Congratulations to The Nameless Writing Group’s newest member, Sam Grant, who has just published his latest novel, Galactic Mission.
“James Walters is a sales manager for an international conglomerate, based in the UK [who just happens to] encounter Empress Adriana from the Galactic Command Force … oh, and ruler of planet Earth and all planets circling the sun.”
With the second draft of Up On Midwinter Hill complete it’s now time to allow the story to stew. Meanwhile, I’ve also had feedback from The Nameless Writing Group for my shape-shifter piece, Hashtag Rewilding, (which has been on the backburner) so I’m pretty much ready to revisit this one.
I reread Rewilding a few nights ago, and it was then that I saw the wonderful illustration (opposite) by Sam Guay entitled, Tender. I was fascinated by the bark-like background that the woman’s almost misshapen form appears to be morphing into and, in particular, the way her belly has become a woody knot or whorl which may symbolise anxiety or hunger.
I drew parallels in this artwork with Hashtag Rewilding, notably the theme of trust. Whilst the woman in the picture does not seem particularly happy about placing her head in the jaws of a wolf, this mouthing behaviour is very common amongst canines and can be seen as being similar to a hug for a human. Maybe the woman in the picture has a pre-conceived idea about the act, like we all have about something at one point or another. Given the present state of my (Western) society, perhaps we do need to pay a little more attention to how we act and learn to trust our instincts rather than what others tell us.
Hashtag Rewilding, borne from an exchange on the recent sighting of the Hull werewolf, Old Stinker, and the rewilding debate explores what happens when we are both ruled by prejudices and when we are free of them.
With thanks to the artist, Sam Guay, for the kind permission to use her work. Please visit: http://www.samguay.com/
For more information on where to read Hashtag Rewilding, watch this space.
More news from the Nameless Writing Group although rather belated. Piotr Świetlik’s short story, Curiosity Is A First Step, has been published in the anthology, This Twisted Earth, by Six Minutes To Midnight, a division of Great British Horror. The anthology was launched this year at FantasyCon.
Nice one, Piotr!
Congratulations to B Anne Adriaens, poet, writer and member of the Nameless Writing Group who has made her first publication. The transatlantic webzine and online publisher of dystopian poetry, flash fiction and photography, The Bees Are Dead, has featured Miss B’s poem, CWM. Here’s what they said about it:
“This prosaic poem offers an unrelenting and vivid exposition of abandoned Welsh industry.
Adriaens takes us by the hand and pulls us through a rusting forest of steel; her descriptions confessing a strange base excitement amidst the unheimlich, intertwining context of the natural and mechanical.
From an objective point of view, the scenes within this poem could be that of a suburban love story, but via our narrator’s sensory stream of consciousness, we are treated to a speculative glimpse of the post-apocalyptic…”
And here’s the link to CWM.
Way to go, B!
Eric Nash 