The Pictures I Promised

Posted on June 27, 2011 by Ileandra Young

I know, I know! In various places, across various posts I have told you that I’d be putting up pictures of various things I’ve been doing. And a failed a little bit. Not for lack of desire, certainly, but because its been the busiest couple of weeks of this year so far and actually sitting at my computer to do these things, while I wasn’t at work, has been somewhat tricky.

So… here… at last… are some of the pictures I’ve been meaning to put here; from the LARP in May, from Tenerife and from the more local jaunt around the southern end of the country.

The first row is from the Oasis Of Souls which was the Herofest event run in May.
The next two rows are photos from Tenerife
The last two are pictures of some of the pretty things I saw at Devil’s Dyke and in inner London

With any of these, feel free to click on the thumbnail to take a look at the full size picture.

Also I’d like to offer additional thanks to Richard for allowing me to use his images:
Credit: Richard Shipman (images 1, 2 & 3)
Credit: Ileandra Young (images 4, 5, 6 , 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, & 15)

*This Gallery is populated with images used with the express permission of the photographers who retain all copyright. These pictures are not be copied, saved, distributed or stored without the expression permission of the owner.

 

 

 

 

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My First Literary Con!

Posted on June 26, 2011 by Ileandra Young

So… first of all, I think I need to thank my wonderful, awesome, fabulously sexy, loving and amazing partner for giving me a gentle, barely there push to do what I did yesterday. He’s got this fabulous way of pushing, without pushing and suggesting, without suggesting that gets me moving and doing things that are only good for me.

So what did I do…?
Yesterday I went to the Write East Midlands, Alt Fiction festival featuring authors, editors and publishers of the horror, fantasy and sci-fi genres. It was amazing!

I’ve never been to an event like that before; filled with names of the industry that make people squee and wet their pants. I spent plenty of time squealing, but mainly because it was so much fun! I’m not at all ashamed to say I didn’t recognise a single name there (except one) but that does tell me that my plan to read as many authors as possible that I haven’t before, is a worthwhile activity. I recognised Graham Joyce because of the writer’s club back last year. That was waaaaaaaaay back in the early days of this blog. I’m pretty certain he didn’t remember me, but his advice when I went to one of his workshops was fabulously useful, as was the advice of Colin Harvey, even if he’s the ‘sci-fi guy.’

So… three panels, one podcast, two workshops and plenty of rushing around talking to people, handing out cards, listening to what people do, how they do it and why they do it.

The first workshop was ‘Is There Anywhere New For Science Fiction To Go?’ and that was great! Even I’m not at all an author of Sci-Fi, listening to Alastair Reynolds, Tony Ballantyne, Ian Whates and John Jarrold talk about the potential of the genre really made me feel better about choosing such a tricky career path. And I’ve decided that I like John Jarrold a great deal. I like the way he thinks and I enjoy the way he speaks; listening to him was very pleasant. And he had this way of capturing the entire room which seemed, to me, to be a mix of respect and fear. Lol. His name kept coming up afterwards as well and I recognised that he is an editor of some renown (his agency looked after Robert Jordan – squeeeeeeeeeee!).

It was the second panel, however, which was my favourite; ‘Has Fantasy Moved Past Tolkien?’ Well of course it has, but its interesting that Tolkien has left so much of a stamp on the world with work Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit. Adrian Tchaikovsky, Graham McNeill, Gav Thorpe and Juliet McKenna all clustered together for a fabulous chin wag. They touched on the racism debate with the ‘black’ orcs and ‘fair, white’ elves and then even mentioned the fact that the ‘original’ elves, faeries and pixies are not as we have come to understand them now. The old folklore painted a much darker picture of these creatures and Tolkien somehow managed to make them lighter and brighter and pretty when they used to be the types that drank the blood of cattle and kidnapped your kids. It was all a wonderful eye-opening exercise and just listening to them has given me some ideas that I’d like to run on with in the form of short stories or novels.

I was late for the last panel too (oops) but it was on scriptwriting. Robert Shearman, I’ve decided, seems like a funny and likeable kind of guy and he was a writer for Doctor Who (last series I think). I liked hearing them talk about their experiences, but I know that’s not quite the type of writing I want; despite working on things like HouseMates.

The podcast, which will probably be available to listen to here, featured Rod Rees, Guy Haley, Colin Harvey and Pat Kelleher talking about how they ‘broke into’ the writing world. That was very interesting and its fascinating how different the experiences of each author has been. It did stop me in my tracks though… by that point, I was slightly more relaxed than I had been on the way in and I was more open to asking questions and being heard. I sat there, thinking quietly that I could throw a massive spanner in the gears by asking a question that had been bugging me for about an hour. I didn’t though… I resisted.

But can you spot what my question might have been? It might be a bit harder without pictures of these authors, but if you look, so far I’ve named one woman. One. All these men are middle aged; from forty years of age and up with a couple of exceptions (I think Guy and Pat were somewhat younger). Not only that, but everyone of these people are white.

Now… in this day an age of being PC and equal and ‘one-world’ and all the rest of it, I’m fascinated by this. I was the only (and I shit you not, the only) black person at that event. Couple that with the fact that I’m a woman in a male dominated world and I did have a brief moment of panic. Well… not panic exactly, but I did have a moment of wondering ‘are they asking themselves what the hell I’m doing here?’

And I actually did put it into a question eventually; I asked Colin Harvey in his workshop. In hindsight that was a bit mean and poorly planned, since he had a workshop to run and time was ticking, but I couldn’t help myself: ‘When writing a book and looking for an agent and/or a publisher you’re not just selling you’re book; you’re selling yourself as well…. Looking at the panels and groups here today, the authors and editors are predominantly older, white men. I am a younger, black woman. Is that marketable? Obviously it shouldn’t make a difference if the quality of the writing is what people care about, but I do feel rather intimidated by what I’ve seen here today.’

Well… that’s how the question should have sounded, but it didn’t. I got my point across, but I wasn’t quite as eloquent as that (ah well).

His answer made me think. He told me that at the point where the initial selling happens, i.e. on paper, finding an agent or publisher, nobody knows what I look like or how old I am. Its not written at the top of my work, is it? ‘Young, black fantasy writer?’ Of course it isn’t. Anyway, he said that I could make as big or as little a deal out of it as I wanted to. In fact, I could gloss over it completely because its not important.

Now that was nice to hear, but it was the response from the chap eavesdropping that I liked a whole lot more. I wish I could remember his name – I think it was John – but I’m not sure. Regardless, I want to thank him, because he’s given me something to think about. And I’ve said it before; anything that I can use that makes me different, separate, more interesting, I should use. Anything that an agent and/or publisher can use as a hook to get people interested can and should be used. So… why the hell shouldn’t I? Why wouldn’t I?

I don’t know. I don’t want to build a career on a fact/idea/thought that is actually irrelevant; after all, I’m a writer. I write and its the writing that I want to be known and acknowledged and enjoyed. At the same time, I do wonder, at the back of my mind, if I really have picked a harder world than most to try to ‘break into.’

The raffle was great fun. As a rule, I’m lucky enough (I haven’t been hit by a car, never been on a plane that crashed into the ocean, you know, that sort of luck) but I’ve never won even £1 on the lottery or a raffle. But I bought two strips and then settled in to watch the comedy. Guy Adams and Sarah Pinborough were incredibly funny on stage together, going through the lots and when they got to the one which contained a ‘filthy sex scene’ I do admit that I sat up a little straighter and paid more attention. Imagine my glee therefore, when Guy calls out ‘pink 22’ and I realise that that is my ticket! Not only that, but that its on the second strip of tickets that I nearly didn’t buy!. Well that was fabulous! I am now the proud owner of a special edition hardback version of The Wizard Oak by Peter Crowther and I’m very much looking forward to reading it! All the more so because Peter found me some time after the raffle and personally apologised for any offence the book might cause. !!! I can’t WAIT to get my teeth into this baby; it sounds like the type of thing I’d love!

The book store was fabulous too. I’ve picked so many books this weekend that I’m going to be occupied for the next couple of months; I can’t wait to get started; its going to be grand! Some were free, some I bought for various humours reasons but all will be enjoyable. Let’s see… I’ve got:

Bartimaeus: The Amulet of Samarkand (picked up for free)
-by Jonathan Stroud

Naked Brunch (purple cover, it looked sparkly and it had fangs on the front, I bought it)
-by Sparkle Hayter

Desdaemona (picked up for free, chosen over several others because there was a werewolf on the cover)
-by Ben Macallan

The Poison Throne (picked up for free and I liked the fact that I have a friend of the same name)
-by Celine Kiernan

The Gabble (and other stories) (picked up for free; figured why not an anthology???)
-by Neal Asher

The Star Faction (can’t remember what drew me to this; but I bought it anyway)
-by Ken Macleod

You Suck (seriously? Its called ‘you suck!’ You really shouldn’t have to ask why I bought this one!)
-by Christopher Moore

Mindstar Rising (picked up for free; was going to swap it for Desdaemona, but ended up with both anyway)
-by Peter F. Hamilton

Consider Phlebas (I’ve never read anything by this guy, so I thought I should since people make so much fuss about him. So bought it)
-by Iain M. Banks

There you go. Couple that with The Wizard Oak and I have ten new books to read.

So… to celebrate my stepping out of my literary closet, here’s a deal I’m going to make with you. I’m going to review these books as I read them. Each and every one. A bit like the 80 Post Challenge, I’ll make a feature of it, the posts will have their own tag and I’ll let you know what I think about each one. In fact, I may keep doing it. There are two books I read while in Tenerife that are authors I don’t know; I’ll review those too. I think its good practise for me too; to get into the habit of understanding the thoughts and words other people might use about my work one day.

Phew! Right, I’ve talked for ages, done for now. I’m sure I’ve missed loads; like the rest of the fabulous people I talked to (Raven, John, Rax, Theresa, Phil, Sarah) but I can’t make these posts too long!

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The Holiday Ends… :(

Posted on June 23, 2011 by Ileandra Young

stretch of black sand at Tenerife, copyright Leah Osbourne 2011I’m back! Its been a wonderful, wonderful two weeks. I didn’t even realise that I’d spend so much of it away from home, but I have. The first half of it was in Tenerife and was BEAUTIFUL!!! That island is absolutely gorgeous, then, after a one day rest back at home, it was off again, this time with my partner to traverse the southern regions of the country. We only had a few days, but it kept us busy going from Inner London, to Croydon, to Dorking, to Brighton, to Hayward Heath, back to Brighton and then on to the New Forest. I’ve had an amazing time!

I have some pictures too, so a soon as they’re sorted and ready I’ll get a small collection of them up so you can see; I know folk like to take a look at stuff like that.

I even managed to do some writing while I was away. Not much, but those of you who have been following my Twitter feed may have seen that I’ve done some work while I was in Tenerife. It was all hand written too, which I’ve decided that I hate passionately. It hurts my poor little fingers something awful and my wrist aches! Isn’t it amazing to think that all of the most amazing books of the past were written by hand? Think of those monsters like War And Peace or Paradise Lost… all written by hand. And then to print the buggers, you would have had to use those printing presses. Yikes!

Puts it in perspective really, doesn’t it? Makes you realise that these days we’re all very, very lucky to be where we are insofar as technology and that we’ve got something as easy to use as a computer. To some degree they take care of all the work for you; checking out spelling, grammar and making it easy to go back and correct mistakes. I remember when I had a typewriter, how awful it would be to get five lines down the page and realise that I’d missed a word or that a line didn’t make sense. Tipex and retype for me. What a nightmare!

Even using the old BBC (I think that’s what they were called) computers with no mouse that were purely F-key commands was horrible. Those big, clunky word processors on the black screen with the green text that ran in DOS. That’s what I learned to touch type on by the way.

And isn’t it amazing that we can touch type at all? That there is now a mechanism to use a keyboard to type words almost as fast as you can think them up?

Well, I’ve drifted a bit, as I usually do.

Let’s go back to Tenerife (lord, I wish I could! I got off the plane at Stansted and straight into rain; it made me want to cry). It was 30 degrees there, if not more, all week. My sister managed to get heat rash and a wildly uneven tan, while I enjoyed lightly toasted shoulders, arms and chest. I got to wear a lovely pair of sandals that were frighteningly comfortable to walk in, which was good because we did a LOT of walking! I didn’t go to bed on any night before 1am and I didn’t get up on any morning before 10am. ^_^ I ate far more junk than I ever should have and most of that was ice cream and crisps. I’ve developed a taste for Spanish brown bread and I finally got to do that fish spa thing; where you stick your feet in the tank and the little fishies eat away all the dead skin. Fabulous! And much cheaper there than here. I took some beautiful pictures of the ocean as well as getting to swim about in it (when I say swim, I mean walk through it until the waves lapped at the back of my neck because I didn’t want to get my hair wet) and nearly burnt the soles of my feet on the blistering hot sand.

I even brought some sand back; just two little tubes of it. I’ve never seen sand that colour before. Its a volcanic island, so the rock is very dark which means that the sand is quite coarse and that its very dark. None of that golden stuff you see in the Caribbean, this wasn’t black, but it was brown almost and very, very beautiful.

I’d go on more, but I suppose I should get ready for work. I’ll tell you what; when I do the little gallery, I’ll talk a bit more about it then.

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80 Post Challenge – Post 10

Posted on June 22, 2011 by Ileandra Young

What is the most annoying sound you have ever heard?

-_- There are a couple of things I can think of, but, if I need to narrow it down to one thing (no more cheating, Illy!) then I guess its this.
(I can’t believe I’m actually going to give you a link for this!)

Yeah. This, when it came on, drove me bonkers. There was nothing funny about it, nothing amusing about it, instead it just made me want to stab people with forks. It set my teeth on edge. GAH!

Then there was all the hype from parents freaking out because the stupid little frog had his penis showing. Then they either blotted it out in the adverts (and made it worse in my opinion) or pixilated it and brought even more attention to the area.

I mean who’s idea was this?! I’m sure someone will be able to tell me, but, actually I don’t really want to know. I don’t actually care. That thing was just one of those annoying little gimmicks that went on and on forever and just refuses to die a death. I hate it!

*huff huff huff huff*

Calm.

And do you know what bothers me more? Its not just the noise that’s annoying – although it is! Is the fact that someone out there was making money from it! I hate it (really hate it and sometimes even feel personally offended by) people who make money out of stupid or annoying things. The crazy frog is one of them. The cheeky girls are another. Most reality TV shows fall under the same category for me, as does football. Not that I dislike the sport in of itself, but the politics and hype and drama around it gets the hell on my nerves when it should just be around playing the game. You never see golfers or cricketers acting like that!

Anyway, I just need to mention something else; do you know something else that bothered me, as recently as this morning? I was rolling over in bed. I’d slung my arm over my partner – as you do – snuggled into his back… and then… sat bolt upright when in the tree right outside the window a magpie started calling. You know that horrible grating sort of cawwing sound. Ugh.

So I tried to ignore it. Oh no… that didn’t work. And would this magpie go the hell away? Nuh-uh! I went to the loo, hoping that by the time I’d done that and come back it would be gone, but no. Not only was it there, but it had a friend and they were talking to each other across the window.

I just walked out and crawled into the bed in the spare room. Much quieter in there!

Not that noises like that often keep me awake, but that was 7am on a day that I was supposed to be having a lie in. Once I’m awake and the sun is streaming in its bloody hard to get back to sleep again. So I needed quiet.

But that was a pretty annoying noise too. Yikes!

 

 

 

 

My 80 Post Challenge is brought to you with help from Tom Slatin’s 80 Journal Writing Prompts.

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80 Post Challenge – Post 09

Posted on June 20, 2011 by Ileandra Young

Are you afraid of the dark? Why or why not?

Ha! Not any more!

I tell you what, I used to have difficulty with it, not because of the dark itself but because of what happens in it. You hear stories of people getting murderised and beaten up all the time. It tends to happen after dark. It tends be when the safety of the day is gone, leaving you with moon and stars (if you’re lucky, living in the city) and very few people around to hear you screaming if you do happen to get in trouble.

Uruk-hai statueThe dark and blackness and darkness is associated with bad things. The monster under the bed hides in the dark. Evil things are described as ‘black’ and ‘dark,’ a convention that I myself am guilty of when writing. In fact there are loads of people out there who believe that The Lord Of The Rings is just one massive racial slam at everybody who isn’t ‘fair’ and ‘golden haired’ and ‘beautiful.’ The tower of the evil Saruman was ‘dark and black’ and the orcs, uruks and goblins were all black too. -_- I don’t have time for that sort of assessment and I am of the belief that Tolkien had more than enough on his mind without shoving racial undertones into his book. Whether they are there or not. I still enjoy the book, I don’t give a crap.

There’s a song brought to mind when I think of this:

Isn’t that just the line? ‘In the dark of the night evil will find her!‘ And that’s how people feel. ‘In the dark of the night evil will brew.‘ I, just like everyone else, became afraid and worried about what might happen and all the terrible things out there that I can’t see. Isn’t that something to be afraid of?

But then… well then I went LARPing.
Hehee!

Seriously, this beautifully fun and action packed hobby changed how I feel about the dark forever. My first LARP was October 2009. I went with a friend of mine who knew from the off that I would love it and I adapted one of my characters from The Ice Wolf Tavern to play there. Her name is Trya Fenwyn. She’s an elf.

Trya Fenwyn, Herofest LARP, photo copyright Richard Shipman 2011

Bare in mind that Herofest, which is the LARP system I play is in Wales and is a two (normally three) night stay at the Candlestone Castle campsite. Its fantasy based, so there are no phones, no TVs, no electricity at all in fact, once you are in character. You camp out (or get a yurt if you’re lucky) and sleep under the stars. Out there, the dark creeps in slowly, but in October, just like everywhere else in this hemisphere of the world, it was dark at about 4pm. And when I say dark, I mean dark! No street lamps. No car headlamps. No glowing TV screens. Just dark. You had to depend on moon and star and whatever light you might have been able to incorporate into your character (or,sometimes, just for the sake of safety, a torch if really, really needed).

Now put all that together and plant it on the plate of a woman – me – who grew up in London and then moved to Leicester. Big cities where light was never, ever something I needed to worry about. Hell, even seeing stars might have been a real treat (that I had to go on holiday for) because light pollution is so much that everything that high is lost in the glare of the city.

MoonImagine me, in borrowed costume, with a borrowed sword, tramping across a wide stretch of sand dunes with an utterly clear and open sky, revealing a blanket of stars in the darkness like silver glitter scattered on a velvet sheet. Beautiful. I’ve never seen anything like it and I still have trouble finding the words for it. I’m sure there are far more beautiful sights out there, but give this cityslicker time to find them, eh?

Well, imagine all that and then imagine from somewhere behind you a massive scream and someone shouting ‘INCOMING’ at the top of their lungs….

Alarmed, you turn about.
Your hand goes to your sword hilt, pulling it free of the scabbard at your hip with a light tug and spinning the mighty weapon up into a two handed grip. At your side, your allies do the same and down the line of warriors there is the loud shuffle of drawn weapons and rustling armour. Then, from the bottom of the hill, a single shape appears.
It is red; a hideous face of melted, twisted features and two large horns pushing upwards from a bulbous protruding forehead. Another creature steps up to join it. And another, and another. Within moments, five of the creatures stand at the bottom of the hill and advance with slow, measured steps.
At your side, fellow elves spread their feet in the sand, settling into fighting stances until a cry is raised, hard and clear on the night air. ‘ATTACK!’
You rush forward, keeping the line, bringing your sword forward across your body in a powerful downward stroke to hew at the chest of the first of those strange red creatures. All around you the two opposing lines crash together with a roar as of mighty sea waves breaking over a shingle shore.

Yeah… so do all of that and then try to find time to be afraid of the dark!

Believe me, there’s no space for it.

There’s no time to worry about the horror stories of murder and theft as you’re walking along the woodland path at 11.30pm, knowing full well that a cluster of goblins or hoardlings may well be lying in wait around the next blind bend. As the moon dips behind a cloud and the stars are the only thing left to light the way, you merely draw your sword, open your eyes wide and step firmly and silently through the darkness because, frankly put, you are what the people should be scared of.

Yep. Silly as it sounds; that is why I’m no longer scared of the dark and when I go back to Herofest in July, I’ll be looking forward to dashing headlong across the moonlit sands screaming ‘SUMMER STARS’ at the top of my lungs.
gold star, from OpenClipArt

 

 

 

 

My 80 Post Challenge is brought to you with help from Tom Slatin’s 80 Journal Writing Prompts.

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