Adriana Kantcheva

Catching Words

Dispatches from a writer of speculative fiction.

Hello, ,

I smell fall on the air. The time of shifting seasons has always given me a jolt of anticipation, of hope. Change is afoot. Anything is possible.

Welcome to another installment of Catching Words.

Virtual live reading on Strong Women - Strange Worlds

October 3

6 pm CET / 12 noon EDT

Join me for this free event, where I’ll read a never published extended version of my story “The Librarian.”

Reserve a free spot

“The Librarian” is a gothic flash featuring one strange librarian in an even stranger library. (Originally published in Shoreline of Infinity; the link leads to a freely accessible reprint in Stupefying Stories.)

Please spread the word! There will be five other authors sharing their words. It’s a wonderful event showcasing women and non-binary creators. I’d appreciate it immensely if you forwarded the image above to others in any way you find convenient. Thank you!

Lucent Dreaming’s issue 14, which includes “Beyond the Hills They Passed”, is on sale

Lucent Dreaming’s printed issue 14, containing my story “Beyond the Hills They Passed”, is currently half-price (£7).

This is a beautiful color-illustrated issue containing stories and poems by 24 authors. Please consider supporting this small press based in Cardiff.

In the Unforgivable Desert, the Diviners read auspices to protect the people. One day, the High Diviner takes Urti’s little sister. No auspice bearer has ever left the Augrium alive.

Buy the issue

What I’ve been up to

I’ve been away on holiday, so not much has moved on my long-term projects. While away, I’ve been tinkering with the draft of a short nonfiction piece. When I’ve submitted that, I’ll embark on revising my current novel in progress.

My latest blog post...

... appears on the Milford SF Writers blog.

On productivity and going the extra mile

Like a movie that is gradually being sped up, the pace of life too has been speeding up, not only with each generation or decade, but now, with each year. Buzzwords like efficiency and productivity have become the staple vocabulary for job advertisements, assessment reports, and CVs. In writing, too, this has been the trend. Whereas earlier a writer could take their time and produce a book every 2-5 years, today, two a year seems to be becoming the norm, or perhaps even the minimum, in order to stay visible.

This ever-escalating trend got me thinking. What about quality? What about going the extra mile just because? What about having fun? What about playing?… Continue reading

An excerpt from "Beyond the Hills They Passed"

Urti began with a clear voice that, to her surprise, carried as far as the High Diviner’s had. She told the multitude about the quiet singing of the Great River and the whisper of the rising sun. She told them how beautiful their land looked through a bird’s eye. She told them no augury could guess when the Great River would dry or how strong a sandstorm would grow because the laws they followed depended on no arbitrary auspice, on no human-made rule of thumb. She told them the storms came and went, ungovernable, impartial. River, Desert, and Wind were not cruel. They just were. Cruelty belonged to people alone.

Urti lifted Ninnet in her arms. The crowd parted. But Urti’s triumph was short-lived.

(“Beyond the Hills They Passed”, Lucent Dreaming 14)

Books and music

• Reading: The Machine Stops by E. M. Forster (the link leads to Project Gutenberg, but the novella is available freely online also elsewhere). Forster draws a dystopian future where humanity relies on a planetary-spanning machine for comfort and survival, while individuals remain isolated, hardly ever interacting directly. Considering that the piece was published in 1909, it is incredibly prescient, especially with respect to how technology is changing human interactions today. It reminds me of what Celeste Headlee says in Do Nothing (I’m paraphrasing): today we often choose not to use our voice to talk to others, but resort to more indirect means such as texts and emails.

• Music: I love the lyrics of Crack the Case by Dawes. So many songs tell about the individualistic experiences of love, despair, and other highs and lows of life. This song, though, is about humans connecting to others in kindness and forgiveness.

One-Sentence Story

A lonely voice in a forest rises and falls in solitary trills and lilts among the boughs, seeking, seeking, until a second voice answers and then a third, and then others, and now there is a forest of voices among the trees.

Until next time!

Adriana

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