Tordotcom Publishing is thrilled to announce that Ellen Datlow has acquired World English rights to And Then I Woke Up, an sf/horror novella from rising short fiction author Malcolm Devlin in the tradition of Jeffrey Ford and Stephen Graham Jones.
And Then I Woke Up introduces readers to a world reeling from an unusual plague. Monsters now lurk in the streets, while terrified survivors arm themselves and roam the countryside in packs. Or perhaps something very different is happening. When a disease affects how reality is perceived, it’s hard to be certain of anything…
Spence is one of the “cured” living at the Ironside rehabilitation facility. Haunted by guilt, he refuses to face the changed world until a new inmate challenges him to help her find her old crew. But if he can’t tell the truth from the lies, how will he know if he has earned the redemption he dreams of? How will he know he hasn’t just made things worse?
Malcolm Devlin’s novella is layered, literary, sf/horror about false narratives and their ability to divide us.
Said the author Malcolm Devlin:
Intended as a sort of zombie apocalypse for the fake news era, And Then I Woke Up is a story about a fictional pandemic, written in the heady days before a real one. I’m humbled and delighted that it should have found a home at Tordotcom and I’m very excited (and slightly intimidated) to be working with the extraordinary Ellen Datlow to whittle it down to its best possible self. I’m still pinching myself at the idea.
Said the editor Ellen Datlow:
Malcolm Devlin was one of my Clarion West Workshop students in 2013 and I’m bowled over by this striking sf/horror novella that’s right on the mark today, but was written and submitted before the Covid-19 pandemic. I’m so excited that it will be out in the world, where I hope it will provoke, grab readers, and shake them to their core.
Malcolm Devlin’s stories have appeared in Black Static, Interzone, The Shadow Booth, and Shadows and Tall Trees. His first collection, You Will Grow Into Them was published by Unsung Stories in 2017 and shortlisted for the British Fantasy and Saboteur Awards. A second collection, also to be published by Unsung Stories, is due to be published in Summer 2021. He currently lives in Brisbane.
And Then I Woke Up will be available from Tordotcom Publishing in 2022.
