Monthly Archive: June, 2014

June 30, 2014

Darkly Dislocating

A Review of Eileen Kernaghan’s Sophie, In Shadow (Thistledown Press, 2014). Suspended in the icy waters of the Atlantic Ocean after the Titanic was pulled beneath the waves, Sophie’s life was forever marked, forever suspended between life and the icy, shadowy depths of death. Re-living her brush with death in her dreams, Sophie brings visions of tragedy into her waking...

Categories Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 0

June 27, 2014

Floating on Myths and Legends

A review of Marie Bilodeau’s The Kevlar Canoe in Masked Mosaic: Canadian Super Stories (Tyche Books Ltd, 2013). By Derek Newman-Stille Marie Bilodeau re-visits Quebecois mythology in her story The Kevlar Canoe, reinventing legend and tying it to a modern legend, a myth for modernity: the superhero story. Taking the story of La Chasse-galerie, often translated into English as The...

Categories Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 0

June 24, 2014

Speculating Canada on Trent Radio Episode 9: A Mythic Night: An Author Reading by Marie Bilodeau and Karen Dudley

This is a live broadcast of the event “A Mythic Night: An Author Reading by Marie Bilodeau and Karen Dudley” which was held at Sadleir House in Peterborough Ontario and hosted by Derek Newman-Stille. The event was co-sponsored by Sadleir House, Ravenstone Press, and Speculating Canada. The first time human beings looked out into nature and said “we are not...

Categories Author Readings/On Air Comments: 0

June 22, 2014

Dark Communities

A review of Craig Davidson’s Sarah Court (ChiZine Publications, 2010) By Derek Newman-Stille Lives intersect in weird and complex ways. The notion of community itself is an interweaving of disparate yet intertwined stories, pulled together by dark threads… because there is something dark about suburban communities. They are built of bricks and blood mortared together by darkness and Craig Davidson’s...

Categories Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 0

June 18, 2014

Quote – Dionysus Drama King

“Dionysus could be a bit of a drama king. Seeing how he was the god of theatre, I suppose it made sense.” – Karen Dudley, Food for the Gods

Categories Quotes Comments: 0

June 17, 2014

Speculating Canada on Trent Radio Episode 8: An Interview with Marie Bilodeau and Karen Dudley About Myth and Canadian SF

In this interview, SF authors Marie Bilodeau, Karen Dudley, and I explore the mythic underpinnings of modern Canadian SF. Prepare for us to open up mythic worlds within all of those little corners of reality. Marie Bilodeau is an award-winning, Ottawa-based Science Fiction and Fantasy author and a professional storyteller. A modern mythographer, Marie creates worlds of wonder with pen...

Categories Interviews/On Air Comments: 2

June 15, 2014

A Mythic Night: An Author Reading by Karen Dudley and Marie Bilodeau

A Mythic Night: An Author Reading by Karen Dudley and Marie Bilodeau at Sadleir House (751 George Street North, Peterborough Ontario). Thursday June 19th at 7:00 PM at Sadleir House (751 George Street North, Peterborough Ontario) Looking for a bit of cultural entertainment over the summer? Interested in hearing some exciting story-telling in a historical Peterborough mansion, come to Sadleir...

Categories Author Readings/News Comments: 0

June 12, 2014

Speculating Canada on Trent Radio Episode 7: Feminism and Horror

This episode features an interview with Peterborough’s own Mistress of Dark Scholarship, Amy Jane Vosper. Amy Jane is a PhD student in the Cultural Studies PhD programme at Trent University who conducts research on women’s responses to horror film. Hear a discussion of the love of horror, audience passion about horror, women growing up with horror, age and different reactions...

Categories On Air Comments: 0

June 11, 2014

Quote – Shrinking Envelope of Normal

“Each of us has felt alone, mechanized and constricted by – or forcibly expelled from – the shrinking envelope of normal, the hegemony of real.” -Greg Bechtel – “Junk Mail” in Boundary Problems (Freehand Books, 2014)

Categories Quotes Comments: 0

June 6, 2014

Speculating Canada on Trent Radio Episode 6: Canadian Queer SF

As a queer man, do you know what I want to see: a sci fi novel in which one of the typical space bros says “yo fags, no homo” and instantly has his head bitten off by a glitter-wearing, feather boa carrying alien, who instantly spits it out and says “No hate, bro”; or a femmbot who decides that since...

Categories On Air Comments: 0