009: It's Nice to be in Byzantine Space
INTRO
August is my birthday month. I had a lovely weekend in Vienna, and otherwise life has continued with much the same cadence as always. A lot of small things; a lot of trying to open up space for opportunities; a lot of work on things that will hopefully pay off later. I’ve even been tentatively dipping a toe back into academic writing, just a tiny bit. We’ll see if anything comes of that.
I have, in general, been busy (which is exhausting. It doesn’t stop). It’s been a big month for small developments. And so, I'm going to break free from my usual newsletter format for once, and talk about three major items. Updates on what I’m writing will resume in October.
ONE: EDITING SERVICES
The news: I’m now offering editing services, because I love getting my teeth stuck into stories and pitches and working to make them better, and there’s only so much of that I can do to my own book without going mad. Also, I would like to start building this into a meaningful part of my career.
So! What I’m offering is: if you have a problem with your project (prose, comics, pitches, outlines, vague ideas) and want another pair of eyes on it to help you figure out what it needs in order to be the best version of itself, I can do that. Developmental editing is my favourite, but if your project is closer to completion and you just want line edits or copyediting, I can do that too!
Pitches, scripts, outlines, full manuscripts: I’ve been through every stage of the process at this point, and I want to help you get through it as painlessly as possible, no matter what you’re working on.
Here’s the deal. Get in touch with me and tell me about the project and what you need. I work on a per-project basis, and can be flexible on prices depending on the needs and resources of the projects (ballpark figure: £50 for something like a single issue of comics or a short story). Then, once we’ve got something sorted out, I’ll dive in and get it back to you within 48hrs (unless it is a very long project, in which case we’ll figure out a timeframe separately).
Get in touch! Let’s talk editing! Or you can simply reply to this email and we can get something sorted out.
TWO: FANTASYCON GLASGOW SCHEDULE
Fantasycon is in Glasgow this year, on the 9th-11th of October. I'll be there! You can find me on a panel on Saturday, chairing a panel on Sunday, and roaming the halls with no responsibilities the rest of the weekend. Come and say hi!
Here’s where you can (provisionally) find me:
Saturday, 9AM, Panel Room 2: “The Many Forms of Rejection” (panelist)
“Rejection doesn't just come from agents and publishers. Writers face self-rejection, poor reviews, poor sales. Convention numbers dwindle, events are cancelled for low ticket sales. How do our panellists navigate dealing with the many forms of rejection?”
Sunday, 3PM, Panel Room 1: “Beyond Bread and Hard Cheese” (moderator)
“How to Make Your World Mouthwatering: Food is what makes our worlds go round. Let's talk tantalising tasties!”
THREE: BUMP IN THE NIGHT
I’m in another anthology! That’s right, another one!
When Paul at Limit Break asked me to pinch hit and fill in a gap for Bump in the Night, their latest anthology project, I said yes immediately. I’ve worked with Limit Break a few times now, and it’s always a joy - check out Down Below and Fractured Realms to find my takes on Dionysus and Beowulf!
This anthology is all about eco-horror takes on cryptids, which are, unsurprisingly, outrageously fun to work on. My story is exploring Scotland’s own scary mountain man, the imaginatively named Big Grey Man, with the incredible Livio stepping in on art. He’s a fantastic artist, and I’m very excited to see how our story turns out.
But!
Bump in the Night isn’t a sure thing. It’s crowdfunding on Zoop at the moment, and if it doesn’t make its goal, nobody will ever get to read our story (or any of the other intriguing-looking pieces in the book). So, it would mean a lot if you checked out the crowdfund and chipped in a few pounds to get a book more packed with comics talent than pretty much anything else around.
WHAT AM I READING?
I've been neck deep in Arkady Martine's Teixcalaan duology, A Memory Called Empire and A Desolation Called Peace. I'm not usually a big heavy sci-fi reader: I tend towards fantasy and horror and smaller things. But these are special, in very personal ways.
The Teixcalaan books are huge, powerful sci-fi about space empires and poetic tradition and the passage of memory. They're about what it is to be alien in the heart of empire, and which forms of communication are legitimate in the eyes of power and which are subversive.
Arkady Martine did a PhD on the Late Antique East. A very different angle from my own, but still… Same hat. It’s nice to find another author with a similar background to me. It's been eye opening, really, seeing someone use years of research not so distant from my own to create fiction so, so far from anything I write. It makes me feel like I could do anything, like I should do anything, like I need to try to bring all this academic work I've done to bear on my creative work. It's joyful and clever and crammed with familiar attitudes and concerns and cultural angles that are fresh and exciting for sci-fi, but built on historical foundations that I know all too well.
I love these books. They’re so rich and poetic and well-crafted. Bringing in this much reality and texture and history and poetry to large-scale sci-fi makes the whole setting feel real in a way that most similar books can only gesture towards.
Next month, I imagine I’ll be back to reading the most rancid horror possible, but hey. For now, it’s nice to be in Byzantine Space.1
1 Between writing this and finalising the email, I have already read… at least one moderately rancid book. I was thoroughly whelmed. What’s your favourite rancid horror novel?
WHAT AM I LISTENING TO?
This month, I've been listening a lot to Screen Violence, by CHVRCHES.2 It’s an album that is… prominent on certain writing playlists at the moment. For now, here's a song you should listen to. This may, perhaps, set the tone for my month.
2The only album for which I've been to two shows on the same tour. And both of them were great.
MY LINKS
Preorder Scream! Halloween Special 2026
Buy The Restaurant at the Edge of the World (UK)
FRIENDS MAKING THINGS
I'm going to cheat a little bit this month. Bump in the Night is full of my friends doing amazing work; I just happen to also be in there with them. We’ve got Asa Wheatley and Sammy Ward on the Beast of Bodmin Moor! We’ve got Gary Moloney and Adam Szatowski on the Loch Ness Monster! It’s full of great people doing interesting things, and you should back it before it’s too late.
OUTRO
I am writing this from the pub, to where I have fucked off (off to where I have fucked? I don’t think there’s any construction that feels good here) in order to Get Edits Done. I should probably go and Finish Those Edits. Have a lovely September, and I’ll see you all in October. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.
Ollie, Edinburgh, June 2026
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