Here’s the first thing in my current WiP, “Dried Flowers”:
Dedicated to my dad, JJ, the way I want to remember him.
He introduced me to some of my favourite authors, mostly by forgetting to send back the “no I don’t want the Selection of the Month” card to the Science Fiction Book Club[1]This is how I first encountered, among others, Michael Swanwick and William Gibson..
And the final thing in “Dried Flowers” (don’t worry, it’s not a spoiler; just a post-text epigraph[2]Postgraph?):
I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.
This afternoon, washing dishes and listening to music, I had a writing epiphany. The song “Moment of Clarity” by 13 Engines popped up in the rotation…
…and one part of it, specifically, strikes a chord on my current WiP.
A moment of clarity is all that’s required of me And all other places and other times, they’re waving goodbye Goodbye
Yeah, that’s all the context you’re gonna get for now. Let me know if you’re interested in reading this once it’s all done, though.
ICYW: “Dried Flowers” is my current work in progress. Formerly titled “Palimpsests”, the story is about a library whose books all seem to be erasing themselves.
Some good—no, great—news on the writing front: I’ve been awarded a writing grant by the Manitoba Arts Council.
The project I’ll be working on is a novella, titled “Palimpsests”[1]Working title; I’m also considering “Dried Flowers”, about a woman living in a library where all the books are slowly erasing themselves. She has a companion who tries their best to rewrite the erased works, with varying levels of success. She’s also haunted by strange dreams.
Eight works are featured in the story, some based on real-world books[2]Not quite a roman à clef, but perhaps a roman de romans à clef, hein?, others wholly invented.
I’d been working on the project back in the summer—it was one of the pieces I was dealing with during my writing retreat—but when I submitted the grant paperwork in mid-October, I quite deliberately pushed it to the back of the queue.
Now it’s come back to the front, of course. I got word on Friday afternoon about the grant, and as I write this—Saturday evening—I’ve got the 8 palimpsests selected, with thumbnail notes about the new text. I’ve had some inspirations about the rest of the story too, the world June (the hero) has left, the world she’s living in now, and the world she visits in her dreams.
I’m excited. This has the potential to be a very good story. It won’t be easy to write, and I don’t intend to make it easy to read. Good luck to us all.
In other good writin’ news: The good stuff is now available in my province. In my city, in fact.
