More Wrestling With Gods: 18 Days of Tesseracts interview

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Corey Redekop has undertaken the Herculean feat (like that Greco-Roman mythic metaphor there? I’m so subtle) of interviewing the contributors to Tesseracts 18: Wrestling With Gods as part of the 18 Days of Tesseracts event, on now. I have the honour of being interview number seven.  Here’s a taste of the thought-provoking questions he had, and my best attempts at provoked-thought answers. You can see the entire series as it unfolds at Corey’s site.

What is it about so-called “genre” writing that makes it such an effective avenue for theological discussions?

I think genre stories can tap into what we now call myth. Modern audiences maybe need that little lever to get us out of literalist thinking—as if any fiction, genre or otherwise, is absolutely realistic. I don’t think people treated stories in such a fragmented way in the past; we didn’t have to distinguish between the historical or factual or fantastic to get enjoyment and value out of a story. But since religion and faith necessarily deal with questions of meaning, as I think the really old stories do, and aren’t bounded by what we conceive of as the natural world, I think speculative fiction is aptly suited to tackle similar questions.

Who’s your favourite god?

My favourite is Thor, but I think the best stories in the Norse tales we still have access to are about Loki. If you take them as a whole, you see how problematic but also necessary the Trickster figure is. Loki is at times helpful, indispensable, foolish, spiteful or disastrous. We’re much poorer for all the Norse myths that went unrecorded and were lost.

If you were a god for one day, what would you do?

I’d visit the bottom of the ocean and wrestle with krakens.

You can read the entire interview here.

Pleased to have a story in Tesseracts 18

WP Religion
WP Religion (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Well, the word is official: Edge Books has released the table of contents for Tesseracts 18: Wrestling With Gods, and a story of mine is among them. It’s always an honour to be included in Tesseracts, but especially so for me since Tesseracts 17 saw my first professional sale, and I’d submitted to previous incarnations of the anthology without success over the years.

Tesseracts 17 launches online at Bitten By Books

Tesseracts-17Howdy!  In case you’ve been waiting to get a look at Tesseracts 17, the book launches today (woohoo!). Even better, if you like to hobnob/pester/lurk near authors, Bitten By Books is hosting an online launch in which writers included in the annual anthology of Canadian speculative fiction will be available to chat with visitors and answer questions. Also, if you like free books, there’s a chance to win $50 Amazon gift card.

The event is now live and you can see what’s going on by clicking here.

I’ll be taking part after 2:30 p.m. Central Time, but I’ll try to pop in before then as well.  The event runs until noon Thursday. Hope to see some of you stop in and say hi!

 

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Live, from Winnipeg… the ChiSeries readings

ChiSeries Winnipeg

It’s something I should have announced here earlier, but I am thrilled to be part of the ChiSeries Winnipeg readings on October 9, along with Susan Rocan and Rhiannon Paille. Organized by Samantha Beiko and Chadwick Ginther under the auspices of Chiaroscuro Reading Series, the ChiSeries readings bring speculative fiction authors together to read from their latest works.

What the hell I’ve been up to in 2013

Well, you can’t do everything at once, and I’m not good at New Year’s Resolutions, but I’m proud to say it’s been a good six months of writing for me — which was my goal for this year. And, oddly enough, all of it was werewolf-related…

Canadians don’t spook the same way Americans do

It’s always interesting to talk to writers about their craft, but it’s just as interesting to talk to editors — who are far less often interviewed about what goes into making a good book. So it was with great pleasure a few years ago that I talked to Nancy Kilpatrick and David Morrell, who put together the first horror anthology in the venerable Tesseracts series.