author interviews, public appearances, writerly administrivia

“All Sorts of Freedom” Childhood in the Library

Juliet August 17, 2012 Leave a Comment

Life continues busy… Congenial in Cambridge was indeed splendid fun and this weekend I am off to the annual St Hilda’s Crime & Mystery Weekend in Oxford, to enjoy erudite papers and genial discussion, this year considering humour in crime fiction. And yes, obviously, when I put these things in the diary, the firm intention was to have delivered Defiant Peaks before now. Ho hum. Last lap starts Monday and at least I’m on track to deliver it without pulling any all-nighters. A few late nights, perhaps, but it’s been that sort of year.

Meantime, you may be interested in a piece I wrote for Erin Pringle, an American writer I met at the Phoenix Convention in Dublin the year before last. A very nice lady and a very talented and interesting writer as you will discover at her website/

She’s hosting a summer series of articles where various writers from the US and the British Isles are reflecting on our relationships with libraries. They make fascinating reading and my piece is now live, something of a memoir about my local branch library when I was a kid in Poole, Dorset.

Enjoy!

Author: Juliet

Juliet E McKenna is a British fantasy author living in the Cotswolds, UK. Loving history, myth and other worlds since she first learned to read, she has written fifteen epic fantasy novels so far. Her debut, The Thief’s Gamble, began The Tales of Einarinn in 1999, followed by The Aldabreshin Compass sequence, The Chronicles of the Lescari Revolution, and The Hadrumal Crisis trilogy. The Green Man’s Heir was her first modern fantasy inspired by British folklore in 2018. The Green Man’s Quarry in 2023, the sixth title to follow, won the BSFA Award for Best Novel. The Green Man’s War continues this ongoing series. Her 2023 novel The Cleaving is a female-centred retelling of the story of King Arthur, while her shorter stories include forays into dark fantasy, steampunk and science fiction. She promotes SF&Fantasy by reviewing, by blogging on book trade issues, attending conventions and teaching creative writing. She has served as a judge for the James White Award, the Aeon Award, the Arthur C Clarke Award and the World Fantasy Awards. In 2015 she received the British Fantasy Society’s Karl Edward Wagner Award. As J M Alvey, she has written historical murder mysteries set in ancient Greece.