The Mad Butterfly’s Ball

“The Mad Butterfly’s Ball is an essential compendium of stories dedicated to the lurking horror and profound wonder of those that live, largely unseen, in the world around us—the enigmatic insect! Featuring original and new works by Clive Barker, Jeffrey Thomas, Kaaron Warren, Paul Di Filippo, Eugen Bacon, and many more, alongside classics of the subgenre, The Mad Butterfly’s Ball is the largest and most comprehensive anthology of its kind, with stunning illustrations by Richard Kirk and Yoshika Nagata. ” From PS Publishing.

I am thrilled to be included in this anthology, curated by Preston Grassman and Chris Kelso, out now from PS Publishing.

My story, “The Nature of Bees”, was originally published in 2010 by Albedo One.

Table of Contents:

CONTENTS  

HEAD  

• Insects and the Poetics of Estrangement – Preston Grassmann
• Hive Politics – Chris Kelso  

THORAX  

• Upon a Milk Warm Dawn – Clive Barker
• Hivehead – Paul Di Filippo
• The Wings of Mourning – Jeffrey Thomas
• The King’s Walkingstick – Richard A. Kirk
• Butterflies of Eastern Texas – Kij Johnson
• The Nature of Bees – Priya Sharma
• The Absent Swarm – Tom Over
• The Dream of Akinosuke — Lafciado Hearn
• The Man From Nowhere – Eugen Bacon  
• Lysergic is The Circle of My Secret – Joe Koch
• After the Flood – Anna Tambour
• Eejelé – Nuzo Onoh
• Possum – Matthew Holness
• Warning Wings – Arlton Eadie
• Scarabaeus – Rumi Kaneko (translated by Preston Grassmann)
• The Roaches – Thomas M. Disch
• The Ladybug – D.R.G. Sugawara  
• Mantis Wives – Kij Johnson
• Jenny Longlegs – Chris Kelso & Brian Evenson
• Not Just the Stars that They Devour – Matt Neil Hill
• Honeydew — Dempow Torishima
• The Empire of the Ants – H.G. Wells
• The Parliament of Wasps – Preston Grassmann
• Caterpillars – E.F. Benson
• The Ruins with a Spectator – Kaaron Warren
• The Hollow Electricity of Tiny Papery Wings or the Pinprick in the Powder — Christopher Young
• An Egyptian Hornet – Algernon Blackwood
• Wrapped Up — Ramsey Campbell
• Decomposer – Alvaro Zinos-Amaro
• Death is like the Insect – Emily Dickinson  

ABDOMEN  

• The Praying Mantis – Henri Fabre
• Entomophilia: A Case for the Defence – Preston Grassmann
• The Death of Conrad Unger – Gary J. Shipley
• Mimic and Starship Troopers: Us and Them – Jon Greenaway
• The Ancient Cockroach – Chris Kelso

The book is available as a trade paperback and as a limited signed hardcover edition.

Bound in Blood

Many thanks to Johnny Mains for including The Witch’s Pillowbook in this amazing line-up.

Out from Titan later this year.

Kayleigh Dobbs and Happy Goat Horror

Thanks to Kayleigh Dobbs for asking me to chat with her. Kayleigh explores all things horror for website Happy Goat Horror.

Kayleigh is a writer herself and her microcollection, The End, is available from Black Shuch Books.

Best Horror of the Year (Volume 16) edited by Ellen Datlow

Many thanks to Ellen Datlow for including Jack O’Dander in her annual horror anthology. It’s a stunning line-up, so I am delighted to be in there.

This story appeared on Reactor last year, with Ellen as the aquiring editor.

Table of Contents:

The Importance of a Tidy Home Christopher Golden / Dodger Carly Holmes / Rock Hopping Adam L.G. Nevill / That Maddening Heat Ray Cluley / Jack O’Dander Priya Sharma / The Assembled Ramsey Campbell / R is For Remains Steve Rasnic Tem / The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs E. Catherine Tobler / Return to Bear Creek Lodge Tananarive Due / The Enfilade Andrew Hook / Lover’s Lane Stephen Graham Jones / Hare Moon H.V. Patterson / Build Your Houses With Their Backs to the Sea Caitlín R. Kiernan / The Scare Groom Patrick Barb / The Teeth Brian Evenson / Nábrók Helen Grant / The Salted Bones Neil Williamson / Tell Me When I Disappear Glen Hirshberg / The Motley Charlie Hughes

Featured Writer at WritersMosaic

A huge thanks to John Siddique and the WritersMosaic team for including me as a featured writer.

I wrote three pieces for them, which are included in audio and text version: Medicine, Literature and Writing, My Favourite Book, and What Do You Value in the Natural World?

There’s also a conversation with John.

WritersMosaic, a division of the Royal Literary Fund, is an online magazine and developmental resource focused on UK writers of the global majority, reflecting the changing reality of contemporary Britain, from its past and into its future. 

From WritersMosaic

Read/listen here.

In Conversation

Thanks to the Carina Bissett, a very talented writer, who has included me in her series of interviews for Ginger Nuts of Horror’s Women in Horror Month celebration.

Read it here.

Tutte le Favolose Bestie

Sono molto orgogliosa che TUTTE LE FAVOLOSE BESTIE sia disponibile in Italia. 

Ringrazio di cuore il team di Moscabianca Edizioni per il loro impegno, in particolare Lucrezia Pei (traduttrice), Silvia La Posta (editore) e Diletta Crudeli (responsabile editoriale), Alan Bassi (editor) e Francesca Ditoma (correttrice di bozze). La copertina è di Kotaro Chiba. 

Questo libro è stato originariamente pubblicato in inglese da Mike Kelly della Undertow Publications nel 2018. Ha vinto un British Fantasy Award, lo Shirley Jackson Award ed è stato finalista al Locus Award. 

Ringrazio anche il mio agente, Alex Cochran, per aver reso tutto questo possibile.

Ho avuto la fortuna di essere ospite a Stranimondi a Milano nel 2022 in occasione della pubblicazione della mia novella, ORMESHADOW (Hypnos Edizioni). È stata un’esperienza emozionante: sono rimasta colpita dal loro amore per la narrativa di genere e da quanto tutti siano stati calorosi e accoglienti. Che persone fantastiche. Ed è stato un piacere incontrare Silvia La Posta di Moscabianca Edizioni, che mi ha donato una copia di MONSTRORUM HISTORIA, che è semplicemente stupendo. 

Ordinate TUTTE LE FAVOLOSE BESTIE.

I am very proud that TUTTE LE FAVOLOSE BESTIE is now available in Italy. 

Massive thanks to the team at Moscabianca Edizioni for their hard work on this, specifically Lucrezia Pei (translator), Silvia La Posta (publisher) and Diletta Crudeli (editorial director), Alan Bassi (editor), and Francesca Ditoma (copy editor). The cover art is by Kotaro Chiba. 

This book was originally published in English by Mike Kelly of Undertow Publications in 2018. It won a British Fantasy Award, Shirley Jackson Award, and was a Locus Award finalist. 

My thanks also go to my agent, Alex Cochran, for making this happen. 

I was very fortunate to attend Stranimondi in Milan as a guest in 2022 for the publication of my novella, ORMESHADOW by Hypnos Edizioni. It was a thrilling experience- I was struck by their love for genre fiction and how warm and welcoming everyone was. What a wonderful bunch of people. It was also a pleasure meeting  Moscabianca Edizioni’s Silvia La Poste who gave me a copy of MONSTRUM HISTORIA which is just beautiful. 

Order TUTTE LE FAVOLOSE BESTIE.

Bound in Blood

Hardback out in September 2024 in hardback from Titan. Preorder here.

Edited by Johnny Mains.

Storied by CHARLIE HIGSON, AK BENEDICT, ALISON MOORE, ERIC LaROCCA, NADIA BULKIN, LUCIE McKNIGHT HARDY, PRIYA SHARMA, ISY SUTTIE, KIM NEWMAN, ZIN ROCKLYN, AG SLATTER, AMANDA DeBORD, JEREMY DYSON, RAMSEY CAMPBELL, ROBERT SHEARMAN, GUY ADAMS, ELIZABETH HAND and ADAM CESARE.

More information and pre-order details here.

THE YEAR’S BEST DARK FANTASY & HORROR, VOL.5

Anthologist Paula Guran has announced the contents of Volume 5 of The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror.

Paula Guran has edited more than fifty science fiction, fantasy, and horror anthologies and more than fifty novels and collections featuring the same. She’s reviewed and written articles for dozens of publications.

Table of Contents

• “The Crease”, Simon Avery (Black Static 82/83)
• “Miz Boudreaux’s Last Ride”, Christopher Caldwell (Uncanny #50)
• “All the Things I Know About Ghosts, By Ofelia, Age 10”, Isabel Cañas (The Deadlands #30)
• “Resurrection Highway”, A. R. Capetta (The Sunday Morning Transport 9/3/2023)
• “Return to Bear Creek Lodge”, Tananarive Due (Christmas and Other Horrors: An Anthology of Solstice Horror, ed. E. Datlow)
• “The Demon Lord of Broken Concrete”, Alex Irvine (Bourbon Penn #30)
• “The Witch Is Not the Monster”, Alaya Dawn Johnson (The Book of Witches, ed. J. Strahan)
• “Interstate Mohinis”, M.L. Krishnan (Diabolical Plots #100B)
• “Those Hitchhiking Kids”, Darcie Little Badger (The Sunday Morning Transport 4/2/23)
• “If Someone You Love Has Become a Vurdalak”, Sam J. Miller (The Dark #98)
• “Midnight in Moscow”, Tobi Ogundiran (Jackal, Jackal: Tales of the Dark and Fantastic)
• “Kudzu Boy Dreaming”, SJ Powell (FIYAH #26)
• “A Geography of Innocence”, M. Rickert (Weird Horror #7)
• “Till the Greenteeth Draw Us Down”, Josh Rountree (The Deadlands #27)
• “Jack O’Dander”, Priya Sharma (Tor.com 10/4/23)
• “The Tissot Family Circus”, Angela Slatter (Twice Cursed, eds. M. O’Regan & P. Kane)
• “Significant Disruption”, R.L Summerling (Interzone 295)
• “The Ghasts”, Lavie Tidhar (Uncanny #53)
• The Dark House”, A. C. Wise (Tor.com 3/15/2023)

I am delighted to be included with Jack O’Dander, a story that appeared last year on Reactor, and was aquired and edited by Ellen Datlow.

Fantasycon 2024

Fantasycon is the annual convention of the British Fantasy Society. Fantasycon is attended by members and non-members, including authors, agents, publishers, bloggers, reviewers, and podcasters.

This year it will be held on 11th-13th October at The Queen at Chester Hotel, City Road, Chester.

I was surprised and delighted to be asked to be a Guest of Honour this year, alongside Stephen Aryan, and a third guest who is yet to be announced.

More information can be found here.