I’ve finally had a chance to type up some of the progress I’ve made on the Maria and Lah-Shah story I’ve been sharing with you for the last year (?). I have written more, but I’ve only just typed this next 2500 words up. I had two writing sessions this week, and I’ve got another this afternoon, so you might get an update before much longer. Certainly it won’t be three months this time.
I’m making this one available to all subscribers, rather than just to paid subs, because no one is paying for subs. I might go back through the posts and unlock them all.
I present to you Maria and the space-dragons investigate #1
Chapter 13 – Exploring Aurox by air – Maria
After a week staying with Sahrai, taking prophylactic medicine and observing the local life from the safety of the container house, Maria felt it was time to explore. Outside.
They looked into darkness. The darkness looked back . . .
An utterly gripping story of survival and first contact on a hostile planet from Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of the Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning Children of Time.
A commercial expedition to a distant star system discovers a pitch-black moon alive with radio activity. Its high-gravity, high-pressure, zero-oxygen environment is deadly to human life, but ripe for exploitation. They named it Shroud.
Under no circumstances can a human survive Shroud’s inhospitable surface – but a catastrophic accident forces Juna Ceelander and Mai Ste Etienne to make an emergency landing in a barely adequate escape vehicle. Alone, and fighting for survival, the two women embark on a gruelling journey across land, sea and air in search of salvation.
But as they travel, Juna and Mai begin to understand Shroud’s unnerving alien species. It also begins to understand them. If they escape Shroud, they’ll somehow have to explain the impossible and translate the incredible. That is, if they make it back at all . . .
Beam aboard your own Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror classroom with the next volume of the BSFA-shortlisted writing-guide series!
Join Tiffani Angus (Ph.D.) and Val Nolan (Ph.D.) for a whirlwind introduction to the storytelling basics of 30 more subgenres and major tropes from across the limitless realms of Speculative Fiction.
Learn about Space Opera, Folk Horror, Climate Fiction, Werewolves, Astronauts, Mythic Fantasy, Goblin Markets, Dragons, and many more with deep dives into each subgenre’s history and development, spotter’s guides to typical examples, pitfalls to watch out for in your own writing, and activities to help you get started! All derived from a combined two decades of university-level practices and experience!
Spec Fic for Newbies breaks genres into bite-sized pieces for students or for any budding writer. It offers a welcoming introduction to how writers, filmmakers, and other creatives can begin to explore the infinite potential of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror to create new stories beyond the boundaries of the ordinary.
This is not another dusty rulebook. This is a portal to endless other worlds!
In the city of Amoria, where magic rules all, Naila is the ultimate conundrum. A student under the watchful eye of Amoria’s sprawling Academy, Naila is undeniably gifted, yet she has never been able to harness her abilities. And time is running out. If she fails, she’ll be forced into exile, or worse – consumed by her own magic.
For decades mages and the magicless Hollows have lived side-by-side peacefully. But now that peace is threatened as old resentments bubble over. A powerful anti-Hollow faction led by Amoria’s most influential mages is determined to cast the Hollows out. With her Hollow background, Nalia is in danger of being exiled from everything she knows and everyone she loves if she cannot unlock her power.
When a tragic incident threatens her place at the Academy, Naila is saved by Haelius Akana, the most powerful living mage. A scholar and fellow outcast, Haelius is fascinated by Naila’s inability to use magic. Eager to help someone in whom he sees so much of himself, he stakes his position at the Academy on teaching her. Trapped in the deadly schemes of Amoria’s elite, Naila must dig deep to discover the truth of her powers – or watch the city she loves descend into civil war.
Annabel writes fantasy with fierce female characters and disaster wizards, and believes everything is improved by dragons.
She lives in a tiny village in Scotland, where most of her neighbours are sheep. She has a PhD in cardiovascular science, and when not making things up for a living, she works as a Medical Writer.
Her other joys are red wine, playing games, or showing you too many pictures of her dog.
I know this post is a few weeks late, but I’ve been ill, and in pain. I’ve decided to make this one publicly available rather than behind a pay wall. The story is over 19000 words long now, and there’s some difference between the story I’ve written in my notebook and the one you’ll read here.
Chapter 12 – Lah-Shah – In the asteroid belt
Lah-Shah looked over the scan data. The asteroid was quite large, dense and peanut shaped. There was plenty of metal in it, and the shape suggested that two asteroids had got a bit too close to each other and collided at some point. It surprised Lah-Shah that the humans on Aurox hadn’t sent auto-miners out here; despite the distance from the planet, it would be worth the effort.
A large object showed up on the scans; it lay buried beneath the surface, in the waist of the asteroid, hidden by scattered debris and surface shadows. It had a familiar outline on the scans. Lah-Shah ran the images through the control system and found a match: an IGASS science division mission ship.
It’s about half six on Sunday afternoon. The last panel ended almost three hours ago. I’ve had a nap and finally have some time to write about my experience of FantasyCon 2024.
Locus Recommended Reading List 2023 BSFA for Best Non-Fiction, Shortlist 2024 BFS for Best Non-Fiction, Shortlist 2024
Spec Fic For Newbies: A Beginner's Guide to Writing Subgenres of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. Tiffani Angus (Ph.D.) and Val Nolan (Ph.D.) met at the 2009 Clarion Writers’ Workshop in California and since then have collaborated many times as fans and scholars on panels for SFF conventions and writing retreats.Working together on this book and combining their experience as SFF writers and as university lecturers in Creative Writing and Literature made perfect sense!
Every year they see new students who want to write SFF/Horror but have never tried the genres, have tried but found themselves floundering, or, worse, have been discouraged by those who tell them Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror are somehow not “real” literature.
This book is for all those future Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror writers. Tiffani and Val are approaching these three exciting fields by breaking them down into bite-sized subgenres with a fun, open, and contemporary approach.Each chapter contains 10 subgenres or tropes, with a quick and nerdy history of each derived from classroom teaching practices, along with a list of potential pitfalls, a description of why it’s fun to write in these subgenres, as well as activities for new writers to try out and to get them started!
My Review
I bought this book at FantasyCon 2023. I’ve got quite a collection of Academia Lunare books now, mostly genre stuff and Tolkien books. Look at the Luna Press Publishing website, under non-fiction and academic, to get a sense of the books I mean. Most of the are small, A6 size, usually with monographs on a uniting subject matter.
This book is different.
Yes, that’s me. I got the laptop camera to work properly. Yes, that’s the Pen & Sword TBR pile behind me.
It’s a guide to the sub-genres of SFFH, with two writing exercises for each sub-genre. I’m not exactly a ‘newbie’, but I don’t know all of the sub-genres, and it was interesting to read about the ones they included.
I enjoyed to quick tour and chatty writing style of this book, especially the genre and sub-genre histories. This book is informed by years of teaching by both authors, and it shows. They’ve clearly come across the same mistakes time and time again, but the enjoyment of both spec fic and teaching also really shines through. I could easily devour a volume on each sub-genre by these authors, but I’m weird like that. I like depth and breadth. I don’t think that’s a criticism of this book, but if you’re expecting in-depth discussions of the nuances of each sub-genre you’re not going to get that. The book provides broad overviews of each sub-genre with reference to specific tropes or movements within the sub-genre.
I enjoyed the tour of 30 sub-genres and the writing left me want more on some subject and no more about others (splatterpunk for example, is really not my thing). There’s enough to get you started on any sub-genre, and that’s what this book is for.
If you’re looking for something to read in a specific sub-genre, I think you could flip to the section in this book and find a place to start in a new sub-genre, because the authors provide lots of examples of works – both film and literary – that sit in a sub-genre.
There are also lots of references if you want to follow up on a particular statement or idea. I like references. More references and access to a database of papers, please. Because I don’t have enough to read…
I found the writing exercises prompted me to come up with new ideas and think it’ll be useful when I’m struggling to put an idea down on paper. I’ve got an idea about zombies and cruise ships, but it’s not going anywhere yet… Anyway, the activities make up a small section of each sub-genre entry, but the information packed in before them informs the activities. I think for a writer at any stage of their career, the activities will prompt the brain to try something new. If you’re a new writer they’ll give you a place to start, and for experienced writers they’re a reminder and refresher when your brain is fried. The writing advice found throughout the text is useful and explained well.
While I read this book from start to finish, I think it could be a good ‘dipping’ book, for those having a go at a new genre or sub-genre. There’s always something new to try – nobody could have written in all thirty of the sub-genres in this book – so dipping in and out as the mood takes you can give the writer practice in a variety of stories.
I have already recommended this book to a very new writer (my nibbling is doing creative writing as part of their OU Open Degree – I’m so proud!) and will be buying volume 2 at FantasyCon in three weeks – Francesca, make sure there’s a copy put aside for me, please!
I mentioned on my book Instagram that I was reading this book and Dr Angus kindly told me to contact her if I need any PhD advice, which I thought was lovely.
Tiffani Angus signed the book. It was signed when I bought it, so Tiffani must have been at FantasyCon last year.
Bit of back story. A group of authors in Northern England and Scotland got sick of all the literary events being in London and decided to organise their own it Leeds. They arranged it with Waterstones and called the event ‘It’s Strange Up North’. 18 authors agreed to attend and the notifications went out.
I happen to be on the British Fantasy Society discord and heard about it, since one of the organisers was in the Yorkshire & Humber channel on the BFS Discord. I bought my ticket ASAP and waited. I had planned to go to Leeds for the entire weekend, but hotels are ridiculously expensive. It is my birthday weekend, or at least it’s the weekend closest to my birthday, so theoretically I could have had a whole weekend away but the cat didn’t agree.
Yesterday, I travelled to Leeds by train, went to Hold Fast Books after a ride on the water taxi, then meandered around the Armouries shop, and bought a dragon, got another water taxi back to the Granary Dock and made my way through the station and up Albion Street, stopping in for a pizza and pavlova at The New Conservatory in Albion Place, before heading just a bit further up Albion Street, to Waterstones.
It was packed! They sold out the event! It was catered. Or more precisely, the organisers had gone out and bought party food and told everyone to eat up because they didn’t want it to go to waste. I struggled, honestly. I wasn’t too fussed by the food, and there were too many people corralled into too small an area until the shop shut at 6.30pm. Once it shut, we spread out and took over all three floors.
I met Laura Lam, author of Dragonfall, Goldilocks, and several other books. I bought the paperback of Dragonfall and Laura signed it for me. We had a chat about random things, like epidermoid cysts, and the publishing industry.
I met Sunyi Dean, and her dog. She signed a paperback copy of The Bookeaters for me.
I met Stephan Aryan and got an early copy of The Blood Dimmed Tide. He signed it for me. Stephan Aryan is very tall. I got the first book in this duology, The Judas Blossom, last year at FantasyCon, and he signed that one there. I’m actually going to read both of them at some point.
I bought a copy of The Bone Ships, by R.J. Barker. He was supposed to be there but couldn’t, so sent signed book plates.
I met Charlotte Bond and got a copy of her debut novella, The Fireborne Blade. She was handing out sweets and bookmarks, so I’m not complaining. I read the book on my way home last night and a review will follow shortly.
I met Sarah Brooks, who signed a copy of The Cautions Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands, her debut. It isn’t supposed to be out yet.
I picked up a copy of Ascension from Nicholas Binge. I think it’s the only sci-fi I bought.
And finally, Snowblooded, by Emma Sterner-Radley, a fantasy set in 19th century Sweden.
I have book marks for some of them, and in the goody bag I received an ARC of We Are All Ghosts In The Forest, by Lorraine Wilson and a pin badge for Snowblooded.
There are pictures on my Instagram.
P.S. Did you know the Royal Armouries shop has dragons!?
I bought a Suki brand dragon called Thunder. He is cute and has joined the dragons of my dragon shelf.
Alright! We’re back with Lah-Shar and Maria’s adventures. This time we get some insight into Lah-Shar’s life and thoughts.
Chapter two – Lah-Shar
Lah-Shar felt the air change as they came closer to the base. He’d seen planets with ice sheets miles deep that extended almost to the equator. He’d seen planets that were tidally locked, one side burning the other freezing. His own planet, Ran-Nang, the one he was an egg and youngster on, had a warm damp climate except for the desert for 20 degrees either side of the equator. Ascend was chilly by Ran-Nang standards, but humans found it comfortably warm.
I’ve been thinking about this for a while. I don’t like to make people pay for my work, but at the same time, I’m disabled, I can only work a few hours a week and the exhaustion is interfering with my ability to write. I want to give myself an incentive to write when I feel well enough. If I have paying subscribers, I have to write!
I may have mentioned the Space Dragon story I’ve been working on for a couple of years. The plan is to share a chapter a month for paying subscribers until I’ve written it all. You won’t be getting the first draft, since I write that by hand, but you’ll get the edited version. There will probably be further edits in future before I release it as a book. I might also share some of my short stories as paid subscriber posts.
What do you think?
Let me share a few paragraphs with you and if you want the rest, please feel free to join the paid subscription.
Update 22/03/2025
No one wanted paid subscriptions, so I’ve unlocked this chapter and any others that I’ve posted.
Everything Is Better With Dragons 