“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.
That’s a question I constantly wrestle with. For me it usually involves sacrificing sleep as I tend to stay up later than I should and write. But then I’ve always been the most creative late at night – I just never got out of the habit. And then when I have time off work, time that I should be really seriously writing, all I want to do is be lazy, or get outside into the fresh air, and then come midnight… writing.
I’d like to think that I’d behave differently if I had each day to myself.
It’s easier for me than some, although I have a full time contract. In previous jobs I’ve done fifty hour working weeks, so writing on top of a 37 hour week feels quite doable (provided I’m in good health, which is not always the case). I don’t have any dependents – I’m full of admiration for people who write with day jobs AND caring responsibilities. I also tell myself not to feel guilty over stuff like housework. Better to have a dirty house and get some writing done; which am I going to regret more in the long run?
This doesn’t add up to the number of hours I could spend on writing if I were independently wealthy, but I could be in a worse situation. Finding the time to write is less of a problem for me than keeping my confidence up when I don’t improve as quickly as I want.
My problem is that I am always having to choose between time and money! If I choose time, then I struggle with everyday living stuff. If I choose money, then I don’t have enough time to write. It’s a conundrum.
Confidence and health are both issues for me too, and so I don’t always spend my free time writing, and I don’t feel able to sacrifice sleep for writing (or anything!) very often. But I still try to write every day, even if it’s not much. I have found that not writing for a few days can lead to weeks of despondency and a hard time starting again.