Six Books with Chloe N. Clark

Chloe N. Clark is the author of Collective Gravities (a pick for Best Books of 2020, NPR and The Brooklyn Rail), Patterns of Orbit, Escaping the Body, and more. She is a founding co-editor-in-chief of Cotton Xenomorph. Her next book, Every Galaxy a Circle, is forthcoming from JackLeg Press.

Today Chloe tells us about her Six Books!

1. What book are you currently reading?

What book am I not currently reading might be a fairer question at this point. After a period of not having much time to read, I've started carving out more dedicated reading time, and now I am feasting upon these long overdue delights. I can balance one non-fiction, one novel, and one short story collection at a time basically. Currently reading Why I Love Horror edited by Becky Spratford, Happy People Don't Live Here by Amber Sparks, and First Kicking, then Not by Hannah Grieco.

2. What upcoming book are you really excited about?

Oh gosh (depending on when this runs), I am looking forward to quite a few in my pile of TBR and pre-orders, including Ken Liu's All that We See or Seem, The Earth Room by Dana Diehl, Bitter Over Sweet by Melissa Llanes Brownlee, and so many more! I am cheating so much at this one book thing!

3. Is there a book you’re currently itching to re-read?

I love re-reading books, so I'm always hoping to re-read something. Right now, I want to re-read Victor LaValle's Devil in Silver before the show comes out.

4. How about a book you’ve changed your mind about—either positively or negatively?

There's a lot of books I've changed my mind about in a more negative manner (some because the book no longer connects to me and some because the author has turned out to be terrible). In positives, though, I think I had to age into Mary Oliver's poetry.

5. What’s one book, which you read as a child or a young adult, that has had a lasting influence on your writing?

The Alvin Schwartz Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series had a profound effect on me as a child. I got deeply into exploring folklore because of them. I also think the very disturbing and almost impressionistic illustrations greatly inspired the way I think about describing horrifying things.

6. And speaking of that, what’s your latest book, and why is it awesome?

My latest book is Every Galaxy a Circle. It's a collection of stories that spans almost two decades of writing and revision (it has a story that was my very first fiction publication way back in the prehistoric times). Story topics include pie, basketball, space ghosts, monsters, and the scariest thing that's ever existed—yes, I'm talking about leopard seals.











Thank you, Chloe!

POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I'm just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.

6 Books with Chloe N Clark

AUTHOR IMAGE CREDIT: Brian Ramos, Chloe at Giant's Causeway

 Chloe N. Clark is the author of Collective Gravities (and NPR and Brooklyn Rail pick for Best Books of 2020), Escaping the Body, and more. She is a founding co-EIC of Cotton Xenomorph, a former contributor to NOAF, and the current writer of a column about limited edition Oreos (forgive her). Find her at www.chloenclark.com

Today she tells us about her Six Books:

1. What book are you currently reading?

What book am I not currently reading might be a better question. Sigh. I tend to read a non-fiction and fiction book simultaneously, because I like to never be at peace. So, the two on the tip-top of my pile currently are Eating to Extinction--which is both very great in terms of learning about food systems and how they are affected by humans, and also very depressing for the very same reasons--and I'm just about to start Dr. No by Percival Everett. I will read literally anything by Everett, and truly believe he should be taught in every lit class.

2. What upcoming book are you really excited about?

There are SO many. But the fact that Victor LaValle has a new book next year simply fills me with joy. I also want to shout out new books by the amazing Juan Martinez and a debut book by John Manuel Arias who we were lucky enough to publish a story by in Cotton Xenomorph.

3. Is there a book you’re currently itching to re-read?

I'm a compulsive re-reader. I have some books that I've reread dozens of times, and will still pick up again when I have the chance. But, I have been particularly longing to dive back into Colson Whitehead's Zone One--a zombie novel that is perfectly human and heartbreaking.

4.  A book that you love and wish that you yourself had written.

I always think that books, at least ones I love, had to have been written by the authors that they were written by. There's some spark of a books soul that is deeply entwined with the person that wrote it. That being said I very much would love to capture the feel of Stephen King's The Body in a book that's written for adults who were once children like me. I love The Body, it's one of my absolute favorite reads, but I can't find myself inside it necessarily and I'd like to be able to write a version that does.

5. What’s one book, which you read as a child or a young adult, that has had a lasting influence on your writing?

Really anything by Diana Wynne Jones. DWJ's stories greatly impacted me as a young reader, and are still ones I return to today. She had such a way of making her characters feel deeply human--flawed and funny and perfect--while also having empathy for even the characters given the least amount of time. If I had to pick just one, then Fire and Hemlock which is one of those deep soul books for me. DWJ had such a firm grasp on what it was to be a child, a young adult, to have imagination. And she was funny! 

6. And speaking of that, what’s your latest book, and why is it awesome?

My forthcoming story collection, Patterns of Orbit, is a multi-genre leap across galaxies filled with stories about forests and demons, the deepest parts of the ocean, alien plants in outer space, SPACE MUSHROOMS, basketball, pie, and more. I hope it's awesome, because I tried to fit the world inside it. 

Thank you, Chloe!

POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.

Microreview [book]: Wicked Wonders by Ellen Klages

Not enough wickedness in these wonders.....

In Wicked Wonders, Ellen Klages’ new short collection, women usually take center stage: young girls idolize villains, an astronaut finds out she’s pregnant while heading to Mars, a young student falls into living board games and must figure her way out. The stories often fall onto the side of the fantastic, but they also look at real dynamics of womanhood: friendships, relationships, work.

All of these things are things that draw me in normally. Dynamics of gender, especially when speculative elements come with them, are some of my favorite things to read. However, something in Klages writing managed to push me away. I kept wanting to like these stories far more than I liked them. The ideas and relationships in them feel more surface level and oftentimes I found myself unable to connect with the characters or their emotions. It’s hard to pin point exactly why, though.

In the opening story “The Education if a Witch,” a little girl becomes obsessed with Maleficent at the same time that her family welcomes a new baby. The story is dark in the right places but always feels like its holding back a little too much, even as the ending becomes more sinister—it still feels uncomfortable with its own darkness.

In another story, “Goodnight Moons,” a female astronaut discovers she is pregnant and the media storm around her pregnancy means she has to keep the child—on Mars. I wanted to love the story so much: female astronauts, agency of women and their bodies, Mars. Yet, again, the story felt a little too neat and tidy and, dare I say, sweet?

That sweetness might be what keeps me from enjoying these stories. Every one of them feels safe and many feel sweet. I’m all for kindness and empathy towards characters and their situations in stories. But Klages takes that one step further and seems to go around any sort of depth, danger, or dilemma.

While on the surface level, these stories can be enjoyable enough, they won’t be ones you return to over and over or think about later.

The Math

Baseline Assessment: 4/10

Bonuses: +1 for being so centered on women's lives

Penalties: -1 for not living up to their promise

Nerd Coefficient: 4/10 "not very good"

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POSTED BY: Chloe, speculative fiction fan in all forms, monster theorist, and Nerds of a Feather blogger since 2016.

Microreview [book]: The People in the Castle, by Joan Aiken

Are they strange enough?

                                                         

The People in the Castle: Selected Strange Stories, out from Small Beer Press, is a new compendium of Joan Aiken’s stories from throughout her long career. The collection showcases Aiken’s storytelling skill, while also emphasizing some of her recurring themes: small cruelties, deserved punishments, loyalty, and the bonds of love (which we see across a wide range of spectrums—familial, romantic, friendship, and even pet-human).

I’ve long been a fan of Aiken’s work and was looking forward to this collection (which, Small Beer Press should be lauded for: Aiken’s work seems to have fallen away and their push to get it back into the world is a good one). The first two stories “A Leg Full of Rubies” and “The Portable Elephant” set my expectations even higher. They are lovely fables, filled with gorgeous sentences and, even in their strangeness, the emotions ring true.

However, as I delved deeper into the collection, I felt myself getting somewhat bogged down. Too many of the stories feel so similar to the last (not in subject, necessarily, but in tone and voice) that they began to blend together. This feels like a collection not to sit down and read-through (my preferred mode for story collections), but rather to pick up on occasion and read the next story and then set down for a bit before tackling another.

Of the stories in the middle, the ones that stuck out to me were the ones that Aiken wrote about bonds between animals and humans (something Aiken has always written beautifully about): from the strange “Humblepuppy” to the heartbreaking and lovely “Lob’s Girl,” both of which pulled on my dog-loving heartstrings.

I also was pulled in by the stories which held promised threats and darkness within them. I appreciate that Aiken seemed the opposite of sentimental. When she goes dark, she usually lets that darkness pervade the piece. This can be seen clearest in stories like “Old Fillikin” and “The Man Who Had Seen the Rope Trick.”

In the end, though, this is ultimately a collection that starts and ends strong (the final story “Watkyn, Comma” is deeply affecting). But, the middle just doesn’t hold up as well as those end-pieces. Is this an problem with the compendium itself? That there were just to many stories to include, so that none got enough breathing room? For people coming new to Aiken, I might suggest one of her other story collections (such as The Monkey’s Wedding). Still, for fans of Aiken this collection might be just the thing if you wish to savor her work over a long period of time. A story here and a story there. A great storyteller, such as Aiken was, would probably appreciate a reader parsing out her tales like small sweet treats.

The Math

Baseline Assessment: 6/10

Bonuses: +1 for celebrating Aiken’s work, +1 for the absolutely exquisite story “The Portable Elephant” 

Penalties: -1 for feeling somewhat repetitive with story choice

Nerd Coefficient: 7/10 “a mostly enjoyable experience”

***

POSTED BY: Chloe, speculative fiction fan in all forms, monster theorist, and Nerds of a Feather blogger since 2016.

Reference: Aiken, Joan. The People in the Castle: Selected Strange Stories [Small Beer Press, 2016]