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Stay home and read a book
So. Since I don’t want to start each one of my entries with an excuse for not having posted anything for such a long time, I’ll start without further ado. My polar bear was to be presented at Leipzig Book Fair, which unfortunately didn’t take place due to Covid19. “Elgar Polar Bear and Civilisation” . This somewhat episodic book describes the adventures of polar bear Elgar whose ice floe completely melted from under his furry posterior, and who – since he does not want to die out yet –has come to live in our human civilisation. In his endeavour to learn more about civilised urban life he watches and comments our civilisation from his ursine perspective. I have been asked whether this is fantasy since it pretty much consists of satirical elements. Well, it is satire, and it is speculative fiction. Science fiction and fantasy have always been close…
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New Stories
So what’s new? I have done some readings, had a really great time at Feen Con in Bad Godesberg. I was at the FEST of Fantasy. There, too, I read from my stories. The FEST is always quite wonderful. Unfortunately, this year it was a bit rainy. A new book has just been published: an anthology of short stories, called “Funtastik” to which I contributed a story. The aim of the anthology was to present the funny side of fantasy. The stories are quite varied. After all, we all have a different sense of humor. Another short story will appear soon. unfortunately I am not allowed to tell you any more details. Soon, I promise. My new novel “Seelenspalter” (=Splitter of Souls) will come out in Droemer Knaur early next year. It has a really nice cover, do take a look. It will be the first of hopefully many books…
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Love and other things
It’s time for: The LOVE scene. I can no longer put it off in the current book project. Somehow books can’t do without them. Love tends to be an integral part of the plot, at least in my books.Do I like writing love scenes? Not really. This is not because I have squeamish scruples, but rather has to do with the constant concern that one might stray from the extremely narrow path of good taste in favour of too blatant details on one hand or too flowery metaphors&similes on the other. I still believe that the “pillow talk” between Cérise and Arpad “Das Obsidianherz” was the most successful love scene in all my books. Its first version was very long and it grew more exciting with every sentence I cut from it. What remained were just 25% of the original text. (Somewhere I still have the long version, but I…
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The daily chores of a writer
Patrick Süßmeier, a literary blogger who writes about speculative fiction, has asked a number of German SF/F authors about their “normal day”. A number of us already described their workday to him. I did – and so did Anja Bagus, Sandra Baumgärtner, Nadine d’Arachart, & Sarah Wedler, Markus Heitz, Ann-Kathrin Karschnick, Piper Marou, Henning Mützlitz, Nicole Schuhmacher. The list is stille growing. So if you’d like to know what the gory details of writing are about, you can find the answer here.
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Short fiction – a list
I am probably better known for my rather longish novels. But over the year I wrote quite a lot of short fiction for anthologies. The list (please see below) may not even be quite complete. But if you read German, these are the places where you will find my stories. • “90 – 60 – 90” in: “Der Arsch auf dem Sessel“, DIANA Verlag, München • ” Voll schlank” in: “Ich werde nie mehr auseinandergehen“, DIANA Verlag, München • “Ein Menu aus Salzträume” in: “Die Köche – Biss zum Mittagessen”, Ulrich Burger Verlag, Homburg • “Innovationen” in: “Geheimnisvolle Geschichten – Steampunk“, Verlag Saphir im Stahl, Bickenbach • “Schöne Aussicht” in: “Geheimnisvolle Bibliotheken”, Verlag Torsten Low, Meitingen OT Erlingen • “Nicht tot” in: “Dark Crime Anthologie”, Geisterspiegel/Romantruhe • “Im Bilde” in: Exotische Welten” O’Connell Press, Weingarten • “Aschenputtel” in: “Wahre Märchen 2: Elf klassische Märchen in neuem Gewand”, Feder & Schwert,…
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New projects
That last weekend I was busy writing. From morning to evening. And starting over after dinner right till Mr Sandman came by. I even had to decline a wonderful invitation to a a dear friend’s birthday party – no easy decision, believe me. But a deadline is a deadline, even if this particular deadline is a bit blurry, as I am still waiting for the contract. I certainly hope it will come soon, though. But just as musicians do not always know when and if there will be a next gig, and artists mostly cannot predict who will buy their the next picture – or when, writers, too, live in a sort of mire of uncertainty. This would, of course, be different for the very famous writers, musicians or fine artists. Once you have acquired a certain threshold of fame, you can hardly “create” your art fast enough to cover…