Welcome, my pretties, to the anthology of awesomeness!
Otherwise known as the who's who and what's what in the Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic! (Final order of appearance and blurbage and other such bits to be announced at a later date!)
Urban Mythic Funky Peeps:
James Brogden – The Smith of Hockley
Joyce Chng – Dragonform Witch
Zen Cho – Fish Bowl
Graham Edwards – A Night to Forget
Jaine Fenn – Not the Territory
Christopher Golden – Under Cover of Night
Kate Griffin – An Inspector Calls
Alison Littlewood – The Song of the City
Anne Nicholls – The Seeds of a Pomegranate
Jonathan Oliver – White Horse
Mike Resnick – The Wizard of West 34th Street
Gaie Sebold – Underground
Adrian Tchaikovsky – Family Business
Ian Whates – Default Reactions
I think it's safe to say that the editorial squee can be heard from outer space... ;-)
05 May 2013
14 April 2013
Foxy Pirates!
Did I mention I'm going to be in this?
Coming soon from the ever-so-awesome Fox Spirit Books, an anthology of piratey goodness with faaaaabulous flash fiction from (in no particular order)....
Emma Teichmann – Silvermelt
Jenny Barber – Past Lives
Christian D’Amico – Insurgent
Den Patrick – Becalmed
Kit Marlowe – Black Ethel’s Beast
Francesca Terminiello – Plunder
T.F.Grant – Geronimo
Chloe Yates – Leave the Pistol Behind
Rahne Sinclair – No Quarter
Margret Helgadottir – Nora
K.C.Shaw – Skyway
Ruth Booth – The Real Deal
Catherine Hill – The Trouble with Daydreams
Asher Wismer – True to the Song
S.J. Caunt – X Marks the Spot
Rob Haines – Pieces of 2^3
Not sure when it's coming out, but it'll be available from Amazon and Wizard's Tower Books in multiple formats. I'm very excited. ;-)
Emma Teichmann – Silvermelt
Jenny Barber – Past Lives
Christian D’Amico – Insurgent
Den Patrick – Becalmed
Kit Marlowe – Black Ethel’s Beast
Francesca Terminiello – Plunder
T.F.Grant – Geronimo
Chloe Yates – Leave the Pistol Behind
Rahne Sinclair – No Quarter
Margret Helgadottir – Nora
K.C.Shaw – Skyway
Ruth Booth – The Real Deal
Catherine Hill – The Trouble with Daydreams
Asher Wismer – True to the Song
S.J. Caunt – X Marks the Spot
Rob Haines – Pieces of 2^3
Not sure when it's coming out, but it'll be available from Amazon and Wizard's Tower Books in multiple formats. I'm very excited. ;-)
Ancient Wonders: Shannon Connor Winward
Continuing the author-palooza for Ancient Wonders - here's Shannon Connor Winward!
Tell us a little about yourself, and what you like to write?
I’m an American author and poet. Most of what I create is speculative – some sci-fi, fantasy, and what’s been called “mythpunk” – though I write a little bit of everything. On my blog I talk about real life: the writing process, the emotional ups and downs. I chronicle my experiences raising a child with special needs, because I feel there’s a lack of information and empathy for families who have to go through this, and it’s my way of contributing to a larger conversation. I like to write about what touches me, what fascinates me. A lot of my stories deal with death and madness, but not in a macabre sense. I like to explore liminalities.
What inspired you to write Passage?
I minored in anthropology as an undergrad, with a special interest in the Celts of Britain and Ireland. I was writing a thesis on Celtic death rituals, which is largely speculative due to a scarcity of archaeological evidence. I came across a discussion of how the Celts may have used the monoliths as a means of connecting themselves psychologically to the landscape, since they had emigrated there, and places like Newgrange and Stonehenge predated their culture considerably. I became so distracted with the idea that I wrote “Passage” instead of what I was meant to be working on. I scribbled it in the middle of my research notes.
If the TARDIS could drop you off to any one site in its heyday, where would you go?
I’d love to visit Great Britain in the Iron Age – though, to be honest, if the Doctor came to get me, I wouldn’t be picky.
What appeals to you most about ancient sites/landscapes?
I feel a closer kinship to ancient religions than to modern ones, at least in a spiritual sense. Our ancestors were more intimately tied to nature and her cycles, and that is reflected in their sacred sites.
What do you have coming out next?
I have poems due out in various magazines, all TBA, and I’ve been invited to participate in some local fiction anthologies. Right now I’m working on a sci-fi story inspired by Egyptian mythology and Edgar Rice Burroughs, and a modern-day fairy tale about a wicked librarian. I’m also working on my second novel, an urban fantasy, and my first poetry collection. I publish updates and links to my work on my blog.
[Shannon Connor Winward's writing has appeared in many venues including: Pedestal Magazine, Flash Fiction Online, Strange Horizons, Illumen, This Modern Writer [Pank Magazine], Hip Mama Zine and the anthologies Twisted Fairy Tales: Volume Two, Jack-o'-Spec: Tales of Halloween and Fantasy and Spectacular: Fantasy Favorites. Her poem "All Souls' Day" was nominated for a 2012 Rhysling Award.]
The Alchemy Book of Ancient Wonders is available in paperback and ebook formats from multiple retailers - see the anthology page here for linky links!
Tell us a little about yourself, and what you like to write?
I’m an American author and poet. Most of what I create is speculative – some sci-fi, fantasy, and what’s been called “mythpunk” – though I write a little bit of everything. On my blog I talk about real life: the writing process, the emotional ups and downs. I chronicle my experiences raising a child with special needs, because I feel there’s a lack of information and empathy for families who have to go through this, and it’s my way of contributing to a larger conversation. I like to write about what touches me, what fascinates me. A lot of my stories deal with death and madness, but not in a macabre sense. I like to explore liminalities.
What inspired you to write Passage?
I minored in anthropology as an undergrad, with a special interest in the Celts of Britain and Ireland. I was writing a thesis on Celtic death rituals, which is largely speculative due to a scarcity of archaeological evidence. I came across a discussion of how the Celts may have used the monoliths as a means of connecting themselves psychologically to the landscape, since they had emigrated there, and places like Newgrange and Stonehenge predated their culture considerably. I became so distracted with the idea that I wrote “Passage” instead of what I was meant to be working on. I scribbled it in the middle of my research notes.
If the TARDIS could drop you off to any one site in its heyday, where would you go?
I’d love to visit Great Britain in the Iron Age – though, to be honest, if the Doctor came to get me, I wouldn’t be picky.
What appeals to you most about ancient sites/landscapes?
I feel a closer kinship to ancient religions than to modern ones, at least in a spiritual sense. Our ancestors were more intimately tied to nature and her cycles, and that is reflected in their sacred sites.
What do you have coming out next?
I have poems due out in various magazines, all TBA, and I’ve been invited to participate in some local fiction anthologies. Right now I’m working on a sci-fi story inspired by Egyptian mythology and Edgar Rice Burroughs, and a modern-day fairy tale about a wicked librarian. I’m also working on my second novel, an urban fantasy, and my first poetry collection. I publish updates and links to my work on my blog.
[Shannon Connor Winward's writing has appeared in many venues including: Pedestal Magazine, Flash Fiction Online, Strange Horizons, Illumen, This Modern Writer [Pank Magazine], Hip Mama Zine and the anthologies Twisted Fairy Tales: Volume Two, Jack-o'-Spec: Tales of Halloween and Fantasy and Spectacular: Fantasy Favorites. Her poem "All Souls' Day" was nominated for a 2012 Rhysling Award.]
07 April 2013
Ancient Wonders: James Brogden
Aaaaand today we have Ancient Wonders author James Brogden under the spotlight!
Tell us a little about yourself, and what you like to write?
I'm based in the Midlands; grew up in Australia and instantaneously fell in love with the UK as a teenager because of the dense layering of history, myth and legend that exists underfoot everywhere you go. I like to write urban fantasy – which is to say, horror without the clichés. Fantastical elements intruding upon everyday lives.
What inspired you to write “If Street”?
Robert Holdstock, mostly. I love the Mythago Wood books, which are very firmly rooted in the countryside, and have always been curious about what would happen in an urban setting, with all those ancient track ways buried under tarmac and concrete. I've also been researching Sutton Park for another novel, so the place was already stuck in my head.
If the TARDIS could drop you off to any one site in its heyday, where would you go?
I'd go to Hadrian's Wall. Not only to see and appreciate the engineering, but also to get that sense that you are really on the edge of the world, that beyond this point there is no law or civilisation as you understand it. When my family moved to England we lived in the Borders, north of the wall, in the kind of place you got posted if you'd really annoyed someone back in Rome. I'd like to talk to them and ask them what that was like – but they'd probably tell me that they're just soldiers doing their jobs and to sod off.
What appeals to you most about ancient sites/landscapes?
That sense of common humanity which goes beyond time and place. We went on a family trip to Hadrian's Wall one Easter and saw that there was monument to the fallen soldiers of the legions who had been posted there, and it was exactly the same kind of monument you see today in small country villages, and it struck me how similar their feelings and experiences must have been to those of the men and women who are currently posted in, say, Afghanistan. I love old Iron Age hill forts for the same reason. It's mind-blowing to stand in a hut circle three thousand years old and know that here was the place where they cooked their meals, here was the door where a child probably looked out for his friends first thing in the morning. That kind of thing.
What do you have coming out next?
Couple of things: a story called “The Remover of Obstacles” in Anachron Press' anthology Urban Occult, and a second novel, Tourmaline published by Snowbooks, out in July.
[James Brogden was born in Manchester, grew up in Australia, and now lives with his wife and two daughters in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, where he teaches English. His short stories have appeared in the Big Issue, the British Fantasy Society’s Dark Horizons, Gears Levers Volume One, and his first novel, The Narrows, has just been published by Snowbooks. When he's not writing, or trying to teach children how to, he gets out into the mountains exploring the remains of Britain's prehistoric past and hunting for standing stones. Fortunately they don't run very fast. ]
The Alchemy Book of Ancient Wonders is available in paperback and ebook formats from multiple retailers - see the anthology page here for linky links!
02 April 2013
Ancient Wonders: Peter Crowther
Today's Ancient Wonders interviewee is the legendary Peter Crowther!
Tell us a little about yourself, and what you like to write?
My real weakness in reading is horror and ghost stories and the kind of SF stories that are filled with awe and wonder ... such as Bradbury, for example. Stephen King is the main man for me simply because of his characterisation. Sure, the stories are good -- well, there's an occasional so-so one but, with the sheer quality of his writing, you can pretty much forgive him anything -- but it's the depth of detail in his backgrounds as well as his foregrounds that puts the guy above anyone else writing today. And just to set my stall fully out, I've read several thousand books ... with faves being the late Robert B Parker, early Updike, Richard Ford, all the classic SF and horror books (and I do mean all), stuff like Wodehouse, early pulps (Prather, Thompson, Goodis and so on), Fitzgerald and on and on and on. What do I like to write? Pretty much the same as what I like to read. I wrote a story called “Tomorrow Eyes” simply because I really wanted to write something Runyonesque, a story called “The Incredible Multiplicity of PhaedraLament” because I wanted to emulate Clarke's White Hart, and so on. So I guess it's the attraction of speaking in a specific voice that attracts me.
What inspired you to write “Gandalph Cohen and the Land at the End of the Working Day”?
I loved Spider Robinson's tales set in Callaghan's Crosstime Saloon and I've long fancied having my own barroom for the telling of tall tales. “Gandalph Cohen” was the first of them; there are three more, each of them following the same formula ... Jack Fedogan playing jazz on the bar's PA system, the regulars sitting around a table chewing the fat or telling jokes, and a stranger coming into the bar with a “story” to tell or re-enact. There's a nice story concerning these stories and Dave Brubeck ... but I don't want to bore you so I'll tell it another time. Catch me at a convention and ask me about it sometime.
If the TARDIS could drop you off to any one site in its heyday, where would you go?
I've always wanted to go back to the late 1950s and go knock on the door of our old house (I was born in 1949, 4 July). I love the idea of my mom or dad opening the door and asking if they could help me while, behind them, this wide-eyed nosy kid stands watching me from behind them, an open book or comic hanging from his hand. And I'd like to go to a US city of that period, with a wad of dollars in my pocket so that I could buy copies of great comic books for just a dime apiece. I wrote a story along these lines called “The Doorway in Stephenson's Store” -- if you read it then please do bear in mind that it was written and published some five years before Stephen King unveiled 11.22.63.
What appeals to you most about ancient sites/landscapes?
Just seeing the way things used to be. Rightly or wrongly, I am fascinated by (and attracted to) the past. Can't get enough of it.
What do you have coming out next?
Just a few stories here and there, and then my long-threatened mainstream novel Thanksgiving ... currently standing at 110,000 words and waiting for the final spurt…
[Peter Crowther is the recipient of numerous awards for writing, editing, and as publisher of the hugely successful PS Publishing (which includes Stanza Press, the Drugstore Indian mass market paperbacks, PS Visual Entertainment and PS Art Books). As well as being widely translated, his short stories have been adapted for TV on both sides of the Atlantic, and collected in The Longest Single Note, Lonesome Roads, Songs of Leaving, Cold Comforts, The Spaces Between the Lines, The Land at the End of the Working Day and the upcoming Jewels in the Dust. He is the co-author (with James Lovegrove) of Escardy Gap and The Hand That Feeds, and has also written the Forever Twilight SF/horror cycle. He lives and works with his wife and business partner Nicky Crowther on England’s Yorkshire coast.]
The Alchemy Book of Ancient Wonders is available in paperback and ebook formats from multiple retailers - see the anthology page here for linky links!
Tell us a little about yourself, and what you like to write?
My real weakness in reading is horror and ghost stories and the kind of SF stories that are filled with awe and wonder ... such as Bradbury, for example. Stephen King is the main man for me simply because of his characterisation. Sure, the stories are good -- well, there's an occasional so-so one but, with the sheer quality of his writing, you can pretty much forgive him anything -- but it's the depth of detail in his backgrounds as well as his foregrounds that puts the guy above anyone else writing today. And just to set my stall fully out, I've read several thousand books ... with faves being the late Robert B Parker, early Updike, Richard Ford, all the classic SF and horror books (and I do mean all), stuff like Wodehouse, early pulps (Prather, Thompson, Goodis and so on), Fitzgerald and on and on and on. What do I like to write? Pretty much the same as what I like to read. I wrote a story called “Tomorrow Eyes” simply because I really wanted to write something Runyonesque, a story called “The Incredible Multiplicity of PhaedraLament” because I wanted to emulate Clarke's White Hart, and so on. So I guess it's the attraction of speaking in a specific voice that attracts me.
What inspired you to write “Gandalph Cohen and the Land at the End of the Working Day”?
I loved Spider Robinson's tales set in Callaghan's Crosstime Saloon and I've long fancied having my own barroom for the telling of tall tales. “Gandalph Cohen” was the first of them; there are three more, each of them following the same formula ... Jack Fedogan playing jazz on the bar's PA system, the regulars sitting around a table chewing the fat or telling jokes, and a stranger coming into the bar with a “story” to tell or re-enact. There's a nice story concerning these stories and Dave Brubeck ... but I don't want to bore you so I'll tell it another time. Catch me at a convention and ask me about it sometime.
If the TARDIS could drop you off to any one site in its heyday, where would you go?
I've always wanted to go back to the late 1950s and go knock on the door of our old house (I was born in 1949, 4 July). I love the idea of my mom or dad opening the door and asking if they could help me while, behind them, this wide-eyed nosy kid stands watching me from behind them, an open book or comic hanging from his hand. And I'd like to go to a US city of that period, with a wad of dollars in my pocket so that I could buy copies of great comic books for just a dime apiece. I wrote a story along these lines called “The Doorway in Stephenson's Store” -- if you read it then please do bear in mind that it was written and published some five years before Stephen King unveiled 11.22.63.
What appeals to you most about ancient sites/landscapes?
Just seeing the way things used to be. Rightly or wrongly, I am fascinated by (and attracted to) the past. Can't get enough of it.
What do you have coming out next?
Just a few stories here and there, and then my long-threatened mainstream novel Thanksgiving ... currently standing at 110,000 words and waiting for the final spurt…
[Peter Crowther is the recipient of numerous awards for writing, editing, and as publisher of the hugely successful PS Publishing (which includes Stanza Press, the Drugstore Indian mass market paperbacks, PS Visual Entertainment and PS Art Books). As well as being widely translated, his short stories have been adapted for TV on both sides of the Atlantic, and collected in The Longest Single Note, Lonesome Roads, Songs of Leaving, Cold Comforts, The Spaces Between the Lines, The Land at the End of the Working Day and the upcoming Jewels in the Dust. He is the co-author (with James Lovegrove) of Escardy Gap and The Hand That Feeds, and has also written the Forever Twilight SF/horror cycle. He lives and works with his wife and business partner Nicky Crowther on England’s Yorkshire coast.]
24 March 2013
Ancient Wonders: Bryn Fortey
Next lovely Ancient Wonders author under the spot light is Bryn Fortey...
Tell us a little about yourself, and what you like to write?
OAP. Widower. GSOH. Friendship, maybe more – oh no, sorry, that's the Two's Company ad I'm trying to put together.
Writing-wise: it used to be short stories, then I wrote a lot of poetry, now I'm back to short stories. Sort of horror, SF, weird, oddball. I like crossovers and work that's difficult to categorize.
What inspired you to write “Ithica or Bust”?
David A Sutton told me about the Ancient Wonder anthology only weeks before the deadline. Being so long out of the loop I had no real idea of what was required but wanted to have a go, so updated a bit of Greek mythology into science fiction space opera, throwing in as many references as I could squeeze onto the page. It was very untypical of my more usual output but I had great fun putting it together.
If the TARDIS could drop you off to any one site in its heyday, where would you go?
I would get the TARDIS to drop me off at Cheltenham Race Course one day next week so I could jot down all the winners and come back to make a fortune from the bookies.
What appeals to you most about ancient sites/landscapes?
My problem here is that at my age I remember most ancient sites and landscapes when they were new.
What do you have coming out next?
Two stories in Shadow Publishing's reprint anthology Horror! Under the Tombstone, and two stories accepted by the American audio magazine Tales to Terrify, but I have not been told yet when they are due to be used.
[Bryn Fortey appeared in various anthologies during the 1970s, including: New Writings in Horror & the Supernatural and New Writings in SF. He was also published in various Fontana anthologies edited by Mary Danby. Bryn’s beat-styled poetry magazine Outlaw was Best UK Small Press Magazine of 2004 in the Purple Patch Awards. In the same year he won the Undercurrent Aber Valley Short Story Competition with “The Dying Game”. In 2009 his “A Taxi Driver on Mars” was first in the Data Dump Awards for SF poetry in the UK. Bryn hales from South Wales.]
The Alchemy Book of Ancient Wonders is available in paperback and ebook formats from multiple retailers - see the anthology page here for linky links!
Tell us a little about yourself, and what you like to write?
OAP. Widower. GSOH. Friendship, maybe more – oh no, sorry, that's the Two's Company ad I'm trying to put together.
Writing-wise: it used to be short stories, then I wrote a lot of poetry, now I'm back to short stories. Sort of horror, SF, weird, oddball. I like crossovers and work that's difficult to categorize.
What inspired you to write “Ithica or Bust”?
David A Sutton told me about the Ancient Wonder anthology only weeks before the deadline. Being so long out of the loop I had no real idea of what was required but wanted to have a go, so updated a bit of Greek mythology into science fiction space opera, throwing in as many references as I could squeeze onto the page. It was very untypical of my more usual output but I had great fun putting it together.
If the TARDIS could drop you off to any one site in its heyday, where would you go?
I would get the TARDIS to drop me off at Cheltenham Race Course one day next week so I could jot down all the winners and come back to make a fortune from the bookies.
What appeals to you most about ancient sites/landscapes?
My problem here is that at my age I remember most ancient sites and landscapes when they were new.
What do you have coming out next?
Two stories in Shadow Publishing's reprint anthology Horror! Under the Tombstone, and two stories accepted by the American audio magazine Tales to Terrify, but I have not been told yet when they are due to be used.
[Bryn Fortey appeared in various anthologies during the 1970s, including: New Writings in Horror & the Supernatural and New Writings in SF. He was also published in various Fontana anthologies edited by Mary Danby. Bryn’s beat-styled poetry magazine Outlaw was Best UK Small Press Magazine of 2004 in the Purple Patch Awards. In the same year he won the Undercurrent Aber Valley Short Story Competition with “The Dying Game”. In 2009 his “A Taxi Driver on Mars” was first in the Data Dump Awards for SF poetry in the UK. Bryn hales from South Wales.]
17 March 2013
Ancient Wonders: Aliette de Bodard
Wahey! Next of our fabulous Ancient Wonders authors to be interviewed is Aliette de Bodard.
Tell us a little about yourself and what you like to write?
I'm a writer, engineer and over-enthusiastic cook who loves to write character-driven stories in strange and familiar worlds (and to put fish sauce in everything, including stories!). I've written SF, historical fantasy and creepy horror – bit of an eclectic person, really.
What inspired you to write “Ys”?
“Ys” is inspired by a very famous Briton legend I read when I was younger; the image of a sunken city beneath the waves has always remained with me, as well as the idea that on clear days, you can hear the bells of the submerged churches ringing through the streets. Dahut/Ahes, the princess who doomed Ys, was thrown from her father's horse after he discovered she had been the one to open the gates to the sea; and from there on it wasn't much of a stretch to imagine both city and princess would still be around in modern-day France.
If the TARDIS could drop you off to any one site in its heyday, where would you go?
Hmm, it's a tie, but I think I'd pick either Hue or My Son – they're wonderful Vietnamese sites that you can only visit a small part of, due to all the bombs that got dropped on them during the Vietnamese/American war. I've always wondered what it would be like to walk there before destruction struck.
What appeals to you most about ancient sites/landscapes?
The sense of history; and wondering how people might have lived, and how different they might have been. Also, they're usually very beautiful!
What do you have coming out next?
I have a limited-edition novella, On a Red Station, Drifting, which is out from Immersion Press (and nominated for a Nebula at the moment); and a couple stories forthcoming in various markets. I'm also attempting to wrestle an urban fantasy set in Paris into proper shape.
[Aliette de Bodard lives and writes in Paris, France, in a flat with more computers than warm bodies, and two Lovecraftian plants in the process of taking over the living room, one tentacle at a time. In her spare time, she writes speculative fiction: her Aztec-noir fantasy Obsidian and Blood is published by Angry Robot, and she has been a finalist for the Hugo and Nebula Awards, and has won the British Science Fiction Association Award.]
The Alchemy Book of Ancient Wonders is available in paperback and ebook formats from multiple retailers - see the anthology page here for linky links!
Tell us a little about yourself and what you like to write?
I'm a writer, engineer and over-enthusiastic cook who loves to write character-driven stories in strange and familiar worlds (and to put fish sauce in everything, including stories!). I've written SF, historical fantasy and creepy horror – bit of an eclectic person, really.
What inspired you to write “Ys”?
“Ys” is inspired by a very famous Briton legend I read when I was younger; the image of a sunken city beneath the waves has always remained with me, as well as the idea that on clear days, you can hear the bells of the submerged churches ringing through the streets. Dahut/Ahes, the princess who doomed Ys, was thrown from her father's horse after he discovered she had been the one to open the gates to the sea; and from there on it wasn't much of a stretch to imagine both city and princess would still be around in modern-day France.
If the TARDIS could drop you off to any one site in its heyday, where would you go?
Hmm, it's a tie, but I think I'd pick either Hue or My Son – they're wonderful Vietnamese sites that you can only visit a small part of, due to all the bombs that got dropped on them during the Vietnamese/American war. I've always wondered what it would be like to walk there before destruction struck.
What appeals to you most about ancient sites/landscapes?
The sense of history; and wondering how people might have lived, and how different they might have been. Also, they're usually very beautiful!
What do you have coming out next?
I have a limited-edition novella, On a Red Station, Drifting, which is out from Immersion Press (and nominated for a Nebula at the moment); and a couple stories forthcoming in various markets. I'm also attempting to wrestle an urban fantasy set in Paris into proper shape.
[Aliette de Bodard lives and writes in Paris, France, in a flat with more computers than warm bodies, and two Lovecraftian plants in the process of taking over the living room, one tentacle at a time. In her spare time, she writes speculative fiction: her Aztec-noir fantasy Obsidian and Blood is published by Angry Robot, and she has been a finalist for the Hugo and Nebula Awards, and has won the British Science Fiction Association Award.]
08 March 2013
Ancient Wonders: Misha Herwin
And today my lovely people, we have our interview of Ancient Wonders author Misha Herwin!
Tell us a little about yourself, and what you like to write?
I am compulsive writer who’s been writing ever since I could hold a pen. Rather to my surprise I’ve ended up living in Stoke with an ever patient husband and a moaning cat, who is convinced we don’t feed her enough. I write books and short stories for adults and kids and my work usually has a supernatural and fantasy element to it.
What inspired you to write “The Satan Stones”?
“The Satan Stones” was inspired by the Devil’s Ring and Finger, a pair of Neolithic standing stones near where I used to live in Shropshire. They have very powerful hold on my imagination and also appear in my latest novel, House of Shadows.
If the TARDIS could drop you off to any one site in its heyday, where would you go?
If I could leap into the TARDIS I’d definitely find my way back to the Devil’s Ring and Finger because I would love to know what really went on there.
What appeals to you most about ancient sites/landscapes?
The appeal of ancient sites and landscapes is their atmosphere of mystery and magic.
What do you have coming out next?
At the moment House of Shadows is with my agent and I’m working on a YA novel about a dystopian future where wars will be fought over water rather than oil. Juggler of Shapes, my second book in the Dragonfire Trilogy, is now out as an e book.
[Misha Herwin has been writing for many years. At twelve she wrote and staged her first play in a theatre made from a cardboard box. Since then her plays for teenagers have been performed in schools by the Stagefright Theatre Company and at the Canadian High Commission in Jamaica. She has published the Dragonfire Trilogy for kids and her stories can be found in a number of anthologies and magazines including Hens, Bitch Lit and Ghostly Reflections. “The Dragon Who Came to School” was broadcast by ABC Tales.]
The Alchemy Book of Ancient Wonders is available in paperback and ebook formats from multiple retailers - see the anthology page here for linky links!
Tell us a little about yourself, and what you like to write?
I am compulsive writer who’s been writing ever since I could hold a pen. Rather to my surprise I’ve ended up living in Stoke with an ever patient husband and a moaning cat, who is convinced we don’t feed her enough. I write books and short stories for adults and kids and my work usually has a supernatural and fantasy element to it.
What inspired you to write “The Satan Stones”?
“The Satan Stones” was inspired by the Devil’s Ring and Finger, a pair of Neolithic standing stones near where I used to live in Shropshire. They have very powerful hold on my imagination and also appear in my latest novel, House of Shadows.
If the TARDIS could drop you off to any one site in its heyday, where would you go?
If I could leap into the TARDIS I’d definitely find my way back to the Devil’s Ring and Finger because I would love to know what really went on there.
What appeals to you most about ancient sites/landscapes?
The appeal of ancient sites and landscapes is their atmosphere of mystery and magic.
What do you have coming out next?
At the moment House of Shadows is with my agent and I’m working on a YA novel about a dystopian future where wars will be fought over water rather than oil. Juggler of Shapes, my second book in the Dragonfire Trilogy, is now out as an e book.
[Misha Herwin has been writing for many years. At twelve she wrote and staged her first play in a theatre made from a cardboard box. Since then her plays for teenagers have been performed in schools by the Stagefright Theatre Company and at the Canadian High Commission in Jamaica. She has published the Dragonfire Trilogy for kids and her stories can be found in a number of anthologies and magazines including Hens, Bitch Lit and Ghostly Reflections. “The Dragon Who Came to School” was broadcast by ABC Tales.]
03 March 2013
Ancient Wonders: John Howard
Annnnd, the next Ancient Wonders author up for interrogation is: John Howard!
Tell us a little about yourself, and what you like to write?
I like to write about things which interest me – often to do with forgotten or alternate histories, obscure places, ambiguous people.
What inspired you to write “Time and the City”?
The title of the anthology! Something ancient, something wonderful. I love SF pulp magazine artwork from the 1920s and ’30s: those cities and buildings, wonderful machines and spaceships by the likes of Frank R Paul and Leo Morey. So a story about an incredibly ancient city full of wonders came into my mind…
If the TARDIS could drop you off to any one site in its heyday, where would you go?
Rome.
What appeals to you most about ancient sites/landscapes?
The sense of standing on the edge of the abyss of time.
What do you have coming out next?
A couple of stories in anthologies, plus a collection from Swan River Press called Written by Daylight.
[John Howard was born in London. He is the author of the collection The Silver Voices and the novella The Defeat of Grief. His short fiction has appeared in several anthologies, including Beneath the Ground, Never Again, and The Touch of the Sea. John has collaborated with Mark Valentine on a number of short stories, six of which featured Valentine’s long-running occult detective The Connoisseur. These tales have been reprinted in The Collected Connoisseur. Most recent to appear is Secret Europe, (written with Mark Valentine) to which John contributed ten of the twenty-five stories, set in a variety of real and fictional European locations.]
The Alchemy Book of Ancient Wonders is available in paperback and ebook formats from multiple retailers - see the anthology page here for linky links!
Tell us a little about yourself, and what you like to write?
I like to write about things which interest me – often to do with forgotten or alternate histories, obscure places, ambiguous people.
What inspired you to write “Time and the City”?
The title of the anthology! Something ancient, something wonderful. I love SF pulp magazine artwork from the 1920s and ’30s: those cities and buildings, wonderful machines and spaceships by the likes of Frank R Paul and Leo Morey. So a story about an incredibly ancient city full of wonders came into my mind…
If the TARDIS could drop you off to any one site in its heyday, where would you go?
Rome.
What appeals to you most about ancient sites/landscapes?
The sense of standing on the edge of the abyss of time.
What do you have coming out next?
A couple of stories in anthologies, plus a collection from Swan River Press called Written by Daylight.
[John Howard was born in London. He is the author of the collection The Silver Voices and the novella The Defeat of Grief. His short fiction has appeared in several anthologies, including Beneath the Ground, Never Again, and The Touch of the Sea. John has collaborated with Mark Valentine on a number of short stories, six of which featured Valentine’s long-running occult detective The Connoisseur. These tales have been reprinted in The Collected Connoisseur. Most recent to appear is Secret Europe, (written with Mark Valentine) to which John contributed ten of the twenty-five stories, set in a variety of real and fictional European locations.]
01 March 2013
Long Hidden
Another rather funky kickstarter project that's just appeared on the radar is the rather excellent looking Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction From the Margins of History
by Bart Leib. The anthology is to be published by Crossed Genres, which on its own should be enough to sell you on it, and already has a whole stack of fabulous authors attached (with bonus room for open subs should they make the funding target!)
The Pitch:
"Most written chronicles of history, and most speculative stories, put rulers, conquerors, and invaders front and center. People with less power, money, or status—enslaved people, indigenous people, people of color, queer people, laborers, women, people with disabilities, the very young and very old, and religious minorities, among others—are relegated to the margins. Today, mainstream history continues to perpetuate one-sided versions of the past while mistelling or erasing the stories of the rest of the world.
"There is a long and honorable legacy of literary resistance to erasure. This anthology partakes of that legacy. It will feature stories from the margins of speculative history, each taking place between 1400 and the early 1900s and putting a speculative twist—an element of science fiction, fantasy, horror, or the unclassifiably strange—on real past events."
Why It's Cool:
The subject! I'm currently studying history-from-below and subaltern sources as part of my undergrad degree so this isn't just hitting my buttons, it's slamming into them with the force of a truck. The stories of the colonised get far too easily lost under the dominant voices of the colonisers and what historical accounts that are recovered get filtered through a privileged lens and often distorted to reflect specific agendas so straight up accounts from people in the margins are a rarity. So a whole anthology of stories from this perspective is very shiny.
The authors! They've got: Linda Addison, Jennifer Marie Brissett, Chesya Burke, Aliette de Bodard, Tananarive Due, Amal El-Mohtar, Andrea Hairston, Beverly Jenkins, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Kima Jones, Victor LaValle, Ken Liu, Sarah McCarry, Neesha Meminger, Nnedi Okorafor, An Owomoyela, Kiini Ibura Salaam, Veronica Schanoes, Rion Amilcar Scott, Nisi Shawl and Troy Wiggins. Some of whom I'm huge fans of, some of whom I've not yet read things from.
The Rewards! There's ebooks and dead-tree books, t-shirts and critiques, a Ken Liu Emoji translation of the short blurb of your choice, custom stories and artwork, dinner with the editors and a writer workshop, and if you're really rich you can get a private performance from a soul quartet!
Seriously, how can you not back it?!
The link again!
The Pitch:
"Most written chronicles of history, and most speculative stories, put rulers, conquerors, and invaders front and center. People with less power, money, or status—enslaved people, indigenous people, people of color, queer people, laborers, women, people with disabilities, the very young and very old, and religious minorities, among others—are relegated to the margins. Today, mainstream history continues to perpetuate one-sided versions of the past while mistelling or erasing the stories of the rest of the world.
"There is a long and honorable legacy of literary resistance to erasure. This anthology partakes of that legacy. It will feature stories from the margins of speculative history, each taking place between 1400 and the early 1900s and putting a speculative twist—an element of science fiction, fantasy, horror, or the unclassifiably strange—on real past events."
Why It's Cool:
The subject! I'm currently studying history-from-below and subaltern sources as part of my undergrad degree so this isn't just hitting my buttons, it's slamming into them with the force of a truck. The stories of the colonised get far too easily lost under the dominant voices of the colonisers and what historical accounts that are recovered get filtered through a privileged lens and often distorted to reflect specific agendas so straight up accounts from people in the margins are a rarity. So a whole anthology of stories from this perspective is very shiny.
The authors! They've got: Linda Addison, Jennifer Marie Brissett, Chesya Burke, Aliette de Bodard, Tananarive Due, Amal El-Mohtar, Andrea Hairston, Beverly Jenkins, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Kima Jones, Victor LaValle, Ken Liu, Sarah McCarry, Neesha Meminger, Nnedi Okorafor, An Owomoyela, Kiini Ibura Salaam, Veronica Schanoes, Rion Amilcar Scott, Nisi Shawl and Troy Wiggins. Some of whom I'm huge fans of, some of whom I've not yet read things from.
The Rewards! There's ebooks and dead-tree books, t-shirts and critiques, a Ken Liu Emoji translation of the short blurb of your choice, custom stories and artwork, dinner with the editors and a writer workshop, and if you're really rich you can get a private performance from a soul quartet!
Seriously, how can you not back it?!
The link again!
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