What Inspires Writers

Compostela feature

The thoughts behind the stories in Compostela

For more than 1,000 years, Santiago de Compostela has attracted pilgrims to walk to the cathedral that holds St. James the apostle’s relics. The stories in the Compostela anthology in their own way tell the tale of futuristic travelers who journey into the dark outer (or inner) reaches of space, searching for their own connections to the past, present and future relics of their time.

These are the author’s inspirations for the stories.

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TransMIGRATIONS by Eddie Louise

TransMIGRATIONS audio-excerpt

Is time travel real? Doctor Petronella Sage is determined to find out. So is Justin Bremer, the young scholar in the far future tasked with reviewing Dr. Sage’s timeline. Justin observes as the Doctor repeatedly electrocutes herself in order to fling her consciousness through time and space, claiming death is no barrier to science

Listen to an excerpt from TransMIGRATIONS by Eddie Louise.
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Janet Kellough Stays Tuned-In To Writing

Kellough Interview

Janet is currently celebrating the release of her new novel, the speculative fiction/thriller The Bathwater Conspiracy (EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing 2018). Janet is best known as the author of six novels in The Thaddeus Lewis Mystery series, set in mid-19th century Upper Canada: On the Head of a Pin, Sowing Poison, 47 Sorrows, The Burying Ground, Wishful Seeing (short-listed for the 2017 Crime Writers of Canada Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel) and The Heart Balm Tort. She has also written two contemporary novels, The Palace of the Moon and The Pear Shaped Woman, as well as the semi-non-fictional Legendary Guide to Prince Edward County and her new release The Bathwater Conspiracy.  Also a storyteller, Janet has released two audio recordings, Swear On My Mother’s Grave and Fowke Tales Live at Lang. She lives in an old farmhouse in the middle of a red cedar fen in rural Ontario, Canada.
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The Bathwater Conspiracy by Janet Kellough

Bathwater Conspiracy audio-excerpt

Detective Carson “Mac” MacHenry can’t figure out why the Darmes are so interested in this one dead girl or why the secretive federal police have rushed the autopsy or why, a few days later, the records of the dead girl’s murder have been erased from all official government channels.

Even stranger to the detective is the manner of death – injuries consistent with a violent beating and sexual assault. Crimes rarely seen in current society. Crimes eradicated decades earlier.

Listen to an excerpt from The Bathwater Conspiracy by Janet Kellough.
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Digging Into History With Mark Patton

Mark Patterson Interview

At nineteen Mark Patton shipped aboard the Research Vessel Chain as a helmsman for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. By his mid-twenties he was flying out of Otis Air Force Base for the National Marine Fisheries Service on weekly North Atlantic Fisheries patrols. After graduating from Northeastern University, he became a roughneck for Delta Drilling in the Texas oil patch. He left Texas to become a police officer and later a head of Natural Resources on Cape Cod. Now retired, he devotes his time between the mountains of northern New Hampshire and his home on Cape Cod, where with his cellist wife, he composes music and pursues his longtime passion for writing.

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The Triforium by Mark Patton

The Triforium audio excerpt

The foundation of Westminster Abbey rests upon what was once an island — an island that was holy to the Celts and the Romans long before the first Christian Church was built upon it in the eighth century. The church is now home to a community of dead monarchs, nobles, scientists, composers, soldiers, authors, poets and politicians buried within the Abbey. And their ghosts are all under the command of Reverend Poda-Pirudi.

But leading the dead isn’t challenging enough for the good Reverend and he invites a hapless architect, Wallace Butterfield, to visit him at his office in the Triforium of Westminster Abbey with a promise to pay for some much needed work.

Listen to an excerpt from The Triforium by Mark Patton.
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Background Information – Rational Dress Movement

The Rational Dress Movement was a late Victorian era proposal for reforming the dress standards for women. Numerous different reformers proposed changed, stressing the need for more practical and comfortable fashions than were available at the time. These reformers were typically middle-class women, involved in the first wave of feminism in the US and Britain. The movement emerged in the 1850’s along with calls for temperance, suffrage and women’s education. The dress reform requested liberation from the dictates of fashion. It was most successful in changing women’s undergarments but were also influential in simplified clothing for bicycling and swimming. While the moment was less concerned with men’s clothing, it did initiate a widespread adoption of knitted wool.

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Allan Weiss, Grammar Man and More

Allan Weiss

Allan Weiss is the author of two books of short stories, Living Room (Boheme 2001) and Making the Rounds (Edge 2016), as well as a number of stories, both literary and science fiction/fantasy, in various periodicals and anthologies. A third collection, Telescope, will be published by Guernica Editions in 2019. Born in Montreal, Weiss moved to Toronto in 1980 to pursue doctoral studies at the University of Toronto. He earned his Ph.D. in English in 1985 and has taught at Ryerson, Woodsworth College, and York University. He is currently an Associate Professor of English and Humanities at York, specializing in Canadian literature and fantastic fiction. In addition, he is Chair of the Academic Conference on Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy, which is held every two years at the Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation and Fantasy.

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Making the Rounds by Allan Weiss

Twinstar-Stories Making the Rounds

Eliezer ben-Avraham, wizard, Kabbalist, and kvetch, not only can but must help. Because he poked around in areas of forbidden knowledge, he is obliged to wander the world and use the powers he gained to perform good deeds—mitzvot—for anybody who asks, no matter how bizarre the task. Ably assisted by his trusty but cynical steed, Melech, Eliezer does what he can, although transforming into a bird and flying around is difficult when you have arthritis in your shoulder.

Humorous, philosophical, and very weird, Eliezer’s adventures as he makes his rounds demonstrate how important it is to be generous with your gifts, even to the craziest goyim.

Listen to an excerpt from Making the Rounds by Allan Weiss.
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