The Witch Who Came in From the Cold is the fantasy-espionage thriller from Serial Box. This serial is collaboratively written and available in text and audio via SerialBox.com, their iOS app, and all major ebook retailers. Lead by foreign-affairs expert Lindsay Smith (Sekret) and Urban Fantasy-pioneer Max Gladstone (Three Parts Dead), this season’s author team is rounded out by Cassandra Rose Clark (Our Lady of the Ice), Ian Tregillis (The Milkweed Triptych), and Nebula-nominated Fran Wilde (Updraft).
We asked the authors to tell us a little about how they got into crime fiction and what really stuck out for them as their favorite aspect of the genre. Read their answers below, and then make sure to sign in and comment at the bottom for your chance to win the entire 1st season of The Witch Who Came in From the Cold!
Which is how I discovered how much I love—truly adore—the language of the hardboiled keyhole-peeper. The self-imposed homework assignment introduced me to a literature that I didn't merely tolerate or appreciate, but one which I actively devoured. Perhaps as they have for many readers, the noir greats introduced me to a slang so rich, so beautiful, so deadly sharp it could only be poetry. The use of language in the noir classics is, for me, the shining brilliance of the genre. And it makes me ache with envy.
As a reader, I'm usually not particularly forgiving of novels typified by very limited characterizations and what might be called “Lego brick” plotting (even, or perhaps particularly, when I commit those sins myself). But once Philip Marlowe gets on a roll, I could listen to him for hours.
Now, fast forward a few years. I had decided to read Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep. I was perhaps halfway through the book—the first Chandler novel I’d ever read—when it hit me like a Chandlerian metaphor: The Big Lebowski is a parody of Raymond Chandler. Well, a parody and a pastiche, really.
Chandler’s Marlowe is thrown into a situation he doesn’t understand; so is the Dude. Marlowe moves episodically through his investigation and slowly learns that things are more complex than he thought; the Dude just wanted his rug back and yet winds up involved with a kidnapping, nihilists, and a feminist femme fatale.
As I read The Big Sleep, it occurred to me that The Big Lebowski wasn’t the random mishmash that I always thought it was. All those random pieces suddenly seemed to fit together, a pattern of absurdity that could only be clarified by Raymond Chandler and his hard-drinking, tough-talking, poetry-reading private eye.
Rocknrolla’s plotline is completely incomprehensible outside of that halcyon bubble of the mid-2000s, when real estate was climbing up the cliff and Russian oligarchs hadn’t yet found the end of their leash to Putin. And yet, that’s what I love about it. Gerard Butler and Idris Elba are decent-if-not-wholly-competent criminals out to make somewhat honest livings; Tom Wilkinson is a delightfully snaky don; Thandie Newton makes architectural sport of cold-bloodedness; and Mark Strong beautifully subverts the stodgy consigliere role, all in a painfully stylish, heavily filtered, sweet and dark and hilarious snapshot of a time that quickly wasn’t.
Eventually, steganography (the practice of concealing a message within another message) fascinated me in fiction as it had in fact, and I used a game to transmit messages throughout my second novel, Cloudbound. Meantime, invisibility had become a plot element in my first novel, Updraft, as something that was both there and not there. Passing messages and codes using techniques invisible to most had to wait for my guest stint on The Witch Who Came in From the Cold, however!
Listen to an audio excerpt from Season 2 of The Witch Who Came in From the Cold!
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The Witch Who Came in From the Cold Comment Sweepstakes: NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A purchase does not improve your chances of winning. Sweepstakes open to legal residents of 50 United States, D.C., and Canada (excluding Quebec), who are 18 years or older as of the date of entry. To enter, complete the “Post a Comment” entry at https://www.criminalelement.com/blogs/2017/02/the-authors-from-the-witch-who-came-in-from-the-cold-talk-crime-fiction beginning at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) February 15, 2017. Sweepstakes ends 4:29 p.m. ET March 1, 2017. Void outside the United States and Canada and where prohibited by law. Please see full details and official rules here. Sponsor: Macmillan, 175 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10010.
Lindsay Smith is the author of the YA espionage thrillers Sekret, Skandal, and Dreamstrider, all from Macmillan Children's. She lives in Washington, DC, with her husband and dog, where she writes on international issues in cyber security. LindsaySmith.net. @LindsaySmithDC.
Max Gladstone has been thrown from a horse in Mongolia, drank almond milk with monks on Wudang Shan, and wrecked a bicycle in Angkor Wat. Max is also the author of the Craft Sequence of books about undead gods and skeletal law wizards—Full Fathom Five, Three Parts Dead, Two Serpents Rise, and Last First Snow. Max fools everyone by actually writing novels in the coffee shops of Davis Square in Somerville, MA. His dreams are much nicer than you’d expect. MaxGladstone.com. @maxgladstone.
Cassandra Rose Clarke grew up in south Texas and currently lives in a suburb of Houston, where she writes and teaches composition at a pair of local colleges. She holds an M.A. in creative writing from The University of Texas at Austin, and in 2010 she attended the Clarion West Writer’s Workshop in Seattle. Her work has been nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award and YALSA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults. Her latest novel is Our Lady of the Ice, out now from Saga Press. CassandraRoseClark.com. @mitochondrial.
IanTregillis is the son of a bearded mountebank and a discredited tarot card reader. He is the author of the Milkweed Triptych, Something More than Night, and the Alchemy Wars trilogy. His most current novel is The Rising (Alchemy Wars #2). His short fiction has appeared at numerous venues including Tor.com, Fantasy & Science Fiction, and Popular Science. He lives in New Mexico, where he consorts with writers, scientists, and other disreputable types. IanTregillis.com. @ITregillis.
Fran Wilde’s work includes the Andre Norton- and Compton Crook Award-winning and Nebula-nominated novel Updraft (Tor, 2015) and its sequels, Cloudbound and Horizon, as well as the novella The Jewel and Her Lapidary (Tor.com 2016). Her short stories appear in Asimov’s, Tor.com, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Nature. She writes for publications including The Washington Post, Tor.com, Clarkesworld, and iO9.com. franwilde.net. @fran_wilde.
That sounds amazing! “Spies and sorcerers face off during the Cold War”!
And I’ve never heard of it. It makes me think of a kind of old movie spy serial, with magic. Cool.
Never Heard of this, but now I am dying to get my hands on it! Sounds great!
Wonder if they vould get Vic Flick to play the theme song for this? Or is that too “Bondish?”
cool
Alas, I have not seen the complete oeuvre of M. Ritchie.
A pulp fiction revival. Love it.
This sounds interesting!
I’d find this an interesting read. Wish me luck!
Sounds cool, count me in!
Looks great!
Please enter me in this sweepstakes.
Thanks —
This captivating and intriguing. Thanks.
Sounds amazing!
Sounds great!
Sounds great!
This sounds great. It’s going on my to read list!
This sounds great. It’s going on my to read list!
Sounds interesting. I’d like a real copy of the story.
Please accept my entry into this book contest.
Thank you.
This sounds like serious fun!
Intriguing… Looking forward to learning more. Thank you for the entry opportunity!
Intriguing… Looking forward to learning more. Thank you for the entry opportunity!
Sounds enticing. Looking forward to it.
Would love to win!
Fantasy & mystery! Wow!!
I would love to read the book.
Very intriguing, indeed!
Facinating!
A real copy of the book would be great. I don’t use all those other venues. I am OLD fashioned….most people just say OLD….Thanks…
Why have I never heard of this before? Want! Please!!!
this sounds really good! would love to win this!!
thank you!
Rocknrolla & The Big Lebowski–favorites in my house.
What a great series! Thanks for the chance to winh.
Spies for me! Yes!
i so wanna see this, it sounds awesome.
Sounds interesting.
This sounds like the break I need in my usual reads. Refreshing! Please enter me.
Want to win. 🙂
As a child, I too was fascinated by invisible ink!
Sounds like great fun to get a story in serial form!
Sounds like fun!
Looking forward to eploring this.
Thanks for the chance to win.
I like the cover
sounds like a great series – can’t wait to hear it. thanks
sounds like a great series – can’t wait to hear it. thanks
I agree with Lindsay the British crime and for me mysteries are like comfort food.
Why have I not heard of this before? I would love to win!!!
Great series, thank you for the opportunity to win.
Fantasy and crime is a fun conbination.
espionage thriller read -that sounds good
What a great combo and fascinating giveaway.
Cool idea!
Not my typical read, but worth checking out
I would LOVE to win this!!!!
Sounds like a lot of fun. I’d love to get this.
Sounds Very interesting!
This sounds interesting. I have not heard of it but I am going to put it on my list.
A fantasy-espionage thriller…what an interesting combination! Would love to read it.
sounds like a fun one
I’ve love to give this a read 🙂
Sounds like a fun read. Please enter me in the sweepstakes.
Thank you.
Sounds great. Please enter me into the contest.
This looks like a thrilling book to read.
Thank you for the lovely opportunity.
I always appreciate a look inside an authors mind.
I love espionage thrillers!
I want this book, hope I get it 🙂