The grip is still
strong, but the
cicada has flown
"I hate quotations. " - Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Just” as a creative concept does not exist. - Val Littlewood, Deborah's Bee Book, Pencil and Leaf Mysteriously absent from a Norwegian frozen pizza is the thick layer of grease found on Canadian frozen pizzas. - The Norway Post, A Canadian discovers brown cheese 9 Dec '09 I maintain that all children should be forced to learn the piano – after that, you can read the music for anything else.- Tanaudel, Illustration Friday: Music It's the sort of restaurant where all the patrons are out-of-town tourists. - Michael Swanwick We ... would never condone the use of the word "hip." - Anticraft: Knitting, Beading, and Stitching for the Slightly Sinister One man even ended up stuck in wet concrete after wading in to pick up a stray biscuit. Custard creams get a risk rating of 5.63, the highest of all. - The Telegraph, "Crumbs: half of Britons injured by biscuits on coffee break, survey reveals" Parents be warned-- although this book is ostensibly a children's book, it is not what you'd call politically correct (Which means baby-sitters and relatives roped into reading a bedtime story to the kids will find it far more bearable than the usual fare!) - Lela Dowling, description of The Impudent Child's Picture Book of Poetry written and illustrated by her. More in The Cellar ŘŘŘ
Bogged by blogs? Anna Tambour stories that can be read online: Temptation of the Seven Scientists Strange Incidents in Foreign Parts 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 Watchmaker Science Fiction vs Fantasy? Feeling Like a Man Again 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
But have you tried my blog?
Like oysters to some,
and like
oysters
to others.
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. "
Anna Tambour currently
lives in the Australian bush with
a large family of other species,
including one man.
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
some seasons preserved Winter July 2009
Bletting medlars
Autumn
May 2009
Cryptogams are
rampant
Summer
February 2009
Called
Christmas or Jewel spiders, this season they're February
spiders, but just as gorgeous.
January 2009
Fresh from the ground, a cicada
If
we had been made in the image of Cicada, what price gold and
rubies?
Home of The Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Bulwer-Lytton a place of compassion in a cruel world
- Mind Meld "Taboo topics" panel with Peter Watts, Steve Aylett, Glenda Larke, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Margo Lanagan, Mark Budz, Jason Sanford, Nancy Jane Moore, Ellen Kushner, Hal Duncan, David D. Levine, Neal Asher—and comments March 2009
- 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
some seasons preserved Winter July 2009
Bletting medlars
Autumn
May 2009
Cryptogams are
rampant
Summer
February 2009
Called
Christmas or Jewel spiders, this season they're February
spiders, but just as gorgeous.
January 2009
Fresh from the ground, a cicada
If
we had been made in the image of Cicada, what price gold and
rubies?
Home of The Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Bulwer-Lytton a place of compassion in a cruel world
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
news: Paper Cities wins World Fantasy award LOVECRAFT UNBOUND listed as one of the five best sf/f/h books of 2009 by Publishers Weekly.
Anthologies & magazines that include A.T.'s stories Just released — 28 December 2009
Sky Whales and
Other Wonders
edited by Vera
Nazarian
"The
Tin and the Damask Rose"
& stories
by Tanith Lee, Erzebet YellowBoy, Linda J. Dunn, Sonya Taaffe, Lisa
Silverthorne, JoSelle Vanderhooft, Mary A. Turzillo, Mike Allen,
John Grant, and Robert Brandt
"a treasure trove of literary terrors" starred review, Publishers Weekly Shortlisted for the World Fantasy Award
Lovecraft Unbound
edited by Ellen Datlow
"Sincerely, Petrified"
& stories
by Dale Bailey and Nathan Ballingrud, Richard Bowes, Brian Evenson,
Amanda Downum, Joel Lane,Holly Phillips, William Browning Spencer,
Caitlín R. Kiernan, Michael Cisco, Marc Laidlaw, Michael Chabon,
Lavie Tidhar, Joyce Carol Oates, Simon Kurt Unsworth, Michael Shea,
Gemma Files, Sarah Monette & Elizabeth Bear, Laird Barron, Nick
Mamatas
in
Andromeda Spaceways
Inflight Magazine issue #42
edited by Edwina Harvey
"The Arms of Love
and Death"
& stories by Marcie
Lynn Tentchoff, Caroline M Yoachim, Jason K Chapman, Robert
Shearman, Dave Freer, Laura Goodin, Felicity Dowker, Anna Kashina,
Alex Kearney, Steven Saus, Ripley Patton, Dave Luckett, and Simon
Petrie
Coming soon in Mythic Delirium #21 (The "Trickster Issue) poetry magazine edited by Mike Allen "Cooks' Tricks Nix Sticks" & poems by Jessica Paige Wick, Theodora Goss, Holly Dworken Cooley, JoSelle Vanderhooft, Jaime Lee Moyer, Jeannine Hall Gailey, Samantha Henderson, F.J. Bergmann, Deborah P Kolodji, Erzebet YellowBoy, Sonya Taaffe, Catherynne M. Valente, Jennifer Crow, Darrell Schweitzer, Constance Cooper,
David C. Kopaska-Merkel and Kendall Evans, Kacey Grannis, Ann K. Schwader, Ann K. Schwader, Danny Adams, and Gary Every
and in June 2010 in Asimov's Science Fiction "Dreadnought Neptune"
Published in 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"
& stories
by
Jason
Stoddard, Lucy Sussex, Christopher Rowe, Elizabeth Bear, Nathan
Ballingrud, Carol Emshwiller, Maureen McHugh, Richard Bowes, Margo
Lanagan, Lavie Tidhar, Barry N. Malzberg, Laird Barron, Jeffrey
Ford, Pat Cadigan, and Paul McAuley & Kim Newman
Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy edited by Ekaterina Sedia Published by Senses Five Press
"The Age of Fish, Post-flowers"
& stories
by Forrest Aguirre, Barth Anderson, Steve Berman, Darin Bradley,
Stephanie Campisi, Hal Duncan, Mike Jasper, Vylar Kaftan, Jay Lake,
Paul Meloy, Richard Parks, Ben Peek, Cat Rambo, Jenn Reese, David
Schwartz, Cat Sparks, Mark Teppo, Catherynne M. Valente, Greg van
Eekhout, and Kaaron Warren
now available also as an
e-book
Scary Food: A Compendium of Gastronomic Atrocity edited by Cat Sparks Published by Agog! Press
"Six rules for boiling animals"
"Of rats and mien"
&
"But is that unicorn nugget
genetically modified"
&
stories
by Kaaron
Warren, Margo Lanagan, Robert Hood, Richard Harland, Paul Haines,
Terry Dowling, Stephen Dedman, Deborah Biancotti, Lee Battersby,
with recipes by Lucy Sussex, Gillian Polack, and Lourdes Ndaira
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"
& stories
by
Adam Browne,
Rjurik Davidson, Terry Dowling, Greg Egan, Richard Harland, Trent
Jamieson, Rick Kennett, Ben Peek, Garth Nix, Cat Sparks, and Lucy
Sussex
Australian Dark Fantasy and Horror vol. 3 edited by Angela Challis Published by Brimstone Press
"The Jeweller of Second-hand Roe"
& stories
by
Joanne
Anderton, Deborah Biancotti, Stephanie Campisi, Matthew Chrulew,
David Conyers, Shane Jiraiya Cummings, Richard Harland, Gary Kemble,
Rick Kennett, Martin Livings, Jason Nahrung, Miranda Siemienowicz,
Sean Williams, and Marty Young
EŞİK CİNİ 13
Two stories (The
tiger and the mice &
Sweat, Joy, and Thunderation) and an interview,
translated into Turkish by
Nurduran Duman
Eţik Cini means 'Elf of
Sills'
The Workers' Paradise edited by Russell B. Farr and Nick Evans
"Seahoney"
& stories
by Simon Brown, Jenny Schwartz, Cat Sparks, David Walker, Rjurik
Davidson, Bill Congreve, Rowena Cory Daniells, George Ivanoff,
Karron Warren, Nathan Burrage, David J. Kane, Matthew Chrulew &
Roland Boer, Robin Hillard, Ashley Arnold, Robert Hood, Susan
Wardle, and Dirk Flinthart
2007 Subterranean #7 edited by Ellen Datlow
"The Jeweller of Second-hand Roe"
Aurealis Award,
Horror Short Story
& stories by Lisa Tuttle, Rick Bowes, Jeffrey Ford, Joel Lane and
John Pelan, M. Rickert, A.T., Terry Bisson, and a novella by Lucius
Shepard
Logorrhea: Good Words Make Good Stories edited by John Klima Order here or ask for it at your bookstore
"Pococurante"
& stories by Hal Duncan, Liz Williams, David Prill, Clare Dudman,
Alex Irvine, Marly Youmans, Michael Moorcock, Daniel Abraham,
Michelle Richmond, A.T., Tim Pratt, Elizabeth Hand, Alan DeNiro,
Matthew Cheney, Jay Caselberg, Paolo Bacigalupi, Jay Lake, Leslie
What, Neil Williamson, Theodora Goss, Jeff VanderMeer
Interfictions: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing edited by Delia Sherman and Theodora Goss
"The Shoe in SHOES' Window"
& stories by Karen Jordan Allen, Chris Barzak, Tempest Bradford,
Matthew Cheney, Michael Deluca, Adrian Ferrero, Colin Greenland,
Csilla Kleinheincz, Joy Marchand, Holly Phillips, Rachel Pollack,
Veronica Schanoes, Lea Sihol, Jon Singer, Vandana Singh, A.T., Mikal
Trimm, Leslie What, Catherynne Valente
2006
"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 Inflight Magazine, #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
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."
Publishers Weekly
WARNING:
The
Publishers Weekly
reviewer was generous with the plot, even giving away the end.
But you will be disappointed if you expect to find that plot in
Spotted Lily, especially
that end — works of the reviewer's imagination, not mine.
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 HortonPerhaps 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 20052004 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
The
virtuous medlar circle
thoroughly bletted
Guest Features The Secret Origin of Spin-man by Andrew Drilon Martha, Jane, and Babette a true story a classic to enjoy rather than think you should have read by H. Rider Haggard 3 Poems by Mark Rich
More Guest Features...
More Irresistibles More in The Cellar ŘŘŘ December 2009
Soulless
by Gail Carriger
The
way to launch a book
The Perils of Custard
Creams
The Cancer
Alphabet (by Ma. Ivy Clemente) and other stunning bioscapes
"These
kids have TOO MANY SODDING TOYS"
The Whale's
Tale
by Edwina Harvey
(for young adults)
Fungi Perfecti
Pencil and Leaf
"My
darling Popsy"Letters to a daughter from Kenya and India 1925 to 1932 A rant on proper manuscript formatting
The Impudent Child's
Picture Book of Poetry
by Lela
Dowling
Daily Cheese, Bread & Medlars Making Light SciTech Daily Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster Talking Squid Street Anatomy The Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form Reporters without Borders Tikun Olam Too Many Chefs Bibliophile Stalker Budak Bookslut Clarkesworld Magazine The Reading Experience The Panda's Thumb Corante 14th The Ditch Tree of Life Apothecary's Drawer Asimov's Science Fiction Futurismic Tor The Phrontistery A Vivisection of Virge Pharyngula PhaWRONGula Gode Cookery Infinity Plus Strange Horizons The Mumpsimus Banned Books Online Notes from the Geek Show Urban Legends & Folklore The Urban Sprawl Project Nursery Rhymes' Secret History SovLit Folklore & Mythology Sacred Texts Quackwatch VanderWorld Giornale Nuovo Scientist, Interrupted Book Crossing We love: Book Design Ratifiers for Democracy Public Library of Science eGullet Persephone Books Okinawan Slug of the Week
Previous Guest Features CHARLES TAN A Retrospective on Diseases for Sale a new story by him appearing here for the first time & The chicken spits the cook or Charles Tan Talks (an interviewish thing) A Dead-Guests-Can't-Say-No Featured classic The Heat and Brightness of the Sun including an experiment with the burning glass, that most boys have often tried by Sir Robert S. Ball Anew Day by Claude Lalumičre Terminós by Dean Francis Alfar The Zen of Ramen Noodles by Spencer Pate Hey Squirrel! There's an Owl in your Digs by Hans Bertsch MARILYN PRIDE a glimpse into her worlds, and an interview (This is the first in a series on My Favourite Artists who are still breathing) 'Tin Toys that Never Were' an introduction to and interview of LEWIS P. MORLEY (This is the second in the series)
Dialysis in Paradise by Marilyn Pride It's not like choosing the color of her hair by A.C.E. Bauer Why I like nudibranchs, marine slugs with Verve by Hans Bertsch Horses and Others on Paper by Ophelia Jasmin Keys Nobody Did Debris Like Jack Kirby by Jamie Shanks Don't turn loose & Heat by Ferris Gilli Mutton a classic to enjoy rather than think you should have read by C.J. Dennis Garlic and Honey
a story from
Tales of Nasr-ed-din Khoja
translated from the Turkish text
by Henry D. Barnham (a classic to enjoy rather than think you should have read) Night of the Living Crickets by Spencer Pate a selection from And Your Point Is? Scorn and Meaning in Jeff Lint's fiction edited by Steve Aylett Terror Australis Incognito by Leone Britt Doorways for the Dispossessed by Paul Haines Why my wife left me and other stories by Diomedes by Simon Brown The Apparatus by Neil Williamson Oysters - a few words by Alistair Rennie Erosion of an Accused's Rights in Sexual Assault Cases by Tania Evers A Day at Creationland by Spencer Pate "Are you mad?" an interview of Donna Maree Hanson Simeon the Monkey by Lyn Battersby Four O'Clocks by Ferris Gilli Let's Talk by Ferris Gilli A Stone to Mark My Passing by Lee Battersby 3 Poems by Robert DeGraaff On Reading New Books by Steve Aylett Mama by Bharatram Gaba Rough Trade by Robert Hood Beaks Benedict by Ms. Gonick House of Hormones by Susan Maushart A Rebirth of the Imagination by Spencer Pate Cat Flap by Chuck McKenzie You Will Not OutliveYour Copyright (and Neither Will Your Novel) by A.C.E. Bauer The Inimitable Mrs May On the Blindside by Sonya Taaffe A Dark Lord's Lament (his sorrowful sonnet) by Barbara Robson Songstress by Jason Erik Lundberg Predatory Instincts by Chuck McKenzie Cinnamon Gate by Deborah Biancotti The Soldiers' Mothers and Democratic Military Reform by Brenda Vallance The Apprenticeship of Isabetta di Pietro Cavazzi by L. Timmel Duchamp The Don Entrerrosca Trilogy by Rhys Hughes
Two Cranes in One Day by Jason Erik Lundberg The Dreamscapes of Edward D. Wood Jr. by Susan MacDonald A Very Long War by Geoffrey Maloney Four O'Clocks by Ferris Gilli Why I Like Nudibranchs,
Marine Slugs with Verve by Hans Bertsch Excreta, etc. by Bharatram Gaba An Outrider's Tale by Michael Jasper The Multidimensional Topology of Department Stores by Spencer Pate Illegitimate Sovereignty by Wallace W. Storbakken And Sir Robert Stawell Ball's Schoolchild's Earth/Moon Plum-pudding problem
yet another in my
dead-guests-can't-say-no series
Can of Worms Responses to Features
by Ian Boyter In researching before creating his sculpture commemorating Robert Louis Stevenson's
Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes Scottish artist Ian Boyter read the unexpurgated account of what really happened on that trip. More>>>
— Vintage Irresistible —
Scaramouche
by Raphael Sababini
Doughbelly's Literary Oeuvre
And more, much more
in The
Cellars
ŘŘŘ