A.G. Slatter's Blog

Look at this glorious thing! This is the US Limited Edition of The Path of Thorns, with cover and internal artwork by the amazing Daniele Serra! Published by Thunderstorm Books, it’s now available for pre-order here until 18 April 2026.

 

The Path of Thornsby A.G. Slatter

Governess Asher Todd arrives at isolated Morwood Grange, ostensibly to take care of three children. As she settles into her new role, the inhabitants of the grand house welcome her in their own ways, and soon it almost feels like she belongs there. But Asher carries the weight of dark promises with her, and in their fulfilment lies the glimmer of freedom. As life at Morwood begins to feel more and more like home despite the mounting danger, Asher reminds herself that she’s prepared to pay a terrible price for said freedom. Or is she?

Limitation based on preorders through 4/18.

7×10 signed limited edition hardcover

Artwork by Danielle Serra

Announcement at last! I’m delighted and honored to have contributed to this beautiful book of paintings by the most excellent Brian Froud! You should absolutely preorder it. https://www.abramsbooks.com/?s=Froud

The Sourdough Compendium is creeping closer to her 2 June publication date!

This is the first time all three mosaic collections have been brought together – and said collections have been out of print for some years now! – and they’re in their story chronology order (if that makes sense) rather than their publication order, which will be a new reading experience even for me.

Two of the very kind cover quotes:

“A collection of individually intriguing stories that built into an intricate, beautiful and brooding world.” – Adrian Tchaikovsky, multi-award-winning bestselling author of the Children of Time series

“A dazzling masterpiece of a tapestry novel, where each dark fairy tale twist weaves together into something much greater.” – Caitlin Rozakis, New York Times bestselling author of Dreadful

Pre-orders can be done here.

The pre-order page for the Spanish translation of The The Tallow-Wife and Other Tales – La Esposa de Cera y Otros Relatos – is here.

Published by Dilatando Mentes Editorial, with a beautiful cover by José Antonio Ávila, this completes the cycle that began with Masa Madre y Otros Relatos (Sourdough and Other Stories) and La Biblia de Bosque Amargo y Otros Relatos (The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings).

The shortlists for the Australasian Shadows Awards 2025 are out and I’m delighted to report that The Cold House is a finalist for the Paul Haines Award for Long Fiction and The Crimson Road is a finalist for the Shadows Award for Novels!

And look at the excellent company I’m in!

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!