Long Hidden is one of the most amazing projects I’ve had the pleasure to participate in. I’m honoured to be in the company of such great writers–and so excited that the book is finally available to purchase. I can’t be at the launch party in New York tonight, but maybe you can–it’s at Alice’s Arbor, from 4-6 pm, and a number of the other writers will be there! Check out this gorgeous Julie Dillon cover: My story is called “The Witch of Tarup”. It’s set in Denmark in 1886. I was lucky to have a fantastic primary source: a memoir written by my great-great-grandmother, and translated by one of her sons. (Disclaimer: none of my family are witches, as far as I know!) Here’s how it begins:Every town has its witch, or so the Midsummer Ballad says, but I had only lived in Tarup a fortnight and I did not know who the witch might be. […]
In which we have art!
Look at this beautiful illustration–by Richard Wagner, for my story “A Brief Light” in Interzone #252. I love the mood of it: I want to say “haunting”, which is a metaphoric word usually, but in the context of this story, it’s literal. This is my second story for Interzone, and like the first, it has ghosts in it. It’s also about love, loyalty, family, unfinished business, inheritance, and creepy birds. […]
A post I have been planning for ages
…yet now that it’s here, I still haven’t thought of a way to sound clever at it, because I am just too damned cheerful. I have just signed with Connor Goldsmith of Foreword Literary. A writer’s relationship with an agent is incredibly important, and there are a whole lot of variables that go into making the right choice, on both sides. I’m confident that we have, and I’m so excited about working together. The last couple of weeks have been interesting and volatile ones for me, with major changes on several fronts. But saying “changes” makes it sound like I’m talking about single events, like lightning strikes or lottery wins. I should rather say “fruitions”. Change has been happening for a long time. It is always happening, under the surface, and only sometimes does it come to light. This particular fruition, I greeted with some dear friends, some extremely loud music, and some Death in the Afternoon. (Hemingway’s advice on this recipe is “Drink three to five of these slowly.” I maintain that drinking three to five of them quickly is also worthwhile.) It’s been an excellent couple of weeks on the short fiction front, also–a couple of sales that […]
Story day!
“The End of the World in Five Dates” is now live at Apex, along with an interview with me and tons of other fine work. I never quite know what to say on Story Days: do I tell you all how much I love this piece, how proud I am? Do I say something self-deprecating like oh btw I wrote a thing if you maybe feel like checking it out? There’s a whole bunch of really personal stuff going on in this one, for what that’s worth: some is explained a little in the interview, and some, you’ll have to guess. While you read, I’ll be over here, finishing the next new project. […]
In which there is art!
You guys, I can’t even tell you how excited I am by this. I’ve never had an illustration for one of my stories before, and this one is beautiful! It’s for “Haunts”, coming out in Interzone #249 in November. This story has its roots in an eclipse, back in 1993 or thereabouts. I lived in a small city with a fountain in a square downtown. My best friend and I watched the sun go dark and then we went for breakfast. As often happens with stories, I can’t quite describe how I got from that eclipse to this rather dark story about an ex-duelist selling off her fingers to keep her failing school from closing. I can tell you it has some other hidden ingredients from the time of the eclipse–a kitten who only lived a few days, a house in the west end where the lilacs were all cut down–but how those little realities are woven into this fiction, I can’t even explain. There were some wrong turns–I finished the first draft of this story a few years ago, but I didn’t finish the final draft until quite recently, and it changed a lot in between. Now it’s finally […]
Story day!
“Nightfall in the Scent Garden” went up at PodCastle today! This story is having a great run–it’s also reprinted in the just-released anthology Imaginarium 2013, which was recommended by the Toronto Star as one of the summer’s Top 20 reads. PodCastle publishes all kinds of wonderful stuff. Some recent stories that have impressed me are Kenneth Schneyer’s “Selected Program Notes from the Retrospective Exhibition of Teresa Rosenberg Latimer”, Megan Arkenberg’s “The Copperroof War”, and Cory Skerry’s “My Dignity in Scars”. I am more visual than aural and I usually choose to read from a page, but hearing a story read to me creates a fascinating nostalgia, a remembrance of childhood bedtimes and an era when the entirety of Lord of the Rings was read on radio by the BBC. A good reader–and PodCastle features many!–brings heightened emotion and a sense of extra space to the work. Listen, read, enjoy, comment, wonder. […]
Story day: “The God-Seed”
“The God-Seed” went up at Crossed Genres today. Go and read! There are also wonderful stories by Alena McNamara and N.A. Ratnayake. When I write stories, it’s because they feel essential to me. I hope I’ve done this one justice. […]
Secrets of writing, unlocked!
Today in my search keywords: “finish a fantasy novel”. Why yes, seeker, I did. Twice. (I’m awesome that way.) How? I will let you in on my secret. Writer + laptop + chair + time = novel. (I left out a few of the nonessential ingredients such as coffee, music and cats… if you are following the basic recipe though, and still having trouble, consider adding one of these.) If you are short of the basics, it is very hard to finish a novel. If you have a laptop, chair, and time, and are still having trouble finishing, it is possible, as Grady Hendrix suggests in a recent post, that you are not actually a writer. It is also possible, in my experience, that instead of writing a novel of fun escapism, you’re writing a novel about hard stuff you have experienced: loss, ill health, depression, abuse, that kind of thing. When I procrastinate, it is not because I’m not a writer. It is because I’m afraid. Once I push past this fear, and take a hard look at whatever is in my path, I make my best work. It doesn’t have to be literally about my experience–in fact, it […]
Story Day!
Item the first: “Bleaker Collegiate Presents an All-Female Production of Waiting for Godot“ is live at Podcastle today, read by Tatiana Gomberg, who does a wonderful job as the voice of the young, jaded and vulnerable Deirdre. I am so delighted by this. Item the second: Congratulations to all of the Nebula nominees. Many of the works on this list I’ve read and loved, and I’m looking forward to catching up on the others. I see this as a very strong year all round and I’m full of joy at the strength, beauty and relevance of our genre, and awe at the, well, awesomeness of the people I know. Item the third: speaking of beautiful and relevant work, Kelly Rose Pflug-Back has a wonderful story at Strange Horizons right now which you should go and read. Item the third-B: the first comment on that story was a hilarious troll complaining about SH publishing too many lesbian stories. (If you are wondering: yes, all of my SH stories feature lesbian or bisexual protagonists. Viva la revolucion! Although SH has plenty of stories without lesbians, also.) (PS: The fun that was had on Twitter today… well, I found a whole bunch of […]
More great moments in the life of Clairification, Professional Writer
Yesterday I went to Chapters and bought Imaginarium 2012. Yes: I walked into one of my bookstores and bought a book with my story in it. Somehow it feels bigger than seeing my name in a book in the first place–which was cool and all, but this book was living in the wild. There are more copies there, if you want one! The last few weeks have been rather scattered, from a writing perspective, but I have been immeasurably cheered by an awesome review from Bogi Takács, a blogger I have been reading for a few months, who writes wonderful and cogent reviews on a laudably regular basis, and also a shout-out from Liz Bourke on Tor.com. Let this post serve as an inadequate but heartfelt thanks to everyone who reads my work, whether you respond in public or think about it in private. I’m so glad that some of what I am doing works for you… and I’m so grateful that in turn, you are seeing me, and through your observation, making me real. […]