Me shooting my mouth off to Scott Nicolay on The Outer Dark for two freakin' hours plus (http://www.projectiradio.com/gemma-files-every-movie-is-a-ghost-story-the-outer-dark-episode-15-october-13-2015/). Wah! Luckily, I come off sounding pretty good, IMHO. Scott's entire series is amazing, so please do check it out.
I'm also starting my Litreactor course again today, so there's that. Plus two more deadlines, because I am a fool.;)
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Monday, October 5, 2015
Happy Happy Halloween (Month)
On October 13, I'm going to be interviewed by Scott Nicolay on his horror-centric podcast The Outer Dark, here (http://www.projectiradio.com/shows/the-outer-dark/). Since all interviews thus far have rocked ass, this is very good company to be sharing, and I'm looking forward to it. Otherwise, everything in my life right now is about completing "Red Words," the story I've been haphazardly slamming at for most of September, so sorry for the absence.
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Pimp My Fic(Tion)
Added a bunch of new links to the right-hand column, mainly fiction: almost the entire Hammer Pirates series ("Two Captains," "Drawn Up From Dark Places," "The Salt Wedding"), plus both One-Shot Reese stories ("Sown From Salt" at The Harrow plus its podcast version, as part of Tales to Terrify Ep. 6, and "A Feast For Dust" at Beneath Ceaseless Skies and the podcast version of that as well), "One In The Morning and One At Night," at The Three-Lobed Burning Eye, and the podcast of "In The Poor Girl Taken By Surprise," at Pseudopod. The list is getting kind of unwieldy, obviously, but I have to admit it does make me smile.
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
Greetings from Toronto on a cold, rainy first day back at school. Last week--along with such luminaries as Caitlin R. Kiernan and Garth Nix--I talked about my story "This Is Not For You" at SF Signal, as part of a series examining the stories behind the stories in Ellen Datlow's Best Horror of the Year Vol. 7 (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2015/09/behind-the-stories-of-the-best-horror-of-the-year-vol-7-edited-by-ellen-datlow-part-1/). Said series continues today with instalment #2, featuring Orrin Grey and Livia Llewellyn, amongst others (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2015/09/guest-post-stories-best-horror-year-vol-7-edited-ellen-datlow-2/). I always love to write these pieces as well as to read them, and this particular anthology is usually amazing, particularly so this year; both instalments are therefore well worth your time, even if you remember some of what I said from the original Nightmare magazine author spotlight interview.
Interestingly, today's nonfiction work will also be about explaining my process--Nightmare is reprinting my story "The Emperor's Old Bones," which I haven't written about in years, and a fellow writer is assigning "Imaginary Beauties" to her lucky short fiction writing class, so she wants to be able to contextualize it. The prospect of re-examining both these tales therefore serves to remind me how often things begin with me watching a movie, occasionally two, and thinking either "you know, these would go well together" or "hmmm, I think I could do better"; a bit like I was writing fanfic a long time before I actually started writing fanfic, in other words. With "The Emperor's...", it was all about Steven Spielberg's adaptation of J.G. Ballard's Empire of the Sun, in which Christian Bale plays the young "Jim" and John Malkovich plays an American deserter/smuggler who acts as his anti-mentor. I flipped the Malkovich character's gender, conjured a formative crush between our sociopathic young protagonist and her, then added a sympathetic magic ritual inspired by a very cruel traditional Chinese dish that involves adding years to one's life through cannibalism, and hey presto! Something different was born. Similarly, above and beyond the Murder By Numbers connection discussed last time, "Imaginary Beauties" also owes a debt to my continuing obsession with Lovecraft's "Herbert West, Re-Animator" by way of the Stuart Gordon movie, as well as the character Ben Foster plays in Alpha Dog. My mind is a garburator, etc.
In true tales of accountability, meanwhile, now that my son Cal's ostensibly out of my hair, this week I need to break into my next story for real, because the deadline is October 1. So I will bid you all (ha ha) adieu.
Interestingly, today's nonfiction work will also be about explaining my process--Nightmare is reprinting my story "The Emperor's Old Bones," which I haven't written about in years, and a fellow writer is assigning "Imaginary Beauties" to her lucky short fiction writing class, so she wants to be able to contextualize it. The prospect of re-examining both these tales therefore serves to remind me how often things begin with me watching a movie, occasionally two, and thinking either "you know, these would go well together" or "hmmm, I think I could do better"; a bit like I was writing fanfic a long time before I actually started writing fanfic, in other words. With "The Emperor's...", it was all about Steven Spielberg's adaptation of J.G. Ballard's Empire of the Sun, in which Christian Bale plays the young "Jim" and John Malkovich plays an American deserter/smuggler who acts as his anti-mentor. I flipped the Malkovich character's gender, conjured a formative crush between our sociopathic young protagonist and her, then added a sympathetic magic ritual inspired by a very cruel traditional Chinese dish that involves adding years to one's life through cannibalism, and hey presto! Something different was born. Similarly, above and beyond the Murder By Numbers connection discussed last time, "Imaginary Beauties" also owes a debt to my continuing obsession with Lovecraft's "Herbert West, Re-Animator" by way of the Stuart Gordon movie, as well as the character Ben Foster plays in Alpha Dog. My mind is a garburator, etc.
In true tales of accountability, meanwhile, now that my son Cal's ostensibly out of my hair, this week I need to break into my next story for real, because the deadline is October 1. So I will bid you all (ha ha) adieu.
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
Good review of Steve Berman's Daughters of Frankenstein: Lesbian Mad Scientists! by Brit Mandelo, for Tor.com's Queering SFF. You can read the whole thing here (http://www.tor.com/2015/08/04/queering-sff-daughters-of-frankenstein-edited-by-steve-berman/), but I was happy with this section, about my story "Imaginary Beauties: A Lurid Melodrama":
Gemma Files’s [“Imaginary Beauties”] is also a solid story, though much darker and more—well, lurid—than the rest. A much more accurately contemporary feel, too: damaged weird girls making bad drugs, going out together in a blaze of (stupid) not-glory. The exploration of social versus technical genius between the two women here is also interesting, particularly because of what a genuinely bad person Rice—our protagonist—is.
In further news of stuff I like, meanwhile, there's a new episode of The Black Tapes Podcast out, #9, which you can access here (http://theblacktapespodcast.com/). If I haven't said before, this particular mock-doc paranormal investigation series is really brilliant, totally worth your investment; I find it fascinating, creepy and inspiring, all the things I want from a narrative, horror or otherwise. And there's a fairly great showcase on female-directed film going on at Twitter and other places: #DirectedbyWomen (https://twitter.com/hashtag/DirectedbyWomen?src=hash), running from September 1 to September 15. I intend to do something to tie in with it before time runs out, probably involving talking about my favourite female directors (horror and otherwise).
Gemma Files’s [“Imaginary Beauties”] is also a solid story, though much darker and more—well, lurid—than the rest. A much more accurately contemporary feel, too: damaged weird girls making bad drugs, going out together in a blaze of (stupid) not-glory. The exploration of social versus technical genius between the two women here is also interesting, particularly because of what a genuinely bad person Rice—our protagonist—is.
...which sounds bad, I guess, but it's also totally true! Clarice "Rice" Petty is one of my favourite asshole protags ever, based very explicitly on the Loeb expy character from Murder By Numbers, which is why you can't go wrong seeing her as a chick version of charming sociopath Ryan Gosling; I enjoyed writing this piece a heck of a lot, so I'm glad it's finally getting some mainstream(ish) attention. (It was originally published as part of Kelp Queen Press's Loonie Dreadful line, along with "Every Angel," the first of my Terrible Seven stories.)
Personal news: "What You See When The Lights Are Out" A) is done and B) has been accepted, with some changes. I'll be doing those today, hopefully, along with another rewrite I totally forgot I owed a previous editor, while continuing to plan out a third story I owe by October 1. I've also finalized plans to travel to Saskatoon to appear at Word On The Street with a ChiZine posse (September 19 to 21) at last, and will be doing a very exciting phone interview tomorrow, so the march to publication continues apace. I'll keep you all apprised
All right, this makes me one for one in terms of keeping this blog current. Fingers crossed it becomes a habit...
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Wow, okay. That's a llllooooonnngggg fuckin' time between updates. (And amusingly enough, over a year later, I am still working on "What You See When The Lights Are Out"! Which happens, though I've tried really hard to make it not happen, these last few years.
Perhaps you wonder what is going on with me. Or not. Well, for those who are interested:
1. Experimental Film is finally on its way! Here's the pre-order page, at Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Experimental-Film-Gemma-Files/dp/1771483490); the release date is currently November 17, 2015. I can tell you for a fact that we're already through the first round of edits and that I just signed off on the line-edits, so we are very close indeed to being done with this process. I've been kind of amazed by the buzz surrounding the book thus far, given it's been pumped at Tor.com (http://www.tor.com/2015/08/19/five-canadian-books-to-look-for-in-fall-2015/) and SF Signal (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2015/07/radar-burning-midnight-will-mcintoshthe-bazaar-bad-dreams-stephen-kingexperimental-film-gemma-files/). In the second case, Stephen King's name was cited alongside my own, which impressed this shit out of my Dad: life goal achieved.
2. I am once more teaching a course on writing what you fear--cunningly entitled "Write What You Fear"--over at LitReactor, starting October 13. If this interests you and you have the money/time, please sign up! Last year's session was a lot of fun, and lead to at least one of my students getting published, which was very much the point of the exercise. The deets are here (https://litreactor.com/classes/write-what-you-fear).
3. I was interviewed over at the Lovecraft eZine Talk Show, and the result is up here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gTaO262Yrs). I shared the stage with filmmaker Len LoBiondo, Mike Davis, Joe Pulver and the usual merry crew of Lovecraftian-minded regulars. I talk about my writing, about film, and how the two intersect.
4. I was also interviewed by Derek Newman-Stille for Speculating Canada on Trent Radio, almost a year earlier (http://speculatingcanada.ca/2014/09/26/speculating-canada-on-trent-radio-episode-18-an-interview-with-gemma-files/), when I was in the throes of my obsession with The Walking Dead. BTW: If you're interested in the 100,000+ words' worth of fanfic that resulted from said obsession, you can find it here (http://archiveofourown.org/series/168656).
5. In anticipation of my upcoming appearance at Word on the Street Saskatoon, meanwhile, I was interviewed here, by Ann Foster, for CFCR's Radio Book Club (http://radiobookclub.podbean.com/e/radio-book-club-esisode-64-gemma-files/). This was an interesting interview for a couple of reasons, one of them being that I'm pretty sure Ann isn't a huge horror/Weird Western person, which spurred her to ask me a few questions I haven't heard in a while; it was pleasant and useful! Plus, I sound a lot better than I did "on the YouTube."
So now we are caught up, basically. I'm hoping to keep updating on a slightly more regular basis, from now on, but I know I've said that before.;) At any rate, good to have all this in one place.
Perhaps you wonder what is going on with me. Or not. Well, for those who are interested:
1. Experimental Film is finally on its way! Here's the pre-order page, at Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Experimental-Film-Gemma-Files/dp/1771483490); the release date is currently November 17, 2015. I can tell you for a fact that we're already through the first round of edits and that I just signed off on the line-edits, so we are very close indeed to being done with this process. I've been kind of amazed by the buzz surrounding the book thus far, given it's been pumped at Tor.com (http://www.tor.com/2015/08/19/five-canadian-books-to-look-for-in-fall-2015/) and SF Signal (http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2015/07/radar-burning-midnight-will-mcintoshthe-bazaar-bad-dreams-stephen-kingexperimental-film-gemma-files/). In the second case, Stephen King's name was cited alongside my own, which impressed this shit out of my Dad: life goal achieved.
2. I am once more teaching a course on writing what you fear--cunningly entitled "Write What You Fear"--over at LitReactor, starting October 13. If this interests you and you have the money/time, please sign up! Last year's session was a lot of fun, and lead to at least one of my students getting published, which was very much the point of the exercise. The deets are here (https://litreactor.com/classes/write-what-you-fear).
3. I was interviewed over at the Lovecraft eZine Talk Show, and the result is up here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gTaO262Yrs). I shared the stage with filmmaker Len LoBiondo, Mike Davis, Joe Pulver and the usual merry crew of Lovecraftian-minded regulars. I talk about my writing, about film, and how the two intersect.
4. I was also interviewed by Derek Newman-Stille for Speculating Canada on Trent Radio, almost a year earlier (http://speculatingcanada.ca/2014/09/26/speculating-canada-on-trent-radio-episode-18-an-interview-with-gemma-files/), when I was in the throes of my obsession with The Walking Dead. BTW: If you're interested in the 100,000+ words' worth of fanfic that resulted from said obsession, you can find it here (http://archiveofourown.org/series/168656).
5. In anticipation of my upcoming appearance at Word on the Street Saskatoon, meanwhile, I was interviewed here, by Ann Foster, for CFCR's Radio Book Club (http://radiobookclub.podbean.com/e/radio-book-club-esisode-64-gemma-files/). This was an interesting interview for a couple of reasons, one of them being that I'm pretty sure Ann isn't a huge horror/Weird Western person, which spurred her to ask me a few questions I haven't heard in a while; it was pleasant and useful! Plus, I sound a lot better than I did "on the YouTube."
So now we are caught up, basically. I'm hoping to keep updating on a slightly more regular basis, from now on, but I know I've said that before.;) At any rate, good to have all this in one place.
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Readercon Schedule
Since the cool kids are posting theirs...
Friday july 11
11:00 AM CR Teaching the Ghost Story: A Seminar for Instructors. Erik Amundsen, Michael Dirda, Gemma Files, Jack Haringa, Glen Hirshberg (leader). This presentation and conversation will help help instructors inspire fresh, compelling new work in the ghost story genre. Longtime writing teacher Glen Hirshberg will go over essential principles that all instructors will find useful when teaching writers of all levels, and will open the floor for the sharing of tips and techniques.
2:00 PM EM Fearful Symmetries Group Reading. Nathan Ballingrud, Gemma Files, John Langan. Fearful Symmetries is a new all-original anthology edited by Ellen Datlow, published by Chizine Publications.
7:00 PM CL Kaffeeklatsch. Marc Abrahams, Gemma Files.
8:00 PM ENL Dealing with Discouragement. Lisa (LJ) Cohen, F. Brett Cox, Gemma Files, Barbara Krasnoff (leader), Bud Sparhawk. As writers, we learn very early on to handle rejection, but how do you handle it when a story you're sure is good is rejected by 20 different publications? Or when your carefully crafted novel is shrugged off by five different agents? Or your self-published novella is bought by only 25 people, all of them friends and relatives? Or your fantasy novel disappears from public view after a couple of weeks? This discussion, led by Barbara Krasnoff, will cover personal strategies to deal with disappointments, rejection, and other setbacks.
10:30 PM F Meet the Pros(e).
Saturday July 12
10:00 AM E Autographs. Amal El-Mohtar, Gemma Files.
3:00 PM F Dark Fantasy and Horror: What's the Difference?. Jeanne Cavelos, Ellen Datlow (leader), Gemma Files, Jordan Hamessley, Jack Haringa, Steve Rasnic Tem. "As an editor of both dark fantasy and horror," Ellen Datlow writes, "I've been struggling with differentiating the difference for the last couple of years, particularly when editing the Best Horror of the Year, but also when reading for the Women Destroy Horror issue of Nightmare magazine." This panel of editors will discuss how they draw the line between horror and dark fantasy when selecting stories for publications that are firmly in the horror field—or vice versa.
6:00 PM Women Destroy Science Fiction/Horror Reading, with Livia Llewellyn et al. (Not sure where it is yet.)
Sunday July 13
12:00 PM G Horror for Diverse Audiences. Gemma Files, Nicholas Kaufmann, John Langan (leader), Shira Lipkin, Jennifer Pelland, Shveta Thakrar. Stereotypes and -isms often come from the id, from a place of deep fear. Horror writers have made use of this for ages, particularly describing monsters and monstrousness in ways that evoke racial anxiety, sexual anxieties, and fears of bodily change. However, that only works if your audience is in the racial majority, sexual majority, and able-bodied. What is the place of horror based on normalized fears for someone who doesn't or can't identify with the norm? How can writers effectively write horror for diverse audiences with diverse fears and anxieties? Can horror be a tool for expanding social empathy and social justice?
2:00 PM EM Reading: Gemma Files. Gemma Files. Gemma Files reads selections from her work in progress Experimental Film and the upcoming book We Will All Go Down Together: Stories of the Five-Family Coven
The long Canada Day weekend was a bit of a crazy grind, as ever, but at least I got the corrections in on the We Will All Go Down... proof and finished "In Hell, An Eye." Today will be about trying to finish "What You See (When the Lights Are Out)," hopefully in time for that deadline. If not, I'll at least have something to bank for later. And today Cal starts summer school, and tonight I'm seeing a theatre show with my Mom, all that.
So: onward.
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