Ba-Dee-Ya, Dancin' In September

1. Went to the Once & Future Fantasies conference in Glasgow. Had an absolutely fantastic time! Met so many cool people, went to fascinating panels and workshops, had a great turnout at my own workshop, and learned SO much overall.
2. ... and then promptly came down with COVID, having managed to avoid it up until now. Fortunately, I had a pretty mild case (though it still wasn't fun!)
3. Cancelled my trip to Dublin and IGA because I was still testing positive a few days before the conference. Which is a real shame, but maybe it'll work out another year!
4. Applied for an extension to my thesis deadline due to COVID, which was promptly approved. Which turned out to be a good thing, because...
5. I suddenly had to fly back to the States for a wedding. And became an ordained minister. (I did not perform the ceremony, but it's always good to have a backup minister imo.)

So, now I've got until September 2023 to complete my thesis, which is a big relief. Turns out I needed to scrap almost all of the Very Rough Drafts I wrote over the spring to completely restructure & narrow the focus of the critical essays, which was, admittedly, pretty disheartening at the time. But that's part of the writing process sometimes, and I'm just glad to have the time to rework them without an imminent deadline! (I still want to get a solid draft done by the end of the year, but I'll get back to you in December with how that's going.)

But, in good news, I finished the Very Rough Draft of the restructured first essay yesterday, which is a huge relief. It's not perfect, but I already know the work I'll need to do on the next pass, so that's a good place to be in. And more significantly, I finished line editing the fourth draft of THE SOUL THIEVES - meaning that I'm now refusing to touch it until my last round of supervisor feedback. Depending on their comments, there might be a few small changes before I submit, but it's a huge weight off to think that this thing I've been working on for three years - six, if you start with when I first had the idea for these characters - is done done.

News

I don't have any personal publications or events coming up, so I thought I'd instead point you towards the four upcoming events from Future Voices of Scottish Science Fiction and Fantasy, a research network funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The panels cover subjects like inclusive worldbuilding, representations of the future, representations of social issues, and challenging the past in SFF narratives, with some truly incredible guests lined up. (And all are online!) If you're interested in SFF from creative or critical angles, I would recommend checking them out - I'll definitely be attending as many as I can.

Recommendations

I read a lot of great books while recovering from COVID, so it's difficult to narrow down the list this time! I'll try to keep my comments short.

Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett - Magical heists and political corruption in an industrial fantasy, flavoured by the merchant houses of Renaissance Italy. Sharp and exciting, unafraid to follow the implications of its magic system to its conclusions.

Spear by Nicola Griffith - A subversive retelling of Arthurian legend, with loving attention to the material details of daily life - knights in battered leather armour, not polished steel. Sentences so beautiful I wish I could eat them, a la the highest compliment given to Maurice Sendak.

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher - Funny, charming, with the feel of a fairy tale. There's a skeleton dog named Bonedog and a not-quite-nun who has to leave her convent to save her family, so obviously I love it.

Skin Grows Over by Lucy Elizabeth Allan - Gothic, spooky, autumnal. A young woman is haunted by a bog body. Perfect novella for October.

Last but not least, I got really into The Sandman on Netflix and have started (finally!) making my way through Neil Gaiman's original comics. I've been meaning to read them for years, and it was well worth the wait.
 

Creative Corner

I haven't had the brainpower to create much outside of thesis-writing, but I managed to do a little sketching. I've been watching Dimension 20's A Court of Fey & Flowers (which I'd recommend if you like the fey folk, Regency romance, and D&D) and was inspired to sketch a little goblin and owl... corgi? I was thinking 'owlbear' when I started, but it didn't stick. Owlcorgi it is.


If you enjoyed this newsletter, tell a friend - or, like a child who received an original drawing from Maurice Sendak, print it out and eat it.

With love,
Siobhan