So, I sold a story a while ago. Not quite as long ago as I wrote the story in question, mind — that was during the second semester of my Masters, which feels like a lifetime ago.
Anyway, the sale went to Ian Whates at NewCon Press. Here’s as much as anyone other than Ian knows about the project in question:
“… the project that started life as ‘write me something featuring a femme fatale’ has evolved considerably. In fact, what began as a single anthology has subsequently budded, amoeba-like, and developed into two independent volumes; a duo-anthology (no, I’m not too sure what that means either, but it sounds impressive). La Femme and Noir, two thematically linked books, each with their own distinct identity.
Both books will be launched on the Friday evening of this year’s Eastercon in Glasgow, 6.00 pm on April 18th, unveiled at a launch party which will also see the release of a new collection from Eric Brown and “The Moon King”, Neil Williamson’s debut novel.”
Two books, two TOCs:
La Femme:
- Introduction — Ian Whates
- Stephen Palmer – Palestinian Sweets
- Frances Hardinge – Slink-Thinking
- Storm Constantine – A Winter Bewitchment
- Andrew Hook – Softwood
- Adele Kirby – Soleil
- Stewart Hotston – Haecceity
- John Llewellyn Probert – The Girl with No Face
- Jonathan Oliver – High Church
- Maura McHugh – Valerie
- Holly Ice – Trysting Antlers
- Ruth E.J. Booth – The Honey Trap
- Benjanun Sriduangkaew – Elision
Noir:
- Introduction — Ian Whates
- E.J. Swift – The Crepuscular Hunter
- Adam Roberts – Gross Thousand
- Donna Scott – The Grimoire
- Emma Coleman – The Treehouse
- Paula Wakefield – Red in Tooth and Claw
- Simon Kurt Unsworth – Private Ambulance
- Jay Caselberg – Bite Marks
- Marie O’Regan – Inspiration Point
- Paul Graham Raven – A Boardinghouse Heart
- Simon Morden – Entr’acte
- James Worrad – Silent in Her Vastness
- Paul Kane – Grief Stricken
- Alex Dally McFarlane – The (De)Composition of Evidence
Very chuffed to be there… and very chuffed to have sold that story, which collected apologetic personal rejections from all of the best genre ‘zines on the interwebs. Just my luck someone was doing an anthology where grimly ambiguous tales of monumental self-pity, possibly fraudulent magic, police violence and certifiable drug abuse would be a good fit, eh?
In other writy-publishy news, I just finished a commissioned book chapter. Don’t congratulate me; it was originally due in November last year. Given it’s for a collection of scholarly essays, I expect it’ll take at least as long to get to press as the story above, if not longer… always assuming, of course, that the editors don’t wisely decide that the piece I’ve sent them is that little bit too much weirder than even my abstract had led them to expect. Guess we’ll see…
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