re:mote voices

I admit it. I spend far too much of my time as a writer trying to work out what the fuck is going on? How do stories work? Which is why the first notes from the story that became Occupy Midnight are from 2018. I was “working” on a series of stories, all set in the Glasgow area, as is often the case, all featuring witches, as is often the case. I figured I had at least 4 stories, of which there are drafts of a couple of those, and scraps of others. And along the way, I was thinking, there could be an opportunity to combine them, like a bridge novel, or something?

Which is where the idea for “The Midnight Track of the Conference for Witchcraft In The Anthropocene,” came from. The idea of the Midnight Hour for witches, a Conference of Witches, and of course, the undeniable influence of the Anthropocene and related climate change, to collapse, that impacts our lives. Ideas persist, even while I stray, writing other things, getting on with life. Watching covid happen, watching COP 26 arrive at the very venue I planned to set my story in.

The idea did persist, but always felt just a little beyond me. Until late 2022. I’ve been a member of Glasgow’s SF Writer’s Circle for over a decade now. We did an anthology for the 30th anniversary of the group, Thirty Years of Rain, and another to raise money for charity in 2020, Flotation Device – both of which I have stories in. By 2022, we knew that the Worldcon was going to return to Glasgow in 2024, that it was going to take place at the SECC again. So, we decided to do an anthology for 2024.

And with that, I knew I had to write this story. A story set at a conference at the SECC, covering the idea of environmentalism/Anthropocene where COP26 had failed, and the wishful thinking that magic might save us all? I had to write this story and I had to submit for inclusion in this anthology. And so, I had the first version ready for critique by the GSFWC by January 2023. At that point it was called The Midnight Track and was maybe 3000 words.

With a deadline for submittals, for what would become Gallus, of Easter 2023, I took the comments provided by the GSFWC and reworked The Midnight Track. Complete scenes were thrown away, new characters added, a lot of tweaking and shifting towards something. By the time submissions came around it was now called Occupy Midnight, having played with a number of other titles along the way. At this point the story had a map, a timetable, a QR code, and was over 8000 words. To say I had dived into the deep end would be an understatement.

Through the rest of the year we were back and forth, the editors and I, trying to help me find the best version of the story. The story continually mutating, so that actually I wasn’t upset by the loss of the map, etc., they made sense to me in a previous version, but not this version. The closer we got to something special, I remained frustrated on how to pull off the ending. I think we got there. When it could take a fucking miracle to change the world, and with the best magic in the world not being enough, what do you do?

Gallus is a labour of love. I didn’t take this journey alone. As I’ve detailed above, the conversation for this started years ago, each of us coming up with our own ideas, bringing them together for this one anthology. Working together to get the best of ourselves, to celebrate Glasgow, to celebrate genre, to celebrate the return of Worldcon to Glasgow.

Gallus launch at Glasgow Worldcon, Friday 9th August 2024
Gallus open launch at Waterstones, Argyle St, Thursday 29th August 2024
Gallus: Twenty-five stories, a cover by one of the writers that in turn went through so many mutations to reach a joyful end stage, this book exists. Come and get it.

I love to read. I love to talk about reading. Sharing what I read over the year, keeping note of it with my wee lists every year.

But at the end of 2022 I somewhat lost my way. Someone posted into my timeline that people who boasted about how much they read was problematic, and an attack on folk who don't read as much. Which is, clearly, fucking stupid. They may have had a point, in their own way, but it was a sweeping generalisation, and an attack.

Reading is part of my mental health. It is what keeps me going. Especially during the pandemic years. I know a lot of folk stopped reading or struggled to read. I read more. Which no doubt was reflected in other things I didn't do. But reading saw me through.

So, in 2023, I lost my way a little. I didn't stop reading. I kept going strong. I have to. But, I did spend less time talking about what I was reading, sharing what I was reading. And during the collapse of twitter, where every year I shared the best short stories I had read in a year, and tried to regularly promote what I was enjoying, then losing my way felt in a way significant.

This feeling, coupled with the current diffusion and general loss of confidence in social media, means that it is perhaps more important than ever to create our own wee spaces. For us to make an effort to say I read this! I enjoyed this! These people are doing good things and people doing good things are people that I want to share with people who enjoy good things.

Sure, yeah, a simplistic element in there. But kindness is punk, joy is life. The world is fucked up, but we can all be better, we can all embrace and share a sense of community that gets us through the day after day after day.

So, I'm planning to fill some of the gaps from the last few years. Going through my archives of notes. Which will give me some ready to go material for this remote resurection, while working out what 2023 was and where we go in 2024.

Hello world. This is the voice of remote. 2024. We will endeavour to resume broadcasting.

Our last post was 2017. The rise and fall of social medias and so many other things. Years of weird and isolation. We need to find ways through and back, to connect and converse. To share and embrace.

So, 2024. Let us see what we can do.

During the pandemic years writing was hard. In 2023 I wrote 3 stories, which is a lot by my standards. One of those has been accepted, and will be published in an anthology in August. Another is out on the wait and see. And the third is needing to be rewritten before I'm ready to share and explore options. I have plans for other stories, fragments always loiter, always wait to talk to me in the darkness, whispering - so how about dragons and witches and weird things?

The 82nd World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) will happen in Glasgow in 2024 – Gin24 – Thursday 8th of August to Monday 12th August. In the early 90s there were a handful of Glasgow Comicons, spun off from the London Comicon of the time, those were my first cons. But those were small scale, and different beasts compared to something like Worldcon. The last Glasgow Worldcon was 2005, which was my first con of this type. I'll be back at the SECC in 2024 for Gin24.

It'll be a big event. A big year. Hello world, a happy new year to you. From Glasgow.

I love weird twitter, the unpredictable, the absurd, the way that so many single tweets can feel like stories I want to read/write.

ourmagickfuture (Magick at Scale)

Witch Scientist Publishes Manifesto for Expressive Occult Music
5:14 AM Oct 10th via Smidgeo Posteo https://twitter.com/ourmagickfuture/status/785332539632283648

Well, tonight is the big night. The Glasgow launch of Thirty Years Of Rain, the 30th anniversary collection of work by members of the Glasgow Science Fiction Writer's Circle. A cross genre collection of stories and poems, old and new.

The book is already available from Lulu and Amazon. But in the Sauchiehall St branch of Waterstones tonight, from 7pm, there will be a chance to hear readings and get books signed by a number of the authors. With a number of authors in Glasgow, I fully expect the presence of Elsie WK Donald, Ruth EJ Booth, Heather Valentine, Brian M Milton, Ian Hunter, Cameron Johnston, Stewart Horn, Fergua Bannon, Hal Duncan, Elaine Gallagher, Kenneth Kelly, Jim Steel, Neil Williamson and myself. (Actual quantity of authors present may go up or down)

Inevitably, as with all GSFWC events, we will end up in the pub. Hopefully see people there.