Victoria J.L. Fisher

More than a year has gone by since I moved, Dick Whittingtonly, to London. I am now no longer in London, I am in Canada again, one degree more educated, but not considerably more employable (although I have a job I love).  There’s a method, I swear.

I notice that Edge Publishing is once again seeking submissions for their Tesseracts Series (Tesseracts 18). This time the topic is gods and the divine, a topic I do dabble in occasionally, although we will have to see what time I have to write something new before December 31st, which is the deadline.

I am writing though, which is a good start on a long off-put goal. It is a book and it is Good. More on that, perhaps, later.

EDIT: I just updated the Read Online page, to finally include the Adam and Eve story which has, for years, been promising “coming soon.” It’s an old story, in more ways than one, but the new Tesseracts book made me think of it for reasons that I hope are clear if you read it–and I do hope you read it and enjoy it.

I don’t write poetry all that often; however, I’ve recently moved and over the course of my move I did, I admit, scratch out a poem. It’s in the voice of another person who, once upon a time, made a similar change in his life. It’s called Reasons. Enjoy!

*

I am not a fool.
I know the tales of streets paved with gold,
And ships full of riches with silken sails,
And ragged orphan boys grown rich and old,
Are tales.
But boyishly I’ve walked the dappled lanes,
‘Tween narrow hedgerows, ‘cross narrow streams;
I’ve daily brushed the briars from horses’ manes
And dreamed.

The stories are enough.
For what man tells tall tales of towns
Where little passes muddy street to square,
And women go in yellow linen gowns
To fair?
Mother, I truly know my levelheaded mind.
And who is to say, or write, or croon,
That this city’s not the place a youth may find
His fortune?

D. Whittington

*

For bonus points, where am I?

I’d like to take this opportunity to retroactively announce my hiatus from writing (and reading, and really doing very much at all) while I teach.

In the same breath, I’d also like to announce what I hope will be the end of my hiatus as I change my life and, among other things, hopefully start writing again and thinking about writing.

Greetings!

For those keeping track, I moved to England at the end of September and I am now living in Buckinghamshire, working as a teacher.

I read a lovely review of The Drinker on the Temple Library Reviews blog, by a gentleman from Bulgaria called Harry Markov:

Is this story a step forward in the evolution of the vampire? Yes, on many levels.

He also has many nice and interesting things to say about the other authors’ work in Evolve. I linked to page 3. He reviews each story in the book in detail so make sure you follow the links at the bottom of the page to page 1 of the review. Thanks Harry!

– Victoria

So, I am back from a long spring hiatus– caused by me finishing my Bachelor of Education degree, apologies– to make a couple of mildly interesting announcements:

1. I have completed a new story, hurrah! It’s so fresh at the moment– it was the kind of story that fell out of my head in a matter of hours– that I’m going to keep its content under wraps for now until I decide what will happen to it. Suffice to say that it is more along the lines of The Drinker than Buttons. Darkness pervades in my brain, apparently.

2. In that vein, the American release of Evolve, the Canadian anthology of short, unusual vampiric fiction (that’s the fiction that’s short, not the vampires), is September 15th. Exciting! You can read enough reviews and interviews to satisfy the most insatiable here on the Evolve website.

More soon, I hope.

– Victoria

This Friday April 9th, I and nine of the other contributors (including Kelley Armstrong) to Evolve will be at The World’s Biggest Bookstore in downtown Toronto, signing copies of the book. Nancy Kilpatrick, the editor, will also be there.

Come out! Meet everybody! I’m sure it will be a good time.

The next day, on Saturday April 10^th, you can catch us again as Evolve is formally launched in Canada at the Ad Astra convention at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Toronto. Aside from Evolve people, the convention is chock-full of epic names and devilishly interesting events, so you should be there!

(I know I will)

– Victoria

Good news! The vampire fiction anthology Evolve, in which my story “The Drinker” appears, is now available in a major Canadian bookshop near you!

Evolve is an anthology of vampire fiction published by Edge and edited by supernatural horror expert Nancy Kilpatrick. “The Drinker” is one of 23 stories written by Canadian authors all based around the idea of the modern, evolved vampire: vampires as part of society, rather than as outsiders.

Congratulations to all my (much more illustrious) fellow contributors! They include Kelley Armstrong, author of the Women of the Otherworld series, and Tanya Huff, author of the Vicki Nelson series which was recently made into a television show.

Review of the anthology and Interview with Nancy Kilpatrick by SciFiGuy.ca.

Interview with Nancy Kilpatrick about Evolve by Examiner.com.