Author Archives: Peter Darbyshire
I could have been a contender, I mean, professor!
I just received some more photos from my time at the Surrey International Writers Conference. Thanks to photographer Sandra Vander Schaaf for the great shots! I didn’t even see her taking these pics, so they’re nice candid moments from the conference. Check her out if you need some photos of your own — looks like she takes a pretty good author shot.
I think this was from my dialogue class — that’s a little Ian Weir on the white board there.
“Bueller? Bueller?”
Doing the Blue Pencil stuff was a lot of fun. I think my advice here was “You can never have too many orcs!”
“Have you thought about more orcs?”
“I like what you’ve done with the orcs here. Now let’s talk about dragons.”
Will the real Mona Lisa please stand up?
Is there a secret Mona Lisa hidden away under the painting we all know? New scans show a different woman lurking underneath it. Of course, readers of The Mona Lisa Sacrifice may have a different theory….
It’s a gun world after all
When I wrote The Warhol Gang, I included a couple of “gun culture” scenes — one a corporate team-building event that takes place at a shooting theme park in the mall called Gun World, the other a Rampaging Office Co-Worker emergency drill.
At the time, I thought I was writing a satire or black comedy about American culture, and I worried I was going too far. I never really thought I was forecasting actual American culture. But then I read about things like Gun TV, and I realize I didn’t go far enough….
Don’t even get me started on the livestreaming and viral videos part of The Warhol Gang….
There had better be chocolate inside
It’s time to open my Short Story Advent Calendar! So literary it even has a hashtag: #ssac2015.
Paris
I’ve only been to France once but it’s one of those places that left a mark on me. This is probably my favorite photo from that trip. I think it speaks to the moment and all those other moments in the country’s history and future.
My publisher just won two World Fantasy Awards!
Congrats to my publisher ChiZine Publications for winning not one but two World Fantasy Awards. ChiZine won best collection for Helen Marshall’s Gifts for the One Who Comes After (tying with Angela Slatter’s The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings from Tartarus Press). Publishers Brett Savory and Sandra Kasturi also won the Special Award – Professional, for all their achievements.
I went with ChiZine years ago with my Cross books because they’re a fearless, brilliant publisher who are willing to take chances that other publishers can not or will not take. They publish the books that are about vision, not marketing/bookstore niches — and better yet, they back them! If you’re connected with CZ on social media, you’ll see how much everyone there cares about the books they publish. As most writers know, that’s not often the case with publishers. So it’s great to see ChiZine get some love.
Now I’m off to ask them for a deadline extension….
Give the gift of a short story advent calendar this Christmas
I love the idea of a short story advent calendar so much I had to write about it for The Province.
So it was with great delight that I learned of the 2015 Short Story Advent Calendar, a boxed set of 24 individually bound stories by Canadian writers. The set includes works from such bold voices as Zsuzsi Gartner, Pasha Malla and “others.” Creators Michael Hingston and Natalie Olsen don’t want to reveal all the writers involved just yet — it’s an advent calendar, after all.
“The rest of the lineup is a surprise,” says Hingston in an interview with The Province. “The stories are all individually sealed, with no identifying information on the covers aside from what day of the month you’re going to open it on. So each day’s story is a surprise right up until the moment you open it.”
New podcast: I talk to Elisabeth de Mariaffi about her breakout thriller
“I thought I was writing a book about fear.”
That was what Elisabeth de Mariaffi told me when we sat down to record a podcast for the Book Rogues over at The Province. De Mariaffi was talking about her breakout novel, The Devil You Know. She says she didn’t set out to write a thriller, but it’s become one of the most talked about thrillers of the year.
The book is set in the early days of the Paul Bernardo serial killings investigation and follows Evie Jones, a young reporter assigned to the case who is maybe being stalked herself. The novel has resonated with women, with many of them writing to de Mariaffi or coming up to her at readings to talk about their own experiences.
We talked about the response to the book, its possible adaptation for TV and what de Mariaffi is working on now. Check out the article and listen to the podcast at The Province.
#swic15!
Thanks to everyone at the Surrey International Writers Conference for putting on such a great event! It was truly one of the best conferences I’ve attended. Great list of presenters and topics, excellent staff who took care of everything — and an absolutely amazing community. I was inspired by all of you!
If we chatted at all during the conference, do keep in touch. I had a great time hanging out with you!
Pic courtesy of @geekyscientist, who caught me explaining how putting the Gaudi church in your books makes everything better.
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