Meanwhile, over at SF Signal: The Dream Anthology

The delightful John DeNardo at SF Signal asked a few people to pick and choose for their dream anthology, citing what you’d choose and why. The answers were so big, they had to split the post in two.

Mine is here, as is that of Nancy Kress (hallowed be her name), Violet Malan and other interesting folk.

Part Two is here.

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LL Hannett Strikes Again

The wonderful Lisa L Hannett has a story up over at the deliciously dark Chizine.

I saw early drafts of Their Own Executioners and it’s so coooooool to see it out in the world now it’s all grown up.

‘It’s not so bad there, most of the time.’ Fog wafted around his mouth as he spoke, drawing pale curlicues on the night air. The building was quiet around us.

He looked like condensation, liable to slip out of sight without solidifying.

He smelled like wet pavement.

‘Why do you keep coming back?’ I asked.

He looked at me, rubbed a hand along his irregular jaw. Stubble created no friction beneath his fingers; just a silent back and forth movement as he considered my question. I didn’t mind that he was unshaven. At least he’d set his face to rights before he came this time.

For the rest:  http://www.chizine.com/their_own_executioners.htm

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Tiny Drops

Here’s something I’m very happy to post: the new Midnight Echo is out, guest edited by Lee Battersby … and containing a creepy story I lurve. L L Hannett’s Tiny Drops is seeing the light of day … the kicking the proverbial out of the light of day and stealing its wallet.

This story started out at Clarion South in 09 and it is awesome to see it published!!

There are also stories by Clarion South 07 alums, Daniel Braum and Chris Greene, as well a poetry from the lovely Jenny Blackford.

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The Girl with No Hands and Other Tales is available for pre-order

 

Forgive me, I’m too excited to be of much use – the link is here for pre-orderage http://www.indiebooksonline.com/catalog/index.php

Hard cover or paperback – squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

*complete lack of authorial dignity*’

Oh, and here is the ToC:

1. Introduction by Jack Dann
2. Bluebeard
3. The Living Book
4. The Jacaranda Wife
5. Red Skein
6. The Chrysanthemum Bride
7. Frozen
8. The Hummingbird Heart
9. Words
10. The Little Match Girl
11. The Juniper Tree
12. Skin
13. The Bone Mother
14. The Dead Ones Don’t Hurt You
15. Light as Mist, Heavy as Hope
16. Dresses, three
17. The Girl with No Hands
18. Afterword

And the gorgeous, K McD pimped the collection with many kind words http://kirstynmcdermott.com/2010/06/08/the-girl-with-no-hands/ as has the fabulous Jason Nahrung http://jasonnahrung.com/2010/06/08/the-girl-with-no-hands/ – who managed to marry the divine Kirstyn last night in an awesome ceremony at Bar Soma in Brisneyland. They totally match.

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Interview – L L Hannett

My dear friend and occasional partner-in-crime, Lisa Hannett, is interviewed over here http://www.fantasy-magazine.com/2010/03/writing-writing-writing-lisa-hannett/ at Fantasy Magazine. Well worth a read – as always – and she’s just become an Australian citizen. 🙂 And quite frankly, you should probably go and read The Good Window, too. Oh, go on. You know you want to!

It’s here – just waiting for you … go on, don’t disappoint it … it’s put the kettle on and everything http://www.fantasy-magazine.com/2009/09/the-good-window/

What inspired “The Good Window”?

I’d had a few of the story’s elements kicking around in my mind for a while, but a flight I took from Tasmania home to Adelaide last year was the catalyst I needed to bring them all together. Basically, we had just taken off and the plane had made a really sharp turn—so sharp that all I could see out my window was vibrant green grass, dense forests, and sparkling waters. No horizon, just ground. And since Adelaide’s been experiencing intense drought for years, Tasmania’s lush landscape came as a shock. It was such a contrast to what I’d gotten used to seeing at home! So, since I generally tend to think morbid thoughts at the beginning of my flights, I looked out at this gorgeous view and thought, ‘If the plane crashed right now, this would be the last thing I saw. Apart from the plummeting towards death part, that wouldn’t be half bad.’

Once the plane righted itself, I started thinking about how our perspectives—literally, what we see when we look out at the world—influence the way we experience life. From there it was a quick step to: What if a character’s world view was mostly based on what she saw outside her window each day?

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Locus Recomended Reading List

Lives here http://www.locusmag.com/Magazine/2010/Issue02_RecommendedReadingList.html

Some awesome names there (like LL Hannett, Peter M Ball, etc) 🙂

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Adelaide is Cold, but my Toe is Not Broken

I am sitting in  a cafe in Adelaide’s Rundle Street, in excellent company: LL Hannett, Peter Ball and Jason Fischer. The company had better be excellet for it is freaking freezing here! We’re all writing, at different speeds, but we are writing (with intermittant yelling of ‘Why have you stopped writing???’). This works well. The second toe on my left foot is an astonishing shade of purple, but no longer hurts (possibly coz it has frozen) after falling victim to my natural clutziness and the 4.30am stumble around the house while getting ready to go to the airport. In my favour, I kept the profanity level to a minimum out of consideration for the neighbours.

Last night’s Sean Williams-sponsored pirate party was great (but has contributed to today’s headache somewhat, but we salved that with an application of bacon). Later today we head off to register. Dinner tonight with friends at the wonderfully named ‘Concubine’. Tomorrow night, the Masked Ball thingy – for which LL and I have lovely Venetian masks.

Got another new story at The Daily Cabal http://www.dailycabal.com/ – Part Four of Brisneyland by Night.

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NatCon! Or Why Did I Book Such an Early Flight??

Conjecture, aka the 48th Australian National SF Convention, will be occurring in Adelaide as of this Friday.  GoH is the award-winning, best-selling (two words it’s always nice to see together, just like ‘choclit’ and ‘cake’ … mmm, wait, do the hyphenated words count as four words?) Julie E. Czerneda. Getting there will involve me getting out of bed at 4am tomorrow in order to get out of the house by 5am in order to get to the Brisneyland airport by 6am in order to check in for a 7am flight. Note to self: cheapest flight not always best flight. *sigh* Looks like I will be viewing dawn again, something I live my life trying to avoid. Perhaps if I just close my eyes?

But to the Con – highlights include:

Book launch of Horn by Peter Ball, via the machinations of Twelfth Planet Press.

Sean Williams on DJ duty at the Maskobalo on Saturday night (right after the Ditmars).

A seminar about getting published by the good Kate Eltham and myself – well, it’s less a highlight than a reminder to myself to get out of bed early on Sunday and get to the venue and fill up on coffee in order to appear lucid.

A Haighs choclit factory tour.

Panel-y goodness such as Urban Fantasy, High Fantasy & Magical Realism; The Academic as Hero; Cities of the Future; The Women in Science Question; New Who; and other ‘stuff’.

Most imporantly there will be frog cakes, choclit snakes and choclit frogs, discussing a novella with Dirk Flinthart, my friends and the other half of my brain, LL Hannett.

So if you’re in Adelaide this long weekend, head on over – http://conjecture2009.org/

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