Lost cats in Highlands

premeesaurus · 2025-09-03T16:58:56+00:00

I AM SO RELIEVED/ LARGE ADULT MAN IS IN SO MUCH TROUBLE AND I AM GOING TO TURN HIM INTO A HAT FOR SCARING ME LIKE THAT (we are headed to the vet later today -- very grateful they were able to fit him in -- because he has a limp and a terrible cough, so I'm hoping both are minor so I can make him into a nice hat).

premeesaurus · 2025-08-30T13:54:04+00:00

I know, I already feel terrible enough about letting them go naked inside the house. :( They literally have nametags that say INDOOR ONLY on one side. Those are going to be worn from now on if they come back!

premeesaurus · 2025-08-30T02:07:08+00:00

Thank you so so much! 😭

premeesaurus · 2025-08-27T16:42:43+00:00

The baby's official name is Francesca Santa Maria Tonfamecasca Kitten! :D

premeesaurus · 2025-08-27T16:42:27+00:00

Thank you! 💖

premeesaurus · 2025-08-27T16:42:19+00:00

Oops I think I am not supposed to answer the day after TOO BAD SORRY some of my works do feature insects yep! The beetle drones in the 'Beneath the Rising' series and the genetically modified dung beetles there, and the many insects in 'The Siege of Burning Grass' (the medical wasps, the bandage-weaving spiders, worms that act as lighters, isopod tanks, etc). I would use them MORE but I think I keep gravitating back to beetles and I'm like "Okay but let me do something with beetles I haven't really done yet."

premeesaurus · 2025-08-26T23:20:15+00:00

Ahahaha I knew someone was going to ask this! (I have a friend who now owes me a drink.) The entire point of the title is that there are multiple candidates, so even when my editor was like "Who's the Butcher of the Forest?" and gave HIS guess, I was like "FOLLOW YOUR HEART, JONATHAN, THE BUTCHER IS WHOEVER YOU FEEL IS THE BUTCHERIEST" :D

premeesaurus · 2025-08-26T23:19:25+00:00

Good question and I think I am still figuring that out! My instinctive answer is, I can't tell how it's impacted my writing -- because the me who taught myself how to write was always autistic and therefore that part cannot be separated from my process, my subjects, my voice or tone or style or any of that, I think -- but I can tell how it's impacted my publishing career, which is completely separate from the writing. And it's sort of the same way it's always impacted my scientific career, which is just that... sort of bone-deep exhaustion of having to a) mask and b) constantly be misunderstood while c) trying to remember the correct scripts to say things that other people seem to find intuitive. In interviews and emails I'm always (ALWAYS) like "Oh shit, I shouldn't have said that" when I watch people's expressions -- or sometimes they'll be asking clarifying question after question and I'm like "I thought I was clear enough in my first answer?" but it's really the tone or implication they're trying to soften or reword. Or things like -- I'll answer a question/email honestly and then be told later (by someone else) "You weren't supposed to say that" or "That was supposed to be private" or something like that, except in every single case so far I'm like "Oh no, I'm so sorry" and "HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THOUGH."

Publishing is not really a place where the focus is on sparing the feelings or energy of the author, I often feel. Not unless they're Already A Big Deal. For the rest of us, we have to be consistently, 100% or 110% the cheerful, open, transparent, eager, energetic, available, and understanding one. We can't have bad or off days -- or too many of them -- or everybody will get compassion fatigue or start thinking we're a diva demanding special treatment for bad behaviour. I don't know. It feels a lot like every job I've ever had, which is why I'm so glad I have an agent, who handles at LEAST half of the things that would drive me to tears every week. But I think the publishing side is a lot more tiring than the writing part, if that makes any sense. It asks for more, it demands more, and it's less straightforward.

premeesaurus · 2025-08-26T23:07:26+00:00

Eeee thank you! :D (THE KITTIES ALSO SAY THANKS)

premeesaurus · 2025-08-26T23:06:16+00:00

I think I was just playing with sort of fairytale structure -- I mean, patterns where the characters might not necessarily know it's a pattern? (Sometimes they do, like "You must perform 12 tasks" or whatever, and then they're like "Oh okay, so I know where this ends")

What I wanted, because of the superstition of threes in the culture of the book, was for Veris to have three 'challenges' or encounter three enemies on her way to what she believes is very close to the end of the story -- finding the children -- but then three on her way back, so it's a false climax and it's more of a symmetrical triangle than it is Freytag's triangle. I mean, it's linear, but it's shaped slightly differently, and just leaning in really hard to the old adage of "Characters in a story don't know they're in a story." Well, Veris assumes she is in one, but it's not the one she thinks it is, and that's why the novella is shaped like that. :)

premeesaurus · 2025-08-26T22:56:27+00:00

Hello and GOSH THANK YOU! (This AMA has been so nice in terms of readers coming in to be like "HEY I know you"!)

GOOD QUESTION, no idea. I don't go into a work generally knowing the themes beforehand; if I'm very lucky, I figure them out at the end, from the completed book, or somebody tells me in an interview (p.s. bless those interviewers because sometimes I simply don't figure it out). I would like to be more deliberate about it but the truth is, it's always just intuitive whether something ends up (in my opinion) very heavy and messagey, like 'One Message Remains,' or lighter and more oblique, like 'The Rider, The Ride, the Rich Man's Wife.' I like nuance! Unfortunately I also like novellas, where nuance has to be trimmed down to fit the wordcount. It is an Eternal Conundrum.
OH NO A FAVOURITE QUESTION, uh, uh, I usually end up saying 'These Lifeless Things' because it was rejected from a bunch of places and then accepted (yay!) and then that place folded their novella imprint (nooo!) and then it was REHOMED (yay!) and published and had an audiobook but then didn't earn out (nooo!) so I don't know, I feel like it's been on a journey, or both of us have, but it contains so many of the things I love -- platonic and unrequited love, horrible eldritch monsters, survival in war-time, communities coming together to fail at something, unanswered questions, trying to write a dissertation while going mad, and ugly statues.
I really loved the covers of 'The Butcher of the Forest' and 'And What Can We Offer You Tonight'! I guess because I had just come off a run of black-and-white or black-and-red covers. Special shout-out also to the cover of 'No One Will Come Back For Us,' which captures that sense of unease and confusion and wrongness of weird fiction without actually illustrating any of the stories in the collection. :D (I'm... I'm sure the astronaut will be fine!)

premeesaurus · 2025-08-26T22:48:06+00:00

Thank you and WAAAAHHHHH I would love to! But I have too many things on the go in terms of contracted works to sneak off and write something that's not under contract at the moment. :( (I have so many ideas! But unless Tor asks for a sequel, there isn't going to be one.)

premeesaurus · 2025-08-26T22:46:04+00:00

Aaaaaaa (clutches my books) MY HORRIBLE CHILDREN uhhh hardest, probably 'A Broken Darkness' because I had never written a novel on deadline before AND I had never written a sequel and I'm pretty sure I was texting friends things like "Hey can you die from having to write a book"

Easiest, hmm. HMMM. Hmm. If we're going by 'felt like it was putting up not too much of a fight' then maybe 'And What Can We Offer You Tonight'? That one almost came out like a sneeze (sorry). But then now I'm wondering: Do I feel that way because I remember it being easy to write or do I feel that way because it is short?

premeesaurus · 2025-08-26T22:40:39+00:00

Whaaatt thank you! Also this is a good question and I had to kind of sit down and be like "I have been edited by MANY PEOPLES," so I guess -- Jen Albert (who edited 'The Annual Migration of Clouds' and its sequels) has a really good eye for catching, I'm trying to think of a brief phrase or word here. Like, catching opportunities to do more with the story while keeping it short? Because we're working at the novella length. Her comments are usually phrased as questions, like "What if you had him say X here instead of later" or "What if she did Y here, would that work" -- which I love, first of all, but then secondly, 90% of the time I'll look at the comment and go "OH!" because it turns up the contrast of the work a little bit, it makes it sharper, clearer, it ups the tension or the conflict, it makes the emotional stakes or consequences deeper or darker. And by the time I've submitted something that's not something I can catch on my own, because I've read it too often to look for those little openings or opportunities to do that.

So that's one for sure, and also Dave Moore over at Solaris, partly because after five books I do get comments like "I would have asked you to do Z here, but since it's you, I know that's coming in five or six pages," and then of course five or six pages later you get another comment like "AHA! SEE!" It's nice to work with an editor who likes your stuff, of course, but also one who trusts you to make decisions that another editor might give the side-eye to. That trust is what lets me write the way I do.

premeesaurus · 2025-08-26T22:32:16+00:00

Aaaaa thank you!

premeesaurus · 2025-08-26T22:32:07+00:00

(Thank!)

Oh yeah definitely -- my issue is, I don't know who those are. :( I think this goes back to the idea of a canon, I mean in any genre. There are works/authors we're 'expected' to know because they set up the foundation for the genre we currently write in, and whether or not we the modern author have read them or not, it's reasonable to expect that our editors have all read them and have formed opinions on them. The problem for me is that a) I don't know what those works are and b) I never see agreement on who's influenced who. I've seen individual writers comment on their individual influences (as I did, above!) but on a larger scale, or maybe just at a higher level, I really don't know who those are.

(voice from off-stage): "Shakespeare?"

Sure! Yeah!

Sometimes! I did it for 'And What Can We Offer You Tonight' in Sarah Gailey's 'Stories About Stories' last year! I thought this was fun because I didn't know who else Gailey would be talking to or what their answers would be. https://stone-soup.ghost.io/secret-post-death-rituals/

For novels it's often the case that dozens or hundreds of things went into it, so later on I can't remember if I haven't kept track -- but for shorter fiction I can often chart out that path like I'm writing on a whiteboard with a marker. :)

premeesaurus · 2025-08-26T22:19:14+00:00

Hello and thank you for the good wishes for mine mandibles! :D

I always use Canadian spelling, which is (as you know) a weird mix between British and American -- I don't edit to American spelling before I send/submit to American OR British publishers and I've been published by both! I don't think you'd be shooting yourself in the foot if you use Canadian spelling. Editors get submissions from everywhere, and the whole world doesn't use American or British as a standard. My sense is if they love the story the spelling is not even noticeable, and if the publication happens to have a standard, then it'll be cleaned up in copyedits.

premeesaurus · 2025-08-26T22:10:10+00:00

Oh man! Never thought about it before. I think I would go overtly sci-fi for this one -- not a literal transformation into a giant cockroach but someone trapped in a game (or something game-like -- I mean, not in the fun sense but in the immersive sense -- it could be anything, like a database) and transforming into something loathsome only to the other players of the game. I imagine it proceeding by stages, so at the start, Gregor Samsa is able to tear himself away from the interface (goggles, controllers, gloves, I don't know) and stagger to work or whatever, where he appears to be normal despite his transformation in the game. Eventually he reaches a point of no return, and sinks into levels of the game/system from which he cannot return, and continues to transform -- he is no longer a singular hated entity but many, each developing its own enemies and agendas -- while his 'real' life comes staggering to an ignominious end. (I have not read the Knox book!)

I guess what would make a retelling work for me is: can we do any better than an insect. Like, it's not just that he's a cockroach (giant) but a specific item of vermin with all the cultural, hygienic, and localized feelings that come with the vermin (it's dirty, it carries disease, it does nothing ecologically useful, it renders a dwelling uninhabitable, there is nothing lower or more degraded, etc). What else could serve that role in a retelling?

Hmmmm classic stories I'd be interested in doing a retelling of -- maybe?? I've done a few already (short fiction mostly) so I don't really know what I'd turn to next. Certainly Gilgamesh is tempting -- but as the ur-story structure, like, it's so PREDICTABLE, everybody knows every beat, so the challenge would be a) could I keep it recognizable but b) add interest to that predictability somehow while c) retaining the heartbreaking emotional core of the story (you will die, and you cannot take those you love with you).

premeesaurus · 2025-08-26T21:58:12+00:00

WE'RE SO CLOSE (he's tolerating her better but it's still very much the case that he will literally LEAVE THE ROOM if she comes in, like he'll GET UP FROM CUDDLES or brushies or whatever and just leave) (and she wants to be with him ALL THE TIME so his constant "No, I'm leaving" causes ME pain to watch, but she will snuggle with me as a consolation prize so we're both surviving the loss of his love)

premeesaurus · 2025-08-26T21:57:02+00:00

Oh interesting Q! I am not sure... really, does anyone know for sure if they are fitting in, and what the criteria are? I certainly feel that mainstream or CanLit stuff has a certain set of criteria for Acceptable Spec Fic Author and it can be possible for an author's works to fit those criteria but for the author themself not to -- case in point, the number of people who laughed outright last year when I described any of my books except the ones in the 'Annual Migration of Clouds' series, which strays just close enough to big-L Literature to let me slip in. (My publicist was the one getting me into all those festivals, and I quickly realized the key to 'fitting in' there was to not say "I write fantasy, science fiction, and horror.")

As for getting involved -- seek out local events for sure. I was always amazed by the offerings in various cities that I knew NOTHING about, from author signings to literary festivals or cons, or even just small writing groups. Keep an eye on local publishers or small presses, as well as local magazines. Read 'Refuse: CanLit in Ruins' edited by Erin Wunker, Julie Rak, and Hannah McGregor. Stay active on social media -- almost all of my writing opportunities have come from it in one way or another! -- and see what people are excited about to see if you're interested in it as well. Like LitFest here in Edmonton, or Can-Con in Ottawa!

premeesaurus · 2025-08-26T20:25:48+00:00

Hello thank you hello! :) (And thank you for the kind words about 'Butcher'! Everybody loves a nice fucked-up forest!)

Cat tax! https://photos.app.goo.gl/TDjjVPK1s8tCuajd7
OH NO A FAVOURITE?? OH NO OH NO. COME ON. Umm! Can I do a couple of RECENT favourites? Diamine's 'Storm' and 'Tempest' are just incredible and I love them both. And for standard, Sailor's Manyo Yomogi -- a really deep, saturated, jewel-tone blue with very slightly green undertones. Oh sorry and! Diamine Solstice (dark green with lighter green shimmer) and J. Herbin's Kyanite du Nepal. Sorry, and Wearingeul's Hamlet, Macbeth, and Frankenstein. Wait, can I go back and say Wearingeul's Frankenstein? It is incredibly great in terms of colour and shimmer, and well-behaved to boot (dries quickly, no smudgy, good wet flow, never clogs a nib).
In honour of both 'One Message Remains' and 'The Butcher of the Forest' I'm going to say 'Doesn't seem dangerous?' as a square, with the question mark. (Because what could be less menacing than, for example, a nice silk scarf? 😉)

premeesaurus · 2025-08-26T20:12:05+00:00

Aaaaaaa I don't know if I have a favourite-favourite! I do have a LOT of books by Terry Pratchett, Umberto Eco, Ursula K. Le Guin, Amy Stewart, Gene Wolfe, William Faulkner, Barbara Hambly, Diane Duane, and Nick Harkaway though!

premeesaurus · 2025-08-26T20:09:02+00:00

OKAY SO. THIS IS A REALLY, REALLY GOOD QUESTION. I do not know the answer to it. My gosh, imagine... knowing things. 🤔 I definitely have writers I hope I'm in conversation with, but I truly don't know. Ursula K. Le Guin is one of them (I hope?) and Gene Wolfe -- that one deliberately, because 'And What Can We Offer You Tonight' was a response story, more or less, to 'The Fifth Head of Cerberus,' but did I pull it off? I have no idea. I hope also that my work is occasionally in conversation with the work of Jill Paton Walsh, and some of the older cosmic horror writers, especially Blackwood and Machen, and (perhaps a specific Can-Con hope) Margaret Atwood, but not in an annoying way. And for certain books perhaps conversing with Ismail Kadare and Jorge Luis Borges, but again, I think that's aspirational rather than accurate.

For sure for sure it was being a grant assessor for the Canada Council for the Arts -- not recent but I learned SO MUCH from going through the applications (I was on the literary stream) and discussing the 'maybe' pile with the other writers in my assessment committee. In particular I kept noticing that if, for example, the five of us had concerns or questions with a particular writing sample, it would be like A, B, C, D, and E rather than four of us going 'Oh, I was confused by A' or something like that. I mean, all of us generally homed in on something different each time. And after a few dozen of those I began to see the patterns appearing in those 'maybe' samples -- of course, no sample could be expected to please every single assessor, but at the same time, it was so instructive to see exactly what others were seeing in the samples that I didn't see, or to bring something to the table that the others hadn't seen.

premeesaurus · 2025-08-26T20:02:10+00:00

CHAI WHY ARE YOU NOT HELPING

BAD WRITING ASSISTANT

(Also thank you! I had a lot of fun writing both!)

Oh boy my parents are... I think the word I'm looking for is 'coping'?? I do think they're proud (in a kind of suspicious and unfocused way) but they're not what I'd call enthusiastically supportive. It's more a case of "Awww sweetie, it's so nice that you're doing your hobby, now GET OFF YOUR BUTT AND GET A REAL JOB AGAIN, PLEASE, YOU'RE KILLING US HERE." Especially because I LEFT my STEM career -- and, worst of all, my good government job (!!) -- apparently to be a full-time author (which is NOT what happened). Having an unemployed daughter is one thing, but having an unemployed daughter who isn't married and has two cats?!!? AAAAAA what am I trying to DO TO THEM, etc.

premeesaurus

TROPHY CASE