Flesh & Bone: Rise Of The Necromancers is an anthology from Pill Hill Press: Twenty-one dark short stories about the undead, and the persons who raise them…

My story, The King’s Accord, is one of them. Get your copy here.

*snoopy dance*

.

I’m a sucker for a good fairy story. And I mean a proper fairy story, where nasty things happen, even to the good people. It makes my teeth flex to see these sanitised Disney fairy tales, where it’s all rainbows and unicorns and bollocks like that, with a final message that all you have to do is believe in yourself. Fuck off. That’s not a fairy tale. A real fairy story is where the witch does eat the children, not when the children outsmart the mean old witch with their goodness and wholesomeness.

So yeah, I like a proper fairy tale and I knew that Slatter’s book was a collection of such things. I also knew that it was a collection of interconnected stories, with the whole book becoming something of a novel-of-short-stories rather than a whole bunch of standalone yarns. And I knew that most of the stories were dealing primarily with women protagonists. I didn’t know anything more about it than that. I’ve read some of Slatter’s work before and knew what an awesome writer she was, so I had high hopes. I bought this book the moment it became available and it leapt straight to the top of my reading pile.

I consumed this thing whole and it consumed me. Slatter’s writing is exquisite, she really is a master storyteller. Her turns of phrase are often beautiful and haunting. It’s not that her prose is full of literary swirl or flowery excess. She just uses language like a virtuoso pianist uses a keyboard. She delights in the short form of the delivery and these tales are tight, incredibly crafted things. She builds a world and a set of characters and makes us care about both of them in the space of a few paragraphs. She creates a story that hooks us and takes along. And because I knew there was interconnectedness in this book, getting to the end of one story just made me desperate to read the next. I wanted to see whose baby would be the powerful witch later on, or whose actions would cause ripples in future generations. And I was distraught when the book ended and there were no more stories to read.

Terrible things happen in Slatter’s stories, to good guys and bad guys. Good guys do horrible things to bad people and vice versa. Often it’s not entirely clear who the good and bad people are. There’s realism in the desperate struggles of the characters. Often the women around whom all these tales revolve are subjugated and oppressed, yet they shine in the end as the ones with real power, real lasting effect on their world. There are beautiful moments of redemption and bittersweet justice and occasional moments of genuine joy for the characters.

There is constant genuine joy for the reader. This book is a fantastic achievement on every level. Tartarus Press are to be congratulated for creating a beautiful object and Angela Slatter is to be congratulated for crafting a reading experience that is truly sublime. If this doesn’t get up for the Best Collected Work at the Aurealis Awards or something similar I’ll be sorely disappointed. Get it. Now.

.

The King’s Accord is one of my rarer dips into raw fantasy, in the medieval epic fantasy vein, rather than my usual urban fantasy and horror or sci-fi stuff. Mine is a story about the desperate lengths a queen goes to to save her nation from war. I’m really pleased to have been accepted for publication in this one. By all accounts the competition was stiff. The submission call asked for stories thematically based on necromancy, which is the magic of the raising of the dead, and the necromacers that practice the art. I’m really looking forward to reading the rest of the stories in this antho.

Here’s the ToC:

Flesh and Bone: Rise of the Necromancers
Edited by Jessy Marie Roberts

Twenty-one dark short stories about the undead, and the persons who raise them…

The Blade of Tears by Lydia Sharp
No Man’s Land by K.G. McAbee
Wrists by Shennandoah Diaz
All the World a Grave by Michael McClung
Blood on the Beach by Anne Michaud
The Scarlet Cat by Rebecca Lloyd
The Mortician’s Secret by Kelley Frank
The King’s Accord by Alan Baxter
Necrodance by Darin Kennedy
The Ghost Walk by Marianne Halbert
Blood Brothers by J. Matthew Saunders
Bequest by Greg Mellor
9 Mystery Rose by Eden Royce
In the Dark Kingdom by Brandon Berntson
Jenna’s Awakening by TW Brown
Queen of Bones by Aubrie Dionne
Small Matters of Immortality by Michael R. Colangelo
The Stoner Bride by Matthew Fryer
Sedenberry’s Pest by Jon C. Forisha
A History of the Wraith King by Chris Poling
And the Greatest of These is Love by David McDonald

Get your copy from Amazon now.

.

This is what it looks like under the dust jacket:

Oh yes, that is one fucking beautiful book. It’s also from a print run limited to 300 copies. And it’s a collection of short stories by the incredibly talented and generally wonderful Angela Slatter. It’s basically a giant wad of awesome, dripping in awesome sauce. I can’t wait to read it. I’ll also be schlepping it down to Worldcon to make sure I get it signed by Angela, just to add that cherry of awesome on top.

I have to give full marks to Tartarus Press, that published this lovely tome. It’s great to see that people are still making the effort to produce books that are not only full of the author’s art, but are works of art in themselves.

You might still be lucky enough to score a copy of this, if any of the 300 are left. I expect there’ll be a paperback run once the hardbacks run out, which will still be worth your time and money, because it’s still full of Angela’s stories. But if you’re interested, follow the link below and try to secure your copy of this piece of beauty while there’s still time.

Sourdough & other stories by Angela Slatter, With an Introduction by Robert Shearman and an Afterword by Jeff VanderMeer, from Tartarus Press.

.

Full official announcement here.

Please share the news with anyone you think might be interested.

.

So you can imagine how interested I became when I was contacted recently by a fellow named Phill Teare. Phill is a film student at Sydney uni and for his current project he needs to work on an adaptation. He’s asked me if he could use my short story, Stand Off, for this purpose. I was more than happy to agree and yesterday we met and I signed off on an option for him to make a short (around 3 minute) film based on the abridged version of Stand Off as it appears on the Infinitas website.

I’m very excited about this and I’m really looking forward to seeing something I’ve written turned into film. Once the project is complete Phill intends to run the finished piece around the short film circuit, so I’ll post regular updates here whenever I hear anything from him and let you know where you can go to see it. You’ll not only get to enjoy the film, but you’ll be supporting Australian independent film-making, Phill’s career and, possibly, my own.

Watch this space.

.

There are some awesome nominees this year and some truly deserving ones. I’m looking forward to the announcements on these. Below is the full list of categories and nominations.

Best Novel
(699 Ballots)

•Boneshaker, Cherie Priest (Tor)
•The City & The City, China Miéville (Del Rey; Macmillan UK)
•Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America, Robert Charles Wilson (Tor)
•Palimpsest, Catherynne M. Valente (Bantam Spectra)
•Wake, Robert J. Sawyer (Ace; Penguin; Gollancz; Analog)
•The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade)

Best Novella
(375 Ballots)

•“Act One”, Nancy Kress (Asimov’s 3/09)
•The God Engines, John Scalzi (Subterranean)
•“Palimpsest”, Charles Stross (Wireless; Ace, Orbit)
•Shambling Towards Hiroshima, James Morrow (Tachyon)
•“Vishnu at the Cat Circus”, Ian McDonald (Cyberabad Days; Pyr, Gollancz)
•The Women of Nell Gwynne’s, Kage Baker (Subterranean)

Best Novelette
(402 Ballots)

•“Eros, Philia, Agape”, Rachel Swirsky (Tor.com 3/09)
•The Island”, Peter Watts (The New Space Opera 2; Eos)
•“It Takes Two”, Nicola Griffith (Eclipse Three; Night Shade Books)
•“One of Our Bastards is Missing”, Paul Cornell (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction: Volume Three; Solaris)
•“Overtime”, Charles Stross (Tor.com 12/09)
•“Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast”, Eugie Foster (Interzone 2/09)

Best Short Story
(432 Ballots)

•“The Bride of Frankenstein”, Mike Resnick (Asimov’s 12/09)
•“Bridesicle”, Will McIntosh (Asimov’s 1/09)
•“The Moment”, Lawrence M. Schoen (Footprints; Hadley Rille Books)
•“Non-Zero Probabilities”, N.K. Jemisin (Clarkesworld 9/09)
•“Spar”, Kij Johnson (Clarkesworld 10/09)

Best Related Book
(259 Ballots)

•Canary Fever: Reviews, John Clute (Beccon)
•Hope-In-The-Mist: The Extraordinary Career and Mysterious Life of Hope Mirrlees, Michael Swanwick (Temporary Culture)
•The Inter-Galactic Playground: A Critical Study of Children’s and Teens’ Science Fiction, Farah Mendlesohn (McFarland)
•On Joanna Russ, Farah Mendlesohn (ed.) (Wesleyan)
•The Secret Feminist Cabal: A Cultural History of SF Feminisms, Helen Merrick (Aqueduct)
•This is Me, Jack Vance! (Or, More Properly, This is “I”), Jack Vance (Subterranean)

Best Graphic Story
(221 Ballots)

•Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? Written by Neil Gaiman; Pencilled by Andy Kubert; Inked by Scott Williams (DC Comics)
•Captain Britain And MI13. Volume 3: Vampire State Written by Paul Cornell; Pencilled by Leonard Kirk with Mike Collins, Adrian Alphona and Ardian Syaf (Marvel Comics)
•Fables Vol 12: The Dark Ages Written by Bill Willingham; Pencilled by Mark Buckingham; Art by Peter Gross & Andrew Pepoy, Michael Allred, David Hahn; Colour by Lee Loughridge & Laura Allred; Letters by Todd Klein (Vertigo Comics)
•Girl Genius, Volume 9: Agatha Heterodyne and the Heirs of the Storm Written by Kaja and Phil Foglio; Art by Phil Foglio; Colours by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)
•Schlock Mercenary: The Longshoreman of the Apocalypse Written and Illustrated by Howard Tayler

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form
(541 Ballots)

•Avatar Screenplay and Directed by James Cameron (Twentieth Century Fox)
•District 9 Screenplay by Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell; Directed by Neill Blomkamp (TriStar Pictures)
•Moon Screenplay by Nathan Parker; Story by Duncan Jones; Directed by Duncan Jones (Liberty Films)
•Star Trek Screenplay by Robert Orci & Alex Kurtzman; Directed by J.J. Abrams (Paramount)
•Up Screenplay by Bob Peterson & Pete Docter; Story by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, & Thomas McCarthy; Directed by Bob Peterson & Pete Docter (Disney/Pixar)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form
(282 Ballots)

•Doctor Who: “The Next Doctor” Written by Russell T Davies; Directed by Andy Goddard (BBC Wales)
•Doctor Who: “Planet of the Dead” Written by Russell T Davies & Gareth Roberts; Directed by James Strong (BBC Wales)
•Doctor Who: “The Waters of Mars” Written by Russell T Davies & Phil Ford; Directed by Graeme Harper (BBC Wales)
•Dollhouse: “Epitaph 1″ Story by Joss Whedon; Written by Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed Whedon; Directed by David Solomon (Mutant Enemy)
•FlashForward: “No More Good Days” Written by Brannon Braga & David S. Goyer; Directed by David S. Goyer; based on the novel by Robert J. Sawyer (ABC)

Best Editor, Long Form
(289 Ballots)

•Lou Anders
•Ginjer Buchanan
•Liz Gorinsky
•Patrick Nielsen Hayden
•Juliet Ulman

Best Editor, Short Form
(419 Ballots)

•Ellen Datlow
•Stanley Schmidt
•Jonathan Strahan
•Gordon Van Gelder
•Sheila Williams

Best Professional Artist
(327 Ballots)

•Bob Eggleton
•Stephan Martiniere
•John Picacio
•Daniel Dos Santos
•Shaun Tan

Best Semiprozine
(377 Ballots)

•Ansible edited by David Langford
•Clarkesworld edited by Neil Clarke, Sean Wallace, & Cheryl Morgan
•Interzone edited by Andy Cox
•Locus edited by Charles N. Brown, Kirsten Gong-Wong, & Liza Groen Trombi
•Weird Tales edited by Ann VanderMeer & Stephen H. Segal

Best Fan Writer
(319 Ballots)

•Claire Brialey
•Christopher J Garcia
•James Nicoll
•Lloyd Penney
•Frederik Pohl

Best Fanzine
(298 Ballots)

•Argentus edited by Steven H Silver
•Banana Wings edited by Claire Brialey and Mark Plummer
•CHALLENGER edited by Guy H. Lillian III
•Drink Tank edited by Christopher J Garcia, with guest editor James Bacon
•File 770 edited by Mike Glyer
•StarShipSofa edited by Tony C. Smith

Best Fan Artist
(199 Ballots)

•Brad W. Foster
•Dave Howell
•Sue Mason
•Steve Stiles
•Taral Wayne

The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer
(356 Ballots)

•Saladin Ahmed
•Gail Carriger
•Felix Gilman *
•Seanan McGuire
•Lezli Robyn *
*(Second year of eligibility)

Congratulations to all the nominees and best of luck! I’ll post the list of winners after Worldcon.

.

Inception tops them all. It’s incredibly beautiful, using the medium of film perfectly to tell a story that is deep, complex and intellectually stimulating. And audiences clearly love it. At the time of writing imdb has it at 9.2/10 and Rotten Tomatoes at 87%. That’s some going, especially with today’s hyper-critical filmgoers.

And yet, the basic premise of the movie is not especially convulted. It’s a heist movie. I love a good blag caper, with someone assembling a team, getting the people he needs together with their special skillsets and their cool names like The Architect, The Forger and The Chemist. Except this is a heist of the mind.

The film centers on Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), an extractor, who enters the dreams of others to obtain information while their subconscious is vulnerable to his skills. His job has cost him his family and his country, but he is given a chance at redemption if he can be successful in planting an idea in a corporate target’s mind, instead of taking one out. Known as inception, this is far more difficult and dangerous than extraction. And so we have a reverse heist of the mind. Cobb needs to assemble a team capable of putting something into the tightest vault of all.

So, accepting that the technology and methodology for the heist exists, the principle idea is fairly simple. It’s the execution in terms of story, film-making and acting that is simply outstanding. There are amazing performances all round. Leonardo DiCaprio is still playing the same character from Shutter Island in some ways, but with a different twist. His performance is brilliant. Surely, between Inception and Shutter Island, he must be venturing into Oscar territory soon. The ensemble cast are all exemplary, but Tom Hardy as Eames was a standout for me and deserves a special mention. As does Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Arthur, especially for his zero-g fighting.

Inception was written, produced and directed by Nolan, a truly amazing achievement. He originally pitched the idea in 2001 or 2002 and the studio liked it, so he went away to write a final treatment. He kept working until he was happy with it – which took eight years. And it shows. The story is largely flawless. A few conveniences keep the plot moving, but nothing that took me out of the picture. It’s so bloody clever, and Nolan’s use of the device of dreaming is inspired. I know I’m gushing a bit, but this is finally a film worthy of our adoration.

And it was spectacular to watch. Avatar was spectacular to watch, a beautiful visual feast, but the story was painting by numbers. A three year old could have written it. And the beauty of the film was almost entirely special effects. Nolan excels for using reality.

His story, as I’ve already said, is excellent and intellectually engaging. It’s also a story that uses the medium of film perfectly. This would be a great book, but it’s a fantastic film. Every sequence has a balletic, dream-like quality, even when they’re not dreaming. The visual devices of dreams within dreams, the bending of reality in the subjects’ minds, is inspired. Yet Nolan insists on avoiding CGI as much as possible. This movie had less special effects shots than his Batman films. His use of in-camera effects and stunts is sometimes breath-taking. And you can tell it’s happening. If you watch for it, you can see that there’s a distinct lack of CGI in a film that would usually, these days, be blithering in post-production.

Nolan has made a film here about the nature of shared dreaming and how that might be used or abused. At the end of the film, as the lights came up, I looked around the theatre. I was stunned and peoples’ faces all around me were equally blown away. We’d all just shared Nolan’s dream and we were better for it.

Now, where’s my totem? I need to make sure I’ve actually woken up.

(And Mr Nolan, sir, please option my books next!)

EDIT: I’d love to hear your comments, so please leave your thoughts below, but BEWARE – there are spoilers in the comments section!

.

Anyway, one of her short stories that she’s perhaps most famous for, arguably the story that put her on the map, is an incredibly poignant yarn called Singing My Sister Down. In many ways this story breaks all the “rules” of short story writing, but it goes to show how extreme talent can prove that rules are just for us mere mortals. I remember reading the story and being totally blown away by it. It still resonates with me to this day, which is the sign of one of those rare masterpieces in storytelling.

Now Singing My Sister Down is set to be retold in a live production by the Sydney University Dramatic Society. I have no idea how they’ll pull this off, but if they make a good job of it we’re in for some awesome theatre.

Here are the details:

Wed–Sat, 11th–21st August, 8pm.
Cellar Theatre, under the Holme Building, Science Road, Sydney University.
Admission: $2/3/4/5.

‘In the winter you come to the pit to warm your feet in the tar. You stand long enough to sink as far as your ankles—the littler you are, the longer you can stand…but in summer, like this day, you keep away from the tar, because it makes the air hotter and you mind about the stink.’

Ik’s got to go down, and everybody’s got to see her go. The family party in the tar, feasting and singing despite the shame. But as the sun goes down and the young girl disappears in front of us, we observe an unnaturally slow execution, and watch a family lose someone before they are gone.

Adapted and directed by Eleni Schumacher and Stephen Sharpe, and the company. Produced by Ellana Costa.

If you’re in Sydney, or you can get to Sydney, give this a go and I’m pretty sure you won’t be disappointed. I really hope I can get up for it. I’ll review it here if I do.

.

Here’s a quick rundown on just a few of the great new releases worth a look about now:

Power And Majesty by Tansy Rayner Roberts (Voyager) She almost missed the sight of a naked youth falling out of the sky. He was long and lean and muscled… He was also completely off his face.

A war is being fought in the skies over the city of Aufleur. No one sees the battles. No one knows how close they come to destruction every time the sun sets.

During daylight, all is well, but when nox falls and the sky turns bright, someone has to step up and lead the Creature Court into battle.

Twelve years ago, Garnet kissed Velody and stole her magic. Five years ago, he betrayed Ashiol, and took his powers by force. But now the Creature Court is at a crossroads… they need a Power and Majesty who won′t give up or lose themselves in madness…

Baggage – edited by Gillian Polack (Eneit Press) Pick up some Baggage.

Humankind carries the past as invisible baggage. Thirteen brilliant writers explore this, looking at Australia’s cultural baggage through new and often disturbing eyes.

Go On …

Baggage explores layers and complexities that are oddly Australian. If you think Australian culture is all about neighbours and mateship, you may find Baggage distressing.

What is Australia? What baggage do Australians carry? Pick up this book. Have a read. You know you want to.

Gravesend by Jason Fischer (Pulp novella from Black House Comics) Tamsyn Webb lives with her father in the Kent township of Gravesend. Like most young ladies she attends school, tries to come to terms with the other sex, and probably wants a pony named moonbeam. What makes Tamsyn different is her ability with a competition compound bow, which is probably a good skill to have considering Gravesend is one of the last outposts of humanity left following a zombie apocalypse event.

When an expedition to London goes pear shaped, Tamsyn and her father lock horns with Gravesend Mayor Terry Jacobs and his thugs. Things are looking very grim inside the township but it’s about to get a whole lot worse with a horde of zombies heading towards the township from the remnants of London. (From Scary Minds)

Death Most Definite by Trent Jamieson (Hachette) Steven de Selby has a hangover. Bright lights, loud noise, and lots of exercise are the last thing he wants. But that’s exactly what he gets when someone starts shooting at him.

Steven is no stranger to death-Mr. D’s his boss after all-but when a dead girl saves him from sharing her fate, he finds himself on the wrong end of the barrel. His job is to guide the restless dead to the underworld but now his clients are his own colleagues, friends, and family.

Mr. D’s gone missing and with no one in charge, the dead start to rise, the living are hunted, and the whole city teeters on the brink of a regional apocalypse-unless Steven can shake his hangover, not fall for the dead girl, and find out what happened to his boss- that is, Death himself.

Madigan Mine by Kristyn McDermot (Pan MacMillan) Alex doesn’t know what he wants to do, how to connect with people or what’s good for him. He drifts his way through dead-end jobs and fumbled relationships, unable to find a way out of the rut his life has become. Then he runs into Madigan Sargood and everything changes.

A ray of light shining from an almost-forgotten past, Madigan is beautiful and impulsive, enigmatic and passionate beyond measure. This is what it means to live, Alex realises, and to love. Never mind that she can be somewhat possessive. Never mind that his best friend thinks there’s something wrong with her, something dangerous even. Never mind that the creepy band of misfits she attracts have all but taken over his home. Madigan fills Alex’s life with significance; he will put up with anything to be with her.

Until, without any warning, she kills herself.

Now Alex can’t seem to get her out of his head, and his world – along with his sanity – begins to disintegrate. Black outs and missing time, conversations he can’t recall, people he can’t remember. Is this the product of a diseased and lovesick mind, or can Madigan really be trying to communicate with him?

When the past threatens to obliterate the future, Alex is forced to take action. To save himself and those he loves, he must discover the sinister reason why Madigan took her own life – and why she won’t lie still in her grave.

The Secret Ones by Nicole Murphy (HarperCollins) She’s from an ancient clan. He has no family. Can they save the world … together?

Maggie Shaunessy is used to keeping secrets. She’s a fantastic teacher, but she’s also gadda, part of a hidden, powerful race – and she has a habit of annoying the wrong people.

Until Lucas Valeroso meets Maggie, he had no idea what awaited him: super-human powers, a smart and beautiful woman interested in more than unlocking his new abilities and, above all, a sense of belonging.

But dark ambition and dangerous bigotry are emerging in the gadda ranks. Lucas’s new family might cast him out before he’s even truly found his place. And Maggie must work with new allies to find and retrieve a missing artefact before the entire world is changed for all time.

This is just a quick cross-section of the new books that have caught my eye. I’m sure I’ve missed some recent releases and I apologise in advance for any I have missed. Please leave a comment if there’s a new Aussie spec fic release that I haven’t included here that you’re excited about.

.