My first story in Galaxy's Edge: Cadmus P. I.

I'm delighted to record my first story to make the prestigious pages of Galaxy's Edge. 

Cadmus P.I. tells the story of the man who may very well have been the Ancient World's very first private detective as he sets out to trace a kidnap victim.

Strangely enough, this story began life as an informal competition between fellow competitors in Writers of the Future to write a story in a weekend featuring three random objects.

My three objects, if I remember correctly, were a dragon soft toy, a miniature portrait and a bag of rubbish.

I shall leave it to the reader to decide whether I made a good job. If you think I did, then thanks must go to Rebecca Birch for thinking up the competition.

If you think I didn't - well, you don't have to tell me, do you? I'm just so pleased to have reached one of my long term writing goals.

I was not to know at the time that this was also to be one of the last stories selected by the celebrated Mike Resnick, whose role in helping other authors make career progress cannot be overstated.

Third & Starlight!

An anthology of 14 tales of wonder by award winning authors, finalists, and semi-finalists (e.g. Writers of the Future, Hugo, Cambell, Aurealis, and others). This year's collection of science fiction and fantasy stories from these impressive new talents:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction: Back and Foreword----------- Robert B. Finegold, MD
The Memory of Huckleberries -------------- Rebecca Birch
The Temptation of Father Francis ----------Nick T. Chan and Jennifer Campbell-Hicks

The Waiting Room ------------------  Philip Brian Hall

Last Time For Everything -------------------- K. L. Schwengel
Skinners ----------------------------------------  Rachelle Harp
Amma's Wishes -------------------------------  M. E. Garber
Three Flash ------------------------------------  Dustin Adams
A Green Tongue ------------------------------   Frank Dutkiewicz
A Matter For Interpretation -----------------   M. Elizabeth Ticknor
The Root Bridges of Haemae --------------- Sean Monaghan
Red is the Color of My True Love's Hair -- William R. D. Wood
Bad Actors -------------------------------------   Julie Frost
In the Heart of the Flesh --------------------   Scott Parkin
Shattered Vessels -----------------------------  Kary English and Robert B.Finegold, MD

Travelling like a writer

Rebecca Birch,  whose work I like, wrote in her blog earlier this year of how a writer  may approach travel with a different attitude to normal human beings.  We have a habit of storing up experiences that may come in useful in our work.

Personally I find that my camera helps. The great boon of digital photography is practically to eliminate the marginal cost of your pictures. No more worrying whether you can justify the use of film.

So when I am wandering around I take a picture of anything that looks interesting, even if I don't know what it is, together with numerous landscape shots that will help me remember the setting. Then when I get home I do my research and find out what I have photographed. Usually between reference books and the internet I can find out. I find this also helps me to remember the next time I see something like it.

Even on a guided tour it will often prove difficult to take in everything that you are told, but
photographs will help you recall it. The best tour guides throw in all sorts of local colour: history, myth, prejudice, manner of speaking. All of these have their potential uses.

Not everything can be photographed. It may be a sound that characterises a place, sometimes a smell, sometimes a taste or a texture. But at least if you have documented one sensory impression it may help you to recall others.

My two example photographs above are both from Taormina, Sicily.  The first is a detail of the second.