Today, in Caithness, the sun is shining and the air is clear. I'm sure it will come as no surprise to anyone reading this blog that, certain weathers and certain times of the year ignite certain music in me. And, on late winter days which are filled with sunshine, I am usually to be found singing the songs of The Spinners . Inevitably, I start humming different ones of their songs (and of course adapting them to be about Orlando and Jess) as I go around doing different things. But I remember almost all the words to them. I haven't heard a lot of them in years, but they are all there, rooted in my memory. It is truly fascinating to think about how these songs have passed through history. They are part of my own nostalgia, which is why crisp sunny mornings make me incapable of ignoring the temptation to sing them, but they are part of something much bigger. There are songs amongst them which are a newer step in the folk music movement. Songs like Silver in the Stubble are amongs...
One of the shortest stories included in my upcoming anthology was written for an Edgar Allan Poe competition in 2021, in which my work came Runner-Up, and is titled The Clockmaker.
Edgar Allan Poe is most famous for his works of Gothic Horror, but it is easy to forget that he also dabbled in Science Fiction, as did many of his Gothic contemporaries. Indeed, a quick Google search has informed me that there are anthologies which solely contain his Science Fiction.
The Clockmaker was designed to marry these Horror and SciFi elements to create the sort of story which Poe himself might have written. I won’t deny it: I was pleased with the outcome.
At only 500 words, it tells the story of a man who pays a visit to an old schoolfriend (you will realise, if you read much of my Gothic Horror, that old school/university friends play vital roles!) who is an inventor, and spends some time admiring a clock which he has made. I won’t spoil by telling you the ending, but I will say that he does regret having studied the clock so carefully!
Flash fiction is a favourite of mine. I am not saying that I am always good at it(!) but there is an immediate sense of satisfaction which follows the creation of a good piece of it, without the sense of emptiness which follows the conclusion of a novel! It’s also a pleasure to work up something so short, because you can pore over it again and again in a relatively short space of time.
Unfortunately, flash fiction is a difficult market to sell. Multiple publishers have expressed an interest in The Clockmaker, only to turn it down because it is so short – one even politely encouraging me to work it up. But it owns its 500 words, and who is to say that it would cope with more?! So, it is included in this anthology, and perhaps each person who reads it will never again hear the chimes of a clock in the same way.
[You can read Judith's earlier Gothic Horror blog posts here]
Comments
Post a Comment