Angela Slatter's Blog

I’m delighted to reveal the cover for my next Titan novella, Fitcher’s Bird.

Once again, cover art has been knocked out of the park, this time by Andy Bodrenkova!

There are already pre-order links out there. 

Once upon a time, three young sisters survived a catastrophic house fire… Years later, one of them disappears and then another and it is left to the eldest sister to find out whether something else survived… A dark, twisty, page-turning modern gothic horror from the multi award-winning author of The Cold House.

When sisters Chloe, Zoe and Dido were children, their father died and their mother could no longer care for them, so they were sent to live with the local doctor’s family: mother, father and three sons. Soon after, however, Ashwood Farm burned to the ground, and only the three young girls survived.

Years later, the sisters live very separate lives, each dealing with their painful past in different ways. But when first Chloe, and then Zoe disappears, it’s left to Dido to rake through their history and find out if her sisters are still in the world or paying the price for what happened that long ago summer night.

I’m absolutely stoked to see that two of my books are Aurealis shortlistees! 

The Crimson Road, my gothic vampire novel is up for the Best Horror Novel and The Cold House, my ghostly grief and Faustian bargains novella is up for Best Horror Novella (does what it says on the can, really). The full shortlists are here and as ever it’s an honour to be in such company.

Huge gratitude to the organisers and the judges who give up so much of their time for free, and thanks to my publisher Titan Books for all their support and most excellent covers!

AND! The Crimson Road is also on the newly released Locus Recommended Reading List for works published in 2025.

2025 feels like a whole blank slate where nothing happened, but I know that’s not right. I know that’s just the exhaustion kicking in like a snowstorm wiping out the footprints behind me. If I check the diary, I know I did stuff.

Published three books: The Crimson Road, The Cold House and the redux version of Black-Winged Angels.

Published two short stories: “San’t Marten’s Book of Mild Melancholy” in The Secret Romantic’s Book of Magic, Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane (eds) and “A Body’s Got to Have Hope” in Blood in the Bricks, Neil Williamson (ed.).

Delivered a novel, a novella, a collection and a new chapbook: A Forest, Darkly,  Fitcher’s Bird, The Sourdough Compendium and Stories Told in Parts – The Writing of Sourdough and Other Non-Fiction, all of which will be out in 2026.

Signed with a new agent, Becky LeJeune of Bond Literary – which is now Confluence Literary – and delivered unto her a new collection of short stories, signed contracts for two limited editions, and have two other contracts in the works thanks to Becky’s efforts.

I’ve continued to work with Titan Books and hope to continue doing so, and am very grateful to the team there for publishing and promoting my books.

Had a few translations come out too: The Path of Thorns in Spanish, Czech language and Polish and The Briar Book of the Dead in Hungarian and Dutch. Also signed a contract for a Complex Chinese translation of The Path of Thorns and another for a Ukrainian translation of The Briar Book of the Dead. I must say, for a book with a heroine some folk loudly proclaimed “unlikable”, Asher Todd and The Path of Thorns have done extraordinarily well.

And I spent three months in Hobart as the Hedberg Writer-in-Residence at the Uni of Tasmania, which was an interesting mixed bag of experiences. On the upside, it gave me time and space to write, and write I did, including one and a half novellas, 6 short stories, 4 articles, as well as doing two proofing passes on A Forest, Darkly before going to print, completing a new short story collection, and plotting for the new novel (which I’m currently struggling through), Our Lady of Battles. I taught four masterclasses and one workshop, did several student consults and a couple of AMAs in classes which were really fun.

Three film options – on “Finnegan’s Field”, The Path of Thorns and the Verity Fassbinder trilogy – have been renewed.

And saw my last two mentee babies take very big steps: Arianne James has her debut novel Daughters of the Tide coming out this year with HQ (@arianne_writes) and Bonnie Tai (@bonnietai_writes) signed with a Big Deal Agent for her novel Bad Blood. I feel proud to have ushered my final children into the world!

So, more stuff than I thought, but I very much have the sense of “just keep swimming” and just maybe the sharks won’t catch me. I can’t complain about what I got done.

This year, my plans include delivering a novella and two novels; I’d like to do some more graphic novel work but that’s in the handbag of the gods; and I’m going (I think) to SwanCon mid-year, when Kathleen Jennings is the guest of honour. Possibly some sleep, too, would be wise. 

 

The Sourdough Compendium is coming! I’m so excited to get my grabby paws on this tome – and it will indeed be a tome!

The Compendium combines all three of my mosaic collections, the ones that started the Sourdough world: Sourdough & Other Stories, The Bitterwood Bible & Other Recountings and The Tallow-Wife & Other Tales.

If you enjoyed my novels – All the Murmuring Bones, The Path of Thorns, The Briar Book of the Dead, The Crimson Road and the forthcoming A Forest, Darkly – and wondered about the tales that thread through them, the stories my characters are told by the old wives and grandmothers, then The Sourdough Compendium is for you (or your favourite person who loves re-worked fairy tales).

You can pre-order from Barnes & Noble, Waterstones, Amazon, Forbidden Planet, Indigo, Pulp Fiction Booksellers, or your favourite local indie!

And sorry about the lack of links but I cannot get them to work here – you’re clever, you know how to google!

 

 

 

 

This beautiful edition of The Path of Thorns in the Czech language arrived in the mail!

There are a bunch of signed copies of my books at Pulp Fiction Booksellers AND you can now order online if you can’t get into the store.

Remember: Christmas is coming. 

How many books am I currently promoting? 4. How ridiculous do I feel? 15 out of 10.  Did I plan this? I did not. Book seeds are planted so long before the books actually come out – and not all seeds survive to blooming stage. You can’t predict it. Like the year my dad ended up with 32 pumpkins in the garden not due to any planning but solely due to seeds sown long before. So, consider this my year of 32 pumpkins. Four. Four readable pumpkins. The Crimson Road, Feb 2025.The Cold House, Oct 2025.A Forest, Darkly, Feb 2026.The Sourdough Compendium, June 2026.Oh… And a novella, Fitcher’s Bird in Oct 2026. Five pumpkins.

My Monday started like this.  Happy author copies arrival day to me! And happy grumpy menopausal witch in the woods day to those who celebrate! Thanks @titanbooks, @cathtrechand @whereisbahar #aforestdarkly#agslatter#angelaslatter#grumpymenopausalwitchinthewoods

Happy bookthday to me!

Or rather, to my new novella The Cold House.

This one is contemporary folk horror rather than Sourdough gothic fairy tale, so pick your fighter! It might not be your thing if you’re looking for the Sourdough vibe… but just maybe you’ll find you like something unexpected.

When Everly’s husband and young daughter die in a car crash she finds out nothing is quite what she thought… Secrets, lies and grief collide in this funny, tragic, intimate and utterly compelling horror novella.

Written by the acclaimed author of the Sourdough Universe novels and winner of multiple awards including the Shirley Jackson and World Fantasy, this searing tale is perfect for fans of Rachel Harrison, Delilah S. Dawson and Sarah-Maria Griffin.

When Everly’s husband and young daughter die in a car crash she finds out nothing is quite what she thought… Secrets, lies and grief collide in this funny, tragic, intimate and utterly compelling horror novella from the award-winning author. Perfect for fans of Rachel Harrison, Delilah S. Dawson, Sarah Gailey and Sarah-Maria Griffin.

Writer Everly Bainbridge’s life is left in ruins when her husband takes their child to the supermarket one day and a lorry collides with their car. After the accident, a lawyer appears on her doorstep and tells her her husband was not who he said he was and she is a very rich widow. She retreats to a lonely house in the countryside to recover. But there’s a well in the cellar, a spectacularly cold room, and one night, Everly wakes up with a foot hanging over the emptiness of the well and the echo of her daughter’s voice in her ears…A short, sharp, emotionally layered story of horrific secrets and dangerous lies, this dark, fierce gem of a novella will keep you turning the pages late into the night…

Hello, lovely people.

Here it is, the glorious cover for The Sourdough Compendium (big version below).

This collects together all 3 mosaic collections: Sourdough and Other Stories, The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings, and The Tallow-Wife and Other Tales, which have been out of print for a few years.

These largely form the base code of the Sourdough universe so if you’re a fan of the novels – All the Murmuring Bones, The Path of Thorns, The Briar Book of the Dead, The Crimson Road and the forthcoming A Forest, Darkly – you might want to consider getting this.

The pre-order links can be found here https://titanbooks.com/72850-the-sourdough-compendium/ but not all are working yet due to circumstances beyond my control, but B&N, Waterstones and the ‘zon do have pre-order pages.

Thank you to @missnatmack for yet another brilliant cover!