Come play words with us. It’s gonna be funlicious. . .
My Mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun
Up in here celebrating Shakespeare’s birthday with a wee essay about my favourite woman depicted in Shakespeare. Read the entire thing over at Books That Shook Us [link: https://booksthatshookus.com/2017/04/23/shakespeare2017/ ]
My Mistress, Sonnet 130
It’s with a poet’s heart I claim as my favourite woman in all of Shakespeare the subject of Sonnet 130: “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun.” In school we studied several of Shakespeare’s plays before an inspired and ambitious teacher drove us determinedly through the sonnets. After the previous parade of Ophelias, Juliets, and Titanias, I thrilled at Shakespeare’s earthy frankness in celebrating not only that a woman could be portrayed as human, but that as such she was more compelling than any idealization, caricature, or fancy.
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;Coral is far more red than her lips’ red. . .
Norwescon 40
This weekend I’m in lovely Washington, just outside Seattle at the Norwescon SF&F convention. I’ll be taking part in several panel discussions with worthy colleagues in the field. Come say hello.
The air in this part of the country is stunningly delicious.
Girl of Sweet Truffle
In a delightfully accurate description of “His Sweet Truffle of a Girl,” the Japanese translation of FUNGI calls my piece “A sad story of a man on a mushroom submarine for a purpose.” Title translation: “Girl of Sweet Truffle.”
Very happy to think of this story out in the world, doing its truffly thing.
“Killer Details” at 50-Word Stories
Telling a complete story in exactly 50 words is a challenge, but too much fun to resist. Somehow my crime dribble “Killer Details” turned out more slapstick than my usual. Suppose I should call it a win when my characters are more likely to end up in jail than six feet under.
Read “Killer Details” today at 50-Word Stories. Love the editor’s tags on this story: “assassin, funny, oh dear, unexpected...”
“As Mistress Wishes” to appear in alternate Canada anthology
Her ceramic arm and hand and articulated fingers gleam unadulterated ivory, whiter than the snow outside already melting as it falls. . .
Some buzz has already been generating about the forthcoming 49th Parallels anthology from super-local (Yay, Ottawa!) independent publisher Bundoran Press, which the Toronto Metro describes as “an anthology around what would have happened if the country took a very different turn.” I’m happy to say my post-pandemic Vancouver story “As Mistress Wishes” will be joining the excellent lineup of these Canada-askew tales.
This one re-imagines the downtown Vancouver peninsula as a sort of steam-powered walled matriarchal city state, its society a product of the previous generation’s fierce battles over resources splitting along a strict gender divide, a world with little appreciation for nuance or inclusivity.
Mistress’s voice soothes something deep in my chest, past the industrial ceramic ribcage of my refashioning, a restless twitch in the meat muscle of my canine heart…
And of course it’s told from the dog’s perspective. Because DOGS.
More info as it materializes.
“From Horn to Horn” in NonBinary Review
…your spectacles green
your cat black
your bug gold
your Death red…
The NonBinary Review is a pretty fascinating venture, a kind of meta approach to the intersection of literature and culture. Issue 12 is dedicated to the works of Edgar Allan Poe, including my oddball little Poe Easter-egg explosion “From Horn to Horn.”
Here’s to NonBinary Review Issue 12: The Works of Edgar Allan Poe.
“Or Current Resident” at Great Jones Street
This cover for my story “Or Current Resident” made me snort tea through my nose.
Monday through Friday afternoon at six minutes past four, the same man in the same combat boots and blue shorts walks up Lula’s driveway, reaches into his satchel, and slides his delivery through her slot…
This was written as a Great Jones Street original. Nobody dies!
Direct story short link: https://www.greatjonesstreet.press/current-resident-alexandra-renwick/
The Life of an Artifact in Duodecadal Glances
There’s an exquisite pleasure in communing with bees. That’s how I think of gardening as I watch the slow bumble of a black and yellow fuzzpot in his swollen pollen jodhpurs amble in and out of crimson-petaled cups I planted for exactly this…
Go read my interstitial sudden fictions sequence “The Life of an Artifact in Duodecadal Glances” over at Map Literary. This piece is the full version of the segment which was part of my mini-collection We Beautiful Terrible Beasts, a finalist for the Rachel Wetzsteon Chapbook Prize.
story link: http://www.mapliterary.org/alexandra-renwick-the-life-of-an-artifact-in-duodecadal-glances.html
“Redux” in Year’s Best HH
My remurder story “Redux” has been selected for this year’s volume of the Year’s Best Hardcore Horror. This nasty bit of fiction first appeared in 2016 as an original story in the MURDER MAYHEM volume of Flame Tree Press’s Gothic series. Huzzah! for two beautiful appearances for my quite ugly story.
on Amazon: Year’s Best Hardcore Horror Vol. 2
on Amazon: Murder Mayhem