Huzzah! My teeny tiny twisted fairy tale flash fic piece Bright Hair came out today on Daily Science Fiction. You should go read it. It’s free and it’s less than 200 words long!
Source: Daily Science Fiction :: Bright Hair by Leife Shallcross
Category: New story!
Glimmers of sun in the pouring rain
In a week that has spelled disappointment, grief and gloom for many of us, I’ve had a few small, personal glimmers of sunlight. Here’s one. A lovely review of my story Breathing, out in the recent Aurealis #95, from Kat Day over at Tangent online. She’s given it a “highly recommended” (squee!) Achievement unlocked.
A lovely piece of work, very thought-provoking and actually rather moving.
And here’s some Leonard Cohen for you. Because even though he’s gone now, that’s one life that is definitely worth celebrating.
How little girls deal with monsters
In celebration of the release of Strange Little Girls from Belladonna Publishing, I’ve put together a board on Pinterest with images I found useful in creating my story, “Pretty Jennie Greenteeth”. I have these boards for quite a few of my works-in-progress, but I usually keep them secret. This is the first one I’ve released. Click on the link below to head over to Pinterest to have a look.
Follow Leife’s board Pretty Jennie Greenteeth on Pinterest.
All the Strange Little Girls
I’m late, I’m late, for a very important date!
Hooray! As of 4 days ago Strange Little Girls is a real, live book you can hold in your hands (or on your kindle) and read and marvel over! For a little taste of exactly what is inside this treasure box of an anthology, head over to Belladonna Publishing for a delicious teaser of each of the stories.
I’m so in love with the cover art of this book, and the interior art is just as sumptuous. If you pick up a copy, I’d love to know what you think!
Strange Little Girls giveaway!
With the launch of Strange Little Girls just around the corner, Belladonna have put up a book giveaway on Goodreads! Go register!
Something Strange
Belladonna Publishing have just announced the release date for Strange Little Girls: 14 March! It contains my story “Pretty Jennie Greenteeth”, which explores the perils of underestimating both middle sisters and stories told to scare children.
Here’s what editors Camilla Bruce and Liv Lingborn have to say about the anthology:
Strange Little Girls are made of sugar and spice, and something not quite as nice…
The strange little girls are orphans and changelings, suburban princesses, housewives, nuns and monsters. They are quirky and sweet, terrifying and heartbreaking. All of them a little lost, brimming with their own uniqueness.
In this strange little book of nineteen tales, Lotte goes swimming with her new fishy friends, Rin is freshly dug up, D’arcy strikes a bargain with the midnight mailman and Adelaide enters the mysterious House of Infinite Diversions. Our girls must fasten their bonnets and straighten their skirts to battle otherworldly dangers and challenging circumstances, internal struggles and doubts – and maybe find out who they really are.
Strange Little Girls is now available for pre-order from Amazon if you are quick!
The Never Never Land is out!
Hooray! On Sunday evening we launched The Never Never Land, containing my new story “Adventure Socks”, at Conflux 11. Nicole Murphy did the honours, noting that “Everything is better with dinosaurs”, and that happily Never Never Land does not disappoint on this score. We had readings by Cat Sparks, from her story “Dragon Girl”, and Shauna O’Meara (who also did the amazing cover and interior artwork) from her story “To Look Upon A Dream Tiger”.
I am really proud of my story in this anthology – and I’m thrilled to be sharing a table of contents with such a talented bunch. There are a swag of authors in Never Never Land with established and even award-winning careers, along with a handful of new authors for whom this is their first publication. Congratulations CSFG and everyone involved for putting out another fantastic anthology.
*All photos by Cat Sparks, used with permission.
Interview on A Dribble of Ink
I got interviewed about Wandering Star by Sandra Odell, and it’s up now on A Dribble of Ink!
It’s here! The End Has Come!
Whoohoo! It’s wild and free!
Today is the release date for The End Has Come, the last volume in the Apocalypse Triptych edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey, containing my story Wandering Star.
Here’s what it says on the cover:
Famine. Death. War. Pestilence. These are the harbingers of the biblical apocalypse, of the End of the World. In science fiction, the end is triggered by less figurative means: nuclear holocaust, biological warfare/pandemic, ecological disaster, or cosmological cataclysm.
But before any catastrophe, there are people who see it coming. During, there are heroes who fight against it. And after, there are the survivors who persevere and try to rebuild.
THE APOCALYPSE TRIPTYCH tells their stories.
My story, Wandering Star, is a bit of a funny one, because it’s not strictly about what happens after the apocalypse. It’s built of glimpses from both before and after the apocalypse, and is about loss – loss of the future, but also loss of the past.
The End Has Come contains new stories from the likes of Seanan McGuire, Elizabeth Bear, Ken Liu, Jonathan Mayberry, Nancy Kress, Charlie Jane Anders, Hugh Howey and loads more. At the moment it’s available in trade paperback and for Kindle from Amazon, with other ebook formats to follow on 1 August.
I hope you enjoy it.
New story: Wandering Star!
I have been sitting on this news for a long time, now, but I’m really thrilled to announce that my story Wandering Star, will be appearing in the third book of The Apocalypse Triptych, The End Has Come, edited by John Joseph Adams of Lightspeed Magazine, and Hugh Howey, author of the New York Times bestselling novels Wool, Shift, and Dust.
Quite aside from the editors, there are some stellar names in the table of contents of this anthology, and the previous two Apocalypse anthologies have come out to great reviews.
Out on 1 May!
I really hope you enjoy it.
Leife Shallcross 