Telling tales
Outlandish beasts, magical objects, gods, immortality, death – children’s books are stuffed with the stuff of myth, says Cornelia Funke, because they help explain our world
Myths are strange things. We all seem to know about them even when we have never read them – quite often I........
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Carrie Ryan's novel Forest of Hands and Teeth is due to be released in the UK also by Gollancz in July of this year and Mark and I are looking forward to interviewing Carrie in a few weeks' time, if all goes according to plan. This time around, Mark will be doing the review for Forest in its UK guise, because it has Zombies in it.
Friend of the blog and urban fantasist extraordinaire, Suzanne McLeod, has her new book coming out in July too. It is entitled Cold Kiss of Death and Suzanne is running several competitions in a run-up to Cold Kiss being released over at her blog: http://suzannemcleod.livejournal.com/. Suzanne was telling me whilst we were chatting at Eastercon that she entered the spirit of it all because she felt that other readers should get the opportunity to enjoy the books she enjoys reading - especially whilst writing. And that is pretty cool to hear! So pop on over to Suzanne's LJ for a chance to win some cool prizes.We are subscribed to receive the Del Rey newsletter over from the States and last night thenewest one popped into our inbox. I have heard so many good things about The Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert V S Redick that I was genuinely chuffed to see a small excerpt in the newsletter about how he came up with the idea:
Where did the idea for your novel come from?" is a question that writers traditionally dread. Simple answers are dull and trite, serious answers interminable. But The Red Wolf Conspiracy is an exception. Its genesis was too strange to forget.
The year was 1993, and the place was Argentina. More specifically, Peninsula Valdés, a huge, largely uninhabited almost-island midway down the Patagonian coast. I'd come as part of a research trip looking at park ranger training, before going on to the Andes and the subtropical jungles of the northeast.
Valdés is a nature lover's Elysium. Penguins and sea lions and elephant seals by the thousands calve on its beaches, and whales give birth in the coves. You can literally walk along the cliffs and watch the southern right whales rolling and playing at your feet.
One morning I set out to do just that and encountered heavy fog. This made for a ghostly seascape, with snatches of rocks and surf appearing for instants in the mist, and everywhere the sound of invisible breakers. And it was while trying to pierce this billowing fog that I suddenly imagined a gigantic and ancient sailing ship careening towards shore, and smashing with terrible violence against the rocks.
Who crewed that monster, and how had they come to such a pass? It would be years before I'd find answers to such questions—I spent eight years on a novel set in Argentina first—but the image never left me, and my curiosity about it only grew.
Those years in Latin America didn't take me down the career path I once envisioned. But they did flood me with stories—fantastic and otherwise—that I've only begun to explore.
Mark C Newton, whom the world probably knows as one of the hardest grafting critters over at the Black Library is due some shiny good news. Not only is his novel, Nights of Villjamur to be released here in the UK very shortly (June) but the world rights to the two novels were also bought by Del Rey over in the States. Congratulations to Mark and his agent John Jerrold on that excellent deal. Catch Mark at Forbidden Planet on June 4th (EU voting day) for a signing.
AS Byatt in a candid and in depth interview here .
Not strictly book related but still pretty to look at - new Prince of Persia behind the scenes footage has gone live.
As a fan of Marie Brennan I was chuffed to see this note from Orbit on their site - they've put up a link to a free novella she did, Deeds of Men . Marie's newest novel, In Ashes Lie is out in June from Orbit. *tries not to squeel too much*
Kelley Armstrong also has her new book out, The Awakening (review will follow shortly) and this is a bit about this young adult trilogy in her own words, as nabbed from the Orbit site.
This is the second book in my Darkest Powers trilogy. True trilogies—one story told over three books—have a long tradition in fantasy. With my adult urban fantasy series, I’ve always stuck to the “one story per book” format, but when I had an idea for a young adult plot, it quickly became clear that a single novel wasn’t going to be enough to tell it.
Chloe Saunders is a typical fifteen-year-old girl…until she starts seeing ghosts. She’s taken to a group home, where she discovers that she’s a necromancer (someone who can speak to and raise the dead). Through the other kids in the home she’s introduced to a world she never knew existed—a world of witches and demons and werewolves.
That would make a decent book. Not terribly original, but it would do. Except that’s only the start of what I had in mind for this story. Chloe isn’t just a necromancer—she’s a genetically modified one. She’s a failed subject in an experiment that has unexpectedly given her dangerous, uncontrollable powers.
There are two ways Chloe’s captors deal with their failures: rehabilitation or extermination. Neither is an option for Chloe and her friends. So what are they going to do about it? That’s where The Awakening takes off. And as the second book in a trilogy, it takes off fast. If you haven’t read The Summoning, I’d strongly suggest checking out that one first.
And that is all I have for you today news wise. If all goes well, two reviews will appear, as if by magic, during the course of today.
