DOUGLAS SMITH | Writing the Fantastic

The excellent young-adult literary magazine, Cicada, has just republished my Zelazny-esque urban fantasy story "The Boys are Back in Town" in their Nov / Dec 2013 issue (cover at the right). This is the sixth appearance for this story, which first appeared in...uh...Cicada way back in 2000. I think it was the seventh story I'd ever sold at that point.

And yes, it is unusual for a magazine to reprint a story that they'd originally published. It's never happened to me before.

But it makes sense from the magazine's perspective. First, it saves them money. They pay less for a reprint than for a first rights sale (but they still pay very well for reprints—more than most markets pay for first rights). And since Cicada is aimed at teens, their current readers are not going to be the same group who read the story when it first came out twelve years ago.

And finally, hey, it's a good story. If you're interested, you can read reviews of the story here and check out the ebook version. "The Boys are Back in Town" also appeared in my collection, Chimerascope.

Well, this is a nice start for my first novel. Kelly Jensen at SF Crowsnest has given The Wolf at the End of the World a five-star review over at SF Crowsnest. Here are some snippets from her review:

I don’t read a lot of paranormal stuff. … There are some interpretations of lore I like, though, and some authors I will read, almost regardless of what the story is. Douglas Smith and his debut novel, The Wolf At The End Of The World, fill both criteria.

… The last twenty pages were an emotional experience (read: messy), which is always what elevates a book from four to five stars for me. I love a story that hits all the emotional buttons from laughter to tears. When that happens, it goes without saying the writing is good and the story is engaging, the characters are deep enough to make me feel.

 

…  In his introduction, Charles de Lint touches on the same points and the same feeling. It’s the interweaving of lore and ideas that gives this novel so much substance. …

 

Given the number of awards Douglas has won for his short stories, it’s hardly surprising he’s written such a fabulous book and it’s lovely to be able to say so, unreservedly. I really enjoyed ‘The Wolf At The End Of The World’ and I’m happy to have a copy to put on my shelf. With adventure, intrigue, shape-shifters, family, a touch of romance and a lot of heart, this is a book I’d recommend for readers of all genres.

–Kelly Jensen, SF Crowsnest, October 2013

You can read Kelly's full review here.

Cool. Shortly after my Aurora Award win for "The Walker of the Shifting Borderland," I received a request from Luigi Petruzzelli, the editor of the relatively new Italian SF&F magazine, Quasar, to translate and publish the story in an upcoming issue. And they pay well, which is not always the case for foreign genre markets, many of which don't pay at all. This will be my fourth publication in Italy.

The story should appear in Quasar either in the next issue before the end of 2013 or in their March 2014 issue. I'll post the actual cover of the issue with "The Walker..." when it comes out.

If you want to read the story in English, it's available at all major retailers as an ebook.

Over two years ago, I'd posted about the sale of my story "Fiddleheads" to the anthology Chilling Tales 2: In Words, Alas, Drown I. Well, the book has finally been released and is now available.

This is only the second time I've sold to what I'd call a clear "horror" market, the other time being "By Her Hand, She Draws You Down." Horror is not a genre I generally aim at, but I write the stories that show up in my head, and this one came out that way.

Here's an excerpt from the back cover copy:

"Canada’s maestro of the macabre, Michael Kelly, brings you CHILLING TALES: In Words, Alas, Drown I, an all new collection of nightmares that will perturb and torment you. Tales that will leave a frisson of fear and raise a quiver of gooseflesh. A chill is in the air."

With an introduction by editor Michael Kelly, the book contains a fantastic representation of Canadian dark fantasy and horror writers. I'm proud to have a story in a book edited by Michael, and to be included in this amazing roster of authors. Here's the table of contents:

• In Libitina’s House by Camille Alexa
• Gingerbread People by Colleen Anderson
• Meteor Lake by Kevin Cockle
• Homebody by Gemma Files
• Snowglobes by Lisa L Hannett
• The Dog’s Paw by Derek Künsken
• The Flowers of Katrina by Claude Lalumière
• Goldmine by Daniel LeMoal
• The Salamander’s Waltz by Catherine MacLeod
• Weary, Bone Deep by Michael Matheson
• The Windemere by Susie Moloney
• Black Hen A La Ford by David Nickle
• Day Pass by Ian Rogers
• Fiddleheads by Douglas Smith
• Dwelling on the Past by Simon Strantzas
• Heart of Darkness by Edo van Belkom
• Fishfly Season by Halli Villegas
• Road Rage by Bev Vincent
• Crossroads Blues by Robert J. Wiersema
• Honesty by Rio Youers

Check it out here.

David Jón Fuller has kindly posted a short review along with an interview he did with me on The Wolf at the End of the World over at his "As You Were" website. The interview went live today as this week's entry for his recurring "Werewolf Wednesdays" feature on his site.

Here's an extract from his review:

Building on the world he created in previous short stories, Smith explores the Heroka — shapeshifting beings who can also control their totem animals — and their role in a world in which people’s relationship to nature is out of balance. He also confronts the clash of cultures between the dominant Canadian (read: white) interests and the rights of First Nations peoples such as the Cree and Ojibwe — and how this plays out in environmental policy and control over resources.

 

Aside from that, it’s also a gripping urban fantasy in which a voracious monster is targeting the inhabitants of Thunder Lake, a small town in Ontario, and even the combined power of the Heroka and ancient spiritual powers may not be enough to solve the mystery of the killings — and avert the end of the world.

David posed some very interesting questions in his interview, and I greatly enjoyed the discussion. I hope you'll check out the full interview here on David's site.

Derek Newman-Stille reviews THE WOLF AT THE END OF THE WORLD at his award-winning Speculative Canada site. Here are some highlights from his review:

"The Wolf at the End of the World is a tale that would resonate with the spirit of any environmentalist – the struggle of diverse species to survive, the conflict with human greed and capitalism, the invasiveness of the human presence on animal life…

As he often does, Douglas wields myth … to reveal truths that we ignore in our mundane world and teaches complexity through the poetics of language and potentials of symbols.

Smith’s work, as always, is full of potent ambiguities, the moral questions that fill us with the potential to interrogate our world and challenge the assumptions that have become part of living our lives. He does this through beautiful prose and an exciting and powerful story.

Smith tackles issues of huge importance for our understanding of modernity … The reader is carried along on this mythic tale, taught the potential of stories to challenge us and make us more aware."

You can read Derek's full review here.

Back in August (yes, I'm a little behind in posting), Derek Newman-Stille, recently a fellow Aurora Award winner for his wonderful Speculating Canada website, interviewed me on Trent University Radio.

Derek is an excellent interviewer, and we had a fun and lively discussion on a wide range of topics, all related in some way to my new novel, THE WOLF AT THE END OF THE WORLD, including werewolves, myths and legends, disability in SF, ecology, the power of SF to challenge social assumptions, representations of oppressed peoples in SF, writing short fiction, and blurring the boundaries between horror, science fiction, and fantasy.

I greatly enjoyed the discussion with Derek and hope that you will, too. You can check out the recorded interview here or jump directly to the podcast by clicking on the Trent Radio logo at the left.

Mark Lefebvre, Kobo Writing Life Director, interviewed me back in September prior to the release of my novel, THE WOLF AT THE END OF THE WORLD, for a Kobo Writing Life podcast. Outside of his day job, Mark is a talented writer himself, writing horror and other speculative fiction under the pen name of Mark Leslie. And as if all of that wasn't enough to keep Mark busy, he's also edited several anthologies, some of which I've been lucky enough to be in (Campus Chills, North of Infinity II) as well as writing a couple of non-fiction titles, Haunted Hamilton and the recent co-authored Haunted Sudbury.

Mark and I talked about a lot of things in a wide-ranging interview that you can check out here. Topics included:

• How I started writing
• My new novel The Wolf at the End of the World and how it grew out of my very first short story "Spirit Dance"
• My career as a short-fiction writer and the importance of taking advantage of reprint rights
• My foreign language sales in 25 languages in 30 countries
• Ebook publishing my backlist
• The adaptation of “By Her Hand She Draws You Down” into a short film
• My penchant for writing fiction that references Bruce Springsteen’s music

Here's the link to the interview. Enjoy!

As I explain in my afterword to my story "A Bouquet of Flowers in a Vase, by Van Gogh," I am a huge fan of the works of the Dutch artist, Vincent van Gogh. In that particular story, I tell the tale of an ex-CIA agent and a talented young remote viewer who use remote viewing to time travel and "locate" an undiscovered van Gogh. You'll have to read the story to understand the quotes around "locate."

Is my story coming true? Well, probably not. But a few weeks ago, experts at the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam (which I visited, by the way, in May this year – absolutely wonderful) verified Sunset at Montmajour  as an authentic van Gogh. The painting had actually been discovered in the 1990's, moldering in an attic in Norway. At that time, the museum had rejected the work, but more modern testing over the last two years resulted in its recent authentication. Very cool. Click the article above to read more about the discovery and to see the painting. There's a neat little magnification viewer in the article so you can really examine the painting (okay, technically, so you can examine the image of the painting).

And if the correlation to "Bouquet of Flowers..." and time travel isn't science fiction-y enough for you, then while you're checking out the painting, focus on the top left area. See that little blue building in the distance? Look familiar? Some people noticed its strange resemblance to another blue structure. Personally, I think if Vincent was going to paint the TARDIS, he'd put it in the foreground. But it kind of cries out for a story called "Vincent and the Doctor," doesn't it? Oh, wait. They already did that episode.

Just came across this blog post about an end-cap display in The World's Biggest Bookstore in Toronto, showcasing books by Ontario-based science fiction and fantasy writers. Nice to see Chimerascope included in this impressive group of works (bottom left).