Second

Happy second newsletter month! It’s the end of May, a month which held some personal challenges and setbacks for us both. We’ve made it through though, and there are good things ahead - like Cymera Festival 2023 this coming weekend, which we are beyond stoked about.

M is compering/performing at the open mic sessions and E will be chairing the Yesterday’s Tomorrow panel with Christopher Priest and Nicholas Binge. Mostly though we’re just pumped about hanging out with all our mates from the Edinburgh SFF Writers group, who are all amazingly talented and cool people. If you’re there and see us around, say hi! We’d love to meet as many folk as possible.

What we’ve been writing:

Our fun romantasy project stalled out a little; it’s not dead-dead, but definitely on the back burner for now. It would be sad, except the main reason for it is that we’re both itching to get started on our next Proper Project, which is at least temporarily titled Juteopolis. Following in Needfire’s footsteps it’s a historical speculative gothic horror, but this time set in an urban environment and leaning heavily on the cosmic horror side of things. It’s got three timelines, a not-quite-omniscient narrator, letters and journal entries and a whole lot of actual history to incorporate. It’s the most ambitious thing we’ve written yet and we’re both excepted and intimidated. As of the drafting of this post E has written the opening paragraphs but not yet shared them with M. Will she press send before the month is out?? Watch this space…

What we’ve been reading:

E finished reading Expect Me Tomorrow ahead of her Cymera panel, and also devoured The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins early in the month. It’s extremely Gaiman-esque but in the best possible way, and very much recommended (massive content warning for dog death). She also finished The Rise of the Mages by Scott Drakeford, an epic fantasy with some really great worldbuilding and explosive action scenes. Now she’s splitting her time between finishing The Rabbit Back Literature Society by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen and beta reading a really awesome book (anybody want a Phantom of the Opera retelling set in the high-octane world of WWE wrestling? I thought so!). Whew. That’s a lot of words ingested!

Links:

As promised, here is a list of 200+ writerly questions that we have used on our Discord channel to spark conversation and discussion. Community spaces are invaluable to writers, but it can be hard getting to know people or starting conversations out of the blue. These questions are great ways to learn more about peoples’ writing habits and opinions, and I’ll keep updating the list as time goes on!

Other links:

• This was a good article reflecting on writing as a 'hobby' vs 'work' and how it's all much more complicated than that easy delineation: https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a43979630/writing-hobby-or-career/

• Kate McKean’s newsletter is always great, but this post specifically addressed some of the anxieties spurred by recent events: https://katemckean.substack.com/p/how-do-i-know-if-my-agent-is-the

• Speaking of anxieties and publishing, this post by Chuck Wendig is a thorough, if sobering, round-up of the current challenges facing authors right now: https://terribleminds.com/ramble/2023/05/26/the-state-of-being-a-published-writer-in-2023-is-really-weird-and-a-little-worrisome

• The Scottish Book Trust’s New Writer Award is open ‘til July 19th. Go apply! https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/writing-and-authors/new-writers-awards

Mandatory cat picture:

Mushroom of the month

Sadly I have no real-life mushroom pictures to share with you because May was absolutely devoid of fungal life around us. We go for regular treks in the forest and normally would expect to see things springing up around now, but this year? Nada. We suspect the cold weather has had something to do with it - mushrooms are pretty resilient but even they are hesitant to show face when the ground is still regularly freezing solid. Fingers crossed June is warmer and more prolific!

Still, one of the fungi on my bucket list that I’d hoped to see this month was Laetiporus sulphureus, aka Chicken of the Woods. Look at its party peanut squidginess!

Gargoyle888., CC BY 3.0 3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Apparently it has a texture similar to chicken (some people even claim it tastes the same) and is a super sought-after edible species. It grows on oak, cherry, chestnut, willow and yew and should be collected very carefully from the latter*.

It does grow into the summer season so it’s possible we may yet see some - fingers crossed!

_{*not because it absorbs the toxins from the tree, as is often believed, but because the yew needles that have fallen into the crevices can be dangerous to eat}