Clan Destine Press Blog

Eugen Bacon's Clamour and Mischief story is called "Sleuthing for a Cause" and here Eugen shares her favourite bit about writing it, and reads from her tale, too! What is the most unexpected tidbit you learned while researching your story?  How birds do it. A tail feather actually moves. What was your favourite thing about writing a story for Clamour and Mischief?  Concocting the kind of 'maladies' that an erratic witchdoctor might cure, and what that cure might entail.   Which is your favourite corvid and why?  I never imagined I had one (I might have imagined it was the weaver...

In our Clamour and Mischief Q&A we ask Dannye Chase, author of "Branwen and the Three Ravens," to share what inspired and delighted her in writing her story, and then  Dannye shares a reading from it too. What is the most unexpected tidbit you learned while researching your story? I learned that there was actually an opera based on The Seven Ravens, the fairy tale which I retold, in 1844. What was your favourite thing about writing a story for Clamour & Mischief? I loved getting to research fairy tales and remember old favorites. There are so many wonderful tales...

Clamour and Mischief author Geneve Flynn joins our quick corvids Q&A (try saying that four feathery times fast), talking about her story "The Past is Not a Present," and reading from her tale, too! What is the most unexpected tidbit you learned while researching your story? According to Chinese folklore, the five noxious animals – snake, scorpion, centipede, toad, and spider – protect against poison. They were carved into amulets or woven into patterns on clothing. What was your favourite thing about writing a story for Clamour & Mischief? Getting to pay homage to a movie that made a big...

Just as our anthology Clamour and Mischief is all about corvids of every feather, so too our quick Q&As with each author appearing in the anthology. Here Tamara M Bailey talks about her story "The Devil's Teeth," and reads from her tale, too! What is the most unexpected tidbit you learned while researching your story?   The blue jay is considered an arrogant trickster and liar in several cultures – turns out they’re not as cute and innocent as I thought! What was your favourite thing about writing a story for Clamour & Mischief? I got to write a murder mystery...

By Narrelle M Harris I fell for corvids the way Hazel Grace Lancaster falls for Augustus Waters in John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars: “I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.” Or perhaps it’s more appropriate to go with that line’s more ominous inspiration, when, in Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, a character explains how you go bankrupt: “Gradually, then suddenly.” When it comes to corvids – crows, ravens, jackdaws, magpies and jays – the bright and dark go together. Harbingers of doom and guardians of the realm, both. Playful...