Violent Silence is loose in the world!

Luna Station Quarterly…

…which is a speculative fiction magazine…

…with a beautiful print edition…

…has published my story, Violent Silence.

And I couldn't be more delighted!

You can grab a copy of the magazine from Amazon, or from Weightless Books. You can also read it free online.

This is my first publication, the first time a piece of fiction I've written has gone through the whole process of submission, and selection, and been made into a typeset page which I can turn.

(I can't turn it yet, because the paper copy is still winging its way to me through the postal system. But I will! And there will be pictures, oh yes, there will be pictures.)

It makes me very happy that the publication will be Luna Station Quarterly, too. I've loved LSQ since I opened issue 29 and read How Lady Nightmare Stole Captain Alpha’s Girlfriend by Kristen Brand, and realised that here was a magazine that would print funny superhero stories, alongisde whimsical sci-fi, and gritty fantasy. And still manage a consistent feel for each issue. I subscribed on the spot, and I still love the variety of voices and viewpoints they publish.

I’m grateful to LSQ’s editorial staff for making it all happen, and for being so quick to answer newbie questions. I’m honoured to be appearing on their pages with all their amazing authors. I’m revelling in the idea that this might just mean I am a Real Writer.

But mostly I’m excited.

Support Your Local Library

Yesterday morning, I walked into an estate agent’s and had a long chat. Before I left, I gave them my name, address, email and phone number. I’m not planning to rent a new property any time soon, or indeed use any of the services they offer.

I was, however, keen to put my hand up and join the campaign they’re running. They’re an independent, local estate agent, with close ties to the community - and right now, they’re determined that our local library isn’t going to close. So I signed up. I also did the next most useful thing I reckon one can do to help a threatened library: took myself through the door and borrowed some books.

When I moved here ten years ago, I had a daily commute which involved a 50 minute train ride in each direction. I was also absolutely broke, and couldn’t afford to buy new books at anything like the rate I was reading them. Getting my first library card in some years, I got to be surprised all over again that libraries have loads of books that you can just borrow for no money. Really! Just shelves and shelves of books, and the staff let you help yourself and take them away.

My local is small, a sort of satellite to the main library in the centre. (The main one has recently been redeveloped and moved to a new, modern space so it can offer greater access to digital and self-service facilities, provide a range of study areas, and be a flexible events space. And, what do you know, it’s also about 50% smaller. But I digress.)

In the time it took me yesterday to choose a book, and pick up a second because it had a cool cover, around fifteen different people had passed through. A small child was reading aloud, an even smaller one was reaching upwards valiantly to pass a giant stack of returns to the librarian. A few older people were reading papers in companionable silence, and people from teenage to middle-age were using the public computers. You want community? Try your local library.

During the week, I saw this amazing Twitter thread from a UK librarian. I also read the Hugo-nominated story A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies, which makes almost exactly the same points in a very different way. Libraries are lifelines, and safe spaces, and vital local hubs and magical places full of books.

And if it means mine might stay open, I’m even willing to talk to estate agents.

Gable vs. Dormer

Recently, I was writing a story in which someone had a vision of a house. I had a really clear idea of what I wanted the building to look like; very much like the house in the picture above. I reckoned that it should be possible to do better for a description than “the windows on the top floor had pointy bits going up into the roof”.

Are they gable windows? A gable is the triangle-y part on the end of a ridged roof, but does it apply here as well? Asking around, no one understood what I meant by “gable window”.

A cursory search suggested that maybe what I wanted was a “dormer window”. In which case I felt it was time for a quick redesign of the house in the story. I dislike the word dormer; I associate it with bugalows, and with sad towns that have become nothing more than London commuter overspill.

I took myself off to consult Rice’s Architectural Primer, which is an absolute delight of a book. The cover blurb promises “an indispensable guide to the vocabulary and grammar of British buildings”; the pages are packed with lovely illustrations and the most amazingly obscure words. Twenty minutes later I still had no idea what the windows were called, but was quite taken with vermiculated rustication, and had learned the difference between torus and scotia.

After some more browsing, I concluded:

1. A dormer window is set upright on a sloping roof, so these are not dormer windows.

2. These are probably just windows, with gables above them.

3. The above is more or less useless if no one else understands what I mean, and frankly “pointy bits going up into the roof” may well paint a better picture.

Ah, well. Back to the writing!

Many thanks to Denise for sending me a photo of her house to demonstrate the pointy bits.

Raglan

On a recent foray into Wales, I paused to explore Raglan Castle.

“Notice,” said the guide book sternly as I passed the gatehouse, “the machiolations”.

Fortunately, it went on to explain that a machiolation is “an arched opening at battlement level, through which suitable missiles could be dropped on a besieging army”. If you wish to notice them, you can do so on the top of the gatehouse towers over on the right hand side of the picture above.

Honestly, machiolations aside, it's a really good castle and well worth a visit. It's a fabulous mix of different historical layers as subsequent owners changed it from a medieval defence into a fancy status symbol with pleasure gardens, then had to bring it hastily up to snuff for the Civil War. Sadly it turned out to be on the wrong side of that particular conflict, and the keep was deliberately undermined to collapse into the moat when the Right But Repulsive side won.

Galley Slave

Today, for the first ever time, I was sent a galley draft to approve for publication.

It was terribly exciting, and made me feel very important and like a proper author,

It also had a paragraph inexplicably missing from the middle of the story. I am, as yet, unsure whether this was a mistake or a test…