Hello everyone! If you remember one of my previous blog posts, a while ago I was thrilled to be cast as a character for a silent short film, based on one of my favourite comics (tick that one of the life goals list!). If you’d like a taste of what’s to come, I give Melisandra of Hopeless, Maine a voice in a short monologue on Saturday the 22nd!
There are so many talented people involved and I cannot wait to see everyone’s contributions! Please tune in during this dreary January for some eldritch mystery, wondrous strange creatures, live music, an interview with creators Tom and Nimue Brown and much, much more! Meanwhile, the Hopeless, Maine graphic novel series is well worth checking out. It started out as an online serial, which is how I discovered it and has since grown in popularity and tentacles.
Art by Thomas Brown
🦑🌊🐙🧜♀️🦇🥄🐚🕷️🧿🔮🌊🦑
Originally posted on Druid Life: On the 22nd of January, there will be an online Hopeless Maine festival, which is an exciting prospect. I’ve already…
This is what I wrote yesterday, expanded a little, because I’m not restricted to 280 characters here!
“I wrote a new poem. That’s a much bigger deal than it sounds. I haven’t dared to write anything truly new in four years: since I was nominated for a BSFA Award in 2017.
In hindsight, I found the sudden sense of scrutiny crushingly intimidating: it juddered me to a slow crawl, during which I made many notes and obsessively squinted at poems/fiction I’d been writing already. I barely submitted anything. What I did submit bounced, usually with encouraging noises attached; two publications that did accept pieces sadly folded before they could bring their project to life.
Looking at that, it was my confidence that was shot (by getting an award nomination.. the irony), rather than my work lacking, per se. Not that I saw it that way, I was my own worst heckler. But considering no one else at the time went: ‘Your work stinks, Suna, give up!’, I was definitely getting in my own way. I did an interview here, a blog post there. I could talk up a storm about my WIP’s. I just omitted they’d been ‘IP’ since 2011 or thereabouts! I knew intellectually it’s fine if you’re not prolific for a while, or at least not as prolific as you feel you should be. To not beat yourself up on top of everything else. Easy to understand, harder to break. Especially since words and concepts swam opaquely around my head but I just didn’t seem to have the whats to capture them with a pen.
I never entirely stopped but my heart wasn’t entirely in it, either. I just dribbled occasional words into notepads or my writing app. Then something did change. As insidiously as my confidence leaked away, my will to write crept back. I’d love to say I made a conscious choice to grow a spine, but it grew over time.
A drabble prompt clinched it: short enough to not be daunting, challenging enough to make blood flow back into places I thought I had only tar. It got accepted almost immediately. The validation, the sense that I am doing something right after all, helped enormously, too 🙂
I felt excited about writing again. There was movement, albeit still a bit uncertainly. Then I read Matt Dovey’s thread. A long heartfelt sharing of his difficulties, obstacles both internal and extrnal, his doubts: his honesty and vulnerability were so moving and galvanising, it helped stoke up the fire in me. Yesterday, I used another call for submissions to write an entirely new piece. What made all the difference: I spent no time fretting about The Gallery of Scrutiny, its nameless judgements and the shameful sense I should pander to it. It was mine.
I still lack structure. Music is partially responsible, but really, it’s discipline and I am inconsistent. But I’m writing again and I’m happy about it. Matt’s post really yanked my chain in the best possible way, it helped me to nail my courage to the sticking place and I’m so grateful he shared it. I’m excited for his newfound fuel as much as mine and I look forward to reading his upcoming work.”
Afterthought after having posted the thread: “Maybe I’ll hardly publish actual fiction again. The most important and liberating thing is that the shouldism and self-judgement are gone. I play music, I perform. It’s an infinite luxury to have a creative career at all. When they flow, there are words. I’ve made amazing friends through writing. If you’re still reading, you are probably one of them, so: thank you.”
This is a cut and paste of my review on NetGalley!
As a longstanding Nix-fan, I’m very happy to say this book did not disappoint. It was a delight and I’m so grateful for the advance reader copy! I love it when Garth Nix writes standalone books; as much as I love his series, he really shines when he condenses the narrative to a single volume, as he did before with the brilliant Shade’s Children.
This adventure is packed with pagan lore and big, quest type concepts, sweeps the English countryside and manages to feel cosy and folksy at the same time. But what is really wonderful about this book is that I was, very decidedly, suffering from major ‘Merlin-Fatigue’ before reading it. I will admit that when I realised this was a Merlin based story my first reaction was ‘For heaven’s sake, hasn’t riffing on Arthurian themes been done, overdone, and then done to death?’
It’s always brilliant to be proven wrong. This is such a lovely take on Merlin and his relationship with his sister Vivien, Susan and the human/magical worlds around him that I was riveted. The fact that everything is tied up with a secret society of ancient personages prowling the perimiter of the modern world to protect it, in the guise of booksellers-with-supernatural skills, plus that a lot of those society interactions take place in libraries and/or specialty bookshops, is a joy for a bookworm! On top of that, I’m a middle-aged woman and officially not the target audience but it didn’t matter one bit. That has always been the case with Garth Nix. I wasn’t introduced to his books until at least my early thirties and I’ve been hooked ever since. That is certainly not always so with YA books but he has a fantastic insight in the teenage mind and has an ability to describe them so well, without them ever becoming exasperating to the reader! This is a ripping yarn, I loved the pagan elements, the beautiful yet wild spirit of Old Nature that permeated everything, the snappy dialogue, the humour and the very present sense of dread and danger. Susan’s personal quest for her father and how she comes to grips with who and what he is is extremely well done and the final resolution is deeply satisfying, albeit bittersweet. There is definitely scope for a sequel but I almost hope this is it. Perfect book.
Seldom do I post (for regular updates Twitter is best), yet now I have many excitements to impart. Please make like the tiny turtles in Finding Nemo and scooch together, my kind followers.
2017 ended on a high note with big gig conformations for Erin Bennett: Planet Rock’s Winter’s End Festival, (we play on Sat 24/02) plus Hawkwind’s Hawkeaster Happening, in Morecambe. Krow, too, has an epic gig confirmed – announcement coming soon! New album releases are pending for both. (For those of you who followed this blog fairly recently; I sing backing vox in both bands, which is how I make a living. I write in the gaps.) The Cherry on the Christmas Cake: invites for contributions to two new anthologies & a speculative poem for a third.
2018 started with a bang because oh, my goodnes; My short story ‘Unmade‘ (featured in Steampunk Writers Around the World) has been nominated for a BSFA by the British Science Fiction Association! Many congratulations to all fellow nominees & my open minded publishers at Luna Press Edinburgh.
For the full list of nominees in all categories, see the BSFA website.
It was a true pleasure to be part of the Roundtable: Intersections between South Asian Folklore, Myth and Lived Experience feature in Truancy Issue 2.
The questions and answers begetting more questions and answers provided challenging, wonderful food for thought. It was fascinating, moving and inspiring to read my fellow participants’ replies. Some of the resultant ponderings and conclusions didn’t make it into the (already blissfully long) article. These were the more personal ideas regarding diaspora, identity and place, coupled with the perceived legacy of folklore, myth and legends from various cultures that, for me, ended in the following.
Though I am nostalgic for something unexperienced when I yearn for being part of Indian culture in a way that was denied to me when I came into the world, I am simultaneously very aware that this is a type of… romantic affectation.
There is no conflict of identity. I am very happily myself. Or rather; it has been my privilege to have had the space to become so, by trial and error, through joys and woes. That is solely the result of growing up with the cultural freedoms I enjoyed. Had I been born and raised within my own culture, bound by what I know to be the stifling constraints of my heritage, I would most certainly not have been able to become a touring singer, nor an all out, woman-loving equality activist, embodying nothing resembling religion, though you could argue I have an abiding, possibly worshipful wonder for science and nature. As a friend affectionately said once: You are a Sagan pagan. I’ll take that.
I adore being a fusion of cultures, a true citizen of the world – much overused as the term is. While I may not speak much Hindi at all, I speak three languages comfortably and a further two adequately. This roundtable, while actually being about folklore and inherited myths, has been excellent for crystallising some thoughts that have been swimming in the bottom of my mind like little blind fishes. I have long wondered whether all this superimposed angst of cultural belonging, or the judgment from people both Western and of countries you are ‘really from’ (recognise that question anyone? Folk always seem dissatisfied when I say The Netherlands!) may partly be a strange type of jealousy. Why not have it all? Why not have cake and eat it?
Why not?
Nothing has been taken from me in that respect, rather a melding of cultures that has given my life that many more dimensions. Including the rich veins of mythology, fairy tales and folklore from more worlds than just one. I hope the roundtable gives insight and enjoyment of the different minds and backgrounds coming at those questions.
Plus, this issue contains wonderful fiction and artwork. Enjoy!
Suna Dasi 
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