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My Schedule for Ad Astra

Ad Astra Convention is April 4th to 6th.

Elements-5.5x8.5-100dpi-c8MilkMan-Cover miniI will be co-hosting a book launch party on Saturday night with Michael J. Martineck on Saturday night from 9PM to midnight. Please join us in celebrating the launch of…

ELEMENTS: A Collection of Speculative Fiction

and

The Milkman

We’d love it if you would RSVP via the Facebook Events page. Come for the cake, stay for the fun!

My other panels at the con are:

Saturday, Apr 5 10:00-11:00 AM The Writing Life, Ada Hoffman, Julie Czerneda, Karina Sumner-Smith, Stephanie Bedwell-Grime, Suzanne Church (Newmarket)

Saturday, Apr 5 12:00-1:00 PM READING – Writing in the ‘Loo, Marcy Italiano, Sarah Tolmie, Suzanne Church (Markham A)

Saturday, Apr 5 2:00-4:00 PM GoH + Many Other Authors Signing A mass autograph session. Bring your copies of ELEMENTS (available at the Bakka Phoenix Books table in the Dealers’ Room) to be signed (Richmond A)

Saturday, Apr 5 4:00-5:00 PM READING – Stop-Watch Gang, Ian Donald Keeling, Mike Rimar, Pippa Wysong, Stephen Kotowych, Suzanne Church (Oakridges)

I hope to see you at the party and around the convention.

Setting “Mod Me Down” in New York City

“Mod Me Down”

Elements LJ sizeBelow, dear reader, please find bonus content for Suzanne’s book: ELEMENTS: A Collection of Speculative Fiction.

This series of posts provides stories-behind-the-stories for each tale in ELEMENTS.

Sitting in the 17th slot in the Table of Contents is: Mod Me Down

Mod Me Down  is a new story, published for the first time in ELEMENTS.

I wrote the original zero draft of this story for week two of Clarion South in January of 2005. Although the central idea of the story has remained, pretty much all of the story has been trashed, rewritten, then trashed and rewritten some more.

Here’s a tip, new writers out there…ideas are worth overhauling until you get them right.

Mod Me Down  takes place in New York City, one of those quintessential locations in North American culture that has to be experienced firsthand. I’ve been lucky enough to visit NYC twice.

Duckie contemplates Liberty miniOn my first visit to the big apple, my then-husband and I spent a whirlwind weekend in Manhattan. I’m a super-sightseer (and so is he) so we maximized our time and saw so many locations I can’t remember them all, but many of the scenes in Mod Me Down  are drawn from that trip, including our afternoon in Battery Park.

Duckie at the NYC library miniMy absolute favourite site was the reading room at the NYC Public Library.

Our kids were pretty young while we were travelling. One of our family traditions was to take pictures of a carefully selected family stuffy as evidence that Mom and Dad (and the stuffy) were having fun on our trip.

For the NYC trip, Duckie tagged along. In this photo evidence, Duckie contemplates the meaning of freedom by gazing at the Statue of Liberty from Battery Park and then lies on a table at the library, awed by the size and scope of the place.

Fun Fact

The first time I ever ate a knish was on my first trip to NYC. I loved them so much that I had to have Lucas eat a knish in Mod Me Down . While I’ve come across knishes in Toronto, I’ve never had one as good or as memorable as that first one in NYC. In Lucas’s words…

Outside, I ripped soft chunks of onion-and-spinach-flavored potato from a knish and shoved them in my mouth. The taste spoke of heaven and earth united.

The irony is that since that trip, I’ve developed a digestive disorder, and I can no longer eat spinach or onions. So no more of that flavor of knish for me. 🙁

But sitting here at my desk, thinking about that knish, my mouth is really watering. Man, I ‘d love to eat one right now.

Elements LJ sizeELEMENTS: A Collection of Speculative Fiction is available in Canada and the USA from EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing.

Hell’s About the Details

Elements LJ sizeBelow, dear reader, please find bonus content for Suzanne’s book: ELEMENTS: A Collection of Speculative Fiction.

This series of posts provides stories-behind-the-stories for each tale in ELEMENTS.

Sitting in the 16th slot in the Table of Contents is: Hell’s Deadline

Albert Einstein said:

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

I definitely agree with Einstein on this one.

I’ve been caught in the spiral of obsessing over something over and over and not getting anywhere. We all have. So much so that the notion of endless repetition became the plot of the Bill Murray 1993 classic movie Groundhog Day.

I wanted to explore the frustration of endless repetition in a short story. Around the same time that I was noodling the plot, book of dead things coverBook of Dead Things  put out a call out for submissions.

Perfect timing!

Re-imagining Groundhog Day  in HELL gave me the opportunity to write about Dead Things — dead people damned to hell — and the idea that eternal damnation involved reliving the moment of choice over and over again.

You know the choice I mean.

The choice that condemns your soul. That one decision that pushes your name from Santa’s good list to his naughty list.

To quote the protagonist, Debbie:

Hell’s all about the details.

Book of Dead Things  launched at World Horror Convention in 2007, the year that Toronto hosted the con. So I was lucky enough to participate in the launch, where I read a short excerpt of Hell’s Deadline.

I stuck around after our launch and was fortunate to hear Ramsey Campbell followed by Joe R. Lansdale read their fiction. (Or maybe it was the other way around, I can’t recall.)

Even though I’d read their fiction before, their readings turned me into fans that day.

Fun Fact
In Hell’s Deadline  Debbie walks along a wooded trail through…

…the pine stands. Towering poles grow straight toward the reddish sky, planted in endless rows.

Fact: Close to where I live, there’s a section of The Walter Bean Grand River Trail. I’ve spent countless hours biking, running, and walking along the trail.

One stretch winds past pine stands. And the trees really do grow in perfect rows.

Once the snow melts, I’ll bike the trail and take a photo to add here.

Elements LJ sizeELEMENTS: A Collection of Speculative Fiction is available in Canada and the USA from EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing.

Giving “The Tear Closet” a Second Chance

Elements LJ sizeBelow, dear reader, please find bonus content for Suzanne’s book: ELEMENTS: A Collection of Speculative Fiction.

This series of posts provides stories-behind-the-stories for each tale in ELEMENTS.

Sitting in the 15th slot in the Table of Contents is: The Tear Closet

Of all of the stories in ELEMENTS, I would have to say that The Tear Closet speaks closest to my heart’s truth. It is also one of the stories that helped me to truly break out as a writer.

This story marked my first appearance in the Tesseracts anthologies, an annual series of Canadian speculative fiction published by EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing. And two writers that I truly respect — Nancy Kilpatrick and David Morrell — edited Tesseracts Thirteen. I’m grateful for their support for this story, as well as their ongoing kindnesses. Both Nancy and David read an Advance Reader Copy (ARC) of ELEMENTS and provided generous quotes for the book.

Tesseracts_XIIICover miniAfter I submitted to T13 and was waiting to hear back from the editors, my friend and fellow writer Louise Herring-Jones took David Morrell’s writing workshop, which was offered right before World Fantasy Convention (WFC) began in Calgary, Alberta in 2008.

Before I arrived at the con, Louise emailed me to say that David Morrell liked my story, but didn’t think the ending worked in its current state.

Once I arrived at WFC, I approached David Morrell and asked about the story. Over lunch we discussed Tear Closet and brainstormed possible endings.

I cannot thank David Morrell enough for (a) generously sharing his time to brainstorm the ending (b) giving the story a second chance and (c) being so supportive of my career since then.

Thanks also to Louise Herring-Jones for chatting me up with her instructor. She’s always been (and continues to be) an ardent supporter of my work!

Fun Fact
In the story, Mabel walks over a long bridge.

Bridges and Structures Morrison HershfieldFact: the bridge in the story is the real-life Leaside Bridge in Toronto’s East York. The bridge has six lanes of traffic and passes over the Don River, the Don Valley, and the Don Valley Parkway, and this photo doesn’t really do it justice.

When I was a kid, we used to have to make the ten+ minute walk over this bridge to get to the shopping mall nearest to where we lived. We would often stop partway along and look down…way, way down…at the river and valley and cars below. And let me tell you, it’s a looong way down.

I’m also reasonably certain that the Leaside Bridge is the main reason why my mother and I are both afraid of heights.

As a kid, during the whole trip across I’d imagine all of the ways that the bridge could fail: earthquake, tidal wave, explosives, car crashes — growing up during an era when disaster movies about earthquakes and tidal waves were popular is probably partly to blame for this doom-agination.

I used to count to sixty in my head, trying to guess how many more minutes before I’d safely make it to land on the other side. And with my heart pumping in terror, I had to be careful not to trip and end up getting run over by a car racing along the bridge (which in retrospect was much more likely than the bridge collapsing from an earthquake).

Elements LJ sizeELEMENTS: A Collection of Speculative Fiction is available in Canada and the USA from EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing.

Meeting the Gray Lady

Elements LJ sizeBelow, dear reader, please find bonus content for Suzanne’s book: ELEMENTS: A Collection of Speculative Fiction.

This series of posts provides stories-behind-the-stories for each tale in ELEMENTS.

Sitting in the 14th slot in the Table of Contents is: Gray Love

From 2000 to 2006, I was part-owner of a cottage on Lake Muskoka, about two hours north of Toronto.

Our cottage (which was actually more of a house) was situated on the same bay–Muskoka Bay–as the empty former residential facility for people with developmental challenges. This institution was run by the Ontario government from 1963 to 1994. The grounds were first developed in the 1890s as a tuberculosis treatment sanitorium.

The original sanitorium grounds were so extensive that they used to have a second lodge to accommodate visiting friends and family. The lodge land was purchased and developed by our neighbours, who built their home on the former lodge site. gazebo on Muskoka LakeThe original gazebo for the lodge was on our property. Here’s a photo of the gazebo in the early 2000s.

I used to run along the county road that connects the sanitorium to the town of Gravenhurst, and I set Gray Love on that road. On one brutally hot and humid day, I saw a woman during my run. She looked totally gray and washed out. She didn’t speak or interact with me, she simply stayed across the road from me and smiled.

Maybe I was suffering from a mild case of heatstroke, but that woman looked really wrong to me. By the time I was back at the cottage, I’d convinced myself that I’d seen a ghost from the facility. And even though the Gray Lady in Gray Love isn’t a ghost, her creation was a direct result of my run that day.

Fun Fact

I read Gray Love for my first public reading. I remember feeling a combination of thrilled and terrified.

The reading took place near the end of my Clarion South 2005 trip to Brisbane, Australia. As a result, the majority of the audience members were my classmates, and I seem to recall that we were all pretty worn out by then. My audience first readingI was so keen to record the experience that I took this photo of my first audience!

Our week six tutor, Scott Westerfeld and his wife Justine Larbalestier each read their fiction at the same event. They’re both in the front row in the audience photo, along with classmate Ellen Klages and conveners Kate Eltham and Robert Hoge. Look for Robert’s book Ugly: My Memoir. I found it fascinating and inspiring.

Elements LJ sizeELEMENTS: A Collection of Speculative Fiction is available in Canada the USA from EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing.

Tattoo Research Goes a Long Way

Elements LJ sizeBelow, dear reader, please find bonus content for Suzanne’s book: ELEMENTS: A Collection of Speculative Fiction.

This series of posts provides stories-behind-the-stories for each tale in ELEMENTS.

Sitting in the 13th slot in the Table of Contents is: Tattoo Ink

From January 2 to February 12 2005, I attended Clarion South in Brisbane, Australia. What an adventure! I certainly learned more about writing and editing in those six weeks than I had learned up until that point in my writing career.

One of my classmates, Shane Jiraiya Cummings and Angela Challis edited the innovative charity anthology Shadow Box. The project was described as, “a fusion of dark art and flash fiction lashed together with multimedia nastiness.” With 70 stories, creepy music, and twisted artwork, the anthology arrived on a CD and was well worth the money.

sboxcoverI looked through my old emails and couldn’t recall the tight word-count guidelines for submissions, but I believe the maximum was 125 words.

Not very many words at all!

I was delighted to learn that Tattoo Ink would be included in the project.

On some level, I believe that my research into the tattoo arts not only inspired this tale, but also the rules for tattooing the population in Destiny Lives in the Tattoo’s Needle.

Fun Fact

I began blogging after my two-week writing workshop at the Center for the Study of Sciece Fiction in Kansas in the summer of 2004. Lucky for me, I was comfortable enough with blogging that I was able to blog during my Clarion South trip.

And although Clarion is one of those experiences you can only have once, my thoughts and insights will exist online as long as LiveJournal stays in business.

While some of the links might no longer be active, you can still read my Clarion South adventures on LiveJournal.

Elements LJ sizeELEMENTS: A Collection of Speculative Fiction is available in Canada and the USA from EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing.

The Inspiration for “Synch Me, Kiss Me, Drop”

Elements LJ sizeBelow, dear reader, please find bonus content for Suzanne’s book: ELEMENTS: A Collection of Speculative Fiction.

This series of posts provides stories-behind-the-stories for each tale in ELEMENTS.

Sitting in the 12th slot in the Table of Contents is: Synch Me, Kiss Me, Drop

The music-snorting dance-club hopping story, Synch Me, Kiss Me, Drop was probably born during my university work-terms in the 80s, when I used to frequent clubs like RPM and The Copa in Toronto.

Synch Me  is still available to read online at cw_68Clarkesworld, and is also available as a podcast on their site.

Like “Destiny Lives in the Tattoo’s Needle”, Synch Me  was a finalist for an Aurora Award (in 2013).

I love music. We’re talking a serious obsession here.

When I write, I listen to music. I’m much more productive with music playing. And on the days that I forget my headphones, I’m somewhat cranky by the end of a writing session at a cafe.

When I participate in NaNoWriMo I create a special playlist for that new novel. Whenever I go back to edit the novel, or submit queries to agents and/or editors, I usually play the tunes I selected for that novel’s creation.

I always drive with tunes in the car. And whenever I’m a passenger in someone else’s car, and I they won’t offer me the controls to song-selection…well let’s just say everyone is happier if Suzanne is allowed to play DJ.

I was destined to write a story inspired by music.

My two sons listen to two types of Electronic Dance Music (EDM): Dubstep and House music. They both attended The Veld music festival in 2012 and 2013.

And since EDM is tech-savvy, I was inspired to write a cyberpunk story where people can snort music directly into their minds like a drug.

The better clubs brought all the vibes together, so that every song you sampled was in perfect synch with the club mix on the speakers. When the drop hit, everyone jumped and screamed in coordinated rapture.

If not for my kids’ enthusiasm for EDM (as well as their explanation of “the drop”), I never would’ve written Synch Me.

Fun Fact

At one point in Synch Me, Alex is trying to decide which song to purchase.

Three tables were set with products in stacks like poker chips. The first was a sea of purple, tiny lower-case “i’s” stamped on every top-forty sample like a catalog from a so-called genius begging on a street corner for spare music. The second was a mish-mash of undergrounds like Skarface, Audexi, and Brachto.

In an earlier draft of the story, I’d written totally different names for the three underground artists. When my older son read it, he said, “Mom, the names for the bands kinda suck. How about I make up some names?”

He made up the artist names: Skarface, Audexi, and Brachto.

Thanks, Joseph!

Elements LJ sizeELEMENTS: A Collection of Speculative Fiction  is available in Canada and the USA from EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing.

Because Door Prizes are Fun to Win…

At my upcoming book launches I will be giving away door prizes, because winning makes an event all that more fun!

Here are some of the goodies up for grabs:

Danse-Macabre 3In 2012, my story “Death Over Easy” was chosen by editor Nancy Kilpatrick to be included in the anthology, Danse Macabre: Close Encounters with the Reaper.

Death Over Easy was published too late to be included in ELEMENTS. So winners will receive an extra story from me, not to mention the other 25 stories where death plays a role.

Fellow Stop-Watch Gang member Brad Carson’s story, “Mr. Go Away” is also in Danse Macabre.

Book of Shadows Cover miniIn 2006, my story “Driving the Past Home” was chosen by editor Angela Challis, founder of Brimstone Press to be included in the anthology, Book of Shadows, Volume One.

Book of Shadows includes 42 flash fiction stories from many Australian authors, as well as a few lucky international authors. Each story originally appeared in Shadowed Realms an online horror magazine that is no longer active.

This book was only available for sale in Australia, but I had a few copies shipped to my home. I have one extra copy to give away as a prize at the Waterloo launch of ELEMENTS.

NeoAnthoCoverSmIn 2006, my story “The Wind and the Sky” was chosen by editor Karl Johanson to be included in the anthology, The Best of Neo-opsis Science Fiction Magazine published by Bundoran Press.

The Best of Neo-opsis contains 10 stories by authors from Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom, including the works of Hayden Trenholm, Nina Munteanu, and Vaughan Stanger.

Other non-book items will also be available to win. Check this space for updates.

Destiny Lives in the Title’s Power

Elements LJ sizeBelow, dear reader, please find bonus content for Suzanne’s book: ELEMENTS: A Collection of Speculative Fiction.

This series of posts provides stories-behind-the-stories for each tale in ELEMENTS.

Sitting in the 11th slot in the Table of Contents is: Destiny Lives in the Tattoo’s Needle

Of all the stories I’ve written to date, I think that I’m most proud of the title, Destiny Lives in the Tattoo’s Needle, the first of my short stories to be a finalist for an Aurora Award.

I believe that most writers struggle to pen great story titles. Back when I used to do formal critiques for Critters, I used to say that titles were my nemesis.

tesseracts 14 cover110Like the cover for a book, the title draws the reader in. It should also foreshadow the plot. Coming up with words that meet all of these requirements is hard.

One of the techniques I’ve grown to appreciate for generating a title is choosing a phrase from the story, which is how I chose this one.

Destiny  is my first steampunk story. It begins with:

I dropped from the airship like a rock, praying for my chute to open.

AIRSHIParthursfortunecityBecause, hey, if you’re going to wave the steampunk flag, you might as well use an airship. And what better way to introduce an airship than with an explosive crash to the ground!

Although this particular story doesn’t include any corsets or goggles, the sequels might. Which begs the question, “Where are these sequels that you speak of?”

They aren’t written. No yet.

Many of Destiny’s  readers have asked me to write more fiction about these characters and their world. And on more than one butt-in-chair occasion, I’ve considered writing more about them.

Maybe even a novel.

Encouragement for such adventures is greatly appreciated. 😉

Fun Fact

In my post Storm Child – Putting a Fresh Face on a Timeless Myth I mentioned the writers’ group that formed after the workshop I attended at DragonCon 2000.

SFSciFiCoverOne of the members of the DC2K Writers’ Workshop, my good friend Louise Herring-Jones challenged me to use the word “sage grass” in a story.

I asked her, “What’s sage grass?”

She answered, “It’s a horrible, bitter weed. Even goats won’t eat it.”

Not only does sage grass appear in Destiny, but I also used her line about goats refusing to eat the stuff.

Thanks, Louise Herring-Jones!

Elements LJ sizeELEMENTS: A Collection of Speculative Fiction  is available in Canada and the USA from EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing.

It’s Not Easy to be Fuzzy or Green

Elements LJ sizeBelow, dear reader, please find bonus content for Suzanne’s book: ELEMENTS: A Collection of Speculative Fiction.

This series of posts provides stories-behind-the-stories for each tale in ELEMENTS.

Sitting in the 10th slot in the Table of Contents is the last of the Couch Teleportation Universe stories: “Fuzzy Green Monster Number Two”

My third story in the Couch Teleportation Universe examines the definition of a monster. Fuzzy  was originally published in Neo-Opsis Magazine, Issue #12.

neoopsis 12 miniGreenie is a teenaged Strunjox–a towering green beast with a long snout and sharp claws. His species are native to the desert planet Deslot, a world where drug trafficking is the source of employment for more than half the population.

Before the story begins, Greenie has scrounged enough money for a one-way couch-teleporter ticket to Earth, where he hoped to find a better life away from the desperation of drug addiction that permeated his home culture.

Instead of prosperity, he finds discrimination and a lack of employment for sentients without opposable digits.

With Fuzzy Green Monster Number Two I wanted to tell a story from the monster’s point of view. Greenie doesn’t consider himself a monster at all. He’s simply a Strunjox  trying to blend in among the humans.

As Greenie’s circumstances evolve, I wanted the reader to re-examine the definition of a monster. Like many fables, I wanted to ensure that the reader’s initial interpretation of a beast’s outward appearance didn’t coincide with what they learn as they peel away at the layers beneath the surface.

Science Fiction is a genre designed to nudge the reader to interpret the social hierarchies of our own lives through an approachable and entertaining lens.

Fun Fact

In 1992 I visited Los Angeles almost exactly one month after the riots.

And while the timing wasn’t ideal for a visit, I was continuously amazed by the dichotomies of the city: incomparable wealth on one side of the razor-wire fence and abject poverty on the other.

That’s why I set Fuzzy in LA; to examine the contrast between haves and have-nots. But also because the legends and social references to the city are so ingrained in North American culture.

tv headOn the day I visited the Sunset Strip, I spotted a man wearing a cardboard box covered in aluminum foil on his head. The front of the box had been cut open, and knobs had been drawn on with marker, making the end-product look like an old-fashioned CRT television. He’d also attached an ancient broken antenna to the back.

That dude (whatever his name) makes an appearance in Fuzzy:

. The sidewalks in this part of the city were crowded with eccentric humans and a variety of aliens. One man wore a cardboard box over his head that looked like a vid.

I hope that dude is still alive today, wandering around LA with a cardboard flatscreen on his head. 🙂

Elements LJ sizeELEMENTS: A Collection of Speculative Fiction  is available in Canada and the USA from EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing.