The Bestiary, The Library, and a New Awesome Patreon

Look what arrived yesterday! My contributor’s copies of The Bestiary, a GORGEOUS volume edited by Ann VanderMeer with artwork by Ivica Stevanovic, and authors including (amongst others) Karen Lord, China Miéville, Catherynne M. Valente, Amal El-Mohtar, Karin Tidbeck … and me!

This is (without too much hyperbole) an absolutely stunning book: hard-cover, filled with incredible illustrations, genius stories, and even has a red ribbon bookmark! It is a neat little size and jam-packed with fine details. I am so delighted to be a part of it.

In other excellent news, this afternoon I got a super cool ping on Twitter from Jason Fischer, showing me this face-out copy of Lament for the Afterlife at the Adelaide City Library (see pic on the left). Now, I am a great lover of libraries. As a kid, I spent hours and hours and hours in our local library, borrowing as many books as I could fit in my knapsack, then riding my bike back the next day to get more. My entire PhD was made possible by the university library’s document delivery service, which drew on all the libraries across Australia. I would never have earned my doctorate without them! So it is honestly so cool to see that my adopted hometown’s library has not only ordered my novel, but also has it on display for all to see. Consider my day made!

Finally, another thing that brings me so much joy (which I’ve mentioned here before, no doubt) is The Writer and the Critic podcast, hosted by Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond. I’ll come right out and say it: I love this podcast. It makes me happy and, just as importantly, it makes me think. Every time I listen to their discussions I evaluate my own writing practice, and consider things about writing and reading and being part of the speculative fiction community that I never would have considered without them. Plus, they’re funny and super-smart and choose interesting books for discussion, so what more could you ask for? Their latest pod has been cast, and they’ve also introduced their new Patreon site. They’ve got a selection of rewards for backers: I’ve just got to decide, now, if I’ll be asking for a Thing Made by Kirstyn or to hear Mondy sing…!