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B is for Broken, Interview

Fractured Friday: Beth Cato

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Cover design by Jonathan C. Parrish, original artwork by Tory HokeFor the next several weeks I’ve decided to call Fridays ‘Fractured Friday’ and use them to share news, contributor interviews and excerpts from B is for Broken.

B is for Broken is the second title in the Alphabet Anthologies series. It follows A is for Apocalypse and will in turn be followed by C is for Chimera.

B is for Broken contains 26 stories (one for each letter of the alphabet) centered on the theme of brokenness. The diversity of genres and subject matter will blow you away. We’ve got science fiction, fantasy, horror and weird fiction about broken hearts, broken space ships, broken lives, broken bones–you name it. If you like speculative fiction and short stories, this collection is one you’re going to want to check out 🙂

I feel like I’ve known Beth for forever, but it hasn’t been *quite* that long. We met way back when in a Livejournal (I told you it was a long time ago) group for NaNoWriMo participants. I didn’t get to sample her writing until she submitted to Niteblade though. Her post-apocalyptic flash, The Pacifier, is still one of my all-time favourite stories Niteblade published. You should go read it. No really. I’ll wait.

Done?

Awesome, right?

So you won’t be surprised to learn I invited her to contribute to A is for Apocalypse. Nor should there be any question about why she has a spot in B is for Broken as well (and wait until you read her C is for Chimera story!)

 

 

Interview With Beth Cato

What letter were you assigned? K

Please share a short excerpt from your story: 

The man on the rock looks up at us. His face so sad, emotion sharp, like a slap to the face. Tommy grunted like it hit him, too.

“Tommy Smith. George Blackworth.” He says my name and I feel it in my bones, like my mother, God rest her, yelling out the back door.

“Who’re you?” I ask.

“Who am I?” He stares at his hands. “A king without a queen, proof that the undying are not immortal.”

What is the thing you’ve most regretted breaking? My cat Porom is the laziest cat ever. A few years ago, I was closing a door. Porom had flopped down in front of it and it was dark, so I couldn’t see her tail. The door actually amputated the tip of it. I was freaked out. We were able to get her to an emergency vet, where she had  a cleaner amputation made. She had a full recovery, or I don’t know if I could have forgiven myself.

Have you ever broken something and not been saddened by it? Can you tell us about that? I had a sculpture I made during my freshman year of high school. It was a mythological creature of my own making, a threem (which is actually included in my Clockwork Dagger books from Harper Voyager). A few years ago parents were encouraging me to get the last of my belongings out of their house. I didn’t want this sculpture. I always hated how it turned out, and it was made during a time of my life when I was severely depressed and suicidal.

Instead of toting the big clay figure back to Arizona, I wrapped it in several layers of plastic bags and then pulverized it with a piece of rebar. It was all rather therapeutic.

If you could break one law and get away with it consequence-free, what would it be? I’ll twist this around. I wish I could turn in negligent speeders on the highway and see THEM punished. I drive like an old lady and go the speed limit.

Do you have any rules for yourself, a code of some sort, which you’d never break? Yes. Treat others the way I would like to be treated. That means to be courteous, thoughtful, and not an inconvenience.

Never ever? I do my utmost!

Really? Isn’t there something which could make you break it? Okay, there was one time a survey guy called at 8:30pm and when I politely told him the late time was inappropriate, he argued with me. It actually developed into a yelling match. The company actually sent me a postcard asking me to give them another chance–which was a whole other level of freaky. When they had other people call, I flat out told them I would never, ever deal with them, and hung up.

Did you struggle with the letter you were assigned, or did the ideas come freely? I had another idea that I started on but it just didn’t come together.

What was your favourite idea you didn’t use? The original idea was “King’s Horses and Men,” and to do a fresh take on Humpty Dumpty. I know. A story about a sentient egg. Maybe someday?

What, aside from the anthology’s theme and your letter inspired your story? It wasn’t a conscious influence as I wrote, but in hindsight I think the movie Bedknobs & Broomsticks played a part as well. I always adored that movie and the idea of magic being used for the war effort. This is just a different take.

 

Beth Cato -- photograph by Corey Ralston Photography

Beth Cato hails from Hanford, California, but currently writes and bakes cookies in a lair west of Phoenix, Arizona. She shares the household with a hockey-loving husband, a numbers-obsessed son, and a cat the size of a canned ham.

She’s the author of The Clockwork Dagger steampunk fantasy series from Harper Voyager. The newest book is The Clockwork Crown.

Follow her at BethCato.com and on Twitter at @BethCato.

~ Twitter ~

B is for Broken is available now at:
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Books, Interview

Interview with Anna Kyle

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My friend, Anna Kyle, recently released her very first book–a paranormal romance entitled Skye Falling. It’s the first in a series and I’m almost as excited for her as she is for herself, so I asked her if I could interview her about it for my blog. She said yes 🙂

First, a little bit about her book:

Skye Falling

Skye, a Fae-shapeshifter halfing, could die if she doesn’t find out how to wake her dormant wolf, so mere rumors of the Wolf King’s return are enough to convince her to sneak through the portal between Faerie and Chicago in search of his aid. But the dizzyingly bright lights and sounds of the human realm are too tempting to ignore. So is the sexy shapeshifter wolf intent on capturing her—the one who stirs her sleeping wolf just long enough to bind the handsome stranger in a mate-bond.

Lake is willing to do anything to protect the Wolf King, a man he also calls friend. So when he receives word that a Fae princess has slipped into Chicago, he suspects a plot to assassinate the Wolf King. He’s certain capturing her will be as easy as locating her—that was his first mistake. Not only is his wolf a little too interested in Skye, but the wolf accepts her mate-bond without any say-so from him. As he unravels the truth surrounding the smart-mouthed princess and whether she’s hunting his friend or being hunted by someone else, Lake’s mission changes: protect Skye at all costs. And keep her for himself.

Interview with Anna Kyle

What has been your favourite part of the publication process so far? What has been the most difficult?

It’s like a climbing a mountain and every stop becomes the highest you’ve ever gone. The acceptance email was my favorite until I got the editing letter. Having someone as invested as me in making the story the best it could be was just…wow. That was replaced by the line edits which was then replaced by actual publication. All new highs. The most difficult part was the waiting. Everything would be quiet on the Midwestern front then suddenly there’d be a flurry of emails needing this or that like ASAP. Then another lull of waiting. Now I know, so I won’t be so antsy for the next one!

What is it about shapeshifters that makes you want to write about them?

I’m a huge reader across all genres but the first time I picked up a paranormal romance I was hooked. I remember it vividly. It was a book by Christina Dodd called The Scent of Darkness about a family of shapeshifters. I read it from start to finish then read the entire series and never looked back. I loved the idea of two forces inside one person, and those forces don’t always align and how that affected the relationships of those around them. It fascinates me to this very day.

How about the Wolf King series in general? I know everyone asks but I’m curious, what inspired you to write it?

Well, I had some unexpected time on my hands and I’d had this story idea banging around in my head for a while, so I let it out  After a few months it became apparent that my paranormal romance couldn’t be wrapped up in one book and truth be told, I didn’t want it to be wrapped up. I created this world filled with shapeshifters and magic and Fae and kings and sprinkled it with battles and romance and humor. I’m lucky to be able to stay there for a few more books to explore the good versus evil storyline…and to discover more heroes and heroines to throw together!

In Skye Falling we see wolves and coyote shapeshifters–are there other kinds of shifters out in the world waiting for us to discover in future works?

Let’s see. There’s more wolves and coyotes in the next book, a grizzly bear, some black bears, a tiger, a bobcat who likes to blow things up, and a hyena who scares the heck out of the grizzly. Since the book is set on a horse farm, there are lots of horses and dogs, too (the regular variety).

In Skye Falling it seems very important that mate bonding is a thing which stopped happening for a long time and now appears to be re-occurring. Why did mate bonding stop in the first place?

Yes, the return of the mate-bond is very significant to the Wolf King series. But to say any more would be spoiler-y so

I’m a pretty big fan of Alton Tremont. Any chance we’re going to get to read a story starring him?

Me, too! He has a larger role in Omega Rising. And YES he’ll have his own book later!

If Skye could change any one thing about Lake what, if anything, would it be? What would Lake choose to change about Skye?

Skye is free-spirited and impulsive which is very different from Lake’s more subdued, orderly personality. He thinks before he acts, she leaps without looking. I don’t think they’d change anything about each other because those differences are what the other truly needed (but didn’t know it).

What is your favourite thing about Skye? What about Lake? What about Skye and Lake as a couple?

Skye is awesome. She’s funny and smart and always trying to outwit her opponent. That fact that she’s not very good at acting (or keeping the Fae mask on) makes me love her even more. Lake, well, I just plain adore him. He’s a smoking hot wolf completely unprepared for the whirlwind that is Princess Skye, so I love the way he adapts and accepts her but doesn’t let her pull any of her sh*t, either. I can’t imagine them with anyone but each other, so that’s a darn good team. Five stars as a couple! 

What’s next for you?

I’ve got line edits coming up on Omega Rising and in the meantime I’ll be outlining then writing book 3 of the Wolf King series. Whoohoo! I hope to throw in a short story or two when book 3 gets grumpy with me. Yeah, I can do a lot of damage to my free time but it’s FUN.

 

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Corvidae, Interview

Corvidae Contributor Interview — C.S.E. Cooney

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CORVIDAE blog tour banner

Over the coming weeks I’d like to share interviews that I (and Magnus) conducted with the contributors to Corvidae and Scarecrow. This week we’ll talk with C.S.E. Cooney. Much like Angela Slatter, C.S.E. Cooney never actually submitted to Corvidae, but when I read her poem I really wanted to include it in Corvidae. I’m so glad I was able to 🙂

Interview with C.S.E Cooney

What is it about corvids that inspired you to write about them? Oh, I like birds. I don’t like them as pets. I like them as dinosaurs. They’re bright-eyed and frightening. I like people who behave like predator birds. But I only like them sometimes. Poets are good at this; poets often behave like predator birds, and that makes me want to write poetry about them. Dominik Parisien is one such poet, and this poem was for him.

Was there one corvid characteristic you wanted to highlight more than others? Curiosity and a trickster nature.

If you were a covid, what would you build your nest out of? Ribbons and stolen curls, tarnished rings, feathers stolen from the fletching of fallen arrows.

What’s your favourite ‘shiny’ thing? Most recently? A mask made all of rhinestones.

~*~

C.S.E. Cooney is a Rhode Island writer who lives across the street from a Victorian Strolling Park. She is the author of The Breaker Queen and The Two Paupers (Books One and Two of the Dark Breakers Trilogy), The Witch in the Almond Tree, How To Flirt in Faerieland and Other Wild Rhymes, and Jack o’ the Hills. She won the 2011 Rhysling Award for her story-poem “The Sea King’s Second Bride.”

Other examples of her work can be found in Rich Horton’s Years Best Science Fiction and Fantasy (2011, 2012, 2014), The Nebula Awards Showcase (2013), The Mammoth Book of Steampunk Adventures (2014), The Moment of Change Anthology, Black Gate Magazine, Uncanny Magazine, Strange Horizons, Apex, Subterranean, Ideomancer, Clockwork Phoenix, Steam-Powered II, The Book of Dead Things, Cabinet des Fées, Stone Telling, Goblin Fruit, and Mythic Delirium.

Her website is http://csecooney.com/

~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ LiveJournal ~

Cover for CORVIDAE. Design by Eileen Wiedbrauk

Available Direct from the Publisher:
World Weaver Press

Or Find it Online:
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B is for Broken, Interview

Fractured Friday: Samantha Kymmell-Harvey

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B is for Broken. Cover design by Jonathan C. Parrish, original artwork by Tory Hoke

For the next several weeks I’ve decided to call Fridays ‘Fractured Friday’ and use them to share news, contributor interviews and excerpts from B is for Broken.

B is for Broken is the second title in the Alphabet Anthologies series. It follows A is for Apocalypse and will in turn be followed by C is for Chimera. Each story in the series is associated with a letter of the alphabet and is titled in the letter is for word format. What’s more, just to keep things nice and complicated, the story’s title isn’t shared at the beginning but at the end so that you can guess at what it might be while you read.

On that note, even though the story titles could be considered spoilers because of how the book is formatted, for the sake of simplicity if the author has chosen to post their title publicly somewhere else (their blog, Facebook, wherever) I am going to include it in my posts. If they haven’t revealed that information, though, I’ll list the story titles as Letter is for…

I met Samantha when she volunteered to be a slush reader for Niteblade. She had an uncanny knack for knowing which stories I’d want to read and consider and which I would end up passing on. That, combined with her insights into what worked (or didn’t) in a story made her contributions invaluable and told me I really needed to read her fiction. Once I had, inviting her to participate in the Alphabet Anthologies was a no-brainer 🙂

Interview With Samantha Kymmell-Harvey

What letter were you assigned? E

What is the thing you’ve most regretted breaking? My Dutch great-grandmother’s spinning wheel. I was a kid, I knocked it over and it busted. Because it’s so old, it would take some sort of antiques specialist to repair it. Now that I knit, I appreciate that spinning wheel so much more – and feel the regret all that much more too.

Have you ever broken something and not been saddened by it? Can you tell us about that? Well, a friend and I broke into her own house because she couldn’t find her keys and we were sopping wet from going to the swimming pool and needed to change into dry clothes. The extent of our “breaking in” was just lifting an unlocked window pane on the 1st floor, so nothing super crazy! This is probably a very boring answer.

If you could break one law and get away with it consequence-free, what would it be? Probably the law about importing/shipping wine. This might be a law particular to the State where I live, I’m not really sure. When I lived in France, I had the most amazing wines, some from tiny little vineyards. You can’t buy them anywhere in the States, so I miss them. It’d be great if I could just order them online.

Do you have any rules for yourself, a code of some sort, which you’d never break? I try to lead my life in a moral manner.

Never ever? No.

Really? Isn’t there something which could make you break it? Maybe if I had been brainwashed or placed under alien control (??)

Did you struggle with the letter you were assigned, or did the ideas come freely? Because “broken” can be interpreted in so many different ways, I had a ton of ideas so it was hard to narrow it down. Even as I went through the editing phases, I found that I had 2 stories within a story, so I had to focus even more on what exactly I meant by “broken.”

What was your favourite idea you didn’t use? I’m using a version of it for the next anthology – no spoilers!

What, aside from the anthology’s theme and your letter inspired your story? This story had two sources of inspiration: my great dislike of law school and my three times (at random!) being pulled up onstage as a magician’s assistant, which was totally embarrassing.

 

 

Samantha Kymmell-Harvey‘s stories can be found in Spark: A Creative Anthology, Every Day Fiction, and Waylines just to name a few. She is a 2012 graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop. You can follow her adventures on her blog: http://samanthakymmell-harvey.blogspot.com/

B is for Broken is available now at:
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And add it to your shelves at Goodreads

Corvidae, Interview

Corvidae Contributor Interview — Angela Slatter

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CORVIDAE blog tour banner

Over the coming weeks I’d like to share interviews that I (and Magnus) conducted with the contributors to Corvidae and Scarecrow. This week we’ll talk with Angela Slatter. Angela never actually submitted to Corvidae, but when I read her story in another anthology I just knew it would be the perfect way to end mine, so I emailed her and asked if I could reprint it. Happily (for everyone) she said yes 🙂

Interview with Angela Slatter

 

Please share a short excerpt from your story/stories:

The feathers were tiny and Emer hoped they would stay so.

Indeed, she prayed they would fall out altogether. They were not downy little pins. Small, but determined, their black shafts hardened as soon as they poked through her skin, calcifying under her touch as she stroked them in dreadful fascination.

All day she’d felt something happening beneath the gloves hastily donned after her morning’s escapade. The sight of those ladylike coverings had brought approving nods from both her mother and governess, as if they were a sign she was finally listening to their exhortations. A princess does not run. A princess does not shout or curse. A princess keeps the sun in her voice, but off her fair skin. A princess sits quietly, back straight. A princess smiles at a gentleman’s tasteful jest, but never laughs too loudly. A princess never furrows her brow with thought. A princess does not chew her nails.

Emer had been determined that nothing untoward was occurring; that the healing salve she’d sneaked from her mother’s workroom would put everything to rights.

But that night, when Emer closed her bedchamber door and finally peeled away the doeskin gloves, she found that the wound in her palm was sprouting dark fronds around its ragged edge. They looked like the collar of her mother’s favorite cloak—except those feathers with their vibrant eyes were from the palace peacocks. A great ball of fear threatened to stopper her throat.

What is it about corvids that inspired you to write about them? I think it’s the sheer wealth of lore behind them: they’re thieves; they’re clever and sly; they cross many mythologies; they’re quite lovely-looking (what’s not to love about black feathers?); they can be sinister and clownish at the same time.

If you were a covid, what would you build your nest out of? The pages of books, so I’d be comfy and have something to read.

What’s your favourite ‘shiny’ thing? The various rings I’ve inherited from aunts over the years because (a) shiny-shiny, and (b) they have a family and emotional connection for me. I’ve got an emerald and diamond one of which I’m especially fond.

As you may know, one of Edmonton’s local Twitter personalities is Magnus E. Magpie who haunts Twitter as @YEGMagpie. I invited him to read an advance copy of Corvidae and Scarecrow and offer a short cawmentary on each story from a magpie’s point of view, which he did. When he was finished I asked if there was anything he’d like to ask the contributors. The italicized portions are mine because Magnus didn’t ask straight-forward questions on account of he’s a magpie 🙂

 

Mr. Yegpie: It would be cool to know where all these stories came from, I mean geographically – like I think I could tell who was from Edmonton and who was from Vancouver! (Where do you live, and did that affect your story/poem at all?) From Australia.

Mr. Yegpie: I also would sure love to know where they got their ideas from! I caught several familiar references from existing books and mythology and fairy tales; I like seeing people riff off stuff. (What inspired your story/poem?) I work a lot with European fairy tales and myths as my base, and “Flight” is a mix of “The Raven” and “White Bride, Black Bride”. I’d tried to write this story years ago when I was doing my MA and failed. I gave it another go when I was asked for a story for Once Upon A Time: New Fairy Tales by Paula Guran. This time I won.

Mr. Yegpie: I think I would like to know what people’s favourite corvid is though; and if it isn’t a magpie, WHYEVER NOT?!? (If they come back with some guff about crows using tools, PLEASE LET ME KNOW AND I WILL SEND THEM A COPY OF MY ROGERS BILL. Pffft, crows.) (What is your favourite corvid?) The raven. It’s got the best name. It guards the Tower of London. It’s cool.

 

Angela Slatter
Dr Angela Slatter (Photo by David Pollitt, June 2010)

Queensland Writers Fellow Angela Slatter is the author of the Aurealis Award-winning The Girl with No Hands and Other Tales, World Fantasy finalist Sourdough and Other Stories, British Fantasy Award-winning “The Coffin-Maker’s Daughter,” Aurealis finalist Midnight and Moonshine (with Lisa Hannett), as well as The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings, Black-Winged Angels, and The Female Factory (also with Lisa L. Hannett). She has an MA and a PhD in Creative Writing, and is a graduate of Clarion South 2009 and the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop 2006. She blogs at angelaslatter.com about shiny things that catch her eye.

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Cover for CORVIDAE. Design by Eileen Wiedbrauk

Available Direct from the Publisher:
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Or Find it Online:
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Corvidae, Interview

Corvidae Contributor Interview — Kat Otis

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CORVIDAE blog tour banner

Over the coming weeks I’d like to share interviews that I (and Magnus) conducted with the contributors to Corvidae and Scarecrow. This week we’ll talk with Kat Otis 🙂

Interview with Kat Otis

Please share a short excerpt from your story/stories:

Humans were never meant to fly.

That thought consumed Morgaine as she stared out the Mosquito’s windscreen at the thickly-falling snow. If humans knew what was good for them, they would be content to fight over earth and leave air to the corvidae, water to the leviathans, and frost to the giants. Unfortunately, humans had never been very good at sharing – among themselves or with the other great species of the world.

Was there one corvid characteristic you wanted to highlight more than others? Do you think you were successful? The characteristic I wanted to highlight the most was corvid intelligence. When I was trying to decide what kind of corvid to write about, I started by browsing bird websites and quickly fell into a research pit of corvid videos where they showed amazing levels of intelligence and tool use. Obviously the only proper response was to elevate the corvidae as a group to be as sentient as humans and… um… leviathans and frost giants. I sure hope I was successful, as the story makes very little sense without it!

If you were a covid, what would you build your nest out of? If I had to live in a nest, it would be a giant bean bag. Actually, sophmore year of college my roommate and I put a bean bag in a corner of our tiny dorm room, for an oft-visiting friend of ours, and called it her nest. So… I guess I sort of already have built a nest out of a bean bag 😉

What’s your favourite ‘shiny’ thing? Shiny new ideas, of course! For example, I was just working on my latest shiny new idea, a steampunk piece with exploding airships, and- OH NEW SHINY NEW IDEA GOTTA GO LATERS!

 

As you may know, one of Edmonton’s local Twitter personalities is Magnus E. Magpie who haunts Twitter as @YEGMagpie. I invited him to read an advance copy of Corvidae and Scarecrow and offer a short cawmentary on each story from a magpie’s point of view, which he did. When he was finished I asked if there was anything he’d like to ask the contributors. The italicized portions are mine because Magnus didn’t ask straight-forward questions on account of he’s a magpie 🙂

 

Mr. Yegpie: It would be cool to know where all these stories came from, I mean geographically – like I think I could tell who was from Edmonton and who was from Vancouver! (Where do you live, and did that affect your story/poem at all?) Oh, ye spoiled ones of fixed addresses! In just the last seven years, I’ve lived in twelve places, four time zones, and two countries. I’ve lived at latitudes ranging from 34.2 to 51.7 N, longitudes ranging from 0.1 to 118.1 W, and altitudes ranging from 115 to 2,080 feet. Or, as they say on Facebook, “it’s complicated.” My location has probably only affected my story in the most general ways – I have yet to live somewhere that it doesn’t snow.

Mr. Yegpie: I also would sure love to know where they got their ideas from! I caught several familiar references from existing books and mythology and fairy tales; I like seeing people riff off stuff. (What inspired your story/poem?) Well, I started with World War Two spy pigeons, because, hello, SPY PIGEONS! Who of course immediately morphed into corvidae for the purposes of this anthology. Then I added a pinch of recent personal tragedy, a dash of additional historical research, and a pound of advice on how to crash airplanes from the family pilots. Voila!

Mr. Yegpie: I think I would like to know what people’s favourite corvid is though; and if it isn’t a magpie, WHYEVER NOT?!? (If they come back with some guff about crows using tools, PLEASE LET ME KNOW AND I WILL SEND THEM A COPY OF MY ROGERS BILL. Pffft, crows.) (What is your favourite corvid?) Definitely the ravens of the Tower of London. What other birds have the power to topple an entire empire just by deciding to up stakes (up coops?) and move? But after that, I’ll give you magpies, who are pretty awesome.

 

Kat Otis lives a peripatetic life with a pair of cats who enjoy riding in the car as long as there’s no country music involved.  Her fiction has appeared in Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, Daily Science Fiction and Penumbra eMag.  She can be found online at www.katotis.com or on Twitter as @kat_otis.

~ Twitter ~

Cover for CORVIDAE. Design by Eileen Wiedbrauk

Available Direct from the Publisher:
World Weaver Press

Or Find it Online:
Amazon
Goodreads
Kobo

B is for Broken, Interview

Fractured Friday: Marge Simon

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Cover design by Jonathan C. Parrish, original artwork by Tory HokeFor the next several weeks I’ve decided to call Fridays ‘Fractured Friday’ and use them to share news, contributor interviews and excerpts from B is for Broken.

B is for Broken is the second title in the Alphabet Anthologies series. It follows A is for Apocalypse and will in turn be followed by C is for Chimera. Each story in the series is associated with a letter of the alphabet and is titled in the letter is for word format. What’s more, just to keep things nice and complicated, the story’s title isn’t shared at the beginning but at the end so that you can guess at what it might be while you read.

On that note, even though the story titles could be considered spoilers because of how the book is formatted, for the sake of simplicity if the author has chosen to post their title publicly somewhere else (their blog, Facebook, wherever) I am going to include it in my posts. If they haven’t revealed that information, though, I’ll list the story titles as Letter is for…

I met Marge way back in 2007. I’m not sure exactly when but it was before September. I know that because September 2007 is then the first issue of Niteblade came out and I’d already been in contact with Marge by then because she did the cover (and every cover since). Marge has been a great friend, encouraged me in my writing, offered support as I found my way as an editor and Niteblade would not be the same without her artwork. It’s a pleasure to work with her and I’m pleased to have been able to do it for both A is for Apocalypse and B is for Broken (in addition to our other projects).

Marge and Michael Fosburg collaborated on a story for B is for Broken.

Interview With Marge Simon

What letter were you assigned? T

Please share a short excerpt from your story:

Hessura motioned Timon inside the bedroom. In her arms, a second child. “This one too, Timon.”

“A demon-son!” Timon gasped, and forked his fingers at the sleeping babe. “’The second chases after the first’ — a bad omen.”

“Aye, “ Hessura nodded. “Cursed by that yellow moon, Japeph would say. He’d have it killed.” She turned her head and spat. “A fishwife’s tale, if I ever heard one—and I’ve heard them all.”

Timon frowned, but he reached his finger to the tiny hand and grinned as the boy clasped it. “We must never let them know of this one,” he said. “Can you handle this, Hessura?”

What is the thing you’ve most regretted breaking? The heart of my first “true love” – but it wasn’t as real for my fickle young self as it was for him.

Have you ever broken something and not been saddened by it? Can you tell us about that? I tore up a photograph of a former boyfriend and me at a dance. Does that count?

If you could break one law and get away with it consequence-free, what would it be? I can’t answer this. I’m too “anal” about the idea of breaking the law. But I do lots of other wicked things.

Do you have any rules for yourself, a code of some sort, which you’d never break? Yes, writing a super trite story with lots of blood and guts and bad language–so poorly contrived that it makes me sick. But if I could write like Jeff Strand (brilliantly humorous), I might break the rule!

Did you struggle with the letter you were assigned, or did the ideas come freely? Ideas came freely!

What was your favourite idea you didn’t use? I wrote one about Lizzie Bordon, but it was pretty hokey, and Michael (Fosburg) had a better idea. I’m glad we went with his. I later rewrote the Lizzie Borden piece and sold it to Max Booth for an anthology (Perpetual Motion Publishing).

 

 

Marge SimonMarge Simon‘s works appear in publications such as DailySF Magazine, Pedestal, Urban Fantasist. She edits a column for the HWA Newsletter, “Blood & Spades: Poets of the Dark Side,” and serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees. She won the Strange Horizons Readers Choice Award, 2010, and the SFPA’s Dwarf Stars Award, 2012. She has won three Bram Stoker Awards ® for Superior Work in Poetry and has poetry in HWA’s Simon & Schuster collection, It’s Scary Out There, 2015. Marge also has poems in Darke Phantastique, Qualia Nous collections, and Spectral Realms, 2014. www.margesimon.com

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Corvidae, Interview

Corvidae Contributor Interview — Jane Yolen

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Over the coming weeks I’d like to share interviews that I (and Magnus) conducted with the contributors to Corvidae and Scarecrow. I’m going to begin with the amazing Jane Yolen because, c’mon, she’s Jane-freaking-Yolen.

Interview with Jane Yolen

Please share a short excerpt from your story/stories:

Part of one of my two poems in the volume:

Postcards from the Abyss
No “Wish you were here,”
no “Having a good time,”
only a sniff of sulfur,
groans from a nearby hummock,
three crows lifting off a limb,
probably laughing at the reader,
but who can tell with corvids.

What is it about corvids that inspired you to write about them? We are a family of birders, and corvids are among the smartest (and sassiest) of birds.

Was there one corvid characteristic you wanted to highlight more than others? Their knowingness.

Do you think you were successful? I can only hope. . . .

If you were a corvid, what would you build your nest out of? Coins and bottlecaps and peacock feathers.

What’s your favourite ‘shiny’ thing? My earring collection.

If you have work in both anthologies, which came first? The corvid or the scarecrow? Corvid first.

 

As you may know, one of Edmonton’s local Twitter personalities is Magnus E. Magpie who haunts Twitter as @YEGMagpie. I invited him to read an advance copy of Corvidae and Scarecrow and offer a short cawmentary on each story from a magpie’s point of view, which he did. When he was finished I asked if there was anything he’d like to ask the contributors. The italicized portions are mine because Magnus didn’t ask straight-forward questions on account of he’s a magpie 🙂

 

Mr. Yegpie: It would be cool to know where all these stories came from, I mean geographically – like I think I could tell who was from Edmonton and who was from Vancouver! (Where do you live, and did that affect your story/poem at all?)

Massachusetts in the States. Summers in St Andrews, Scotland. Being a birder was more of an influence than where I live.

Mr. Yegpie: I also would sure love to know where they got their ideas from! I caught several familiar references from existing books and mythology and fairy tales; I like seeing people riff off stuff. (What inspired your story/poem?)

I love knowing the venereal (collective) names of animals and birds. One of my favorites has always been “ A Murder of Crows.” So that poem came naturally. “Postcards from the Abyss” is one of the many poems I have written to my birder husband, dead these nine years.

Mr. Yegpie: I think I would like to know what people’s favourite corvid is though; and if it isn’t a magpie, WHYEVER NOT?!? (If they come back with some guff about crows using tools, PLEASE LET ME KNOW AND I WILL SEND THEM A COPY OF MY ROGERS BILL. Pffft, crows.) (What is your favourite corvid?)

Sorry—but it’s crows for me. Though I love the look of magpies strutting across my Scottish lawn.

 
JaneJane Yolen, often called “the Hans Christian Andersen of America”(Newsweek) is the author of well over 350 books, including OWL MOON, THE DEVIL’S ARITHMETIC, and HOW DO DINOSAURS SAY GOODNIGHT. Her books and stories have won an assortment of awards–two Nebulas, a World Fantasy Award, a Caldecott, the Golden Kite Award, three Mythopoeic awards, two Christopher Medals, a nomination for the National Book Award, and the Jewish Book Award, among many others. She has been nominated three times for the Pushcart Prize in Poetry. She is also the winner (for body of work) of the World Fantasy Assn. Lifetime Achievement Award, Science Fiction Poetry Association Grand Master Award, Catholic Library’s Regina Medal, Kerlan Medal from the University of Minnesota, the du Grummond Medal from Un. of Southern Missisippi, the Smith College Alumnae Medal, and New England Pubic Radio Arts and Humanities Award . Six colleges and universities have given her honorary doctorates. Her website is: www.janeyolen.com

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Cover for CORVIDAE. Design by Eileen Wiedbrauk

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B is for Broken, Interview

Fractured Friday: Simon Kewin

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Cover design by Jonathan C. Parrish, original artwork by Tory HokeFor the next several weeks I’ve decided to call Fridays ‘Fractured Friday’ and use them to share news, contributor interviews and excerpts from B is for Broken.

B is for Broken is the second title in the Alphabet Anthologies series. It follows A is for Apocalypse and will in turn be followed by C is for Chimera. Each story in the series is associated with a letter of the alphabet and is titled in the letter is for word format. What’s more, just to keep things nice and complicated, the story’s title isn’t shared at the beginning but at the end so that you can guess at what it might be while you read.

On that note, even though the story titles could be considered spoilers because of how the book is formatted, for the sake of simplicity if the author has chosen to post their title publicly somewhere else (their blog, Facebook, wherever) I am going to include it in my posts. If they haven’t revealed that information, though, I’ll list the story titles as Letter is for…

 

I don’t remember where I met Simon but it might have been from Write 1 Sub 1. Maybe? I may not be clear on that, but I am clear on this–Simon’s stories are awesome 🙂 I’m proud to include his work in both A is for Apocalypse and B is for Broken 🙂

Interview With Simon Kewin

What letter were you assigned? J

Please share a short excerpt from your story:

“You stayed true, though,” she said. “Those promises we made to each other that day at Hong Kong Station.” A wicked smile crept across her features. “And the ones we whispered the night before in this cramped little hab room. You remember?”

Of course he remembered. “You can’t be here,” he said again. “We’re on a wrecked alien spaceship in the Kuiper Belt, not at Hong Kong station. That was all a long time ago. You’re not Avi. None of this is possible.”

What is the thing you’ve most regretted breaking? When I was, like, four years old I broke my brother’s toy spaceship. Just after he’d received it. On Christmas Day.

Have you ever broken something and not been saddened by it? Can you tell us about that? Fast, every day.

If you could break one law and get away with it consequence-free, what would it be? Something that brings huge financial gain. Then I could spend my days writing. From my Caribbean villa.

Do you have any rules for yourself, a code of some sort, which you’d never break? I’ve been a vegetarian for nearly 30 years, so eating meat would be one.

Never ever? A couple of times in that period I’ve eaten nibbled on some dead creature’s cooked remains, generally to try something new that someone said I should. It didn’t give me a change of heart.

Did you struggle with the letter you were assigned, or did the ideas come freely? The ideas came pretty freely. Although, actually, I posted on my blog asking for ideas, and the inspiration for the story I wrote came from someone’s suggestion.

What was your favourite idea you didn’t use? My contribution to A is for Apocalypse was science fiction, so I quite wanted to do a fantasy story for B is for Broken. Which didn’t work out, but I was playing with the idea of a Jack-in-the-Green story for a time.

What, aside from the anthology’s theme and your letter inspired your story? The image in my head of this vast, weird, alien spaceship floating ghost-like in the void. That and breaking my brother’s toy spaceship when I was four…

 

 

Simon KewinSimon Kewin is the author of over 100 published short or flash stories. He lives in England with his wife and their daughters. His cyberpunk novel The Genehunter and his fantasy novels Engn and Hedge Witch were recently published. Find him at simonkewin.co.uk.

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B is for Broken, Interview

Fractured Friday: Alexandra Seidel

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B is for Broken. Cover design by Jonathan C. Parrish, original artwork by Tory Hoke
Cover design by Jonathan C. Parrish, original artwork by Tory Hoke

For the next several weeks I’ve decided to call Fridays ‘Fractured Friday’ and use them to share news, contributor interviews and excerpts from B is for Broken.

B is for Broken is the second title in the Alphabet Anthologies series. It follows A is for Apocalypse and will in turn be followed by C is for Chimera. Each story in the series is associated with a letter of the alphabet and is titled in the letter is for word format. What’s more, just to keep things nice and complicated, the story’s title isn’t shared at the beginning but at the end so that you can guess at what it might be while you read.

On that note, even though the story titles could be considered spoilers because of how the book is formatted, for the sake of simplicity if the author has chosen to post their title publicly somewhere else (their blog, Facebook, wherever) I am going to include it in my posts. If they haven’t revealed that information, though, I’ll list the story titles as Letter is for…

 

I met Alexa through Niteblade, first as a submitter then a slush reader and, eventually, the poetry editor. We’ve worked together for several years now and it’s always been a true pleasure. I am super stoked to include Alexa’s work in both A is for Apocalypse and B is for Broken 🙂

Interview With Alexandra Seidel

What letter were you assigned? H

Please share a short excerpt from your story: The second peddler has a hat weighing heavy with cream white roses. “A cup is a beautiful thing. When it breaks, there is grief in the world[…]

What is the thing you’ve most regretted breaking? A clock. I was still a kid back then, and I broke it while playing. The clock was a gift to someone else, and something that was lost forever in a way because the gift giver is dead.

Have you ever broken something and not been saddened by it? Can you tell us about that? Actually, this is how I try to feel when I accidentally break something. I tell myself, it’s broken. You cannot unbreak it. This is the reality of the situation. Accept and move on.

If you could break one law and get away with it consequence-free, what would it be? The first law of thermodynamics. It’s just because I want a perpetual motion machine. I figure it’d be way cooler than an iPod.

Do you have any rules for yourself, a code of some sort, which you’d never break? The categorical imperative comes to mind.

Never ever? Well, I write fiction you know, so never is a challenge more than anything. Maybe I’ll explore that further down the Alphabet Series…

Did you struggle with the letter you were assigned, or did the ideas come freely? Well, I first wrote another story, but it wasn’t right. Then, this story happened, and even when I was feeling it come together in my head, I knew that it was for Broken.

What, aside from the anthology’s theme and your letter inspired your story? Life. And death.

 

 

Alexa SeidelAlexandra Seidel is a writer, poet, and editor. H is for Hanging Man (aka The Hanging Man Who Does Not Heal) is her second story in the Alphabet Series. Other than that, her writing appeared in Strange Horizons, Lackington’s, Stone Telling, and elsewhere. If you are so inclined you can follow Alexa on Twitter (@Alexa_Seidel) or read her blog: www.tigerinthematchstickbox.blogspot.com.

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B is for Broken, Interview

Fractured Friday: Cindy James

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Cover design by Jonathan C. Parrish, original artwork by Tory HokeFor the next several weeks I’ve decided to call Fridays ‘Fractured Friday’ and use them to share news, contributor interviews and excerpts from B is for Broken.

B is for Broken is the second title in the Alphabet Anthologies series. It follows A is for Apocalypse and will in turn be followed by C is for Chimera. Each story in the series is associated with a letter of the alphabet and is titled in the letter is for word format. What’s more, just to keep things nice and complicated, the story’s title isn’t shared at the beginning but at the end so that you can guess at what it might be while you read.

On that note, even though the story titles could be considered spoilers because of how the book is formatted, for the sake of simplicity if the author has chosen to post their title publicly somewhere else (their blog, Facebook, wherever) I am going to include it in my posts. If they haven’t revealed that information, though, I’ll list the story titles as Letter is for…

 

I met Cindy through a local critique group we were both members of several years back. While I’ve lost contact with most of the people I knew from that group, Cindy and I are still good friends. It was my pleasure to include one of her stories in A is for Apocalypse (where she definitely won the award for most creative title. You will never guess what P was for) and I was super stoked to have her continue her involvement with this series with a story in B is for Broken.

Interview With Cindy James

What letter were you assigned? M

Please share a short excerpt from your story:

I stare at the dim outline of the ceiling fan as the rhyme repeats itself, and I see faces again. I’m accustomed to these disembodied, anonymous heads that flash through the dark with taunting, gnarled expressions, but they still make my heart race. I roll onto my side and promise myself I will talk to Dr. Woo when I have my checkup on Monday.

The next morning when I get to work, I call the cable company and arrange a service call and then sit at my desk Googling overheated electronics and stare at words like “toxic” and “tumour” and “toluene” until I don’t want to read anymore, and Shelley texts me to meet her for lunch. At noon I escape the office tower and find her downstairs on the sidewalk, huddled against the December bite in her long black coat with a smoke in her leather-gloved hand. I grimace at her, and she makes a face back.

“Don’t even think about saying anything.” Shelley narrows her eyes at me.

“I thought you quit.” I stand upwind of her and breathe shallow as she drags back her smoke in rapid-fire puffs.

“Yeah, so I’m weak. Gary walked out last night.”

“Oh,” I say. This isn’t really news, it’s happened so many times. “What happened?” I ask. I don’t mind talking about her problems. Shelley’s shitty life makes me feel better about my own.

What is the thing you’ve most regretted breaking? I’m sure I’ve broken a few promises along the way, but not real regrets.

If you could break one law and get away with it consequence-free, what would it be? Tax laws!

Do you have any rules for yourself, a code of some sort, which you’d never break? My one rule is if it’s going to make me feel guilty, don’t do it!

Never ever? Never!

Really? Isn’t there something which could make you break it? I don’t deal well with guilt.

Did you struggle with the letter you were assigned, or did the ideas come freely? Yes, I struggled with it.

What was your favourite idea you didn’t use? M is for Memorial. Couldn’t get it going.

What, aside from the anthology’s theme and your letter inspired your story? An episode from Law & Order from years ago stuck with me. A mother killed her children and while on the stand she said she did it because she couldn’t stand the thought of them suffering.

 

 

CindyJamesCindy James lives in Edmonton, Alberta with her husband and two children. After twenty years working as a court reporter and listening to other people’s stories, she decided to engage the right side of her brain and tell a few of her own. She is pursuing a degree in English and History, and is committed to one day write something truly great. She now works as a broadcast closed-captioner, volunteers at the local art gallery, and agonizes in what remains of her free time over whether she should be writing or painting.

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B is for Broken is available now at:
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