PANDEMIC HORROR: POET SILVIA CANTÓN RONDONI IN CONVERSATION WITH LEE MURRAY AND GENEVE FLYNN
13/9/2021
We are honoured to welcome Silvia Cantón Rondoni to Ginger Nuts of Horror for a special interview with Lee Murray and Geneve Flynn, to celebrate the success of the amazing anthology Black Cranes Silvia: Congratulations on your many recent awards, Lee. I would like to begin by talking about the award-winning work you created and released during the 2020 pandemic and how it came together. Tell me about the thought processes behind Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women (Omnium Gatherum Media), winner of the Bram Stoker and Shirley Jackson Awards for Anthology; and Grotesque Monster Stories (Things in the Well), the Bram Stoker Award winner for Fiction Collection. Lee: Thank you, Silvia. I met long-time social media acquaintance, Geneve Flynn, in person at Brisbane’s GenreCon in November 2019, in those halcyon days just before the global pandemic had taken hold, before words like COVID-19 and hydroxychloroquine became part of our general lexicon. The two of us turned up early to a panel session, and being the only people in the lobby, we started chatting, beginning with the deep-seated social expectation that Asian women will be conscientious and punctual. We explored other points of connection: horror, tea, chicken feet, tiger mothers. I might have asked her if she could back a trailer. In those twenty minutes before we took our seats for the panel, we were already asking who the other Asian women writers of horror were. In what ways had those writers assumed, or rejected, the traditional notions Asian femininity? Where was the horror anthology of Asian women’s voices? We lingered after the conference event, chatting some more. Fast forward two weeks: I was back in New Zealand, we had a concept, a publisher, and the beginnings of a contributor list, and by the time New Zealand went into Level 4 lockdown (we’re back in Level 4 lockdown now), contracts had been signed and the cover art designed. In the publishing-speak, this is what we’d call breakneck speed. With Grotesque: Monster Stories, it was more of a slow-burn approach. I’d worked with Shirley Jackson Award-nominee Steve Dillon, the publisher-editor at Things in the Well, on a number of projects, including a shared world community building project The Refuge Collection, where my award-winning short story “The Thief’s Tale” was first published. The hardback version of The Refuge Collection Vol 1-3 is one of the prettiest productions I’ve ever seen, with gorgeous colour plates on every page. I said as much to Steve, who insisted that if I ever considered putting out a short story collection, I should approach him first. Well, of course, I put that down to him being polite. I was still a baby writer. It was far too early to put out a ‘greatest hits’ album. Some years went by, during which time I worked with Things in the Well on a number of other publications. Steve asked me again for a collection in 2019, and this time he was more persuasive. After getting some reassurance from Australia’s horror queen, Kaaron Warren, I spent some time considering my backlist, discovered a monster theme running through the stories, and, made a plan to write a few more, including a Taine Mckenna novelette. I delivered the finished collection, Grotesque: Monster Stories at the end of January 2020, just as Black Cranes, and the pandemic, were swinging into gear. I was still working on final revisions to Grotesque: Monster Stories when New Zealand went into lockdown in March 2020. At that time, my publisher (Steve/Things in the Well) and I had a discussion about whether to push on or delay the book’s release (originally planned to coincide with ConZealand in August 2020) until later in the year or even the following year, when we had more clarity, since already there were rumours of global print shipments being delayed or possibly even suspended. It was a very uncertain time. But we also noticed increased chatter in our social media about books and reading, perhaps because people were looking for a distraction from the horror unfolding around us, or perhaps because there is comfort in seeing adventures in which ordinary folks win through. Given we had no visibility on what might happen at that point, we decided to push on. Silvia: I love hearing these behind-the-scenes stories, they provide an insight into our supportive writers’ community. Let’s talk about Black Cranes, your pandemic work with co-editor Geneve Flynn began as COVID entered our lives. For many of us writers, work created during such uncertain times has been both a struggle and a source of resilience. I would like to know how curating Black Cranes impacted you, your co-editor and contributors, and if there’s anything that would have been done differently if COVID had not happened. (It would be great if Geneve could add her five cents, too.) Geneve: Black Cranes has allowed me to connect with so many wonderful horror folks. I’ve also been able to write about my experience of being part of the Southeast Asian diaspora, which given some of the anti-Asian sentiment surrounding COVID, was particularly timely. In terms of what we would have done differently, we were going to launch the anthology at WorldCon in New Zealand. We had such plans for the book launch and catching up with writing friends, but alas, it wasn’t meant to be. Lee: As Geneve says, before the pandemic broke, we had envisioned announcing the release of Black Cranes at the HWA StokerCon event in Scarborough (UK) in March, and then release the book for WorldCon (ConZealand) in early August 2020, where five of us hoped to meet. When both events were forced to go virtual, I had chat with Kate Jones at Omnium Gatherum, much as I had with Steve regarding Grotesque. What should we do? Could we launch the book later, perhaps in the fall? Would bookstores even be open? Kate suggested delaying a month or two, so on 27 March 2020 we sent a message to our Black Cranes sisterhood to let them know that we intended to push on, but our release date might be delayed by a month or two. We offered those who needed it additional time to write, which turned out to me because my father died ten days later. However, our contributors’ desire to see the anthology go forward was overwhelming; they were watching Anti-Asian sentiment play out in the news, sometimes in their own neighbourhoods, and occasionally even directed at them. One writer said, “Given the current situation in the world, I am so happy that Black Cranes is moving ahead. I think it’s an important time, more important than ever, to be visible and confident in the face of this virus that many people are blaming on Asians.” One writer told me she was so upset about the hate she was seeing that she bashed the keyboard as she wrote her story. Nor do I think it is a coincidence that fury is a key theme of Black Cranes, several of our writers choosing to use the word in the titles of their work. And from their comments made privately to Geneve and me, those, who, like me, had lost family members in those early months of the pandemic, saw the act of continuing the book as symbol of resilience and survival. As well as curating and editing, I wrote two stories for Black Cranes, “Phoenix Claws” and “Frangipani Wishes” both of which I believe I wrote in May. To this day, I really don’t recall writing them because I believed my creativity was stunted as you can see from this frank response I sent to Rena Mason, author of “The Ninth Tale”, in April: “Totally understand the lack of writing mojo thing. I’ve been foundering, too. Fuggy. Slow. Overwhelmed. Partly, I think it is this weird state of delayed grief for my dad, and also the confinement.” When another contributor sent an apology to excuse a slower response to emails after losing a relative to COVID, I wrote, “So many of us have increased workloads, and this sense of numbness that accompanies the uncertainty is simply overwhelming—no one could have expected this when we set out to put together a little book.” In the end, we delayed the book’s release two months, releasing it in late September, on my birthday. There were no in-person launches—for Black Cranes or for Grotesque: Monster Stories—and yet, for me, sending the books into the world felt cathartic, important. Perhaps it had something to do with the loss of my dad, and the realisation that we can’t always guarantee tomorrow. Silvia: I know what you mean, catharsis and that sense of impending doom gave us the drive to do as much as we can while we can. That is exactly what made me push through my own poetry projects during the pandemic as I took 2020 off work to focus on myself and my mental health. I think it is important to remember that while some of us have been overwhelmed with increased workloads, others have found themselves in the opposite place. Double isolated due to personal problems, unemployment, etc as well as creative obstacles. What would be your advice for them? How are you wrapping up your head around the pandemic while keeping yourself grounded? Lee: As someone who also suffers from depression and anxiety, I am so sorry to hear of your struggles with your mental health, Silvia. Challenging under normal circumstances, and especially so during the pandemic. And research indicates that creatives are more likely to suffer from mental illness than the general population. I’m a mentor for a number of organisations, and one thing I noted during 2020 was that my mentees, and my critique colleagues, were highly prolific, sending me more work than usual to critique and edit, much of it confronting and insightful. Since many writers, including writers of horror, claim that the act of writing and creating can help to placate their mental health demons, I wonder if this accounts for the greater output and exceptional quality of works produced in this traumatic period. For me, although I found it difficult to write during those very stressful months while New Zealand was in lockdown, I didn’t stop trying to be creative. Just the act of sitting down and working on a story or a poem was important, with the focus on the process rather than the product. The horror writing community has kept me grounded. People like Geneve Flynn and the Black Cranes sisterhood. In a bizarre twist, the pandemic, while isolating us physically, has opened up some wonderful opportunities for connection and inclusion that weren’t readily available to us previously. Yes, we’re heartily sick of screens by now, but the fellowship I’ve experienced through participating in virtual conventions, vlogs, and podcasts has been vital for keeping the black dog at bay. There is something reassuring about being invited into an author’s living room and spying their washing basket in the background, or a small child running about evading bath time, and it reminds us that we’re all human and that we’re in this together. Silvia Cantón RondoniSilvia Cantón Rondoni is a Spanish-born Australian poet, writer, and visual artist who identifies as neurodivergent and pansexual. Her poetry collection Stark Naked was released worldwide by IFWG Australia in June 2021. The poems in Stark Naked reveal her transition from childhood through grief and trauma to the resilient woman she is today, and are illustrated by artist Silvia Nieto. Silvia Canton Rondoni is also the editor of the poetry anthology Infectious Hope which brings together outstanding literary and genre poets writing about their experiences of hope and resilience during COVID. Infectious Hope is due for publication in late 2021. Experienced editor and literary translator, Silvia runs Telltale Literary Translation. She focuses on interpreting works published in English and aids authors with their tales' transition into the Spanish language while remaining faithful to their original tone, voice, and style. Silvia has worked with award-winning authors Lee Murray and David Bowles. Silvia has an Associate Degree of Writing and Editing from RMIT and lives in Canberra with award-winning New Zealand writer Paul Mannering and her bulldog Patch. Find her on https://poetsilviacr.wixsite.com/poetsilviacr Lee MurrayLee Murray is a multi-award-winning author-editor from Aotearoa-New Zealand (12 Sir Julius Vogel, 3 Australian Shadows), and a two-time Bram Stoker Award®-winner. A Shirley Jackson Award-winner, her work includes military thrillers, the Taine McKenna Adventures, supernatural crime-noir series The Path of Ra (with Dan Rabarts), and debut collection Grotesque: Monster Stories. Nominated for the Aurealis and Imadjinn Awards, she is proud to have edited eighteen volumes of speculative fiction, among them Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women and Midnight Echo #15. She is co-founder of Young NZ Writers and of the Wright-Murray Residency for Speculative Fiction Writers, HWA Mentor of the Year for 2019, NZSA Honorary Literary Fellow, and Grimshaw Sargeson Fellow for 2021 for her poetry collection Fox Spirit on a Distant Cloud. Read more at https://www.leemurray.info/ Geneve FlynnGeneve Flynn is a Bram Stoker Award® and Shirley Jackson Award-winning fiction editor. Her work has also been nominated for the Australian Shadows Award, and the Aurealis Award. She loves to help authors write what they mean and mean what they write. She has two psychology degrees which she only uses for nefarious purposes. Geneve is a proud member of the Institute of Professional Editors Ltd (IPEd), the Australasian Horror Writers Association, and the Horror Writers Association. She’s also a horror writer with a love of tales that unsettle and B-grade action movies. Her short stories have been published in Australia as well as internationally. Read more at http://www.geneveflynn.com.au/ Book links: https://www.amazon.com/Black-Cranes-Tales-Unquiet-Women-ebook/dp/B08GF8K6CQ https://www.amazon.com/Grotesque-Monster-Stories-Things-Well-ebook/dp/B089V6RBLN/ https://www.amazon.com/Infectious-Hope-Poems-Resilience-Pandemic/dp/192255622X/ https://www.amazon.com/Stark-Naked-Silvia-Cant%C3%B3n-Rondoni/dp/1922556106/ TODAY ON THE GINGER NUTS OF HORROR WEBSITE [BOOK REVIEW] |
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