Short List Excitement

Posted on March 12, 2023 by Clare

From The Waste Land: three Waste Land stories make the Aurealis cut

This week, the savvy judges of the Aurealis Awards (Australia’s premier speculative fiction awards) announced their short lists in the various categories for 2022 publications:
https://aurealisawards.org/2023/03/09/2022-aurealis-awards-shortlist-announcement/

And I’m deeply THRILLED to see that THREE stories from the anthology From the Waste Land: speculative fiction inspired by T.S. Eliot (requested, chosen and edited by me!) have made the short list in their categories.

Best Horror Short Story: Geneve Flynn, for ‘Lidless Eyes That See’

Author Geneve Flynn, short-listed for ‘Lidless Eyes That See’

Best Science Fiction Short Story: Grace Chan, for ‘Death By Water’

Author Grace Chan, short-listed for ‘Death By Water’

Best Horror Novella: Jeff Clulow, for ‘Rats Alley’

Author Jeff Clulow, short-listed for ‘Rats Alley’

You can read these fabulous tales, and sixteen other absolute beauties, NOW. I have real live copies of the paperback version.*

From the Waste Land, edited by Clare Rhoden. Available now from AmazonAU (from $39.00, free postage for Prime members) and BookDepository ($53.89, free postage).

*And watch out for an announcement…

about copies available through my website for only $38.00 including postage (Australia only). Coming very very soon! Email me on clare[at]clarerhoden.com if you’d like to reserve a copy

From the Waste Land – sharpening your appetite

Posted on July 17, 2022 by Clare

Hey everyone! I’m re-blogging this fab post about From the Waste Land by one of the amazing contributors. I’m sure you’ll agree that reading just a little of this will sharpen your appetite for the entire anthology.

We can’t wait to share it with you!

In the meantime, try this:

From the Waste Land – a new anthology by contributor BP Marshall*

*and a reminder about his wonderful novel The Last Circus on Earth

And also admire the fab graphic created by multi-talented contributor Cat Sparks!

From the Waste Land: announcing the stories!

Posted on June 21, 2022 by Clare

One hundred years ago…

TS Eliot’s The Waste Land, a masterpiece of modernism, reaches back into legend and forward into dystopia. First published in October 1922, the poem resonates with the grief of the Great War.

You know, ‘the war to end all wars’…

A hundred years later, we can easily empathise with that mood. But we also know that, despite our fears, humanity continues its struggle to find the goodness and the light.

Autumn 2022

I’m thrilled to announce that later this year PS Publishing UK will release our anthology From the Waste Land: stories inspired by TS Eliot (edited by Clare Rhoden), marking the centenary of publication!

Meet the stories

With a mix of ghost stories, sci-fi, fantasy and apocalyptic tales, these original stories conjure wastelands from the 1500s to many centuries ahead.

You’ll also find hope for humanity and a belief in our shared future.

You’ve already met the wonderful team of authors; now let me introduce the contents.

Delightful, shocking, unique, extraordinary… you’re sure to find something amazing in these gems of speculative fiction.

From the Waste Land: contents

Death by Water, by Grace Chan
A Winter Respite, by Clare Rhoden
She Who Walks Behind You, by Leanbh Pearson
The Watcher of Greenwich, by Laura E. Goodin
Exhausted Wells, by Tee Linden
Rats Alley, by Jeff Clulow
Fragments of Ruin, by B.P. Marshall
Dead Men, by Cat Sparks
A Dusty Handful, by Aveline Perez de Vera
Lidless Eyes That See, by Geneve Flynn
A Witch’s Bargain, by Rebecca Dale
And Fiddled Whisper Music on Those Strings, by Eugen Bacon
Mountain of Death, by Austin P. Sheehan
Fawdaze, by Rebecca Fraser
Over the Mountains, by Tim Law
A Shadow in This Red Rock, by Louise Zedda Sampson
Dry Bones, by Robert Hood
April, by Francesca Bussey
The Violet Hour, by Nikky Lee

Autumn sunrise … hope for the future (photo C Rhoden)

Keep an eye out for more news as this exciting project nears completion.

Personally, I can’t wait for the cover reveal!

From the Wasteland: what’s it all about?

Posted on January 27, 2022February 5, 2022 by Clare

A new anthology of speculative fiction called From the Wasteland will gather original stories inspired by TS Eliot’s The Waste Land

I first had the idea for this collection last December while walking the Empress (otherwise known as Aeryn Spoodle). I was listening to an episode of ABC Classics’ The Game Show (music from video games). This episode had a very dark theme. Naturally my mind turned to my studies into First World War literature, and then to The Waste Land.

The Waste Land begins with a chapter titled The Burial of the Dead. The very first line says that ‘April is the cruellest month’. What an attention-grabbing start!

The 434-line poem is Eliot’s extended lament for the lost lives and the destruction of the 1914-1918 war. He’s talking about the collapse of civilised behaviour, the wanton wreckage, the widespread despair. And he does it in style.

Australian headstones at Tyne Cot cemetery on the Western Front (my photo from my 2011 study tour)

When I got home from my walk, I looked up the poem, recalling that it includes dozens of splendid lines. Then I discovered (re-discovered?) that the poem’s first publication was in 1922.

Lo and behold, 2022 would be the centenary!

The idea of an anthology of Wasteland stories burst into my head. Wow! so many good lines there that are almost irresistible as story titles – for something in literary speculative fiction genres. (Literary spec fic? Think Margaret Attwood and Octavia Butler.) Look at these phrases for a start, all from The Waste Land:

a heap of broken images
they called me the hyacinth girl
looking into the heart of light
the barbarous king
are you alive, or not?

I’ve invited a select band of other active speculative fiction authors to write short stories springing from Eliot’s poem. I’m thrilled to say that we are a merry band of 19 writers. You can see more about them here.

snow covered trees — My story is based on line 5 of TS Eliot’s The Waste Land’: Winter kept us warm, covering earth in forgetful snow’, from the first section of the poem, ‘The Burial of the Dead’.

‘From the Waste Land: speculative fiction inspired by Eliot’ will include ghost stories, fantasy, horror, steampunk, dystopia and queer romance. All will be intriguing and amazing tales.

I’m doing my best to ensure that this anthology will come out in the second half of 2022 to coincide with the poem’s centenary. I’m very busy querying publishers–no easy feat when we don’t actually have a completed manuscript on hand yet! And of course, I’m writing up a storm with my collaborators…

It’s going to be fabulous. Keep an eye peeled for more news about this wonderful project.