Mar 4, 2021
I’m joined in this episode by Eugen Bacon, author of THE ROAD TO WOOP WOOP: AND OTHER STORIES. This collection of speculative short fiction features over 20 tales that blur the line between reality and mythology, full of humans possessed of unusual gifts, immortals shackled with ageless curses, children born of dangerous secrets, and lovers whose tangled passions spiral to dream and dread.
In “A Nursery Rhyme”, a mother must face a tragedy in her household, born of a darkness and grief she was never allowed to feel.
In “A Maji Maji Chronicle”, a wizard from the future visits the Africa of the past to teach his son the most important lessons of magic—and inadvertently alters the pattern of history.
In “A Case of Seeing”, a detective must use her paranormal ability to solve a murder mystery, while confronting difficult truths revealed by her gift.
In “Being Marcus”, a physical trainer ruminates on his origins in Ancient Rome, and how a legendary betrayal confined him to an everlasting cycle of longing and loneliness.
With lyrical prose and lushly evocative atmospheres, these stories explore grief and healing, love and infidelity, and challenge how we envision our role in relationships and our own futures.
THE ROAD TO WOOP WOOP weaves magical realism, horror, science fiction, and many shades in between. It’s available now from Meerkat Press:
» Some of these are affiliate links. Using them supports the channel, at no additional cost to you! Whenever possible, though, I encourage you to purchase from your local bookstores.
Eugen M. Bacon, MA, MSc, PhD, is African Australian. A computer graduate mentally re-engineered into creative writing, she studied at Maritime Campus, less than two minutes’ walk from The Royal Observatory of the Greenwich Meridian. Her work has won, been shortlisted, longlisted or commended in national and international awards, including the Bridport Prize, Copyright Agency Prize, Australian Shadows Awards, Ditmar Awards and Nommo Award for Speculative Fiction by Africans.
Out now: Writing Speculative Fiction, Red Globe Press (Macmillan). Claiming T-Mo, Meerkat Press. In 2020: Her Bitch Dress, Ginninderra Press. It’s Folking Political, Ginninderra Press. The Road to Woop Woop & Other Stories, Meerkat Press. Hadithi, Luna Press Publishing. Ivory’s Story, Newcon Press. In 2021: Speculate, Meerkat Press. Black Moon, IFWG.
Eugen Bacon’s work is deemed cheeky with a fierce intelligence in text that’s resplendent, delicious, dark and evocative. NPR called her novel Claiming T-Mo ‘a confounding mysterious tour de force’. The Road to Woop Woop and Other Stories imbues the same lushness in a writerly language that is Bacon’s own. This peculiar hybrid of the untraditional, the extraordinary within, without and along the borders of normalcy will hypnotize and absorb the reader with tales that refuse to be labelled. The stories in this collection are dirges that cross genres in astounding ways. Over 20 provocative tales, with seven original to this collection, by an award-winning African Australian author.