As part of the run up to Octocon, the National Irish Science Fiction Convention held (funnily enough) in October, my story CARRYING KEPTARA is currently available as part of their free showcase anthology, along with stories by Peadar Ó Guilín, Brian J. Showers and Derek Gunn.
It’s available in ePub, Kindle and PDF formats.
Plus they are running a short story competition.
What are you waiting for? RUN!
Claire Hennesy has a thought provoking post up today about Retellings, where writers take well known and established stories like fairytales and folklore and use them as a base for their own stories, building on them, changing their slant or reworking them into something new. I started to reply there, but given the fact that I LOVE this subject, my reply started to get long, which is a little unfair on someone else’s blog. So I thought I’d put it here instead. You should of course read Claire’s post first! (but be warned, I now have MORE books to add to my neverending TBR pile).
For me, it seems to work the other way. Quite often I start out telling my own story and find that the fairy tale or mythic elements bleed through as the characters take on those ghostly archetypes that linger in the background of our cultural life. They are still my stories, my characters, still in their own stories but rather than deliberately drawing on archetypes I find they filter into the story in a subtle way (a hopefully subtle way). Because those fairytales are powerful things. They’re beguiling and whimsical. On the surface. But then you go deeper. And deeper. They tell raw and compelling stories when you whittle them down to their purest form. They have darker versions of themselves hidden away in the shadows behind our polished up 21st century versions.
So if I show you an image of a single glass slipper on a staircase, your mind fills in the rest and you go Ah-HA! If there’s blood on the slipper, or if the slipper shatters into a million pieces, your mind is both startled and intrigued. How has the story been changed? Or has it? Is there some older, darker version you haven’t heard before.
I think it’s part of the way writers often feel that stories tell themselves. That they run away with us clinging on for dear life via the pen.
So in my case a fantasy quest novel takes on elements of folklore and fairytales harking back to those older legends and the place of blood and sacrifice they came from. Or an urban fantasy set in modern day Dublin becomes a reimagining of the Percival legend with Celtic overtones and a heroine skirting to the wrong side of divine law.
Myths and folktales lend resonance to our stories and give a sense of a far deeper pool of storytelling behind them. It’s an exciting and abundant area in which to play.
Octocon – 16th – 17th October, Camden Court Hotel, Dublin
Ok, this was all very action packed so these are highlights otherwise it will go on forever!
I’m going to be at Octocon this weekend, Ireland’s Science Fiction Convention, where we’ll be up to all kinds of shenanigans. And I’ll be on a couple of panels
Saturday 12pm Urban Fantasy vs. Paranormal Romance
Sunday 1pm Where’s My Money Honey?! ( New Funding Models) – Err… Yes, me and money. Anyway…
And I’ll be helping out (and hopefully eating some of the sweets) at Claire Hennessy’s Writing YA workshop on Sunday afternoon along with Sarah Rees Brennan. (If they haven’t polished them all off before I get in there.)
Oh and I almost forgot E_W_H himself will be on a panel on Sunday at 2pm – Managing The Writers in Your Life. Yeessss…
All this and George R. R. Martin as guest of honour, C.E. Murphy, Maura McHugh, Derek Gunn, Fabulous Lorraine, Michael Carroll, Peadar Ó Guilín and many more.(So many in fact I can’t link to them all! I have to make biscuits for a cake sale. No really. :S )
If you’re around Dublin this weekend, come and play! We don’t bite. Much.
I’m delighted to have my good friend and critique partner David to blog here today. David’s “Beauty and the Bastard” has just released from Liquid Silver and its about angels. And so is his post.
So, without further delay…
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When Angels Visit
Thank you for inviting me, Ruth. I’m thrilled to be here sharing my happiness upon the release of Beauty and the Bastard.
I believe in angels.
There: have an Abba earworm. J You’re welcome.
Beauty and the Bastard is my first story involving angels and demons, and I’m working on a second one now. But even though I only started writing about these beautiful beings last summer, they’ve been around in my life for years. Read more…
Better late than never in so many ways. First of all it has taken me all week to get around to posting this. Secondly WHY have I not been going to this coference for years???
I am, as with most writers, not the most extroverted of individuals. Never really had been, although I can do a good impression when I need to. I was determined to make it to my first RNA conference this year and I am so glad that I did. Had a bit of a stressy trip out to the airport between a late bus and heavy traffic, and a bit of a stressy time at the drop-off-your-bags points when I found a large group of Japanese tourists had arrived just before me and proceeded to re-pack their luggage in the queue! But Air France/City Jet were wonderful and the flight itself was a dream. When the air hostess asked if I wanted a drink I had a budget airline flashback and just asked for water, only to realise too late they were giving out wine as well. And sandwiches. And boiled sweets for take off (a trip back to childhood). And chocolates just before landing.
I should warn you, food will probably be a theme of this post.
The DLR was also wonderful and in no time at all I arrived at our accomodation in Greenwich. Yes, it was like being a student again. There was a party going on as I arrived and my lovely flatmates were drinking wine out of plastic cups. That didn’t stop the hugs and warm greetings.
Another theme of this post will be the friendliness and fun-filled nature of everyone I met at the conference. I couldn’t have asked for a better gang to hang around with than the ladies of flat 20, but everywhere we went people chatted, exchanged ideas, joked and generally had a wonderful time.
First was Myla by Moonlight, and now…
SALOME AT SUNRISE by Inez Kelly releases today from Carina Press!
It’s not nice to piss off Mother Nature…
Bryton Haruk sets out on a suicide mission to stop the bloodthirsty Skullmen from terrorizing the war-weary Land of Eldwyn. Consumed by guilt over the death of his wife, Bryton seeks revenge and reunion in the afterlife with his lost love. His purpose is determined, his bravery unmatched, until the queen casts a spell to save Bryton from himself.
Salome is that spell. A bird-shifter, she can harness the earth’s breeze and take the form of a beautiful, innocent woman. Her challenge is to harness Bryton’s pain and guide him to peace. She entrances and irritates him, tempting Bryton from his mission. Even as he gives in to the passion between them, Bryton insists on mounting a solo attack on the brigands’ compound, and Salome fears her love won’t be enough to save him…
Salome at Sunrise from Inez Kelley and Carina Press.
Seize the day.
Less than a week left to the wonderful Phoenix Convention (or P-con as it is affectionately known). I’m really looking forward to this one. P-con was the first con I attended as a writer (as an adult) and found an abundance of people with all the same interests as me.
This year I was invited as a guest and have panels. So exciting! 
Saturday, 6th
10am Is it time for “Return of the Werewolves”?
Nick Harkaway, Brian J. Showers, Laura Anne Gilman, Maura McHugh, R. F. Long
And then all Saturday is mine to play with!
Sunday, 7th however is a different matter – I will be a busy girl.
12pm Keyboard or pen – Room for both?
R. F. Long, Oisín McGann, Maura McHugh
2pm Has the Internet become indespensible?
Cheryl Morgan, Bob Neilson, R. F. Long, Maura McHugh
4pm E-Books
R. F. Long, Nich Harkaway, Colin Smythe, Derek Gunn
So far I’ve got the following answers “Yes”, “Em”, “YES”, and “Yay!”
But we’ll see how that goes. I’m in with some pretty impressive individuals so … yeah… wow! This is going to be fun.
Thanks to the recent Steampunk Workshop on Romance Divas (which was brilliant btw) I managed to blackmail persuade the fantastic Sarah A. Hoyt to write a guestblog for me. We also discovered that we share a brain have a lot of similar interests – Robin Hood, Musketeers, Swashing and Buckling, Brave New Worlds – preferably those we create ourselves.
With Shovel and PailSarah A. Hoyt
I’ve been building worlds as long as I can remember. I started with legos, paper and glue, and – at the beach – shovel and pail. I built houses and cities inhabited by tiny, plastic dog figurines, I built huge sand castle complexes and filled them with imaginary princesses and knights.
It is not that the real world wasn’t good enough, but that it often wasn’t INTERESTING enough. I wanted people doing heroic or silly stuff and, from a very early age, I found the need for a world that my characters should inhabit.
The details of these worlds, particularly as I moved from stories in my head to stories on paper, were harder to establish.
For instance, while I was making stories for myself and enacting them with various materials, no one much cared if I were building elaborate cities to be inhabited by dogs who, lacking opposable thumbs, couldn’t possibly have built them. Turns out readers care more about this than my young self did – who knew?
So I started the long and stumbling road of world building. I never had such bad judgment as to assume that my world didn’t need to be internally consistent, or that I could wave a magic wand and change everything halfway through and no one would mind. No, I always knew the first commandment of world building:
