Category Archives: links and stuff

Skiffy & Fanty & Me!

Interviews, links and stuff, Podcasts, , ,

Here’s another of those cool things I’ve been meaning to tell you. So excited about this one as I’m a big fan of the Skiffy and Fanty Show and recently I recorded a podcast with them, all about The Treachery of Beautiful Things, and folklore, and storytelling, and… all sorts of things. It was great.

(I’m late telling you guys because of holidays. My holidays were rather wonderful and I didn’t do a lot of things. I have a multitude of photos which I have to put together in some sort of manageable format and link).

So here it is

hee – they called me the fairy queen! Don’t tell Titania.

No seriously, please don’t tell her.

A little break in our usual programming

Just to let people know I’ll be mostly offline for the next couple of weeks.

But when I come back… oh when I come back…

 

*awkward silence*

In the meantime, I found this clip of Eddie Lenihan, a seanchaí, and his story of the black dog. Seanchaí are traditional Irish storytellers and folk historians. I love Black Dog legends. There’s one near where I grew up, and my mother’s family come from Dartmoor so… enough said.

I’m currently reading Eddie Lenihan’s book Meeting the Other Crowd.

For reasons.

 

Cover Competition

competition, Cover Love, links and stuff,

The cover of The Treachery of Beautiful Things by the very talented Danielle Delaney, is a contender in the Cover Contest 2012 at Cover Cafe. It’s in the Alternate Reality section and up against some stiff competition, so I’d really appreciate your votes!

“Designer Danielle Delaney used a compilation of stock images, including the central photograph of the girl by Mayer George, to create this cover of THE TREACHERY OF BEAUTIFUL THINGS by Ruth Frances Long.”


Isn’t it lovely. Still takes my breath away. 😀

And don’t forget that you can still enter to win a copy of THE TREACHERY OF BEAUTIFUL THINGS here on my website until the 8th.

In the editing cave

Interviews, links and stuff, reviews, ,

I’ve been very quiet of late which is usually ominous. But in this case it’s been a mixture of being not terribly well, and having some edits on the Space Opera.* Which might not actually be a Space Opera anymore (Planetary romance? Science Fantasy? Scientific Romance?).

So here is the podcast of an interview I did with the awesome Leeds Book Club (@AvidReader)

in which we talk about a lot of things. A LOT OF THINGS! LOTS!

Enjoy. 45 minutes or so of it. Just to warn you in advance. Also we had some sound problems. And my voice sounds weird!!!

I also read a wonderful review of The Treachery of Beautiful Things from Writer of Wrongs.

“Exquisite, enchanting, magical… this folktale world is truly worth submerging in.”

Enter to win it and others on the site, but do it quickly. 😀

Back into the writer cave/sick bed I go.

———-

*Oh, and I might be overdosing on box sets of The West Wing. Not that overdosing on it is possible, of course.

Authors Against Bullying – 19th October

Awesome authors, Life Happens, links and stuff, ,

Authors Against Bullying

Today, I’m taking part in Authors Against Bullying (#AuthorsAgainstBullying), having seen Mandy M. Roth talking about it on Twitter. The following post is about my experiences and how I got past them. The post may contain some triggerish things. Just to warn you. Many years later, when I described this to some friends at a writing conference, I suddenly found myself surrounded by shocked and silent faces. Oops. Continue reading Authors Against Bullying – 19th October →

Octocon this weekend

Awesome authors, Life Happens, links and stuff, Octocon, Out and About, ,

This weekend is Octocon weekend! The full timetable is here. And general details here.  Liz Williams is GOH and a host of wonderful guests including C.E. Murphy, Celine Kiernan, Oisín McGann, Michael Carroll and me!

This is what I’ll be up to: (busy busy busy)

Saturday

11am Room 101 – putting away all those SFFH tropes

1pm – Realistic Relationships in SFF – What makes for a realistic relationship, and does a different world change what is realistic in a relationship?

3pm – LGBTQ in YA – What is the impact of having LGBTQ characters in Young Adult Books? What are the possible
pitfalls?

4pm – Reading – I’ll be reading from The Treachery of Beautiful Things (and maybe more)

6pm – What does the term strong female character actually mean? – We use the term all the time, but there seems to be a lot of disagreement as to what is and is not a “Strong Female Character”

Sunday 14th

(phew! A lie in)

Noon – Why so violent? – Why do so many stories resort to violence? Surely we can all just get along

1pm – Roots of Irish fantasy – Irish Myths and Legends go back thousands of years, and have been changed by interaction
with the Catholic Church, and the Catholic Church has been changed by the Irish people and our myths (I accidentally talked my way into this. Be warned, I have been doing research!)

5pm – Is there space for religion in Science Fiction? – Some see science as being about facts and figures, and believe that science fiction shouldn’t include relgion. We hope to explore these ideas.

I always have an awesome time at Octocon. (And collapse in a heap afterwards). But don’t forget that there is also the Friday night welcome drinks and the Dead Dog party on Monday!

Copies of The Treachery of Beautiful Things, Soul Fire, The Scroll Thief and Songs of the Wolf will be available in the Dealers room.

Come and say hello if you’re there. And come to the reading so I’m not talking to an empty room! Pleeeeeeease!

Titancon & the Giant’s Causeway

Awesome authors, Life Happens, links and stuff, Out and About, Photo Moments, Titancon, travels, , ,

I’m a little late writing this one up for a number of reasons, but they basically boil down to lots to do and no energy to do it with. Plus finishing my WiP, the Space Opera. Well, now that has gone off to my wonderful critters, I can’t put blogging off any more, can I?

Titancon was fantastic fun. So well run and entertaining for all of us. We had a ball. One of the really awesome thing was that Leigh Bardugo (author of SHADOW AND BONE) and Joanna Volpe from New Leaf Literary were there and we got to hang out. I have photos, which are all slightly wobbly as my camera decided to play up.

So first, on Friday night, we had readings in McHughs as part of Culture Night Belfast
Ruth reading from The Treachery of Beautiful ThingsLeigh reading from Shadow and Bone

Titancon was Saturday. We had panels on Romance in SFF, on becoming a professional author, on working in the Internet age. We met people from the TV show, A Game of Thrones. We had lots of fun and a lovely lunch.

Ruth and LeighPeadar Ó Guilín, Ruth and Leigh

Some of the encounters were pretty action packed. (that’s why its blurry, honest!)
Water dancing with Syrio Forel (Miltos Yerolemou)

Many thanks to Miltos and Johannah!

A great day was had by all. And here is a wobbly picture of Joanna, Leigh and myself with the Game of Thrones banners.
Joanna, Leigh, Ruth

We stayed for the Masquerade, which was fab and then the next day we decided to go to the Giant’s Causeway, little knowing we would be stalked by the Game of Thrones bus tour!

The Causeway was fantastic. I’ve never been before and always wanted to. Here’s a slideshow of some of my photos (my camera suspiciously decided to cooperate once the con was over!)