Now I know you've just been holding your breath for this...
Samantha Shannon and Big Publishing, an interview about The Fulcrum (with Easter eggs), and a writing course
…sitting on tenterhooks for it, clawing at your eyes and clothes for it, literally even maybe dying for it, but my best – and frankly only – excuse for not newslettering is that I’m busy with my next book and she is taking all of my writing brain currently, which looks something like this: 50% story outline, 30% writing, and 20% trying to remember how story-writing works again.
I imagine it’s a common problem with new-ish writers. I imagine one only falls out of bed and into a new book without wondering how it happens when you’re past your 5th or 6th.
Anyway. Speaking of authors with a few books under their belt. Here’s a round-up of some of October’s nonsense, in no particular order…
Brunch with Samantha Shannon
Just in case you don’t know, Shannon is a UK fantasy author who signed her first multi-book deal in 2012 at the tender age of 19 with The Bone Season series and shot to international fame in 2019 with the publication of her fifth book, The Priory of The Orange Tree. At 32 she’s got an impressive book list of ten titles and a fan-base that spans continents.
She’s a pretty big deal.
So when her SA distributors Jonathan Ball invited me to brunch with her and local fantasy author Shameez Patel Papathanasiou I naturally said yes (in Neko parlance: !YES! !!YES!! !!!YES!!!). There was a lot to like about her, but what really stood out for me in our conversation was the reminder of what a giant machine the publishing industry is in the Global North, especially when it comes to the Big 5.
Much of what we spoke about is very neatly expanded on in this piece by Tim Grahl from Story Grid. If you have any hopes and dreams of ‘hitting the big time’ as an author, I urge you to listen to this sobering insert.
An interview with The Local Lit Scene
Robyn from Musings of a South African Book Worm interviewed me for the first episode in her new podcast series The Local Lit Scene. We chatted about The Fulcrum and how it came about, the research that went into it, and the role a Christian-adjacent religious upbringing had in creating the foundation for some of the big ideas behind its world.
I’ll also tell you something that I revealed in the interview: that Neko’s Great Mothers are directly connected to the final scene of The Fulcrum, and that Em and Graiyeanne Wilth’s ancestor make an appearance in my next book, The Witch of Benbar’s Cross. (There are a few other little Easter eggs but I’ll leave you to find them.)
I had this sense after I finished The Fulcrum that its world, its meta/physics, would likely be the holding space for every story I write (at least for the foreseeable future), but I didn’t really have a name for it until I discovered that Le Guin had coined the term “story suite” to mean collections of her stories that are self-contained but that echo and interconnect with each other. Sort of like the MCU but less on on the nose.
JUMP! A crash course in storytelling at Norval Foundation
I had a great time running last year’s three-hour creative writing course at Norval Foundation’s Art Book Fair, so was delighted to be invited back this year.
It’s on this Sunday 3 November, 11 am to 2 pm, so if you’ve got three hours to spare, an appetite to check out some primo art in a beautiful space, and a fire to get going on a story idea, do book yourself a seat. I like having a good time.
And that’s that for now. OH! Except one little development that has crept into my life over the last few months: author coaching.
Not sure how it happened, but it’s happening. So if you have a book, fiction or non, that you’re struggling to birth, give me a shout. Turns out my love of telling people what to do has found a useful outlet.
Here’s to more regular newsletters and a good outcome for the world in the US elections.
Wishing upon a star,
T