Recently, I’ve been talking about short fiction (just a little, here and here.) Also, June 22nd was NZ’s National Flash Fiction Day and one of NZ’s foremost exponents of the short fiction art, and flash fiction in particular, is undoubtedly Frankie McMillan.

So there seemed no better way to round off the short fiction posts than to tell you about Frankie’s collection, My Mother and the Hungarians. (Hungarians, for short. 😉 )

Just to get to the most important things first, I really enjoyed reading it. My Mother and the Hungarians is flash or very very short fiction, in many ways a Siamese twin to prose poetry. In this case, though, themes run through the collection, to the extent that it works together as a cohesive whole.

Frankie McMillan has a ‘voice’ that I’ve always found particularly distinctive. In the spirit of Emily Dickinson, she has a slantwise take on the world and people in it, a take that picks out the curious and downright strange, oddities and absurdities—to the extent that I always think of her work as subversive: not so much in a political sense but in terms of received wisdoms and traditional ways of looking at the world.

For me, Hungarians really worked in terms of its keen observation, humour, and pathos, as well as a sequence of connected short fictions. Clearly, I’m not alone in my appreciation either, since it was longlisted for the Ockham National Book Award in 2017.

If you like (very) short fiction and a slantwise look at the world, I recommend My Mother and the Hungarians. I know it’s still available in good book shops because I purchased my copy in Unity, Wellington. 🙂

Frankie MacMillan

I also note that an interview with Frankie appeared in the latest edition of Takahe magazine. The interviewer was Zoë Meager.

By way of the usual disclosure, yes, Frankie and I really are on first name terms. 😉 I also esteem her creative voice highly. Because of this, I have featured her work on my blog several times, so you might like to check out:

Out Of The Blue, 28-9-2010

My Father, The Oceanographer (17-01-2012)

Cathedral of the Poor (21-5-2013)

The house on Holloway Street (23-8-2016)

I also featured Frankie’s work on The Tuesday poem blog:

“Hourglass” and “at night my dead mother appears wanting soup” (17-3-2015)

UK/AU/NZ

The About The Characters post series focuses on the minor characters in The Wall Of Night series, in large part because:

“I think it’s the presence of the smaller characters that “makes” a story, creating texture around the main points of view.”

~ from my Legend Award Finalist's Interview, 2013

Initially, the series focused exclusively on characters from The Heir of Night, but now I’m continuing on with minor characters from both The Gathering Of The Lost and Daughter of Blood simultaneously — in alphabetical order, of course!

(The quotes, together with the covers, indicate the books in which the character appears.)

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Hawk: of Barrowdun, an Emerian Hill chieftain

…“And those few who have survived report uncanny things.” Carick caught the flicker of something that could have been fear in Hawk’s fierce eyes. “They speak of creatures who are half man and half beast, demons whose shapes change and shift beneath the moon.”

“On every raid,” Hirn concluded harshly, “they have left something behind—a weapon of Barrowdun in the Hillholt camp, a token of Hillholt in the ruins of a Barrowdun farmstead. Someone, my lord, wants war in our Hills.”

“And on my March,” said Lord Falk softly.

~  from © The Gathering Of The Lost, The Wall of Night Book Two: Chapter 17 — Oak and Hill

Yep, you guessed it — it’s the 1st of the month and that means Supernatural Underground! For this year, it also means my Year of Romance in Fantasy Fiction (#YOR #RIFF) is rocking on, alternating between more recent books and titles of longer standing.

This month, I’m heading back to 1988 and shining the spotlight on Katharine Kerr’s Daggerspell, her inaugural Deverry novel. In particular, I’m highlighting Jill and Rhodry, candidates for “love at first sight”, as well  as “fated love” and a few more of the romance traditions. 😉

I love this book, so if you don’t already know it and Katharine Kerr’s writing, rock on over to Supernatural Underground and find out more.

Romance In Fantasy Fiction: Katharine Kerr’s “Daggerspell” and Love At First Meeting

Of course, it’s not really the first, although Jill and Rhodry don’t know it… 😉

Have fun!

The Wall of Night Series map; artist Peter Fitzpatrick

The A Geography of Haarth post series is traversing the full range of locales and places from The Wall of Night world of Haarth. Each locale is accompanied by a quote from the relevant books where the place occurs.

From January 25, 2013 to November 25, 2014, the series explored locations encountered in The Heir Of Night and The Gathering Of The Lost. Now the series has resumed to ensure the geography of Daughter Of Blood (The Wall Of Night Book Three) is included in our “grand tour”, epic fantasy style. 😉

The new series comprises updates of previous entries as well as the new listings.

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Tenneward Lodge: country house belonging to the lord of the Tenneward, in Emer
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Cicadas whirred and the poplar leaves rustled together although there was almost no breeze. Across the fields, Malian could see workers making their way home and towers of mellow stone rising above a low hill. She wondered what Lord Tenneward’s lodge would be like—and almost laughed out loud, a few minutes later, as the avenue ended in gates with stone lions, the entrance framing a house that looked larger than Normarch castle. The lodge was built of pale yellow stone, with tall windows and a creeper twining across its face. Stables and mews and kennels, all in the same yellow stone, were set on the far side of a wide graveled courtyard to the right of the house.

~  from © The Gathering Of The Lost, The Wall of Night Book Two: Chapter 30 — The Welcome Cup
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Her seeking became the windhover, gliding this way and that on the currents of the air and all the time looking, searching— until Malian saw it, a Winter Country cairn in the midst of the Gray Lands, with the Song of Haarth rising beneath it. The spark of life force before the cairn would be the hound, Falath. She had seen him in her vision outside Tenneward Lodge, keeping his lonely vigil by Rowan Birchmoon’s grave.

~from © Daughter Of Blood, The Wall of Night Book Three: Chapter 38 — Dawn Wind

Recently, I learned that the NZ mental health project Be Great has designated June 24-30 as Thankfulness Week.

The reasons why are summarised in The Thankfulness Project 2019 page on the Be Great website:

To lift spirits in the coldest darkest week of the year

June 24 – 30 is one of the lowest daylight hour weeks in New Zealand, a cold and dark time when people can struggle with depression. The goal is to help people in this time by inspiring them to think of all the good things there are about being alive as opposed to the cold and dark time of year it is.

The way I clicked onto the project, though, was from seeing an advertisement in my local newspaper (I know, so old school! 😉 ), heralding the week with the header question:

“What Are You Thankful For?”

I’ve known about the idea of ‘thankfulness’ and the connection to mental health for some time and have found it a useful exercise to occasionally take a moment of quietness “amid the noise and haste” (to quote Max Ehrmann’s Desiderata) and focus on the “good stuff”, aka those aspects of life and my experience of it that I’m thankful for.

This used to be my gym

I probably did it more regularly immediately after Christchurch’s February 22^nd 2011 earthquake, because it felt important to stay focused on the “half full” side of the glass, when there was so much “half empty” all around. Although this state has gradually eased, as you’d expect, over the past eight years, the need to stay grounded and remind myself of the plus side did continue well beyond the immediate event (a bit like the years of aftershocks, lol.)

In terms of continuation, those who’ve been through similar experiences will not be surprised to learn that the “disaster and heroic” phase was succeeded by what I described as the “grunge” transition of “everything broken, very little happening/changing”, then the subsequent iterations of “repair/rebuild” and “recovery”, which were characterized by an unrelenting grimness and grind of bureaucracy, insurance “settlements” (ha!), and negotiating the physical realities of the repair/rebuild process on a citywide scale.

Friends & neighbours, being the solution 2011

So as you’re probably guessing, reminding oneself of the positives, starting with being alive immediately post February 22^nd(!) was an important part of keeping going. It can be a little challenging to do it in a public way without seeming saccharine, so usually it’s a private exercise, but since this is Thankfulness Week, I thought getting on board with a post was a good way of showing support.

The exercise set out in the advertisement was to “look around and think of 10-20 things you are thankful for, such as life, family, friends, you, your body, this country, your vocation…”

My list actually has a pretty long tail depending on how far I did down in terms of detail, but for today I’m keeping it to the big hits:

• 

  River, Ocean, Sky…

  My life partner, who is smart, funny, an all-round good guy, and made of awesome #justsayin’ J

• Family – both my own immediate family but also my extended whanau, which includes my partner’s family and a network of cousins on both sides
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• Friends! So many of you and so mighty fine. Sometimes, like family, we come and go, connect and reconnect, but friends are definitely a big part of what makes my world go around.
  .
• Living in a relatively peaceful, relatively sane – most of the time anyway! – country. I say this while fully acknowledging the recent mosque attacks here in Christchurch which saw the mass murder of 51 people and serious injury of another fifty more. Nonetheless, I still believe the “relatively peaceful, relatively sane” remains true overall and that’s actually a pretty big deal on the thankfulness scale.
  .
• As I said in my Month of Joy post for Skiffy and Fanty a while back, “the colour blue” – particularly as it manifests in sea, rivers, and sky “all around us”
• 

  Very big trees

  As those who follow this blog *may* have picked up, nature in all its forms is something I consistently appreciate, from the small wonders and delights of my garden, to trees, wildlife, mountains…

• The cosmos, ie stars, planets, space and how it all works – as much as we know – is probably an extension of nature as per this planet, but I feel it’s sufficiently distinct to get its own category, especially as I can then add in the fascination of space exploration and Hubble telescopes et all without creating a separate category
  .
• As I also hinted in the Month of Joy post, writing and storytelling is a pretty big deal in the Life of Helen and something I value highly – even if it does kick my butt on a far too regular basis! — as I also value those who are part of the larger writing ‘whanau’, including fellow writers, my agent and her team, publishers and their teams, and last but very far from least, readers.
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• I am, of course, an avid reader myself so books, but also music, are big ticket items on the ‘thankfulness’ list.

Very small birds — Fantail; credit, B Miller

• I’m going to stop at ten, but also cheat a little because I’m going to say food (not least, having enough of it, most of the time, which is no small thing), both making it and sharing with others (back to family and friends, aye!) and also wine, especially to have with the food – which is a cunning 5 or 6 items in one. 😉

Anyway, that’s my list! Please feel welcome to join in via the comment, or just store “What I’m Thankful For” away as a tool for times when taking a step back and considering the good stuff seems the right way to go.

And be careful out there, amid the noise and haste.

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Just to finish, here are a few ‘fellow writer’ snaps… 😉

“Double author trouble” — Mary Victoria ‘n’ me

Me’n Courtney Schafer, Sydney 2016

with Julie Czerneda, Natcon 2009

SpecFicNZ — Christchurch writers

…mainly a reminder that I have my Year of Romance in Fantasy Fiction post series going on there right now, with a new installation on the first of every month. 😀

I’ve even taken a leaf from my fellow Supe author, Amanda Arista’s book and given the series its own hashtags: #YOR (Year of Romance) and #RIFF (Romance in Fantasy Fiction.) 😀

The series will run for the rest of the year, and so far I’ve posted the following:

March 1:  “The Lord Of The Rings” Effect — aka When Romance Is Missing In Action

April 1:  My Enemy, My Love & Laini Taylor’s “Daughter Of Smoke and Bone”

May 1: Constancy Amid Tumult & Patricia McKillip’s “Riddle-Master” Series

and last but (I hope!) not least:

June 1:  Guy Gavriel Kay’s “Under Heaven” & When Your Ship Doesn’t Sail

And there will be more!
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Amanda Arista

Amanda Arista

However, I mentioned fellow Supe author Amanda Arista and she also has a 2019 post series going: High Fives, which hones in on must-have lists for those pursuing the writerly life. Check out:

March 3: Reasons To Find Your People

April 3: Resources

May 4: Conference  Season

KimFalconer

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Kim Falconer

Kim is another Supe author who always has a great line in posts. The 16th of the month is her day and although there’s no theme as such, take a peek at the goodness below:

‘Can’t Wait To be Read 2019’

Food That Goes Bump In The Night

The Art Of Inspiration

Novel-Inspired Visual Art

Choose Your Poison

Plenty to be going on with and to enjoy!

Katherine Mansfield, 1888 – 1923

Last week, I mentioned Katherine Mansfield’s Miss Brill in the context of a “drawing in” mode of storytelling, as opposed to a more observational and distancing narrative style.

As noted then, what I mean by “drawing in” is that as reader I am drawn into the world of the story and the lives of the characters, experiencing the events of the story through their eyes and emotions. Although it can sometimes work to feel as if you are ‘outside’ the story, looking in on the ‘play’ of characters and emotions, generally I find this less satisfying as a reading experience.

Katherine Mansfield (1888 – 1923) is recognized as one of literature’s outstanding short storyists (yes, I did coin that word!) and although I have read and enjoyed many of her works, Miss Brill is one of those that has stuck with me. It’s short but very powerful, and despite being published almost a century ago, is still compelling reading (imho.)

Miss Brill is an ageing single woman living alone, and the story hones in on the routine of her life, and her Sunday routine in particular. What matters is what the routine tells us without a narrative discussion by the author. We understand that Miss Brill is not only ageing, single, and lives alone, but that she is poor, isolated, and lonely. The power of the story is that by the end we also feel the fragility of such circumstances, because while reading we have walked in Miss Brill’s shoes.

That was my experience of the story at any rate, and I have read it several times now. More than any other short story I can recall, Mansfield’s Miss Brill illuminates an aspect of human nature and of the human condition, holding up a mirror to society and ourselves. As an author, it exemplifies what great writing is and sets a standard to aspire too. The bar is a high one, but that is at it should be.

Note: the reason I haven’t talked about what happens in the story in specific terms is because it is a short story, one that merits being read in the original rather than me telling you everything about it here. 😉

Miss Brill is part of the collection titled The Garden Party and Other Stories, which first appeared in 1922.

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The About The Characters post series focuses on the minor characters in The Wall Of Night series, in large part because:

“I think it’s the presence of the smaller characters that “makes” a story, creating texture around the main points of view.”

~ from my Legend Award Finalist's Interview, 2013

Initially, the series focused exclusively on characters from The Heir of Night, but now I’m continuing on with minor characters from both The Gathering Of The Lost and Daughter of Blood simultaneously — in alphabetical order, of course!

(The quotes, together with the covers, indicate the books in which the character appears.)

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UK/AU/NZ

Hatha:  a Daughter of Blood, second child to the Earl of Blood; also known as Captain-Lady Hatha. 

“Your sister has sent for you,” the ensign continued, when Myr did not speak. “Captain- Lady Hatha wants to see how your weapons’ practice is progressing.”

Myr groaned. “Do I have to?”

Taly’s expression did not change. “She said I was to flush you out, wherever you were hiding. And that my failure would not be acceptable to her.”

I hate the way Hatha does that, Myr thought: makes it clear that Taly, Dab, or whoever else she corners will get punishment detail if I don’t do what she wants. “I loathe weapons practice,” she said…

~ from © Daughter Of Blood: The Wall of Night Book Three, Chapter 1 — Lady Mouse

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Note: The last About The Characters’ entry, for Heris, was out of alphabetical order, for which I apologise—but I’ve taken a small step back today so we’re back on track. I’m not quite sure how it happened but I’ll claim it as a consequence of my degree of concentration on WALL #4! 😉

Angela Carter (1940 – 1992) is an SFF name I’ve known for quite some time because although relatively shortlived, she’s an iconic writer from the 1970s and 1980s, credited with reframing speculative fiction through a feminist lens. She also received more awards for her writing than you can shake a stick at.

Yet although I read some of her 1970s non-fiction while at university, I never quite got around to the fiction, which is why when I stumbled across her collection of short stories titled The Bloody Chamber—on a book table in my local MP’s office of all places; yes indeed, endeavouring to participate in the democratic process, aye!—I snapped it up.

Being a writer, I can no more not read than a fish can not swim, but when hard at work on a novel (as you will all be glad to hear I am right now, despite the visit to my MP’s office 😉 ) short stories are a great way of continuing reading without embarking on the commitment—and temptation toward page-turning nights—that are a risk of novel reading. (Especially SFF ‘doorstop’ novels – just saying!)

All another good reason for snapping up The Bloody Chamber – and dear readers, I have not been disappointed.

The Bloody Chamber is a retelling of traditional folk and fairytales with a particular focus on more contemporary settings—although some I would also describe as ‘timeless’ or ‘time-slippish’—as well as famously empowering the heroines and generally giving the stories a more female-centric slant. For example, in the title story, The Bloody Chamber, which is a retelling of the Bluebeard fairytale, the heroine is rescued by her mother, not her brothers as in the traditional story. (Although I note that the heroine’s sister, Anne, supported her sister in the traditional version so it was not entirely ‘passive heroine alone.’)

The collection contains ten stories, several of them told two different ways: for example The Courtship of Mr Lyon and The Tiger’s Bride are both retellings of Beauty and the Beast, each with a different slant. Similarly, The Werewolf and The Company of Wolves, offer two different takes on Little Red Riding Hood. The latter was the basis for the 1984 film of the same name.

In addition to her feminist lens, Carter’s work (in this collection) is decidedly Gothic in tone but stands out most for her amazing use of language. This collection is definitely a Gorgeous Words contender, with opulent, even ornate, imagery and powerful evocative language. The stories and the language also comprise (because no one story is approached in the same way) the bold and the bawdy, the richly sensual and outright sexual, and the bloody and savage.

Completely in keeping with the traditions of fairy and folk tales, you may say, and I believe you are quite right. The point of difference is the contemporary framing and the willingness to look at more than one way of telling the same story.

The one aspect that did not work well for me was that I found the storytelling style distancing. I always felt I was on the outside looking in at the story happening, rather than being drawn into the action and ‘living’ it with the characters. In part this was because of the almost ‘anthropological’ use of the narrative voice, which may have been deliberate because of the fairytale retelling format. But it’s not my preferred style of short story, with the ‘drawing in’ style epitomized for me by Katherine Mansfield’s Miss Brill.

The strengths that carried the stories through, for me, were the power of the language and the equally powerful reslanting of the old stories. Overall, I’ve enjoyed the collection and definitely recommend it to keen speculative fiction and fairytale retelling readers. I believe those who enjoy authors such as Catherynne M. Valente and Seanan Maguire will almost certainly appreciate Angela Carter.

Angela Carter, 1940 – 1992

As for those ten stories, do I have a favourite among them? I did like The Bloody Chamber heroine’s Mum riding to her rescue, which makes a great opening tale. Overall, though, I incline toward Puss-In-Boots, as favourite. This may be surprising to some since it’s probably the most bawdy and definitely the most amoral of the tales. Nonetheless, the retelling fits the story and it has a sardonic, tongue-in-cheek quality that works very well—and of all the stories, Puss’s point of view engaged me most fully.

To learn more about Angela Carter you can start with the British Council, here, or try Wikipedia, here.

The Wall of Night Series map; artist Peter Fitzpatrick

The A Geography of Haarth post series is traversing the full range of locales and places from The Wall of Night world of Haarth. Each locale is accompanied by a quote from the relevant books where the place occurs.

From January 25, 2013 to November 25, 2014, the series explored locations encountered in The Heir Of Night and The Gathering Of The Lost. Now the series has resumed to ensure the geography of Daughter Of Blood (The Wall Of Night Book Three) is included in our “grand tour”, epic fantasy style. 😉

The new series comprises updates of previous entries as well as the new listings.

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Temple Of Night:  the main temple precinct of the Keep of Winds, comprising temples to all nine Derai gods, but primarily dedicated to the god Mhaelanar, the Defender.
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“She was right, Kalan thought, but he still loathed the turn his life had taken. The House of Blood was the most extreme of the warrior orders, exiling all but a bare minimum of those with the old powers—usually to one of the priestly Houses. There were days when Kalan was grateful that the Temple of Night had been short of novices and so he was still part of the forbidden warrior world, even at a distance. But at times like this it made his lot seem that much harder.”

~ from © The Heir Of Night, The Wall of Night Book One: Chapter 3 — Whispers in the Dark
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“Darksworn, he thought, and felt the familiar insect crawl along his spine, although he had never resisted the knowledge that there might be Derai amongst the Swarm in the same way Malian had. Perhaps because Brother Belan had told him the story when he first arrived in the Temple of Night, and the crazy old man had seemed like his only friend at that time.”

~  from © The Gathering Of The Lost, The Wall of Night Book Two: Chapter 42 — Rites of Honor
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Kalan was not quite sure why he was giving the vagabond further thought, except that he knew what it was to be both outcast and exile, thrown on the kindness of strangers. In both cases he had been fortunate, first in the Temple of Night under Sister Korriya’s tutelage— although he had not appreciated his fortune at the time— and later as Falk of Normarch’s foster son. But he had seen enough of the world to know that it could be far from kind, especially to those without money, or kin and clan to call on in need.

~ from © Daughter Of Blood, The Wall of Night Book Three: Chapter 7 —Fire and Water