Pornokitsch

Imagine a world filled with fierce, fiery beings, hiding in our shadows, in our dreams, under our skins. Eavesdropping and exploring; savaging our bodies, saving our souls. They are monsters, saviours, victims, childhood friends.

These are the Djinn. And they are everywhere. On street corners, behind the wheel of a taxi, in the chorus, between the pages of books. Every language has a word for them. Every culture knows their traditions. Every religion, every history has them hiding in their dark places. There is no part of the world that does not know them.

They are the Djinn. They are among us.

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The Djinn Falls in Love is out now! Over twenty amazing and new stories of djinn, from a global cast of talented writers.

Contributors include: Amal El-Mohtar, Catherine King, Claire North, E.J. Swift, Helene Wecker, Hermes (trans. Robin Moger), Jamal Mahjoub, James Smythe, J.Y. Yang, Kamila Shamsie, Kirsty Logan, K.J. Parker, Kuzhali Manickavel, Maria Dahvana Headley, Monica Byrne, Neil Gaiman, Nnedi Okorafor, Saad Hossain, Sami Shah, Sophia Al-Maria and Usman Malik.

You can order copies on Amazon, Amazon.co.uk, Waterstones, Barnes & Noble, Blackwell's and pretty much anywhere else. 

Dodo Ink are a new publisher of fiction set up in 2015 by the novelist Sam Mills, book blogger Thom Cuell and myself, with a mission to publish innovative, risk-taking, imaginative and experimental fiction.

We had each had experiences that lead us to believe that there was an audience for novels that didn’t fit neatly onto mainstream publisher’s lists: Thom, on The Workshy Fop, as a champion of fiction from indie publishers; myself, having worked in the industry for several years and seen an ever-increasing focus on acquiring highly commercial properties, at the expense of what is termed the ‘midlist’, authors who are popular enough to command a steady readership and remain profitable to publish, but often not deemed commercial enough to them the tailored sales, marketing and PR attention that could help them develop their careers creatively and commercially. Sam, as a novelist and writer, experienced this first-hand when trying to help her friend Tom Tomaszewski secure a book deal or agent for his novel, The Eleventh Letter, which was deemed interesting, accomplished and original, but not commercial enough in today’s publishing climate.

Thursday evening we're having a welcome party for The Extinction Event and a farewell to Jurassic London. Please join us and many of the book's contributors from 7 pm at the Yorkshire Grey (London, WC1X) to give the book/press the welcome/goodbye it deserves!

Facebook event, if you like to RSVPing.

There are very few copies of The Extinction Event unclaimed. It is very unlikely that there will be any left for sale on the night, so if you are interested in this special edition, 150-copy-only, never to be reprinted or ebooked, rather stately monolith of a book... you should probably order it now.

The table of contents, details and more pretty pictures can all be found here.

20 October 2016, we launch our final book: The Extinction Event.

The Extinction Event weighs in at over 600 pages of wonderful, with 31 stories, over a dozen illustrations and a double-handful of special guest introductions.

Plus, as it is our very last book, we've gone slightly off the rails with the special features. Slipcase! Ribbon! Crazy Iguanadon Binding! Printed Endpapers!

The details of the book are here. 

There are only 150 copies total, so order yours quickly.

Plus, we're having a party! (You don't need to buy a copy to attend!)

We'll be launching the book and saying farewell to Jurassic London. There will be a silent auction, an opportunity to get your books signed, and... a lot of nice people having very nice drinks.

The details of the launch party are on Facebook.

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Invitation art by Sarah Anne Langton, who is the actual bestest.

One perk of being a Londoner? The BFI Southbank. Anne and I were there recently for an Indiana Jones marathon (all three films!), and I was reminded - for the 857th time - what a wonderful place it is. Pros: an unbelievable selection of movies from the timeless to the trashy. Cons: they don't sell popcorn (heathens!)

Smuggle in some Haribo and check out the website, because there's an amazing line-up for the rest of the summer. A few highlights below.

I started attending conventions as a fangirl long before I was a professional writer. I knew what to expect and when I got my first Guest of Honor invitation I was over the moon. I still get a little thrill at the very idea that someone wants me to attend a convention... as a guest!

But it's not the same thing. Whether heading out on a book tour or invited as a guest to a small local sci-fi convention, attending programming at a larger conference, or visiting one of those monster book festivals or comicons there are some things I think a professional writer should always keep in mind. 

So here, for your amusement (and perhaps education) are my highly subjective... Tips for the Traveling Writer

1. Charles I was executed on Whitehall, right about where the Earl Haig statue is placed. Charles was led out to the scaffold on a walkway from the first floor of the Banqueting House rather than via the street.

We're at FantasyCon!

You can find various Pornokitsch people at various things, including:

• Friday, 5 pm - Writing in a Franchise - Bex chilling with Paul Kane, Mark Morris, Mark Latham and Brandon Sanderson
• Friday, 7 pm - The Weird Western - Anne moderating, and Stark Holborn, uh, moderated? alongside Guy Adams, Benedict Jones, Ben Galley and Arianne Thompson
• Saturday, 5 pm - Publishing in the 21st Century - Anne's hanging out with other friendly publishing types, including Marc Gascoigne, Gillian Redfearn, Natalie Laverick, Meg Davis and Jo Fletcher
• Saturday, 2.40 pm - Rebecca Levene reading
• Saturday, 3 pm - Agenting - Anne's wrangling an array of literary gurus, including Meg Davis, John Wordsworth, Ellen Gallagher, Kevin Murphy and Juliet Mushens

Also keep your eyes peeled for events featuring some of our favourite con-goers, writerers and talkerers, including Leila Abu el Hawa, Den Patrick, Jon Oliver, Scott Andrews, Matt Blakstad, John Connolly and Francis Hardinge.

The British Fantasy Awards take place on Sunday. Although we've not got a Pornokitsch/Jurassic horse in the race this year, Jared helped judge two of the categories (Artist and Comics), and swears that the results are awesome.

See you in the bar!

Secret Cinema's Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back has been extended until 27 September 2015. Anne and I went last weekend, and it was the greatest, most fun, most joyously geeky outing we've had in a long time. 

We laughed. We cried. We got frisked by Stormtroopers. It was awesome. Go.

You can pick up your tickets here.

Lots of the Pornokitsch folk will be at Nine Worlds next week - please come say hi! Stark, Bex, Anne and I are all around for most of the weekend, and on various panels to boot.

The complete interactive schedule-device-thing is here - with over 300 different programme items! There's a great guest list this year, with panels and workshops across a huge range of geeky topics, comics to movies to gaming to gin. Some of our favourite speakers are there, including Mary Hamilton, Glen Mehn, Meg Jayanth, Sarah Lotz, James Smythe, James Dawson, Debbie Challis, John J Johnston, Leila Abu el Hawa, Kieron Gillen, James Wallis, Sally Jane Thompson and many, many, many others.

And, on the sex and marketing fronts...