Hûw Steer's Blog, page 28

Lockdown: Tokyo Drift #2 – GCSE to Grimdark

I had a new short story published this week. It’s called ‘The Only Cure’, and it’s a nice dark piece about a plague doctor in a pseudo-medieval world, generally having a miserable time of things.

I wrote the story while in Edinburgh last year on a nice little writing retreat (back in one of those little windows when travelling was allowed) – but the idea for the story is much, much older. It came from another story I wrote… for a bit of History homework I was set when I was 13.

We were, of course, studying the Black Death and all the associated loveliness of 1347; rats and fleas and buboes galore. If I remember correctly (and given it was 12 years ago this is fairly doubtful), we’d just spent a lesson learning about the progress of the disease, and all the ways that the people of 1347 Europe died horribly. The homework was to write a short story about one of those unfortunate victims, dead or dying, presumably to test how much we’d actually been paying attention and to get a bit of crossover with English class. So off all 30 of us went to dutifully scrawl a few lines about buboes and pus.

But what had caught my eye wasn’t the plague itself, but the doctors who’d been trying to treat it – and more specifically the quack doctors who’d been trying to make a dishonest living from pretending to treat it. So, thought I: bugger the plague. Let’s write about a conman.

Despite taking a somewhat more liberal approach to the brief, my homework went down well. I stuffed it with medical references, with disgusting symptoms and mad, outdated ‘knowledge’ of how disease was thought to work back then. That was enough to pass muster. But I remember feeling proud of how I’d managed to take what was intended to be a very straightforward prompt, and turn it into something different.* Something mine. And I’m pretty sure the feedback I got reflected that a little.

Conveniently, because I’m a hoarder, I save pretty much everything I’ve ever written, which meant that when Grimdark‘s competition came along I hadn’t forgotten about this ancient bit of homework. I took nothing except the most basic concepts from it, of course – because as much as I liked the original story when I was 13, I wrote it when I was 13 – but in spirit it’s the same story. And I was very happy to be able to do it proper justice.

So if you want to read the final product, grab a copy of Grimdark Magazine #25 – and get a load of other great stories and essays into the bargain.

* Incidentally, I would later go on to do this at university. An essay prompt on ‘our favourite character from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms‘ was intended by the lecturer to be about Cao Cao – as he was who she’d spent several seminars teaching us about. I, being contrary, decided to write about Zhuge Liang instead. I got a decent mark for the essay… and then several months later, when an almost identical question appeared in our exam – but specifically about Zhuge Liang, allowing me to regurgitate my essay almost verbatim – I realised why our lecturer had tried to be so specific…

‘The Only Cure’ – Grimdark Magazine #25

I’ve mentioned this a couple of times recently, but it’s finally here for real: my new story in Grimdark Magazine #25!

Grimdark Magazine presents the darker, grittier side of fantasy and science fiction. Each quarterly issue features established and new authors to take you through their hard-bitten worlds alongside articles, reviews and interviews. Our stories are grim, our worlds are dark and our morally grey protagonists and anti-heroes light the way with bloody stories of war, betrayal and action.

FICTION:

Sacred Semantics by Nicholas EamesThe Only Cure by Hûw SteerThe Dead Man by Jack van BeynenStiff’s Standoff by Jamie EdmundsonWinter Sweet, Winter Grieve by Kaaron Warren

NON-FICTION:

An Interview with Seanan McGuire by Beth TablerCyberpunk 2077: Working for the Man to Spite the Man by Charles PhippsReview: The Stone Knife by Anna StephensMichael Moorcock’s Elric of Melnibone: The Anti-Conan by Anthony PercontiAn Interview with Essa Hanson by Beth TablerHow Not to Fuck Yourself Over Self-Publishing by Ben Galley

You can get Grimdark #25 at their website here. I really recommend doing so. It’s a very good read.

Lockdown: Tokyo Drift #1 – Short Stories and Long Games

Well, here we go again. Again. Getting a little bored of these lockdowns now, but at least there might be some kind of hope on the horizon this time…

In somewhat more positive news, I should have another short story out very soon (as in next week!) – and my own copy of the latest Publishers’ Prize anthology has also finally made its way to me!

Lovely cover art by Manon Wright



And a cheeky sneak preview for you…

Actual publishing of the anthology is still up in the air, I believe (and can’t have been helped by yet another lockdown…), but you can read the story on the UCL Portico site if you can’t wait.

To keep me sane during another lockdown, I have once again turned to videogames. And while I have a lot of games that I need to play (Mass Effect 3 has been waiting about 2 years, and my Steam library grows far faster than I actually finish games…), I found myself craving a bit of cyberpunk. And as I don’t have a PS5 yet, and thus can’t actually get Cyberpunk 2077, I went back to an old standby: Deus Ex – Human Revolution.

This is the first game I ever played on PS3 – a long time ago now – and it’s one of my favourite games of all time, alongside Ratchet and Clank 3 and XCOM: Enemy Unknown. I’ve played it through half a dozen times, both to get all the endings and just to be in the world. It’s a gorgeous game. The environments are beautifully rendered, from the grungy underworld of Hengsha to the soaring spires of… well, Hengsha.

‘The Sky Above The Port’, from the DX:HR concept art. Seriously, if this image alone doesn’t convince you to play the game I don’t know what will.

The story is a wonderfully-constructed thing too. Unwilling Robocop Adam Jensen takes on big corporations and shadowy cabals as he tries to unravel a nesting-doll of conspiracies and plots. But grand story aside, the side-quests are just as well put-together. When there are such high stakes bubbling in the background, I ought to feel guilty when I take time out to bring down a dirty cop, or help a prostitute escape effective slavery. But you never do. The voice acting is stellar, the writing is fantastic, and every small story feels just as important as the overarching plot. That’s game writing done right.

(The game is also apparently very quick to speedrun, as Heinki just proved at this year’s Awesome Games Done Quick. If you’ve already played the game, this is well worth a watch.)

I know all these stories very well by now, of course. I’ve played every side-quest many times over, and I know exactly what’s going to happen. But even now, there are so many options to the game that despite usually picking the same or similar paths, I still find myself surprised. Yesterday, I went into a conversation mini-game – one of the earliest in the game – totally confident that I’d be able to breeze through it and convince a former colleague to let me into a police station morgue. But for the first time – ever – I messed it up. I failed. 7 or 8 playthroughs, and I’ve never done that. But now I have to find another path – and I’m really excited at the prospect. I just have to find one that doesn’t require shooting too many policemen.

I guess what I’m ultimately saying, in a roundabout and rambling way, is that even stories you think you know very well can bring you new joys when you experience them again. Give it a try.

And play Deus Ex. Seriously, it’s great.

2021: Stuff To Do (To Start With)

Now I’m not going to make a massive list of resolutions and promises that spans the entire year, because like most of us I’ve got no bloody clue what’s going to happen in the next few months, let alone the whole year. But as a new year dawns, I have a few things on my mind that I want to do creatively and with this blog throughout 2021, so I figured I should tell you lot what they are.

The big one, of course, is getting another book out. Hopefully, that book will be Untitled Second Boiling Seas Book, which as I’ve mentioned occasionally is well underway and (finally) seems to be approaching an end-point to the plot. There’s still an awful lot of cutting and other editing to be done on it, of course, but finishing the damn thing looks a lot more achievable now than it did a few months ago. So hopefully I’ll be getting that out in the summer. If not that, then something else. But another book for certain.

I’ve also got a few things I need to review. Carried Away to start with (which I will finish soon, Ethan, if you’re reading), but also some other non-book things I’ll probably want to talk about, namely The Clone Wars (once I finish it) and Star Trek: Discovery (once I start season 3 properly). Also some video-game stuff. I just played through Portal Stories: Mel over the holiday, and it was a seriously well-made thing, so expect to hear about that properly soon. I generally want to start putting a few more reviews up on this blog this year, so they’ll be a good start.

In terms of my actual writing I want to do some more short stories. As I’ve actually had a few picked up recently, I’m running low on short pieces to send around, and I’d like to write a few standalone pieces for a change.

Also, Salvage Seven. Despite the fact that I haven’t posted any more of it since February, I haven’t forgotten about it. Part/Book/Whatever 2 of the story is almost finished – I’ve just taken a long old break. So I’ll try and finish that up this year, do a bit of tweaking, and then post the next chunk of Gideon and company’s tale.

So: new book, more reviews, more shorts, and more Salvage. That’ll certainly do to start with.

Christmas Time-Warp

Forgot it was Sunday. Oops. Time flows even more weirdly at Christmas time than in… well, 2020.

I would love to write a proper update, but in truth I’ve spent the last week doing as little as physically possible: eating a lot of food, reading some books, and building a bloody massive Lego set. Thanks, parents. You still know me very well.

It’s got a 4-speed gearbox and it works and it’s so cool

I also got Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth, which promises to be an intriguing read – and a delightful vintage set of comic strips.

In terms of my festive reading list, I’ve finished all the Tchaikovsky short stories (for now) – fantastic windows on the world of the Apt. I’m now a little way into Rhythm of War (having had to look up several recaps of Stormlight so far), but I intend to take a break for Carried Away at some point this week.

Otherwise that’s pretty much it. Portal Stories: Mel has also been a feature of my evenings, when I’ve not been finishing off my Deathwatch army for 40k. I also found a box is some very old Orks under my bed…

Instantaneous Photograms – General Update

Well, Christmas will be weird, it seems. Thankfully I intended to spend my time off playing videogames and eating food regardless of circumstances, so not that much has actually changed. Still a bit frazzled by it all, though, so forgive me for a short update-y post this week.

Perhaps unwisely, I have decided to venture a little further into the realm of social media, and made an Instagram. There’s not much on there right now – it’s probably just going to end up being miniature painting photos and the like, but maybe some other stuff like cover art, etc. (whenever I actually have any more of that to show). But if you want to have a look, it’s over here.

Stuff like this basically

Another review for Ad Luna has come in, from Ethan Haines, author of the Anachronist series. It’s a beefy read but well worth it. Honestly, he’s probably thought more about the genre and definitions of the book than I did.

On the front of shorter works, Shoreline of Infinity #19 is full of lovely stories, including mine, and is very much out. I’ve also done the first round of edits for my plague doctor story for Grimdark Magazine, so that’s approaching readiness very nicely indeed.

Again, apologies for the short post – I’ll try and write a few reviews this week, as I’ve been burning through the start of my festive reading list at a rate of knots and loving every bit of it.

Stay safe out there. Or in there, if you’re stuck in your house. Just general safety is advised.

Review – The Short Story Teller

A very comprehensive review of Ad Luna has been posted by Ethan Haines over at The Short Story Teller. He and I might disagree over how we define science-fiction, but given how much he liked the book (“one of the rising stars of indie fantasy and science fiction”!) I’m not going to complain at all!

Ethan, I promise I’ll start Carried Away very soon…

Festive Reading List: Not Actually That Festive

My to-be-read pile has grown significantly over the last month or two – partly because of people giving me a few books for my birthday, and partly because I also have a Kindle and no literary impulse control. But I’ll try and get through a chunk of my ‘Unread’ folder and my physical pile before and over Christmas – because there’s a significant possibility that I might get even more books…

Spoils of War: Tales of the Apt, Book 1

Adrian Tchaikovsky is a fantastic author, and Shadows of the Apt is one of my favourite book series of all. I’ve read all 10 books several times over, but I’ve long been wanting to read more from the world of the Insect-Kinden. Conveniently, there are several books of short stories that I haven’t gotten to yet!

Saga: Volume 8

Saga is probably the most gorgeous graphic series I’ve ever read – the story of Marko and Alana is brilliantly written and beautifully illustrated. Can’t wait to read the next instalment.

Carried Away (Sparrow #4)

Ethan Haines’ latest Sparrow book promises to be just as weird and wonderful as the rest – and, it seems, appropriately themed for these troubled times…

Rhythm of War (Stormlight Archive #4)

I love Brandon Sanderon’s Cosmere, and the next brick of a book in the series is finally here. I can’t wait to dive back into Roshar and all the surrounding worlds – Sanderson’s worldbuilding is seriously second to none.

Shoreline of Infinity #19

No, this isn’t just vanity – though my ‘Blank Slates’ is hiding in this lovely book, there are lots of other fantastic stories in there too. I’ve only read Ballantyne and Beckett’s ‘The Silent Woods’ so far, but it was a brilliantly chilling piece, and I’m looking forward to getting stuck into the rest.

What have you got to read – and what books are you hoping to get for Christmas?

(if you haven’t got any literary plans may I suggest one of the lovely books in the sidebar?)

Suddenly I’m In Stuff

I don’t know. You spend months slogging away at your keyboard, writing and submitting short stories and novels and all manner of writings that never see the light of day… and then suddenly two of them get accepted at once.

I posted last week about being published in the latest issue of Shoreline of Infinity – which you can now buy, incidentally, if you want to look at the lovely artwork by Tsu and also maybe read the story – something I’m very excited about. Just waiting for my copy to arrive…

But earlier this week I had another bit of good news. I mentioned back in August (or seventeen years ago) that I was entering a competition by Grimdark Magazine, sponsored by the excellent Matt Ward.

I dusted off a very old short story I wrote (for some history homework back in Year 8, I think), threw away everything but 50% of the basic concept and then wrote a nice harrowing 4000 words about a plague doctor having a generally miserable time.

I entered the competition. And then I won it. So that’s pretty cool.

‘The Only Cure’ will, all being well, be appearing in the 25th issue of Grimdark, coming out on the 15th of January next year. So if you want to keep the spirit of pandemic going into 2021, save the date.

And if you’re writing too, don’t give up. Good things come to those who wait, and those who keep on trying. Even if you’re waiting and trying a long time.

Lockdown 2: Isolation Boogaloo #4 – Everyone Keeps Dying

David Prowse died last night. He was 85, so it was a good run, in fairness, but still. It seems like a lot of good people have been getting old lately. But the rest of those people weren’t Darth Vader.

[image error]Image from Wookiepedia

Ok, so Prowse wasn’t all of Vader. He was the man in the costume for the first three Star Wars films. He was the man who read all Vader’s lines to the other actors – in a West Country accent. He didn’t actually end up voicing Vader, of course – though apparently he didn’t find out he’d been replaced until he actually watched the premiere of the film (which was a bit of a crappy thing for George Lucas to do).

From the documentary ‘Empire of Dreams’ (2004)

But he was still Vader. For all three of the original films, it was Prowse who loomed over Mark Hamill, who dominated every one of Vader’s scenes with his massive frame. It was also Prowse who apparently kept breaking prop lightsaber blades in all the fight scenes (he wasn’t a very good swordsman). It was Prowse who threw the Emperor down that bottomless pit. Prowse might not have been Vader’s voice (or even his face), but he was still Darth Vader.

It’s a sad thing to lose him. The original Star Wars cast has started to grow thin in the last few years: Kenny Baker, Peter Mayhew, Carrie Fisher, and now Prowse. And as I mentioned earlier a lot of other people have been getting old lately – Sean Connery for one.

But I did come across this when I was looking up Prowse’s life. He got together with musician Jayce Lewis back in 2015 – he was actually Lewis’ PR manager for many years – and after some technical wizardry and a bit of recording, they finally turned Prowse’s voice into Darth Vader’s. It was a long time coming. You can watch the results below.

May the Force be with you.

‘From the Force’s Mouth’, by Jayce Lewis and David Prowse (2015)