Story news from me this week as the Glasgow SF Writers’ Circle launch their Flotation Device, a new charity anthology, plus some disappointing news about an upcoming event.
Tag: Black Static
Before I get onto upcoming things, some news: ‘The Anniversary’, which first appeared in last year’s Black Static #61, has received an Honorable Mention in Volume 10 of Ellen Datlow’s Best New Horror anthology. It’s a stunning achievement for a drabble that’s already been honoured with a British Fantasy Award shortlisting, and I’d like to thank Ellen and her team for considering my wee tale for this critically acclaimed series.
Here’s a quick round-up of what’s happening right now.
On 26th September, From Glasgow to Saturn will be launching Issue 41 at DRAM in Glasgow. Join us for story and poetry readings, as well as the famous From Glasgow to Saturn open mic sessions. Sadly, this will also be my last issue with the journal for the foreseeable future, so if you’d like to quiz me on what it’s like and how to get involved, please join us on 26th September from 6pm at DRAM in Glasgow. Click here for more details.
On 4th October, I’ll be interviewing Justina Robson, one of British SF’s most celebrated writers, at the launch of her new novel, Salvation’s Fire (Solaris). This is part of the After the War series, set in the same shared world as Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Redemption’s Blade — so if you’d like to hear about Justina’s first published Fantasy novel, this an event not to be missed. Please join us for wine and chat on 4th October from 6:30pm at Waterstones Argyle Street. For more information, click here. ***UPDATE: This event has now been cancelled***
Finally, on 19th – 21st October, I’ll be at The Queen Hotel in Chester for Fantasycon. The schedule has yet to be finalized (I’ll post again when it has been), but I’ll be there for the full weekend, likely appearing on at least one panel and reading that weekend. On the Sunday afternoon (21st), the winners of this year’s British Fantasy Awards will be announced, so if you’d like to know who we on the Best Artist jury picked as our winner this year, click here to grab yourself a ticket and join us there – or alternatively, follow the British Fantasy Society and Fantasycon 2018 twitter accounts for live tweeting on the day.
I’m delighted to announce that ‘The Anniversary’, which first appeared in Black Static #61 last year, has been shortlisted for the British Fantasy Award for Best Short Story.
Heartfelt thanks to everyone who voted me in to the jury stage – and in such wonderful company as Nina Allan, Stephen Volk, Laura Mauro, Joanne Hall and Stephen Gallagher too! In the face of such a strong field of contenders, I’ll take the chance now to thank Andy Cox at Black Static publishers TTA Press for taking a punt on this wee tale. This is my first shortlisting for this award, and I’m pleased as punch to say it was this one.
On an additional happy-but-heart-torn-in-two note, Black Static have also been shortlisted for Best Magazine / Periodical, alongside Shoreline of Infinity, which publishes my Noise and Sparks column. Good luck to them both, I say, along with everyone else who’s been shortlisted this year.
This year’s shortlist is a feast of wonderful things and great recommendations*, so do check out the full British Fantasy Awards 2018 shortlist here.
The awards will be announced over 19th – 21st October at the British Fantasy Society’s annual Fantasycon in Chester.
*I can definitely say this as a juror for the Best Artist category this year.
2018 already has a bunch of events in the works, and the first is in Edinburgh on Thursday 8th February.
Event Horizon will feature a showcase of writers from the GSFWC, including magnificent speculative and slipstream author Hal Duncan, the masterful “Laureate of Loss” Neil Williamson and, well, me. It’ll be another splendid night from the folks at Shoreline of Infinity, and you can find the full line-up in the image below – or by clicking here. The night kicks off at 7:30pm on Thursday 8th February at Frankenstein Edinburgh.
In the meantime, my Horror flash piece ‘The Anniversary’ has had some very kind comments as part of reviews of Black Static 61. So, if you need a little incentive to come out to Edinburgh next month, here are a few of them so far:
TANGENT ONLINE
“Beautifully written, it is elegant, timeless, and deeply painful in all its tragedy… It is the high note within this issue.”
https://www.tangentonline.com/print–bi-monthly-reviewsmenu-260/219-black-static/3703-black-static-61-novemberdecember-2017
GRIM READER REVIEWS
“A work of poetic yet ugly storytelling and one that will stay with you for some time after.”
https://beavisthebookhead.com/2017/12/10/magazine-review-black-static-61/
And possibly the most poetic review I’ve ever had:
DES LEWIS’ GESTALT REAL-TIME REVIEWS
“A tantalising pearl of fiction as love’s requital – a pearl to scry, to smile or to gurn?”
https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/2017/11/17/black-static-61/#comments
Thank you to Seraph, Adrian, and Des for your kind comments.
So, see you in Edinburgh next month, then?
There’s only hours left until the end of the year, so since it’s the season here’s a look back on my year in genre.
This year’s been rather quiet in terms of new stories. THE ANNIVERSARY was my first sale to Black Static, and appeared swiftly afterwards in Issue 61, which was a delightful surprise for the end of the year. Also, turns out flash fiction is eligible for all the awards, as far as I can work out, so if you read it and think it’s worth a nomination, please do so.
In reprints, GOOD BOY also made its first appearance in audio format on Pseudopod‘s Flash on the Borderlands XXXVIII: Letting Go episode. THE HONEY TRAP was also reprinted for the first time in the Edinburgh International Book Festival Special Issue of Shoreline of Infinity 8 1/2. I also made my first translation sale in Chinese of this story, which should be appearing in the new year. More on that soon, I hope.
I’m still writing the Noise and Sparks column for SF journal Shoreline of Infinity, which is also eligible for Non-fiction awards, if you reckon it’s worth a nomination. ‘The Legend of the Kick-Arse Wise Women’ (Issue 8), about the relationship between age, experience, and imposter syndrome, seemed to resonate with a lot of folks, so thank you for your kind responses. My favourite is still ‘The Company of Bears’, from the current issue (10), but party because this year I fell in love with the fact that there are real cosplay Faerie Markets over in the US, a discovery I made with the paper given by Georgia Natishan at this year’s GIFCon – and, in a way, isn’t that what all cons kind of are?
Most of my New Things this year have been in non-fiction. I helped organize my first symposium, in 2017’s inaugural GIFCon event, with keynote speakers Julie Bertagna, Phil Harris, Stefan Ekman, Robert Maslen, and Maureen Farrell. I also presented my first paper there, on Neil Gaiman’s American Gods and superhero modes of adaptation and revision, and I gave my first academic poster at Worldcon 75 in Helsinki, on Taoist Landscape and Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea sequence.
Worldcon was my only con of 2017, but it was grand to get another chance to attend one of these in Europe. Once again, I appeared on panels, this time on Neil Gaiman’s ‘The Sandman’, and ‘From Literature to Movies and Television – Adaptation of Scifi and Fantasy’ – a pair of great discussions that not only gave us the chance for a bit of role-play, but a chance to catch up with old friends and new (and nerd out in front of Margaret Dunlap, who is currently working on the new Dark Crystal TV series – eeee!).
Around that time, I was also sitting on the jury for the British Fantasy Society’s Non-fiction Award, my second year out – and a tricky job this time, as anyone else in on the final decision will attest, but thrilling to find these conversations around genre criticism to be so difficult, indicating as they did the high standard of the shortlisted works. I also squeezed in a couple of interviews with authors at various things – Oliver Langmead‘s Glasgow launch for Metronome at Waterstones Argyle Street, and a chat with Laura Lam about Shattered Minds at October’s Event Horizon.
The last quarter of the year also bought some firsts: I was the lead for the Creative Writing Station at Night at the Museum: Fantasy Scotland event at the Hunterian Museum in Scotland, in partnership with the MLitt in Fantasy at the University of Glasgow. As the rest of the team will agree, this was an amazing night, and we were thrilled to see people at the event and online responding to our challenges so imaginatively. Huge thanks to my fellow station folks Oliver Langmead, Sarah Tytler, Angie Spoto, Mary-Kate Wagamon and Luc Bateman for their brilliant work!
I also became an editor for From Glasgow to Saturn, the arts and creative writing journal at the University of Glasgow. We recently sent out the acceptances for our 40th issue of the journal and, come the new year, we start working on readying these submissions for publication in early Spring. I can’t wait to share these wonderful tales with you!
There were also a few personal writing highlights: getting to see Nalo Hopkinson, Malika Booker, Alasdair Gray, and Christopher Priest read in person – and sharing a TOC with Nalo as part of Shoreline of Infinity 8 1/2. I also got to meet Samuel R. Delany, which was not only a delight because of how utterly charming and insightful he is, but because his biographical documentary ‘The Polymath’ helped me work through some personal issues earlier in the year. I also gave cosplay a try for the first time this year, going to Worldcon as The Corinthian from Neil Gaiman‘s The Sandman comics, and Night at the Musem as Lottie from Neil Williamson‘s The Moon King. And I had the joy of watching my coursemates graduate from the University of Glasgow, and another friend win her first Hugo Award. So that’s a good year, isn’t it?
2018 will not only see my first issue of From Glasgow to Saturn as Editor, but also the second outing of GIFCon, for which I’m handling the social media presence (give me a wave sometime on twitter, facebook or instagram). I’ll be giving at least one workshop in the first half of the year in Edinburgh, as well as a brand new reading in Glasgow. Right now, I should be working on my column for the next issue of Shoreline of Infinity, a special issue for International Women’s Day. I’ll be entering the final stretch of my Masters degree in Fantasy next year.
As for what I’ll be doing after that, well I can’t officially say right now, but I hope you’ll stick around to find out.