Channelling Tansy Rayner Roberts
Quite literally, as this little corner of LJ-land gets more action and excitement than it has had in years, as I bring you, with much squee, a guest blog from the wonderous Tansy Rayner Roberts, on her crazed, virtual blog book tour as Creature Court vol 2: "The Shattered CIty" is released. So read on for:
The Mega Tansypost of doom!!
Helen gave me four topics to choose from and I’m going to run through all of them at high speed, because that’s the way I roll!
1. Your take on the Aurealis Awards
Take it as read that I’m not going to comment on the (three!) categories I am shortlisted in, or on the two children’s categories, which I judged this year. I also won’t comment on categories where I have read nothing, or can’t think of anything to say on the spur of the moment.
I loved Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healey, which is in the YA Novel category. In Best Collection, I was very pleased to see Angela Slatter’s Sourdough and Other Stories, which is an extraordinary original collection, and which was otherwise likely to miss out on a lot of buzz because it was published overseas, and in an expensive hardcover edition (though it is available as e-book!). I think that Sprawl, Godlike Machines and Wings of Fire are all marvellous anthologies, and would be happy to see any of them win. In Fantasy Short Story I was delighted beyond all measure to see Yowie by Thoraiya Dyer nominated, which is one of the stories I most shouted about last year, but also Elizabeth Carroll’s The Duke of Vertumn’s Fingerling, which was another one on my bestest-of-the-year lists. By a first time author, no less! I also very much hope that Marianne de Pierres’s achievements with The Sentients of Orion series finally earns her a trophy.
There are trophies, right?
2. What you’re looking forward to at Swancon
Hanging out with my friends, a Galactic Suburbia live panel, meeting some online friends in person for the first time, and um, a couple of blissful child-free five hour plane trips. Don’t judge me!
3. Why the Twelve Planets is so fantastic and what your experience doing the collection was like.
I think 40,000 words or so is the perfect length for a collection - short and sweet, and no padding. I hadn’t realised until I started what a luxury it was to be writing four stories that could be published together - without having to worry about the length of each individual piece.
Also, I am grateful beyond words that Alisa rejected two of the original four stories I submitted to her. The first four were all connected in some way to Roman history, and I liked all of them, but she managed to pick out the two that I knew in my heart were streets above the others, pointed out they both belonged in the same universe, and made me go back to write two more that fitted with them. The result, I think, is something really special, and something utterly ME, and two stories existing that simply wouldn’t have done, without that challenge. It took an extra six months, but it was worth it.
4. Spruik Shattered City?
BUY MY BOOK!
I’ve actually been finding it a struggle to promote this one, because it’s Book Two, and if you read Book One then you shouldn’t need me to tell you to read the next one - you should be hanging out for it! Right? And if you’re waiting until all three are out, then that’s another six months away! I’m also very conscious of the fact that almost anything I say about Book Two will be a spoiler for Book One.
But... The Shattered City continues the story begun in Power and Majesty. It has more sex and death and blood and politics and the title is in no way a lie. There are women with swords, men in black leather, and death proves to be less than an obstacle. Also, many of the truths and secrets of Book One will be smashed open... as will several of the characters!
Tansy Rayner Roberts is the author of Power and Majesty (Creature Court Book One) and The Shattered City (Creature Court Book Two, April 2011) with Reign of Beasts (Creature Court Book Three, coming in November 2011) hot on its tail. Her short story collection Love and Romanpunk will be published as part of the Twelfth Planet Press “Twelve Planets” series in May.
This post comes to you as part of Tansy’s Mighty Slapdash Blog Tour, and comes with a cookie fragment of new release The Shattered City:
Velody didn’t want to give him blood. Or rather, she did. The thought of it made her pulse race, and she wasn’t ready to question that particular desire. Instead, she gave in to a different one. They were already close enough to kiss. She moved further on to the bed, letting him draw her in by his hold on her wrists. “Heal yourself,” she told him, and brushed her mouth against his.