I was recently sent an ARC of Rosewater, Tade Thompson's new novel which is being published through Orbit on 20 September. It is the first in the Wormwood Trilogy, set in a near-future Nigeria seemingly blessed with an benevolent alien presence. Rosewater is a town on the edge. A community formed around the edges of a … Continue reading Interview with Tade Thompson
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This is supposed to be a newsletter, but my newsletter server/provider is currently having issues whereby everything it sends gets delivered to the recipients' spam folder, which is less than ideal. So, it's here, instead. *insert pretend newsletter format here* Book baby 2 is due Hello! I hope that, like me, you are all flailing … Continue reading Darksoul, events, anthology stories, and HEMA
The creative arts, particularly writers and artists, are littered with those who have failed to reach their own expectations, potential, dreams and goals. We all want to excel in our chosen path, all want to achieve the aim of making a living from what we love to do.
The harsh truth is that the majority of us will fail. We’ll have our lofty ideas and will fall short after a few exhaustive years of trying everything we can think of to reach that breakthrough point. We’ll cheer at the successes of others and wish with all our hearts that we could emulate just a fraction of it for ourselves.
So, for the majority of us creative types not quite finding the success we dreamt of, what are our options?
- Give up chasing dreams that never come true.
- Continue pursuing our goals in the hope that elusive breakthrough will happen.
- Diversify.
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Two days ago I submitted the first (ish) draft of Book 3 to my agent. The final book in my debut trilogy. The end of a road I began walking fifteen years ago. The actual submitting of it was easier than the writing had been, particularly the final chapters where all the hints and foreshadowing … Continue reading The end of the beginning
We are pleased to confirm that our firstborn daughter, the beautiful, brutal little lady Godblind, is one year old today. She had a lengthy gestation (more than a decade), but eventually she burst her way into life like that darling little xenomorph through Kane' chest. Since then, she's had a big year, travelling to countries … Continue reading Happy birthday, Godblind
Debut author Cameron Johnston, who I interviewed here on the blog recently, reciprocated by interviewing me on all things grimdark and whether or not the face of fantasy is changing. Those super folks at The Fantasy Hive hosted our chat, which you can read at the link below. Also, I just broke 100,000 words on … Continue reading The women of grimdark
via What can SFF fandom do about the inherent bias of Wikipedia? – Juliet E. McKenna I found this excellent and slightly alarming post through those wonderful podcasters at Breaking the Glass Slipper. If you particularly love an author from a marginalised background, please, please do consider helping out their Wiki page (if they have … Continue reading The bias of Wikipedia
I recently had the pleasure, nay the privilege, to interview Cameron Johnston, whose debut novel The Traitor God is published on 5 June through those fine silicon-based lifeforms at Angry Robot. Cameron has the distinction of being my second ever interviewee on my website – what a thrill! We discussed books, writing, long walks in … Continue reading The Traitor God – interviewing Cameron Johnston
I haven't posted an update or sent a newsletter in a while, and that's because I've been doing edits for Darksoul, which have now been handed in. Huzzah! If all goes well, what I get back next should be copy edits. If all does not go well - meaning if I made some fundamental error … Continue reading Edits – so much fun, except for when they’re not.
Big shout out to Bethan for her awesome review – and to Ken for buying her the book! Clearly a man of excellent taste :0)
Ken bought me this book as a gift when we went to the Grim Gathering event in Bath; I was there to see Joe Abercrombie, I’d read Prince of Thorns in preparation and so was excited to see Mark Lawrence, and I was curious about this Anna Stephens whose debut everyone was talking about. It’s hard to believe that was all the way back in September, and it’s taken me half a year to finally get around to reading Godblind.
I absolutely should have picked this book up sooner.
A brief overview: Goblind is a grimdark (very grim and dark) fantasy, with a multiple point-of-view narrative. It’s a warring nations kind of fantasy, with gods pulling the strings from behind the scenes; lots of back stabbing, betrayals, prophecies, priestesses.
Yawn. Again?
Oh yes but this time it’s done so well.
It’s a plot-driven kind of book, fast paced…
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