The Little Cat Laughed to See Such Sport
To celebrate the publication of award-winning author Michael Swanwick’s new novel Dancing with Bears (Night Shade Books), we’re running Swanwick’s complete short story “The Little Cat Laughed to See Such Sport.” It’s a story about Darger and Surplus, the protagonists in Dancing with Bears, and was originally collected in Swanwick’s short story collection, The Dog…
Future of the Underground: What to Read Before Everyone Else Does
After years of living as a starving writer, Nick Mamatas has published a guide to the underground publishing life called Starve Better. In this essay, he talks about why he wrote the book, and offers a guide to the best underground writing you should be reading. I’ve just published a book for starving writers called…
What if Dracula won? The secret inspirations behind “Anno Dracula”
Kim Newman’s classic novel Anno Dracula imagines a world where Dracula wins at the end of Bram Stoker’s story, conquering Britain and establishing a vampire-dominated society. Where did this horrifying scenario come from? To celebrate the reissue of Anno Dracula from Titan Books, Newman explains the genesis of his story, including his literary influences and…
The Origins of Post-Apocalyptic Island America
When the continental United States becomes uninhabitable, the last survivors of America have to move to an island, in Anna North’s bleak, beautiful America Pacifica. Here’s an exclusive excerpt, in which some street performers reenact the end of our world. America Pacifica, out today, is the debut novel from Iowa Writers Workshop graduate (and Jezebel…
Badass Women of the Pulp Era
The pulps of the world were full of tough men. The iconic pulp characters — the Shadow, Doc Savage, Tarzan — are all men, and the common perception of the pulps is that they were written by male writers, about male characters, for male readers. However, the pulps were more progressive than mainstream fiction (and…