I’ve spent the last two days at an in-person conference, which was a wonderful change from the online platforms we’ve been using over the last couple of years. The meeting was at St Johns College, Cambridge. Nothing quite like long dining tables in echoing halls with 300-year old paintings on the wood-panelled walls to give you that ancient university ambience!
It was lovely to catch up with old friends and make new ones. We had conversations that would never have happened if we’d needed to schedule an online meeting, and I’m sure many of us came away with new ideas. And there’s an audience buzz when you speak live which I’ve never seen replicated online. Buzz aside, it’s invaluable to have real-time feedback rather than ploughing on with no idea whether you lost your audience three slides ago.
Conference prep slowed down my work on DD2 even further, but I’ll keep chipping away at it. It’s not a huge spoiler to say the book has 3 point of view characters. We have Rich from the first book, an apprentice called Iggy, and one of Rich’s fellow peers, a chap called Lord Angus.
Naturally, Angus has no time for frivolous young whippersnappers with dubious behaviour. I’m having a lot of fun with their interactions 🙂
Reviews
Not quite so many book reviews this time.
Operation: Siberia by Willie Meikle. There are over a dozen books in this series, all creature features in a military (light) horror setting. Perfect popcorn reads when you don’t want to challenge your brain.
Speechless in Achten Tan by Debbie Iancu-Haddad
Neuroanatomy Human Brain Coloring Book by Dr Fanatomy. Bit of a change of pace 😛
The Red Death Murders by Jim Noy
But I have been reading, really! My recent reading list has been mainly graphic novels, accumulated over the years through various bundles (such as Humble Bundle and StoryBundle. I’ve steered clear of reviewing them for fear I’ll get bogged down in visual impressions. I’ve also discovered an enjoyment of Dr Who I never knew I had!
And now for some more very short stories from last summer.
inelegant
“It’s your life, sweetie—”
“Exactly!”
“But think of his irregular, um, habits.”
“You’re just biased.”
“And inelegant table manners. Not exactly polite society.”
“He’s perfectly polite!”
“For a werewolf. Your Sire is turning in his grave.”
sea
“Anyone seen Fingers McGee? Boss is unhappy with him.”
“Too late. He took a trip.”
“Like, down a flight of stairs?”
“Nah. A sea voyage. Better for his health, he reckoned.”
“That so?”
“Only until he falls off the ship.”
note
In the wizard’s study, they found a pair of smoking boots. The adjacent lectern held a weighty tome. It was open at a page on summonings. In the margin was scrawled a faded note: “Not sure if this will work.”
stare
There’s a crash from the dressing room. I rush in.
The Mighty Mephisto’s sprawled on the floor in full stage regalia. The mirror is askew.
“What’ve you done this time?” I mutter.
He groans as he comes to. “Just practising my Hypnotic Stare of Doom.”
Speculative stories 
I am sooo jealous of you getting to experience ancient university ambience. 😀 Glad you had a productive time at the conference. Really liked “Inelegant”–I’m a sucker for some good werewolf short fiction.
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Thanks – I definitely need to use my werewolf more often! Friday was also a graduation day, so the streets were full of graduands in robes with (fake) fur-trimmed hoods. Ah, tradition. Oh, and grace was said in Latin, but I can’t translate that real-time. Neither could my table mates, though I think it prompted them to talk about Catullus(!)
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