news | Marie Marshall

May 28, 2014

Vampires lurk in a future NY, murderers lurk in the Bayous…

I hesitated to share some of Millie Ho’s preliminary work on the graphic version of From My Cold, Undead Hand, featuring teenage vampire-hunter Chevonne Kusnetsov, because this is as far as we got with the project. It would be doable if we both had unlimited time and no other projects on the go. However, I agreed with Millie when she said that she should concentrate on her own immediate work, and I promptly took my cue from that and dived back into my own. Nevertheless, you’ll all be pleased to know that she has agreed to produce the cover for the text and e-versions of the novel.

Meanwhile the editing process has begun. The manuscript is with my publisher’s editor, and his eagle eye has already found an obvious typo on the first page! Chevonne is surprised at that, as you can see, but it shows that the process works. I can recommend it to any fellow authors who are thinking of submitting a manuscript, by the way. It might be costly without a publishing deal, but your submission will be more polished.

Another ‘meanwhile’ – I am busy writing the sequel, provisionally titled KWIREBOY vs VAMPIRE, upper case deliberate. I know where it starts – it starts with a 1960s-style beach party for vampire surfers. I know where it ends – in a devastated DC in the depths of a dark nuclear winter. I know a lot of the middle – blood is drunk, flesh is eaten, there is madness, there is a death cult, there is good, clean fun. How the story weaves from place to place is up to my characters. I allow them to live. Well, apart from the vampires who aren’t really ‘alive’ as such, but you know what I mean.

Watch this space, then, for more vampiric newsgrabs. It’ll be totally swagger!

Yet another ‘meanwhile’. Watch out for Hagridden, a novel set at the periphery of the American Civil War – a dangerous and murderous place to be, where escape from the battle does not necessarily mean an escape from the killing. It’s written by Sam Snoek-Brown, whom regular visitors to this web site will know is a contemporary American author whose writing I admire. There’s not long to wait for this novel, as it is due for launch in August of this year. Reminders here and here.

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May 18, 2014

‘Photography on wings’

Final Flyer

Photography on wings is the title of an exhibition, to be staged in Nottingham from 7th June to 31st July, of the photographs of Harminder Nagi. The photographs, all of winged creatures, will be accompanied by poetry by twenty international poets including myself. The exhibition is an extension of the book Continents Connect: poetry on wings which was published in 2012. If you’re anywhere near Nottingham between the dates mentioned above, please do make a point of going along to visit the exhibition. For those of you who can’t make it, here’s the poem I wrote for the book; it’s called ‘Eros and Psyche’, and I wrote it as though for Emily Dickinson.

I have your beauty safe in a box, ever since
I scotched my shoulder with a half-nocked arrow.
Sometimes I let it out to sit amongst the flowers
and drink; it settles until I shade it from the sun.

Things like this are made to delight us, I muse.
The cynic at my side shakes his head, quotes
a priori laws, says that the world is not about us.

The heart seeks pleasure first, I tell him firmly,
and I fall so deep in love with the phrase that
I etch it on my next arrow, drive that one deep
into the ambushed back of a poet, to her surprise.

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May 14, 2014

The Phoenix rising is ‘a groundbreaking anthology’!

The Phoenix Rising from the Ashes, Editor-in-Chief Richard Vallance (Deputy Editor, me), recently received an accolade from World Literature Today, the prestigious and internationally respected literary periodical published by the University of Oklahoma. The anthology was included in its ‘Nota Benes’ page for summer 2014, which contains editorial recommendations for books to read over the season. You can see their comments in the context of their selection here. Their assessment was as follows:

‘A groundbreaking anthology of poetry presented in six languages, The Phoenix Rising from the Ashes accomplishes a perfect revival of the sonnet. Divided into themes but without a formal table of contents, this artistically rendered collection provides readers with a sense of both choice and surprise. The 315 sonnets on display counter the popularly held notion that the sonnet is outmoded.’

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May 5, 2014

Angélique Jamail at DFW Writers’ Conference

Below is a picture of Angélique Jamail at the recent DFW Writers’ Conference in Hurst, Texas, with a copy of The Milk of Female Kindness. The anthology, to which I contributed both poetry and some consulting editorship, was launched in Australia earlier this year. It is the ‘baby’ of Kasia James, and contains some wonderful pieces of writing about motherhood by a number of women from around the world. My own poems in the anthology are not available anywhere else, by the way.

image by Sarah Warburton

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April 25, 2014

Dedication

Here is the dedication on the flyleaf of my personal copy of The Phoenix Rising from the Ashes. The ‘R’ is Richard Vallance, Editor-in-Chief.

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April 23, 2014

Chewbaccalaureate!

cbcsheader

I have been asked to do some funny things in my time, but honouring the ‘Sacred Drunken Wookiee’ has to be one step beyond. Let me explain. Sort of.

I was recently approached by a member of the Intergalactic Krewe of Chewbacchus, which is a Mardi Gras parade organization from New Orleans, and asked to provide a series of short poems. The poems would be integrated into a number of ‘parade throws’ – items to give away to the street audience as the parade passes.

The Krewe consists (according to the person who commissioned me) of in excess of five hundred wonderfully nerdy ‘sci-fi geeks’, whose mission is to save the Galaxy… one drunken nerd at a time. Their parade theme is science fiction taken not-too-seriously, eco-friendliness taken slightly more seriously, and whooping-it-up taken in deadly earnest.

We’ll be producing the parade throws between now and February 2015, when the parade season begins in New Orleans. They’ll be in the form of little boxes, into which will be placed little pictures, gew-gaws, and found items, as well as a little baked-and-painted TARDIS. The outside of the box will be decorated as a TARDIS, and the idea is either to inscribe my words on the back of the box, or include them in a little scroll inside. Whichever, I get my name and © on each poem.

It’s rather exciting knowing I’ll be part of next year’s Mardi Gras in New Orleans, if even by remote control. It’s not my first remote connection with that city, as not only were several poems in my first collection, Naked in the Sea, inspired by what I knew of it, but also another poem was inscribed on an African drum which is now on display at the New Orleans Museum of Art. Not bad for someone frae Dundee…

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April 2, 2014

Spring 2014 showcase at ‘the zen space’

moon-face-smiling The Spring 2014 showcase at the zen space is now published, and can be seen here. the zen space is my little e-zine for haiku and related in-the-moment poetry. I’ve been editing publishing it since 2011, honing my editorial skills. If you have never visited before, please feel free. There are now eleven showcases to browse through.

March 26, 2014

Order ‘The Everywhen Angels’ at Waterstones

Readers in the UK can now order a copy of The Everywhen Angels at their local Waterstones. It might not be on the shelves, so ask at the desk and they will get it in for you. My first novel Lupa can also be ordered from there.

I’m always interested to see reviews on Goodreads and Amazon, should you wish to volunteer one. However if you don’t have the time to write a review, please feel free to drop me an email or a comment below – a line of appreciation or recommendation from a reader is always welcome.

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March 24, 2014

‘Milk of Female Kindness’ launched in Australia

Kasia James addressing visitors to the launch.

Lovely pictures from the other side of the world (as I look at it) from the Australian launch of the anthology The Milk of Female Kindness. You may recall this collection is the brainchild of Kasia James (pictured opposite); Kasia was kind enough to include some poetry that I wrote especially for the collection, and to ask me for some editorial consultancy. The theme of the anthology is Motherhood – the title is a quotation from Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, by the way – and it contains the prose and poetry of contemporary women writers from round the world.

The launch was held at Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne, Australia. This is an important cultural centre, hosting all kinds of events. The launch took place on 24th March – it seems strange, from my point of view, typing ‘took’ because that day is only just dawning here; of course in the Antipodes, as I write this, the day is coming to an end. Or is it? I get confused!

Anyhow, here are some pictures from the launch (c) Kasia James – there was food too, and a colouring table for kids. You’ll also see the table showing other works by contributors. If you want to read a quick review of the anthology, go here. I might have mentioned this before, but I am very pleased and proud to be associated with this venture, and I’m glad it is becoming successful.

A table full of milk…

An early visitor. Apparently attendance reached three figures.

Interest in the 'Other Work by Contributors' table.

Interest in the ‘Other works by Contributors’ table.

Amongst the material on this table you can spot my book 'I am not a fish', plus fliers fro 'Lupa' and 'The Everywhen Angels'.

Amongst the material on this table you can spot my book ‘I am not a fish’, plus fliers for ‘Lupa’ and ‘The Everywhen Angels’.

Book-signing.

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February 23, 2014

Fearie Tales 2014

Last night, battling my agoraphobia, I made it for the first time to the final event of the 2014 Winter Words literary festival at Pitlochry Festival Theatre. This festival is the first in Scotland’s literary calendar, and each of five weekend evenings is rounded off with a couple of macabre short stories – winners of their annual ‘Fearie Tales’ competition. I made a point of being there because my short story Da Trow i’ da Waa – a chiller set in Shetland – was the climax of the evening, sending festival-goers away until next year with a shiver in their spines.

The regular readers are actors (man-in-black) Dougal Lee and (woman-in-grey) Helen Logan. Dougal is a big guy, and sometimes at a tense moment he seems to hunch over his lectern, and glower at the audience over his specs. Helen, who read my story, has eyes that glitter, and a grin of delight at every ghoulish detail.

Although I say it myself, I’ve had a pretty good run at ‘Fearie Tales’, and I’m not about to stop, either. I dare say I’ll submit entries as long as they run the contest. Here’s a run-down of my successful entires so far – might as well blow my trumpet a bit!

2008 – Chagrin – and old man remembering a demon lover.
2009 – Vae Victis – horror at Rome’s northernmost outpost.
2010 – The Place of Safety – a tale of love, magic, and insanity.
2013 – On the Platform – a haunted railway station.
2014 – Da Trow i’ da Waa – old stones possessed.

The festival has some marvellous speakers and events, judging by the programme. Both the competition and the festival as a whole are well worth supporting and visiting if you can.

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