Stories and authors
Contact: talk@fabulousalbion.co.uk
Contents
Cherith Baldry -- Dreaming of Angels
Neville Rhys Barnes -- Heritage Ocean
Jacey Bedford -- The Whitby Jets
Chris Butler -- Stone and Stage
Mark Concannon -- Thick Hides and Furry Hearts
Deirdre Counihan -- Jettisoned
Dayle A. Dermatis -- Proof of Devotion
Melanie Fletcher -- Lost in Whitby
Esther M. Friesner -- How Thorvald the Bloody-Minded Saved Christmas
Stephen Kilbane -- Wylde in Whitby
Ruth Nestvold and Jay Lake -- Hobdale
Alistair Rennie -- Recalled to the Wrath of Penda
Kari Sperring -- The Whale's Daughter
Sue Thomason -- The Age of Silver
Karen Williams -- Drowning Victims
Liz Williams -- Mortal Coil
Neil Williamson -- The Codsman and His Willing Shag
Dayle A. Dermatis
Proof of Devotion
Most brides have to worry about things like flowers and vows and seating arrangements. Claire has to worry about a cursed church. How do you show proof of your fiancé's devotion to you?
Dayle A. Dermatis is a multipublished writer of SFF, romance, and erotica under a variety of names. Her publications include erotic romance novels Cat Scratch Fever (as Sophie Mouette) and the forthcoming A Little Night Music (as Sarah Dale), as well as stories in Sword & Sorceress, Deathgrip: Exit Laughing, Scheherazade, and Battlecorps.com among others. She grew up in upstate New York, but somehow ended up on the opposite end of the country, living in various parts of California before embarking on a 4-year sojourn in Wales, UK (where she eloped properly in Gretna Green, attended the Milford SF Writers Workshop and two Eastercons, and was adopted by a pregnant cat with a broken leg). Currently she’s back in Southern California, in a historic Craftman-style bungalow within scent of the ocean, although she travels frequently within the U.S. and abroad, often via motorcycle. A full-time writer and editor, in her spare time she follows the rock group Styx around the country, watches weird stuff on TV, and does historic re-creation with the Society for Creative Anachronism, with interests in costuming, weaving, and herbal concoctions.
Esther Friesner
How Thorvald the Bloody-Minded Saved Christmas.
Thorvald the Viking was just another forcibly retired killing machine until the true spirit of Christmas touched his heart. And a crotchety ghost-abbess gave him a quick clout to the earhole. (aka Charles Dickens vs. - Beowulf - best two falls out of three.)
www.sff.net/people/e.friesner/
Esther M. Friesner has published over thirty novels and one hundred fifty short works. She won the Nebula Award in two consecutive years for her short stories, “Death and the Librarian”, and “A Birthday”. Her latest novels include Tempting Fate (Dutton/Penguin) and Nobody's Princess (Random House), though she is presently best known for having created and edited the successful fantasy anthology series, Chicks in Chainmail (Baen Books). She lives in Connecticut, and albeit she has visited England repeatedly, she has never been ejected from a public house in Whitby for disorderly behaviour, mostly because she has never yet been to Whitby. She is willing to correct this oversight if you’re buying.
Jacey Bedford
The Jet Set
In the future the government's new entertainment licensing act has been taken to its logical conclusion and live music and dance has been banned as a threat to public order, but it's Mayday eve and if the last team of Morris Men doesn't dance up the sun at dawn the world will end. It's up to the Whitby Jets to save the world... but there's a government spy in their ranks...
Jacey Bedford grew up reading books and riding horses, and has been a librarian, a trainer a postmistress and a folk singer with the trio Artisan. She started writing when her kids were small and through all the gadding about she’s continued to write novels and short stories – some of which have been published (on both sides of the Atlantic) in exchange for Her Majesty’s grocery tokens. Just in case Artisan fans are reading this Jacey wants to assure readers that her story is not a reaction to never having been booked to play at Whitby Folk Week… ever… despite Artisan playing at some of the biggest North American, Australian and British festivals. She’s not upset by not playing Whitby… not at all. The thought never entered her head… no, really… Honest
Melanie Miller Fletcher
Lost in Whitby
While refurbishing a rundown B&B, Caitlin Corrigan finds a pack of antique stationery and strikes up an unexpected correspondence with a "curiouser and curiouser" Oxford don.
Melanie Fletcher writes, knits, bellydances, quilts, fences and needs sleep, not always in that order. Her recent credits include “Lurleen Terwilliger and the Swedish Bubba Balls” (Houston, We've Got Bubbas, Yard Dog Press, 2006) and “The Padre, The Rabbi and the Devil His Own Self” (Helix: A Speculative Fiction Quarterly (http://www.helixsf.com) Her novella “Best Protection” will be in the fourth Double Dog from Yard Dog Press in 2007. And if the cats leave her alone long enough, she may even finish editing her first novel, White Knight, Queen Alice.
Kari Sperring
The Whale's Daughter
When an Indian film crew come to Whitby to film a musical version of Dracula they find themselves entangled in an old family legend.
Kari Sperring always wanted to be a musketeer, but had to settle for being a Celtic Historian. She lives in Cambridge, where she watches too many Chinese and Hindi films, is ordered around by cats and writes about ghosts and shapeshifters. As Kari Maund, she has published four books and many articles on medieval Britain and Europe, and one on the real Three Musketeers. Her first novel, Living With Ghosts, is published by DAW in March 2009.
Karen Williams
Drowning Victims
Caroline Bowers arrives in Whitby on vacation only to discover it's Goth Weekend, and her teenage daughter has gone missing among the Goths -- or are they ghosts?
Karen Williams grew up in Pocatello, Idaho, has travelled to four continents and both hemispheres, and lives and works in Silicon Valley. She has two turtles, Dymphna and G-Kwan, who occasionally move.
Cherith Baldry
Dreaming of Angels
Whitby was once the most boring town in the known universe. So what could its guardian angel do about it..?
Cherith Baldry was a teacher for several years, including a spell at the university of Sierra Leone, before becoming a full-time writer. She now lives in Surrey as housekeeper for two cats. She has no direct connection with Whitby; she has to confess she comes from the other side of the Pennines
Alistair Rennie
Recalled to the Wrath of Penda
Captain Cook is not what he seems. Nor who. As he travels the world in pursuit of his secret aims in life, he is mysteriously and suddenly recalled to his hometown of Whitby, where an old acquaintance of ominous pedigree awaits his arrival.
www.alistairrennie.wordpress.com
Alistair Rennie was born in the North of Scotland and now lives in Italy. He has published short fiction in The New Weird anthology (eds. Ann and Jeff VanderMeer), Weird Tales, Electric Velocipede and Shadowed Realms.
Neil Williamson
The Codsman and His Willing Shag
Every teenager growing up in a small coastal town dreams of escape from parochial life. But one young resident of Robin Hood's Bay is bound to his home town by the stories contained in the sea shanties he plays. Tales that will show him the town's deepest secret.
Neil Williamson’s fiction has been published in a variety of magazines and anthologies. Some of his stories appear along with “The Codsman and His Willing Shag” in The Ephemera (Elastic Press, 2006). Neil lives in Glasgow and co-edited Nova Scotia: New Scottish Speculative Fiction with Andrew J. Wilson.
Chris Butler
Stone and Stage
A playwright visits Whitby's Pavilion Theatre, hoping to attract the attention of the theatre's gargoyles. Each is cast in the image of a famous actor, and it is rumoured that they sometimes give secret performances on the nights when the stage is unused by the living.
Chris Butler’s first novel Any Time Now (Wildside Press) concerns a misfit from the future. There are no stone gargoyles in it, but plenty of romance, suspense and surprises. His short fiction has been published by magazines and anthologies such as Interzone and GUD. He is currently working on a new book, and when that gets tricky he plays guitar. His online journal and latest news can be found at www.chris-butler.co.uk
Ruth Nestvold and Jay Lake
Hobdale
Sue Thomason
The Age of Silver
In our world, the young Tolkien had a holiday in Whitby, at a time when the famous photographer Sutcliffe was recording the passing of an age. Is it possible to sail West from England's East Coast? Maybe, from the East Coast port where it's possible to watch the Midsummer sun set over the sea.
Sue Thomason lives within sight of Whitby Abbey (just) with a GP and some cats. She has had poetry and short fiction published in a variety of magazines and anthologies, reviews SF and fantasy for Vector and Foundation, and is currently Chair of the Milford SF Writers Workshop. In her spare time she earns half a living as a medical notes summariser, plays the bagpipes and flute, and goes trekking in the Arctic.
Mark Concannon
Thick Hides and Furry Hearts
Mark Concannon was born in Glasgow, although he has only been back the once to collect the post. He lives in Brighton with his wife, newly acquired baby daughter, and his cat whom he refers to as his “Chief of Staff”. Although well travelled in the North of England (it is rumoured that he studied history at a northern university) it is unclear whether “Thick Hides and Furry Hearts” has been written from creative observation or scientific speculation. It is his first published work. Mark spends all his non-waking hours theorising about stuffed-bears and their habits.
Deirdre Counihan
Jettisoned
Many strangers came to trade with Navis's people at the river mouth, lured by the value and beauty of their mystic black stones: jet. But then the storm cast Artin upon them, with his smile like dark sunlight - all smoke and magic, golden metal and golden honey and the old world was thrown away.
Deirdre Counihan was born at the ancestral home of the gunpowder plotter Guy Fawkes – Farnley Hall. She trained as a book illustrator and also has an M.A. in Gender Studies. She has had a busy art career specialising in archaeology and fantasy. She edits The Mervyn Peake Review, co-edits Scheherazade, and was one of the three co-editors of Fabulous Whitby’s companion volume, Fabulous Brighton. Deirdre has been married twice, first to an archaeologist and now to a London Times sports journalist. She has two sons from her first marriage and two cats from her second. She lives in Brighton.
Liz Williams
Mortal Coil
Fish and chip shops are an essential part of British culture, even if your principal interest is in the local fossils. But what happens when you start poking about in the back kitchen?
Liz Williams is a science fiction and fantasy writer living in Glastonbury,
England, where she is co-director of a witchcraft supply business. She is
currently published by Bantam Spectra (US) and Tor Macmillan (UK),
also Night Shade Press and appears regularly in Realms of Fantasy,
Asimov's and other magazines. She is the secretary of the Milford SF
Writers' Workshop, and also teaches creative writing and the history of
Science Fiction.
Her novel Banner of Souls has been nominated for the Philip K Dick Memorial Award, along with 3 previous novels, and the Arthur C Clarke Award.
Neville Rhys Barnes
Heritage Ocean
Neville Rhys Barnes has been a musician, a company director, a sound engineer, a prompter, a composer, a publisher, an auditor, a truck driver, a journalist, an IT officer, a quality manager, a guitar teacher, a security guard, and a test driver for experimental cars. He once performed voice-over as a malevolent microbe in an animated cartoon. He was, with Paul Beardsley, the creator of the lost, lamented small-press SF magazine Substance and the SF-on-tape project Sound SF. He shares his house in West Sussex with five guitars, two basses and a mandolin, and has lately been casting couvetous eyes at a sitar, a lap steel and a bouzouki.
Stephen Kilbane
Wylde in Whitby
Kerry Weaver lugs his longsword to Whitby for a meeting of the British Swordplay Association, where he eets the charismatic Zak Wylde, with his fondness for local colour and ancient myths. But even sword-wielding fanatics are not the strangest people in town this weekend.
www.whitecrow.demon.co.uk/steve/
Steve Kilbane had his first story published in the short-lived Odyssey magazine. He lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, with his wife and a growing number of swords. The RGS does not exist, but the town of Rugby would be a better place if it did.