A Nice Surprise...

[endlessrarities]

Hoorah.  I've finally achieved a publication this year.  I should be celebrating, but instead I'm feeling strangely flat.

Yesterday, my father popped by and presented me with a very smart contributor's copy (worth £20 odd quid) of a book in which one of my short stories, Busman's Holiday, has recently been re-published.

The situation is a bit bizarre.  The story is a short piece of speculative fiction.  The book is a non-fiction summary of the history of a local bus company: Clydeside Scottish: We Tried To Run A Bus Company But..., written by George Watson and published by the Routemaster Owners and Operators Association.

I wrote the piece for the Glasgow Herald New Writing in Science Fiction Competition way back in 1988.  The inspiration hit me while I was hacking the country lanes with Squire - deregulation of the buses in Glasgow was at its zenith, and travelling between Glasgow Central and Glasgow Uni via the Strathclyde Buses 59/44 routes obviously sparked something off, as did my recent enthusiasm for archaeology, which I'd just taken up as a first year undergraduate subject.  I took the premise of an Iron Age society (with its warrior elite) and replaced the warriors with bus drivers, envisaging a situation where the political control of Glasgow depended upon a ritualised race through the city streets between the various bus companies.

I wrote and edited it in twenty-four hours and popped it in the post.  And it won.

Twenty-three years later, it's just been re-published for the fifth time.  The first time was in the Glasgow Herald newspaper, the second was in a science fiction anthology, and the third in a small collection showcasing the work of Glasgow Science Fiction Writers Circle.  The fourth was in an educational textbook for young adults, and the fifth is in a book about buses.

It was a fun little story.  On the surface, it seems really simple.  A seventeen-year old girl relates her experiences on the day of the annual bus race, her father being the driver of the Clydeside bus.  I think a lot of people have read it as a children's tale.  It's only when you start to unpick the layers, that the detail becomes apparent.  The historical background is hinted at throughout.  Scotland is independent, but finanically impoverished.  The rich have abandoned the fledgling nation and have fled south to England.  All that remained was the bus companies, which in time operated more and more aspects of society, until they eventually governed the country.  Their rivalries sparked chaos, disorder, internal division, but sanity eventually prevailed and peace has resumed.  In the meantime, England has become a totalitarian state (I originally envisaged a Thatcherite state, though Blairite would fit just as well), while Scotland retained demoncracy, encouraging freedom of thought.   Hadrian's Wall has been rebuilt, allegedly to keep the Scots out, but in reality to keep wanna-be English defectors IN.  Even now, I can find new details that I don't actually remember having written in the first place.

In short, I don't know how I managed to write such a complex thing in such a short space of time.  It was one of those flashes of inspiration that only hits on a very occasional basis. 

And its success seems to go on, and on.  Like a wealthy successful middle-aged son, it comes to visit from time to time.  It sits down, enjoys tea and scones with me, and tells me how well it's doing.  Then it disappears for another decade.  This baffles me, because it's not a work I've invested much in emotionally, and to be honest I really don't have much attachment to it. 

If my other works - which I really, really care about -  had done half as well as this one, then I'd probably be a respected writer or now.  Instead I keep experiencing a literary groundhog day, with the same work getting its fifteen minutes of fame before a new audience, again and again.  Frustrating, or what?

Ah well, at least I got a nice glossy book out of it.  With plenty of pretty pictures. 

Of buses....

Comments

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I wrote and edited it in twenty-four hours and popped it in the post. And it won.

I wish I could say that about anything!

That sounds like a great story. Did you have to sign over your rights as part of entering the competition, or are you getting royalties?

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

I kept all the rights, and it's paid rather well over the years. I got standard journalists' wages the first time (£200) and a free Amstrad word processor, which was the first prize. The second time I earned a princely £1.74. The third earned me zilch, the fourth a more respectable £80. Because it had already earned its keep a few times, I didn't push for any money this time around. Instead I got a free book for myself, and my bus-owning father got one too. So I suppose that's technically another fifty quid, give or take a few pounds.

Not bad for a days' work twenty three years ago.

My dad thinks he was the inspiration. I'm more inclined to blame Squire - he was my muse in those days. Maybe he was also a good luck charm.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I started to write a comment, but it got a bit long so I turned it into a post. But I know what you mean about the frustration of working and working at something only to find that something you dashed off quickly is much more successful.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

I'm intrigued. I'm off to take a peek.

[aulus-poliutos.livejournal.com]

Congrats nevertheless.

I have a little piece like that as well; the English translation of a German ballad about the retreat from Kabul winter 1841/1842. It's been all over the place and I still get emails with requests to print it / put it up on some website. Not bad for something I did in two hours or so. :)

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing. On the one hand, it's nice to know you can do it once. On the other, you start to wonder why you can't actually repeat the winning formula.

[technophobe1975.livejournal.com]

Sounds an interesting idea for a story - maybe in a few years it will be turned into a movie, and then you will have the "honour" of being trailer of the week in Trailer Trash Tuesday!

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Aargh!!!

Two versions to date have been illustrated. The latest one has some little cartoons, while the original had a very fine line drawing, which I liked very much.

[technophobe1975.livejournal.com]

Are you able to post any of the artwork?

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Well, it was an inspiredly interesting scenario--seems like you and the contest made good partners: the contest put the notion of buses in your head, and then BANG, you ran with it, weaving in history and archaeology and politics--and it came out as something totally unique, and also really rooted in a *place*. I can see lots of reasons why it would continue to have appeal. I think it's really cool sounding and would like to read it, in fact!

On the other hand, I totally, totally sympathize with the stories you really love not having had the same success. I have had the same thing happen -_-

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's a bummer, isn't it?

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Is there any chance you'd be able to share the future-Scotland story? (I understand if not, but I really am curious. Perhaps one of the many anthologies it's in would be one that our library has--can you share some of the anthology titles?)

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

It was included in an anthology called 'Starfield', published by Orkney Press way back in 1988, 89 or 90, or thereabouts. The collection was edited by Duncan Lunan, and included works by such worthies as Naomi Mitchison and Janice Galloway. I'll try and get some more references together this weekend, once the madness that is my job settles down to something less frantic.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'll look for Starfield

[kishenehn.livejournal.com]

You're a Renaissance person! :)

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

In 1988 when I first won the short story award at the annual Albacon, David Brin signed a copy of Startide Rising for me with the legend, "Future colleague, and woman of the Renaissance."

Yeah. Renaissance woman. Jack of all Trades, Master of none, more like. Though I have penned a few novels set in the Renaissance, which meams that his words were oddly prophetic.

Ho hum. If I'm ever a colleague of David Brin, I'll be very pleasantly surprised. Even a little astounded.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Jack of all trades, master of none, more like.

[rowangolightly.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure you didn't mean this but the "Scotland retained demoncracy" spelling there made me LOL!

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Darn it! Can't edit it out now, can I???

We'll see what happens once Mr Salmond gives us our referendum. Will it be democracy? Or demonocracy???

Only time will tell.

[rowangolightly.livejournal.com]

*giggle* Someone will have to check him for little horns on his forehead.

But I think you can edit after a comment; I certainly have before. There should be an 'edit' option at the bottom of the post.

[jandersoncoats.livejournal.com]

I've got to say, reading your short description of the piece, it sounds like it's begging to be expanded into novel form. It has a V for Vendetta vibe to it, and I'd be first in line to buy a copy.

Just sayin'.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

I started writing a second story using the same premise, but set in England, which is a totalitarian state where history is being rewritten and historians/archaeologists are subversives who 'disappear' on a regular basis. It was, strangely enough, going to be called 'Time Hath Endless Rarities' after the Browne quote, and it was very dystopian in atmosphere.

I eventually started this blog instead.

[changeling72.livejournal.com]

How fantastic!

[red-trillium.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on your publication! Sometimes when the inspiration hits you it's easy to push something out quickly and do a good job of it. You're doing well, every little bit is a start onto the road to writing.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

The first hurdle was by far the easiest. The next stage seems to be insurmountable:-O