Writing the answers

In the spaces between publications of Luna Station Quarterly, the magazine puts out a series of interviews with the authors from the latest edition.

The interviews themselves are fairly short, but I always look forward to reading them. Especially for a story I’ve particularly enjoyed, it’s interesting to hear some of the background to the story’s creation or the author’s thoughts on an issue the plot raises. More than anything else, it puts me in awe of the authors, and the huge amount of thought that goes into the construction of a narrative.

Issue 38 includes my story, Violent Silence, so in due course some questions turned up for me in my inbox. And I thought: oh no. Now I have to write answers which make me sound as together and professional as all these other people.

Also: I wish I had written a story about a kitten, and not something that would lead people to ask me about the moral implications of hybrid human/robot consciousnesses.

In the event, I actually quite enjoyed thinking about the questions. And then I wrote far, far, far too much that waffled off into philosophy I am highly unqualified to discuss. So I deleted and started again. And again. You know how it goes :-)

The interview is now out in the world! You can read it on LSQ - like everything they do, it’s beautifully presented (and is even illustrated with a piano-playing robot). LSQ regularly tweet out links to author interviews (and lots of other bloggy goodness), I recommend following them!

Need a summer party game? Try kubb!

I wouldn’t go so far as to say summer is here in the UK, but on Friday the rain let up long enough to go to the park and pretend that it was June.

I was introduced to a game I’ve never played: kubb. I’ve heard the name before, and had a vague idea that kubb was the Swedish equivalent of knurr and spell. It isn’t, it’s more akin to bowls or quoits, and it’s actually a really good game.

Firstly, it involves throwing stuff about. And who doesn’t like doing that? You throw wooden batons to knock over wooden blocks, so when they make contact there is a very satisfying clunky noise. Secondly, it’s simple enough that a bunch of people who have never played before can get up and running in a matter of minutes, but still has a little bit of strategy. Thirdly, you can play without stopping your conversation or putting your beer down. Teams are fairly fluid so people can drop in or out as they choose, meaning it works well for a big group. It’s ideal summer park entertainment.

I suspect our game wouldn’t have met championship standards (and not least because the pitch was laid out by a few people saying “yeah, that looks like about 5 metres”). Holding a wooden baton at the end, and throwing it underarm such that it doesn’t spin in the air, is quite surprisingly difficult. Hitting a block happened rarely enough that even the opposition celebrated it each time.

It’s not a game you can improvise easily, because you do need a series of specifically-shaped wooden blocks. However, you can pick up a set for not much more than twenty quid, so if you’re looking for a fun beach game, give it a whirl.

It's here!

My beautiful shiny copy of Luna Station Quarterly is here!

I’ve always read issues of LSQ in e-book format, and I was expecting the paper publication to be a fairly slim A4 magazine. It’s not! It’s basically… a book.

A real book, which is, if anything, even better and real-er than I was expecting. It feels solid, and has gorgeous cover art, and an appealingly literary font, and an ISBN. I never thought I’d be excited about an ISBN! And this book has a story of mine in it, with my name on it.

I’m still delighted, OK?

For as long as I can remember I’ve written stories; for at least fifteen years my new year resolutions have included variations on “write more, get something published”.

Now I have success in my hands. And it’s got an elk on the front.

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…