Short Story Extract – A Wild Affair
This Saturday I will be attending Edge-Lit 4 in Derby. I’ve got a pretty busy schedule if you want to come and see me, as you will see:
10.30-11.20 [Cinema Two) Into the Grimdark – Is Darker Fantasy a Trend, or Here to Stay?
With Sophie Sparham, Adrian Tchaikovsky and Adele Wearing.
11.30-12.20 [Digital Suite] Workshop – Pushing the Edges: How to be Inventive.
12.20-1.15 [The Box] Lunchtime Launchtime: Fox Spirit and Boo Books.
Launch of the anthology We Can Improve You including my short story Driver Not Found (extract will be published on my blog on Saturday).
4.15-5.05 [The Box] Knightwatch Press Launch.
Launch of the anthology Nice Day for a Picnic (extract from my short story A Wild Affair, published below).
5.15-7.05 [Cinema Two] Short and Sweet – Writing and Selling Short Stories.
With Andrew Hook, Kim Lakin-Smith, Alison Littlewood and Adele Wearing.
Yes, it does seem that Aunty Fox from Fox Spirit Books is stalking me, or perhaps the other way around… Tickets are still available, and there is a slim chance you might be able to get one at the door on the day. Workshops are booked on arrival for those that want to attend them.
A full schedule can be found here: Edge-Lit 4 Schedule
And here is a sample from my short A Wild Affair appearing in Nice Day for a Picnic from Knightwatch Press.
Burning wood and straw blackened the sky and the crackle of flames grew louder and louder. Eadric watched the fires consuming Shrewsbury from a nearby hill, his standard held aloft by Osgar for all to see. To the left hung the flags of Bleddyn and Rhiwallon. The Welsh nobles jeered in their outlandish language and waved their fists at the wooden fort that occupied the hill on the opposite side of the town.
“We will let the invaders sit behind their stockade and laugh at us?” said Osgar. “We raze the homes of good Englishfolk and let the Bastard’s soldiers live?”
“And how many lives is it worth to wipe the smiles from their lips, old friend?” Eadric waved a hand toward the south-east. “We have messages that the Bastard has sent William fitzOsbern and Brian of Brittany to aid the dogs in the fort. We have no time to starve them out. To throw ourselves at the walls seems pointless. The lesson has been taught. The nobles of the West will not go idly into slavery beneath Norman masters like the cowards of the South.”
“You said they would bleed for Mercia,” replied Osgar. “We retreated from Hereford, driven to hide in Wales with the sheep. Now we leave again without taking our due.”
“The Normans are clever and powerful. We cannot strike rashly and miss again.”
“But we will strike?”
Eadric looked over at his Welsh companions and then turned toward the other English rebels that thronged the hills.
“Soon we will have a reckoning with the Bastard’s men. Very soon.”
