Speculation, Fact and Fiction

Ah, yes, that eternal question for the writer. Well, make of this what you will.

I'm going to be writing a short story for Murky Depths magazine, for the issue appearing this coming autumn. The editor is looking for something at the darker edge of fantasy, not tied to any of my existing books. Fine by me. One of the reasons I accept commissions for short stories is I do like the chance to stretch different writing  muscles.

What to write? I ask the teenage sons what they find unsettling in books and films. When you know there's something nasty out there but you don't quite know where, or exactly what it is, they say.

I've also been watching a documentary series about an Elizabethan chap called William Campden's book, Britannia, a tour of the British Isles in the late 1500s. Some things about the Scotland episode particularly catch my imagination. And the visuals turn my thoughts to The 39 Steps, which I reread recently, after being irritated by the telly version over Christmas, which drove the usual coach and horses through a perfectly good plot. And thence, to some other aspects of John Buchan's writing.

Then there was a rather interesting programme on Radio 4 yesterday, about the way Oscar Wilde, Conan Doyle, Bram Stoker, RL Stevenson and JM Barrie were all acquainted in 1890s London. Which touched on certain common aspects of their writing. As well as their Scots/Irish connections.

Which reminds me of a story I wrote for the British Fantasy Society; Celebration anthology, back in 2006.

Sitting down with a pencil and a notepad, I begin scribbling thoughts and ideas, arrows going from one to the other, a certain amount of crossings out and some question marks circled, indicating where I need to do some googling. 

By the end of this entirely haphazard and serendipitous process, I'm on my way towards a Victorian-gothic-chiller kindathing.