Cover art - "Working God's Mischief" by Glen Cook

I’ve declared my love for Raymond Swanland’s works with every little chance I got so I will not bore you with the details again. I’ll only present the new cover made by Raymond Swanland for the fourth novel in Glen Cook’s “Instrumentalities of the Night” series, “Working God’s Mischief”, due to be released by Tor Books on March 2014. And here are the other covers made by the same extremely talented artist for the other three novels of the series published so far.

Interview with Sarah Pinborough

Sarah Pinborough is a critically acclaimed horror, thriller and YA author. In the UK she is published by both Gollancz and Jo Fletcher Books at Quercus and by Ace, Penguin in the US. Her short stories have appeared in several anthologies and she has a horror film Cracked currently in development and another original screenplay under option. She has recently branched out into television writing and has written for New Tricks on the BBC and has a crime three-parter in development with World Productions.

Sarah was the 2009 winner of the British Fantasy Award for Best Short Story, and has three times been short-listed for Best Novel. She has also been short-listed for a World Fantasy Award. Her novella, The Language of Dying was short-listed for the Shirley Jackson Award and won the 2010 British Fantasy Award for Best Novella.

This interview was initially published on Revista de suspans.

Mihai A.: Thank you very much for the opportunity of this interview, Sarah.

With “Poison”, “Charm”, “Beauty” and “Mayhem” published this year, the releases of the US editions of “A Matter of Blood”, “The Shadow of the Soul” and “The Chosen Seed” and the re-issue of “The Language of the Dying” by Jo Fletcher Books 2013 proves to be an extremely busy year for you. Does such a full year in your career prove to be more demanding than the usual? Are you enjoying a moment of rest or are you already working on your next novel?

Sarah Pinborough: No rest here! It's a round of edits, copy edits and page proofs as well as trying to crack on with the follow up to “Mayhem” (“Murder”, June 2014) and various other projects I've got on the go.

Mihai A.: Ever since your debut almost 10 years ago you were a very prolific writer with at least one novel released each year. Is such a rhythm taking its toll from your inspiration? Do you feel burned out sometimes?

Sarah Pinborough: To be honest, I'm feeling it a bit this year. I keep telling myself that I will factor in a proper holiday and a month with no work at some point, but it doesn't pan out that way. Plus, I am a bit of a workaholic so I find it hard not to write. And I'm also aware of how precarious this business is so I never really relax.

Mihai A.: You have four novels out this year with another, “Murder”, the follow up of “Mayhem”, due to be released next year. Did you face strict deadlines for these works? Did you sacrifice the quality of your writing in order to meet the deadlines, now or sometimes in your career?

Sarah Pinborough:  I hope I don't sacrifice quality – I think as I progress through my career my books are getting better. I have “Murder” out next year and another book for Gollancz “The Death House” but I won't start writing that until I've finished “Murder”. I do face strict deadlines but my editors often give me extra time. I'm a big planner and so my first draft is normally (tidying aside) the one I hand in.

MA: After six stand-alone and two Torchwood novels you published two trilogies, “The Dog-Faced Gods” and “The Nowhere Chronicles”, and now a trio of theme related novels, “Tales From the Kingdoms”, and a duology, “Mayhem” and “Murder”. Do you miss writing stand-alone novels? Did you get used with the difficulty of writing books that are strong individually, but also create a powerful and packed story over more novels?

SP: Oh, I'm very much looking forward to writing a stand alone novel after “Murder”! I love telling a more complex story over a few books but I do miss the containment of one novel and not having to keep checking back to see what you did in other books. That said, I'm very proud of both my trilogies.

MA: Not only that you are a prolific writer, but you are also a versatile one, writing in different genres and stepping over their boundaries. Is there a particular genre you enjoy writing more? I understand that some day in the future you would like to write a thriller or crime novel. Would you like to try writing in other genres as well?

SP: I just like writing stories that have a dark edge. I've realised over the past year or so that I like pulling things from different genres and weaving them together. My first six novels were all straight horror novels and I found that quite restrictive. I like to play around with different elements although I don't tend to think in terms of genre when I come up with my ideas – I just think of a story. And I have an eclectic mix of stories in my head.

MA: Your latest novel, “Mayhem”, is a historical crime fiction with supernatural elements, set in the London of 1888 the story gravitates around the Whitechapel murders and the Whitehall mystery. What attracted you towards this particular period? Why did you choose Dr Thomas Bond as one of your main characters?

SP: I chose Dr Bond because I found elements of his life and personality (his insomnia for example) interesting and I felt I could weave them into my story quite easily. He was also heavily involved in both the Jack the Ripper investigation and the Thames Torso killings so he was an obvious choice as I didn't want to focus heavily on the police investigation and therefore didn't want to use one of the police as my central character.

MA: In a historical fiction like “Mayhem” is important to keep the known facts as accurate as possible? How much freedom does the imagination get in the context of historical facts?

SP: I've tried to stick as closely as possible to the facts of the cases, although I have taken liberties with the personal lives of the 'real' characters. I've used real newspaper reports throughout the book which gives it an authentic flavour, and having decided to stick closely to the real timeline actually made my plotting more complex. It's like having to put flesh on a provided skeleton.

MA: You took a travel in time with “Mayhem” but throughout your works the present and future were treated at some point too. Which one proves to be more difficult to write and which one is the most rewarding when finished?

SP: Historical writing is definitely the hardest because you are constantly fact-checking and researching, so as well as worrying that there might be a hole in your plot that you haven't see, you also have to worry about getting the historical parts right. Especially when you're also using several real-life people as your characters. I find them all rewarding. I'm very pleased that people are liking “Mayhem” because it was such a different kind of story for me and when I finished it I really wasn't sure if it was good or not – although I think that is normally a sign that it's good.

MA: “Poison”, “Charm” and “Beauty” are all retellings of the renowned fairy tales, but with different approach. What gave you the idea to adapt these fairy tales to the modern times?

SP: It actually came out of discussion with my editor at Gollancz. We'd both been watching “Once upon a time” on TV and loving how they'd played around with the stories and she asked me how I'd feel about trying my hand at it. At first I wasn't sure I could, but then inspiration struck and I could see all three in my head. In many ways it was similar to writing “Mayhem” because I had a structure to work to and play around with already in place. Everyone knows the stories of Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Snow White, so I then had to play around with the expectations. They were a lot of fun to write – far more so than that I thought they would be – and I'm really pleased with them.

MA: I was talking recently with my wife about the perspectives of the fairy tales at different ages. When we are children we see the beauty of the stories, but as the time passes and we grow some terrifying and frightening elements of the same fairy tales are revealed. Do the adults need a reinterpretation of the childhood fairy tales in the way you did it? Are these your favorite childhood stories or is another you would like to rewrite from the modern perspective?

SP: Within the three stories I've woven in some of the other famous fairy tales so I think I've done all that I can do with that genre now. I think it's very hard to write them for a modern audience without addressing some of the feminist issues that fairy tales contain and I hope I've done that without beating people about the head with them. These interpretations are fun and sexy...and a little bit dark. I hope adults will read them and nod and smile at the more wry and cynical elements – as we do become more cynical as we grow and fairy tale happy endings can sometimes not be all they were cracked up to be!

MA: Last year, your debut novel “The Hidden” was optioned for film with Peter Medak set to direct “Cracked”, as it is entitled the movie adaptation of your book. How did “The Hidden” become optioned for movie adaptation? Which other of your books would you like to see adapted into movies someday?

SP: Oh, that's a long story but it came about after a company had optioned the “Dog-Faced Gods” trilogy. I had written a draft of an adaptation of “The Hidden” and they read it and liked it. I'm now doing some more notes on it – screenwriting is constant re-drafting – and I have another film – an original though – called “Red Summer” also optioned. I'd like them all to be made into movies. Then I'd be rich ;-)

MA: If I am not mistaken you also wrote the screenplay of “Cracked”. Does the screenplay follows the novel closely or is drifting a bit from the book? How important is the presence of the author on the crew making the movie for a better adaptation of the writer’s work?

SP: The screenplay is very different. Same basic premise but a lot has changed. The two mediums of book and film tell stories in very different ways and I think it's often a mistake to stick too closely to a text. Plus, it was my first novel and I would probably tell the story differently if I was writing it now. I don't think the author is necessarily important in an adaptation. When you sell the rights to someone you're selling them the right to do whatever they want with it – and create their vision from your story. Often authors do not make good screenwriters. Other people can adapt your book better for screen.

MA: How is the production of “Cracked” going? Do you know an approximate date when it would be released?

SP: I have no idea on that. We're hoping to shoot next year I think. A lot depends on schedules.

MA: Together with the screenplay of “Cracked” you also wrote an episode of the “New Tricks” TV series last year, “Old School Ties”. How did you find the experience of writing for movie and TV? Would you like to write again for movie or TV in the future?

SP: Writing for “New Tricks” was a baptism of fire in TV writing. That is a really high pressured industry but it was a great learning curve. I like writing films best, but I'd definitely like to write for TV again. I've got an original crime three-parter optioned by World Productions and we're meeting again in a couple of weeks to discuss some other ideas. It's just finding the time!

MA: Besides “Murder”, the sequel of “Mayhem”, what are you preparing for the readers?

SP: There is “The Death House” from Gollancz that I'll be writing after “Murder” which is once again a different type of story – not a horror novel, more a rites of passage book, but you can read more about that here :http://www.gollancz.co.uk/2012/06/gollancz-acquires-the-death-house/

Thank you very much for your time and answers. It has been a pleasure!

More Gary McMahon goodies, "Reaping the Dark"

More good news comes our way from Gary McMahon. After the recently announced short novel, “The Bones of You”, due to be released by Earthling Publications on October, another novella signed by this very talented writer gets ready to be published. “Reaping the Dark” is scheduled for release on May 2014 by DarkFuse, the publisher of Gary McMahon’s “Nightsiders” (reviewed here on April), and so far we only have available the synopsis of this novella, but I am certain that more information about it and the cover artwork will begin to surface soon. Until then, here is the very interesting presentation of “Reaping the Dark”.

A streetwise getaway driver…
A drug raid that ends in bloodshed…
A violent criminal hell-bent on revenge…
A secret order of occultists…
And something summoned from the darkest depths of nightmare.

Who will survive this long, dark night, and how will it change them? And what kind of horror will be born from the chaos left behind?

If the old adage is true and we reap what we sow, then only evil can be unleashed by Reaping the Dark.

"The Grim Company" by Luke Scull

"The Grim Company"

by Luke Scull

Publisher: Head of Zeus

Review copy received through the courtesy of the publisher, Head of Zeus

This is a world dying.

A world where wild magic leaks from the corpses of rotting gods, desperate tyrants battle over fading resources, impassive shapeshifters marshal beasts of enormous size and startling intelligence, and ravenous demons infest the northern mountains. A world where the only difference between a hero and a killer lies in the ability to justify dark deeds.

But even in this world, pockets of resistance remain. When two aging warriors save the life of a young rebel, it proves the foundation for an unlikely fellowship. A fellowship united against tyranny, yet composed of self-righteous outlaws, crippled turncoats and amoral mercenaries. A grim company, indeed...

Game related fantasy novels are one of my guilty pleasures and I am not one to deny an attraction to the fictional worlds of Dungeons & Dragons, Forgotten Realms, Warhammer or more recently, Pathfinder. I always found entertainment within the novels of these universes and at least one little pleasing thing among their pages. Therefore, when I learned of Luke Scull, a designer of computer roleplaying games, and his debut fantasy novel, “The Grim Company”, to a certain point my mind made a connection with the familiar game related fiction. And I saw no reason to shy away from it.

When I say a connection with the game related fiction I am thinking at pace and style and no connection with any existing game, although if one sets the mind to it a computer game could be born based on Luke Scull’s “The Grim Company”. And as I discovered, the said correlation was not off the mark, Luke Scull delivered a novel full of adventure and in a hasten rhythm. The story moves between its landmark points and several subplots with speed and ease encouraging a fast reading of “The Grim Company” without feeling as a burden in the least. A couple of the plots running along the novel are familiar to the readers of fantasy literature, but there is enough vivacity behind them to compensate for the sense of awareness.

There is nothing new to a city under the ruthless rule of a tyrant or the unlikely group of characters who find themselves together in an attempt to rid the world of this despot. A mage in search of revenge, a soldier caught between the sense of duty and thoughts of righteousness and a former champion of a land on the run after his actions clashed with the orders of another ruler are themes played before in one way or another. However, Luke Scull avoids leading the reader in the same tiresome way by constructing an interesting world, one struggling without much success to recover from a war that brought the complete destruction of the gods. A dark and grim setting, but one that effectively works and without impending on the reader while it is introduced and built by the author along the story. One more thing that makes the familiar motifs work in the case of “The Grim Company” is that although for the better part the story apparently draws clear lines between good and evil at the end of the novel there is enough grayness for all of the characters involved to keep the balance in perfect symmetry and not incline it towards one characteristic or another.

Besides adventures, pace, rhythm and world-building, the set of characters of “The Grim Company” also make the journey through the story swift for the reader. Again I walked on recognizable territory with plenty of them, but there are enough reasons to take sides and sympathize with some of the protagonists. Brodar Kayne, the formidable swordsman of the North is the perfect example in this case. The most common figure of fantasy literature among the characters of Luke Scull’s novel, Bordar Kayne receives sufficient attention from the author to gain sympathy from the reader, surmounting the triviality of this type of characters. Davarus Cole is another character taking the central stage in ample times, a wannabe hero with the head in the clouds failing to see past his open-eyed dreams. Along the way, Davarus Cole’s behavior becomes repetitive and this nudges the pleasure of the reading, but there is plenty of hilarity born from this behavior and the situations in which Davarus Cole finds himself to veer his conduct from being entirely stereotypical. Completing the cast are Barandas, the most skilled and trusted warrior of Salazar (the tyrant of Dorminia, the aim of the rebelling actions taken by most the characters) who finds himself caught between duty and honor, Eremul the Halfmage, a wizard with a sharp tongue and acid remarks, Isaac, his aide, a seemingly simpleton with unlimited resources, Yllandris, a sorceress in search of power and position but with a softness of the heart in opposition to her thoughts and Sasha, a brave fighter for freedom who steadily grows a connection with Brodar Kayne.

The adventures these characters are going through kept me turning the pages, fights, battles, shapeshifters, strange creatures, demons, magic, magically enhanced weapons with the unpleasant habit of creating dependency to their wearer, elements that are pleasant treats in the reading on Luke Scull’s “The Grim Company”. However, I am not sure if I am too picky or not but there were a couple of things that paused on my tracks. An unsettled wound is inflicted on a right arm (“Suddenly Jerek stumbled, barely staying on his feet. Brodar Kayne heard his growled fuck, saw him stagger again as another quarrel hit him in his right arm. The Wolf slowed and then sank to one knee.” p. 138) seems to affect the left one on the next page (“Regaining his feet, Kayne turned and saw Jerek struggling to rise. Blood soaked his left arm and pooled on the ground at his feet.” p. 139) and jumps back to the right side a bit later (“Jerek was there, crouched beside him. His right shoulder and thigh were wrapped in padded dressing.” p. 193), a novice taught by a professional assassin too fast in the art of murder and a feared mercenary army that finds its match in a militia force gathered over night are aspects that brought me disbelief. Obstacles not very difficult to overpass, but manifesting a presence that still needs to be considered.

“The Grim Company” walks on already paved roads but it does so in an entertaining manner, with a generous amount of adventures, action, energy and pace. Enough to keep one interested in the outcome of Luke Scull’s “Grim Company” series when the next novels become available.

Short movie trailer - "Dust"

I am not overly thrilled with crowdfunding, mainly because as much as these projects are about support they are also about promising something that doesn’t exist yet. And that is a notion I’m not exactly comfortable with. Of course, in the case of Brom’s new art book or Ellen Datlow’s horror anthologies, two such funding projects I backed, the fact that both have already more than proved the caliber of their talents worked as a certain guarantee for the crowdfundings for their new works. But, although I am not much of the follower of crowdfunding sites and projects I am not the one to deny its merits when these show themselves. As it is with the short Sci-Fi/Fantasy movie by Mike Grier, “Dust”. Funded last year through Kickstarter, “Dust” looks like it’s putting the raised money to excellent work, as we can see in this extremely attractive trailer. And since it seems to be more of this imagined world than can fit this short movie the producers of “Dust” hope for an opportunity to make a feature film for this universe if such a chance arises. I am not exactly sure but I believe “Dust” is scheduled to be finished and released on December this year and if you wish to learn more about it or be up to date with the news regarding this short movie you can do so at Dust’s official website, Facebook page or Twitter feed.

A deadly new plague linked to a mysterious dust is devastating the countryside around Kabé--the world's oldest city.

Irezúmi, a Tracker living in the abandoned outskirts of Kabé, is hired by a Merchant of the city's underground medicine trade to study the dust that has begun falling on the city. Unable to develop a cure for the unusual sickness, Irezumi reluctantly agrees to search for the source in the countryside.

Little is known about the Dust or the illness it causes, but as it continues to consume the countryside Kabé is preparing to shut its gates--denying refuge to anyone outside the walls.

With the city verging on lock-down, the two embark on a dangerous journey into the countryside in search of the source.

2012 Shirley Jackson Awards

Yesterday, in a ceremony held at Readercon 24, Conference on Imaginative Literature, in Burlington, Massachusetts, the winners of the 2012 Shirley Jackson Awards have been announced.

NOVEL: “Edge” by Koji Suzuki (Vertical, Inc.)

NOVELLA: “Sky” by Kaaron Warren (Through Splintered Walls, Twelfth Planet Press)

NOVELETTE: “Reeling for the Empire” by Karen Russell (Tin House, Winter 2012)

SHORT FICTION: “A Natural History of Autumn” by Jeffrey Ford (Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July/August 2012)

SINGLE-AUTHOR COLLECTION: “Crackpot Palace” by Jeffrey Ford (William Morrow)

EDITED ANTHOLOGY: “Exotic Gothic 4: Postscripts #28/29” edited by Danel Olson (PS Publishing)

Congratulations to all the winners!

"In the Broken Birdcage of Kathleen Fair" by Cate Gardner

"In the Broken Birdcage of Kathleen Fair"

by Cate Gardner

Publisher: The Alchemy Press

The review is based on a bought copy of the book

When the mirror released Kathleen into the unknown, for the briefest of moments she giggled and realised that she’d never laughed before. She had been a blank canvas, sitting and waiting in a room and occasionally bouncing from wall to wall desperate for freedom - and now she was out. White walls no longer surrounded her. In this new place, a thousand mirrors spun reflecting worlds.

There is magic within names. We can see it at work every day, while passing a signboard with a tempting name painted on it inviting the passerby to scan the show window of a cozy shop or to step over the threshold of a stylish little coffee house. We can see it at work on the book covers adorned with an alluring title seducing the reader to a further exploration of the pages that follow. “In the Broken Birdcage of Kathleen Fair” is a title with such magic, but it is not the only one of the kind among Cate Gardner’s works, she has a small history of such enticing titles. Fortunately, Cate Gardner’s fiction is more than just cheeky, original titles, but it is also a show of ingenuity and imagination without any borders in sight.

So, open the door carved with the name “In the Broken Birdcage of Kathleen Fair” and you’ll see instantly Cate Gardner’s inventiveness at work:

“To Kathleen, the most irregular thing about the mirror wasn’t its sudden appearance on the wall or its reluctance to reflect the gargantuan nature of her bedroom furniture, but that it appeared to be of normal size. That is, it was something she could see her reflection in without feeling like a Lilliputian or a specimen in a box. Leaning back on her heels and spreading her arms wide, and for once fighting the urge to smile rather than frown, Kathleen looked to the concave glass ceiling. She was an ant in their farm, a flea in their circus, and now something new looked in at her. She would investigate the mirror. It would prove to be something good.”

Kathleen Fair is young girl held captive in a room where every single piece of furniture overtops her. The only door of the room is guarded, but an escaping way is revealed when a mirror appears on a wall and someone strange enters through it. Kathleen steps outside her room for the first time and discovers a cavern with thousands of mirrors reflecting and accessing thousands of worlds. And from this point her adventure begins.

“In the Broken Birdcage of Kathleen Fair” is a delightful tale of love, discovery and courage. The readers will discover beyond the portals of mirrors, a chamber of a perfumer, one who collects “a dab of testosterone, lust and a hint of strawberry fields” in order to create his potions, or a sassy version of hell where invisible graffiti artists write warnings and contracts on the walls and the devil wears “a black suit over a grey t-shirt” while twirling an umbrella until “it flapped open and then he rested it against his shoulder.” There are promises and deals made, attempts to sneak out of them, a love triangle, or better still, quadrangle, and a hot air balloons contest. In a phrase, it is an exuberant display of imagination spiced with humor and a story that holds all the way to the end.

Cate Gardner’s novella might bear reminiscences of a twisted rescue of Persephone from the underworld, Astrid Lindgren’s Nils Karlsson Pyssling or Patrick Süskind’s “Perfume”, but these tiny hints are, if you like, something borrowed for good luck, familiar elements used without abuse and without losing the originality of the story in the least. On the contrary, I could say that all these small, recognizable components are given a new dimension, transformed and blended perfectly in the unique creation that is “In the Broken Birdcage of Kathleen Fair”. There are also a couple questions that remain a mystery, some who and whys, but once again I believe that in letting these little things at the power of each reader’s mind Cate Gardner enhances the particularities of her story and gives it a feature personalized to the likings of everyone who picks up her novella.

Cate Gardner might have published only in the shorter forms of fiction so far, stories, novellas, small novels, but every single one of them is written with exceptional skill and passion. “In the Broken Birdcage of Kathleen Fair” is the latest example of Cate Gardner’s prowess in weaving fantastical worlds and strange events and to confirm that she is one of the distinct voices of modern speculative fiction.