I’ve never neglected my blog for such a long time – although I continue to chatter on Twitter – but the last quarter of 2009 has been a period of stressful work deadlines followed by a string of difficulties that rendered me mute. I should note that it was not terrible all the time, because to indicate otherwise would be to present a one-sided picture of recent months.
Life is a mixture of good and bad moments, although we tend to under-appreciate the good and over-emphasise the bad.
So, I’m bidding 2009 farewell with a grateful heart that I’ve survived its tests, and with an appreciation of those friends and family who helped me endure the trials.
I don’t want to end this post on a down note, but equally I must mention that my greatest shock this year was the death of my friend Rob Holdstock at the end of November.
I’ve known Rob for about fourteen years, and since 2001 I’ve maintained his web site. I offered to set it up and run it because I thought a writer of his stature should not be without a presence on the Internet, and I knew Rob found technological issues a bit of a frustration and struggle.
I valued our rambling phone calls very much, even when I had to nicely berate him for not sending me information often enough. This year I’d completely redesigned his site so it would be easier for him to post his own entries without too much intervention from me. He was delighted by this facility, and the first post in which he braved the technological challenge turned out to be his last. I had spoken to him a week or so before he was suddenly struck down and hospitalised.
My own life was in chaos at that point because of unprecedented flooding in the West of Ireland. I’d had to abandon my house because the only accessible road to my home was rapidly flooding out. I was receiving daily updates on Rob’s condition while I stayed with my Mother-in-Law, during a weekend in which I was supposed to be attending WexWorlds – a new fantasy / science fiction festival aimed at young people – but had to cancel due to the lack of any viable route.
Despite Rob’s grim condition I never imagined he would die. He was a man who was in love with life, and liked nothing better than inviting it around to a table heaving with food and drink and the company of good friends.
I associate Rob with laughter, long conversations about music, literature, travel, food and poetry, and always laughter. He was not a saint – none of us are – but his flaws were always forgotten once you were in his generous and upbeat presence.
And in the same moment I think of Rob I always think of Sarah, his partner: a wonderful pair, complementing each other, both caring and good-natured.
The news of his death seemed impossible; a hammer blow that set the world off its axis. It could not be right that he was gone.
And yet, there was work to be done: a notice for his web site (which crashed due to the massive spike in traffic, and had to be fixed), liasing with Sarah and Rob’s good friend Roy on further updates, and monitoring and approving the comments on the web site, which were under moderation.
Due to another problem that arose – my dog injured both legs in a short period of time and had to have surgery – I was housebound and unable to travel to London for his service, which was a different sorrow.
Yesterday, I finally updated his biography on this web site to indicate this death. This was something I found impossible to do initially. I’ve added a Tributes section, in which the lovely memories and reminiscences of his family and friends – prepared for his service in December – are collected for prosperity. A Memorial Fund has been set up with the Woodland Trust, and I can’t think of a better way to mark his life and work by celebrating his abiding love of the woods. It’s already accrued over £1,000 and hopefully it will reach the point where it will be enough to dedicate an acre of woodland to him.
In the days after his death I was seized by an impulse to write a poem for him that reflected him and evoked his work. Rob and I discussed poetry a lot, which was great since I knew few other writers who were receptive to it. I remember his wonderful enthusiasm for one of my published short stories I was bold enough to send him, and his praise for a poem that had been published online. He was unfailing supportive of my writing.
There is a reason it has taken me so long to write this: it is painful to think of him in the past.
Here is the poem I wrote. I think Rob would have liked it, and perhaps it is through the realm of the creative work that we can connect again.
For Rob
Not Ryhope or England
but these ancient woods
record history.
They delve deep,
roots spearing ribs
of farmers, kings and mystics
to absorb magic and folly.
Their weighty boughs
are Nature’s styluses;
sometimes they skip grooves
as the breeze shakes
the oak and rowan,
to carry…
the chant of old songs;
the sigh of lovers’ lies;
the bright clang of battle.
I struggle through
soaked foliage,
thick, soupy earth -
wet from winter’s deluge -
chasing a ghost.
A splash; a horse’s neigh.
A woman -
her face masked,
her eyes pitiless with mercy -
knees her horse toward me
through tendrils of ivy.
“Where is he?” I ask
Her tanned, calloused hand
chops to the gateway
between pillars of stone,
beyond a still, silvered pool.
The trees sway.
They fan the echo of a hearty laugh,
as familiar as breath.
I surge forward,
but she urges her horse
between me
and the way.
I glare threats;
she, implacable,
flicks mud from her thigh.
Above, a hawk shrieks,
and we both squint up
at its shadow crossing the sun,
ecstatic with prey.
The Rider salutes, turns,
crests through the gate,
and a mist gathers after.
When it thins out
from the promise of sunlight,
the passage is gone.
I sit and listen.
The branches sweep
and play the past.
In the woods
I will remember him,
until the Rider returns.
In memoriam: Rob Holdstock (1948 – 2009)
It’s been a strange week. There have been two deaths, and I’ve attended one funeral (neither of the deceased were close to me, so don’t proffer sympathies), and a major row erupted in the Irish sf scene that involved a lot of people I know.
My mother had been away on holiday, and she called me on Tuesday evening and asked if I wanted to go see a film. I couldn’t really spare the time. Not only did I have a funeral that was going to take up most of the following day, I was really late on sorting out my taxes. I’d been brooding on the Internet fracas going on among my friends, and it was casting a pall over my forthcoming weekend at Octocon.
Yet, death always reminds me – in its blunt fashion – that we don’t have much time on this planet. You should always seize any chance to spend time with someone you love.
I decided to spend the evening with my mother. We had food together, and watched Julie and Julia, which was a charming film. I enjoyed it more than I anticipated. It’s a touch too long, and the ending trails off a little. The “Julie” sequences are a little insubstantial compared to the dynamo sections featuring Meryl Streep as Julia Child. But, I’m glad I went, and I was pleased I didn’t settle into the cinema hungry as I would have been ravenous by the end of the film.
So, this weekend is Octocon, and I’m on a few panels:
Collaborators will be shot: a panel on the challenges of creating work with other people. 2pm on Saturday
Bechdel and SF: Do sf films hold up to the Bechdel Test? 11am Sunday.
The Golden Blasters: the inaugural National Irish Science Fiction Film Awards. Guest of Honour Mike Carey and I will be judging the entries, which have been selected by Irish filmmaker John Vaughan. 3pm Sunday.
More importantly, the online dispute has been mediated, and everyone has agreed to reconcile. I’m so pleased. I love Octocon, and I value my time there with my friends.
On Saturday evening my short film “Hotel Training” is being premièred at the Light House Cinema, as part of the Hotel Darklight anthology film, which is the closing event of the Darklight Festival.
I’ve been in touch with Conor McMahon, the director, during the editing – which he completed while he had the flu. Not only was the entire project organised and shot quickly, but post-production has been a rush job. I’m looking forward to seeing the end result. It’s likely that Conor will work on the film a little more after it premières, as there hasn’t been enough time to get everything done to his satisfaction. Alas, he’s out of the country, and won’t be able to attend on Saturday.
I’m hoping it’s going to be a fun weekend!
The events of the previous week came at a time when I was busier than normal, so it’s taken me some time to catch up, and even out my workload.
Except now I have the joyful task of sorting out my tax returns, ASAP. Hurray!
So, it’s nice to hear that issue 9 of M-Brane SF has been released. It contains my horror sf story “Empty Mind Came Back with the Pearl”.
When I began submitting it to publications I learned that a lot of markets aren’t so keen on horror in their sf; many expressly forbid it. It’s a pity, and certainly a factor to consider when writing a mixed genre story.
Still, one of the lessons I’ve learned is that it is far, far better to have an editor who loves your work, than someone who is lukewarm about it. Chris Fletcher at M-Brane SF got what I was trying to do, and embraced it. That makes M-Brane SF the perfect market for “Empty Mind”.
There are sections in the story where I employ narrative devices that could be perceived as experimental, although for me they were just the best way to convey experiences that are difficult to describe in words. I consciously emulated cinematic techniques, and that choice added a layer of subtextual meaning that I thought complemented the theme.
Still, there’s a risk sometimes in being a little too clever in one’s choice of narrative artifices. It can intrude too much and disrupt the reading experience.
“Empty Mind” is meant to be an entertaining story first and foremost. So I hope I struck the correct balance between action and introspection.
Fri, 25 September 2009 on set
Wednesday’s shoot of my script “Hotel Training” went well. This is one of the longer scripts that will be part of the Hotel Darklight anthology film (there will be eleven short films in total). It’s ten and a half pages long, which will probably translate into 10 – 11 minutes, although a number of factors can affect the final running time.
It was a demanding task for the director, Conor McMahon, to shoot all the scenes in one day. He, and his crew, began quickly and locked down the exterior shots. The protagonist of “Hotel Training” is called Glenn, and actor Chris Gallagher played the role. Chris was in almost every single scene in the film, and he did a great job maintaining the character during a long day. I was struck at how exhausting it must be to tap into the right emotion for a scene, and then to play the scene repeatedly, and tweak the performance each time depending on direction.
I didn’t watch every single scene. There were times when the physical location didn’t allow for a lot of on-lookers. I made suggestions when I was needed. There were minor changes required due to the demands of the shoot. Overall, I observed and let Conor, and the cast and crew, do their job.
Everyone worked hard, but there was a fun atmosphere on set. I was impressed with the talent and dedication from everybody involved.
It’s a bizarre – but cool – experience to see and hear actors playing characters I invented, and speaking lines I wrote. It is an act of magic. Although, the actors and director bring their energy to the rotes and the scenes, so it is never as quite as I imagined. It’s my story, but filtered through other people.
It’s certainly reinforced to me that writers should continue to be part of the process after they have delivered the script if at all possible. This is dependent upon everyone involved being open-minded and wanting the best possible end result.
I’ve a few pictures from the shoot on Flickr, if you like that sort of detail.
At this point there isn’t too much else I can contribute. The film will be edited – I hope to see a rough cut – and then special effects, sound, and music will be added. The sound design is particularly important for my story. All of this falls outside of my control. I won’t really see how it will work out until the première on October 10th.
It’s been a great experience. It’s re-affirmed that this is an industry I love and want to continue to work within.
We live in a fast-paced world.
Yesterday morning, while finishing up work before my trip to Dublin, I received an email query from Alison Flood, a journalist for the British newspaper The Guardian. She wanted my opinion about the exclusion of women from the BFS In Conversation interview collection, and how the situation played out.
I offered an assessment, and emailed it to her. Then, I scrambled to complete my tasks and get to the coach station. Yes, I’ve started taking a bus to Dublin partly because of the free Wi-Fi.
(There is nothing quite as marvelous as using a bus’s inbuilt wireless system to connect to the world as you hurtle through the picturesque Irish countryside.)
Quite quickly I gathered via Twitter that Alison had been in touch with other people about the apology the BFS issued yesterday.
Just as the bus was pulling into Dublin I received the first tweet that The Guardian’s article had hit the Internet – I read it on my not-so-smart phone. It leads with the headline British Fantasy Society admits ‘lazy sexism’ over male-only horror book.
I’m somewhat overwhelmed by the response to the piece. I’m glad there is a discussion taking place about this subject, but I never imagined I would go from writing a blog post on a Thursday, to being quoted in a newspaper by Tuesday.
Chris Fletcher, editor of M-Brane SF, informed me yesterday that he wanted to buy my near-future sf short story “The Secret Names of Buildings”. So I said yes! It will appear in issue 12, which is being guest edited by Rick Novy.
Again, this is a story I wrote at Clarion West. It was during week six, my last week at the workshop, and we were being mentored by sf legend Vernor Vinge. Vernor is a hard sf writer, so I wrote something I thought might benefit from his expertise. Vernor, by the way, was very generous with his time, and enjoyed geeking out with us – all his conferences ran over.
I got a call yesterday evening from Conor, the director of my script, who asked if I could re-write the opening scene. The first scene was set in a car, so I had anticipated it might need to go because of the tight shooting schedule. So, I modified it, and it allowed me the opportunity to polish the draft, and tighten the ending.
I’m travelling to Dublin this afternoon, and the shoot is tomorrow. I hope to take photos, and notes. I’ve no idea if I’ll get an opportunity to be involved during editing, but would be surprised if that’s the case. Once the shoot begins a lot of my work will be over, and how my script is finally realised will depend on many other people. Mainly, on the day I hope to contribute some miracle last fixes depending on what happens.
I’m looking forward to seeing “my” characters being played by the actors. That will be a new – and hopefully good – experience.
It’s worth mentioning that Guy Adams, Chair and Special Publications Editor for the British Fantasy Society (BFS), has issued an unreserved apology over omitting women from its latest collection.
I’m sure he will not chastise me for replicating it in full here:
Our new book, In Conversation: A Writer’s Perspective, Volume 1: Horror, edited by James Cooper, has come under justifiable flak for its all-male line up of interviewees. When James brought the manuscript to me with a view to our publishing it I know he intended no sexism in his selection of the authors but I feel deeply sorry that I didn’t flag the omission at the time. It is disgustingly simple for a man not to notice these things, a blindness to the importance of correct gender representation that I feel embarrassed to have fallen into. The next two volumes in the series are considerably more balanced in their table of contents but that doesn’t change the fact that I dropped the ball on this initial volume. I can only apologize and hope that the discussion has made other editors and publishers realize that this kind of lazy sexism is unacceptable and to watch their own lists in future!
I’m glad that the BFS had the decency to recognise its mistake, apologise for it, and do something to address the issue. Any excuse offered would have been indefensible, so I’m pleased on that score. That Mr. Cooper intended no sexism is not apparent in his choice of authors, however.
The British Fantasy Awards were also handed out at the weekend, and “Do You See”, by Sarah Pinborough, from Myth-Understandings, ed. by Ian Whates won best short fiction, and Bull Running for Girls, by Allyson Bird (Screaming Dreams) won for best collection.
I’m not done with this matter, however. While I’m pleased that the BFS has openly addressed its blunder, this debacle has left me troubled by the nature of some of the feedback I’ve been receiving about the horror industry and its (mis)representation of women.
I’m terribly busy this week, but I plan to think more about this, and perhaps take action on it.
The Hotel Darklight anthology film is racing ahead at a furious pace.
My short script is titled “Hotel Training”, and is being directed by Conor McMahon. Conor is best known as the writer/director of the horror short film “Baineater”, and the feature-length zombie flick, Dead Meat.
The casting is complete, and Conor has been scouting the location this weekend. The shoot will take place on Wednesday, and it’s going to be tight to get all the scenes completed in one day. An early start, and a late finish I think.
There’s a Hotel Darklight fan page on Facebook now, if any of you fancy keeping up with what’s happening.
Although Hotel Darklight is being made on good will and dedication, if any proceeds accrue they will be in aid of Simon Community, a charity that addresses the issue of homelessness in Ireland.
There is going to be a fund-raiser for the project next week. On Wednesday the 23rd of September, at 9pm in Le Cirk Hotel, 32 Dame Street, Dublin 2, there will be a film pub quiz. It will cost €10 per head to enter, with a maximum of five people per team.
Come along and prove your film geek credentials, and help fund a creative project!
So, some good news. A script I wrote for a weird short film is being made.
Darklight Festival is Ireland’s annual festival for filmmakers, animators and artists whose work explores the convergence of art, film and technology. It’s taking place in Dublin from October 8 -10.
For its tenth anniversary it is organising an anthology film that will consist of 8-10 short films themed around one location: Hotel Darklight. The producers Marie Caffrey, Alan Keane and Declan Lynch are doing a super job of putting together a challenging genre project on minuscule funding. It’s mostly fuelled by passion, enthusiasm, and hard graft.
The shoot is taking place next week, and I plan to be on set. Hotel Darklight is being created at lightning pace.
The final film will premiere as the closing event of the festival, on Saturday, October 10, at 9.30pm at the Light House Cinema in Dublin. Notice that tickets are free.
I will be posting more information and updates in the coming days about my contribution to the process and how it all unfolds.
This weekend the British Fantasy Society (BFS) is hosting its annual convention, Fantasy Con. Last night while on Facebook I noticed a news item, which constitutes an electronic “flyer”, about the convention.
I immediately noticed the cover of a new book the BFS is launching at the convention: a collection of interviews with writers (the first in a trilogy) in which they discuss their genre. It’s called In Conversation: A Writer’s Perspective. Volume One: Horror. It’s edited by James Cooper, and is composed of 16 interviews with horror authors Ramsey Campbell, Tom Piccirilli, Greg F. Gifune, Conrad Williams, Joe R. Lansdale, Gary McMahon, Brian Keene, Stephen Gallagher, Jeffrey Thomas, Peter Crowther, Tim Lebbon, Ray Garton, Mark Morris, Gary Fry, Graham Joyce and Norman Partridge.
Not a single woman is interviewed.
Simply put, this is not representative of the horror field today. I’ve been advised that women submit less to horror markets than they do to science fiction or fantasy. In those genres women submit at a rate of 35-40%, approximately. Out of a collection of 16 authors five women would indicate representation. In this collection perhaps four, or at the very least three, women would have been correct.
This isn’t an anthology (although Mr. Cooper’s previous anthology of horror fiction is also exclusively male). Mr. Cooper had to sit down and draw up a list of writers he wanted to contact, interview them, and transcribe their views. I’m baffled that he never considered asking a woman writer for her opinion about horror.
Plus, I find it incredible that not a single person in the BFS noticed this lack and brought it to Mr. Cooper’s attention.
Here are a just a few writers he could have approached: Tanith Lee, Lisa Tuttle, M. Rickert, Sarah Langan, Margo Lanagan, Sarah Pinborough, Tananarive Due, Sara Gran, Alexandra Sokoloff, Gemma Files, Cherie Priest, Fran Friel, and Melanie Tem. That list took five minutes to compile with a friend (and it’s certainly not exhaustive – there are many others). I’m sure three, four or five of them would have been happy to agree to an interview.
There are no excuses for this omission. That it happens, and it was allowed to happen, speaks to the deeply cultured disregard for women’s opinion in the world. I see it every day. We are marginalised, silenced, side-lined, forgotten, conveniently dropped, patronised, under-represented, dismissed, subtly intimidated and ignored.
I’m not interested in assassinating characters or insulting a society that generally does good work.
I want this never to happen again.
I never want to see an all-male anthology or collection or essays/interviews in the speculative field again. Enough. It’s the twenty-first century.
Women exist, we work in this field, and we deserve recognition. It’s that simple.
Believe me, we have opinions.
