found exactly the type of prose I find appealing; the bizarre but also familiar settings; the poignant scenarios; and mashed all these elements up and turned them into stories that fill up my inner happiness metre.
Enchanting settings, memorable characters:
- Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom trilogy and Sean Williams’ Books of the Change have stuck with me over the years because I read them within the first year of moving to Australia. They encapsulate my experience of getting to know the landscape, the country, and the wild imaginations people have here! They were, and still are, so refreshingly different to many fantasy trilogies. The bells, the necromancers, the paperwings (to name but a few) in Nix’s series captivated my imagination to such an extent that I wrote about Abhorsen in my Honours thesis; and Sean’s setting! The desert, the sea, the elemental magic – it was South Australia as I want to envision it (and still do, years and years after I read these books!) And aren’t we lucky that these two have paired up to write a series together! Can’t wait to read it!
- Margo Lanagan – umm, everything she’s written. I have to read her short stories in small doses because they are so good I might OD with joy if I tried to read them all in one go. Tender Morsels deserves all the favourable attention it’s been getting – the World Fantasy Awards were designed for insanely wonderful writing like Margo’s.
Recent treats:
- John Harwood, The Séance (Victorian/Gothic ghost story; both chilling and lovely!)
- Eva Hornung, Dogboy (A reinterpretation of the ‘boy raised by wolves’ story, set in Russia; incredibly moving)
- Kirstyn McDermott, Madigan Mine (Supernatural/psychological thriller; such fine writing, and still so visceral at one stage I felt queasy – which, in my books, is a good thing. It’s a sign of how engaged I was in the tale; I couldn’t put it down, even when my blood phobia kicked in!)
- Trent Jamieson, Death Most Definite (Nicest protagonist you’ll have met in a while, plus Bonus! story with rollicking pace!)
- David Sornig, Spiel (Rosa Stumm is real. Rosa Stumm is a fake. Is it all a game? You decide. Some beautiful writing and an intriguing story.)
On the horizon:
There’s still sooooo much Aussie writing I want to read; soooooooo much of it is stacked on my bedside table! To name but a few that have tantalised me, taunted me, and which will be read:
- Jack Dann, The Memory Cathedral
- Tansy Rayner Roberts, Power and Majesty
- Kaaron Warren, Dead Sea Fruit (I’ve got the gorgeous hardcopy! Oooh how it wants to be read!)
- Lian Hearn, Blossoms and Shadows
- Lucy Sussex, My Lady Tongue & Other Tales (picked it up for a bargain a month ago…)
- Scott Westerfeld, Leviathan
- Justine Larbaliester (Um, need to read everything of hers!)
- Alan Baxter (ditto)
Such excellent authors, such excellent books — now all I need is an oubliette in which to hide and real them all!
*The Indigenous Literacy Project aims to raise literacy levels and improve the lives and opportunities of indigenous Australians living in remote communities. It supplies culturally appropriate books to over 200 remote communities across Australia, is trialing an early literacy project aimed at 0-2 year olds, translates books into local language and works hand in hand with remote communities on literacy projects. ILP was established in 2006 by educator and bookseller Suzy Wilson and is an initiative of the Australian Book Industry. It works in partnership with the support of many organisations including the Australian Publishers Association, the Australian Booksellers Association and the Australian Society of Authors.
Ditmar Awards
Yesterday I spent much of the day off the internet — out and about doing Saturday sorts of things, like errands and scribbling and trawling through bookshops — and when I finally logged on I had the great surprise of discovering that I’m nominated for *three* Ditmar Awards!!
Holy crow!
I’m so happy to find ‘The February Dragon’ on the list for Best Short Story — Angela and I had a great time writing this story, so it’s incredible to see that people are apparently enjoying it! And I’m also really stoked to be considered for Best New Talent! Again I say: holy crow! Talk about talent on this list … it’s so bizarre seeing my name up there with such amazing nominees. I feel so lucky!
The third nomination is lovely and also completely unexpected. People have had many positive things to say about the cover I designed for Angela Slatter’s The Girl With No Hands collection (it’s hard to go wrong when the basis for the design is an adapted Leon Bakst illustration! I mean, who doesn’t love a bit of 1930s Russian ballet?) and I’m delighted that the design seems to suit Angela’s wonderful stories. But I wouldn’t call myself an artist the way Shaun Tan is an artist! I designed this cover so that Angela’s unbelievable collection would, hopefully, have some beautiful and eye-catching packaging; anything else is a bonus! And, really, it’s not false modesty to say it’s lovely for this cover to be considered, but really doesn’t stand a chance in winning. I mean, it’s up against Shaun Tan, people. The man won an Oscar. ‘Nuff said.
The complete 2011 Ditmar Awards ballot goes a little something like this:
Best Novel
————————————————————————
* Death Most Definite, Trent Jamieson (Hachette)
* Madigan Mine, Kirstyn McDermott (Pan Macmillan)
* Power and Majesty, Tansy Rayner Roberts (Voyager)
* Stormlord Rising, Glenda Larke (Voyager)
* Walking the Tree, Kaaron Warren (Angry Robot Books)
Best Novella or Novelette
————————————————————————
* “Acception”, Tessa Kum (Eneit Press)
* “All the Clowns in Clowntown”, Andrew J. McKiernan (Brimstone Press)
* “Bleed”, Peter M. Ball (Twelfth Planet Press)
* “Her Gallant Needs”, Paul Haines (Twelfth Planet Press)
* “The Company Articles of Edward Teach”, Thoraiya Dyer (Twelfth Planet Press)
Best Short Story
————————————————————————
* “All the Love in the World”, Cat Sparks (Sprawl, Twelfth Planet Press)
* “Bread and Circuses”, Felicity Dowker (Scary Kisses, Ticonderoga Publications)
* “One Saturday Night With Angel”, Peter M. Ball (Sprawl, Twelfth Planet Press)
* “She Said”, Kirstyn McDermott (Scenes From the Second Storey, Morrigan Books)
* “The House of the Nameless”, Jason Fischer (Writers of the Future XXVI)
* “The February Dragon”, Angela Slatter and Lisa L. Hannett (Scary Kisses, Ticonderoga Publications)
Best Collected Work
————————————————————————
* Baggage, edited by Gillian Polack (Eneit Press)
* Macabre: A Journey through Australia’s Darkest Fears, edited by Angela Challis and Marty Young (Brimstone Press)
* Scenes from the Second Storey, edited by Amanda Pillar and Pete Kempshall (Morrigan Books)
* Sprawl, edited by Alisa Krasnostein (Twelfth Planet Press)
* Worlds Next Door, edited by Tehani Wessely (FableCroft Publishing)
Best Artwork
————————————————————————
* Cover art, The Angaelien Apocalypse/The Company Articles of Edward Teach (Twelfth Planet Press), Dion Hamill
* Cover art, Australis Imaginarium (FableCroft Publishing), Shaun Tan
* Cover art, Dead Sea Fruit (Ticonderoga Publications), Olga Read
* Cover art, The Girl With No Hands (Ticonderoga Publications), Lisa L. Hannett
* “The Lost Thing” short film (Passion Pictures), Andrew Ruhemann and Shaun Tan
Best Fan Writer
————————————————————————
* Robert Hood, for Undead Backbrain
* Chuck McKenzie, for work in Horrorscope
* Alexandra Pierce, for body of work including reviews at Australian Speculative Fiction in Focus
* Tehani Wessely, for body of work including reviews at Australian Speculative Fiction in Focus
Best Fan Artist
————————————————————————
* Rachel Holkner, for Continuum 6 props
* Dick Jenssen, for cover art of Interstellar Ramjet Scoop
* Amanda Rainey, for Swancon 36 logo
Best Fan Publication in Any Medium
————————————————————————
* Australian Speculative Fiction in Focus, edited by Alisa Krasnostein et al.
* Bad Film Diaries podcast, Grant Watson
* Galactic Suburbia podcast, Alisa Krasnostein, Tansy Rayner Roberts, and Alex Pierce
* Terra Incognita podcast, Keith Stevenson
* The Coode Street podcast, Gary K. Wolfe and Jonathan Strahan
* The Writer and the Critic podcast, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond
Best Achievement
————————————————————————
* Helen Merrick and Andrew Milner, Academic Stream for Aussiecon 4
* Amanda Rainey, cover design for Scary Kisses
* Kyla Ward, Horror Stream and The Nightmare Ball for Aussiecon 4
* Grant Watson and Sue Ann Barber, Media Stream for Aussiecon4
* Alisa Krasnostein, Kathryn Linge, Rachel Holkner, Alexandra Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts, and Tehani Wessely, Snapshot 2010
Best New Talent
————————————————————————
* Thoraiya Dyer
* Lisa L. Hannett
* Patty Jansen
* Kathleen Jennings
* Pete Kempshall
William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism or Review
————————————————————————
* Leigh Blackmore, for Marvels and Horrors: Terry Dowling’s Clowns at Midnight
* Damien Broderick, for editing Skiffy and Mimesis: More Best of Australian Science Fiction Review
* Ross Murray, for The Australian Dream Becomes Nightmare
* Tansy Rayner Roberts, for A Modern Woman’s Guide to Classic Who
The official ballot paper, including postal address information, may be downloaded as a PDF format file from: http://ditmars.sf.org.au/2011/2011_Ditmar_Ballot.pdf
Votes can be sent via email to: ditmars@sf.org.au
Online voting is available at: http://ditmars.sf.org.au/2011
Huge congrats to all nominees! See you all at Swancon!
Aurealis Awards Finalists Announced!
The 2010 Aurealis Awards have just been announced and I’m so excited to see so many incredible finalists in each category!! HUGE congratulations to all the nominees — I have enjoyed so many of the stories and novels on these lists, it’s such a delight to see them recognised.
And of course I’m stoked to see that ‘The February Dragon’, which Angela and I wrote together for Scary Kisses, has been given the nod for Best Fantasy Short Story!*squeeeeeeee!*
Without further ado…
2010 Aurealis Awards – Finalists
CHILDREN’S FICTION (told primarily through words)
Grimsdon, Deborah Abela, Random House
Ranger’s Apprentice #9: Halt’s Peril, John Flanagan, Random House
The Vulture of Sommerset, Stephen M Giles, Pan Macmillan
The Keepers, Lian Tanner, Allen & Unwin
Haggis MacGregor and the Night of the Skull, Jen Storer & Gug Gordon, Aussie Nibbles (Penguin)
CHILDREN’S FICTION (told primarily through pictures)
Night School, Isobelle Carmody (writer) & Anne Spudvilas (illustrator), Penguin Viking
Magpie, Luke Davies (writer) & Inari Kiuru (illustrator), ABC Books (HarperCollins)
The Boy and the Toy, Sonya Hartnett (writer) & Lucia Masciullo (illustrator), Penguin Viking
Precious Little, Julie Hunt & Sue Moss (writers) & Gaye Chapman (illustrator), Allen & Unwin
The Cloudchasers, David Richardson (writer) & Steven Hunt (illustrator), ABC Books (HarperCollins)
YOUNG ADULT Short Story
Inksucker, Aidan Doyle, Worlds Next Door, Fablecroft Publishing
One Story, No Refunds, Dirk Flinthart, Shiny #6, Twelfth Planet Press
A Thousand Flowers, Margo Lanagan, Zombies Vs Unicorns, Allen & Unwin
Nine Times, Kaia Landelius & Tansy Rayner Roberts, Worlds Next Door, Fablecroft Publishing
An Ordinary Boy, Jen White, The Tangled Bank, Tangled Bank Press
YOUNG ADULT Novel
Merrow, Ananda Braxton-Smith, black dog books
Guardian of the Dead, Karen Healey, Allen & Unwin
The Midnight Zoo, Sonya Hartnett, Penguin
The Life of a Teenage Body-Snatcher, Doug MacLeod, Penguin
Behemoth (Leviathan Trilogy Book Two), Scott Westerfeld, Penguin
BEST ILLUSTRATED BOOK/ GRAPHIC NOVEL
Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Nicki Greenberg, Allen & Unwin
EEEK!: Weird Australian Tales of Suspense, Jason Paulos et al, Black House Comics
Changing Ways Book 1, Justin Randall, Gestalt Publishing
Five Wounds: An Illustrated Novel, Jonathan Walker & Dan Hallett, Allen & Unwin
Horrors: Great Stories of Fear and Their Creators, Rocky Wood & Glenn Chadbourne, McFarlane & Co.
BEST COLLECTION
The Library of Forgotten Books, Rjurik Davidson, PS Publishing
Under Stones, Bob Franklin, Affirm Press
Sourdough and Other Stories, Angela Slatter, Tartarus Press
The Girl With No Hands, Angela Slatter, Ticonderoga Publications
Dead Sea Fruit, Kaaron Warren, Ticonderoga Publications
BEST ANTHOLOGY
Macabre: A Journey Through Australia’s Darkest Fears, edited by Angela Challis & Dr Marty Young, Brimstone Press
Sprawl, edited by Alisa Krasnostein, Twelfth Planet Press
Scenes from the Second Storey, edited by Amanda Pillar & Pete Kempshall, Morrigan Books
Godlike Machines, edited by Jonathan Strahan, SF Book Club
Wings of Fire, edited by Jonathan Strahan & Marianne S. Jablon, Night Shade Books
HORROR Short Story
Take the Free Tour, Bob Franklin, Under Stones, Affirm Press
Her Gallant Needs, Paul Haines, Sprawl, Twelfth Planet Press
The Fear, Richard Harland, Macabre: A Journey Through Australia’s Darkest Fears, Brimstone Press
Wasting Matilda, Robert Hood, Zombie Apocalypse!, Constable & Robinson Ltd
Lollo, Martin Livings, Close Encounters of the Urban Kind, Apex Publishing
HORROR Novel
After the World: Gravesend, Jason Fischer, Black House Comics
Death Most Definite, Trent Jamieson, Orbit (Hachette)
Madigan Mine, Kirstyn McDermott, Pan Macmillan
FANTASY Short Story
The Duke of Vertumn’s Fingerling, Elizabeth Carroll, Strange Horizons
Yowie, Thoraiya Dyer, Sprawl, Twelfth Planet Press
The February Dragon, LL Hannett & Angela Slatter, Scary Kisses, Ticonderoga Publications
All the Clowns in Clowntown, Andrew McKiernan, Macabre: A Journey Through Australia’s Darkest Fears, Brimstone Press
Sister, Sister, Angela Slatter, Strange Tales III, Tartarus Press
FANTASY Novel
The Silence of Medair, Andrea K Höst, self-published
Death Most Definite, Trent Jamieson, Orbit (Hachette)
Stormlord Rising, Glenda Larke, HarperVoyager (HarperCollins)
Heart’s Blood, Juliet Marillier, Pan Macmillan
Power and Majesty, Tansy Rayner Roberts, HarperVoyager (HarperCollins)
SCIENCE FICTION Short Story
The Heart of a Mouse, K.J. Bishop, Subterranean Online (Winter 2010)
The Angaelian Apocalypse, Matthew Chrulew, The Company Articles Of Edward Teach/The Angaelian Apocalypse, Twelfth Planet Press
Border Crossing, Penelope Love, Belong, Ticonderoga Publications
Interloper, Ian McHugh, Asimovs (Jan 2011)
Relentless Adaptations, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Sprawl, Twelfth Planet Press
SCIENCE FICTION Novel
Song of Scarabaeous, Sara Creasy, EOS Books
Mirror Space, Marianne de Pierres, Orbit (Hachette)
Transformation Space, Marianne de Pierres, Orbit (Hachette)
Winners of the 2010 Aurealis Awards and the Peter McNamara Award will be announced at the ceremony (sponsored by Harper Voyager), on Saturday the 21st of May. Details for the event can be found at www. aurealisawards.com.
See you there!
Publishers Weekly reviews Dead Red Heart and More Scary Kisses…
…and has very flattering things to say about both! More Scary Kisses (ed. by Liz Grzyb) gets a fine review here with specific nods for Fraser Sherman, Liz Coley, Felicity Dowker, Kirstyn McDermott, and co-authors Martin Livings and Talie Helene! Awesome stuff! Dead Red Heart (ed. by Russell B. Farr) also gets a really positive review: standouts mentioned are by Shona Husk, Angela Slatter (yay!) and the multiauthored adventure that is ‘The Tide’.
Congrats, all!
To give you an idea of what Dead Red Heart has in story for you, visit Angela’s Slatter’s website for a passage from her awesome story, ‘Sun Falls’. And here’s a snippet from the opening of my story, ‘White and Red in the Black’:
The shit-stench of fear stings DJ’s nostrils, pungent in the midsummer heat. Scattered across the pen, a dozen sheep lie heavy on their sides, heads twisted at unnatural angles. Dust-grey fleece clumps around their necks with a red so dark it looks black in the moonlight. Deep gashes shear their flanks, faces, legs: finger-wide and bloody, evidence the animals managed to break their attackers’ grip at least once.
Dingoes, thinks Daniel Shenk Jr, a sour taste in his mouth. Three, maybe four.
High-pitched bleats still yodel into the night, no less frantic now than when they’d called the farmer’s son from his tea. Eager to put as much distance between themselves and their mangled mates, the surviving sheep press against DJ’s legs, tripping him up as he walks across the enclosure. His knees crack as he crouches beside one body. Death clouds the ram’s eyes. Wet irises roll far back in the sockets; its sightless stare almost completely white.
DJ’s voice breaks as he bellows for his father.
He scans the pen, looks for any sign of how the culprits got in. Panicked hooves have churned the packed ground into a mess of pits and furrows; there are no tracks inside or around the perimeter, no ochre tufts of canine hair caught on the fence. But for weeks he’s heard those wild dogs howling as the distant crackle of bushfire smoulders up the peninsula from Wangary all the way to Poochera. Shaking his head, he swats flies away from his ears and brushes them off the carcass. He traces a finger along its velvet muzzle, rests a hand on its flank. The wool is greasy and still warm beneath his touch. His palm comes away wet.
The dead sheep convulses. Tremors run from rump to shoulder and its body jerks as though possessed. Scrambling to stand, DJ trips on a rut and falls on his arse. The corpse inches towards him, moving across the dirt in erratic bumps and jolts…
Both anthologies will be launched at Swancon in April — hope to see you all there for the celebrations!
Awesome Spec-fic, super-cheap!
Indiebooks Online is having a sale!
Now’s your chance to order Ticonderoga Publications titles you might’ve missed out on in paperback — such as Angela Slatter’s The Girl With No Hands & Other Stories, Kaaron Warren’s Dead Sea Fruit, Sean Williams’ Magic Dirt and a heap of other great titles — for a bargain price. (Please note: this sale is for the paperback editions only.)
Even more exciting: you can now pre-order the trade paperback edition of Bluegrass Symphony at a discounted price!! You can also pre-order Ticonderoga’s massive Vampire anthology, Dead Red Heart; as well as Justina Robson’s Heliotrope; and the next installment in the publishing house’s paranormal romance anthology series, More Scary Kisses.
Don’t let me dissuade you from pre-ordering the limited edition hardcovers for these new books. They are gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous signed collectors’ items — only 100 copies of each, so get in quick!
Lists of Excitement!
So it’s been a pretty busy couple of days for Aussie authors on heavy-hitting lists, namely the Stoker Preliminary Ballot and the Locus Recommended Reading list for 2010.
Sure, you could instantly clickity-click on the links I’ve just provided to see the lists in full – but before you do why don’t we give three cheers to Stoker contenders: Kirstyn McDermott (Superior Achievement in a First Novel for Madigan Mine), Shane Jiraiya Cummings (S.A. in Long Fiction for ‘Requiem for the Burning God’), Dave Conyers (S.A. in editing the Cthulu’s Dark Cults anthology), Amanda Pillar and Pete Kempshall (S.A. for editing the Scenes from the Second Storey anthology). And for the awesome authors and editors recommended by Locus – it’s so exciting to see so many familiar names on the list, but particularly the Sprawl anthology edited by Alisa Krasnostein; stories by Peter M. Ball and Cat Sparks from said anthology; and not one, but TWO mentions for stories written by the dear other half of our Brain, Angela Slatter.
(And of course it’s always awesome to see Margo Lanagan, Garth Nix, Jonathan Strahan, and Sean Williams on these lists — hell, I’m stoked with pretty much every choice the panel of readers has made!)
*Hip-hip-hooray!*
Dead Red Heart: Australian Vampire Tales
Ticonderoga Publications has announced the ToC for their massive book of Australian vampire stories, Dead Red Heart:
“The Tide”, Martin Livings and friends
“Mutiny on the Scarborough”, Shona Husk
“Sun Falls”, Angela Slatter
“Such is Life”, Jeremy Sadler
“Apolotoi”, Chris Lawson
“Punishment of the Sun”, Alan Baxter
“Red Delicious”, Felicity Dowker
“Just a Matter of Economics”, Yvonne Eve Walus
“Quarantine”, Patty Jansen
“Out of the Grave”, Amanda Pillar
“Desert Blood”, Marty Young
“Thin Air”, Simon Brown
“Kissed by the Sun”, Jodi Cleghorn
“Black Heart”, Joanna Fay
“Renfield’s Wife”, Damon Cavalcini
“Listening to Tracy”, Jen White
“Breaking the Drought”, Jay Caselberg
“Children of the Cane”, Jason Nahrung
“The Sea at Night”, Joanne Anderton
“Sky in the Morning”, Sonia Marcon
“Taking it for the Team”, Tracie McBride
“All that Glisters”, Pete Kempshall
“The Rider”, Martin Livings
“Vitality”, George Ivanoff
“Coming Home”, Kathryn Hore
“The Little Red Man”, Ray Gates
“Deathborn Light”, Helen Stubbs
“The Life Stealer”, Donna Maree Hanson
“Behind the Black Mask”, Jacob Edwards
“Interview with the Jiangshi”, Anne Mok
“White and Red in the Black”, Lisa L Hannett
“Lady Yang’s Lament”, Penelope Love
Australian settings/themes; vampires and blood; a veritable HEAP of Aussie authors — it’s so much fun being a part of this project!
The book is being released in April 2011, so we won’t have to wait long to get our hands on a copy! (I resisted the obvious pun there. Couldn’t bring myself to do it…)
Two stories, two reviews
Both reviews appeared today, and both have lovely things to say about my stories! Late Christmas presents for me? With comments like the following, I can’t help but think so:
A snippet from the first, written by Russell B. Farr about my story ‘Weightless’, which appears in Sprawl (ed. by Alisa Krasnostein; Twelfth Planet Press) reads, A handful of the stories in this anthology are exceptional pieces. Simon Brown’s “Sweep” is a well-told, chilling tale of adolescence. It is remarkable in both its depth of feeling and subtlety. “Walker” by Dirk Flinthart is another fine story, an amazing urban fantasy tale that respectfully includes indigenous Australia. Lisa L Hannett’s “Weightless” was almost flawless in its telling, magical in its narrative and incredibly sensual in the lasting impression it leaves on the reader. (The rest lives here)
And Angela Slatter offers a detailed and insightful review of Music for Another World (ed. Mark Harding), in which my story ‘Singing Breath Into the Dead’ appears: Hannett is a real writer and seeing how she has crafted and re-crafted this story of strange births, strange deaths, and songs to enable even stranger conceptions is truly impressive. (Ze rest is here)
*blushes*
2010: A Year of Writing, Writing, Writing (and Teaching!)
So, teaching is well and truly finished and now it’s my last day at the Research Centre until next year. The summer looms before me (theoretically; I mean, how cold is it?!? It’s the solstice and I’m wearing my winter clothes, and we actually turned the heater back on last night to take the chill off the house! But I digress…) Summer looms: two months for me to finish the thesis (at last!!) and do a spit-polish on Bluegrass Symphony. Sure, I’ll be flat broke, what with the no job and all, but I’ll have something more precious than a full bank account… Time to slip into my oubliette and write.
And since the amount of work I’ve got to do over the coming weeks will probably preclude me updating this website as frequently as I’d like, I thought I’d take a minute to look back on 2010: The Year of Writing, Interrupted by Frequent Bouts of Teaching.
Obviously, I’m most excited about selling two collections this year (!!!!!) to Ticonderoga Publications. Bluegrass Symphony is coming out next year (with an intro by the dynamic VanderMeer duo! Be still my heart…) and Midnight and Moonshine is schedule for 2012 — which is super exciting, since I’ll be co-writing it with the other half of my Brain, aka Angela Slatter!
But I’m also pretty chuffed about what a crazy short story year I’ve had. All of these sold and/or were published since January:
- ‘Gutted’, Shimmer, Forthcoming (2011) — and I get to do an audio version for this story! Fun!
- ‘Unlocking the God’, Electric Velocipede, November 2010
- ‘Sisters Under the Skin’, Weird Tales, ‘Uncanny Issue’ 356, Summer 2010
- ‘Their Own Executioners’, ChiZine, July-September 2010
- ‘Tiny Drops’, Midnight Echo, Issue 4, 2010.
- ‘White and Red in the Black’, Dead Red Heart, ed. Russell B. Farr (Ticonderoga Publications) Forthcoming 2011
- ‘Singing Breath into the Dead’, Music for Another World, ed. Mark Harding (Mutation Press), 2010
- ‘Soil From My Fingers’, Tesseracts 14, ed. Brett Alexander Savory & John Robert Colombo (ChiZine Press), 2010
- ‘Weightless’, Sprawl, ed. Alisa Krasnostein (Twelfth Planet Press), 2010
- ‘The Curious Case of Physically-Manifested Bedsheet Mania & Other Tales’, co-written with Angela Slatter, Steampunk Reloaded , ed. Ann & Jeff VanderMeer (Tachyon Press), 2010
- ‘The February Dragon’, co-written with Angela Slatter, Scary Kisses, ed. Liz Grzyb (Ticonderoga Publications), 2010
I don’t think I can articulate how lucky I feel to have worked with all of these fabulous editors this year — I can only hope that my future stories reflect how much I’ve learned from them.
Other highlights of 2010:
- My first Worldcon!! So glad it was in Melbourne, so glad to have met so many of my amazing Facebook friends in person, so glad I got the opportunity to be on and attend some fantastic panels.
- Designing the cover for Angela Slatter’s The Girl With No Hands collection…
- …then seeing it AND her beautiful Sourdough collection appear on Ellen Datlow’s “Christmas List”!!!
- Going to Canada for the event of the (North American) summer: my mom’s wedding to my wonderful stepdad!
- Surviving the heaviest teaching load I have ever had (8 classes; about 175 students; over 600 assignments marked!!)…
- …and then getting an award for excellence in Humanities teaching
- Being selected for the Academic Internship at my university, which was basically a year-long “let us help you achieve academic status” program
- And, finally, coming so close to the end of my PhD I can taste it!
[Edit to add: I can't believe I forgot to mention that this year I also became an Australian citizen! Sheesh. Another absolute highlight, despite this oversight...!!!]
Phew!
Happy holidays, everyone. Hope your summers are warm or your winters cozy. See you in 2011 (or on Facebook!)
[Cue the oubliette]
Did you hear that squeeeee??
I’m so excited to announce that Angela Slatter and I have signed a deal with Russell B. Farr at Ticonderoga Publications for our collection of interconnected short stories, Midnight and Moonshine. Angela and I have collaborated on stories in the past, but this will be our first collection together and I couldn’t be more delighted!
The press release has just hit t’internetz, and it goes as little something like this:
Ticonderoga Publications is excited to announce the forthcoming publication of a collection of collaborations by the almost embarrassingly talented Lisa L Hannett and Angela Slatter.
The collection will be titled Midnight and Moonshine, scheduled for publication in November 2012.
Midnight and Moonshine traces the origins of the icy and dangerous Fae and explores their interactions over the centuries with the Beaufort family. Driven from their realm, the Fae come to America with Viking raiders in the 10th century; when the Vikings discover the nature of their stowaways, they desert them in the new land.
Left to their own devices the Fae worm their way through history, largely keeping apart from humanity, but occasionally making connections that have long-term effects in America’s alternative Deep South.
“It’s a totally amazing premise — fantastically original, from the minds and the hands of two outstanding writers,” Ticonderoga Editor Russell B Farr said.
“Hannett and Slatter are incredible talents, and every time they combine they create something extraordinary,” Russell B Farr added.
The book will collect ten proposed stories.
Lisa L Hannett lives in Adelaide — city of churches, bizarre murders, and pie floaters. She has sold stories to venues including Clarkesworld, Fantasy, Weird Tales, ChiZine, Electric Velocipede, Shimmer, Midnight Echo and Steampunk II: Steampunk Reloaded. She is a graduate of the Clarion South Writers Workshop. Her first collection, Bluegrass Symphony, is being published by Ticonderoga Publications in August 2011. You can visit her at http://lisahannett.com.
Angela Slatter’s short stories have appeared in Dreaming Again, Strange Tales II, 2012, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet and Shimmer. Her work has had Honourable Mentions in the Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror anthologies and has three times been shortlisted for an Aurealis Award. She is a graduate of Tin House 2006 and Clarion South 2009, and she blogs at http://www.angelaslatter.com. She has two short story collections out in 2010: Sourdough & Other Stories (Tartarus Press, UK) and The Girl with No Hands & Other Tales (Ticonderoga Publications).
Midnight and Moonshine is scheduled for publication in November 2012. The collection will be available in limited edition hardcover and trade editions.
15 Days of Tesseracts, Reviews, and Other fun stuff
If only I could go to this shindig: Tesseracts Fourteen, and the authors and editors of Tesseracts Fourteen are going to be featured at the Merril Collection’s Christmas Tea, on Saturday December 4th, at the Merril Collection (239 College Ave, Toronto) from 1-4. Alas, the commute between Adelaide and Toronto is too great for me to attend this event and to spruik the anthology properly — but I can spruik the online events the folks at EDGE publishing are running to promote this new book. As part of the 15 Days of Tesseracts, head on over to the Totally Tesseracts blog — I’m ‘Day 2′, responding to some great questions with some goobery answers.
In other exciting news, Black Gate reviews Weird Tales 356 — the Uncanny Beauty issue – which sees me rubbing elbows with some of speculative fiction’s most ‘eerily sensuous’ writers.
The folks at Scoop Magazine have some lovely things to say about ‘The February Dragon’, which I co-wrote with Angela Slatter — and they also interview Russell B. Farr, who shares the news about Ticonderoga Publications‘ forthcoming books (including Bluegrass Symphony — squee!) and they also chat with Alisa Krasnostein, editor extraordinaire of Twelfth Planet Press. Check out all the Scoop goodies here.
Last, but certainly not least, Alexandra Pierce offers a detailed and insightful review of Sprawl over at ASiF, where she says some lovely things about many deserving stories.
Happy reading!
So. Very. Exciting!!!
I haven’t been this excited for a book release in a very long time.
Angela Slatter has been published in some very prestigious magazines and anthologies, and now (at last!), we are able to sit down and devour even more of her delish stories c/o the intelligent folk at Ticonderoga Press. The Girl With No Hands (and other tales), is now available for pre-order. I am a lucky duck because (a) I’ve already had a sneak peek at this incredible collection of stories, and they are intensely beautiful, creepy, enchanting, and absolutely worth reading over and over again; and (b) I got to design the cover! Hopefully the image catches your eye — but, in all honesty, the book would fly off the shelves, even if it were wrapped in brown paper.
There will be a stunning, limited edition hardcover (only 100 copies!) as well as trade paperback editions.
Click on the picture, click on the title, hell, click here to pre-order!
Steampunk Reloaded
Angela Slatter and I have collaborated on a couple of short pieces for Jeff and Ann VanderMeer’s Steampunk Reloaded, including “Notes & Queries: The Curious Case of Physically-Manifested ‘Bed-Sheet Mania’” with related interrogatories on “The Prisoner Queen,” “The Great Air Ferry Disaster,” and "Oyster Rime Spores", and including correspondence related to the Mecha-Ostrich’s inquiries.
Take a quick gander at the names on this cover, and you’ll get an inkling of how excited we are to be a part of this project! You can read all about the anthology (including full ToC) on Jeff VanderMeer’s blog.
Yay!!! 
