Meet Tiffani Angus

Every Friday, we meet a member of the BFS and peer deep into their soul (or, at least, a form they filled out). Want to be featured? Email us: online@britishfantasysociety.org

Name: 
Tiffani Angus (she/her)

Which region are you based in? 
East Anglia (Bury St Edmunds)

If you write, which genre?
Sci-Fi, Fantasy AND Horror

If you don’t write, what do you do? 
In addition to writing, I am also an editor, a proofreader, and a typesetter/formatter.

Are you drawn to any specific SFFH sub-genres? 
I especially love historic fantasy (based on our primary-world history), time travel, and apocalyptic fiction. And I have been known to write the odd bit of spice!

Your influences

Tell us about the book/film/thing that got you into SFFH: What was it? How old were you? What impact did it have on you?

Things I remember from when I was a kid (which was a long time ago now): seeing Excalibur much too young (11? 12?); reading everything I could get my hands on about King Arthur and his court; seeing Poltergeist when I was 12 and being shit-scared of clowns; reading Stephen King’s The Stand when I was around 12 and becoming quietly obsessed with pandemics and apocalyptic stories; riding my bike to Montgomery Ward when I was the same age to buy the mini Star Wars figurines and building a Death Star sort of stage set out of shoe boxes; reading Dean Koontz, Jean M. Auel, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and lots more possibly while still too young; and, finally, finding Interview with the Vampire when I was 15, not quite a decade after it was first published. This is all a mishmash in my memories, but all this stuff kept me, however tangentially, connected to SFFH until I was an adult and finally realised that I was a SFFH writer when I was 38! Talk about a late bloomer!

How does that early influence show up in your work (writing/agenting/publishing/editing/reading) now?

Well, I ended up doing a PhD in Creative Writing, studying how gardens functioned in fantasy fiction and writing Threading the Labyrinth (my 2020 debut novel about 400 years in a haunted English garden), so I definitely went to an extreme! I was a lecturer for several years but burnt out and left academia in 2022, and my day job now is editing (everything from developmental editing down to proofreading) with SFFH as my speciality. I’m also the co-author of the Spec Fic for Newbies series, which is a guide to help people write various subgenres and major tropes in SFFH. And every now and then I run workshops online or in person on writing various subgenres. My life is wrapped up in the genres! Honestly, when I read lit fic, I keep on waiting for the weird thing to happen and then am disappointed when it doesn’t! 

(Pictured: Tiffani’s book shelf)

I’ve never written any King Arthur or vampire stories but I have written about time travel and post-apocalyptic wastelands. I really like to write about people in history with things slightly twisted. Having all that input as I was growing up, alongside all the life stuff that happened to me when I was young, means that I like to write mainly about women interacting with their power via whatever odd thing is going on with them or near them. So, I like to write about women and their jobs, women who must deal with the expectations of the patriarchy and fight back using magic they keep for themselves, and women who learn what sacrifice means when it’s on their terms.  

Maybe I should try to write about vampires!

Where do you draw your creative inspiration from?

A lot of it comes from history and bits of info in non-fiction books. A novella I finished in May (and am now editing) came about because I was reading the chapter on blue in a book by a woman who travelled the world to discover the source of pigments. There was a line in there about people trying to mix blood with rock, and that sent my brain down the bunny hole!

If I’m invited to an anthology, I do some digging around in history and follow wild goose chases to find some odd note in a book or an inconsistency that I can’t figure out. For example, “Fairchild’s Folly”, in Jurassic London’s Irregularity, came about when I kept on finding this note that Thomas Fairchild—the first person we know of in the Western world to cross-pollinate species—and Carl Linnaeus—the father of taxonomy—kept up a correspondence, but their timelines didn’t seem to overlap in a way that made sense. I couldn’t find a source for this ‘fact’, and that sparked the idea of ‘ghosts’ writing letters.  

Who do you look to as a genre hero? Why?

It’s super unfair to make me pick one! First ones that come to mind are Anne Rice, Elizabeth Hand, and Stephen King. I’m going to pretend we’re all friends and use their first names.

Anne because she brought vampires back in a whole new way (at the time) and leaned in to writing what she wanted no matter how outlandish. (Fun fact: I got to see her in London signing books before she died. She wouldn’t pose for photos but you could take a pic and my friend took this very fast, very blurry one of me leaning over the table!)

Elizabeth because of how her stories can be in your face or subtle, and her writing just knocks me out (I basically want to be her when I grow up! She’s the reason I applied to Clarion, and I was lucky enough to get in and learn from her).

And Stephen because he can write about such gross, awful things and make me laugh, and he makes it look so damn easy (though we all know that it isn’t).

Your work

You’re stuck in an elevator for 60 seconds with that hero, and they want you to describe your work. Give us the pitch.

Hell, well Anne is dead and Liz is a friend, so I will tell Mr King to imagine The Stand happened now, in the midst of our current dumpster fire of toxic masculinity, threats against the LGBTQAI+ community, and a political backlash against women’s rights that’s trying to turn the US into its own version of Gilead—but instead of nearly everyone dying of Captain Trips, all the grown men in the world disappear in a 24-hour period, leaving behind women, children, teenage girls, and teenage boys, who soon discover they’re next. A middle-aged doctor is stuck waiting in the Midwest for her daughter to get home from her university on the west coast while also dealing with the upheaval of the world, shrunk down to the microcosm of her semi-gated community, which is home to leftover PTA moms who are still reeling from drinking the GOP Kool-Aid, feral teenage boys, and a firebug. As her daughter journeys across the country, she collects people, among them a blind old woman and two transwomen, and encounters a world that’s holding on to a tired hierarchy and looking for someone to lead the way. For decades, women have been expected to have careers plus shoulder all the emotional—and physical—labour at home, so now they’re writing their own (A) Housewife’s Guide to the Apocalypse.

What are you working on right now?

Well, the novel I just described above is sitting at 85,000 words, but I can’t decide on something that happens at the very end. To be honest, the whole story itself might be terrible (because gendercides are one of those subgenres that a lot of people find really uncomfortable and that have a history of being done really badly, hence why we covered it in Spec Fic for Newbies vol 2!), but I know I have to finish it before I’m allowed to start a new novel. 

The novella I hinted at is called Sacrificial Stain. It’s about blue artist’s pigment, a girl whose parents have a volatile relationship, the consequences of pushing your life’s dreams onto your child, generational secrets, and a kinda sorta dragony god. I’d never written a novella before and wanted to try it out. I’m not sure what I’ll do with it when I finish; I might shop it around or might just self-publish it. 

Oh, and I’m working on another project—a novella series—that is really dirty (I’ve published erotica before) but historical and kinda fun, with bits of the occult thrown in. And a short story that’s due in January for an anthology. And a story collection that includes garden-history-related fantasy stories I had published but own the rights back to plus more stories set in the garden from Threading the Labyrinth. 

So, not much 😊

(Pictured: Tiffani on stage at Dublin Worldcon [2019] talking about SF erotica)

Thinking about all the stories/work you’ve done, what sticks out most in your mind? Why?

Threading first, because it was my debut novel and it was the culmination of a lot of work. And an odd little story called “If Wishes Were Horses” that Strange Horizons bought back in 2009, my first ever sale. It’s one of those things that, as a writer, you know is ‘charmed’; it just worked from early on. It’s a feeling I chase. 

Where and when do you create/are you at your most creative?

Because I spend all day editing work for other writers, I have a hard time getting my own writing done on a regular schedule. I tend to work in spurts; if, say, my partner is out of town for a weekend I’ll make sure there’s plenty of food/snacks at home, not shower, and write 20,000 words in a couple of days. I also like to go to retreats at Gladstone’s Library when possible; being away from home—and all of its chores and responsibilities—is best for me. Oh, and I am most creative late at night when the world is quiet.

(Pictured: Tiffani’s laptop [and her] in full Gladstone’s mode)

What’s the best advice you’ve received about creativity?

That it isn’t finite. Instead of holding back whatever wild or weird shit you want to use in a story and waiting to pop it in towards the end (believing, incorrectly, that this will build suspense for a reader), use it earlier; letting it out onto the page means your brain will have room now to come up with more weird shit. Creativity isn’t toilet paper; it’s more like hagfish slime: there’s always more! 

What’s your writing soundtrack?

Lots of film soundtracks on YouTube, like Lord of the Rings, Last of the Mohicans, and the like. Things without lyrics because I can sing along and write at the same time, not a talent I’d recommend! Confession: I love Christmas music and will start playing it in October; it makes me happy so I write to it a lot, too!

The Quick-Fire Round

Sci-fi, fantasy or horror? 
All 3!

Quiet or loud? 
A medium din I can ignore; I wrote a lot of Threading in a pub.

Dark or light? 
I love autumn, so dark.

Strict lines or genre blend? 
This is an evil question for someone who co-writes books on writing subgenres, where we explain that there are no hard borders between them! So, I have to say blend.

Awards or bestseller? 
Having lost 5 awards so far, I’d like to try bestseller now, please and thank you!

Fiction or non-fiction? 
Both! 

Poetry or prose? 
Prose, absolutely. Poetry is super not my jam.

Plotter or pantser? 
I’m in the middle. I’ll have an idea and a goal, and then figure out the breadcrumbs as I go along.

Reading or listening? 
Reading. Since forever, I get easily distracted if people read to me. (I was the worst academic and would leave the room at conferences when colleagues would start reading their paper presentations! Hence why I always used PowerPoint and lots of pictures.)

Notebook or computer? 
Computer all day long. My brain moves faster than my hand can write. 

Favourite SFFH book of all time?
Meanest question ever! I honestly can’t! How about most recent favourites? For fantasy, I love The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow; for science fiction, Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (I cannot imagine how they’re going to make this film!); and for horror, Joe Hill’s Heart-Shaped Box (my gosh, did the description of the ghost freak me out!).

Last book you read?
I got a sneak peek at Grady Hendrix’s upcoming Witchcraft for Wayward Girls.

Any SFFH author on auto-buy?
Elizabeth Hand, Alix E. Harrow, Grady Hendrix

Favourite podcast?
You keep on making me choose just one thing! Maintenance Phase, The Real Writing Process podcast, Journey Through SciFi, and Breaking the Glass Slipper 

The Home Stretch

What’s the best thing about being part of the SFFH community?

It’s all the nerds in a room together, so that weird ‘cool kid’ vibe from high school is (mostly) absent. People are super friendly and really supportive of everyone’s success.

Time to plug your stuff! Where can we find you and your work? What have you got coming up? Consider this your advertising space.

Earlier in 2024, Luna Press took on and re-published Threading the Labyrinth after Unsung Stories Press closed; the special 2^nd edition has a slightly different cover and includes an extra short story set in the garden in WWI. More info and link to purchase the 2024 edition is here.

Last September, I had two short horror stories out:

• “Until the Wheel Spins Round Again” in Great British Horror 9: Something Peculiar out from Black Shuck Books
• “The Oracle at Dairy” at Trembling with Fear, part of the Horrortree.com site

In February 2025, I will be running a workshop on writing ghost stories as part of the UK Ghost Story Festival’s online events; details here. 

And Val Nolan and I are working on Spec Fic for Newbies Vol 3, which will be out early 2026, but you can check out more about the multi-award-finalist Volume 1 and the recently released Volume 2 here, or go straight to a list of ways to get your hands on them here.

Finally, I write a newsletter once a month or so and talk about random things happening in the writing world, plus how to navigate the publishing industry as someone who is NOT a big seller with fan mail! Subscribe here.

(Pictured below: some of Tiffani’s available works.)