Angela ‘A.G.’ Slatter has won a World Fantasy Award, a British Fantasy Award, a Ditmar, an Australian Shadows Award and six Aurealis Awards for her short stories. She has an MA and a PhD in Creative Writing, is a graduate of Clarion South 2009 and the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop 2006. Angela’s short stories have appeared in many Best Of anthologies, and her work has been translated into many languages. Her latest novel is All the Murmuring Bones.
Fresh off her appearance at Supanova in Sydney over the weekend, Angela Slatter is on the blog today to answer our Ten Terrifying Questions – read on!
A.G. Slatter (Photo by Leah Desborough).
To begin with why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled?
AGS: I was born in Cairns, raised variously there, and in Longreach, Ipswich and Brisbane. I did my undergraduate degree in French and Ancient History at the Uni of Queensland, then my Masters and PhD at Queensland Uni of Technology.
What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why?
AGS: Well, apart from a brief period of wanting to be a vet as a kid (until I realised there would be chopping and blood as well as furry friends and pats), I pretty much always wanted to be a writer.
What strongly held belief did you have at eighteen that you don’t have now?
AGS: Oh, honestly I’m flat-out remembering last Tuesday, let alone when I was 18! Probably the certainty that if I didn’t do something right the first time, then my life was over! It’s taken a long time to work out that everything you do is a chance to learn. Every supposed “failure” is a chance to improve, so there’s no point in getting stressed out by not getting something right in the first place. Unless you’re a brain surgeon.
What are three works of art – this could be a book, painting, piece of music, film, etc – that influenced your development as a writer?
AGS: Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber – both book and film – for the boldness of language, how visual and almost tactile it becomes under Carter’s pen.
I always loved the paintings of Rembrandt, but there was a comment in Anne Rice’s The Witching Hour (I think! It’s a long time since I read it), along the lines that Rembrandt’s characters aren’t coming into the light of the painting, but rather receding into the darkness of it. That taught me it’s all a matter of perspective.
Tanith Lee’s Flat Earth series, particularly Night’s Master, which is just magnificent and has the mosaic shape that I’ve come to use in my own writing.
Considering the many artistic forms out there, what appeals to you about writing a novel?
AGS: I think it’s a long distance run sort of thing – it can be maddening but there’s something really satisfying about seeing a big project through to the end. Also it’s also often something that evolves more obviously than a short story because it takes such a long time to come to fruition. And then there are those moments when you’re coming to the pointy end – which I am doing with a new novel right now – where you’re looking for a solution to a problem and realise that you put something in at the very beginning in an ingenious (blind luck) piece of foreshadowing.
‘It’s taken a long time to work out that everything you do is a chance to learn. Every supposed “failure” is a chance to improve.’
Please tell us about your latest novel!
AGS: All the Murmuring Bones is a gothic fantasy that has elements of a fairy tale, a heist movie, a road movie, and not one but two creepy scary big old houses. It follows a character called Miren as she decides not to do what her family want, but to make her own way in life. Unfortunately, a lot of folk don’t want her to do this, so she’s pursued not only by family but also by some rather irritated mermaids …
Who do you most admire in the writing world and why?
AGS: That’s a really hard question to answer – so I think I’ll answer a different one! I love the work of a lot of people, including Tanith Lee, Angela Carter, Alix E. Harrow, Maria Dahvana Headley, Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Marjorie Liu, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Mike Mignola, Lee Murray, Maria Lewis, China Mieville, Lucy Holland and Hannah Whitten, to name but a few!
Many artists set themselves very ambitious goals. What are yours?
AGS: Just to keep telling stories for as long as I can? It would be nice to have some of my stories adapted for the screen and into graphic novel format, but I’m happiest as a novelist and short story writer.
Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?
AGS: Network with other writers, be polite to everyone, get a thick skin, and never stop learning.
Thank you for playing!
—All the Murmuring Bones by A.G. Slatter (Titan Books) is out now.
All the Murmuring Bones
Orphaned as a young child, Mirin O'Malley has been brought up by her grandparents on their isolated, rambling estate Hob's Hallow.
Long ago her family prospered due to a deal struck with the mer, the terrifying creatures who live in the depths of the sea: safety for their merchant ships in return for a child of each generation. But for many years the family have been unable to keep their side of the bargain and their fortunes have suffered as a result. When Mirin's grandfather dies, her grandmother puts in train a plan to restore their glory - but at the price of Mirin's freedom...
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