I've been doing a lot of mulling, best-of thinking and have written a wee blog at Ambling Along the Aqueduct, with another due any day at Chasing Ray.  But both sites really wanted me to talk about text, and there's a lot of non-text in my year I'd like to yack about.  So here's a personal best-of-my-2007 list that might, at times, sound a bit more like a Thanksgiving speech than a roundup because I find I have a vast great deal to be thankful for this year.

The outdoors:
Here on the edge of our ravine we had the most mesmerising spring: Stellar's jays were back, in all their electric blue glory.  Yes, they're loud, but it meant there were fewer idiotic robins staring at me gormlessly while I drank tea.  (Seriously, look in a robin's eyes some time; there's nothing there.  They might be the dimmest birds I've ever encountered.  And they're not even robins.  Real robins, English robins, look like this; American robins are a kind of moronic thrush.)  The sun was constant; I'd turned a lovely biscuit colour all over by the end of May, simply from eating breakfast and lunch on the deck and listening to whirr of hummingbirds and the rush of wind in the trees--broad-leaved maple, alder, Douglas fir, cedar--in the ravine.  Then, o joy, in June, July, and August we got lots of low pressure fronts moving through and with it lots of interesting cloud.  So we didn't have an awful 30-day broil like last year.  And miraculously it seemed to clear away by 6:30 in the evening, so Kelley and I would get back out on the deck and drink wine and eat olives and chat while we watched dragonflies like titanium helicopters and above them larks and swallows snipping insects out of the air and scissoring wings and tails for pure joy.  Autumn is always beautiful here.  Fruit seemed especially plentiful, which meant we had a tribe of racoons (seven sitting in our back garden, at one point, munching applefall and eyeing the cat as a possible entree) annoying us--but we also had a marmot or two, and as it got colder, a pack of coyotes (ten?) that kept up awake for an hour one night as they yelped and yipped up the road.   The cat's door gets locked at dusk every evening, so we weren't worried.  Then winter hit on December 1st, with snow.  I spent almost an hour sitting in the breakfast room, ostensibly reading the Economist, but really watching the fat fluffy flakes drift down, like a soft, endless waterfall.  Mesmerising.  It lasted until mid-morning the next day, then conveniently melted.  A week later the rains began.  We live at the bottom of a hill on the edge, as I've said, of a ravine.  It's not a particularly stable ravine, as idiot neighbours (moved now, thank god) kept using herbicides on the undergrowth that kept everything stuck together.  So the previous owners of our house installed an underground drainage system, and a sump pump.  And in November I said to Kelley, 'Y'know, we should get that sump pump looked at, just in case.'  And we got a plumber out to make sure all was in working order.  And then it started to rain.  I woke up in the early hours to a *thunk* as the pump thumped on, then I heard this rushing sound.  Sounds like a river, I thought, but dismissed the notion: the closest stream was in the ravine, at least a hundred feet from the bedroom.  When I woke up properly when it was light, I found I'd been right the first time.  We had a new creek cutting through our side and back gardens.  It was a serious, muscular flow; salmon could have swum it.  We called it Nickel Crick.  It lasted nine or ten hours.  It was the most amazing thing, an instant river.  And then gone.  And our house was fine.  The neighbours, the ones who bought from The Herbicidal Idiots, were not so lucky.  FEMA came out and told them not to walk around on the ravine side of their property; there's nothing holding the house up.  Other parts of the city and state also didn't do too well.  I-5 was drowned under 10' of water, for about a week.  But, yay, we were fine and snug and dry, and we sat by the fire and drank port (lovely forty-year tawny deliciousness) and played string with the cat.

the cat:
Zack the cat is sixteen, that is, old.  Earlier this year, he started losing a lot of weight.  As well as the usual senior cat kidneys story, it turned out his teeth were all disgusting and abcessed.  So we took him to our friend Kate at Cats Exclusive and she told us it was time for him to have dental work.  We were all worried; being under anaesthetic for hours is dangerous for old cats.  But he was in bad shape.  So we did it.  He lost all his upper teeth (astonishing to watch a cat yawn and see nothing but a smooth mouth roof ) and, wow, did his breath improve.  Then he started to eat.  Then he started to play again.  Then he started to kill things.  He likes rodents.  He breaks their necks, then brings them home proudly (we have an ivory carpet in the family room, so that's where he always drops them) and then finds himself sadly puzzled as to how to eat them without teeth.  He sort of sucks on them, and worries at them, and gums them hard, until they're wet and bald.  Last time he brought home a deer mouse I was pondering slitting it open for him to truffle about in, but Kelley gave me that don't-even-think-about-it look, followed closely by the well-you-can-clean-it-up shrug.  So I gave the cat some ham and then threw the mouse away.  But Zack looked pleased for a week.  And he's getting fatter.

film:
We use the family room to watch TV.  And the best thing I saw on that screen all year was 300.  I know, it came out last year, and we did actually see it on the big screen, but that was such a painful experience I couldn't fully enjoy the film.  The summer of 2006 was busy for us (screenplay and novel deadlines) and we simply hadn't had time to get out and see a film, so when we finally turned in our stuff and raised our heads we were shocked (shocked!) to find the film was no longer playing in our favourite theatres; we had to pursue it to suburbs.  I'm never doing that again.  First of all, every building out there looks just a place you take your car for an oil-change.  So it took us a while to find the cinema.  When we did get there, we found that crip access was crap, so I had to haul myself up a zillion steps to a seat near the back.  And then the sound.  Dear god.  I thought my ears--and eyes--were going to bleed.  I haven't been that stunned by sound since I was going to big live shows without earplugs.  I felt brutalised.  If I hadn't had to climb up so many fucking steps I would have left after five minutes, but I was too tired, and after ten minutes was so addled by the wall of sound that it seemed like a good idea to stay.  My ears rang until the next morning.  But the film was awesome.  So when we got the DVD on our own home system, drinking our own beer on our own sofa in our own family room (with the--somewhat stained--ivory carpet), I revelled in it.  All that death-or-glory bellowing.  All those astounding graphic set pieces.  All the naked women (though, sigh, there were many more mostly naked men running around in their oiled leather man panties).  All the reverence for Story.  It was a pure delight.  I'll be watching it again soon.
Hot Fuzz was a good giggle.  Like Shaun of the Dead it's an action comedy about the way we (that is, the English) live now.  It's funny, stuff actually happens, and it's guaranteed to cheer anyone with a pulse.
Live Free or Die Hard was worth watching.  Not a patch on the original Die Hard, of course, which is an almost perfect examplar of its genre.  (Really.  Very, very nearly perfect.)  But I still got a kick out of watching the producers allow for the possibility of extending the franchise into the 21st C for the digital natives (see an earlier blog).  Mind you, it was rather disturbing to watch a whole Die Hard film with John McClane not saying 'fuck' once.  Such a relief to find that this has been corrected on the DVD.
TV I liked this year includes The Amazing Mrs Pritchard: women running parliament.  Jekyll: balls-to-the-wall British take on Jekyll and Hyde.  And Torchwood: polymorphously perverse Doctor Who spinoff.

Kelley:
Kelley just lurves Torchwood, she wriggles with excitement when TiVo tells us we have another ep.  And I lurve Kelley.  She found a new exercise programme this year and I've had a great year watching her get limber and lithe and luscious.  Oh, life is good.

old books about old people in olden times:
I've started on a new novel.  Or perhaps it's a very old novel.  It's the novel I realise I've been heading for my whole life.  Where I was born, how I was brought up, how I see the world--all of it makes this novel inevitable (I talk about this more in my memoir).  The novel is set in the north of Britain in the 7th century, after two centuries of flux: migration, culture and religious change, urban collapse, ethnic struggle.  The Romans had left, the previously tamed and co-opted British Celts had experienced a resurgence of ethnic glory--reverting to old dreams, old fashions, old songs--and promptly had the cream of their warrior elite wiped out by much more pragmatical Angles.  The church (Roman and Ionian) was battling for the hearts and minds of pagans and lapsed Christians.  Picts and Scots, Angles and Saxons, Irish and British, Frisian traders and Gaulish queens, Italian bishops and Greek monks all mixed and melded and mangled each others mothertongue.  It was a century that formed the foundation of Britain as we know it (and, therefore, democracy and law as the Western Industrialised world knows it).  And at the heart of this story is a woman called Hild.  We don't know much about her, but from what little we do know it's clear she was formidable.  She trained five bishops; she hosted and facilitated the Synod of Whitby where the battle between Ionian (or 'Celtic') and Roman Christianity was finally settled peacefully.  I believe she's the most intriguing historical figure who has never been given fictional treatment.  So I'm going to do it.  I am doing it.  And it's pretty much blowing my mind.

I've been researching the basics--food, political systems, pedagogy, liturgy, language, culture, architecture, arms and armour--for about ten years (and one day I'll get around to compiling my bibliography; it will be long...) but it's only recently that I started to think about the tone and taste, the rhythm, the voice, the prose itself.  All I knew is that Hild had to be my protagonist, and that I didn't want to write in first person (ten years of Aud is enough).  So I revisited several old historical favourites to pick up some pointers.  Historical novels are notoriously susceptible to romance and sentimentality, which I am determined to avoid.  Love, great feeling, yes, of course, what's a huge novel without those?  But romantical frilly stuff, or syrupy sentiment--whether the hearts and flowers kind or the manly men heroical/patriotic variety--are two of the enemies of art (oh, there are many enemies: impatience, cliche, lack of talent, laziness, on and on and on).

I began with Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose.  Immediately, I made a note to myself: do not overload narrative with pointless erudition.  Do not succumb to opposite of romance and sentiment and indulge in too many pitiless Hobbesian descriptions (life is nasty, brutish, and short--and cold, and itchy and draughty).  As usual, I couldn't finish the book.
Mary Renault's The Persian Boy.  Now this was interesting--well, no, actually it bored me rigid.  Again, I couldn't finish the book.  But okay, yes, it was interesting, too, in the sense that the whole point of this story is sentiment, that is, Bagoas' delicate interior emotion, in the face of constant war, injury, and death.  And sometimes it spills over into sentimentality, that is, unearned emotion; there was lots of sex--though never really described--and supposedly love, yet it was never romantic.  The whole thing felt like one giant dissonance, like finding a tiny perfume bottle trodden into the mud of a battlefield.   It's a sequel to Renault's Fire From Heaven, which is stuffed full of love--of the sexual, sensual, philosophical kind--and which is The Persian Boy's polar opposite.
I picked up Marguerite Yourcenar's Memoirs of Hadrian again, and found it admirable but not likeable.  It is a novel of distance and balance--the body and the mind, age and youth, owning and letting go--but in the end, though beautiful, I found it too cool.
Cecilia Holland's The Earl and Henry Treece's The Great Captains.  See my other best-of lists for more on these--the Holland is definitely the superior work.
Rosemary Sutcliff's The Horse Lord.  This is difficult to summarise.  It's bursting with landscape as romance--the heather and furze, curlews and plovers, mist and windswept coasts--and the romance of history itself, the romance of heroism and patriotism, and yet it didn't stick in my craw the way the Treece did (perhaps because the cruelties weren't described so lovingly).  And it all ends in a spectacular, heroic sacrifice.  Yet, in the end, Sutcliff doesn't quite ring the bell, either.
None of these novels did.  None of them gave me what I'm looking for.  What I want to achieve with my Hild novel is immanence, ecstasy, reality.  When you read it, I want to own you, take you, brand you, change utterly the way you look at history and the world around you.  I want you to fall helpless, hopelessly in love.  I want to write of people, landscape, culture, belief, love, survival, joy, war, struggle; I want to write a novel that makes War & Peace look like a nursery rhyme.

dead wood:
To do that, I an rededicating myself to the joy of writing.  I've been getting rid of the old clutter and dead wood in my life--people I don't like, habits that aren't good for me, clothes I don't wear, dishes I'm embarrassed to use--so that I can dwell in a kind of peacefulness where Hild will join me, and grow.  Now if I could just get rid of our ancient old car (1992 Toyota Paseo) and get a spiffy Infiniti EX, then, oooh, life in 2008 would really, really rock...

12.17.07

- A year-end Best Of for the Aqueduct blog, in which I wax lyrical about music, books, and films I enjoyed this year.
- Coming soon, another roundup, this time for Chasing Ray

12.06.07

- Over the years I've seen a passage from Slow River referenced over and over by participants in the Digital Native/Digital Immigrant debate. The most recent citation is here (a blog by Henry Jenkins, co-founder of MIT's Comparative Media Studies programme). Apparently educators (and academics and consulting gurus of various stripes and flavours) think that when we are born dictates whether we're 'digital natives' (young people, inherently au fait with anything networked) and 'digital immigrants' (old people, parents who don't know how to programme their VCR--uh, that a joke, for all those who...oh, never mind). Some of these gurus and consultants seem to think that my musing in Slow River is one of the first articulations of this idea. I find that hard to believe. I can't find any other references right this minute but, really, it's such an obvious concept. And, like all obvious concepts, pretty simplistic.

I wrote Slow River in 1993/4, in a world of Pine and Lynx and ftp, the days of 1200 baud dial-up (a time when those with modems knew the difference between 'baud' and 'bps'). I wrote about a world I knew in my bones was just around the corner, where everyone was connected to everything all the time. Some of it I got right, some I didn't (though the hard tech wasn't the point of the book--the point was the characters and their story and, to a lesser degree, the biotech setting).

The concept of a clear divide between those who are native to the language of technological change and those who are immigrants in their own rapidly changing culture is a nifty rhetorical device for my fictional character, Lore (aged 21), but it's a conceptual starting place. It's a little startling to see this starting place turn into shorthand, then received wisdom and, now, approach the status of dogma. (Dogma, to my mind, is simply the real world equivalent of cliche in fiction. And cliche/stereotype is very rarely useful.) I think Henry Jenkins is absolutely right to sound the alarm.

The idea that, gosh, technology like, totally changes brain structure! is not useful. For one thing, just about every meaningful and/or repeated experience changes our brain architecture. The brain is plastic; it changes all the time. All. The. Time. That's its job. It's how our culture works: it changes. It always has. So what? Another reason that this notion of a digital divide is not useful is that it is another example of the kind of binary us/them thinking has got us into trouble so many time: right/wrong, black/white, good/bad. It's arrant nonsense. Nothing human is that absolute. People live and behave along a spectrum.

I know people in their fifties who love Pandora, built widgets for ning groups, and hack their TiVo to use through their phone. I know people in their twenties who don't know how to send photos and flush their cellphone into the sewer when it falls out of their pocket once they given up trying. Age has nothing to do with it; it's all about temperament. There are those for whom change is fun, and those for whom change is frightening. There are those who get tired and give up and pick an arbitrary stopping point: beyond this, no, I will learn no more.

The key is to keep learning playful. All people learn best through play. We always have. (In evolutionary terms, it's what play is for.) A three year-old in China five hundred years ago, a three year-old in Paris next year: they learn through play. A team-building exercise in corporate America: play. Flight simulators: play. The tools have changed, that's all. But tools change all the time.

I have to say, I don't know what the fuss is about. If anyone has any clues, please let me know.

12.02.07

- Kelley (visit her new website) has an interview with the Public Radio International (PRI) program 'To The Best Of Our Knowledge' airing this week on public radio stations around the US, and available in streaming audio. Her interview is the last of the show, starting at 38:30 and finishing at 52:00. The program topic is "Transgender Identity," and Kelley talks with interviewer Jim Fleming (the same interviewer who talked to me about Always) about Dangerous Space and the stories of Mars. The segment includes a brief reading from "And Salome Danced." My sweetie is awesome. Go listen.

11.25.07

- So, just in time for the holidays, a sale: of my memoir And Now We Are Going to Have a Party: Liner Notes to a Writer's Early Life.  This is a signed, limited, deluxe edition.  It normally sells for $75 but from now until December 10th it's on sale for $50.  Thirty-three percent off!  Buy six for your friends!  Here are some lovely quotes from satisfied readers (and viewers, and listeners, and, well sniffers ):

Press/Critical Acclaim...

"The Seattle novelist ("Always") takes an unusual approach to autobiography with this "Party," which comes in a box containing five chapbook-memoirs of her English girlhood and wild youth, a CD of songs performed by Griffith (both solo and with her 1980s band Janes Plane), three scratch-and-sniff cards, an autographed baby picture, replicas of her childhood drawings, and more."
— Michael Upchurch, Book Editor, Seattle Times

"This ain't your Mama's memoir."
— Malinda Lo, AfterEllen.com

"I'm always curious as to how writers got here from there - how did they find a way to make it all happen. Griffith does a superb job of telling that part of life as well as basically laying her heart open on the issue of love - both romantic and family. This is a very very honest book. If you know a would-be writer then this would make a lovely surprise gift - and if you know a teen whose struggling with coming out, well you can't go wrong with it there either."
— Colleen Mondor, ChasingRay.com

"I love the cherishing of the child Nicola in this package -- I love that an adult can do this with such completeness, and that in particular, Nicola did this for herself. I loved what Dorothy Allison said--how wonderful that Nicola has created this intricate archive for all of us, and this evocative package."
— Elena Yatzeck

"[R]emarkable...a do-it-yourself Nicola Griffith home assembly kit...oddly hypnotic, as if someone we barely knew had taken us up into her attic to rummage around in old trunks while telling fascinating stories about each artifact...fiercely honest...'I'm a writer,' she tells us early on, and she seems fascinated with the archaeology of that statement.  By the end, so are we, and we're convinced of its deep truth."
— Gary Wolfe, Locus

"[A]mbitious and satisfying, this memoir of a writer's formative years crackles with intelligence, wit, and pathos. Griffith's essays about sexuality and her writing are often funny, and always insightful. This box of a book is another shining example of twenty-first-century book-making, and a delight to own."
— Jeff VanderMeer, Amazon.com

10.09.07

- You have to see this. I have total, utter pop-up envy... (Many thanks to Jeff VanderMeer.)

09.22.07

- Welcome. It occured to me that new visitors to this site might appreciate a simple list of my books:

novels:
   Ammonite
   Slow River
   The Blue Place
   Stay
   Always
stories:
   With Her Body
anthologies:
   Bending the Landscape series
memoir:
   And Now We Are Going to Have a Party

There are always more books in progress, of course. Currently I'm working on a novel set in seventh century Britain (possibly a little Gaul). Call it my novel about the beginning of the West and democracy, of power and history and law, of belief and war and simple home comforts.

I'm also noodling with a full-length collection of short fiction, a collection of essays and interviews, and a sword-swanging fantasy novel. (These last three projects may never actually happen; they're what I play with when my real writing brain is chewing on the 7th C novel.) If you like the interactive community thing, I also have a Yahoo Group (about 250 members) and a MySpace page where I chat and blog. Drop by and say hello.

09.16.07

- Keep a watch for SciFi in the Mind's Eye, ed. Margret Grebowicz, out at the end of this month. My piece is "SF and Identity: Science and Fiction," an essay about how SF couldn't exist without love: of ourselves, the world, and our place in that world.

- Gary Wolfe reviews my memoir, And Now We Are Going to Have a Party, in this month's Locus (Sept 2007 no. 560)  It's the first review; I'm proud of it.  Many thanks to Gary for permission to reprint:

The recent success of Julie Phillips's much-acclaimed Tiptree biography (and news of a forthcoming Heinlein biography) seems to have generated a renewed interest in the lives of SF writers; last year the BSFA journal Vector devoted a special issue to this topic, and a panel at this year's Readercon speculated on other writers deserving of biographies.  Autobiographies of SF writers are another matter; for the most part they're been rather uninspired catalogs of sales and gossip, with an occasional bout of intemperate score-settling and not a good deal of introspection.  With few exceptions (Brian Aldiss is one), they seems to begin with the presumption of a purely fan-based audience, interested mostly in the author's role in SF and in behind-the-scnes anecdotes.  Nicola Griffith's remarkable multimedia memoir And Now We Are Going to Have a Party doesn't offer much in the way of SF autobiography--it pretty much ends near the beginning of her career, as she's moving to the U.S. to be with Kelley Eskridge--but it's certainly one of the most unusual associational items to come along in many years.

Payseur and Schmidt, which last yeart turned John Clute's abstrusely theoretical glossary of horror into an art-book collectible, has manufactured what amounts to a do-it-yourself Nicola Griffith home assembly kit, including five short volumes of memoirs, facsimiles of her childhood writings and drawings, photos, a CD of her music (both with her early punk band Janes Plane and her own singing), and even a set of scratch-and-sniff cards (which might be a terrifying prospect in the case of many other writers I can think of).  This all comes neatly packed in an elegant if pricey box, and it's all rather oddly hypnotic, as if someone we barely knew had taken us up into her attic to rummage around in old trunks while telling fascinating stories about each article. The main hazard in an ambitious project like this is that it'll look like a publishing stunt, and in the hands of a less fiercely honest writer than Griffith it might be.  But when you begin reading Griffith's memoirs, starting with her Yorkshire childhood and leading us through her intense involvements in sex, drugs, and music (and even an incident of arson) in the 1970s and '80s, it all begins to assemble itself as a coherent collage of sometimes brutal honesty (perhaps this is why a fold-out poster of an otherwise undistinguished childhood collage is included).  While most of her childhood drawings and alphabets look pretty much like anyone else's, the CD is an invaluable supplement to her accounts of her rock band days (she wasn't bad, and at least one of the Janes Planes songs, "Reclaim the Night," which she performs with a kind of Grace Slick intensity, could still do anthem-service), and the various poems and facsimile manuscript pages become fascinating in context.  Outside of mentions of an interest in space epics, the later discovery of women writers like McIntyre and Charnas, and a rather grim account of her initial Clarion experience prior to meeting Eskridge, there's not a good deal here about the SF world, no road-to-Damascus moments of picking up a paperback and deciding on a career that night, and in fact not much about her reading habits at all.  Nor does she seem to identify herself much with genre.  "I'm a writer," she tells us early on, and she seems fascinated with the archeology of that statement.  By the end, so are we, and we're convinced of its deep truth. -- Gary K. Wolfe

Some other responses:

“The Seattle novelist ("Always") takes an unusual approach to autobiography with this "Party," which comes in a box containing five chapbook-memoirs of her English girlhood and wild youth, a CD of songs performed by Griffith (both solo and with her 1980s band Janes Plane), three scratch-and-sniff cards, an autographed baby picture, replicas of her childhood drawings, and more.”
— Michael Upchurch, Book Critic, Seattle Times

“This ain't your Mama's memoir.”
— Malinda Lo, AfterEllen.com

“I'm always curious as to how writers got here from there - how did they find a way to make it all happen. Griffith does a superb job of telling that part of life as well as basically laying her heart open on the issue of love - both romantic and family. This is a very very honest book. If you know a would-be writer then this would make a lovely surprise gift - and if you know a teen whose struggling with coming out, well you can't go wrong with it there either.”
— Colleen Mondor, ChasingRay.com

“I love the cherishing of the child Nicola in this package -- I love that an adult can do this with such completeness, and that in particular, Nicola did this for herself. I loved what Dorothy Allison said--how wonderful that Nicola has created this intricate archive for all of us, and this evocative package.”
— Elena Yatzeck

- I've answered a few new Ask Nicola questions. I'm sorry to say that I've had to close down the Ask Nicola form due to overwhelming (300+) daily spam. You can still send questions via asknicola2 at nicolagriffith dot com. Once I migrate this site to another platform (I'm thinking Word Press, but I'd love to hear informed opinions), I'll get all that sorted; until then, I'll try to answer what I've got (perhaps 25 questions in the queue) slowly via the AN page and my MySpace blog.

08.12.07

- All done! Here'a a link to the round up of LBC-related blogs courtesy of Gwenda Bond).

08.07.07

- Bloggery on the high seas--several things either by me or about me:

- Roundtable discussion over at the LitBlog Coop. I know I'm biased (it's all about Always) but I'm finding it fascinating. Many thoughts on noir vs. hardboiled, the body and voice. Go read it. Feel free to join the discussion.
- My 5x5, a list of five books of long ago, far away (and never was) that nonetheless put you right there, over at About Last Night.
- A Seattle Metroblog all about discovering Seattle through the eyes of Aud.
- My Booksquare mini-essay about the trials and tribulations of writing a series character.

- Stay tuned for more tomorrow, and Thursday, and Friday. Meanwhile, I hope you'll join in all the chat and thinkery.

07.17.07

- Process porn! If you like process porn (a phrase I first saw on Gwenda Bond's blog), then you'll be in hog heaven. I've just written nearly 5,000 words on how I wrote and then rewrote each of my five novels. Find it at the Aqueduct Press blog. Let me know what you think.

07.05.07

- More MySpace blogging, this time on where I'll be in the next couple of months--Kelley's reading at the SF Museum and Hall of Fame, a Clarion West party, and Bumbershoot. Go take a look, then come and say hello.

06.23.07

- I've done a little more on my MySpace blog, this time on Serenity and stress.
- I've also updated the MySpace profile with some extras in the Things I Like list, mostly film and tv, and a new section, Recently Read. One day I'll get around to updating the list on this site but, honestly, having to fiddle with code is beginning to drive me crazy, so for now do look at the MySpace stuff.
- ANWAGTHAP is shipping this week. Yay!

06.06.07

Time for some BSP, that is, Blatant Sweetie Promotion.  Kelley's new book (her second, after New York Times Notable Book, Solitaire), is finally out.  Yay!  It has a gorgeous cover pic by Remedios Varo--v. appropriate pic, too (read the title novella, "Dangerous Space," and find out why and how).




The book already has kick-arse blurbs from Julie Phillips, Matt Ruff, and Gwyneth Jones. It collects seven stories (including a new novella), with an introduction by Geoff Ryman (author of Was and Air).  Various of the stories have been finalists for the Nebula and Tiptree Awards, won the Astraea Prize, and been adapted for television.  

Find out more at http://www.kelleyeskridge.com/DangerousSpace.htm

06.06.07

Time for some BSP, that is, Blatant Sweetie Promotion.  Kelley's new book (her second, after New York Times Notable Book, Solitaire), is finally out.  Yay!  It has a gorgeous cover pic by Remedios Varo--v. appropriate pic, too (read the title novella, "Dangerous Space," and find out why and how).





The book already has kick-arse blurbs from Julie Phillips, Matt Ruff, and Gwyneth Jones, and if that doesn't intrigue you enough to buy the book then, hey, you're a hopeless ca(u)se.

-----------------------

What is It?

Dangerous Space collects seven stories (including a new novella), with an introduction by Geoff Ryman (author of Was and Air).  Various of the stories have been finalists for the Nebula and Tiptree Awards, won the Astraea Prize, and been adapted for television.  

Find out more at http://www.kelleyeskridge.com/DangerousSpace.htm.

------------------------

Where to Get It?

Your local bookstore can order the book from Ingram (the distributor) or you can find it at amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Space-Kelley-Eskridge/dp/1933500131/

-------------------------

Some Early Reviews:

ideomancer:
 "...sometimes a writer just sweeps me off my feet and I forget what I was supposed to be doing. Such is the case with the title story from Kelley Eskridge's collection Dangerous Space. While the year is less than half over, this has garnered my vote as one of the best stories of the year."
http://www.ideomancer.com/main/ideoMain.htm

The Agony Column:
"...this collection from wonderfully primed-for-action Aqueduct Press shoots onto the must-have list for this year -- and probably onto a few award ballots as well."
http://trashotron.com/agony/news/2007/03-19-07.htm

Malaprop's Bookstore (Booksense blurb)
"This is the best collection of stories I've read in forever.  Cutting edge in every sense, Eskridge mines the raw edges of emotion -- love, lust and fear -- and places her characters in settings just a bit different to our own -- the near future, the recent past, or the slightly fantastic.  If you like Kelly Link, Nicola Griffith or Neil Gaiman, you'll love Kelley Eskridge."

--------------------------

And a Reading!

Kelley will be reading from Dangerous Space at the JBL Theatre of the Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle on Tuesday, July 10 at 7:30 PM. http://clarionwest.org/website/cat_readings/

--------------------------

Have fun with the book, and let me know what you think.  (Hint: it's brilliant /grin/.)

06.04.07

- Here are some books I've contributed stories or essays to that are coming soon.  Or at least soonish...

Bed: New Lesbian Erotica, ed. Victoria Brownworth (Haworth) June 2007

"An anthology of titillating fiction and poetry that celebrates the steamy creative diversity of lesbian sexuality.  Acclaimed writer and editor, Victoria A. Brownworth offers up a superior selection of sizzling tales and poetry from established authors and refreshing new writers.  This provocative collection explores the boundaries of woman to woman passion with style, substance, and some of the most erotic tales you'll ever linger over."

An InsightOut Book Club selection.

** My piece is Yaguara, a novella (more than fifty pages of fiction) of heat and shape-shifting, set in the jungles of Belize.

ISBN-10: 1560235799
ISBN-13: 978-1-56023-579-8

---

SciFi in the Mind's Eye: Reading Science Through Science Fiction, ed. Margret Grebwicz (Open Court) July 2007

 

"Whether you are wondering what early Star Trek episodes have to tell us about race or what post-apocalyptic literature has to say about the dangers of technology, SciFi in the Mind's Eye is full of engaging essays about gender, genes, ethics, and the apocalypse. The scholars in this volume examine how science fiction informs and inspires contemporary research in science and how breakthroughs in modern science spur science fiction authors on to more cutting-edge and exhilarating narratives.

What does our favorite science fiction tell us about the culture of science? What does it show us about how science and values interact and how science and politics affect each other? What can science fiction tell us about the future impact of science and technology? This volume brings together scholars and authors of science fiction to explore the role that science fiction plays (and could play) in our study and practice of science.

SciFi in the Mind's Eye offers previously unpublished work by a number of acclaimed SciFi authors in the form of "interventions" throughout the work. In her article, "How to Do Things with Ideas," L. Timmel Duchamp, known for her Marq'ssan Cycle series, details and explores her process of writing a story from a set of ideas to ink on the paper. Nicola Griffith, author of Slow River and Ammonite, writes of her early experience with science fiction and how it still impacts her today. Nancy Kress, author of Crossfire and Crucible, explores the way in which science fiction can anticipate future ethical debates, helping us to come to terms with issues in those debates before they become a reality. Finally, Ewa Lipska--a Polish poet--conducts an interview with Stanislaw Lem, author of Solaris, in which Lem muses over poetry, music, and his connection with Krakow.

SciFi in the Mind's Eye is an excellent introduction to the world of Science and Technology Studies. Grebowicz invigorates the many discussions of science by centering the book on science fiction. This book is informative for the technology buff, while staying accessible and enjoyable for all."

My piece is SF and Identity: Science and Fiction, an essay about how SF couldn't exist without love: of ourselves, the world, and our place in that world.  It's never been published before; I'm excited.

ISBN-10: 0812696301

ISBN-13: 978-0812696301

---

Periphery: Erotic Lesbian Futures, ed Lynne Jamneck (Haworth), September 2007

 

"High-quality lesbian science fiction has been hard to come by… until now! Here is a collection of highly readable stories from some of today's brightest names in science fiction. Periphery: Erotic Lesbian Futures presents fourteen speculative tales—mingled with a generous sprinkling of erotic storytelling—all centered on strong lesbian protagonists that will captivate your mind and titillate your senses.

Periphery: Erotic Lesbian Futures offers up stories that are as sexy and entertaining as they are thought-provoking. Not only do these alluring tales of worlds near and far grab on and hold tight, they tackle some of the most pressing issues of today—and tomorrow! From the messy effects of love and principles to exploring the human genome to corporate greed and beyond, these are science fiction stories foremost—all that eroticism is just an added bonus! And what a bonus it is!

Featured in Periphery: Erotic Lesbian Futures are:

• Marianne de Pierres, who takes you into a half-dream world of bliss
• Nicola Griffith and her moving exploration of art, genius, sex, trust, and how love can throw them all into chaos
• Gwyneth Jones's intimate look at what freedom means—and what it takes
• Kristyn Dunnion, whose protagonists' calls for liberation mean the monkey wrenching of a nightmarish capitalist system
• Lyda Morehouse and her eye-opening world where prostitution is beyond legal—it's sacred
• Kiera Dellacroix's probe into the very genes of humanity for what evolution may grant to a select few and the unexpected consequences of such gifts
• Melissa Scott and her time-bending story of love lost and love found
• Carolyn Ives Gilman's delicate examination of the tenuous balance struck by freedom and love
• Elspeth Potter, whose mecha-clad soldiers battle and explore more than just forbidden alliances
• and even more!

Periphery: Erotic Lesbian Futures is a diverse collection that's exhilarating in more ways than one! It takes you from this world to others never known and from the near future to times long beyond. This unique compilation will keep your senses stirred with excitement, desire, and always possibility."

** My piece is a story, "Touching Fire," set in a steamy Atlanta where art and love are at odds.

ISBN-13: 978-1-56023-649-8

no cover art, yet, that I know of

---

And then in 2008 (March, I think) Kelley and I have another joint essay, this time in an academic text from Liverpool University Press.  The essay is "War Machine, Time Machine," and the book is Queer Universes: Sexualities in Science Fiction, edited by Wendy Pearson, Veronica Hollinger, and Joan Gordon.  We address Monique Wittig's statement that "It is quite possible for a work of literature to operate as a war machine upon its epoch" and Anonymous's response, "Yes, but is it art?"  For the answer, you'll have to wait until March.

---

06.02.07

- Back from WisCon and Chicago (for more on this, see my MySpace blog)
- what with advance orders and WisCon, ANWAGTHAP is beginning to sell (about 100 copies so far--out of 450). For a book, er, box, that's been available only one week, that's pretty nifty
- coming soon is some info on what's, y'know, Coming Soon

05.15.07

- Always is nominated for the summer round of the LitBlog Co-op. See Gwenda Bond's recommendation. Oh, I'm looking forward to this...

05.12.07

- A new interview, this time with NPR-affiliate KUOW. Eighteen minutes of chat about Aud and self-defense here:

Nicola on The Beat

Many thanks to Megan Sukys for wonderful questions.

05.08.07

- Pre-orders for my memoir, AND NOW WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A PARTY (ANWAGTHAP for short), are a go:

http://payseurandschmidt.com/index.shtml

Price for the next couple of weeks is $65 (which includes shipping) and goes up to $75 thereafter. Only 450 copies, so I hope you get one if you want one.

05.04.07

- The ego has landed! Always in stores now...
- Two new interviews at Seattlest and AfterEllen. One new review in the Seattle P-I.

04.26.07

- Now I have my own MySpace page:

www.myspace.com/nicolagriffith

There's a blog that I hope to have time to update now and then. Come and make friends, let me know what you think.

- I did find time to update my appearances. I'm doing a zillion readings in May--Western Washington (Seattle, Redmond, Bellingham) mainly, followed by a couple in the midwest (Madison and Chicago).

02.27.07

- Yowza! The first review of Always is in, a starred review from Booklist:

*STAR* Griffith, Nicola. Always. May 2007. 480p. Riverhead, $26.95 (1-59448-935-1). Yowza! Griffith’s six-foot-tall, cropped-haired heroine Aud Torvingen is back, flying to Washington since she has inherited her father’s holdings and must deal with a Seattle real-estate manager who is robbing her blind. She also needs to see her wealthy, diplomat mother and meet her new stepfather. Interspersed are flashbacks of the women’s self-defense class she’d taught back home in Atlanta—with unforeseen and deadly results. Griffith deftly parallels the two narrative threads that comment on and complement each other, creating a synergy of action and adrenaline for one of crime fiction’s toughest yet most sensual lesbian detectives. Griffith’s writing is smart and crisply detailed as she smoothly orchestrates a plot that delivers Aud to the soundstage for an independent film. There, production problems raise her suspicions of sabotage, confirmed when the coffee urn is spiked with a drug cocktail of Ecstacy, magic mushrooms, oxycodone, angel dust, and speed, nearly killing Aud and various crew members. Fist-slamming physicality is beautifully balanced with raised emotional stakes as Griffith dares to take her lethally forceful heroine to a new level. — Whitney Scott

2.20.07



- Here it is, the cover of Always, due 3 May from Riverhead. It's available for pre-order at amazon.com and your friendly independant bookseller.

- I'll definitely be doing a bunch o' readings and signings around Puget Sound: Seattle (Bailey-Coy, University Books, Seattle Mystery Books), Redmond (Borders), Bellingham (Village Books). I might be doing something in Chicago and Madison, WI. (I'll certainly be in Madison for WisCon, at the end of May.) I'm mulling Los Angeles. I've been asking to go to Atlanta. I'll post times and venues as and when I confirm.

- To ask about a galley for review, email my Riverhead publicist, Victoria Comella.

01.12.07

- New Ask Nicola questions answered.

01.08.07

- Here's a podcast of my segment of To the Best of Our Knowledge. It's about fifteen minutes long. Many thanks to host Jim Fleming for asking such excellent questions.

01.06.07

- Starting on Sunday, public radio will air an episode of To the Best of Our Knowledge which includes an interview I did with the host, Jim Fleming, last month. I haven't heard it yet, but my guess is that the segment will be about ten minutes long, and include two very short (i.e. forty seconds or so) readings from Always.
"To the Best of Our Knowledge" is syndicated to a couple of hundred radio stations in the US. To see if your city is on the list, go to:
www.wpr.org/book/stations.html
If your station isn't on the list, or if you live outside the US, don't despair. Once shows have been released into the wild, WPR posts them on their website.
To find out more about this particular show, go to:
www.wpr.org/book/070107a.html
- In February, I'll be teaching that online writing course. I'm looking forward to it. I'll also be appearing at Left Coast Crime here in Seattle (my debut at a mystery convention). Should be fun. If you want to know more about that, go here:
http://lcc2007.com/
- Kelley and I have registered as members for WisCon 31 (over Memorial Day--i.e. end of May). We hope to have something more to say about that in the future. Also in May, of course, Always will be hitting the shelves. And I hope to have a *lot* more to say about that in a month or two. Meanwhile, if anyone on the list is thinking about attending, go here:
www.wiscon.info/
- Kelley and I have finished a new essay, "War Machine, Time Machine," for QUEER UNIVERSES: SEXUALITIES IN SCIENCE FICTION Edited by Wendy Pearson, Veronica Hollinger, and Joan Gordon, which Liverpool University Press will publish next year.

- 2006 ended badly for me: my mother died (thanks to all who sent good wishes and kind thoughts). Losing one's mother is like travelling to another country. Exploring is guaranteed to be interesting. Right now I feel as though I fell down a crevasse. I hope you will all forgive me for being a little erratic and very occasionally unavailable in the coming weeks and months. Meanwhile, my wish is that 2007 treats us all kindly, that it's exactly as exciting or peaceful as we'd like it to be, with much joy along the way.

12.17.06

- A couple of people have asked me recently for a map of Jeep. There's one in the latest edition of the book (reissued 2002) but here, for your delectation and delight, is a hand-drawn version (done artistically in felt-tip pen a few years ago). If you can't read the writing, hey, buy the book.

12.11.06

- A new Ask Nicola, is up, just one this time. It's a bit of a rant. It began as an answer to a question about visiting someone's school and morphed into a tirade on airport so-called security.
- My new novel, Always, has been delayed one month. The new release date is May 2007.

11.27.06

- The STAR online writing workshop below is now full. There may be another workshop scheduled in the future.

11.17.06

- Interested in taking a writing workshop? Read on:

** Special advance notice **

For the first time, Nicola Griffith will teach an online writing workshop. It's sponsored by STAR, the Southern Tier Authors of Romance. You can register for this month-long class now.

February 2007 online writing workshop

"Vivid fiction: how to breathe life into people and places," by Nicola Griffith. Maximum: app. 20 students (if needed, we will offer an encore workshop)

Readers want to live in the world of the story. They love to feel what the characters feel, to do what they do, to move through their world and to know that world viscerally: to taste it, hear it, feel it on their skin. When readers close a good book, the story lives on for them, as vividly as a personal memory. It's through living your story that readers fall in love with your book and make it their own.

This online workshop will use discussion, lectures, exercises, and critique sessions--of published works and your own work-in-progress--to show you:
- how to move a living body through a time and place so that the reader feels what the character feels
- how to use a range of senses--smell, sound, touch--to describe surroundings
- how the order in which things happen (narrative grammar) makes all the difference in putting a reader inside the character's skin
- how and why word choice matters
- how to do all this without slowing the story down
- how to draw lessons from your own favourite novels

Description is the foundation on which your fiction will live or die. It is essential for a vivid reading experience.

Nicola Griffith (nicolagriffith.com) is the author of four novels: Ammonite (Ballantine, Del Rey 1993), Slow River (Ballantine, Del Rey 1995), The Blue Place (Avon, Perennial, 1998), Stay (Nan A. Talese, Vintage, 2002), and editor of the Bending the Landscape anthology series (Overlook). She's written numerous essays on writing. Her work has won 12 national and international awards (including the Nebula Award, the World Fantasy Award, the James Tiptree Award, five Lambda Literary Awards) and been translated into nine languages. In the UK (she's English), she taught women's self-defense for five years--so she knows how to get physical. (Her forthcoming novel, Always (Riverhead, 2007), is essentially two books in one: a novel and a how-to manual.) She's taught writing for a variety of organisations ranging from the Arts Council of Great Britain to Clarion West. This will be her first online teaching experience; she expects it to be a blast.

Registration details:
Each workshop costs $15 for members of the Romance Writers of America, $20 for others.

All writers are welcome. If you know how to send e-mail, then you've mastered all of the technical skills you need to participate in our workshops. (The workshop coordinator will help with any computer issues.) You will be automatically enrolled in the workshop's listserve just before the class begins. All of the messages posted by the instructor and other students will be delivered directly to your inbox, although you may also view them from the Yahoo website. The instructor will post lessons twice a week for four weeks. Most of the lessons will include a writing exercise or question to prompt group discussion. Students are encouraged to share their writing and thoughts with the group but this is optional.

To register by check or money order:
Please complete the form below and send it with a check or money order (in U.S. dollars ) payable to STAR Writers Workshop to:

Jill Shultz, STAR Workshop Coordinator
4 Monroe Street
Binghamton, NY 13904
USA

To register via Paypal:
Send the payment to starpay@gmail.com. And send your information to Jill at js264@cornell.edu, including the workshop(s) of your choice, your name, e-mail address, and RWA number, if applicable.

Registration form
Please send this form plus your payment to the address above.

Your name
Your e-mail address:
Workshop:
RWA Member?
Yes/No
RWA number:
Total amount enclosed:

To learn about the 4 other STAR writing workshops, please visit our website after January 1st: http://members.aol.com/STARRWA/workshop.pdf

***Note: this workshop is now full, though we're still taking names for an overflow workshop. We just don't know what date that workshop will be... ***

- I have quite a few Ask Nicola questions in the pipeline, and I promise I'll get to them soon. I've been busy with an unexpected essay (another joint project with Kelley). Also with AND NOW WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A PARTY, my memoir.

9.09.06

- New Ask Nicola questions up, on Always, rewriting, work, bringing those planes in safely...

7.30.06

- New Ask Nicola questions up, on Aud, weird factoids, lesbian bed death--not, the gay/straight reading divide--again, not, Payseur & Schmidt, and oh, a zillion other things.

7.22.06

- New Ask Nicola questions up, on fanfic, website redesign, sex, sex advice, and more.
- Here's a photo taken at WisCon 30 in Madison, WI, over Memorial Day weekend. And here's the key to the pic, the names of all those previous GoHs (thirty-two altogether) just in case you don't recognise people like Le Guin and Delany, Yolen and Wilhelm, McIntyre and Fowler. It was a truly incredible experience. If anyone reading this is considering going to next year's convention, do it. Go. You won't regret it.

5.20.06

- New Ask Nicola questions up, on Ammonite (a question maybe, possibly interesting enough to make me want to revisit Jeep), monism, the hero/ine question, Octavia Butler, and more.

5.18.06

- For the delectation and delight (I hope) of those who want to know what I do and don't like, here's a humongous list of Things I Do and Don't Like, mainly consumables like books, wine, film, tv, restaurants, and so on. It sprang from discussions over on the Yahoo list. It's right off the top of my head, so I imagine there are things I've forgotten. I imagine sharp-eyed readers will remind me. Next up: we're planning to build a wiki. Stay tuned.
- I have a tentative (stress: tentative) publication date for Aud III, i.e. Always: next spring, that is April or May 2007
- For Italian readers: I have three short stories in the lastest issue of nova sf (number 71), a magazine of science fiction published by Perseo Libri (translated by Riccardo Gramantieri). (The same publishers who are busy translating Ammonite even as I type this.) It's out now.
- Over Memorial Day weekend, Kelley and I will be at WisCon, the feminist sf convention in Madison, Wisconsin. I'm doing two panels, one about YA fictioin (Saturday), and called Make Shit Up, which is on Sunday. Also on Sunday, Kelley and I will read our essay, "As We Mean To Go On."
- New Ask Nicola answers coming soon. Really.

4.27.06

- In the last twelve months I've had almost one million hits on this site (i.e. over one hundred thousand visitors). Woo hoo! The little webpage that could...

4.18.06

- New Ask Nicola questions up, on the ATL, science fiction, short fiction, and more.

4.17.06

- I've just finished a draft of ALWAYS and sent it off to my editor and agent for comment. It's a big fat book, more than 850 pages in typescript, i.e. close to twice as long as Stay. It's stuffed to the gills: Sex, drugs, and the movies. Some angst. Some bloodshed. Some misunderstandings. Self-defence lessons. Travel to Seattle. Action-packed sequences with fires and earthquakes and rock and roll. Some boats. Oodles of food. Some Zen and science fiction. Everything, in fact, but the kitchen sink (oh, wait...)
- Two new/old stories up on the fiction page: the closest I've come to writing horror, I think. (No ghosts, but some creepiness and despair. Just the thing for spring.)
- New Ask Nicola questions coming in a few days. Hey, maybe even tomorrow. Depends on whether the sun stay out here in Seattle. Sun=going to the park, not sitting in front of computer.

3.26.06

- New Ask Nicola questions up, some stuff about Maus, reclaiming "dyke", and Pearls Before Swine.

3.13.06

- New Ask Nicola questions up, a bit shorter than usual: I've just got back from the UK and I'm v. tired.

2.04.06

- New Ask Nicola questions up: the ending of Stay, the eternally interesting "swang," my decrepit archives, and the possibilities of young adult fantasy fiction.
- As I'm sure many of you have figured out, I'm seriously behind on AN. With luck I'll be able to get another set up within the next ten days or so.

12.22.05

- New Ask Nicola questions up. After a good deal of holiday cheer I've waxed prolix (and probably somewhat randomly and with bad spelling) about favourite quotes, strong women, and um, some other stuff that I can't remember right this second...
- Oh, and here's a wee gift:

I recently rediscovered the first book I ever made. I was three-and-a-half years old and put in the corner at nursery school as punishment for not believing in fairies. They had to keep my occupied to prevent further disruptions, so they gave me a bunch of old paper sewn together as a book and some crayons and, joy, a pencil. Imagine this as two facing pages: the received wisdom and then my already ingrained natural response. Just click the pic...

12.15.05

- A new interview up at Strange Horizons: "I lived in Hull...surrounded by people who in that time and place were considered the dregs of society: bikers, drug dealers, prostitutes, dykes, the terminally unemployed and unemployable. I starved and begged and did all the other things that one does to survive, and after a few years managed to drag myself free and onto my current super-respectable path."

12.05.05

- More Ask Nicola questions answered: Always, Always, and more Always.

12.03.05

- Wow, I've just seen the cover of the Romanian edition of Slow River, i.e. Riul linistit and it's amazing (click here for a better look). Really captures a lot about the book. The publisher, Millennium, is brand new and doing some interesting things so, if you happen to speak Romanian, yout should check it out. Meanwhile, if you speak Romanian, there's apparently a review of Riul linistit somewhere on a Romanian fan list, Yahoo maybe? My thanks to Eddie for that, and if I get a URL I'll post it.

- I'm woefully behind on answering Ask Nicola questions--I mean months behind. My apologies to all and hope to start cranking some of those out Really Soon.

11.24.05

- In the spirit of giving thanks for the most important people and things in my life, I want to share with everyone As We Mean to Go On, the essay I wrote with Kelley about our personal and professional partnership of seventeen years.

11.19.05

- The eBay auction to benefit the African Well Fund raised more than $2,000. Wow. This is huge. As a result of your generosity, literally hundreds of people will have the benefit of clean water every day for twenty years or more. Think about that for a minute; you have changed lives. I thank each and every one of you.

11.09.05

- More Ask Nicola questions answered, this time on Italian translations, on meditative reading, on why Aud didn't have sex with Tammy in Stay, on the trickiness of word choice, and more.

- A reminder that I'm auctioning off the right to name a character in my new Aud novel. One hundred percent of the proceeds go to the African Well Fund. The auction is live now.

11.07.05

Have a character named after you...
...not for free, of course. I'm participating in an upcoming eBay auction to benefit the African Well Fund. I am donating the right to name a character in my next novel (Aud III aka--for now, anyway--ALWAYS). The winning bidder can use his or her own name, or give the right as a gift to a friend or family member (your sweetie, or child, or goldfish). The namesake will receive a personalised signed copy of the published book (so that's at least a $25 value right there). 100% of the proceeds go to the African Well Fund. My partner Kelley is making the same donation, in a separate auction, to name a character in her next novel.

The AWF is a spiffy organization that funds the building of wells and springs in Africa. They've brought clean water to tens of thousands of people. The gift of a well or spring has an enormous impact on people's lives: in many communities, women carry the weight of tens of pounds of water several miles every day in order to provide for their children, livestock, crops, cooking and washing. Many people only have access to water that is contaminated with disease. Two million children die each year from water-borne illnesses. Helping build a well or spring isn't just a matter of convenience--it saves lives.

Kelley wrote an article about the African Well Fund for the U2 fan website @U2 (AWF was founded by a group of U2 fans). If you'd like to know more about the group, visit their website, or read Kelley's article.

The auctions are live today:

bid for my character
bid for Kelley's

10.25.05

- Another old interview, this time from 1998. It was with a women in Denver and was for a Colorado lgbt magazine but, again, all the details are lost in the mists of time. If anyone recognises this, please do write so that I can credit the right people.

10.23.05

- I found a couple of old interviews, one from 1995 and one from 1997. Some of the details about first publication are a little hazy because, well, both my records and my memory are similarly hazy. If anyone has any better info, please send it to me.

09.11.05

- More Ask Nicola answers, on Bending the Landscape, geeks v. nerds, Jack Reacher, DIVA, and other stuff.

08.31.05

- More Ask Nicola answers (oh my god, two lots in ten days, get out the flags...), including Aud and her readers as second class citizens, STNG and gender, Annie Dillard, increasingly strange Agony Auntie ANs (maybe I should start up an archive for those, too, a bit like Do My Homework), and other fascinating and doubtless enlightening subjects.

08.22.05

- Well, finally, some new Ask Nicola answers, this time on Garrison Keillor, Aud's "Troll Story," alternative lives and careers, lovers who want one dead, and more.

08.20.05

- My editor at Riverhead, Sean McDonald, and fellow editor, Megan Lynch, talk in Media Bistro about how they work with writers. Just thought some of you might be interested in how this stuff works from the other perspective.
- My apologies for not getting around to doing any Ask Nicola answers for awhile. I've been a bit distracted. There are about two dozen questions in the queue. I promise to get at least one batch of questions answered before the end of the month. Really. Maybe even two batches...

"06.04.05

- New Ask Nicola questions answered, this time a twist on the ever-popular "swang," the L-Word and lesbian conspiracies (oh, yes, the lesbian cabal rules the world, especially Hollywood), and a Mallory/Aud showdown: who wears the best clothes?

06.02.05

Kelley and I would like to announce the arrival of our very first collaboration. No, no, not a baby... An essay, "As We Mean To Go On," about our personal and professional partnership: what it means to be writers together, how books and writers helped us understand each other when we met, how our work draws us closer all the time. For now, the only way to read it is to buy the book it's in, Bookmark Now, edited by Kevin Smokler (Basic Books, $12.95).

Kevin's doing a 7-city tour (more info about this and about the book in general from bookmarknow.net) and Kelley and I will be doing two readings and signings here in Seattle in mid-July (see appearances for more details.)

The book is an anthology of essay from younger writers about how they and we feel about our work in this overwhelmingly digital and visual world. It has some cool things to say. Essays from Christian Bauman and Paul Collins got me thinking, and there are contributions from people like Nell Freudenberger, Neal Pollack, and Tracy Chevalier.

One last thought. Someone who has known Kelley all her life, and me for seventeen years, said they learnt things they didn't know about us from this essay. I'm curious about others' response.

05.08.05

- Some general updates: I've rationalised the audio page, with direct links to my reading of "Spawn of Satan" and to some songs. I've also added a new piece to the essays section, on what to expect from an author reading. I might get around to answering some new Ask Nicola questions soon. There again, I might not.

04.17.05
- More Ask Nicola questions answered: MS and science fiction and Sturgeon's Law.

03.31.05
- More Ask Nicola questions answered, this time on love and Aud (and, oh, okay, me) and paintings and Michelle Wolff.

01.25.05
- More Ask Nicola questions answered, this time on Janes Plane (complete with links to the music), the shadowy academic Them, self defence, and more.

01.21.05
- With Her Body has been nominated for a Lambda Literary Award in the F/SF category. Other finalists in the category are:

Firelands by Michael Jensen, Alyson Books

Shadow of the Night: Queer Tales of the Uncanny and Unusual edited by Greg Herren, The Haworth Press

The Ordinary by Jim Grimsley, Tor Books

The Wizard of Isis by Jean Stewart, Bella Books

With Her Body by Nicola Griffith, Aqueduct Press

The award will be presented in New York, June 2 2005. Go here to see complete list of finalists in all categories

01.19.05
- More Ask Nicola questions answered. With any luck at all, that is, if moving house doesn't get in the way of everything, there should be more in a few days.

01.16.05
- More Ask Nicola questions answered, and not before time. I ponder upon what to write next, the vagaries of Glocks, fake tales of motorcyle derring-do, and more. I'm planning to, gasp, answer even more questions Really Soon Now. Maybe even within the next two or three days. So watch this space.

11.16.04
- More Ask Nicola questions answered: a new novel, a new short story collection, Christina Cox, more on that Xena fanfic (again), a rant about drug companies and their lies, and more.

10.23.04
- I have a new book available, With Her Body: three stories (well, if you want to get picky, a story, a novelette, and a novella--136 pages altogether). Here's what the press release says:

With Her Body presents three pieces of short fiction by the Nebula-, Lambda-, and Tiptree-award winning Nicola Griffith. Among the brightest stars of feminist sf, Griffith is known chiefly for her earthy yet luminous novels Ammonite, Slow River, and The Blue Place. Griffith’s particular attention to physical sensation and perception imbues the prose style of With Her Body with almost palpable heat.

Nicola Griffith will be donating all the royalties for her volume to the Rehab Services of the Multiple Sclerosis Association of King County (MSA). "The MSA is unique,” writes Griffith. “It offers yoga and hydrotherapy classes which are specifically designed for people with MS. These classes aren't just about therapy, they're about taking joy in the body, even one that's not perfect. I want to share that joy—just as I try to in my work."

With Her Body
Short Fiction by Nicola Griffith
136 pages
ISBN: 0-9746559-4-5
$8
www.aqueductpress.com/orders.html

You can pay via Paypal, or if you have special requests send email to the press (it's run by friends of mine, so I trust them). I've pre-signed about twenty copies, but if you want yours personalising, just let the Aqueduct people know, and they'll let me know, and we'll work something out.

Also, if you know any local independent bookstores that would like to stock this, tell them about it and give them the Aqueduct URL.

These are sf/f stories about joy and the body--sex and nature and dancing and love, some drinking, some shape-changing, some foreign climes--plus a nifty essay about what it all means, by L. Timmel Duchamp. All for eight dollars. And you get to feel virtuous because you'll be helping to fund yoga classes for people with MS. So buy one. Buy five and hand them out as holiday gifts. Share the joy.

8.22.04
- Cool new feature. At least I think it's cool. It's a Guest Map. You stick a pin in the map to show where you live. It can be as anonymous as you like. Or not. A cool way to see where everyone is.

8.08.04
- More Ask Nicola questions answered: life is good, female violence, making weapons, and more.

8.05.04
- Finally, something I've been meaning to do for a long time: a search function for these pages. Yay!

8.04.04
- Some new Ask Nicola questions on the Mythic Norwegian, the fascination of sewage, definition of speculative fiction, and more.
- Also, I talk in last week's Seattle P-I about decision-making and health, drawing a link between yoga and Star Trek... (Just go read it.)

6.10.04
- Wow, two sets of Ask Nicola in a week. This time it's some musings on multiple sclerosis and Doing Good Works, on three books I've read recently that you should, too, and on love at the heart of novels.

6.10.04
- Finally, after a bit of a break, some new Ask Nicola questions answered, this time on nobility and Lord of the Rings, the essence of Aud on sale for one dollar, the L Word, oysters and retro furniture, and every writer's fantasy. There are about fifteen more questions in the queue, so stay tuned for more in a few days.

6.03.04
- Bending the Landscape: Fantasy will finally be out in paperback at the end of this month. Go buy the book that started it all.

3.06.04
- Kelley and I will be at the Woodinville Barnes & Noble at 7:00 pm on Thursday (3.11.04). Kelley will be chatting to the science fiction reading group about Solitiare. - More Ask Nicola questions answered. This is a long one, with some rants about gay marriage, spirituality, and being Mrs. Real Writer and spouse.

1.14.04
- Kelley and I will be at Ravenna Third Place Books on Sunday (1.18.04). Kelley will be reading from an unpublished story, and I'll be drinking coffee and luxuriating in the fact that I don't have to do any work. The reading, in support of Clarion West, a writers' workshop held here in Seattle every summer, starts around 4:30 pm. It's free. It'll be fun. They have good books.

12.27.03
- New Ask Nicola questions answered: more book recommendations, Travis McGee's homophobia (just read it before you get all pissed off and fired up), more Buffy, love and the Platonic Ideal thereof (and why the idea pisses me off so much), and more. For the first time in, jeez, years, I'm totally caught up on AN. Wow. I'm smiling here...
- Also a brief essay that first appeared on the Central Booking website (which is no more, which is a pity), "Doing it for Pleasure."

12.24.03
- New Ask Nicola questions answered: more book recommendations, Buffy and Xena and Ripley, mysterious writing process, and more.
- So, okay, I lied last time about it being just a few days before more Ask Nicola answers. Such is life. But it means I'm still a bit behind. This week's excuse--it's the holidays, people. I don't *need* an excuse. Anyway, in the spirit of holiday cheer, here's a wee toy that I've wasted a lot of time playing with lately. If you haven't seen it before, watch it for a minute or two before giving it a shake. Happy, you know, Thing.

12.03.03
- New Ask Nicola questions answered: on book recommendations, Xena fan-fic, Norwegian sculpture, and more.
- I'm desperately behind with Ask Nicola questions (there are at least a dozen in the queue); may apologies to all who are waiting patiently (and not). More responses in a few days. Really.

11.06.03
- Want to see two new pictures of me with bare arms, big grin, and beer? Good. But they're not available for free, because they're part of a calendar which is for sale to raise funds for a good cause, the Multiple Sclerosis Association of King County. (Yep, I'm finally a calendar girl. Miss March, I think.) The calendars were a labour of love--donated paper stock, donated photographers time, etc. etc.--and are shot in delicious black and white. They cost $10 each. Go buy one. Go buy ten. (Everyone needs a kitchen calendar, and you'd spend twice that on some tacky kittens-and-puppies thing to hang on the wall.) The MSA is a great organisation which gets all of its money from donations (as far as I know, no government $$$ at all) and spends 82% of it on direct services for people with MS: in-home physical therapy, advocacy, reduced-fee yoga, housing, hydrotherapy, and so on. You might like to consider giving a donation. Tell them I sent you. Maybe they'll give me a free yoga lesson...

11.02.03
- New Ask Nicola questions answered: that missing chapter, too sexy for my shirt, and more.

10.19.03
- New Ask Nicola questions answered: the joys and perils of love, a new Do My Homework (sigh), other people's websites, when the new Aud book will be out (and cutting a whole chapter stuffed with sex), and more.

09.29.03
- A new interview is available on Strange Horizons.

09.19.03
- More Ask Nicola questions answered, this time on Georgia, openness and bravery, and Palm Reader.
- I'll be at the Woodinville Barnes & Noble store on Thursday, November 13th, 7:00 pm, to talk to the SF reading club about Ammonite. Everyone is welcome.

09.16.03
- More Ask Nicola questions answered, this time on Aud and music (yep, again, but I think it's interesting stuff), on the role of an agent, and on my dilatory, dawdling and downright dismal record of not keeping to a timetable when it comes to posting more free short fiction. Something about Angelina Jolie, too, and other stuff, but I'm too busy trying to catch up with the queue of Ask Nicola questions to go look.

07.30.03
- More Ask Nicola questions answered, this time on the similarity between Nadia and Spanner, on regrets and wishful thinking, on short fiction as practise for novels, and more.

07.29.03
- Star of Washington:

Barnes & Noble booksellers in Western Washington have joined together to spotlight exceptional local writers in the "Star of Washington" program. This month, Olympia's Barnes & Noble is proud to host Nicola Griffith, author of STAY, as the "Star of Washington." The public is invited to attend a reception and book signing in her honor on Wednesday, August 20th at 7:00 pm.

So if you live in the south Puget Sound area (or anywhere else but want to travel a few miles), come to Olympia and meet me and Kelley (who will be happy to sign copies of Solitaire). I've never been to Olympia before, so it should be fun. I'm looking forward to having a look around and meeting people. Maybe I'll even read something from the Aud book-in-progress. No promises.

07.25.03
- More Ask Nicola questions added: giving and receiving gifts, what I need in order to write, love and war, killing and the blue place.
- In addition to the stories in .pdf, those with Palm Pilots can now read "A Troll Story". (Thanks to Mike Segroves at Palm Digital Media for the formatting. Also newly available for Palm Reader format is Stay, on sale for $8, which seems like a deal to me.) If there's enough demand, I'll make the other stories similarly available. Write and tell me what you think.

07.13.03
- More free fiction added: a story, "Song of Bullfrogs, Cry of Geese," and a novelette, "Touching Fire," written just before and just after writing Ammonite. Write and tell me what you think.

07.10.03
- I'll be in St. Louis at Left Bank Books on Tuesday, 15th July at 7:00 pm to read from and sign the paperback of Stay, and, most importantly (for me, anyway; I love this stuff), talk to readers about anything and everything in a Q&A session afterwards. Kelley will be there, too, so if any of you have a copy of Solitaire, bring it along for her to sign. I hope some of you can make it.

06.22.03
- I've been muttering on and off about putting up some of my short fiction in .pdf format for free download, and I've finally got around to doing two: "Mirrors and Burnstone," the precursor to Ammonite, and "Down the Path of the Sun," the first story I wrote. Both come with brief story notes. (Two other pieces, "A Troll Story," and "Satan's Super Spawn?" are also available, but only for online reading.) Write and let me know what you think. If enough people like the idea, I'll add stories every now and again, perhaps in themed pairs. For now, though, I hope you enjoy these two very early pieces.

06.15.03
- More Ask Nicola questions answered: police work and taking the job home, shrines and slippery slopes, music and shallowness...
- The mailing list link has been fixed. If there's anything in Ask Nicola you want to talk about with others, this is the place for you. There's also a weekly live chat. Go join.

06.04.03
- More Ask Nicola questions answered: dreaming, research and laziness, autographs and anonymity, police stations and peep shows...

06.01.03
- More Ask Nicola questions answered: a list of my fiction and non-fiction publications to date, whether or not I'm Robin Hobb, being a monster, and more.
- Bending the Landscape: Horror is out in paperback, and the Stay paperback should be available in about a week or so.

05.27.03
- Several Ask Nicola questions answered, on why there's been such a gap between updates, writing non-fiction, BMW plants, and more.

03.02.03
- Several Ask Nicola questions answered, on Travis McGee and Aud, going back to Jeep (again, sigh), ladybirds, stealing, grief and healing, and more.

02.24.03
- Several Ask Nicola questions answered, on Young Adult novels, being jealous of baby dykes, Ontario, and reader demographics. Another three or four Q&As will go up before the weekend.
- A new Community Resources page, which hopefully will grow as more people send in URLs and/or phone numbers for me to list. (Frankly, it's looking rather scraggly and sad at the moment--send me info!)

02.04.03
- Several Ask Nicola questions answered, on returning to Jeep, writing a fantasy novel, the NBCC short-list, the Lambda Literary Award short-list, bush fires in Australia, a book with the title Cunt, the scarcity of good novels, and so on.

02.02.03
- Stay has been short-listed for a Lambda Literary Award in the Best Lesbian Fiction category. The winner will be announced at a gala dinner at the Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles, on May 29th, 2003. For other nominated works, see the Lambda Literary Foundation website.
- A reader from Italy pointed out a couple of weeks ago that some of the sound files on the audio page were broken. Those are now fixed--but they would still be screwed up if no one had told me (thanks, Ari). So if anyone spots anything else broken, drop me email, okay?

01.12.03
- Kelley and I will be signing for an hour at the Woodinville Barnes and Noble on 15 February, 2:00 - 3:00 pm.
- More Ask Nicola questions answered, this time a total rant about lgbt categorisation in publishing, aphids, and stealing Suzanne Vega lyrics.

01.10.03
- InsightOut has declared Stay their Best Lesbian Novel of 2002. I'm delighted. (Best Gay Novel is At Swim, Two Boys, by Jamie O'Neill, about which I've heard great things.)
- More Ask Nicola questions answered, this time on Aud-as-uber-Xena, resources, Monique Wittig, and single-sex reproduction. There'll be more in a couple of days. I mean it this time. Really.

01.01.03
- Happy New Year. I'm still puzzled by the fact that another year has skipped by without me seeming to fill it with anything.
- Three new Ask Nicola questions, this time on William Boyd and two recommended sf novels, grief, and women's self defence. There'll be more in a couple of days.

12.17.02
- Okay, here's an idea I stole from Kelley: a way to get signed, personalised copies of my novels shipped direct to your door. If you act now and are willing to pay for express shipping, you could probably have Stay or any of the other novels by the holidays. Thanks to the University Book Store in Seattle.
- I hope to have a couple of Ask Nicola questions in the next day or two.

12.09.02
- Three new Ask Nicola questions. This time it's immigration, Aud's (debatably) incredible abilities, and Tara's demise.
- The What's New page got too long, so I chopped it in half and the rest can be found in the What's New Archive.

12.04.02
- I've answered three new Ask Nicola questions. Go read about the Red Dogs, and out of control street drug squads, about Joss Whedon's "Firefly," and Anya as Aud in the Buffyverse
- News about Kelley Eskridge's Solitaire: if you go buy the December 8 issue of the New York Times Book Review you'll see the novel listed as a Notable Book of 2002. Yay!

12.01.02
- I've seen the cover of the new Slow River edition (Ballantine, August 2003), and it's gorgeous. View a thumbnail or the bigger version.
- The Vintage paperback edition of Stay will be out in June. The publisher will be sending me out on the road again. So far I'm scheduled for San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, and "Upon Request." So if you want me to travel to your town, now's the time to start working with your local bookseller and/or media to ask Vintage to add you to the list.

11.30.02
- I'll be reading at the Wild Rose on Thursday, December 5th. Things begin at 8:00 pm. Books, beer, and babes. What more could you want?
- ABC Australia have my story, "Spawn of Satan," up on their website. Go listen.
- The September issue (11.02) of Lambda Book Report is out. Maybe it's been out a while, but I've only just seen it. Inside there are interviews with me and with Kelley and reviews of both Stay and Solitaire.

11.11.02
- Okay, well, for the first time in months, I'm finally caught up with Ask Nicola questions. There were so many I had to split them into five separate posts: stuff about narrative voice, and education, and interractial relationships, and science fiction, and teenagers, and moon pie, and what makes a good first reader, and...ah, but go see for yourself.

10.27.02
- Last week I recorded a reading of "Spawn of Satan," the short fiction I wrote for Nature a couple of years ago, for Australia's ABC Radio. It will be broadcast sometime during their Future Weekend, November 23 and 24. Exact dates and times to follow.
- Next weekend I'll be in Bellevue: Saturday November 2, at the Newport Way Library (14250 S.E. Newport Way), from 1:30 to 3:00.
- In December, I'll be reading at the Wild Rose, a bar in Seattle. It's the first Thursday of the month (the 5th I think) around 8:00 pm (see appearances for details). My reading is followed by an open mike, so if any of you live in the area and want to try your reading wings in front of a friendly audience (and while fortified with alcohol ) drop by. Maybe we could even have a game of pool. More details closer to the time.
- The October issue of the Lambda Book Report will contain interviews with and photos of me and Kelley. There will also be reviews of Stay and Solitaire. I haven't seen a copy yet, but it's due to hit the shelves any time.
- I've answered some new Ask Nicola questions, including one concerning a petition about Iraq.

09.23.02
Kelley is doing a reading from her new novel, Solitaire, this Wednesday, September 25, at 7:00pm, at University Books in Seattle.
- There are a few more Ask Nicola questions answered: stuff about when the next Aud book will be done, fans in Singapore, and the joys of autumn.

09.05.02
Bending the Landscape: Horror