Anna Tambour and Others

Anna Tambour and Others

Spring

November 2012

Some spicules!

& some teeth

Have you tried my blog?

Like oysters to some,

and like oysters to others.

(a sample: Archaeologists, Palaeographers, and Punctuationists fight over cryptic dohicky)

"I hate

quotations. "

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Becoming food is the final stage of living matter. Some are privileged to a delay of the foreshadowed end. They gain lifetime by being preserved. But a chosen few turn into objects and will never be crunched between the teeth of any other living matter.They live anonymous, comatose lives in the hidden food department of a museum."

– Linda Roodenburg, Uniden tified Fermented Objects, in Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2010 (I highly recommend the book)

When I read …that most, if not all, of the global strategic maple syrup reserve had been stolen, my first response was not to fear for North America’s waffles or pancakes, but rather to wonder at the very existence of such a reserve.
– Nicola Twilley, Syrup Stockpiles, Wine Lakes, Butter Mountains, and Other Strategic Food Reserves, Edible Geography

Let it roast indifferent long.

– "Joan", cookbook writer of the 1600s, quoted in Taste: The Story of Britain through its Cooking by Kate Colquhoun

Why should a word in a recipe be less important than a word in a novel? One can lead to physical indigestion, the other to mental.

– Julian Barnes, The Pedant in the Kitchen

Last I called by, Muntjac was roasting in the oven, surfaces brimming with mushrooms gathered, some dried, a hoard: Shaggy Parasols; Chanterelles, orange and sweet-apricot-scented; something blue. Another fellow appeared a basket in his hand large to gather wood, in it full – Penny-Buns, Ceps, plentiful as a baker’s.

- Olivia Heal, Notes: On Forage, Mushrooms and the Noma Cookbook

Emma lent me a crochet hook so I made many octopi. Several were worn as fascinators and all have found good homes."

- Kathleen Jennings, here

In the art of postmodernists hedonistic motives are rare; they are basically non-existent in installations and video art projects of recent years. As a kind of postmodernist response, with its intrinsic underlying irony, to the theme of oriental hedonism one can consider the part of a photo-collage diptych inspired by the verses of I. Brodskiy, "We lived in a city the color of petrified vodka".

- Akbar Khakimov, Hedonism in Contemporary Art, San'at, (The magazine was created in accordance with the Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Uzbekistan 'About the Academy of Arts of Uzbekistan' ")

"Like a couple at an okay party, who turn up late and spice things up: the horseradish [in a Bloody Mary] makes your sinuses fizz, the celery leaves tickle your cheeks, and and stalk, with the runnels of tomato juice in its furrows, makes an ideal instrument of emphasis in drunken conversation."

- Niki Segnit, The flavour Thesaurus

I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions.

- Lillian Hellman, in testimony before the US House Committee to Investigate Un-American Activities, 1952

More in The Cellar ØØØ

Anna Tambour stories that can be read online:

Stories & poems in the HMS Beagle: BioMedNet archive

Temptation of the Seven Scientists

The Emperor's Backscratcher

Travels with Robert Louis Stevenson in the Cévennes

The Wages of Food-Play

Klokwerk's Heart

Me-Too

& Try

Bowl of Critters

an occasional snack

Now serving:

The adventures of discovering the ellemehnopee

Skin, Fiction, Mushrooms, & Progress

Out-of-the-box Serving Suggestion

The Mary Quant Jelly Thing & other surprises from the sea

And in

Heliotrope Magazine

A long poem

Succession At Quandong Creek

In memoriam
Asher E. Treat

(1907 - 2004)
"Actually, Asher was an excellent dinner companion. Anybody who wears a loupe around his neck at dinner, and tells you how he finally trained his box turtle Mabel to listen to his commands (after 35 years), or sent small boys out to catch bats, and then explain how mites can only live in the left ear (right ear in the old world) of moths to evade the bats, or who would build a mammoth box kite and fly it half a mile high off Cobble, or who would play his French horn so that you'd hear it across the valley, Anybody like that makes an excellent dinner companion."

- Edward Perkins,

in a letter to A.T.

— A little Treat —

" The lepidopterist who seeks an easy introduction to the Astigmata had best leave his collection and visit the nearest cheese shop. "

Home of

The Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Bulwer-Lytton

a place of compassion in a cruel world

Anna Tambour currently
lives in the Australian bush with
a large family of other species,
including one man.

(Rosie, the beauty in the picture above, died on the 19th of January, 2006. Her tributes are firstly this, and then this.)

Qs and As

Interview by Alisa Krasnostein (as part of Aussie Specfic Snapshot 2012)
Interview by Iain Rowan (as part of his "Writers talk about writing" series), More News from Nowhere, 19 July 2011
Interview by Mark Farrugia, Andromeda Spaceways, #48, Nov 2010
Interview by members of Chronicles Network April 2006
Audio interview by Evo Terra, Dragon Page October 2005
Interview by Keith Brooke April 2005
Ben Peek's 2005 Snapshot of Australian Fiction April '05
Walking Jeff VanderMeer's plank Feb '05

anna_tambour at yahoo.com

Some Seasoned Preserves

Winter

August 2012

Tea moulds conviviate in a crazed pot.

Autumn

March 2011

Jacaranda pod & Quince

Summer

December 2011

another

Magnificent Insignificant

Spring

October 2011

"Native peach" Trema tomentosa

showing leaf curl that could be caused by a virus, though "peach" is caused by a delusion

winter

July 2011

An oddly exhibitionistic mantis

Summer

January 2009

Fresh from the ground, a cicada

If we had been made in the image of Cicada, what price gold and rubies?

Books by A.T.

Online stories

"She writes so far left field that you need binoculars to see her."

- Girlie Jones, Not if You Were the Last Short Story on Earth

"I have particularly enjoyed Monterra's fable, and have read it to my pigs Alice, Ferdinand and Isabella, who also appreciated its humour and scope."
–Tom Jaine

New

November 2012

from the award-winning

Chômu Press . . .

"At heart Crandolin is a rich confectionery,

a tapestry woven out of dreams and nightmares, an Arabian Nights tale for the twenty first century with Tambour as
Scheherazade, lulling us with her
mellifuous voice and artistry.

I loved it, and didn’t want it to end."

Peter Tennant, review in Black Static

The only novel ever committed that was inspired by postmodern physics AND Ottoman confectionery:

"A fairy tale Dostoevsky would have liked … It's like it was written by a demented chef."

— David Kowalski

(with cover art by Christopher Conn Askew)

CRANDOLIN

“Immerse yourself in the magical world of
Anna Tambour’s Crandolin,a delirious journey that takes the reader through Central Asia and Russia with some fascinating strangers and a donkey, a demanding musical instrument and delicious hints of nougat and honey.”
—Ellen Datlow

“By turns lyrical and absurdist, whimsical and elegantly true, Crandolin is unlike any novel you will ever have read. Anna Tambour is brilliant, a true original.”
—Lucius Shepard

"A sensuous pleasure to mind and senses; it breathes perfume and laughter. If Gogol and Huysmans had ever gone to a science fiction conference together and collaborated, the result would be Crandolin!"

— Jack Dann

"For gourmands literary and culinary, Tambour is always a treat, and Crandolin is Tambour at her best. Bold and subtle, rich and delicate, this is fiction to savour, fiction to sustain the soul."
— Hal Duncan

“Epicurean fantasy at its finest. Crandolin is an uncanny mating of passion and precision: that Anna Tambour is billed as ‘author’ and not ‘magician’ belies the virtuosity with which she coaxes a whirlwind of gluttonous carnality into her scintillatingly intricate narrative web.”
— Rachel Edidin

“Funny and compelling, strangely wise about its worlds ... It can seem like a fun ride or a maze, yet Crandolin is never just a joke. When Tambour finally invokes one storyteller’s sense of “fear and joy,” it’s genuine; we can share in the feeling, at the end of a long, strange trip.”
— Faren Miller, Locus

“Mephistopheles has nothing on this,
a helter skelter through time travel and cookery.
Bring me a Crandolin.”
— Tom Jaine

"...But with the appearance of her new novel, Crandolin, she will surely register Richter-powerful on the delighted synapses of all patrons of weird, funny fabulism.The lively and bold Chômu Press, which touts its catalogue as offering “new vistas of irreality,” deserves much credit...But what's really central to Tambour's tale is the romance of food."

Read the review by Paul Di Filippo in Locus

Open Crandolin!

BUY FROM

The Book Depository - free shipping worldwide

Amazon US

Barnes & Noble Amazon UK

Foyles UK

Even on the back, Crandolin already looks giftwrapped. Serve a plate of them as a neverending dessert, to your best friends.

October 2012

releases:

"King Wolf"

A Season in Carcosa

edited by Joseph S. Pulver Sr.

published by Miskatonic River Press

with more by Joel Lane, Simon Strantzas, Don Webb, Daniel Mills, Gary McMahon, Ann K. Schwader, Cate Gardner, Edward Morris, Richard Gavin, Gemma Files, Joseph S. Pulver, Sr., Kristin Prevallet, Richard A. Lupoff, Michael Kelly, Cody Goodfellow, John Langan, Pearce Hansen, Laird Barron, Robin Spriggs, and Allyson Bird

Free shipping worldwide from

The Book Depository

"How Galligaskins Sloughed the Scourge"

Bloody Fabulous: stories of fantasy and fashion

edited by Ekaterina Sedia

published by Prime Books

with more stories by Holly Black, Richard Bowes, Genevieve Valentine, Sandra McDonald, Sharon Mock, Zen Cho, Kelly Link, Shirin Dubbin, Die Booth, Rachel Swirsky, Maria V. Snyder, Nick Mamatas, and John Chu

Earlier 2012 releases

"Murder at the Tip"

Light Touch Paper - Stand Clear

edited by Edwina Harvey and Simon Petrie

published by Peggie Bright Books

with more stories by Joanne Anderton, Adam Browne, Sue Bursztynski, Brenda Cooper, Katherine Cummings, Thoraiya Dyer, Kathleen Jennings, Dave Luckett, Ian McHugh, Sean McMullen, Ripley Patton, Rob Porteous

The Dog Who Wished He'd Never Heard of Lovecraft

Free to read, and/or download the audio version read by Bruce L. Priddy

Lovecraft eZine #13, April 2012

edited & published by Mike Davis

more free-to-reads:

from

Phantasmagorium #1

Decemberish 2011

edited by Laird Barron

"Cardoons!"

a terrifying tale of veg and WARNINGs

Read Cardoons! online here

"The Oyster and Alice O."

FLURB

a Webzine of Astonishing Tales Issue #12 "Fall–Winter" 2011

edited and illustrated (in paintings and photographs) by Rudy Rucker.

2011

New e-editions

from infinity plus

"Tambour could be called an infinity plus 'discovery' ... Monterra’s Deliciosa is a delicious collection of often startling and outrageous tales."

– Paul F. Cockburn, Interzone, May-June 2011

This edition includes a

Even this infinity plus e-dition includes never-before-seen additives

Infinity Plus Singles #10 and #15

Anthologies & magazines that include A.T.'s stories

2010

Sprawl

edited by

Alisa Krasnostein

Published by Twelfth Planet Press

"Gnawer of the Moon Seeks Summit of Paradise"

Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine

in #44, the cover story

"The Eye of Nostradamus Summit"

(cover art by Marc McBride)

in #46

"How Galligaskins Sloughed the Scourge"

in #42

"The Arms of Love and Death"

June 2010

"Dreadnought Neptune"

2009

Lovecraft Unbound

edited by

Ellen Datlow

"Sincerely, Petrified"

2008

The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Sixteen Original Works by Speculative Fiction's Finest Voices

edited by

Ellen Datlow

"Gladiolus Exposed"

Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy

edited by

Ekaterina Sedia

Published by Senses Five Press

"The Age of Fish, Post-flowers"

Year's Best Australian Science Fiction & Fantasy, Volume 4

edited by

Bill Congreve & Michelle Marquardt

Published by MirrorDanse Books

"The Jeweller of Second-hand Roe"

Scary Food: A Compendium of Gastronomic Atrocity

edited by

Cat Sparks

Published by Agog! Press

"Tasty Morsels"

& other stories

2007

EŞİK CİNİ 13

Two stories (The tiger and the mice & Sweat, Joy, and Thunderation) and an interview,

translated into Turkish by Nurduran Duman

Eþik Cini means 'Elf of Sills'

The Workers' Paradise

edited by

Russell B. Farr and Nick Evans

"Seahoney"

Subterranean #7

edited by Ellen Datlow

"The Jeweller of Second-hand Roe"

Aurealis Award, Horror Short Story

Logorrhea: Good Words Make Good Stories

edited by John Klima

Order here or ask for it at your bookstore

"Pococurante"

Interfictions: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing

edited by

Delia Sherman and Theodora Goss

"The Shoe in SHOES' Window"

"The Syncopation Streak"

Polyphony 6

edited by Deborah Layne and Jay Lake

"The Beginnings, Endings, and Middles Ball"

Read it in Omnidawn's free sampler

ParaSpheres:

Fabulist and New Wave Fabulist Stories

edited by

Rusty Morrison & Ken Keegan

"See Here, See There"

Agog! Ripping Reads

edited by Cat Sparks

"The Slime: A love story"

Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet No. 19

edited by Gavin Grant and Kelly Link

"The Cat Story"

Andromeda Spaceways, #24

edited by Edwina Harvey

"There is No Rice Pudding in the Sea"

Fantasy Magazine, #3

edited by Sean Wallace

in Mythic Delirium

edited by Mike Allen

a poem: "Trapped Words"

Hear it read by Alistair Rennie

A Novel and a Collection by A.T.

A Locus Recommended Reading List Selection

His eyelashes fluttered. 'Oh dearie me. You asked, and I'm telling you how it is. I never lie.'
I shot him a look that would pierce most people of my acquaintance.
He looked blandly back. However, he seemed truthful.

Angela Pendergast, escapee from the Australian bush, grew up with the smell of hot mutton fat in her hair, the thought of her teeth crunching a cold Tim Tam chocolate biscuit -- the height of decadent frivolity.

Now, though her tastes have grown and she knows absolutely what she wants, her life is embarrassingly stuck.

So when the Devil drops into her bedroom in her sharehouse in inner-city Sydney with a contract in hand, she signs.

He's got only a Hell's week to fulfil his side, but in the meantime he must chaperone her -- or is it the other way around?

The SF Site: Featured Review by Rich Horton

"...a wicked, thoroughly unpredictable romp . . . Spotted Lily might just be a particularly inventive comic take on wish-fulfillment, but soon enough it strays far from the beaten path...a dizzying but delightful journey through old myths and modern chaos, turning Faust and Pygmalion on their ear as it cuts its own path toward something like self-knowledge."

- Faren Miller, Locus

"I hate giving away the story, but allow me to say that this novel is not going where you think it is....teaming with genuine wit and humor... excellent writing...One thing I’m sure of is that it should be required reading for all those who go into writing fiction with dreams of great remuneration and fame. If it were, Tambour would already be both wealthy and famous."

- Jeffrey Ford

"One of the things I liked most about this book was that it was so difficult to tell where it was going...the book is so well written that for a lot of the time you don’t actually notice that it has a supernatural element to it."

- Cheryl Morgan, Emerald City

"It's passionate, it's intense, it's profoundly human and humane and honest, and, when it comes down to it, a hell of a read.

I was sitting up late into the night to finish it. It's that good."

- Keith Brooke

"This shocker . . . may well strike some

like a bracing tonic and others like something

a lot less palatable."

PublishersWeekly

Anna Tambour, on the strength of Spotted Lily and her earlier story collection, Monterra's Deliciosa & Other Tales &, is one of the most delightful, original, and varied new writers on hand.

- Rich Horton

Perhaps you would like to read

Chapter One

Published by Prime Books
Cover art for Spotted Lily:
The Artist by Norman Lindsay (Australian) c.1921,

copyright © Lin Bloomfield
Stomates on scouring rush, electron microscope view, copyright © Dennis Kunkel Microscopy, Inc.
Book Design: Anna Tambour

and another

Locus Recommended Reading List Selection

Monterra's Deliciosa
& Other Tales &

Introduction by Keith Brooke

Temptation, indulgence, exploration and shortcuts. Love and compulsion. An ocean in Kansas, the Magic Lino, the real story behind the one told by Robert Louis Stevenson, a chef dying of ennui, gathering bluebirds, paying with candywrap. And the greatest story ever told -- by Asher E. Treat, of course. The glorious chaos of singing, prancing, perfumed and stinking, the dead and the busy, tragic and achingly otherwise--life itself.

"A winning, offbeat sensibility is at work in the 31 stories and poems that make up Tambour's first fiction collection, finding the lighter side of potentially sober themes and giving humanist spins to scientific ideas. Certain tales show an exotic spirit that puts them squarely in the magic realist tradition, while others reflect self-consciousness about the craft of writing. All but a handful of these stories are original to the volume, which makes a fine introduction
to a writer little known . . ."

- Publishers Weekly

"Monterra's Deliciosa & Other Tales & could never be mistaken for ordinary genre fiction ...don't imagine this as high falutin' 'lit'rature' accessible only to people with advanced degrees. Anyone with a taste for beauty, audacity, sensuality, and wit can find much to enjoy here."

- Faren Miller, Locus

What about Medlars?

I admit it.

These venerable individualists (and I've known many personally) have charmed me ― so much so that they star in "Valley of the Sugars of Salt" and have managed to shove themselves into cameo roles in a couple of other stories here.

Table of Contents

Published by Prime Books
Cover art for

Monterra's Deliciosa & Other Tales &:
"Red Blood Cells" electron microscope view,
© Tina (Weatherby) Carvalho / MicroAngela
"King Parrot (Alisterus scapularis) " by John Hunter, c.1788, National Library of Australia
Book design: Anna Tambour

Reviews

etc.

SPOTTED LILY

Review "food, the devil, and fame" by Jayaprakash Satyamurthy in his blog Criminal English: April 6, 2006

Nominated for the William L. Crawford Award

Locus listing as Recommended Reading: 2005

Listed by Jeffrey Ford as one of "my favorite reads of 05 in no particular order"

Listed by Vera Nazarian as one of her "Ten Most Memorable Books of 2005"

Rich Horton review SF Site, December 2005

Cheryl Morgan review Emerald City "The Devil in Sydney", #121Sept 2005

Jeffrey Ford review in his blog 14theditch Sept 12 2005

Jeff VanderMeer comments VanderWorld

Sept 12 2005

Publishers Weekly review June 20 2005

Listed in "New and Notable Books" Locus June 2005

Locus review by Faren Miller, May 2005

Vera Nazarian, review

in her blog, Norilana April 19 2005

2004 Australian Science Fiction
(Ditmar) Award Nominee:
Best New Talent

MONTERRA'S DELICIOSA & OTHER TALES &

Faren Miller, review Locus Feb 2004

Publishers Weekly review Dec 22, 2003

Rich Horton, in Lost Pages:
"A Different Drum: Anna Tambour's First Collection Reviewed" Dec 2003

Jeff Vandermeer, in Vanderworld, November 15, 2003

Michael J. Jasper in Tangent:
Review of "Klokwerk's Heart"
January 15, 2001