Speculating Canada: Canadian Horror, Science Fiction, and Fantasy

March 20, 2013

Interview with Leah Bobet

An interview with Leah Bobet by Derek Newman-Stille I was fortunate enough to meet Leah Bobet at CAN CON: The Conference on Canadian Content in Speculative Arts and Literature in Ottawa this past year. We had a brief chat about SF and inclusivity, and I got back in touch with her again after reading her novel Above, which I was...

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March 19, 2013

Between Pages of Experience

A review of Jo Walton’s Among Others By Derek Newman-Stille SF has a pedagogical value – it teaches, it shares experiences, and it opens the mind to new horizons. Outsiders and social outcasts are often drawn to SF as a means to explore a world that seems strange and alienating to them – reading the alien as a way of...

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March 18, 2013

Quote – Science Fiction Makes You Look at Things From New Angles

“One of the things I’ve always liked about science fiction is the way it makes you think about things, and look at things from angles you’d never have thought about before.” -Jo Walton – Among Others (TOR, 2010)

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March 17, 2013

Sex, Drugs, and Country and Western Horror

A review of Derek McCormack’s The Haunted Hillbilly (ECW Press, 2003) By Derek Newman-Stille Hank is a country and western star looking for an image that will bring him success and Nudie is willing to assist him with an eye toward aesthetics he picked up in the carnival. Nudie recreates Hank in an image he desires, planting evidence of infidelity...

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March 16, 2013

Quote – Who Has The Right To Decide Acceptable Behaviour?

“Who had the right to decide what types of behaviour were acceptable for all species under all circumstances?” -J. Paul Cooper – The Dinner Guest (Canadian Tales of the Fantastic)

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March 15, 2013

Upcoming interview with Leah Bobet on Wednesday March 20th

I met Leah Bobet at CAN CON: The Conference on Canadian Content in Speculative Arts and Literature in Ottawa this past year. After chatting with her about her work, I wanted to share some of her insights with readers. You will have a chance to hear from her about her involvement in politics, studies of intersectionality, advocacy, supporting local food...

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March 14, 2013

Interview with Corey Redekop

An interview of Corey Redekop By Derek Newman-Stille Wouldn’t the world be better if we just asked the monsters politely if they could please not eat us at the moment? Corey Redekop and I had a chance in this interview to explore the figure of the monster and its role as a representation of the social outcast, the rejected. It...

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March 13, 2013

“Husk” Reading Questions

Some Book Club Discussion Questions for Corey Redekop’s “Husk” (ECW, 2012) What was it like to be in the perspective of the zombie? Why do you think the author titled his chapters after the stages of grief? Why do you think the author made his zombie character an actor? If this book were made into a movie, who would you...

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March 12, 2013

Travel Guide to Fairy

A Review of O.R. Melling’s The Hunter’s Moon (In The Chronicles of Faerie, Penguin Canada, 2000) By Derek Newman-Stille O.R. Melling’s The Hunter’s Moon explores the idea of place and landscape saturated with the mythic and the historical, the overlapping realms of reality that are facilitated by time and story-telling. Two cousins – Findabhair and Gwen – linked by family,...

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March 11, 2013

Quote – Entropy

“But nothing is ever really fixed. Michael’s father once told him about entropy and he never forgot. Something that depressing is hard to forget. Everything is eroding; people slow it down by fixing their cars and fixing their love lives and fixing their bodies, but in the end, it all falls apart anyway.” -Brett Savory – In and Down (Brindle...

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