Nobody knows when I am, I think
Jun. 2nd, 2023 05:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ashlymeYesterday I found myself in the South with a friend, visiting Waddesdon Manor - the chateau of the Rothschild family, incongruously popped down in a Buckinghamshire village. An opulent sort of place: there are marble wine coolers with the face of Bacchus on them (being an ale-loving pleb, I wanted to drop a couple of bottles of auburn beer into the water). A gilded elephant automaton as you enter - sadly not in operation; I'd like to have seen that. A malachite urn presented by a Russian Tsar. A small Watteau painting of masked comedians. Napoleon's emeralds in the treasury room, along with jade elephants, iridescent glass, mother-of-pearl boxes; security on that room didn't seem as obviously tight as it did in the wine cellars! A fine tall tree-fern caught my eye as we left.
I've waited *years* to see a red kite, and saw seemingly dozens over the roads and fields. They are huge birds, at least as big as buzzards. We passed signs for villages called Oddington, Marsh Gibbon - which really should be someone's pen-name; had a quick pint where the Cotswolds meets Warwickshire: I've missed houses in yellow limestone, never expected to find them so relatively close to me.
The last few weeks have seen me frantically working on a new story (the first in five years!!!) called IN THE WHITE MAY. It's set mostly in the 90s and revolves fey visitations in the rural Midlands, as well a toy theatre, a playground dancing game, and the folklore of hawthorn trees. Glad to say it was accepted for publication yesterday, for an anthology of tree-related strange fiction, hopefully coming out later this year. A huge thank you to sovay , who read it and made lots of helpful comments. Hopefully it won't be as long a wait for the next story.
sovay , who read it and made lots of helpful comments. Hopefully it won't be as long a wait for the next story.
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Date: 2023-06-02 05:00 pm (UTC)Congratulations! Also I NEED DETAILS OF THIS ANTHOLOGY. *grabby hands*
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Date: 2023-06-02 08:03 pm (UTC)The anthology's called UNQUIET GROVE, from Egaeus Press. I'll let you know when there's some news.
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Date: 2023-06-02 06:40 pm (UTC)Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.
*hugs*
(It was a pleasure.)
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Date: 2023-06-02 08:04 pm (UTC)You are an excellent beta-reader, and a good egg in general.