Inaugural

Hello and welcome to our newsletter! On Tuesday I went to twitter dot com and it had logged me out for no reason, the latest in a long line of indicators that our beloved* bird site may be falling to pieces. So here we are, trying to plug the hole as best we can in the eventuality that it goes tits up.

Aspirationally I hope to cover an assortment of things, including:

• any good news we have to share about our own publishing journey (c’mon editors!!)

• what we’ve been writing

• what we’ve been reading

• any ponderings/thoughts on craft or publishing that have struck us

• a round-up of other interesting links, conversations, and media

• pet and mushroom pictures because of course

(format definitely not stolen from our friend and excellent newsletter-er Dave Goodman)

As this is our first mailing I’ll keep it short and sweet.

What we’re writing:

We finished a revision of our Scottish gothic ecohorror The Needfire right before going on holiday and sent it to our agent for comments. He’s not going to be able to get to it for a few months so rather than dive into another serious project that will need to be interrupted, we decided to mess around with a light, fluffy romantasy idea that is liberally inspired by one of our favourite Hitchcock films (points if you can guess which one!) Because we didn’t write for the two weeks we were on holiday we’re only a couple thousand words in, but it’s fun and voicey and exactly what we needed after being immersed in a rather serious horror novel. No idea if it will actually be something we send to our agent but not all projects have to be for work!!

What we’re reading:

Over the holiday E devoured (pun intended) a nonfiction book about the Donner Party called The Indifferent Stars Above. It was very well-written, poetic and touching without being maudlin. Whatever you think you know about what happened in that mountain pass, you probably don’t know the half of it! Very much recommended. Next on the docket is Christopher Priest’s Expect Me Tomorrow, which E is reading ahead of chairing a panel with him and Nicholas Binge (of Ascension fame) at the upcoming Cymera Festival (which we are VERY excited to attend).

Cat pictures

Mushroom of the Month

May’s Mushroom of the Month is: Calocybe gambosa, aka St George’s Mushroom!

Named because it grows in the spring and can be found in the weeks before and after St George’s day, this is an edible mushroom that is relatively easy to identify. With a stout stem, shallow gills and a white-to-creamy brown top, they often grow in ‘fairy rings’ in grass lawns.

One of the most striking characteristics, and one that helps with identification, is that it has a very strong and distinctive smell. Some say it smells ‘mealy’, while others say it smells like plasticine. We found our first St George’s ever earlier in the week, and the smell seemed like a combo of the two - not exactly pleasant, but definitely unique! Apparently the mealiness fades with cooking, though we didn’t bring any home to try out. Maybe next time!

Anyway, that’s all from us this month - hopefully June’s mailing will be more robust and have more writing-related content to share. Thanks for reading!!

Erin & Morag

*for a given value of the word