{"id":14223,"date":"2013-08-29T03:22:24","date_gmt":"2013-08-29T02:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/?p=14223"},"modified":"2013-09-02T05:24:31","modified_gmt":"2013-09-02T04:24:31","slug":"words-and-pictures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/2013\/08\/29\/words-and-pictures\/","title":{"rendered":"Words and pictures"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ghosts.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This one has been a long while gestating. Evan J. Peterson asked me late last year to contribute a cover to a new edition of Seattle’s Gay City anthology which he was editing with Vincent Kovar. In May this year the anthology successfully covered some of its production costs with a Kickstarter fund, and the anthology will have its official launch next month (although the book is on sale now). Ghosts in Gaslight, Monsters in Steam<\/em> combines a loose take on steampunk themes with spectral or horror material, and adds a queer twist. The contents are as follows:<\/p>\n

Cover art by John Coulthart
\nIllustrations by M S Corley and Levi Hastings
\nGraphic story: Paper Lantern<\/em> by Jon Macy<\/p>\n

Poetry:<\/strong>
\nfrom Preternatural Conversations<\/em> and Oblivious Imperialism is the Worst Kind<\/em> by CAConrad
\nDear Dr. Frankenstein<\/em> by Jericho Brown
\nAnaphora as Coping Mechanism<\/em> and American Dreams<\/em> by Ocean Vuong
\nOrpheus on the 74<\/em> and The Resurrection Spell<\/em> by Oscar McNary
\nZombie Autopsy<\/em> by Janie Miller
\nMoon Goddess<\/em> by Imani Sims<\/p>\n

Hybrid\/Flash Fiction\/Prose Poetry:<\/strong>
\nPsychopomp<\/em> by Lydia Swartz
\nThangs<\/em> by Imani Sims
\nThe Door<\/em>, Casualties of War<\/em>, and The Worst is that You Can’t Even Ask Him to Use Protection<\/em> by Jeremy Halinen<\/p>\n

Short Stories:<\/strong>
\nDemon Lover<\/em> by Dorothy Allison
\nMonster Movie<\/em> by Rebecca Brown
\nB.E.M.s<\/em> by Gregory L. Norris
\nFeeding Desire<\/em> by Steve Berman
\nMedium M\u00e9chanique<\/em> by Catherine Lundoff
\nStudy in Blue, Green, and Gold<\/em> by John Coulthart
\nA Captive Audience<\/em> by Ryan Keawekane
\nSplinter<\/em> by Ryan Crawford
\nThe Difference Men<\/em> by Kat Smalley
\nAlexander’s Wrath<\/em> by J L Smither
\nQuota<\/em> by Amy Shepherd
\nHeart of the Labyrinth<\/em> by Tony Rella<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This isn’t the first occasion when I’ve produced the cover for an anthology and also contributed some fiction inside\u2014The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric and Discredited Diseases<\/em><\/a> included a short fiction piece\u2014but the Gay City anthology marks the first appearance in print of anything from my ongoing Axiom project. This is a long-term endeavour which I began in March 2001 but haven’t referred to much in public, mainly because the bulk of the project to date has been written fiction. There are few words more dismaying to hear than the dread phrase “I’m writing a novel”, especially today when the activity of fiction writing seems to have undergone an exponential increase. I tend to believe that unless you’re an established author there’s little to be gained by discussing your own literary labours in public until you have some results to offer. Well, now I have.<\/p>\n

I know some people have been curious about the Axiom project so\u2014keeping things brief\u2014I can say it’s two novels, one finished, the second one nearly finished. Axiom<\/em> was written from 2001 to 2007, and concerns a year in the life of an invented city. It’s fantasy of a sort but closer to the world of Reverbstorm<\/em><\/a> than anything you’ll find on the swords-and-dragons shelves. The idea began in the late 1990s when I was working on Reverbstorm<\/em> with David Britton and realised I could easily shift the city in that book a few degrees sideways to provide a setting for my own obsessions. I’d been writing a lot of fiction in the 1980s\u2014short stories and two unfinished novels\u2014and wanted to return to this seriously having tired of collaborations and illustrating the work of other people. Axiom<\/em> marked out some territory I wanted to explore; the new novel, Vitriol<\/em>, uses the territory to stage a “psychedelic apocalypse”. The project as a whole is loose enough to evolve into other media, and eventually there should be some Axiom-related art. I’ve been working on Vitriol<\/em> since August 2006 (there was some overlap while finishing the first book); my contribution to the Gay City anthology, Study in Blue, Green, and Gold<\/em>, is an extract from the work-in-progress which happened to function quite well as a self-contained piece. Despite the anthology theme it’s not quite a steampunk affair but there are some steam locomotives present so it has the required flavour.<\/p>\n

Whilst working on the new book I’ve had an agent (Leslie Gardner at Artellus) trying to sell Axiom<\/em>. This would have been in print by now if the London publisher who agreed to take it 18 months ago hadn’t gone bust after they’d sent us a contract. I’ve been considering putting out a limited hardback edition of the novel, although I’m busy enough as it is, and don’t relish having to self-distribute even a small number of books. For now it’s an option that remains open.<\/p>\n

Gay City’s own site points to Amazon for sales of Ghosts in Gaslight, Monsters in Steam<\/em><\/a> so on this occasion I’ll do that too. If you’re in the Seattle area there’s a launch party on September 27th. Details here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Update:<\/strong> I’ve belatedly noticed that Evan is interviewed about the anthology here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This one has been a long while gestating. Evan J. Peterson asked me late last year to contribute a cover to a new edition of Seattle’s Gay City anthology which he was editing with Vincent Kovar. In May this year the anthology successfully covered some of its production costs with a Kickstarter fund, and the … Continue reading “Words and pictures”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[42,21,5,20,23],"tags":[394,250,728,249,4026],"class_list":["post-14223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-fantasy","category-gay","category-science-fiction","category-work","tag-david-britton","tag-frankenstein","tag-reverbstorm","tag-steampunk","tag-thackery-t-lambshead"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pq7rV-3Hp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14223\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}