September 2005

Hello, said she, that is the one who very, very badly hasn't put anything onto her site for almost a year. Yet again my apologies - as usual it's been pressure of work that's kept me from updating this site for anyone who still has the patience to look in on it. ( I appreciate very much the fact that you just have .) I'm off to Octocon in Ireland - same venue as last year - this October. When I get back I absolutely vow I'll have a lot of news. You probably won't believe this, but I am always writing you in my mind, but life, deadlines and etcetera tend to move in before I get down to it. I hope I'll see some of you in Ireland: Last year was a lot of fun. Meanwhile the information above about the recent work of John Kaiine may be of interest.

That's all for now, but I really WILL be back soon.

Thank you again
 

Early November 2004

Hallo again , (said she cautiously, knowing she has not said hallo for too long.) Yet again apologies. But it really has been a busy year. Aside from work, a reading at Brighton, plus going over to Ireland, to OCTOCON. With my generous splash of Irish blood this was a great thrill for me, (I am Irish on my mother's side – the O'Moores.) The convention was also such fun.

It took place at the very gracious Glenroyal Hotel in Maynooth, just outside Dublin. (A comfortable and fascinating place, with a treed and flowered courtyard, a beautiful bar full of stained glass and some of the best lifts and showers I have ever encountered. Charming and kind staff of the highest order.) The con itself was a delight. Lots to do, and with panels graced by such luminaries as Anne McCaffrey and Harry Harrison – both heroes of mine. I was asked wonderful interview questions by Allison Rich, who so brilliantly deals with the Daughter of the Night website. I'd never met her before, and had a vision of an older lady, not this radiant young woman with Cleopatra eyes. Audiences were so full of wise questions and benign challenges, and the beauty of so many Irish tones was for me like music. My special thanks also go to raven-haired Leonia and Mercurial Mike Carroll, who greeted and treated me like a known and welcome relative, plus taking such care of me and mine – my husband John Kaiine, also a guest, and publishers-now-friends Juliette Shapiro and Chris Holroyd of Egerton House. People had come so far to see me, and I was very much touched by this, and by their interest in my work, and words about it. They were all so interesting themselves. I work for me when I write – the only way I can do it. And to find so much connection has occurred makes me both astonished and joyful. I bounced through the con from pure pleasure in it all. And so thank you again to peerless Mike and Leonia, and all the indefatigable, ever-working and always excellent committee, and to everyone who made it so special for me.

On Saturday night the convention erupted into a festive disco, delicately strafed by rainbow lights that didn't agitate the eyes, and wild costuming. Gorgeous Goth Girlies and disturbing shadowy creatures prowled, and mad handsome pirates strode the hotel decks. I think my husband was the only pirate with a Canon – luckily the kind that takes pictures. Juliette of Egerton, complete with black crow, also stopped the room with the stunning costume she – er – almost wore. There were great conversations at tables, new meetings, and one of the best debates I have ever attended, out in the corridor, concerning the world and its ways.

On Sunday evening the closing ceremonies brought the event to a perfect, funny and affectionate end.

When the con was done, on Monday we went to Dublin. The ideal here would be to do a pastiche of the most famous Dublin pub-crawl of all time – but Joyce, one of the most readable and unreadable of writers, seems to deny me, shaving bowl and Molly's cabbage raised aloft.

Suffice it to say, the day was golden despite promised rain, and we roamed for 45 minutes without seeing a single pub! We DID see a lady harper – no, not a harpist, she was a harper, and the sound of her modern harp carried all the aching pang of some ancient instrument rippling through a forest or old castle. And the bronze statue of Molly Malone with her barrow of cockles and mussels which, even when a ghost, she called out to be alive alive-o! We strayed back and forth over the River Liffey, which had a glaze on it of tawny silver and later drowned the sun in a drench of yellow. We got into Trinity College with about two seconds to spare and saw the Book of Kells – which next prompted an idea from John I mean to turn into a short story. ( Burnt Mouths. ) There was also Trinity's amazing library, with shelves so high I could imagine growing wings and flying up to the higher reaches of them. We took lunch, with a few others late of Octocon, at the Porter House, whose menu included such marvels as oysters, and oyster beer – two members of our party tried each one with much approval.

The next day alas it was time to return home.

Ireland who is Eire truly is an emerald isle – seen as we arrived from the air, she was as blue-green as any precious stone. Going back in the dark, ears popping in the plane, I wrote her this doggeral-catteral poem:

I throw my thought behind me as I leave the land,
Like rain it falls upon the country there:
As soft as flowers caught in ocean's hair;
Do not forget me, place that took my hand.

Do not forget me place that met me then –
An answer to the silence and the sound,
The meeting of the flight that kissed the ground,
The ending of the question 'When?'

It took me 57 years to get there. Oh yes, I'll be going back.

Other news is that Lionwolf 2: Here in Cold Hell – is now complete and about to be in publisher's hands. I am working on a fantasy novella for Harleqin, have a ghost novella to do for Marvin Kaye and other short stories. January 1st I must begin at once the sequel to Piratica. You may also be interested to take a look at The Mammoth Book of New Terrors, in which appears 'Unlocked' one of the few stories John and I have written together.

Somewhere in there too I mean to squeeze in Christmas. Though how…?

Also my detective novel Death of the Day , should be out in December!

Again, my regrets I haven't furnished this site with all the things I would wish to – i.e. the interview and the reading you'll be able to marvel at the sheer horror of my voice... I'm still working on it though. You're not safe yet! ( On the credit side an in-depth interview with me appears in the latest edition of Scheherazade magazine – check out glorious turquoise cover! )

Have a great Christmas and or Winter Festival

And thanks for dropping by.
 

Inquiries to tanithbooks@egertonhousepublishing.co.uk

Otherwise go to Amazon.co.uk. Note US Amazon details are not yet available.

There has also been quite a bit of interest in the covers. So John Kaiine and Egerton may be producing a limited edition of posters... More as it occurs. Talk soon.

March-April 2004

Hello!

First, some great news for me! Piratica, the novel for young adults about a female pirate, has sold out inside three weeks of publication. Hodder now have in on a new print run.

Secondly, I wanted to put in an update on the Egerton House publications. Due to computer problems at my end, there has been a slight delay — now hopefully sorted out. And both the first two books, Fatal Women and Thirty Four, should be available in April.

Stuff will be out on the web, but meanwhile all enquiries to: books@egertonhousepublishing.co.uk.

The detective novel, Death of the Day, will be out later this year. I will let you know the date.

Lionwolf Vol One: Cast a Bright Shadow will also be out from MacMillan in May.

I want to say a little about all 3/4 of these works, so if you'd care to read it, here it is.

Lionwolf of course I've already previewed back in the autumn of 2002. It's set in a three-mooned ice world full of larger-than-life flora and fauna, where the only survival high-tech is from extreme magic — which includes instant fire-creation, shape-changing, and magic mirrors which can work like visual-equipped mobile phones.

I'm now at work on Vol two.

On the lesbian fiction: Fatal Women is a collection of short novels and stories; Thirty Four is a single novel. At this stage, I felt I should perhaps say something about Esther Garber, the character who, basically, 'wrote' them.

She arrived from nowhere, as my characters so often do. And even now I partly hesitate to call her 'mine' — she seems entirely independent, a strong and enigmatic woman, living and writing somewhere or other, who somehow passes her work (or some of it only? I wonder...) on to me.

I believe she was actually born, (probably) around 1937 — but then again, I can't be sure. At times she would seem to have been born in the 1880's, (and therefore must now be well over one hundred and twenty.) France and Egypt are the main countries of her (perhaps) life-experience, and certainly her preoccupation. Her writings are about sexual obsession, about love often doomed — not of course because it is homosexual, but because it comes flying on such broad and sweeping wings. In Esther's world women are paramount, whether old or young, lovely, dangerous or unknowable.

The collection too introduces another female writer — this time neither writing through me, nor me: Yolande Sorores. Her contribution to Fatal Women was unexpected, but so apt, and excellent, that it would now be quite impossible for me to imagine this book without her input. Sorores and Garber are already planning a joint collection.

If you do want to try these intense works, Fatal and Thirty-Four should be available over the next couple of weeks.

Complicated, and downright weird characters build up, and lives are shown to be anything but average behind their not-so-seemingly straightforward faηades. What is beautiful Jula's secret? Is she a lover or a murderess, and whatever happened to her parents all those years ago? What is Leigh running away from? Who is the watcher in the country lane, skulking like a hunting fox? What does handsome Jack have to hide? Who is hiding the horrible Markessa? What on earth is going on at the glamorous house of the Alliats? And is graceless Steven Grace dead — or alive? Can all this chaos be resolved by the faintly-fiendish Chief Inspector Knox and his irresistible sidekick Rawthorn?

Start the weight-training now if you want to try this one, because it is shocking not only in content, but also in size. It's large. It surprised me all through, and although no lesser person than the unbeatable Ruth Rendell — who incredibly generously agreed to read it late in 1998, was kind and complimentary, and made some sterling suggestions — suggested also I had planned the structure carefully, I have to tell you, as I also admitted to her, that I had (as is usually the case with me) next to no idea what was going on until the characters revealed it to me. In fact, I wrote the whole book in under three weeks. (!!!)

One last item. After the monologue I wrote for Jacqueline Pearce for her CD in the The Actor Speaks series, I was also asked to — and did — write one for Paul Darrow in the same series. Availability details when I have them. Personally, I can't wait to hear it!

Which is all for now — but I'll be back soon.

Enjoy the spring.

As ever, thanks for your visit,
 

February 2004

Hi - Happy (belated) New Year - and one more apology for an absence from this site.

As I've said before, gaps here are normally a good sign - means I'm working extra hard. Though right now my workload is somewhat alarming.

So

Israbel will be out in Realms of Fantasy in April this year.

Piratica is just out from Hodder in the UK. And I've just signed for the sequel Piratica II Return to Parrot Island.

And I should soon be starting in on Vol. 2 of the Lionwolf Trilogy. (Vol. 1 will be out in UK in May 2004)

Meanwhile, I've signed up with a new publisher, Egerton House. Which means at last some of my other work will be going into print. These books will be available via the net.

First to be released is a collection of short novels and novellas, Fatal Women. This is some of my Lesbian Fiction, written under the name (and guidance) of a character named Esther Garber. They are erotic, dark, and semi-surreal tales - set in this world, and ranging through turn-of-the-century Paris, 1800's provincial France, London in the 1920's and a little later. Fatal Women should be available from March, all being well. Next from Egerton by me will be my large detective novel, Death of the Day. (A cover will be posted as soon as completed. Both covers have been designed by my husband and partner, John Kaiine). Incidentally, those of you who have noticed all my acknowledgements to John Kaiine, for ideas and plot-lines, may also be interested to know his monumental metaphysical thriller Fossil Circus, will also be available from Egerton this Spring.

One extra piece of news, of great delight to me, is that I will be a guest of honour at OCTOCON in Ireland, in October this year. Having Irish blood myself but never having seen the Emerald Isle, I am thrilled! More details on this when I have them.

I shall now return to work.
Thank you for allowing me this break!
And thanks as ever for dropping by -