Speculating Canada: Canadian Horror, Science Fiction, and Fantasy

September 12, 2012

The Predatory North and the Cold Lick of Vampiric Frost

A Review of Nancy Baker’s A Terrible Beauty (Viking, 1996). By Derek Newman-Stille Nancy Baker plays with misdirection and ambiguities in her novel A Terrible Beauty. Her characters are not immediately morally good or bad, but straddle a grey line that allows them to dip into darkness and come out shadowy. Like many of her vampire stories, this one is...

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September 11, 2012

Undying to Read A Good Book?

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September 11, 2012

Vamping Things Up – An Author Commentary by Ian Rogers

I would like to quickly (re)introduce you to Ian Rogers. Ian is the author of the Felix Renn series of supernoirturals, and has had his work published in various collections (including Imaginarium 2012 and Strange World) and markets such as Cemetery Dance, On Spec, Broken Pencil, and Supernatural Tales. His collection of Felix Renn stories titled SuperNOIRtural Tales will be...

Author Commentaries Comment: 1

September 10, 2012

Needles and Fangs

A Review of Nancy Kilpatrick’s The Vechi Barbat in Vampyric Variations (Edge, Forthcoming October 2012). By Derek Newman-Stille Although set in a psychiatric facility and featuring a Romanian protagonist, Nancy Kilpatrick’s short story The Vechi Barbat is fundamentally a very Canadian tale containing traditional Can Lit themes. Her story is about the struggle between tradition and modernity, the tug that...

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September 9, 2012

Cruising for Blood

A Review of Tanya Huff’s Blood Price By Derek Newman-Stille Tanya Huff’s books never disappoint me. I am always impressed with her ability to work in multiple genres of Speculative Fiction from hard Science Fiction to High Fantasy, to Urban Dark Fantasy and Horror. Blood Price, the first of Huff’s Blood Books is perhaps one of my favorite books of...

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September 8, 2012

Reap the Benefits of This New Volume on Death.

If you don’t think Halloween will give you a strong enough dose of the dark and deathly, check out Nancy Kilpatrick’s edited volume Danse Macabre: Close Encounters with the Reaper coming out in October from Edge. The stories in this collection plan to explore the human interaction with death and how that shapes us. This collection includes a wide variety...

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September 7, 2012

Upcoming Author Commentary by Ian Rogers for Vampire Week

Earlier this month, I asked horror author Ian Rogers if he would be willing to do a short commentary piece on his Black Lands vampires for Speculating Canada’s Vampire Week. Thankfully, he accepted and I am looking forward to sharing his thoughts with you. This will be the first Author Commentary on Speculating Canada, and I am excited that Mr. Rogers...

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September 7, 2012

Quote – Discovery By What Is Not Answered

“It’s surprising what you can discover by what people don’t say, the questions they won’t answer.” -Nancy Baker – A Terrible Beauty (Penguin Books, 1996)

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September 6, 2012

Books You Can Really Sink Your Teeth Into: A Reading List for Vampire Week

By Derek Newman-Stille These are a few of my favorite Canadian vampire stories (note that I say ‘a few’, I want to save several for Vampire Week next year). Some of these stories challenge the genre, pushing it into new areas, and some represent those classic vampire ideas for a Canadian audience. There is something about the Canadian vampire that...

Editorials/Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 2

September 5, 2012

Upcoming Interview with Nancy Kilpatrick for Vampire Week (September 9-15)

Check out Speculating Canada for Vampire Week (September 9-15) including an interview with Nancy Kilpatrick, Canada’s Queen of the Damned: author of vampire fiction and the macabre. Join Speculating Canada for this interview and watch as Ms. Kilpatrick takes the “mask of normality” off of horror writers and explores the unusual and macabre lives of authors. Let her lure you...

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