Storm Constantine

Storm Constantine (12 Oct., 1956 - ) is a British science fiction and fantasy author, primarily known for her Wraeththu series, which began as one trilogy but has spawned many subsequent works. Beginning in the 1980s, Constantine's short stories have appeared in dozens of genre fiction magazines and anthologies. She is the author of over 30 published novels and non-fiction books, plus numerous other publications, including magical grimoires. In addition to her work as a writer, Constantine heads Immanion Press, an independent publishing company she founded in 2003 with the express purpose of publishing her own back catalog as well as works of other niche fiction and non-fiction writers.

Early life

Storm Constantine was born 12 October, 1956, in Stafford, a city in the West Midlands region of England. She began creating stories and art at an early age, devising make-believe worlds and writing "sequels" to Greek and Roman myths. "Before I learned to write as a young child, I made stories up in my head," she told an interviewer in 2017. "I embellished reality always and often got into trouble for it. I simply had a natural impulse to make things up and it's been part of me all my life."

Education and pre-writing career

After completing her primary education, Constantine entered art school, but decided to leave before completing her degree, frustrated with the institution's disdain for figurative art. In the early 1980s, she joined the swelling British Goth sub-culture in and around Birmingham, eventually developing friendships with several bands and later managing a few. She later cited her years in this scene as a strong influence for her Wraeththu series, explaining to an interviewer that the people around her "were all very androgynous." To her, many of them "seemed like fantasy creatures." Her primary day-job was working at the Stafford public library.

Wraeththu

Constantine began her serious writing career by writing a novel which became the Wraeththu trilogy, (The Enchantments of Flesh and Spirit, The Bewitchments of Love and Hate, The Fulfillments of Fate and Desire, collectively known as the Wraeththu Chronicles). She came to the decision to throw herself into writing when, working at the library, she came to a realization: "This is it for the rest of my life. I’ve got to do something about it." Constantine had been working with the concept and characters of Wraeththu since the late 1970s..

Constantine had a synopsis and outline completed when when in the late 1980s she was at the Andromeda bookshop in Birmingham (operated by Ron Peyton and had a chance encounter with a representative from MacDonald Futura (absorbed by Little, Brown Book Group in 1992), who subsequently picked up the novels, which were published 1987-1989. In 1993 the trilogy was released in omnibus format by Tor in the United States. Beginning at the time of release and continuing on for decades, the trilogy developed a cult following, particularly in the Goth subculture among those interested in fiction tackling alternative sexuality. While strictly speaking, the characters are not men and therefore relationships between them are not homosexual, many readers read them as gay, bisexual, or occupying an entirely different form of sexual orientation.

Beginning with the initial trilogy, and continuing on to subsequent novels, novellas, and short stories, the story of Wraeththu follows the rise of a race of hermaphrodites / androgynes transformed from men. This new race takes possession of a world decline, a slow "apocalypse," and then rebuilds the world into something better.. Members of the new species are referred to as hara. The world of Wraeththu includes representations of real-life Earth continents and cultures, but all have been renamed and reworked. Constantine described the setting as an "alternate reality."

Constantine framed the Wraeththu as follows:

"Humanity is in decline, ravaged by insanity, natural disasters, conflict, disease and infertility. A mysterious new race has risen from the ghettos and ruins of the decaying, dying cities. The young are evolving into a new species, which is stronger, sharper and more beautiful than their forerunners. Androgynous beings, they transcend gender and race. They possess skin psychic abilities and the means, through a process called inception, to transform humans into creatures like themselves. But they are wild in their rebirth and must strive to overcome all that is human within them in order to create society anew. They are the Wraeththu."

Life and work

Since the late 1980s, Constantine has written more than 20 novels, plus several non-fiction books. She is often included in discussions of alternative sexuality and gender in science fiction and fantasy, and many of her novels include same-sex relationships, hermaphrodites or other variations of gender. Magic, mysticism, and ancient legends (like the Grigori) also figure strongly in her works. To ensure the life of her novels, Constantine has created her own publishing company, Immannion Press. Under this company, she publishes other authors including Tanith Lee, Graham Phillips and Andrew Collins.

After a brief stint in art college, which she found too restricting to her creativity, she worked a series of odd jobs until she began to devote herself fully to writing. The first book to be published was of the Wraeththu Chronicles, The Enchantments of Flesh and Spirit in 1987 by MacDonald Futura.

Once she had finished the Wraeththu Chronicles with the final instalment at the time, The Fulfillments of Fate and Desire (1989), she went on to manage a few bands until she came up with the idea for a magazine project called Visionary Tongues which would involve her and other authors to act as editors for up and coming authors so they could learn what a professional work environment could be like.

Constantine publishes a blog, Dreams of Dark Angels, to keep her fans up to date on current projects.

Multi-part Novels

Wraeththu Chronicles

• The Enchantments of Flesh and Spirit (1987)
• The Bewitchments of Love and Hate (1988)
• The Fulfillments of Fate and Desire (1989)
• Other editions:
  • Wraeththu (omnibus) (1993)
  • Revised editions of all three published by Immanion Press in 2003, 2007, and 2018
  • Der Zauber von Fleisch und Geist (German translation of The Enchantments of Flesh and Spirit) published by Zauberfeder Verlag in 2006

Artemis

• The Monstrous Regiment (1991)
• Aleph (1991)

Grigori Trilogy

• Stalking Tender Prey (1995)
• Scenting Hallowed Blood (1996)
• Stealing Sacred Fire (1997)

Magravandias

• Sea Dragon Heir (1998)
• The Crown of Silence (2000)
• The Way of Light (2001)

Wraeththu Histories

• The Wraiths of Will and Pleasure (2003)
• The Shades of Time and Memory (2004)
• The Ghosts of Blood and Innocence (2005)

Alba Sulh Sequence

• The Hienama (2005)
• Student of Kyme (2008)
• The Moonshawl (2014)

Stand-alone Novels

• Hermetech (1991)
• Burying the Shadow (1992)
• Sign for the Sacred (1993)
• Calenture (1994)
• Thin Air (1999)
• The Oracle Lips (1999)
• Silverheart (with Michael Moorcock) (2000)
• Blood, the Phoenix and a Rose: An Alchymical Triptych (2016)

Novellas

• The Thorn Boy (1999)

Short Story Collections

Sole Author

• The Oracle Lips (1999)
• Three Heralds of the Storm (1997)
• Mythophidia (2008)
• Mythangelus (2009)
• Mytholumina (2010)
• Mythanimus (2011)
• Splinters of Truth (2016)
• Mythumbra (2018)
• A Raven Bound with Lilies: Stories of the Wraeththu Mythos (2017)

Contributor and Editor

• Paragenesis: Stories of the Dawn of Wraeththu (2010) (with Wendy Darling)
• Para Imminence: Stories of the Future of Wraeththu (2012) (with Wendy Darling)
• Para Kindred: Enigmas of Wraeththu (2014) (with Wendy Darling)
• Night's Nieces: The Legacy of Tanith Lee (2015)
• Dark in the Day (2016) (with Paul Houghton)
• Para Animalia: Creatures of Wraeththu (2016) (with Wendy Darling)
• The Darkest Midnight in December (2017)
• Songs to Earth and Sky: Stories of the Seasons (2017)
• Para Spectral: Hauntings of Wraeththu (2018) (with Wendy Darling)

Contributor

List of select story collections in which Constantine's works have appeared

• Dante's Disciples (1991)
• Women of Wonder, the Contemporary Years: Science Fiction by Women from the 1970s to the 1990s (1995)
• The Crow: Shattered Lives & Broken Dreams (1999)
• Year's Best Fantasy (2001)
• The Mammoth Book of Vampire Stories by Women (2001)
• Ravens in the Library: Magic in the Bard's Name (2009)
• Magic: An Anthology of the Esoteric and Arcane (2012)
• Obsession: Tales of Irresistible Desire (2012)
• Blood Sisters: Vampire Stories by Women (audiobook) (2015)
• Dreams from the Witch House: Female Voices of Lovecraftian Horror (2016)
• Sirens and Other Daemon Lovers: Magical Tales of Love and Seduction (2002)
• Black Thorn, White Rose (Fairy Tale Anthologies Book 2) (2007)

Magical Grimoires

• Wraeththu: Grimoire Dehara
  • Grimoire Dehara: Kaimana (2011)
  • Grimoire Dehara: Ulani (2016) (with Taylor Ellwood)
  • Grimoire Dehara: Nahir Nuri (2017) (with Taylor Ellwood)
• Coming Forth By Day: A System of Khematic Magic (2019)

Miscellaneous Wraeththu Books

• From Enchantment to Fulfilment (role-playing Game) (with Gabriel Strange, Lydia Wood, 2005)
• Wraeththu: The Picture Book (photography based on Wraeththu books) (2007)

Non-fiction works

• The Inward Revolution (with Deborah Benstead) (1998)
• Bast and Sekhmet: Eyes of Ra (with Elouise Coquio) (1999)
• Egyptian Birth Signs: The Secrets of the Ancient Egyptian Horoscope (2002)
• Sekhem Heka: A Natural Healing and Self Development System (2008)
• What a Long Strange Trip It's Been: Wilderness Tips for World of Warcraft (2011)
• Whatnots & Curios: A Selection of Articles and Reviews (2015)
• SHE: Primal Meetings with the Dark Goddess (2019) (with Andrew Collins)

External links

• Official site
• Immanion Press
• Storm Constantine at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Reviews

Constantine's Wraeththu Histories books have received both mixed and positive critical reception. Of The Wraiths of Will and Pleasure (2003), one reviewer states that it feels like the complex power struggle between one species and the other is sometimes lost but overall the novel was engaging. A reviewer of The Shades of Time and Memory mentions that it's a great story about love and trepidation but that only people already familiar with the series will be able to fully appreciate it at first glance because of the complexities of the language and world. In a review of The Ghosts of Blood and Innocence, Constantine is recognized for her intelligent, comprehensive understanding of magic and the arcane arts despite the recognition that the lack of female characters and "gay" sex might be a turn off for most people even though the characters are past human gender norms.