My Bookish Ways interviews Gemma Files

My Bookish Ways has conducted an interview with Gemma Files, author of The Hexslinger Series.

Check it out!

And check out her Hexslinger books A Book of Tongues, A Rope of Thorns, and A Tree of Bones!

Weird Fiction Review interviews Gemma Files

Gemma Files, author of the Hexslinger trilogy, sat down with Weird Fiction review to discuss her story "Blood Makes Noise", her outlook on horror and when weird is too weird.


WFR: What do you think is the appeal of weird fiction generally? The scare? Catharsis? Something else?
Files: For me, the appeal is the idea of creating something that will make the person reading it look over their own shoulder uneasily, but also feel as though they recognize it on some inmost level…to create an unnatural concept which nevertheless seems part of of the natural order. You never saw it before, but the minute you do, you realize it’s always underlain everything. So emotional catharsis, yes, but better than that, a sense of completion which dissolves upon closer examination. The closest we can come to a primitive religious experience, maybe — a true Mystery, in the ancient Greek sense.

Read the whole interview! 

The Hexslinger books include A Book of Tongues, A Rope of Thorns, and the final volume, A Tree of Bones, releasing May 15.

Sequential Tart interviews Gemma Files

ST: What kind of feedback have you had from gay male readers about your m/m work? Has this affected your approach to gay characters or scenes?

GF: Actually, thus far, it's been incredibly pleasant and supportive. I've gotten kudos for being "realistic", which is always nice (maybe it's all that talk about lube during the first Chess / Morrow scene). Being pretty firmly het and cisgendered female in real life, I do worry about appropriation and fetishization, obviously, so I try to do my research, and not to let my own particular kinks run away with me. I also put in the time trying to make my characters as three-dimensional as I can, because to be frank, one of those kinks is the push-pull of interaction between complicated, demanding, potentially violent and/or morally conflicted people.


Read this and more in Sequential Tart's in-depth interview with Gemma Files, author of the Hexslinger trilogy.

Part 1
Part 2
And learn more about the Hexslinger books, A Book of Tongues and A Rope of Thorns.

Hexslinger one of the best series of 2011

The Hopeful Librarian's Jen lists her favourite books and series from 2011. Here's what she had to say about Gemma Files' Hexslinger books:
" I picked up A Book of Tongues on a whim from the library and was just sucked in to this wonderful, dark alternate Old West... this is one of the most creepy-fun series I’ve read in a long time. If anything, Rope of Thorns improved on the first installment."

Read the article.

Learn more about A Book of Tongues and A Rope of Thorns.

Gemma Files interview on Locus

‘‘I have always had an urge towards the horrific. Often I say that horror is a ghetto inside a ghetto inside a ghetto, in terms of genre. There are science fiction people who like fantasy, and fantasy people who like science fiction, but there are not a lot of fantasy or science fiction people who like horror. On the other hand, there are horror people who like both science fiction and fantasy, and I’m one of them. (I don’t love all of it.) But horror is the place where people won’t go, the place where suddenly things aren’t good any more." - Gemma Files

Read this and more on Locus!

Gemma Files is the author of the Hexslinger books, which currently include A Book of Tongues and A Rope of Thorns.

Rope of Thorns is "everything you hope for in a sequel"

The Turned Brain loved Gemma Files' latest Hexslinger novel: "Really 'Rope of Thorns' is everything you hope for in a sequel, but so rarely get. The plot is advanced, a greater understanding of characters is granted, new and interesting characters are introduced. Files' prose remains a delight to read, the cadence of her sentences captures the wild west setting perfectly, and the images she paints are a fascinating mix of frontier practicality and magic bred surrealism."

Read it here.

Order A Rope of Thorns here.

A Rope of Thorns review in Library Journal

Library Journal writes: "Filled with antiheroes, sacrificial victims, and supernatural beings, Files’s latest is not for the squeamish but should delight fans of gothic Western fantasy and Central American myths."

Read the review! (scroll down, it's the fourth review on the page)

Learn more about A Rope of Thorns!

An excellent review of A Rope of Thorns

Gemma Files' A ROPE OF THORNS has recieved an absolutely glowing review on The (Hopeful) Librarian:

"Okay, this is another one of those books I love so much I don’t know if I can be coherent about, but I will try. . . ."
—Jen Moore

Click to read the review!

Click to buy A Rope of Thorns!

Another Publishers' Weekly review...

...This time for Gemma Files' A ROPE OF THORNS.
" Potent mythology, complex characters, and dollops of creeping horror and baroque gore establish Files's Hexslinger series as a top-notch horror-fantasy saga."

Read the review.

Order a copy of A Rope of Thorns.