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The Boughs Withered Launch
My collection, The Boughs Withered (When I Told Them My Dreams), will be part of a launch at Dublin 2019: An Irish Worldcon of a number of NewCon Press titles, from 17.30 to 18.30 on Saturday, 17 August. It's taking place at the Point Square Dublin, Warehouse 2 performance space. All members of Worldcon are welcome!
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Bone Mother for Halloween
You can now watch the full short stop-motion animation of Bone Mother, created by Dale Hayward & Sylvie Trouvé and based on my short story, courtesy of the National Film Board of Canada. But be quick, there’s no guarantee she’ll remain online after Halloween…
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Bone Mother Première
Check out the cool poster for Bone Mother, the stop-motion animated short film by Dale Hayward & Sylvie Trouvé, which is having its World Première this weekend at Festival Stop Motion in Montreal. That tiny print with ‘based on the short story by Maura McHugh’ gives me a little thrill. Plus, I love its title in French: La Mère des Os. On Saturday, 15 September at 4.30pm Dale and Sylvie will give a Behind the Scenes talk about creating their film. Best wishes to Dale and Sylvie for this event, and a big congratulations for their years of labour on the project.
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Bone Mother teaser trailer
I’ve mentioned that my short story ‘Bone Mother’ is being adapted into a stop-motion animated short film by See Creature animation company in Canada. It’s a long process and it won’t be complete until 2016, but I was thrilled to see them release a tiny teaser trailer for the short film. Official teaser for Bone Mother @onf_nfb #stopmotion #animation #dontmesswithbabayaga A video posted by Bone_Mother (@bone_mother) on Jul 21, 2015 at 7:00am PDT //platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js You can follow the Bone Mother project on Instagram, and See Creature update their blog with information about it quite regularly.
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A short day with good news
In May this year I announced that my short story ‘Bone Mother’ had been optioned by the National Film Board of Canada’s Animation Studio with the view to make a short stop-motion animated film, adapted and directed by Sylvie Trouvé and Dale Hayward (via their animation company See Creature), and produced for the NFB by Jelena Popovic. Everyone knows that an option doesn’t necessarily mean that the short film will get made, but I had hope considering the people involved. So I was delighted when I discovered that ‘Bone Mother’ has been green-lit, and the production is expected to finish in early 2016. Seven minutes of stop-motion, and over a year…
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Bone Mother optioned
I’m delighted to announce that my short story ‘Bone Mother’ has been optioned by the National Film Board of Canada’s Animation Studio with the view to make a short stop-motion animated film, which will be adapted and directed by Sylvie Trouvé and Dale Hayward, and produced for the NFB by Jelena Popovic. I’m going to cut and paste what I wrote back in 2009 when ‘Bone Mother’ was podcast on Pseudopod. I wrote the first draft at Clarion West in 2006, and it was a pivotal story in my progress during the six-week workshop. I’d written a mediocre story the week before, and I felt extreme pressure (from myself) to produce…
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going away
The preparations for the London/Japan jaunt have sapped my ability to post anything meaningful on this journal. I hate posting something just for the sake of it, and I’m not a “what I had for breakfast” type of blogger (muesli, strawberries, and yoghurt). Since I’ll be away for just over three weeks there’s a lot to do, including learning a little bit of Japanese. I’m accruing a phrase or two every day, which is pretty good since I find it difficult to master another language. The Worldcon programme is online now, and I’m scheduled on a few panels. I’m very much looking forward to reuniting with old friends and meeting…
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agog
Thanks to my friend Tina for pointing me towards the Publishers Weekly review of Fantasy (« now available to buy on Amazom.com). Unfortunately, the anthology as a whole didn’t score with the reviewer, but several stories were singled out for praise, mine included: … while Maura McHugh’s “Bone Mother” brilliantly blends Slavic folklore with the vampire mythos to create a speculative gem of a tale. It’s Publishers freaking Weekly! Let me tug the tether tied to my ankle so I won’t float off into the clouds… In Write-a-thon news, I’m busy rewriting a short story, which isn’t part of the weekly goal, but is one of my on-going writing chores.…
