"The Old Knowledge" and Women of the Weird

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nomis

Grimscribe
For those curious as to where the Rosalie Parker book Ex Occidente was to publish has gone, apparently your wait is at an end. It looks like Swan River Press have taken the reigns and will be publishing the volume next month.

The Swan River Press

I'm not sure how many here have read Parker's work, but I urge you to investigate this author. I suspect it will be right up your alley. We have so few women working in the weird right now — as has been noted elsewhere — that I thought some attention really needs to be drawn to the talent currently working. If anyone has suggestions of further writers — writers who happen to be female — please by all means mention them below. For instance, I've also heard good things about Angela Slatter's work...
 
Thanks. I haven't read any Parker that I can recall, but her work does look intriguing. It's good to see Swan River branching out to publishing more books from contemporary fiction writers. I could be wrong, but it seems like much of their activity so far with new weird fiction has been confined to publishing the short Haunted Histories chapbooks.
 
I am curious about Rosalie Parker's fiction, and so shall probably be ordering The Old Knowledge soon.

I love what I've read from Angela Slatter, and have two of her upcoming collections pre-ordered.

I've also recently read Nina Allan's collection A Thread of Truth, and found it quite good. Nothing out rightly supernatural happens, but her stories can definitely be classified as weird fiction.
 
I also intend on purchasing a copy of The Old Knowledge.


It's an interesting title and I'd like to see where Rosalie Parker goes with it.
 
Freyasfire said:
I am curious about Rosalie Parker's fiction, and so shall probably be ordering The Old Knowledge soon.

I love what I've read from Angela Slatter, and have two of her upcoming collections pre-ordered.

I've also recently read Nina Allan's collection A Thread of Truth, and found it quite good. Nothing out rightly supernatural happens, but her stories can definitely be classified as weird fiction.
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Freyasfire, you mention two collections by Angela Slatter.

I've seen Sourdough and Other Stories from Tartarus.

Where's the other one available from?
 
njhorror said:
Freyasfire said:
I am curious about Rosalie Parker's fiction, and so shall probably be ordering The Old Knowledge soon.

I love what I've read from Angela Slatter, and have two of her upcoming collections pre-ordered.

I've also recently read Nina Allan's collection A Thread of Truth, and found it quite good. Nothing out rightly supernatural happens, but her stories can definitely be classified as weird fiction.
Click to expand...


Freyasfire, you mention two collections by Angela Slatter.

I've seen Sourdough and Other Stories from Tartarus.

Where's the other one available from?
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The other collection is entitled The Girl with No Hands and Other Tales and is being published by Ticonderoga Publications out of Australia. Itis available for pre-order here:

indiebooksonline.com
 
I'll be ordering The Old Knowledge. Rosalie Parker's work has appeared in a few anthologies that I know of, although I think those stories are reprinted in Old Knowledge. I can highly recommend Angela Slatter's writing. An obvious comparison might be Angela Carter at her best, with a heavy seasoning of Mervyn Peake. That's my impression anyhow. Other living female writers that might be of interest? Two immediately spring to mind right now: Leonora Carrington and Rikki Ducornet. Stephen (Stephen J Clark)
 
TheSingingGarden said:
Rosalie Parker's work has appeared in a few anthologies that I know of
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Rosalie's ‘Spirit Solutions’ was published in The Black Veil & Other Tales of Supernatural Sleuths (Wordsworth Editions, 2008), ‘In the Garden’ was published in The Fifth Black Book of Horror (Mortbury Press, 2009) and ‘The Picture’ was voted the best story in Supernatural Tales 15 (2009).
‘In the Garden’ will also be in the next Best New Horror edited by Stephen Jones. I can recommend the collection, but I have to admit that I'm biased ;)

As I've managed to upload an image, I'll upload a couple of Angela Slatter's excellent Sourdough:

The illustration on the cover and boards is by the wonderful Stephen J. Clark.
(I'll have to admit a vested interest in this title too...)
 
I hope to order the Slatter collection from Australia, though the postage can be daunting.

While I was at the website I noticed a new Terry Dowling collection and some interesting anthologies that I haven't seen before, no doubt because they're from Australia and don't seem to get much distribution here in the U.S..

I wish there was a bookstore in the U.S. that carried that stuff . . . (dream sequence coming) *a strumming harp can be heard* and here is where you post a link to one such bookstore right in the good old U. S. of A!
 
I've just received my copy of Sourdough as well, and it is quite lovely indeed. Also, I've just received an email informing me that The Girl with No Hands is on its way to me as well, and I hope it does not take too long to reach me from Australia. It looks like September may very well be Angela Slatter month for me. :cool:

Oh, and I have thought of another woman writer who I believe deserves mention in this thread, Gemma Files, whose two collections from Prime Books, Kissing Carrion, and The Worm in Every Heart are just wonderful. I'm not sure if her latest publication, the novel A Book of Tongues really fits, but I do highly recommend her two short story collections.
 
I've just received Rosalie Parker's collection THE OLD KNOWLEDGE and it is a beauty. The overall design and cover art are beautiful. I may buy another - just to read!
 
njhorror said:
I've just received Rosalie Parker's collection THE OLD KNOWLEDGE and it is a beauty. The overall design and cover art are beautiful. I may buy another - just to read!
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Yes, I've just received my copy. A sweet aesthetic volume that took me straight back to better days.
 
I've just received Stranger in the House by Lisa Tuttle and it's made my day. A good-sized collection of fine stories in an attractive and well-made package. I'll take this one to the poorhouse before I ever part with it.

I would think that collectors would be buying this one up before too long.
 
'I've just received Stranger in the House by Lisa Tuttle and it's made my day. A good-sized collection of fine stories in an attractive and well-made package. I'll take this one to the poorhouse before I ever part with it.

I would think that collectors would be buying this one up before too long.'

I picked it up at Fantasycon. I wouldn't part with it either :.)

Must pick up Rosalie's book, soon...meant to get that at Fantasycon, too.
 
The Old Knowledge is a nice little volume of enigmatic stories. I'm reading through it now interspersed with the more visceral terrors of Brendan Connell's Unpleasant Tales.

The narrative style is interesting: many of her stories are told in subtly disarming, near monologue style; the closest comparison I can think of from another author would Reggie Oliver's short story Tawny from Madder Mysteries. I still have two more to go but my favorite stories so far would have to be The Old Knowledge ( I have a weakness for stories involving barrows) and The Supply Teacher which falls into the above mentioned monologue stories.

The only thing I ought to say for anyone who has a copy and hasn't looked at it yet is do not, under any circumstances, read the introduction before you've read the stories in the book.

The boards themselves are also quite nicely illustrated with an autumnal woodland sort of scene.
 

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