Interview up at Speculating Canada

Speculating Canada claims “Canadian SF, fantasy, and horror have been cast into a literary ghetto under the power structure of CanLit, and cast as either inferior literatures, or literatures that are not ‘of here’, i.e. from abroad. Yet, Canadian speculative fiction has a long history in Canada and engages with IMG_1610ideas of Canadian identity, belonging, and concepts of nationhood, place and space (both ‘the final frontier’ type, and the geographical)…”

Today, Derek Newman-Stille grills me on a series of topics about speculative literature and the Canadian scene, in response to which I discuss fashion statements, broken grammar, yams, and the end of the world.  He kindly says, “ Her love of writing and joy at playing with literary work comes through in the interview below as well as in her fiction writing.”

Check out the interview in its entirety at the site.

Stories to appear in Ellery Queen’s & Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazines

ImageAfter a year or so of novelizing, I spent the first half of 2012 revelling — yes! revelling! — in short story writing.  Following, as it has, the long delicious slog of writing novels, shortfic feels self-indulgent, almost decadent.

Of course the side effect of spending some time on short form writing means I have a fair number of stories forthcoming in print hither and yon. Wuxia clones, virtual reality, rural apocalypse survivors, ghost dogs, beautiful alien babes from spaaaace . . . I’ve been splashing around in the genre fiction pools with no small amount of glee.

I’ve always been something of a non-traditionalist when it comes to genre Imageclassification and venue, so I’m very much looking forward to seeing my story “A Good Thing and a Right Thing” appear in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine about the same time my story “Light as Air and Death” will be coming out in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine.

Of course it’s still me, so expect Ancient Norse gods, despondent gunslingers, Gold Rush madness and human sacrifice and archaeological ruins.

Now, back to novels.

Goodreads

For those who really actually genuinely want to hear my Texas twang, they can always watch the SUBVERSION anthology trailer vid on my Goodreads page. The accent (pronounced a-yak-sayent) often comes out when I’m talkin’ ’bout Austin. . . .

camille alexa

FUNGI cover revealed!

Fungi, the anthology of all things mycotic edited by Orrin Grey and Silvia Moreno-Garcia, has an official sporing date and a final cover for the paperback edition. This one will include my story “His Sweet Truffle of a Girl.

Can you guess which story referenced in the following publisher’s description is mine?

Fungi is an eclectic anthology with stories that run the gamut from horror to dark fantasy. A mushroom submarine, anthropomorphic cats, hallucinogenic fungi, mushroom people, private investigators, and mercenaries make for a very different kind of anthology….

[… and poetry]

     The following was written to coincide with the release of the inaugural issue of Cutaway Magazine. It recently appeared on the magazine’s site:

[. . . and poetry]

I usually use the filter of speculative or weird fiction to talk about the things that matter most:  love; death; loss; outsiderism; personal insignificance in the greater universe; that desperate moment when you realise that the fashion ensemble you cobbled together with a mixture of your mom’s castoffs, vintage store jewelry, punkrock teeshirts from high-school you can still squeeze into, ill-advised supertacky dayglo spandex that looked good on the mannequin at the mall does not, in fact, play well at the in-laws’.  Whatever.  These are the important things in life.  Using the lens of fantastical fiction lets me as a writer examine this stuff closely enough to feel it, to write about it, to tap into that intangible something that helps me communicate meaning to a random stranger halfway across the world.

And then there’s poetry.

I confess to often omitting the words “and poetry” when I tell people about PUSH OF THE SKY, my collection of short fiction . . . and poetry.  Earlier this year I was astounded and delighted to have pieces nominated for two speculative poetry awards — the Rhysling (with “Young Miss Frankenstein Regrets”) and the Dwarf Stars Award (with “Solo Missions I Do All I Can,” a space limerick [?!?]).  So I’ve certainly written my share of spec poems alongside my weird fiction. . .  But the two pieces Cutaway Magazine picked up for their inaugural issue are not among them.

Usually when I write what I think of as “straight” — normal people probably call it “literary,” though I have my problems with the term — the words just feel too goddamn raw.  They chafe, slice my skin and leave splinters someplace under my ribs. The few non-fantastical pieces I’ve sold — none of them any more autobiographical than any of my fiction — wrench me in uncomfortable directions.

Some artists apparently like this, crave this in fact. I do not. And yet “Dog” is as raw a piece (and by the far the most autobiographical piece) as any I have ever written, regardless of length or form. It felt right, it is true, it was written with my dog sitting at my feet, and it still makes me cry to read it. I don’t read it often; having written it is enough.  Too much, almost.

Naked I” doesn’t make me cry, but it still feels very close to my core. That poem is like a bookmark flagging that part of my soul repeatedly wonderstruck by the vastness and complexity of the universe from its smallest particle to its grandest celestial formation. Both the minute personal world of “Dog” and the inconceivably limitless one of “Naked I” carve close to my bones.

So that’s poetry.  When it hits you at the proper angle, a poem is to a novel as a scalpel blade is to a butter-knife.

Down Where the Best Lilies Grow

My story “Down Where the Best Lilies Grow” will appear in a new Year’s Best anthology featuring Canadian writers.

From the site:

Canadian speculative fiction has been increasingly recognized internationally for the calibre of its authors and their insight into the nature of social and religious identities, the implications of new technologies, and the relationship between humankind and its environments.

At their best, these stories disrupt habits, overcome barriers of cultural perception to make the familiar strange through the use of speculative elements such as magic and technology. They provide glimpses of alternate realities and possible futures and pasts that provoke an ethical, social, political, environmental and biological inquiry into what it means to be human.

Appearing in Quebec City!

Friday I’m heading up to Quebec City to appear at Boréal, a francophone convention dedicated to speculative literature and literature of the fantastic. They’ve recently introduced a small English track, in which I’m excited to participate alongside writers of amazingness like Special Guest John Crowley (Engine Summer squeee!!!).  Over the years they’ve hosted William Gibson, Samuel Delany, Kim Stanley Robinson, Guy Gavriel Kay, Robert J. Sawyer, and other luminaries.

If you’re around, come say hello.  No really.  Really.

Tyche Books announces MASKED MOSAIC super anthology

Tyche Books Ltd.Tyche Books has announced the call for a new Canadian superhero/ supervillain/ superpowered anthology, MASKED MOSAIC, to be co-edited by Camille Alexa and Claude Lalumière.

From the Tyche Books press release:

We are thrilled to announce that Claude Lalumière and Camille Alexa will edit our next anthology, Masked Mosaic: Canadian Super Stories. As a tip of the hat to Joe Shuster, co-creator of Superman, Claude and Camille are seeking . . . Superheroes! Supervillains! Masked vigilantes, superpowered antiheroes, super scientists. Adventurers into the unknown, costumed crimefighters, mutant superterrorists . . . we want to see any and all permutations of the superhero genre, but with a uniquely Canadian perspective. Stories must involve a Canadian element — setting, politics, culture, history, characters, etc. Any genre-mashing goes: alternate history, crime, horror, romance, SF, fantasy, surrealism; we want a variety of tones, approaches, subgenres, cultural perspectives, etc. We’re especially interested in submissions where setting (a specific city, region, or province) plays an essential role, but we’re open to other types of stories, too.

Submissions open on June 1, 2012. Deadline will be August 1, 2012 for spring 2013 publication.Masked Mosaic will only be open for submissions from Canadians (Canadian residents, landed immigrants, Canadian citizens, Canadians living abroad, etc).

For more information about Masked Mosaic, including submission guidelines, please direct your x-ray vision here.

His Sweet Truffle of a Girl

According to the publisher’s site, the FUNGI paperback includes (in no particular order):

  • Ann K. Schwader, “Cordyceps zombii” (poem)
  • A.C. Wise, “Where Dead Men Go to Dream”
  • Andrew Penn Romine, “Last Bloom on the Sage”
  • Camille Alexa, “His Sweet Truffle of a Girl”
  • Chadwick Ginther, “First They Came for the Pigs”
  • Daniel Mills, “Dust From a Dark Flower”
  • Ian Rogers, “Out of the Blue”
  • Jane Hertenstein, “Wild Mushrooms”
  • Jeff Vandermeer, “Corpse Mouth and Spore Nose”
  • John Langan, “Hyphae”
  • Julio Toro San Martin, “A Monster In The Midst”
  • Kris Reisz, “The Pilgrims of Parthen”
  • Laird Barron, “Gamma”
  • Lavie Tidhar, “The White Hands”
  • Lisa M. Bradley, “The Pearl in the Oyster and the Oyster Under Glass”
  • Molly Tanzer and Jesse Bullington, “Tubby McMungus, Fat From Fungus”
  • Nick Mamatas, “The Shaft Through The Middle of It All”
  • Paul Tremblay, “Our Stories Will Live Forever”
  • Polenth Blake, “Letters to a Fungus”
  • Richard Gavin, “Goatsbride”
  • Simon Strantzas, “Go Home Again”
  • Steve Berman, “Kum, Raúl (The Unknown Terror) – b. 1925, d. 1957”
  • W.H. Pugmire, “Midnight Mushrumps”

The three extra stories included in the hardcover edition are:

  • E. Catherine Tobler, “New Feet Within My Garden Go”
  • J.T. Glover, “The Flaming Exodus of the Greifswald Grimoire”
  • Claude Lalumière, “Big Guy and Little Guy’s Survivalist Adventure”

Look for Fungi, with cover artwork by Oliver Wetter, in the fall of 2012.

Contributors announced for launch issue of Cutaway Magazine

cutaway magazine

A full list of contributors has been posted for the launch issue of UK’s Cutaway Magazine. This one will include two Camille Alexa poems: “Naked I” and “Dog.”  From the site:

When Cutaway Magazine launches in May, we will be featuring an eclectic mix of poetry, literary fiction, borderline genre fiction and photography. We are now very pleased to announce the names of our contributors . . .

Max Dunbar (fiction)
Sissy Buckles (poetry)
Claire Massy (fiction)
LS Johnson (fiction)
Lauren Coulson (poetry)
LJ Spillane (fiction)
Amanda Gowin (fiction)
Allison Louis Walker (poetry & photography)
Brian Kutanovski (fiction)
Arthur Levine (fiction)
Jeffrey Alfier (poetry)
Wol-vriey (fiction)
Catfish McDaris (poetry)
Chris Bissette (fiction)
Ashley J Allen (poetry)
Berit Ellingsen (fiction)
Camille Alexa (poetry)
SJ Bradley (fiction)
Caren Starry White (poetry)
Eleanor Bennett (photography)
Shelly Sometimes (photography)
Dave Schofield (photography)