Trois

Well well well well well well well. Here we are in July.

First things first: Cymera Festival was amazing. This was the first year we’d gone having a real network of writing friends and it really made the whole weekend incredible. The Edinburgh SFF Writers are a lovely bunch, and undeniably packed with talent. We also got to meet our agent, John Baker, in person, and he somehow managed to leave us even more excited about working with him. If I sound like I’m gushing, I probably am. It was a fantastic weekend and I highly recommend that everyone in Scotland (and further afield) attend next year - especially so we hang out and chat books!!

We also got to attend the book launch for our dear friend Raine Wilson, whose book Mother Sea is a gorgeous elegy about climate change, tradition and hope.

What we’ve been writing:

Juteopolis is go!! We’ve started writing properly (E did eventually press send on those opening lines) and the draft is slowly taking shape. We’ve given ourselves a challenge this time with trying to nail omniscience narration, which is a real change when you’ve been steeped in close third for several books. I foresee needing to do another pass on these early pages once we settle into it, because it’s currently not coming naturally, but that’s okay. We really enjoy setting ourselves challenges when writing: it keeps things fresh and means we’re always growing our toolbox.

What we’ve been reading:

I (E) really need to keep a list of stuff, because I’m definitely forgetting things, but… I remember reading The Grief Nurse by Angie Spoto, a sort of Roaring Twenties murder mystery with a speculative twist in the form of the titular grief nurses. The vibes in this book were exquisite - and I’m obsessed with the idea that our grief all manifests in different tangible ways. I’m now deep into Jade War by Fonda Lee, which thus far has been a worthy sequel to the excellent Jade City.

Beta reading also continues apace; I finished the Phantom of the Opera-WWE retelling (loved it!) and got to read 40k of PROJECT ALTHROP, an exciting project from Dave Goodman. It’s got a premise unlike any other spy thriller I’ve seen, and I’m excited to see what happens next… so write like the wind, Dave! Now I’m reading a revision of These Familiar Walls by good pal CJ Dotson, and when I tell you I’m excited for people to meet Amber and her picture perfect family… you won’t know what hit you. 😈

(Case in point: I started writing this yesterday, went away and remembered two whole books that I read in June - Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (transcendent, melancholic) and All Systems Red by Martha Wells (surprisingly tender and loads of fun))

Links:

• A sobering reminder from TR Napper that publishing success is extremely subjective - for better or for worse.

• A kind but blunt look at why a professional editor may not guarantee success for your querying book (and how it’s definitely not the fault of BIPOC writers!!)

• An incredible piece by Zadie Smith about the movie Tar and the clash between generations and the role of art.

• I link to Lincoln Michael’s Substack a lot, but there’s a reason for it. He writes good articles. Goodreads has no incentive to be good.

Mushroom of the month

Those who follow us on Twitter (RIP, lol) will have had to endure a certain amount of whinging about how scarce fungi were all month. It was looking like I might have to steal pictures from the internet AGAIN until we went out yesterday and found! Some! Mushrooms!! May it be the beginning of a more mushroom-filled year.

June’s mushroom of the month is Amanita crocea, the Orange Grisette.

Most of the specimens we came across were a bit nibbled, but you can still make out some of the key identifying features. All grisettes are easy to ID (in my opinion) because of the incredibly thin cap cover, which lets you see the striations of the gills along the edges. They also have a volva (sort of an egg sac that they erupt out of) that you can see in the second pic above. The orange grisette can be told apart from other grisettes by the snakeskin-like pattern on the stem; other grisettes are smooth. They like to be around beech and birch trees, and occasionally pine.

This is an edible mushroom but should be cooked well - and as with all Amanitas you should be very, very sure of your ID before ingesting! (We just left these guys to their fate - but we did find some delicious edible mushrooms which will hopefully feature in next month’s newsletter…)

That’s all for now, folks! If you’re holidaying this month, enjoy! If you’re sticking close to home like we are, also enjoy!