Out of the Debauched Sloth

Chaz Brenchley's fortnightly newsletter - issue three!

[You do of course realise that I’m really only doing this in a last-ditch attempt to keep the word “fortnightly” in circulation, right? I would hate to see it go the way of “twice”. Maybe I should alternate that subhead between “fortnightly” and “twice monthly”, except of course that four weeks very rarely make a month, and we’ve just missed one.]

Anyway: what of the hunting, hunter bold?

Since we last met, I have done the edits and signed the contract for a short story I was invited to write, so that’s all going ahead. I would tell you more, but current common etiquette has it that individual writers should hold back such announcements until the editor announces the table of contents for the whole anthology, so I shall stand mute on that one, awaiting such release. (I haven’t actually asked, but I think this is their preference; and as noted, it has become somewhat the standard in recent years. I expect it’s a marketing ploy, so that suddenly a whole tranche of writers are talking to their readerships about the same book, and hopefully creating a little buzz. I do love watching these manners and practices develop, as social media and other forces bring such swift and interior change to a profession of centuries. When I published my first books, neither the craft of writing nor the business of publishing had changed significantly for decades; but that was forty years ago and more, and lo, look at us now. Part of me wishes that I could be eighteen again and starting new, starting now, as a digital native with all that that implies; I’d be a very different writer. But actually it’s been a wild ride from then to this, and I do kind of enjoy being the slightly baffled and wondering elder statesman gifted countless opportunities to murmur “You know, things weren’t like this, back when I was a baby writer...” By and large I think they’re better now, better for everyone. When I was a newbie, I remember an established novelist saying that she didn’t envy me, trying to build a career in the early eighties. Fifteen years later I was saying the same thing to my own mentees, and meaning it every bit as much. Now, though? Now, yeah. I do kind of envy the kids. It’s a very different sandbox, and I think a whole lot more fun.)

In more Chaz-related news, Anthony Cardno reviewed my “Best Of” collection from Subterranean Press, “Everything in All the Wrong Order”, for Strange Horizons, and it’s basically a lovely little essay on What Chaz Does. (In case you missed it, Paul di Filippo reviewed the same book for Locus, and that too is well worth your time.)

Also m’friend and publisher Cheryl Morgan has written a neat little introduction to the world of Outremer, the alternate-Crusades fantasy series I wrote back at the turn of the millennium, which she is reissuing at last through Wizard’s Tower Press (first time in hardback! first time in e-formats! I’m very excited). You can read her “Introducing Outremer” here, and if you want to know more there’s always the series’ own website, “The Books of Outremer”. It’s so fun, having this project alive again after twenty years in the doldrums.

As for new work—well, as it happens, yes. Some. This time last year I had just written a full-length novel in February, and was about to do the same (its sequel) in March. To nobody’s surprise, I don’t have that kind of endeavour to report this time around; but I have equally unexpectedly been overtaken by two new stories in the last two weeks. I haven’t actually finished either one, on account of a great deal of proofreading and other stuff I had to do as well, but both are well advanced and I stand in high hopes of getting there.

The first is a frank act of ventriloquism, which these days we call fanfic; it features Stalky & Co, lifted wholesale from the Devon coast at Westward Ho! and deposited instead, naturally, on Mars. Of course Mars would have its own school for boys intended for the army. So this is the first reported adventure of Wilkie & Co, and I am having far too much fun playing with beloved characters, it’s pure self-indulgence and I hope to do it again and again.

The other came upon me all at once, and equally unlooked-for. On Friday night it was a single line I scribbled in the notebook I have finally adopted; by Sunday evening it was six thousand words, so it’s going to be at least a novelette and probably a novella. It is alleged, on the internets and elsewhere, that it was Leo Tolstoy who said that all great literature can be broken down to one of two stories, “A man goes on a journey” or “A stranger comes to town”. It has been clear to me for ever that these are in fact one story, from two different perspectives. This new story of mine is therefore wittily entitled “A Gatherer Goes on a Journey, A Boy Brings his Burden to Town”, and that is exactly what it is about.

And that is quite enough typing for now, except for mentioning that paid subscribers will be seeing extra content coming to their inboxes soon. I found so much nostalgic pleasure in writing the Story Notes for “Everything in All the Wrong Order”, I want to do the same for all my novels: a brief biography, if you like, of the book’s gestation and birth. It may not be this week, for I have to do taxes, alas; but memories of my first Chaz Brenchley novel, “The Samaritan”, should soon be on their way, along with a few questions about what else you might like to see.

And we’ll all catch up in a fortnight, ’k?

- Chaz