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Author: C.S.E. Cooney

C.S.E. Cooney's fiction and poetry can be found in Apex, Subterranean, Strange Horizons, Clockwork Phoenix 3, Ideomancer, Goblin Fruit, and Mythic Delirium. She has novellas forthcoming with Papaveria Press, Drollerie Press, and Black Gate Magazine. She keeps a blog at http://csecooney.livejournal.com/.
King of Cats, Queen of Wolves

King of Cats, Queen of Wolves

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apexmagazineWhat do you get when you take Monster Blogger Mike Allen, a dark spark of poetic genesis, two fellow Rhysling Award winners, Sonya Taaffe and Nicole Kornher-Stace, throw them in a cauldron together with some wine and a few herbs and some sauteed onions…

Oh, wait. Sorry. Forget it. You know how they say never shop when you’re hungry? Well, same rule applies to writing blogs. Where was I?

Right! This POEM! “The King of Cats, the Queen of Wolves.”

It’s up at Apex Magazine, which continues to publish fine fiction and poetry under editor Catherynne M. Valente, not to mention an often fun blog.

Speaking of Fun Blogs! There I was, trawling Facebook, when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, this LINK jumped out at me! It howled, it gnashed its teeth, it gnawed upon my ankle. Surrending to the inevitable, I followed it.

And LO! See what Francesca Forrest (Go FRANCESCA! I shall put you in my soup as well! ) hath wrought:

AN INTERVIEW with the aforementioned three poets of the aforementioned poem, which you really should go and read before you read the interview. After which, you should read the outtakes of the interview.

For, as fantasy author and poet Saladin Ahmed said in the comments section beneath the poem:

“Dear God, that was just wonderful.”

Today is Deathless Day!

Today is Deathless Day!

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catherynne-m-valente-deathless1Great tidings of joy! Today Deathless, a novel by Catherynne M. Valente, is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kindle, Nook and iPad!

The author writes:

In brief terms, it is a retelling of Marya Morevna and Koschei the Deathless set during the Stalinist era and the siege of Leningrad.

Cory Doctorow says:

This is a book that broods but never stoops to cynicism, a book full of dream-logic and eros. Valente is a major talent, and this is some of her best work.

Cat also tells us in her colossal post with the cool links that the audiobook will be available in a few days.

For myself, I can tell you that I read this book in its early draft, and that it’s a gut-punch of gorgeous. It’s funny, it’s sexy, it’s dark as midnight in Midwinter Siberia, and it glitters like blood and rubies.

Here is the beautiful YouTube trailer for Deathless.

Writers’ Nights, Open Mics, Literary Soirees: The Importance of Community

Writers’ Nights, Open Mics, Literary Soirees: The Importance of Community

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A Reading in the Salon of Mme Geoffrin, 1755
A Reading in the Salon of Mme Geoffrin, 1755

I’m here to talk to you about the benefits of writers’ nights, open mics and literary soirees. Um. As you have seen. In the title. Of this blog.

“What brought this on, Claire?” you ask.

Why, thanks for your interest! I’ll tell ya!

Tomorrow night, my buddy Patty Templeton (one of the mighty slushers and bloggers for Black Gate) is hosting a small private “Fiction Fun Time Potluck ” at her place. I’m very excited. I will dress up, maybe even wear lipstick! There will probably be candlelight and a lot of giggling. And WORDS! Glorious words — from the mouths of aspiring novelists and struggling upstart writers: each of us, manuscripts in hand, getting a moment in the spotlight. My favorite thing ever!

Wikipedia (it being Wikipedia, all normal cautions apply) has the definition of a salon (literary, that is, not hirsute) thus:

Patty "La Marquise" Templeton, our beautiful and educated Patroness.
Patty "La Marquise" Templeton, our beautiful and educated Patroness.
Portrait of salonniere Élisabeth, comtesse Greffulhe, by Laszlo
La Salonniere Élisabeth, Comtesse Greffulhe, by Laszlo

A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation… Carried on until quite recently, in urban settings, among like-minded people…

…Some scintillating circles formed in the smaller courts which resembled salons, often galvanized by the presence of a beautiful and educated patroness…

I’m not sure how much refinement there’ll be (we all cuss like sailors and flirt like courtesans. But I’ll betcha good working-class wages they didn’t do things all that different in 18th century Paris and Venice), however, I do know we’ll come away with a thorough knowledge of  monsters, robots, murderers, gods and maybe even faeries.

My excitement for tomorrow’s revelries got me thinking about events similar to these I’ve attended or invented over the last few years.

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Dragons + Napoleon = MIGHTY FINE READING!

Dragons + Napoleon = MIGHTY FINE READING!

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temeraireOh, gosh! I’ve been reading Naomi Novik’s Temeraire books. My buddy (and dread Goblin Queen) Jessica Wick has been telling me I should read them for ages. And then the most fair and perilous Patty Templeton chimed in. And then my cool co-worker Janelle “I’m totally surviving the Zombie Apocalypse” McHugh started harping about them too, and I finally got a clue.

So I was all like, “FINE! I will read your 19th Century Dragons-as-Aerial-Calvalry in the year ‘O6 book, and I will see if it’s REALLY as good as all y’all are saying it is.”

Oh, it is. It is. Sea battles! Sea Serpents! Terrible storms! Travels to China! To Prussia! Blockades! Border patrols! Abolitionists and Assassins and fire-breathing Kazilik dragons, oh my!

I ordered His Majesty’s Dragon through Amazon.com and then I sort of ate it. And then I wheedled Patty (who works at a library to which I have no card) into checking out the next three books (Throne of Jade, Black Powder War and Empire of Ivory) for me (the latter of which I’m currently on). Last week, in anticipation of running out, I batted my not terribly impressive eyelashes at Janelle  (who happened to be going to the library that day) and asked if she might, just might, be willing to check out Victory of Eagles for me.

In the meantime, I ordered them all for our bookstore, so that I can hand-sell them  to unsuspecting customers in search of something bright and new and rambunctiously scrumptious in Fantasy. They’re sitting on my Employee Recommendation Shelf, right beside James Enge’s The Wolf Age, Terry Pratchett’s Nation, and Robin McKinley’s Sunshine. So they’re in good company!

Now, I’ve actually read (and watched) Patrick O’Brian’s Master and Commander, and also I love Susanna Clarke’s work, so I knew whereof Stephen King spoke when he wrote:

“Is it hard to imagine a cross between Susanna Clarke, of Norrell and Strange fame, and the late Patrick O’Brian? Not if you’ve read this wonderful, arresting novel.”

Only, see, I liked these books even better than Master and Commander, coz there were actually WOMEN in the pages. Female dragons as well as pilots — and boy, does that disturb our doughty protagonist Will Laurence! Before he got accidentally bonded to his Imperial Dragon Temeraire, he was just your ordinary, average (awesome) naval captain, with all that being British, a guy, and a naval captain in the 19th century implies. His time with the Aerial Corps, but most especially with Temeraire, works on him, until by the fourth book in, Laurence thinks and acts in ways that surprise even himself. It’s wonderful!

But really. I’m not here to write an in-depth review. I’m just here to alert you. You can be stubborn like me and wait a year or three before taking my advice and reading these books. YOUR LOSS THOUGH!

Desert of Souls: A Review

Desert of Souls: A Review

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bgdesertDesert of Souls, by Howard Andrew Jones.
Thomas Dunne Books (320 pages, $24.99, February 15, 2011)

As I write this, I’m listening to Silk Road Journeys: Beyond the Horizon, because sometimes Yo-Yo Ma’s cello just does things to a girl, you know? Anyway, it seems appropriate, so I thought I’d share.

First of all: Spoiler Alert. Probably minor ones, but you never can tell with me, so if you don’t want to know a few plot points, some specifics of the characters, interesting quotes and structural ramblings, please do not read further.

Second of all: I met the author once four years ago and have corresponded with him a few times, so there’s that. I am not an unbiased reader. But this is a blogicle for Black Gate Magazine, after all, and as we’re having a month-long celebration of Howard Andrew Jones over here, I don’t really think anyone expects me to be neutral!

…Hurray!

Third of all: I confess that I’d never read a Dabir and Asim story – in Black Gate or elsewhere – before this debut novel, so I came to it with no thought more profound than, “What pretty colors the cover has!” and “ Oh, great, now I want a scimitar too!”

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Hadestown: An Interview with Artist Peter Nevins

Hadestown: An Interview with Artist Peter Nevins

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bgalbumcoverOnce upon a time last November, I quoted a Greg Brown song in my LiveJournal. Greg Brown is a folk musician, and the song was “Rexroth’s Daughter,” from the album Covenant.

Now, if you know me, none of this is surprising. I often write in my LiveJournal, and I often quote Greg Brown, and yes, the song I most often quote is “Rexroth’s Daughter” — because every stanza is amazing!!!

So I was going along, being me, business as usual, when all of a sudden, an LJ friend said unto me:

“I know Greg Brown from Hadestown… which, Oh em jee, Claire, is just the most wonderful folk rock opera ever. It’s a retelling of the Orpheus story. He lures Eurydice to the underworld in “Hey Little Songbird.” I heard this song and fell in love with him. And bought the album and listen to it constantly.”

bghades1After hearing “Hey, Little Songbird,” I sort of gallumphed over to Amazon and laid all my pretty pennies down in a row.

“MINE!” I said, like the seagulls in Little Nemo.

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Nebula: It Rhymes with Amalebula (sort of)

Nebula: It Rhymes with Amalebula (sort of)

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amalOur own Amal El-Mohtar, who has blogged for us about Saladin Ahmed and Fantasy in the Middle East, and about whom our other own Patty Templeton has blogged, has received a Nebula Award nomination for her short story, “The Green Book.”

So, first of all, YIPPEE!!! Regardless of outcome, I have promised to make her a TIARA fashioned from the ANDROMEDA GALAXY, with the Flame Nebula for a center stone! This will take mighty sorcery, so if you see any explosions coming from the direction of Palatine, Illinois… run.

honeymonth1And second of all, here’s where you can read “The Green Book” online. It first appeared in the November 2010 issue of Apex Magazine, edited by Cat Valente.

And third of all, Rich Horton will be reprinting “The Green Book” in his upcoming anthology, The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, so there will soon be an opportunity to HOLD it and LOVE it and sleep with it UNDER YOUR PILLOW!

(…I mean, not that you ALL have to do that. Some of us have a long-term intimacy with Ms. El-Mohtar’s fiction and poetry. Some of us have signed copies of The Honey Month. Not to make you jealous or anything. ‘Cause, you know, jealousy’s the green-eyed monster and all. So beware. )

Again, Amal — one thousand congratulations on your pretty head!

“A Paladin, a Fighter, or a Thief!” S.J. Tucker Gives Away a Freebie

“A Paladin, a Fighter, or a Thief!” S.J. Tucker Gives Away a Freebie

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Photo by Kyle Cassidy
Photo by Kyle Cassidy

“Come bards from the north, elves off the moor
Gamers off work get down to the store
Scratch your neighbor what’s underneath?
A wizard or a cleric or a thief!”

Musician S.J. Tucker (of whom I have spoken at length) has released a FREE SONG on her website, entitled “D&D.”

And it has orcs and elves and paladins in it (oh, my!), ’cause she’s just that cool.

She writes in her LiveJournal:

This is my first time writing and releasing a parody: “D&D” is sung to the tune of “The Napoli” by Mr. Steve Knightley of British folk group Show of Hands. …Definitely give a listen to the original as well as to my parody version–it’s every bit as cool for different reasons, being about a (relatively recent) shipwreck…there’s piracy.

…This is very exciting for me, guys, not least because I have proof now that my years of filling out character sheets has, in fact, paid off…or it will, if you help me spread the word. Please download the song and share the link with others–encourage friends to explore my other available downloads as well; you know how it works, every little bit makes a difference!

Check it out! It’s way fun. And I’ve never even played Dungeons and Dragons in my life!

Fantasy and Lightspeed

Fantasy and Lightspeed

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bgfantasy2John Joseph Adams is the editor of the anthologies By Blood We Live, Federations, The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Living Dead (a World Fantasy Award finalist), The Living Dead 2, The Way of the Wizard, Seeds of Change, and Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse.

Forthcoming work includes the anthologies The Book of Cthulhu, Brave New Worlds, and The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination.

And guess what else? He is now the editor of Fantasy Magazine and Lightspeed Magazine, the critically-acclaimed online short fiction magazines published by Prime Books.

Here are the guidelines for Fantasy.

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Like a Bridge Over (Sharon Shinn’s) Troubled Waters: A Review

Like a Bridge Over (Sharon Shinn’s) Troubled Waters: A Review

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The Thirteenth House (art by Donato Giancola)
The Thirteenth House (art by Donato Giancola)

Troubled Waters
By Sharon Shinn
Ace Hardcover [400 pages, October 5th, 2010, $24.95]

I periodically go through Sharon Shinn phases. The word “thrall” comes to mind.

These fiction-consuming frenzies may last several weeks. When they end, I usually shake my fists at the sky and vow never to do it again. Ever. No more staying up every night for days on end rereading the Twelve Houses books and the Samaria series and that Jane Eyre retelling, Jenna Starborn, or Summers at Castle Auburn, or The Shapechanger’s Wife, or, or…

It’s exhausting, I tell you! The woman renders “prolific” a gross understatement.

And then I was offered up Troubled Waters to review for Black Gate. I’m not saying I snatched it out of John O’Neill’s hands as from the maw of many-tentacled Cthulhu. Or glared at him when he tried to take it back. I merely assured him, very calmly, that, Yes, I would like to review it, and oh does that mean I get to keep this copy, really, how nice, and no, that is not slobber on my chin.

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