An Edinburgh summer

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Edinburgh, Ideomancer, Saint Stephen Street, Sci-fi, Short Stories, The Edinburgh Street Stories, Writing

12.30 in the afternoon. Lunchtime. Soot-black clouds shroud the castle. Must write more about this incredible city. Over a year since last Edinburgh story published. Encroaching storms remind me of it. Click on the picture below.

Squawking in the dark

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Claire Humphrey, Edinburgh, Ideomancer, Rich Horton, Saint Stephen Street, Sci-fi, Short Stories, speculative fiction, The Edinburgh Street Stories, Writing

I need to learn to blow my own trumpet more often – in fact I once wanted to learn the trumpet, aged 12, but that’s a whole other story of disappointment and the cruelty of the education system.

This post is inspired by Claire Humphrey‘s recent blog post and her saying “Sometimes it surprises me when I get a reminder that people are actually reading me.” She very kindly mentioned ‘Saint Stephen Street‘ again in reference to Rich Horton’s annual summaries of Speculative Fiction zines and anthologies.

Twelve days ago he did his summary of Ideomancer and mentioned ‘Saint Stephen Street‘ as one of his favourites of the year. As Claire said – “There you have it: proof positive that I exist! I am not just whispering into a soup can attached to a long string stretching away down a very dark alley!”

I couldn’t agree more! I used to hear the vague oxymoron ‘A monkey squawking in the dark’ in reference to your voice being invisible to the wider population – (I can’t remember if I came up with that phrase or it belongs to someone else, but whatever, monkeys don’t really squawk…)

What more does a writer want as validation that people are reading what they write, and not just a tiny handful of friends and family, but an audience who reads and then actually returns with an opinion? That little story of mine seems to have struck a chord with a lot of people, and it makes me so happy to come across such things.

Saint Stephen Street

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Edinburgh, Fiction markets, Ideomancer, Saint Stephen Street, Sci-fi, Short Stories, speculative fiction, The Edinburgh Street Stories, The Saint Restaurant, Writing

My short story, Saint Stephen Street is now available to read online at the wonderful Ideomancer, with it’s gorgeous new website, in their current issue – Vol.9 Issue 2. It’s a story of fading memories, a dusty apocalypse, and the fragility of friendships. You can read it here – Saint Stephen Street.

Very pleased to see this one published. The first of the Edinburgh Street Tales, and hopefully the first of many.

Inicidentally, I had dinner on Saint Stephen Street last night, in a new-ish restaurant called ‘The Saint‘, on the trendy, non-windy bit of the street. All I’ll say is, their chocolate spring rolls with white chocolate and raspberry sauce are a tiny little miracle that will make your eyes pop out.

Story Sale – Saint Stephen Street

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Apocalyptic Fiction, Edinburgh, Elizabeth Bear, Fiction markets, Ideomancer, Leah Bobet, Online Writing Workshop, Saint Stephen Street, Short Stories, speculative fiction, The Edinburgh Street Stories, Writing

Just received word that Saint Stephen Street, will be published in a future issue of the wonderful online zine Ideomancer. With some award-winning writers involved in the running of it – e.g. Leah Bobet, Elizabeth Bear – I am thrilled to bits to sell this story there.

I’ve worked hard to get this story right, and learned a lot about editing a short story down into a fully-functioning engine. And, Saint Stephen Street was the story that made me a lot of good friends on the Online Writing Workshop for Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror.

And… that’s my first sale for this year, and the first of the Edinburgh Street Stories to find a home.

Editing the lumpy bits

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Critique, Edinburgh, Fiction markets, Nostalgia, Saint Stephen Street, School, Short Stories, speculative fiction, Writing

Editing Saint Stephen Street once more for re-submission. Lots of rewrites. Very painful but worthwhile process, especially if this particular magazine that is considering it finally accepts it for publication.

Editing this much reminds me of any attempt I made at sculpting with clay – usually in art class at school. I could never quite leave a sculpture alone once I reached a point where it resembled something. Usually it was a head, with bizarrely distended features – eyes too far up and chin too pointy. But I couldn’t leave it alone and would do something like decide to remodel the nose because I wasn’t quite happy with it, but the clay would never quite work the same and all I could see were the joins and the lumpy bits with a kind of unnatural focus that doesn’t exist when looking at other people’s work.

Feeling a little the same about this story. Moving scenes and sequences around – remodelling them so as they fit together in different ways, but I’ve toyed with it so much that I can’t see it objectively any more.

All I can see are the lumpy bits. Can’t focus on the big picture. Cross fingers. Hit send.