How people change—but you were never like the others

[sovay]

At the end of a long, exhausting, and frankly demoralizing day, the mail brought me my contributor's copy of Wilde Stories 2015: The Year's Best Gay Speculative Fiction, edited by Steve Berman. It is a very elegant hardcover and I am honored to have "The True Alchemist" reprinted alongside stories by Chaz Brenchley, Craig Laurence Gidney, Alex Jeffers, Sunny Moraine, and other people I should read more of. I dreamed one night in December 2013 that I was writing a story for ashlyme, so like a reasonable person I stayed up the next night and wrote it. The title comes from a line in Mattie's "A Portrait in Rust," one of the best autumnal stories I have read in recent years—appropriately, both stories were eventually published in Not One of Us #51. This is the second time "The True Alchemist" has been reprinted this year and I am delighted. Seriously, check this collection out. There is a lot of lovely weirdness in it. Tom Cardamome's "The Love of the Emperor Is Divine" is another one for the classics list.

I am in the middle of reading George Gissing's Born in Exile (1892), Sylvia Townsend Warner's Mr Fortune's Maggot (1927), and Ray Monk's Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius (1990), so that's how I'm doing.

[edit] Speaking of emperors: the director of I, Claudius (1976) has died. Herbert Wise. I hope someone deifies him.

Comments

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I hope someone deifies him.

Seconded. He should have a small temple in the precincts of Broadcasting House.

[sovay]

He should have a small temple in the precincts of Broadcasting House.

I like this idea very much.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on your story's rebirth amid lovely weirdness.

I am in the middle of reading George Gissing's Born in Exile (1892), Sylvia Townsend Warner's Mr Fortune's Maggot (1927), and Ray Monk's Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius (1990)...

Good heavens! Cold pork pie, passion fruit, and Swiss cheese and rye bread. Hot Ziggety!

I hope someone deifies him.

His memory for a stele.

Nine

[sovay]

Congratulations on your story's rebirth amid lovely weirdness.

Thank you!

Hot Ziggety!

I have always found that story very endearing.

His memory for a stele.

I had this image of the Sibyl welcoming him across . . .

(Which I hope would not surprise him; he came to Britain via the Kindertransport. Last name originally Weisz. It wouldn't surprise me, is all.)

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

Hooray for publication. Boo for the demoralizing day. I hope things get much, much better.

[sovay]

Hooray for publication. Boo for the demoralizing day. I hope things get much, much better.

Thank you. I do, too!

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

I'm happy for you - I love that story dearly, for many reasons. It's a little gem of weirdness. Thanks for your kind words, too. *hugs*

I don't know much about Gissing beyond "New Grub Street". I'll check some more out. And raise a glass to Wise tonight.

[sovay]

I'm happy for you - I love that story dearly, for many reasons. It's a little gem of weirdness. Thanks for your kind words, too.

Thank you. You are a wonderful inspiration.

*hugs*

I don't know much about Gissing beyond "New Grub Street". I'll check some more out.

I can so far recommend this one, although I'll report back when I'm done. What is New Grub Street like?

And raise a glass to Wise tonight.

I wish Falernian wine hadn't gone extinct.

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

I found the book a bit drab, I think; but I was young when I read it. Probably I'd enjoy it now, especially since the radio sitcom Ed Reardon's Week seems to be based on it.

[gwynnega]

Congratulations on the reprint! The book sounds wonderful.

Herbert Wise definitely deserves deification! Your mention of I, Claudius reminds me of another book that could fit in the classics list: Love and Romanpunk by Tansy Rayner Roberts.

[sovay]

Congratulations on the reprint! The book sounds wonderful.

Thank you! I really am happy to be part of it. It's my first year's-best since 2008.

Your mention of I, Claudius reminds me of another book that could fit in the classics list: Love and Romanpunk by Tansy Rayner Roberts.

That looks really interesting! I will have to find a copy. Thank you.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

How is Gissing? I only know Gissing from Le Guin's essay on the first time she read The Lord of the Rings, in which she describes being ambushed by it in the library at at time when, she says, "I was, for reasons now obscure to me, reading all of Gissing". This has never exactly filled me with enthusiasm, so I am curious.

[sovay]

How is Gissing?

I am so far enjoying Born in Exile, which has one of the most amazingly self-inflicted narrators I've encountered in a long time: the novel is sympathetic to him, but also knows he's behaving like the intellectual equivalent of one of those Romantic heroes who swoon at the sight of storms or great art. Considering that the protagonist is considered to be a version of Gissing himself, or at least to share some of his traits, I think it shows an admirable degree of self-awareness. I have no idea what his other novels are like.

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

Late congrats on the rewrite. I am still wrestling with stories and also got the line-edit proof of Experimental Film. Luckily, I'll be up at somebody's cottage all weekend, away from the Internet, so I hope to catch up on all my back work. (Then again, I also made the mistake of watching Lars von Trier's Antichrist, though I doubt I'll see many self-disembowelling foxes or deer with dead fauns hanging out their vaginas while I'm up there.)

[sovay]

Late congrats on the rewrite.

Thank you!

(Then again, I also made the mistake of watching Lars von Trier's Antichrist, though I doubt I'll see many self-disembowelling foxes or deer with dead fauns hanging out their vaginas while I'm up there.)

I kind of recommend leaving if you do.

Enjoy the weekend!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

That's excellent, reprinted twice in one year!

[sovay]

That's excellent, reprinted twice in one year!

It's making me very happy!