“16 superbly written, often surreal stories of misogyny, blood, anger, agony, and abuse. Bruce’s stygian tales are technically accomplished, but also powered by a profound depth of feeling. They often compel and overwhelm at the same time. Like the cover art by Catrin Welz-Stein, This House of Wounds is both beautiful and horrific.” PAULA GURAN, LOCUS
“The stories in This House of Wounds are richly allegorical, formally innovative, thought-provoking and ambiguous. All the things I love, in other words.” NINA ALLAN
“Bruce is the real deal. This House of Wounds is an essential read across all genres… It is a compulsive, powerful collection… a debut to behold.” BLACK STATIC
“This is an eminently impressive debut collection of sixteen stories that showcase the author’s virtuosity, range and potential… This collection establishes Georgina Bruce as a genuinely original writer.” INTERZONE
“Bruce’s collection of feminist, fantastical short stories has something to please nearly every taste. Bruce’s knack for ethereal tales that cut straight to the core of what it means to be a human (and specifically a woman) will delight readers who enjoy a smattering of the supernatural and blurred edges of reality.” PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
“An astonishing, totally absorbing debut collection. Edgy, disturbing and delicious in equal parts. Georgina Bruce plays with myth and horror beautifully.” KERRY HADLEY-PRYCE
“The stories in This House of Wounds strike me as both an emotional and intellectual examination of pain, from how it spreads and is passed on to others to how it can easily turn us into different, crueller creatures. Each act formed in pain leads to another, then another, and this makes for twisted, beautiful reading. Georgina Bruce is a courageous and compelling writer.” ALIYA WHITELEY
“Ms. Bruce is not one for linear narrative or an easy distinction between reality, dreams, analogy, art, intoxication and self-deceit. In many ways the whole book is an exploration how we distance ourselves from reality, and from ourselves. A truly astonishing achievement.” STEWART HORN
“Very bloody, disturbing, female-centric and gorgeously-written – I would recommend it to you!” TRACY FAHEY
“Oh you are in for a treat. One of the best debut collections I have ever read. The Bruce is a genius.” JIM MCLEOD, Gingernuts of Horror
“This House of Wounds is simply a gorgeous book, with ravishing cover art by Catrin Welz-Stein to complement the contents. Fairy-tale motifs abound – Red Queens, sorcerous crows, Princess Beasts, Woods Kings – yet they’re frequently jump-cut past the reader in fragmented, discontinuous, subjective glimpses, like a mystic marriage of Angela Carter with J.G. Ballard. And the beauty and glitter is frequently the sparkle of streams of blood or the shine of polished bone – the wounds are there, laid bare and held open by retractors for probing and examination. This absolutely is not horror per se, but it touches on horror territory persistently. It’s anything but pedestrian.” PAUL ST.JOHN MACKINTOSH, author and journalist.
“Your book gave me nightmares.” PENNY JONES, reviewer and author of Suffer the Children.
I can be fairly personal on my blog, or more specifically, I don’t censor myself and have no problem saying whatever I want to. I don’t mind reading about other people and their troubles, I wouldn’t at all mind it if you felt comfortable posting yours for us to read. However. My blog is not attached to my real name and no one I know ‘IRL’ has access to my blog, so I suppose that’s a factor you might have to consider?
Yeah. It’s tricky. Obviously anyone who knows me can find this site – colleagues, students, friends, enemies… Maybe it’s not the wisest thing to bare all. On the other hand, I’d really like to share more personal stuff. It’s cathartic for me to write, and I think people enjoy reading about other people’s struggles. In the nicest way, of course. I’m not saying we’re all horrible voyeurs (although I can be that, too!).
I never get personal on my blog. I post articles only, and these posts get constant hits months after I published them because they get picked by other bloggers or websites that reference articles. The most personal posts I write are about accepted stories. I don’t write “personal” spontaneously because I’m a private person. It’s cultural, and it’s how I am. Besides, the interwebs NEVER forget anything, even if you delete your posts. So, when you publish something, it will always be there, somewhere, somehow, and months or years later you could have regrets… Still, I’ve been thinking of setting up two separate blogs on the same website, one with my usual articles and the other (moderately) about myself, but to do that, I would need a WordPress thingie. I think I could do it with Blogger, too, although Blogger seems less easy to personalise. I should invest time in studying WordPress. Or I should hire Matt, but I’m worried about the “vast sums of money” concept. :O
I sometimes write online about my health problems. It can be a way of improving people’s awareness, reducing stigma and making some readers feel less alone.
Most of the writing I am doing at the moment is scholarly, and the lines between interpreting cultural texts and reflecting on your own experience can get very blurred sometimes. That means I’m also happy to talk about my personal history, on Twitter and other places, because it opens up new avenues of enquiry.
However, I am quite candid and upfront off line anyway. I wouldn’t upload anything to my blog that I’d be uncomfortable saying in face to face conversation.
Looking at my Google Reader, most of the blogs I subscribe to (rather than browse occasionally) have some personal content, whether or not the explicit subject matter is fiction, politics, craft, or any other topic you care to mention. Assuming all the content is polished to the same standard, I think some personal detail can enhance a blog. How much is too much depends on your own comfort levels.
Yeah, I think that I just have to keep blogging and work it out as I go along. I don’t know what sort of a blogger I am until I blog! So, we shall see!
I do feel that some personal content is appropriate – the blogs I like reading usually contain some personal thoughts and experiences. I particularly like Jay Lake’s blog, and he gets pretty deep into his experience of cancer. On the other hand, there are people who give altogether too much information! And as you say, Gio, the internet is 4 EVA!
Thanks for the thoughts, everyone.