Scotsman / Times

This weekend, a review of Bitterhall and interview with me appeared in the print editions of The Scotsman and the Times respectively.

Helen McClory is an extremely accomplished and intelligent novelist, which is what makes Bitterhall such a delight and a problem. At the very beginning the reader is slapped on the face with a silk glove: it announces itself as a challenge. “When exactly is this happening, and to whom is it happening, and who is making it happen? We begin to get tricky, don’t we, when I write in the first person. What tense do my intrusive thoughts manifest in?…. Everything is an aside. Except the centre. That is the centre. Find it”. Bold words indeed, and challenge duly accepted.

Stuart Kelly, The Scotsman

Over the past six years, McClory has developed a reputation as one of the most interesting young writers of fiction in Scotland. Among the fans of her work is Ali Smith, who said she was “completely unafraid”, while Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale, memorably described her short story collection Mayhem & Death as “shiny, dark licorice, mind candy”.

Bitterhall, McClory’s new novel, is a more substantial meal, rich and gamey if one was to take linguistic liberties and extend Atwood’s metaphor before she could snatch it back and drive a dining fork through its now blackened heart. 

Stephen McGinty, The Times

You can buy the novel here, if you fancy

TGV roundup and judging the Lunate 500

Some links:

I talked with the lovely and gracious Sam Sanders over at NPR

An excerpt of The Goldblum Variations appeared on The Lit Hub

Reviews of the book on Commonspace, The Quietus and PopMatters

An interview with Indie champ Tobias Carroll on Insider Hook

The book is available here in the UK or here in the US. If you fancy, you can leave a review for it on Goodreads to help other readers make up their mind.

I’m judging the Lunate 500 Flash Fiction competition. Entries are only £2. Send me something strange and filled with awe.

I’m currently reading: Emily Berry’s Dear Boy and listening right now to this collection of Debussy’s music.

Interview in The List

I was interviewed by fellow writer Lynsey May for The List

Read the full interview here.

Interview on Splice

Over the course of a few months, I was interviewed for Splice. You can now read the whole thing, if you’d like here.

 

Helen McClory is a prolific writer of flash fiction and short stories, as well as a novelist and an advocate for overlooked works of literature. In reviewing her two story collections for Splice, Daniel Davis Wood called McClory a “distinctive” writer who “survey[s] the stuff of folklore and mythology and weav[es] it into serious fiction with vivid imagery and poetic flair”. Throughout the summer of 2018, following the publication of her most recent collection, Mayhem & Death, Helen McClory generously set aside time to talk to Splice about her work, her interest in different literary forms, and her plans for the future

 

Wood also reviewed both On the Edges of Vision and Mayhem & Death here.

 

One of my pieces, “It Seemed Impossible it Could Ever Begin” was one Fictive Dream’s September Slam flashes.

 

Another apocalyptic story of mine, “A Quiet, Important Thing”, is up on Minor Literatures.

 

 

Interview on The Skinny

I was interviewed by Gary Kaill for The Skinny, and he had some really kind things to say about Flesh of the Peach:

 

Flesh of the Peach is both a gripping re-imagining of the traditional American road trip and a character examination whose deep focus is testament to the author’s forensic detailing and abiding humanity. In a novel that weighs the twin uncertanties of who we are and how we got here, it’s a pointed summarising of the ongoing struggle to outrun the past and establish yourself in the here-and-now.

 

read the full interview here

An interview at Burning House Press

I was very kindly sent some thoughtful questions on my writing (both flash fiction and my forthcoming novel).  In it, I push The Unsung Letter, talk about my nervousness of Plath (it’s true, one day I will face it) and what I’d take if my house was burning down.

Read the full thing here.

 

 

An Interview

Writer Hayley Webster is hosting an online literary festival right now, and as part of it she has interviewed me on On the Edges of Vision and being a writer and speaking up for other writers (which she does herself very often, as evidenced by the efforts she has gone through to organise a literary festival under her own steam!)

 

Read the interview here

 

and keep an eye out on her twitter feed as she posts interviews with other writers!

 

 

The Literophone: Interview on IndieBerlin

Not in any particular way spooky (happy Hallowe’en by the way) but next Saturday, if you are in Berlin and attending the Indie Book Fair, you’ll have a chance to go into some fluffily-outfitted booths and listen to writers read their work down the phone. I’m taking part (remotely) and will be reading some flash fiction and poetry. Ahead of this, IndieBerlin kindly interviewed me!

Have a look here!

Interview on Vol 1. Brooklyn

I was asked some great wranglesome questions by Tobias Carroll about On the Edges of Vision, realism, place and the current state of Scottish literature:

 

How did the particular group of stories that make up On the Edges of Vision come together? What was the process of ordering them like?

I had two stories, ‘Pretty Dead Girl Takes a Break’ and ‘Boy Cyclops’ that were a bit older, and I think the impetus behind them was something that my subconscious needed time to gnaw on a while. I wrote most of the rest of the stories in a month and a half, pushed on by the sudden realisation that I really wanted to write about monsters, and monstrous humanity. The various shifting and unsettle selves we carry or let rattle around in these strange things, our bodies.

Ordering was based around looking to compliment themes and styles – if one story was first person, it should go next to third. If the story was of corpses or reanimated bodies, I wanted its neighbour to be full of life. It was pretty intuitive that way. Stick each down like a coloured scrap of paper, where it feels like it will look best.

Read More…

Interview on SparkLife

I’ve been interviewed for the ‘Career Wha?’ column on the Spark Notes community website, SparkLife! Here’s a bit:

 

What were the steps to getting to where you are today, and is there only one way in? How long did it take?

I think there is only one way to write and that’s to read your heart out, and write even when it’s terrible, and listen to the world shifting and being ugly and hard sometimes. They way you go about being a writer differs from person to person. You can keep yourself tender and raw, however difficult that might be, or you can be stern and have a vision and just crack that out, or be a storyteller and weave a star-blanket, or shape only one tiny thing, and give that tiny thing, as frugal as that might seem.

Read More…

 

The comments from readers are wonderful, heartwarming too. and really made my day.

 

In other news, a flash fiction of mine, ‘Pretty Dead Girl Takes a Break’, which was inspired by True Detective and Twin Peaks (the 25 anniversary is this year) is going to be published online. More details when it goes up.