Swancon 40 Panels, Latest Reads and Recommendations, and Publishing News

Upcoming Panels

Swancon 40 is here on the 2^nd- 6^th April at The Pan Pacific Hotel. So if you’re interested in spec-fic of any genre (and not just writing and reading – there’s plenty of variety on offer) come along!

I'm on two panels. The first I'm very excited about:

What Makes a Good Short Story

Saturday 15:00 - 16:00

Juliet Marillier, Anthony Panegyres, Stephanie Gunn and  Louisa Loder  

Everything and anything you want to know about the genre short story – questions from the audience welcomed!                                                                      

I'll categorically state right now that I don't believe there is a formula or secret method to a great short story. Some are rich, some poetic, some spare and economical, some unveil, others tell all.

What I do hope for is that the audience feel free to drive the discussion: ask about the market, the lengths, the possibilities, the pay, the great Australian exponents of the genre, and, above all, the craft itself. 

My general motto is to learn the general 'rules' of writing and then learn to break them.

The second panel is:

Crits and Grits - When Are Crit Groups A Good Idea?

Saturday 16:00 - 17:00

Anthony Panegyres, Carol Ryles, Keith Stevenson, Helen Stubbs

Crit groups and writing groups are an important part of the business of writing. When do you need to find one? When you do, how do you handle hearing things you don’t want to hear? Will you ever be friends again? Do you ever NOT need a critgroup?

  

I can’t confess to being an expert here but I do have a couple of good friends that I share with. I always believe in ‘constructive honesty’ when critiquing.

Latest Publishing News

‘Submerging’ from Overland 214 and The Best Australian Stories 2014 has found its third home in an anthology edited by two renowned poets. More specific news to come when the TOC is released.

And for the latest review of The Best Australian Stories 2014 please feel free to read the one I've linked to from The UK Spectator: 

http://www.spectator.co.uk/australia/australia-books/9468612/tales-to-tell/

And ‘Lady Killer’ a dark fantasy/horror will be released in another anthology I’m excited about in August. Once again, I’ll update you when the time comes.

Current Reads and Recommendations

While on the topic of short stories, it's worth observing that many readers don’t relate the American giant John Steinbeck with spec-fic, which isn't at all surprising as his novels are predominantly of a highly realist vein.  But in short fic, John Steinbeck certainly employed strong fantastic elements. I'd even go as far as to say that he was a ‘master of the genre'. Try The Long Valley. ‘Johnny Bear’ is a great starting point in this brilliant anthology.

I’ve also read the novel The Prestige by Christopher Priest, which in terms of structure and semi-unreliable narrators is superb. I highly recommend it.

And my book club just finished reading The Shadow Year by Jeffrey Ford. In parts the work reminded me of The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold due to the memoir-style narrative, as well as The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, also in terms of narrative (although Ford’s prose is richer and targets adults) but also with regards to one's memories blurring reality and fantasy.

I never thought I was a fan of memoir-style narratives but I must have been fooling myself. Ford’s reflective narrative allows for each chapter to become a vignette of its own evoking a vivid sense of place. The Shadow Year explores memories of childhood, as well as connection-disconnection within family and the neighborhood community, all threaded together via surreal mystery - with mystery's accompanying shades of terror and suspense peppered throughout. Ford employs sharp, authentic dialogue and his prose is replete with wonderful sensory imagery.

The Shadow Year will take you back to your own childhood, but the genre elements and the gentle blurring of 'what is real' and 'what is not' along with Ford's writing make this a marvellous work

Fortunately, the book club I'm in has been providing hit after hit of late with the two latest reads: Stoner by John Williams and now The Shadow Year by Jeffrey Ford, delivering two of my favourite reads. And even though it wasn’t via the bookclub, The Prestige is now a fave of mine too.

So for those after a few reading recommendations, try: The Long Valley by Steinbeck, Stoner by John Williams, The Prestige by Christopher Priest and The Shadow Year by Jeffrey Ford.

Aurealis Awards 2014 Finalists

Aurealis Awards 2014 Finalists

Congratulations to all the writers, editors and artists recently shortlisted for the Aurealis Awards. I hope the link below provides readers the opportunity to further explore books, writers and artists from the world of speculative fiction.

http://aurealisawards.org/2015/02/27/announcement-2014-aurealis-awards-shortlist/






And on a minor note, I've a story in one of the finalist anthologies: Kisses by Clockwork.  A special thanks to editor Liz Grzyb and all of the talented writers who contributed to the work.




And on a final aside, I really connected with elements of this lovely post by Angela Slatter (link below). Although, on a personal level, I don't write for myself entirely (and I also know of a lot of writers who do have a reading audience in mind) there are still many truths to this post, and Angela Slatter's humility, especially in the light of all those nominations, is delightful to see. Well worth a read to reflect on why writers write; it also it touches on the psychology of 'below the line' and 'above the line' thinking in the subjective fields of reading, writing and awards. 

http://www.angelaslatter.com/some-perspective-for-awards-season/

Writers [on Writing]: Joyce Carol Oates

Joyce Carol Oates is one of my all time favourite short story writers. I don't know why I haven't taken the plunge into her novels - it might just be that I'm still reveling in her shorter work. After some advice from Australian horror writer/editor Marty Young at Russell B. Farr's birthday just the other night, I think I'll start on her novellas soon.

Although there is a feminist sensibility to much of Oates' work, I would love to see a  stronger female role model on occasion. Women undergo a lot of suffering in Oates' short fiction, both physically and emotionally,  and frequently at the hands of men. The question is: how much of it can a reader handle?

Despite this quibble, Oates, without a doubt, merits reading. I've mentioned 'Fossil Figures' and 'So Help me God' on this blog before but almost all of Oates' tales,  which often lean towards the macabre, simply inspire.  Oates is a writer's writer; there is so much writers can glean from Oates: structurally, stylistically, and especially atmospherically.

Joyce Carol Oates advice to writers: 

 Running! If there's any activity happier, more exhilarating, more nourishing to the imagination, I can't think of what it might be...Ideally, the runner who's a writer is running through the land- and cityscapes of her fiction, like a ghost in a real setting.

Joyce Carol Oates, To Invigorate Literary Mind, Start Moving Literary Feet

Unfortunately, I can't run due to my knee, but I can imagine the exhilaration Oates derives from it as conveyed in her essay on writing from The New York Times. Haruki Murakami is another writer who swears by running. Maybe it's a panacea for writer's block or clearing up that narrative clutter whirling about in writers' minds?

Maybe I can't run but I am riding now - and I always feel upbeat throughout the day on those mornings  I pedal away. We're so fortunate here in Perth to have the Swan River bike pathways. I hope that never changes.

Reading and Writing Review 2014

Reading and Writing Review 2014 (includes fiction standouts: novels, novellas and collections/anthologies)

Books and Novellas (left the cutoff at 50 pages) Read in 2014

Vampires in the Lemon Grove Karen Russell (collection)                                    

The Best Australian Stories 2014 ed Amanda Lohrey  (anthology)

The Art of Fiction  John Gardner  (expository)

Arthur and George Julian Barnes

The New Veterans Karen Russell (novella from Vampires in the 

Lemon Grove originally in Granta (Winter 2013)

Kafka on the Shore Haruki Murakami                                                                 

Stoner John Williams                                                                                           

Halfhead Bay Nam Le (novella from The Boat)                                                 

The Neanderthals Rediscovered Dimitra Papagianni & Michael Moore (expository text)                                                                                                    

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz                                             

Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell by Brian Sanderson  (novella from Dangerous Women ed. George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois)                        

Dangerous Women ed. George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois (anthology)

The Elephant Vanishes Haruki Murakami (collection)

The Boat Nam Le (collection)

Dinosaurs, a Very Short Introduction David Norman (expository text)

Tehran Calling Nam Le (novella from The Boat)

The Windup Girl Paolo Bacigalupi

The Children Act Ian McEwan                                                                            

Lies My Mother Told Me Caroline Spector (novella from Dangerous Women ed. George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois)

Kisses by Clockwork ed Liz Grzyb (anthology)

Jasper Jones Craig Silvey

Eclipse Four Ed. Jonathan Strahan (anthology)                                             

Falconer John Cheever                                                                                          

Virgins Diana Gabaldon  (novella from Dangerous Women ed. George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois)                                                                                 

Bombshells Jim Butcher (novella from Dangerous Women ed. George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois)                                                                                 

Flesh and Blood Michael Cunningham                                                              

The Book Thief Markus Zusak                                                                            

The Princess and the Queen, or, the Blacks and the Greens George R.R Martin (novella from Dangerous Women ed. George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois)                                                                                                            

The Pure Gold Baby Margaret Drabble                                                               

Fiction Standouts

Keeping standouts to a maximum of four and they are in order of preference.

Absolute Standout:

Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell. I can’t praise this collection highly enough - I loved all but two stories. Russell is ostentatious but also fresh and witty and these stories and novelettes are of the best that I’ve read. At a micro-level, Russell’s syntactical work is also remarkable. Do yourself a favour and have a read. Russell blends stories of the urban fantasy genre with structural elements more common in ‘literary’ works. I think she is a writer to be celebrated. If you don’t have time then at least read the story ‘Reeling for the Empire’

Novels

The following novels are all highly recommended reads.

Arthur and George Julian Barnes

Historical literary fiction at its best. This is near a masterpiece, only marred, I thought, by an incredulous bit of light philosophy late in the novel by George (you’ll see it when you read it). Won’t give too much away but it’s marvelous.

Kafka on the Shore Haruki Murakami

Original, full of semi-Socratic dialogue and surreal scenes, all pulled together in a well-crafted novel. It was my first read of a Murakami novel and I’ll certainly return. Kafka on the Shore won a number of prizes including The World Fantasy Award. The philosophical elements work well with an intriguing, inventive plot.                                                           

Stoner John Williams

I can’t quite put my finger on it, both uplifting and depressing, but a work that I simply enjoyed. Williams has a rare talent of not reverting to melodrama in order to create tension. Stoner felt pure in terms of prose, with a nice blend of ‘telling’ and ‘showing’, which many writers these days forget (some are caught up in lengthy ’showing’ that might be a product of creative writing texts and courses). I can see why Julian Barnes so highly recommends it (the prose in both Arthur and George and Stoner share similarities). 

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz

This has its problems – you'll want a Spanish lexicon at times if you're not Latin American (or to a lesser degree, from the US) and I don’t think that the various threads all work successfully. But every novel has its flaws  – and it’s a brilliant work: intelligent, gutsy, exuberant, fun and tragic.        

                                     

Standout Collections and Anthologies

I won’t include the two I had stories in: The Best Australian Stories 2014 and Kisses by Clockwork, as it just seems in poor taste - needless to say, I loved them both.

Vampires in the Lemon Grove Karen Russell (collection)

Think I’ve raved on about Russell enough. Superb                                   

Dangerous Women (anthology) ed. George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois

Megan Abbott, Megan Lindholm, Nancy Kress, Joe Abercrombie, Brian Sanderson and John R Landsdale’s stories alone are enough to make this a must-read anthology.

The Elephant Vanishes Haruki Murakami (collection)                                  

Refreshing collection in a conversational narrative voice. Enjoyed my dose of Murakami. Hope you do too.

The Boat Nam Le (collection)                                                                             

Some truly remarkable prose and stories within. Felt let down by the title story but on the whole Nam’s debut collection is a work to admire. A remarkable talent.

Novella Highlights

The New Veterans Karen Russell (novella from Vampires in the Lemon Grove originally in Granta,Winter 2013)                                                                      

Halfhead Bay Nam Le (novella from The Boat)                                                 

Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell by Brian Sanderson  (novella from Dangerous Women ed. George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois)                        

Tehran Calling Nam Le (novella from The Boat)                                              

Short Stories

'29 superb stories' in a previous post.

Stories Published in 2014

Publications in the journal Overland Literary Journal 214 (my second story there) and the anthologies Kisses by Clockwork ed. Liz Grzyb and The Best Australian Stories 2014 ed. Amanda Lohrey.

Very satisfying year. Every story that finds a good home is a celebration but being in The Best Australian Stories 2014 was both exciting and humbling.

Publication News

A long short story of mine, written within a framework (of sorts) of the Sphinx’ riddle to Oedipus, will be published in 2015 in an anthology I'm excited about (contents not released yet and I'll update this later). It’s a dark fantasy/horror story with a reflective narrative voice, which includes a bit on nature, philandering, life’s stages, reading and myth.

Festive Season

Enjoy the festive season. Once again, hope you all read a few books, watch a few films (and other shows) and spend time with loved ones.

29 Highly Recommended Short Stories from my 2014 Reading

Top 29 Short Stories Read in 2014

Short Stories: A Celebration

This may seem an odd list to many as it just includes the best of my own reads this year. It’s not a list of the best stories published in 2014, although there are a number of stories from 2014 on this particular list. This year I read 118 stories so I thought that a list of 29 , around a quarter, might be more appropriate (realise it's all a bit OC).

I also had ‘Reeling for the Empire’ (a magnificent story) and ‘Vampires in the Lemon Grove’ in last year’s list as I read Karen Russell’s  collection over this year and last. Furthermore, The New Veterans by Karen Russell will be in this year's recommended novella list along with Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell by Brian Sanderson and Halfhead Bay by Nam Le. 

There’s a variety of genre here, ranging from ‘lit’ to ‘pulp’, so I’m happy to answer questions regarding any of the listed stories . 

I could have included many more, especially from The Best Australian Stories 2014 Ed. Amanda Lohrey, but a cut off had to occur somewhere. This yearly list is a celebration of short fiction rather than anything more sinister and, as always, many great reads miss out. 

Stories in bold were published in 2014. 

29 Superb Stories

“The Graveless Doll of Eric Mutis” Karen Russell (from Vampires in the Lemon Grove originally in Conjunctions (Fall 2010)                                                  

‘Natasha’ David Bezmozgis (from My Mistress Sparrow is Dead ed. Jeffrey Eugenides, originally in Natasha by David Bezmozgis)                                                 

“Old Habits” Nalo Hopkinson (from Eclipse Four ed. Jonathan Strahan)    

“My Heart is Either Broken” Megan Abbott (from Dangerous Women ed. George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois)                                                               

“The Seagull Army Descends on Strong Beach” Karen Russell (from Vampires in the Lemon Grove originally in Tin House, Fall 2009)                                          

“The Dancing Dwarf” Haruki Murakami (The Elephant Vanishes)                      

                                             

“Neighbors” by Meghan Lindholm (from Dangerous Women Ed. George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois) fantastic take on dementia.                                   

“Second Arabesque, Very Slowly” by Nancy Kress (from Dangerous Women Ed. George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois)                                                        

“Barn Burning” Haruki Murakami (The Elephant Vanishes originally in The New Yorker)                                                                                                                   

“Dying Young” Peter M. Ball (from Eclipse Four Ed. Jonathan Strahan)         

‘Flicking the Flint’ Anna Krien (The Best Australian Stories 2014)                

“Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice” Nam Le (The Boat originally in Zoetrope: All Story)     

                                                      

“The Last Lawn of the Afternnoon” Haruki Murakami (The Elephant Vanishes)

                                                                                                                                    

“Some Desperado” Joe Abercrombie (from Dangerous Women Ed. George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois )                                                                               

“The Examination” Ryan O’Neil (Wet Ink 14)                                                      

‘Bring Closer What is Left to Come’ Julienne van Loon (The Best Australian Stories 2014) 

                                                                                                      

‘Sugar Bag Dreamin’ Country’ Mark Smith (The Best Australian Stories 2014)          

                                                                                                        

“Proving Up” Karen Russell (from Vampires in the Lemon Grove originally published as “The Hox River Window” in Zoetrope: All Story, Fall 2011)     

‘Meeting Elise” Nam Le (The Boat originally in One Story)                               

“Family Affair” Haruki Murakami (The Elephant Vanishes)                               

“A Small Cleared Space” Josephine Rowe (Overland 214 Autumn)                  

“The Venetian Cat” Cherith Baldry (Kisses by Clockwork Ed.Liz Grzyb)

‘Ill Met in Lankhmar’ Springers’ Fritz Leiber (Selected Stories Ed. Jonathan Strahan & Charles N. Brown, first published The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Apr. 1970)

“Hiroshima” Nam Le (The Boat originally in Harvard Review)

“TV People” Haruki Murakami (The Elephant Vanishes originally in The New Yorker)                                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                                  

“Wrestling Jesus” Joe R. Lansdale (from Dangerous Women Ed. George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois) pulpy genre

“Smoke Ghost” Fritz Leiber (Selected Stories Ed. Jonathan Strahan & Charles N. Brown originally in Unknown Worlds, Oct. 1941)

“Tourists” James Patrick Kelly (from Eclipse Four ed. Jonathan Strahan)

‘The Panther’ David Brooks (The Best Australian Stories 2014)

‘The Peacock’ Arabella Edge (The Best Australian Stories 2014)                       

       

"Submerging" in Best Australian Stories 2014

"Submerging" from Overland Literary Journal 214 has been republished in Best Australian Stories 2014. Having "Submerging" nestled among these stories is a humbling experience.

I would like to thank Jennifer Mills (Overland Fiction Editor) and also Amanda Lohrey (Ed. Best Australian Stories) for having the courage to choose a story that can be read as a straight narrative or as a metaphorical one.

Lohrey's introduction to the anthology is lovely. I thought I'd include some snippets here of her thoughts regarding the genre:

A good story has a distinctive form so that the whole is a sum of its parts. It should develop beyond its initial premises or scene-setting, it should be surprising and it should arrive at a form of resolution.

The art of the story is mostly about the journey, and the economy of means with which the writers here carry us a great distance is breathtaking. They may do this with a bardic fluency of style that has a quality of song, or they may do it with short, sharp sentences that are like jabs in the ribs. They do it in their own way and on their own terms, and we willingly surrender. 

And regarding my own story:

Then there  are stories that begin in a mode of conventional realism and end in a revelation of surprising poetry (Anthony Panegyres' 'Submerging').

Congratulations to all the writers involved in what's a fabulous celebration of the short story genre in Australia.

Great Chrissie gift too!

Current Reads: Neanderthals Rediscovered by Dimitra Papagianni and Michael A. Morse & The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami

Neanderthals Rediscovered by Dimitra Papagianni and Michael A. Morse

We Homo Sapiens have been dismissive of Neanderthals, those former fellow humans, those misnamed ‘knuckle-draggers’ and ‘numbskulls’ that lived in ice-age Europe while we we enjoyed the  sunny skies of Africa (though at times, we did live side-by-side); so after my visit earlier this year to the British Museum of Natural History, I asked at the museum bookshop for an up-to-date text on Neanderthals specifically. There are a myriad of books out there on paleolithic people but discovering new works solely on the topic of Neanderthals is sometimes challenging. When staff guided me to The Neanderthals Rediscovered I knew that the work would skip my usual random ‘to-read’ book list. Dimitra Papagianni is a well-respected Paleolithic archaeologist and has taught courses on Neanderthals at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Bath, and her teaming up with Michael A. Morse, who is an expert on the history of science, meant for a promising read.

            The Neanderthals Rediscovered is approachable and informative. It places emphasis on Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens’ timelines and development. Papagianni, despite the expertise she holds in the field, is controlled and objective throughout, presenting cases and varying perspectives on what are often highly debatable topics. Papagianni and Morse rely on the latest data, and although they present a variety of views, they never seem to endorse any that are not currently supported by the weight of modern scientific evidence.

            Their work stresses that Homo Heidelbergensis was a common ancestor from which we (Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals) both evolved from at roughly the same period in time.

It also raises debate about who were the more capable species. In fact, the first time that Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals came together in Western Asia, it was the Neanderthals who won out with Homo Sapiens retreating back to Africa. Therefore, seeing ourselves as the superior hominin based on our long-term survival, is a narrow and outdated viewpoint.

Neanderthals, although stronger bodied with large brain cases (albeit different from our own), also had the same FOXP2 gene for language that we do. This sheds some light on some past theories falsely claiming they lacked the ability of speech.

When Homo Sapiens entered Europe, much later, they eventually won over the continent but Papagianni and Morse suggest that this may have related to climatic changes that suited Homo Sapiens over Homo Neanderthalis rather than any notion of a superior human.

Another interesting fact is that Neanderthals were fair skinned, and had the same modern gene that we share for green eyes and red hair. Did we breed with them? The answer now is to some extent. Current science indicates that everyone, outside of Indigenous Sub-Saharan Africans, has 1-4% of intrusive Neanderthal DNA in their genomes.

The last part of the The Neanderthals Rediscovered explores Neanderthals in fiction today. William Golding’s novel on the period, The Inheritors, has long been a favourite of mine, but with the list kindly provided by Papagianni and Morse, I will now add The Simulacra by PK Dick and Child of Time by Robert Silverberg to my reading list. The final chapter also includes a fun bit on how Neanderthals would appear in modern society today.

            The only part I wanted more on was Neanderthal cognition. Papagianni and Morse certainly touch on it, especially symbolic art, but perhaps the pair are hesitant exploring the subject matter further as it is not a concrete science. Hopefully they will pair up again (or add a cognitive specialist to the team) to explore Neanderthals' thought processes and cognitive abilities in a future text.

            Overall, however, The Neanderthals Rediscovered is an excellent read, conveying how far both genetic and archaeological scientific methods have come. Papagianni and Morse should be congratulated on a work that will hold revelations for all. 

The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami (brief)

I started off a little unsure with my first introduction to Murakami but I soon grew to enjoy the comical, light, observant and slightly quirky tone of his stories. Murakami utilises a casual first person conversational voice throughout the collection, which becomes all the more addictive as you progress. My favourite stories (all excellent) are "Barn Burning", "The Dancing Dwarf, "The Last Lawn of the Afternoon" and "Family Affair". Other enjoyable stories include "The Second Bakery Attack", "TV People", "The Silence" and "The Elephant Vanishes". The nature of any collection is that there are a few which don't gel and for me those stories are "The Little Green Monster" (easily the worst in the collection),"A Window" and "Sleep".

I'm already looking forward to reading more of his work. The world of Murakami is more accessible than I imagined but it's also very enjoyable.